It’s been a busy couple of weeks at our house.  We painted (are still painting) the kitchen and my teaching and tutoring work has multiplied.  These are all good things, but they do cut in on the knitting time!

I’ve finished the body of the Norblu Sweater … its size prevented me from carrying it around and that was another damper on progress.  But here it is at last!  See the wrinkly yarn extending out of the picture?  I’m knitting directly from the abandoned swatch sleeve now.  See the gray yarn near the needles?  That’s marking Armpit Number One.  It and Armpit Number Two will be the very last steps in making the sweater.  They will be closed with kitchener stitching and will disappear seamlessly.  But first, Sleeve Number Two must be knitted and then both sleeves must be attached to the body.  I’ll continue upward from there to the shoulders and finish the collar and then … I hope this will all be finished before Christmas!

A 90 minute ride from New York to Philly on Amtrak was more than doubled when we lost electrical power last night.  I wonder if the problem was due to what SEPTA calls “Slippery Leaf Season”.  It was a blustery day yesterday … could fallen leaves have contributed to the train’s difficulty getting electrical power?  I never knew about this issue and how significant it is until I started riding on trains a lot in recent times.  Thank goodness I had my knitting with me!  I got some good stitches in while we sat on the tracks just outside of Newark.  This picture celebrates 10,000 stitches.   (204 stitches per row, about 6 rows per inch, about 8.5 inches)

Thanks to this sweater and the Esther socks, I’m getting some good experience with hemming.  The socks provided my first experience with a picot edging.  I used a provisional cast-on, folded the hem over and used a round of K2TOGs to knit the cast-on stitches together with the stitches on the needles.  I used the same technique for the first sleeve of the sweater, but I didn’t do a picot edging at the folding point, just a straight row of purl stitches.

For the body of the sweater, I decided to try a sewn hem.  Based on what I read at on the Two Strands blog (see my previous post), sewing is supposed to produce a less-noticeable hem.  I knitted the appropriate rounds (plus a few extra) and spent the rest of my weekend knitting time trying to figure out how to sew it neatly together!   I was having difficulty recognizing which purl bump to pick up and then aligning it with the cast-on stitches correctly.  Part of the problem is that I can’t refer to the stitches that are already done because the hem obscures them.  Another problem is that I’m using dark yarn (harder to see in general).  I guess it would easiest if there were a color change right where I wanted to put the hem (note to self for future planning!). I ended up running a stretch of waste yarn around the project to highlight the stitches I want to hem:

Each stitch is easy to see against the contrasting color.  I have a long way to go before I can see how it all comes out …

Here’s a pic of the finished sleeve, btw:

One sleeve of Norblu is almost finished!

The accelerated increase ended at exactly the right length, so I’ve been able to work on the stranded decoration over a straight 72 stitches.  Since this is a 12-stitch pattern, that’s perfect!

I had a general idea of the color arrangement I wanted, but it’s often the case that I don’t like my ideas once I see them “in action”!  Before I got started, I decided to draw it out.  I had a vague memory of some online knitting chart paper and, sure enough,  this page from a Japanese site called Tata & Tatao allows you to enter your stitch and row gauge and then print out a sheet that’s close to the dimensions of your knitting.  While in Philly yesterday, I bought a set of colored markers ($2 at Five Below!) and I did some experimenting last night.  I think this was definitely worthwhile.  I felt comfortable going forward with the stranded work and I’m happy with the result.  It was nice to double-check the size of the pattern too.  I wanted 5″ (because that’s how much I have left to finish the sleeve) but if that looked too small, I could rip back a few rows and add some more striping or something.

The decorative pattern comes from Jessica Tromp’s wonderful site of Norwegian (and other) knitting charts.  I picked a fairly simple motif (cuz I’m new at it) and made it fancier with more colors.  OK, so that’s where I got the “Nor” in the sweater’s working name … what about “blu”?  When I finally settled on the yarn colors, I realized that what they have in common is “blue”.  There is no blue in the sweater, but each of the colors has blue as a component.  I think this sweater will look especially good with denim and navy blue!

Oh, lookie what I found a few minutes ago: Monkster Gets Stranded A free pattern for a Norwegian-style bottom-up raglan sweater for a Teddy Bear.  Is that the cutest thing, or what??  If you’re wanting to try the techniques before committing to a real Monster size, maybe this is the way to go!  I noticed that the next post describes hemming in detail too.  Hah, shoulda found this site a week ago!  It looks like a keeper …

It turns out that my Christmas yarn suppliers DID send all of the yarn I ordered!   When I opened the bag, the missing yarn was easier to spot.  I was very happy to see this and have mentally returned Knit Picks to their rightful status (excellent service).  With that, I got started right away on a sleeve/swatch.

For my ongoing learning, I decided to try a seamless raglan sweater from the bottom up this time.  One advantage already taken: the ability to start a sleeve with “best guess” cast-on and needles and use it as a swatch.  If it HAPPENS to be perfect, you can just sail onward!  It didn’t.  I had actually already done a small quick swatch to get a first guess on the needle size.  What I wanted from the sleeve was a) a bigger swatch to confirm the stitch and row gauge, b) an eyeball of the color combination and c) a sanity check against the model sweater.  Stitch and row gauge were fine, but the other stuff?  Not so much!

I was using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage system (EPS) for a sweater with a 44 inch body and my gauge.  It’s described in both “Knitting Without Tears” and “Knitting Around”, although the raglan instructions (not needed until you get to the top of the sweater) are only included in the former.  I followed the recommendation of casting on 20% of the stitches for the sleeve on smaller needles for the ribbed cuff.  I did all of the increases and then compared the sleeve to the model sweater.  Eww! I believe these instructions will produce a fine sweater for someone who likes a form-fitting look.  Some guys do … but hubby does not!  So, back to the drawing board on the pattern.

