Sweet spot update

[redhedlvr2]

I've spent the last week knitting my wee knitterly fingers to the bone it seems.  And although I'm going to chalk this past week up to progress, I do have to say I have nothing to show for my efforts.  It has become obvious to me that HALF of the sock yarn I bought last week will not produce the incredible stacking and pooling effects that this afghan requires.

To be more specific, I started with this yarn.  The colors in this pic aren't true at all.  I find the yarn itself to be very pretty and will save for another SOCK yarn afghan I've been seeing around.  But for this project, it's just not working out.  And on the subject, tell me, what kind of masochist knits an afghan out of sock yarn anyway?

Here's the lowdown.  With a #2 needle, I cast on 64 stitches and worked the pattern, which is extremely easy and the swatch worked up quickly.  It did become apparent after about an inch that the desired pattern wasn't working so, as per the directions, I first increased by two stitches, knit for another inch, increased two more, knit for an inch.  Nadda.  I frogged the whole thing and repeated with a #1 needle.  Still no joy.  At that point, I ripped the whole thing out again and cast on with only 54 stitches, wash, rinse repeat as above.

My conclusion is this.  Sock yarn that will produce a "wider" solid stripe with jacquard patterning will not work.  It is possible that I have not hit the sweet spot, but I believe the nature of that thicker/wider stripe won't allow for the zig-zagging pattern that was intended.

Did I mention that I don't own any straight knitting needles other than double points?  Have I also mentioned that 64 stitches is too long to hold safely on a double point without some stitches falling off the back side?  My solution?  I rooted around in the kitchen junk drawer searching for a rubber band I could cut in half and wrap around the needles as sort of a point protector.  No rubber bands were in the drawer but there was an unopened pair of squishy ear plugs that I jammed onto the ends and have worked quite well.

The things we do for our craft, right?

I sent this from my phone to my yahoo email because for some reason I couldn't get it to go to my gmail email.  See what I mean?

Comments

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Ugh, it always sucks when you have to buy more stuff to complete a project. :( But that is an amazing afghan.

And yes, we all do crazy things for our craft. I can't wait to see pictures. ;) (I promise even to post pics of my nascent imperial officer uniform if you post pictures of the awesome knitting!)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oooo! I love pictures. However, this is one area where I just totally fail. The only camera I have is on my phone and I can't seem to figure out how to get the pics out of my phone and here to LJ.

On a non-crafty note, I put in that trouble ticket about my operative's missing chuckle. The response droid sent me an email directing me to the patch notes and basically told me to bugger off. But in nicer words. We Agents and Smugglers need to band together and get our laugh back!

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Awww...you obviously need a new camera. Oh well. I will hope. ;)

I'm sorry to hear about the response. But I put in a ticket on my operative, too, hoping that someday he will get a chuckle. It can't hurt, right? I mean, if they get a thousand complaints, maybe they'll consider letting us have it back. :(

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

That's my thought also. We can wear them down, I know we can!

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Yes! Once they realize that every operative and soundral is in mourning over the loss of the giggle, they'll have to give it back. Right? Right? It's so easy! It doesn't even throw off PVP or PVE balance! (I mean, seriously, that nerf was so unfair as operatives sucked even pre-nerf. But then to take the giggle? Why must they hate my operative so? Why! Quixotic is nice. He just wants to be loved...)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

OMG! I just realized that operative are going to be WoW's paladins. You know how they're always nerfing or making complete skill set changes to pallies! Now that's a scary thought as that's one reason I left Wow.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that they're really pallys. I mean, if they were that, they could tank too. *sigh* (And pallies spent a lot of their time being OP.) It's not a great comparison, unlike Marksmen and Fire Mages. (I can actually match the skills on the sniper tree to those on the mage tree. It's...kind of scary. The rotation is even similar!) But, yeah, I'm very sad that the game seems to hate ops. Like, I'm cool with snipers dying a lot. That's what they do! I couldn't be a good fire mage if I didn't die all the time. (Plus, the story line is...so fire mage. Which amuses me to no end.) But operatives seriously need some love.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

I didn't state that very well at all. What I MEANT to say is that I hope Bioware does not treat the agents/smuggler (operatives specifically) as Blizzard has treated paladins. I didn't play one (pally) for the longest time because I didn't understand it. Then I read up on it and gave it a try. Turns out I loved the class and then Blizzard went and changed everything. I can't even tell you at this point which patch/expac it might have been because they just keep doing it over and over. It would be a shame to see Bioware go down that road, yanno? That's all I meant.

