WIP Wednesday: Not Much to Report

Hi all. A quick (and I do mean quick as I have to make a postal run and they close soon) update to let you know what's in the works. I just started it on Sunday and haven't given myself a lot of knitting time, so not much progress. I'll discuss in depth once I'm a bit farther in.

​​SML

Pattern is Ada by Amy Christoffers from the Berocco Fiora Pattern Book #355. Yarn is Berocco Fiora in the Augusta colourway. This may look familiar to some of you, and it's because about this time last year I knit a sweater by the same designer out of the same book with the same yarn. I'd won 9 skeins of the yarn and the book last year at Minnesota Knitters Guild Yarnover as a door prize. Since I'm trying to work on Stash Dash and I wanted to knit a sweater that would be good for summer and yet WASN'T another fingering weight garment but had a lot of yardage, this won out.

Not too impressive yet, but it's easy to knit and seems to be going fairly quickly at this point. There may be gauge issues that you'll hear about at some point, but I'm soldiering on for now.

Okay. That's all for today. Sorry for the brevity, but I've got an event later tonight (I made maps for some books and there's a book release party tonight) so I won't have the time I usually devote to a post. There's not much more to say about this for now anyway.

WIP: Still working on this sweater

But it's getting done faster than it really ought to be. I'm knitting too much, is what's happening. I figured out that I can knit this while reading journal articles (at least, ones where I don't have to take notes or highlight things). Not so much for school because I have to deeply interact with those, but while I'm doing less in-depth reading of articles for the lit review I'm completing for work, I totally knit this sweater. Plus I spent more time than I really should have knitting this weekend. Plus I'm giving myself at least one episode of my re-watch of new Doctor Who each night to knit.

The problem, really, is the knitting while working. I'm really starting to feel it in my right arm and I've got the tiniest bit of a nerve pinch making my fingers occasionally tingly. Will that make me stop? Sadly, no. I keep thinking...but I'm almost done and then I can wear this for class!!!!! So, as I sit here writing a blog post with tingly right fingertips, I have just wound what will (I think) be the final ball of yarn for this project. Really, I need an intervention, but I live alone, so one isn't coming. I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow and then all will be set right.

Here's the progress I've made in a week. It's a bit shameful considering how little time I actually have. Most of it was done over the weekend or while reading for work.

 

Not the best photo, I realise, but the back and the sides had been on the towel blocking (I thought blocking as I went along would expedite seaming. Which it will. I could technically start now.) so I just left it all there. Plus there's next to no decent natural light in this apt. Which keeps the temperatures down, but is terrible for photographing anything.

As a reminder, the yarn is Berocco Fiora and the sweater is Louise by Amy Christoffers from the Fiora book that came with the yarn.

If you recall, last week I was here.  This is basically knitting at my normal really fast sweater creation rate where I have a real job but not any extra work after it and can just knit post work every day. I suppose maybe now that I can knit while reading it ends up being an equivalent amount of time, but I feel like I'm spending too much time knitting for the amount of work I have to do. It's the multitasking thing. I'll get used to it. Or I won't.

 So...back is done. Sides are done. I'm working on sleeve 1 (about halfway done). I have to attend a public meeting tonight for class and I'm debating whether or not to bring this sleeve with me to work on during it (and while I'm waiting an hour after class to head over there) or if I should bring the second bomb pop sock because it won't require any attention at all. At this point, I'm really comfortable with this pattern, but I fear I'll get to the part where I have to shape the cap. I wouldn't really care, but some of my classmates are coming to the meeting with me and I should probably make it look more like I'm paying attention than I would if I were there (nevermind that no matter what, my attention level will be the same). I can tell you one thing...there is no way I'm going to a public meeting on transportation for an hour plus without SOMETHING to knit.

WIP Wednesday: I meant to have this sweater done a month ago

Granted, in order to have this sweater done a month ago I would have had to start it a month ago. Instead I was working through more (hopefully) lucrative ventures and knitting up samples in yarns I've dyed. So I suppose that's worth doing. Then there were those yarn swap things...

Though, TBH, even if I had started this in time, I'm still not sure it would be done. It's only recently that I've come into some knitting time.

Enough of that! On to the talking about knitting.

