Happy 2020 Everyone!
This year has started nicely for my family and I. There are a couple of rough patches going but the Lord will take care of those in His own time. So far everyone is healthy though and that is a huge plus.
Mom and I started the MKAL with Stunning String on January 3rd at the Village Inn down the street from where I grew up. We had a wonderful time. Since then we have received clue 3 and are busy knitting away.
Directly above is mine and Mom's clue 3 completed. We a re both mirror knitters. The pieces are coming out differently because she is following the written directions as anyone would reversing the decreases. I am following the charted directions from left to right and reversing the decreases.
We also received the first clue for the year long piece for 2020 called Intrigue. I have decided to start it when all of the clues for the Spicy shawl are finished, around the middle of February. Then I will have something to fill the gap before the next one comes out in April. The color choices for the April piece were tough for me, I love them all. I have at this point chosen the Generations color way but may change my mind before the color choices go in in February.
With the MKAL this year they added a read along. I don't read much, maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day so I didn't feel confident in finishing a book each month. I have recently discovered audio books and they are great! I can "read" and still get done what needs doing. Audio books also "reading" another level of experience and enjoyment. So far the couple of readers I have experienced are really good with the voices and personalities of the different characters. Listening to an audio book totally counts as much as reading a book does. I did think differently for a while remembering back to audio books from about 30 years ago or so when the book was just read out loud. So much better now. The books for the read along are from Krista Davis. The first one is also the first in the Diva series called The Dive Runs Out of Thyme. This book has been really good and I recommend it highly. It is clean, a multiple murder mystery that talks a lot about cooking and entertaining as well as mentions knitting. I am very glad to have been introduced to this series.
I am still test knitting and learning so much from it. Sweater construction can be tricky. You want to make sure that you choose a good shoulder for your piece or it will sag if the rest of the piece is too heavy. I most recently finished my Colorado Sunrise sweater. The should shaping was different than what I had worked before. Annie designed it with short row shaping for the shoulders, then work a row or two across the full row again, finish with binding off. I did wrap and turn short rows, saved the stitches on a stitch holder and then used a 3 needle bind off to bind off and seam the pieces together at the same time.
I am so very pleased with this sweater and the fit of it. The only other major modification I made other a couple of changes in the strip pattern is I added 2 inches to the length of the body. I did that by adding extra plain knit rows between the color work charts. I have learned that even though the bust fits, the length may not be what I want because I am taller than the average woman, 5' 8".
I listen to a couple of fiber related podcasts. I'm late to the podcast game and therefore have many years to catch up on in some cases and so I have been. One of the podcast hosts said that "long tail cast on is better than backwards loop cast on for the bottom of a sweater." I had a small moment of panic, that's what I did for my Colorado Sunrise, how bad does it look? The host said that backwards loop is messy and uneven and leaves an edge that doesn't look so good. When I went back upstairs I pulled out my sweater and looked at the bottom. Phew! It looked fine, even unblocked.
After blocking it looks great.
Not loopy like they had mentioned and it keeps the rib nice and even, so what gives? I have another test knit that needs casting on, is a sweater from the bottom up, with a ribbing on the bottom, excellent time to test the difference.
When I first started knitting, self taught from a book, before Youtube, I only knew one way to cast on, the knitted cast on and it took me forever. I hated casting on. I did learn the long tail cast on but was generally frustrated with not having a long enough tail or way too much of a tail to deal with. I somewhere along the way picked up the backwards loop cast on. I think I saw it in another book somewhere. I have been using that cast on almost exclusively for many years now. Socks, hats, gloves, mitts, sweaters you name it. Top down or bottom up it is usually my first choice. Toe up socks I use Judy's magic cast on of course and for an ethnic piece I use the ethnic cast on, otherwise it is backwards loop.
For the test I had to refer to my newest book from Vogue to remember how to do the long tail cast on it had been such a long time. The muscle memory was still there and the 336 stitches I needed for the bottom of the sweater came on quickly. During the casting on however my 2 ply yarn finished with an "S" twist came un-plied. Now I'm questioning the integrity of the yarn in the cast on. I continue on after snapping a photo.
I proceed to work the first row. The stitches are tight and difficult for me to get back into. Also the couple dozen I have completed do not have the stretch and spring that I want. I didn't finish the row to be honest. I didn't see the need as the work wasn't going to be what I was looking for.
Test results? Well I couldn't just make a final decision based on my own opinion so I asked a few people. Nijah who started loom knitting at the age of 3 and taught herself to cast on just by observation also does the backward loop and hers look nice too. Below is her most recent finished object, started with a backward loop cast on from the bottom.
Well that might be a bit biased... Thankfully I had sheep to shawl practice last week, more knitters. Over lunch I asked if anyone else does the long tail cast on. "I usually use the cable cast on." I like that one too at times, but similar to the knitted cast on, it is slow. The other two knitters still present were both "yes". One is aged 72 and the other aged 37 so some variation in experience. "Have you ever had your yarn come un-plied during the cast on?" I asked. Both of them being spinners as well as knitters completely understood what i was asking. Their answers were opposite. 72 said "No." 37 said "yes, but I also cast on backwards." She is left handed in life but a right handed knitter. The opposite of me. She holds the yarn in her right hand to work the long tail cast on. She then continued with "I have to work all my stitches in the back loop on the first row because they are all twisted." 72 was surprised that the un-plying could happen. 37 said "it depends on the yarn."
"How do you like long tail verses backward loop?" They gave the same answer as the podcast had suggested, "messy and uneven." Okay so it is now 2 to 2.
I saw Mom the next day for MKAL and decided to ask her. While she is in her 50s she has only been knitting for about 10 years. With this MKAL lace and charts are still quite new to her. I told her about the podcast, my findings so far and how I felt about the long tail cast on. She then told me all she does is the long tail cast on for socks, hat, mitts, lace, everything. She almost always gets the tail right on too. I showed her my Colorado Sunrise sweater, told her it was backwards loop and she agreed that it looks nice. So what gives?
We talked a bit more and decided it is practice. Both of these cast ons are going to take practice to get them to have the give, stretch and spring wanted and to look nice. I have practiced the backward loop for a very long time and don't plan to stop any time soon because for me it looks so nice and even. I have cast on, worked a row or two only frog it and begin again. The long tail takes practice to get even stitches that are not too tight and have the correct length of yarn to begin with. Each has an advantage of one over the other. The backward loop requires no guess work in the length of the tail, you can cast on forever, until the end of the ball any way. The long tail has an edge that it easier and more secure to pick up for an edging or other application if needed. The un-plying of yarn...? I don't know what to say. I will continue to use the backwards loop cast on for my projects.
My other two take aways from this, I can teach long tail again and the idea of an inch of yarn per stitch is iffy. It depends on the yarn weight. Thicker yarn will require more length per stitch and thinner yarn will require less. Here is my tail after casting on 336 stitches. I did the fake arm yard measurement and measured out "8" yards for that many stitches. That's a lot of left over yarn.
I have just uploaded my first Youtube video. It is on how to repair cables that are messed up without ripping the entire project. Look for it here.
Next time I will have finished another sweater from the top down and ventured into top down construction using a different method than I am used to.
Until then...
Happy Making!
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