Stripey Cardi

Stripey Cardi, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

One of my goals this year is to do a sweater each quarter. I didn't finish on deadine, but here's our first quarter sweater!

Of course, my original plan was to work on sweaters that I had patterns and yarn to do. This has one quality--the yarn is from my stash (mostly). But the pattern? Not so much.

I started with a Noro pattern. Only that pattern was written bottom-up and in pieces that were seamed together. I had a bunch of unrelated colorways of Noro Silk Garden and quickly decided that there was no way I could handle letting it strip willy-nilly and mis-matched! No way!

So the first thing I discarded was "knit in pieces". I began to plan how to knit it as a whole. Then I realized that since I was modifying, and because I'm a long-waisted gal, that knitting bottom-up was a recipe for disaster, too. So now I figured I had to knit it top-down and in one piece.

And of course, there's all the different colorways. What's the best way to deal with Noro's crazy color changes when you want something with continuity? Why, two-row stripes, of course!

So, I began to re-work the sweater. I did the math and plugged numbers into a spreadsheet. Because I wouldn't have seams, I added a two-stitch cable at the raglan shaping. This gives the fabric more structure along that line, much like sewing a seam there would do.

I knit the yoke and as I went I double-checked my gauge. I was able to add that gauge into the spreadsheet and do some adjustments on the fly. When I got through the yoke and moved the arms to spare needle-cables, I knew I needed more ease, so I cast on extra stitches. Then I slowly decreased those stitches away to bring the sweater in under my bust. After that I increased again to give it some swing.

The ribbing eases in rather than switching between stockinette and 1x1 ribbing all at once. I added one purl every 8 stitches in the first row, every 4 in the second and every-other stitch in the third row. This reduces rolling so the ribbing is less likely to flip up.

     

The buttons were in my stash. I frogged my Versatility a while back. That left me with a big pot of gorgeous buttons to play with. I did briefly consider using three vintage enamel buttons I had on hand, but I was advised to let the yarn shine in this sweater and devise something else for those lovely buttons in a less color-intensive project. It was good advice!

So now I have a sweater, designed by me, and it's lovely!

Rainbow Striped Cardigan

Rainbow Striped Cardigan
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I'm thinking I'll let this particular project speak for itself.

But in short, it's a cardigan. It's a pattern I have knit before and really liked. And I had a friend that needed a baby sweater. With yarn I had on hand that fit the pattern, and a fun idea, I set to work.

And it came out beautifully.



A couple of quick thoughts just in case I need reminding later:

• Slipped selvedges make a very nice edge, but may not be strictly necessary or advantageous if you're going to seam it anyway. Use a stockinette or garter edge for more points of attachment.
• Stripes are awesome. Stripes have a ton of ends. Use stripes sparingly, or get a self-striping yarn.
• Leaving longer ends than normal at the edges of the stripes was a very good idea and made finishing the project a lot easier.

WiseSweater KAL - Back

WiseSweater KAL - Back
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's the first part of my sweater!

We're waiting for the "widget" that generates our pattern to be updated with the next portion. Since Sandi Wiseheart is having it programmed from scratch, it takes a bit of time. That's just fine. I have plenty of other Christmas knitting to work on and I'm sure that would find itself on the back burner if I had the temptation of more of this sweater to finish!

I really love the yarn, but I'm concerned I'll run short. I don't really want to cut the sleeves shorter than they have to be, but so far that is the obvious "fix" to not having enough yarn. Buying more may be problematic, since I bought the last ball from WEBS a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully they'll get the color back in if I need more. Hopefully the dyelots will be close enough it won't drive me crazy.

But most hopefully, I'll have just enough yarn to finish everything exactly the way I want.

Northfield Swatches

Northfield Swatches
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I swatched again.

I'm really loving this KAL with Sandi Wiseheart. It's making me think a lot more about my knitting than I usually do.

Because the handspun is really quite so special, and because I don't really understand where Sandi is going, and because she wanted something "with drape", I opted to knit new swatches using WEBS's Northfield yarn. It is a Merino/silk/alpaca blend and should drape a bit more than my handspun will.

I also thought my handspun was a bit thick, but after swatching Northfield my gauge came out almost exactly the same as with the hand-spun yarn.

I'm still going to knit this sweater with the Northfield yarn.

