Weaving the Web

If there's one thing my knitting has taught me, its to give as much time to a project as possible during the 'honeymoon' stage. When you can't stop thinking about it (at work, on your commute, etc.), that's a pretty good sign that you should work on it as much as possible. I really hate when I hit the initial 'loss of interest' stage, when project boredom comes a calling. Motivation seems to run away so easily in our fickle internet knitting world of too-many-prospective-projects and too-many-tempting-fibers.

Well, I'm happy to say I'm not feeling the twinge of disinterest yet. There's only love for the SSAC around here so far, and it is flying.


The color may come as a shock to you if you saw my swatch - I swatched with some stash leftovers of the same yarn in a different color (from a recently finished sweater that you haven't seen yet). I forgot to mention that in my last post. I'm a bit worried that I didn't purchase enough yarn for this one, so I'm trying to be as conservative with the good stuff as possible.

The yarn, one of my all time favorites, is Classic Elite Skye Tweed in a smokey forest green with blue and red flecks sprinkled about liberally (shade #1215). I attribute my love for knitting this sweater equally to both material and design. I'm enamored with both.


These photos were taken at the end of the day Sunday and there's been much more knitting done since then. As of last night, I weighed in at just over 10 inches on the body. Cross your fingers and hope that this knitting vigilance persists!

Sweater Planning

My sincerest apologies for my recent disappearance. The non-knitting commitments in my life have been conjuring against us. Despite the silence over the last week, I have been diligently working out some sweater-related challenges.


Pictured above: a washed, blocked, heavy-duty cable swatch. I love taking the extra care in the planning stages of an aran sweater. Because there are so many details involved (centering the panels just so, getting things to line up right for saddle shouldering and yoke shaping, the correct amount of filler sts, proper cable plumpness after blocking, etc.) I think a good couple of days of swatching and calculating is truly necessary. It makes for a positive knitting overall experience - hell, it's just good sense. Not to mention by the time you actually start the sweater, you feel like you could knit it with your eyes closed: you've already tested the charts and you've added, subtracted and shifted every panel around enough so that you know exactly how the thing is structured.


In a nutshell, here's my planning process, if you're interested (if not, just stare at the pictures and close this window - I totally understand. It's Monday morning after all).

If you have an idea of your desired gauge in stockinette (or happen to have a stockinette swatch already knit up somewhere, this is very good), note this number. Multiply this gauge by your target chest circumference to come up with the Key Number (as EZ would say), heretofore referred to as K.

Now, to more or less compensate for the change in gauge that cables will inevitably bring, multiply K by 1.1 (adding 10% of K to the total number of stitches. If you like plumper cables, add 15%) If your math renders a number with decimals, round up. You should now have a semi-accurate working number to start planning your sweater. For example, at this point in the equation, I projected 205 total body stitches.

Chart out your design. Using your total number and your chosen cable panels, plan your pattern, placing the motifs around the body as you prefer. Add up the total number of stitches that the main cables will consume and subtract from K - this will give you a 'remainder' number with which you can allocate to "fillers" (purl stitches between cables, or my preferred filler combo: p, ktbl, p, ktbl, p) A 3 st filler or a 5 st filler between your panels can cleanly and evenly use up your 'remainder' quite nicely.

Swatch. Cast on at least 30% of your total body stitches (I swatched on 70 stitches) and try to use one instance of each cable panel represented in the sweater. This will give you a pretty decent representation of the finished work (see above). I like to work each cable over at least 4-5 vertical repeats before binding off.

Wash and block your swatch. Do it. You'll be so happy you did. I try to wash my swatches on even the most basic sweaters, but for cables this is imperative. When working with wool, the blocking can drastically change the appearance of your cables: if you like them fat and plump, you won't need to stretch the fabric very much when pinning. If you prefer them flatter and less bombastic, you can squeak another inch or two out of your swatch when blocking. I prefer my cables to figure somewhere in the middle.

When your swatch is dry, unpin it (it might shrink a quarter inch or so) and measure the entire length. Divide this by the number of stitches cast on for the swatch and get your actual gauge. Does this match the gauge you had predicted earlier? It should resemble it fairly closely. Mine was a couple of tenths of a stitch off, so I plugged that number into my original sweater plan and needed to do a few final (very minor) readjustments. I changed my total number (K) from 205 to 210 and made up for these extra stitches in the side panels (under the arms to be super sly).

If you're still alive (you deserve a badge for patience) - start knitting! At this point, I could barely control myself, but it was utterly satisfying to see the real thing working up after all this fluff. And the sweater is flying - I'll show you an update later this week.

A note for the worrisome: keep your swatch nearby. When you get a few inches into your sweater, your intuitive knitting alarm will start going crazy. The sweater will seem MUCH too small. Just clutch your swatch close to your heart and have faith - remember how much length was gained after washing. As long as you abide by all the numbers, blocking should be your sweet salvation in the end. (I admit to succumbing to these fears about every 6 rows. And yes I've stretched the actual sweater over my swatch multiple times to make sure I'm not going to be a very disappointed knitter in the end).

P.S. This swatch is for the Elizabeth Zimmermann/Meg Swansen Saddle Shoulder Aran Cardigan from Wool Gathering #63. I've had this one tempting me for way too long.

