Last night I went to bed with the Icy Rivulet pattern. Pretty exciting, huh? The challenge for the Camp Loopy Project 3 is to do something that uses 800 yards of yarn. When choosing a pattern, my goal was to get something I like but something that is “do-able” within a month. What was I thinking?
As I was reading the pattern last night, I first wanted to make sure I had the right size needles and know where they are.
Needle Issue
I got out of bed, searched my needle box. No, I do not have this size needle. I have 2.5 that is 24″ long. I checked my ChiaoGoo set and even though the website says the small cables are 24″, 32″ and 40″, mine are 14″, 22″ and 30″. Not a problem . . I have a connector so I can hook together either the 22″ and 14″ to have 36″ or I can use the 30″ and the 14″ to have 44″. But . . the smallest tips are 2.75. Just a tad larger than the suggested 2.5 but I’m not going to worry about that. I’ll use the 2.75 or I may go up to a size 3 for my yarn. With either size, using 800 yards in one month on those sized needles isn’t going to be easy. For a moment, I thought of ordering the right sized needle but decided I would make it work with what I have. That’s good, huh?
The next issue is the yardage. I have three skeins of Madelinetosh Pashmina so that’s 1080 yards. I only have to use 800 yards.
Yardage Issue
If I use a bit larger needle, the large size requires 991 yards. Right at 90 yards extra is a good bit . . but is it enough? The medium size uses 757 yards. I only need to use 43 more yards and it would meet the requirements.
Cast On Issue
Oh, my . . this is a real problem. Tubular cast-on . . never heard of it. I’ll watch some videos and see what I think. I can use any cast on method but I’m happy to learn a new method if I can figure it out.
Bind Off Issue
Another problem! Fake tubular bind-off. Never heard of that either. That’s the last step . . assuming I get that far. I’m not even going to think of that til the end.
Custom Size
Kristina Vilimaite, the designer, must be a math major! She gives very good instructions and formulas for making your project a custom size. The Medium has 20 repeats and the Large has 26 repeats. I think I’m going to make mine have 22 repeats and add a couple of extra rows to the ribbing. That will guarantee that I will use the full 800 yards.
Because I love math and love calculating everything to death, I figured that this pattern has about 96 rows to be knitted. If I do 4 rows per day, that will get me finished by about August 24 . . with time to spare. Since there are about 1 million stitches on the needles (not really but it’s going to be more than I’ve ever worked with), I figure it will take about an hour to do each row. Four hours per day of knitting . . that’s going to be challenging!
I briefly thought of heading back to the Ravelry drawing board . . so to speak . . and finding a different pattern but I really love this one. It seems very well written and it isn’t hard . . it’s just going to be a lot of knitting so I’m sticking with it.
It bugs the heck out of me for people to complain about a challenge being challenging so if you think I’m complaining . . I’m not. I’m just venting and there is a difference, though Vince cannot grasp that concept! 🙂
Seriously, a challenge is to “challenge” the participants and this year’s camp has been good for me. I tend to get in a rut and stay there. How many pairs of plain Jane socks have I made? They’re easy and they’re not challenging. So far, I’ve learned to do cable cast-on and picot edged bind off. Those are good things to know and learning new stitches or techniques is fun.
By the time this project is done, I will hopefully know how to do a tubular cast-on and a fake tubular bind-off. I think I thought about it all enough last night. I’m not going to think about it any more til Monday. That will still give me several days to re-read the instructions, watch a few videos and figure out a plan.
pdudgeon says
better you than me, Judy! if i were faced with using 800 yards of yarn, my first project thought would be either making socks for an octopus, or a muffler for an elephant.
Judy D in WA says
I love that you are doing your homework, getting yourself set up for your challenge. You’ll do great and I bet you do have it done or close to done by the 24th. I can’t wait to see it. The pattern is stunning!
Frieda says
The 30 inch cable should make a total 40 inch needle set when u add the tips. Your tips are probably 5 inches long and they take that into consideration when doing the sizing. The shawl is very pretty.
Frieda says
The 30 inch cable should make a total 40 inch needle set when u add the tips. Your tips are probably 5 inches long and they take that into consideration when doing the sizing. The shawl is very pretty.
Frieda says
The 30 inch cable should make a total 40 inch needle set when u add the tips. Your tips are probably 5 inches long and they take that into consideration when doing the sizing. The shawl is very pretty.
Frieda says
The 30 inch cable should make a total 40 inch needle set when u add the tips. Your tips are probably 5 inches long and they take that into consideration when doing the sizing. The shawl is very pretty.
Linda in TX says
I bought this pattern and bought the yarn to do it – all because of you. Even though I think I have to cast on half a jillion stitches (that should be a whole skein of yarn in itself), you decrease as you go and it makes ruffles and I thought it was adorable. I haven’t even thought about the tubular and fake tubular – I’ll face that as I come to it. I’m not doing Camp Loopy so I don’t have a time constraint but, following your lead, I decided to do something more challenging than hats (for sailors – a Ravelry group). But I’ll bet I’ll still have hats on the needles for the days I’m overcome with learning new stuff.
Helene says
I saw a couple of weeks ago that you had posted on Ravelry that these projects for Camp Loopy were supposed to be a challenge. I’ve never seen anything written about it being a challenge in the aspect that one needs to learn a new technique or try something out of one’s comfort zone. The only challenge with Project Three is to use 800 yards. Nothing else. I think that is great that you are trying new techniques, but that is not the idea behind Camp Loopy. Or if it is, please correct me. Thanks!
JudyL says
You’re right . . the only parameter from TLE is to use 800 yards but if you read the entire post above, you’ll see that I stated that I tend to get in a rut and do the same thing over and over (plain jane socks is the example I mentioned) and I use the Camp Loopy challenge as a time to challenge myself. I’ve learned cable cast on, as well as picot bind off (also stated in the post) doing the first project.
In looking through the projects done by others on Ravelry, most of us are trying to do challenging projects and not merely knit up 800 yards on something “easy”.
Since I spent $90 on the yarn, I want it to be something I love!
Sheri says
Oh, what a pretty pattern! I hadn’t seen that before. Just added it to my Favorites for a future project.