knitless ...

This picture was taken on 27^th of October at our Knatter nite .. I meant to get this photo and a blog post up titled "Knitless since Tuesday", but it just didn't happen .. spending the next 2 days after this as a lump on the couch sick is reason enough .. I just didn't have the energy or inclination to hunt down a sweater that I wanted to do.

BUT

You knew there was a but .. heh .. I found one :D **knitterhappydance. And it is just wayyy to cute for words .. NOW .. I wasn't sure if I would use the purple still or try the cardinal red I have .. but I really do have that earmarked for a different project (I'll tell you about that one when I actually get to making it .. )

I found the Bobble-Edged Cardigan, a free pattern at unicornbooks.com. What I really like about this is that it's got texture, but a LOT of stocking stitch .. I've never done bobbles before so I really intrigued by it .. and of course the pattern ... what's rather unique about this is that it doesn't have traditional ribbing ... it uses bobbles for the ribbing .. how cool is THAT!

I've named this Bobble Cardi (ravelry project page) - for now .. until I can get more inventive with a name. The instructions are pretty straight forward - altho I did manage to have to frog it when I was at the 17^th row .. yeah i know .. you are NOT surprised ... What I had done, (even tho I made notes) reversed left front and right front on the chart .. I'm doing this pattern pretty much as written. Notice I said .. pretty much as written .. the one difference i'm doing here is that I'm doing the fronts and back as one-piece .. (no pics yet) and I'm doing the size 38 instead of the 40 since the last one I did was a 40. I still have the zipper that matches this yarn and I just might do a double bobble front ribbing instead of 1 row button band - the juries still out for now as I'm going to wait and see just how this fits me.

Gauge is "18 sts and 26 rows = 4" in st st using larger needles",larger needles being size 7. Well when I used the 7s for my swatch,I was like ½" smaller - so .. gauge for this yarn is same rows and stitches on size 8s .. and I tend to knit to gauge .. so I listened to my gut and we'll just have to see how right it is .. course I AM leaving wriggle room with the 'button' band :D

I just started the chart again and have hilighted my notes and specific points to remember lol .. I think that this one is going to work out .. I swear if I doesn't .. I'm going to trade off, throw out, sell, or burn this yarn!!

... crying ...

One of these days, I'm going to listen to my gut! I had a bad feeling about using the 10s with that pattern! I knit to gauge for one .. my swatch using 8s or 9s came out a ½" to small on the swatch .. BUT, the swatch was on stockinette stitch - NOT the cable pattern .. and I've been knitting long enough to know better that when you use a cable pattern, you should actually use smaller needles as it does create a LOT of give to the pattern .. bloody hell .. sigh

I KNEW it was going to be big on me .. but thought it would be okay if I could get the right collar on it .. but when I got the front ribbing for the zipper on it .. I decided there's NO way in hell this is going to work .. the length is good (my math coming into play here), the sleeve length is good .. it's not to bad across the back .. but the armpits are large enough to fit my family in, and the front .. oi vay! Plus the width of the front .. crap!!!

So I'm frogging it .. at this time, I've 3 of 5 pieces frogged .. took me over ½ the day to find all my seams and take it apart .. wowsers but do I do a mean seam! On this one piece that I'm working to unravel .. the knot is in there pretty good .. so I might have to give up and do some snipping to free my yarn from it's current hostage situation ..

I've a few other sweaters that I can do in it's place .. there's this absolutely darling one that I'm looking at .. my friend wants one of this lady's patterns and we are going to see if she'll do a deal of sorts for 2 patterns .. if so I'm going to do Katje - this is going to knit up so quick it's not funny! stocking stitch and seed stitch!! w00t w00t I could be wearing this in no time at all since it's seamless :D .. waiting to see what the designer has to say ..

But there's no super rush as hallowe'en is coming and I'm doing a friends costume as well as my own .. thank God for straight seams! LOL .. the worst is cutting it out! He's going to be Obi Wan Kenobi and i'm looking at padme amidala - raiding closets for mine :D

Anywho .. the Hoodie or Not is officially - NOT and 75% frogged at this point and time.

Knit 1 Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 2 ** repeat ...

