A Couple of Deadlines Met & Ethnic Knitting Exploration

On the Knitting Front
I have been working to deadlines recently. The big one was the shawl. I got a nice picture of my neighbor modeling it. I called it La Valse because the swirling, twirling pattern mad me think of the music by Ravel. It was needed for a show starting Mar. 25.

I had started a pair of socks for DD in Florida for her birthday. It took almost a month to finish them, but they arrived in times. Aussi Sock yarn, Kathleen Power Johnson's pattern. I really like how the yarn works with this pattern. Her birthday is today.

My favorite yarn company asked for a fairisle pattern. He wanted it for a one day workshop/show Saturday Apr. 4. I finished the mitts yesterday and the pattern today. The graphics seem to take longer than the words in some patterns.

I'm still knitting the socks for Plymouth yarn. The foot is done and I'm working on the leg. The yarn is Happy Feet solids.

Ethnic Knitting Exploration
Over a year ago I received Donna Druchunas's first book in the Ethnic Knitting series. She started by freeing the knitter from patterns, explaining what you don't need to know (higher math and advanced color theory). What you need to know (stating the obvious), sweaters are made from basic shapes and a gauge swatch is needed to know how to fill the shape with knit fabric.

The first book concentrates on the simplest shape, drop shoulder sweaters with variations. Proportions are given based on the circumference of the body. A few basics are given, so that a beginner has everything in one place. The first country is the Netherlands, concentrating on texture. A small project is given for each country, to familiarize the knitter with the technique, in this case, a scarf with patterning at the ends.

You have 3 options for working the basic concept; visual, working from a schematic and filling in basic numbers in a short worksheet, planning worksheets where there is more calculating, and step by step instructions with blanks for customization.

Denmark, the second country features all over texture. Norway and the Andes feature color patterns.

The second book expands on what has gone before. Shoulders can be raglan, yoked, or saddle shoulders. Information for refining and customization is given.

Lithuania is the first country presented. Color patterns are more complex, shown on fingerless gloves and raglan pullovers with color bands. Centering large motifs and variations for making the design fit the size of the knitting are discussed.

Icelandic knitting is characterized by heavier yarn and ofter feature yoked sweaters with multiple color bands. The small project is a capelet, which gives practice in yoke shaping. Cardigans are introduced

Ireland makes many people think of elaborate texture patterns, although this style is fairly recent. Teh easiest way to follow these patterns is with charts, so these are explained. Designing your own, by sketching out the patterns is recommended. A rough sketch can tell you a lot. Cable swatches are necessary, to know how much each variety will pull in. Cables also tend to flare at the top and bottom. Prevention is discussed.

The small project is a poncho and the sweaters shown have saddle shoulders. Neither book gives specific instructions, but how to get a properly fitting garment is easy following the guidelines. Texture and color patterns are given as suggestions specific to the country servingf as inspiration.

The Exploration book ends with a discussion on cardigans. They can be knit in the round and cut after knitting. They can be knit in the round working back and forth. They can be knit in pieces and sewn together. Bands and buttonholes are covered.

Lastly, these books are part of the Green Press Initiative. using paper and ink that tries to conserve natural resources. The information in the books may well save more paper as they free the knitter from the need to have a printed pattern for a sweater that may not fit. Teh options are endless.

F is for Fair Isle and Finished

F is for Fair Isle

Socks
Brown from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush
Grey and Purple from Knitting on the Road

Sweaters

Coverlet sweater by Krisitin Nicholas from Knitting the New Classics










My own design from house sale wool.















Dale of Norway Salt Lake City Olypmics (2002) knit during 2006 Olympics as part of the Yarn Harlot dare.



The Ethnic Knits Norwegian Sweater is finished, but I had a problem.














The sleeves were too long. Wednesday was spent in sleeve surgery.

The surgery went as follows. Working in the sleeve section where there are no increases, separate sleeve putting stitches on a circular needle. Luckily I worked the increases every 4 rows, and then worked straight until I had the length I thought I needed.





























Separation almost complete.













Just cut the yarn and frog until two rows before the pin. The pin is on a lice row. I'm keeping the one row above it.

















The stitches just wait to be picked up on the sleeve needle. Shetland type yarn doesn't run easily.













About 2" was frogged. I did measure carefully! Some of this is due to stretching. I wore the sweater for a day before surgery. That helped me decide how much to remove.










