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.

Front finished of Michael Kors cabled tunic

Finished the front of the Michael Kors Cabled Tunic (VK Fall 06) last night at 11:30pm. I wasn't going to bed until it was cast off! I have reached the "I'm tired of this project I want to cast on something else" stage. I am going to cast on both sleeves together on the same circ so that I don't end up on different pattern rows. I kept detailed notes on the back so that the front would match exactly.

FO: Wonderful Wallaby

Everyone should knit at least one Wonderful Wallaby. They are fun to knit because there are many detailed (but easy) steps to follow, so you never get bored or face miles of stockinette while waiting to get to the armscye. I bought my pattern from Lionbrand.com, but it's published by Cottage Creations. Yarn used was Plymouth Encore in a denim colorway, bought at The Gourmet Yarn Company.

This was my first attempt at grafting, I think it turned out pretty well and it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared. Of course, the mottled colorway hides a multitude of sins. I wouldn't want my first attempt to have been on solid cotton yarn!