For almost ½ a year this sweater sat abandoned and neglected in my knitting bag and partially on my end table .. the cats didn't mind it as they had some soft yarn to kick around .. but i've hit overdrive with this in the past few months ... I'm sitting here trying to think of the time line and I'm pretty sure it was when I started the 10 - 7 shift over 2 months ago .. roughly .. so maybe mid august is when I actually picked this up again .. now at that time I only knitted a few rows once a week for our knatter .. but lately (you know it's getting colder here right?), I've been kicking it into gear so I can wear this at work :D .. I'm guessing (if and when I can actually get the time to work on it), that I've maybe a week of work left on it .. 3 if you include the math and me trying to avoid DOING said math :D heh

I brought my camera to knatter last week and had Helene take a pic of me front and back so I can show off what I've done so far .. I'm pretty pleased with it .. altho the shallow shoulders forced me to be creative with the collar now .. I wasn't going to do the hoodie that is with the pattern as there just isn't going to be enough yarn .. or there "MIGHT" be, but excuse me if I decided to chicken out on that experiment ..

I was going to use a taller standing collar to keep the back of my neck warm, but with how shallow the shoulders are, I thought that would look super funky .. so I'm doing a variation of a double folded shawl collar (or maybe a single .. depends on yarnage), I've already got the zipper and will be doing short ribbing for the edge as that follows the existing ribbing .. granted I could get away with even less as I do swim in this .. and I knit to gauge .. I KNEW I should have used 9s instead of 10s for this project .. ** sigh

I had almost reached this point when I found this pattern on Bernat .. I just about dropped a litter of kittens .. talk about exactly what I wanted .. WITHOUT the mental gymnastics with all that stoopid math .. ah well .. what can you do .. and I did look on Bernat when I was hunting for this pattern .. but hopefully I'll have this done in just over a week! I picked up the stitches the other nite and plan to do the ribbing, THEN battle the collar :D

striving for ... balance ....

It's an amusing concept .. really it is .. what makes it so amusing?? Well dictionary.com states that balance:

–noun
1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.
3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.
24. to serve as a counterpoise to; counterbalance; offset: The advantages more than balance the disadvantages.

Well there's more, but these suit my purpose just fine - striving for balance in my life. When i had the that (*&#$)(*#$ 2 - 11 shift, i had NO life whatsoever - all i did was sleep and work .. and eat. With the next shift, I did MUCH better .. that one was 10am - 7pm - kind of a blechy shift - but compared to the previous one .. it was nirvana!! I got to see my family and see my friends ... During that shift we started to do knatter again ... once a week, we would get together; drink starbucks, knit or whatever hand project of choice we wanted to work on :D.

I finished my kitty quilt at knatter and it's even been washed too! my idea of raw edging the appliquilted parts worked like a charm .. they could fray a wee bit more to suit me, but it's still fantabulous! No pics of it yet .. but soon .. and imitating a lump on the couch under it just perfect! It was great to get this 10 year plotted and planned quilt done and usable!!

I was mid-way thru my sleeves for my "Purple Hoodie or Not", and in the the past 2 months, with mostly working on this once a week - I am now stitching the seams together! Even bought the zipper for it .. All I have left to do is the sleeve and side seams on both sides .. and it's got some serious heft to it .. boy is this gonna be nice and toasty warm! I'm guessing with Reg being gone for 3 weeks farm sitting, I'm going to have a load of time to watch NCIS and get this done :D

I'm going to use the red I have in this yarn for my next sweater .. I just LOVE what I've picked out ... but it might be a serious challenge and a half based on comments I've read .. but again .. I'm not one to NOT do something b/c it gives ppl issues .. heh . .if anything that's a goad for me to actually do it .. and this in red is going to be just so awesome! - Check it out .. Pasandra - Berroco.com Knits. I want to read it over before i jump in and see what all the fuss is about .. it's gorgeous and it'll be GREAT for work!!

heh .. my new shift which I've only been doing a week is 8 - 5 - sunday mondays off again .. which was my second choice .. but getting up at 6:30am is an adventure and a half LOL ~ but, the 7:30am wake up time got easier and easier for me .. right about now I need a sleep-deprived coma to help me along ... I might just do that on Sunday :D

Pic of Mock Up

As promised, here's a pic of the mocked up and basted hoodie sans sleeves. I had pics taken of the front too, but the edges were curled and just didn't look good at all! It was hard to get an idea of what it actually looked like with the edges curling like they are - I figured that would happen - only cure would have been to do a loose baste of the edges and draw them together like the old style hockey shirt necks. I figured I would pass .. afterall, this isn't the final piece - the purpose of doing the saddles was to work out how this was going to hang and how long my sleeves needed to be.

