Unraveled in Ireland
The yarn of a yarn continues…
Several days after the Cobh adventure, the group went to Kinsale. This time I did my research before I left so that I could enjoy the time in town and not go running about looking for yarn. I found a place called Vivi’s Trading Co. on Main street. I took a screenshot of the map, and the only trouble I had once I got to Kinsale was figuring out how to orient the map.
I would have preferred a gray or cream color because I was afraid a darker color would hide the intricate patterns. There was not enough gray or cream, but there were several skeins of a bluish with a tint of purple. I did not bring knitting needles for the sweater with me to Ireland because I wanted to base my needle choice on the wool weight, and not vice versa. I bought Pony needles, which I had never used before, but they turned out to be amazing! The stitches glide so smoothly!
Once I obtained the yarn and knitting needles in Kinsale, I was eager to start and cast on stitches for the ribbing (the bottom edge of the sweater) right away! I have made too many sweaters, so guessing how many stitches to use was not difficult. There are several ways to make a sweater, and this one I made from the bottom up. That afternoon I went on a walk and, since I did not want to waste any time, knit while walking.
When I got back to the dorm that night, I set to work calculating the amount of each pattern I could fit given the number of stitches I had cast on for the ribbing. After checking and double checking and triple checking my math to fix my errors, I placed colorful stitch markers on my needles to denote the placement of the chosen motifs: trinity stitch, honeycomb, seed stitch, and simple cables. The patterns for these motifs were written to be knit back and forth, so I had to “translate” them to be knit in the round. To do this, I kept the right side rows the same, and for the wrong side rows I followed the instructions backwards and did the opposite of what it said, i.e. knit the purl stitches and purl the knit stitches.
The next day I planned to make a significant amount of progress during the 2 or so hours of bus rides from Cork to Cashel to Kilkenny. I felt so cool knitting a sweater that I was making up as I went along. The Trinity stitch looked a bit off, but I figured it was because I had just started. At Cashel I knit a little bit while walking around.
Once I got back on the bus, I realized that something was certainly wrong with my sweater. I looked at the picture in the book, and looked at my sweater, and back at the book again. I looked at the wrong side (inside) and realized that I had knit it backwards! I retranslated the Trinity stitch over and over again, and still got the same answer every time. I’m still not entirely sure what I did wrong, because I correctly translated the rest of the motifs. As you can imagine, I was furious, but since I was on a bus with random people I had only met a few days earlier, I had to contain my frustration.
Then I had to decide how to fix my grievous error. Should I embrace my mistake, leave it in, and continue the same way? Should I embrace my mistake by leaving it there and then do the rest of the stitch properly? Should I undo the sweater to the ribbing and restart from there? Finally I decided to only take out 4 affected areas and try to reknit them while keeping the rest of the sweater intact. I had never tried such a method before, but luckily it worked and I had it all fixed before we reached Kilkenny.
This picture of me in my “OH KNIT” shirt about sums up my mood that day. My friend and I walked around Kilkenny, and I brought my knitting to make up for lost time. Unfortunately, this only added to the list of mistakes. After that point I decided to stick to sitting and knitting, not walking… at least on the complicated sections.
Since I generally arrive several minutes early, I keep my knitting with me at all times and pull it out while waiting. I am not sure if this is the greatest sign of impatience or efficiency, but at least it allows for some great photo opportunities!
Thankfully there are many fun activities one can participate in while sitting and knitting, such as conversing, eavesdropping, gossiping, movie watching, and drinking! The group enjoyed a night at Hole in the Wall, a historic building owned by a cardiologist who turned it into a pub when he could not get it zoned as a home.
After a while of slowly sipping on my Smithwicks and watching others down several drinks in a matter of minutes, I learned why the American stereotype is loud and rambunctious. This concludes the Kilkenny section of the tour. Join me next time to continue the knitting tour in Dublin!
