Thoughts on the Kid Mohair Wrap

I'm having a kind of love/hate relationship with this wrap. 

I don't much like Kidsilk Haze. I can see the appeal of the finished product, but knitting with it is rather unpleasant.  I found not one but two knots in the first ball, and at $15 apiece (for just 25g!) the stuff is far too expensive to have to contend with knots, let alone multiple ones. 

The pattern is the Kid Mohair Wrap from Susan Cropper's Pretty Knits: 30 Designs from Loop in London of 2007, reprinted in "Canadian Living".  As I've said before, in my previous attempt at knitting this, there are a few errors, though perhaps only of judgement, in the pattern as printed in "Canadian Living", and one howler, which was in the amount of yarn needed to complete the wrap.  Two balls is not nearly enough for a full-sized wrap.

One ball would have got to about 25 in. long, which was 6 1/2 repeats of the crossed-eyelet stitch -- the pattern assumes that you will get 18 repeats total plus the two knot-stitch borders, so that one ball would be 9 repeats of the crossed-eyelet, a serious underestimate in my opinion.

There is as far as I can tell no errata page for this book at Potter Craft. I can sort of understand why a publisher might not want to admit that a book has mistakes, but frankly I don't think it serves them well in the long run.  It certainly only makes me frustrated and annoyed that I cannot find an errata page on their website.

The dimensions given in the pattern are 30x60 in. (76x142 cm) blocked, with 2 balls of Kidsilk Haze.  I found that 3 balls blocked assertively but not aggressively to 27x75 in., which was 21 repeats of the crossed-eyelet stitch.  I have never tried blocking wires, but would recommend that anyone working this wrap consider them.  Even getting the piece to this size was a trial, and after an hour of pinning and stretching, I was beginning to long for some nails and pieces of lumber.

After relaxing a bit, when I laid it out for the photo and did a quick measurement, it is about 24x72 inches.

That said, it's a very pretty wrap.  The lace patterns go together very nicely -- I like that the knot section is garter-based, while the border and middle sections are stockinette-based.  Much of the apparent cumbersomeness of the written pattern is because the border pattern is "attached" to the center pattern in the instructions, so that this way the knitter does not have to contend with juggling two separate charts, and trying to remember "am I on Row 4 of the border and Row 10 of the middle, or Row 4 of the middle and Row 10 of the border??" 

I really liked the mirror-image of the wave border, but was perplexed that the pattern as written didn't take advantage of the "waviness" with the decreases going in the right directions.  So here are my corrections and amendments:

SSSK (my own un-vention): An SSK with three stitches instead of two.

Row 3: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSSK, K5, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, K5, K3tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (86 sts)

Row 5: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K4, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, k4, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (84 sts)

Row 7: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K3, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, K3, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (82 sts)

Row 9: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K2, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, K2, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (80 sts)

Row 11: Sl 1 purl-wise, K1, yo, K2tog, yo, K1, yo, K2, SSK, K1, slip marker, knit to marker, slip marker, K1, K2tog, K2, yo, K1, yo, K2tog, yo, K2. (82 sts)

Row 31: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSSK, K5, slip marker, *P1, K1, [skpo, yo] 3 times, K1, P1, repeat from * 5 times, slip marker, K5, K3tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (86 sts)

Row 33: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K4, slip marker, *P1, K1, [skpo, yo] 3 times, K1, P1, repeat from * 5 times, slip marker, K4, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (84 sts)

Row 35: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K3, slip marker, *P1, [skpo, yo] 3 times, K2, P1, repeat from * 5 times, slip marker, K3, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (82 sts)

Row 37: Sl 1 purl-wise, [K2tog, yo] twice, K2, SSK, K2, slip marker, *P1, K1, [skpo, yo] twice, K3, P1, repeat from * 5 times, slip marker, K2, K2tog, K2, [yo, K2tog] twice, K1. (80 sts)

Row 39: Sl 1 purl-wise, K1, yo, K2tog, yo, K1, yo, K2, SSK, K1, slip marker, *P1, C4B, K4, P1, repeat from * 5 times, slip marker, K1, K2tog, K2, yo, K1, yo, K2tog, yo, K2. (82 sts)

[Edited, thanks to the eagle eyes of Emily, who spotted a typo! -- 19 February 2016]

I would have found it more helpful to give the number of stitches in the wave borders outside of the markers than the total number of stitches in a given row, but I haven't changed that here.

And for more personal recommendations:

I omitted Row 308 (the last row), as I thought it better matched the beginning of the wrap to not have an extra "plain" row there.

The bind-off given in the pattern was far too tight, even worked very loosely, so I used the suspended bind-off instead:

Slip one stitch, knit one stitch, *insert left needle tip into first stitch on right needle and lift the first st over the second (Figure 1), leaving the first stitch on the left needle, knit the next stitch (Figure 2), then slip both stitches off the left needle-two stitches remain on right needle and one stitch has been bound off (Figure 3). Repeat from * until no stitches remain on left needle, then pass first st on right needle over the second.  (The image has been lifted from Knitting Daily's helpful glossary.)

I was going for length over width in my blocking, as I was concerned that it wouldn't be long enough to be comfortable for the wearer -- but I found that hard blocking rather spoiled the "fluffiness" of the knot stitch, so if it is not an issue, 4 balls and a much less assertive blocking might be preferable. 

This is, by the way, forty hours of knitting!

Comments

[mary lou]

IT turned out beautifully - but lumber + nails + Kidsilk haze = #$%^!!!

[Emily]

Thank you so much for this post! I'm about to start this project, and noticed in the Canadian Living that you mentioned your blog. I'm so glad you've taken the trouble to share this.

[Emily]

I've just noticed a typo in your amendments: row 35 should say "...slip marker, k3, k2tog..." instead of "...slip marker, k2, k3, k2tog...".
:)

[Jeanne]

Thanks, Emily! I've updated the post --