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Got to pay your dues
If you want to sing the blues,
And you know
It don't come easy....
("It Don't Come Easy", Ringo Starr)
*Little did I know when I first began this yarn-hog monstrosity called "The Little Red Riding Hoodie" that it would be a garment so fraught with frustrating problems that I would soon find myself shouting to the heavens in my little-used French....
J'ai voulu lancer le chandail entier de la fenêtre, dammit!
Yep. The once-promising Little Red Riding Hoodie is so full of never-ending, tedious, no-solution, time-consuming problems that I have frequently had to resist the urge to chuck the whole maddening thing out the window and purge my memory of the entire ugly incident....
What? The word "dammit" isn't universal? Oh well. French is simply too beautiful of a language to contain such a raw, ugly epithet...
Okay, how about 'dameet'?? Where was I? (Ou etait je?)Oh yeah--- wanting to throw the Little Red Riding Hoodie out the window...
First on the list of problems is one of the facings I knitted onto a buttonband to stabilize and hide the raw edges of the steek. (I performed the steek sewing by hand, in an interlocking type stitch, since my sewing machine is back in Texas at my mom's house.) Anyway, I completed one buttonband's facing just fine and dandy. But the other side turned out badly because stupid me erred on which stitch-line from which to pick up the facing's stitches--- a disheartening, rookie mistake which caused things to look very sloppy. (And I'm too ashamed of my error to show a picture of it.)
It took me nigh on two durn days to figure out how to fix it all very neatly, both on the outside and also on the inside. (I'm extremely compulsive about my knitted garments having both their outsides AND their insides looking neat as a pin.) Next on the list of reasons of why I want to throw the whole thing out the window is that line of big sunflowers on the front, which I embellished with duplicate stitching. I love those flowers so much---on the outside, that is....But the inside went to hell in a handbasket, as you can see below. And that is because I am now left with all those duplicate stitches' yarn ends to somehow weave in neatly. But those ends are in the midst of an area of fair-isle patterns rife with color changes and yarn floats--- a complex maze of a layout which can obscure or block the little stitch loops I need for to weave in those dratted ends.
If not done just right, the weaving in process of said yarn ends could cause the whole area to look unattractive and "lumpy" on the outside of the garment. And not only that, but all those color-changes, yarn floats, and woven-in ends in such a small space could cause the knitted fabric's stitches to separate too much, allowing all of that stuff to show through to the front........hideous possibilities which are causing me much wailing and gnashing of teeth....
Dammeet!!!
Sigh...
Okay, the next problem involves the decorative trims I want to place on certain areas of the hoodie. I've been knitting leaf trims in two "sizes"--- the larger (in worsted weight yarn) for the buttonbands and the smaller (in crochet cotton) for the edge of the sleeves' cuffs. And right off the bat, as you know, I had to re-write the stitch patterning of the leaf trim in order to have mirror-image leaf strands facing each other on the buttonbands---
...a feat which caused me two MORE durn days of wailing and gnashing of teeth....
And although the leaf strands look really nice on all the areas I have planned for them, it totally fatigues me to even PONDER how it's going to take me eleventeen forevers to knit all this damn trim. Hell, by the time I get done with all those leaves I will have knitted a whole damn tree!
And then.....
It's my own damn fault...
I should have known when I saw the brand name on the box of this stupid, witless device.
The problem started when I decided I needed some lengths of i-cord....
I know, I know.....MORE DURN TRIM!!
You see, I plan on using i-cord for the drawstring of the hood. But I have also entertained thoughts of arranging some i-cord on the buttonbands into "frog" closures in case I decide at the last minute not to use the danged leaf trim. And I have also idgitly wondered about maybe using some i-cord as decorative trim elsewhere on the garment....
I just invented a new word! Idgitly!!
Where was I? (Ou etait je?)
Oh yeah, the i-cord issue...
But the question arose....did I learn any lessons about the Bond brand name when I endured a lot of insane hair-pulling struggles through the poor quality of my new Bond "Ultimate Sweater Machine" a couple of months ago?? Noooooooooooo! And thus, I went out and idgitly bought a Bond brand, "Embellish-Knit", crank i-cord maker. And by the picture below, you can see just how well the dumb thing worked.
Idgitly!
And dammeet!
(See how it mocks me??)
Anyhoo, back to the store from whence that rude, incompetent device came...
And.... sigh.... I am now faced with another mind-curdling chore--- that of making i-cord the old fashioned way--- by hand, using a simple little knitting knobby...
...a daunting task which also takes eleventeen forevers while causing me much wailing and gnashing of teeth!
But some ill-mannered people in this household couldn't care less about my knitting problems....
I wonder what the hell stupid cats dream about?....
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12 comments:
Bo, were you using worsted weight yarn on the Embellish Knit? It's really meant for DK, sport-weight, and fingering-weight yarns. I found this out when I bought mine on clearance at Joann Fabrics 2 years ago. It says it somewhere on the package if I'm remembering correctly.
