Sweater!

So, that Baby Surprise Jacket I knitted a couple months ago was supposed to be for William, but it turned out too small. He was so disappointed, so I promised him a sweater (in a yellow shade - his favorite color!) that actually fits him. Here's the end product:

Here are the deets:

Pattern: One for the Whole Clan Aran Sweater

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Gold (I ordered 7 balls and used 6 I think)

Needles: US 5 and 7

The only real modifications I made were to reverse the cables so they twist away from each other (the pattern had the same cable on each side) and I made the sleeves longer to try to make it fit him for a longer period of time. (Boy, he's growing like a weed!!) I worked both sleeves at the same time on a long circular needle.

It's a very nice pattern - not too complicated, but interesting enough that you don't get bored. The child size is also an easy sweater construction - just straight sides on the front and back, no shaping on the body at all. (I guess I should mention that the pattern is sized for children and adults - the adult sized sweater has more complicated cables, and is more fitted in the armhole shaping.) I did a three needle bind off for the shoulder seams, with live stitches, and I worked the neckband similarly - instead of binding off and tacking down, I picked up stitches on the inside and worked the bind off at the same time. I was worried the neck might be too tight, but it actually turned out quite stretchy - I made sure to work my bind off loosely- so I was pleased. Oh, and another modification I made was to work a purl row at the neckband turning point, to aid in the neckband laying flat.

He loves his sweater, and has worn it several times already. I'm happy with the yarn choice - it is machine washable, and the cables really stand out nicely. My only complaint is that it seems to pill easily. But overall, it think it was a success!! William certainly thinks so! :-)

My Wrapigan is done!!

Here is my finished Wrapigan!!

Details:

Pattern: The Wrapigan by Champagne Maker

Needles: size US 7

Yarn: Joseph Galler Prime Alpaca (3 skeins) in color 'Musk'

Started: January 6, 2009
Finished: February 6, 2009

I made several modifications to the pattern, the major one being the cable down the sleeve. I didn't like the twist cable, so I revamped it to be a braided cable. I'll give detailed notes on that in a second. Some other modifications were to shorten the fringe, eliminate the sleeve tabs, make the cuff ribbing longer, and use waste yarn to work the armholes. I'll go over each modification in detail.

First, the waste yarn method of working the armholes. Instead of binding off the stitches and then casting on stitches in the next row, to create the armhole, I knit the armhole stitches onto a piece of waste yarn. I *thought* this was a good idea at the time, but it *wasn't*. The resulting fabric in this pattern is a very loose and drapey fabric. Because of that, the armhole really needs the support from bound off stitches in order to not stretch too much. So I would very much recommend following the pattern on that one.

Here's what I did to fix the problem. I wound up with way too much stretch at the armhole as seen here:

What I did was to crochet 2 reinforcement rows along the armhole seam on the inside of the garment. Here is a link to a Yarn Harlot blog post about the method. This is what it ended up looking like on the inside and the outside:

Quite a difference, huh? I really wish I hadn't had to do it in the first place though, but oh well.

For the fringe, I did 8 strands of 12 inches for each tassel instead of the pattern instructions (I can't remember the exact pattern instructions, but it was something like 10 strands of 20 inches or something like that.)

The braided cable in place of the twisted cable took a little tweaking. Here's what I did:

Braided Cable: worked over 18 sts.

Cable cross 1: slip 6 sts onto cable needle, hold to front,
work 6 sts, then the 6 sts off cable needle, work last 6 sts.

Cable cross 2: knit 6 sts, put next 6 sts on cable needle
and hold to back, work 6 sts, then work 6 sts off cable needle.

Starting on Row 13 of pattern: Sl1pw, K15, pm, C18, pm,K14, pu & knit 2.
(50sts)

Following pattern for sleeve shaping, alternate between cable cross 1
and cable cross 2 on rows 13,21,29,37,4,12,20,28,36,44,52,60,68,76,84,92,100 -
keeping all other shaping in pattern the same.

And here's what the sleeve looks like close up:

Then I eliminated the sleeve tabs and decreased for the cuff by working the following rows:
My last cable twist was on Row 100 of sleeve. I knit plain to row 104, then on Row 105 I did as follows: Knit to marker, (Sl1, K2tog, psso) 6x, knit to end. I then knit plain rows for 3 more rows (106-108). I proceeded with the K1,P1 rib for the cuff - over 72 sts instead of the 66. (Eliminating the Bow on the cuff.) I knitted a total of 20 rows of K1, P1.

That's it! It took me a month of mostly dedicated knitting (with a couple of breaks here and there to break up the tedium!). I'm very pleased with the finished product - now I just need to figure out how best to wear it!!

Smoke Ring

My mother saw my smoke ring at Thanksgiving, and wanted me to make her one. She picked out the yarn and bought it, and I knit it up for her. She loves it! (yeah!)

Pattern: Wavy Feathers Wimple
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas - Alpaca and Silk in Flax color.
(I used about 1.8 skeins)
Needles: US 5

Took me about a week to knit this up. The lace blocks just beautifully.

No mods to the pattern - I followed it pretty much to the letter. It's a very nice item to knit on - the yarn is lovely to work with, the pattern isn't too complex, and it goes pretty quickly. To top it off, when you're done you have this very useful item - it's so soft, and it keeps you toasty warm without the bulk of a scarf.

A Year in Review

Here is my 2008 Knitting in Review:



Enjoy!