Another guy obsessed with two sticks and string

Did I mention that I don’t have a single project going on right now?  Well, I don’t; and the last post was about swatching for various projects to start on.  So, on the drawing board, you have seen that I want to do something with the Plymouth Happy Feet yarn and the Na Craga sweater which I can hopefully turn into a cardigan.

Another swatch that I’ve been working on is the famous Henry by Mareike Sattler from Knitty Fall 2007.  I heard that it’s probably one of the most tedious projects out there but also one that gives a really rewarding finished object.

And now I digress, since I’m sorta starting projectless, I’d like to  talk a little bit about my ‘project picking’ process.  I tend to categorize things, like a typical scientifico braino engineering person would do.  I’m not smart or anything, I just think that way.

2 types of categories come to my mind: the type of item and the type of technique.  So, now as of today, I would like a scarf, a shawl and a sweater.  That’s easy there, nothing much else I can do.

On to techniques, I would like to have a mindless project, a lace project, and a cable project.

Combining the two, I think I might have found my happy medium.

1. Plymouth Happy Feet – Mananita Shawl by Meg Swansen (Shawl and Lace)
2. Naturally Merino Fine – Na Craga by Alice Starmore (Cardigan/Sweater and Cables)’
3. Skacel Trekking – Henry by Mareike Sattler (Scarf and mindless)

So, there you go.  So far, I’ve blogged about the shawl and the sweater, but it took some time to refine the Henry project.

From sources all over, I have heard that while this is a nice pattern, the edgings suck.  Mainly the cast on and the bind off don’t match.  So I decided to test that theory and they were right.  Look at it.

The Cast on is wobbly and the bind off is bumpy and they don’t match. In addition to that, do you notice the slight difference between the lower half and the upper half?  The upper half is using a size 2.5 mm needle and the lower half is using a size 3.0 mm needle.  I’ve asked around the yarn shops and am getting a 50-50 split in opinion.  Now I ask my web readers, which do you like better, the tighter weave or the looser weave?  I know you can’t feel or touch it but….try your best please. 

Back to Sattler’s instructions, it looks like she is trying direct us to perform a tubular cast on and a tubular bind off. Maybe she does it her way so perfectly that it works for her, but hey, it ain’t working for me.

So, I decided fine, I’ll stick with her theory but perform my own version of the tubular cast on and the tubular bind off and see what I get.  100% better.

My bind off still needs some work, but I’ll get there.  I had to do a practice swatch over gigantic yarn and contrasting thread, but I think l got it.

Now hopefully when I get there, I’ll be able to bind off as pretty as this for 700 odd stitches!!!

So, based on all the varibles, this is what I have decided.

With the yarn I’m using, I’ll cast on tubularly via the stockinette method on a size 3.5 mm needle.  And then knit the main body with a 3.0 mm needle.

I plan to increase the length of the scarf to 80”. So based on my swatch, I got 4” to about 36 sts, thus I have to cast on a total of 720 sts. Yes, INSANE, I know, but oh well. Will update more after a week, because it probably will take me that long to finish the cast on!!!

So, I think I’m happy now.  The thing about this project is setting it up.  After that, I think it will get pretty mindless.  So, there you go, my last project, the mindless one!

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!!

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