June 27, 2005
3,777!!!!
First, Le Stuff Important: As of last Friday, the Dulaan count is 3,777!!!! The Hogwart’s owls are still winging their way in with a few boxes so there’s a chance that we’ll make it to 4,000 but, either way and whot the hey, since we’ve already gotten in 3,277 more items than Dave Edwards expected (and, secretly, 3,776 than I expected), I am a happy, happy camper. Happy. Delirious.
Also, be sure to read Cuzzin Tom’s homage to the project and all of you knitters. I’m counting on The Cuzz to take mountains, Himalayenesque mountains of photographs of the Dulaan items being distributed in October. Hear me, Cuzz? Never mind that the spiritual future of an entire country is in your hands, I want photos, damn it, photos! Good ones. Clear ones. Preferably with camels standing in the background. And some desert. And a ger. And a bowl of mutton. And a cup of fermented mare's milk. And a marmot. Staging is everything.
My weekend was spent launching another, more personal project, an attempt to design and knit an aran-type sweater for my fluffy, spherical, short-waisted self. Although it may be premature to name the project since it could easily succumb to an attack of bad juju in the next thirty seconds, I have, at least temporarily, named it the Jigsaw Puzzle Sweater because the information for knitting the sweater is being cobbled together from a mind-bogglingly extreme variety of sources. My initial inspiration and the measurements for the sweater come from here. More inspiration came from here. Some instructions and measurements came from here. The twisted rib information came from here. Gauge information which, strangely, is not printed on the label of the yarn I’m using, came from here. The aran patterns I ultimately decided to use came from here. And encouragement and support came from here, as always.
You may ask, why don’t I just knit the large size of the Welcome Back sweater and be done with it? Well, it’s a gauge thing, see. Two Fridays ago, my LYS had a sale and I ran completely and undeniably amok. At the sale, one of my too-many-to-enumerated purchases was 10 skeins of beautiful pine green/dark sage 14-ply Wool Pak—which knits at 3.5 stitches per inch, while the Welcome Back sweater calls for 5.5 stitches per inch, so everything had to be recalculated for the new gauge. And then I thought, while I’m recalculating, why not change the cable pattern, add ribbing, change the length, pick a different collar style...well, you know how that goes.
I have, however, discovered the awful truth about designing arans. Once, you’ve spent a measurable percentage of your lifespan gathering all the gauge, yarn and design information—and have even done a full 4” square, washed and blocked swatch—you are still at Square One. More specifically, a whole pantload of figgerin’ and calculatin’ and patternin’ still lies ahead. Which is why, this weekend, I spent an inordinate number of hours creating this:
Which resulted in this, a bit o’ cuff and 10 rows of cabled sleeve. Not very impressive for 15 hours of frettin’ and sweatin’.
My biggest fear? I have no frickin’ idea how to calculate the increase in the sleeves. I think I should be increasing one stitch on both sides every 4th row but I'm not sure. I am convinced that in the end the sleeve will fit the leg of either one of these or one of these.
It doesn’t help that when I measure the middle (the double-moss-stitch diamond pattern) of what I’ve knit so far, I get 6 vertical rows to the inch. When I measure the sides (plain old moss-stitch), I get 5 vertical rows to the inch. Maybe it's the ruler.
More on Wednesday, unless I suddenly decide to make creative use of gasoline, a burn barrel and some matches.
Posted by Ryan at June 27, 2005 01:27 PMWOW! You are designing a whole sweater?! I am so..o..o in awe. My one pair of (rather badly) cabled socks don't leave the house. Perhaps I shall try cabeling again on a teeny tiny sweater for a teen tiny new niece (or nephew) that is due to join the family in October. Are teeny tiny cables easier to knit than sock sized cables?
Posted by: laura on June 27, 2005 02:09 PMWell, the owl is about to deposit 36 items from Bay Area knitters (Nathania, Lolly, Joy, Rachael, and me), so the figure tops 3810 at least! Yippee!!!
I love your yarn and the color--and I love that you are leaping in this way! So, why don't you do the body now and measure the rows per inch in total pattern from what is, essentially, a giant gauge swatch? Or you can not worry too much about increasing at an even rate up the entire sleeve and do what seems like a reckless rate of increase early on until it is the right circumference, then knit straight to wanted length.
Not to jinx my efforts but, yep, Laura, I am trying to design a whole sweater. I'd rather not have to, since I have no experience in that area, but I can't find a pattern that would fit me and which uses bulky yarn like the Wool Pak 14-ply. What has really helped me so far is that the Welcome Back pattern has some very helpful schematics for my size.
As for teeny-tiny cables vs. bigger cables, it really depends. You can have cables that are teeny-tiny and simple, teeny-tiny and complicated, big and simple or big and complicated. It all depends on what pattern you pick. What went wrong with the cables on your socks, Laura?
