purlsandmurmers

Blue Sky Cropped Turtleneck

G thought I had lost my mind this morning when he saw me donning dark jeans, a turtleneck, and then a heavy alpaca sweater.  If I had planned on wearing this outfit outside I would have said he was correct.  

But I just wanted a photograph.  Even in air-conditioned house, it is too warm now for heavy alpaca sweaters.

I am very happy with the way this has turned out.  I knew I wanted the sweater to be a little more close-fitting than it is shown in the pattern (shown here,  in yellow, scroll down the page) and I definitely did not want loose floppy sleeves.  There was also a yarn issue, but that worked out okay.  I have about half a skein left.

The Blue Sky  Alpaca does not have the same depth of stitch definition as the Cascade yarn called for in the pattern.  As it is alpaca, it will also probably grow somewhat with wear, hopefully not too much in the sleeve length though.

Pattern:  #2 Cropped Turtleneck in Vogue Knitting Winter 2008/2009 designed by Leena Sullivan.

Besides narrowing the sleeves, I added three or four rows to the bottom ribbing.  I definitely wanted a cropped length, but had a little trouble determining what was ideal.  I think this worked out well.  I almost made it longer, but I think I would have lost the effect.  An inch or two longer and it would just look short, as if I didn't have enough yarn, whereas here it looks intentionally cropped.

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky Hand Dyes in color #1213, almost 10 skeins.

And now, back to more seasonable sweaters.

And we're off....

I finished the neckline on the Blue Sky Cropped Turtleneck, and heaved a big sigh of relief.  It looks like I will have enough yarn left to do an acceptable amount of ribbing at the bottom of the sweater.  There is a little over a skein and a half and the neckline took a smidge over a skein but less than a skein and a quarter.  The bottoms is 25 % wider than the neckline, but does not need to be nearly as deep.  I think I will have an acceptable amount of ribbing at the bottom.  I will seam the sweater with a different yarn though just to conserve what yardage I do have.

This is a good point at which to leave the sweater.  I have enough done that I am confident about being able to finish and it will not take long.  A preliminary try-on looks good as well.

Next up travel knitting.  

I may not be posting on the trip.  I gave up my mobile broadband service when I no longer needed to stay in touch with an office while I was away.  Besides, this is our first trip in 10 months.  DSD may have a wireless network at her house, in which case I may be able to connect.  But I already know that at the end of a day with my darling two year old grandson there is not  a lot of energy left.

See you again in mid March.

To Bobble or not to Bobble

 

As you see, I am making great progress on the Blue Sky Alpaca Cropped Turtleneck.  I finished the body and am just ready to start the second sleeve.  I am really enjoying the process of knitting this, even the bobbles.  Well, I always enjoy knitting bobbles.

If you look at the top of the photo, you will see a section of the body without bobbles.  This started off as an accident of sorts.  Since I am knitting the sweater side to side, I was also knitting the body simultaneously.  I noticed that I had left the bobbles off on side at one of the repeats and was all ready to rip back and fix the problem when I started thinking -- and you know that can be a problem.

I realized that although I love bobbles, and I like the way they look on the sweater, I would probably not appreciate bobbles at the base of my neck in back.  Since I am lacking the normal lordotic curvature at the top of the spine, I often have trouble with things that seem to press on my neck, especially when I am sitting in cars, where head rests are all designed to provide support for the normal spinal curvature.  The bobbles would drive me crazy.

 

Since it just happened that I was approaching the center of the sweater, I decided to leave them off for 3 repeats.  I wonder now if I should have left them off for the entire back of the body, but think this isn't bad and at least it is balanced.   

This is going well.  I hope to finish it before we leave for Knoxville next Tuesday, but there are a lot of other things I wish to do before we leave for Knoxville as well, including work on some swatches for my traveling project(s).  If it is not done, I don't know if I will take it with me or not, as I don't think I will be wearing it on the trip and will have no place to block it anyway.  I have five days to make a decision.  A lot can happen in five days; or, as seems to be the case more often in my life, not enough can happen.

Weekend Progress

I've done pretty well, knitting-wise, this weekend.

All the pieces of the LaGran pullover have been completed and I have joined them together on the circular needles in order to knit the yoke in the round.  

This was the first time I knit my sleeves simultaneously and it was actually rather nice.  They did seem to go more quickly even though I often lost track of what I was supposed to be doing and knit one sleeve for a few rows before continuing to the second.  This prompted occasional confusion as to where I was and lots of checking and measuring.  Counting was out of the questions given the fuzzy mohair and the dark color.

Once I got the pieces joined together, I made sure the first couple of rows were completed and that my stitches and counts were correct before putting it aside so that I could spend a little time with the Blue Sky Cropped Turtleneck from the new Vogue Knitting.

I an having a great time knitting this sweater.  The pattern is simple. I changed the decreases and increases somewhat on the sleeve to make the sleeves a little bit narrower at the cuff, and then I had to compensate for this as the sleeve gets wider so that it all works out when I get to the body.  

I am hoping this will work out and that the sweater will look good without sleeves that are quite so floppy.

The photo was taken last night; I am a little further along now.  It looks small to me on the needles, but I did check my gauge both before and after washing the swatch and I am consistent with that gauge.  The photo in Vogue looks more loosely knit though.  Perhaps I am not accounting for the stretch of the sweater with wear.

I think the Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky is about the same weight and gauge as the Twinkle Soft Chunky, but it is possible that it is heavier, or somehow tighter and holds its shape better.  Since this is knit from sleeve to sleeve there is no real way to tell until I knit it all and see what happens.  I am trying to account for the post-wash growth when I look at it, but it just isn't registering.  It is not so small looking that it doesn't fit, at least not so far.

Whatever happens, I suppose I can console myself with how much fun I am having knitting this.