demi, from rowan vintage knits

The neckline was easy to fix. The abalone buttons weren't what I had in mind, but ended up being perfect.

The best part about knitting it circularly was seeing neat details like the side ribbing emerge right as I knitted them.
And yes, it is entirely possible to knit this circularly, even with its set-in sleeves. Simply consult Knitting Without Tears (Elizabeth Zimmermann)for instructions on how to knit up to the underams, follow the pattern's instructions for the initial decreasing of sleeves and body, and finish the decreasing and neck using Knitting Workshop (also EZ) as a guide.

This, along with four (or was it five?) skeins of Cascade 220 (I had to knit a different size to achieve a good fit since my gauge was different), should just about do it.

And while we're on the subject of finished projects, remember the bobbin lace tablecloth?

It had a makeover.Happy new year!

the good, the bad and the ugly

I'm really nearing the finish line on Demi. I have the body, arms, and a good deal of the shoulders done. I knew that I had made a mistake somewhere along the shoulders, but since I was having a hard time grasping how the construction of this sweater worked, I figured I'd finish off the shoulders, graft one, and then try it on.

The good news is that most of it fits great, and it is so comfortable to wear. The lace blouse I had on today even mimicked the outfit on the model in the book. I was right, though, I had made a mistake on the shoulders.

Yikes. I just decreased incorrectly on the last few inches - namely, I forgot to keep the sweater in one piece, which would be the total goal of circular knitting. It shouldn't take more than one really good knitting session to fix the shoulders, re-knit, and finish up little things like weaving in ends and grafting the underarms. I'm going to use Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop as a guide. So maybe you will see the end of this sweater next week!

are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I was without internet access for a month, so Demi will probably look a lot different from when you saw it last.

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I'm knitting this circularly, so I won't have any seams to sew when I'm done. I managed to knit the sleeves and body up to the underarms without any problems, but now I am a little perplexed.

(The color is somewhere between these two pictures.)

The joining of the sleeve and body looks right, but I'm just not sure. All I did was follow the decreasing instructions that the pattern gave, I just worked the whole sweater at the same time rather than worked on one piece at a time. (Many, many Post Its were used in this effort, and one bamboo knitting needle was sacrificed.) I am not too concerned, because I know that at least I am right up to the underarm. I don't see why I would be wrong, but I'm also not too convinced that I am correct.

Every time I got bored or confused with Demi this past month, I worked a few rows on some other knitting until I felt like looking at Demi again.

Okay, so I got bored and confused a lot. But the good news is, with the way I am confused over Demi's neckline, I will have two matching pairs of socks in no time.

distraction

I needed something to distract me from the unarguable disaster that my last cardigan turned out to be. I had set aside a few sweaters to be ripped and re-knitted into something more classic, and the heathered red Cascade 220 I had really caught my eye. I decided to start Demi from Rowan's Vintage Knits, a sweater that I have been meaning to knit for at least two years now.

Cascade 220 is not an exact substitution for the Rowan yarn that is recommended. This means that even though I'm following the pattern for the extra small, my finished sweater will be a few sizes larger. I'm also knitting this in the round, which is already working out much better than knitting it flat. The "wrong side" rows are so much easier to work when all you need to do is knit through the back loop and purl.
So far, so good. I'm nearly obsessively checking my progress on this one, making sure that I don't have another ill-fitting sweater on my hands. I've already finished the ribbing and one pattern repeat, making seven inches of this sweater completed.

Today is deceptively sunny. It looks beautiful outside, but in reality we've hit freezing temperatures. I can't wait until this sweater is done, I know it will get a lot of use this winter.

I'm sheltering these flowers inside the house, since it's too cold to plant them outside now. Besides, they would be prime deer treats since I still need to put up my fence. They look remarkably fake, don't they?

finished!

My version of the Poetry in Stitches cardigan on page 122. I made it out of Morehouse Merino laceweight (3 skeins of natural black, and 5.5 skeins of the contrast color) on size US 1 needles. I lengthened it (a lot), made it symmetrical, followed Elizabeth Zimmermann's directions for a circular set-in sleeve (found in Knitting Workshop), and after using Dawn Brocco's beautiful sewn steek, realized that hooks and eyes weren't going to work, and sewed up the steek after all.

