Category: project – Tesla

Tesla…

She’s finally done! Despite all the trials and tribulations, and the fact that I lost my
knitting mojo for a little while there (not her fault really) I absolutely love
her.

“Gee, it’s a little
chilly out here, got to keep moving”

She is not as fitted as the original pattern, as, well, to
be blunt, she is heavy and floppy and not good on structure. As I mentioned previously she tends to flow
wherever possible and must be constrained by strict tight edges. A good many decreases and much shaping
through the waist was required just to get this straight shape. However the sweater is comfortable to wear and looks nice, and best of all, I feel nice wearing it.

 

DETAILS:

Yarn: Tesla from Art
Fibers in

San Francisco

, 18 skeins

Pattern: Adrienne
Vittadini Book 25 Pattern #3, garter stitch pullover

Needle size 7; 19 stitches and 33 rows to 4" in garter stitch.

Body and sleeves knitted in round attached then attached and
knit as one piece to the neck. The only
seams were small seams at the underarm join.

 

The neckline was finished by binding off with Tesla and

Plymouth

’s
Suri Merino held together followed by one row of single crochet.

Detail of yarn colors for neck edge: The reflection of light off the snow makes
Tesla look a little pinker than it appears to the eye, but the reflection also
picks up the pinks in the Suri Merino as well.

 

Thank you Claudia for inspiration, ideas, and help with this sweater.  Without Claudia’s advice and experience I would probably not have knit this sweater in the round and might have been more reluctant to try the smaller needles.  Although Claudia’s Tesla really a totally different kind of sweater than mine, and absolutely gorgeous, I don’t think I would have worn a sweater out of the fabric I initially got on the recommended needles.  I would have been tangled up in it the first time I wore it, being an incredibly clumsy clutsy sort, and I probably would have to have been extracted with wire cutters and pliers.  I am quite happy with the (different) sweater I got.

Despite my best intentions I did not finish Tesla by Friday night (I had told the ladies at Knitting Group I would).  I came very close, but fell asleep in my knitting chair with only 3 1/2 rows to go.  I made up for this by leaping out of bed at 5 AM, having been rousted by knitting dreams, and finishing before dawn.  After knitting the last row I slipped the stitches onto a piece of yarn for a try-on before binding off;  a good thing too, as it appears
there is still more work to do.

As you may recall this sweater was for a rather wide boat neck, which might be fine in a wool with more elasticity and the possibility of  a firmer bind-off.  Tesla however wants to flow amoeba like wherever possible.  I quickly realized that this sweater would have to be either so tight that it would be a struggle to get into, or it would skim the body rather loosely.  There is actually a lot of shaping in the waist, about 5 inches total, but it only appears to keep the sweater from bulging out between sleeves and hem.

But back to the neckline:

The sweater is much like the original pattern, shown here  except that it does not stay up or in place.  Looking at this piece of knitting, I realize that there is no way I can use any bind-off I know and leave it as a finished neckline.   I like the idea of using a coordinating yarn as a drawstring, like in my temporary try-on photo above, and then perhaps picking up an edge row from that.  This would also allow me to firm up the structure of the neckline, as Tesla is not good at structure on its own.

But first I have much more knitting and quite a few more decreases and shaping to accomplish.  I think I will have to guesstimate my way through this.  I have a good idea how to start.  Then I will just knit a few rows and do another try-on until done.  Perhaps I better see if I have longer circulars, so I don’t have to keep transferring the sweater on and off the circulars.  Of course then the neckline will just flop all over the place….

Yesterday was one of those frustrating days where everything seems to take much longer than it should.  Gym.  Several errands.  Hours on the road and in just a couple of stores, stupidity, incompetence, lack of sales help on the floor, all of these things did nothing to improve my mood.  And it’s not even Christmas season yet…thank goodness I had Tesla with me so I could knit even a little bit while I stood in line, far better than rolling my eyes, looking at the ceiling and starting to rearrange the displays next to the registers.

It’s not that I am impatient; well that is patently not true.  I can be patient, but I have to feel like I am in control.  This is not necessarily possible in the world of retail.

