A Few Thoughts
I’ve now reached round 19 of the beret, and when I do the yo increases for the pattern, I will end up with 240 stitches on the needles. Ouch! That seems like a lot of stitches for a beret that is only 6 inches in diameter at this point. Will it even fit on the 16″ circulars? Each cable repeat, from MCCO to MCCO is a smidgen more than 3/4 inch. All these are being considered as I begin the next round of patterns with their increases.
A specific design element I am thinking about is that the beginnings of new cables may be best started with an MCCO – it creates a visual beginning for the pattern. I wouldn’t do it at the base of the tab because I don’t think it would look good. Maybe it would . . . I could try it out!
Another thing which has cropped up is that there are holes where I have done purl increases. PFB is not really tidy, and the picking up the bar between stitches to make an increase seems to leave the holes. I decided from about row 15 to try using the stitch directly below the next stitch to create the purlwise increase, and it seems to be working. Until the beret is off the needles and blocked, I doubt I can really assess the pluses or minuses of any of these increase methods. So far, though, the purlwise increase through the stitch below the next looks the best.
Decision Time
Do I keep on increasing as I have been? One of my favorite berets is about 10 inches in diameter before it begins decreasing toward the brim, and has a 36 inch circumference at its widest. If each mock cable is about .75 inches, to make a 5 inch radius would need 6 2/3 repeats – really, 7 cables. If I do the math, the number of stitches is astronomical.
Some increases need to be done, otherwise a tube shape will begin to develop. Maybe I increased to rapidly – the only way to judge would be to remove all the stitches onto a line.
Hmmm . . . .
I’m going to do one more cable repeat, and take it from there. And look for a 24 inch circular needle as well!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 