Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 3

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 3

Start of Decrease

Before making any decreasing you need to adjust the pattern. Find the middle of the Pictorial Chart. Mine has 228 Stitches so the middle will be 114 on the Chart. From now on the pattern will be designed from the middle to the edges. Leave a good 20 stitches at either end.

Hood Pictorial Chart Initial Decrease Pattern

How the Chart will look prior to addition of decreases is shown below.

Hood Pictorial Chart Initial Decrease Right

How you write the pattern will change slightly too.

Hood Page 2 Prior to Decrease

The First 5 Decrease Stitches Right

I knitted a few more stitches at the beginning that I needed so I did not disrupt the Selvedge.

Knit 5 Orange, slip one, Knit 1 Orange, slip one, Knit 3 Brown, slip one, Knit 2 Orange, (Yellow on pattern) slip one, Knit 2 Brown, slip one. Continue with pattern.

First Decrease On Page 2 Written Chart*

The photograph above shows the Initial decrease. This can now be added to the Pictorial Chart.

It might look a bit peculiar but otherwise you cannot see where the next row decrease should be.

Hood First Decrease Right Addition

The photograph above shows the addition of the first lot of decreases.

Hood Pictorial Chart Initial Decrease Left

First Decrease Left Up To Addition

One little point if you compare the above photograph with the one with the asterisk * the 4^th number has been altered from a 1 to a 2. That is because the next stitch was another Brown and if I put another 1 it would look like 11 stitches.

The First 5 Decrease Stitches Left

This is the decreases for the other end of the Row.

Knit 5 Yellow, Slip 1, Knit 1 Yellow, Knit 2 Brown, Knit 2 Yellow, Slip 1, Knit 2 Orange, Slip 1, Knit 2 Orange, Slip 1, Knit 3 Yellow, Slip 1, Knit 1 Yellow, Knit 1 Brown, Knit 3 Red

Hood Pictorial Chart Left Decrease Addition 

I started with 228 Stitches. I decrease by 5 on the Right Hand Side and a further 5 on the Left Hand Side. This decreased the Knit Row by 10 Stitches in total. I now have 218 Stitches left on the needle.

Hood Written Chart First Decrease Right Addition

Now the decreasing has been done on the Knit Row I turned and purled back. I shall decrease again on the next 4 Knit Rows. There are no decreases on the Purl Rows.

I continued decreasing by 10 stitches until I reached Row 80. From Row 81 to 90 I staggered the decreases. I decreased by 6 on a few Knit rows then dropped again until I was left with 100 Stitches on the needle. I had to tweak slightly to achieve this as I had lost a couple of stitches somewhere.

Written Chart 2 Decrease to 100 Stitches

On the next bit I will be changing to Moss Stitch

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 9

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 9

The last time I blogged about the cape I had reached an unnerving point where I had to alter the Owl Pattern part way through. The Owl at present to my mind resembled at best a Pigeon and at worst one of the Gulls that shrieked MINE from Disney’s Finding Nemo!

Original Pattern Owl

The picture above is the Original Pictorial Owl for the back of the Cape.

New Pattern Owl

As you can see I have taken 4 to 5 rows out of the Chart. In reality of course since I am only counting the knit rows of the Pictorial Chart it is 8-10 rows.

Pictorial Shortened Owl Cropped Version

Although it is not a particularly good photograph you should be able to see how it looks fully coloured.

Pictorial Shortened Owl Un-cropped Version

Obviously once I had shortened the Owl on the Pictorial Chart I also had to shorten the hollow surrounding it. Then after knitting to point in the photograph above and was now only using one colour (the dark brown) I simply continued in stocking stitch.

I am not exactly sure how many rows I knitted – as I was in the Pub at the time. However it was at least 10 rows of stocking stitch. If you imagine it is from the shoulders to the knees it is about right.

I did not want to make the back too long for several reasons. Firstly because the Owl is quite near the bottom and since I intended to wear it in Autumn/Winter I don’t want to ruin it by getting it splashed with puddles or mud. Secondly I am not sure how much it will drop when being washed and worn. Last but not least I have not as yet decided whether to add a knitted decorative edging. That will depend on the amount of wool left.

Finished Cape Back Pre Embroidery

Finished Back Embroidered Squirrel

 

Finished Back Embroidered Owl

 

Finished Cape Back Post Embroidery

So unless I decided to do some tweaking such as defining the hollow more and adding an edging that is the Back of the Cape FINISHED : )