This week's (and last week's and probably next week's and maybe even the week after that's) WIP is a summer sweater, "Louise" by Amy Christoffers from the Berocco Fiora book. All of this came to me as a door prize from Minnesota Knitters' Guild Yarnover. I have nine skeins of this yarn and a book full of patterns and the fibre content is 40% cotton, 30% viscose, 15% alpaca, 10% nylon, and 5% wool in a DK weight, so I thought this would make a good sweater for air-conditioned classrooms. (It turns out, however, that these classrooms are not so much air-conditioned as set to "freezer" and "Siberia", so I'm pretty sure I could roll in in a full wool/alpaca worsted weight sweater and be perfectly comfortable even though it is July.) Regardless, I think I'll still get some wear out of this sweater in the early fall and, of course, next summer. And if I happen to get this done before August 7 (I'm on track for now, but you never know these days) then I'll have it for summer classes, too.

Here's where I am for now:

The back is done, the pocket lining is done, and the left front is started. I've had more time recently, but I'm also going weirdly polygamous in my knitting (thanks to podcast KALs) so...we'll see.

Thoughts on this yarn: It's nice. It's soft because of all the fibre contents, but sturdy. It's a tiny bit splitty, but not that bad. Although I've never found cotton to be particularly hard on my hands, this one definitely isn't. I didn't get gauge for the sweater on the needle size suggested (well, I got row gauge but not stitch gauge...which like...it's written for this yarn, so IDK what that's about), so I went down a size (so now my row gauge is wrong AND my stitch gauge is still wrong) and then I just did the math that allows me to knit the size XS wide to get the size S I need and I just have to keep track of my row gauge. It's working out.

About this pattern: I get that it's in a pattern book for the yarn and there's limited space, but holy wow is this hard to follow. There's one chart. It's 15 stitches by 42 rows. For the whole sweater. Which is fine, because as you see above the pattern repeats, but the chart makes you read R-L on RS rows and L-R on WS rows which I know some people find confusing. Worse than that, the sweater is shaped with increases and decreases which mean you have to re-think the chart and how it all lines up on your own. Then, now that I've moved to the front...you don't have the right number of stitches. The chart has 2 stitches border on the RS, then a repeat of 8, then 5 border stitches on WS. This works for the back, but on the front I had to cast on 44 stitches and turn 5 of them into a button band, which left me with 39 stitches...which isn't a multiple of 8 if you take off the 2 stitches on RS or the 5 stitches on the WS, so I guess it's now 44-5 button band stitches and then including the 7 border stitches to get 32, but the pattern is VERY NOT CLEAR about that and I wish it would be.

Also, I read the part about how to attach the pocket lining and I'm super confused. So, we'll see about that when I get there.

I'm smart and can logic this out, but it's somewhat annoying and means I *really* have to think about knitting this, which is not always what I want to do.

(Mo)FO Friday: Giant Orange Stockinette Sweater for Jonas

It's not DONE, done, but the giant orange stockinette sweater is blocking and awaiting seaming (and then re-knitting).

Sorry for the terrible photo. It's still blocking and it's too huge for me to take a proper photo of it yet.

To recap: The pattern is Joukahainen by Krystel Nyberg. The yarn is Berocco Ultra Alpaca in colourway 6268.

I started this sweater for Jonas on March 23 and wrapped it up on Tuesday (April 14), so it took me just over 3 weeks start to finish. It's an easy pattern, being predominantly stockinette, so even though Jonas is huge and has a giant long torso and huge arms, this still knit up really quickly. That said, the bit just after joining the sleeves and before you get a good way in to the raglan decreases is probably best described as a slog. I had 300+ stitches on the needles and was working to reduce (every other row) to 92 stitches. It took me 15 minutes to knit a rest row and 20 minutes to knit a decrease row. The good thing about working it in decreases is that it got better from there, but gosh was I ready to just throw the sweater down and walk away once I realised what I was in for while knitting the full chest measurement. But I got through it and it's over.

And it needs re-knitting.

Don't panic...it doesn't all need to be re-knit (I hope), I just need to re-shape the neckline. It came out way more like a mock turtleneck than the crew neck it looks to be in the photo (plus it's way too wide for Jonas to wear as a mock turtleneck even if he wanted to). It seems like this is a common problem with the pattern and I've looked up people's fixes and have pulled out my sweater design books, so I'll devise a solution for re-knitting just the very top and the collar as soon as it's dry (it's been blocking since Wednesday and is still pretty soggy). The bigger problem might come if Jonas thinks it's not long enough. When he first tried it on, he definitely didn't think it was, but based on how much the yarn stretched when I knit my Tauriel, I'm hoping it will block out long enough for him. If not... well, I told him to expect the sweater in a few years when I can muster up the Can to rip it back to the sleeve joins and knit more onto it before doing all those raglan decrease rows again. I'm not even sure I'm going to get to re-doing the collar for a while, since I've got other projects I need to commit to now.

