Woven Cables Sweater Coming Right Along

I have been buzzing along on the woven cable sweater.

Front done?

Back done?

Check!

Check!

They are both done up to the armhole, waiting for the sleeves so I can join them together and do the yoke all in one piece.

Some of you are wondering why I didn't just do the front and back in the round too and avoid those side seams. Well, this is just how I prefer it. I find the separate pieces more portable and I love my straight bamboo 4mms. (As I've said before, and apparently couldn't help but say again.)

And the sleeves?

First?

Second?

Check!

Um...working on it. Yes I'm working on the second sleeve. As I learn the pattern more and more and have to look at the paper less and less, it just seems to fly off the needles faster and faster. (Plus I'm sure I'm still improving on my Norwegian purling method.)

I'm still in the fun part as I just have a lot of knitting to do. Once I have the second sleeve done to the armhole, I will have to work out how to put it all together. The drawback of making up your pattern as you go along--you have to figure these things out. But for now, I just knit and knit and knit.

Observant knitters among you will also notice there's no ribbing or hem along the bottom of the main pieces or the sleeve. I will admit I first did this because that's what EZ told me to do in the Brooks pattern that I'm following. But I've realized it also gives me a lot of flexibility in how long to make the pieces.

After I have it all together I can have Troy try it on. If the sleeves need 2 more inches, I probably won't do it all in ribbing. (Actually I'm not sure what I'll do if they're that short...but they won't be!) If I need about an inch, ribbing will work. If I have the length I need, then I will probably do a folded hem. Options, options. They're wide open for me still.

A more old-fashioned reason to do this is that sweaters get a lot of wear on the cuffs. When they wear out, you can easily ravel them and just put on a new cuff, without having to knit the whole sleeve. Ingenious really. But no one really mends like this any more, do they? By the time a sweater wears out, we're usually done with it.

But just in case, I am ready!

A Sock for a Walk

Last Sunday I walked in a charity walk I do every year. I didn't want to drag my Pencil Sketch Camisole along since it is far too large to do while walking and has a lace chart that I haven't memorized yet. (Only an 8 row repeat and I still can't get it into my head!)

So Saturday I cast on for a pair of socks to try another toe up heel flap pattern/tutorial by Andrea Mules. Socks are the perfect thing to knit while walking. I worked on Saturday and Sunday morning enough to get the toe increases done so I would have nothing but straight knitting on the walk.

My plan worked and I got quit a bit of knitting done. The sad part is that by the end of the walk it was obvious that the sock was too wide and I had to take it all out. (I think it was less than 2 inches so not that bad.) When I started reknitting I decided to add the narrow and simple lace panels just to keep things interesting. I'm just up to the gusset increases now and it is the perfect chance to try EZ's loop increases.

This style of increase comes in a pair so you can mirror image them.

You can see in the left image above the added stitches lean to the right, and in the right picture they lean to the left. And this is done in a very simple way...

First knit up to the point where you want to add a stitch:
Then loop the working yarn around the right needle so that it is twisted (unlike a yarnover). You can see it can be twisted in two directions:

right leaning                             left leaning

The twist on the left will result in a right leaning increase, and the one of the right will make a left leaning increase.

Then pull the yarn to snug up the loop right next to the last stitch you knit:
Now you can continue knitting. When you get back to that point in the next row, you knit it like normal, making sure to knit through the front loop so that it stays twisted. Besides controlling the direction the stitch leans, this twist also helps prevent a hole from appearing at the site of the increase.

I haven't charted it all out, but this increase is exactly equivalent to picking up the loop from the row below and knitting it so that it twists. (Equivalent except that it is done one row higher. Either will work within a pattern.)

The method discussed above causes less distortion to the row below and works better when the yarn is not very stretchy or giving. In a case where the yarn is stretchy or especially prone to leaving gaps or holes, I would recommend the method of picking up the loop from the row below.

And next up is figuring out this particular heel flap...

Knitting Knitting Everywhere

I get some funny looks and curious stares when I knit in public. (The other day it was at the patio furniture display at Sam's Club while I waited for my new tires to be installed. That's what they get for not having a waiting room!) But I don't let this deter me in the least.

