Category: Knitting

Sewing Up

 
This is one of those knitting tasks that most people hate, as evidenced by the growing popularity of top-down, knit-all-in-one-piece sweater patterns out there. No finishing! No seams!
Where's the fun in THAT, I ask? Hand sewing seams is one of those things that is easy to do once you learn to do it properly. It also provides some structure to your sweater, especially if it is knit in a heavy wool yarn. And if you have the right tools, it's a snap. Those clip things do wonders to get things lined up and hold it all together while you are sewing. The brand name of these is Knit Klips, by Susan Bates, you can find them in many knitting and craft shops.
Here's my favorite book for instructions as to how to do a variety of seams.
 
 
The other handy tool is a perfect sewing needle.
 

Mine is a sterling silver handmade needle from Celtic Swan.
It's hard to get a good photo of that, here's another one.

 
And yes, since you are wondering, I do have a couple sets of the sock needles in silver as well. I covet everything in her shop. And she is local, from nearby Lopez Island.
Back to sewing!

 

John’s Old Friend Sweater

I have been working away at this one for a long time. You wouldn’t think a plain stocking stitch heavy worsted sweater would take so long. I finally finished all the knitting today. Here it is (minus one sleeve-not enough clips!)

Now it goes into the washing machine for a soak, then blocking, then sewing together. I think my old friend will look dashing in his Old Friend!

 

Because I Can

Or,

Pink And Sparkly!

I've been trolling around online yarn shops again. I almost caved once or twice in the past week. It's been a bit of a stressful week or two at work, which I'm sure is part of the trigger for retail therapy.

Fortunately, next week I hit the nine month mark without buying yarn, so I stepped away from the computer. Instead, I trolled around Ravelry and found a nice new shawlette pattern. After a false start or two, I found the perfect yarn in my stash to match.

 

The pattern is Heaven and Space, by Martini Behm. It calls for sport weight yarn, and this is a bit finer than that, but it's all good. It will just be a bit more scarf-like.

And yes, I'm supposed to be studying instead of knitting (or drooling over yarn online). You know what they say about all work and no play.

 

528

Color Affection is becoming the bane of my existence. Don’t get me wrong, this is going to be a shawl I will love once it is done. But I’ve been plotting ever more interesting ways to destroy it for the past few weeks. I was even a teeny bit joyful when Will the cat tried to make a bed out of it earlier today.

Here’s where I am.

FullSizeRender

I’m finally on the border. At least while I was doing those three-color stripes I had the fleeting second of “interesting” when I did the short row turning bit on every row.

“Oh, look! The short row sections are getting longer!”

Now I’m just knitting the red border, in boring red garter stitch. It’s a very pretty red. But I currently have 528 stitches on the needles, and a couple of repeats of the four row pattern to go. And every repeat adds another 10 stitches to that total. I thought seriously about stopping and just binding off now, but this is going to be huge, and that puny one inch border stripe will look stupid.

I just checked. As of right now, there are 12,600 Color Affections listed on Ravelry. Only 9345 of those have been finished. The rest are “in progress” (a euphemism for “I’m bored out of my mind here”), “hibernating” (a euphemism for “I hate this but can’t bring myself to frog it”), or “frogged”. Those last brave souls were at least honest in their boredom.

I have a couple other three-color combos in my stash that would make nice Color Affections. If any of you see any hint that I am rummaging through the yarn boxes to put together another one, please come over here and give me a nice head slap.

I’m thinking a TV marathon. Anybody have any good suggestions for mindless TV shows? If so, let me know.

And no, I haven’t forgotten that after I knit another eleventy billion stitches, I’ll have to bind the whole thing off.

Please send whisky.

* In case you are wondering about France, and don’t follow me on Facebook, we had a terrific time. John is blogging it so I’ll let him do that. Here is his first post.

Red!

We've been on vacation this week! We rented a house in Seabrook on the Washington coast, and the kids and grandkids joined us here for a week of last-of-the-summer fun. They're all here till Saturday, though I have to work this weekend so I'm headed home tomorrow.

We've had good food, lots of fun and games, and beach fun. Lewey just loves beach fun. He also loves sleeping.

And of course there has been knitting.

Everything I brought with me seems to be red.

What all is in that pile?

There is a pair of socks.

That is the sweater I started a few weeks ago. I'd be farther along if I hadn't screwed up and had to rip back about 3 inches.

There is Color Affection!

Last but not least, some spinning. This is a wool-silk blend that I have been working on forever. I think there were about 8 ounces of this in batt form, I have a few ounces left to spin.

I head home tomorrow, then “get” to spend the weekend working in the hospital. But it's my last few hospital shifts for the near future, I'll be 100% clinic based from now on, which is a good change for me.

I'm off to do some of that knitting!

 

Verrrryyy Interesting!

This new sweater has a very interesting construction. So far it doesn’t look much like a sweater.

Here’s a photo:

yoke

It’s just a big rectangle so far. Here’s another photo to show you how it’s put together.

yoke1

That faint line down the middle shows where the original cast on starts. The stitches on the needles are the back and sleeves, just started. The top of the photo is the ribbing at the back and sides of the neck.

So you cast on along that line using a provisional cast on, then knit the right neckband and upper yoke, then put those stitches on a holder. Then you undo the provisional cast on and knit the other half of the neckband in the other direction. At some point you get to add in the front sections, though I can’t see it just yet. This is one of those patterns where you just have to have faith that it’s going to turn into a sweater someday.