Good news is, he had it on in the house on Tuesday night for less than five minutes and was already too hot in a wool/alpaca sweater, so I'm betting he won't be clamoring for it until September at the earliest. So I have some time. Which is good, because this sweater and I need a break.

It's not even that I mind that much stockinette, really. It's easy knitting and I can do it while doing pretty much everything else, so it was actually good... it was just A LOT of sweater and I'd like to knit something else now.

The yarn was lovely to knit with as always. It's got a great hand and it's not at all splitty or difficult to work with, even when I had to cable it to do the raglan decreases. Lovely all around. The only complaint I had is that a lot of dye leaked out into the water when I was soaking it. The basin was a delightful tangerine colour when I pulled the sweater out and it still wasn't rinsing clean. If I remember correctly, the green yarn for Tauriel did the same thing. So... a bit of caution if you're using this yarn and want to wash the item with other things. It looks like there will be a significant amount of excess dye for the first few washes.

Jonas is weirdly allergic to Eucalan, so I had to use regular laundry soap, but I don't think that will affect the blocking process too much. I just really hope it's long enough after blocking because as lovely as it was to knit, the only challenging part is at the top, and that's the bit I'd have to do again. No thank you, please.

It's a good, basic stockinette sweater. Nothing fancy, but certainly a blank canvas for colourwork or easy design changes and a good place to start if you need to just knit a sweater with no frills. I *might* knit it again. In a smaller size. In a few years. With a different neckline.

WIP Wednesday: Continuation of the Giant Orange Stockinette Sweater

This week's WIP is the same as last week's WIP, which is to be expected when you're knitting a size XL men's sweater for someone who's 6'1" tall on 3.75mm needles.

As a reminder, this is Joukahainen by Kristel Nyberg and I'm knitting it out of Berocco Ultra Alpaca in colourway 6268, which is a lovely burnt orange colour with a bit of depth to it.

That said, progress has been made! Noticeable progress! Much thanks to me working a 4-day convention that left me with hour-long chunks of time to sit and knit, the entire sweater being stockinette, and sleeves having SO MANY FEWER STITCHES than the body of the sweater.

So... since you saw it last I finished the main body section, finished one sleeve, and have started the next sleeve. I had to make the slightest of modifications to account for Jonas having dainty wrists compared to the size of the rest of him, so basically I dropped down to 3.5mm needles and cast on 4 fewer stitches (the amount for the size L), did the ribbing, then switched back to the 3.75mm needles and increased until I had the amount of stitches for the XL, then knit to the length of the L. It's based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage formula so it's pretty easy to make changes like this on the fly, especially since the whole sweater is just stockinette in the round.

Still loving this yarn. It's super easy to knit and has a really nice hand even before washing. The biggest thing I have to remember is that when he tries things on they need to be slightly on the small side (fitting, but with slightly less ease than he might like) because it will stretch out when blocked.

I'm hoping to wrap up the sleeves before the weekend and then maybe get the yoke done over the weekend or early next week. I'm currently dyeing some yarn so I can use it for a sock test knit I agreed to do, so hopefully the next time you all see this sweater it will be in an FO photo.

WIP Wednesday: Giant stockinette sweater of awesome

So, back in 2013 Jonas and I (along with LAP) were at one of our local yarn (and fabric!) stores for Small Business Saturday (that's the Saturday after US Thanksgiving in case you don't know) and for some reason I decided to purchase ALL THE YARNS.

That day, I bought myself a sweater quantity of Malabrigo worsted in the "Garden Gate" colourway (which I am still ABSOLUTELY in love with and I hope you'll get to see knit up soon), the Berocco Ultra Alpaca I used in my Tauriel, and seven skeins of the same Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a sort of burnt orange heathered colourway with the intention of making a sweater for Jonas. Probably for our anniversary, which is in May. He looks really good in that orange colour and I know I'd found a pattern for a basic pullover (which, I note, the sample page is pretty much the same orange colour, so that probably influenced my decision) that I thought he'd like, so I got it for him. Not really thinking that he runs naturally very warm so an alpaca/wool blend might not be the *best* decision ever, but, you know.

