purlsandmurmers

Sleeve Plans

Well, my haphazard approach to knitting this sweater has not changed. 

I rushed off to knitting group without doing the math and without measuring the row gauge on the pieces of the sweater I have already knitted.  So I had to do it all at group with the aid of a cell phone and quick call home to get DH to tell me the total length of the sweater on the board.  I knew the total number of rows in the sweater, so I could calculate from there.

I worked out that my row gauge is about 8.3 versus the 10 specified in the pattern.

Now I like the length of the sleeve as shown, and I had someone do a rough measurement of that sleeve  on me, and think it was ok, or barely a half an inch longer than I would like.   

I figured out I need to drop about 14 rows from the sweater.  The next decision was how to do that without altering the layout of the stripes so that they match up properly with the sweater.  I eventually decided to take it off the length of the body of the sleeve, dropping the lowest pink embroidered stripe. 

It was suggested that I could also shorten the length by removing one of the rows of ruffles, and that three ruffles is a bit excessive.  I agree that it is excessive, but I think I like the three ruffles, so they stayed in. 

We will see how it works out, but I think this will be quite nice.  The sleeve on me will be about the same length as the sleeve shown relative to my arm length, but the bottom of the sleeve will not line up so nicely with the bottom of the sweater since my torso is longer and my arms shorter than average.  I am not quite sure how that will affect the appearance of the sweater when it is being worn, another good reason to think things out before starting.

Of course, I spent more time talking than knitting, so I have no idea how it will actually work out yet.

 

by guess and by golly

Note to self:  write.it.down!

The body of Passel is on the blocking board and I have started the first sleeve. 

The entire process of getting this sweater pinned might have been easier, taken less time, and caused far less anxiety in the knitter if a few notes had been taken at the beginning of the project. 

I know I knitted a gauge swatch.  I know that my stitch gauge was correct.  Apparently my row gauge was not as the sweater I ended up with is longer than the one described in the pattern.  Since I have no idea what I did with that swatch, and I neglected to make any notes, there was a moment of profound frustration where I was ready to just slap the sweater down, let it dry, unravel it all, and put it aside until next spring.  Luckily I regained my senses and calmly figured things out.

As I said, apparently my row gauge was off, I am getting fewer rows per inch than the pattern.  This is not unusual for me.  I knit loosely and tend to get long skinny stitches. As I pinned the sweater I vaguely began to recall that I thought that my gauge was off just enough so that if I knit the pattern as written, I would end up with a length that would be better for my tall frame, i.e. 24 inches instead of 21 inches.  Apparently that was the case as the sweater pinned out to 24 inches and all the pieces line up and match (one point for the knitter).  I would have been happier if I had written this down though, and perhaps even done a few calculations (my actual gauge times number of rows in the sweater to confirm that I would get the desired length).  If I did do any math I don't remember it and I certainly didn't write it down. 

And I had been so much better about these little details up until this point.

Of course now I have to figure out how many rows per inch I am getting because I will have to alter the sleeve pattern.  I may be tall, but I am not blessed with long arms and legs and I often have to shorten sweater sleeves.  Well I don't often have to shorten Anny Blatt patterns, but I don't have to lengthen them either, and if I knit the sleeves as written but I am getting fewer than the 10 rows/inch stated in the pattern, I will have sleeves that are much too long.

Now I have to spend time doing math.  It's not that the math is difficult, it's just that I hate to have to do it in the middle of a project.  My own fault for not doing the prep work.

Well, with knitting group tonight, a bunch of waiting-room time scheduled tomorrow, and the US Open to watch, there appears to be ample knitting time on the horizon.  Hopefully I will make short work of those sleeves once I get the math done because although I might have knitted the body with a "by guess and by golly" plan, I don't intend to use that technique for the sleeves.

on Romantic Hand Knits

While I was away on vacation I received a copy of Annie Modesitt's Romantic Hand Knits.  Unfortunately I also received a lot of other mail and the knitting, sewing, and fashion-related items had to be shoved to the back corner of my sewing/knitting room waiting until I caught up with all the boring, but oh-so-necessary work related mail.
So it wasn't really until this past weekend that I really had enough time to give this book the attention it deserves.

