Dear Kay,
Here we go: a frank-’n’-open, quick-’n’-dirty, warts-’n’-all rundown on what happened with the finishing of the Inside Outside Cowl.
In short: it is not as easy at it looks, people. I am drying semi-tears of relief with this just-finished accessory. Mohair and silk are not very absorbent, just saying. Never have I come so close to the limit of my ability to complete a project due to my own ineptitude.
You may call this technique “Kitchener” or “grafting.” I call it “I am going to finish this because I’m too stupid to stop and I think this is how people end up running marathons because they didn’t realize they could just stop and call an Uber.”
Here we are right about the time I got tired of graygreen and fiery redorange.
I had unearthed a sizeable cache of Rowan Kidsilk Haze nubbins, so I went with that.
This green! Love this green. And the burnt siena is a great color, any time you have the chance to plug it in. The red needed taming, or maybe I was just ready to move on.
To recap: the yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze—pay attention to that word haze. Sometimes foreshadowing is all too easy to miss.
The game here was to create an (apparently) seamless tube of stockinette. You finish your tube, making it double the width of what the finished cowl will be. You turn the tube inside out—halfway—which puts the last round right up next to the first round of provisionally cast on stitches.
You take a tapestry needle, about ten feet of Kidsilk Haze, and start stitching the two edges together in a way that creates a final row of unifying stockinette.
In other words, you are knitting with a sewing needle. We should all stop a moment and thank our lucky stars that somebody figured out a way to manufacture knitting that does not involve a sewing needle.
Look closely: here’s me neglecting to do a CRUCIAL THING RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT. Can you tell what it is?
I stitched and stitched. Kitchener is no harder than anything else in knitting except for two things: 1) undoing a mistake and 2) forgetting where you are in the four-stitch rhythm. Also 3) Kidsilk Haze kind of sucks as a yarn. I mean, it’s one of the great yarns. Except when you are knitting with it.
However much I suck at Kitchener, there is no mistake like the whopper of coming to the end of it all and discovering that your stitches are totally out of whack. I neglected to count the provisional stitches when I put them onto the needle for the grafting, and somehow I was six stitches shy of glory.
This is where I called a Uber. I had to lie down.
Finally, after yeoman’s labourings, fudging the crap out of the last twelve stitches in a way that I can’t believe even vaguely worked, there was a meeting of the rails, Union Pacific style, and I … was … done.
It was a gnarly mess, to be sure, but nothing that some yarn-yanking and general futzing couldn’t fix. Sort of. I eventually threaded the final ends onto my needle, stuck it into the middle of the now-sealed-up tube, and said FAREWELL, SUCKAS!
The lack of edges really does make this an interesting piece. You can hide the red inside, or you can make it stripey all sorts of ways.
She said, shuddering in a corner, cowl over head.
Love,
Ann
Oh, my!! For the first time EVER I actually want to make a cowl. I was brought up thinking that my neck was too skinny for a cowl but, after seeing yours, I don’t even care:-)
Ann, it is reassuring to know that these things can happen to you, one of the famous knitters. It makes us lowly regular knitters feel better when that kind of thing happen to us. (And you know it WILL happen.) Your “fudging” really worked because the cowl looks perfect!
What a pretty piece and if it weren’t for the fact that it is knit with Kidsilk Haze, I might give it a try. I hate knitting with the stuff. Knitting with it is like knitting with fluffy thread-yuck! You are a good fudger.
Funny, I call it “hairy dental floss”. Love the look, hate the process!
Totally worth your valiant effort. I especially like the two new colors added – I’m a sucker for a pop of acid green
I tried making an 86th birthday present for a dear family friend with kidsilk…. She is about to turn 91 and let’s just say she has nary a clue of my thoughtfulness. At the start of your cowl it crossed my mind that I could pull it out, but I’ve tucked that idea far away….. I wouldn’t mind making it to 91, either. I’m sure she’ll understand. (but the color Is perfect)
The last time I made a tube cowl with Kidsilk Haze, I BOUND OFF TOO TIGHTLY and it was unpleasantly tight. Love the look, HATE and FEAR using it. 🙂
Grafting that many stitches – in the round – with Kidsilk Haze?? With the words alone I knew nothing good would come of that. I’m impressed you escaped as cleanly as you did. And your results are making me consider attempting it, and I KNOW BETTER!
