It's a miracle

I finished something! And oh my god they're not socks!

What: Tunic sweater avec turtleneck, pattern is my own
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in Azul Profundo #150, less than 3.5 skeins
Needles: US8 and 7 circulars and dpn's

There's this sweater I got for cheaps at H&M that I have been wearing to the ground. It's black, made of soft squishy acrylic, the length of which hits just past the hips. It's body-hugging and has a large cowl-neck that could be stretched and draped over both shoulders, revealing the collarbone, or slouched just to one side, revealing just a tantalizing snippet of a neck. It is a totally simple sweater but when I wear it, I feel like if I opened my mouth to speak my voice would be husky, I might even purr, and everything I said would be witty and charming because it would also be in French.

My version of that sweater is a little less Euro and a lot more...BLUE. I cannot tell you how intense the blue really is. I used just over 3 skeins of Malabrigo and it turns out they were all pretty much consistent in color, except for that one lone skein which of course appears smack dab in the middle of the sweater. Whatever. I'm fine with it.

Because I didn't follow a pattern and I wanted it to fit a certain way, I actually swatched before starting this sweater. This is a first. I never swatch. I get lazy. Most of the time it works out, sometimes it doesn't. But in true me fashion, I've misplaced all my algebraic scribbling and notes so I can't tell you the gauge I came up with. It wasn't rocket science anyways. Basically I wanted a sweater that was about 30 inches around, using US8 needles. I also put in waist shaping in the form of darts: instead of decreasing/increasing at the end of each side, I did it about 2 inches in from each side.

I yoked the upper body part: when reaching the armpits, I bound of maybe 10 stitches for the armpits on each side, set the body aside and started knitting the sleeves separately, in the round on US7 dpns. When I was satisfied with the length (up to armpit), I bound off for the armpit and joined the sleeves with the body, and continued in the round. Standard yoke stuff. Decreased every other row for raglan sleeves, and then continued in the round for the turtleneck. This was supposed to be a cowlneck but I had decreased too much, so a turtleneck it was.

Added some cables at the raglan decreases for fun.

Soft like a bunny against my neck! I love you Malabrigo. I love you.

And that's all! Easy as pie. My first sweater since March 2006, yikes. I'll have to do this more often.

Comments [48]
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Tunic Sweater

Back to knitting

Thank you so much for all your comments about the kitchen. I'm looking forward to sharing more of the house. As soon as it's clean. We're in the process of hanging stuff up on the walls and I don't know WHY but the simple act of attempting to hammer in a little nail at various desired points has turned the entire living room upside down. You think oh, this'll take just a second to hang...until you realize this certain nail is not strong enough, or maybe invisible fishing string would work better - until it breaks on you - or you realize you need a ladder because the ceiling's much much higher in the new place, but you gave away the ladder to your brother-in-law because there was nowhere to store it here, so you have to wait until your downstairs neighbor comes home so you can borrow hers but she went away for the weekend. So three days later, all the tools are still out, furniture's askew, and nothing's been hung. Ergh. This is why I'm SO GLAD we don't have to do any major renovations. We really stink at house handiwork.

Hopefully knitting handiwork is another story.

I'm trying to finish up these socks by Christmas time. I have 3 mateless socks so far for 3 in-laws, each knit in Silk Garden Lite, each in their own colorways.

I was in pretty good shape to finish by Christmas until I decided I really wanted to finish my Malabrigo sweater first. Priority defaults to Me.

So isn't this photo just...weird? Like I took a bad fall down the stairs and my front is now my back. Anyway, I finally settled on yoking it: knit two sleeves separately, in the round with dpns, then joined them to the body stitches to start knitting the round again. I'm doing raglan sleeves and added a little 4-stitch cable to the mix, for a tiny textural/visual pop against all the stockinette.

I plan to knit a cowl neck, not sure yet how wide or thick. I still have half a skein left to finish up the yoke and a whole 200+ yard skein after that so I have leeway to decide as I knit. Love the Malabrigo and the yardage. At the end of the day this sweater will only require 4 skeins.

The only thing that kind of bugs is that you can tell where one skein of yarn starts and a new one begins because the colors among the skeins are not the same. Ah well. Design feature. Aside from that, I am very very very pleased with the way this is fitting so far. Snug and warm but not too tight.

Comments [16]
Filed Under: Socks | Tunic Sweater

Sweaters to start, sweaters to finish, sweaters to wear

Oh it's been a long loooong time since I've had a finished sweater in my knitting portfolio. I've been trying though.

Here are 2 of the 4 skeins of heavyweight Socks That Rock yarn I bought to make the Rambling Rose Cardigan from the IK Winter 2006 issue. I think the magenta/pink cardigan in the magazine is a little jarring, a little not my style, too much cotton candy and Hawaiian Punch, like a junior varsity cheerleader threw up all over it. So I'll be taking the cardi towards more of an Edgar-Allan-Poe-ish direction: Pond Scum (pond scum!) and Haida, from the new Raven Series.

Here is a tunic sweater, knit in the round with Malabrigo worsted, that has been stalling at the underarms for several weeks now. I can't decide how to proceed next, mostly because I don't know what kind of sleeves I want...and also because I don't know what kind of new knitting technique I want to try. If any at all. Cast on more stitches for capped sleeves, and then continue knitting in the round? Divide for front and back, working separately, and then seam raglan sleeves to it? Long sleeves or short sleeves or 3/4 sleeves? Make it a vest? Steek it (eee no)? Yoke it? I just want to finish it with the least amount of thought as possible, really. Wish I had just done this from the top down.

Until I finish those up, I have a few things that will tie me over, cuz I just scored me my most favorite thing in the world: a sweater on sale at anthropologie.

Let's be honest here, it's still kind of expensive even with the mark down. anthropologie is like that, hit or miss with the styles and the prices. But let's be honest again: those 4 skeins of yarn cost more than this finished cardigan (which totally looks handknit, by the way), and Rambling Rose cardigan, assuming that it will actually turn out to my liking after spending 10,000 hours to knit it, does not have penguins for pockets now does it?

Comments [9]
Filed Under: General Knitting | Tunic Sweater | Yarn Stash