Mountains of Wool

No matter how many sweaters I make, I dont think I'll ever get over the surprise at seeing just how much wool hides in one measley garment (this was just a male Medium, although it was baggy). I did a little sweater-harvesting this weekend. Found a blue tweed wool aran sweater at the bottom of my dresser on Saturday - I picked it up from Ross a couple of years ago for $9.99 or something ridiculous like that. It didn't fit all that well, so after a couple of hours, this is what I had laying around my apartment....




These photos were taken after soaking the wool in a bath for a few hours and hanging them out to dry. The wool seems to closely resemble Yorkshire Tweed DK - one of my favorite yarns - although is softer and machine washable! Its not necessarily a color I would purchase for a sweater, but it'll add some variety to my sweater arsenal (if I ever get around to knitting it up).


I know, I know - you were expecting a full Swallowtail report with this post. I'm really ready to give you one, but haven't had a chance to have a proper photo shoot. With the onset of Autumn comes the loss of ideal lighting for evening photography. But soon.

Do you remember Raspy? I'm so close to the end on this one - its been a long time coming. I have a few more inches on the second sleeve, then I'll toss it in the wash and seam it onto the rest of the body, which is patiently waiting for its final piece:


You can see from the photo that I alternated the neckline with shortrows (I'll explain more later) from the original straight-across boatneck required in the pattern. There are some other obvious changes (ommissions), but for now, I'll spare you the details.

I'm going to Boston this weekend, I'm not positive that I'll have time to do any fiber crawling, but any suggestions you have would be great! I know that there are a ton of great knitters in Boston. I've never been, so I'm excited. Of course what I'm most excited about is the 4 hour bus ride alone with my sweater.............

Pinned

So I finally got around to blocking...

A much more indulgent post coming soon to a computer screen near you.

treats

click each photo for more info

The Shetland Triangle

the slough of vacation knits continue to reveal themselves. This piece was already gifted and can now be shown publicly. You know the pattern, I've seen them all over. I love it though.

Pattern: "Shetland Triangle" by Evelyn A. Clark
Source: Wrap Style (Interweave Press)
Materials: Sundara Yarn Aran Silky Merino hand-dyed 'Burgundy over Brown'(2 hanks)
Needles: US 9 KnitPicks Options (my first time)

Start Date: 19 August 2006
Completion Date: 3 September 2006

Modifications: None really, other than the obvious subbing of an aran weight for lace weight (one of my favorite moves). I used the shawl calculator here (sidebar) to figure out just how many repeats were possible with what i had. I scrapped the last patterned row (and obligatory purl row) before the bind off to get a more subtle scalloping along the edge. For this one, I liked that look better.



This particular lace pattern is ridiculously simple to follow, but I couldn't help being drawn to its curvilinear quality. When it comes to lace, I am much more of a fan of organic, curvilinear, and sinuous (Madli, Print-o-the-Wave, etc) rather than more geometric pattern motifs (DFS, Faroese, most things in A Gathering of Lace, etc.) Of course I appreciate all sorts of lace patterns, but I find myself drawn to certain styles over others. With the Shetland Triangle, I love how the leaves are formed by undulating rows converging together towards a center point and then bending outward again with yos.


You can knit this thing on auto-pilot, and add as many repeats as you want (I love when a pattern works out like that). Use any yarn, any weight, and get something that is preferable to you, regardless of how many you've seen before.


And I can't put this post up without saying a short word about the yarn: this is definitely the most luxurious yarn that has ever graced my needles. When it was over, I was desperate for more, sad that it was done, and excited that it happened. Sounds like a torrid affair, doesn't it. The color trumps everything - no matter how hard I tried, the pictures cant explain to you the depth and saturation. Hand-dyed by an artist, its no wonder it was so mesmurizing throughout. Not to mention how it feels... (butter)

There's still one more shawl I have yet to show you, but I think I'll make you wait a little longer for it, since I've got very little knitting going on presently.

Chimney Socks

so now no one can say i never knit socks. (i never do, though)

Pattern: Generic Toe-Up; Womens S/M; 60 stitches (See details below)
Materials: Sundara Sock Yarn (2 Skeins in "Chimney", 1 Skein Color 012)
Needles: US 1 Aluminum DPN's (unknown brand)

Started: 20 August 2006
Completed: 29 August 2006

Anatomy: Casted on like this with Solid color, increased to 60 Sts, switched to Hand-dyed yarn, work to heel, switch back to Solid, short-rowed a heel with YO wraps like so (using Solid), stockinetted my way up to a 1x1 ribbed cuff and finished it off with this.

Technically, this is my first real pair of socks - you know, using real sock yarn, tiny needles, and all those little heel/toe tricks i read about everywhere. It was enjoyable, there was something satisfying about knitting such tiny stockenette stitches. I'm happy to add it to the repertoire, but I'm not going crazy for it. I'm still a sweater and hat junkie at heart. I will say, I am a little more interested in reading about sock construction, which is probably a good thing, since there is way too much of it out there on the internet! Ha!


To tell the truth, my favorite part was shooting the photos... but that comes as no surprise, does it?

The Seamless Hybrid

I know you all are the last people I need to sing praises to about Elizabeth Zimmermann, but will that stop me? You know it won't.