Well, I'm finally getting around to knitting it. Now that it's more than a year later and it's almost summer. Yep. Nobody ever said our knitting had to make sense.

FO(s): Tauriel and Custom Elvhen Triangle Scarf

Well, it’s certainly not Friday, but I figure it’s time I tell you all about the not one, but TWO objects I finished last week! A cabled cardigan out of wool/alpaca and a triangle scarf that someone commissioned from me on Etsy. I dyed the yarn and then knit the scarf for her costume for an upcoming convention. Pretty proud of myself for completing a “create this yarn and then make a thing with it” cycle AND getting paid for it on top of things!

First, the sweater! A bit before the end of 2014, I used the Random Number Generator system and landed on the 6 skeins of Berocco UltraAlpaca in a forest green colour that I’d purchased on Small Business Saturday in 2013 from the tiny little LYS/Fabric store/Indie artist boutique store inthe adjacent neighbourhood. So I searched Ravelry for patterns for the yarn and ended up on a sweater in my queue, Tauriel by Bonne Marie Burns from ChicKnits. I’d heard many good words for all of Bonne Marie’s patterns and the Chic Knits patterns, so I’d queued a bunch of them a few months ago. Fortuitous, because I think this yarn and this pattern (and this frigid weather we’re having) were made to be together.

The scarf is something I’ve knit before, but this one was a bit more special since I got to also dye the yarn for it. On my Etsy page, I offer a triangle scarf that was inspired by Merrill from the Dragon Age videogame, a character I also dye yarn inspired by. The pattern is from ALT Designs and is called the Elvhen Triangle Scarf. I knit the one I have and the one on Etsy out of the recommended yarn, Lion Brand Homespun, and hated every minute of it. I’m pleased to say this experience was quite different.

Let’s break it all down.

WIP Wednesday: Tauriel by Bonne Marie Burns

So, I'm trying to start a new feature here, we'll say if I can keep up with it.

Every Wednesday, both so I can measure my progress and keep myself accountable (though the latter is less important since I'm mainly a monogamous crafter), I plan to post a photo of my current work in progress. I figure at the very least this will make sure I post once a week and perhaps a nice end result will that I can do a bit of a "year in photos" post once we reach the end of 2015. Plus I thought it would be fun.

Here's my current WIP, Tauriel by Bonne Marie Burns from Chic Knits. I'm at least 95% positive it has nothing to do with the new character in the Hobbit movies, but I won't say I don't think this looks like it could have been inspired by her.

I'm knitting it out of Berocco Ultra Alpaca that I bought back on Small Business Saturday of 2013 because that's the yarn selected by the Random Number Generator. Not that I don't love knitting with that yarn and not that I'm not super happy about all things involving this sweater, just that I asked RNG what yarn I should use and it chose this. I bought another sweater quantity in orange to knit something for Jonas and I most certainly won't regret that decision whenever it comes around to making it. The yarn is soft and fluffy and not at all splitty and very lovely.

I actually had this pattern in my queue (though not for that long) after hearing the Knitmore Girls sing the praises of the Chic Knits patterns and then going through and queuing basically all of them, so once the yarn was selected I used the magic of the Ravelry pattern browser to match it up with a pattern in my queue and it was a match made in heaven.

The pattern is somewhat brilliantly written (especially if you hate seaming) and the cable pattern is incredibly easy to memorise. At most points (until I got to the bottom and actually had to knit ALL THE WAY AROUND the cardigan) this was pretty much flying off the needles. Right now I have about 10 rows of stockinette and then 10 rows of ribbing to knit on the second sleeve and it will be done. I started this on December 27. Now, I've had more knitting time than usual since then, but not bad for a full size sweater.

On that note, I really, really, really hope that my washed swatch didn't lie to me and that the characteristic alpaca drape and stretchiness isn't going to let me down. Otherwise I better add some length to the sleeves at the very least...they're, well, noticeably short. If they were pants people would ask me if I were expecting a flood. We shall see after blocking.

I'm betting you'll meet up with this sweater again in all it's finished and blocked glory on FO Friday. I have a mind to finish these sleeves as soon as I sign off here. Which is now.

FO: Trilobita OR Accidental NaKniSweMo

As always, apologies for not posting. I’ve been doing a LOT of crafty things and not allocating myself a lot of time for blogging about them. I have designs on changing that in the new year, but we shall see, I suppose.

