Dear Kay,
This will be brief, because a) I am binge watching Madam Secretary and really need to find out whether Secretary of State Tea Leoni is going to resolve that Moldovian airplane hijacking. And b) this sweater is possibly the least photogenic knitting project I have ever attempted. When I say this looks better in real life, you will say, “Good grief, I hope so.”
The Good News
TONS of good news! This Moroccan Nights sweater by La Maison Rililie is beginning to seem like fun. I did my third try-on, this being a top-down sweater where trying on is one of the helpful yet annoying little stops to be made on the journey. The try-on means threading all live stitches onto waste yarn with a tapestry needle. It is not knitting. I’d rather be knitting.
Try-on dread is something I struggle with, every time. It might suck. It might have started to suck in the time since I last tried it on. In this case, with a sweater allowing no ease to negative ease, I actually envisioned that nightmare where you get a garment onto your body yet cannot get it off. How many times have I had that moment? It usually involves a dress with a zipper on the side. You get all clammy and sweaty and have to calculate at what point should you call out to the universe, “Hey? Could somebody . . . help . . . me?”
Well, it fits. It is a comfort to know, going into the easy stockinette part, that everything is on track.
Other News
My conclusion about double moss stitch is that it needs to go on the Hazardous Knitting Stitches List. I have blown this moronic stitch pattern at least seven times. At this point I don’t trust myself at all. It requires a low-grade surveillance that makes me unable to concentrate properly on Tea Leoni’s fabulous shoes. Do secretaries of state always wear stilettos? Did Robin Wright ruin the curve for TV politician footwear on House of Cards?
Finally, I had a moment when I looked down and could not really tell the difference between my current knitting and the handknit sweater I was wearing.
Carol Feller’s Carpino is the sweater I’m wearing.
Moroccan Nights is the sweater I’m making.
Incredible. I wrote about Carpino here and here, in a way that rhymes almost exactly with the experience I’m having with Moroccan Nights.
Do you do this? Do you knit the same idea over and over?
Love,
Ann
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I do that with shawls and cowls (“Haven’t I knitted this before?”). I think it shows a consistency and self-awareness that should be admired. So there.
When I try on a garment, I knit onto an extra circular needle that has a longer cable length instead of threading waste yarn thru the stitches. Generally the 60-inch cable works by itself; sometimes I try on the garment using two circular needles — if I need the extra length to ensure the stitches do not slip off the needles while I’m trying it on. Frequently all I need to do is change the cables on my Addi interchangeables, going from a 40-inch to a 60-inch and then back to the 40-inch.
I usually will knit the front or back stitches onto another needle (so the front and back of the sweater are on two needles, like you’re knitting socks on two circulars). I like to knit my sweaters on 32″ or 24″ needles (depending on what I have hanging around), and I’ve found that while I have to be careful pulling the whole thing over my bust or hips it still works quite well for try-ons. The longest needles I tend to keep on hand are 40″, so this works with my on-hand needle collection.
There are also some really neat cable stitch holders I’ve seen at my LYS. I believe, if I am recalling correctly, that they work much on the same concept as interchangeable needles, and come with a removable needle end for threading the stitches and then wee stoppers for both ends.
Such a great solution to my problem–thanks Penny!!!!!
Groove. Definitely a groove.
A friend of mine got stuck in a dressing room trying on a bathing suit. Talk about a nightmare.
That is the worst story I ever heard.
I have double moss on parts of the sweater I’m knitting too. I’ve messed up on it many times — whereas the cabling hasn’t been a problem. Double moss is a definite knitting hazard!
I’ve done that with scarves. In fact, the scarf I am knitting now is nearly the exact colourway as the last scarf/shawl I knit myself. I didn’t realize when I started. As for getting a zipper up and not being able to get it down? Been there too. I do have a favourite sweater, in an UN-favourite colour, so a friend deconstructed the pattern, and I am going to knit it for myself in a lovely teal shade. If that goes well, I see a navy/denim one in my future.
Ann,
I’ve often done it with the color of yarn that I purchase, especially for socks, scarves, afghans. Except for a sweater for my dad, I have only made baby sweaters.
Keeping track of double moss might mean that I would have to take to pen and paper (always an old envelope…) to keep track.
LoveDiane
Yarn is a whole other problem, agreed!
I’m just swatching for a hat design idea that involved double moss. Maybe I should stop while I can.
RUN AWAY!!!! Just kidding–I think a hat would be fine for double moss stitch. It’s just these 230-stitch rounds where you blow the pattern and end up undoing half an episode’s worth of knitting.
I recently reorganized my Rav Queue as Favorites (leaving only the 100 or so I think I might knit soon – ha! – in the Queue). I sorted my Favorites into categories, mostly type and weight (e.g., Shawls, Fingering-Weight) and within categories, tagged them in a consistent manner. (I am a librarian, after all. We call tags a “controlled vocabulary.”) And good grief, do I select that same type of pattern over and over! However, if I ever want to knit a nother henley-type pullover in DK weight, they are all listed in the same place now!
I have made Bonne Marie Burns Basic Chic Hoodie 5 times – and 3 were for me. I wear them all of the time with a variety of colorful scarves and cowls.
I will be making this sweater with hood, without hood, with lace and without lace for the rest of my life. Sometimes you just need to embrace what works for you. Own it and love it.
My neighborhood knitting group just started a double moss stitch cowl. After much weeping we all decided to place a stitch marker every 20 stitches. When we get to the marker, we can pause and examine what we’ve knitted when we know/think we’ve ended on the wrong stitch. So far, it is working – most of the time.
