A Whole Field of Thistles

Greetings, Gentle Readers! I think it’s happening again: Over the weekend, copies of my Thistle Stole pattern started to fly out the digital door at a prodigious rate!

First and foremost, please accept my sincerest gratitude. Your purchases, as you know, support an independent artist, and allow me to continue operating my website as the (rare as a Dodo) ad-free space it is. This windfall is particularly appreciated right now, as I’ve been searching for a new day job since June, and I was really wondering what the remainder of the holidays would look like around here. Many, many thanks.

For the uninitiated, the Thistle Stole is a luxurious rectangular piece which is worked in a big round of stranded colorwork, with knitted hems at the cast-on and bind-off edges. Once complete, the round is cut open along a designated steek (!) to become a rectangle. Then the cut edges are bound with more knitting, and big bougie thistle-shaped tassels are added. Because as you know, Gentle Readers: More is More.

I don’t yet know who this group of Thistle Knitters are. Maybe it’s an extraordinary coincidence. Maybe it’s a private knitalong. Or maybe it’s a well-publicized group project that I have failed to find online. It’s a tantalizing mystery, and one I hope you’ll help me solve.

In any case, I’m compelled to offer my knitters, both the new and the Repeat Offenders, my help in addition to my thanks.

If you would like to add yourselves to the Royal Order of the Thistle (which I totally just made up), I cordially invite you to join in the fun!

Here’s How: Grab your copy of the Thistle HERE. Then if you have a question, want to send a photo, or would just like to say hi, Drop me a line any time as you progress. Here’s my EMAIL, and here’s where you can reach me over on RAVELRY. I’d be honored to act as your mentor and guide you through the process.

Additionally, if you’d like, I’d be happy to create a special Ravelry group just for you. That way you can easily talk amongst yourselves, share your photos and let me know what’s going on with you. If this is something you would like, please contact me and I’ll post the link to such here on the blog.

Since the original yarn I used to create the Thistle is no longer available, I’m especially interested in what yarns you’re selecting for your projects. I’m glad to offer opinions/suggestions/enabling for your substitutions, and a Ravelry group would be great for that. Again, stay tuned here for details.

I’m so honored and delighted that you you still love this pattern, because it’s a favorite of mine. Who knows? Maybe I’ll join you in a Thistle Redux: I’ve long thought this motif would make a gorgeous sweater, and have been waiting for the right time…

Baby Got (Sweater) Back

For the good of the Order, I should state that I have never knit a blanket, coverlet or afghan. Furthermore, I have no desire to do so. And “No desire” here means “No way, no how, no thank you.” Not. Interested. No shaping, no wearing, and worst of all, SO BIG. No offense to those knitters who love making them, but I just can’t think of anything more dull. Or more awkward to struggle under the weight of. Giant squares of knitted fabric just hold no charm for me.

So obviously, I should undertake a drop-shoulder Aran for my 6’7 offspring.

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Imagine my dismay, when I realized what was happening in my lap:

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For some reason, every time I picked this monster up to work on it, it was even bigger and heavier than the last. Less portable, and less maneuverable too. Go figure.

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Here is the completed counterpane sweater back for Campbell’s Aran. All of its garment shaping will be achieved by the addition of separate pieces (side panels and shoulder straps). So the first body piece I knit is just a big old parallelogram. Great as an un-thinky canvas for gorgeous cables. Challenging to work on for the aforementioned reasons. So, yeah, I’ll “never” knit a blanket. This doesn’t count.

It did, however, give me ample time to meditate on two important construction elements, which can/should also be design considerations. I’ll dig a little deeper into the how and why directly, but for now, Gentle Readers, can you guess WHAT? Take a stab at what two things I’ve been thinking of in the comments, won’t you?

Until then, it’s chilly in here, so I’ll be snuggling up under this unblanket.

Post-Op Recovery and a Happy Surprise

You may have (correctly) concluded that I am bananas based on my last post, so I thought I’d share a bit more about my sweater’s surgical intervention. Here is my sweater back, with the right honeycomb panel reknit. It’s really not as scary as it looks to do this.

I put the rest of the (not-jacked-up) knitting on waste yarn holders first, so I wouldn’t have any other knitting needles in my way during surgery. Then I used a pair of short DPNs (5” glove needles, if you’re playing along at home) and a cable needle to reknit the frogged panel. Starting from the bottom, I carefully selected each frogged strand, one row at a time, working them all from the RS. Fun fact: Although counterintuitive, it turned out that reknitting with a size larger than my desired size for the rest of the piece worked much better for keeping the reknit stitches even during surgery. Who knew? Keep that idea in your pocket in case (Knitting Gods Forbid) this ever happens to you. Once I reworked all the rows properly, I put the reknit panel on waste yarn as well before moving on to the other side.

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Drunk with power Emboldened by success, I gutted the opposing side. Note: I only frogged back to the first cable cross row, rather than all the way down through the cast on. Because I don’t hate myself that much.

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Once the patient was resting comfortably post-op, I turned my attention to facing my real fear.

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That, dear friends, is my terror of mismatched dye lots. Because I had to dye my yarn on the stovetop it ended up that there were four different batches, using my biggest cauldron. My general level of dye lot anxiety went to eleven over this. I was as meticulous as I know how to be with regard to water, yarn amounts, time and temperature. I took copious notes, and I even used math. But I’m well aware that as a dyer, I make an excellent knitter. I’m a rank amateur as a dyer, and happy to keep it that way.

Even though it looked to be all the same color when it dried, I was still afraid there would be lines of demarcation in the work from skein to skein. And yes, I know I can alternate skeins, but I stupidly fearlessly threw caution to the winds when I began by choosing to use only one skein. Failure to match at this point would mean a total re-start. And probably permanent psychic damage.

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The Knitting Gods threw me a bone! In the brightest light available, I wound up the next skein and bravely spit spliced it in. I’m profoundly delighted to report that the new skein is a dead match to the first one. All hail the repeatable dye process! And getting lucky.

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All (“All”) that remains is to carry on working up the remaining 3,520 yards. And to not run out of yarn. And to get a sweater that fits. And to live long enough to find out. Anybody placing bets?