Sweater for Hugga T

My son received a “Hugga T. Bear” teddy bear from Integris Baptist Hospital when he had his adenoids removed. Despite tons of other stuffed animals, this one remains his favorite. Hugga T.’s original shirt became bedraggled, so here’s a new sweater for him.

Sweater for Hugga T

Liam Repaired

Well, here it is, after two solid hours and 6 AA batteries of sweater shaving. Not too bad.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded and commiserated. It's still a cute sweater. I will probably pass out the first time I see spaghetti sauce dribbled down the front of it, but hey, it was a labor of love. (grin)

Liam - Finished and Just About Ruined

I am sick to my stomach after taking this sweater out of the dryer. It's Liam from Debbie Bliss Kids Knits, and it's about a month and a half's worth of work. Ruined. Almost. I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, because, being a kid's sweater I wanted it to be wash and wear, but not as warm as superwash wool would be. Boy am I disappointed. See how the black faded over the white? It's now a black and GRAY sweater. See how badly it pilled all over? It's going to take some serious time with a sweater shaver to remove those. OH, and it's a Christmas present, so I don't have another MONTH AND A HALF to donate. I will post another picture of it after it's depilled, I'm still determined to save it since it's for Christmas. It's for my son, so he won't mind it being black and gray, at least the design still shows up.

FO: Devan

Finished a little quickie baby gift, it's Devan on knitty.com. It was a quick knit in self-striping sock yarn, Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Fantasy on the front and Dale of Norway Baby Ull for the back. More Pics on Ravelry, ID RedEarthKnitting.

FO: Printed Silk Cardigan

Whew! It's finished! You'd think I'd learn to read ahead before starting a project, these sleeves are ALL 1x1 ribbing. They took longer to knit than the entire two fronts and back! However it was a good project, I learned the Tubular Cast On from knitty.com, and the sewn cast on.

Help Me I've Started Another WIP

So I started this cute little dog sweater, thinking that poor chihuaha next door was certainly going to need a sweater soon. Then I realized that Christmas is coming so I'd better cast on for my sons' presents and started Liam by Debbie Bliss. But then it was time to go on vacation to Curacao (pronounced keer'-a-sow and is a different place than Caracas), and who could possibly take a heavy wool sweater to knit on the beach? Not I! So I cast on for the Printed Silk Cardigan from Interweave Knits that I've been meaning to get to all summer. So now I have the back and 1/2 the front done on the dog sweater, the front done on Liam, and 3/4 the back done on the Printed Silk Cardigan. And now that I'm home, which one to pick up next?! Argh!

Slippery Socks from Knitty.com - one done!

These are Slippery socks from Knitty.com. Yarn used was one ball of Opal in the "Feeling" colorway. Directions are for DPNs but I used two #1 circs instead. Here's some pics of sock number one. I seem to have hardly used any yarn from the ball at all, so I may attempt to match up the color bands. However, the red stripe seems to vary a lot in the spacing, it seems to be longer than the other color bands sometimes, so we'll see. If I end up doing too much frogging then the mismatch will be 'a feature'.

FO: Vogue Knitting #05 Criss-Cross Front Top

It's finished and I really like it, except the armholes are a little snug, even after blocking. I used Ella Rae Silkience yarn in a kind of raspberry color. This is a clever pattern that you knit in pieces. You knit the back, the left front (with a hole in it), and then you knit the right front up to the same level as the hole, pass a few stitches through, and then finish knitting them together. However, I wanted to be sure that the neck decreases on both sides matched, so I knit them simultaneously on one long circular needle. All was well until I got to the finishing. I failed to anticipate the problem of crocheting an edging consisting of one pass around doing sc, and then another pass around doing 5 dc, when said edging has to squeeze through the same 1" hole 4 times! I finally unwound a ball into a long hank so that I could pull it through the hole on each pass around.

In Progress: #05 Twist Top

Making good progress on the #05 Short Sleeve Top from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005. The back is finished, and I'm knitting the fronts simultaneously since you have to slip one side through the other and it would be heavy to have a finished side hanging from the pass-through hole while you're knitting the other side. I'm using Ella Rae Silkience from Webbs, the gauge is too small for this pattern so I'm knitting a larger size and planning for the silk to "grow" after washing. Hopefully I haven't overplanned it!

Finished: #03 Cabled Tank

Wow! A new sweater to wear made in one week! I've obviously spent A LOT of time at the hockey rink this past week. My boys tried out and were accepted on the hockey travel team, I am now the official hockey mom of two of the cutest OKC Junior Blazers. Since they are both going to be practicing twice a week at different times, Mom is going to get some serious quality knitting time at the rink.

Made some changes to this pattern, because Vogue Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2007 listed this pattern as having two cables on reverse stockinette background. However, the back is done in wide ribbing, and the front was all in stockinette. So, I added a purl stitch on either side of the cables and moved the two cables away from the center by 2 stitches so that the purl stitches didn't interfere with the neck shaping. The single-crochet edging really helps to keep the piece from curling, however, my crocheting skills are not good and I'm unhappy with how wiggly the edges look. The yarn is Needful Yarns Kim, which is a cotton chain yarn. It's still a little stiff and scratchy after washing, but I still like the sweater.

