Must... Stripe... Evenly

Hello friends! Last week I talked all about the socks that were being knit over here. This week I'd like the share the neckwear. I finally finished my last Christmas knit, the Deep Sea Wanderer cowl for my brother.

Connor was kind enough to model it for me, but then he started making sounds about how nice it was and that maybe he'd like to have one at some point. I have a feeling this isn't my last dance with the pattern.

I also finished up weaving a University of Kentucky themed scarf. I used the fibonacci sequence as a starting point, but didn't stick to it 100%.

Meanwhile, I still love socks. I started my Christmas socks...

And promptly abandoned them in favor of finishing my Denature socks. I'm not sure how everyone else decided to get things done, but I check things off the list by what is bothering me the most. The Denature Socks have been on the needles since July and I'm ready to have them finished.

Connor and I watched Stranger Things and I was able to power through much of the leg of the second sock. Just last night I got to the heel and realized that my stripes were not going to match. Mismatched stripes are too much for my little knitter's heart to take, so I ripped back, got some spare grey that I had wound off the ball earlier, and made the grey stripe before the heel longer.

Although.... now that I'm typing this, I'm thinking that I might rip back again and make the green stripe before the final grey stripe a little longer so I can hide how thick the grey stripe is.

Something tells me the saga of this sock is not over. Is anyone else out there as obsessive about their knitting as me? Or you you more of a "No one will see that mistake" kind of knitter?

Blocking With Nemo

I finished up knitting my Deep Sea Wanderer a few days ago, but I didn't get to blocking it until just yesterday. It's amazing what a good blocking can do to a project. Stitches relax and the project becomes what it was meant to be. To prove it, here is a blocked and unblocked Deep Sea Wanderer. 

There are different blocking methods for different projects. But for this one, I just soaked it in the sink, pushed the water back out, then lay it outside. Sometimes I'll pin the project, but for this one I just smoothed out the infinity scarf with my hands. I've found that I'll often end up with a crease in my projects. What I do to prevent it is to rotate the project periodically while it is drying. A quarter to half turn will do it.

Tada! A finished infinity scarf. It's hard to believe that the first picture in this post is of the same two scarves.

I just have to wait for it to get cold enough to wear it. 

How To Make Bobbles More Bobble-y

The KAL for the Deep Sea Wanderer is moving along quite well, so I thought it would be a good time to explain how to make the bobbles that show up in the pattern look more bobble-y. First off, here is what the bobbles look like as knitted. (And unblocked) The bobbles can be seen, but they are nearly flush to the rest of the fabric.

The first way of fixing a bobble is the Yank Method. Slide your needle behind the whole bobble and give a good yank forward. It certainly helps, and it pretty quick to perform, but the bobbles can still slide back.

The problem is that when making the bobble, the stitch that was knitted just before making the bobble becomes loose. (The stitch is to the immediate right of the bobble.) You can see how loose this stitch is in the picture. As a result, the bobble can move to the back of the project rather than lay nicely on the top of the project. There is a solution, although it is a little tedious.

Note: For this project, bobbles are made in three rows. This will be referred to in the following method.

The second method is the Redistribution Method. Rather than just yank the bobble forward, the yarn in the loose stitch is redistributed into the bobble. First I give the bottom right stitch of the bobble a good yank. The goal is to have that loose stitch to the right of the bobble be the same size as the stitches surrounding it.

Next I pull the excess yarn all the way across the first row of the bobble. Once this is done, you'll have a large loop of yarn on the bottom left of the bobble. And where does all that excess yarn go? I like to distribute it all along the second row in the bobble. I slowly pull the yarn into each of the stitches of the second row of the bobble, which makes the stitches in the second row a bit bigger. If I'm having trouble getting the stitches in the second row to look nice, I might pull some of the excess yarn into the first stitch of the third row.

This takes some time since there are quite a few bobbles in this infinity scarf. But I really like the result. The bobble remains on the front side of the scarf and looks "bobble-y"

Here is a comparison of each technique:

1. The Redistribution Method

2. The Yank Method

3. Left As Knitted

I hope that helps you guys on your bobble adventures. If anyone has another method that you find helpful, feel free to share it in the comments.

Deep Sea Wanderer Cast On

Today is cast on day for the Deep Sea Wanderer KAL. (KnitALong for the muggles out there.) Most of the action will be happening on the KAL thread on the Bear Ears ravelry group. But I wanted to share some tips over here too.

The recommended yarn for this pattern is Tosh DK. Tosh is a hand dyed yarn, which means that different skeins will often have some variation between them. As a result, sometime when switching from one skein to another, there will be a line, showing where the switch happened. There are two main ways to combat "The Line." The first way is blending.
To blend the yarn, you alternate skeins. For the sleeve below, I was knitting in the round. After each round, I switched between each skein. And to keep things uniform, I was careful to twist the two skeins the same direction each time I switched between the skeins. If you are knitting an item flat, you would typically switch skeins after every two rows, carrying the yarn up one side of the project.
The second method of hiding the difference in skeins is to be strategic in where you change skeins. For the sleeve, I didn't want to blend the yarn through the cuff, so I chose to knit the cuff using just one of the skeins. The cuff is darker and a little more blue, but it looks more natural in its placement.

For my Deep Sea Wanderer, I plan on using the second method: I'll be strategic in where my yarn changes happen. As you can see, one skein of Cousteau is a little lighter than the other. (I pencilled in which was which so I wouldn't mix it up later on.) Since the eye typically is drawn to lighter colors, I'll be using the lighter skein in the main portion of the pattern. So the order will be Chart 1: darker skein, Chart 2: lighter skein, Chart 3: darker skein. All going well, the difference in color will be unnoticeable.

Deep Sea Wanderer KAL

Hey everyone! It's been a busy month here at Bear Ears, which means I'm woefully behind on blog reading and other important things. Regardless of how much is going on, there is always time for knitting! Now that I'm not knitting for the book, I have time to knit for myself... from the book.
I'm hosting a Deep Sea Wanderer KAL over on the Bear Ears ravelry group, and I'd love for you all to join me. I'll be casting on mine on October 4th. And I've already bought my yarn: Tosh DK in Cousteau. (The same as in the book.)

In other news, the preorder for Lit Knits is coming to a close. After September 25th, the book and ebook will only be available separately. Once the preorder closes, the printed copy of the book will be unavailable to order until mid-November. (Unless the printer is super fast, then it could be as early as late October.)

Deep Sea Wanderer

Deep Sea Wanderer is an infinity scarf based on Jules Verne's book, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, published in 1870. This is the third pattern to appear in Lit Knits. The name of the pattern refers to both Captain Nemo and his ship, the Nautilus.

This was the very first photo taken during the shoot. 

The novel's original language is French, so the title was originally 20000 Lieues Sous Les Mers, which ought to have been translated to 20,000 Leagues Under The Seas. That missing "s" has led many English speakers to believe that in the story, Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, travels 20,000 leagues straight down. In the book they actually travel a distance of 20,000 leagues, visiting all the different seas.

The scarf is meant to look like a view through the porthole of the Nautilus. The top and bottom have a texture that resembles the rivets around the porthole and the center portion of the scarf is the seaweed that can be seen when looking through the glass.

During part of the shoot, I handed over the sextant. Captain Nemo has a sextant, and I was lucky to borrow one from a friend. (I hadn't expected to learn how to use a sextant for a book of knitting patterns. But I couldn't have the captain holding the sextant upside down, now could I?) The model had a good time playing with it.

One of the best lines of the day was when we were trying to get a certain pose. My lighting assistant yelled out "Look more captain-y."

And so he did.