[RUSTYME]

I have a wheel that needs a wheel and some small bits to finish it , but that will have to wait for some time yet . I do have some drop spindles , but they have been moved and buried under piles of stuff somewhere , so will have to make some new ones .
However , being in a 15' caravan with 3 dogs , for the foreseeable future , even that will have to wait for now .
 Still moving stuff and sorting it all atm , so very little else will get done this side of late next spring . So many other things will need doing through autumn and winter , not least cutting logs .
Just had a huge monsoon downpour here so cast on a new practice piece , did something wrong on the rib , oops . Pulled it off and will start again in a bit  .

[RUSTYME]

Bugger .
I am sure the pattern is wrong ! lol .
I read it out to my aunt who said it was a strange way of writing the pattern , but i think it is wrong , help please .
The jumper is a kids jumper in 6 sizes , in stocking stitch .
I will try to write it out exactly as it is in the book .
Back:
using 3.25mm (US 3) needles cast on 56 (58 . 64 , 70 , 88 , 94) sts .
Work 1 1/4 (1 1/2 , 1 1/2 , 1 /2 , 2 , 2 1/4) in  K1 , P1 rib ending with a RS row .
Next row :
(inc) P3 (5 , 2 , 4 , 4 , 5) M1 , P10 (7 , 12 , 7 , 16 , 12) to last 3 (4 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5) sts , M1 , P3 (4 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5) . There should be 62 (66 , 70 , 80 , 94 , 102) sts on the needle .

The numbers in () are for the different sizes .
My aunt said it could mean p3 , m1 , p10 , p3 , m1 , p10 and so on to the  last 3 , then m1 , p3 .
I make that 60 sts not 62 , as stated in the book , for the first size .
Very hard to explain over the phone to my aunt , does the above make any sense to anyone here ?
If not , i think i will make the scarf ! lol .

[Lesley Silvester]

Is there an asterisk in there? I suspect it means purl 3, then make one and purl ten over and over until you have three stitches left. Make one and purl the last three. This would give you the right number of stitches at the end. The pattern should have an asterisk after the first purl 3. I would expect it to be written:


P3, * M1, P10, repeat from * until last 3 sts, M1, P3.

[RUSTYME]

Ah , thanks Lesley . No * at all , just as i put it down .
My poor aunt couldn't make head nor tail of it over the phone , she has also been up since 3.30am , she went to a boot sale . Think her head had turned to cheese , poor bugger .
Thanks again mate , will have a go tomorrow now , my head is going a bit cheese like too atm . 

[Bionic]

Yes, Lesley, what you have said sounds right to me.  Good luck with it Russ

[RUSTYME]

Rained off today .
So had a go with the practice yarn .
Cast on 56 sts and set off to do 1 1/4 in of k1 , p1 rib .
I gained a stitch after a few rows , and rather than pull it all off , i knitted 2 together at the point that i gained the stitch . This left me with a 3 " section of the previous row as moss stitch , lol .
Not worried about that as i am just practicing . I do keep loosing where i am in the k and p sequence , 56 sts is a lot different to 20 sts !
But i can now work out where i am and what i should be doing next .
Nearly at the point where i have to do the all p and m1 sts  row .
Using 3 1/4mm needles that are much longer than the needles i am used to using , god they are horrible .
Starting to get used to them now , but it was really slow at first .
The rib is a mess , but i may as well keep doing this as i am , and then just redo it again and again , until i get it right , then do it for real with different yarn .

[Louise Gaunt]

We have all learnt by trial and error, but usually with someone close at hand to troubleshoot. You are doing really well, your tenacity will soon have you knitting like an old hand!

[ellied]

Just a wee update from me.

I have just done row 94 of 122 of my shawl so it feels like I'm getting there, but as every row is at least 2 if not 4 stitches longer than the last, knitting one row takes longer and longer! 

The latest lace row (93) was 49 repeats on each half of the central piece so something like K2, SM, YO (K2tog, YO x 49) SM, K2, SM, (YO, SSK x 49) YO, SM, K2.  Which is what 204 stitches for that row?  Row 121 is 64 repeats so should be 264 stitches to cast off on 122 if and when..

The good thing is all the rows are repeats of the early ones I kept getting wrong so now I'm getting them right and there are fewer mistakes to take back on a Tuesday morning that I haven't sorted myself.  Hopefully!

Meantime the bad news is the wool shop just had a closing down sale, and in future the much smaller operation in a new venue will be felting and fibre/prefelt/kits only, as most of Laura's income comes from felting at schools and groups and she had too much invested in knitting wool that was never quite what folk wanted or not enough balls left of the one dye lot..  So no more shop or working days there (I only had one but I loved it and hoped for more).

The bad but in a good way news is I splashed out a little on sale purchases of knitting wool while it was there and at 25%-40% discount it was all a bargain and all means I HAVE to continue knitting!  And the group that met there on a Tuesday has gone a little more formal and changed venue which means paying £2 a week and joining a Ravelry group - I had to do it   They're at me to join the Guild now, but I think that is a step way too far when I'm still on my first piece of knitting in over 30 years

Anyway, nothing exciting, just plodding away one row at a time, but I thought I'd share the update in case anyone wondered if I'd strangled myself in knots of loose wool by now or burnt the lot in despair..

