Frog Pond

Welcome to the Frog Pond, unfinished sweater! I started you nearly 10 years ago, after knitting the sampler from Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop. Why didn't I realize then that the trim color did not go with the main color? Or that I would probably look like a large grape when I was finished?

No matter. I decided to rip you out months ago, but it wasn't until tonight that I finally had the courage, and time, to do it.

Rip! Rip! Rip!

In less than half an hour a foot of sweater is gone. I've weighed the resulting hanks and set them aside for another day, when I'll wash them and hang them to dry to unkink them.

RIP, ugly unfinished sweater!

a sweater for L

I finished a sweater for L late last week, just in time for a chilly weekend in Napa. This is the first sweater I've knit for her. I love the yarn, which is a soft superwash merino wool from Tess' Designer Yarns. The pattern that I bought along with the yarn, though, was terrible, and I wound up ripping it out and starting again with a different pattern. The pattern is called Daisy Cardigan, by Marie Grace. It is knit from the top down all in one piece, which meant that when I was finished knitting, I didn't have to sew any seams. Instead of buttons it has a single tie at the top (which meant I didn't have to look for matching buttons, either!) I modified the pattern slightly by knitting a garter stitch border at the bottom and doing a regular cast off, instead of the picot edge (I did the picot cast off for the sleeves. If I knit it again I might do the garter stitch for the sleeves, too, to keep them from rolling.)

The sweater is a bit big for L, but not so big that she can't wear it now. I am hoping it will still fit her in the fall, when I plan to knit a matching hat with the remaining yarn.

Two FOs this week!

I finished J's Odessa hat and E's sweater this week! Yay!

The hat was knit, by accident, on size 9 needles instead of size 6. I realized yesterday why this was. It was in the same knitting bag as E's sweater, which I did on size 9 circulars. I *did* put size 6 circulars in the bag, but when I went to fetch them out I grabbed the larger ones by mistake. Oops! I like the way it turned out, though, and I'm hoping J will like it, too.

E's sweater I finished last night and he wore it to daycare today. I am so proud! He was really happy I finally finished it, although it took some coaxing to get it on him. I am not thrilled with the way the neck turned out; next time I knit a top-down raglan I want to do something more finished looking then just a stockinette stitch CO border (like a real collar or something). But for a little kid it works, since I know it'll be stretchy enough to go over his big head. And I love the color, it looks great with blue denim.

more sweater progress

I finished the first sleeve of E's sweater last night at my knitting group. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the last ball of yarn, so I didn't make any more progress. I had E try on the sweater to make sure I got the sleeve length right. The sleeve looks ok, although next time I would do the arm decreases a bit differently (more rows between decrease rows to spread them out). I tried a stretchy bind-off for the sleeve, found here. It looks alright; it's definitely stretchier than what I would normally do, but I suspect something like a sewn bind-off would be better. I couldn't find the book that supposedly has the instructions for that, though, so I went with a simple BO.

slow sweater progress

I put E's sweater aside for a couple of months while I worked on some Christmas knitting. I still have Christmas knitting left to do, but that involves starting something, which I didn't feel like doing tonight. Instead I tried to figure out how I was decreasing the sleeve so I could write it down, continue the pattern, and be able to replicate it for the second sleeve. I think I've got it. The sweater is a top-down raglan knitted in the round. For each sleeve I started with 41 stitches + 4 picked up under the arm. I decrease 2 in a round, then knit 2 rounds plain, until I have 33 stitches. Now I will just knit to get a good arm length (must measure!), then do a bunch of decreases in one round to get down to 20-24 stitches, then 2x2 ribbing. Simple. In retrospect I wish I had more rounds between decrease rounds, but since I had already done a bunch of decreases, and I didn't feel like frogging, I left it. Overall I'm not super thrilled with the sweater, but I want to finish it before making a final judgment.