Some friends and I have been talking about where we draw the line on a pattern, you know, whether we'll knit it or not. It was hinted that my line is in the road in front of the funny farm, but we all have them. Here are some of mine:
-Lace short rows. There's no fucking way. Nothing in the world is cool enough to struggled through that. (Though I've done stranded colored short rows, and it was easier than I expected... hmmmm.)
-Charts. If it's complicated, I want a chart. Doesn't matter if it's color, lace, or texture. I want to know where I'm going and where I've been.
-Lots of seaming. This one's more of a grey area, but I feel that if I wanted to sew, I'd sew. I want to knit, not sew crap up. So the more seamless, the better.
Uh. Sadly, I think that's it. I'll wrestle almost anything else if I want it badly enough.
How about you guys? What makes you say 'hell no'?
18 comments:
Duplicate stitch. I don't want to embroider on my knitting. When I'm done, I'm done. I'd rather do it via intarsia or not at all.
Lines? What are these things called lines? If I like the product enough I'll knit it. I may have another project or two before I attempt it - like small projects to learn intarsia before I tackle the goal project - but I'll knit just about anything.
Perhaps my line is at evening gown?
Vague or ambiguous or just plain impossible directions in a pattern. I don't want to spend valuable knitting time guessing what the designer did when I've invested in a pattern to tell me that!
Hmm, where is my line? It's obviously not in the complex or extremely small direction.
I guess my line is more in the too easy and too quick direction.
I like a project I can sink my mental teeth into, and "scarf in an afternoon!" in bulky yarn just doesn't do it for me.
i was quite shocked to find out it's cheaper to buy cashmere than knit it yourself. so i guess price would be my sticking point. and i agree, i'm not sewing seams if i'm knitting. but that would be secondary. you can change a sew seam knitting pattern to a knit in the round if you are into math
I think intarsia would make me draw the line. My friend did a gorgeous Rowan sweater that made me weep with all the little bobbins. Nope. Not going there. (I'm thinking of the right thing, right?) I also don't like to sew, so as little as possible.
Trish
Pretty much anything goes, except stranded colour work done flat. STFU, Rowan!!
I am working on Patusha's My Heaven shawl - it's free on Ravelry. There are some short rows in the Shetland lace border and I didn't think it was bad at all (no purl rows even!)
I agree with you on seams. My favorite seamless sweater method is the one by Tuulia Samela at Knitlob's lair. It is excellent, and I can pretty much reverse engineer any set-in sleeve sweater with it.
Steeks scare the bejesus out of me just because there is no going back. I have never seen an intarsia project I liked enough to learn the technique for but I'm not ruling it out entirely.
I'm likely not to knit toys or doll clothes, or knitted flowers. Too many small pieces.
I agree with the charts for complicated designs. Much easier. I've been know to convert text to charts, just to make it easier for me.
I draw the line at a sweater that's too trendy. It's too much work for something that you'll only get a season's worth of wear.
Other than that, probably anything goes.
I'm lazy. I knit my own pattern because I know what I want. And I don't want any frickin' fiddlin lace.
And I am so with you on the seams issue.
Dunno, really. It depends where I'm at. I know I'm not in a place to concentrate on complicated Fair Isle type knitting, but I want to some day. If it's something I want to try, I go ahead and try it. I often don't know what I don't know until I'm already into it, figuring it out.
So far my line has been at 860 stitches in one round... and it took a lot of working up to get to doing a 70,000 stitch plus sweater.
I don't mind seams, but I'm pretty strict on things that won't look good on me. No skirts, no turtlenecks, no crewnecks.
I'll learn a skill so I can make something I want, but that doesn't mean I go right into it. I've been meaning to learn intarsia so I can knit my husband Tardis socks, but so far, I can't seem to get around to it.
The line I don't cross = steek!
Must have charts. Especially for lace, but really perfer charts for everything.
Toys, doll clothes, dog sweaters are a no go for me.
Intarsia in cotton, knitted back and forth.
If the project is right, I'll do seaming, steeking, some duplicate stitch .... I'll give most anything a try. That's not to say that I'll finish or do a good job, but I'll try. ; )
Well, I don't like blankets or anything endless like that. I recently did a project...which needs revamping...with triple-stranding, and it was loathesome to do. The result was beautiful, though, so I dunno....
I hate seaming, too. And intarsia..well, I have to be pretty motivated because it's so slow.
1. Sweaters: Just Not Interested in all that. I have three lovely sweaters that my Mom gave me, and I wear them once a year, if that. (It's just not that cold in Seattle.)
1a. Scarves: I get through a few repeats of the pattern, then want to shove knitting needles into my eyes because it will NEVER END.
2. Finishing: "After you seam and stuff each piece, attach the head, arms, legs and tail. Embroider the eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers. Duplicate-stitch some pink inside the ears. Embroider some stripes on each limb and down the spine ..." Hmmm, no. If I liked sewing, I would still sew.
3. "Bat-wing" sleeves: Not flattering to most of us.
4. Pantaloons: No. Just no.
Lace is frustrating but fun; i'd rather do that than cables. I'm on the fence about cables. My gauge is pretty tight on the needle, making cables an exercise in "why-not-relax," which makes me tense and tetchy.
I"m so glad that others enjoy the above! They do great work (and better them than me).
:-)
Gwyndolyn O'Shaughnessy (rav)
For me, it's futzing with structure-- if I can't figure out how it's made with a good look at the finished product, I'm outta there!
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