Finished the last baby gift! Best Baby Sweater and Petal Hat

Whew! My friends are officially on notice to quit procreating so that I can get back to my regularly scheduled knitting.

Finished the Best Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in Vogue Knitting American Collection and other books, and my old standby, the Petal Hat. Notes on the sweater, use a row gauge to keep track of buttonholes, when you do the math they occur on rows 3, 19,35,51,67 and 83. The arm length is a little short, so instead do 9 pattern repeats before the garter edging, and I also did 9 repeats for the body and ended up with pretty even buttonhole spacing.

FO: Baby Poonam

This little sweater, Baby Poonam, was easy and fun to knit. I've never picked up stitches to knit the arms top to bottom before, but it looks nice and was easy to sew up. My LYS, The Gourmet Yarn Co., didn't carry the Berroco Comfort DK, so I used Plymouth Dream Baby DK instead. I ended up making another in Berroco Touche, which turned out nice although I had to go down 2 needle sizes to get gauge.

Top left sweater and beanie is Berroco Touche, bottom right is in Plymouth Dreambaby.

Hat pattern is #57 Baby Cable Beanie by SweaterBabe.

Easy and fun to knit, turns out really cute! I changed the front ribbing band, I like for cables to flow out of the ribbing rather than do a purl row and then start the cables from nowhere. I also changed the button band ribbing, if you start with P1, then K2,P2 across and end with P1, then when you pick up sts on either side the P column goes away and you’re left with nice neat columns of ribbing next to the pickup. Here’s how I changed the bottom cable start next to the ribbing:

WS Increase Row (knit onto larger needle)
Textured Pattern Panel P next 11 st while incr 3 st evenly P-wise, PM (14 sts)(3 added)
Cable A inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, (P2,K2)twice, PM (10 sts)(1 added)
Cable B P2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, P4, K1, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K3, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K5, P2, PM (32 sts)(6 added)
Cable A (K2,P2) 2 times, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, PM (10 sts) (1 added)
Textured Pattern Panel inc P-wise in all 7 sts (14 sts)(7 added)

FO: Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell

Knit on the way to/from Grand Lake Colorado over the 4th of July week, this tank was pretty easy until I got to the lace shoulders. Finally went into the town of Grand Lake to the coffee shop and used their free wi-fi to search for errata. I knew I wasn't crazy! The lace pattern is printed wrong in the magazine (IK Summer 2007), here's the correction. I used Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, which is 100% cotton instead of the cotton/micro blend called for in the pattern. It's a little heavy, but the lace looks great! I also wish I'd made one size smaller so that it would not be quite so big at the waist.

FO Bejewelled Tank

Finally finished the Bejewelled Tank. It was worth the frogging and cursing, it's now one of my favorite summer sweaters. I designed this tank myself, I may post the pattern someday if anyone is interested. It's knit in Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a cotton/bamboo blend, so it's nice and soft.

The Tank is Ticking Me Off!

Well, once again I've dipped my toe into the design pool and gotten it bitten off. I am trying to design a tank that has some beading at the hem, shaping through the waist, then gradually sloping sides (that don't show my bra) up to a rounded neck with beads. The rounded neck with beads is kicking my butt. I've tinked it twice already, beads flying everywhere. Because of the bead placement and general concentration this is taking, this project is Alone Knitting (no kids), thus it isn't getting much attention on Memorial Day Weekend.


So in the meantime, I've started another Rambling Rows Afghan (the medium-size), I have three friends all expecting babies in August: two boys and a girl.

FO: Tunic Vest #35 VK Fall 2006

It's finished, and I think I'm going to enjoy wearing it NEXT FALL! Argh, this took longer than I planned (as usual!). Well, okay, I still need to sew two buttons on it and crochet the button loops, but the knitting is done...

FO - Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson

It's finished! I've already worn it a couple of times and received compliments on it, so I guess I didn't do too badly on it. I substituted yarn, which threw off my row gauge, and I ended up having to stuff the sleeves into armscyes that were 2 inches too long (you have to end the neckline on a certain row because of the center pattern). Oh well, it's done, I like it and I'm on to other things, whoopee!

Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson

Well, I'm not progressing as fast as I would have liked, but I think I'm going to like this sweater. The yarn, Plymouth Jeannee, is really soft and comfortable.

I may have downloaded the free Berroco bunny pattern that just came out in time for Easter...

Stuck in scarf hell

The boys have asked for scarves. I made Skye an atrociously-striped one out of stashed woolease. He loves it, since he picked the colors. Am now making Cael an OU scarf out of stashed Woolease. Boring! I want to start my Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson (see pic at left). I bought Plymouth Jeannee in white for it at Gourmet Yarn last week and I am DYING to start it! Sigh.

Zipper Installation - Central Park Hoodie

Step 1. - Whipstitch a grograin ribbon as backing to give the zipper something firm to rest on. It helps stabilize the edge so that your zipper doesn't rip out and ruin your knitting. (2-3 hours).