Pattern: Seamless Hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann (not so much a pattern as a recipe)
Source: Knitting Without Tears
Materials: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK in 'Revel' (1o Balls); Rowanspun DK in 'Rush' (less than 1 ball) for hem facings.
Needles: US 6 Clover Bamboo Circulars (29" & 16"); US 6 Crystal Palace Bamboo DPN's
Cost: $49.99 (scored a bag of Yorkshire Tweed on Ebay) + Shipping

Start Date: 26 July 2006
Completion: 18 August 2006

I'll do my best to explain the construction on this one. The (pure) genius lies in the simplicity. Again, I realize I'm preaching to the choir here...

Anatomy: EZ offers up 4 recipes for seamless sweaters in "Kw/oT." With the exception of yoke construction, all 4 sweaters are done in the same way. You knit the body in the round (in my case, a straight tube with no shaping), followed by two sleeves (beginning at the cuff, increasing up to the desired circumference as you approach the armhole). These three pieces are knit seperately until you've reached a preferred length. This part of the sweater was sort of a snooze-fest, but I love me some stockinette in the round, so I enjoyed it. It also goes crazily fast.

When all three pieces are completed, you join each onto one 29"+ circular needle and work one long round to join them all together (having left of 8% body circumference for the underarm on each piece) - this is the longest round you will work. From this point, you choose a yoke treatment and get to the good stuff!

The Seamless Hybrid is a tasty mixture of a standard raglan and a saddle-shoulder pullover. Work the first portion of the yoke with standard raglan decreasing, although, because we're working in the round, we can decrease at a rate of every third row (rather than every second or fourth) which gives the IDEAL raglan slope, and starts securing that wonderful fit. After a certain number of stitches have been decreased, its time to saddle up. From here on out, you will be working just the sleeve stitches back and forth, making a saddle that slowly approaces the center neck, leaving the body stitche s live on the needle. How is it seamless? As you work the saddle, you knit the last stitch of each row TOGETHER WITH ONE LIVE STITCH OF THE BODY. You are seaming up the top of the piece as you build it.(Seriously, I'm excited just explaining it). When you reach the collar - you bind of half of the stitches of the saddle and continue working them across the back. This means the neck hole is merely the front half of the sleeve saddle, in the center of the sweater. When both saddles meet in the middle, you kitchener graft them together and BAM, your sweater is all seamed up. Pop a collar on that bad boy and you're ready-to-wear.

(I realize that this description may be convolluted and confusing (much like the pattern writing!) I had to read and re-read multiple times to envision it correctly. If your having trouble, just make one, it'll all make sense to you then)

Below I have included visuals of the yoke construction (Click on them to see them in greater detail):


front of yoke :: back of yoke
Modifications/Personalization:
How do you make it your own? Well, first off - any sweater you make from such a general recipe will be indiviudalized based on your yarn choices: guage, drape, shaping, blah blah blah. Its the same old story. I chose to add a wide (about 2") turned hem at the sleeve and body cuffs. I liked how this added a little weight to the bottom half of the piece. It also gave me an opportunity to add a contrasting color on the hem facings.

contrasting hem facings
Recognize it? Thats a little leftover Rowanspun DK from this. I like the semi-off-the-wall color combo, and the union of tweeds. (Is there any better union?)

Some of you asked about how I did this, and its a suuuuper simple process: With contrasting yarn (Rowanspun) provisionally cast-on 90% the number of stitches you plan on having at the base of your sleeve. Knit these stitches to desired cuff length (2"). Knit one round with Main Yarn (Yorkshire Tweed), increasing evenly up to 100% of cuff circumference. Purl one round (this is your turning round). Now begin to knit normally with your Main Yarn. When you have knit the equal length with your Main Yarn that you had previously done with your Contrasting Yarn (2"), it is time to join them together: Fold the hem and begin your round, knitting two stitches together on every stitch (one contrasting yarn stitch, and one main yarn stitch). Keeping with the whole "seamless" theme, we are bypassing the insanely annoying step of sewing down hem facings (cringe). *NOTE: you are knitting together 10% more Main Yarn stitches than Contrast Yarn Stitches... you will need to calculate for this and skip a K2tog every once in a while (you'll only knit the Main Color by itself).

EZ suggested finishing with a hemmed collar as well - which was my original plan. However, when I did this it looked rotten. It really didn't fit. So I went with a 1x1 ribbed collar and a tubular (kitchener) bind off (i love how clean that one is). I like the finished product

So... now that I've written a short thesis, I'll conclude. I hope this was in some way informative and not too confusing. My main goal here is to spread ideas and inspiratin about sweater construction. Thats what keeps me coming back to all this you know.

And for the record, this is my best fitting garment yet - I really like how it feels, and post blocking, my wool-too-scratchy worries were soothed, its definitely wearable! I've been sportin it around in this rainy Chicago weather for 3 days already

and its back to knitting.

Socks

Why not indulge you sock knitters out there? I have two pairs on the needles. Sock knitting is alright I guess, I'm not obsessing over it, but its a fun way to bust through the sock yarn in my stash (all of which has been gifted to me in some way or another).

Check these out:


K's birthday socks. That masterful dye job is all Sundara.


A pair of striped Elann Esprit socks for me.

The Seamless Hybrid is blocking .... I'm getting anxious for it to dry. I think it'll be at least another day or two though.

Oh, and thank you for all the Chi-town Tips. I checked out Loopy yesterday and am going to hit up a few more LYS's tomorrow.