Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 4

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 4

I left the last Blog at the point I was changing to Moss Stitch and a right pig’s breakfast I made of it too!

Moss Stitch Mess

Whatever I did it kept ending up wrong. The thing was it was part Moss part Rib.  I was puzzled. One or the other I could understand but not both! I had to keep undoing it.

I had to put my thinking head on which wasn’t easy at that time in the morning. Why was it going wrong? I had checked that I was alternating the knits and the purls. I wondered if the Selvedge’s were throwing me out so I omitted them. I made sure that I hadn’t dropped a stitch whilst unravelling so what the hell was wrong?

After knitting and unravelling 3 times I gave up. I thought the answer might come to me after some sleep. It did and I could have kicked myself! It is often the simplest things that cause the problem. I had forgotten that Moss Stitch has an UNEVEN number of stitches. Talk about being an idiot!

Moss Stitch

As you can see in the photograph above it turned out much better.  I did a few rows of Moss Stitch then Cast off.

Hood Cast Off

That is the majority of the Hood knitted apart from embellishments.

A word about embellishments; there are several kinds. I mentioned in the Oakey Doh-Key blog about the Large Oak Leaves I was making of which I need to do some more.

Another kind is embroidery. As well as mending holes with left over bits of wool I also make alterations. The Knitted piece is only the basis for the whole Design. Where I want to add pieces or maybe slightly alter a section I embroider.

Pre-embellishments 1

This is prior to any major alterations. In hindsight I should have taken the photograph further back.

Post-embellishments 1

This is post alterations. The Yellow has been extended and a branch has been added on the Left.

Pre-embellishments 2

These two photographs show the embellishments better.

Post-embellishments 2

There is no longer a piece of branch unattached – due to misreading of the pattern. More needs to be done but I thought I would take some pictures before I forget.

These additions need to be added all over the Cape that has already been knitted. However I will be adding them a bit at a time as and when small pieces of wool become available.

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Part 3

Autumn Cape 2016  A long Term Project Part 3

First of all I would like to add something I omitted from the last blog. As you have read in previous blogs I am quite picky from where I get my wool. I choose to buy from independent retailers when I can.

I would like to point out that my wool shop has recently moved into new and bigger premises a short distance away from where they were originally located. Their new address is 9 Trinity Walk Nottingham NG1 2AN

http://www.knitnottingham.co.uk/

Will they win again. Nominate now! *

http://www.letsknit.co.uk/britishknittingawards/

Phew - now I know I will be allowed in the shop I will carry on where I left off. I had discovered that the way I had been writing my chart for the test piece would not work on the real Cape due to the fact of too many colour changes. Therefore I had to come up with a new idea.

After dolefully looking at my heap of wool I had an inspiration. Instead of putting Ball 1, Ball 2  with the corresponding colours etc why not write the Chart in colour! Now I had the idea I had to try it out.  

Written Cast On Colour Chart 1

Written Cast On Colour Chart 2

Yay it seemed to be working - apart from the fact that my felt tip pens kept deciding to die on me. Since the yellow didn't really show up I went over it in pen to make it easier to see. I apologise for the poor quality of the photographs. I am not much of a photographer but I hope you get the general idea.

At this point I think I better make clear an important point. As I said in my last blog I am uncertain how to transfer the Pattern Design into stocking stitch. So taking this factor into consideration there is a difference between the Pictorial Chart and the Written Chart.

Picture Design

The Design which I drew has been numbered down the side in blocks of 10. 1 square is equal to 1 stitch. Bearing in mind I am making this up as I go along this is what I have in my minds eye. However since I am not sure how to transfer this onto the opposite side I decided to keep it simple and hope.

Every line across the Design is equal to 1 Row in Plain or Knit Stitch. Then on the Purl Row I just repeat the stitches but in the reverse order.

Written Chart Rows 1 to 19

As you can see above I have labelled the Knit Rows from 1 to 19. So Row 1 on the Written Chart is the same as Line 1 on the Picture Design. Row 3 is Line 2 and Row 5 is Line 3. Therefore each Line on the Design equals 1 Row of Knit and 1 Row of Purl.

Why haven't I just put Row 1, 2, 3 etc and included the Purl Rows? Well the answer is easy. It was about 2 o'clock in the morning and I had a headache. I was planning on doing another Written Chart with the even rows on separately after I had done a few rows. 

Unfortunately with felt tips not working and coloured pencils breaking, not to mention rubbing my nose up against the Design to try and make out what colour it was because it was too faint to see I felt that I had enough to cope with.

Also the knitting might be okay but with the amount of balls and loose ends I had all around me the yarn was more like Macramé. Think I am joking? Oh what a tangled web we weave!

Tangled Web Front

Tangled Web Back

The pictures above only show the yarn attached to the knitted piece. What you cannot see is somehow I had managed to weave myself into the Cape as well. I balls on my lap, in front and behind me. I had also sat on yarn and managed to wind some balls around me with the effect of when I stood up it looked like my dressing gown came equipped with giant multicoloured pom-poms!

Having taken some time to extricate myself from the mess I came to the conclusion that there needed to be drastic action taken before I carried on knitting or there would be the possibility that I might never be seen again. Or on the other hand I could possibly be the first woollen wrapped mummy ever to be discovered.

