LK Knits

So I just said that I don't do knit-alongs, which is why it's taken me two years to get around to knitting a Rogue hoodie. I am a texture knitter more than a color knitter, so I love Celtic motifs, cables, arans, ganseys, ... and this sweater was a slam-dunk-you-better-believe-I'm-making-this sweater. Problem is, between my backlogged pipeline and my stash, it took me two years to get to it!

I am making it in the discontinued Rowan Silken Tweed, in the color Plum. I bought this yarn back in 1999, and I was going to make a boxy pullover from a Rowan Tweed book. I got about 3 balls into it and frogged it, because I figured it would swallow me. Then the yarn sat in the stash for five years until I found Rogue, and that is what the Silken Tweed wanted to be.

I am up to having to sew the shoulder seams and start on the hood, which I know is the tricky part of this pattern. Up to now it's been a fun knit; just enough interest with the Celtic knots to be engaging, but enough stockinette to be compatible with relaxation and tv watching. But now I'm at the attention to detail point.

I hope to finish this by early January, because it's the perfect sweater for my winter and early spring 2007. I have a sabbatical and a book contract, so I am going to want clothing to make me cozy and to make me want to write! It also won't hurt if Rogue also makes me feel creative.

I made some progress on Rogue last evening; I sewed the shoulders and started on the hood:

I even tried it on, and it will fit well; for once I made it long enough! I have a history of making sweaters too short, a combination of ill-advised frugality in buying yarn and a longer-than-average torso. Not this time!

The hood seems like it will go quickly, and the sleeves (which I'll work in parallel) should too, with only wrist knot detail. This will be my holiday project, and I think the large amount of stockinette will mean that I can still be sociable with my in-laws while making progress on the sweater!

I just received my copy of Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled. I've put off buying it because I knew how I would react to it, particularly after attending her class at Stitches Midwest last August.

But now, here it is, midday on a weekday, and all I want to do is devour it, get out yarn and pointy sticks, and start swatching some of the patterns in my yarns. I want to knit each and every one of the 20 patterns in the book, and I love more than three quarters of the stitches in the stitch dictionary.

I shouldn't be allowed to look at it until after I've finished my book manuscript.

By contrast, here's a more mindless but still engaging WIP:

It's the reversible cable scarf from the aforementioned Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. Great, straightforward pattern. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the colorway Mother Lode. Just look at the sheen and stitch definition!

I am about to sit on a plane to Las Vegas for 3 hours and I intend to work on this almost the whole time. Might be done when I get home from my trip ...

I absolutely adore Brooklyn Tweed. Jared has a wonderful eye for color and composition, and he and I share tastes in yarn and in cables and arans (although he's willing to work at a smaller gauge than I am!).

Earlier this week he wrote an enormously informative and useful tutorial on swatching an aran sweater, including picking stitch patterns that go together. His swatch is stunning, and the stitch patterns are beautiful. This one goes over in the knitting technique column!

I have been knitting, but not at the breakneck pace that I did to finish the Jaeger Poker sweater (of which I have pictures coming soon). I am almost done with a Jaywalker sock in Socks That Rock, about which more later, and I have been working on Rebecca No. 27 pattern 41, the first sweater on the strip of pictures:

It's a polo-neck cotton sweater with a plaited cable up each side of the front, back, and sleeves. Very cute! I'm using Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran in the lighter blue shade, and it's knitting somewhat smaller than the required gauge, so I'm making the larger size.

I have actually frogged back to start over, mostly because I was annoyed at a mistake made in the English translation of the cable. Plaited cables have a natural algorithm: do some cables in one direction, do some rows without cabling, then do a row of cables in the other direction but offset from the starting point of the first row of cables. This pattern is a 10-row pattern, with 2 of the rows as setup rows and then rows 3-10 as the repeat. The pattern erroneously said that the second, offset cable row was row 10, when it should have been row 7, but I was knitting blissfully along without thinking about it, then bammo!

Grrrr. So it's back to square one. But the sweater will be lovely.

Here are a couple of photos of the WIP Rebecca plaited cable cotton polo sweater that I mentioned last week.

Here's what makes me nervous: negative ease. It was apparent from the original pattern that it was intended to have negative ease. Other than the two cable panels on the front and back, it's all 1x1 rib, so it's very stretchy. And I do like my sweaters with very little ease, generally. But I'm still nervous ...

I really, really like this yarn, Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran. Soft and fun to work with, and it doesn't hurt my hands the way working other cottons has.

I think I'll do the front and back at the same time, three-needle bind off the shoulders, and then do the sleeves top down. It looks to me like the plaited cable is the same right side up and upside down, so doing it top down will only require calculating the sleeve decrease rate.