Yes, it’s an awful job. Churchill has a cowl/shawlish on the bias piece where you Kitchener on the bias at the end. I made the mistake of making two of them at once. The second one got a three needle bind off when I got out of order on the Kitchener. Fortunately that was mine. I have a picture of my daughter in hers on my Rav page.
That cowl is spectacular. But this: “it’s one of the great yarns. Except when you are knitting with it” — this is the most precise and perfect and hilarious sentence I’ve read all year.
This is my Winter of the UFO and I had not one, not two, but three UFOs on Kidsilk Haze. I nearly killed myself and trashed the yarn, but I did it, I finished them.
Congrats… I know what you went through. 🙂
The idea of grafting that many stitches in fuzzy yarn makes me feel a bit lightheaded. Kudos to you for (somehow) finishing it – really a lovely piece!
And this is why we say fuck it and do a three-needle bindoff. If necessary, purl a couple of rows along the way of encowling, so the bindoff looks deliberate. Haze covers a multitude of sins.
LOVE your attitude and “design decision”! I thought the same thing but did an I-cord bindoff to make it even more prominent. Yay, us!
I knit with KSH a lot. I designed a pattern with the yarn. My knitting group might have even staged an intervention for me about my KSH problem. But even I wouldn’t Kitchener with the stuff. You take knitting to new levels of danger and excitement!
When I first started knitting, I was smitten with a pattern in Rowan #36 (thanks, Ravelry, I would’ve never remembered that) for a pair of gloves knitted in Kid Silk Haze. Rowan, yeah–you know what that means. They were knitted flat and sewn together. GLOVES! FIVE FINGERS ON EACH! SEWN!
That was 2004. I was so excited. Although I knew my skill level wasn’t quite there, I went ahead and bought a ball of that very same green thinking that I would be ready for to tackle it eventually. You know. I still have that ball of KSH to this day.
Wow. Just…wow.
Considering that I have never actually completed a project wih KSH (although there are at least 2 in the UFO pile), I have quite the stash of it. It’s so pretty, but so scary! (And I’m thrilled to know that it’s not just me!)
I have fudged Kitchener on far, far easier yarns than Kidsilk Haze. I might need to have a little lie down at the thought of grafting KSH.
I just learned to kitchener on a tomten jacket I made for my daughter and while I loved the results, I was maybe too tired and ended up with an uneven stitch jumble. I managed to fudge it and it looked fine, but it should come with a warning label! Cannot undo! I was caught unawares. Yours looks great though! I made a looooong ruffle once in KSH, and I vowed never to knit with it again. Beautiful and unknittable.
Too often I discover I have mistakenly knit the Haze of the yarn instead of the Kidsilk.
That doesn’t work.
It’s beautiful, as I was sure it would be having seen the design and your work before. I might even try one having now seen that the cheater notes (the super secret hint to it all) is “fudging the crap out of it”, I feel like I could do this. I mean, I’ve been practicing that finish for years. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy looking at yours.
If it’s too painful a reminder of the torture you endured, I will be happy to take it off your hands. No, really… I would do that for you. 😉
” I meant to do that” the anthem cry of all master knitters.
Beautiful fudging job!!
I made a bolero out of a similar fuzzy yarn by GGH some years ago, and it mandated Kitchener up the center back. After 4 grafted stitches (and a harrowing hour and a half taking them out, with all my beautiful knitting still intact), I did a 3 needle bind off.
Been there, done that. Yours is GREAT!!!!
Beautiful! But OMG that much sewing! and I hope you don”t find it itchy.
Isn’t that a clever construction….I always wondered how those folded cowls came to be. And, you did it!
