Monday, September 10, 2007

A Dilemma

Sunday was spent around the house and I got quite a bit of knitting done. Unfortunately, on one small project, I'm at a standstill. I have a decision to make and I really don't know what to do. That's where you come in; I need your help in deciding.



Here's the little project...



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...a little wrap cardigan from the October 2007 Canadian Living magazine, but taken from a Louisa Harding book. The yarn I'm using is an Online Supersocke 6-ply yarn on 3.75 mm needles.



So, why am I stuck? Well, if I make the back in the same yarn, the stripes won't line up on the sides. Will that matter? I was thinking of working the sleeves in a complimentary solid yarn; I could do the back in the same solid colour, which isn't what I wanted going into this project. I wanted the front and back to be in the patternend yarn and the sleeves in a solid yarn (which I still need to find; it really should be the same sort of yarn... 75% wool, 25% nylon... shouldn't it?) I'm torn. I'm looking for input.



It's interesting how the two front pieces ended up not matching at the top. I started knitting at the same point in the self-patterning yarn and yet one piece ended up farther in the patterning than the other. I wonder why.

When I reached the decision-making point of this sweater, I turned to another small project. I started a pair of wrist warmers for a knitalong one of my Ravelry groups is doing. The group is meant to be a localized group (from Friesland, a province in the north of Holland); they're intending to get together for a SnB session and wanted a knitalong project for that day. I'm a long distance member of that group. I started the wristers yesterday. The pattern is Colinette's Acorn, done in a kid mohair yarn with 90 beads on each wrister. I'll post pictures when there's a little more than one inch of knitting to show you.

Now, it's on with my morning... catching up online and then getting ready for work.

5 comments:

  1. How about doing the back with two balls - one solid and one of the multi and alternating them every couple of rows? Then matching the stripes with the front wouldn't matter - you could do the sleeves the same way - or entirely solid or multi?

    Or do the back mainly in a solid, but with little random "patches" of the multi? A little intarsia, but not too bad...

    Mitred squares?

    I'll go now, before I get really silly :)

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  2. Maybe (or propably) I don't know what I'm talking about but....couldn't you have knit the back and front together on circular needles until the part where they go to the shoulder, then use solid yarn to the shoulder and then use the patterned yarn at the bottom of the sleeves again. I have a thing for symmetry (obviously). My more artsy friends would say "Who cares if the stripes dont match? Do the whole thing in nonmatchy stripes!" I think you have knit too much to frog so maybe letting loose is the answer.

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  3. The problem with most of this self-striping sock yarn is that the balls are seldom exactly the same - as you've found out. You may be able to match up the stripes sort-of but the fronts are smaller so the stripes in front will be wider than those in the back anyway unless you knit it in two pieces or work from two balls at the same time . . . Sunonesmum also makes a good point in that you really need to work the whole thing in one piece if you want to avoid this sort of problem but I think you have too much time invested to do that. I like the solid back solution myself - let the striped front be a real design feature - maybe trim the crossover & neck with the same color as the back.

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  4. I thought about doing the fronts and back all in one, but the thought of rows of 183 stitches with a self striping yarn means the stripes will be very narrow, not to mention loooooooong. The sleeves will definitely be solid blue (I bought the yarn today) and I'm leaning to doing the back in the self striping yarn and to heck with trying to match. The first two inches will match fairly closely, as the fronts and the back are the same number of stitches, and the final couple of inches are under the arm. It shouldn't really matter, should it?

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