Thursday, September 27, 2007

Oh Henry!


A perfect knitting storm occurred this week -- the fall issue of Knitty came out and I went on my maiden visit to The Knitting Nest. Purchases were made, money was spent, and soon I'd forgotten all about sewing up the sweater -- I needed to get started on Henry. I hadn't made a scarf in a while, and something about this knitted-but-almost-woven pattern made me want try.

I had issues from the start. First of all, I didn't have a size 3 circular that was long enough. I picked up a 40" Bryspun at Stacy's shop, but I have to say it's driving me nuts. It's too bendy, and I grab the needles to tightly. I'm seriously worried I'm going to snap it. Plus, I don't know if it's the content of the Silky Wool yarn I'm using (35% Silky, 65% Woolly), but there's a whole lot of squeeking going on while I knit, which is weirding me out.


I also had to cast on and start over three or four times. The designer writes in the instructions that the knitter should "check your work often to be sure the stitch pattern is lining up correctly," and boy, she ain't kiddin'. You cast on 227 stitches, but then the first row consists of K1, YO, K1, YO... already up to 450+ stitches. For the first few rows, it's hard to see the slipped traveling stitch lining up. The further I've gotten into it, the better I've been able to catch my mistakes early.

One of the neat things about this is that there is some sort of magic cast on with waste yarn that can later be removed. There's a lot stitch slipping going on in the first three rows, but I'm not sure how it all gets locked. Can anyone explain this to me/ You can see that I've just started unraveling the waste yarn in the picture at the top of the post. Undoing the cast-on edge was freakier than cutting a steek to me. I won't breathe easily until I've been down the whole row and know that none of those little edge stitches are going to explode.

6 comments:

  1. Hey, how about a 60" Options cable from Knit Picks? I used one to knit my stash scarf (cast on on the long edge) and it worked great. AND... you can use metal needles, which I know you love.

    ??

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  2. Yeah -- I need to get me some of those. Do they come in size 3?

    And aren't they still pink? ;-)

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  3. I've had Bryspuns squeak, too. I'm not sure why, although, other than that, I kind of like them. Of course, I don't bend needles with my bare hands, either!

    I consider Henry as my Red Scarf scarf, but after looking at it, decided I didn't have enough time to get it done.

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  4. I found your post through Ravelry, looking for other people who are working on Henry. I've done two swatches in order to master the cast on and cast off, since the descriptions were unclear. Pulling off the waste yarn really does work. I absolutely didn't believe it would, but the swatches are fine. I haven't uploaded my photos yet, but I will!

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  5. I googled for the Henry scarf as I just cannot get going on it, and found yours. I'm just glad to have found someone who has mastered it, so it is me and not the instructions!
    I just cast on 21 sts, fortunately, so every time I come unstuck, I don't have much to pull back.
    Just going to try again........
    Carole

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  6. Carole --

    Keep with it. It gets much easier once you get past the first few rows -- then you can see the traveling stitch better and it's much easier to catch your mistakes.

    I'm still making them though, especially on the purl side where I can't see the traveling stitch. Last night I had to tink back half a row. Grrr.

    You can do it!

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