I just finished reading Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini and today I’m happy to be able to ask her a few questions. Sweater Quest is the story of knitting Alice Starmore’s Mary Tudor sweater pattern within one year. If you’re a knitter you might understand why that sounds far easier than it actually is. If you’re not a knitter you should know that it’s an insanely complicated sweater for which the pattern is out of print and difficult (and expensive) to find, the yarn hasn’t been made for years, and the knitting technique is intricate. It was an interesting read, I learned all about Alice Starmore and why she has the reputation she does, there are meetings with lots of the biggest knitting celebrities, trips to knitting meccas, historical facts about Mary Tudor, and musings on why we knit.

One of the things you ponder in the book is whether your sweater is really an Alice Starmore design since you didn’t use the original Alice Starmore yarns. I do not knit with wool and one of the first things I learned to do was substitute yarn so this concern about authenticity was something I’d never considered before. Did you have any further feelings on the this in general or about your Mary Tudor in particular after the book was wrapped up?

For most designs, substituting yarns is no big deal. You might wind up with an object that doesn’t drape or feel like the original but who cares? You’ve made something that pleases you. With Starmore, it makes a huge difference what yarns you use because she is a master at color. Swap out any one skein and you’ll wind up with a mess — and I know this because I tried to do just that. I saved the swatch from that misbegotten disaster and it is hideous.

I’m still not certain is my Mary Tudor is a true Starmore, frankly. I used a yarn (Spindrift) that is very, very close to the original Starmore yarns but isn’t identical. I substituted one color in the blue background bands. It might be close enough to a Starmore to fool the non-connoisseurs. But I wonder how it would fare if put next to the original.

So tell us, did you hear from Alice Starmore or her people once this book came out? Did you ever consider writing to her during your project?

I haven’t heard from Starmore or her official people at all. I have been vigorously taken to task by a few people on Ravelry who claim to be her bosom buddies. But, given the nature of such things, you can be almost anyone you want on the internet. So, really, who knows?

Frankly, I’d love to hear from her and wished that I could get her side of the story directly from her mouth. The publisher’s lawyers were twitchy, however, and I was firmly advised to not make contact. I’m not thrilled with this, mind, but will abide by their advice, even though I wish the world were a different place.

After finding how carefully and how well Alice Starmore uses color, if you were to do another Alice Starmore sweater would you seek out the specific yarns called for? If somebody else was going to tackle a Starmore would you recommend they get the particular yarns?

If — and it’s a big if, given how many other things I want to knit — I ever take on another Starmore sweater, I would get even more obsessive about it, which is hard to imagine, I know. I’d track down all of the original yarns, just to see if it really does make a big difference. For those who aren’t quite as compulsive as I can be, I’d say to just do what you feel is right. To get the best result, you have to use wool, I think, and swatch like a mighty knitter who swatches. Other than that, just do it – because if you can manage a decent knit stitch, you can do Starmore’s Fair Isle.

Do you ever get requests from people who would like to see your Mary Tudor in person? (I have to admit I would.) Are you taking it on your book tour with you?

The Mary Tudor is my constant traveling companion. She doesn’t eat much but does take up a lot of room in my bag. I still get a little thrill when the audience at a reading makes appreciative noises, even though I know it’s wrong to take such pride in a sweater. There are some pictures online, if you can’t make it to where I am, see it here.

Is there any significance to the knitted border design on your book jacket?

Not that I know of. I’ve been working on getting the jacket designer to confirm that the yarn in the main picture is Lamb’s Pride. The designer thinks it’s hilarious that anyone would ask that sort of question about stock art. Clearly, he doesn’t know knitters.

Indeed, thank you Adrienne!

Adrienne will be at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA on April 15 if you’d like to see the Mary Tudor for yourself, and you can keep up with her on her website, martinimade.

I have this thing about winter hats, they never quite cover my earlobes. I forget all about this until I’m out in the cold and then it’s too late and I end up tugging the hat down trying to keep my poor ears warm. Even the Calorimetry, which I love, doesn’t quite cover my whole ear (maybe I have freakishly large ears?).

The hat shown here is my rough draft and is riddled with mistakes. I closed the short rows on one side incorrectly, I missed when to cable and did some at every five rows, some at six and one a seven. Despite this it’s still my favorite functionally warm hat. And I have enough yarn to make a more polished one. It’s pictured here on a styrafoam head that is considerably smaller than my own head.

The hat shown pulled down over the forehead.

I was telling a friend, Maggi, about this and my requirements. I didn’t want to have a staggered cast on (I like tubular for hats), I didn’t want to have tie anything under the chin, I didn’t want to go back and knit ear flaps later on (they don’t seem to do anything but hang there anyhow). Then Maggi, all effortless like, suggested short rows. She is a genius. I’ve only just wrapped my head around how short rows work so I gave it a shot.

The hat shown pulled back a bit.

I made the short rows on this hat like you would do for a sock heel (each row was shorter than the previous), and the result was that they curl inward and hug underneath the ear, a nice unexpected outcome. I used the Chunky Cabled Beanie pattern from Stitch Cafe as a starting point. (Here found at the Internet Archive after it disappeared during a site redesign sometime in the last two days.) I added a pattern repeat, for a total of seven cable/rib sections, and placed the short row areas centered over cabled sections closer to the back of the head, if you are counting from the join at the back of the head they would be over sections 2 and 6.

The hat is shown above flat. On the left is the hat from the front, and on the right is the hat from the side (if worn one’s face would be pointed to the left). I’m trying to show how I didn’t center the earflaps but set them back a bit, they seem to be well placed for me.

(I’m no good at getting photographs of myself in a mirror, this is the only one that shows the hat well enough.)

There are a few short row earflap hats already out there including this very tidy one from QueerJoe’s Knitting Blog, the Brioche Helmet Hat from Interweave Knits, Earflap Hat from Sunshine Knit Designs, and Cameron’s Cap by Sarah Peasley (note: that link is to a PDF).

I’m not sure if it uses short rows but I like the cabled had from Rebecca shown by Action Hero in her roundup of winter hats. Another ear covering hat that comes immediately to mind is the Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap. On Ravelry I found the Mimipita Earflap Hat, which is written in Japanese but uses a universal chart, and the Cabled Earflap Hat which is sized for a baby but easily made larger using a larger gauge.

There are also plenty of cute earflap hats that have chin ties that I wouldn’t mind having: Cabled Chullo, Snowboarder Hat That Rocks and 18 Seconds to Sunrise.

One last note, I still really like Japanese short rows. The best tutorials I’ve found are at nonaKnits and for Japanese short rows in the round Adorabubble Knits works through it nicely.

p.s. My project is here on Ravelry in case you’re interested: red cabled short row earflap hat.

I recently came across the concept of reversible cables, what a lovely and tidy thing, especially for a nice thick scarf that won’t curl in on itself and you won’t have to worry about having the correct side facing out. I used the free pattern Palindrome, which is very easy, and added a pattern repeat. I’m using Berocco Comfort Chunky yarn on size #8 needles to keep the ribbing nice and tight. I bought four balls of yarn and I’m half way through the third ball, the scarf is long enough that I might make a hat using the same reversible cable pattern.

I did a 2×2 tubular cast-on and it’s rounded edge makes me happy.