I’m also doing some dyeing this weekend for the first time in a long time. No photos yet, but yesterday I prepped some yarn with an alum mordant. The dye pot is full of onion skins that I have saved up for months. The yarn is about to go in. I’ll show photos when it’s out and dry!

Swatch

Sweater knitting requires careful swatching for gauge planning. Every single time that I skimp on this step or skip important parts, I end up ripping out four inches of sweater because it's either going to be too small or huge.

I knit a not-huge swatch, but big enough that I can get a good four inches of width to measure my average gauge. Remember, the gauge gods will lie to you and try to get you to talk yourself into mistakes.

“Oh, sure, I'll just knit for an inch or so, squint sideways, and it will work. If I just scrunch it together a bit, I can make that look like 22 stitches in 4 inches!”

Rip. Rip. Rip.

So here's my gauge swatch for my new sweater, unwashed and unblocked, with four inches marked off by the pins. 24 stitches. Drat.

 

But let's wash it and see what happens. Do this just like you would wash and block the real thing once it's done. Let it dry before you measure again (you're not going to wear it wet, are you?). Here you go.

 

22 stitches per inch. Just what the pattern calls for. Perfect. Even the row gauge matches up on this one.

As a reminder to myself, this swatch was knit with 3.5mm/US 4 needles.

 

Because I Can

Honest, I have been working on that big heavy wooly square sweater. But there is only so much heavy wool knitting I can handle in July. What's a knitter to do?

Of course, cast on something new! OK, I didn't really cast on, that's just the beginnings of a gauge swatch, but it counts.

It will be this eventually:

 

Doesn't that look like a wardrobe essential? The yarn is some ancient Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool from deep stash, in a lovely claret color.

In other news, I passed another Cold Sheep landmark on Monday.

120 days without buying ANY yarn!

I'm off to knit a few rows before my lunch break is over!

 

Sleeve Island

Next modification to the pattern. For some reason, the sleeves on this sweater use a rolled stockinette edging, which doesn’t make sense, since the body edging is ribbed. I hate rolled edges anyway, so I dragged out this old post with my mini-tutorial for a tubular cast on.

Please send me a rum drink. I have at least a gazillion miles of plain stocking stitch left. Cocktail umbrella optional.

Old Friend Sweater

Isn’t this what everybody does when the outside temperature threatens to hit the low 90’s? Whatever, it’s only 68 here so far this morning, so if I want to knit a heavy wool sweater, that’s what I’ll do.

I finished the front piece this morning. (The back is under the front in that photo.) I’m sure you’ve all forgotten what this is, but it’s Peace Fleece wool, pattern is Old Friend, which is basically a boxy shapeless square sweater. My modifications so far have been to use a tubular cast on for the ribbing, and I did short row shaping for the shoulders.

On to the sleeves. We’ll see how far I get today before I pass out from wool fumes and the heat.

And yes, this is yet another project that will be for John. If it seems like he’s getting a lot of knitting love lately, he deserves it. This is also on the agenda today.

Baby back ribs, done as only a good southern boy does them. They are being prepped with a dry rub, then they will get a long cooking in the smoker.

*And no, I have no idea why there are boxes of nuts and bolts on my dining room table. Who knows.

 

Blue Socks!

Finished!

Project Details:

Pattern: My own sock pattern. Cuff down, picot top, flap and gusset heel. Knit on 72 stitches aroundYarn: Flying Sock 100% BFL wool, Deep Ocean. Really nice “cushy” yarn.Needles: 2.00 mm Knitters Pride double points.Started: October 16, 2013Finished: July 10th, 2014For: Supposed to be for me, ergo the picot tops. They are a little big on me, so we’re negotiating. John may get them.

What I Learned: They’re just socks. I still love plain vanilla socks.

And that’s the yarn I had left.

The Oldest Living Knitting Project Known To Man!

AKA,

Dog Mittens!

And here they are!

_MG_6113

_MG_6114

_MG_6115

_MG_6116

_MG_6118

Project Details:

Pattern: Dog Mittens by Jorid Linvik
Yarn: Rauma Finullgarn, 1 skein dark navy, and 1 skein cream. Very nice yarn for stranded knitting. It’s not the smoothest shiniest stuff on the block, but it sticks together nicely, colors don’t bleed, and it blocks beautifully. This is where I got it, I think. There are many fine colors to choose from. It’s not the least expensive yarn of this type you can buy, but it’s great quality. The yarn was consistent, there wasn’t a single knot or thin spot. It’s firmly enough spun that I don’t think pilling will be much of a problem.
Needles: 2.75 mm KnitPicks double points
Started: December 5, 2008
Finished: July 4th, 2014
For: John!

What I Learned: It really shouldn’t take so long to knit a pair of mittens. These were a heap of fun to knit, and once I loaded the charts into Knit Companion, it was a lot easier to keep track of where I was. I learned that it makes a difference which hand you hold which color in two color knitting. I also learned gradually to keep my “floats” in the back looser so things don’t get bunched up. I also found out that if it takes you nearly six years to knit a stinking pair of mittens, your gauge is likely going to change from one mitten to the next one. Blocking fixed that just fine.

Verdict: I love them, John loves them. They are already stashed in his drawer, ready for the next cold spell.*

*Winter is Coming–