look what I found

I was working on the charger for the battery to my camera, again, and found these in the memory of the camera.

Pictures of the afghan I made for my brother! 

My brother was watching me knit one evening at my sister's while we were settling her estate.  He said he liked how the afghan was turning out and who was I making it for.  I said nobody, in particular, would he like it.  He kind of thought I was joking.  So we discussed how long to make it.  He wanted it long enough to go over his head and tuck under his heels.

So it ended up the usual 48 inches wide but is 96 inches long.  I used Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket pattern on Ravelry, instead of 10 stitches, I used 20 stitches.  Knitted it on US#6 needles.  I then added the mitered corner blocks at each end to get the additional length I need before adding the 2 borders I had planned on.

I have other projects finished so maybe I will have something positive to upload.

Y'all have a good day!

Judy

sis's chemo hats, last part

Sis's chemo hats, last part...for now, anyway. 😉  I found Luuk by Annis Jones while looking for hat patterns for Tiffany's girls.

I made it with small balls of yarn I found in Sis's tub of yarn.  I think it's all worsted-weight Red Heart Super Saver done on US 6 needles, 5 stitches per inch using magic loop on 40-inch cables.  I cast on 96 for a 19-inch hat.  This hat couldn't be simpler to put together, knit three rows; purl three rows.

Looks like and old-fashion soft serve ice cream cone!  There is sizing from preemie (13) to large adult (24).

Sis says it actually stayed put on her head and didn't try to work its way up.  So I may have finally found a pattern for our bowling ball heads that works!

The last hat I knit was another one I found while looking for Tiffany's girls.  I thought it was pretty and feminine.

LuAnn Chemo Hat by Beverly Forester was knitted with the leftover blue DK yarn I got for the Feather-n-Fan afghan.  Lion Brand's Baby Soft called Bluebell.  I cast on 120 stitches that were suggested in the notes and did the full 7 repeats to get it long enough (5 1/2 inches) before starting the decrease for the crown, using a US#5 and used 1x1 ribbing instead of the suggested ribbing.  I also did not knit through the back loop where it was suggested.

I still think I got a nice lace pattern even though the rib is not as bold.

Edit:  I forgot to mention these two patterns came from Ravelry.

Believe it or not I have been sewing since I got back to Phoenix.  I have started three quilts and have finished one.  That's on top of the three quilts tops I have finished, one partially quilted and two more kits for quilts I found in Mother's stash.

HA!  And knitters think they have start-itis!  Most quilters could teach a thing or two about start-itis to knitters because most quilters have multi-generational quilt projects lying about.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

sis's chemo hats part 2

Sis came home from the Oncologist with a new hat that was crocheted.  She said it was cool enough to wear all day.  So I sat down with paper-n-pen and counted stitches row by row so I could duplicate it.  Here's what I came up with:

Gauge was 3 double crochets per inch, row was 3/8 to 1/2-inch in depth.
Finished length 8 1/4-inches, finished diameter was 9-inches.

Chain: 3 to 5 join with sl st; chain up 2
Round 1: 11 Dc in Ch ring; sl st; ch up 2 (12 stitches total)
Rd 2: 2 Dc in every stitch of rd 1; sl st; ch up 2 (23 stitches total)
Rd 3: (2 dc, 1 dc) repeat 11 times; 2 dc in one stitch; sl st; ch up 2 (35 stitches total)
Rd 4: 1 Dc then (2 Dc, 1 dc, 1 dc) repeat 11 times; sl st; ch up 2 (47 stitches total)
Rd 5: (1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc) repeat 8 times; sl st; ch up 2 (56 stitches total)
Rd 6: dc in every stitch (56 stitches total)
Rds 7-18: repeat Rd 6

This hat appears to be done in worsted weight yarn.

Now I don't have to worry about losing my little piece of paper.  Yeah!  A good example of this pattern is Simple Chemo Hat by Mamta Motiyani on Ravelry.