Anywho, I was using Glitterspun yarn to make I-cord for my daughter's Halloween costume, and it gave me fits. I still was able to use it, I just had to turn it slower and keep an eye on the needles in case a stitch tried to slip. Also, I had to make sure to move the weight up the length of cord as I worked, so that it would pull the yarn tight enough, so that it wouldn't slip. Splitty yarns, such as Glitterspun, will sometimes get caught up in the needle, so you have to watch for that too.
It took a bit of patience (and a small amount of cursing,) but it was WAY faster than knitting all that I-cord by hand. And my daughter's mermaid costume turned out great and on-time. LOL
I still use mine, but I don't knit I-cord too often. Though, I'm thinking of making some of those cute I-cord shoelaces for me and my daughter's tennis shoes out of leftover sock yarn. Saw them in one of the knitting magazines a couple of month's back, I think.
As for LRRH, since you're using wool yarn, could you spit splice the end together some how? Or, just tie square knots in the two ends, making sure that it tucks in behind the floats. Well, that's my two-cents worth of ideas. :o)
She is dreaming about the fact that the sweater is not for her (just cause she looks a little sad there sleeping on her empty dish!) I thnk making I cord would be a great waiting room task -and I think it would be fun to teach your therapist how to do it!
Hey Mel! Your two cents worth is always welcome!!
It was sport-weight yarn on the Embellish-Knit (which is the lightest weight I want my i-cords to be), which I thought would be light enough, but then it got all twisted up as you saw.
And I admit, it was my first try with the thing---but the reason I didn't fiddle around with it and try out skinnier yarns and practice more with it was that I just couldn't take another 3 or 4 days of frustration like I experienced when I twice got faulty carriages when I first bought the Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine.
I was just too impatient this time, I guess, wanting the little crank i-cord doohickey to work "right off the bat", heh!
(Maybe my frustration level is getting too low since I've been working on this LRRH for so long!)
:)
Danielle, taking the i-cord maker with me to waiting rooms is a great idea! Fits in my purse, too!
Bo, love,
You are on your way to more delay. All this gnashing of teeth is going to force a visit to the dentist! Snicker!
If you give up on the hoodie, you could always turn it into a flirty little mini skirt! he he.
And Little Baby is dreaming of tuna and turkey. Now that's a combination to make you shudder!
Keep at the hoodie though. You have inspired me to learn to knit. I'm making dish cloths and potholders. I know pretty tame, but I gotta start somewhere.
Hugs from me to you and skritches for the furrbabies.
Thank you, Tottergirl! And I think you're right about what Little Baby's dreaming about, heh. Speaking of dishcloths, I always say I'm going to start in Spring & Summer and start knitting them as Christmas gifts, but I never do---and then I lament at the last minute about what great gifts they would have been!
I sometimes threaten to aim for Christmas in July! It seems I have more available time then for the Holiday.
The sweater is looking good. I would have probably carried the yarn from 1 flower to the next while hiding it under the floats, but it's past that now. So no real suggestions there - weaving in is my least favorite thing to do other than sewing up by hand. I have started using a darning needle & inserting a few inches of yarn from the new skein into the old skein to keep from having to weave in at the end. And it is barely visible. I thought I was doing a Russian Join, but I misunderstood the description for that, but this works!
I still think I would do the i-cord on the ISM/USM, but carrying it in your purse to do while standing in line, waiting at the Dr./Therapist office, etc. works. I have been known to have my knitting out at long stoplights!
Maybe take a short break & make a pair of socks? Just not too long because then you might not come back to it!
Well, I should have a fairly slow day at work today - have a few things left to finish from yesterday, but that won't take long & then I can knit. I have 2 pair of socks past the heel, so may work on getting the 3rd past & then will just be working on the legs of all 3 pair.
Hi Cindy! You're right--I need a break from this behemoth! So I'm trying to finish the 2nd sleeve of the camouflage sweater I'm making on the USM. It was for my uncle but it's got too many mistakes in it for me to give it to him (as it was my first attempt on the USM), so I'm altering it to fit me. It'll be a good "around the house sweater", heh!
I need to get busy on the sweater that Eddie wants me to make for his graduation in May. Was going to do it on the machine, but don't have that all set up yet and need to get everyone's taxes done in the next 2 weeks, so that may not happen that way.
I'm working on a sweater, too, the camouflage one I told you about. But I've got a therapist coming at 2pm for an hour. Then I'll resume....
I don't have a suggestion for those ends, but for the Lillehammer you'll be doing, Knitting Daily for today has a video with Eunny Jang taking care of the yarn ends as she goes. http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2010/03/31/fair-isle-knitting-weaving-in-ends.aspx
Thank you so MUCH, Mary!!!! That is so totally awesome! I really do appreciate it!
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