Category: Knitting

I frogged my first attempt all the way back. The test fit SUCKED. Totally. The shoulders were too pointy.

In the first round of knitting I got the neckline totally done and realized it would look SO much better if I used a solid color for the back neck and front facings. I sorted colors and picked the closest blue and the closest gray and started reknitting. I got about four rows into adding Shoreline and realized I was making a mistake. I should save the Shoreline so I can knit seamlessly from it into the helix . . . or as close as I can get. So, gray caston, blue shoulders transitioning into Shoreline as soon as the shoulders were built.

I’m questioning some of my yarn choices, one of which is the yarn I used for the neck facing but not to the point I’m willing to frog this. All in all I’m fairly happy. I’m using only short repeat variegateds for the scrappy line of the helix and I’m really liking the effect. I think I have enough variety to finish a shorty without repeating a variegated or using a solid. I think I have enough of the neck edging color for sleeve and body hems. One of the variegateds is the very very very last bit of BP On Parade, now discontinued. I wish I could find more of it. It’s SO useful.

The shoulder is conti-rag with a 12 stitch separation from the shoulder line and a 17 stitch drop for the front. Numbers-wise I’m extremely pleased. All the bits ended relatively together. The vee ends really close to the Point C horizontal line. I think the bust dart line is a little high but it doesn’t stand out much. It gives me the extra volume in front which is really all I need. Plus the difference between “I’m wearing a bra” versus au natural is ridiculous so it’s moot point.
If you’re wondering why there are beads at the center back I have a good reason. if I have to dress in the dark I can tell by feel which bit of the sweater is the back. All the sweaters I make for me have short row of beads,

Things I learned . . . the stitch pick up for the front facing has a new easy and intuitive technique. The other thing is just too complicated to explain outside a video.
I’ve been contemplating entering our local fair for the LAP award. I’m thinking something like this would be a worthy contender. I also have sweater’s worth of Great Barrier Reef’s Wine Bay, a really long repeat variegated (a blue based red version of Shoreline) and this is giving me ideas on how to use it without knitting a whole sweater out of it.

In knitting Chaos I did a three yarn helix sleeve incorporating two of the grays in the body and my bag of scrap yarn, a result I found truly fascinating. This is something I want to run with . . . and so it begins.

I’ve got some leftover Great Barrier Reef Shoreline(?, questioning the name not the brand), about half a cake, that would make a lovely start, so gray for one helix yarn, blue for another and my scrap bag bits for the third. (Before I start the helix bit I think I need to organize my scrappies and know the sequence ahead of time so the scrappy choices truly transition into each other.)

So here’s the plan. Start with Shoreline (off white, gray, blue). Once I’m working in the round, start the helix using with light gray, scrappy, light blue. Next transition switch to slightly darker gray and slightly darker blue, continue the scrappy. Repeat two more times, should be at hem of sweater. That’s the plan.

This is where I am (back of the sweater). If you can’t tell at a glance it’s conti-rag with sleeve cap short rows. See how the short rows level out the sleeve stripes! It’s so pretty I couldn’t resist sharing. I need to get to the bottom of the vee neck before starting the helix (working in the round) and I’m about 12 rows from there . . . uh . . . maybe. I’m out of the Great Barrier Reef Shoreline(?) and will have to switch to a starter blue or a starter gray (lightest colors) to push on into the round. I may do a series of three row stripe of light blue/light gray to finish up the yoke and transition into the helix, a pure knit-from-the-hip decision.
Regardless, I love this yarn and I’m delighted to be using up the last bit of the sweater lot of Shoreline I purchased.

All the reknitting is done and I’m past the sleeve separation. All in all I’m really pleased. The photo reads gray and the brights are subdued. The actual sweater is a gorgeous ink navy. Once I get a sunny day I’ll get a better pic.

The intarsia is ~2/3 done. I’ve separated the sleeves. Since taking the progress pic I’ve done the underarm caston. Next is test fit.

Once past the test fit I’ll work in the ends of the finished bits which will tidy things up before continuing to knit.

Better Banner’s been frogged back to the collar. Tomorrow I’ll start the reconstruction using conti-raglan instead of conti-something. I’ve got a couple balls of the frogged yarn that need to be unkinked as well as all the short pieces of brights used for the banner. I’ll spritz and bag them tonight. They’ll have a chance to relax sitting on a rack by the wood stove when Wadly starts a fire in the morning.

It’s done, I’m happy. There are a few things I would do differently if I did a repeat.

• Move the decrease line for the sleeve wedge two stitches farther away from the colored bit.
• Decrease the body wedge width to one third of the current width.
• Start the sleeve wedge sooner.
• Change the straight line of the sleeve wedge to match the decrease line of the sleeve.

Overall I’m really happy with the stuff I learned.

The streamlined conti-something shoulder came out really nicely. I’ve embraced Åsa Tricosa’s Ziggurat philosophy and am no longer breaking my yarn between elements. I’ve also eliminated the closing row which tightens up my conti-something shoulder.