You can see how big this is going to be on me too ... i really could have done the small size, but I am NOT going to rip it apart now. The good side is that I can wear this over heavier shirts and I won't look like a stuff sausage :D Altho, I'm sure that the stitches will relax after the first two washings and it'll look bigger .. Let's hope not! Now I can start on the sleeves .. AFTER i get my quilting done on my Michigan Left quilt ;) If you're interested you can read about here in this post on my quilt blog ;)

Mock up Update

Just a quick update on my progress on the shoulder mocks - I finally got them done enough tonite to hold them with provision yarn off the needles (I plan on frogging these and using the yarn for the sweater), and do a quick baste of the pieces I have ..

This is going to be a roomy hoodie .. I prolly could have done the small and it would have still fitted fine .. it's roomy without the ribbing being attached to the front ... but I'm not going to complain ;) I'll be doing the short sleeve length for these - 19½" at the same time on circs .. that way I can make sure what i do for one I do for the other .. Then the hood, putting it all together then the ribbing all the way around .. I'll have to decide on whether I'll be using a zipper for this or buttons .. I'm thinking zipper would be a more finished look to what I have in my mind - but buttons would be easier .. but me do the easy thing?? ROLFLMBO!!!!!!! yeah right ;)

Anywho - I'll post a pic tomorrow after Ky gets home from school - i'll have him take the picture

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Shoulder Mocks

I did decide to do the shoulder saddle mock up - granted it's not going as quick as I would have liked, but I was rather dragging yesterday and I also finished (well tried to finish) a quilt top that was speaking (read - yelling) at me - so I'm not as far on this as I would like to be - I really am hoping that I'll get this finished in time to actually WEAR it this year LOL - this winter / spring actually.

I do think that once I get moving on this again, I'll fly. We were supposed to meet tonite to knit, but one lady canceled and the other forgot her knitting at home (which is totally on the other side of town - poor thing!!), so we are going to reschedule for this Saturday maybe ;)

What I'm doing is lining up my bind-offs on the mock and back to get correct rows needed etc .. I tripped over this dropped stitch when I used the front instead .. OI VAY!!!

I guess the plan here is to use a crochet hook to get the stitch back into the garment, and the bury it .. I'll be looking on line for just how to fix this, I've already bound off and I'm NOT about to unbind it just to pick up one bloody stitch .. This is in the same place where I had ripped back to - poor thing just happened to get missed is all .. Suggestions anyone? I've not fixed this sort of problem before - I guess this is definitely a learning experience for me LOL

Ah well back at it .. I should have the mocks done soon enough then will baste everything together and THEN get my accurate sleeve length .. If I followed the instructions there, I would have a sweater for a gorilla (!!) I think not!

Least I can't say I'm bored ;)

Front and Center

Success!! It's a wonderful thing. Granted there were a few tense moments while I was putting the front sections back on the needles after ripping out 6 rows last nite - then getting all confused as my stitches weren't matching directions OR stitch.

I ended up having to drop several stitches near the end of the right panel (least I think it was the right one) to put the stitches back as knits or purls and then to follow the pattern. That took me a few hours and the language was 'interesting and highly inventive' to say the least.

Now the fun part begins .. this has a shoulder saddle and that means 'normal' arm length doesn't quite work .. i know I do not want my sleeves as long as they are in the pattern - near as I can figure (based on my stitch gauge), the 'saddle' part is actually 7½" long. So I'm trying to guesstimate where the neck actually lies on this (sans neck ribbing)

I did just have a thought here .. I could start from the neck and do it reverse - long as I do the same thing each row, I should be fine .. the first 7½" is over 30 stitches and that is going to work up quickly - from what I can remember (off the top of my head) I think that it's roughly 25 - 30 rows too .. that should work up in no time - I think I rather like that idea .. altho working the pattern backwards is going to send me .. oh wait .. that's just not going to work .. i'll not be sure what row the cable pattern will end on and it'll look hinky from the rest of sweater .. while that might not work, I could do that to do a mock up of the saddle itself and then baste it together and see just how long I really do want these sleeves based on the hang of the sweater itself :D :D :D I think that just might work - I rather like that idea .. T, what you think???

Like with the fronts, I'll be doing the sleeves at the same time - 2 skeins of yarn and on circs - it'll be a lot of hold up and measure as this gets close to 18 - 19 inches. I'm meeting with some friends on Thursday and maybe they can help me as it's hard to direct someone that's never knitted before where to put a tape measure (not that you can see it for the most part either) so maybe I'll have them measure me - Then again, I may be past that part and actually doing the hoodie itself or the ribbing around ... we'll just have to see ;)

Aw Crap!!