Grafting commenced. 160 stitches per sleeve. The first sleeve is almost finished here. The second was finished before I went to bed. I even wove in a few yarn ends at the wrist of the second sleeve, as well as the yarn ends caused by the surgery.










Doesn't this look better?















Finished and wearable. Of course, the dog had to get in the picture. We had snow on the first day of Spring, but I'll show pictures next time.

Bands, the knitting sort

The second sleeve is installed. A slightly different sequence of steps was used. I cut part of the sleeve steek and bound off the shoulder stitches before inserting the sleeve.
Cut and Sew neckline. The first step is to mark the neckline desired. I had planned to steek the front neck, but got carried away when knitting the pattern. A crocheted chain marks the intended neck shaping. To the right is what I had planned if I had steeked, decreasing one stitch every other row. To the left is my final shape, decreasing every row. The neckline needs to be marked before shoulder sewing, so you know where to stop.
I machine stitched the neckline shape and cut out the extra fabric, leaving about 1/4" of seam allowance. A crochet hook was used to pick up the stitches through the fabric, trying to pick up an equal number on each side of the front neck. I can adjust the number of stitches by increasing or decreasing on the first row. The back neck was bound off for stability, and stitches were picked up from the bound off stitches. The neckband is 1" before the yo, k2tog picot.
You can see the raw edges of the neckline. The front edge has also been cut, and has rolled under.
All raw edges of the neckline are encased in the two layer band. Next is the button band. It is important to know the stitches/inch gauge and the length needed for the band. This determines the number of stitches needed for the band. I picked up at the rate of one stitch/row and decreased as I purled the next row. It seemed to be a smoother line. The buttonhole band follows. I used a one-row buttonhole. A buttonhole is needed in each layer. Total stitches were counted, length of buttonholes calculated. Stitches needed between buttonholes figured out, not forgetting the button spacing from top and bottom edges. There are 12 rows before the picot edge. Buttonholes are on the 6th and 18th rows.
When the knitting is finished, buttonholes are carefully sewn together, joining the two layers. It is important that the sweater steek not be too wide at this point, so as to lie smoothly at the buttonhole.
I joined the buttonholes before sewing the facing down on the inside. Now to sew on the buttons. Buttons need space underneath them to allow for the thickness of the band, so they are sewn on loosely and thread wrapped around between the sweater and the button. Next comes the bath. After 6 weeks of work, I'm sure that the project has picked up dirt.

What is a steek and how do I use one?

A steek is a reinforced area of tubular knitting, which is cut to insert a sleeve, front bands, or neckline facing. In this case, I'm inserting a sleeve. This sweater is knit from fingering weight yarn. The sleeve has 1/2" of reverse stockinette stitch at the top. You may be able to see it in the photo below. There also is an extra row of main color after the last pattern, which will serve as seam allowance.
















The body is a tube. To figure armhole placement, divide the total number of stitches by 4. This sweater will be a cardigan, so the center front is an obvious steek area of 6 stitches, making determination of the center front easy. Count off 1/4 of the total stitches on either side of the center front, and mark at the top. Lay the sleeve on the body to mark the depth of the armhole. Both points are marked with pink embroidery floss. In this case, the pattern can be used to guide placement and ensure that
both sides are the same.




I am using only 2 stitches for the armhole. This means that a very narrow area of one whole stitch will be machine sewn. Both inside and outside are shown.
































After sewing both sides of the center, cut between the lines of stitching.











Place the sleeve into the opening, pinning to prevent movement. You see the facing beyond the cut edge.







I chose to sew this one with an outline stitch, which has some stretch. The needle goes through the sweater one stitch from the cut edge. It goes through the sleeve where the stockinette and reverse stockinette meet. I do a 3/8" long stitch on the body side, and back up 1/8" to stitch the sleeve side. Continue around the sleeve.

















Before stitching down the facing, the shoulder seam must be closed. Mark where the neck opening will start and the shoulder seam will end. I am using a crochet version of the 3 needle bind off. I put a crochet hook through the first stitch on the front and the back. Pull a loop through both stitches. Repeat and pull the loop through all three loops on the crochet hook.

Note that the yarn is wrapped clockwise when crocheting. At some point, you will need to transfer front or back stitches to another needle. The body circular will be too long. Continue working stitches from the front, back and hook until you reach the neckline marker.






