I am in awe of your patience. Truly your place in heaven is assured.
I would love to be able to run queries directly against the Rav database. I could find what yarn has the greatest number of projects in deep hibernation, or frogged, or marked as UGH. That would be some sort of nerd pinnacle, combining my love of knitting with my affection for data.
I visited the Promontory National Historic site last summer and saw a reenactment of the two trains meeting on the tracks. I bet if you zoomed in on that photo you would see all those cowboys wearing kid silk cowls, and you wouldn’t notice their kitchener skills, or lack thereof.
Beautiful work, as always. I too would prefer my knitting without sewing needles. Along those lines I discovered a grafting technique using knitting needles in the Techknitter’s blog. It is truly magical. You really are still doing Kitchener stitch but it seems SO much easier with knitting needles!
i was once making a project with a similar yarn, and it called for kitchener as well. Being a bit Type A about my finished works did not serve me well. The yarn snagged, did not distribute itself well, and on one frustrated tug, split in two. I bid it farewell, never to be seen again.
Shudder. The thought of undoing kid silk haze. Eek. Cowl looks great though! I love the green stripe.
Thank you for my morning laugh! Cowl is beautiful.
Your cowl is a thing of beauty — hope you’ll be able to see that in a few days or so after the PTSD fades. Have you seen this video? Completely transformed kitchener for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkW3kP7RZdk
Nice, Jolene. Somehow I had figured out to do that anyway (pivot the sewing needle and put it through the second stitch before pulling through) all on my own. (I’ve made hundreds of socks!) It’s nice to be affirmed!
Pretty sure I would have never figured that out on my own. I bow to your knitting smarts, Judy!
Meant to say…
The way this video makes it a 2-step process (not 4) completely transformed kitchener for me.
I have made it through the Kitchener on several pairs of socks, but it had to be done with no one around, and no distractions. I’m a pretty competent knitter, but whenever I do that it’s like I’m a beginner again. Congrats!
Thank you for writing this — you just saved my holiday season. You nearly led me astray with your earlier post about this cowl, so I was about to cast on for it, using leftovers of KSH’s equally evil twin, Fyberspates Cumulus. But now, no way. I feel like I just dodged a bullet, a soft, luminous, fluffy bullet.
I started a lovely KSH shawl with a coin pattern and a dropped rib. I put it in a UFO bag (about 15″ knit) and now cannot figure out where I am in the pattern. It may remain in the UFO bag for a very long time.
Whenever I finish a knitting project, I always stand back to look at it and think “If I saw this in a store, would I buy it?” The answer is almost always no (I really lack gauge), but your cowl? I would totally buy that!
I knit socks toes up with the magic loop so I don’t have to Kitchner. Three needle bind off saves the day!
I knitted a scarf with Kidsilk Haze once. Took me nearly a year because I hated knitting with it – that yarn is the devil to work with. The scarf is pretty – albeit a tad short, as I really was OVER the project before it was actually done – but I can barely bring myself to wear it because of the bad juju that came with knitting it. Quick tip: don’t knit with Kidsilk Haze in the summer – your body heat coming off of your hands will make it felt…argh!
That said, your cowl is beautiful. 🙂
I have a love-hate relationship with Kidsilk Haze. Like a chocolate martini, it seems like a good idea until you dive in. I was sorrynotsorry when a leftover ball got turned into a wild tangled mess by a playful puppy. I let it go.
In 2007, a pattern called Modern Quilt Wrap came out. It was made with KSH. It resembled a log cabin quilt pattern and being a quilter, I thought it would be fun to do. It required a lot of work as it used 8 or 9 different colors and the colors constantly changed in the pattern. I remember that was the year we drove to Orlando and I worked on that blessed thing in the car. Needless to say, I nearly lost my mind and almost gave up, but I persisted and finished it. It is a beautiful scarf and I’m proud of it, but wouldn’t knit it again for love or money!
Gorgeous piece of knitting!
Dare I ask whether you’ve had the courage to examine that endless row of red stitches to make sure that they’re all grafted? I mean, mis-grafted is fine fine fine. In that luminous mess, who’s to tell?