I know I promised a photo tutorial of how I made a project bag for my swap partner back in September, and honestly, putting together the photo tutorial is what’s been hanging up my blogging, since I never seem to have time to sit down and actually put that together. I still have plans of doing it someday, but I’m going to try to move forward without it and get it in when I can get it in. Hopefully that’s okay.

I’m going to skip forward in time a bit and then try to remember to backfill you with all the things that went on since September until now as I’m able. I feel like this is slightly more time relevant (although it should have been posted last week) so I’m moving on.
Okay. Now that the administrative work is out of the way, let’s jump in with a story about my first ever participation in NaKniSweMo. It was accidental. It wasn’t challenging. I have knitted myself my FOURTH properly fitting sweater.

Here’s the story:


If you were reading back in May, you might remember that I attended a local fibre festival. While there, I bought some yarn (okay, I bought a lot of yarn), specifically I bought what I referred to then as “beautiful variegated organic wool yarn in just the right colours to finally make myself the Hobbit dress before the third movie premieres in December”. So, round about the end of October I’d finished all the hats I’d committed to (you didn’t hear about those, but hopefully you will later) and I thought . . . if I’m going to get this done by the time I see the Hobbit movie, I’d better start now.

So I wound the yarn and I swatched and the yarn was lovely and all was well. I did the math and cast on for the sweater and was happily knitting my very long rows of reverse stockinette stitch in the flat with zero trouble at all. I knit on it all day during a local podcast retreat I attended on November first and had made about 20 cm of progress on it and all was well. Except that I was nearly out of the first ball of yarn. I had three total balls of yarn. This is supposed to be a knee length cardigan with a hood. And I hadn’t even made it to my hip yet and I was nearly through a third of my yarn. The pattern claims that at the largest I will need 895 yards (818 m of yarn). I had 990 yds (905.3m). Before I even got close to an eighth of the way through the pattern I was out of a third of my yarn. At this point, it became immensely obvious to me  that I did not have enough yarn for this project.

It saddened me, because I’d bought this yarn specifically for this project because the colours reminded me of the Shire and everything was very hobbit and lovely and I was really looking forward to having a new sweater for the movie (I’ve never made myself an item specifically to go see a film before so I wanted to get in on the hype). But! I had this lovely yarn and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I took to Ravelry. I have many Hobbit and Lord of the Rings inspired patterns in my queue and I tried to match up what I had with one of them, but nothing worked out. So I decided that I could still make myself a sweater out of this yarn and wear it to the film even if it’s not specifically Hobbit themed because the yarn still reminds me of the Shire and it’s lovely and it will still make me happy.

So . . . on November 1, I ripped out all of the knitting I’d done on the Hobbit dress, rewound the yarn, and picked a new pattern. And I felt good about it.

On November 2, I cast on Trilobita by Annamária Ötvös. It’s a beautiful yoked sweater pattern with raglan sleeve increases knit from the top down and it has these cute little details on the neckline and the cuff that look like little trilobite fossils if you look at them close enough and know what to look for. Most of it’s just stockinette in the round with short row shaping for the yoke and decreases and increases for the waistline. The pattern is incredibly well written and comes in a good range of sizes. It was easy to knit yet still interesting. I’m not incredibly proficient at short rows yet, so I had to rip out the short row shaping once because I wasn’t doing the wrap and turns correctly, but I worked it out and continued on.

The yarn is a sport weight Falkland dyed by Dyenamic Duo (who are so indie they don’t have a website I could find). I’ve never knit with Falkland before but I enjoyed it. It’s not a super fine micron like Merino, but it’s also not as scratchy as Shetland. I found it to be just a good, warm, somewhat rustic wool that I loved knitting and I loved wearing. I hope to find myself some more Falkland someday soon and highly recommend it.

It’s a substantial amount of knitting, certainly, and it’s not for beginners, but I had a great time knitting this sweater and completed it within the time frame very easily. Then again, I’m not sure I’m the sort of person for whom an event like this is supposed to be a challenge. You may know by now that I’m a very monogamous knitter. I have a good amount of time to knit and I only work on one thing from start to finish, so even with a few setbacks it’s realistic for me to plan on getting a sweater done in a month.

So, my participation in NaKniSweMo 2014 was EXTREMELY incidental and not challenging in the least, but I did it and I submitted it and I have a sweater I love and the day I wore it three people complimented it and that’s what matters.

