Hi Score

I have been having some Yarn-Harlot-level difficulties in getting my completed pullover photographed, but today I managed to find a few minutes of (indoor) sun with my HLM, and we got some passable shots.

I kept the yoke pattern pretty top-secret until I got that far, partly since I knew that knitting the body (stockingette black sock-weight around and around and around, in case you forgot) would take forever, and I didn't want everyone to be anticipating the yoke for months on end. I cast this one on in the beginning of October, and I knew it would be a bit of a sleeper project, while I worked on much flashier items. The yoke design, in case you don't recognize it, is from the old video game Space Invaders. You can find the charts here, if you are so inclined. It has been used for a sock pattern in Knitty, as well as a lot of other stuff, which you can find on Ravelry. When I first thought of using this for a yoke sweater, I thought I was ingenious. I wasn't the first one to do it, though. Turns out there are a lot of us knitting geniuses out there.


Nothing terribly exciting about the construction of it -- I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's yoke pullover design (from Knitting Workshop) but rethought the numbers a lot to make it fit everywhere just the way I wanted. I made a good-sized gauge swatch and did a lot of math. The circumference has a bit of negative ease at the hip and bust, so it looks like it has some shaping, even though it doesn't. There is a nice broad garter stitch hem at the bottom, and matching cuffs for the sleeves. The sleeves are a little bit long, as is my preference. I did some short rows in the back of the sweater, to lengthen the back a bit, and lots and lots of short rows for the bust, to allow the sweater to hug my assets. It also ensures that the sweater won't ride up in the front because of the extra distance it has to travel over that area. After I knitted the stranded yoke, I did a few more short rows along the neckline, sides and back, to raise it up a bit. I hate it when the back of my neck gets cold, don't you?


The only real challenge, as I mentioned somewhere along the way, was the math for the stranded yoke. I had envisioned little columns of marching alien invaders, as you see in the game, but of course there is room for so few invaders around the neckline, and if I followed that scheme, it would have left long stretches of black between each invader at the bottom of the yoke, which isn't at all right. So I had to re-envision the whole thing, and let go of the perfect video game image. The original game image would also have had a different colour scheme, since it would be two rows of Granny Smith aliens at the bottom, then two rows of Mermaid blue aliens, then two rows of Grass green. Since I decided I could only fit five rows in total, and I was rethinking the spacing of them, I also decided to mirror the colours from top to bottom. I think it ended up looking pretty good.

I love this sweater, because it is everything that I wanted: lightweight but warm, a cute nerdy design that makes me laugh, a comfortable and fitted sweater that is flattering. Isn't it great making something exactly the way you want it to be?

Colours

The ongoing yoke pullover is at long last all in one piece, since I knitted the sleeves and body together -- this means that I finally get to work the stranded yoke. I started it last night, and it took a while for my hands to remember the rhythm of stranded knitting. It was slow-going for a bit, but then it all began to feel natural again, and I made decent progress. It will start to go even faster, as I begin the decreases through the yoke and it gets progressively smaller. I can't tell you how nice it is to pick up that Granny Smith green, after knitting miles and meditative miles of plain black.


In other colourful news, my final yarn purchase of 2009 finally arrived in the mail the other day -- I have been eyeing the Corrie Vest kit on Knit Picks for ages, and since it is on sale, I decided to treat myself with one. Well, actually, with two, since the kit has enough yarn to make up to a 42" bust, and since mine is (ahem) bigger than that, I bought two kits (since I didn't know which colours I would run out of.) Not only will I have plenty to make my vest, but I will happily use the leftovers for some fair isle fingerless mitts or possibly a fantastic tam. Sweet.

Now With More Lizards

Things are humming along, here: I have gotten several more repeats done on the Honeybee Cardigan, this week, and finally feel like it's getting somewhere. As you can see in the photos, there are a few more finished blocks for Lizard Ridge in the pile. I have also gotten nearly to the bust short rows on the yoke pullover, which means I'm very near the underarm, which means I'm very near the exciting stranded colourwork and the big finish for this one.


I actually sat down to do some math for the stranded yoke, the other night, and was dismayed to find that my initial plan won't work, at all. I was trying to work out a way that the repeat would be lined up in an orderly way from the bottom to the top of the yoke, but it seems that isn't possible, since the repeat itself is an even 13 stitches wide, from bottom to top. Of course yoke patterns tend to have a wider repeat at the bottom and narrower at the top. So I have had to revise the plan and I will simply do the number of repeats that I have room for, in each section, and they won't line up at all, probably, but hopefully will still look good. (This will make more sense once I get some knitted and you understand what I'm talking about.)


As you can see, some of the Lizard Ridge blocks are more... interesting... than others. If I hadn't intervened by taking out a big chunk of yarn in the ball, this particular block, for example, would have been alternating orange and green for the whole thing. Yikes.

Spoiler Alert

I have, of course, cast on a new pair of socks. These ones are the final pair from the Blue Moon 2009 Rockin' Sock Club. The colourway is nice and black, with some barely-there colour variegation in purples and greens and yellow. The design has lace and ribbing, although I realize you can't really see it well in that colour.


