Forbrydelsen sweater

I enjoyed watching the first series of The Killing and rashly agreed to make 'The Sweater' for my husband. Authentic yarn was duly ordered from the Faroe Islands, followed by a bit of panic on realising that I would have to create my own pattern for this. Also, my stranded knitting experience had previously been limited to a simple tea cosy, where tension and fit were not that important.

I chose to use a long tailed tubular cast on to give a polished look to the rib edging and was pleased with the way this worked out. The body moved along fairly quickly but I reached a block with the sleeves. This was exacerbated by having to work out a different starting point in the star motif for each repeat as I increased the stitches up the arm. I used the low-tech method of sellotaping repeats of the motif together and using post it notes to keep my place.

I used about three different 'design your own sweater' books plus a large dollop of common sense to figure out the yoke. My previous experience was that the sweater 'recipes' tend to start the neck too low, so I kept knitting in the round for several rows longer than the recipe. I also found that keeping four sections in pattern for the yoke while also handling decreases was very difficult, and ripped back several times.

When my husband tried on the sweater before completion it looked like the arms would be much too long. Oh well, I told him he could fold back the cuffs. I cast off and he tried it on again. The neck was too low for his taste, and so I knit another inch. I had tried a stretchy K2tog cast off the first time, but it didn't seem to make much difference, so went back to a regular cast off. Mistake. Now he couldn't get the sweater over his head. I cast off a third time, using the stretchy cast off again, and sewed up the underams.

Aaahh! It fits! Once the underrms were grafted, the sleeves were perfect, and the neckline was just right. I'm really pleased with how this turned out even though I found it quite a stretch to make. The yarn is really lovely and sheepy, although frankly a bit too rough for my skin. My DH is delighted, and it looks great! One benefit of the terrible weather we have had is that it's still cold enough to wear it.

2010 review

Another year has passed, and as usual my knitting goals greatly exceeded my knitting capacity! Still, let's take a look at how I did:

Ten for 2010

1. steeking - no
   
2. entrelac - no
   
3. granny square afghan - yes, but still in progress
   
4. line a bag - no
   
5. top down raglan - no
   
6. moebius - no
   
7. knit with own dyed yarn - no
   
8. more complex sock - no
   
9. complex cable -dipped a toe in the water here, taking a short class with Alice
10. Starmore
    
11. slip stitch item - yes
    
12. use of blocking wires - no
    
13. cable twist stitches - yes, Elsica
    
14. soft toy - either knit or crochet - yes, but still in progress
    
15. cabling without a cable needle - yes Elsica
    
16. inserting a zip into a knitted item - no
    
17. kidsilk haze project - no
    
18. brioche stitch - no

So if we count the WIPs, I managed five. Not great, but five more techniques than I had tried this time last year. I'm still interested in most of the list, so although it won't be a formal challenge this year, I'm going to try and hit a few more.

And the 100 balls challenge?

BSJ - 3 balls
hat for brother - 3 balls

lightweight autumn scarf - 2 balls
calorimetry - 1 ball

charity hats - 7 balls


charity neckwarmer - 2 balls

ruffle scarves - 2 balls

weekender beret - 1 ball
green lovely lid - 1 ball
scallop - not sure, say 10

Hmm, only 32 balls - yet again, good progress with small projects, but not with sweaters. The one project I was really happy to finish was the scallop sweater for my sister. She was very pleased with it, and looks great in it. I'm also happy that I did some charity knitting this year and got more crochet practise.

Elsica

The freezing weather continues, and a walk yesterday convinced me it was time to knit myself a hat. I don't like the beanie style on me, as I have too much hair, but like the look of the slouchy berets that seem to be everywhere. I decided to try Elsica by Woolly Wormhead. Apart from the look of the finished item, this pattern hits two of my Ten410 techniques straightaway: twist cables and cabling without a cable needle.

I went stashdiving and surfaced with a yarn that was the perfect colour. Unfortunately, it was sock weight and the pattern calls for worsted with a gauge of 20. I pulled out a fluffy worsted yarn with a great texture, but questionable colour. I also got a gauge of 18 when I did a mini-swatch. Couldn't find anything else I wanted to use, so settled on this, and figured that going down a size would compensate for the gauge difference.

I have to say I am finding the pattern quite challenging! I thought hats were quick, mindless projects but I am concentrating hard on this one. The first point I discovered was that I needed to slip stitches with yarn in back to get the right effect - the pattern assumes you know this, but I quickly realised I was getting the wrong effect when I slipped with yarn in front.

I found the increase row a bit tricky because there were so many increases that the yarn was quite tight and it became difficult to knit into the strands. I have also ended up with weird diagonal lines where I did the increases.



The cable twist first row was a bit confusing - I think you need to move the marker before starting this row in order to make the twist tutorial and the pattern align. When I did this, all was well. I find the twisting without a cable needle difficult, as the yarn tends to pull out of the stitch when I re-arrange the order. Still, I'll get lots of practice, as this is repeated all the way up the hat.

Cardmaking

During my long blog absence, I flirted with cardmaking. Here's a few of my Christmas cards:








I was quite pleased with them, although it was more time and space consuming than I expected!


I've had another few ideas for the Ten for 10 challenge, and have decided that I'll try to tackle ten techniques from a longer list. We covered 1-8 earlier, but I've reproduced the whole list here:

1. steeking
2. entrelac
3. granny square afghan
4. line a bag
5. top down raglan
6. moebius
7. knit with own dyed yarn
8. more complex sock
9. complex cable
10. slip stitch item
11. use of blocking wires
12. cable twist stitches
13. soft toy - either knit or crochet
14. cabling without a cable needle
15. inserting a zip into a knitted item
16. kidsilk haze project
17. brioche stitch
18. reversible knitting

Most popular patterns on Ravelry

Browsing through my previous blog entries, I found my assessment of the top 100 Ravelry yarns, which got me thinking. How about the top patterns?

I picked out the most popular patterns on Ravelry as of today:

1. Fetching - yes, made these for my mother, and would make again


2. BSJ - this is hibernating - the knitting is finished, just needs making up


3. Monkey - not yet, but potentially


4. Calorimetry - have the yarn, plan to make


5. Clapotis - made it, but don't love my yarn choice so it doesn't get worn


6. Ishbel - no, not likely to


7. February lady sweater - maybe later


8. Noro striped scarf - I like it, but am worried that Noro is so scratchy. Unlikely to make


9. Turn a square - maybe later


10. Saartje's booties - maybe later


11. Swallowtail shawl - unlikely


12. Sock recipe - no


13. Ballband dishcloth - would like to make. Bought some Rowan Cotton Jeans to use for this


14. Starcrossed slouchy beret - hadn't seen this before, but I like it. Have added to my faves list.


15. Felted clogs - yes made this, but they come out huge!!


16. Koolhaas - maybe later


17. Bella's mittens - maybe later


18. One row handspun scarf - yes, and enjoyed making this


19. Baktus scarf - maybe later


20. Lace ribbon scarf - would like to make

Out of the top 20, I've made 4, have one WIP, would consider making 11 and have 4 I don't want to make. I wonder how typical that is of other Ravelers.

I also made a trip to the Liberty sale yesterday. There were some discontinued colours of Rowan cashsoft in various weights and felted tweed. I managed to resist although I was quite tempted!