When I got home, far later than I had planned, I just had time to wolf down some yogurt and start preparing dinner before going off to knitting group.  I anticipated that George would be home late, after 10, so I contemplated putting off starting the dinner until I returned, but knew that if I did so he would have an inexplicably light day and be waiting for me when I arrived. 

Even this, cooking a simple beloved dish, was a lesson in frustration.Still more delays occurred.  I was planning to cook Squid in Red Wine which requires about an hour of simmering.  I quickly minced a nice Spanish onion and several garlic cloves and got the onion started in the olive oil.  Then I opened the wine.  I had planned on using a nice Alion Ribera del Duero, 1995.   We had been working our way through this wine of late and it has been quite lovely.  I had one bottle up in the house.  I opened it, took a sip, and spat it into the sink.  This was followed by extremely foul language.  The wine had corked. As there was no other red wine upstairs in the house this meant I had to go down to the crawl space that we call basement and wine cellar and crawl around the cases of wine trying to find something appropriate.   Yet again, I found myself cursing myself for not building those wine storage shelves down there, knowing full well that the reason I keep putting it off is that I had crawling around and the thought of sitting on the bare rock ledge building shelves in a place I can’t even stand up is also fully unappealing. 

I found a Domaine Tempier Bandol 2000, pretty quickly in fact, and rather than look further, I quickly retreated to the kitchen.  I had a slightly larger package of squid than I had used in the past so it took most of the bottle.  This was a treat as it meant that I could relax with a half-glass of wine before Alexine picked me up for knitting.

We opened the second bottle with dinner.

Time spent at knitting group proved productive for Tesla and she is progressing nicely.  I continue to switch back and forth between left-handed and right-handed carrying, fully aware that this may not be wise, but I still can’t discern any difference in my gauge.  In the stores it depended on my mood.  Initially at group I knit with the yarn in the right as I found the combination of conversation and left-handed carrying too confusing.  Eventually, as I sat around looking at how everyone knit, I noticed that Leslie carries her yarn in the left and holds it in a way that I had not considered.  After a little finagling with the yarn I eventually found a nice tension and was able to finally eliminate my penchant for laddering at the joins between the double points when using the left-handed carry.  I have been knitting with the yarn in the left ever since.  Ahh, peace at last.

I don’t know that I will always knit this way on all projects.  It may depend on the other techniques being used.  For example I really want to knit Rogue but as it is knit at least partly in the round, I will have to use Western Knitting.  I don’t like knitting through the front loop and carrying the yarn in the left, so I will probably work right handed for that.

I am also getting bored with having only one project.  I have tried to be faithful, but it is proving difficult.  Simultaneous projects will be starting soon, including socks, if the sock yarn ever arrives.

After casting on for Tesla’s second sleeve and knitting the ribbing, I got a crazy idea which has proved quite entertaining but slow for knitting.

Can you tell the difference??

They were not knit the same way.

I have always knit carrying the yarn in my right hand – English style.  I did learn to carry in both for FairIsle knitting and it is a useful technique but I had always considered myself too strongly right-hand dominant to learn to carry with the left regularly.    A post from Jessica the other day got me started questioning these assumptions and was overwhelmed with the urge to try carrying with the left. 

Some background. 

I am basically a self taught knitter.  I remember my grandmother and mother knitting and they may have tried to teach me, but it never took.  In my early 30s I picked up Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting without Tears, bought some yarn, and started.  Initially I knit in the method I now know to be the combination method, knitting through the back loop, wrapping the yarn counter-clockwise, and purling through the front loop, wrapping the yarn clockwise.  This seemed like a logical way to knit and the stitches looked normal to me.  I realize that this is not how E. Zimmerman illustrated knitting.  I think my grandmother may have knitted this way, but I do not remember. 

Later, when I attended a knitting seminar I was told that I was knitting incorrectly, and being naive and new to knitting, I believed the instructor and learned to knit in the Western fashion, which I continued for almost 10  years.  This did not seem as natural to me but it worked and I was a fairly slow but prolific knitter anyway.  When I learned to do 2 handed 2 color knitting I was knitting Western and although I could use the technique it never felt all that natural.  I had to re-learn it each time I started a new project.  I then learned to carry two colors in the same hand which worked a little better.