Then I'm going to design my own for the handspun. :)

Little Pretty

Handspun Shrug
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I love to spin. But I do seem to end up with a lot of bits of handspun I can't quite figure out how to use. I've been saving several for a while that came out of an experiment in dying. They're all made with the same colors, but different amount of dye and slightly differing techniques. But finally I had an idea that there was just enough for a small project.

I found a project called a "Circular Shrug" that required approximately the yardage I had on hand. I figured I could fill in with some scraps of other colors if I needed.

It's an extremely easy little project and yields lovely results, especially in the handspun. I did make two small modifications. In the original design, the ribbing is knit on the square and sewn together afterwards, and the lace used in the design is much more open. I wasn't particularly thrilled with either option. Instead, I knit my rectangle in the Gull Lace pattern used for the February Lady Sweater starting from a provisional crochet cast on. Then when I had the size I wanted, I freed up the cast-on stitches and knit my ribbing in the round. It saved me from needing to seam anything up and also allowed me to keep my ribbing the same color without worrying about how much I needed to knit.

I have to say, I'm looking forward to making more. Since the basic construction is just a rectangle made to size, it can be knit in any weight and any yarn you like. I'm sure I'll end up with a couple more, eventually!

Ravelympic Knitting - Part 2

BSJ - With Buttons
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

For some odd reason I always feel guilty not committing myself to a full size sweater or monstrously complicated shawl. Although to be honest, just completing a child's sweater is more than enough challenge for me!

Still, just to make absolutely sure I'm challenged, I sign up for two (or three) projects to get done. My second project this year (not counting the doll scarf) was this Baby Surprise Jacket.

I picked a little something to knit for a soon-to-be arriving baby in the family, and hunted quite thoroughly through my entire stash for some yarn that could go "either way" since the gender of the child in question is still.. in question.

One of my good friends (thank you!) lent me her copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman's "The Opinionated Knitter" (I must purchase myself a copy some time soon). And I was able to work this very simple pattern from its pages.

The Baby Surprise Jacket is a fun, fast knit! It's knit flat, and the entire project is worked in garter-stitch (so no purling!). Even beyond that, you need to know how to increase and decrease and that's about it! I managed to complete the entire thing (sans buttons) in two days of frantic knitting and got in just under the wire for the finish of the Olympics. I counted myself done without buttons because I wanted to pick something that would be more gender specific, but we didn't know the gender of the baby yet!

I cast on for this sweater with a crochet provisional cast on in a contrasting color of yarn. I almost left it in at the end because it looked quite nice, but instead opted to use Jenny's Surprisingly Stretch Bind Off to finish the cuffs AND to bind the shoulders together at the same time. I used the same cast-off on the fronts of the sweater so it gave the entire piece a nice, cohesive edging. Anyway, to finish things, I freed up my provisional stitches onto my circular needle, and then started binding off one cuff. As I got to the sleeve/shoulder, I picked up my slipped stitch from the edge of the other side and bound it together with each live stitch from my cast-on and this joined the seam neatly. At the neck I simply went back to binding off the live stitches (taking time to count and make sure I'd have the right amount of stitches left on the other side). The second cuff was a bit of a tight area to work, but long, flexible KnitPicks cables came to the rescue and I just pulled some of the stitches onto a "magic loop" while I worked the other side of the cuff.

After that the sweater sat around for a couple of days and I couldn't restrain myself any longer. I went button shopping.

Sadly the selection at our local store did not immediately yield up obvious possibilities. In fact, it forced me to rule out several ideas I had originally planned upon. I had wanted to get some little cars for a boy, or some ladybugs for a girl. Unfortunately, the bronze color of the yarn clashed with everything terribly. Even silver didn't work.

Then I lucked upon these sunny buttons. They don't scream boy or girl, but at this point I'm just thrilled to have something that looks as lovely as these do! I'm extremely pleased and amazed at how this final touch makes the whole project come together.

Ravelympic Knitting - Part 1

River Forest Gansey
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Well, friends, I'd left of blogging for a little bit, there, because I was pretty well sidelined with the actual knitting. Rather than the writing about it.

But seeing as I have a moment free, here, I thought I would toss up the happy endings of a couple little Ravelympic stories.

The first is my River Forest Gansey.

I have been wanting to knit a sweater for my son for quite some time now and the Ravelympics always seem to be the perfect time to do a little sweater knitting. I'm not quite crazy enough to think I can manage an adult sweater (yet), but knitting for a child seems completely do-able. Last time I managed a cute cardigan for my niece and this time I thought I'd knit for myself, vicariously.

