March 10, 2006

Going in Circles

As most of you know, my newest project is Vogue Knitting Magazine's Fall 2005 Twisted Float Shrug aka Circular Cocoon Shrug by Annie Modesitt. I just call it the Round Sweater (I know, so ghetto!).

I've been struggling. I just can't seem to start the circle to my satisfaction. I've swatched and swatched, started and restarted, ripped and ripped and I'm about to throw all my Lorna's Laces out the window. Well, not really cuz number 1 - I'm cheap, and number 2 - I need to solve this problem!!

My problem is that the circle is just not neat enough for my taste. There are holes and spaces between the stitches that I just can't seem to get rid off. Here are my alternatives. If you know of a better way to start the center of a circle - PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!
  • Emily Ocker's Circular cast on.
    - This swatch is done with 5 dpns. Look at the stitches right around the center.... they are so far apart.


    - This swatch is done using magic loop. Again, look at the center where the arrows point. WTF??
  • Queen Kahuna's Aloha cast on. (Thanks Carla and Martha!!)
    - I'm not sure if I like the weaving thing going on in the center. There are still holes. Emily Ocker's cast on is cuter I think.... more like a flower with a circle center.
So, there is ONE more thing that I can try. And if this doesn't work, I'm done. I will try to cast on with 2 needle size smaller and see if the holes disappear. If anyone of ya'll know that this is NOT going to work, let me know so I won't need to do more futile knitting!

By the way, which of the circles above do you like?

4 comments:

Reb said...

I have also been planning to try casting on with smaller needles. I'm also going to try casting on fewer stitches.

So far, I think your Emily Ocker cast-on looks the best. I'll letyou know if I come up with something better. Sorry you're out there on the cutting edge all alone!

Reb said...

I did the regular starting way that Annie has in the instructions (using the Make 1 Away/backward loop/twisted yarnover increase), and it came out with a giant, horrid looking hole. HOWEVER, after I wove the tail through those central stitches, it looked fine.

I didn't keep going with it too far since I don't have both yarns I need. I'm not too happy with the increases (I switched to kfb after about 3 rounds) as there is a small hole. I am going to play with that. What really freaked me out, though, was when I took it off the needles and the edges of the circle were ruffly. Really, really ruffly. I thought it should be lying pretty flat. Like your samples! What increase did you end up using?

Reb said...

I tried again, this time joining into a circle when I had just the cast on stitches. The hole was smaller than on the first try, but my piece was just as ruffly. I'll try circs next.

Anonymous said...

I like the Emily Ocker one best.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who had trouble with the centre hole! I started mine about five times before deciding that if I just weave the end in upon completion, I'll be able to hide any real problem.

Re: your comments about it being ruffly, mine had a similar problem but now that the whole thing's much larger I don't think it will be apparent in the finished garment.

I'm almost up to the armholes now and I was interested to see comments about the sizing on other blogs. So far I think the sizing looks about right and the tension is about what it should be.

If only I'd known about the simplified version before I started I probably would have opted for that one... but I don't think I could bear to pull it apart and start again:-(