Grafting those cables

At last! At last! The big knit is over and the cabled strap is ready to join together. Now comes the bit I haven't been looking forward to. Grafting. That pesky Kitchener stitch. I remember the last time I tried this on my little rose pink shrug and the stocking stitch was fine but the rib was so, so messy. But, that was then and maybe I'll have better luck with more practice:-)

So here are the ends all ready for grafting. Only 10 stitches so not a mammoth task, except some are knit and some are purl. I went back to Knitwitch's video for grafting on You Tube and refreshed my memory and while I was watching it, it suddenly occurred to me that I just reverse the process for purl. Keeping it in the right order so you have a knit over the knit and a purl over the purl would be an interesting challenge but the bag is so nearly finished!!! I will master this!

So off I went and damn me, if it didn't work first time! I had got myself psyched up for a major hoo-ha and knitting being thrown down in a fit of peak. But no! It all went smoothly. The knitting gods have been shining on me this afternoon and I am very grateful!! Can you see the join? It's pretty much invisible - high five! I know there is a little disturbance where it fits together as a zigzag with the stitches fitting in between each other and it leaves a little kink at the edges but it's a whole lot better than I was expecting. Woo hoo! I am soooo pleased! And I'm feeling a little bit cleverer than when I woke up this morning:-)

Kitchener stitch is sussed!

Now, all I have to do is blanket stitch the strap to the bag and get a pretty button and it's finished! I may even finish it tonight - I can't wait to see it finished! I'm all excited:-)

Getting into the habit of blocking....

At last, at last, the cable shrug is finished! Well, it was finished last saturday night but I found it difficult to photograph this colour. I kept getting purples and bluer tones than the actual true pink colour - thank goodness for photoshop! It is also quite difficult to take a flattering picture of yourself when trying to pose (using a mirror), click the camera and not go 'urgg' at the results. It took many attempts and I still feel reluctant to include a pic of me wearing this! Anyway, enough of that - look at the lovely meandering cable....


I did eventually master the kitchener stitch - although I did pull the thread a bit too tight and had to loosen it all afterwards. A lesson learned. It worked well on the stocking stitch but not the rib. Maybe that is the nature of the stitch? To pull alternates into the gap so they aren't truely aligned in parallel but more in a zigzag. Of course this wouldn't matter much in a smooth stitch but it makes all my rib uneven - knit meets purl. A very unsatisfactory look - messy and an obvious join on the back. I did like how the stocking stitch did disappear as a join (when I realised I had tightened it waaay too much - of course!)

Can you see the lower rib and how it doesn't seem to meet? I think I will try it out on a sample to see if it does work or if it was just me first time around. But at least there is no obvious ridge or seam right down the back so I suppose I can live with it.


Anyway, after all that, I feel this is a little small on me - hence the unsatisfactory pics of me wearing it. I look so BIG in all of them, like the top is a few sizes too small. I have considered altering the pattern so I could get more wear out of this but I don't know if I like it enough to want to knit it again. There are so many other patterns out there I still have to try!

It did also occur to me that I maybe should have blocked it before sewing together. I know it is good practice but I haven't got into the habit as yet. I did read up about it yesterday and you can add length and volume to your garment when it is wet. So maybe I should take more time, block, and possibly the garment might fit as it was meant to?!!

Cable Shrug Revisited

Well, here is where I left the cable shrug about a month ago, pondering over whether I should even bother continuing when the pattern required joining both sleeves right down the middle - which has all the potential of a natural disaster waiting to happen.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

I found a video yesterday that visually explains 'Kitchener stitch' very very easily and suddenly this problem seems so trivial. I mean if they had just said it was just grafting I would have at least understood the concept and hurried away to look up 'how-to-graft'. But the posh title kind of threw me:)

Anyways, if you are looking for a video to explain 'kitchener Stitch' or common old grafting then do try this video by Knitwitch.

I still have a way to go before I even need to use this stitch but at least I know how to finish this one now!! Pics to follow once it's grown a bit more. Best get going then, I've a shrug to finish and apparently the few days of really nice sunshine we've been having is finishing this thursday so I'd better get a move on before the blustery weather arrives!

BTW - two posts in two days?! Look out tomorrow and I might just break all records and make it three in a row!