Lucky me, just as I’m discovering how much I like reversible knitting comes out a book: Reversible Knitting: 50 Brand-New, Groundbreaking Stitch Patterns. I’m looking forward to seeing what is in there.

Look at that, I have a heel on my sock. I only needed to rip back four times to get it all right. That dark line of thread you see is a lifeline that I got a whole lot of use out of. I used the Japanese short rows from nonaKnits which explains the basics, but I found this tutorial for Japanese short rows in the round at Adorabubble Knits to be the most useful. Though, I turn, slip, then add a pin. That difference didn’t seem to affect how the gaps closed on the last go around. I will try the turn, add a pin and then slip next sock to see if there is a difference. I’ve also discovered that stringing pins on my yarn ahead of time, just like you would if you were knitting with beads, saves a lot of frustration when I’m in the midst of short rowing. Thanks again to Amy Singer for her excellent Favorite Sock Recipe, I suspect I would have given up on other forms of short rows.

One could not go to Sock Summit and come away not having gained at least enough knowledge to start a basic sock. In this case I took Amy Singer‘s class called Knitting Without Wool where she gave us Amy’s Favorite Sock Recipe, taught us Japanese Short Rows (there at nonaKnits) and showed us a super secret stretchy bind-off that will be published in Knitty in the Autumn. (I’m, apparently, a bind-off geek and am gleeful to have learned three new stretchy bind-offs at the summit.)

So, this is a toe-up sock knit in Fixation, started with Judy’s Magic Cast On. The picture above shows the cast-on end with the ball of Fixation holding the sock open. Isn’t the cast-on breathtaking?

This pattern uses an ankle gusset (is that the right thing to call it?) and, at least from what I can tell so far, a fairly shallow turned heel using the aforementioned Japanese Short Rows. I have a high instep so I think this combination will work out well for me. I got to the short rows last night:

The technique uses placing pins at turns, and using those later to lift the bit of yarn up and over the needle. In class we talked about using coiless safety pins. You can use locking or split ring stitch markers as well but I think those are awfully big for a sock (and I don’t already own any).

I set out to find coiless pins and ended up with these Button Pins from Joanns. The only other coilless pins I could find were in the beading section and were 1 1/8th inch and seemed a bit big at that size. The button pins have a little bump in the wire but are only 3/4ths an inch and work really nicely. Here is the package:

In my research I also came across these coiless plastic safety pins that Riot of Daisies uses as stitch markers. They are 1″ long and still a bit big for socks, I think, but if you want to break free of the peach and mint green locking stitch marker monopoly these would work well. See also Colonial stitch markers (which I didn’t see in the mega-store) and 3/4 inch coiless safety pins at Angelika’s Yarn Store, as well as larger sizes.

Next I decrease the ankle gusset stitches and then it’ll just be a question knitting a tube up to to the top. I did buy four balls of Fixation just be to sure I would have enough and at this rate it looks like I’ll have a pair of knee socks before I’m done.

The marketplace here is enormous (and open to the public, in case you are nearby and happen to be a knitter). Here are some booths that caught my eye:

Splityarn Handmade zipper boxes, flat pouches and camera straps, she has such beautiful fabrics (and is a super sweet person!).

Queen Bee Creations felt bags with these darling flowers, they don’t have zippers and would really nicely for your knitting. They also have all the fabulous vinyl bags and pouches they are famous for.

Hazel Knits yummy yarns. She also has a very popular sock club.

5elementknitr makes these super handy stitch markers, they have a detachable short crochet hook for the moment when you drop a stitch but don’t have a crochet hook handy. She also makes some in lovely sterling silver.

Other booths I took note of with the help of the wool-loving Maggi:

• sets of six 5-inch, very bendy and smooth palmwood DPNs at the Laurel Hill Needles booth ($16!). I have some Laurel Hill #5 needles and love them dearly.
• Miss Babs, lovely yarns (the sport weight is on sale)
• Signature Needles, you can compare the mid and stiletto tips
• try out some square needles at Kollage
• Wool Candy, bright and happy colors
• Simply Socks Yarn Company, very nice price for soft sock yarns
• Namaste small bags (very Hobo-y) perfect for a small projects on DPNs at the Tanglewood Fiber Creations booth
• Van Der Rock, yarn from Canada
• you can put your name in a drawing to win a set of DPNs at the Sock Stix booth

A time of high stress and not much time left before a big important deadline is, as everybody knows, the perfect time to start a new knitting project. I ripped out my top down raglan experiment sweater for the time being and started in on these fingerless gloves just in time for it to hit 70 degrees in Seattle. These are Fetching from Knitty, made a little longer and using a tubular cast on and bind off. That little section of orange stitches is where the thumb will be picked up to knit.

I’m using some leftover Dark Horse Fantasy yarn on size 6 needles. I’m using two circulars for most of the project, and dpns for the thumbs.

I’ve made very little progress since my last report but I need some advice: Do you think I’m going to run out of yarn? I started with ten balls and have four and a half left. I need at least six inches more on the body and both of the sleeves. I know sleeves can use a deceptively large amount of yarn. Here are harder stats:

yardage: 93 per ball, I have 930 yards total, and have about 415 yards left
my gauge: 13.5 columns and 22 rows over 4″
needle: 10.5
yarn: Lana Grossa New Soft

The sweater right now would come out very large on me (I’m going for comfort not looks with this one) and I’m happy enough to rip back to mid-shoulder and make the sweater slimmer if I need. So, what do you think? Will I make it with the yarn I have left?

I didn’t get far with my improvised top-down raglan before I found the arms were going to be too wide and I was going to run out of yarn, so I started over. This time I’m improvising something similar to a top-down version of the Button On Blanket, except not ribbed all around and with the button band worked as I go along.

As I got further down and found I nearly had all the width for the body I wanted, but not for the sleeves I started skipping every other row of increases for the body and it seems to have worked out well. I’m nearly to the point where I’ll be working on the body itself.

I moved the points where the increases start close to the tops of the shoulders, like the B.O.B. has them, but I lined them up with the ribbing on my collar. So far so good.

I decided to try to make a top down raglan cardigan with some bulky yarn I have because having no seams, and therefore less bulk, sounded appealing. Working from the top down will also allow me to make 3/4 sleeves in case I start to run out of yarn, which I’m afraid of.

Taken from the Google Books pages of Knitting In Plain English is this:

The basic idea behind a knit-in-one-piece-from-the-top-down raglan sweater is to make a carefully calculated rectangle that grows bigger every other row and keeps the same proportions until that rectangle is large enough to be divided up into separate sleeves and body.

And this diagram is included, which helps me picture what’s going on nicely:

This is Lana Grossa NewSoft yarn, which has been discontinued. I didn’t intend to do another sweater in gray but a bag of this was half price at kpixie. I like the yarn, it’s surprisingly lightweight and springy for a cotton/nylon yarn.

I decided to make a high neck (it was cold when I started the sweater) so I got a measurement a bit bigger around than my head and cast on 112 stitches using a 2×2 tubular cast on.