I realized that last time I flashed you my sweet new stitch markers, I didn't let you know that they are from Sunneshine on etsy -- she does not only great stitch markers, but also row counters, for those of us who do complicated lace and cables and want an easy way to remember what row we're on. I highly recommend them (and her.)

In other news, I have gotten a few lace repeats done on the Honeybee Cardigan, but have only been working on it at the pub (where one patron this week initially suggested we must be knitting because we're trying to get off drugs, and then followed up with "are youse mental?" Fortunately he had a lovely Irish brogue and bought us beers to apologize for his impertinence, which ultimately only led to us being unable to execute our complicated knitting.)

I have also made a bit of progress on the endless body of the black yoke sweater. It is, despite all appearances, coming along.

I've started thinking seriously about finishing the Lizard Ridge blankie, since it's been lingering far too long, and it would be nice to complete it before starting another big project, since Rose-Kim Knits has put the idea in my head of joining Ravelry's 10 shawls in 2010 group... Although I need ten more shawls like I need a hole in the head.

Mostly I'm just happy that I'm not stressing out over finishing a bunch of holiday gift projects, like so many other bloggers out there. So much nicer to put my feet up and relax and work on more projects for selfish little me.

Limbo

I am in a strange state, right now, where I feel like I'm making no progress with all the various things I've been working on. I've been reading the same books for ages, and working on the same projects. In fact, it might be the sheer number of them that is keeping me from getting anywhere with any in particular.


Take my knitting, for example. I am still working on the leg of the second Knetted sock, as you can see on bottom left. I have doubled the amount of completed ribbing for the Honeybee Cardigan but still haven't quite felt motivated to start the more-complicated lace pattern. The best progress I've made is on the little stripey mohair scarf -- that piece you see is the second half of the scarf, for the record. The two halves get grafted together in the middle when the knitting is done, to allow the lace at either end to be identical.

Then there's the sleeves for the black yoke pullover. They are truly the black hole of my knitting. Not only have I been working on them forever, but now, as I finally near the underarm seam (the point where I can put them aside on stitch holders until I knit the body of the sweater and then join everything together) they are somehow making no progress at all. I tried them on a few nights ago, and decided they were about 10 rows from the underarm. No matter how many times I knit 5 rows and try it on again, they are always 10 rows from the underarm. They are defying the laws of physics. Maybe just 5 more rows will do it...

Topographie Sweater: the Big Reveal

After a skirmish or two with my photographer, I was able to get some photos of my finished sweater this morning, in the bright blinding sun.

I am super happy with how well it turned out. After blocking, it's a little bit longer than I had planned, mostly because I didn't really bother with measuring it much after I blocked it out to dry (read: the measuring tape was in the next room.) The sleeves, however, remained the perfect length. As predicted, the stitch pattern did smooth out a lot, the kool-aid stayed fixed in the yarn, and it looks pretty cool, I think. And the thing fits like a handknitted glove.

I did a lot of short row shaping in this sweater -- the back has a couple of short rows, right above the bottom hem, to add some extra length to the back of the sweater. I hate it when shirts ride up in the back.
Then I did some decreases to the waistline -- I did three in back and only two in front, every two rows. This had the added bonus of making a subtle curve in the back, which is reminiscent of a bustle. It fits well over my also-curvy fanny. Then I did some short rows at the bustline to give some added length there, so the sweater won't ride up in front, either. It fits there just perfectly. Then near the top of the yoke, I added a few short rows in back, to raise the back neck a bit. In future, I would extend those short rows around the side of the neckline, to bring the sides up a smidgen more than the front, as well.

I agonized a bit over how to finish the neckline, but opted for a basic hem to match the sleeves and bottom hem. It is about half the width of the other hems, though. I was worried that it might stand up all weird, but it just barely stands up, and I really like it, actually. I had considered doing a rolled hem (the easy way out) but couldn't stand that it wouldn't match the other hems.



I am totally enamoured of this sweater, and love how it fits (and how easy it was to do.) I didn't entirely use Zimmermann's percentage system to make it, but used a lot of my own calculations and adjustments. That's the secret of a well-fitted knit, after all. I am really excited at the prospect of making another yoke sweater in the future, with some nice fair isle in the yoke. I will have to add one to my always-ridiculously-long To Do List.

Topographie Yoke: Where Arm Meets Body

My sweater was on hold for a few days, while I quickly knit up my HLM a toque during the cold weather we had last week. Alas, I have no photo of it right now, since he took it with him on his trip to NYC to see Terry Reid. When he comes back, I will get a photo and show it off. It's one of Jared's Koolhaas hats, in a nice grey.

When I picked up the sweater again, I decided to do some short rows for the bust, to add some length in that area. Any of my readers with ample bosoms will know that sweaters always ride up in front because of the extra length the fabric travels over the bust.
Now, I could have read up on how to add short rows, and how much to add, etc. Instead I just decided to wing it. I've made enough short row socks that I know the general technique. So I did three wrap & turns evenly spaced on the outside third of each side of the sweater front. I tried it on and it seems to have worked perfectly. Last night I knitted the sleeves onto the body and am making slow progress up the yoke. After a couple of inches, it will move much faster, as I will be decreasing the stitches by one-third at the halfway point of the yoke. Not long now, and I will have a completed sweater. I just need to decide how to finish the neckline.

