A Temporary Disruption in Activities

Back in the fall of 2024, as I was heading in to the terminal leave phase of my upcoming retirement, I had my yearly visit to my eye doctor, at which we discussed the progress of my cataracts.  I had started to notice some annoying visual effects in my left eye, especially when using computer monitors.  These were due, my eye doctor informed me, to the way the cataract in my left eye was refracting the light coming in to my eye.  We updated my prescription, and I began my terminal leave.  One of the regular activities that I restarted was practicing piano, but the first time I played after getting my new glasses I had trouble focusing the notes on the music page.  I have glasses just for playing piano, which have not been updated for a few years, and when I alternated which eye I looked through I realized that the left eye, and the annoying visual effects, was the culprit, so I put a cardboard patch over that lens and proceeded with my practice.  I then spent the next few days training my brain to ignore the visual input from my left eye, which has been my dominant eye all my life.  The reprogramming was successful, but it did take a good deal of brain processing power to maintain, leaving me fatigued by early evening.

Over the course of the next year I began to notice that I needed more light when I was knitting.  I started using my Lumos neck light more and more often in order to see my stitches, and I was still dealing with mental fatigue and eye strain, which at times resulted in headaches.  When I went back for my annual visit to the eye doctor last fall, we again discussed my cataracts, and she asked if I had noticed needing more light.  Ha!  It turns out that in addition to the yellowing of my lens, I also was getting fogging of my lens and, even though my vision could still be corrected, we decided that with the degradation in the quality of life I should go ahead and get cataract surgery.  We started with the left eye, as that was the worst, and she suggested that the right eye could wait, even another year.  So at the end of October I went to an ophthalmologist and was evaluated for cataract surgery.  Given that all my life my left eye has been far-sighted and my right eye has been near-sighted, we decided that mono-vision would work well for me.  This past Thursday I had the cataract surgery on my left eye, with an upgraded lens that also fixed my astigmatism.  I love my new left eye, the visual acuity is amazing.  So when I went in for the follow-up appointment on Friday we scheduled the right eye for December 18th.  So, I’m getting new eyes for Christmas.

I have not worn my glasses since the surgery, as my right eye is adequate, although not perfect, for seeing near field.  I also have an astigmatism in my right eye, which is worse than the one that was in my left, but it is mostly noticeable when looking at a distance.  The best part about the getting my left eye fixed is the increase in my mental energy and the fact that I no longer get fatigued in early evening (falling asleep while watching television at 0830 in the evening kind of sucks).  However, given the current limitations of my right eye, some knitting projects are easier to work on than others - small needles and dark yarn are a little bit of a challenge, so I will be focusing on different projects until I get my right eye fixed.  By early next year everything should be all healed up and I can go back to my eye doctor and see what I might need in the way of glasses.  In the meantime I have multiple eyedrops to put in my eye multiple times a day, for which I created a tracking spreadsheet, and in two weeks I will have two eyes to deal with, but I’ve already made up the spreadsheet for my right eye (easy enough to do, I just had to change the dates).  My physical activity is also a bit curtailed until everything is healed up - I don’t want to screw up the surgery and have to go back and get it redone.  I am super-excited about getting new eyes, and not having to wear glasses all the time is a novel experience, after 50 years, that I’m still getting used to.  The process is pretty disruptive, what with all the appointments and the eye drops and the physical activity limitations, but this way I will get it all done and dusted, and after seeing what a new lens has done for my distance vision, I am looking forward to seeing what it will do for my near vision.

Floret Socks - One Sock Done and Second Sock Cast On!

After finishing up my Acorn Sweater I quickly finished up the first sock Sunday evening.  I immediately cast on the second sock and am about half-way done with the leg.  The fit of the first sock is perfect and I am very pleased with it.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Experssion Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Acorn Sweater - Finished!

I finished this sweater up this past Saturday.  It actually dried quickly for a DK weight sweater, but since it has dried I have been pondering the mysteries of gauge.  The sweater actually fits me perfectly, but I really think I just got lucky this time.  When I knit my gauge swatch I thought I was good to go.

When I tried on the sweater I realized that the ease was not as large as I was expecting based on the pattern size.   It meant that the sweater actually fit me better, and with the merino/silk blend, it feels wonderful to wear.  So I decided to check the gauge of the finished sweater to see how it changed, as well as going back and re-checking the swatch.  While it was lying around the swatch actually tightened up a bit, to about 21.5 stitches and 30 rows in a four inch square.  On the sweater itself, the body gauge ended up at 22 stitches and 26 rows, while the sleeve gauge ended up at 22.5 stitches and 27 rows.  I wasn’t surprised that the sleeve gauge tightened up, as I do tend to knit tighter on the smaller circular needles (in this case 16” circulars).  The pattern gauge is 20 stitches and 28 rows in a four inch square.  I knit the sweater on US 6 (4.0 mm) needles, and I like the fabric, it is not dense, nor is it loose, and it still has nice drape - the silk helps with that, but so does the superwash merino, as superwashing wool pretty much denatures it and removes any woolly-ness.  Most of my experience to date has been with superwash wool, as it wasn’t until I started spinning that I really started getting in to the wonder that is non-superwash wool, so this discussion is based upon my experience with superwash wool