Did I use any of the free top-down raglan sweater generating patterns for this? No, that would have been too easy. I did look at one for some guidance on where to start the increases. At first I had my two areas of increasing close together starting on either side of the neck but before I got too far along I realized they were not placed correctly. I ripped back and placed the increase areas equally around the sweater in quarters. I was some way along before I realized that would leave me with two sleeves that would be X inches around and a body that would be 2X inches around, and the circumference of my arms is not equal to that of my bust. (I probably would have known all this had I bothered to read about top down raglans.) So I measured my arms and my bust and found that the ratio is roughly 2to3, arms to bust. So, I divided up the stitches accordingly, moved the areas of increases so they’d line up with the ribbing, and I’ve started knitting down the body for the third time. I’ve been doing m1 right and left slant increases.

The thing that made how to attach arms to a seamless raglan sweater first click for me was this entry at ChicKnits on How to Join Sweater Pieces to Knit in the Round with Two Circular Needles. Glampyre Knits also has a page showing a top down raglan in process which helps me picture how it will work nicely. I’ve been prepared for the trouble that is knitting the sleeves down from the live stitches because you have to lug the full weight of the body of the sweater around each time you turn, though Glampyre knits the sleeves separately and attaches them.

I’ll figure out what type of closure I’m going to use once I reach the end of the sweater and see if I have any yarn left over to do a button band. Now, I just need another circular needle so I can handle the full width of the sweater up to the point before the sleeves are divided.

This is my new H&M coat, which I like a lot. It’s a spring weight coat, fully lined in adorable polka dots, see the adorable? It’s perfect for a number of reasons, it’s cotton (I find wool itchy), the collar is cute but not too cute, it’s fitted but not too much, it hangs to the knees but it’s not too full and swingy, it’s not too trenchy, it’s not too military or vintage-y. And the pockets, which aren’t too shallow, are also lined in the polka dots. I think it was around $70. And it comes in red.

The scarf is my latest knitting accomplishment, it only took me four months to complete, ha ha. It’s the Lace Ribbon Scarf pattern from Knitty done with Comfort DK yarn, which is surprisingly excellent. And I’m thrilled that Comfort is now offered in a chunky weight as well.

I recently got some Laurel Hill Knitting Needles and I have to say I think I’m in love. The company makes straight knitting needles and crochet hooks from sustainable exotic woods. They are produced in Vietnam in a facility that is “environmentally friendly and safe; all members are treated with dignity and respect.”

The needles I’m using now are size #4 (US) and they are remarkably flexible and springy. I’m making the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Comfort DK yarn which is splitty enough to be fiddly. I originally started the scarf on some bamboo circulars and abandoned the project because the needles hurt my hands. The Laurel Hill needles give me no trouble at all, though, and I have even noticed they don’t rub against a certain spot on my finger that I’m used to. The needles are very smooth and don’t catch on any of the fuzzy fibers, slick enough that I don’t have troubles when I SSK, but still grippy enough that I’ve had no trouble with the needles sliding out and dropping stitches. I really enjoy working with them. The only downside I can see is that the wood the needles are fairly dark, meaning I won’t be knitting anything black on them in the evenings. I have to add that I’ve gotten so used to working with circular needles that I’d forgotten that I find scarves are actually easier to knit on two straight needles.

The crochet hook I have is equally appealing, the wood is far nicer to look at than my usual plastic standby, and the hook feels warm in my hand.

You can read more about the company at Laurel Hill Online and you can buy the needles online only at KnittingStuff.Net. I think a set of Laurel Hill knitting needles or crochet hooks would make a nice upgrade gift for a knitter who seems to already have everything.

Gosh I live the interwebs. Yesterday I was looking through free applications for the iPhone and came across something called StitchMinder, it had a pictures of a ball of yarn in the little button and I did a little dance for the intersection of knitting and technology. It’s a well thought out application but could use a few changes.

StitchMinder gives you four areas to work with, you tap them and the number increases by one. You can edit the label on each area to suit what you currently need to keep track of. Doing a hat with four sets of decreases? Label all the sections Decrease Row and tap after each decrease. You’ll be able to see how many you’ve done. Set all the sections to count in descending order, and set the start number to the number you need to do, then tap away as you knit and you’ll be counting down instead of up, which can be handy to see how much you have left (or simply for motivation). For each counting area you can choose a label – Rows Completed, Pattern Row, Pattern Repeats, Increase Row, Increase Repeat, Decrease Row, Decrease Repeat – so you can keep track of different areas of the pattern on the same screen. You don’t lose your numbers if you close the application, turn off the phone or set it to sleep mode.

StitchMinder is not perfect though. There are Edit and Reset buttons right there next to the area you tap, it’s far too easy to tap those by mistake and lose track completely. If you you enter the Edit screen your numbers will be lost when you return to the main screen, so Edit is really only meant for initial set up. The Reset button just sets the number to zero. There is no way to undo if you accidentally tap an area twice or tap the wrong area or accidentally reset.

This is what I’d like to see: One tiny Edit button to the right of each tap area which would take you to an Edit screen. You wouldn’t lose your information when you return to the main screen. On the Edit screen could be a +1 and -1 button so you can adjust your current number if you need, I’d keep the initial set up options that you see now and place the Reset button at the bottom of this screen. I’d like the main screen to have a nice big Lock toggle button so that cats/children/other people bumping the screen couldn’t cause you to lose your place. This could simply throw up a Pause screen like on a game.

As it is I don’t see myself using StitchMinder much, it’s too easy to lose track. Still, there is hope at the where knitting and iPhones collide.

update: The creator of StitchMinder wrote in to let us know that there will be a few updates to the app, including a confirmation message for the Reset button so you cannot lose your information so easily. Thanks!

Want to win some amazing knitting stuff? Susan from Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm (and the incredibly-good-idea Fiber CSA) that I talked about last year is holding a raffle to raise money for somebody who needs our help. She’s raffling off her entire yarn stash and including skeins from the farm (yarn which I’ve had the pleasure to touch, and it’s ever so nice). Not just that, lots of prizes, some individual, some included in the grand stash prize, have been added. There is loads of scrumptous hand spun and dyed yarn, stitch markers, knitting patterns, roving and knitting kits from people all hoping to help — the list is really something to behold.

In the hopes of helping out as much as I can I’ve donated a prize as well, one of my Portable Knitting Needle Cases for DPNs that I make as The Organized Knitter.

You can purchase as many raffle tickets as you like by donating through Paypal. Each ticket is $10 and well worth it for a chance at all the great stuff.

You can read the story behind why this money is being raised, it’ll break your heart, see the huge list of prizes and buy tickets here at the MVFF blog. It’s a good cause for some people who have given their entire lives to helping others, and I hope you will buy many tickets in the effort to help them as much as they deserve.

I’m a little late to hear this news, so buy raffle tickets quickly as the drawing is taking place on Sunday, July 13th, just four days away.

Look, I knit a big, wooly sweater in the middle of the summer. This is the B.O.B., Button On Blanket. (Also at Ravelry.) It’s a large and cuddly sweater created with the sole purpose of keeping the wearer warm. The pattern was written by Jackie of Yarnish, and it’s a free PDF download from this page, you can also find the pattern here at Ravelry (if you have already joined). I really like this pattern, it simple yet interesting, and so fast that it might be a good one to keep around for the next time a family member begs you to knit them a sweater.

Here are the various links:

– the pattern at Yarnish

– the B.O.B. page with pattern download at Ravelry

– Jackie’s project page at Ravelry

– my project page at Ravelry

Here is Jackie’s original sweater:

Photo credit Jackie Pawlowski, used with permission, thanks Jackie.