The helixed sleeve rocks. Two solids (dark and light gray) and a variety of solid and variegated scraps makes a really interesting sleeve. Each of the scraps circles the sleeve three times. It’s a striped sleeve without screaming “STRIPED SLEEVE”. I’m really tempted to use this technique with some ombre yarn I’ve had hanging around for quite a while.

The sleeve wedge took ~9 starts before I had something I was happy with. I cycled between messy and ugly before it finally settled out. I’m going to use this single stitch color column technique for a different banner sweater idea. Someday. Maybe.

With Better Banner awaiting a significant frog, I needed a break. With lots of left over bits, balls and skeins it was time for something scrappy. I love from the hip scrappy. It’s my favorite style of sweater to knit. I can grab yarn and do whatever feels happy.

This project is exceeding expectations. For a scrappy palette cleanser it’s come out better than I ever imagined it would. I love projects where I learn something. On this one, so far, the count is at two with (hopefully) another to follow. One, I made a significant improvement to my conti-something shoulder and two, the three-yarn helix will now forever be the base I use for gradients.

I started this project with no plan. I had a sweater’s worth of partial balls in various shades of gray (Hobbii’s Rainbow Bamboo) and a gallon ziplock full of DK weight bamboo/cotton thumb skeins from a variety of manufacturers.

At this point I have one sleeve left to knit. I’m planning a wedge to match the side wedge starting from the elbow in vertical stripes (intarsia) in a twisted echo of the first sleeve. Joy!

Heartstrings. Bamboo Pop in Denim and Pink Joy

I gave away Heartstrings this weekend. Our son brought an old girlfriend to visit. She has one of my sweaters (now two) which she loves and wears. That takes me down to . . . seven? Maybe six? The more I can find homes for the more room I have to make more for me. I’ve been knitting shorties to wear over sleeveless dresses (my normal wear) when the mornings are cool. I like shorties. I don’t have to get up to get them off as they don’t go below my waist. All my other sweaters are long enough to get caught under my hips when sitting. Plus . . . more chances to do freelance design.

I’m been working on Shattered Plaid, a vneck shortie sweater. Overall I love how it’s looking, it just needs a couple tweaks. I’m going to frog back the plaid bit and restart the graphic. I’ve hit the three mistakes thing. I’m going to switch to intarsia in the round with the change of direction in the background color under the arm. I’m not going to carry the background color behind the red. I’ll add an additional ball of yarn. I’ve made enough mistakes and I’ve learned enough new stuff to make the next attempt go more smoothly. I think I’m also going to either double the two thinner yarns or swap them out for thicker yarns of the same color to even out the impact. Letting the thumb skeins dangle was messing with the color tension so I’m pinning them to the work with dpns. It’s a nifty solution to the problem. Overall I love how it’s looking, it just needs a couple tweaks in how it’s done.

My current “this makes me happy” project is a long sleeved shortie sweater I can wear over my day-wear in the morning when it’s too cool to go without sleeves. I like shorties for a couple of reasons . . .

• They knit up quickly
• They’re a wonderful canvas for whatever idea is currently tickling my mind
• They’re perfect stash busters
• They’re perfect for using up bits of yarn, mismatched yarn, yarn from different manufacturers

This latest shortie is currently on hold. I ran out of yarn 5″ from completion of the last sleeve. Yup, total fail at yarn chicken. I’m taking the gamble and have ordered another ball of the necessary color despite something close to a zero chance for a dye lot match. If it’s close and will blend in using Helix I’ll frog back 3″ of the WIP sleeve and helix the rest. If the dye lot is too far off I’ll replicate the existing body hem in miniature making the sweater just that bit more couture.

A quick note about the accent yarn. I got this linen blend yarn off ebay about a decade ago. I love the colors but had a problem figuring out what to do with it. It wasn’t really sport and it wasn’t quite DK. However much I love Bamboo Pop, when it took a $3 jump in price I totally balked at restocking it. I switched to Hobbii’s Rainbow Bamboo (on sale), a comparable weight and composition for fewer dollars and much more reasonable (and faster) shipping. One of the colors that enchanted me was Deep Teal. It just so happens it’s a perfect match for the teal in the variegated linen blend. Score!

I’ve started a new project, a sweater with vertical stripes. I’ve been pondering this project for a while and just happened to hit a sweet spot in yarn for the project.

I’ve had some chained bamboo with colors I love (instead of strands of thread spun into a yarn, it’s a strand of thread chained into yarn) . . . a solid and a variegated that has been in my stash forever, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I had one cake of each, not enough to do anything truly productive but way too nice to dump. It sat in my stash occasionally played with but never a star.

Then I started knitting with Hobbii’s Rainbow Bamboo (a lovely cotton/bamboo yarn). I bought sweater quantities of colors I really like, a graphite, a navy and a dark teal that perfectly matched the teal in the variegated chained bamboo. Trust me, this was not a deliberate choice but . . . score! Then I had some left over Universal Yarn’s Bamboo Pop “Sand” from another project (a shortie fade to wear over my day dress in the morning when it’s chilly). Like I said, kismet. The stars had aligned.

