Evenstar 1:3

I was true to my word and set about re-knitting my Evenstar yesterday. The replacement needles, which Alison kindly sent me, made the job a whole lot easier.

As soon as I sat down to cast on, I realised that I had been entirely incorrect when I assured F on Wednesday that she should take my 3.25mm DPNs and hang on to them as I would not be needing them. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

So. There was I, poised to cast on à la Thom Christoph’s circular cast on yet again – with five shiny nickel DPNs to hand. I deployed a cushion on the desk in front of me. I also deployed all the advice that I had read in the Evenstar KAL group on Ravelry and… it went exactly right the first time! There was no blood on the canvas at all.

I think that the cushion was key. Also key was the fact that I took on board the advice to knit the first couple of rows as icord, using just the one needle that I cast on to – this made such a huge difference to the knittability of the first rows that I actually did my first increase on the one needle too. I then knit the eighteen stitches off onto three needles, with six stitches each. I went up to 4 needles on the next increase. It all went like a dream.

Until I discovered that I had 14 stitches too many.

No.

No idea how or why. Just an inattentive brain.

So, we set off again. And again, using all my experieince and all the received advice – it went just perfectly again. Only this time I counted every row 🙂

On reflection, I now believe that the slipperiness of the nickel needles is mitigated by their shorter length. I find them easier to handle than the longer bamboo DPNs and should remember this the next time that I need to cast on a circular beginning. (I probably won’t!)

While I was at the re-knitting, I took advantage and made a few changes to the way that I made some of the stitches and overall I am now the proud owner of a far finer piece of knitting than attempt number 1 was ever going to be. It was worth the extra effort.

  1. I minimised the increase YO  holes in the stocking stitch centre by knitting through the back of the stitch in the following row. Simply a matter of  taste
  2. I changed the way that I worked the Kfb7-K3tog stitch, to try and elimininate the stringy effect that I had been getting in the right side petal. Instead of K,P,K,P,K,P,K into the K3tog, I did K,YO,K, YO,K,YO,K
  3. I made an SSSSK on the left hand side of the motifs, to mirror the K4tog on the right hand side
  4. I also took the opportunity to make centred decreases instead of Slip1 K2tog PSSO

All in all, a much more pleasing look to it.

Clue two is to be released earlier this week, so that we European knitters can make a start today rather than having to wait until Saturday.