Prime Time Knitter

Wearing o' the Green

Ed's sweater (Ed-1) is finally done.  Here is Ed,  in what looks quite like a set of mug shots, modeling the front, back, and sleeve.  I positioned the Saxon braid along the center of the sleeve and I flanked it with three sets of 3x3 cables.

My plan for this sweater was to give Ed something warm to wear (so I can keep the thermostat down to 68 degrees F this winter).  He insisted on a shawl collar, which I adapted from the instructions in The Big Book of Knitting by Katharina Buss.  He also wanted pockets.

The design is my own, and I used Mountain Mohair from Green Mountain Spinnery.  The buttons are gray matte, from Tender Buttons in New York City.  I started this in January 2007, and I finished it on Sunday.

A Real FO and Several PUFOs

Although the knitting on my Shetland Triangle has been done for two weeks, I only blocked it on Saturday.  I need daylight for blocking, and I usually devote my weekday mornings to work.  I’m an early riser, and my best hours are before noon.  So the shawl sat unblocked for a weekend that was too gloomy for good light and for another that was so hot I just couldn’t muster the energy to do it.

All this time, though, Ed has been insisting this was not an FO.  Being a programmer, things are very black and white.  Like computer bits, they’re either on or off—no gray areas for him.  So his view of an FO is something that is done and can be worn.  I generally consider finishing to be part of completing something, but in this case it seemed rather arbitrary.  I certainly wasn’t going to wear this shawl when it was 90° out, and I wasn’t going to spend any more weeknights knitting it.  All it needed was a soaking and pinning.  This difference of opinion is now over since the shawl is truly done, but my interpretation of WIP and UFO has also been questioned.

In my opinion, I have two WIPs—his green sweater and Liv.  I have one UFO, which is my Cotton Fleece cardigan.  There are other partially knitted items in various locations, but they’re all awaiting frogging so they can be knit into something else.  I just consider these obstacles to starting a new project, because it is definitely easier to begin knitting from a skein than to rip, soak, dry, and rewind yarn from a project that has no future.  So they aren’t WIPs or UFOs. 

Since it has been about a week since I worked on Ed’s sweater, he thinks it has fallen from WIP status to semi-UFO status.  I have no intention of abandoning it, but even with air conditioning, working on heavy wool is beyond my abilities.  In contrast, I haven’t touched the Cotton Fleece sweater for at least 11 months, and so to me it is truly a UFO.  This timing difference is apparently a gray area.

To accommodate projects that have been partially knit but that don’t qualify as WIPs, Ed has come up with a new category: PUFO (pronounced Puff Foe).  This stands for Partially Unfinished Object.  The new category doesn’t need any time qualifications.  His green sweater is a PUFO because I haven’t worked on it for a week, and all the items to be frogged and reknit are PUFOs.  I’m at a loss as to how to work a true UFO into this scheme, but, hey, it works for him (and it is preserving our marriage).

Details about the shawl:
Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Chat Botté, Perle Fine (purchased in Paris in 1978, discontinued), about 700 yards
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace, size 5 US
Shawl pin: Moving Mud
Modifications: Edging taken from Evelyn Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl.  I added one row of purl and bound off on the right side.

 

FOrging Ahead

Here, at last, is the finished entrelac jacket, and I’m pleased with the way it turned out.  I intended it as an outdoor jacket for the fall, and it will do nicely for that purpose.

Here are the specifics:
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, color 230, 19 skeins, purchased from WEBS
Needles:  Addi size 4, circular; Inox, size 1, circular (knitted flat on circular needles)
Pattern: Sarah James, Entrelac jacket, purchased from One Fine Yarn
Started: March 2007
Finished: June 2007
Photograph by DH, taken at the Croton Point Park in NY

I’ve made major modifications to the pattern, primarily to get the size of the jacket down to the specified dimensions.  The pattern calls for needles in sizes 8, 7, and 4; I needed sizes 4 and 1 to get the required gauge.  I also left live stitches at the cuffs and bottom border for pickup. 

In addition to the earlier posts about my progress and pattern changes, I added one last bit of construction to the finishing.  I used mattress stitch to attach the shoulders so I could get a nearly invisible join.  This seam appeared to stretch, and so I reinforced the shoulder seams with a row of single crochet.