One thing I will say, is I sure do miss protector of the innocent (I think that was the talent that would heal you whenever you healed someone else? I think?) when I start taking damage as an op. I really do love it though and am fighting with myself over whether to make my new female IA an op or not.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hope that operatives don't get treated like paladins with frequent playstyle changes. (Although the same goes for all classes.) I sort of like getting into a nice little routine with my character. Having to change up my rotation on a regular basis sucks. :(

Oooh, yeah, the self healing talent was awesome for pallies. They also had such lovely flash heals. And the bubble! But, yeah, I'm having fun with op so far. I think I prefer pure firey damage at the moment, but that's mostly because my preferences go range damaged > healing > tanking > melee damage, so op kind of scares me. Oh well. I keep debating another agent, as I sort of want one who is evil and human (so he can sleep with everyone. I feel sort of half-cheated/half-relieved over being unable to seduce Samara as a chiss op!). But, no, no, must get the smuggler and operative and everyone else leveled first. *sigh*

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Go darkside human/cyborg. Male because the voice actor's voice is tailor made for that part. Just yummy!

I was afraid at first too. I have always like healing although I've never been a great healer, so it was a bit daunting at first. Also I'd never played a rogue before, which is what playing an operative is like. It's been great fun so far, but I want to try something a little different next time around.

When I was playing my smuggler>gunslinger, I got very tired of always having to roll into cover. Plus I seemed to be dieing quite a bit. So I was either not playing right, or the class just wasn't for me. Who knows.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

IDK. I'm really liking the VA as a lightsider, to be honest. It's kind of hilarious in that the character really comes off as being slightly needy and just not quite getting why he is stuck dealing with so much abuse (although he keeps coming back for more, so I suspect he secretly likes it). The character feels like one of those dogs who keeps coming up to people who hate dogs and wagging its tail, with a look on its face that says, "I know you hate dogs, but if you only knew how awesome we were, you'd love us. And I am the one who will show you the way!" Poor Quixotic. He is in for some major disappointments.

But, yeah, being a really nasty human seems pretty entertaining. (Plus, I've already decided that humans are the jerk race of Star Wars, so am letting all my evil characters be human, which is great fun.)

I was always an okay healer, but I find DPS to be so much more fun. Just melee scares me for some reason. Unsure why, seeing as I've played melee DPS both in games and table top just...IDK. I think if I'm getting up close and personal with something that can kill me, I want to be wearing armor!

Cover is kind of a finicky mechanism. I find it great fun, but there are definitely some "Oh $#@!" moments. And gunslingers/snipers do die a lot. It's something one has to accept when playing a glass canon. (Like, if you don't set up the encounter just right, you die. It is what it is.) I kind of wish that death penalties were lighter for super squishy classes when they weren't in raids. It sucks to be like, "Damn, I missed a pat. Oh well...7K repair bill." on Mutive. Oh well. I guess the good thing about the companions is that I can often leave them to die. (Although I suspect that Lokin hates my guts. Oh well. When he respects/loves me better than the Minister of Intelligence, I'll stop leaving him to die. WE TOTALLY HAVE A DEAL.)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

When the going gets tough, I haul ass outta town. Hee he And Corso just was NOT helping matters. That boy and I need a long talk.

I agree with the setting up the encounter thing too. I'll know as soon as the first shot is fired. At least as a healer I have the option to drop out of actual combat and heal my companion. Also the stuns are very nice. I have two that I use all the time, but don't use flash grenade much. Usually I have something CC'd and don't want to break it. This is all solo stuff, which is how I usually play.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

HAh hah hah. That is totally my smuggler's way of thinking. Only way to live! But, yeah, Corso has issues. Which apparently only get worse if you have a relationship with him and insist on sleeping with everyone else, from what I've heard. It sounds so hilarious. (Plus, it'll be nice having an imaginary boyfriend who notices. Yes, Vector, you're being talked about.)

Although ever since I've heard that you can sleep with the villain, get Corso jealous, insult the villain's performance, then kill him, I've been rather keen on smuggler. OMG, must level!!!!

Yeah, stuns and heals really help with encounters. With that said, I did play a fire mage, so am pretty used to the basic mechanics. You figure out where you're going to attack from, use your most powerful attack first (ambush/pyroblast) straight at the weakest enemy, cc whatever is strongest, then blast the rest with a moderately powerful fast attack (fireball/snipe and arcane bolt/series of shots). It's pretty rinse repeat. Just if you hit a pat and/or accidentally hit two mobs, you're screwed. Then again, leveling goes *so* fast as you can take down mobs really quickly as long as you're careful to avoid hitting more than one at a time.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh Corso. Don't you just want to corrupt him in some sort of way? Iread some comment somewhere about being a Sith Smuggler and using the shock collar on him. How twisted is that?