Here's a photo taken with the timer feature on my phone in the very terrible lighting of my living room in a grey Minnesota winter.

I Return (Mostly) Victorious, with Finished Objects!

I feel like I’ve been neglecting you all lately. I promise it’s not intentional, I was just mired in my first true foray into non-monogamous knitting (I hated it) and was waiting until I had anything finished (or even remotely finished) to make an update. Consequently, I have about 5 posts in a row that I’m going to need to make as I’ve been doing ALL THE THINGS. I’ll try to space them out a bit so you don’t get them all at once.

The first thing I want to talk about is something I think I mentioned once before, the Men’s Striped Cardigan that I made for my SO for our anniversary. It’s out of Knit Picks CotLin (because I really wanted to knit with Knit Picks CotLin) and it turned out pretty well, despite me having a lot of struggles with the pattern (part my fault, part the pattern’s fault) and having to rip out the sleeve THREE TIMES (though it turns out that the third time I ripped it out, I didn’t actually have to rip it out, the pattern was just confusing). I also learned that although I don’t usually mind finishing/seaming, I DO hate seaming things with stripes because making the sleeve stripes line up with the yoke stripes was an exercise in madness. Because of the sleeve setbacks, I was worried I wouldn’t finish it by our anniversary, so I dropped all the other projects I had in progress (monogamy ftw) and basically did nothing with my free time but knit that sweater for about a week and a half. I finished weaving in all the ends at around 10:30pm on May 14 (the day before our anniversary). So, technically it was finished on time, but the seams were so horridly bunched up that I knew I needed to block it, so he couldn’t wear it right away. He did wear it to the fibre festival we attended this Sunday (more on that in a later post) and it fits him well and he likes it well enough that I think he’ll actually wear it, so I’m counting it a win. That means that I have successfully knit him THREE sweaters now and I have successfully knit myself two. Yep.

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of him wearing the cardigan (despite the fact that I was with him all day yesterday when he had it on), so here’s a photo of it blocking.



I was really excited to use the CotLin yarn after listening to the Knit Picks podcast where they were talking about the yarn. I’d never knit with cotton yarn at all before, so it was a new experience for me to knit with yarn that didn’t have much elasticity to it and had a lot of stretch. I think I already mentioned that I had to switch to bamboo needles because the cotton yarn and the aluminum needles were not agreeing with one another. Once I switched to the bamboo, all went well. I didn’t LOVE the CotLin as much as I hoped I would, but I think it’s a pretty great yarn to knit with. It helps that the pattern I chose was designed with a cotton yarn, so I didn’t have to worry too much about how it would stretch with gravity (although I don’t know yet since SO has only worn it once), but the linen seems to help it keep a bit of integrity. The stitch definition is nice and it definitely wasn’t hard on my hands while I was knitting (something else I’ve heard about cotton yarns). I LOVE the colours that SO picked (Cashew – a lovely toasty tan colour, and Planetarium – a rich navy blue with the slightest bit of a greenish hue and almost a little sheen that’s basically the colour of the midnight sky) and I have quite a bit of yarn leftover (especially in the blue) so I’m thinking about other things I can make (perhaps for ME) in the yarn. I wish I had more of the tan left because I think it would be a great neutral for me to make another short-sleeved layering cardigan with, but I definitely don’t have enough of the tan for a sweater. The blue however …

The only thing I’d caution about when knitting this is that when I made it (in XL, not sure if smaller sizes also have this problem) according to the pattern dimensions, the armpit shaping starts a bit low, unless you’re planning on wearing a dress shirt or bigger shirt underneath it, and the sleeve lengths (at least on my SO) were about 3” too long if you made the sweater as written (see: why I had to rip back the sleeve the second time), so you might want to measure and adjust as needed.

I might knit this again, but not for a while and definitely not in stripes. Also, I forgot how much longer it takes me to make sweaters for SO because he is so much bigger than me! Yet somehow, he is the one that has all the sweaters that fit and I am the one with a bunch of sweaters in the “things that need to be re-knit” pile. Whatever.

Yarn Review: Knit Picks CotLin

PSA: This also gets into a bit of a “needle review”, which is to say I might say some unpopular things about knitting needle brands and people who feel like if I’m not knitting with $400 needles I’m not doing it right. You have been warned.

