Front Finished!

Finally--I finished the front and transferred the stitches to a spare needle today. It looks like the right size so I doubt I will need to add extra rows. It actually hasn't taken all that long, considering I'm working on about five other projects at the same time. I will cast on for the back tomorrow, when I'm fresh and alert, since that invisible cast on was not exactly easy. But maybe it will be easier the second time.

How's everybody doing? Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend!

Row 37

Here's what I've accomplished thus far.

I'm finished

Well I finished it. It doesn't look so good on the floor, especially with avacado green carpet which will hopefully be gone this summer. For obvious reasons I don't want to model it, but it does look better on because the lace pattern shows better when it is stretched out. I may change the laces to a smaller ribbon, but it is done for all intents and purposes. My DH is out of town until Wednesday so I was hoping to have it finished when he gets home. (I knit it all in secret so it'll be a surprise). And I did it.

Progress so far

That's the completed front of the hipsters. Yay! I love working with this yarn. When I saw how many vertical decreases were in the MPC pattern... I wasn't exactly looking forward to having to work so many of them. I remembered what a pain that particular decrease was in the Branching Out pattern, and that was only 2 of them every 10 rows. MPC has A LOT MORE of them. However, with the Fixation, they've been no problem at all.

The pattern has been so much fun so far!

How's It Going?

How's everybody doing? I'm up to Row 27. Here's a scan of how it's looking. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to run out of yarn. But it should be easy to get another ball if I need it. And if I only need a little more I can always frog my swatch.

How do you like the Cascade Fixation? It's my first time knitting with it and so far I like it--no problems at all.

I too have had difficulty with the cast on and losing stitches. I have frogged twice and I refuse to do it again. I'm on row 21 and still am having issues with finding too many or too few stitches on the RS row. I've decided i'm just going to make my own adjustments as I go along and hope the elasticity will save me.

Invisible Cast-on Woes

So I learned to do an invisible cast-on tonight. It took several tries, but I finally got the hang of it. I watched the video at KnittingHelp.com and tried to follow, but wasn't getting anywhere (which surprised me because usually her videos are a huge help). Then I pulled out Vogue Knitting and that was even less help. Last of all, I consulted Elizabeth's Zimmerman's Knitting without Tears, which, true to its title, showed me how to do it without shedding any tears! Something about her pictures and her explanation clicked with me.

Feeling all set and ready to get started, I cast on 95 stitches, I knit them, I stop to count . . . I only have 93. So I start over. Carefully cast on 95. Knit them. I count again. And again, there are only 93!!!

What am I doing wrong? This little exercise in futility hasn't made the migraine I've had for the past three days any better. Have any of you got any ideas how I'm losing 2 stitches? My only thought at the moment is to cast on 97, then knit as I have been, and with any luck I'll lose 2 again, which will bring me to the desired 95. It's so crazy, it just might work!

Gauge Question

I made a gauge swatch and now I/m trying to decide which size needle to use. The pattern says 26 stitches should measure 4 inches in stockinette (relaxed). I started with a US6 needle, as the pattern recommends, but my swatch was too big (4 1/2 inches). That's not surprising--I'm a loose knitter and nearly always have to go down a needle size or two. With a size 5 needle the swatch was just about 4 1/4 inches, and with a size 4 it was 4 1/8. Hmmm.

My gut says, this is a lace pattern, you don't want it to be too tightly knit, so go with the US5, especially since--for the bra, anyway--I am between two sizes. But size 4 needle puts me closer to the specified gauge.

I am leaning toward the size 5. This is such stretchy yarn, I'm not sure getting exact dimensions matters as much as with something like a sweater. What do you think?

So, fellow cabbages...

Am I the only dork who's been sitting around waiting to cast-on on May 1?

I cast on this afternoon, and am loving this yarn. The Fixation I got is "blueberry", and is somewhere in between a navy blue and a royal blue. I've never worked with an elastic yarn before, so it took a couple of rows to get used to it. I'm normally a pretty tight knitter, and the Fixation is forcing me to knit looser.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's progress!