March 09, 2006

Some answers

I've been wondering the same things Kenny has. Here are some answers from Annie. I'm posting them here so they aren't "lost" in a comment to Kenny's post.

CAST ON - Thanks, Kenny, for linking to Emily Ocker's Circular Cast-On on your blog. I had been thinking this might be the way to go, but I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it. Annie wasn't familiar with this cast-on.

I'm also going to try a regular cast on then later thread the tail through those stitches. As when finishing a hat at the crown, you should be able to pull the stitches tighter. I might also try a smaller needle size for the cast-on and first round. I'll report back.

COLOR MANAGEMENT - Annie carried the contrast color (color B) like so:
"In the first Color A only row, I worked B along with A in the first st.
In the second Color A only row, I worked B along with A in the second st.
In the third Color A only row, I worked B along with A in the first st.
In the fourth Color A only row, I worked B along with A in the st before the first st.

Do you see the pattern? I worked B along with A at the start of each A-only round, only using B in ONE STITCH and leaving it hang until I got back to it again. Out of all the techniques I tried, this was the best for stranding B up with the minimum of show."

Yay, no cutting! No weaving!

INCREASES - Here's what Annie did:
"For the first few rounds I knit into the front and back of the st because it was easier, but after I had a bit of fabric on the needles, I used what I call the grandma increase (I'm going on the assumption that the st on the needle is the 'mommy' - therefore the st below the
'mommy' is the 'grandma'.

To do this I simply knit right into the center of the grandma stitch. I like this increase - even though it leaves a bit of a hole in the middle of g'ma, it's less visible than many other increases. You can use whatever inc you like though!"

I'm also going to try the twisted yarnover increase because I just learned that while making a Faroese shawl. I'll try the increases Kenny mentioned (bar, M1, and invisible), too. Which side will be public is a consideration. See below.

RIGHT SIDE/WRONG SIDE - the pattern calls the side facing you as you knit the wrong side, aka the private side. Annie says:
"Try not to think in terms of "right" and "wrong" side, but rather St st and Rev St st side. The Rev St st will be the public side of the garment, or not. It's reversible."

So, as the pattern is written, the side you see while knitting (the stockinette side) will be the private side. Use an increase whose reverse stockinette side looks good to you because that will be the public side of the garment. Unless you'd like to wear the sweater with the stockinette side out!

JOG - yes, there will be a slight jog at the beginning of the rounds. Annie doesn't have a suggestion for that. I don't think Meg Swansen's Jogless Jog will be much help since it is used when the next "stripe" will be 2 or more rounds wide (tall). I'll do some research on this and report back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. Annie also sent me a copy of that mail to you and it was the same thing that I was going to post.