Well, it’s been a week! I was away at a convention last weekend and in some ways I’m still recovering. How can my feet still be sore?!
I took my Promenade on the train and I did get some rows done on the way down, but it didn’t feel like enough to shape a whole blog post around. For most of the return journey, I chatted to my seat companion, who was 88 (!) and a little nervous about travelling solo. And then between the lingering tiredness and the heatwave we’ve been having, progress on any knitting has slowed to a crawl since getting home.
But I really wanted to post something today, which led me to cast on a new project so I’d have something to show. The Olympic Forest Baby Blanket (Ravelry link) by Verybusymonkey Designs (Designer’s site). The pictures are terrible, but needs must, you know?
The pattern starts with a circle (not unlike the Morvarch shawl) and uses YOs to increase every other round. I had seen other makers saying that they didn’t like how that looked, so after a little while of knitting I laid the blanket out flat to see what I thought.
Hm. They were a bit wobbly, right enough. I had a look at what I was doing and realised I was picking up the wrong loop of my YO, when it was between a knit and a purl (in that order). I’m using the YO method I learned for my fauxchet jumper – instead of wrapping round the needle, I’m just bringing the yarn to the wrong side of the needle before making the next stitch. So if it’s a purl, I’m starting with the yarn at the back of the knitting instead of the front.
But this means my YO is mounted backwards in some cases, I think? So where the pattern says to knit or purl through the back loop, I’m now reading that as ‘through the left-most leg of the stitch’. Pics below labelled ‘front’ and ‘back’ using this interpretation.
Anyway, I unravelled and reknit, picking up that left-most leg of the YO every time, and I think it’s much neater.
There’s still a clear line of YOs but they look even and smaller, and I’m happy with them. Having made this fix to my own satisfaction, I made a few more rounds before calling it a night. You can just see some tree branches starting to form, which is delightful.
It’s been nice and rhythmic so far, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the pattern.
The Crafty Yarnster 