Although it was stiff and bumpy during knitting, after washing it became soft and acquired a beautiful drape. I neglected to include the neck border chart, and instead just picked up stitches up the body and around the neck, and finished with the picot border that was done on the hems of the body and sleeves.

The inside-out view. I originally wanted the main color to be the pink, and the contrast to be the black, but couldn't stomach the idea of having dead, black plants on a sweater. At least not when it's almost Spring.

beginning

My goal for 2008 is to clear out all of the yarn I have hibernating in my home. Old houses may have their charms, but closet space is definitely not one of them. My two small closets are already full of clothes and linens - yarn just doesn't have a place in them.

This means that I finally had the incentive to start another cardigan from Poetry in Stitches. I had bought the laceweight yarn from Morehouse Farms just before they closed their store, Sheep's Clothing. That happened a few months ago - that probably doesn't seem long to most of you, but when you have a line of bags full of yarn marching out of your bedroom closet, it seems like forever.

I worked for three days on this cardigan and only barely have six inches to show for it. I've just completed the decreasing for the waist shaping that I decided to do, and after working a few inches straight I'll start to increase back up. There are just under 400 stitches to do for every round - not quite a quick knit. Once I reach the underarms I'll start the sleeves, and then work a seamless set-in sleeve a la Elizabeth Zimmermann.

Another shot of those poor socks that are doomed to be photographed in bad lighting until the end of time, it seems. At least they keep my feet warm...

all's well that ends well

Those beads did get sewn on, after all.

This is, of course, the "bridal cardigan" from Poetry in Stitches, although I've just come to think of it as my purple cardigan. The only major change I made was in my yarn. I used Morehouse Merino Farm's laceweight in three different colors; one skein of the dark blue, five skeins of the light blue, and six skeins of the purple. I also used 1.5 tubes of clear seed beads and I was very happy to discover the "big eye" needle, which will stretch to fit a strand of yarn, and then shrink to allow the bead to easily pass over.

What can I say except I'll never take it off?

when bad things happen to good sweaters

I like to believe that sweaters are inherently good. Sometimes they will do bad things, like slipping into the washing machine and felting, or running away when you take the bus, but mostly they want to be good. They warm you, shelter you from the rain, and sometimes they're just there to be pretty.

Which is why I think it is so sad when bad things happen to them. Like, oh, I don't know, when a steek decides to leave and your sweater explodes.

I do not know why or how this happened. I had used the crocheted steek (method can be found on Eunny's old blog) and successfully picked up stitches for the border, as you saw in my last post. A few days ago, I picked it up and started to knit the border, and whole sections of the crocheting fell away and left hundreds of loose yarn ends to frantically try and run through the whole sweater. I entered a strange stage of calm. I carefully put the sweater down, covered it with a pillow to protect it from the cat, and sent out a few e-mails asking for help.

As I should have known, the very talented Hege was the one who ended up with the best solution. We both agreed that it needed to be sewn somehow, but whereas I was all for pulling out the sewing machine and trying to drill it all down, Hege recommended Dawn Brocco's handsewn steek method.

This worked so well that I almost couldn't believe it. So far, I have sewn two rows up the left side of the cardigan, effectively anchoring all those ends that so badly want to move. I think I may do one more row, just to be sure. I'll then have to repeat this on the right side - so far that side is holding together much better, but I don't want to take any risks, and besides, it will be symmetrical this way. At that point I'll pull off the crocheting and then carefully tack the cut ends to the back.

As I said, I'm not sure why this happened. I examined the edges carefully, and as far as I can tell, I executed the method correctly. I'd used this method in the past, on both the Crichton cardigan and Snow Sky, and hadn't encountered anything like this. My only ideas are that perhaps the fingering weight merino is just too small and slippery for the edging to hold, and/or maybe I didn't pull the crocheting tight enough. Whatever the reason, I will definitely not be in a hurry to use this method ever again.

for whom the bell tolls

I never thought I'd make it far enough to say this, but the end is in sight! Thanks in great part to Hege, I was able to sew in the sleeves successfully, with minimal tears and sweat. I cut the steek last night, and picked up more than 400 stitches to make the border for the fronts and neck. All that's left now is actually knitting the border, sewing the final picot hem at the bottom, and then putting on the sweater and passing out into a heap until I've mustered up the strength to drive to the yarn store and pick out yarn for another colorwork sweater. I'm guessing that will take, say, 10 minutes.

closing in

Has it really been one month?

