Thursday 29 November 2012

Multi-continental project

lace experiment by Asplund
lace experiment, a photo by Asplund on Flickr.
For a couple of weeks I hardly knitted at all - for no particular reason, but I've discovered it's pointless trying to knit when I'm not in the mood. The advantage was that I suddenly had a lot more time to read books, which I also love doing.

A month or two ago I started knitting a shawl using wool from fellow knitter Kerry in Australia. I was fairly happy with the project but not quite (this too for no particular reason) but the other day I had an idea what to knit instead: it turns it it will be a multi-continental project. The wool is from Australia, I'm making use of the Estonian nupp pattern, and the garment will be typical of South America.

To my surprise I'm knitting a poncho! What made me go ahead with the idea was that I could try a couple of things I haven't done before. (Perhaps that's why I didn't knit for a couple of weeks, not feeling I was learning new things? Not that I always have to, but I want to keep developing my knowledge and skills.)

First, knitting lace in the round. It's easier and quicker, not having long rows of purl stitches - but to me it doesn't look quite as good. (Good enough not to frog it, though.) Knitting back and forth seems to have a levelling effect; in this project my decreases that slant to the right are looser than the ones slanting to the left.

Also, as I normally knit lace back and forth with yarnovers and decreases on right-side rows only, I tend to do them on all rows instead of every second now that all rows are knitted with the right side facing. So far, I have discovered such mistakes quickly.

The other thing I'm practising is knitting nupps in the round (7 stitches in one, then knit all 7 together on next row). It's definitely easier to knit than purl so many stitches together, but I miss the levelling effect of knitting back and forth here too: the stitch to the right of a nupp is very loose and the one to the left is rather tight. Well, practise might improve it.

Nu testar jag något nytt - nytt för mig, vill säga - nämligen att sticka spetsstickning på rundsticka. Det har både för- och nackdelar, tycker jag. En klar fördel är förstås att det inte blir långa varv med bara aviga maskor. Det är också enklare att sticka estniska nupp-mönster (i det här fallet sju maskor i en och så stickas alla sju ihop på nästa varv) när man gör hoptagningen på rätsidan. I någon gammal provlapp har jag testat att göra ökningarna på avigsidan och sticka ihop dem på rätsidan, men jag föredrar att göra all mönsterteknik vartannat varv, och så var det svårare att se vilken maska ökningarna skulle vara i. Tekniskt lättare, men på bekostnad av flyt i stickningen. 

Nackdelen är att resultatet skevar lite väl mycket för min smak, fast inte så mycket att jag kommer att repa upp det. Jag skulle tro att det har en utjämnande effekt att sticka fram och tillbaka; nu är det rätt stor skillnad på lutningarna åt höger respektive vänster, då de förra är mycket lösare. Det är något liknande med maskorna på var sida om en nupp: den till höger är lös. Kanske blir det bättre ju mer jag stickar, men framöver kommer jag nog att återgå till att sticka spetsmönster fram och tillbaka. Det är ändå givande att testa nya saker!

5 comments:

FadenStille said...

Knitting lace in the round is so much more fun en very relaxing....
Love the Estonian knitting in a more modern form like a poncho...
Anett

Anonymous said...

How interesting! I would imagine that you can work some blocking magic on the nupps if you're still unhappy with them.

craftivore said...

I love knitting in the round but am not a big lace knitter so I can imagine the challenges that it presents when you're used to purling back, it's a quick self check. Checked out Maskor och Medeltid online, it looks fantastic. Love that she included images of her inspirations.

Anonymous said...

You only gave 4 or 5 reasons for knitting back and forth. I could give you 25 reasons for knitting in the round. Hahahahah. Good thing we are not all the same!! You never cease to inspire me. I hear complaints constantly that shawls never stay on and then you blast my mind with a poncho. So very practical and the pattern you have chosen is lovely. Thanks for another idea I can borrow.
Ron in Mexico

Kerry said...

I'll be keen to see how it turns out, no doubt stunning like all your work.