May 6, 2007

The old switcheroo

Véronik Avery rescued me. I was all torn up, trying to decide between ripping the back of the sweater for a do over and trying to learn to live with imperfection in my knitting. (I accept it in humans, it's in yarn that I am inflexible.) I was reading the comments from people like Karen (who wrote a brilliant Shakespearean "To rip or not to rip" and Dez (who corrected a pretty significant error in the universe by re-writing the Devo song "Whip it" into "Rip it") who urged me to not fight the person I am... and I knew it too. I knew that as much as I didn't want to rip it back, I would have to. I knew that having shoulder seams like this

Notamatch0605

would make me nuts. I knew it would be all I could see in the sweater and I knew that considering that my time and yarn is worth something, that I shouldn't let myself down that way. I knew it needed to be ripped, but I was still trying to find a way out. I kept looking at the cast on edge, wishing that there was something I could do about it, so I could just flip the damn piece over...but my fountain of inspiration was empty. (There is also the fact that all I did was sit and stare at it, drinking coffee morosely instead of hitting a couple of reference books or trying some stuff out on a swatch, but I was pouting, and that's quite time consuming.) That's when I get an email from Véronik, with the appealing subject line of "Don't Rip!" or something equally attention grabbing. Véronik, who understands things like why cast-on edges and seams need to match or madness will ensue, suggested the following.

1. Unpick the cast on edge. This is fiddly and annoying, especially with a sticky yarn like this one. I amused myself with I picked away at it. (Psst. KT? The scotch you gave me finally came in handy.)

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2. Flip the piece over, making the front the back and all the knits - purls.

3. Use Montse Stanley's "stem stitch bind-off" with my new right side facing,

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and create a new edge that looks just exactly like the long-tail cast on edge I had before.

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Problem solved - No ripping. Véronik, quand je viens à Montréal, Je vous dois une bière!

The sock gets around

My efforts to show Virginia's sock yarn the best possible time continue apace. This weekend I got dancer/choreographer Mojo on it....

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That's the lovely Andrea Nann, seen looking not at all exhausted after opening night of "The Whole Shebang" . (That's Josh Finlayson being all quick in the back there. ) I had a very lovely time and everything was beautiful and I managed to hang out with all of the people Joe knows without making a fool of myself, though I did eat an improper number of potstickers at the reception. (I am unclear about what the proper number may be, but I know that I exceeded it.) In case the sock was not impressed enough, Suzie Ungerleider (Oh Susanna)

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took a quick turn. She has a new album just out. (Joe did some of the recording for it.) Impressed? I was, but the sock is getting harder to impress. (The best part of the evening was watching Joe try to explain the sock. Me, I don't. I just ask them to hold it.)

Posted by Stephanie at May 6, 2007 11:14 AM