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Stupid needles! Stupid Jen!

August 20, 2006

Thanks for the tips on mannequins to sketch over, I'm going to print out the ones Sylvia suggested, since they're free, hurrah, and have a go with them! Look for some semi decent sketches soon :)

I've had a bit of a catastrophe with the Tapestry cardigan! I was knitting it with some of my mum's needles, which were a little bit short, so I went to buy some more longer ones. They didn't have any bamboos so I bought metal ones, and after changing needles my tension suddenly went loads tighter. I didn't notice until I had finished the entire back!

I think it went wrong because my mum's needles are very smooth like bamboos, and the new needles were less smooth, so the yarn wasn't moving as easily and everything tightened up. Balls! I measured the tension at various places, and found roughly where I changed needles, so I ripped out to there - it was annoyingly near the beginning!

I swapped to a third pair of needles, which are the not so smooth type but 1/4 of a mm bigger. I know that might be stupid but I think it should work and I'll measure tension again once I've done a few rows. I'm very keen to get the back done again, let's hope it goes quickly. *sigh*

Posted by jen at August 20, 2006 12:19 PM

Comments

Oh no! What a shame. But the yarn is knitting up really nicely :)

Posted by: Anushka at August 20, 2006 12:56 PM

Sorry - I expect they were old non-metric sizes!

Posted by: Mum at August 21, 2006 01:19 PM

Aw, man. It probably was the change of needles. I notice that my knitting gets looser with bamboos and my knitting is tighter with straights. But I think the 1/4 change will work for you. [Crosses fingers.]

Posted by: Becky at August 22, 2006 09:24 AM

Man, that's terrible. I've been knitting for a few years now, but I'd still want to cry if I had to frog something like the back of a cardigan! I hope the re-knit goes quickly and the larger needles do the trick. Good luck!

Posted by: Morgan at August 22, 2006 11:18 AM

Oh bum*er bum*er bum*er! Sorry to hear that. Good luck re-knitting the back xx

Posted by: Annarella at August 22, 2006 03:56 PM