The sleeves are both done, and the hems are sewn.

Somehow, all those ends have been woven in. I haven't attached the sleeves yet, though.

It will have to wait - I'm busy!

a garden that needs to be weeded

Well, that's a big mess, isn't it? I've never seen a sweater in more dire need of sewing and blocking, but I think after I do that it will start to look much better. The first sleeve went much more easily than I thought it would, although I did discover that those picot edges are a real pain when done on double pointed needles. To anyone knitting this sweater or a similar one - do the round on bigger needles very loosely. Trust me.

As I start to see the end for this sweater, I've been planning which colorwork sweater I'll knit next. I've been thinking that this sweater from Poetry in Stitches would look nice in white with a blue design. And maybe Crichton could be resurrected in black with a gray design? Don't answer that, I think I'm being crazy again.

(Jessica reminded me to add that of course both of these potential sweaters would have waist shaping, and I'm thinking set-in sleeves for both, too. I love the charts, but the lack of tailoring isn't really for me.)

how to love your knitting, part 1

(Note: for those of you who aren't interested in my babble, there are quite a few photos of new knitting projects interspersed with this entry. You can just scroll through and read the captions on them, if you prefer.)

One of the best parts about knitting is that one can make a garment to fit any size or shape. One of the worst parts is discovering that the pattern you want to make does not come in your size, is the wrong shape, or worse yet, calls for a yarn that you either can't afford or can not find. Perhaps the easiest way to get around this is to only knit patterns that you have designed yourself, but even the most talented designers sometimes just want to knit somebody else's pattern. And let's face it, if you find the perfect sweater, why re-invent the wheel?

The absolute easiest way to change a sweater's general size is by playing with the gauge. You do need to knit a swatch and measure, but it's very easy and totally worth the results. I find that there are two different scenarios when you find a sweater that needs its size tweaked: you either have yarn that you already have in mind, or do not yet have any yarn and are looking for which yarn to buy. I will discuss these in order:


You have yarn, you have a pattern, but the size is either too big or too small:

1. The Swatch.

I read a lot about people who say that swatches "lie", and that they don't bother knitting them because they are not an accurate representation of the sweater. I think this is because there are many misunderstandings about what you need to do with a swatch in order for it to work for you. I also have heard the explanation that a swatch "wastes" yarn, and that the knitter only has a limited amount. It is very easy to frog the swatch after you've made the pertinent measurements and re-use the yarn - trust me. After seeing me work my way through the ripped-out Crichton yarn, you know that I'm not one to waste a yard of yarn.

The first step with swatching is, obviously, to pick up some of the yarn you have chosen and a set of needles. Since the pattern's gauge is not going to matter to you, you get to choose any needles you want, so long as you like the fabric that they produce. Generally, you will want a needle that is about the same thickness as the yarn. If you are a loose knitter, you will need to go with a needle that is a little smaller than the yarn. If you're a tight knitter, you will need to go with a needle that is a little larger. Knit a few rows, and if the fabric looks bad, switch your needle size accordingly.

The second step to swatching is making sure that you swatch "in pattern". Usually this is stockinette, but if the sweater has a different stitch pattern (cabled, lace, etc.) you must knit your swatch in that. If it's a good pattern, it will tell you which stitch pattern they want you to swatch. It's generally whatever the majority of the sweater is knitted in.

Now, the knitting. This is where you need to be the most careful. You are going to want to cast on enough stitches to successfully measure your gauge. This is about 4 inches, or 10 centimeters. I know it seems boring, but it will go very quickly, and it's so much better than finishing an entire sweater and discovering that you will need to adopt an orangutan into your family so that it will fit someone.


There are also other advantages to swatching - here, you can see that I originally tried a cable pattern. I discovered that not only was the cable pattern given incorrect, but it really did not show off the yarn nicely at all. It was much easier to discover this after casting on 30 stitches, rather than discovering it after I had cast on enough for an entire body of a sweater.

