Investigational process

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Gary's vest and the ladder-foe.

I swatched.  The swatch has not yet had an opportunity to lie.  If one does not meticulously examine the swatch, lying cannot have occurred, for truth was not sought.  This is my story of woe. 

The swatch itself is a brief tale.  Penny Straker's daughter updated her patterns recently.  I have an old copy and a new copy.  I found good yarn for the Geoffrey vest.  The swatch recommended on the pattern was complex.  First do a ribbing swatch.  Then do a pattern swatch.  The instructions dictated the exact stitches, cable size, and swatch size.  I followed directions like a lamb.  (Yes, indeed, there is slaughter coming.  But as a knitter, you knew that.)  The recommended swatch had not been changed in the intervening two decades.  I washed the swatch.  It changed size, and I tried to do the maths to compensate for the change.

Lorrie, the KnitGoddess, was the first to recognize the problem.  The swatch I was instructed to do had different stitch counts and different cable sizes than what I was about to knit. 

We guessed.  I remeasured my friend Gary, who will eventually be the owner of the vest.  I wrung my hands, gnashed a few teeth, swore a lot.  I think the size I chose will fit.   I doubt I'll try any other Straker patterns.

That's about them.  This part is about me.  Ladders.  When I switch from knit to purl segments, big ladders are forming.  Embarrassing ladders.  The vest is a GIFT.  It has to look good.  (I wouldn't tolerate ladders of that size on any garment, whether or not it was planning to leave the house.)

I've pulled tighter in the transition stitches.  The yarn has hemp and mohair, but is 43% wool.  It should have more resiliency.

It's in time-out.  I have to think about this.  Any suggestions, now that pulling the transition stitches tighter hasn't helped, would be welcomed.

Let me leave you with something sunny.  The Ellen's Halfpint Farm merino/tencel sock is coming along well.   I'm doing an eye-of-the-partridge heel flap.  There is pleasant striping going on.  Although I don't think exclusive sock-knitting is the correct answer, it presents sore temptation in its favor.

Comments

[Caroline M]

I have no answers, my cables don't do that but I knit tightly anyway so that might have something to do with it. Polly (alltangledup.com) had a similar question on the transition from cables very recently, there were many comments involving working through the back loop and untwisting on the next row.

My take - knitting is fun, if it isn't fun then don't knit it. If you aren't already hugely committed to this, rip it and knit something less fraught. A vest in another pattern will still be a vest.

(Is it really 5am there? Do you not sleep?)

[Manise]

Sorry, no suggestions other than the obvious ones- you are light years ahead of me. The sock looks fab- the eye of the partridge heel is very cool!

[June]

On the lefternmost stitch, wrap the yarn the other way around the needle (Eastern uncrossed whatchahooza?). When you're knitting back on the private side, watch for that stitch and ensure that you don't twist it.

It uses less yarn than the normal knit-to-purl transition and snugs up the ladder. Usually, I've seen the last stitch of the cable get loose and flopsy, yours is the first I've seen with the ladder *between* stitches!

[June]

Clarification - when I said "lefternmost stitch," I meant that of the cable. In other words, the last knit stitch (before the purl) is the one that gets wrapped the other way (left leg leading but behind the needle). I use this method for all my cabled stuff, including Matt's giant blue sweater.

[Kathy]

Good morning! No advise on the vest, but I do LOVE that sock. Blue? Do you like blue?!? :-)

[Teresa C]

Hi hon! I use this technique when knitting cables and ribbing: knit the knit sts across, then when you purl wrap the yarn UNDER the needle (as opposed to over it). This twists the st, so you have to be sure to untwist it when you knit back by knitting into the back of the twisted st. I do this on both sides of the knitting, always twisting the first purl after the knit. I'm trying to be clear, even on the wrong side you are still twisting purls, which would be the knits of your cables on the right side. It gets to be second nature. You can tug them a bit tightly as well. I usually still have to. The wrapping in the opposite direction uses a little less yarn. Hope this helps.

[margene]

June's advice is the best I've heard and I know knitters who have used it with success, including me;-)

[elisa]

Your post and the responses are quite timely...I'm working on Rogue now, and I've gotten some ladders that make me a little uncomfortable. Up until this point, I've been just, er, hoping for the best when I block the thing, but now I feel like I may be able to at least eliminate the ladders going forward. Yay!

Also? The poem is fabulouso. As are you.

[Lucia]

I don't know what to tell you about the cable either, although my last cable stitch is also floppy sometimes, and I'm going to try June's trick. The books all say that to avoid ladders between dpns you should pull hard on the *second* st on the new dpn, so maybe you should try tugging at the second purl st after the cable? Worth a shot.

You are so clever, writing your own entry for silent poetry reading.

[vanessa]

i third june's recommendation.

[Anne]

Hm.... I would say knit into the backs of the stitches (or purl, as the case may be), or...if you wish to damn the torpedos and forge ahead, you can use a crochet hook and a piece of spare yarn to ladder them up and tighten them on the back side of the piece when you are done.

[Marcy]

Love Straker sweaters! I did one of her ganseys one time that required 5 different needle sizes!

What I do for the ladders is firmly snug up the _two_ stitches following the cable. I'm not a tight knitter, but that does the trick for me.

[Juno]

So the swatch was like Schroedinger's cat? In an indeterminate state of dead or not-dead because you didn't LOOK?

As for the ladders, I get that a little bit when pattern changes create vertical lines. - try maybe seating the first stitch after ladder the other way - to you are knitting it through the back loop. It uses less yarn in the stitch that way and so can close up the gap a bit.

[Carole]

You've gotten some excellent advice!

[Cheryl]

I second (or third, or fourth, whatever we're up to now) the suggestion to wrap your yarn the opposite way around the needle on the last stitch of the cable. I do my cables like that to tighten up the stitch.

[LaurieM]

Eeewh, damn! That's frustrating.

Do you pick or throw? I hear all the time that knitting with the left hand is faster, but it seems to me that people who do so also have more trouble with knit and purl patterns and tension issues when purling. I knit with the yarn in my right hand, and I don't intend to switch.

[Beth S.]

Had I a clue, I'd share! But I've never seen ladders as impressive as those. It makes me wonder if you haven't dropped a stitch somewhere.

[Carla]

All I know is that I get those ladders too... they're annoying. I usually find that pulling the 2nd stitch tight does the trick. Good luck!

[kmkat]

I do what June suggested, except that I do it on the first purl stitch after the knits. Seems to work for me. But I will try her method, too. More tools in the arsenal is always a good thing.

[Dorothy B]

Are you pulling on them as you purl them or after you purl them? I find it works better if I pull after I've dropped the old stitch off the needle. Other than that, I've got nothing.

[Angela]

Is this pattern knit flat & seamed, or knit in the round?

If it is knit flat & seamed, I would also purl the first stitch of the cable on WS rows as per June's suggestion so that you are snugging up both sides of the ladder.

[Cindy D]

Methinks the knitter waxes poetic from Romeo and Juliet.......

"Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off."

Only kidding :).....you've got good advice from many.