See how the collar overlaps at the top? I made my collar tall enough to hit my chin so I didn’t have any room to fold it over. Otherwise I totally would have.

The pattern is simple, knit from the bottom up with sleeves in the round which you join to work the top half of the sweater so, besides eight stitches where the sleeves meet the body, there isn’t any seaming to do. It’s knit in bulky yarn on size 11 needles so it goes very quickly.

I did 1×1 tubular cast on for the hem and cuffs, and 1×1 tubular bind off at the collar. For the button band I did my trick of casting off in pattern, only, holding the yarn in the back when I pulled one loop over during the purl stitches. This made for another very even bound off edge, I’ll have to look into this more closely. I messed up one of the button holes (because I was watching Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and NPH was very distracting) so I might redo that to fix it.

I used Wool-Ease Chunky yarn to knit this and if you’ve been following my knitting so far you might be wondering why somebody like me to finds wool so terribly itchy might have been thinking. Basically, I was thinking, “Wool-Ease is 80% acrylic, and look, the Grass Green is so pretty. Maybe it will all work out.” Optimistic of me, unfotunately the yarn is very itchy, but I like the finished sweater anyway because it’s so thick and spongy and pleasingly simple. I have plans to knit a second one just as soon as my black Puffin yarn arrives. I realize this won’t look nearly so good in Puffin, but it’ll look a whole lot better than a fleece bathrobe, right? Besides, I don’t plan on wearing this outside of the house, or even much past the confines of my couch. This will definitely be my lounging sweater.

I should mention, the pattern was originally written for Rowan Plaid, and I’m sure the sweater is delicious with that yarn. Rowan Plaid is discontinued, but WEBS has plenty.

If you’re on Ravelry my project page for the B.O.B. is here. And may I just say, I’m so tickled to the first one to finish this sweater on Ravelry behind the designer herself. Do I get a prize for that?

I’ve finally started working on the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I switched from bamboo needles to some thrifted plastic dpns of unknown material which I’ve looped elastic bands around the ends of to create short straight needles for the time being. They are bendy and far, far more comfortable to work with than the bamboo. This is important because this yarn is terrible to work with. It’s like knitting with cord. Which is, of course, what I was asking for when I bought fingering weight cotton yarn. Happily, the pattern is enough fun that I’m not going to abandon the scarf yet, I’m curious to see if the yarn-as-a-scarf is soft enough to wear. The project is easy enough to memorize, hard enough to stay interesting, small enough to travel with, and doesn’t require any gadgets. Perfect for coffee shops and airplanes.

For some reason I’ve had trouble taking the right hand turn in the pattern. It seems I always mess up the stitch count in one of the rows before so my little lanes are staggered at least half of the time. The left hand turns are all fine. Wonder what is throwing me off. Still, not going back to fix it.

I sprinted to the finish line and it’s done! It’s not perfect but I’m very happy with it. The pattern was great, the yarn was great, the final sweater is soft and fuzzy and pleasingly warm.

I did a few button band swatches and figured out that the more picked up stitches per row the better. I drew the line at picking up every row, so much work, and went for every five out of six.

While I was swatching I quickly realized that my dreams of doing a sewn bind off for all 300+ stitches would be crazy-talk, as the yarn wear out well before I got half way. So I decided to bind off in pattern even though I have never really been happy with the way that looks for me. I hate pulling one stitch over the other on the purl side as the working yarn always gets in my way so I tried putting the working yarn to the back just while I pull one stitch over the other and discovered that I really like the way this edge looks from both sides:

I figure this must be in a book somewhere, what is this called? It looks a whole lot like long take cast on.

I didn’t trust myself to do button placement so I put a buttonhole in every other purl rib all the way up on side and put the buttons on later. I’m sacrificing some looks for the sake of experimentation here, but I’m happy. I do wish I had continued the buttonholes all the way up to the center top of the hood though, as I’d love to button the sweater up half my face for times when it’s really cold. I’m planning on moving all eight buttons up one buttonhole from where they are now as the button right at the bottom is too low. I also wish I could move all the buttonholes up one purl rib, but oh well. Still, with eight buttons evenly space there is some gapping due to the loose gauge.

I might (might) redo the button band. I did it all in one long piece and had to use my size 6, 7 and 8 needles (like using three dpns to work one long piece) for the button band. I’d like to redo it the way the pattern calls for — before you seam the hood do the button band in two halves, then seam the hood and the center top part of the button band with it. I think the band would be better done on size 6s, and if I do that I might pick up every row. As you can see in the photo above it pulls up a bit despite my best planning efforts. This is less noticeable when it’s worn.

Um, what else? The thumb holes work great for sitting at the keyboard and typing. I made the hood a little longer to fit my head. I might make this pattern again as I’m really wanting a version in tweedy green, and lucky me Kraemer Yarns makes cotton/acrylic Tatamy Tweed in a few shades of green.

I have knit the hood. I decided to go ahead and bind off the stitches along the back of the neck (the pattern calls for them to be left live) for more stability. After weaving in the ends there is a stable line of bound off stitches that goes from one shoulder, across the back of the neck and to the other shoulder.

After toying with the idea of learning to graft to make the hood seam I decided, screw it, and did a three needle bind off. I did not continue the center back cabling up the back of the hood since I don’t think I’ll be wearing it up all that much. I did knit the hood an inch or so longer (one more cable repeat, to be precise) than the pattern called for since it was obviously too short at 11.5 inches. The hood took a long time to knit, there is a lot of fabric there, so I had to be pep talked into keeping going on the hood after I started reasoning that I will rarely be wearing the hood up anyhow.

So, now I’m planning the button band. I read that lots of people wished they had used more than six buttons, and I also heard that people wished they had put one button higher up near the neck and one just at the bottom. I bought eight buttons but I’m considering going back and buying extra and perhaps using ten. Would ten be heavy as well as overkill? My gauge is loose, so the sweater has come out long. I have room to stretch it around me, and it looks fine when I do this while trying it on, but I’m worried the stress between the buttons will mean I get those little gaps. Anybody have any advice here? Will picking up stitches for the button band created a rigid enough edge to allow the sweater to close gracefully? Or should I add as many buttons as aesthetics will allow?

Alternate plan: I could knit many buttonholes, say every other purl rib, and sort out the button problem later on.

I’ll be reworking my button band swatch since the last one did have a suspicious curve to it. I have to ask, how is it that the CPH pattern can get away with telling you to knit 14 inches in one part of the pattern and then turn around and give you an exact number of stitches you need to pick up for the button band later on? Looking through Ravelry you can see how it’s caused trouble for people where the button band is too short for the sweater. I’m extra worried my button band will pull up since I cannot fix it with blocking.

I don’t have high hopes that this sweater will be wear-out-of-the-house worthy, but so far it’s dreamily soft and fuzzy and warm and will do quite nicely to wear while slouching around the house.

The CPH pattern calls for you to knit the hood before setting in the sleeves but I wanted to get that part over with so that when I get to the point where I’m finally finishing the button band I don’t have any more work to do, because I think that would just about kill me.