Remember that feather-n-fan afghan I made?  Well, I had leftover DK yarn.  I decided to try and use as much as I could up.  Time for a gauge swatch!  4 stitches to the inch and about the same depth of row using a G hook.  Here's what I came up with for the DK yarn:

Chain 3 join with sl st; chain up 2
Round 1: 13 Dc in Ch ring; sl st; ch up 2 (14 stitches total)
Rd 2: 2 Dc in every stitch of rd 1; sl st; ch up 2 (28 stitches total)
Rd 3: (2 dc, 1 dc) repeat; sl st; ch up 2 (41 stitches total)
Rd 4: 1 Dc then (2 Dc, 1 dc, 1 dc) repeat; sl st; ch up 2 (56 stitches total)
Rd 5: (1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc) repeat 12 times; then 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc; sl st; ch up 2 (66 stitches total) [In other hats I redistributed the 5 dc through out the round.]
Rd 6: dc in every stitch (66 stitches total)
Rds 7-18: repeat Rd 6

LOL Once again I don't have to worry about losing my little piece of paper.

In the first hat I replaced round 18 with a shell edge starting with a half-shell and ending with a half-shell and 15 complete shells in between.  I used a 6 dc shell in this border.

Clown Barf and White for this one.

The next one I replace the last 3 rows with a Cathedral edging, which is an 8 treble stitch shell with a ch 3 picot between stitch 4 and 5 of the shell.  It looked great until you put it on and then the shells stood straight out from your head. 😕  So my solution was to add a band that pulled the points back in.

This hat was done in Teal and White.  If I were to repeat this hat I think I would move the Cathedral edging up towards the middle on the hat, so I would finish with the teal instead of the white against the face.

The third hat was a hat I found on Ravelry called a Diamond-Edge Hat from Designs by KN.  It uses a Catherine's Wheel stitch pattern.  A comment in the project notes of one of the completed hats pointed me to a You-tube video on how to do the stitch pattern.   That hat disappeared (probably in Sis's desk at work) before I could get photos of it.  The hat is primarily White with the first round of Catherine's Wheel in Blue and then a second round of Catherine's Wheel in Clown Barf.

My messy kitchen is calling my name, so I hope everyone is having a great day.

Judy

sister-in-law's hats

While I was knitting Tiffany's family their hats, my brother and sister-in-law came to Wichita to visit Sis and I.  Sister-in-law asks about what I was knitting, so I explained it to her.  She then asked if I would knit her a couple of ponytail hats and I said, "Sure!"  I sent her to the store to get worsted weight yarn.  She came back bearing 4 skeins yarn for two hats.

With the first skein of variegated yarn I made the Waffle Hat by Gail Bable.  It was one of the patterns I found on Ravelry while looking for hats for Tiffany's bunch.  It was knitted on US#6.  I cast on 96 stitches.  The Waffle pattern would have looked way better in a solid or a more subtle variegated.  I moved the ponytail hole up to 3 1/2 inches from the bottom edge.  It seemed to fit better there.  I started the crown decrease at 5 1/2 inches cause none of us really like the slouch look.  I didn't keep the band off the yarn so I can't tell you what color way it was except it was some CraftSmart Value Yarn.

The second hat was the same hat pattern (Jogger's cap by Karen Steward Longest) I used for Sister Suzy's hat, moving the ponytail hole to 3 1/2 inches.

I used US#6 needles again with a cast-on of 96 stitches.  Began the crown at 5 1/2 inches dividing the crown into 8 sections of 12 stitches and decreasing every other row.  I used the CraftSmart Value yarn SIL purchased in Giverny for the variegated and some white Sis had.  This hat turned out much nicer.

Next up...more hats.  😀

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

the hats for tiffany and family

While I was knitting Sister Suzy's ponytail hat and mitts my sister was talking to Tiffany, one of her co-workers, about it and asks if I would knit a hat.  I said, yes, find a pattern and some yarn.  So the pattern my sister found was the Goodie Bag Hat by Cheryl Oberle on Ravelry.