Step 2. - Pin the zipper in place to the ribbon, check/admire alignment, then whipstitch the edge of the zipper to the ribbon. (1-1/2 hours) Woo hoo!

Central Park Hoodie -- 99.9% Finished

The Central Park Hoodie is knitted and sewn up. All that's left now, is, well, er, um....THE ZIPPER. I have never sewn in a zipper before and I'm afraid. Very afraid. In fact, a year or so ago I actually knit Samus on knitty.com and quit during the I-cord finishing because I knew the zipper was coming up next and I was unhappy with the way my picked-up stitches looked along the Saxon braid at the bottom AND I didn't care for the yarn (so many excuses...) so I just chucked the whole thing. If this zipper messes up three weeks worth of knitting so help me I'll....Anyway, pics below. The pics turned out really purple, for some reason, so I had to adjust the color back to barn red. So no, I DON'T have lime green shag carpet, it's just my feeble attempt at color correction.

WIP - Central Park Hoodie

I started the Central Park Hoodie during a soccer tournament in Kansas City. I'm using the recommended yarn, Takhi Donegal Tweed in Barn Red. I really like it, and I'm not much of a tweed person. Anyway, back to the tournament: 5 hours in the car up and back plus KIPing in the lobby after supper (we lost, by the way, but my son still managed to score 3 goals, yay Cael!). I managed to knit almost all of the back on that long weekend. I have since finished all pieces and am now following the alternate directions (pick up and knit all around both fronts and hood, rather than each side separately) for the front ribbing. Progress on the ribbing is SLOW....

Bought the zipper, some grosgrain ribbon and thread today. I've never sewn in a zipper before, we'll see whether I do it or someone else does (grin). I plan to use these two helpful links:
sewing in zippers from the Knitlist, and Chicknit's zipper tutorial. Wish me luck!

FO: Michael Kors Cabled Tunic

Woo hoo! I finished the Michael Kors Cabled Tunic, didn't run out of yarn, the darn thing actually fits, and I am a happy camper!

Modifications made:

• Used Elizabeth Zimmermann's technique for rounding the squared-off bindoff edges of a neckline (dec last stitch on previous row before bindoff then bindoff one less on the bindoff row, it rounds out the square "jog" from one bindoff row to the next).


• Fudged the recommended number of stitches for the cowl to let the twisted knit stitches line up with the knit stitches of the ribbing (probably more trouble than it was worth since the cowl hides it, anyway. But I know it's there. :)



• Used recommended needle size for first 4" of cowl neck, then increased one needle size to 5", another to 5.75", another until the 6-1/2" were reached. This increases the ending diameter of the neckline so that it has room to fold over without being tight. My neck rolls over nicely and doesn't try to crawl back up.

Caston the CPH last weekend during a soccer tournament in Kansas City. Finished most of the back during the 5 hours up and back. Now that's quality knitting time! :)

Yikes - I am running low on yarn!

Oh, this is just getting better. Okay, I KNOW I bought two extra balls for the Michael Kors Cabled Tunic. KNOW it, because I was substituting yarn, although the yarn was the exact same weight and knit to the correct gauge on the same size needles as the original yarn. Now I'm coming to the end of one ball for each sleeve, I'm about 65% done with the sleeves, and I have four balls of yarn left. I'm estimating that the collar will take two, so that leaves two balls to finish the sleeves. And I'm not done increasing on the sleeves yet. Sigh. I guess I'll just see how far I get before going to the trouble of contacting Webs to see if they still have the same dye lot that they sold me SIX MONTHS AGO!!!!! Argh. Maybe I can make up the sweater with a different white yarn.

Why does running out of yarn make you knit faster, like you're trying to outrun the end of the ball and beat it to the finish line?

Sleeve Slipup - Michael Kors Cabled Tunic

So I've started the sleeves for the never-ending OH MY GOSH I AM SICK OF THIS Michael Kors cabled tunic. Zipped through the twisted-stitch ribbing. Sailed through the WS chart setup row like the old, weary pro at this that I now am. Knitted along the beginning of the first diamond -- hold it, what the heck is going on?!?! Tink back to beginning of row, turn over to the previous row. Yes, yes, yes, all there. Oh no, there must be more errata for the sleeve that I've missed. Surf to Vogue Knitting Magazine errata . Nope, nothing there. It must be me. After checking and checking, nope. The directions are wrong. However, all those twisted stitches are murder to frog, so I fixed mine by doing a m1 purlwise before the start of the diamond, change the first crossed stitch from a purl back to the twisted-knit that it should have been, finished the diamond, then p2tog right after the diamonds to keep the count straight, then repeat for the next set of diamonds.

Body of Tunic


It worked, and now the diamonds gracefully extend up from the ribbing rather than abruptly starting from nowwhere one stitch over. Yay me! A year ago I would have blindly followed the pattern without thinking it through and then been unhappy after making up the sweater when I noticed that the sleeve cuffs didn't mimic the lower hem treatment.