I had been reading a lot about the sleeves and the armholes on the CPH being out of proportion to each other for a lot of people and I was no exception:

What do to? Rip back and lengthen the tops of the sleeves? (Less work than shortening the armholes on the back and both sides.) Or maybe take the time to baste them together and see if we can ease armhole around the sleeve? I did that, because it meant the possibility of not having to rip anything back, and it worked! I didn’t get any puckering (something else I’d read about):

I would like to think some of my previous work (the kind that makes you swear) sewing set-in sleeves in a see-through chiffon dress helped me have enough zen to get all the way through this. I took a two step approach, first I used lots of these itty hair clips to position the sleee all the way around so I know there isn’t going to be a huge gap somewhere:

I read about using hair clips like these somewhere recently, it was a blog or maybe Ravelry… but anyhow, thank you mystery knitter for the suggestion, it worked perfectly! I’m going to use these for all my seaming in the future.

Then I roughly basted the sleeve into place using contrasty scrap yarn, taking out the clips only as I got to them. Then I seamed, pulling out the basting as I went along. A lot of prep, but it saved me potential disaster.

My sleeves came out a little bit long (I knew they would since I knit too far and decided not to rip back). I seamed them from the top down towards the cuff, and stopped seaming just before I got to the ribbing. Then, when I had the sleeves set into the body, I finished seaming, leaving holes positioned for my thumb to poke out:

I got this idea from Lawral’s CPH (link to picture on Flickr) over at Ravelry. I figure it will help with typing on cold winter days, which is the sort of weather I suspect it will be by the time I finish this sweater.

One last note, after seaming the armhole and shoulder I totally get why people go through the trouble of doing short rows instead of binding off at the start of rows when doing shaping — the edge you need to seem is much tidier that way and would make it easier to poition and work. So, next time I’ll be learning how to turn and wrap.

Next I’m getting ready to knit the hood. Question for those who have knit this already — the pattern calls for leaving a row of live stitches along the top of the back of the sweater (the back of the neck hole). When you add the hood you just keep working these but I’m wondering if I these live stitches will stretch the back of the sweater out of shape while it’s being worn. Should I go ahead and bind off these stitches to create reenforcement now? Or is the stretchiness back there part of the comfort of the sweater? (I know I can go back and crochet a reinforcing chain stitch later on if I feel like I need it, but I’m less likely to do the extra work later on.)

Thank yous go out to Maria and KarWar who left comments on my last sweater post, they both suggested a buttonhole that I’m smitten with. KarWar pointed me to a page at Lanna Grossa with a few buttonholes for ribbed button bands, suggestions are for both 1×1 and 2×2 ribbing. I’m using the one from the second to last picture, it’s the same technique Maria suggested.

Here is the swatch stretched to show the test buttonholes (the good ones are near the top):

And here it is relaxed to show that the buttonholes don’t push the ribbing apart:

The hole is just large enough to ease my 7/8ths inch button through. I’m ready to knit my first button band, but first I have do tackle some seaming.

I put a test swatch through some trials to see if it would make a difference after being blocked. I made the swatch like one of the center fronts with the idea that I could use it to test the button banding as well.

Here is my swatch before:

First I got it thoroughly wet, pinned it to a towel stretched out a bit and let it dry for 24 hours:

Immediately after removing it the swatch appeared to have gained some width and some nice definition around the cabling. Here it is side by side with the before picture:

And here it is next to an un-blocked sweater part:

As the day went on, the swatch relaxed back towards it’s original state. At that point the swatch had gained a little bit of width in the gauge, about 1/2 a stitch per inch (which adds up quickly when you consider the entire width of the sweater).

But then I figured I’d test wash the swatch the way I would be washing the sweater itself. I’m being realistic here, I’m prone to spilling liquids on myself and since this isn’t made of wool I’m going to take advantage of the washer/dryer for cleaning. And since there is absolutely no chance I’ll be re-blocking the sweater every time I wash it I threw it in for a cycle of darks (cold water wash, tumble dry medium). And it emerged reverted back to it’s pre-blocked self:

So, that’s that. No need for me to bother blocking sweater pieces that aren’t going to stay blocked. I can proceed directly to seaming, but first I’m going to do some test button banding on the poor, mistreated swatch.

Next I extended the swatch and added a button band. On the right I picked up stitches in 2 out of 3 rows, on the left 3 out of 4. I like the 3 out of 4:

I finished the edge in tubular 2×2 bind off, but it was noticably tight. I so I tried normal knit bind off (with the messy bits pointing towards the WS), bind off in pattern, and for the first time EZ’s sewn bind-off. I found EZ’s sewn bind off in The Knitter’s Handbook, which I find a bit more useful than The Knitter’s Companion but I have not had a chance to compare to the Expanded and Updated Knitter’s Companion, which I really should just buy already. Both books are spiral bound and lay open on a table, essential for a knitting reference.

I like EZ’s sewn bind of, it’s stretchy and not too tight. I suspect that if I went with 2×2 tubular bind off on the button band edge it would eventually stretch out and look floppy. (Again, I’m knitting with acrylic here, wool would hold the shape much better.)

I did a three-stitch, one row buttonhole like the pattern mentions but it looks sort of messy in the 2×2 ribbing:

I did a little swatch with eyelet buttons holes but they are too small for my 7/8ths inch buttons. Shame because they look so much neater:

So, does anybody know of a good buttonhole technique that looks good inside of 2×2 ribbing? Or should I simply use one of the tidier looking 3-stitch buttonholes I’ve been researching?

The Readers’ Choice Award Winners have been announced and five Interweave Knits patterns are available to download for free (free!). Get it now because it’s only available for a little while. The patterns included are the Cable-Down Raglan by Stefanie Japel, Nantucket Jacket by Norah Gaughan, Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert, Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan, and the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark.

The CPH is moving right along. I have the back, both sleeves and the left front done. After this it’s the right front, a lot of seaming, then the hood, then a lot of picking up stitches and the button band.

I’m going to attempt to block the hell out of this, though I’m afraid of the abilities of a little dampness to combat the nylon/acrylic. When I measure lengths (as in, “work until piece measures 6 inches from start of…”) I take it to my cutting table and pin it so that piece is the width of where it will stretch to when being worn. As you can guess, a lot of length is lost when stretched to nearly twice it’s relaxed width. I’m working on a test swatch right now to block, which I’ll also try the button band on.

Here are my messy looking pieces:

All those markers = good thing for me as it’s easy to count rows and compare armhole shaping for front pieces. I tend to not trust my notes or my row counter (which I never, ever remember to push and then end up counting a lot of work to figure out if the row counter is right and so I’ve given up on using one, problem solved).

Pre-finishing plans include doing a swatch with ribbing and some cabling to test-block, also to see how many stitches per # of rows to pick up for the button band. Learning to graft for the shoulder and hood seams. And buying a sweater shaver since this baby is gonna pill.

In the Just Knit Through It push I have done, or not done, the following:

– Did the left and right slanting increases backwards on one of the sleeves.

– Did the first sleeve possibly too too long, decided to wait and see (after the 2x lengthening of last sweater). Did the second sleeve to match the length.

– Ugly 2×2 cast on for one of the front sides, in order to get the stitches to sit as they needed I cast on an extra two and decreased them away during the first and second worked row. It’ll be hidden behind a seam, but it’s not the prettiest thing.