Now, I admit that I had been looking forward to this book. I really like Annie Modesitt's designs and even the designs that I would never make, or that I think are a little too far out there for me are really very interesting.  She seems to be a very creative and thoughtful knitter, one really thinks about the problems of designing knitwear and often comes up with new ways of solving knitting problems. 

This is a book for someone who is adventurous and doesn't want just the same old knitting book.  It is filled with wonderful ideas and wonderful ways of doing things.  Even if I never knit a single pattern from this book, and that is not going to happen because there are several things I want to knit from this book, it is filled with creative clever ideas that I would want to incorporate into my knitting.

A lot of these patterns have interesting details.  A lot of them have clever shaping.  This is not the book for you if you want sweaters designed with simple box-shaped block that seems to be so ubiquitous in the hand-knitting world.    Take the skirt shown on the cover, for example.  There is another picture here:

Now a skirt is really just a tube right?  And this one is really no exception but it is so well designed.  First of all it isn't a straight tube because it has those lace godets.   Now look at the details and the patterning.  This skirt is designed to accent those curves that we all have. Rather than just stretching out a simple swath of stockinette, the skirt draws attention to the ins and outs of the form underneath.  I am really intrigued by this pattern and I don't necessarily always find knit skirts the easiest thing to wear.  But mostly that is because I find too snug, stretchy, negative ease skirts difficult to wear.  Looking at this skirt I can't help but wonder if it is really more forgiving than it looks.

But I can't buy a book just for its cover sweater.  And there are a lot of other ideas in here that intrigue.

This sweater is called Ninotchka and it is really a lovely design even though it is not particularly for me.  What is really special about it is that it is designed with a shelf bra knitted in with a stretchier yarn and it has short-row shaping to help provide  extra shaping and coverage in area that seems to me to often be just a little too exposed in your standard knit tank.

And while I am on the subject of little tops and bust shaping what about Jezebel?

My initial reaction to this dress is that it is just too much.  But the more I look at it the more I keep coming back to this design even though it is, as shown here a little too exposed for me.  Still the ideas that are involved in this dress are wonderful.  Take a look at the short-row shaping at the bust.  Shaping is included for C and D cups as well.  These techniques can be used a starting point in other sweaters even if I never make this sweater.  The ribbed waist with its short row shaping is also amazing.  This dress is laden with ideas and although I am no Jezebel  and am not inclined to make a halter dress, I might be convinced to make some variation on a halter or to use some of the ideas from this dress in other sweaters.

Dark Victory is a sweater that at first glance looks like a pretty standard sweater but ends up being something far more special.

For one thing, the shaping is fabulous.  This is no rectangular block sweater.  There is a good bit of shaping hidden in the design.  The double contrast bands at the neckline really emphasizes the face and shoulder line giving a hint of sexiness while still being fully covered.  The color work also emphasizes the color in the variegated yarn and the slip stitch pattern used throughout helps control the color, avoid pooling, and add interest. I am always intrigued by hand-dyed yarns until I start knitting with them.  Sometimes they work out, other times I wonder what I was thinking.  But this one has me itching to give it a try.

I also love the way Charade makes use of the great drape of of a ribbon yarn:

I love ribbon yarns in open and lacy patterns that accent their texture.  But they are long on flow and short on structure, and the weight of the ribbon often causes the sweater to seem to drag, especially if knitted at a gauge loose enough to allow the ribbon to show in all its slippery glory.  Using the weight and drape of the ribbon to make a surplice top is a fabulous idea, and one I am looking forward to trying.

I also love the shaping possibilities in the bands at the top of Saratoga:

and the lovely lace patterning in Casablanca

Note the nice bit of shaping that is incorporated in the after-thought sleeves.

