Friday, November 12, 2010

false start


soon to be frogged, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

This is the cuff of a Kingdom glove I started a few days ago, but am about to frog.

There are several reasons for this.

1. The yarn (Colinette Jitterbug in Purple Tan) is just too busy for the intricate cables. It's too varied in colour to be a true-semi solid, but it's not highly variegated, so I thought it might work. However, having knitted a bit, you just can't see the cables properly. And if you're going to put in all the work to make tiny intricate cables, you want to be able to see them.

2. Jitterbug is just too dense at this gauge. I haven't actually measured my gauge (naughty!) but I'm knitting it on 2mm needles. I usually knit socks in Jitterbug on 3mm needles, where it's much happier. It might be OK on 2.5mm, but on 2mm it's just too stiff. I suspect this contributes to...

3. It's hurting my arms to knit it. All those tiny little cables are just too much for my wrists and elbows. Probably compounded by the fact that I've not felt very well this week (a cold making me feel woozy) and concentrating on knitting cables is hard work when your brain is fuzzy.

So, time to frog and move on. Lovely pattern, gorgeous yarn, just not the right combination.

On the plus side, I've been looking for a cable pattern that turns a right angle and this pattern has one on the cuff. It's not quite what I want for the project I have in mine (a hooded cardigan with a cabled edging that runs along the bottom, turns a corner to go up the fronts and then edges the hood) but it gives me some idea of how one might work.