A bit of progress
May 3rd, 2004 at 5:00 am (hardangervidda, ingeborg)
I did however make some good progress on Hardangervidda. It’s coming along great now! 
I’m in the boring part where I just knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and … well you get the idea. Until the body measures 17 or so inches. At least it’s a totally mindless project for now.
I steeked my Ingeborg swatch, but I did it a bit backwards. After stupidly realizing my swatch wouldn’t fit over the sewing machine arm to stitch it in place before cutting, I decided to throw caution to the wind and cut first, then stitch (just so I wouldn’t have to worry about ends or being really careful with the swatch). Worked like a charm, and I didn’t even do any pre-steek-prayers or dances before doing it. Of course I knew this was only a swatch, so I wasn’t really even nervous about it. Here’s what it looks like cut open, then lightly misted with water and steamed with an iron:
It’s quite a sizeable swatch! I’m glad I did it though - and don’t feel that I wasted any time or yarn with this one. In addition to really letting me see what the colors will look like together, it gave me time to get used to doing two color knitting (one yarn in each hand) so I think I’m much more comfortable with it now than I was before I started. I think this helped when doing the 2nd color pattern on Hardangervidda as well. I know when it comes to cutting the real steeks on the real sweater, I’ll be much more nervous and measure a zillion times, but I have confidence that even if I just cut into the sweater without anchoring first it’ll stay put for a few minutes at least.
I have managed to aquire a Strickenfingerhut as seen on Kim’s blog. I haven’t tried it yet, as I got it right after I finished the borg swatch. I didn’t want to use it on Hardangervidda because I’m kind of in a groove with that right now doing the one yarn in each hand technique. I do wish I had this gadget for the one three color row I had to do; if I run into another three color row on the larger pattern I’ll give it a try.
Joann said,
May 3rd, 2004 at 7:09 am
Gorgeous sweater - you made a ton of progress since Saturday!
Mandella said,
May 3rd, 2004 at 2:10 pm
Hardangervidda is looking great Nancy. I think your steeked swatch is pretty cool too. I’m hoping to get a parcel from Bea Ellis sometime during the next couple of days containing my Heilo for Isfjorden.
No sign of sproglet yet then?