I used Red Heart With Love in Boysenberry on US #6 needles with a 30-inch cable to do the Magic Loop.  It was a fun little knit once I decided to ditch most of the instructions.  I just knit the garter stitch sections using a traditional garter stitch in the round (knit one row, purl the next).  Using the gauge I was getting which was 5 stitches per inch times the 20-inch circumference.  I cast-on 100 stitches using the German Twisted cast-on.  I used a 3 stitch I-cord for the drawstring.  The something new I learned on this project.

The next hat was Dominic's.  This kid loves purple so to get a hat that nobody would think he was wearing a little girl's hat I found Robot Hat by Jane Sharp on Ravelry

I knit a standard stocking hat and used the chart for the robots.  I used the lt. gray from Sister Suzy's hat for the robots and some neon green yarn my sister had in her stash for the eyes.

Then I knit Riley's.  Mandie Harrington calls the pattern Swirl Hat.  I put a ponytail hole in this one at 2 1/2 inches because Riley doesn't like her hair pulled up too high as it gives her a headache.

Riley likes a wild riot of color and my sister had this variegated which I coupled with a solid turquoise ribbing.  I didn't use the ribbing called for in the pattern because I have had the best success with 2x2 ribbing.  I was disappointed with the crown, as it wasn’t, as flat I like them.

They have a little girl that stays with them off-n-on so I knit Maddie a hat too.  I used In-Between Seasons Hat by Elena Nodel from Ravelry.

I used the bayberry from Tiffany's hat coupled with a hot pink my sister had in her stash.  Loved the simple little lace pattern.  The pattern calls for DK weight yarn but I used Worsted.  The lace pattern is an eight stitch repeat so I cast-on 96 stitches which gave me 12 repeats.  No ponytail hole in this one as Maddie's hair is fairly short.

Last but not least was Josh's hat.  I originally was going to knit a Ribbed Watchman's Hat by Channah Koppel I found on Ravelry but my sister saw it and ask if I was knitting a balaclava.  I said no, she said a balaclava would be a better choice because he rides. Okay, but I'm not sure I have enough yarn.

Used Easy Balaclava by Nanette Blanchard again.  I lengthened the neck portion by two inches as most people were noting that the neck was too short for most men.  Then I lengthened the top by an inch to make sure the top of the opening covered the forehead.  I had maybe 2 yards of yarn left after I finished the crown.

I kept the pattern for the Watchman's Hat because I think it is an excellent pattern for a male hat, which is long enough to fold for extra warmth around the ears.

This is part of the knitting that interrupted the knitting of the feather-n-fan afghan.

I hope everyone is having a good day.

Judy

rainbow feather and fan afghan

While planning my trip to Wichita, I wanted to take a big knitting project with me for after I finished the hooded sweater.  While playing around in Ravelry's pattern section I found Stitchylinda's Rainbow Feather and Fan Wavy Baby Blanket pattern.  Which is written for DK weight yarn.  I just happen to have had a bunch of oddball half-used skeins of DK weight yarn.  Some of the yarn I bought and some was given to me.  Yes!  Clean some more yarn out of that drawer!  Watched a Very Pink you-tube tutorial on how to do Feather-n-Fan stitch pattern.

I figured I had enough yarn for maybe a 48" by 48" baby blanket.  My sister saw it.  She said she really liked it.  What the hey, would make a great Christmas present for her.  I could replace that extra heavy crocheted afghan on her sofa and she would get a knitted afghan from me.  But I would have to go to the store and get some more yarn because I was pretty sure I didn't have enough to make my standard size 48" by 72" afghan/blanket.

Sister said she liked the variegated yarn I was using (upper edge of the photo), so when I went looking for more yarn that would blend in with what I had, I found some clown barf (Candy Baby).

I discovered after I had done all the swatching and had about 4 repeats done that I was using the wrong size needles.  The pattern calls for 4mm needles.  Guess what?  That's US size 6 needles.  Guess what size I was using?  US size 4 needles.  No wonder I needed 12 repeats wide to get to 48 inches.  4 rows of garter and 3 repeats (12 rows) of the feather-n-fan equaled 2 inches so I figured I needed 35 repeats of color plus the 2 white borders to equal about 72 inches.  That part turned out right!  Yeah!