– I needed an extra decrease for top of sleeve to get the number of stitches that should remain, this included a four row repeat so I just did it instead of spending an hour trying to figure out where I went wrong. The second sleeve also had the same extra two stitches so maybe it was the pattern. In any case, the sleeves are identically incorrect.

I’ve gathered my supplies for the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty, I hope it works out using cotton. The Rowan 4 Ply Cotton is pretty, it’s like 1/4-scale yarn.

I have been loving the Addi Natura needles because they have the non-memory cord. For a while I was loving the Crystal Palace circulars because they have a rotating join, but the last few pairs I’ve bought (in the 4 to 6 size range) had joins that stuck. The Naturas may be $$ but I like the finish and tips so much more than, say, Clovers that I’m finding it worth it. Also, after researching interchangeable needle sets I’ve decided to skip buying one, too many people had too many troubles. Besides, I’ve got every size from 3 to 15 now, it’s far to late to save money by buying interchangeables now.

I was so excited to be finished with my light gray Ribby Cardi that I forgot to include a few notes for posterity. So, here is a final wrap up:

– This is the Ribby Cardi pattern from Chicknits, using Cottonease yarn in the color Stone. I got an orange two-way separating zipper from Zipperstop.com, the orange twill and charm are from Glamscience’s Etsy shop.

– I used a size #5 needle to cast on, bind off and do the i-cord, and a #4 needle to do all the knitting.

– I did a 2×2 tubular cast on and bind off at the hem, cuffs and collar, cheating here and there to match up with the transitions into and out of 3×1 ribbing. (I hope to find the time soon to do a few 2×2 tubular tutorials with instructions on how I manage to cheat in an extra stitch to match a pattern.)

– I used right and left slanting Make One increases for the sleeves. I did an attached i-cord (link to a video) along the center fronts to cover the zipper and make a sturdy, tidy edge.

– I knit the body in one piece, and the sleeves in the round, the only seaming was to join the sleeves to the body.

– I left the collar stitches live and knit up from there. I dropped the neckline down two rows in both the front and the back in an effort to make the collar a little wider.

– At the back of the neck I managed to match up some 3×1 ribbing by picking up an extra stitch on one side, it looks tidier than had I done 2×2 ribbing all the way around:

- The front of the collar matches up with the ribbing somewhat, which was a nice surprise:

- The only place I needed to reinforce was at the top of the shoulders where the armhole seams meet up with the collar. The stitches around here were pulling. I solved this by continuing the seaming up over the top of the shoulder and down the other side, matching the knitting and tightening the stitches as I went along. It was a lot of fiddly work, but well worth it:

– The tall collar is working really well. The collar will loose about an inch when the sweater is worn and stretches downward a bit so I’m glad I went nearly up to my earlobes. Where the body turns into the collar there is a little bump in the knitting where it pooches out. It doesn’t bother me, but it’s not a perfect transition. Taking the time to wrap the edges of the zipper in twill and using it to create a zipper stop at the top was worth the time and effort as the zipper doesn’t feel scratchy against the skin at my neck.

– The sleeves hit just at my knuckles and they are perfect, cozy but don’t get in the way. If the cuffs stretchout, though, they will get in the way (as is the case with my first Ribby Cardi).

– The yarn is already looking ratty, as much as I like Cottonease I won’t be using it for sweaters again. It doesn’t wear well, and it’s not something you can fix by taking a sweater shaver to it. That said, I love this sweater and plan to wear it until it looks too horrible to wear outside of the house.

– The sweater feels great, it fits and without seams it’s very easy to move in. The two-way separating zipper is an absolute must for a project like this, it makes it far more comfortable and flattering. Next time I make a similar sweater I’m going to use Bonne Marie’s instructions on joining the sleeves to the body of a bottom-up raglan to be (mostly) seamless.

– I learned a LOT while being fastidious making this sweater, not the least of which is that good finishing skills are all that much more important in a non-wool sweater since you cannot rely as much on blocking to smooth out things that are too tight/short/uneven.

Here are all the entries for this project:

• math and casting on
• still on the first ball of yarn
• beginning shaping
• progress report
• second sleeve
• second sleeve 2
• beginning the collar
• notes on tubular bind off for 2×2 rib
• where I’m glad I bought too much yarn to start with
• back to where I was
• nearly there, no really
• overly detailed finishing
• the end, sort of
• deconstructionist tendancies and a new obsession
• Finished. Yes, really.
• The End. (you are here)

It’s true what they say, the CPH pattern manages to be fast and interesting. This sweater is coming along very quickly, it’s luxuriously, thrillingly satisfying. Especially for very slow knitters like myself.

After holding the yarn to my so-sensitive neck I’ve decided to go ahead and make the hood instead of a tall collar, therefore simply following the pattern. The yarn is very soft on my fingers but ever so slightly not-soft on my neck. I have a second yarn that pases the neck test so I’ll use it to make a tall collar version of this sweater. I’m happy with this since the cabling that travels up around the hood is very charming.

Thanks to the forums at Ravelry I discovered that the pattern errata which was supposed to be included in my second-download PDF version of the pattern was, in fact, not included. So I’m putting it here just in case somebody needs it. Note: These corrections might not work with the original version of the pattern printed in Knitscene magazine.

pattern corrections for the downloaded version of the Central Park Hoodie from Knitting Daily:

Under “Back” on page two, the first sentence after armholes should read:

Armholes: BO 4 (5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8) sts at beg of next 2 rows, then 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows-66 (72, 78, 84, 90, 102, 118, 126) sts rem. Dec row (RS) K2, ssk, work in patt to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2-2 sts dec’d. Work 1 WS row. Rep last 2 rows 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 7) more time(s), then work Dec row every other RS row 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 7, 7, 7) times-62 (68, 74, 80, 86, 80, 92, 96) sts rem.

And under “Right Front” on page 3, the first two rows of instructions after the sizes should read:

Sizes 32 (36, 40, 44, 48)” only:
Row 1 (RS) *P2, k2; rep from * to end of row.
Row 2 (WS) *K2, p2; rep from * to end of row.

Also, on some charts on page 6, the row numbers may have shifted. The corrected charts are now available.

I’d like to take a moment to say that I love it when patterns take the extra space to tell you how many stitches you should have before you proceed.

I’ve been keeping track of my work using loops of yarn. The pink markers indicate every 10th row as shown in the cabling diagram in the pattern. This also helps me count my total rows so I can make the fronts the same length. The green marker shows where I started the armhole shaping. I’ll put another where I start the shoulder shaping. This will, again, help me determine where to do shaping on the front pieces.

If you’ve been following along with my light gray ribby cardi since the beginning you’ll know that I am a bit of a perfectionist and ripped back from the collar all the way down past the armhole shaping twice because it wasn’t quite happy with it. The second time was after I had inserted the zipper. It was very very annoying.

So, this time I’m practicing the simple principles of JKTI — Just Knit Through It. It’s a mantra that makes knitting a far more enjoyable hobby. Because it is a hobby and perfection is not required, or so I’ve been trying to convince myself. I have not quite finished the back part of this sweater and I’ve already logged these moments where I found a mistake, took a breath, and just kept going. This is big for me, people.