When the shoulder is sewn, you can sew down the sleeve facing and cover the raw edges. Make sure that these stitches do not show on the right side.






















Admire your beautiful sleeve.

The gauge grinch strikes again

I've been busted! Another daughter has joined Ravelry. Neither of them has posted much yet. DD Julie has a blog (link on my sidebar). I really enjoy seeing what she's doing. Now I'll have to use generic names for any gift projects, especially for them and their families.

My sweater sleeve grows slowly. Many of you know the feeling. Knit, knit, knit, measure. No change! Knit, knit, knit. measure again. I have done all the increases that I calculated. The sleeve is still too narrow and shorter than expected. Check the gauge on the sweater body in the lice section. I wish I had measured the gauge of the swatch before washing. I think the yarn relaxed after its bath. Refigure using the new figures. I've almost finished the "extra" increases and the sleeve width looks good. I'm at 16" long and close to the 20" circumference that I aimed for. Lice will continue until 19" and then the zigzag pattern like the yoke peerie. The sleeve will be worked straight after I finish the increases. I'll count the rows of lice to make the other sleeve match.

I have a design commission with a June deadline. I'm going to make 2 children's sweaters out of sock yarn. Thursday is my day off. I'm thinking it's time to wind the yarn into a ball and start swatching. It'll be a break from the small needles. I'm using 2.5 mm needles for both the sweater and the socks. Actually,that's wrong. I can't go up much in needle size or the fabric will be too loose, maybe US#2/2.75mm. I plan a boy and a girl sweater in related colors.

It snowed again. The weather can't make up its mind. We've had a lot of warm days this winter, so the snow has not piled up as it does some years. We have 8" on the ground right now. No school today, since most of the snow fell overnight. By Sunday it should get above freezing, and melting will commence. Dog and I shoveled the front walk instead of checking out the neighborhood. This morning, we made a path one shovel wide. This evening, we widened part of it. In the morning we'll finish the front walk. I hope our plow service comes tonight. Most of the snow fell after they plowed last evening. Calls have been made, but the snow remains.

D is for.. sweater again and more

My ABC Along entry for D is dishcloths. Cotton dishcloths are much more sanitary than sponges. They're fun to make and easy. They make great gifts. My hairdresser is still raving about hers!

The body of the sweater is ready for steeking. I just need to finish a sleeve to know how long to make the sleeve steek. The sleeve is about 10" now, but each row gets longer for a while. The finished sleeve will be about 20 1/2" long. A long way to go, and lice pattern is not as interesting as the other patterns. The upside is that 3/4 of the rows are just knit in one color. This is working well for the sleeve increases. I'm increasing every 4 rows and the lice pattern is an 8 row pattern. I am putting the increases in the row before the lice. It's a lot easier than increasing in the pattern at the wrist. When the sleeve reaches the target width, I'll work straight up to the shoulder seam.

What is all that stuff on the top of the sleeve? The sleeve is too big around for the dp needles, so I added a circular. There are 3 dps and one circular on the sleeve right now. I really need a 2nd circular, which is on order from KnitPicks. The side marker is where I started on Sunday morning. It helps to know how much progress I've made. It is on a circular earring finding. The other marker is at the start of the increases and makes it easy for me to count how many I've done.

DH and I celebrated a wedding anniversary. We've survived another year together! Sometimes this surprises us how long we've been together. We went out for a nice dinner in a place we haven't eaten in for quite a while, an Irish place called Jimmy O'Neill's. We both had corned beef and cabbage.

My portable knitting project is socks for DS. The yarn is Regia 4 fadig Short Color in greys. The leg pattern is a k2, p2 variation adapted from Charlene Schurch's Simply Sensational Socks book. I'm working the heel flap on the first sock. I like to keep a sock on the needles. I'll be doing men's socks this year. I knit for all the women for Christmas gifts. This pair may be a birthday gift.

Norwegian sweater and other stuff

Adult size sweaters knit with fine yarn take quite a bit of time! I've finally finished the 61 row yoke pattern for my Ethnic Knits Norwegian sweater. I then started the peerie pattern exactly like it was below the larger pattern. ARRGGGGHH!! It should have been mirrored. At least this time it was only 2 1/2 rows. Next are the sleeves. After I knit one sleeve, I can sew the steeks. I'll know exactly how wide the top of the sleeve is. I'm doing a "Cut and sew" neckline. I'll baste where I want the neck to be, machine stitch and cut. The raw edge will be enclosed in the neckband. Here's a better view of the yoke pattern.

