Monday, October 13, 2008

Dulcie and the Bad, Bad Yarn


Dulcie Hat (6)
Originally uploaded by JRoKnits
Remember the bad yarn? I shouldn't blame the yarn. It was all me. I had a bad morning at work and felt the need to throw Wiltons icing dyes at some yarn. I soaked it for too little time, tried to speed the process along, and ended up with something not remotely like what I'd envisioned.

But it all worked out in the end.

Somehow I'd forgotten that a very kind woman had swapped patterns with me. I gave her a scanned copy of a hat pattern and she gave me a copy of Going Straight by Woolly Wormhead. I know. A fair trade, it was not, but she was willing and I was happy to receive.

So I'd forgotten about it. Until the other day. Lo and behold, there lay the most perfect-est patterns for hand painted or subtely variegated yarns.

I chose Dulcie.

Now let me first say, these patterns are not difficult. The knitting is easy. However, one must familiarize themselves with short rows, hiding the wraps of said short rows, and kitchener-ing just about anything to anything else. I was 4 sections into my first go at this hat when I realized that I'd been hiding wraps as though the stockinette side was the right side. Wrong! They looked like crap, so I ripped it out and started again, this time doing it the right way. I also sized up to the large.

It's cute, huh? This is immediately after weaving in the two teensy ends. The colors aren't quite this bright (that's the flash) - they remind me of sumac in September, just before it's completely red. Or the Minnesota Wild hockey team. I will call it what I will as the mood strikes me.

The Going Straight e-book has THE best instructions for short rows, hiding wraps, and Kitchener stitch on the entire planet. No lie. I've never been able to Kitchener to save my life. Everything I've tried it on looks horrible. I learned to do it on the needles and that works fine, but I really wanted to do it the right way. The instructions in Going Straight are no fail. Perfect photos, perfect text, everything worked like a charm. I can't even find my seam now. How 'bout that?

Just remembered I have to get some dog food.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oooh, i'm itching to get a copy of going straight - any suggestions?
i've headr that strudel and enroule are really dificult to knit - have you tried those?

Jen said...

I totally recommend Going Straight, even if you only get it for the instruction section. This e-book has the best, most comprehensive instructions on short rows/wrap hiding and kitchener stitch that I've ever seen. Dulcie is actually the only hat I've knit from the book so far, but I love both Strudel and Enroule and want to make those as well.

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