• About five inches up I found I’d dropped an (remain calm) edge stitch. I pulled out a crochet hook and did the best I could to bring it back up. It’s ugly, and it will create trouble when I go to pick up stitches for the button band, but it won’t be visible.
• Just before I was ready to do the armhole shaping (about 14 inches up) I found stitch in the stockinette on the center back, way down near the ribbing, that I had knit through a split piece of yarn. I resisted dropping down a while column, it’s not that noticeable.
• I did too few bind offs for the first row of armhole shaping. Instead of ripping back I simply added them to the second set of bind offs. Once the sleeves are it won’t be noticed.
• Not stressing over the loose stitches around the cabling. They don’t show once you’ve knit a few more rows anyhow.
• I found a knot in the yarn and kept going.
• Shortly after that I found another knot in the yarn and kept going despite considering tinking that row and re-knitting it a little tighter in the hopes that I could get that yarn to fall right at an edge. It was very close to the start of a new ball of yarn which just made me crazy with the desire to pull out two rows and start again. But I resisted.

I’m, sniff, so proud of myself.

Here is something that is shockingly helpful, Crossroad Knits on tightening loose knit stitches in ribbing and near the cables specifically in the Central Park Hoodie.

One last note, I am afraid that the sweater will hang incorrectly when worn since I cannot block the acrylic yarn, at least not as well as wool blocks. When worn the sweater will stretch widthwise quite a bit and I’m afraid it will look strange when buttoned. I found this page on how to block a sweater at Knitty very helpful, and I might have a go at making a homosote blocking board one of these days.

I’ve started knitting the Central Park Hoodie which (you already know this if you knit) is a very popular pattern. It was printed in the Fall 2006 Knitscene magazine but you can purchase a downloadable pattern at the Knitting Daily store that comes with expanded sizes and corrections. (More on the corrections in the next post.)

I decided to use Fantasy by Dark Horse Yarns. It’s 50/50 Acrylic/Nylon and very soft to the touch. Despite already having plenty of yarn I could use for this sweater, the moment I touched this, at Full Circle in Ballard, I decided to buy it to use right away. I am using Charcoal (color # 13), and it has a slightly heathered look to it which I like a lot. My thanks to whoever it was first suggested I check out this yarn, I cannot find where that is (comments? email? Flickr? Ravelry? in real life? — it’s all blending together).

The swatch on size 8s gave me 20sts/4in, whereas the pattern calls for 17sts/4in. The fabric is not very dense, so instead of going up a needle size, I went up a pattern size to the 40″. After washing the swatch was 19sts/4in, how it ended up growing I’m not so sure. I am sure it is a portent of doom for my eventual sweater.

I did the 2×2 tubular cast on for the back and made some nice progress in an afternoon, I’m very happy since all the ribbing on the last two sweaters (Ribby Cardis) meant progress was pretty slow.

I decided to knit the sweater as is instead of doing the body in one piece or the sleeves in the round because the seams will add some stability. I’m worried that the sweater would stretch too easily without it since the fabric isn’t very dense. In particular I’m picturing trouble pulling the sleeves on if they were done in the round.

I have been waffling over making the hood the pattern calls for, or a ribbed tall collar, or changing the fronts so they cross over like the black sweater I show here. That sweater is so cozy. One day I want to just follow the pattern, the next I decide it would be easier to do the cross over since I could just sew in a few snaps for closure and it would be warmer with tall collar. I suspect I go one way or the other depending on whether the room I’m sitting in is cold at the time. Since I have not made up my mind I’ll knit the back and the sleeves first in the hopes I come to a decision before I need to start on the two front pieces.

I have thoroughly annoyed myself with how long it took me to get the zipper into this. I finished the actual (re) knitting back in mid-February but couldn’t seem to find the energy for the amount of focus it takes to put the zipper in. Happily I managed to get it last weekend and it’s FINALLY OVER.

Here is what it looked like the first time I finished it. Looks exactly the same no? but the length, sleeves and collar are longer and I’m far more likely to wear it. The armholes are annoyingly tight but I’m pretending like that doesn’t bother me.

One last shot of the fabulous charm from Glamscience’s Etsy shop.

Next I’m making the famous Central Park Hoodie in the should-be-famous Dark Horse Fantasy yarn in Charcoal. The yarn is Keep A Ball At My Desk So I Can Stroke It soft.

I’ve also procured size 3 circulars and ordered some Rowan 4 Ply Cotton in Shale from Yarnmarket (couldn’t find it locally) so I can have the Lace Ribbon Scarf as my something-small second project.

The Rowan 4 Ply Cotton I’ve ordered is a medium gray. Apparently I’m into knitting in grayscale.

After buying some essential oils, how do I use them as cologne? at Ask Metafilter.

I like Moop stuff, on Etsy.

Sew Mama Sew, fabric store to keep in mind

Felted Stone Rug taken from the Pebble Carpet, I think I like this even better than the Pom Pom rug in Craftivity, via Craftzine

Adorable Knit Strawberry Baby Rattle, over at Blue Arts.

Oudh – the sweet smell of tradition at Gulf Weekly. I wonder if this is the scent that comes on some imported fabrics?

Jen wrote to me asking about a wolf doll with a see through stomach that could eat other characters, which I kindasorta remembered. Happily it wasn’t hard to find: the See-through Predator was made by Lizette Grecco, and you can see a video of her son operating on it at Daddy Types. Awesome.

Knitting stuff found on Ravelry:

Ceallach Dyes Summer Cotton yarn, fingering weight.

KA bamboo circular needle set, #5 to #15

Bamboo Sister interchangeable circular needle set, #5 to #10, thumbs up at Knitter’s Review

Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed, partly acrylic, the natural and brown colors look great when knitted, DK and Aran

I’m currently paused between projects. I merely have to install the orange zipper in the freshly lengthened gray Ribby Cardi. I feel shameful having a sterotypical unfinished object sitting there, staring at me, reminding me about itself being unfinished.

In the mean time I’ve been swatching some yarns I picked up at a fire sale at Hilltop Yarn in Seattle. Everything in the store was 50% off, the line went out the door, down the block and around the corner, inside was packed to the point where nobody could move. Despite the crazy I came home with Rowan All Seasons Cotton and Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, both of which I am loving.

I also swatched some Brown Sheet Cotton Fleece yarn. I’ve read that some knitters who find wool scratchy can wear Cotton Fleece with no trouble, but as I was knitting the swatch I found the yarn unpleasant to use, not quite scratchy but definitely not soft the way it feels when I touch the skein. So much for me and a little bit of merino.

I seem to have abandoned any immediate plans to use the Berroco Comfort yarn as it’s too drapey when knit at a Worsted gauge, just splitty enough to be discouraging and, in certain light, slighty shiny. I think I’m mostly afraid that it will look like acrylic yarn.

A friend mentioned that she has been knitting purl bumps into her swatches to indicate which needle size she used, which think is brilliant, so I started doing it as well. Is this one of those knitting things that everybody does but has somehow escaped me?

The new Knitty came out and I am smitten with the Lace Ribbon Scarf. At first I found myself wondering how it would look if I used an Aran weight yarn, it seems to have slipped my mind that Fingering cotton yarns exist. This is one of those things Ravelry is excellent for, the yarn browser turns up fourteen pages of Fingering weight cotton. I have my eye on Rowan 4 Ply Cotton or Jaeger Pure Cotton.

My next sweater will be a modified Central Park Hoodie with a collar instead of a hood and maybe a little front crossover action for that extra-cozy feeling and the ability to make a front closure using a few large snaps instead of creating a button band. I’m currently liking snaps.