I picked this pattern out of Handknit Holidays. I may have to pick up a copy of the book for myself, because the one I used is a much "loved" copy from our local library. There are a couple of patterns in it I would really like to do, and I think I might knit another version of this sweater as well. It's written in both child and adult sizes.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto and I can't say enough good things about this yarn. It's a cable ply yarn with a crazy number of singles (which I didn't fully dissect to count, but there are a LOT). It is incredibly bouncy and has fantastic stitch definition. It is also superwash and thus perfect for knits for children. I already did a sweater for my nephew out of the same yarn, but in gray.

I also love it because I bought a whole bunch on a crazy sale ;)

The sweater is an easy knit. The basic pattern repeat is only six stitches and four rows so it is simple to memorize. The trees at the top aren't that hard either, and the pattern was pretty easy to follow as written. I did not purposefully do any modifications. However, it is possible that I knit the sleeves in a smaller needle size by accident. Woops. I'm not re-knitting them, now!

The only reason I suspect this is that the body had a lot more "give" in it. I blocked both the body and the sleeves to the next size bigger. The body had plenty more stretch and probably could have gone even one size larger. But the sleeves were a bear to get blocked big enough to match the body. I still managed it and everything seamed up a treat.

I've managed to wrestle the boy into wearing the sweater a couple of times already, and it handles washing well. It still fits after a tumble dry, although the sleeves are a bit short. That's not all bad, considering how much of a mess he's prone to get into!

Some basic stats:
Pattern: River Forest Gansey by Jolene Treece
               from Handknit Holidays
Size: Small (25" chest)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto, approximately 4 1/4 balls (488 yards)
Needles: Size 5 and 7

Mom's re-shouldered sweater

Mom's re-shouldered sweater
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

To quote a friend, "Today I bring you The Rescued Sweater." To understand the full story behind this sweater, you must first go here. And when you're done reading there, come on back for the rest of the tale.

Now, before you close that window down, take a really good look at the shoulder. You can see in GeekKnitter's pictures that the cream color in the body and the cream color in the shoulder don't actually quite match. We tried this sweater on quite a few people and found that the arms were just plain old long. Despite that, my mother (who happened to be visiting at the time... lucky Mom!) loved this sweater. It really is beautiful and a work of art.

I devised a plan. I would (yikes!) separate the sleeves and (YEEEEK!) frog them back, re-knitting what needed to be replaced so that the arms would then be a proper length. If you are weak of heart, you might want to stop reading now.

RIBBIT! RIBBIT! RIBBIT! Yes. I really did. It was no easy task, either. First, I had to bring out my seam-ripper (a pronged tool that is slightly sharpened at the fork so as to allow you to sever sewing thread in a seam with ease--it also parts yarn and cloth with equal ease). I had to rip out the seam inside where the sleeve had been knit long enough to be sewn down over the top of the steeked mess around the armhole. It's a natural mess, but it had been covered up beautifully. After ripping that seam and revealing the mattress stitch within, I carefully picked THAT out and removed the sleeves. Then, I popped the cast-off edge and ... zip, zap, zoom... the top of the sleeves were gone.

About half way in on both sleeves, a new ball had been joined in the knitting (flawlessly, of course). So I took those balls of yarn and skeined them up. I skeined up what remained attached to the sleeve as well and then carefully dunked everything in a hot bath in my sink to get all the kinks out for re-knitting. I dryed and then re-wound a ball of the cream color. With this, I knit a swatch on three different size needles to make sure I would get proper gauge.

Needle sized determined, I returned to the sweater and knit it about half-way back from what I had ripped out. This still left them several inches shorter than their original length. But it gave me a chance to expand the sleeve back to a size that would fit the armscye, and make it the perfect length for Mom (we determined this by making her wear the remains of the sweater and snugged the arm up until it fit right).

As you can see, it came out wonderfully! I tried to put the same care in re-attaching the sleeve as the original creator, but I didn't do it quite the same way. I mattress-stitched the sleeve into each armscye carefully. And then I took the excess (I had knit myself some wiggle room) and I mattress stitched THAT down over the ragged edges of the steek. I'm afraid I'm not a good enough hand with a sewing machine to trust myself to seam down the edge that way. But I know my hand-seaming skills and they were up to the task.