Progress continues on the Rebecca cotton cable polo sweater. I have very particular ideas about how I like to knit that make projects like this more difficult than they need to be. For one thing, I prefer to knit in the round, so when I get to the armholes, that means either working back and then front, or working back and front at the same time with two balls of yarn.

I also prefer to do the back and the front at the same time so that the decreases all match and the length is the same, and then I do a three-needle bind-off at the shoulders. That means carrying two working balls of yarn, and then three balls of yarn if the back has neck shaping. Lots to juggle!

And with this sweater, it's a polo neck, so that means that right now I'm carrying two balls for the front and one for the back. And yes, there's neck shaping too ...

I don't really mind, but I was kind of amused at the strange looks I got in the Denver airport while I was juggling all of these balls of yarn!

I figure I have about 4 more inches of body to knit, then I'll do the shoulders and the collar before doing the sleeves. Another weirdness I have: I like to do set-in sleeves top down. Thankfully, the plaited cable is top-bottom reversible, so I don't have to futz with the pattern.

I can't wait to wear the sweater; it'll look great with white pants and the oh-so-preppy madras platform espadrille sandals I bought this spring!

Now that I'm home, a picture of the progress I've made on the Rebecca plaited cable polo:

About 4 more inches of torso, then on to the collar and sleeves! Can't wait.

It's all over except for the end-weaving:

I haven't tried it on yet, but I'm pretty pleased with it thus far. And glad it's done!

Now that I've finished my lopi, it's on to the next non-sock project: Fife, from the Rowan book A Season's Tale.

For once I'm even using the yarn called for in the pattern, Rowanspun DK. I bought this book in 2001 or 2002, shortly after it was published, and I've wanted to make this sweater from the get-go. I bought the yarn on a trip to London, probably in 2002, and it's been sitting in the stash, waiting patiently. In part it's had to wait for me to get patient enough to do a 21 st./4 in. pattern!

We are about to embark on a drive to and from the Boundary Waters, a 12-hour drive each way, so this is the perfect car project for me. Cables and raglan, my favorite!

The long drive to and from Minnesota created opportunities to work on Fife:

The horseshoe cable down the front is really fun, and the branching diagonal ribs are also great. I love the algorithm of this pattern; it's so intuitive that I don't even have to read the pattern.

I am going to make some modifications that I'll discuss as I do them; in particular, I'm going to do the back, front, and sleeves flat and then joint them to do the raglan yoke in the round. But for now, it's just increases up to the armholes on the back ...

So I've finished the back of Fife up to the armholes, put it on a holder, and started the front. As I mentioned previously, I'm going to knit everything up to the armholes and then do the yoke in the round. Much better than seaming pieces together!

But I do have one technical thing to figure out: the neck shaping. Do I do short-row neck shaping? If so, how? Otherwise, I can do the neck decreases as if I were knitting it flat. But this will require some thought and planning.

Of course, I've still got most of a front and two sleeves to go before I have to worry about that, so it'll be a while ...

Making progress on the front of Fife:

Even so, it's at the point where it's still drudge knitting. I'll be glad when I get to work on the yoke!

Gift for a friend's son, made out of a variegated sock yarn that I can't remember (Wildfoote, maybe?):

He's visiting us on 6 November, so it has to be done ... it's a simple 4x4 rib, with a cable twist every other rib every 12 rows. I'm almost ready to shape the top.

Check out this swingy cashmere cardigan at Bluefly:

I want to make that! It's absolutely gorgeous. Definitely needs a heathery yarn. Wouldn't be too hard to reverse engineer ...

Finished this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it ...

Unfortunately the recipient's father had to cancel his visit here, so I may be mailing it to Scotland!

Made some progress on Fife on the drive to and from Christmas:

I'm ready for it to be done, though. Sadly, that sentiment seems to apply to most of the projects in my life right now -- house renovation, book, sweater ... but at least on this one the join at the armhole to do the yoke is in sight!

A new year, and I am infected with STARTITIS! I blame Bonne Marie ... In the past three days I've started not one, but two new projects. Yikes! But both are quick knits.

The first is Teva Durham's Concentric Vest, from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. A 9-stitch gauge and Rowan Big Wool bought on sale is making this an instant gratification project. I knit the back in a single sitting on New Year's Day while watching football.

I took the second picture without a flash to try to highlight the cables, but it's a little out of focus.

This cozy vest is going to be a great piece to wear, which is why I'm powering through it.