Now, I don’t really trust pattern gauges that much anymore.  I typically will knit a swatch to get a fabric that I like, but I don’t obsess about completely matching gauge.  I can do the math to make the adjustments.  Over the years I have decided that there is an optimal gauge for any yarn when knit in stockinette that gives a nice fabric, not too dense, not too loose, with a stitch to row ratio somewhere around 0.75.  How did I get to that number?  It is simply based on the fact that when picking up stitches along the edge of knitting the typical rule of thumb is three stitches for every four rows.  I will often check this ratio when looking at a pattern, and if the gauge stated for stockinette varies too far from this ratio I may not trust the stated gauge (especially if it is lower).  So let’s look at the ratios of the pattern gauge as compared to the gauge that I ended up with.  The stitch to row ratio of the pattern gauge is 20/28 = 0.714.  For the body, my stitch to row ratio is 22/26 = 0.846 and for the sleeves it is 22.5/27 = 0.833.  So both are on the higher end, but the fabric is nice and definitely not too dense.  Now it should be noted that if I had to pick stitches up along the edge of knitting with this gauge, I would pick up 4 stitches for every 5 rows, as this would give me a ratio of 0.8.  Based upon the resulting gauge of the finished project I doubt that I could have matched the pattern gauge even if I had tried, at least not with this yarn.

The needle size that I will pick for any given yarn is based on matching the diameter of the needle to the width of two strands of the yarn laid side by side.  I base this on the structure of knitted fabric and the way the loops of the stitches lay.  Picking a needle size based upon the size of the yarn strand ensures that the stitches will nestle nicely and will not be loose.  If there is extra yarn in the loop the knitting will lack structure and will become easily misshapen.  Loose knitting also makes measuring a gauge swatch problematic, as you can stretch it vertically or horizontal to match a gauge, but once you turn that into a garment, gravity is going to take control with potentially disastrous results.  This is why I also take issue with anyone who states that matching stitch gauge is more important than matching row gauge.  Both are important, because they are intimately connected as it is all a continuous strand of yarn, so you cannot separate them in your consideration of your knitted fabric and the resulting gauge.  Another interesting benefit that I have found with my method of picking a needle size is that I don’t have the problem of rowing out when knitting flat.

There are many factors that go into knitted fabric and the resulting gauge, and not all of them can be taken into account by a gauge swatch because size does matter, and I don’t think that you can really make a gauge swatch large enough to fully explore all of the factors.  I have had gauge swatches that were truthful, and some that were not.  In a pattern that is knit vertically, row gauge can be problematic because of gravity.  I also think that superwash merino, especially when blended with silk, is going to stretch vertically.  Superwash wool lacks the spring that non-superwash wool has, and the stitches will slide past each other instead of clinging to their neighbors, so the row gauge should be expected to change, which will also change the stitch gauge because they are connected.  How the yarn is spun will also affect the resulting gauge of the finished project, a more tightly spun and plied yarn is not going to stretch as much as a more loosely spun and plied yarn.  The sweaters that I have knit out of sock yarn definitely do not stretch as much, and their gauge swatches were truthful.  So, definitely a learning experience here, and I’m very glad that it all worked out and that the sweaters fits me.

Pattern:  Adult Acorn Sweater by Kalley Reedy

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra Fine DK Silky Merino

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm, for the ribbing)

Acorn Sweater - Sleeves Done!

I decided to take a break from working on the body and get the sleeves done.  Due to the fact that I had to extend the yoke 1.5 inches past what the pattern called for I was little bit concerned about yarn usage, so wanted to get the sleeves done so I would know how much I had left to finish the body.  I did make a few modifications to the sleeve cuffs, mostly because I didn’t really read the instructions carefully.  The pattern has you work the texture round, and then work 2 rounds before decreasing.  I did the decrease right after the texture round, and I like the look so I left it when I discovered my change.  I also worked 7 rounds of the ribbing instead of 6, as the pattern called for.  The neck band has 7 rounds, so I thought I would just make all the ribbing 7 rounds.

Pattern:  Adult Acorn Sweater by Kalley Reedy

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra Fine DK Silky Merino

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm, for the ribbing)

Floret Socks - Heel Turned and Gusset Done!

I do always enjoy turning the heel on my socks.  It still seems like magic.  At this point the heel is turned, the gusset stitches picked up and all the gusset decreases done, so now I just knit the foot, with patterning on the top and stockinette on the bottom until it is long enough to start the toe decreases.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Acorn Sweater - Yoke Done!

I do enjoy knitting stockinette in the round.  It is just so mindless and endless, you just keep knitting, and watching things grow.  It is great for reading, and I do love reading.  It is also great for watching TV that you have to actually watch.  So far I am liking the pattern, and the yarn is wonderful to work with.  I did extend the yoke before setting aside the sleeve stitches and casting on the underarm stitches past where the pattern instructions stated for my size, knowing that I need a deeper yoke to accommodate my broader shoulders.

This photo was taken after I had finished up skein two of the four skeins that I have.  I did some quick math on yarn usage, and I should be fine.

Pattern:  Adult Acorn Sweater by Kalley Reedy

Yarn:  Sundara Yarn Extra Fine DK Silky Merino

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm, for the ribbing)

Floret Socks - One Leg Done!

Even with all the other knitting going on, I have not been completely neglecting my Floret Socks.  These are mostly podcast knitting, when I don’t need to be paying close attention to something on TV.  The dark yarn can be a bit of a challenge at times, but that is what good lighting is for.  Overall I am very happy with how these socks are turning out.  Here is a picture of the patterning.

That repeating motif will continue all the way down the foot to the toe.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle: US 1.5 (2.5 mm)