Neither did Elizabeth Zimmermann. Her daughter, Meg, shares this story in The Opinionated Knitter (pp78-79):

Elizabeth and her husband rode BMW motorcycles for many decades - until they were well into their eighties. They even motored to the East coast once, where Elizabeth gave a few workshops without any props (no room on the cycle). She called it her, Have Mouth, Will Travel tour.

Elizabeth's last book, Knitting Around, is subtitled, Knitting Without a License, and as we were taping the accompanying video for PBS, my husband decided to stage a little story. We called the one and only policeman in our nearby town and asked if he would like to be in our video. He took it quite seriously and ordered a new cop-cap; shined up his cop-car, etc.

We shot footage of Elizabeth in her usual motorcycle mode: sitting and happily knitting behind Gaffer, with a long strand of the wool flying out behind her. The siren went off.

The cycle pulled to the side of the road as the squad car came up behind them.

The policeman got out and walked slowly toward them (in his shiny new boots) and said, "What do you think you're doing?"

Elizabeth: "Why, just Knitting Around, Officer."

Cop: "Do you have a license for that?"

Elizabeth gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Freeze frame.

She sounds like such a hoot!

She really did knit on the back of the bike. For years she did it in secret since her husband would not have approved. He wanted her to concentrate on motorcycling for all that leaning into the curves, etc. So she used a small circular needle to work on small projects that she could keep in her pocket until they were well under way.

He only found out when he looked up at a semi they were slowly passing one day and saw the driver laughing and pointing out EZ with her knitting to his passenger. BUSTED!

Knitting Knitting and Getting Nowhere

This first picture would seem to deny the title of the post, but I have to let you know that after 7 inches of beautiful knitting which took me from green to purple to orange, I had to frog it all. [:hand to throat gasping "No!":] When I got the shaping done to the waist on my Pencil Sketch Camisole, I put all the stitches onto a string and tried it on. You could fit one and a half of me in it. Oh, I hate it when swatches lie...

So while I had it on, I figured out how many stitches to deduct. (Just pinch the extra fabric you don't need and count how many stitches that is.) Well, that brought me pretty much right back to the number the pattern told me to do in the first place. [:double sigh with a big shoulder slump:]

But now I am cast back on, finished the hem, and humming along. One reason this is not as bad as it could be is that the wool is so nice to knit with. Yum, it just makes my fingers and eyes blissful.

Hubby is also partially convinced I took it all out so that I could fix a small mistake I had noticed a number of rows back. (On one stitch I had knit into the stitch of the row below--nothing worth frogging for--but he thinks I take my perfectionism to more extremes than I do.) There was another small mistake in the lace he doesn't know about, but if he did he would count it as additional proof of his theory.

While I'm posting and since I had to do it twice (it came out even nicer the second time), let me share a nice hem for stockingnette garments. I first did it on a baby sweater I made when I was still a young thing (early teens maybe?).

The pattern I'm doing currently actually calls for two rows of ribbing along the bottom but I didn't like how it looked on my swatch. And I didn't think two rows would keep the shirt from curling up. I hate curling. (Not the sport.) This hem will be much better:

Picot Hem Tutorial

Use a loose cast on and knit five or six rows in stocking stitch. Then knit a row of K2tog, YO all the way across. Then knit five or six more rows of stocking stitch:
This will give you a bit of knitting with a row of holes. In the baby sweater I knit as a youngster, the pattern had you fold the piece along the holes and then sew it down like a normal hem after the entire garment was knit. This works, but it's not very satisfying if you don't like sewing seams. And a sewn seam is never as stretchy as the knitting around it.

The alternative is to fold the piece along the holes, putting the cast on edge toward the back of the work and then knitting the cast on edge with the next row. This will "sew" the hem with no sewing at all. (I know, it's like magic!)

So, fold along holes toward the back.

Then use your left needle to pick up the "outside half" of the cast on edge:

(You want to pick up just one strand.)

Then knit the next stitch with this strand like a knit 2 together:

(Right needle is inserted through next stitch and picked-up strand ready to knit them together.)

Here's a pic to show you the back:

(From the back, the "left" needle has picked up the strand.)

And here you can see how the holes have been transformed to "picots." Hence the name, picot hem.

(Again, a view from the back.)

After doing a whole row (or round) of knitting 2 together in this manner, you then just continue to knit. I told you it was like magic.