I found that the way Stitchylinda had the rows labeled in the pattern confusing because you actually knit the feather-n-fan stitch pattern rows 4,1,2,3 and repeat that sequencing 3 times before knitting 4 rows of garter stitch.  That's so when you add new colors you get a neat add. 

I wasn't happy with the way the borders turned out, the garter stitch curl.  This is because I knit in acrylics and don't do hard blocking.  This is because they are 6 rows deep.  The outside rows probably need a few extra stitches in them so they would lie flat without any hard blocking.  Next time!

This project was interrupted several times for hats so it didn't get done until the first of February.  Sister was surprised when I gave it to her and said, "Merry Christmas!"  She thought she was just teasing me, I got the last laugh, though.

Next, on to the hats!  I hope everyone is having a good day.

Judy

a hooded cardigan

My sister was admiring my cabled afghan as I was knitting it.  She also liked my rose sweater. So I put the two together and I suggested I knit her a cabled sweater, with the yarn she had bought for a sweater she was going to knit for herself but had frogged it.  The yarn was Red Heart's Super Saver Coffee Fleck and Real Teal.  I used US #6 needles on a 48" cable with a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch.  Row count was 6 rows to the inch, also.

The sweater is Kate Gilbert's A Cardigan for Arwen, (was free, but I now see it no longer is) with a few modifications as I am wont to do.  The first mods were to make it longer and to increase the armhole size.  Then knitting it as one piece starting at the hem, dividing at the armholes.  I Kitchner stitched the shoulders together.  Because I didn't know if I had enough of the teal yarn to finish it the way I wanted to.  I slipped all the stitches for the hood onto a spare cable and picked up the stitches for the sleeves.  Using the magic Loop and knitting both sleeves at the same time I knit down to within four inches of the right sleeve length.  Slipped the live sleeve stitches off onto holding cables and picked up the hood again.

I bound off the stitches around the back of the neck to add some structure to the neckline.  Then picked them back up on the next row and followed the directions for the increases for the hood and stopping on row six of the reversible cable to Kitchner Stitch the hood closed.  I messed up the Kitchner Stitch on the hood by reversing which needle you purl off and knit off of.  This gave me the ridge you see in the photo.

To add the cuffs, I provisionally cast-on the stitches I needed.  When I got to the live stitches on the cable, I would slip the stitch off the cable and k2tog.  Turn and go back to the other end of the row until I got all the stitches off the cable.  I undid the provisional cast-on and Kitchner Stitched the two edges together.  I actually had yarn leftover, yeah!

We decided a zipper would be the best closure for the sweater so a trip to Joanne's was in order to pick up a separating zipper in a 26" length. I used this you-tube by Feride Erbasar to attach the zipper.  I like this method better than the one by Techknitter.  I got a much flatter, more secure zipper than the methodology from Techknitter.

So with this knitting project I learned to knit reversible cables and a sewn in hem.  The bonus was a different way to install a zipper.

I almost didn't get pictures because my sister wouldn't take it off.  I threatened to take the pictures with her wearing it so she gave it up long enough for the pictures.  LOL

I'm glad I finally finished it and it is keeping her warm as she goes through Chemo.

I hope everyone is having a good day.

Judy

sister suzy's new hat and mitts

Sister Suzy found a hat on Facebook that had a hole for her ponytail.  She asked me if I could make her a new stocking hat in Midwestern's school colors.  The school colors are Dark Blue, Dark Warm Gray, and Light Slightly Warm Gray.  Well, of course, I can!

What I found was Red Heart Soft in Navy Blue, Charcoal and Light Grey Heather.  I don't have any formal training in Color so I don't see any difference between Navy Blue and Dark Blue.  Nor did I see any difference in the color swatches for warm grays and cool grays.

The hat pattern was the Jogger's Cap by Karen Steward Longest I found of Raverly.  I used Size 6 needles, gauge was 5 stitches per inch and I cast on 96 stitches which makes a hat of 19 inches in circumference, for a 21 to 21-and-a-half inch head.  I have found two inches of negative ease is about right for our bowling ball heads.  I did a single-crocheted around the ponytail hole to reinforce the hole a little and to give it a finished look.