Mulling the problem overnight I decided that I would take the unusual step (for me at any rate) to start sewing in the loose ends from the Cast on then work upwards. The theory being there would be fewer tangles if there were fewer dangling yarns in the first place.

I began sewing, trimming long pieces of yarn (which I kept for sewing up later) and untangling. Talk about a long job. It took me the entire afternoon or putting it another way the DVD of THE MUMMY and its' sequel THE MUMMY RETURNS to get it finished.

Untangled

This was the result. All the ends sewn in and the long ends wrapped into small balls and threaded on to a couple of Bamboo Chopsticks. It was a battle but I had learnt some valuable pointers.

1 If making lots of small colour changes but they are too far apart to stretch across easily - divide one ball of yarn of each colour into smaller ones. You might lose a little bit of yarn but the hours saved untangling are well worth it. In addition to this  slightly longer threads can be used for sewing later.

2 When making a Colour Chart make sure the colours are clearly divided. That way you won't waste time poring over the darn thing (darn thing? unintended pun) trying to work out which colour you are on next.

I am going to work these points into my next go at the Pattern. Once again I am going to take it slowly. I have added another five lines of colour to the Design which equals another 10 rows of knitting.

Colour Design 15 Rows

Hopefully you can see that the colours are far bolder and therefore more distinct. It should make it much easier, not to mention quicker to transfer to the Written Chart. Which since it is now about 1.55 am I intend to leave to a more conducive hour.

* Yes they did!

Cape for Pagan Pride 2015

Cape for Pagan Pride 2015

Pagan Pride Nottingham is a great event and gets better every year. I normally wear my dark green pure wool cloak which was custom made by my good friend Sascha Semmler. It has come in very useful in previous years when the heavens opened at the end of the day complete with hailstones.

However this year I decided I would like to make a summer cloak especially for the occasion. Although Lammas colours are traditionally Gold, Red, Orange and Yellow I decided that I would go for greens and browns mimicking the trees and grass of the Nottingham Arboretum.

To make the cloak nice and cool I decided I would use Bamboo Cotton. This was purchased locally at the Award Winning Knit Nottingham Yarn Shop owned and run by the talented Eleanor Burke.

The needles I used were 5mm however since I was making the pattern up as I went along and had to make a lot of adjustments I won't given the amount of cast on stitches.  I suggest that once you have selected the yarn you want to use that you cast on roughly 20 stitches to work out your gauge. Remember that for the flat sections to add an extra 2 stitches at the beginning and end of the row for the Selvedges.

For the flat sections I used Stocking Stitch (Knit a row Purl a row).  For the sleeves I used Garter Stitch (Knit rows) on a circular needle.

I cast on more stitches than I needed (not intentionally but during the process I lost weight so had to improvise) plus 4 stitches extra. Therefore decided whether or not you want to put a pleat in as this will affect how many stitches to cast on.

For example
With pleat cast on 200 stitches plus 4 extra
Without pleat cast on 160 stitches plus 4 extra.

The pattern including a double garter edge is as follows:

Slip a Stitch knitwise, Knit 1 stitch (Selvedge)
Knit to the last 2 stitches, Knit last 2 stitches (Selvedge)
Slip a Stitch knitwise, Knit 1 stitch (Selvedge)
Purl to the last 2 stitches, Knit last 2 stitches (Selvedge)
Carry on until you reach the length you require then cast off.

Back Panel

Next put the panel with its knit side facing. See diagram below to make the Box Peat. If you are not adding a pleat skip this step.

Back Panel Wrong Side

Armhole Panel

Use the same process as for the back panel until you reach the bottom of the armhole. See diagram below for instructions

Once you have the complete row of stitches carry on as normal until you reach the required length then cast off.

Next make the Front Panel using the same process.

Front Panel

Now you can sew these sections together.

Rectangles sewn together Purl view

Here you have a choice. You can sew the back to the front section and add the edging straight away or you can add a hood or sleeves. I added both. First adding a hood.

The hood is made out rectangles with selvedges. Therefore the process is the same expect the rectangles are shorter.

 Sew Brown Hood rectangle into place

Before you go any further sew the Side Panel to the Back as shown below

Side Panel Sewn to Back

Knit and add further rectangles to one side then the other.

Hood Added 

Fold and Sew Hood Together

Add the edging

The edging is up to you. As I was short of time I used a very simple border I found on Ravelry.

Edging

The next part is the sleeves. I decided on a tapering effect with three colours (not including the border). This was achieved by casting on a circular knitting needle and joining the first stitch with the last stitch. After a few rows of knit I began to slowly decrease for another few rows. Once I was happy with the effect I began to decrease sharply to match the circumference of my my arm.

When the first yarn (I started with brown) had reached past my elbow and a few inches onto my lower arm I changed colour to grey. A few more inches of this colour until finally changing to green yarn at the wrist. This was embellished by adding more edging again in the grey colour.

Sleeves

Next sew the sleeves on to the cloak. This finishes the cloak though you can add a belt like I did using alternative colours of edging as a pattern.

Finished Item.

 

All Photographs Copyright Shani Oates August 2015



http://www.knitnottingham.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/knitnottingham?fref=ts