[RUSTYME]

Well done Ellie , i did wonder how things were going with you .
Really good to hear that you are up and away and getting on with it , and that you didn't kill anyone when things were going wrong !
The first pattern i started to follow and i fell at the first hurdle , trying to read it ! lol .
But as Louise G says , i am nothing if not persistant , i am like the ever ready bunnie Louise , hit the button and i keep going till the battery runs out lol .
 

[Bionic]

Wow Ellie, row 94 is great. You have been plodding on without us and must feel really proud of yourself.
Splashing out on the reduced knitting yarn makes you sound like a real knitter now. We said you would get the bug, didn't we?
Keep   

[RUSTYME]

OMG !
M1 on a purl row is a nightmare !
The first m1 took nearly half an hour .
I could not work out how to get the rh needle through the back of the running thread that i picked up with the left needle , and them purl it !
Must have dropped it 50 times , but i didn't lose any other sts , just kept losing the yarn as i tried to purl the stich .
But i got there in the end . After i succeeded with the first m1 , the next made sense and i could see what i was meant  to do . Got across the row , m1 after every p10 and then p3 after the final m1 and i had 62 stitches , bingo !
M1 in purl is a bugger  , but i can now do it , albeit a bit slow and clumsy .

[Louise Gaunt]

Ellie, you are well on your way to being an addict! Russ is already there!

[Lesley Silvester]

M1 on a purl row is a nightmare !

Agreed. Well done for persevering though. And for ending up with the right number of stitches. 


Ellie, I'm very impressed with your progress and that you now have your very own stash.


Keep    both of you.

[ellied]

Russ I have no idea what you're talking about so I have to be impressed that you not only do but have done it!  This pattern, now I know what it is asking for, I can do, but that's it. 

I have been looking for other ones to use the new wool, which is backwards as you're supposed to buy the wool you need for the pattern but a sale at 25-40% off was too tempting.  Some have M1 which mine doesn't.  The increases are done by an extra yarn over, which is different depending if it's between K and K or P and K or K and P - that's where I kept going wrong as I was expecting it to be the same thing every time   But in some patterns it says things like YF (yarn forward) and I don't know if that means yarn over increase or just as if you were changing knit to purl and moving the yarn literally forward to change stitch.  Other ones are even more complicated and I've found at least 2 other ways of describing what I think I have been doing, but I don't know if it's something else entirely.  I suppose that's why people find patterns they like in a book or a series from the same person/company that at least they know what they're being told to do!

I borrowed 2 knitting books from the library, a beginner one with pictures and 'projects' plus one with lots of patterns for shawls, wraps, scarves and shrugs, basically to try and work out how the shawl I'm making is described by others and get ideas for the different wool types I have stashed, to use MGM's phrase.  Problem is I have them for 3 weeks and I doubt I'll finish the current one by then, so it's all hypothetical but Ravelry is too big and diverse and you have to download every pattern without seeing it, plus I don't have a printer.  So I'm looking at pictures and thinking yes that's nice, that would use this wool, but I've no idea if I can read it let alone do it!

The more I think I am going to be doing this a while, the more complicated it appears to get!  Still, at least I am convinced I'll finish this 122 rows now, back on version 19 of the first 6 rows it was far from a certainty!

[RUSTYME]

YF and other terms you use , are double dutch to me atm Ellie , we both have an idea of what we are doing ourselves , and can cope with it , but things we haven't done yet are a bit like seeing nuclear fusion written down , well they are  to me at least .
I will never be someone who can knit anything , as i only want to be able to knit basic items for myself and some bits and bobs for family ( just the little ones , the big ones can knit their own ) .
I don't wear scarves , hats , gloves , sleevless anythings and i don't do fashion , just basic thick jumpers really , although there is a cardigan in the book i got that i would wear .
It is a thick knit tunic really ( for a woman , but the 2 fronts are identical so just swap button sides) . It is identical to a 16/17 th century tunic , so not like your average granddads cardi .
I will try to learn cable , and it's variations  at some time , as well as other stitches , even if i never use them , i will be able too if i want .
My rib needs improving , garter stitch just needs more practice , stocking stitch is ok , casting off is good , casting on ok .
In general my tension needs sorting , as does the way i hold the needles .
But the overall effect atm is ok for what i want , things will improve with time and practice , hopefully .
The main thing now is , i can knit the basics i need to make a jumper .
It is just a matter of putting theory into practice , which is why i am trying to knit the kids jumper first .
It is in a beginners book , but just the M1 in a purl row blows that out of the water , but i got it in the end .
My aunt gave me some practice wool , leftover balls from what she has been knitting .
Mainly 2 50g balls of dk in differnt colours . So very limited in what i can knit in that , and i hate stripes so that is out .
I have the 'real' wool that Dw sent me ( many thanks again D) , that i am saving to make a proper item with .
So my stash is very limited until i get going on the spinning , that will be next year due to moving etc .