FO: Tinker

Tinker is done and way faster than I'd anticipated. After all of the false starts and changes I made before I started this project I'm very pleased to say that I love it. It fits Cassie really well and she looks great in it. I think she likes it too, I tried it on her head yesterday, needles and all, with just a few rows to go and she threw a bit of a tantrum when I had to take it off her and continue knitting. I think we'll have another knitter in the house before too many more years go by!

So, vital statistics? Pattern: Tinker by Woolly Wormhead in the 19 inch size. Yarn: Araucania Azapa, I used around 70g. It is lovely and soft and squishy, but it is a little hairy and sheds a bit. I would absolutely knit this again, but I think I might have a break from cables for a little while!

 

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Progress: Tinker

When I first started knitting Tinker each row was taking me so long that I actually considered casting on another, simpler, project so that I could see some sort of progress to keep me going. It has been a lovely surprise then that I'm seeing quite a lot of progress on Tinker itself. Whether this is as a result of cabling without a cable needle I don't know, but I'm quickly becoming a convert. I wasn't too sure at first, but once I hit the left leaning cable section the difference was pretty marked. I'm now halfway through the knitting and I'm really pleased with it so far.

Cracking on, I should have an FO in a couple of days, yay!

 

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New skills

Seeing how slow going Tinker is going to be I thought last night that it was probably about time for me to look into the witchcraft that is cabling without a cable needle.  I've never bothered before because most of the cables I've knit in the past have involved cabling just a few stitches every few rows and it's no problem whipping the cable needle out for a bit and then popping it away again.  The cabling in Tinker, however, is very frequent and I'm swapping needles every 3 stitches or so, so it had to be worth a go.  Despite the whole operation looking a little alarming in the pictures, with my knitting in hand it took me about three seconds to figure it out and I was off.  My verdict?  I'm not convinced that it is actually any quicker for me, but it is certainly simpler for such small frequent twists.  Given my current limitations (yes I will admit that baby brain is making me pretty stoopid these days)having to keep track of one less needle is a major bonus.  Of course this means that the popular spectator sport of 'watching mummy frantically looking for her cable needle' will have to stop for a while!  Clue: It's in my hair.  Every time.  Except when it's on my lap obscured by my giant tum.

Belly!

Swatching all day, ripping all night

Ah swatching, I will admit it is useful, but oh how I hate it. Yesterday alone I must have made about 6 of the stupid things, nearly every one dashing my hopes that it would be my last. After completely failing to decide on a new project, I put all thoughts of knitting temporarily aside and dived into my stash looking for something suitable for a swap I'm taking part in. As I'd suspected there was nothing inspiring lurking there, but I did come across some Wendy Freedom Wool in chunky which looked promising for Lollie. Could Lollie be back on? 3 swatches later I can safely say no, Lollie is not back on, but as I had Twisted Woolly Toppers open I rediscovered Tinker and wondered if the Azapa I'd originally wanted to use for Lollie might do for that instead. It took a couple more swatches but yes it will indeed do. Hoo-flippin-ray!

Not much to look at yet

Of course, nothing is ever that easy (ha ha ha, easy? ha ha) and after a slow cable cast on and 1 set up row I started to cable and.....nope the instructions made no sense. The chart just didn't work with what I had on my needles and I could go no further. I checked the Woolly Wormhead board on Ravelry because surely someone else must have had trouble making sense of this? Nope, nothing. What was I missing? I am ashamed to admit that it probably took me another 20 minutes to realise that *P2,K2,P2* does not equal *P2,K2* in any way at all. So back to the beginning it was for me. All is fixed now and I think I've got it right. I have a feeling this is going to take a wee while though, the (admittedly uncomplicated) cable pattern is repeated every 6 stitches and there are cables on nearly every row so an FO is probably not all that imminent. It's a cute hat though, it will be worth it.

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