And although I have no place to wear it, and probably can't pull it off, I love Cleopatra.  This one really is just a tube, although granted a tube with ribbing at the waist which will add shaping, I can't help myself.  This design is just so filled with dreams and desire, the idea of clothing as costume or fantasy and the idea that if you can just knit it your fantasy life will come.

Light and Scrunchy

I love the Alchemy Silken Straw swatch.  It is very light and very drapey, but it has a little bit of a scrunchy sproing to it.  Many silk yarns knit to a fabric that is smooth and drapey and clings to the body in a heavy way, even if the fabric itself is light, much the way a silk charmeuse clings and drapes.  But this knitted fabric is different.  It is drapey and fluid, but I don't think it would cling, it stands away slightly, perhaps the way a crisp cool percale sheet flows over the body but also stands away a little bit.  It has a scrunchy feel, but it is also light and airy.  It reminds me more of a very light silk dupioni that has been washed so it has lost some of its stiff dupioni crispness, but still retains a memory of its crisp character with more drape.

I think I will love the garments knitted with this yarn, and I am always thinking of light crisp-lacy garments, it would make a truly sumptuous light nightie, perhaps even a delicate shawl, crisp and light all at once.  And yes, I am going to swatch that Shirley Paden pattern as well.

Purple

Gray:  Damp, dark, dank, dreary.  These are the words that come to mind recently as the weather turned cool and rainy.  The house is dark.  It is none too thrilling outside either. Although it has been cool and damp all week, the temperature barely topping 70 degrees, today is much hotter, 81 degrees at 11 AM. , hotter yet before the end of the day. Still there is no sun.  We have traded cool damp and dreary for hot, heavy and sodden and still gray.  For the first morning this week there is no fog, but the air remains thick.  The house remains dark.

Is it any wonder that my urge to knit a pretty, frilly, white piece of froth has fallen by the wayside.  My thoughts have been on Fall knitting all week, although today's heavy heat reminds me that it will be some time before wools are inviting against the skin. 

If only knitting Passel would insure the return of hot sunny days frolicking among the flowers.  I want to knit it.  I want to wear it.  I dream of wearing the feminine white sweater with white pants in the bright sunshine.  Here we are, heading into September and I still crave white, white and bright colors. 

As I headed out for Thursday Knitting I was primed for distraction.

Enter a new shipment of Alchemy Silken Straw: The colors were absolutely stunning.  I wanted to grab them all and run off with them, hording them flike precious gems filled with life-giving brightness, saving them up to illuminate future somber darkness-filled days.    The texture intrigued.  I had no mental reference points for how this would knit.  What kind of fabric would it produce?  Obviously there would be some crispness there, but would the silk soften?  Would it produce a soft draping fabric or a scrunchy crisp drape?

I indulged in a skein just to play.  I decided to knit a swatch and wash it to see what kind of fabric is produced.  It is not an inexpensive yarn.  $28 to produce a swatch may be expensive to one way of thinking, but it is cheaper than a symphony ticket, and probably provides far more hours of entertainment.  One skein is also much easier on the pocketbook than many skeins which prove to be wrong for the intended project.

I didn't have the right size of needle with me, so I ended up buying size 3 bamboo needles.  The yarn calls for size 4 US, and I knit loosely so 3 seemed like a good starting point.

It was a mistake.  I had difficulty casting on the yarn.  My gauge was inconsistent. Splits were a big problem.  As soon as I came home and switched to metal needles all went smoothly again.  As you can see in the photo, everything got much smoother when I switched from bamboo (at the bottom of the swatch on the right).  The splitting problem also went away.  I wonder if I can return them -- after I only used them a few hours in the shop.

I often find that I am much more likely to split a yarn when using bamboo than when using metal needles.  Even though I am a loose knitter, and  I might think that my gauge would be looser on metal than on wood, I find that the opposite is true.  I struggle less with the yarn on  the metal and therefore  I am more consistent.

