Shawl Collar Vest

I tried a couple new techniques for Meg Swansen's knitting book "Handknitting". This was knit in the round as you can see in the earlier post. I used steeks for the arm holes. I should have taken a couple more stitches off from the under arms, the shoulders are a little wide for a vest. It makes me look very square with is OK. The Shawl collar was fun to knit, I didn't completely understand Meg's directions but my interpretation worked and the collar rolls nicely. I think I could have gone a couple more ridges to make the collar a little higher. I like the browns with the black. I have enough wool, I 'll have to come up with another idea. Now I will have to finish the sock knit a long, I lost interest early on.

Complete Dubbelmossa

I finished my hat last night. It really took much longer than I expected. The first picture is with it uncuffed. The second and third pictures are with it cuffed. You can tell how big it is on mom. It works well with my big head. Not sure how long the tassel will last, I didn't do the best job attaching it to the hat.

Dancing Children

Here is my dancing children seamless yoke sweater. It is going to be a Christmas present. The recipient will probably wear it as a jacket. I do enjoy the process of finding patterns to knit. The yoke is always fun with the decreases. I worked with blending the decreases into the patterns and was able to add short rows to the back blended in as well. I used fisherman's wool with Patons. I used simple wood buttons. It turned out a little bigger than planned, which is better than smaller. The front was sewn and cut, I think the ribbed edge looks good. Next time I will have to watch EZ's video on button holes, mine turned out fine but I think they could look better.

Aran is complete

Had a nice weekend with the weather and the rain stopping sooner than expected. Got a good walk in on Sat. Sunday I took the road bike out for 3 hours, the weather was perfect, the views great. It is fun exploring the new roads of Juneau county, the only issue is I may run in to rutted dirt roads, but I think I know where they are. Anyway, I also had time to sew and cut my aran, it was going to be a cardigan, but once I cut the steek for the neck I thought it will work a v-neck as well, so I stopped there. I did have to go back and add to the neck it was too big and I also add 2 short rows to the back for the collar. It was a fun knit, I do like the sheep fold design, you don't need any cabling needles to do it. My gauge is getting better even with this type, but that % of a stitch is very important. I didn't have any hem on and it was a little short so I did add the garter stitch to it, which you can't see in these pictures.

Grey Sweater

Here is my latest seamless. I guess I am going through all of EZ's projects in Knitting Workshop. This is the raglan sleeve. Next must be a hybrid or saddle shoulder. This only took two weeks with the green hat being done between. I used Patton's 100% merino, huge clearance, this only cost $14.oo total. The buttons are from Grandma's stash, it gave a few minutes to think about her as I sewed the buttons on, she is 91 now. The buttons are all black but different styles, it gives the sweater a more original feel. I like the raglan pattern but it did take two tries to understand Elizabeth's directions for the neck increase and convert into left hand directions, but I got it. The ribbing is in broken rib, since you only purl every third row. The collar is influenced from Brooklyn Tweeds latest sweater, I should have made it a little longer, it still can be done. Lastly I am getting much better with gauge, it fits me. The yoke sweater, December post, is to big for me but I still wear it.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Here is what I call the "Pea Soup" Sweater. It is a wonderful soft green and gold yarn. I would like to tell you the brand of wool etc, but none of my balls have bands left on them. All I know is I got it cheap at my favorite yarn source during their summer warehouse sale. I took the Norwegian sweater modern. The whole thing is knit in the round. I always over estimate sleeves and had to take 4 inches off the end so they would fit better. The drop shoulder is to blame. I only needed to do a I-cord hem around the front cut and neck and hid the button holes in that. The bottom hem is garter stitch, the sleeves originally had that as well, now after cutting them off I-corded them also. The comment I always get is how warm my sweaters are. Well I always use chunky weight fashion wool for mom's sweaters so they would be warm. Also they take no time. I did knit in a faint cable along the button edge.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

More Mittens

I guess mittens were the gift of choice this year. The following are pictures of mittens I made for Christmas gifts this year. The lighter ones are made with Brown Sheep mohair blend yarn. The yarn worked wonderfully and they are very soft to the touch.