Here's a final look at the new shoulder. It looks snazzy. So does Mom. And now everyone is thrilled that this rescue project has come to a close. Mom says it's deliriously warm. That should serve her quite well for the chilly Winter she'll "enjoy". And I get to warm up with the knowledge that I did a good job putting things back together again.

Oh, no!

February Lady Sweater - stalled
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Some days, things just don't work out. Despite much reading, estimating and calculating, taking into account other people's gauge and sizing.. I thought I had plenty of yarn. I should have had plenty of yarn. Almost everyone I looked into used 2.5 skeins or less to finish this sweater.

Not me! I started into the second sleeve and looked into my knitting bag and blanched at the floppy rings of yarn remaining. I pulled all that yarn out and re-wound it into smaller balls and weighed it. I knit a few rows and weighed again. I calculated in my head, and weighed it again. I knit a few more rows and... yes.. weighed it again.

I was so close. So very, very close. And yet, I knew it. I was short. Short! I was going to run out of this lovely yarn, dangit and now i had to decide... tear out some of the sleeve, or tear out some of the body... or beg online for more yarn.

I could, of course, buy another skein. I have alternated skeins through the entire project so one more new one wouldn't be the end of the world. Unfortunately, it would be another $22.50 for a very small amount of yarn to finish this dang project. Not really where I wanted to go.

I pulled out the sweater again and argued with my little remaining balls of yarn. Can you make it to the end? The yarn didn't think so. I weighed it all again, gnashed my teeth and said... sure you can! It replied, "Did you remember you have to do the garter-stitch cuff, too?" I cursed (quietly, internally, for it doesn't do for little ears to pick up on such things) and put on my best face so that certain small parties wouldn't decide that why mommy was upset was extremely interesting and start asking pointed questions. There's nothing quite like being peeved and having a four-year-old grill you as to why you're not happy.

Then I hit Ravelry. I found five people that have used this yarn in projects already (I love that feature!). I figured out that three of them have actually been active in the last couple of months. And I sent out desperate pleas for help... and I was promptly answered by all three! I love the internet community and people willing to send you their little leftovers to help you finish a project! I love that one of these three is willing to send me an entire project that never got gifted to a friend, so I might frog it and use the yarn. It's amazing and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I need to go find some little warm-fuzzy things to send back as "thank you" for such wonderful generosity! I'm thinking.. chocolate.

February Lady Sweater

February Lady Sweater
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Works in progress are so much fun. I found I have all sorts of great pictures, but have been too much of a slacker to blog them. So, here they are, a bit late and after the fact, but happily put together so you, kind reader, can see what I've been frantically knitting over the past couple of weeks!

My friend Andrea lit a fire under me (figuratively and I'm sure unintentionally) by making more progress than I did on her gorgeous FLS over the course of last week. I decided I was going to catch up, although probably not surpass her. I was hoping we'd both be able to wear our sweaters next Monday and get a paired picture. Wouldn't that be fun? So I set to knitting with a vengeance, and bumped up my goal of one lace repeat per day, to two repeats.

One of the things I found really interesting was the variations in color between skeins. I assumed that BMFA did they're dying in larger lots, but what most of us in this KAL have found out (because we were kind enough to share the information around) is that BMFA generally dyes two skeins at a time. That means with a three-skein project, you're sure to get one that was dyed a bit differently. In some projects, this has been painfully obvious. I opted to start striping back and forth between two skeins once I got to the lace portion of my FLS. It's a bit more work (okay, it's a LOT more work) but in the end the outcome is worth it. Pooling is much reduced and so is the obvious "argyle" pattern you can get from shaded yarns.

Because this is a cardigan knit in one piece, I didn't want to switch my skeins at the edge of my work. This would make for some obvious "floating" bits of yarn every time I switched skeins, right on the front edge of the sweater. Instead, I opted to switch at the edge of the garter-stitch border, right where it transitioned into lace. I started by twisting the two skeins together, but this didn't provide a strong enough link between the two skeins. Instead, I ended up knitting the first stitch after the switch with both strands held together. Because it was a transition from garter to lace, you can't even see the slightly thicker part where every-other-row there is one stitch held doubled. It made the join even and almost un-detectable. In fact, I dare anyone to find it without a magnifying glass.