At first I wasn’t sure how to do this, and I started looking through my sewing things for twill tape, which is what you’d use to reinforce seams in a sewn garment.  I discovered that my mother had some heavy-weight polished cotton embroidery thread, and I used that instead.  By placing the single crochet below the mattress-stitch seam, I was able to get this seam to do its job without showing on the right side.

I don’t know why my mother had this thread.  In addition to sewing, she also made jewelry—so it could be related to a design she planned.  It is more likely that she intended this for some sort of trim (probably a frog on a jacket), but I don’t know how she made it.  She did not have DPNs, and so I’m assuming she used the spool with the hole in the middle, although I haven’t found that in her things.  In any case, this is an interesting technique for I-cord trimmings, and I would not have thought of it myself.  It might also make a sturdy handle for a felted handbag. 

Unless it is too hot or too cold, this jacket will be my “Rhinebeck sweater”—so I hope that those of you who go to the blogger meetup can see it first hand.

Nearly Collared

I moved on to the collar after completing the buttonbands.  Aside from the entrelac knitting, which was new for me before I worked on this sweater, I was intrigued by the use of short rows in the collar and on the undersides of the sleeves.  When I started the collar and got to the row before the short-row shaping, the instruction that a 4 1/2 inch collar finally sunk in.  When I'm not tremendously confident in a pattern, I begin to question everything--4 1/2 inches seemed huge.  And since the gauge measure was so far off for me, and there were no hints about knitting the bottom so it wouldn't pull along the pickup edge, I thought this would be wrong too.  But, in this case the pattern was right and I was wrong.  A 4 1/2-inch collar will work well because the short-row shaping gives it a nice roll.

I'm not tremendously skilled in short-row shaping.  I have used it only for shoulders until now, but it is something I plan to practice.  The method of construction for this collar is quite like that in the IK Winter 2005 article by Veronik Avery, and looking at that description gave me confidence to keep knitting.

This collar is also the second try because there was a color change at the point where I wrapped and turned for the first time, and it made the collar look asymmetrical.  So I opted again for some of the more subtle hues in the yarn.  There are red patches coming though.

This photo (which finally shows the green as it actually looks) also shows the buttons I bought at Tender Buttons on Tuesday.  The buttons are a reddish brown and they complement the yarn nicely.  And they're similar to other buttons I've bought and liked for knitted sweaters--English horn, with a matte finish.  I just wish they were cheaper!

Tuesday was a completely wonderful day.  After my button buying, I headed to the Metropolitan Museum to meet my friend Mary Anne.  We saw the new Greek and Roman galleries, the exhibit of the Poiret clothes, and the showing of Venice and the Islamic world.  I splurged and bought the poster.  I hope to frame and hang that in my sewing/knitting room that is undergoing renovation now.

All the exhibits were excellent, but if you like 1920s fashions and are close enough to see this exhibit, I'd recommend it.  One particularly fascinating display was a hologram-type graphic that illustrated how Poiret would drape an evening dress.  I can only imagine clothes as flat patterns, and draping seems like magic to me.  It still seems like magic, but the computer generated illustration of the garment's construction made it less so.

And, back when I finished my shawl, I said a modeling picture would be forthcoming.  Mary Anne had the good sense to wear a black sweater that shows it off well.  Here is a shot taken at the Met's Temple of Dendur:

It ended up being larger than I thought, but I do like the way it turned out.

Crossing the Border

More precisely, I’m crossing the sweater with the intarsia border off my UFO list!

I really don’t know why it took me so long to finish this one, but if I encounter any sort of problem that requires some serious thinking, a project is in trouble.  I guess I was a little wary of closing the back of the neck and attaching the button bands carefully.  It did take a lot longer than the three days I imagined to finish this—about 10 days.  I completed it on Sunday, once I felt better after the dental work.  The gum work went well, and thanks for all your kind wishes.  I’m still a little sore and slightly puffy—as you can see—but I’m recovering quickly.