Fiber Fix Friday

click here for notes

Enjoy the weekend.

Stripes Make a Comeback

I'm happy to report that I'm knitting for pleasure full-time again. The last couple of months have been a little dicey with some extra-curricular knitting , but I'm safely back on the fast track to a more relaxed (deadline free) knitting schedule, at least for the time being.

This weekend I'll be zoning out on stockinette and getting reacquainted with The Swisher.


I love picking up an in-progress project after its fallen off the radar for a few months. In a way, it seems brand new again - this time there's only half a sweater to knit, though. Kind of feels like cheating.

Don't mind me, I'll be the one happily knitting in the corner.

Until next time.

The First Taste

I love teaching people how to knit. I love witnessing that moment when you see the confused expression wash away and a big yellow light bulb appear above the newbie's head. Witnessing the moment when a new obsession begins.


I liken it to the infamous "forbidden fruit" moment. Scarves aside, once you take your first bite of a project that incorporates some interesting twists and turns (don't forget how increasing/decreasing fascinated you at first), or your first spin "in-the-round", you gain that pesky knowledge of good and evil. The Good: knitting for yourself (freedom from the man aka manufactured clothing, esp. machine knits), expressing yourself creatively through a structurally satisfying art form, and of course having the wonderful world of natural fibers open up to you, among many other things. The Bad: the weight of a new obsession (the constant search for more time in our busy day persists). But we can deal with that can't we? I think we have to.

Today I present to you the recent fruits of labor of one such new-knitter who is nothing short of insatiable for his next knitting challenge (he wanted to cut the hat and go straight from garter stitch scarf to full fledged sweater). The momentous first hat.

Here we have your basic hat pattern - which I believe is the only way to go when using a yarn that does so much work for you anyway - 2x2 ribbing, stockinette body and spiral decrease crown. The yarn has shown its face around these parts before. This beautiful stuff is from the Tuesday slot of Yarn Portrait Week. I firmly believe in knitting with quality fibers from day one. Beginner or advanced, for what we do here, you owe it to yourself.


The colors, as usual deserve a special nod. Knit on 16" circular US 6/4mm needles, this was devoured in just under a week. Maybe it is time for a first-sweater after all.

Have you spread the knitting love around to anyone recently? It's refreshing. Infect your friends!

Join the club

The project that has served most useful to me this winter is, hands down, Red-Light-Special. I loved it even before the vindictive cold snap hit, but over the last few blustery weeks we've become inseparable. The stranded fabric + the extra ear lining keeps my ears very happy when the winter winds whipping up Columbus attempt to ruin me on my morning walks to work.


I didn't realize how toasty this thing was until I put an older, single-layer knit hat on my head when I went out the other day and experienced very questionable protection from the cold.

Why am I telling you this? Mostly because I want to introduce some of the other wonderful versions of the pattern that have been cropping up around the internet. It's such a wonderful thing to see each one done in colors that suit the individual knitter. I'm endlessly entertained by all the color experimentation.

This month I started a Red Light Flickr Group in hopes to gather together as many of our RLS (finished or in-progress) images as possible. Below you see some of the wonderful versions of the hat that have been completed by knitters all over the country (and world! Thanks, Sigga!).


If you've made one, or are currently, and you're a flickr member (or junkie, like me) please join the group! If you're not a part of flickr but want to share your photos, please send them to me via e-mail and I'll post them for you.

On top of all this, the wonderful folks at Noeknit in San Francisco even used the pattern for their beginner Fair Isle Course, and the results are wonderfully creative. To say I was flattered would be an understatement. Check out the in-progress shots from their class here. Also, be sure to see the most recent blog posts for a few finished RLS shots. I love all the color combinations that everyone has come up with. Thanks to Noeknit for the great inspiration.

And thanks again for everyone who has sent in finished pics, I've really enjoyed seeing everyone's individual take on the pattern.

Adjustments

You all recall the little honeymoon phase I had with the February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac over the summer, right? And then the running-out-of-a-dyelotless-yarn moment when that honeymoon abruptly ended?

Well, Sundara hooked me up with a fill-up in December and this weekend I finally picked up this project again.


Yes there are two and no these are not for twins.

I debated on whether or not to just continue with the old sweater, striping in the new color with the old, despite a noticeable difference in 'dyelots'. I knew I'd be bothered by that in the end. Especially since I now have enough of the new yarn to make a bigger, better version (I went up 2 needle sizes also, to play up the lace and to accommodate the baby's current age. ehhhh...). Yes that's right - I took the high road.


V1, pictured on the left, is how much you can get out of one 100g skein of worsted on US6's. V2 on the right is using 200g on size 8's and will have more than enough yarn. And now that my guilty conscience has been quelled, I can rip V1 and make a hat for myself with that beautiful yarn, being the selfish knitter that I am. (To be more truthful, the ripping occured late last night in a fit of inspiration.)

In case you're wondering, I'm not only knitting for babies right now. I'm finishing up a couple things and then I'm setting my sights towards reinjecting some of my deflated Work-In-Progress sweaters with a renewed wintry vigor.

And because sometimes I can't help myself:


Happy Monday, all.