The mitts pattern was the Easy Fingerless Mitts by Maggie Smith I found of Raverly.  I love that site for patterns!  Sister Suzy's hand is 7.5 inches around at the knuckles so I cast on 36 stitches and made the top cuff a bit longer so the mitts cover more of her fingers, which she prefers.

I knit everything using the Magic Loop with the mitts two-at-a-time so they would come out the same length.  I started the project with a navy, light gray, and charcoal sequencing but the charcoal up against the navy really muddied the navy.  Talked with my sister about it and she was of the same opinion I was.  So I ripped it back and added a second strip of light gray, which brightened everything up.

Sister Suzy got to wear it a couple of times to class before it got too warm.  She said several really like the hat with the ponytail hole done in Midwestern's colors.  Yeah!  A success!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Judy

decisions...decisions

Decisions...decisions...I can't decide whether to use this in the backing or save it for another project.

These are all the scraps left over from making this quilt top.

The block I built with the scraps left over from the quilt top is 24" by 18".  I can't decide if I want to use the rest of the flocked material to built  the block out to 72" by 48" or use some other fabric to get it to the right size.  But, what fabric or fabrics would I use?  Would it look okay scrappy or do I want the fabric to blend in somehow with the block?  Nor do I want the backing to show through to the front.  So would the scrappy block be real obvious from the front if I used it?

I think I'm going to set the whole project aside and let it ferment until I get a bright idea.  I.e. when my Muse comes back for a visit and whispers an idea in my ear.

Think I will get busy on my sister's sweater I'm knitting for her.  I actually have the body knitted and I'm trying to pick up the right number of stitches for the sleeves.

I hope everybody is having a good day!


Judy

entrelac baby afghan/blanket

I knitted a baby afghan/blanket.  The goal was to get some yarn out of my stash.  The stash is 717 grams or 25.29 oz or about a pound-n-half lighter.  I wanted to use up all the Lion Brand Cupcake, not the greatest yarn in the world to work with.  The cut ends frayed A LOT as I noted in a previous blog post.  Another point of contention was the yarn was rated as worsted (4) and it was barely sport (3).  That was the weight of the yarns I used with the cupcake to get the same gauge.

I used one 6 oz skein of Red Heart Baby Sport (Crayon Print).  That was the variegated.  The rest was the Cupcake (Blueberry and Marshmallow) except for 5 maybe 10 yards of Michael’s Loops and Threads White Sport to get me back to the beginning of the round for the outside border of garter stitch.  I had about 18 inches leftover of the Cupcake Blueberry that I bound-off with left. Yeah!

 The blanket measured 52 inches square after washing and blocking.  A little bit bigger than I wanted/figured but not bad for a first project knitting a bias fabric. 

This is a close up of the border.  I knit the inside border of garter-stitch 3 time before I got something I liked.  What I did find out though was I had enough of the Cupcake to add an outer-border and bind-off so I guess the experiment in futility wasn't a total bust. ; >)  The Cupcake didn't like being ripped back that much either!

I re-knit the middle border twice.  I started with a 4 x 2 ribbing.  It was okay but nothing to write home about.  So I pulled out the diamond lace pattern for the Tappan Zee sweater and used that.  I got one and a half repeats before I ran out of yarn.  I had to redo the corners, as my idea about working the diamond lace pattern into the corners as I added stitches didn't work out so hot.  I ended up with solid corners.  I bet if I would get out graph paper and chart it, that it would have worked.  Sometimes I have trouble visualizing how to make it work.

While researching how to leave the stitches live when I finished the entrelac, I read a blurb/blurp that said you will need to increase your stitches by a factor of 1.3 to 1.4 to get the fabric to lay flat.  I had to increase by 1.4 to make gauge.  The big holes you see where I added the interior border was not intended.  I was slipping the first stitch so instead of binding-off the stitch I slipped it to the next needle and I think I should have knitted the first stitch when I turned the work to go back for that last row.  I will have to play with it to find out on the next entrelac project.