My first seamless yoke sweater

Once I got my first Elizabeth Zimmermann book I wanted to try the seamless yoke sweater. The time has come, and in time for Christmas day. I learned a lot about my knitting ability and to just let it happen and I can think any issues through. First I could not decide what to do with the yoke, I think I have 5 different drawings/charts for this project and I finally took the design from Megs Norwegian sweater for Cully in Knitting Around. I rearranged the pattens. The decreasing was a concern for me, I actually have 6 decreases. Once I got to the neck I was close to the 40% according to EPS. I tried it on the neck hole was to big so I did another 25% decrease in the neck ribbing starting with 2 k 2p rib then p2tog the p's to a 2k 1p rib. These pictures are before the neck was complete. I am almost done, now all I have to do is bury the ends. I finished the neck with cast on/cast off method. The grafting on the underarms went well. There is something to be said about casting off the neck and the sweater is basically done.

Christmas pictures and me and sweater to follow. I am sure another seamless is not far away in the future.

Candy Cane Gloves

Looking through my fairisle and norwegian pattern books they show gloves, but no real pattern to do the fingers. So the adventourous type I am I decided to take EZ's mitten pattern and adjust to gloves with a little help from a Patons winter accessory patten book. They turned out well. I kept the finger pattern easy incase I wanted to rip them out or something. Next time I will be more creative with the finger patterns. I really like EZ's thumb method, doing as a after thought. I have done sock heels with the same method. This was the first time I have ribbed in two colors, it seemed to knit faster. Using two hand color knitting I wasn't wasting time moving the yarn to front and back. I will be wearing these gloves a lot, they are thick and warm using worsted yarn with size 3 needles.

Warm Hunting Socks

Once I got my 12" turbo needles I knew I would be more willing to knit socks. I really have an issue with using DPN's and the ridge that I get when I knit. I have used Meg's hints and it kind of helps. Anyway, I can whip out mittens in a weekend with these little needles. I broke down to do a pair of socks. I roughly used a sock pattern I got with some previous yarn and set off. I used fisherman's wool and Patons for the green. I knitted ribbing in the middle of the foot so they won't bunch or slide, just like you see on sport socks. They fit great on me, but they are a gift so I have to wait to hear their response.

It's done?

Like I said I would finish my "What will it be" sweater. The collar and front took longer than I thought. I tried EZ's button hole technique, it worked but I did something wrong or it is because I knit left handed, I had an extra little hole next to the button hole. I notice it, but I know no one else will. I changed my mind on the buttons, I guess I am not being green and recycling. The fabric store had buttons on sale. I am still deciding on the cuffs, I don't like the ribbing and I could still use a half an inch in length.

EZ Fairisle Vest

This vest has been done for months. I just needed to neaten up the cut steek edges inside. This was from a Spun out pattern that is also in the Knitting Workshop book. I used Paton's Merino wool, it came out thicker than I expected. I used broken rib for the ribbing. This was my first project with steeks and was fun to knit. Thanks to Gabrielle for the great pictures.

Blue Norwegian Sweater

Finally got pictures of this project. It has been done for awhile, finding a zipper long enough was a challenge. This is a wearable practice sweater, I wanted to work on my two color knitting and pattern design before I worked on a full size wool project. The yarn for this sweater was a reasonable cotton acrylic blend I have had forever. The collar took a couple tries to get the roll and decrease right. I used all the techniques from EZ's book. I even knitted a lining over the sleeve seams. One I-cord finished the front cut line then I sewed the zipper in between the I-cord and the sweater, then another I- cord attached to the original I-cord to cover the zipper, it worked out well. It is keeping me warm today with the weather finally changing in Wisconsin.

Warm Hat and Mittens

Here are the mittens I made with my new Turbo 12" circular needles, each one only took a day. I designed the patterns from Fairisle knitting. The warm hat idea is from EZ, the brown side is looser since it is only one layer of yarn, but it fits inside without bunching.

EZ Baby Surprise Jacket

Here is my first BSJ. What a fun and quick project. I found little baseball buttons to make it a perfect gift for my friends little boy.

Baby Sweater

My EZ inspired baby sweater. I used Patons merino wool, size 6 needles. This is the second one I have done in the round and cut. I used I- cord for the front and neck, just skipping 2 stitches for the button holes. It was intended for friends having a boy, but decided the coloring was more for a girl. So I did my first BSJ, picture to follow.