Yuck.

During this step, you are also going to want to take note of how you are knitting - are you wrapping the yarn tightly, or letting it fall as it may? I was practicing my continental knitting (I am an English knitter, originally), and was careful to feel just how I was knitting. This is also another good reason to make a good-sized swatch. Not only does it allow you to "feel" your knitting, but it also gives a more accurate representation of how you will be knitting when you start your sweater. If you only knitted an inch-wide swatch, your knitting style would be much different than an entire sweater, since you would be knitting a little tighter in that small space.

In this swatch, I was using a cotton yarn with some elastic, and had to make sure I didn't tug the yarn too tightly in order to get a correct swatch. Blocking will take care of the small irregularities that are bound to happen. You'll be seeing more of this swatch in a later post.

Also important: if the sweater is knit circularly, you must knit your swatch circularly. You can do this on double-pointed needles, but my favorite trick is to take a circular needle, cast on enough stitches for your swatch, and work one row. Next, slide the knitting to the other end of the needle, take the working yarn and make a big loop (think a loop about a foot long - you absolutely do not want it too tight, since it will make your swatch buckle in on itself), bringing it up to the work and knitting the next row. Slide the swatch to the other side of the needle and do it again. By doing this, you're only knitting on the right side of the work, thus giving you a swatch that is representative of circular knitting.

The back will look something like this. It's crazy, but it works.

The final step with your swatch is also very important. After binding off, you are going to wash and dry your swatch in exactly the same method in which you will be washing and drying your sweater. Swatches can change dramatically during this step. I usually measure the swatch before I wash and dry it, and then afterwards, just so I can see the difference. I would suggest measuring it over two inches, and make sure that you measure right in the center, since your stitches will be the best there (don't count those edge stitches, they are always pulled out of shape and will give you a bad measurement). It is also helpful to measure before and after the wash, since while you're knitting it you may become a little panicked about the size, and if you compare your gauge at that moment to the original gauge, you can comfort yourself that the size will be correct after it is washed and dried. For my swatch, I soaked it in the sink in cold water with some baby shampoo, rinsed it, and let it dry flat. The wool grew and made my final gauge 10 stitches/2 inches and 14 rows/2 inches. After you have measured your real gauge from your washed and dried swatch, you will feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and pride. No longer will you knit the perfect sweater, only to clean it and discover that it has now grown in width and length - or worse yet, refuse to wash it at all.

These socks were knit from the same yarn, with the same needles, in the same week. The bottom one was washed and the top one was not. Their heels are lined up exactly - the size difference you see is entirely from being wetted and dried. They are the Buds and Blossoms socks designed by Katherine Misegades.

2. Your Gauge.

Now you have a fresh, beaming little swatch, and are almost ready to tackle the whole sweater. The final step is calculating your gauge. You've already measured your gauge from both your pre-washed and washed swatch. You are only going to bother right now with your washed swatch's gauge. Let's say that it is 10 stitches/2 inch. We divide that, and find that it is 5 stitches/1 inch. If you divide and find a fraction, make sure you use that fraction! The little bits can add up and really alter the size of your sweater.

Next, we look at the pattern. I used pattern #20, a cowl neck sweater, from the fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting. The pattern gives instructions for four different sizes, that range from a 34" bust to a 46" bust. This does not matter. The sizes and inches given are only for their gauge, and since we have our own, we can cheerfully ignore them. The only important information is the number of stitches given for the bust. This is usually about the same as the cast-on amount, and in this pattern it is equal to that amount. I converted this pattern to be knitted circularly, so the number of stitches I was casting on was the total amount for the body. As per the pattern, these are either 144, 160, 180, or 196 stitches. If your pattern is knitted flat, you will be adding up the number of stitches from the back and front, subtracting 4 as those are used in seaming, and then using the remaining number to calculate your size.

To find out which one of these cast-on amounts I needed to use, I took my gauge of 5 stitches to 1 inch and started to divide. The first cast-on amount would give me, with my gauge in my choice of yarn and needles, 28.8" (144 stitches / 5 stitches per inch = 28.8 inches). The second number gives me 32" (160 stitches / 5 stitches per inch = 32 inches). The third number would give me a 36" bust, and the final number would give a 39.2" bust. I chose the size that suited me the most, and cast on.