Start Post

SO has been really into cardigans lately and since it is allegedly going to be summer soon, I thought that making wool cardigans for someone seemed a bit silly. Thanks to my binge listening to the KnitPicks podcast, I’d been seriously itching to knit with their cotton/linen yarn blend “CotLin”. I don’t really know why, but the podcast made it sound like such an amazing and exciting yarn and since I was thinking about summer knitting (who are we kidding here, I made a worsted weight, all wool, 4th Doctor scarf during the duration of last July/August…summer knitting isn’t a thing I think about) and I was thinking I should make some things out of cotton yarn (which I’ve never used before) and CotLin seemed fun.
I had to wait for the backordered black Palette to come in (Night’s Watch hat!), but as soon as it was ready I pulled SO in and we sat down and picked out colours for the cardigan. There was no question that a navy blue was going to be involved, but we spent a fair bit of time going over the various greys and brown colours and finally settled on “Cashew” and “Planetarium” (the cardigan is done with wide stripes—12 rows high with a gauge of 6 rows per inch). I waited for the yarn to come and then I got swatching.

The first thing I noticed while knitting the swatch was that although this yarn claims to be a DK weight, it’s very thin. I think it’s just spun very tightly, but when I put it up next to a strand of Palette, the CotLin strand is just about bigger than the Palette strand. That said, the pattern (which is written for DK weight yarn, although not cotton DK weight yarn…more on that when I talk about the cardigan) called for 4.5sts = 1” and 6 rows = 1” over stockinette stitch using US 7 needle and after washing and blocking the swatch, that’s what I got, so I’m rolling with it.

The second thing I noticed is that cotton yarn is strange. Or, rather, it’s strange compared to anything else I’ve ever knit with (which is basically acrylic and various wools). It feels like knitting with macrame thread (for all I know it basically *is* like knitting with macrame thread) as it slides through my hands. I’ve gotten used to it after knitting about a quarter of a cardigan, but for a while, especially since I’ve been switching between that, Malabrigo Rios (which is ridiculously soft superwash merino), KnitPicks Brava acrylic, and Knit Picks Palette, the CotLin just felt bizarre in my hands. Once it’s knitted, it’s actually rather soft, but it feels very stiff as I knit it and the fact that it has next to no memory (it doesn’t spring around or squish or anything) is still odd for me.

The third thing I noticed is that this yarn is terrible when knitted on aluminum needles. I was dropping stitches all over the place. The cotton yarn is slicker than wool and because it doesn’t have the fibre memory, it doesn’t grip the needles the way I’m used to. I have a Boye interchangeable needle set (this is where my potentially unpopular opinions on needles start…you have been warned) that I use almost exclusively to knit things. If I don’t use those, it’s because the cables disconnect from the needle tips and on certain projects (Palette on size 3) that means the yarn gets stuck in the connectors, so I’ve purchased a stand-alone Boye circular needle for that. In many cases, I also own the straight needles. Problem is, I somehow managed to lose ONE US7 straight needle (which was the reason I was gifted the Boye set in the first place because I was knitting a lot of things on US7 and I had ONE NEEDLE and no circulars). I do own wood DPNs (mainly Clovers) and I own them in a US7, but this cardigan called for me to cast on 150+ stitches and it’s not knit in the round (because it’s a cardigan), so I wasn’t going to use DPNs.

Here are my needle thoughts. Yes. I just admitted to you that I literally knit everything on US$8 aluminum needles from the craft store. Everything. Unless it needs to be on a DPN and then I knit it on US$10 bamboo DPNs unless I have caved to pressures of ergodynamics and bought myself square Knitter’s Pride Cubics rosewood US3 DPNs (which, lbr, were also $10 DPNs) because all the hats I make are finished on US3 DPNs and I own NO US3 DPNs at all (been finishing them on US5s. I’m lazy and cheap, what?). I’ve been using those to knit my Evenstar Gloves, and I like them, but really can’t tell much of a difference between them and the Clovers I usually use. So, okay, let’s discuss this.

Whenever I hear someone saying that one needs to buy only Hiya Hiya or only ChiaoGoo or ABSOLUTELY ONLY Signature needles, I sort of stop listening to them. I admit that the cables on my Boye circular set are pretty stiff, and if I use anything other than the two biggest sizes I basically can’t use them because the cables are too stiff to bend properly. I admit that the junctions routinely come unspun and I have to respin the tips on at the end of rows. But you know what, I’m actually okay with that. A friend gifted me the set for free and it has all the things I need and I’ve knitted some truly amazing things with so-called “worthless needles”. I once heard someone say that if you paid so little for a needle that you feel no remorse giving it away, it wasn’t worth knitting on in the first place. I’m calling bullshit on that. I knit on “worthless” Boye aluminum needles and I knit with a bunch of “horrible” acrylic yarn and I do some really fucking fantastic work. So there.