I've been working sort of diligently at getting the front panels done for my hoodie or not .. and doing a pretty good job of it too if I should say so myself .. now I didn't work non-stop for the past few days, but I did a bit here and there .. worked on it friday and tonite and 'thought' I was all set to go ..

As I was working the front panels I was worried about getting confused on the decreases when I need to do the neck and shoulder saddle bind offs at the same time .. now I didn't mess that up - but if you look near the top here, you can see that I started my shoulder bind off to soon- the part that got me was here ..

Dec 1 st at neck edge [every row] 3 (4, 5, 5, 6) times. (28, 32, 34, 37, 41 shoulder sts rem)
At the same time, when front armhole length matches back, work shoulder shaping as for back.

When I looked back over my notes, I saw I had written "8 rows in pattern" ... well where I was at was actually 10 rows in so I started to do the shoulder shaping then .. I had already done 3 rows of neck decreases, so I just started to do it then .. Well then I ended up with it being about 4" short after I bound off .. I should have laid them out together like I did here before I started the bind off.

I should have known because I was at 5 full cable sets before I did the shoulder shaping for the back and I was only 10 rows into the 4^th set.

I basted the sections together just to get an idea of the size and it's going to be longer than I wanted because I wasn't aware at the time of the should saddle being roughly 6" wide - this will teach me to read ahead - you think??? bah ..

Ah well - at this point I'm going to try and do the needle trick at the row where I started the decreases (yes I did make note of that) and go forward from there .. I'm really hoping that I can get it correctly thru the cable pattern, but I'm pretty sure that there wasn't an actual cable twist there so that makes my life a whole hell of a lot easier ..

Wish me luck ;)

Slow progress

I've not gotten as far as on this as I would like to be at this point. My hope / plan was to get to the armhold shaping last nite (2 cablesets + 9 rows), but I'm only at row 9 of the 2^nd cable set.

As you can see I've gotten around the 'blue' look of this yarn using a flash .. I just take it at an angle and have the flash skitter over it instead smack into it .. works for me ;)

I've been doing a quilt as well as this, so that sort of explains my lack of progress - as well as getting uniforms folded and reg's shirts pressed for the games etc .. basketball season is coming to playoffs for them and things are seriously heating up .. he's going at nite to scout out the games of his biggest competitors for the play offs :) Gotta love it ..

But if you are interested in seeing what's been eating up my time you can check out these posts on my quilt blog

2 Sections of 3

3 Sections Ready

1800s as ONE

Tonight's quilt work could have restarted the Civil War it was so trying for me .. but the 'hard' part is hopefully done for this quilt and I am so glad that to have that out of the way for now ...

At this point, I just want to have a some coffee and maybe done some list and blog reading, then see what's on tv (hopefully some good reruns) and knit - hopefully I'll get to the armholes tonite .. we'll have to see, I'm feeling pretty drained after the battle with my 1800s quilt

To the Front!!

One of my cmas gifts was the Full Indian Jones Series, and with Reg not having to get up at 6am or work all nite due to lack of snow, we've been watching them. We watched The Last Crusade and I took advantage of that time to do start the front of my "Or Not" Hoodie. This was supposed to be a pullover, but I converted it to a full zippered front cardi.

The math was actually fairly easy on this one. The placket required 10 sts in the middle and I subtracted 10 from the cast on amount then divided that by 2 for each side. I wrote down each row in the pattern for armhold shaping etc, and will follow that where needed on the front. I figured that I would work both sides at the same time to ensure that I'm decreasing, shaping etc in the same exact spot. Figure that this will take the same amount of time as to do the full front.

I've not really done enough of the pattern yet for it to really show yet, but here's a closer shot of the left side (well right when wearing it) These pics were taken to late to take advantage of the daylight so I had to mess with them in photoshop. I've no clue why this particular purple shows up as blue with the camera flash, but it drives me nuts!

I'll be working on this again tonite and will hopefully get more done than I did last nite. After Reg went to bed, I had to press his shirt for his game tonite and fold the uniforms and warm-ups .. (that took me 1 ½ hrs!! I hate doing the warms ups .. you have to resnap the legs on the pants ** sigh), so there wasn't to much time left that I was 'alert' to knit., so that's as far as I got.