Ack, Janine! I had been told a while back that the best way to start a sweater was with the sleeves so you could get gauge measurements without all of the work of knitting an entire front or entire back. And now you say knit the front or the back to get my gauge, so I don't have to worry about the increases for the sleeves! How confusing it is when everyone is right!
I am awed, doubly awed: (1) by the Dulaan project and (2) by Ryan's knitting prowess! Not to mention incredibly humbled...
Posted by: Kristen on June 27, 2005 02:41 PMKristen, did you EVEN look at all the crap on that piece of paper? You should not be awed; you should wonder about my mental health instead. :-)
Posted by: Ryan on June 27, 2005 02:44 PMWOW - I just know we're going to hit 4,000. I believe, I believe, I believe...
And oh think how insufferably cocky you can be (with absolute justification) when you have this fabulous sweater completely crafted by YOUR hands, heart and mind :)
Posted by: Robbyn on June 27, 2005 02:46 PMMs. Ryan? Blog Mistress? If it's any consolation, I think you're a few biscuits short of breakfast. Completely off your rocker, dear, but then I have never attempted to create anything knit. Ok, I have and it turned out fine but it doesn't count because it was a freakin' scarf. I think I'll leave my creative endeavors for crochet and only knit if there is a clear pattern to follow. Yep. I'm a chicken.
Hooray for Dulaan!!!! Yippee Skippee!
Posted by: Stalker Angie on June 27, 2005 03:05 PMNo one will believe this now, but way back when, in my little mind, I actually thought we should aim for 4,000 items, but I publicly lowered it to 2,000 because it would be too awful if we overshot the mark on our first attempt. Now it looks like 4,000 was actually a possible goal. I, too, like everyone else am so proud of all the knitters who worked on this project.
And as for the sleeve calculation--the best I've found is the sleeve calculation in Barbara Walker's "Sweaters from the Top Down." The Guild library has a copy, or you are welcome to borrow mine, Ryan! You don't have to make a sweater from the top down to use it, but you COULD do these sleeves in the round from the top down after you've finished the body. Mary B
Posted by: Mary b on June 27, 2005 03:11 PMSo... its so cool that you're designing an aran sweater! Sleeve calcs are things that I'm pretty sure are created with complicated equasions :-)
I sent off 3 hats and a blanket for Dulaan this morning... should be there on Wednesday - yeah, I'm sneaking in under the wire. I think we'll be awfully close to the 4,000 items!
Posted by: melissa on June 27, 2005 05:32 PMI just boxed up and sent 7 items today from myself and a knitter buddy of mine...they went priority so you should have them in time...Thanks for communicating this via your blog. Your aran knit is too ambitious for me, but I'm looking forward to your progress. Take care...
Posted by: michele on June 27, 2005 05:51 PMMy head hurts just thinking about trying to figure that stuff out. I just finished a cardigan that I did in Sweater Wizard, so someone ELSE did the math, and while I had envisioned a trim little cardigan with lace edges, what I GOT was a 42 inch circumference, tunic-length cardigan with lace edges. I am still not sure how that happened but it's blocking... I do not have the head for making up a sweater, obviously. I'm glad someone does. You go.
Posted by: CarolineF on June 27, 2005 06:23 PMRyan, I'm in awe of your determination to take on a project that requires that much calculating, figuring, knitting, tinking, adding, subtracting, cabling, etc! (The same kind of determination that pulled off the Dulaan project, methinks.) Yes, I think you are a little nutty, but Mossy Cottage Knits wouldn't be merely as fun if you weren't!
Posted by: Kristen on June 27, 2005 07:09 PMCuzz, you KNOW I'll snap a million pix, and I'm working out how to get one of a marmot on a camel holding a bowl of fermented mare's milk. Might require some super glue.
BTW, per usual I had a slightly different reaction to your battle plan than your "awed" readers. I thought, "Wow. That looks like something Liam Neeson would have scribbled out, pre-medication, in A Beautiful Mind."
Posted by: Cuzzin Tom on June 27, 2005 08:42 PMRe: designing your sweater -- as far as calculating increases in the sleeves, I've found that this program called The Knitting Companion seems to do a decent job with that. I found a link (http://www2.ametro.net/orion/knitcomp.htm) to it on ChicKnits. Good luck and happy designing!
Posted by: Patricia on June 27, 2005 08:53 PMWe are sending our stuff TOMORROW. Will let you know our final tally.
Posted by: Patti on June 27, 2005 11:48 PMHope Cuzzin Tom's marmot is wearing a knitted item while posing on a camel, holding a bowl of fermented mare's milk...but we won't get too picky.
Ok, 14 clothing items, plus 2 stuffed animals. :)
Posted by: Patti on June 28, 2005 02:50 PM