You can actually use this hem without the YOs so that you get a straight edge along the bottom. In this case, you would usually do a purl row instead which will become your fold line. EZ recommends casting on about 95% of your total stitches (increasing to 100% above the rolled edge) and using a slightly thinner yarn (The Opinionated Knitter p15). I will try this when I get around to knitting hubby the fine gauge sweater I've been thinking about. It will give a flatter and smoother look than the traditional ribbing.

Cast Off One

Had to share that I finished and cast off the first sock of my pair! It was a mile of 2x2 rib, but I powered through. Putting in the little twist pattern did help get through it. You can see the spiral when it's not all stretched out, but once I put them on, it more or less disappears. I'd show you a picture, but I am going to wait until I have the pair done.

(Ok, ok, I'll give you a peak)

Now as to the cast off [aka bind off, for some of you]: I have always done it in the regular way (knit 2, * pass first stitch over second, knit 1, repeat from *). In ribbing, I will sometimes get fancy and cast off in the ribbing pattern. This will give it slightly more stretch than knitting every stitch. Other than that, I'm a straight forward caster offer.

But recently I have been reading about sock techniques, just to learn, you know, and expand my horizons. I read about EZ's method in The Opinionated Knitter which is more sewing than knitting. And then read some threads on Ravelry that said they had an even better and easier method than EZ's. Wow, I could barely believe it, but I could try.

I tried the so-called superior method which involved * knitting two stitches together, only dropping the first stitch, repeat from *. I took a lot of pictures so I could share this method. I knit through the back loop first. It looked nice, but wasn't very stretchy. Then I tried knitting through the front loop in case I misunderstood the directions. It also looked nice and also didn't stretch much. The whole point was to get a stretchy cast off so that it gives enough to get over my heel, but still will hold my socks up. The so-called superior method was not working for me.I then said to myself: trust EZ.

I then said to myself: trust EZ. So I used EZ's sewing cast off. And guess what? It was stretchy, yet bounced back enough to hold up my sock. I love EZ.

So I took a couple pictures to share this method with you, just in case you are the type of person that understands even the simplest of instructions better with a visual demonstration. (And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. In fact, I married someone like that.)

First. Cut your yarn about four times longer than the row or round you have to bind off. Thread onto a tapestry needle.

Step 1. Push needle through first two stitches from right to left
and pull yarn through.

Step 2. Push needle through just the first stitch from left to right
and pull yarn through. Drop this stitch off the left needle. And repeat steps 1 and 2 until you've worked through all the stitches. Keep everything relaxed and certainly don't pull the yarn too tight. (You'll lose all that stretch.)

When you're working in the round if you really want to add the finishing touch, then on the very first stitch that you would drop off, slip it onto the end of the needle to the right instead. This will make it the last stitch you sew through (as well as the first) so that you perfectly complete your round. That's it. Easy peasy, eh?

That's all I have on socks. Well, I did cast on the second one yesterday and have all the toe increases done. Now I just have to decided where I want the white stripes on this one. (You didn't think I'd make them identically matched, did you?)

As for other things, last night I finally got around to blocking my Birthday Cowl:
I've been using it again the last couple days (BIG temperature drop) and the curling edges were driving me crazy. And whenever I was the least bit warmed up, it was itchy (a little). So I soaked it in some water with hair conditioner, and pinned it down. I'm hoping it will be dry by tomorrow because I'll have to leave the house again, and they're telling me it will be cold.

Don't the colours just look great when it's laid out flat like that, and how you can really see the path of the bias rib? The colour's called Snow Bird. I just love that for some reason I can't figure out. Snow Bird.

Kind of wishing I was a snow bird right now...come, spring, come!
-christina

"You've Got Some Nerve!"

"You did what? How dare you?!"

Ok, so I did something I wish I didn't have to. And I'm feeling a little shameful about it, but before you judge, let me defend myself.

I absolutely loved the hat I got at the hat exchange. I did.
First, it's alpaca and dreamy soft. Let me say again, Al-pa-ca. Yum. I loved that someone made it with care and did a great job. The colours are gorge. BUT...

But, I couldn't wear it. It just didn't fit. The colour stranding wouldn't stretch and the hat was too tight. I finally decided that if I really loved the hat I had to remake it, rather than let it sit in a drawer never worn and feeling unloved. I hope if its maker ever reads this post she will forgive me for the sacrilege and recognize that I redid this hat out of love...