(Weaving progress coming soon.)

Topographie Yoke: the Middle

I've been busily knitting on my Topographie Yoke sweater for the last few days. Once I finished the sleeves and got to stop knitting magic loop style, it's been smooth sailing. I did a few decreases from hip to waist and was planning to do some increases for the bust, but today I tried it on, and decided not to.
I had planned the body to have a mere inch of ease, and somehow the translation of measurements from paper to sweater have left it looking plenty big. (Or maybe I'm just used to wearing clothes that are too small for me.) And now I'm worried that it will get bigger when I block it. This is where I start to bemoan the fact that I'm too lazy to properly block my swatches.

Anyway, as I was pulling it up and off, I settled it around the busty area, and it seemed like it fit there pretty well. So I think I'll just knit it straight to the underarms and let a bit of negative ease do the work for me. Lazy? Well, yeah, but if it works, it works.

Topographie Yoke: the beginning

A while back you may have seen some yarn I dyed with Kool-Aid for a sweater project. I began the knitting last week, after I finished my socks, and have been making slow but steady progress on the sleeves.

I like knitting two sleeves at a time, using the Magic Loop method, since I will otherwise somehow manage to make them different from one another (usually by forgetting what I did on the first one.) Well, I say I "like" it, but really I find it kind of tedious -- it's still better than having two different sleeves.
As I mentioned before, I'm using the stitch pattern from the Topographie pattern in Knitty's Winter '08 edition. Basically you just take a variegated yarn and knit stockingette, but when the next stitch on the left needle is in the contrasting colour, purl it instead of knitting. It gives some really interesting texture, as you can see in the photo. I think after I block it, the ruffly nature of the knit fabric will be tamed into something smoother, but the reddish purls will still stand out.

You can see that because each skein I dyed is different, the stitch pattern will be different as well. One sleeve started out a lot more full of purls than the other, for example, but evened out as I went on. Now that I've gotten past the increases and into the upper arm, you can see that the pattern gets more regular and is making a spiral of sorts. I wasn't thrilled with it, initially, since I preferred the randomness, but it's growing on me. If I really wanted it to stay random, I could have begun to alternate skeins for each row -- that way, the repeat would have been broken up. I opted for letting the skeins speak, rather than trying to control it. After all, I dyed them myself, so I am speaking through them.

A few more inches and I will be done the arms to the armpit, and then I can cast on the bottom hem and start the body. I have to do some thinking about how fitted and/or loose and casual I want it to be...

Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

So I mentioned the other day that I would be dyeing some Cascade 220 for a yoke sweater... Well, on new year's eve, I put on my alchemist hat and this is what I ended up with:


It may look like a horrible accident that would have me in tears, but believe it or not, it's pretty much what I intended -- I wanted the dye to be sparse and erratic, some large and some small blotches, with the majority of the yarn still the original colour (Duck Egg Blue, for the record.) Some of the skeins have more dye than others, since I started to run out by the last skein or two (though a couple that look undyed in the photo have more colour on the other side of the skein) -- I think I'll just use them strategically, to try to disperse the colour evenly. Or not. I wound one up so far, to see how it looks in a yarn cake, and now I'm pretty stoked to start the project.


For the dye, I used equal parts Cherry and Orange Kool Aid, to try for a colour that wasn't just bright purple but wasn't brown, either. It came out somewhere between plum and dried blood. I'm pretty satisfied with it. The only snag was that most of the KoolAid dyeing instructions out there on the web call for a microwave, or sometimes a steamer basket, neither of which I have. (Or even the sun, which is also curiously absent this time of year.) So I had to do a little extra searching to find some instructions that used a conventional oven instead. It worked fine, but my whole apartment had the sickly smell of Orange Cherry Wet Sheep for a day or two. My HLM was not impressed. I went through a lot of incense, what with my windows being frozen shut by Jack Frost and all.


In other news, I spent the last couple of days plugging away on a new knitting bag (so I'll have something pretty to store my new sweater project in, natch.) I got the pattern free from Knitting Daily ages ago, and recently saw so many nice ones on Ravelry that I had to try it out. Knitting the berry stitch so tightly for three days wasn't the best thing for me, but it turned out so nice that I can't complain. Once again, I used Cascade 220 (this time in Como Blue, which is quite a bit darker than this photo appears -- it's more accurate in the photo below) but doubled up, since the pattern calls for a much thicker yarn. And yes, if you're wondering, those are wooden knitting needles at the top of each panel (10.0mm diameter -- yikes!) The bag was knitted on much smaller needles, of course, but you end it with the big ones, and glue the stitches at the point end so they won't slide off.


The bag is totally roomy and sturdy. I lined it with leftover fishy fabric, since it sort-of matched. I was going to stabilize the handles with fabric as well, but I didn't have quite enough, so they will just stretch out, as garter stitch is wont to do. I will live with it. Right now my Bumbleberry socks are stored in there, waiting patiently to be finished. Did I mention that I turned the second heel?