About 5 years ago, in the summer of 2000, there was an article in Interweave Knits which described my natural method of knitting as Combination Knitting.  I felt validated, but did not immediately switch back.  That winter was the first winter that the arthritis in my hand started acting up and one day, quite unintentionally actually, I picked up my knitting in started working in the combination method.  My intention to do this had probably been lurking in my subconscious and only my stiff joints coaxed it out into daylight.  I was immediately hooked.  For me, this was faster, very relaxing on the hands, and even made my arthritic fingers feel better and move more easily. 

But I still carried my yarn in the right hand, the left serving only to hold the needle.  When Jessica wrote about how dominantly right-handed she was and how useless was her left, she reminded me of myself.  But she continued to say she knit continental and the yarn was carried in the left, which only held the yarn.    Hmmm… I always thought knitting continental was harder on the left hand because I couldn’t figure out how to hold the yarn and the needle and move the stitches forward without creating a tangle of dropped stitches.

Time to rethink my knitting…

Actually this has worked very well even if slowly.  The way I knit lends itself very easily to carrying the yarn in the left and picking up the stitch with the right needle.  It may be faster once I master the technique.  It took me a little bit to maintain tension, and I still have a little trouble holding yarn and needle occasionally, but that could be partly the thick and thin nature of Tesla and the fact that I am working on double pointed needles at the moment.  This probably was not the easiest project on which to change my knitting style.  But then I have never been one to necessarily take the easy road.  My first knitting project was, after all a mohair sweater.

Although I am still slower using this method rather than my old one, although only marginally at this point, I think I like it better.  It seems more logical and natural when actually knitting.  My left hand is still a little clumsy.  At this point I can’t imagine being able to do this in the dark without looking, but I felt the same way about knitting in general when I started.  I suspect that as I grow more accustomed to the technique I will be able to do it by feel very well, perhaps even better than before. 

So far my gauge does not seem to be significantly different, but I only have about 3 “ of the second sleeve completed so it is still hard to tell.  Something may end up being re-knit.  In the meantime however, I am having lots of fun.

The past couple of days I have been obsessed with finishing the body portion of Tesla.  I love the yarn, I love the knitted fabric even if it is not as open and metallic as the original sample at ArtFibers (I am knitting at a much tighter gauge after all) but I hate knitting this big lump of garter-stitch body in the round.  At 4 3/4 stitches per inch I wouldn’t think that each row would be so onerous, but going around the body instead of just front and back is a pain.  I am getting more than the original estimate of 33 rows per 4 inches as measured on my swatch however; in the actual garment I am coming in closer to 37 to 38 rows to 4 inches and they take forever.

I must face the fact that in the normal course of knitting I don’t mind seaming and I like looking at the flat piece.  I can see where I am, I can eyeball the shape and tell how it is going fit-wise.  This round thing just looks like a lump to me.  It is a pain to take it off the needle, put it on yarn or thread, and try it on.  I suppose I could use a longer circular needle so I could try it on the needles, but I hate having extra needle looping around in my lap while I knit.  Who knew that I would become such a pig-headed obstinate knitter?  Still this fabric would be a total pain to seam and I am happy knitting it in the round.  I just can’t wait to get to the sleeves which are smaller and have shapping, besides which I will knit them on DPs which is more interesting to begin with.  The yoke, where I join all the pieces will also be interesting.  I just had to finish knitting the boring body.

Tuesday night after Group, I was determined to get the body finished.  I had 2 inches to go, and you would not think that would take too long, would you?  Well I get 2 to 3 rows done per half hour, do the math.  I suppose I truly am a slow knitter. 

There was some interest however as I had added some waist shaping, not originally called for in the pattern, but who cares about that, and so I had to add it back before the sleeves were attached.  I came within about two rows last night when I went to bed because the husband would be a grumblebug today if I kept him up to long, and I got up early and snuck away early this morning to finish.

