Sew2Speak » Knitting

Summer cardigan finished

Ruth — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:17:40 +0000

I first saw the pattern for this cardigan linked from Kristin’s blog. You can find the pattern at Knitty. Here is a photo of my finished cardy.

All three look completely different. Mine turned out slightly baggier than the original. The problem being that I couldn’t get yarn to match exactly the tension requirements of the pattern. I’m not very good at dealing with that. The answer appeared to me to knit one size larger on the pattern. According to my theory that should have taken into account the thinner yarn. It worked out quite well but not perfect. Still I’m not going to start again. I know that I usually do knit up yarn 3 times before I’m finished, but in this case I’m just going to live with it. It’s not so off in my opinion that it needs to go back to the drawing board.

The yarn I used was a mixture of cotton and linen. It knitted up well. I have a bit of an aversion to cotton yarn though. I think it can end up being quite shapeless. It doesn’t have that springiness of wool that allows the garment to retain it’s shape. Still this one doesn’t need a lot of shape. If I was to knit it again I would use thinner needles to knit the rib section at the empire line. The pattern used one size needles throughout and the combination of cotton yarn and not using thinner needle does rather beg the question of having the rib insert.

As I never seem to find the correct yarn for the patterns I start knitting I guess I should take more trouble to learn about adapting patterns. Anyone got a recommendation for a good book that would cover that kind of thing?

Third time lucky

Ruth — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:58:09 +0000

Regular readers may recognise this wool. I have knitted it up 3 times now. It seems to becoming a habit with me to knit something and then not like it and unravel it all and start again. Even the number 3 seems to be recurring as it is not the first time that I have had 3 attempts at knitting something. But this time I’m happy, so I think it will be another case of third time lucky.

This is the first time that I’ve knitted anything with short rows. The sleeves are shaped with short rows by knitting out from the armhole. The internet is a wonderful thing though. I found good instructions with lots of photos for how to knit them.

I thought I would have enough wool but I ran out before I had done the sleeves. Another wonderful aspect of the internet. I was able to find someone on eBay selling off remaining stock, which was pretty amazing as I first bought the wool in January 2007. I liked the shrug I knitted the second time round but it was a little too flouncy for my taste and got even flouncier with wear. The pattern I was using was really for chunkier wool with fewer stitches and the increased number of stitches led to the increase in flounce.

The wool is Lana Grossa Soffice which is 62% Extrafine Merino/28% Acrylic/10% Cashmere. It is beautifully light and wonderfully warm. The nice thing with the new pattern is that it keeps the shoulders and the top of the arms warm. I tend to feel the cold there these days

Unravelled

Ruth — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:36:47 +0000

After I finished the cushion at Christmas I needed something else to keep my hands occupied. So I unravelled this pullover and knitted it up again in a different pattern. This is nothing unusual for me. I don’t know why I always seem to choose the wrong designs the first time round. I liked the old pattern and loved the wool but it wasn’t really me.

I decided to knit a shrug. I didn’t realise how easy and fast they are. This was finished a couple of weeks ago but today I was wearing some suitable clothes for the modelling so I got the photographer to take these photos. It is based on the free pattern for a reversible lace rib shrug from elann. My wool was a little thinner than suggested so I had to adjust the number of stitches.

I didn’t have enough wool to knit the swing edge as long as the pattern said, but I think the length is fine for me. The best thing as far as I am concerned was there is no sewing together when you’re finished knitting. That is my least favourite part of knitting. I like the finished effect so I think the wool may stay knitted longer this time round

Lilac pullover finished

Ruth — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:33:53 +0000

The front was finished before we even got to England. I knitted most of the back in Brighton over Christmas. So when we got home I just had to sew the seams and knit the neck and armhole welts. All done now.

Here is a photo of the finished model:

And here is the model wearing it on the night it was finshed

P.S. Yesterday I took the two balls of yarn that were surplus to requirements back to the shop to get a refund, which I promptly spent (plus some more) on new wool for another pullover. This time with sleeves. Should keep me busy a bit longer.

Knitting progress

Ruth — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:46:21 +0000

Well I finally managed to persuade the photographer to take a photo of my knitting. This is the progress to date:

Things were going well until I came to the armholes. I have knitted the shaping for the armholes at least twice now. It was tricky getting the correct number of stitches and keeping the pattern going correctly.
But I usually knit everything about twice so things are progressing nicely. In fact Sqeze keeps telling me to slow down or I’ll be finished before Christmas – the plan was to knit while back in the UK. There’s plenty more wool out there in the shops though!

Sometimes the knitting twice is on purpose – I often unravel something I don’t wear any more and reknit it as something else. One lot of wool is onto its third reincarnation currently as a sloppy, comfy pullover