I am not far along yet.  I don't know how the swatch will be affected by washing, but already the yarn is softer than it appeared in the skein.  I am starting to dream of lacy knitted things and lovely little camisoles and tanks.    This morning I looked up the Shirley Paden pattern in the summer Interweave knits.  That is another possibility.  Ah, knitting dreams.  I don't need more yarn or more pending projects, but my dreams are not hampered by such practical considerations.

But for now, this scrunchy little bit of purple silk is making me very happy.
New yarn had arrived at Yarn Central when we gathered for knitting last night.

A Birthday Sweater

This is the project I was primarily working  on during our trip too and from Knoxville, but not while we actually were in Knoxville, for obvious reasons.  Owen's first birthday is slightly less than a month away and I decided that he needs a new birthday sweater.  It might actually be a little large on him.  Different designers and different pattern companies seem to have different interpretations of what "1 year" means as a size for children's clothes,  but it will fit him soon enough.

I actually began this last fall, shortly after his birth, but grew frustrated as it became evident that Owen was not really going to wear the baby sweaters I had already knitted although perhaps there is still hope as the sweater his parents liked best was a bit big and is only now the right size for Owen to wear.

So I had only knit about an inch or two of one piece of this sweater before I abandoned it.  This summer I reconsidered my selfish motives and decided to knit it anyway.  The pattern is from Mission Falls, as is the yarn.  I don't really know which book -- I was working from a coffee stained photocopy and leftover yarn, from another sweater or two I knit years ago when some friends were having babies and grandbabies. 

I've already been told that little boys don't wear purple and I should have chosen different colors.  It doesn't scream "little girl" to me, it doesn't strike me as being particularly for any gender, but this whole gender-specific color thing is a little beyond me anyway.  It looks like a box of crayons to me but I am really no expert on children's clothes.  Although Owen is starting to form opinions on many things, I don't think the colors of his sweaters is one of them, so I'll just hope for the best.

Fall Rowan

Suffice it to say that Passel did not progress as far as hoped during our trip to Knoxville.  Not that all that driving time was wasted:  800 miles each way allows for much knitting time, even if I did somewhat over 1/3 and less than half of the driving.  Instead much of my time was spent on a different project, about which you will hear more later, upon its completion, which is imminent.   

I did finish the back of Passel and am about 6 or 8 rows from the armhole shaping on the right front.  Very little has been accomplished since my return on Monday night despite the fact that I met fellow knitter Gina last night for what was supposed to be knitting time but ended up being chatting time.  My own output came to two rows.

One thing we did discuss was the new fall Rowan magazine, which arrived while I was away, one of many knitting related treats, but the only one I have examined in any detail as of yet.  (You know I MUST be busy).

I love this issue.  There are a lot of cute things in here, a lot of inspiring ideas and a lot of details and designs that make me think differently about knitting or how I make and shape things.  I rate this issue highly for its dream and inspiration factor and in fact there are also several garments that I may knit more or less as shown.  that makes this issue a success on all counts from my perspective.

In fact, there are enough things I like that I keep changing my mind about what I might or might not knit.  These are the patterns of which I am currently enamored (click on image to enlarge):

There is yet another sweater that I am considering more and more, can't get it out of my head in fact. It is this sweater by Kaffe Fassett:

I love the color striping but at first I thought the shape was unwearable.  Now I am not so sure.  The shape is remarkably like my current "I can't wait until Fall so I can wear it" new treat, this dress from Rachel Pally:

Granted the dress is a much thinner, stretchier knit so the look on the body would be totally different, but the way I wear it is not that different from the look of that Rowan sweater on the model.

I am tempted.

But there is an awful lot of kidsilk haze in that sweater and it could be a really expensive mistake, both in cash and knitting time, so I need to play with the idea  a little longer, perhaps work out some kind of mock-up.  But if it works it could be very cool.

