Trauma and Triumph in a Work In Progress orAnything for Kim

Poor Kim. The woman is afeared that blog posts about WIPs are obsolete. The new trend is to knit in secret and TADA! post a finished object, surprising friend and foe alike with a creation that seemingly materialized from thin air, or invisible needles. So, just for Kim, I present my current work in progress:

Time to start the colorwork!

That Kim though, just showing a work in progress is not enough for her, oh no. She wants drama, she wants mistakes, she wants sweat, tears and probably some blood. She wants to live virtually through traumas and triumphs (she calls them failures and successes, I'm using a creative license here, deal). Well, I am not sure that this is what she has in mind, but here we go.

When I first started this sweater I cast on the required number of stitches (well, not exactly. I had to add a few for a steek as I am working it in the round and not back and forth as the pattern instructs), knit the first row in the contrast color in twisted rib (k1tbl, p1), switched to the main color and continued in the rib as established. This is an example of what I got.

See the unsightly purl bumps?
The cellulite of ribbing!

Ewwww. Unsightly purl bumps! Icky and not pretty. (And I will have you know right now that I took no pics of that original knitting. I knit the swatch just for Kim. All so I could show her my trauma and my triumph. Who loves you, girl?) This is a mistake I should not have made. The minute I finished the second row in the main color I could see how ugly it was and how I could not live with it. I remembered that the icky bumps could be eliminated by knitting (not ribbing) across the first row in the new color. So in twisted rib in the round I k1tbl, k1 across the row and in the next row resumed k1tbl, p1. When working in twisted rib on the flat the second row would be worked on the wrong side p1tbl the purls and purl the knits. Of course this would work just the same if the rib were not twisted.

Ooooh, pretty fix.
The liposuction of ribbing.

Here they are side by side:

And if you are really interested, look at the inside.

Okay Kim. Progress, Check. Trauma (sort of), check. Triumph, check! No blood this time, but I'll work on it.

November 18, 2007.  Progress, not completed.

Comments

[margene]

Oh yes...show the WIPs, show how we whip the WIPs into shape and they take forever to finish! It's all about the knitting, eh? If I didn't blog the WIPs and the failures...I'd be blogging only rare occasions. That sweater is going to be very cool.

[Norma]

Wow! I've always wondered why my striped ribbed items looked so crappy and everyone else's looked great. Now I know. But I am SURE not to remember the next time I'm doing it.

[Kim]

Hahaha........should I hug you or slap you? LOL!! Good thing I love you grrl...:-)

[Debi]

Now knitting is fat too?? Sheesh!

Seriously, love the fix (and the metaphor, heh)

[Cheryl]

You people are getting a little too weird for me.

[Lark]

Great posts this month. Too bad there's only 12 days left. Loved the fat metaphor on the fix. And Kim really is just trying to prime you for December 1st, when you haven't committed to post to us, but we hope you will! Blue skies!

[Beth S.]

This was both instructive and very, very funny. ;-)

[Laurie]

There was blood there, I saw it.