True Hope Cowl

About a year ago, my sister and I went to Vogue Knitting Live Chicago. One of the things we picked up was a kit for the True Hope cowl.

Profits support Handspun Hope, an organization providing work and training to women in Rwanda.

The program started with their spun yarn. I don't know if they had sheep in the beginning, but they do now. Besides being handspun, the yarn is also organically dyed with natural plant materials from the area.

I chose one undyed skein and a subtle pink dyed from avocado pits. (Avocado pits! Who knew.)

I didn't start knitting on the cowl until August. It was just the thing I needed when I didn't want to make any decisions and wanted a project that was ready to go. It also filled the time before I left for a trip because I didn't want to start on my travel knitting!

The cowl is double knit so you get the same pattern on the front and back but in reversed colours. I was cruising along pretty well until...

one of my yarns ran out! I had three rows left to go plus the bind off. !! What !! I didn't know what to do about that for a while.

I finally decided to shorten the pattern by three rows (even though that wrecked one of the crosses). It's always fun to ravel double knitting because you can see the two layers so clearly:

I got through the new last three rows and used the undyed for the bind off since I had plenty of that. I tried a bind off with the needles first but I didn't like the look of it. I went with a Kitchener bind off instead knowing it would match the cast on and would perfectly marry the two layers together.

Here it is on the right side of the cowl:

You can see that it's quite a bit looser than the cast on. Instead of trying to adjust all those stitches to pull it in, I went with a "faux" bind off; i.e. crocheted a chain stitch.

The top edge is just the Kitchener stitch
bind off. The lower edge has the crocheted
chain stitch.

This looks a lot like a line of bind off stitches while bringing in the length. I had to experiment to find the right length of chain stitch to avoid it being too tight. And with that done (and a blocking), the cowl was ready for wear!

The cowl is quite thick. It's knit with a heavy aran weight and a double layer on top of that. Because of the thickness it doesn't drape very well. It also bunches up quite a bit behind the neck:

I tried it folded over as well:

The cowl doesn't work very well under a coat, but for an extra layer over a sweater on those "in between" days, it's great.

Project Stats
Started: 6 Aug '18
Finished: 21 Sep '18
Pattern: True Hope Cowl by Ann Turley Dreith
Materials: Handspun Hope Organic Merino Handspun in undyed and avocado pit, 179 grams total

Fix It Friday - Saturday Edition

So I'm cruising along on the Wool-Aid sweater I told you I started on again.

The front and back get done. I seam them together at the shoulder (3-needle bind off). And I even pick up the stitches for the collar and start knitting.

Things are feeling pretty good. Until I lay it on my lap and take a look. Something was off and my heart sank (a little).

Can you see it?

The purple stripe on the front isn't as wide ("tall") as the back.

Do you see it now? And it's not as long as the rest of the stripes either. Somehow I knit that one four rows short! I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I was working on that part either in the car on the way to camping or at the actual campout.

Obviously I need to stop and "admire" my knitting more often.

With so much being done on top of it (the whole front, seaming, the collar), I was not about to rip this back to the purple stripe. I knew it would require surgery -- that is, take out a row to get live stitches, knit the missing rows and then sew the whole thing back together. (Yes, pretty much all of my knitting fixes involve Kitchener. Good thing I like it.)

Since I'm working in stripes, I didn't have to cut any yarn. I could just start pulling out one row at the beginning of the purple where there was already a cut end.

 So I "unpicked" the stitches and put the released stitches onto needles:

You need a needle for both the stitches above the row you're taking out and the row below.

Once that was done, I had a sweater in two parts:

I attached purple yarn (from the ball) and knit three of the missing four rows on top of the tweed stripe. Et voila:

The fourth row was added by Kitchenering the two parts together. (To carry the surgery analogy a little further, this would have been the part where I rip off my mask and gloves and tell someone else to "close it up. My job is done here.")

The yarn is a single (or, one ply) and this means that it is relatively weak. I examined the long end resulting from picking out the row and it looked pretty good--not too worn from being pulled through all those stitches on its way out.

But when I started to sew with it, it came apart in a few spots. So I had a few more ends to work in than I originally thought I would:

That will just make it extra warm, right? :)

The tension of the Kitchenered row isn't quite the same as the knit rows, but it's not bad and I expect the difference will pretty much disappear after blocking.

I also missed a stitch about a third of the way. I didn't skip it entirely, but each loop should have two passes of the yarn through it, and two stitches beside each other only got one. (I jumped ahead one stitch.) Anyway, I didn't notice until I was nearly done and was counting the remaining stitches to make sure they were even. (They weren't.)

