 This door has a secret panel in it . . . but where? I am quite pleased with the way my Quadrille turned out. I was 10 stitches short when I finished (wonder where that happened . . . ), but that doesn't seem to have caused a problem. The fit at the top is exactly what I envisioned. I changed the bind-off slightly so that the eyelets would be centered under the picots. The eyelet is formed with a five stitch repeat and the bind-off works two stitches of the previous row for each picot. I saw that this wasn't going to produce the effect I desired, so I bound off alternating numbers of stitches and the picots came out in little pairs. I could have made the picots themselves pointier by not knitting the first stitch of each before binding it off. But I think the little humps are charming and go with the circular cables perfectly.  I had a good time deciding what I wanted to do with the ribbon. I tied the front one into little ribbon roses, but nylon ribbon doesn't stay well in roses and I ended up stuffing most of them down the front of the bodice. I liked the back lacing shown in the book, but it took awhile to figure out how that was done.  I tried my Quadrille on the night before I took pictures so I could cut the ribbon to appropriate lengths. I had my daughter with me to help smooth, tug, and tie, and I missed her terribly when setting up for the photo shoot. This is not a piece to get dressed in by yourself if you can help it. Just saying.
My body is not a very good shape for a corset. I have a naturally small waist and ample hips, but my ribs are prominent and my bust is . . . not. I can't decide whether or not the circular cables help. But the piece is lovely and I will wear it proudly as a vest-like contraption as long as I have a willing assistant to smooth, tug, and tie!
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My Quadrille bodice is finally blocked and beribboned! I'm calling it Crawfish Quadrille after Alice in Wonderland's Lobster-Quadrille.
I enjoyed knitting it immensely, but will refer you to my Ravelry project page for important notes if you're considering working it up before the errata page is posted.
Quadrille Ribbon: Offray 7/8" Simply Sheer in Old Gold
Legacy Frock Coat Yarn: Rowan Purelife Renew in Digger (gift) and Manos del Uruguay wool clasica in 58 (purchase)
I've just returned from a lovely excursion to my father-in-law's birthday celebration. We were there for a few days, and I got a lot of knitting done. I knit while we sat and talked . . .   . . . and I was able to knit on the ride back. (I slept on the way there!)
The project pictured above is Valerie DiPietro's Quadrille, with only half a row of bind-off left to work. I may have cheated a little on this one without realizing it, because I ended up with 10 fewer stitches than I should have. This probably happened during the waist decreases and it made the knitting just fly by! I'm not disturbed about it though---the worst that can happen is that I have more of my shirt showing in back after I tie it. The one to the left is my own design, which I refer to as Dave's Socks because that is what they are. They have been languishing at the bottom of my knitting bag (I'm pretending to have only one knitting bag, but we all know better) but I have now nearly finished the leg of the second sock---nearly finished meaning in this case that I may in fact have finished it but I need to get out the tape measure to check. But all this productivity is second to the wonderful visiting I did with my husband's family. Folks gathered from five states (and an iPhone) to celebrate the day. I love these guys, and even the people I was just meeting for the first time felt like old friends. I showed two of my sisters-in-law the moves for My So-Called Scarf, and Nana gave her five daughters (including me) quilted bags. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some family photos to edit! I've been a bad girl.  There is knitting I should be working on, and it is not this corset.
But I'm so pleased with how it's going, and excited to get to the bust shaping that I can't seem to put it down. You may be interested in how this pattern graduated from Tabletop Knitting when it involves cables. The answer is two-fold: cabling without a cable needle, and pocket T's (plus a memory for charts---so maybe three-fold). I prefer the pocket T's to hold my dpn's---barely takes any extra time to just slide it into the pocket after working the cable! One drawback is forgetting it's there and going grocery shopping or kissing my husband with a weapon sticking out of my shirt. Or bending down and having it fall out or doing laundry and finding it in the washing machine. But these days I prefer it to cabling without a separate needle. I used to never use a cable needle. I would just knit the stitches in a different order. But that makes some stitch combinations a bit tricky. Meg Swansen advocates switching their positions first and then knitting them, but I hate having stitches off the needle. I don't always use grabby yarn for cables and even when I do I have problems with stitches escaping or splitting. That's why I hesitated to try the method linked in the paragraph above. Loose stitches! But there's a trick to it that makes it feel less risky. I pinch the live stitches so I have a little of them and a little of their mammas between my fingers. Then, careful not to stretch the fabric and pull the stitches out, I open them with the needle and slip them on. I use this technique when I don't want to be caught with a needle in my pocket, or don't really have time to get it out in the first place. Do you use cable needles? All the time, or just some of the time? Do you notice a difference in the way your cables look if you use a needle? Does this difference go away with blocking? My Quadrille is really flying off the needles now . . . when I get the chance to work on it, that is. It has graduated from a Tabletop Project (one that I work on exclusively at home because it requires concentration as well a table to put the charts on) to a Carrying Project (self-explanatory).  Look at all the pretty stitch markers! I didn't expect to use quite as many as the pattern called for, but I think they're all useful, so I only left off the first and last. Of the markers above, I find the pink and green to be the perfect size. The yellow are too large and floppy and the red and blue are too small.
Actually I think the red and blue should be a good size for these size 3 needles. They slip easily on their own. But I don't like slipping them separately---I prefer inserting my working needle into the marker as I'm finishing up the stitch as part of the same motion. It takes next to no extra time. The red and blue markers pop off the needle when I try this with them. Maybe people who dislike markers are using ones that are too small? I prefer rubber markers to loops of yarn. They're not as prone to slip over a different stitch or get knit into the garment. Plus, they make my hands smell like balloons!  I've made it through a full repeat of Quadrille's center cable chart (below right). This includes some of the waist shaping. It's going smoothly---very enjoyable knitting and great yarn. Something I've recently started to appreciate is the pacing of a design. I like this design's balance of reverse stockinette, cables, and seed stitch extremely well. As much as I'd love to have more time to work on this, I'm happy to be busy with my design work, so it all evens out.
Okay. I tried to upload this video yesterday, but found I was limited to 100MB and that's just not enough. It's about one minute of instruction! Video is a new thing for me and I personally prefer still photo tutorials, but I know many people appreciate a video. Apologies for the clanking sound (needle hitting tripod!), shakiness, and off-centeredness. I have a long way to go . . . And here's the swatch for Quadrille I neglected to show you in my review of Lightyears DK.
Gorgeous!
 A standard long-tail cast-on results in a nice row of purl bumps along the reverse side. Some years ago I figured out how to do a purled long-tail cast-on, where the purl bumps appear on the side facing the knitter. For Quadrille, which has ribbing immediately after the cast-on, I used alternating purl and standard cast-on stitches in the opposite order from the first row (purl for every knit, standard for every purl). When I turned to start the first row, the purl stitches appeared exactly where I wanted them. The alternating cast-on would be perfect for the cuffs of the Van Halen knee-highs, the mock turtleneck of the sleeveless Summer Party Top, the Meandros Hat or Mittens, or the Gecko Hat. A good tutorial of this technique can be found at Purlwise. |
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