For a design-it-as-you-go project I think it turned out well.

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

learning something new

I learned something new while avoiding cleaning and rearranging the bedrooms.

Entrelac! 

I think I may have found what I want to do with this yarn. 

I started Frankie Brown's Ten Stitch Blanket but I couldn't get the corners square. I did stumble upon a you-tube tutorial from Very Pink Knits that explained what I was probably doing wrong with the corners. Of course, that was after I had given up, ripped it all out and moved on to another pattern.

The next pattern tried was Lion Brand's Mud Cloth Inspired Afghan.  This was an intarsia pattern with 50 bazillion little balls of yarn.  I got maybe the first section knitted before I gave up because ever few rows you had to stop and untangle all those little skeins of yarn so you could knit some more.  This yarn frays really bad so it was a real mess.  Maybe in a sturdier yarn.  And I have a quilt designed in the lay-out!

Then I thought about the Edith Shawl by Lion Brand as an afghan but realized I would be dealing with 12 skeins of yarn.  Less than the Mud Cloth afghan but still not what I wanted to get involved with. The other problem was the lace I was getting didn't look so hot.  Maybe a simpler lace pattern.

So I pulled out the lace pattern from my Tappan Zee sweater and started with that.  Knit one repeat in blue and one in white.  Nope, not what I wanted.  Because I was stacking one diamond repeat on top of another, I was creating a secondary diamond half blue-half white. Yuck!

Then I was searching Ravelry for things knitted with Lion Brand's Cupcake Yarn and found a couple of entrelac projects.  I liked what I saw and I have always wanted to learn how to knit entrelac.  So why not?  I would be knitting one color at a time.  Kewl! 

So I search for you-tube tutorials and found several.  The most helpful were the tutorials put up by iknitwithcatfur.
part 1  and   part 2.

I did use Eunny Jang's suggestion to slip the first stitch of the every row as it made picking up stitches a whole lot easier on the foundation row.  The other thing I noticed was everybody's cast-on row was too tight, including Eunny Jang's.  So I played around with a couple of ideas for stretchy cast-ons and decided on a provisional cast-on.  If I need to make the afghan bigger/longer I have a place to add equally when I run out of the cupcake yarn.  If not, I think Jeny's stretchy cast-off will give it equal stretch at both ends.

One other thing, to keep the fraying under control, I remembered what you do with nylon rope to keep it from unraveling.  You use a flame to melt the ends.  Guess what, it works!  Just don't shake the end to put out the flame or you have molten plastic sticking to your skin.  Blow out the flame and let it cool before touching.  We won't discuss how many times I did this before I remember to blow out the end.  Okay!

Well, I need to empty and move a dresser. : >(
Or I could just go knit some more. : >)

Y'all have a good day!

Judy

cabled wedding blanket - my version

This is my take of the Cabled Wedding Blanket.

The original pattern calls for super-bulky yarn.  What I wanted to use was worsted-weight Red Heart's Fleck in Oatmeal.  I already had the yarn in my stash as a partially done, crocheted afghan.  I had decided I would not finish it due to the strain on my hands from crocheting and the amount of yarn the afghan was sucking up.  I knitted this whole afghan (48" x 72") with about a skein leftover from about a 48" x 36" partially done crocheted one.

I decided on 12-inches of my favorite basket-weave pattern around the center panel.  Then I decided 5 cables in the 24" x 48" center would fill it nicely, 2 Celtic braids and 3 Aran braids on reverse stockinette.

I knitted it on a 40" US #6 circular needles. My gauge was 5.25 stitches/inch.  So needless to say I did a boat-load of swatching and research to get it to work.

One thing I learned was that cables pull in and you will have to add stitches to get it to lay flat without heavy blocking when going from one pattern to another.  I had to add 4 stitches/cable on the set-up row before beginning the cables.

I still got some rippling after washing the afghan as you can see in the picture above.  I didn't dry it in a dryer so I don't know if it would have dried tighter or not. (Laundromat dryers are notoriously hot!)  Nor did I block it very hard.