I also did this again on the sleeves at the beginning of each round. There's a little jog there anyway, so it hides the irregularity of the stitch-weight. I'm really happy with how the sweater is turning out! It has beautiful colors that will look lovely with my wardrobe, and I have high hopes to finish in time to wear it for Easter.

Finally, for me!

Celtic Cardigan
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

The title sounds like I never knit for myself. That patently is not true! In fact 80-90% of what I knit is for my own personal use. But when I took the leap from hats and socks to sweaters, my first two were earmarked as gifts for little people (my niece, and nephew). This had the advantage of letting me learn about sweater knitting, without committing to the price tag associated with enough yarn for an adult-sized sweater. I love both of these sweaters, but they left me feeling confident enough to jump into yarn I had earmarked for myself--10 skeins of Classic Elite's Inca Alpaca Print in a variegated blue colorway. This amount of yarn totaled 1090 yards, and I had originally planned on making a pullover sweater with it. Then I learned more about alpaca.

I originally purchased alpaca without knowing much about it. I knew it felt silky-soft in the store and I loved the heathery appearance. It made a beautiful shrug. What I didn't understand is some of the various properties of alpaca. Normally it has very little crimp to the fiber, which means unlike most sheeps' wool, it doesn't have a lot of memory of its shape, and the cloth knit with it likes to drape. Over time it likes to stretch out under its own weight. It is also hollow at its core and incredibly warm. The first two properties can be offset somewhat by blending it with wool (I stranded my project with a laceweight merino). The hollow core means a pullover would be great--if I lived in Alaska. In the Pacific Northwest, not so awesome. I elected for the cardigan instead and embarked on a long process of modifying and innovating. But I've mentioned all that before!

All of the individual elements worked out in the end, and I'm really happy with the product, even if it didn't come out exactly as I had planned. As you can see here the back looks awesome! I'm extremely please with how this motif worked out. I was able to create a diamond around it where the knitting switches from stockinette to reverse stockinette. This is necessary to show off the cabling, and has the added bonus of looking really nice.

The design wasn't perfect. I ended up with two yards of yarn to spare at the end. After basting the sides with waste-yarn, they arms were way too tight. I raveled my swatch and used it to create gussets at the armpit. You can hardly see them on the finished product, but they give the sweater just enough ease to be really comfortable. I couldn't help but snap off a picture of that amusing process. Just ignore the drips on the mirror. Finishing my sweater was much more important!

I am also inordinately proud of a little-noticed detail, the graft at the back of the neck. I was able to graft the cables together seamlessly with the help of a wonderful tip I got off of Ravelry. To quote that user: When done the main knitting (don’t break your yarn) - knit about four or five extra rows with a light colour dishcloth cotton. Knit or purl the stitches as they present themselves. Cast off. Bring the two sides together with your kitchen cotton folded in like a seam. When grafting you can follow the light coloured dishcloth cotton in and out of your stitches. When you are done you just undo the bind off and rip back the kitchen cotton. You end up with perfect grafting in knit/purl and you don’t have to think about which direction you are going in and out of stitches. Don’t have to worry about stitches falling off your needles or juggling all the needles. It makes it as easy as straight seaming.

There are parts of this sweater that make me think, "I could have done this a little differently." But when I look at the whole, it is a lovely, fashionable sweater. It is dreamily warm and looks fabulous with blue-jeans or dressier pants. I am extremely proud wearing it and love showing it off. And I appreciate every last bit of advice and help I received in creating it. I couldn't have done it without all my friends.

Handsome Devil

Grey Gansey
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

My daughter originally modeled this sweater for me, making sure that it was going to fit the intended recipient. He's a year younger than she is, but that just made it all the more certain that he woulud be able to use the sweater this year, and hopefully next year as well.

The pattern is inspired by a DROPS design, but I ended up tossing out the pattern (as I often do). Instead, I took a size 4T sweatshirt and kept it in my knitting bag. Every ten rows or so, I compared the two, altered my knitting plan where necessary, and continued on. It yielded a very comfortable and lovely grey sweater with drop sleeves and double-moss-stitch patterning. Quite classy. So is the young man wearing it!

February Lady Sweater Swatch

FLS Swatch
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

In between large amounts of spinning, I sat down and attempted to swatch for my February Lady Sweater.

Technically I am running a KAL that started on February 1st. I had intended to knit the entire sweater in the month of February. That is, before my marathon knitting to finish the Celtic Cardigan left my fingers exhausted, hands rubbery and arms sore. Ah, well. Even the best plans don't always work out.