Anyway, the point of this is that I was dropping stitches all over the place and quickly realized I needed bamboo circulars. I’d been at JoAnn to buy fabric (I needed the Marvel licensed fabric and they routinely carry it), but I didn’t have the swatch done for the CotLin, so I didn’t yet know what size needles I would need, so I didn’t purchase any. Thankfully, the same friend who gifted me the Boye set also has bamboo circs in just about every size. So, I started the ribbing on my US6 Boye aluminums and then moved to the size 7 for the rows and just dealt with it until she came by on Sunday and saved me with the bamboo. You can definitely tell that the first stripe had a lot more fixes done to it if you look at it closely, but SO is okay with it and I’m hoping after a wash/block you won’t even be able to tell.

In summary: It’s too soon for me to tell what exactly I think about the CotLin, but now that I have the proper needles I’m finding it much easier to knit. I’m worried about proper drape on the cardigan once it’s finished, and I’m not convinced it’s going to hold shaping well through the sleeves, but I’ll be certain to keep you all posted through the process.
Sorry this got long. I will leave you with a quick photo of the CotLin cardigan as it currently stands.

FO: Sweaters that Fit

Remember how yesterday I said I’d never made myself a sweater that fits? That’s all over with now.

No, I didn’t finish the Rios sweater. I’ve been told I’m a pretty fast knitter, but I’m not superhuman. What I did do, was finish my second attempt at a pattern I found on Ravelry called the $5 in Paris sweater.

(Welcome to my office. My selfie-taking device today was the webcam on my computer. I’m pretty sure I freaked out dude in the cube behind me a lot. Also…sorry about the photo quality. I just didn’t have time to use a real camera this morning)

 


The thing about this sweater (or things, rather) is that it was basically destined to be made by me. Yet somehow I still needed two tries to get it right. The pattern is designed for worsted weight acrylic yarn (which I think you‘ve learned by now basically describes my yarn stash), it’s intended to be knit with multiple colours, so it’s a good way to use up yarn that might not exist in full skeins (or sometimes you have to make this brown vest for someone like 4 times and the original pattern wanted the yarn held doubled (who doubles worsted weight yarn for a vest, IDK) so you have way more yarn than you needed, but not enough to actually make another sweater because it turns out it was a good thing you bought twice as much yarn because the vest was phenomenally longer than you thought it would be), it’s knit in the round (which, like, I don’t care. I’ll purl and seam all day long if I have to), so I basically just had to sit there and mindlessly knit and it’s REALLY fast, and best of all, it’s a raglan that’s knit top down, which means I can try it on as I knit. This last fact makes it even more comical that I managed to make it too big the first time I knit it. I don’t know what to tell you other than sometimes things get weird once I get my hands on them.
This is the first top down sweater I’ve ever made. It’s the first raglan sweater I’ve ever made. It’s the first sweater in the round I’ve ever made. But! I’m glad I learned all the skills because the sweater I’m now making with the Rios is a raglan sleeved cardigan that’s knit top down. So by some good knitting fortune I managed to do things in the correct order. Honestly, I was going to start the Rios project a few weeks ago, but one of the Ravellenic Games challenges during the Olympics this year was to reclaim some yarn, and I knew that if I was going to reclaim yarn from one of the many to-be-reknit project, this was going to be the fastest and the one that made me the least angry, so I frogged it. Then I had all this yarn sitting on my couch, and I thought I should knit it. It has the added benefit of being a good spring/fall sweater (I made it in ¾ sleeve, even though it’s supposed to be short sleeved. LBR about the weather where I live, okay. If it’s cold enough to wear an entirely acrylic sweater, it’s cold enough that you want sleeves.) So I worked it up (it’s fast) making a smaller size and making a point to do all the ribbing on smaller needles so it wasn’t so ginormously boaty around the neck and the sleeves and I tried it on like a billion times and now everything is wonderful and I now know all these great skills to make the nice cardigan out of expensive yarn actually fit me on the first damn try.