LK Knits

Any experience out there with Knit Visualizer? I'd like to hear some stories before I decide whether it's worth $135 for charting software.

I am such a sucker for a big, thick turtleneck, especially when the weather is as cold as it has been lately. I would wear a big, cozy turtleneck every day of my life if I could, and I have been wearing all of my handmade and store-bought ones during this cold snap. So the timing of my order of Beaverslide 100% Montana wool in Mountain Mahogany was propitious! It's an aran weight yarn, and very thick and lanolin-y; the gauge is 4 st/inch but I am getting 3.5 st/inch on size 10.5 needles and it looks great and knits up fast. It's a delightful yarn, and on sale I got 5 skeins for under $34. Leanne provides great customer service, and the story of the ranch and sheep that she and her husband have is great.

I'm using it to make a top-down funnelneck raglan 4x4 rib; the pattern is my own, but is loosely based on the Patons Upside-Downers top-down pattern book; I am using it to check my math.

Here's the progress I've made in the week since the yarn arrived:

It just needs about another 9" of body and a couple of sleeves, and then it's done. I hope to have this sweater done in another week, so that I'll get some wear out of it before the weather warms up!

I actually finished this sweater before I finished Ariann, but haven't had time to take photos:

This is the top-down 4x4 ribbed funnelneck that I wrote about in early February. The Beaverslide wool is deliciously wooly and lanoliny. I've been wearing this sweater quite a bit in the past two weeks, particularly on days that it's cold and I don't want to leave the house! It certainly keeps the chill out.

I'm also happy with the fit. My husband is forever teasing me about my sleeves being too short, my sweater length being too short, and my turtleneck being too long. This sweater has none of those problems (I like my sleeves a little short!).

The only thing I'd change in these top-down funnelnecks is that I'd like some way to do front neck shaping. Intellectually I know there's a way to do it with short rows, but I haven't thought through how one would do short rows in a top-down sweater in the round. Or perhaps neck-centered decreases every other row for about 4 repeats? Just enough to take out that little buckle of fabric that sits against the clavicle.

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!

Finished the reversible cable scarf (and a hat with the leftover yarn), so now the only WIPs are a pair of Jaywalker socks in Socks That Rock and this sweater:

Pattern: Poker, from Jaeger JM05
Yarn: Karabella Magrite, in a delicious off-black.

The pattern is great; the look is very Audrey/Jackie retro, and should go well with the light grey wide-leg trousers I just bought for spring! I love the standup turtleneck, and I hope I can replicate that look here. The textured zig-zag is almost rhythmic once you do a few repeats, and it's easy to catch errors in progress. The rolled hems keep it from being too stuffy, but it's still dressy enough (especially in a merino/cashmere blend!) for a variety of settings. The 3/4 sleeve is, of course, perfect.

This yarn is decadent, and I've been wanting to make this sweater for years. It took making a yarn inventory spreadsheet and spending a morning going through my pattern books with the spreadsheet open to see that I had a perfect yarn in my stash for the project! The benefits of organization ...

Of course, as is my wont, I've modified the pattern in several ways:

1. Body knit in the round

I like knitting in the round, both bottom-up and top-down. Notwithstanding how Bonne Marie rhapsodizes about mattress stitching, I don't enjoy it. It is fast and easy, but I'd rather just knit and incorporate shaping etc. with decreases and short rows.

2. Sleeves knit flat, but then attached to body at arm decreases

In making the Ariann I was uncomfortable with how stressed the sleeve stitches were when I attached the knit-in-the-round sleeves to the body to knit the yoke. The first few rows really bothered me, although of course they turned out fine. But I thought on this one that I would knit the sleeves flat (which also enabled me to knit them in parallel, since I only have one set of size 8 dpns!). That will mean some mattress stitching on the sleeves in addition to sewing up the underarm armholes, but I think it's worth it to avoid the stress I felt like I was putting on the stitches.

3. Knit yoke in the round

I really like this technique; I like raglan shaping, and I like knitting in the round, so this works well for me.

4. Shortening the armholes

As I mentioned with the Ariann, I am about an inch shorter than average from chest to shoulder. This means with raglan shaping that I have to redo the math for the decreases. Thus far I did a couple of rows of double decreases right under the arm (after doing the 5-stitch bind off on each side that the pattern required), then about 10 rows of single decreases on each row, and now I'm doing single decreases every other row. I figure that I have about 14-16 more rows on the yoke to get to the right measurement, and I should just about hit the decreases correctly.

Should be finished soon ...

5. Knit neck in the round

I prefer the smoothness of knitting the neck in the round without picking up stitches. Sometimes this costs me front neck shaping, and I end up with a pucker in the bottom of the front of my turtleneck. I'm not worried about that in this sweater, because the neck is wider, stands away from the neck, and has a folded-down knit lining.

I'm not getting the pattern to line up exactly on the row edge; I'd have to add 6 stitches, which I think would look awkward. So I may just live with it, although I'd prefer to have the pattern be seamless.

Should finish the neck tonight, and the seaming this weekend!

At long last, pictures of my finished Poker, which I have already worn several times:

I am delighted with this sweater. The neck does stand up as I hoped it would, the zigzag pattern is great, and the proportions are almost perfect. I say "almost" because I could have made the body about an inch longer and would feel more comfortable wearing it with some of my lower-waisted jeans and pants. The yarn is delicious.

I learned two important technique and design modification things in this project:

1. I am short from chest to shoulder. I did modify the length of the area over which I did the raglan decrease, as I mentioned before in my dissatisfaction with my lack of modification in the Ariann pattern. Shortening it by about an inch seems to be the right thing to do.

2. Knitting bottom-up in the round, but knitting the sleeves flat and attaching them at the underarm. I was much happier doing this, and sewing up the sleeves afterward, than doing the sleeves in the round.

All in all, a wonderful project!

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!

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.

I took Cat's "New Sock Architectures" class at Stitches Midwest on Sunday. It was great, and I recommend a class from Cat to everyone. By thinking open-mindedly about sock construction (let's try putting the increases ... there ... and there ... ), Cat has really opened up the sock universe.

I've always been a top-down, double-point sock knitter, and it's always worked for me, so I haven't messed with it; I've exercised my curiosity in other aspects of my knitting! This class is certainly going to change my view of making socks, particularly toes, heel turns, and edging.

And I am so in love with Judy's magic cast-on that it's not even funny! Here's Cat demonstrating it: