This is rather belated, but I have been wanting to take a time out to say thank you all so much for your positive feedback and comments on Chrysalis. I appreciate it more than I can say - it’s one thing to come up with a design that you yourself are happy with, but it’s quite another to hear positive feedback from other knitters! I understand that a few folks have purchased the pattern (and I’m so thrilled at the thought of seeing other Chrysalises - Chysali? - out there!) and this post is in an effort to offer some support to you as you knit or simply to provide a little technique study for those who might be interested.

But first, a little sidebar - If you have considered making this pattern, or if you just love Gryphon’s gorgeous yarns, this is a great time to purchase. Through February 20th, she is generously donating 50% of all yarn sales to help a family who desperately needs it. She has some gorgeous new colorways of Gaia, the fabulous cashmere/silk yarn used in the Chrysalis pattern. This one’s all mine - Moss on Bark. I love it every bit as much as the original and perhaps more!

So here goes - Two videos. Increasing and decreasing in Brioche Stitch as used in the wrap is not difficult, but is challenging to describe with the written word. I have done as clear a job as I can in the pattern, but it’s hard to tell how another knitter will interpret these instructions and you may read it differently. I am a visual learner myself - so for any others of you out there, here are guides to decreasing and increasing in Brioche Stitch. The videos do assume a basic knowledge of Brioche Stitch itself as described in the pattern, which will be discussed here in greater detail at a later date. (These are up on my YouTube page as well if you should have trouble viewing them here, however the picture quality is not as nice.) *

The first video below walks through decreasing in Brioche Stitch, and the second walks through increasing.

 

 Decreasing in Brioche Stitch: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Increasing in Brioche Stitch: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(*)Although I’d like to just throw these clips out there and pretend it was no big thing - it actually was! The videos themselves weren’t hard, but figuring out conversions from my camera format so you can see them here without degrading the picture to the point that it was not at all helpful was something - if I told you how much time I (and, let’s face it, TAD - my in house tech support, what a guy!) have spent on it, you’d probably shake your head and tell me exactly where I could have found the easy answer! Anyway, I’m so glad we figured it out because I enjoyed the video-making process itself, Midnight enjoyed doing some voice-overs, and though there are things I would change or do over now that I see them here, I hope that they are clear enough to be helpful. I also think it might be a nice study for the PS Mitts when the pattern is ready or for future projects. So, this is a long way of asking - What do you think? Helpful? Not? Did you have any trouble loading or viewing them?

—————-
Now playing: Garden State - Such Great Heights - Iron And Wine
via FoxyTunes

Here I am at the fifth repeat on the first Chuck’s Cabled Sock. Upon reaching needle #4, I realized that one row back, on the last cable crossing row, I had missed each crossing, on this needle only. I couldn’t bring myself to tink back and re-cross the row. I know, I know, it’s just one row. But I have a strong aversion to tinking cables, even using the cabling without a cable needle method and just working backward. I have fixed cables in the past by dropping the stitches and using a crochet hook to pick them back up in the correct order, and I’ll do it, but I’m not a big fan of this either. I know what you are thinking. It’s ONE row. Stop whining and tink the damn row already. Apparently, since I’ve become such a big fan of cabling without a cable needle, I have a problem with using needles, hooks or other implements other than the ones already in my hands. Here is a tutorial on the quick and dirty method that I used to fix the offending cables – not including the stoppage for picture taking, it took just a few short minutes (as opposed to the 10 it would have taken me to tink back – not a huge time savings, but the psychological benefits of not having to undo my work or use an extra needle were most definitely worth it in my book.) Disclaimer - You can see that I do use another needle to hold stitches for me while I worked, since this is working needle of the DPN set, I didn’t mind using it

Ok, here we are. Needle number 4 is on the left, needle 3 is on the right. I’ve already moved the one of the stitches to test my process and moved this portion of the cable to needle 3.

The goal here is to move that first brown stitch on needle 4 in the center of the picture to the left by 2 stitches, crossing in back of the blue stitches. Ultimately those 4 blue stitches on needle 4 should be divided in the middle by two brown ones, one from the right side and one from the left.

Move that first brown stitch from needle 4 to needle 3. We are going to sneak up under that blue strand in back of it to grab the stitch:

With the extra DPN, pick upthe two blue stitches and hold them in front of the work (this is a C2F):

With needle 4, sneak up under the blue strand in back of the brown stitch that we are going to move:

Grab the brown stitch:

Now both the brown stitch and the blue strand are on needle 4:
Using needle 3, pick up the blue strand from in back of the brown stitch:
Bring the blue strand up and over the brown stitch and….
Off the needle (drop the strand from needle 3 also in the process). The blue strand is now in front of the brown stitch and the brown stitch is on needle 4:
Move the two blue stitches from the extra needle to needle 4:
The brown stitch has been moved to it’s proper location after the two blue stitches:
Here’s the cable with both brown stitches moved to the correct location:
And the whole row after fixing all the cable crossings:

It all worked out very nicely, and really, I was quite pleased with myself. Until I realized that the missed cross was actually TWO rows back, not one. ***Blush*** Oh well, maybe someone else will find this helpful! Now I have to figure out how to fix it for real!

By the way – this was clearly a minor mishap; if you have had the same problem multiple rows back or (take a deep breath) on a finished or nearly finished project, my sincere sympathies and here are some sites to check out for help:

Yarn Harlot

Yarnpath

January One, who cites some other great references as well

I Need Orange

CastOff.net