This sweater was knit from Rowan Lambswool Tweed (the dark gray, and some of the border colors), Rowan DK, and one skein of Fine Cotton Chenille (one of the orange stripes).  All were used in double strands and knit on US 9 and 10.5 needles.  All of these yarns are discontinued, but a sweater with a border like this would make a fine first intarsia project, and there are many other yarn suppliers that would provide a suitable color range to use.  The diagonal pattern is particularly easy.

There are several reasons I took a detour from the work at hand (DH’s green sweater and my entrelac jacket).  This sweater gave me some good practice in working with a shawl collar, which I hadn’t done for a long time.  I need that for DH’s sweater. It also gives me dimensions to use in working with the entrelac sweater.  The intarsia sweater is 46 inches around the chest, and that is the absolute maximum I’d want in any jacket style sweater.  I’d really like the entrelac to be smaller (I’m shooting for 44 inches) because it is thinner yarn.  I also have difficulty when measuring sleeves for dropped shoulders.  I feel like a contortionist as I try to measure myself with a tape measure in front of the bathroom mirror.  The intarsia sweater sleeves are a good length, and I can use them in checking the entrelac sleeves.

So this week it is on to the fronts of the green sweater and the entrelac.

Nothing but Knit

Because I’m facing a small glut of work, this is a working weekend.  I’m not nearly as disappointed as I often am when I face back-to-back seven-day weeks, because the first project I have to complete is the knitting book.  So on Saturday, I devoted my usual work hours to that book, and blocked my Seraphim shawl during my lunch break.

We got walloped by the biggest storm of the season, which DH says is my fault. I wasn’t even tempted to go anywhere because the roads were so hazardous.  DH insists on keeping our shovels next to our front door.  We keep them there until late-May, just so he is certain that it won’t snow again until the following winter.  Well, Wednesday was about 70°, and I actually thought that we might take the shovels in a little before May (say, in the next week or two?).  The snow gods must have been reading my mind, or so DH believes, and we are now emerging from a foot of the stuff.

For that reason, I’m not modeling my shawl outdoors.  Snow is everywhere, and it is freezing Here is Seraphim draped over the staircase rail:

And here is a closeup.

The good: I really enjoyed this pattern.  I’m not a tremendously experienced shawl knitter, and this pattern gave me the chance to try out combined knitting with lace—so I now have confidence to do others with large stockinette areas that way also.  I’ve used up some stash yarn!  I have my first (on time) FO for Project Spectrum, and my first project for the Lace Shawl KAL.

The surprises:  I thought the yarn would be different than it turned out to be.  It was 15% kid mohair and 85% wool, and I expected more of a fuzziness and sheen than I got.  It is also larger than I expected (42 inches from the neck down, instead of 36 inches—and I cut a repeat).  This long shawl is more dramatic than most of my garments, and I rather like it this way.  I plan to wear it with silk slacks, which match it exactly, and I think I will look rather elegant. (I’ll take a photo sometime later on in the spring, and you can be the judge.) I had no idea it would expand so much after blocking, and I did make a swatch. I had better swatch more carefully the next time.   

So, all in all, I’m pleased with the result, and it is now time to turn to my sweaters.

DH’s sweater is officially on the needles.  Despite wanting to use a tubular cast-on, I substituted a long-tail instead.  After some ripping, I became very skilled at the tubular cast-on, but it was just too stretchy for this sweater and yarn.  The ribbed border will be about 10 inches below DH’s waist, and I think it needs some “natural” structure to keep it from expanding.  Montse Stanley suggests using the long-tail cast-on on the wrong side, which I’ve been doing for some years, and I think it produces a nice edge, even if it is not quite as elegant as the tubular cast-on.

I’m going to try TECHknitter’s advice (March 9 entry) on switching from the last rib row to the first pattern row tonight.

Also on the needles is my entrelac sweater.  The base triangles are done, but they’re not very photogenic.

So this weekend, it has been nothing but knitting—and that is great.

 

The Definition of a UFO

After DH took my pictures in the finished brown sweater so I could post them on the February Is for Finishing KAL, I strutted around for a while feeling pretty good that one of my four UFOs was finished.