Just as long as all your knitted loops have at least one sewn loop through them!
Worst case scenario is you missed one that eventually causes a “run” which you discover after wearing it to meet the queen. Also you’re naked and your teeth fall out.
Catch that renegade now, before it runs! Sew a strand of kidsilk through any missed loop, then weave in the ends of your strand.
Katie
And now I need one. Not want. Need.
Meh. When I made mine, I used 2 colors, did a purl fold row and a 3-needle bindoff. http://www.ravelry.com/projects/ptarmigan/inside-outside-cowl-2
The cowl is merely reversible, but I love it.
It’s beautiful. I’m blaming YOU if I cast on for one.
minm
Gosh, I just call those glithces “The Backside” on my work!
Love your honesty! As my father would say, a blind man on a galloping horse would never notice your fudges and mistakes. Well done!
I am one who only looks at the Kidsilk Haze in the yarn store, and says, “Oooh, pretty.” And then I move on to the better-behaved yarns! I also don’t like Kitchener. I learned to knit socks toe-up (via Laura Chau’s Teach Yourself Visually: Sock Knitting) so as to avoid it. I have also not counted the stitches on my two needles correctly for both Kitchener and three-needle bind offs. I do three-needle whenever possible. I think of the seam as a way to tell where the back is!
I am in awe of your talent. I usually remember yarn names because I like the yarn, but with KSH I remember because I so thoroughly dislike it. I went online for hints on how to make using it easier, and one suggestion was to put it in the fridge before you work with it!! It is easily the most difficult yarn I have ever used, in 40-plus years of knitting. So…hats off to you, Ann.
Also? You two need to write another book. Please. One that talks about what to knit when you’ve knit everything and your stash is bigger than Steve and Kathy Elkins’ stash, and yet there’s nothing you want to knit. (This plea brought to you by 16 hats.) (That’s sixteen.) (A boodle, technically speaking.)
My sister, who is a non-knitter, fell in love with an ethereal little Kidsilk Haze scarf she saw while I was enlarging the old stash at Dublin Bay Knitting Co. in Portland. Naturally I had to knit her the scarf to thank her for letting me drag her to a yarn shop. That was my first (and hopefully, last) time knitting with KSH. The project got so many oohs and aahs from passers-by in the many, many months it took me to knit it, including plenty of people who thought I was crocheting (not yarny types, basically), but to quote Franklin Habit, it was like a diamond-studded toilet seat: extremely pretty, but a real pain in the bum. 😉
Love this cowl…even though it drove you crazy! Before I go down this rabbit hole (because I KNOW I’ll make a mistake and will have to frog some of it), I called Churchmouse Yarns (it amazes me that they always answer their phones with a smile in their voices!). I said I recalled reading somewhere about placing kidsilk in the freezer. Have all my brain cells deteriorated or is this really true? The answer: put the yarn in the freezer only if/when you have to rip stitches out. The freezing separates the stitches from each other and you can rip out more easily…just sayin’! Hope this helps someone in blog land from pulling his/her hair out! Happy Holidays!
taught myself toe up socks just because i cant stand Kitchener.
Never had the inkling to knit with KSH – all the tales told were enough to dampen my interest. too many other well behaved yarns and too short a life to knit them
Best comments ever. You all, seriously. So hilarious. 🙂
I couldn’t even imagine knitting that much KSH, forget grafting it. Until now. Curses…
3NBO FTW. I know I can kitchener, but I always have to look it up, so I just use 3 needle bind off. Not on sock toes, though. I just decrease to about 8 sts and run the yarn through and pull.
But this post made me laugh out loud several times. I’m laughing WITH you, not AT you. The picture of the railroad meeting? Priceless! Thanks for a perfect post.
It’s beautiful. And I also love and hate Kidsilk Haze.
Thought the project and the yarn looked great till I read your harrowing story. Abandon this project all ye who enter here!!
The yarn is so gorgeous though.