Old Dogs Can/Can't Learn New Tricks
Literally and figuratively.
Today I tried to get Gengen to jump through a hula hoop. She stared at me and the hoop for about 1.5 seconds, then she walked around it. So I put it lower and in front of her again. Again, she paused, then walked around it. So I put it on the ground, right in front of her.
And she still walked around it.
That's just kind of a smaller version of my own adventure.
Today I decided to cast on for T's Christmas Scarf, which is double knitted. Now, I've done double knitting before. No problem. It's one of those things that look a lot more complicated than it is. The last thing I knitted using that technique was R's zombie scarf. Remember that?
When I made that scarf, I used a very simple cast on--which is what the double knitting tutorial used. Basically, I just did a regular cast on, using both strands of yarn at the same time. Easy, schmeasy, right? The cast on and bind off end had both colors on them, in kind of a twisted, braided looking edge. It didn't look bad, really. I kind of liked it.
Well, this particular pattern that I've decided to do uses an invisible cast on. Invisible cast on means the end would look it was kitchener stitched. And then, binding off with a kitchener stitch would make both ends look exactly alike. Hm. I think that maybe I might like that. Of course, I'd have to learn how to do that first.
Hello, Youtube? What have you got on "invisible cast on"?
The first tutorial I looked at was confusing. Wait. What's a better word than confusing? It was... @#$%^*(%^%!! Yeah. Let's go with that. I tried to follow it for about half an hour, but I just couldn't catch on. Jeez. I've never been so confused in my life! (And I took 4 years of Latin in school.) I mean, crap. The tutorial started off by saying it was a variation of long-tail cast on. And you know how much I hate long-tail cast on. Wait. What's a better word than hate? I @#$%^*(%^%!! long-tail cast on!
So I found another tutorial. One that doesn't rely on that horrible, horrible cast on. But, oh my God, I had to watch that thing over and over. Needless to say, I feel pretty stupid right now. Like, unable to learn, stupid.
But I did finally get it cast on and it looked just like it did on the video. Yay me. So I began knitting the pattern, according to the chart.
But after two rows, I examined the work, to make sure it was looking like it should. And I noticed two things:
1. This cast on does not look the way it's supposed to. Not even close. In fact, it looks pretty shitty. Damn it.
2. I've done this chart backwards. That is, I've put the dark where I want the light and the light where I want the dark. And that wouldn't make a difference, except that, since it's words double knitted, the wrong side is going to have the readable words.
Double damn it.
So, I guess I will be ripping this out, watching some more Youtube, and doing a lot more swearing.
Today I tried to get Gengen to jump through a hula hoop. She stared at me and the hoop for about 1.5 seconds, then she walked around it. So I put it lower and in front of her again. Again, she paused, then walked around it. So I put it on the ground, right in front of her.
And she still walked around it.
That's just kind of a smaller version of my own adventure.
Today I decided to cast on for T's Christmas Scarf, which is double knitted. Now, I've done double knitting before. No problem. It's one of those things that look a lot more complicated than it is. The last thing I knitted using that technique was R's zombie scarf. Remember that?
When I made that scarf, I used a very simple cast on--which is what the double knitting tutorial used. Basically, I just did a regular cast on, using both strands of yarn at the same time. Easy, schmeasy, right? The cast on and bind off end had both colors on them, in kind of a twisted, braided looking edge. It didn't look bad, really. I kind of liked it.
Well, this particular pattern that I've decided to do uses an invisible cast on. Invisible cast on means the end would look it was kitchener stitched. And then, binding off with a kitchener stitch would make both ends look exactly alike. Hm. I think that maybe I might like that. Of course, I'd have to learn how to do that first.
Hello, Youtube? What have you got on "invisible cast on"?
The first tutorial I looked at was confusing. Wait. What's a better word than confusing? It was... @#$%^*(%^%!! Yeah. Let's go with that. I tried to follow it for about half an hour, but I just couldn't catch on. Jeez. I've never been so confused in my life! (And I took 4 years of Latin in school.) I mean, crap. The tutorial started off by saying it was a variation of long-tail cast on. And you know how much I hate long-tail cast on. Wait. What's a better word than hate? I @#$%^*(%^%!! long-tail cast on!
So I found another tutorial. One that doesn't rely on that horrible, horrible cast on. But, oh my God, I had to watch that thing over and over. Needless to say, I feel pretty stupid right now. Like, unable to learn, stupid.
But I did finally get it cast on and it looked just like it did on the video. Yay me. So I began knitting the pattern, according to the chart.
But after two rows, I examined the work, to make sure it was looking like it should. And I noticed two things:
2. I've done this chart backwards. That is, I've put the dark where I want the light and the light where I want the dark. And that wouldn't make a difference, except that, since it's words double knitted, the wrong side is going to have the readable words.
Double damn it.
So, I guess I will be ripping this out, watching some more Youtube, and doing a lot more swearing.
posted by Patwoman | 6:00 PM
3 Comments:
Ok, so I'm in exactly the same boat as you! I spent HOURs yesterday trying to cast-on but couldn't do either of the invisible ones and it made me mental.
Instead I cast on, one loop at a time by alternating colours, and started to knit that way. That seemed to work and while it was time consuming, it was far less fiddly.
Now I'm worry I might have got my colours mixed up too. This is my first time doing double-knit AND my first time really reading a pattern.
Sigh. The best way for me to learn is to dive in though!
I hope you have better luck, and I'll keep an eye out for progress updates!
That's what I did, too. I ended up just casting on with both colors. I did that before on a double-knit scarf and it looked fine. It looked kind of planned, like a twisted cord.
What kind of double-knit are you doing? I love double knitted items (although I think we've established I don't much like casting them on) and I'd love to see what you've done.
I'm actually doing the same pattern as you - I saw your blog post on Ravelry and came over to see if I would get some insight on what to do! And your comments about realizing your MC and SC were reversed made me stop and think about what I was doing too.
You can see I've only made slow progress, but... it's still progress!
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cavocorax/winter-is-coming-scarf
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