Sunday 29 July 2012

Second Year of Projects Week 5

Lots of progress to report this week! First off I finished my Annikki's hat
And I'm pleased to say it fits, both with my hair down and up, so it'll be really useful for winter when I'm on placement (or even now, since it started hailing this afternoon...)
This hat had a lot of new techniques for me, including the provisional cast on, grafting in Kitchener stitch with cables, and using magic loop to knit it. I was dreading the grafting, as I hate Kitchener stitch anyway, until I came across this incredible way of doing it, which makes it so easy and painless, and I was able to graft it in about  5 minutes flat: How to do Kitchener Stitch with out Kitchener(ing). And I think it came out really well.
The only way you can tell that it's grafted there is the colour change in the semi-solid yarn, and the fact that I didn't think about how grafting would add in an extra row, so the last row of the repeat is there twice. It's not noticeable unless you look for it though, so I decided I didn't care.

Since I had a couple of days 'til the Ravellenic Games, I decided to cast on my Ghostie socks
I knitted the ribbing on 2.75mm needles, but when I got to the ghostie part, I realised my gauge was off. I tried 2.5 (due to not realising which way I needed to go), and 3.0 needles with no success, and eventually got gauge on 3.25mm. The ghosties are coming out perfectly now, but the socks are WAY too big, so I'm not sure what to do with them. They've gone into time out of the Ravellenic Games, but any advice about what to do with them would be great!

I cast on for my Ravellenic Games project on Saturday, as I was in the Children's Emergency Department on Friday over the opening ceremony.
It's the Top Down Raglan Sweater Generator and I cast on an extra 40 stitches and omitted the first 5 increase rows to give it a lower neckline. I've only had to frog once, right at the start, since I realised that 2x2 rib doesn't work with 118 stitches, and I needed 120. It's going well, and fingers crossed I'll get it finished!

17 comments:

  1. Love your hat and your right about the grafting not noticeable at all. I love the look of your socks but I'm nowhere pro enough to be able to advise you. Best of luck in getting your sweater done.

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  2. I love that hat although I know nothing of anything you mentioned about it LOL (newb knitter) Looks great to me!

    As for the socks, I only have 1 suggestion - work them up and send them to me. I have big feet :)

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  3. Love that hat! That wide cable brim is great! Your ghostie socks are adorable. Anyway you could turn them into fingerless mitts or legwarmers?

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  4. I love your hat! I shy away from provisional cast ons but your join looks great.

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  5. I love your hat! I shy away from provisional cast ons but your join looks great.

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  6. The hat looks great, you did a brilliant job, I have no idea where the graft is, so you've got me.

    The socks look good ...could you use them as Christmas stockings...I'm not sure how big is too big....just a thought!

    Have a good week!

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  7. what a shame those socks iwll be too big, they're gorgeous!!

    love the hat too!

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  8. A busy week for you. The hat is really nice and I am quite curious about this technique because, as you, I do not like kitchener at all...

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  9. Your hat looks really cute on you. And your ghostie socks are going to be adorable.

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  10. oh my...you seemed to have tried and been successful at different techiques...I still have to try a provisional cast on and the magic loop...I'm a bit frightened by both!

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  11. That's a gorgeous hat, love it, and the non-kitchener kitchener is really clever too, thanks for the link :D

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  12. Holy cow that's bloody brilliant! Thanks for sharing the non-Kitchner kitchnering link! I'ma try that next time I can't find a reasonable way around the k-word!

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  13. Adore your hat and the yarn you used. I wear my hair up and didn't think I could wear a hat like that but you said it works! I'm not sure I'm up for the difficulty yet as I'm a newbie too and FYI....I have big feet too! LOL!
    I love those ghost socks....how long will it take me to get that good? Everything I want to make is too difficult for my level. How long did it take you to get that good?
    And I will look into that "kitchener" thing because I think the socks I'm going to do call for that stitch. Thanks!

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  14. That hat is beautiful. I love the design.

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  15. The hat is great - I will take a better look at the grafting method as Kitchener perplexes me slightly!

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