Part way through the swatch I started to feel a bit rubbery again, but I pushed through to the end so that I could wash it and at least have my gauge. Half the swatch is knit on the suggested size-8 needles, and the other half is on size-9s. The 9s hit gauge spot-on, both before and after washing, so provided I don't start knitting even tighter as my hands heal up, that's what I'll be using.

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks that Rock, Heavyweight. It's billed as sock yarn, but listed on their site as worsted, rather than fingering. In garter stitch it knits up as a super-smooshy fabric with lots of bounce. I adore this colorway and think it is going to be an absolutely fantastic February Lady Sweater.

It lives!!!!

In a fit of insanity inspiration, I figured out how to calculate (or rather how to NOT calculate) my sleeve cap. Inspiration struck as I shrugged into an old shirt and noticed that (once again) the oil spots had not washed out of the front, and the hem was unraveling (hahahaha--some of you will get that) and in general it wasn't in very good shape. What better to sacrifice to the sweater gods?

I hopped downstairs and pulled on the body of the sweater-so-far and grabbed a Sharpie out of the pen-jar. Wonderful things, Sharpies. At this point my daughter started to pipe in with the obvious questions, "What are you doing with the scissors, Mommy? Why do you have the pen? Why are you drawing on your shirt?!!" (At which point I took a moment to explain that you should never, EVER, ever do this to your own shirts, and it is only for Mommies to do and .. hmm.. this probably should have waited until nap-time, but too late now! -- If I ever find a size 4T shirt sacrificed to the "sweater gods" I'll only have myself to blame.) I traced what I could of the armhole of the sweater right onto the shirt.

Replacing said beat-up-old-drawn-on-shirt with something slightly less beat up (hey, I was having one of those days where only the oldest, softest and most beat up comfy shirts would do) I flopped the poor thing down on the floor and applied the scissors to the shirt (remember, sweetie, you never EVER ever cut up your own clothes and shouldn't touch the scissors without Mommy around..). I snipped up the inner seam and laid the whole thing out flat. There! I had my correct arm-cap shaping. I then measured the thing, and figured out how to knit it. Viola!

It even worked. I finished knitting it this morning and carefully seamed it onto the body from the top of the shoulder down to the armpit. I didn't bother with the long seam under the arm, because this was purely a "I really hope this worked!" moment. It may not be the most amazing design ever, but it did work! I'm not sure if I don't want to take it off and clean up the lines a little bit. I know for certain, now, that I will be popping open the side seam and either adding a cable-strip all the way down to the hip, or at least a gusset under the arm because it is way too small around the arm.

But at least I know it worked! We're on to the second arm to see how much yarn will be left at the end, and if I need to risk picking up one extra skein at the LYS to finish things off.

Derailed on the Learning Curve

I like to understand how things work. I also learn better by doing than by reading (although I enjoy both!). These two little things combine so that (sometimes) when I get to the middle of a project, I have to stop. I frown. I prod. I get out a pen and calculator and scratch my head. I head to the internet, and the library and get my hands on everything I can to figure out how to fix the itty bitty problem that stalled me and somewhere along in this process I have to start to watch my mouth so that little ears don't pick up some new words, because I've come to realized that having half the information can get you into some really "interesting" situations.

Take my Celtic Cardigan. This sweater started out as one thing (the Cardigan for Arwen) got chucked out, kept the cable, pulled Carolyn from Knitty.com for its body and took off running, realized that the fancy cable for the back just wasn't going to work, so found Continuous Cables for its special motif, started the second lap, borrowed a little more from Continuous Cables for the cuffs and then got to the arm cap.... and stopped dead.

Now mind you, I've only done two sweaters before this, and a shrug. The shrug had NO shaping.. it was a big cross that you seamed up on two edges and bam.. it was a shrug instead of ... a funky big cross of lace you couldn't really use for anything. I did a cardigan for my niece which was striped and had slightly inset sleeves, and a pullover for my nephew (oh, dear.. I'm the Knitting Auntie) with drop shoulders. For some reason, then, Carolyn seemed like a good idea to me, with raglan shaping. Don't ask me why, because all of a sudden I realize I had no idea what "raglan" really was.