It’s been all shocking deconstruction around here. Since last time I ripped out the collar, undid the seams in the arms and ripped back all the armhole shaping on the body — back to the point where the body was a rectangle again. Then I knit in about 2.5 inches of length. When I hold it up to my body it seems far too long, but as I found with the finished object, it’s not going to be that long when it’s all put back together. Next I’ll be lengthening the arms and the collar and wishing I hadn’t been so ready to clip the nice orange twill tape before I tried the sweater on with the zipper sewn in. Let me say again, I am so so glad that I bought more yarn than the pattern called for. Otherwise I would have been making trips to Michael’s craft store begging the employees to care about dye lots.

Meanwhile I’ve become obsessed with a different sweater entirely. On a trip to Macy’s for some jeans I decided I needed another sweater — as utilitarian as the charcoal Ribby Cardi is the Cotton Ease is looking a little ragged and it’s not like I’ll have the light gray one ready to wear any time soon. I found lots and lots of non-wool sweaters (yay!) but found one that creates a large, slouchy collar.

Now, the swater is not meant to be worn with the collar up, the underside of the cabling is showing. It works fine for trips to the grocery store or dim pubs but I’m still aware I’m cheating. I stitched a small black snap in place to keep the collar up, and I even love that it’s slightly asymmetrical.

When worn the way it was intended the sweater looks sort of like this:

I far prefer the big collar up.

I like the offcenterness of it, I like the minimal closure, I like the cozy, cozy collar. I want to make one that functions the same way! I’ve been looking for patterns and the closes I can come is this pattern at Berroco, which is not quite right. Also, that sweater does not really call for that sort of boogying.

So, if you know of a pattern somewhere that is similar — slightly crossed over, large slouchy collar, please let me know. I’ve scoured Ravelry and Knitty and Interweave and nothing is quite right. I’m sure I could create a pattern on my own but I don’t want to if I don’t have to. I’ve taken a good look at the shape of the existing sweater and it’s essentially an overlapping, squared off v-neck cardigan with thick button bands and a large, rectangular collar picked up and knit all the way around the neck hole. Have I mentioned that it’s lovely and cozy and warm?

I’m finally, finally finished.

I added an orange zipper so that the light gray wouldn’t be too boring. I think it works. When all zipped up you get only a peek of orange at the top and bottom of the zipper.

I added a glitter charm from Glamscience’s Etsy shop, I really like how the silver blends into the yarn and it’s just a bit or orange sparkle.

The above picture is also a good detail to show where I left live stitches and picked up stitches to join the collar, again it’s more comfortable. The sweater is fitted enough that I don’t think it will eventually pull down on the collar. Also, the high collar doesn’t feel like it’s choking me, yay.

I’m generally happy with it. All the time I spent on finishing the sweater makes it very wearable. Whereas the first one was too big and looks a little frumpy (though, so comfortable). This one is a size smaller and more fitted. I was being careful to not make the sleeves and body too long and I think being conservative here worked against me, I could use another inch of length in the hem, sleeves and collar. I made this one seamless, so I knit all the pieces of the body in one flat part, and the sleeves in the round, and only seamed the arms to the body. For a sweater without much ease, it definitely makes a difference in the sillouette. I think it looks better, and the arm movement is freer (it sort of makes me want to wave my arms around like a crazy person, actually). I like it, and plan on making sweater with as few seams as I can in the future.

update: After wearing it twice I’ve decided it’s just too short for me as it’s a good two inches above the hem of the type of shirt I wear most often. And I’d like the sleeves to be a wee bit longer and the collar to be a tiny bit higher. So I’m going to undo it and add length (again) before the yarn gets that broken in look and I cannot add any more. Clearly I’m a masochist. But I just know that if I don’t fix it this will be an unworn sweater, and I don’t need to add anything to the pile of shamefully unused objects. Perhaps once it’s actually finished I can nominate it for the Most Finished Sweater of the Year.

Maybe I’ll make the neck hole a bit deeper this time. I’m surprised to find that the higher neck doesn’t feel too tight despite the fact that it doesn’t have any room, but I could use a little more room in there. And I might shape the back of the neck just a little, it’s creating a slight bulge at the center back of the neck.

After going up a few needle sizes trying to get gauge for the Central Park Hoodie with the Berroco Comfort yarn I started wondering if this project would be better done with a larger yarn, and saving the Comfort to make Chicknit’s Twist. I have a couple of skeins of my favorite, favorite Inca Cotton and was doing a bit of research when I came across this entry at Crazy for Ewe about how yard for yard Inca Cotton is actually less expensive than Lion Brand Organic Cotton. I’m definitely going to be looking into making a yummy soft Inca Cotton sweater for myself. Maybe next.

Also, after trying out knitting Comfort on a few different types of plastic needles, including the nice and flexy Bruspun circulars, I’ve decided I’d rather go with some nice bamboo since the acrylic yarn, no matter how soft, still squeaks against plastic needles.

Here is how I finished this sweater, with apologies for the very! bright! orange, my camera has hissy fits over the magenta to orange scale when it’s forced to take pictures indoors at night. I like to wrap the edges of the zipper tape in soft twill, and finish the top of the zipper with the twill — this makes it nicer against the skin on my neck and creates a stop for the top of the zipper at the same time. I sew the zipper in by hand in a pathetically fastidious manner, you can also find excellent directions for sewing a zipper into a sweater over at Chicknits.

Step One: Wash and dry sweater to shrink it about as much as possible.

Step Two: Wash and dry twill tape to shrink as much as possible. This orange twill is hand dyed from Glamscience (also at Etsy) and is fantastically saturated with color. When I washed it I knotted the ends to keep them from fraying and stuck it in a mesh bag with some white socks. The socks were to determine if there would be any bleeding from the dye. The socks emerged completely unscathed. Viva Glamscience! The twill is nice and soft and makes all the difference where the zipper hits the skin on my neck, the sweater is far more wearable for it. Iron the twill when it comes out of the dryer.

Step Three: Determine the length of the zipper. I take tip from Grumperina and sew myself into the sweater, then measure along the center front. This measurement will be shorter than if you lay the sweater flat and measure it that way, and will eliminate any unflattering bubbles you can get from a too-long zipper. Err on the 1/2-an-inch too short side.

Step Four: Cut the zipper. I love two-way separating zippers. They are generally meant for jackets and are a bit chunkier than seems good for a sweater, but the ability to unzip from the bottom great – when you sit it keeps the bottom hem from stretching out. The top-down and bottom-up zipper basically acts like buttons. You can usually find a few colors at fabric stores, and a lot of colors over at Zipperstop.com (click to see a scan of the color cards). I’ve also gotten recommendations for Zipper Connection, which also carries two-way separating zippers. Anyhow, be careful to cut between teeth, and I usually dip the cut ends in some Fray Check, but I wrap the tops in twill so this isn’t strictly necessary.

Step Five: Machine sew the twill over the edge of the zipper. I tucked the edges over the bottom corner and machine stitched it down. I stop near the top with a few backstitches.

Step Six: Hand stitch the twill over the top of the zipper to create a zipper stop and keep it from scratching your neck. This part involves a bit of squinting and swearing, thrive on the frustration!