Making progress

I love vacation if for no other reason than I am able to make some real progress with my knitting. As you can see I have gotten quite a bit accomplished even with time out to prepare a thanksgiving dinner for eight. It has been especially enjoyable as my knitting sister has been staying at my house for the holiday weekend.

As I did with my textured sweater vest, I am knitting both the front and the back simultaneously. For me this proves to be the best option as I would hate to become bored with the pattern and never finish the front of the sweater after I complete the back. What a waste of good yarn.

But knitting the two sides together adds a small problem, if I get interrupted for any reason when I am between the two sides, I sometimes turn the work too soon and have more rows completed on one side versus the other. I solved this problem by connecting the two sides with stitch markers. I then treat this as if it is one piece switching the yarn ball in the middle.

The pattern is fairly easy to do. I say only fairly easy as it is fairly easy to get the count off and put a purl where a knit should be. So I have tried to get in the habit of checking my work after I have completed every row. When I find that I have made a mistake in the pattern, I mark the stitch with a stitch marker and use a crochet hook to fix it when I come to that stitch on the next pass.

I like the Wool of the Andes Bulky that I am using. The stitch definition is pretty good, and the yarn is not so thick that the sweater will be too hot when worn indoors. I wish my camera was better so that I could show what the true color is. But I work with the tools I have.

My knitting sister has been working on a pair of socks. At the present time, she is using Cascade 220 in Lime Heather to knit a pair of socks from The Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor. She is on her 4th pair of adult socks out of this book. She likes this book because most of the sock patterns use the same size needle, so she has not had to go out and purchase a bunch of Addi turbos in various sizes. (Being on a limited budget is really hard on a rabid knitter.) I spent some time sharing the Silver's Sock Class website with her last night as she is interested in trying toe up socks.

Well, I am itching to get back to knitting, so Happy Knitting!

Swatch for Chocolate Diamonds Pullover

I knitted and blocked the swatch for my next project last night. I really love it!!! I think that I like blocking swatches now. I never have done it before but I think that it really makes a difference. The Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn feels nice and soft and it has pretty good stitch definition. Of course, the stitch definition is improved by the blocking. I am really happy with the color that I selected--Hazelnut. I already have the first piece cast onto my size 9 Addi Turbos and I am ready to cast on the second piece. I am going to knit them simultaneously like I did my vest. So what am I doing on the computer?!

Happy Knitting!

Textured Checkerboard Scarf

I have been working on a scarf for the daughter of a friend of mine all week and it is about half way done. I selected a rather inexpensive acrylic (70%) and alpaca (30%) blend called Andes Alpaca by Yarn Bee in the color Pearl. The acrylic makes it washable and the alpaca makes it fuzzy. I know it is fuzzy because I was knitting it on the train wearing black dress pants and the fuzz was all over me. The yarn also has a nice sheen too it. I am not a big fan of acrylic yarn, but this yarn is a little smoother and softer than the average acrylic.

I am working it up in a textured checkerboard pattern. It isn't anything that I had a pattern for, so I just winged it, however, I am sure I am not reinventing the wheel here!

Row 1 K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5
Row 2 P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5
repeat rows 1 and 2 three times
then

Row 1 P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5
Row 2 K5, P5, K5, P5, K5, P5, K5
repeat rows 1 and 2 three times

Then continue repeating until the scarf is the length that you want. I am using a pair of US size 9 Addi Turbos.

For the average sized woman, 48 to 52 inches is about the right length with 60 inches as a very long scarf.

Happy Knitting!

Ta Da! Finished!

I am quite happy with the way this one turned out! Is there a couple of things that I might change if I did same pattern again? Yes. But this is definitely a sweater that I will wear on a regular basis, and not just when I am lounging around the house. I will be wearing this to the office tomorrow!

Summary:

Pattern is Textured-Stitch Sweater Vest by Carol Covington in the book Vogue Knitting: Very Easy Knits ©1999 Butterwick Pattern Company.

Yarn is Paton's Classic Wool in Dark Grey Heather and Plum Heather 100% wool.

Knitted using Addi Turbo 60" circulars in US7 and US5 and I used a loose long tail cast on.

I knitted both the front and the back simultaneously which helped in getting the stripes even and the reduction for the armholes at the same place. This did make things a little confusing at times after I had started the V-neck since I had three balls of yarn going at the same time.

Having never done a vest with 1 X 1 ribbing on the arm openings, I ended up knitting the first one, trying it on and realizing that I Put in too many stitches as the ribbing stood straight out from the body of the sweater. Oh well, practice makes perfect! I knitted the second set with half the number of stitches at the top and the bottom of the arm hole and I think it turned out well.

If I had the ability to change anything, it would be knitting the rib at the bottom a little tighter as I did the neckline and arm holes. But I am not unhappy enough to do it over.

Best think is, I love the way the main sweater color highlights my hair!

Happy Knitting!

Convertible Mitten Update -- Finished!

I finally finished the convertible mittens. It took me awhile to get to the point where I wanted to take the time to finish them. If you remember from a previous post, I had some trouble with the thumbs. Of course, when I don't feel confident about what I am doing, I tend to put it off; but 35 degree temperatures in Chicago was the  sign that I needed to finish them for my friend's sake! 

You can see in the palm of the mitten where I tried to graph if using the Kitchener Stitch. I really like the way the ribbing around the finger opening looks. I only put a "texting" thumb on the right hand. I am not really happy about the way it made the thumb look weird and really over-sized. But from the picture, it makes it easy to text. It would especially be beneficial to iPhone users (or other smart phones) that are driven by touch. When using these phones, you must remove your gloves to use them.  I think that I will be making myself a pair of these really soon! 

Happy knitting!

It's football Sunday, so I think I will block.

I could hear the football game and announcers in the background as I began working on my Textured Sweater Vest. They were talking about blocking and that is what I was planning to do. Of course, the football players version of blocking does not include pins and steam.

It's amazing how much knitted fabric stretches.

I have not had too much experience blocking before -- that is mostly because I used to knit mostly with man-made yarn and I haven't had good luck with blocking those knitted fabric. But the Patons Classic yarn that I am using will look best if properly blocked. So I went onto the internet to search for some information on blocking wool. One of the best sites I found was on Knitty.com. This article by Jessica Fenlon Thomas is quite comprehensive and gives the author's opinion on the best way to block just about any type of yarn there is, so I have made it a favorite for future use. 

After reading Thomas's advice, I grabbed the sweater pieces, pins, a measuring tape and my iron and  headed for the spare room. I stripped the blanket and comforter off the bed leaving only the sheets and the mattress pad. I measured and pinned according to the pattern dimensions. By rummaging around in my linen closet, I found a flat twin sheet and ran it though the rinse and spin cycles in my washing machine. That got it wet without sopping. I folded it in quarters and laid it over both pieces.

I have to tell you that at this point my heart was really beating. What if I screwed up!? The instructions said to sit the hot iron on top of the wet sheet to drive the steam into the fabric. My iron is a cordless iron, which was nice because I was quite a ways from an outlet, however, the iron cooled quickly on the damp sheet and required several trips to the base to reheat.

I set the iron around the edges first and worked into the center. The top layers of the sheet dried which made it easy to see where I had already been. After I had been all the way around the sheet, I removed it and left in all the pins. I will leave it pinned out until tomorrow evening. That way there will not be any question that it dried completely. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Happy Knitting!