But once the decision was made, I unraveled the hat from the top down. Another testament to how well the hat was made was how straight forward it was to undo. No knots, and logical construction. (So often not the case.) When I got below the colour work, I put all the stitches onto some dpns [double pointed needles]. 112 sts.
And rolled up all the yarn I had to use:
Then I started again. Although I considered recreating the original pattern, I didn't because 1. it would be a pain to try to chart it, and 2. I'd probably run out of yarn since I would be knitting looser so that hat would stretch and fit.

So, instead, I went with the Three and One pattern from EZ's book The Opinionated Knitter. It's a colour pattern she designed for sweaters in which every row contains 1 st of one colour and 3 st of another, with a few solid rows thrown in. It's one of those cases where something very simple leads to a deceptively complex design.

I started following her pattern closely, except that I had to stick with the same two colours for a few consecutive rows instead of changing them as often as she did. Then after I lost my place in the chart once, I was "loosely" following her pattern. And by the end I was doing a pattern "inspired by" EZ's pattern. I did, however, stick with the Three and One principal. When the hat was long enough, I switched back to black yarn and made the crown according to EZ's pillbox pattern in the same book.

The final hat:
I am a little disconcerted by all the left over yarn I have, but I think my version came out shorter. (The original was pretty long; or at least long enough that I could fold the brim over as a cuff.) I still feel a bit like I've lived the comic scene where someone rebuilds a clock or an engine and has three leftover parts that don't seem to belong anywhere...but you know they must have been needed somewhere...

But in spite of that, and best of all, it fits!

Or, if you prefer, a side-by-side comparison:

While knitting this up, I took pics and video for a colour stranding tutorial...look for it soon!

-christina

What My Honey Gave Me

Happy Valentine's Day!

A couple weeks ago I was talking about Elizabeth Zimmermann and saying I couldn't believe I had none of her books. I think we would be kindred spirits (not equals, I wouldn't claim that, but I think we think along the same lines) and I'm hearing/reading more and more about her lately. I happened to say this around my husband who immediately asked, "Oh, would this make a good birthday present?" (He is always trying to give me good birthday presents which lately has resulted in my getting at least one in all three of the months leading to my birthday!) I said that my birthday is months away but Valentine's Day is next Saturday so I thought it would make a better Valentine's present. (I'm learning how to work this system!)

So about four days later I find this

lying on my pillow. How wonderful! And isn't that a great title? (Elizabeth had a hankering to be called this and wanted it to be the title of her first book. The publisher, however, insisted on Knitting Without Tears, which is also a good title. But not as good.) I'm taking my time to read through this slim volume and enjoying the patterns from the old newsletters, the extra notes written by her daughter and fellow knitter, Meg Swansen, and the excerpts from Elizabeth's journals.

In my first glance I read this from a journal entry in 1972 about skiing

As a young woman I considered myself competent on skis, having been lucky enough to have enjoyed about a decade of Alpine skiing. Standards were gentle in those days. Snappy turns on a well-groomed slope were considered more meretricious than otherwise and the main attributes of a good skier were endurance, strong legs and a love of discomfort... (p 7)

I love this attitude! I learned the word, meretricious, during a game of Balderdash (played from a dictionary) so many years ago; what a joy to see it actually used! (Well-worth looking up.)

She goes on to say that "Lifts were for the rich and worldly" but I'm not sure I want to go that far! I rather enjoy chair lifts when I'm skiing.

I'm also learning that talk about Elizabeth is full of abbreviations I'm just expected to know, such as,

EZ = Elizabeth Zimmermann (in knitting, EZ will never mean "easy" but always Elizabeth)

EPS: Elizabeth's Percentage System, a system to calculate how many stitches to cast on for different parts of a sweater given the number needed for the full chest measurement. It allows you to adapt patterns to almost any gauge or yarn you may use.

BSJ: Baby Surprise Jacket, a pattern knit all in one piece that "surprisingly" turns into a baby jacket after sewing two seams. Very popular design for KALs still today. Classic.

And I'm sure there are more that I will learn about. I have a new nephew; perhaps getting this book which includes EZ's BSJ pattern will inspire me to make it for him. If I do, I'll let you know!

I feel like I am about to delve into a whole new world. Thanks, honey!

And I will leave you with EZ's own tagline:

Kint on, with confidence and hope, through all crises,

-c