When I saw the issue, I decided not to take it out and fix it because the yarn wouldn't have been able to take the wear of sliding it through the loops two more times. (Once on the way back and once on the re-do.)

So, instead, I made the same mistake on purpose on the other side to even the number of stitches on the two needles. Not ideal, but it will affect neither the function nor aesthetics of the sweater adversely.

And here you go:

The purple stripe is now equal to the rest and the front is now equal to the back. The side seams aren't sewn yet, but I did get the collar done.

I improvised it from the pattern, which didn't have the crossover in the front. I think it makes a really nice neckline in looks, ease of getting it over your head, and warmth. I may fiddle with it some on the next one, but I think this looks good.

Magicking

I was innocently flipping through a magazine at Red Purl the other day, minding my own business when WHAM! I saw this picture and had to make this sweater. Just like that. I can't even say that I absolutely love the sweater but I had to make it. Right now.

It may have had something to do with the fact that Amy had Peace Fleece on sale for $5 a skein and there were three pink ones left and one white to go with it. I did some calculations for the substitution and figured it would get me close enough. (I apparently love to run out or almost run out of yarn at every chance I get.) I'll lengthen the body, but shorten the sleeves if need be. And no turned-over hem; that will save some yardage too.

I got the collar done the other day--that's where you start.

It's knit to make a strip of knitting on the bias:

You can see that even as the edges are straight, the knitting rows are slanted at 45 degrees. This is done with increases and decreases. No magic in that. I moved my increases/decreases in one stitch from the edge so I could have a neat selvage stitch--that is why you can see the stripes "straighten out" at the edges (especially visible in the top of the picture above).

I like the stripe effect, but briefly considered using the back side:

It's also striped but like colours are separated by a little space. This is because instead of the top and bottom of each row being done with the same colour, the top of one row and the bottom of the next are done in the same colour. Sort of like two halves coming together to make a whole. In the end, I decided to stick to the "right" side.

Because I was changing colours every time I started a right-side row, I went ahead and knit the first stitch. (Usually I slip it.) I made sure to purl the last stitch on the wrong side rows and that gave me the nice selvage stitch on one side:

On the other side, I slipped the first stitch on the wrong side rows as I normally do. Slipping it as a purl stitch yields the nice "V" selvage stitch:

You can see that this edge has only one stitch per stripe whereas the previous picture had two stitches per stripe. That's what you get with slipping. I was concerned with getting a nice selvage on both edges because the body of the sweater is picked up and knit off one edge, and the other edge is sewn down--both good times to have a convenient selvage stitch.

The bias strip collar is started with a provisional cast on. I used the crochet cast on. I started it while waiting for choir to start. You should have heard them all howl when they saw me working with a crochet hook instead of a pair of knitting needles. The basses seemed especially incensed. They are used to seeing me and my knitting but apparently a crochet hook is just going too far!

Anyway, once the right length is achieved, it is time to take out the provisional cast on and put the released stitches onto a needle:

Here I am pulling out the purple yarn of the crochet cast on
and picking up the white stitches that are freed.

Once that was done, I had two ends on needles and it was time to put them together to make a continuous loop:

The pattern called for a three-needle bind off. This would have held the ends together but it would have left a seam, causing a bump on the inside and an interruption to the garter stitch pattern. Now, we know better than that, don't we!? Have you guessed yet which word I will utter next? Yup, it's time for Kitchener. Now there's some magic!

It was going so well that when I was half done the seam, I thought I should take a picture or no one would believe me that it was sewn together:

The Kitchener seam is half done. The right side is finished;
the stitches on the needles on the left are waiting.

You can't tell which rows were knit and which one was sewn; there's no interruption to the stitch pattern, and the colour pattern is kept consistent. I love Kitchener and its mighty power.

When it was done, I had this:

Try and find the seam!

How does all this make a collar? Well, you fold it in half and just sort of imagine it laying across my shoulders:

I've since picked up the stitches around the collar and have just begin to knit the body.

The yarn contains mohair and it's definitely "hairy." I don't mind working with it, though, and I don't think I'll have any problem wearing it. If nothing else, I'll wear a tank under it and that will only help if the neckline ends up being too wide open for bra straps. (I'm old fashioned--I'd rather not show mine.)

But there's enough time to worry about that later. Meanwhile, I'll keep knitting. Obviously the shirt's being done top-down, so next time you see it, I'll probably be trying it on.