Day: August 17, 2019

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The Way You Do the Things You Do

The Way You Do the Things You Do is a classic by the Temptations. I believe we have already established I love the Temptations. The song is a tribute to a nameless, faceless woman who has a smile so bright, she could be a candle and she’s so smart she can be a schoolbook. There should be a line in there about her being a knitter and can defy science, logic and math.

What you see in the photo is my first attempt at the Dakota mittens. The pattern is not complete and up for sale and the final gloves are with their owner and she’s happy with them. That can now free me up to say how much of a friggin’ pain the process can be. It’s always smile and rainbows when it’s done and it’s right but that middle part between anticipation and relief is a different story.

It was right around the time I took this photo that it occured to me they might be a tad on the large size. I was making them for a tiny teen. I did all the math and that still wasn’t going to work. Knit math was rearing it’s ugly head again. 

Knit math can show up in a number of ways. You can be making a scarf that’s supposed to be 60 inches and when you’re knitting along to the 55th inch and then knit math says that no matter how long and how much you knit, those last five inches will take as much time as the first 54 total. Never ever fails. 

Knit math will also show itself when you need to make something to an exact size. These gloves needed to fit a six inch wrist. Doesn’t take more than a glance to see these would be too big. I decided to go down several needle sizes and to go from a worsted weight to a DK weight…smaller all around. I then look at the gauge chart on the label to determine what I would need in stitches. No, I didn’t do a swatch – let’s not get ridiculous.

I did the math and then because I know how evil knit math can be – I deducted 10%. It’s what I do when I make anything because I have been burned by knit math time and again. Knitting will grow on you. Unless you’re one of those super perfect knitters who have perfect stitching as indicated on knitting labels ( I don’t want to know you. There’s only so much to this thing called tolerance.) knit math affects us all.

Even going smaller I had to start over about three times. Finally they were done and sent off. My client’s only complaint: they were a little too big. Sigh.

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Enough to Get By

I am not from the artist. I like to say, with a great deal of truth, that I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler. I can stay between the lines when coloring but that took some discipline and I’m still not sure I would pass grade school art class.

It’s funny then, when I use a chart to make a pattern. Charting isn’t something I do on the regular. I crack myself up when I print out the graph paper and put a pen to it. That’s another thing, I chart in pen. Like it’s the New York Times Knitting section and doing it in pen makes me smarter. It’s really because I don’t have any pencils around and when I find one, it doesn’t have a tip and I don’t have a pencil sharpener because I didn’t know I had pencils.

There is a part of me that wants to chart better. I know just enough to get by with what I’m knitting and I usually do it to make sure the idea I have in my head looks good on paper. I figure if it can look good with what I pass off as charting, then it will look pretty darned good when I get the needle and the yarn together. I would like to make neater charts. It would be more of a vanity project at this point as I would not inflict my charts on anyone – not even on a pattern I gave away for free – don’t thank me. It’s a mercy for all of us.

I am currently working on something, not the cowl in the pic; that’s done. And I pulled out some graph paper because the design was taking on something I hadn’t planned and I wanted to see how it would play out. I understand my chart but I don’t understand if it looks the way I want it to. I am going to have to redo it in a neater manner so I can see if I have to frog it or if I can keep going. 

I think I will try and do it neatly. If I succeed, I will happily show you the fruits of my labor. If not, I will use my messy chart to check my work and no one will be none the wiser. The artist world has nothing to fear from me. Salvador Dali maybe but I’m sure even his legacy is safe.