NancyP
I’m finding it hard to see the pattern in the picture. Is the double moss stitch you are using a knit 2 purl 2 ribbing that alternates every two rows?
Or is it a knit 1 purl 1 ribbing that alternates every two rows?
Or is it a knit 2 purl 2 ribbing that alternates every row?
I have seen all these possibilities for the “double moss stitch.”
I have to say I haven’t had trouble keeping track of seed stitch or rib variants, but I have my own bete noires, and yes, markers are my best friend!
Brilliant. I am a big fan of stitch markers as alarm systems.
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Ann, you need Try On Tubes! We have them at the shop. It’s like tiny medical tubing you slip on the tips of your needles. Then you can slide the stitches right into the tubing…. No threading and picking those stitches back up. It’s a great invention. It’s also 2-3 yards long, so one size fits all! I can hook you up… ?
Enabler!!!!!
I like anything involving tiny medical tubing. If I can rig up a DIY IV while I’m at it, even better.
Please post a link where we can buy this!
Well, Kelley works at Haus of Yarn in Nashville. Not sure about online ordering there, but their phone is (615) 354-1007.
Guilty as charged. I’ve made at least two cardigans from Rowan mags/books that are basically the same except for color. Sigh. Currently trying to branch out by making the Concetta Cardigan. Whoops. Just realized it is in the same yarn (Kid Classic) as my last Rowan Cardi! I might have bought a lot of it on sale ages ago at a Liberty sale. But… Top down is changing my life. Being able to try on as I knit is kind of magical. 🙂
Hey, if you like a color, you like it.
The hat I’m knitting is the fourth time I’m knitting it.
Did Henry Kissinger wear stilletos or was that after his time? Laughing at the image as I write this.
Navy is for you. I have two sweaters almost exactly the same shade of gray and will knit a third one when my holiday gifts are complete. I wear them all the time. The detachable cowl on one has been so useful I am putting it on the third one. The other gray sweater is an open, slightly oversize cardigan which has been so useful I am currently knitting another open slightly oversize cardigan in another color. Hey, it was on sale and they didn’t have any gray.
Knitting very similar clothing for yourself is not a rut. It isn’t even as plebeian as a groove. It is style.
So your children will caricature you. Who cares?
Personally my rut, or groove, is usually in colors, not designs, as I try to make something different with each project, but I do find myself queuing mounds of the same type of lacy stitch…
When shopping, I immediately reject any dress or blouse with a side zipper. Won’t even bring them to the dressing room. I have been wearing clothes for *many* years and I still haven’t figured out what the point of them is, other than some type of designer torture. I just won’t go there anymore.
I’m bingeing Madam Secretary too! Knitting Christmas dresses for twin nieces.
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You know what you like!! 😉
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Hooray for Madam Secretary! My older brother is on it (look for Geoffrey Arend in the credits)
Is Christina Hendricks your sister-in-law? I loved her as Joan on Mad Men!
She is! And she’s a big knitter—we usually knit together over the holidays.
Oh geez, I forgot to write my name above.
Spring/summer in New Zealand (weather can’t make up its mind)
Have started planning my winter wardrobe, so great to be able to read MAson Dixon Knitting once more.
Yes, I repeat. Yes. Mostly it is with yarns. There are ones that I’m always a sucker for. Red and green together (and not just at Christmas!) Bright sunny yellows and oranges. The perfect rustic neutral. Dark blue with sparkles.
I’ve also knit many pairs of handwarmers, both for me and for a friend who has cold hands, and wears them gratifyingly constantly. I have made many iterations of long shallow triangle shawls. The one pattern project I have made over and over is Annabella’s Cowl. It’s just a big ol’ tube, like socks…BUT it can be made with different yarn weights and types, and there is no heel, toe, or Kitchener stitch! Plus, unlike socks, it’s a handknit that can be easily seen by others.
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You have very classic Eileen Fisher taste. You’ll get miles of wear out of them, even if they are a bit of a chore to knit.
Well, of course yes as to repeat knitting. And a big yes for Madam Secretary. (My husband loves that show too.)
As a technical aside, have you seen “try-it-on tubing”? It promises to take away a lot of the tedium of top-down try-ons. I don’t know if your filter will let me post a link, but here goes: http://www.machineknittingtodyefor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:trytubing&catid=25:suppliescat&Itemid=35
Please remove me from everyday posts and put me on the newsletter. (It takes away knitting time to read everyday!)
Dang…wish I could get the newsletter! Despite your personal reply, Ann, to my last whiney comment regarding the newsletter, I am still not hooked up. And, FWIW, I also saw my name on an (empty) comment, I did not make. Like the ones on this thread. Some sort of funky internet juju sabotage at work. It isn’t a problem for me, really…since I have you on my morning read list, but thought you might like to know.
Love your Morrocan pullover, and yes, I pretty much knit the same things over and over. I am in a navu and gray phase now. I might have to knit something in maybe….Sap green … soon. Something to mix it up a bit.
Oops, I meant the daily update, not the newsletter.
Pam, we heartily encourage reading WHILE knitting! ; ) But we’ll change you to an occasional newsletter rather than the daily update. By the way, the newsletter will launch in January, so if anyone is wondering where their newsletter is, it’s invisible right now!
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Oh yes, I am currently on my fourth OWL based Kate Davies garment (two small ones, two grown up sized ones SO FAR…)
Awesome. I knit the same things repeatly also.
I enjoy your blog.
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