The beauty of this method is that now you do not have to worry about any more math, and the inevitable crossing out and re-writing of instructions that comes with it. You can cheerfully follow the instructions for the cast-on amount, and whether the pattern lists that as a small or an extra large, you can be confident that it's going to turn out to fit you beautifully. There is one small hiccup with this plan, and this is your row gauge. Many patterns will just tell you to knit for a certain amount of inches, but occasionally will tell you to work a decrease every 10th row, as this pattern did. To find out how many rows that would require you to knit, you will need to do just a tiny bit more math. This is what I do:

I need to decrease every 10 rows. What the pattern is really telling me is that I need to decrease over a certain amount of inches, but the designer has tried to be helpful and simplify it for me (it is amazing how many patterns, and particularly American ones, try to over-simplify and just make you more clueless). I take a look at the pattern's gauge, and see that this was written for a fabric that measures 4.25 stitches per inch, and 5.5 rows per inch. So really, 10 rows is 1.8 inches (10 rows / 5.5 rows per inch = 1.8 inches). I look at my row gauge, which is 7 rows per inch, and now calculate how many of MY rows would equal 1.8 inches. 7 rows x 1.8 inches = 12.6 rows. Since it's impossible to knit .6 of a row, I just round it up to 13 rows. Now I know that I really need to decrease every 13 rows, in order to have the waist shaping come out correctly.

If that confuses you, this is all you need to do:

1. Using THEIR gauge, find the number of rows per inch. (Generally a gauge is given over 4 inches, so you'll probably be dividing the numbers they give by 4.)

2. Look at the amount of rows that the pattern wants you to increase or decrease over.

3. Divide your answer from #2 by the answer from #1. (#2 / #1)

4. Take a breather. I didn't like math in school, either.

5. Look at YOUR row gauge per inch.

6. Multiply your answer from #3 by your answer from #5. (#3 x #5)

7. You're left with the number of rows that you're going to need to decrease or increase over. Cool, huh?

Is it worth it? I think so.

Cowl neck sweater from Vogue Knitting, Fall 2006. The yarn is Cascade 220, the Heathers collection. Every modification I used is listed above. It is my new favorite sweater.

You have a pattern, but the sizes aren't ideal. You still need to buy yarn.

You're going to love this method.

For example, I'm going to use the cardigan I'm making from Poetry in Stitches. The only sizes given are for a bust of 40 inches or 43 inches. I know right away that these sizes are not going to work for me, and that I'll need something much smaller. I tried to fool around with the design, but ultimately it was just too fiddly.

1. The Only Step.

Figure out what bust size you'd like best. You can do this by measuring around yourself and guessing at how much ease you want, or by measuring a sweater that you like. Look at how many stitches you will have on the needles at the bust (most likely about equal to the cast-on number). For this pattern, my choices are either 289 stitches or 309 stitches.

Either those 289 stitches or 309 stitches are going to give me a width of 36". It's just a matter of which one I'd like to pick. I divide 289 stitches by 36 inches and get 8 stitches/inch. 309 stitches divided by 36" gives me 8.5 stitches/inch. I now know that I'm going to want to find a yarn that gives me one of those gauges. As luck would have it, the Morehouse Merino laceweight yarn gives me exactly 8.5 stitches/inch, so all there was left to do was buy a whole bunch and dust off my needles. The same rules about row gauge apply, as detailed directly above the bold text. Beth had asked me if the Morehouse was a direct substitute, and I saw quite a few Google queries about it, so for those of you searching, please know that it is not going to give you the same gauge as the recommended yarn. In this case, though, it gives me a better gauge, and you may find the same.

Jen asked how to determine how much yarn you're going to use. After doing this a few times you'll have a good idea, and some yarn ball bands even tell you how much you need for a certain size sweater. If you need some help for now, though, check out this webpage in HTML or PDF format.

Two flower repeats in. I've finished the increasing and am now working straight to the armholes.

purple and blue

I'm not sure which came first, the knitted flowers or the ones outside my window.