It doesn’t look like much does it?  But I was so happy I was dancing around the kitchen floor making breakfast this morning. 

I should get the sleeves started this weekend, not tonight, as I don’t want to take this project to knit on Metro North when I am tired after the concert.  The socks will go to Manhattan with me today.

As you might have surmised I have been having niggling little doubts about Tesla although I haven’t come right out and said so; the evidence is present in my constant natter about the fabric and how it looks, feels, etc.

The background is such: I fell in love with Tesla at ArtFibers partly because it looked neat on the skein and I loved the IDEA of it, stainless steel with cotton nubs.  I also loved the look of the knitted swatch even though I did think the gauge was a little loose in the store as well.  I was attracted to the flexible, open, but still chain-mail meets hippy fiberness of it and it was precisely this juxtaposition that really caught my fancy.

However, when I got it home and knitted the swatch I found that I couldn’t really with live with knitting that fiber at that gauge.  It was too loosey goosey for me, too floppy.  I hated knitting it and I didn’t have much faith that I would enjoy wearing it.  Remember I am the kind of person that snags everything, Clutzina herself, a walking mess.  If a fabric can be caught, pulled, or snagged I will do it.  Hence, I tend to like my knitting on the tight and firm side.  Oh, not so tight as to be stiff, I like drape, but I go for more of a structured drape than a lose, flowy, laid-back kind of look.

That doesn’t mean I am not attracted to the more shiny, brilliant and unusual offerings out there – I did after grow up in surrounded by a family of outgoing, smart, witty, brilliant people, a group in which I am the shy, dull button. I can’t, at this point in my life, make any pretense that I am suddenly going to become clever, cool, or hip.   That doesn’t keep me from liking to be around the bright lights, just not in them.

So back to Tesla.  Claudia commented that the fabric is nice but different, key word different, at the smaller gauge.   Now, if you look at Claudia’s Tesla you will see the wonderful open steely nature of this yarn as it is meant to be.  My Tesla is not like that, it is denser.  In Claudia’s sweater the stainless steel is the star and in mine it is more the supporting player.  Still important but not the dominant characteristic.  Still, I like the fabric, I will wear the sweater, but I still have those niggling doubts.  It is different, I know it is different.  My doubts weren’t brought about by the comment, but my own uneasiness, my own doubts that were simmering silently under the surface.  I have done this before, subverted a yarn’s basic nature into something else, bending it to my will, sometimes quite successfully, other times with less than stellar results.

I still wonder. But then I look at the original gauge swatch (I tend to save all those little things) and play with it a little then throw it back in the pile and shudder, it really does not affect me in a nice way.    If I have extra yarn I might make a scarf at a looser gauge, I might be able to handle that without strangling myself when I get something snagged running through the subway. 

I wonder if I have subverted the nature of Tesla, taken a wild funky girl and chained her to a boring desk job, or have I just provided a structure in which she can shine?.  Only time will tell.

As usual, my mental image of what I could accomplish in a weekend and the actual output did not even begin to compare.  I always seem to start out with great plans, as if I have some kind of unrealistic expectations of what I can do in a given period of time.  I wanted to get Posh sewn and basted together, check the fit on the first sleeve, and hopefully start the last sleeve.  Of course I wanted to work on Tesla as well and do a little sewing.    Posh is still neatly folded next to my knitting chair, waiting to be assembled.  I cut a garment out to be sewed, and otherwise zippo, nada, nothing, zilch on the creative front.

Of course other things were going on:  I spent time with my honey, and I suppose that is the primary purpose of the weekend anyway, we certainly don’t usually get to see a lot of each other during the work week.  I did get about half the irises transferred from their temporary holding bed in the vegetable garden to the new front flower bed (iris bed).  The poppies and daffodil bulbs arrived on Friday evening so I also managed to get them planted in the same flower bed.  I am waiting for lilies, tulips, and rock-garden iris for the shallow area along the ledge on one side.  I usually order my tulip bulbs from a nursery rather than buying them locally because I seem to get significantly bigger flowers.  I am a glutton for big beautiful tulips and I love to put them in bowls to overflowing and bring them in the house every spring.  I buy my tulips based on what color combinations I want in the bowls and vases and how long I can extend the cut tulip season.

