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Hello you lovely people, I’ve finally finished the colour work section for the back. Good timing as well, as I was just beginning to get a little bored with it. 56 cm tall from the bottom to the ribbing up. I did have to look that up, where to measure from, was ribbing included or not. So 3 and 1/3 pattern repeat. Lessons learnt were to really rely on stitches markers and constant, I mean constant, counting.
The next section was meant to change colours and I gave it a go. However, because my second colour was almost black it was very difficult. I had two new stitches to learn as well and it all got a bit fraught. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to do them but a couple contradicted each other. The yarn even gave me a hint by snapping for no reason at all. I should have taken the hint. So safety line threaded in and ripped back to the end of the colour-work the first time. There are (deliberately) twisted stitches in there somewhere.
A quick ask for opinions on Notes and the overwhelming consensus was to use the lighter yarn. So rip it all out - to the safety line and start again. Now it takes a long time to rip back carefully and then pick up 202 stitches, even off a safety line. But I did it did 4 rows and had made so many mistakes - after watching yet more YouTube videos I realised I had chosen the wrong way to do the stitches. I had to put in another safety line and rip it back again. Ug! Still all a learning curve. This is the video I settled on just in case anyone is wondering how to do tw2r and tw2l.
So third time lucky. I still made a couple of big mistakes and had to pull back 30 or 40 stitches each time. Caused by watching an actually interesting to programme at the same time - Patience. That’ll teach me. Though actually it probably won’t. Anyhoo, the lighter yarn was much, much better. Seeing your stitches really does help. I’ve had to order more of the lighter yarn but sometimes life it hard and forces you to increase your yarn stock - oh woe is me 😂😂😂😂😂😂. Did I buy extras at the same time? You bet I did!
I do find the charting counter intuitive. A circle means do a knit stitch going in one direction and do a purl stitches in the other. I am constantly forgetting which one is which. So some of these dots are purls and some are knits. Wibble.
Still I kept going and after the first 4 rows now it’s sort of coming together. At the moment I’m not too sure on how this section is going to look. It seems weird having purl stitches on the right side. Maybe blocking will help. In the picture on the pattern, the stitches seem much more obvious and mine aren’t. Maybe it’s because I still can’t see a full repeat.
Now I’m not too enamoured with how it is turning out as I get further in, I’m hoping blocking will help but it looks nothing like the picture in my eyes, and I am fairly sure I’m doing it right. I am rather glad this is the back and this will be mainly covered by my hair. If I don’t rip it out and start again.
The yarn is Rowan Twisted Tweed. It is described as a DK yarn but it is more a thick 4 ply. It feels nice on the fingers, not over smooth but nice with a little roughness, but you need that bit of bite for the colour-work. It doesn’t really have any stretch to it really and so it less forgiving. Trying the twisted stitches in the dark yarn made me tense and therefore my tension suffered getting tighter. No wonder the yarn snapped. I think as long as you are aware it has no stretch working with it is good.
I’ll update again later.
Till next time, T x
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I honestly cannot remember doing a twist that way lol. But I am pretty sure that I must have. Anywho I added that very helpful (and short) video to my saved videos. Thank you for posting it. I love the pattern of your fabric. You have sooo much patience!
Beautiful and the yarn is amazing!