The beginnings of a cardigan from Poetry In Stitches. I'm using three colors of Morehouse Merino's laceweight yarn, for a gauge of approximately 9.5 stitches per inch. More details when I have the time.

around and around

This sleeve didn't work for a variety of reasons. My plan was to incorporate a steek at the top, so that I wouldn't have to work back and forth to shape the sleeve cap. Unfortunately, even my small 3 stitch steek added enough bulk at the arm hole (where there was another steek for the body) that it was uncomfortable and looked strange. I had planned to sew it in place, but literally over night about two inches of an arm hole steek mysteriously unraveled. I've been questioning the cat, but she pleads the fifth and reminds me that she's innocent until proven guilty.

So, I try again. This time I used a technique I learned from knitting the Crichton cardigan, also in Sweaters From Camp. After I grafted the shoulder, I picked up stitches from around the arm hole, added on the stitches at the underarm that I had put on a string, and started knitting down. I had thought that it would bother me that the body was knitted up, and the sleeves down, but I think it looks fine. I also had to pick up stitches from the actual pattern, not the line of brown that I had made because it unraveled, but I think after a blocking it should look okay. I've tried it on and there's none of the lumpiness that the previous sleeve had, so it looks like I'm on the right track. Sorry these photos are so dark - the ones in the last post are actually true to color. However, it's in the single digits (Farenheit) outside, and I'd rather deal with the poor lighting indoors than go anywhere near the door.

In the meantime, I've started Salina from Rowan's Vintage Knits and the Lopi Mittens from Folk Mittens. Salina is made from Cascade 220 in a heathered merlot color, and the Lopi Mittens are made from even more leftover Crichton.

I know some people hate thumbs that stick straight up on the mitten, but I love them. It makes the mitten look so tidy. I've also discovered that not having a tight cuff isn't a bad thing, as long as the mitten is long enough in the wrist to tuck into your jacket sleeve. This is good, because I find it more fun to start right in on the pattern than have to do a few inches of mindless ribbing first. The second one will be knitted as soon as the first sleeve of Snow Sky is done - they both use my US 3 needles and I don't want to buy another pair.

the charm

You know what they say about the third time...

Here's Snow Sky's body, completely done. I fiddled around (a lot) with the numbers and ended up with a formula for waist shaping that, if I did it right, I'll apply to all future patterned sweaters. The middle steek that you see is for the neck - the patterning goes wonky around it because I decreased on either side of the steek for a deep V-neck. The steeks on the left and right are for the sleeves. I figured out how to accomplish a set-in sleeve, and if this goes smoothly, I'll be applying this to other patterned sweaters as well. I'm not sure if I've done something to be proud of, or if I'm just causing the original fair isle knitters a lot of grief in their graves.

Next, I'll be cutting the steeks, and then grafting the shoulders together. After that, I'll knit the sleeves and sew them in and I'll be done!

I've already decided that my next sweaters will be the Shirt-Tail Hemmed pullover in Sweaters From Camp, and probably the wedding cardigan from Poetry In Stitches. If I can apply my same formulas to these two sweaters and have the shaping come out well, I'll be writing up what I did and hopefully somebody will find it useful.

I'm not completely stuck in Scandinavian knitting, though. I have a single color project that I'll be sharing soon.

the return of snow sky

I know, I know. This picture looks like old news. Actually, if you look closely, you'll see that this is my second attempt at Snow Sky. Last weekend I managed to finish both sleeves, and was well on my way to finishing the cardigan when I realized that I'd spent so much time worrying about matching the patterns on sleeve and body that I'd completely forgotten that the actual body of the sweater would have to be the same on front and back for the shoulder grafting to work correctly. So, out came all my knitting and I started again. Everything is pretty much the same, except that I went down one needle size to US 3s in order to fit in more pattern repeats in the same amount of space. I'm also being much more careful to keep my yarn in the correct hand, since in my last attempt I was unwittingly switching hands every time I picked up the sweater, and it was pretty obvious.

I really want to have the body and sleeves joined by the end of the week, so we'll see how that goes. After I finish this I want to start one of the sweaters from Poetry in Stitches - the projects in that book are so beautiful that it's good incentive to think about them as I churn away on this one.