The bulbs weren’t all planted until Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon was already slated for another trip to Pittsfileld, as are the next two Sundays as well, for our annual September chamber music series.  This time I drove up and the sweetie drove back so I only got in half the knitting time, but it was a beautiful day for a drive, there is a good bit more red in the trees, especially as we get closer to the Berkshires.  The arthritis in my hands, especially the right, has been acting up lately, and as it is primarily in my fingers at the moment, knitting has been slow.  It doesn’t stop me, just slows me down a little, especially manipulating the needle around the little wire loops of Tesla.  Still, the arthritis is still more of an intermittent thing than it is a constant annoyance, I know it is there, but I shall continue to ignore it for a little while longer at least.

Tesla is coming along beautifully, if slowly.  I had initially worried that I would loose the stainless steel effect at the smaller gauge I am using but it is turning out quite nicely.  You see the wire and the cotton slubs and the fabric has a nice texture and drape and a nice firm, almost scrunchy yet still soft, hand with some body.  It is not as stretchy as some knits so I will have to double check the fit as I go along, which reminds me that I should do that soon, perhaps at the end of the next skein.  I am about three-quarters through the third skein and I have about 4 inches of the body done, so I am definitely glad that I ordered the extra yarn.  We have yet to see whose calculations are correct, mine, or Artfibers when I called them up and the recalculated the yardage at my gauge.   There is about a 5 skein difference in the two calculations so I think I will find this very interesting.

And wonder of wonders, I learned today that there is indeed pink or purple in the yarn.  The trusty old Ott Light was right (see previous photo).  When I had the yarn out in sunlight today I could see the pink, it is more subtle than in the photo in my sewing room at night under lights, but it is there, and it intensifies if placed next to anything in the pink-purple range.  This is really cool.  I think I like metallic gray with subtle pink tones even more than plain gray.

I went up to Red Hook to Bead@Spring today to look for beads for Charm.  I started to get beads for this sweater shortly after I purchased the Rowan 4 cotton glace, but then got bogged down and shoved it aside.  My first foray into bead shopping was at BeadsONFifth when I was in NYC with Mary in early July.  Although it was a nice bead shop, I had trouble finding anything I wanted for this sweater and I spent a long time.  I finally came up with some tiny delica seed beads in two colors and some large dusky amethyst colored beads, which might be a lttle large, but which really look nice with the yarn.  Then I was stumped.  The beads were thrown in a corner, along with Charm, where they sat, taunting me, ever since.

Each time I would drive through or by Red Hook I would be reminded that someone told me the bead shop there was really nice, and I would be determined to bring my yarn next time.  Well, you know how it is, next time just never materialized.  This week I was determined to get those beads ready, especially since I intentionally left this sweater out on the stack to be completed soon, rather than retiring it until next spring.

Today I finally managed to get my act together.  I spent about an hour and a half, looking through the beads, counting out beads and generally making a decision.  The original Rowan pattern calls for 4 types of beads (two of which are pearls) and charms.  I couldn’t find enough of some of the beads I liked so I am using a greater variety of beads in smaller quantities each.  There will be no charms in my charm.  I haven’t found anything that I liked,  nonetheless I am really excited about the possibilities now and think the final result will be quite charming.  (Ain’t I just terrible?)

The colors aren’t nearly as vibrant in the photo as they are in real life.  Now I am eager to get started, although I know I will curse the day I said that once I get going on this sweater.  Most of the sweater is knit in plain old stockinette and I will rue this decision.

At any rate, I have to finish Posh or Tesla first, and hopefully finish Wine&Roses as well.

And speaking of Tesla, she is progressing again.  I was much more careful getting started this time, knitting on the table where I could see it, and I did the cast-on and first two rows at knitting group where Alexine could very kindly spot me. 

I wonder where that pinkish tint has come from — it must be a reflection off Wine&Roses which is sitting just outside the photo.