The technique is short rows to get the fronts of the vest to curve. I have done short rows in socks, and in shoulder shaping, but this is the most intense short-row shaping I've ever done. I'm considering using short rows to shape necklines on sweaters knit in the round, so I wanted to get a little more experience under my belt first. This project is a great, fast way to do it.

Another WIP: the Natalya cabled fingerless gloves (pattern on Ravelry).

I am loving the black and green color combination; it invokes a lot of happy associations that are very meaningful to me. The plan is to have the edges green on the fingers and thumbs as well. The pattern has two variations: one with actual finger shaping, albeit no fingers, and the other as a mitt. I am going to make a pair for myself with the fingers and see how they turn out; if it goes well, I may make more for others.

This project is for the Emma read-along and knit-along in the Jane Austen group at Ravelry.

I've finished what I'm calling the Kinetic fingerless gloves/wristwarmers that I described last month:

This was a fast and fun project! These are a gift for a friend, but I might make myself a pair too. I ended up doing the mitt option instead of the individual finger option, because that turned out to be more than my clumsy hands could handle.

Amy's having a big day here, because I've also finally finished the vest for her son too:

The pattern is a basic Lion brand child's cable vest, and the yarn is Ella Rae Classic worsted.

Graeme has a ginormous head (as do most kids these days, apparently!), so I had to modify one of the shoulders so it would button:

Ivory cable scarf, using Plymouth Royal Cashmere, with the stitch pattern "cable fabric" from the new Harmony Guides: Cables and Arans:

Nice, simple, elegant.

Haven't touched either Fife or Cece since November.

Have made some progress on the sleeves and yoke of the Sitcom Chic cardi:

Have frogged my old Lobster Pot cashmere beanie and am in the middle of turning it into a neckwarmer:

And, have finally cast on for a Central Park hoodie, for a knitalong with Knitress:

The yarn is Beaverslide 90% merino 10% mohair in Huckleberry Heather. This yarn choice is a shameless copy of Cara at January one. Like Cara, I'll knit fronts and back all at once, but I'm leaving in the seam stitches and knitting the smallest size, because the second smallest size is a little big for me. Interestingly, she got gauge on size 9 needles and I got it on size 10 needles, which just shows how tight a knitter I am (and I don't pull on my stitches or anything!). Unlike Cara, I didn't necessarily plan out how the ribbing will flow into the cables at the end of the ribbing band, so I may have some futzing to do in a couple of inches ...

I also think that I will not bother to put on buttonholes and buttons; I never bother to button cardigans anyway, generally, and this is meant to be a kicky casual hoodie. So why bother?

Knit on!

Coming along, coming along ...

I wish I could get my no-flash-to-highlight-cables pictures to be less blurry ... In any case, I am loving this Beaverslide yarn! The texture is wonderful, the color is gorgeous, and it just smells so wonderfully woolly!

The CPH pattern is straightforward, and I am enjoying the symmetry of the cables. I have about another inch or two before I separate for the armholes.

I won't be working on the sweater much in the next couple of weeks, between travel and moving back into our renovated house (yay!), but it will get my serious attention in April!

I have not kept up with Knitress in the CPH knit along; she is almost done, and I'm just at the beginning of the first sleeve. Oh well! But I like how it's coming along, even if the progress is slow.

As soon as I got off the plane from Maryland Sheep & Wool I wound the Brooks Farm Willow and cast on for Fifi:

It's a cabled yarn, wool/bamboo blend, in variegated gray-blue and lilac. The bamboo and the cable construction give the yarn good structure, and I am really enjoying working with it. It's also going to make for a lighter feeling garment that breathes, which is good for this project because it's a short-sleeved summery sweater.

And then there's the pattern ... I'm such a sucker for the combination of top-down construction and cables. This is my second French Girl pattern; I liked the Fantine (which I strangely forgot to blog about ... will have to remedy that!), which also has that top-down construction. Fifi, though, is in a smaller gauge (worsted) and has cables.

So far, so good; it's going pretty quickly, so I hope to be able to wear it before long!

Fifi is coming along at a nice pace:

I'm beyond the cable section at the top, and about one-fourth of the way through the bodice ribbing section. It's a nice 8-row repeat. I think I'll make it longer than the pattern calls for; I have a long torso, and I don't want it to be as cropped as in the pattern.

The Brooks Farm Willow yarn continues to be a joy to work, and the colors are gorgeous!

Should be ready for summer wear soon!

And she's going to the Bay Area with me this weekend!

Great pattern, great yarn, great sweater. The colors are doing a strange pooling in the torso, but it doesn't really bother me. The top-down construction meant that I had only four ends to weave in, so it's ready to wear!