Life has been fairly quiet this week. I got up earlier than usual Thursday morning because it was time to see my doctor for a physical. Early appointment to get it over with means a really early dog walk. There was a light dusting of snow which looked like it had a sprinkling of glitter on it. The street lights were still on and it was beautiful. I saw the same thing this morning for a short time when the sun caught the snow just right.

We went to a hockey game Thursday night. Our Lake Erie Monsters won in an overtime shootout. Sunday I made white chili in the crockpot, using left over turkey because DH doesn't like chicken. I cooked the dry beans in the microwave (cover with water and cook for 15 min.) I've been doing this since I burned beans in one of my pans.

We have a new little neighbor. Mike and Sarah, our new neighbors snuk a baby boy into their house when no one was looking. Well that's not quite right. The baby was actually delivered by the nieghbor across the street, who is a midwife. She was working at the hospital when delivery help was needed. I had a white baby set of sweater, hat and booties on the shelf, so wrapped it up and took it over. I wrapped it in the Sunday comics, since both parents work for the newspaper. No pictures. I forgot to take them when I sewed the buttons on just before package delivery.

Speaking of sewing, I do have pictures of a couple of projects from work. A light blue dress with black sash and black binding on the top edge was taken in to be smaller and a sparkly crystal organza overlay was added. Mom loved how it looked when she picked it up. It was hard to sew neatly, because of the plastic sparkles on the fabric. My machine sewed through them easily, but the bumps made the seams wobbly. You can see the shiny bits as diagonal lines in the fabric.

Another project was a performance dress for a 15 yr. old violinist. She has been my customer for at least 4 years. She does a lot of solo work and needs age appropriate long dresses. It doesn't help that that she's petite. I think she's shot up to almost 5 feet tall now. This dress is black stretch velvet with a stretch lining. All went well except for the zipper. I finally basted it in by hand before machine sewing. A non-stretch zipper and a stretch fabric with nap made a bad combination. I also made a long sash in off white dupioni silk. It's about 7 feet long. She can tie it around her waist with a big bow and still have the ends go down to the dress hem. If she wants, she can wrap it around twice and knot it for a similar effect.

C is for...,

In the ABC Along, C is for cardigan. This is one I designed for south West Trading Company. Main color is Karaoke, accented with Fur Real. It is worked sideways with modified drop shoulders.

My teaching trip to Pittsburgh went very well. I had fun. I bought a little at market. I also connected with a yarn company that I have designed for previously. Finally got to meet the real person. I will be designing some items for the TNNA show in June. He wants to use sock yarn for garments.

I did have some trouble getting home. It was very windy. Luckily, I was driving Sunday afternoon, not at night, but the weather alternated between fog with wispy snow and sun glare. The drive was more tiring than I expected.

At work on Friday, before I left, I got to install a new phone. I had a very basic wall phone which quit ringing so that I could hear it. I bought the replacement at Target for $5.99. I'm sure it won't last 20 years like the first one, and I don't like the sound of the ring, but it works. I was able to use the same wall plate to mount it on, so that's good.

I also got to repair my iron. I have an industrial iron with a bottle like an IV. This is what it looks like now. The valve between the bottle and the tubing broke off when I went to fill the bottle. This left a hole in the bottom of the bottle. You know what water will do then!


I called my repair guy, determined that he had a replacement bottle and would be in his shop. Then I called DH and asked him to go get it. It's great to have a retired guy to run errands for you. I was back in business in an hour or so. I've tried to show a close up of the connection. There is a blue resin filter in the bottom of the bottle. When it turns brown it needs replacing. This keeps the inside of the iron clean.

Ive also been knitting on my Ethnic Knits sweater. I had to do the top peerie pattern 3 times, because I hadn't figured correctly to center the yoke pattern and the peerie pattern was coordinated with it. I had the diamond points centered on the zigzags. I've got it now and and working on row 12 out of 30 which will be repeated, so 60 rows and more of the peerie. It goes faster at this point because I'm anxious to see what it will look like. It now measures 16".