I don't have raglan shaping now, that's for sure. I have REALLY DEEP inset sleeves. But there are 7 stitches there at the shoulder that seam up. So.. since the sleeves don't go all the way to the neckline, it really isn't a raglan (or so I've found out). This makes an interesting problem when you start considering that the sleeve cap I have is written for a raglan pattern. It's also written with errors, for which I must bless TPTB, because without those errors I would have blithely knit the sleeve cap as-written and then been knocking my brains out trying to figure out how to fit it into an armhole that is much too small!

Except now I'm going to have to sit down with a ruler, paper, pen, my math brain and a very long article on Knitty.com of how to calculate a sleeve cap, and figure out how to design a cap to fit an armhole I've already knit...

Guess I took that curve a little too fast.

When do you give up?

Or do you?

I have finished the left and right front panels on my Celtic Cardigan. I have also knit the entire back, joined the side seams, managed to graft the knot-work at the back of the neck and joined the shoulders and collar in place.

The knot in the center of the back looks amazing! It worked fabulously and I'm thrilled I finally found Continuous Cables and bought it. However, I can't seem to photograph this yarn to save my life. It is so dark I just can't figure out how to get enough light on it to show the detail without washing out everything. Either the pictures are so dark everything is lost in shadow, or they're so bright you can't see for all the light bouncing off every single stitch in the project.

I love knitting at my gym. They have a nice lobby with huge picture windows and a couple of chairs right where all that wonderful light spills right down onto your work. Even on an overcast day there is some of the best lighting available. It gives me enough time to wind down from my run and for my daughter to finish up at her preschool. It's perfect. As I was working the last of the knot-work up the front and extending it so it would go around the back of the neck, one of the women with which I frequently chat came up to look at the project in progress. She looked over and admired my work and then very kindly clucked her tongue, shook her head and informed me, "I think it will be too small." We debated this for a bit, mostly because I've been a bit concerned the whole time while working it. I chose the Medium over the Large size with some trepidation. It's right on the edge for me, but I have lost a lot of weight and am still loosing more.

Her comments spurred my efforts to seam everything I had done together and try it on. I finished this afternoon and tugged it over my shoulders. I fear she was right, but it's so hard to say. I haven't washed or blocked it at all yet. It could stretch out a little. Maybe. My yarn is alpaca, but I did strand it with lace-weight merino to give it a little extra "memory". There is a lot of give in the knit cloth I could exploit, but it doesn't hang with any positive ease right now.

I'm down to three-and-one-half balls (out of ten) of the alpaca yarn, which is just over 300 yards and I fear I will run out before I finish both sleeves. I fear the whole thing is too small, even after some judicious blocking. I just don't know if I should back out of this project now, or see it to its very end, be it bitter or sweet.

I think I'll persevere, but boy, am I ever nervous!

Just Too Many Stitches

Sometimes you get a good idea. You run with it, work on it, love it, and notice that maybe, even though it's a good idea, it's not quite right. So you tinker, modify, adjust, (curse quietly), frog, rework, evaluate, (mutter under your breath)... Maybe now it's to the point you wanted in the beginning. But maybe it's not.

"The Knot" isn't there. I dragged it with me to my Monday Knitting Night, and got to show it to.. one person. It is Christmas week, after all. I should have anticipated it. But Monday night is so very important to me that I'd almost skip out on family to go. Okay, I DO skip out on family to go.. but it's my family and my husband can handle it one night a week!

Spread out on the table, still on the blocking wires to hold it, it was all too clear that The Knot still wants to be more circular than square. There is more fabric at the center of each edge of the square than there ought to be in order to lay flat. I could still work around this. I could work more rows and expand at the corners until things are straight. I could do a few short-rows to compensate for the wider-at-the-middle-than-the-corners problem. I could also realize that after all this work I still have no idea how to put it in the back of my sweater... a back that I suddenly have realize is not square, itself.

Back when this was a design where "square" was the name of the game it was logical to stick a square in the middle of the back. As I searched through many, many cardigan patterns, I opted for raglan shaping at the arms and shoulders rather than Kate Gilbert's "innovative" shaping in the original "Cardigan for Arwen". Yet, despite these changes, in my head the back was still square. Last night I realized that.. um.. there are now ARMHOLES. Armholes! These won't be square! I'll have to figure out how to graft in The Knot not AND decrease for armholes!

I just can't do it. I could sit down and figure it out mathematically, but my intuition tells me it doesn't fit. I'm pretty logically minded, and most likely correct in my estimates. My raglan-shaping will "eat in" to the already knit square (that still doesn't lay flat). My ruler agrees.

