Can you feel the tension?

I pulled Montse Stanley off the shelf recently and have been re-reading the first couple of chapters. And she's got some very nice pointers for how to address tension problems (which I suspected and she has confirmed I have.) And since Josephine has a fair amount of almost-stockinette in a detail-revealing yarn, I have been paying a good deal more attention than usual to my tension, and to what it is doing to my knitting. I have found that:

• my knit is tighter than my purl


• my tension gets tighter when I'm anxious or frustrated


• my tension is all over the place if the thing on TV is interesting
  

Ms. Stanley has some very nice pointers for correcting the first problem. For Jospehine, I'm double-wrapping the yarn around my pinkie on purl rows and I'm seeing the most even knitting I've ever done on cotton. For the other two, though, I'm going to try listening to engaging-but-not-exciting podcasts and see if I can "standardize" my mood. I'll keep you posted on whether this works.

Project updates: It was a good weekend of knitting. I'm up to the bodice-section of the back of Josephine:

Wonderful crinkly featherweight texture in the lace section, then adorable little eyelets for the future drawcord, then just a hint of texture in the bodice. Not as perfect as I'd like, though. In addition to the issues with tension already mentioned, I'm finding the knitted fabric has a slight bias to it -- I don't know if it's the stitch pattern, the yarn, or something I'm doing. But it definitely swings to the right. If a miracle doesn't occur when I block this baby, then I'll just have to rely on the fact that none of my friends know any better.


And the 3 hour round trip to the in-laws house was very productive time on the sock front. I finished the last 2" or so of leg, knit the heel flap, turned the heal, picked up the gusset stitches, and am well on my way through the decreases. But -- another annoyance -- the heels don't match! I was very careful -- using the self-striping color repeat as my guide, I started and ended the ribbing in the same place, and then started the heel flap in the same place. I carefully counted the heel rows. And I still ended up with one blue heel, one black heel:


The only difference I can think of is that one sock 1 I counted the "bars" from slip stitches, but on sock 2 I counted the slip stitches in the selvedge. So maybe I'm off by 2 rows on the #2 heel -- but I'm surprised that it makes such a big difference in the heels.



The visit to my in-laws was to celebrate M's birthday. I will leave you with this picture of the birthday cake. (No, it only looked like watermelon.)

Some progress

I spent a little time on all my projects over the long weekend, but most of my time went to Josephine:

The stitch pattern is now memorized, and now that I've gotten used to working cotton on Addi's I can move pretty fast. My usual issues with knit columns on a purl ground are surfacing -- I'm hoping I can straighten them a bit when I block the pieces. I keep looking at the sample in IK, and am reassured that the knit columns wiggle there a little bit too. So far the gage is just right -- how often does that happen?

Here's a smallish photo of (nearly) the whole piece, so far. Smallish so that I can publicly pretend it's very very even knitting. Can you see how clever the shaping is? To get a bit of an A-line, the pattern calls for decreasing 1 purl stitch from the knit/purl pattern -- the stitches between the knit columns goes from 4 to 3. Almost imperceptible in the stitch pattern, but noticeable in the garment.

The Jaywalkers got some attention as the spouse and I drove around the furniture stores in search of hte Perfect Sofa. I was surprised at how quickly little bits added up to a couple of inches of knitting. We're driving to the Woodlands next weekend to visit his parents -- bet I can finish through the heel.

And, finally, Iris. Believe it or not, I did spend time ripping stitches this weekend. It is pitifully slow. No, I am not winding it into a skein so that I can "recondition" it properly. I'm just winding the damn stuff back into a ball and am going to knit it again. And I'm still trying to figure out why the garter stitch hem on the full-size piece curls but the hem on the swatch doesn't. This is going to be one of those projects that takes waaaaay too long. Am I weak to want to do something else with the knitting machine for a while?

So Much for Accountability by Confession...

...I'm already changing my rules. Instead of 2 categories -- hand knitting and machine knitting -- I will allow myself 3: hand knitting, machine knitting, and pool knitting.

Pool knitting is the knitting I do when I'm watching the kids in the pool and have very little else to do. I have to be outside to arbitrate fights over kick-boards and torpedoes, to scold the boys for blasting their sister in the face, to make sure there's no head-first anything, and to rescue someone if, God forbid, one of my warnings comes true. For the reasons just listed, I don't like being in the pool with the kids, I don't care how hot it is. But I can knit.

Pool projects have to be small enough that they don't actually touch my lap while I knit. Socks are a natural candidate, as are hats, wash cloths, baby garments. Maybe scarves, we'll see. I've learned too that pool projects should not be too precious -- they will get splashed with pool water, and it would spoil everyone's fun if I freaked out.

I almost finished my 1st Jaywalker sock by the pool this weekend. I actually finished it while watching the World Combat League finals -- but that's another story. The second Jaywalder is now a Pool Project. Which has freed up a spot for Josephine.


I fell in love with Josephine in the latest issue of Interweave Knits, and even had appropriate yarn in my stash. I like the general style with the not-too-open lace, but what hooked me were the lovely details. The garter-stitch cap sleeves with short row shaping, the cross-over V-neck, the gently decreasing rib pattern in the main body.

My gage on the lace section is a smidge loose (an extra 1/4-1/2" on a 4" swatch), but I can use the extra room around the middle. I'm making a couple of deliberate modifications as well (moving the empire waist below my nipples, moving the V to the top of my cleavage) so I'll double check my math tomorrow. But I cast on for the back tonight.

Here's the lace-and-rib swatch (not blocked, just pinned down to keep it from curling up):

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