Sunday 17 April 2011

Will it ever end.

As the last few weekends have each approached, I was filled with optimism and was sure that I would finish the blanket and be free.  Each time I was brought up short by the reality of its size and how my hands feel after knitting on it a while.  This weekend is no different.

I worked on the blanket yesterday.  A LOT.  I knit 16 garter ridges, and now my hands are kaput.  I did do 3 ridges this morning, but I had to stop.  Just too much.  On the upside, I have only 12 ridges left.  Hardly nothing. 2 days at most.  Famous last words.

Maybe.

I discovered a screw up.  

I thought about trying to correct it but I tried a few rows and it seems you cannot correct the twist in intarsia. If I went down all the way to the spot where I did not twist the two strands, could I correct it? (please advise) 

The other thing is do I care?  If I can't correct it, would I rip it back? Ummm, no.  Will the owner of this blanket notice?  No.  Will he care?  No.    So unless it is easily correctable by dropping stitches, it is going to stay.  1 screw up in an otherwise stunning blanket.  And it is on the backside.  Good to go.

The other thing that might interest you is this funky photo of what happens to Berocco Comfort Chunky. Once knit, the fabric created is fantastic.  Is dense.  Its warm.  Its soft.  Just a great fibre blend.  But knitting with it can drive you batty.
These strands are not twisted to make these knots, they are actually lying side by side, and just kink up into one massive knot all on their very own.  I think the ply of the yarn is part of what is causing this to happen.  It isn't an inside ball/outside of the ball thing, it just is. It isn't so bad when you are only knitting one colour.  At least then it only wraps around itself.  This last section is intarsia and what with ends and tails of previous balls, and two strands hanging off the work...I'm going just a little batty here.

For all its flaws, I like the yarn well enough to accumulate enough for another blanket beyond the colours I showed you the other day.   This next after the next will be red, black, cream and grey.  

And then, there is the other 'original'  of the 2 I actually planned to do, a red and cream one - patterned this time.  It is  from Comfort Knitting and Crochet - Afghans, and is named Ukrainian Tiles
 
Its a lot of blanket knitting I have ahead of me.  It might be just the thing to get me through the summer if I do it in squares and sew them together.  When I think about it if I don't...well my hands ache.

2 comments:

Sandra said...

ignore the issue. IN the long run, no one will care that it's there, and it simply reinforces that no one is perfect.
I'm impressed with the knitted blankets - I'm not sure I have the fortitude to do it...

Brendaknits said...

My advice is No, you can't do the twist without ripping back. Would I bother? Probably not, but I might add in a bit of the contrast yarn when done to mimic a twist.