If it works it would be way nicer than the remake of that bubble dress in the new Vogue Knititng, the one I made way back when...

Re-organization

Although the knitting on Passel is continuing at a good pace given how little time I am devoting to it, that is all about to change.  We are driving down to Knoxville tomorrow for a few days with DSD and baby Owen.  I am not sure how much knitting will be accomplished on the trip as I may end up doing a lot of the driving but there will certainly be knitting time available once we arrive.  I have packed the entire thing in my bag, naive I am sure, because I doubt I will get the entire sweater knitted as I am only about 1/2 way through the back.  But it seems best to plan for the best case scenario.

Anyway, in my spare time, instead of knitting, I have finally started reorganizing the old yarn stash.  As you will recall, I lost the previous spreadsheet, and finding anything has driven me up the wall.  I literally had no idea what was hiding in various closets and boxes.

I toyed the idea of building a database with pictures, but quickly gave up on that idea as I just don't want to spend the time setting up a database the way I want it.  This spreadsheet will work just fine.

What I am finding as I go through things though, aside from a few bits of yarn that can be added to the every growing e-bay pile, is that each time I see the yarn for another sweater I fall in love with it and want to start knitting it right away.  There are about 20 such projects currently milling around my brain and I am seriously wondering why I never got to them the first time around.  Oh I know the answer, but now  I want to knit each and every one of them now.....at least until the next pattern book comes.

(Where are you Vogue Knitting!)

So I am somewhere between 15 and 20% through the stash, and I am going to organize books and patterns as well so there is really a lot more to do.  I am really excited about the process however, and I think there will be a great benefit to the work. 

Oh yeah, and as the new pattern books have come in I have found projects for at least 3 yarns that have been languishing in my stash.  Now I just have to get those projects knitted up.

Time to start dreaming of fall sweaterrs

It was over a week ago that a friend mentioned getting the new Vogue Knitting.  I started to check my mailbox with an eager hand.  I bet you've heard this story before.  As the week progressed, my forays into the Hyde Park Post Office became an increasingly intense experience, filled with anticipation, and always ending in frustration.

Need I say that the fabled Vogue Knitting has not yet arrived, much to my chagrin. 

Thursday night at group there were copies on the table.  I had managed to avoid looking at copies at every drugstore and newsstand in town, but I could not resist the pull of that magazine lying right in front of me, taunting me.  I am still awaiting my own copy, one that I can pore over and slowly savor the contents.  Also at knitting was a copy of the new Interweave Knits, but on that front at least my prayers have been answered.  The Interweave Knits was at home waiting for me as I walked into the kitchen in the wee wee hours of Friday morning.

I haven't really read it yet, I am saving it for my trip to Tennessee next week, but I have looked at the patterns and there are several that have caught my eye.  I suppose you are not surprised.  I probably have a lifetime's worth of projects to knit and I am still seduced by the promise of the new.

I love these:

There is some Rowan Felted Tweed hiding somewhere in this house that I *know* will be perfect for that wonderful cardigan by Eunny Jang (middle photo) and the others are high on my list also.  But we know how I am with lists, what is high on my list is only as high as the next magazine or knitting book, when my thoughts and dreams become completely reorganized.

There are several other sweaters of which I like particular details, but they are not jumping to the top of the list, and there are that I love but about which I have serious reservations about how they will look ON ME, so they may in fact just remain dream sweaters and never be seen on my needles:

Both of these really intrigue me.  The Teva Durham (on the right) is something I could have worn when I was younger and I am not sure if it will flatter my now bustier figure. 

The little jacket by Wenlan Chia just intrigues and there is a part of me that thinks it may be more flattering than one might think.  But then again, I have been wrong before.....

There is one more sweater that I just *must* knit.  I saw it on the back cover, and it is not a pattern from this magazine, but I have always said that I find the magazines just as valuable for the advertising as I sometimes do for their featured designs.

This sweater by Classic Elite has simply taken my breath away with its simple classic elegance.  The book is already on order.