Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Anouk

A post that is about knitting! As opposed to vomiting! How refreshing!

You know how there are some patterns you see when you're first starting out as a knitter, and you think Good Golly, how will I ever get good enough to knit that? Well, Anouk was one of those for me. Intarsia is scary. I had barely managed to incorporate stripes at that point.

Evidence of knitterly progress is extremely satisfying.

I used 2 skeins of knitpicks Shine Worsted in Terra Cotta, and made the 3 month size, even though I had intended to make the 6 month size, because I worried I wouldn't have enough yarn. And I wouldn't have had--I barely had enough for the 3 month. Of course, I purchased 3 skeins of the damn yarn, and had I remembered that, I would totally have had enough for the 6 month size.

Evidence of pregnant stupidity is less than satisfying.

On the other hand, the knit itself is satisfying enough.

It is cute enough that I could just about die. And I discovered I like intarsia, although there is one slight thing I tend to screw up, and wouldn't mind having somebody explain to me how to prevent it--why do some of my stitches in one color end up absurdly loose, no matter how much I tug at the yarn to try and keep my tension even? What does one do about this? Besides what I did, which was just use a yarn end on the other side to try and pull it tight and hide it. I doubt that's the approved and professional method.

The whole thing took hardly three days to knit (it's teeny) and my, I do like Shine Worsted. It doesn't have great yardage, but it's strong and shiny-without-being-too-shiny and supple and very soft.

I knit the pattern as written. I saw a lot of displeasure in the unsewn-sides on Ravelry, but I can see how it would make the dress easier to grow with, and I thought I'd at least try it out on Roo before sewing the sides up, especially as I've now discovered I have enough yarn to do so. I did have the same trouble with the shoulder instructions that others complained of--they didn't quite make sense to my brain, so I just did what I felt like, and it worked out okay.

1 comment:

Jodi Meadows said...

Adorable! Two (or three!) color knitting has always scared me. I couldn't even bring myself to do a row of one color and then a row of another color without involving scissors and knots. *shudder*

Well, I had two dye lots of blue for my sweater I just finished. (Squee! First one!) And it was be a shade-lighter dork or come to terms with alternating balls of yarn every row.

And I liked it. It felt dangerous!

Now you've inspired me. Maybe I'll try two color knitting. Definitely by the time I'm thirty, anyway.