Monday, February 07, 2005
Superbowl Sunday at Paul & Leah's house outside of Boston, far enough outside the city that it was practically the wilderness to me. They had a fire going, comfy cushions and pillows strewn everywhere, tons of clam chowder, chili and desserts, I sat myself in the rocking chair and knitted throughout the entire game, more feverishly so in the last 5 minutes. I can get extremely worked up about a sport I care so little about. Remember Smarty Jones's quest for the Triple Crown? I hadn't even heard of that stupid horse until two days before the event, but it didn't stop me from weeping bitter bitter tears when it was all over.
from Phildar's Tendance Automne 04/05
I've completed the back and started the front for this little sweater. Feeling leery about it. We'll see. The drapey collar is supposed to be as long as the sweater body from bottom to armpit, around 16 inches. That seems nuts. I just realized that this sweater isn't coat-friendly since the collar acts like a mini-poncho. What have I done? It's too late to stop.
Below is a pic of one of the back/front pieces. One of these days it will miraculously morph into something wearable but for now, the ribbing is pulling the width in so much it looks like a dishtowel. A soft, absorbant dishtowel.
for a giraffe
Filed Under: Phildar
Monday, February 07, 2005
I just completed my first sweater. Me, girl with the attention span and the motivation of your average earthworm, has completed a completely wearable piece of clothing when not so long ago the whole concept of knitting seemed too bizarre to grasp. Think about it. Take a pair of pointy-ended chopsticks and a longish piece of yarn, do some manual gymnastics and you have cloth. Someone had to sit and DELIBERATELY, CONSCIOUSLY come up with the whole concept of casting on, knitting, purling, shaping, etc. etc. Why? How?
first sweater observations
- So satisfying.
- Not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Even though there were some moments of total befuddlement.
- It took longer to seam than to knit. It took longer to weave in the loose ends than to seam.
- On that note, I unknowingly picked the best pattern to use as my first sweater. It uses raglan sleeves, which does not involve arithmetic puzzles before seaming. Raglan sleeves have the same number of stitches on the sides, from armhole to neck, as it sides of the front and back panels, from armhole to neck. Just seam and go.
if i were to make this sweater again, i would...
- decrease the gauge even more by using smaller needles. Size 6? Still a tad too drapey.
- not shape the waist. The pattern called for waist-shaping (series of decreases around the waist, then increase again towards the armpits), which seamed very comely, when not on self. It ended up making this unsightly bulge under the armpits, where the increases started again. Maybe it was the drape of this yarn (which is different than what the original pattern called for). I'm going to have to walk around with my arms stitched to my sides to flatten the bulge.
- take better care shaping the neckline. Use another bind-off technique on the sloped edges to avoid having it look steppy. The raggedy and uneven edges turned into small holes when I picked up stitches for the collar.
- make the sleeves a little longer.
- make the turtleneck longer, and maybe in a 3x3 rib instead of 2x2 rib.
- keep the length the same
- decrease width of back panel by an inch. The original pattern had the cable going down the back as well -- I thought this would look funny, so I omitted it and did straight Stockinette stitch. It did occur to me that this will make the back wider than the front (cables pull the stitches in), but went ahead and did not adjust. Well, now my sweater is slightly bulging in the back.
- stitch edges in selvedge to make seaming easier. Trying to find the running thread next to the curling end stitch was a pain. The sweater is slightly asymmetrical towards the bottom, and pulling to the left. Grrr.
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DETAILS
Pattern:Simply Marilyn by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: alpaca/wool blend that I got in Taipei. Brand is "Monty." Says it's Made in Paris.
# of Balls: 7.5
Gauge: 20 stitches/4 inches on #7 needles
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TECHNIQUES:
Cable: horseshoe cable
Decreases: ssk, k2tog
Increases: m1
Neck shaping: short rows
Collar: picking up stitches; knitting in the round
Seaming: mattress stitch (invisible vertical on stockinette; invisible horizontal on bound-off edges)
The original calls for 12 sts/4 in, and the smallest size seemed really big. With the yarn I used, I knitted in the pattern's largest size to make an XS sweater.
Knitting in a smaller gauge also fixed the 'problem' of having that gaping neckhole, which heard from other people prevented the sweater from staying on.
You can get the pattern for free here. |
in the queue The best part of finishing a project - other than wearing the project - is starting a new one. The next in the queue is this from Phildar's Tendances Automne 04/05.
I'm substituting the yarn again, but the gauge is the same so I shouldn't have to make any changes.
eeeYAAAAAAAAAAH!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Marilyn
Monday, February 07, 2005
The 2005 Project Queueueue:
Filed Under: Projects
Monday, February 07, 2005
Some personal details:
- I live with two cats and one husband in Boston.
- Today in a feverish rush to get this application up and running, I ate oxidized guacamole for lunch.
- I knit only with circular needles.
Hello! I've decided to start a blog to blab about the top obsessions currently running my broken little body, and that is knitting, cooking and gardening, and all these domesticate. I do draw the line at collecting vintage napkin rings however.
Since knitting came into my life, cooking and gardening and just about everything else, including work (don't tell boss), have taken a back seat. Oh and did I mention how much of a pain sleeping and working is, as it eats an entire 18 hours or so from the 24 potential hours of knitting per day? Also I really could do without another activity that involves so little moving and so much sitting hunched over. Between work (which I don't want to do) (don't tell boss) and knitting (which I want to do ALL THE TIME), my physique can be best described as rickity.
Well I first learned how to knit in 4th grade. Knitting career then was very short-lived. I had plans to make this colorful block sweater, but then I knitted a total of five incredibly misshapen rows and that was the last time I picked up needles...Fast forward to August 2004 when I visited my parents, spied my mother's basket of knitting, and decided to give it another go.
Mom taught me how to crochet too, and I thought I preferred that over to knitting because it seemed so much faster and easier. I crocheted a band in half-shell motif for practice, as handsomely modeled by Mocha:
Then I went home and crocheted this scarf, as handsomely modeled by Bunny (you'll be seeing a lot more of Bunny and his equally handsome bro Veebs):
He won't admit it, but Bunny loves this scarf.
Then I switched to knitting this green and gray scarf in double seed stitch, using super luxe cashmerino from Debbie Bliss. Handsomely modeled by (and made for) Duck:
A lot more scarves and hats ensued, since knitting scarves is easy and allows you to practice different patterns such as cables and lace:
Now I am into sweaters. And buying yarn, especially when I don't need anymore.
So until the snow melts and the danger of spring frost is over, and until I find the time to feed my family a proper home-cooked meal, or I win the lottery, this blog will be all about knitting.
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