Sunday 18 March 2012

Year of Projects update - March 18th


I wasn't going to post today, as we were meant to be taking a day trip down to South Wales to visit family. Unfortunately, Jamie has a rather unpleasant cold and wasn't up to the drive (besides, we didn't really want to inflict his cold on everyone down there too) so we stayed at home and had a lazy day to ourselves instead. Of course, this does mean Rainbow Kitty will be late getting to his new home, but that can't be helped.

It has been a while since we had a Sunday to ourselves to just kick back and relax. We had waffles and ice cream for breakfast then settled in for a day of crafting. I picked up my hooded cowl, while Jamie got on with sculpting some Chaos Space Marines. Almost a whole season of Friends later, and some real progress had been made.


The pattern gives you the option to use either Kitchener stitch or the 3 needle bind off to finish the hood. As both techniques were new to me, I looked them both up on the internet and decided that the 3 needle bind off looked to be the less intimidating choice! So I knit one final purl row, then split my stitches evenly across the two ends of my needle.


I followed the instructions from Knitty, and dug out a 6mm needle to do the bind off.


I was surprised at how easy it was. I only had a few difficulties, getting the stitches to slide up my cheap bamboo needles without pulling the live stitches off with them. The seam is really neat!


Now all I have to do is work out how to block the damn thing! As the yarn is 80% acrylic, it's going to need a steam block, so I need to work out how to properly pin it out and steam it to get the right hood shape. For now, I will chuck it on the pile of "irritatingly shaped projects in need of blocking", alongside the Fern Cowl.

I may not cast on anything new from my list for a few weeks. I've got some non-YoP things to work on, plus I really ought to finish that Cherry Wrap!

8 comments:

  1. Ice cream for breakfast - um, yum! I think I need a pile for irritatingly shaped things myself. Kitchener stitch grafting isn't hard either, you just need a bit of peace and quiet to keep track of where you are. It makes a seam that's more invisible; three needle bind-off creates a bit of a ridge I find.

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  2. It seems you managed to salvage your day in a very wonderful way. A finished object and waffles with ice-cream for breakfast. I say it doesn't get any better than that! Lovely cowl--looks so snuggley.
    *smiles*

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  3. It's wonderful and hooray for learning a new technique!
    3NBO sounds intimidating yeah but once you do it, it's cake yeah?  It makes a smaller and straighter seamy ridge than mattress st does.  If you had used Kitchener, it would be seamless.  Do give that a go when you're ready.

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  4. I feel like 3 needle BO is a little easier than grafting, but nothing beats a nicely grafted sock toe! (Unless I'm doing toe-up...)

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  5. Maybe a balloon would help with steaming into the right shape?

    Thanks to knitting socks, I'm pretty comfortable with kitchener, so I don't think I've ever tried a 3 needle bind off!

    Hope Jamie feels lots better soon

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  6. Hazel's Crochet19 March 2012 at 11:13

    That looks very complicated, but its good that you are learning things :) I think it will turn out great

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  7. I love the 3-needle BO and you did such a nice job on yours.  Imagine when you steam and block all those irregularly shaped FOs -- you'll have a whole new wardrobe!

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  8. Very cool.  I've not tried that type of a bind off, but looks interesting.  Hope hubby feels better soon.  Glad you had a relaxing day, sometimes staying home is a really nice thing to do.

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