From there it was just a matter of figuring out what pattern would work with the quantities of yarn I had available. I’ve finally got a plan and it’s in the works. Woot! 16 stitches of background color (teal), four stitches of BP Sand, six stitches of the chained bamboo variegated, six stitches of the chained bamboo tan, repeat x 10).

I posted a brief sketch of my project on FB and alarmed/impressed/confused/wowed a bunch of knitters. Apparently this way of doing is a weird thing. I love sharing new stuff so it’s all good. Embrace the weird.

I didn’t knit it for Mindy but it went home with her. Purple is one of her favorite colors. At this point I think Mindy’s sweatered out.

I think I’m going to add one more set of short rows to my sleeve cap. Can you see how the pattern rises at the upper arm? Yeah, not liking that. Adding one more set of short rows should fix most if not all of that. This is the kind of stuff I can’t see on the hanger. It has to go on a body for it to show up.

This one’s got a bit of a history. I have a tendency to wander off onto unexplored paths if I start something and it’s just not working. I browsed pictures (flowers, sweaters with flowers, art with flowers, gardens of flowers) and really wanted to do an intarsia flower sweater. Did I end up with a flower sweater? Nope.

On the plus side, Mindy (recipient) has gotten nice comments on her new sweater so it’s all good.

At the first test fit the sleeve was too tight and the pockets were too high. I was having MC yardage issues and couldn’t wrap my brain around how I was going to make the given amount of yarn stretch to cover the extra five inches needed in length and the extra sleeve width. It was breaking my heart thinking I would have to frog. The pockets were FABULOUS. <sigh>

Then it occured to me . . . I could Kitchener! So I cut the sweater off under the arms, added the additional stripes to give it the appropriate length and save the orange for the sleeves . . . and it came out awesome!

The green band at the base of the collar is double knit to help control the stretch of the neck opening. The outside is green variegated and the inside is orange.

The pockets are worked using a technique I developed . . . no sewing and they come out even and flat and beautiful.

The cuffs are an interesting technique pointed out to me by a fellow knitter (thank you Lorie Yates). The inside of the cuff is variegated green and the bindoff is done on the outside of the cuff.

I learned a lot making this sweater. Did I get the flowers I wanted? No, but the end result is beautiful and Mindy loves it.

The shoulder is conti-raglan.

This is coming along nicely. This is my third or fourth start. The first was with the requested cables and it was a total non-starter. The back side of the cables were unattractive. No, just no.

I still wanted texture and it needed to be reversible so I test-knit the collar in zigzag. It had nice texture if you were looking at it from less than a foot away, but it could in no way compete with the bold graphic of cables. Also a no and a frog. Then I hit on a collar I loved . . . double zigzag. It had all the graphic drama, was simple to knit and it was reversible! Woot! But it didn’t match what Mickey had envisioned so . . . .  yeah, frog.

Instead of a tall collar that could be turned down with lapels flipped back (the reasoning for a reversible pattern for the collar), a short collar was what was wanted. No problem!

I tried doing a contiguous shoulder and really hated the cramping. Even using two different types of increases to relieve some of the strain in the shoulder line it still cramped. This two-types thing would be okay for a sleeved sweater as the weight of the sleeve would go a long way to pulling the cramped shoulderline open. For a vest? Yeah, not gonna work. I worked conti-something shoulders. It always fits great.

This (hopefully) is going to work, assuming my numbers are all good and it fits. I’m going to knit a couple more inches and send it off for a test fit.

I’ve started playing with a new shoulder, something easy for people to knit that gives a really nice fit. I think I’ve got a winner.

It’s a contiguous shoulder using two different increases paired with shoulder shaping short rows to produce a nicely rounded sleeve cap.

There’s always a downside and with this shoulder it’s the swatch. Cast on six stitches. Put a stitch marker in the middle. Work 2 stitches in seed, M1 (left or right, choose one and stick with it ), k1, sm, k1, work a lifted increase, work 2 stitches in seed. Turn. Work 3 stitches in seed. M1, p1, sm, p1, work a lifted increase, work 3 stitches in seed. Turn. this is where the two row repeat starts.

Work 3 stitches in seed. knit to within 1 stitch of the marker. M1. K1, sm, k1, work a lifted increase, knit until 3 stitches remain. Work in seed to end of row. Turn. Work 3 stitches in seed. purl to within one stitch of the marker. M1, p1, sm, p1. Work a lifted increase. Purl until 3 stitches remain. Work seed stitch to the end of the row. Turn. Repeat until the swatch measures close to six inches.

This swatch gives you row count, stitch count and shoulder row count (the line of stitches that’s on the diagonal).

On the plus side, the time spent knitting the swatch is going to consolidate the technique before the sweater is cast on.

I’ll try and get a video out in the next couple weeks with all the math.