Sunday, March 6, 2011

spring cleaning and what in the hell is wrong with my stripes

See the pretty kollage yarn?  See the stealthy Blackthorn dpn's?  See the grey streaks which are supposed to be self-striping loveliness, but instead resemble clouds being dragged across the sky?  What is wrong here?  Why do my stripes end up darting sideways across the cuff?  Can anyone out there PLEASE help?  This is my third attempt at socks and the others turned out the same.  I.  NEED.  HELP.
Patty says that I get this result because I don't knit from the center of the skein.  I wonder if this is so.  Speaking of Patty, she was on a mission yesterday.  Whenever Patty decides to do 'spring cleaning', I make out like a bandit.  She likes to throw things out;
9,000 plus yards of a cotton/rayon boucle.  There is a very funny story attached to this huge acquisition of yarn, but I'm not allowed to share it.  I will tell you that it revolves around the Sheep & Wool Festival and a woman who attempted to snatch one skein of this yarn out of Patty's hands.  Big mistake.
Apparently quite appealing to this guy - maybe he can detect Patty's dog Zella!    Everyone has their own spring cleaning method.  Here's an example of mine -
Which is why I have such trouble with space.  Spring cleaning = rubbermaid tubs.  We are having a very dreary day here in the northeast - a good 'cleaning' day.  It's been raining for hours and the huge snow drifts are beginning to melt.  
Yep, it's really THAT gloomy.  But hey - I'll be sitting here.  I'll be anxiously awaiting any and ALL suggestions on how to get my stripes to stripe horizontally.  Don't hold back!  



5 comments:

JelliDonut said...

I've heard from other people that you have to adjust your gauge or the number of stitches you cast on, to get the stripes to do what they are supposed to do. I can't speak to working from the center of the ball, something I avoid doing.

I suppose you could measure the length of each gray section, then do the math with your gauge. I just gave myself a headache just thinking about that. Proceed at your own risk.

Anonymous said...

Embrace the pooling! It makes knitting a lot less stressful!

Paulina said...

When a strand is dyed to stripe, it has to be knitted to that stripe. It is like the Japanese Ikat seen in the Kimono. The threads are dyed before weaving and then are woven on the loom very precisely in order to get the intended design. It is very much the same with these yarns. You have to knit them within certain parameters in order to get the designer's idea of what was the original intention for the yarn. Otherwise, you get 'clouds dragging across the sky'. Does this help?

Jody said...

Thank you ladies. I appreciate your comments. I have decided to EMBRACE the pooling! It took me three years to get through Algebra and I've obviously never looked back. On, on!

SusanB-knits said...

I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts that did that instead of striping. Kinda cool.
I think it does have something to do with gauge and how many you cast on to get them to stripe, but I end up messing it up when I do my heel so I just try to get both socks to match.