Saturday, September 15, 2007

I hate DPNs

Well, I tried. And then I ripped back and tried again--but I still failed.

I finished the body of the Tangled Yoke, up to the armpits anyway, and one of the sleeves. The sleeves are knit in the round, and I don't currently know to use any technique other than dpns (I also don't have multiple circular needles in any size, so that lets out the 2 circ method). I actually kind of like balancing the needles and switching as you go around, but I apparently can't control that stupid ladder effect.

See these ladders? Somehow it wasn't this obvious to me when I was working on it. Or maybe I was just in denial.




I'm not quite sure what to do next. I think I'll try blocking the sleeve in the mad hope that that will somehow fix everything. Then, assuming that doesn't work, I'm thinking of trying to drop down and reknit 2 or 3 stitches on either side of each ladder without unravelling everything...maybe it won't be so obvious spread over 4 or 6 stitches? That's a really long drop, though. I don't think I'm likely to be able to do better by starting over.

Maybe I should learn Magic Loop? I think I have a needle that would work for that, but I'm not sure if I would have a similar issue there too. I think that method has two places where there could be ladders.

As a last resort, I could always make the sleeve flat and sew a real seam, since this particular pattern has a faux seam in the first place. But I'm not quite ready to give up yet, and I do want to be able to conquer this whole ladder business eventually.

2 comments:

Arachnera said...

How are you going on yarn usage? I'm thinking of making Tangled Yoke, and I thought I might try KnitPicks Palette, since I'm familiar with the yarn and it's inexpensive.

Scholastica said...

I'm on the cable now, and have so far used 5 1/2 balls. I'd estimate that I'll be done in 8 or less. I bought 10 just in case, but I don't think I'll need all of them.