The Zen of undoing
I thought I could do it all in one day. Not so.
Prepping for grafting
The prepping alone took a few hours and this afternoon I won’t have time to do the actual grafting as I have a scheduled Italian conversation session with a student. Mañana…
One stitch at a time
By the way, thank you for all the virtual chocolate and encouragement. :)
Rip, snip, pull, repeat.
I had not expected the undoing to take so long. For someone like me — irritable, impatient, and constantly sleep deprived — this has been a Zen exercise, close to what I imagine meditation must be. I say imagine, because I tried it a few times and never quite got it. Not even enough patience for meditation.
The beginning
I considered mounting the stitches on two circular needles, to keep the sweater flat for grafting, but I was afraid that the needle would get in the way during the ripping operation and also that it would pull the stitches and deform them. So I opted for threading them with contrast yarn.
Threading the live stitches with orange yarn.
I accidentally snipped one of the blue threads too close to the work and I’ll have to be careful when weaving in the ends.
Undoing the last few stitches
Finally done with separating the two parts of the sweater and counting my stitches.
I thought I'd better count my stitches to make sure the top part matches the bottom part.
In between pulling and snipping and keeping the cats at bay (they were very interested), I realized that the actual grafting will not be a straightforward affair because of a few complications:
1) two colors above and below the cut;
2) color changes in the grafting round (those pesky vertical bands);
3) a possible mismatch in the number of stitches that will involve a couple of increases or decreases;
4) the slight offset of loops that I am not sure how to handle at the color changes (the pesky vertical bands again).
But I will worry about that tomorrow afternoon, when I can get started.
I have a feeling that you will get tired of this sweater before it’s even finished.
Posted by Francesca | 6 comments
Annie
I can only look on in amazement and admiration … I simply would not have the patience (or probably the eyesight as I’m vainly holding out against glasses) to attempt such an intricate job, Zen or no Zen ! Good luck with the grafting :)
The Italian Dish
What? Italian conversation? I just started reading your blog. I didn’t realize you were Italian!
Good luck with the grafting. It’s quite amazing to watch such an undertaking.
Brava!
andrea
you can do it! go francesca! yay yay yay!
(my brain won’t let me follow what you’re actually doing so i’m strictly in a supportive cheerleader role for now.. ;) )
Carolyn
Unless there were increases or decreases in the rows you’re dealing with, the stitches will line up just fine. Unless you’ve dropped something. The color changes in the extant rounds shouldn’t be an issue (really. Remember, the tension was just fine before, and when you give things a serious horizontal tug after grafting, it’ll go back to being fine again. Tension in the two-color graft is a bit different. If it’s just vertical bands, I’d suggest using a different strand for each band. You’ll have more ends, but not need to worry about the tension of long carries. Maybe? Definitely have a yarn needle on each strand, rather than switch back and forth. More tools will give you the illusion of greater speed.
The won’t be any offset loops that I can think of. Because you’re grafting the tops of stitches to the bottom of stitches, the typical 1/2 stitch shuffle won’t be present. But – that’s right, you’ll be hunting for the bottoms of stitches. Ick. But you’ll get the hang of it quickly. I have confidence in you!
Not getting tired of the sweater yet – but my jaw will hit the desk painfully if you have finished pictures of the graft tomorrow.
fleegle
Like watching microsurgery :)
Lydia
That is amazingly fine knitting; I think if I knit something like that, I’d have issues with my joints. It’s just breathtaking. Really.