I read ahead to the shoulder part and it's going to be fun to do .. it's a true saddle shoulder where the bind offs for the front, back and sleeves all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle .. I had better get all my stitches right and to make my life easier, I'll be blocking the shapings and bind off areas ..

Here's the part I'm referring to and what's made this easy as you are picking up and knitting around the hood and placket, so I'll just extend the picking up all the way down to the bottom :D how cool is THAT!!?

From Casual Hooded Pullover

Finishing
Block pieces by pinning to size and covering with a damp cloth until dry. Do not press.
Insert sleeves into armholes, and sew edges of saddles to front and back shoulders. (Bound off edge of saddle
forms part of neck edge.)
Beg at top front, with RS tog, sew hood pieces tog along top and down back, using an invisible seam. Turn hood
right side out.
Pin hood in place, matching front edges with front neck opening, aligning back seam with center back of neck
edge, and easing shaped edges to fit. Sew hood in place.

Hood and zipper band
With circular needle and RS facing, working from right to left, beg at right bottom of front opening, pick up and
knit 38 sts to top of neck, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98) sts up right hood edge to top center, 1 st in seam, 88 (88, 93, 93, 98)
sts down left hood edge to top of neck, then 38 sts to bottom of front opening. (253, 253, 263, 263, 273 sts)
Note: Be careful not to stretch bottom of zipper opening as you work.
Row 1 (WS): *P1, k1, p1, k2, rep from * to last 3 sts, p1, k1, p1.
Row 2: *K1, p1, k1, p2, rep from * to last 3 sts, k1, p1, k1.
Rows 3-6: Rep Rows 1 and 2.

Purple Hoodie "or not"

I decided that I would use this blog for my knitting projects progress and do my best to keep my wordpress blog quilt related.

I've been working on a cabled hoodie pullover for myself. I had a few issues with the gauge at first and it was causing me no end of worry and concern as I was knitting it. My gauge is usually spot on, but this time I was actually ½" short with the required number of stitches. So I bumped up my needles a size and then my gauge was spot on.

I'm using Caron Wintuk yarn for this (discontinued) as I have it in my stash. I've vowed not to buy more yarn until I get my stash down. Only problem is, I've got a lot of onsie twosie skeins that are going to cause me no end of fits. I'm hoping that I'll be able to trade them for full amounts of what I need for sweaters and what not, but I'm not entirely sure that that's going to happen at all .. My username on ravelry is gquilts. If you are interested in picking up onsie twosie yarns, please check out my stash and maybe we can work something out.

Okay back to my purple hoodie 'or not' (ravelry link).

Here's a close up the cable pattern (please excuse the blue colour - this was a nite pic and I didn't feel like messing with it to make it the correct colour) This is one section of 26 rows for the pattern. Rather pretty. And the pattern has created some really nice movement up the sweater back .. It's going to be just as awesome up the front too! And I can't forget the sleeves of course ;)

I met with another Windsor knitter last Saturday (feb 7^th), and we were chatting and nattering away enjoying each other's company and our tazo chais. I KNEW I had made a mistake but couldn't figure out what I did ..it was really weird and only in that one spot .. the other cable didn't get dinged like this one. Oh there are 2 cable repeats per row. It wasn't until I got home that I found (saw) my goof and that entailed me back knitting stitch by stitch 6 rows to fix the error. Normally I would have just slide a needle across the piece, but with the cable pattern, my nerves just couldn't have handled it! What I had done was twist the cable the wrong way and repeat a row. You can see in the boxed section just where the mistake was. You can compare it with the cable below it. Since it's not all that noticeable and this is likely going to be under the hood, I left it at this point.


I finished the back last nite (temp pics - not blocked and looks blue due to flash) and did some math to have this be a full frontal zippered hoodie. I'm rather proud of myself that I worked the cable pattern right up the binding off for the saddle shaping too :D My plan is to do both front sections at the same time. I'm using circs for this so fitting both front sections on the them will be a piece of cake .. I'll just have to make sure that I don't tangle up the skeins ;) But I'm sure I'll adjust.

The hood part is pretty odd, (and I don't think that the cable pattern repeats on it either .. hmmmm) I was looking at the directions on Sat with my friend, and I'm tempted to do this as one piece instead of 2 as the pattern says ... if it doesn't work out, I can frog it - the nice thing about frogging yarn is it's MUCH easier than frogging quilting / sewing ;)

This is my first sweater for myself in over 8 years so I'm pretty pumped about this!!