The pattern was in IK, Fall 1997, and it is by Nancy Bush.  This is hard issue to find because it also has one of Alice Starmore's Arans in it, but it is a very nice design.  I particularly like the way the shoulder pattern looks.  Even though the body is a roomy rectangle, the sailor's rib is broken up with a small K-P pattern that looks as if it is the top of the sleeve.  And you pickup the stitches at the top of the sleeve and knit to the cuff, so there is no seam around the armhole.  The yarn is Rowan Magpie, and I used Inox greys in sizes 5 and 7 US.

But when I announced to DH that I only had three UFOs left, he asked if that number included his green sweater.  I told him that his sweater was not a UFO because it was only swatched, and there is no "o" in swatch!  In my opinion, the garment has to be "on the needles" for it to be a UFO, and swatching is not "on the needles".  And if swatches do count as UFOs, then I probably have about twenty UFOs.  The only way to win this argument is to get his sweater done, which I think was the real point of this conversation. 

Not that it will matter to him, but do you think that if you swatch for a sweater or anything else, you've now got a UFO?

The Perils of Prime Time Knitting

Although I enjoy knitting at the end of the day, there are definite drawbacks to settling down after dinner to veg out and focus on the intricacies of a pattern or the tactile pleasure of a beautiful yarn.  To knit after a day of work and a vigorous session at the gym, where I’ve typically had a 60-lap swim or an exercise class, I have to be on automatic pilot.  That is, I have to know what I’m going to knit and how I’m going to knit it.  So if I have a problem or I’m ready to try something new, the project tends to hover in unfinished status.

Since it is New Year’s Day, and resolutions are in order, I will add finishing these unfortunate orphans to the usual resolutions that start my year.  [Reading every issue of the New Yorker magazine when it arrives each week has been a resolution for at least 20 years, and I have an attic full of them, so you can see how successful I am at fulfilling these goals.]  I’m hoping that posting these pictures here and committing to finishing them for all to see will light a fire under me. 

So here they are:

The oldest of the bunch is this Rowan sweater.  I’m up to the shawl collar, and finishing it will help me design the collar I want to construct for the sweater I’m making for the Manly Gift Along KAL, my first KAL.  I think this one has been in limbo for about four years, and it was intended to get me started with intarsia so I could tackle the many other Rowan kits I bought in the mid-1980s (and inherited from my mother, who bought them and didn’t knit them).

Despite the age of the Rowan sweater, I think this brown one will be the first I attempt to finish.  The pattern is from IK, Fall 1997, a design by Nancy Bush.  The yarn is Rowan’s Magpie, which I intended to use for something else.  Some years ago, I knitted the “matching” hat to this sweater using different yarn for two small presents.  The hat is a fun knit, and the sweater was too—until this point.  The sweater would be great to wear while I work in my loft-office.  If it ever gets cold this winter, the loft will become drafty.  The reason this is unfinished is that I wanted to try a new type of buttonhole (for me), and I need to do this during the day, when I’m fresh. I already tried the buttonbands, but in a moment of hubris I actually thought I knew more than Nancy Bush, and I knitted the neck ribbing first.  When I attached the first buttonband it looked awful, and so I ripped it out.  Nancy is definitely right—buttonbands first, and then the neck. 

This next sweater is an adaptation of the sweater pictured from Knitters, Fall 2000.  It is yarn I bought at Rhinebeck only about two years ago, from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm.  I loved the yarn, which is a merino-silk mix, but I wondered if it was too tight.  After reading Eunny’s blog for some months and looking at her form-fitting sweaters, I reevaluated this one.  But I do need to plan the back because this yarn is quite different from the original.  It will probably be #3 in order.

When it reached 100°F this past summer, I had been working on the brown sweater and I couldn’t bear even thinking about knitting with wool.  I always had this Calvin Klein sweater in the back of my mind (Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 1990), and I thought that Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece (again bought for another project that has since been rejected) would work well.  And it did—for the body.  But I was careless in assuming the sleeves would just follow the body adjustment, and they did not.  They have fewer cables, and they ended up with a diameter that would fit an elephant’s leg.  I thought I’d save this one for finishing over the summer—then we might have unseasonably cool weather, since I’m ready this year to switch from wool to cotton.

So ladies and gentlemen, let the resolutions begin.