I also decided I didn’t like the color combination.  It’s OK, but the lighter purple doesn’t contrast enough with the main color.  It looks kinda muddy.  Funny thing is: that yarn is left over from my Coin Cable Raglan.  It’s very nice on its own.  I looked at it closely (it’s a heather) and picked colors I “saw” in it to make my yarn choices for this sweater.  Just for your info, the original colorway is Knit Picks’ Wool of the Andes “Claret Heather”.  The colorways I chose are “Dove Heather”, “Black Cherry Heather” and the main color: “Blackberry”.   I was puzzling over the color quandary when I remembered a big lovely hank of Cascade Eco-Wool Plus in the “Spruce” colorway.  It’s a tad heavier, but will be fine in the small quantities I intend to use!  Oh yes, MUCH better!

I looked through my books and found “The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns” by Ann Budd.  She also has instructions for a bottom-up seamless raglan sweater and (yay!) it looks as if they’re written for a baggier look.  After studying this book yesterday morning, I made several design decisions.  First, I have eliminated the ribbed cuff.  If hubby likes the sweater loose, why bother?  The above picture shows a purl hem.  Same technique as for the picot edging on the Esther Socks, but a straight purl at the folding point instead of the eyelet stuff.  Second, I plan to increase the sleeves at a slightly quicker rate so I have more room to knit straight at the top.  I have plans to put some decoration there.

Third, I was worried all along about the collar because hubby has a big head.   This book has instructions for a v-neck, so what the heck!  And a shawl collar, so there.  I made a v-neck this past summer (just remembered) so that problem’s definitely solve. Finally, the book has instructions for whole-number gauges only.  That is, for 4 stitches to the inch and 5 stitches to the inch, but not 4 1/2 (my gauge).  I don’t care to swatch again because I’m happy with this fabric.  No prob.  The book includes instructions for handling this.  I wrote out the whole program and double-checked my written work with the final stitch-count after all of the raglan decreases.  The instructions don’t include any short rows at the neck for a better fit.  I may go back to EZ for that, we’ll see.  OK, time to get knitting!

I decided to use the Eye of Partridge stitch and a garter stitch selvedge for the heel of this sock.  The very first “real” sock I ever made had a heel like this and it was very attractive.  I never finished that pair of socks because there were size and yarn issues … so it’s nice to have a wearable pair with this design!  I think it looks nice with the lace too.

I’ve finished the gusset-munch on both socks, so all that’s left is the slide to the toes!  My current estimate is 1.5 more iterations of the decorative pattern. 

I got the yarn for Christmas knitting … well, they neglected to send two of the balls I ordered!  First time they’ve messed up.  I’ll call tomorrow.  I’m going to start on the sleeves with that project.  More on that later!

The Esther socks are almost at the halfway point. After trying the socks on to see how they fit, I’ve decided to do another half-iteration of the pattern before beginning the heels. Even with mistakes, they’re looking pretty nice!

I’m hesitating to continue the stranded arm-warmers. Although the one I’ve almost finished is really cute, it has serious tension problems. It’s terribly puckered and almost too tight to be wearable. I think I will chalk it up to experience (and a good one at that)!

In the meantime, I have ordered some yarn for a (SECRET: don’t tell!) sweater for Jim. After the Coin Cable Raglan and the stranded arm-warmers, I’m ready to make a circular sweater with a decorative band across the chest and sleeves as a Christmas present. Scheming is underway … there are faaaaaabulous sweaters that I don’t have the skill for at present (such as the Stone Circles sweater by Kaffe Fassett, mmm!) but I think a nice stranded band will go over well.

I’ve taken measurements from a store-bought sweater that hubby likes:

Let’s see how it goes!

These socks are a challenge.  They require focus.  I’m pretty sure there are mistakes.  If you don’t look too hard, I won’t either!

I’ve cast on for another pair of socks!  I have been lusting after the Esther socks by Stephanie van der Linden since I first laid eyes on them.  They were designed for the Socken-Kreativ-Liste, a German yahoo-KAL with 2000 members, but they’re available as a free download (in English) at Ravelry.  I”m using my second ball of Zwerger Garn Opal, the same yarn I used for the Tesselators.  This ball’s green.  So far, it’s been a much better experience than with the blue yarn … this ball was easily wound into separate sock balls without weeping or gnashing of teeth.

This pattern has a wonderful texture that’s brought about by heavy use of twisted stitches.  There are elements of lace and there’s a cable. The “wrong side” rows also require some attention (they’re not just a straight k-around).  There is also a picot cuff — a first for me!  It starts with a provisional cast-on.  This is where you crochet a bunch of chain stitches using spare yarn and then use that as a scaffold for knitting the first row; you pull the spare yarn out later to produce “live” stitches for knitting in the other direction.  In this case, the knitting was folded over and the “live” stitches were knit together with the active ones to make a hem with a decorative edge:

picot cuff before folding

after folding

Here’s half of the decorative pattern; it’s lovely.

Not the brightest picture (sorry) but the armwarmer sampler is now on the needles!  I am totally showing my age, but this reminds me of my childhood.  Late 60s, maybe?   It was all the rage to have a looong knitted ski hat with a tassel on the end.  I had one and it looked a lot like this!

Technically, this is not difficult — it’s just stockinette knitting.  I already have practice reading charts from trying mosaic knitting.  For me, the skills to learn are: keeping the tension loose so the fabric won’t pucker and working efficiently with two yarns at once.  I was dropping one and picking up the other at first but that was NOT sustainable, especially on that checkered stripe!!  Right now, I’m trying to hold both yarns on one finger:

Any idea of uniform tension is right out the window until I get used to it … but I guess  that’s the point, ha ha!