The basket weave pattern I used is:
Row 1:  Knit
Row 2, 4 & 6: K6, P4
Row 3 & 5:  K4, P6
Row 7:  Knit
Row 8, 10, & 12:  P5, K6, *P4, K6*, to last 9 stitches then P4, K5
Row 9 & 11:  P5, K4, *P6, K4*, to last 11stitches then P6, K5

I cast on 250 stitches and did seven-n-half repeats to get my 12-inches of basket-weave.

I built myself a chart in Microsoft Excel for the center panel.

I highlighted the two spots I kept screwing up the crossovers.  It is a pain to un-knit that part of the cable and re-knit it up to get the crossing right when you notice you screwed-up several rows down.  And, I did it a time or two even after I highlighted it!  Shesh!!!

When you get to the last row of the center panel and are decreasing it helps to decrease the same amount that you increased!  LOL  I had to rip back the last row of the center panel twice until I figured out what I was doing wrong!

So there you have it!  I saw a concept on Ravelry that I liked and made it my own.  It only took me 3 years to finish it!  And no, my dearest sister I am not going to send it to you!  You have to knit your own.

I hope everyone is having a good day!

Judy

rose sweater

I finished my rose sweater that I have been working on since mumble-mumble.  I've posted about it off and on over the last 18 months.  The design was a hybrid between a Cuff to Cuff Sweater from the redheart.com web site and the lace pattern off the bottom of a cowl called the Cosy Neck Warmer that I had played around with trying to make into a shawl.  It would have worked too, except for keeping the back of my arms warm.

I haven't washed or blocked the sweater yet so the lace's points are curled a little and bunched.  The original sweater pattern was for a short-sleeved wrap sweater with the seed stitch going all the way down the front and around the hem.  Well, for me, if I'm going to wear a sweater I want one with long sleeves because the backs of my arms are cold.  And since I have no waist tying anything around my waist looks stupid!  I, also, need more fabric in the front of my garments because of the boobs and belly.  Time to make some design changes!

I wanted a shawl collar so I did some research and figured out how to do some short rows to give the sweater the extra fabric in the collar area. 

The pattern was easy to up-size to my dimensions, however because I wanted a zipper closure I had to pick back about three inches of knitting around the collar and front because the sweater was just too big. 

I re-knitted about a 5 inch square on both sides of the front because I decided I didn't want the seed stitch to come as far down on the front of the sweater as I originally thought. I am hoping when I wash and block it the re-knitted part will blend into the rest of the sweater, as it is noticeable right now.

One of the things I read about knitting kimono style sweaters was the side seams tend to be uneven because of the difference between cast-on edges and bind-off edges.  So I did provisional cast-ons and then the Kitchener Stitch to sew the edges together.  I also did a provisional cast-on for the first sleeve where the pattern tells you to begin because I didn't know how long or wide or how I wanted my sleeves to be finished.

Another decision was whether or not to use the seed stitch all the way down the sleeve.  I think it would look just as good with the seed stitch stopping an inch below the shoulder line.  I debated on using the lace pattern around the cuffs but couldn't figure out how to knit the pattern in the round.  I think that would have looked nice too.

When I got around to inserting the zipper I used Techknitter's technique of making live stitches on the zipper itself.  As you can see one side is installed closer to the zipper's teeth than the other side.  One of the thing I didn't read was how far away you should stay from the zipper teeth.  So the first side I picked up stitches on the outside third of the tape and thought that was too far away (exposing too much tape).  So on the second side I went in to about to about two-thirds of the tape width and liked it much better.  If I ever insert a zipper into another sweater I will get even closer to the zipper.  I used the Kitchener Stitch to attach the sweater to the zipper and then, used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off around the collar.

Oh, and, if you are in Phoenix go to SAS fabric stores that zipper cost me a dollar and you can sometimes buy fabric by the pound!

All and all, I like the fit and I think the sweater will keep me warm as I head back to Kansas for Sister Suzy's graduation.

I hope everybody is having a good day!

Judy