I'm afraid I must give up on The Knot. I've found a lovely alternative. I had continued my search as The Knot became harder and harder to work. I happened across Continuous Cables. Lots of great material here! Lots of information on how to work, and design, circular, swirling, twisting cables knit on a background of plain old reverse-stockinette. There's even a pretty knot that I think would do well on the back of my sweater, as-is.

I still love The Knot. I'm thinking I'll get some pretty, paler wool that will show off its delicate curves and knit it once again to cover a pillow. That way I can enjoy it often and remember all the things it taught me. And maybe, in the future when I've learned a few more tricks of the trade, I'll figure out how to put it in the back of a very lovely cardigan that I designed, myself.

Knotted Up

Square Knot
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's the progress so far. I think the knot is a success, but I'm not entirely certain. I had to block it fairly hard and I'm not sure how that will do once added to the back of the cardigan.

The only problem is that I seem to be stalled. I don't want to pick back up the knitting and figure out more. Instead, I've detoured to other projects, and I'm looking ahead in my queue.

I think I just need to buckle down and get started again. Hopefully I can change this inertia to forward momentum!

Quick Sweater Ornaments

Description:

These quick ornaments are knit in the round from the bottom up. There is raglan shaping at the shoulders, but this could be ignored and the piece knit square. Charts are included for the designs on the front.

Materials:
Size 1 (2.25mm) DPNs
About 10 grams of fingering weight yarn (approximately 30 yards)
Colored scraps of yarn or embroidery floss
A small bit of wire or paper clips to twist into hangers

Gauge is not critical, but can be somewhere around 7-8 sts per inch.

Notations:
SSK - slip, slip, knit
k2tog - knit two together
BO - bind off (sugg. "lace bind off": start with one knit stitch then *knit 1, slip stitches back to right needle, k2tog * repeat until all stitches are bound off, cut and pull yarn through last stitch)

Body:
Cable-cast on 32 stitches
Join in the round being careful not to twist the stitches
Purl one round
Work stockinette stitch until the piece measures 2 inches

(Work divides here, with 16 stitches for the front, and 16 stitches for the back)
Front and Back chest:
Use the following instructions for front, and then repeat for back stitches:
Row 1: slip first stitch, knit to end
Row 2: slip first stitch, purl to end
Row 3: slip first stitch, SSK, knit 10, k2tog, k1
Row 4: slip first stitch, purl to end
Repeat rows 1-4 one more time
Next row (row 9), BO all stitches (or purl 3, BO 10, purl 3)

Seam (or graft) 3 stitches on each side for the shoulder.

Both sleeves:
Pick up and knit 10 stitches around the armscye, starting at the armpit.
Short row a "shoulder cap" for shaping.
Starting at the armpit:
Row 1: Knit 6 stitches, turn
Row 2: slip 1, purl 1, turn
Row 3: slip 1, knit 2, turn
Row 4: slip 1, purl 3, turn
Row 5: slip 1, knit 4, turn
Row 6: slip 1, purl 5, turn
Row 7: slip 1, knit 6, turn
Row 8: slip 1, purl 7, turn
Row 9: slip 1, knit 8
You are now back at the armpit.
Knit all 10 stitches in the round for 1.5 inches or to desired length.
BO all stitches.

Weave in ends.

Use following charts and duplicate stitch to add decoration.

(Star and "ornaments" can be added with embroidery thread)

Like steeking ... but not.

Cut Knot
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I got out my scissors. It wasn't easy. I've labored over this knot, and while it may not have been true love with the project so far, it still was a lot of work. It's yarn... I could unravel it and use it for something else. I could test knit a lot of other projects with this same yarn!

But.. I couldn't stand the thought of knitting it AGAIN just to test. Another version that might or might not work. My sewing scissors are very sharp and even sound dangerous (shkk, shkk, shkk). I held them poised over the even stitches. Snip! Snip! Four times I cut through my knitting and in the end, I had a piece that was flat and even. Stretched evenly and carefully there wasn't even much of a gap.

And then a new idea revealed itself... because now I had a new pattern. I could, if I wanted, make this into the knot it was before, expanded at the four corners. Or, I could leave a gap where I'd cut the crossing. I could turn this pretty knot into a lovely and elegant equal-armed cross! It would be even easier than extending the arms across my wider gap.

Oh, the dilemma!