19.6.20 Body cocoon 2, tracking progress, one skein at a time
I initially began marking how much was knitted with one skein of yarn to check whether I needed to order more black yarn, but then began to realise how variable it was (of course!) So, I carried on….
I knitted Body cocoon 2 with 2 strands of black Cascade 220 on multiple size 8 circular needles. Each skein weighs 100g and is 200m. It’s knitted from the top down. I started with 6 stitches on double pointed needles, then knitted in the round, increasing in each round until the work was big enough to cover my head and shoulders. Then I transferred the work to the circular needles and just knitted, without increasing.
The circumference of the sculpture is approximately 45cm. At irregular intervals, I have knitted protuberances, with bobbles on them so, obviously, the circumference varies, as does the amount of yarn used.
Here are the measurements:
Skein 1- 15cm
Skein 2 – 21* (maybe divide by 2 =10.5 x2)
Skein 3 – 9cm
Skein 4 - 8.5cm
Skein 5 – 14cm
Skein 6 - 9.5cm
Skein 7 - 24.5cm *(see above=12.25 x2?)
Skein 8 – 11cm
Skein 9 – 12cm
=124.5cm divided by 11= 11.32cm on average.
It was useful to me to see how many skeins I used, approximately, at least, as I haven’t ever tracked that before. I started measuring after I’d made the top, head section, and only once I stopped increasing. I used safety pins as markers.
* Looking at the results, I feel that I must have forgotten to record a change of skein twice, as the surface in both places is comparable to the rest of the sculpture, but the numbers are abnormally high (skeins 2- 21 cm and 7 - 24.5cm). This doesn’t surprise me, as my habit is to roll each skein into two similar sized balls of yarn, so I may well have just forgotten that I was meant to mark the changeover to a new skein. My knitting process is very much a stream of consciousness, so I often lose myself in it. Knitting this I was also almost exclusively alone, or just with my partner at home, in the car or in the garden, so I will often have been in a state of flow when I was knitting. Sometimes I might have been distracted too by listening to a book or watching TV while I knitted.
So, I probably used 11 skeins for the body of the sculpture and if each skein knits 11.32cm on the body, and the top to first marker is 38cm then I possibly used 2 skeins for this, so 13 altogether. Each skein is £5.45, so the yarn for the whole sculpture cost £70.85 approx. That interests me, as I don’t normally track how much my materials cost!
I should weigh it too to corroborate my findings….
I knitted Body cocoon 2 with 2 strands of black Cascade 220 on multiple size 8 circular needles. Each skein weighs 100g and is 200m. It’s knitted from the top down. I started with 6 stitches on double pointed needles, then knitted in the round, increasing in each round until the work was big enough to cover my head and shoulders. Then I transferred the work to the circular needles and just knitted, without increasing.
The circumference of the sculpture is approximately 45cm. At irregular intervals, I have knitted protuberances, with bobbles on them so, obviously, the circumference varies, as does the amount of yarn used.
Here are the measurements:
Skein 1- 15cm
Skein 2 – 21* (maybe divide by 2 =10.5 x2)
Skein 3 – 9cm
Skein 4 - 8.5cm
Skein 5 – 14cm
Skein 6 - 9.5cm
Skein 7 - 24.5cm *(see above=12.25 x2?)
Skein 8 – 11cm
Skein 9 – 12cm
=124.5cm divided by 11= 11.32cm on average.
It was useful to me to see how many skeins I used, approximately, at least, as I haven’t ever tracked that before. I started measuring after I’d made the top, head section, and only once I stopped increasing. I used safety pins as markers.
* Looking at the results, I feel that I must have forgotten to record a change of skein twice, as the surface in both places is comparable to the rest of the sculpture, but the numbers are abnormally high (skeins 2- 21 cm and 7 - 24.5cm). This doesn’t surprise me, as my habit is to roll each skein into two similar sized balls of yarn, so I may well have just forgotten that I was meant to mark the changeover to a new skein. My knitting process is very much a stream of consciousness, so I often lose myself in it. Knitting this I was also almost exclusively alone, or just with my partner at home, in the car or in the garden, so I will often have been in a state of flow when I was knitting. Sometimes I might have been distracted too by listening to a book or watching TV while I knitted.
So, I probably used 11 skeins for the body of the sculpture and if each skein knits 11.32cm on the body, and the top to first marker is 38cm then I possibly used 2 skeins for this, so 13 altogether. Each skein is £5.45, so the yarn for the whole sculpture cost £70.85 approx. That interests me, as I don’t normally track how much my materials cost!
I should weigh it too to corroborate my findings….