Ok, sorry. Back to reality now.

Do you realize, we can start with any topic and bring it around to Star Wars?

[mutive.livejournal.com]

We're like magic. ;)

I totally want to corrupt Corso. I seriously think he needs it, although more likely, he's going to be cheated on, then dumped with a baby on some wretched planet as smuggler goes off to party. Oh well. *sigh* And the sad part is, he'll keep thinking that someday she's going to come back for him...

OMG, a sith smuggler with a shock collar sounds...sort of horrible and sort of awesome at the same time. You should totally post that to the kmeme and see if someone goes wild with it.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Lol! That may be where I found it. It certainly wasn't my idea. The few sith I have started have never used the thing.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

My SW has been using poor Vette as a way of getting more DS points. With that said, I'm not going to respect that poor little twi'lek until she attempts to murder my SW in her sleep. (Which would be doing the world such a favor!)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Oh poor Vette!

[mutive.livejournal.com]

I'd feel more sorry for her if she actually tried to kill my SW. Seriously, someone needs to stop her, Vette knows where she sleeps. That she's not trying speaks to a serious lack of ambition on her part.

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

I hit post too soon. On the subject of buying more stuff for project completion, this is the perfect project to buy a little at a time. It seems to me that I could buy enough for one long row, get it knit up and then worry about the next. This way, I would buy the same brand/type of yarn so less worry about gauge. Also, the cost will be the same, but it wouldn't come out in one big chunk. So these are things to think about.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

That is true. Plus it's psychologically easier to spend $20 one week on yarn, then $20 a month later than it is to be like, "Let me write a check..." (Then again, this is why the costing on some of my projects spirals out of control...)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

I have successfully attached a photo! I'm shocked. It's the first pass through with the #2's and 64 stitches. As you can see, there just isn't anything interesting going on with stripes. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get anything to pop. It's hard to judge what the yarn is going to do when it's wound up in a skein. But I'm starting to get the idea that shorter color lengths is what I'm looking for. If you follow my drift.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just stripes so far. Hmmm. But eventually I'm sure it'll get interesting!

I honestly don't know how anyone deals with the yarn that changes colors on the skein. That seems worse than pattern matching! But, yeah, I do think that shorter color lengths would look better. (I honestly find it kind of amusing that you just happened to get stripes, though. Crazy!)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Stripes is what you would get if you knitted a sock with that yarn. Pretty neat too. A solid strip or two with Jacquard patterning in between. There's some really amazing self-patterning yarn out there. Expensive as all get out too.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that does sound rather cool.

There's self patterning yarn? That's kind of crazy, really...cool, but crazy. What kinds of patterns?

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

omg, hold me back

Here (http://www.yarn.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/categoryID/A6F9CF2D-EE6C-43CC-A022-AF9CB6A3290A/productID/C45807B5-DF75-4EC5-B761-E54C7752E1D2/)

Here (http://www.patonsyarns.com/product.php?LGC=kroysocks&SPP=999)

and here just to name a few (http://www.carodanfarm.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/regia_yarns.html)

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow...some of those are really amazing. That's pretty awesome that you can get all of that by switching up the color of yarn on the skein. ;)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me is that someone took the time and effort and VISION to make this afghan out of that yarn. That's what just floors me. I'm fairly good at following the directions, but couldn't think up something original like that to save my life.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at what some people do in their spare time, really. Then again, this is coming from someone who spent about 500 hours on a costume so...yeah, pot kettle. *sigh*

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

OMG! That's quite a bit of time. Hope you won lots of awards for it.

As for those knitting people, I think I read somewhere that she was Canada's fastest knitter several years in a row or something. Which is why making an afghan out of that yarn was something she probably did during nap time. I'm so slow!

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Oh, I got nothing for it, of course. Original costumes are hated, I think. *sigh* But I'm pleased with it. People say it looks photoshopped. ;)

Ah, well, being able to work fast does help!

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Are there any pics hanging around?

[mutive.livejournal.com]

Easily at my disposal is this one, but there are quite a few I can hunt down if you're at all curious. ;) (Quite a few on my blog, I'd think, buried away under Naga, or itemized on the costuming web page.)

[redhedlvr.livejournal.com]

Really mostly variations of striping, but great fun nonetheless.