the blue blog archives: show us your green

In the last few days, there's been no sock knitting, no hourglass knitting, no pop repairing, and no vintage sweater starting. I've focused exclusively on my new fixer-upper, "Banff on Safari."

I am having so much fun reknitting this sweater! Since the original version had such nice ribbing already, I kept the old ribbing and adjusted the Banff pattern to work with that stitch count. The OnLine sweater had 10 fewer stitches for each body piece and almost 30 fewer for each sleeve! In order to get that little poof after the ribbing, I needed to add more stitches to the total stitch count though. I wasn't worried about adding to the width of the sleeves, since they were so poofy at the top, I figured there'd be plenty of yarn to redistribute the poof over the whole arm. But I was nervous about adding stitches to the body and then still having enough yarn to finish the sweater. I decided to do only two increases on each body piece. But then I joined the two pieces and started knitting them in the round. This has the effect of further increasing the total stitch count (including in the body the four stitches that were previously sewn together in the seam), without using up any more yarn. I was very proud of myself for coming up with that little idea.

The yarn is holding up very well to the reknitting. It's so slubby and bumpy that there wasn't even any need to wash it after frogging. And the fact that the gauge matches that of Banff perfectly was really serendipitous. It's made reworking the raglan sleeve decreases merely a matter of adjusting for size. I've shortened the armhole a bit and to adjust for the dramatically smaller stitch count on the sleeves, I've decreased a bit more slowly there. Again, the slubby nature of the yarn will help me, since it will hide the fact that the decreases on the body and sleeves won't match up perfectly.

I should have this finished this weekend! And things should stay green around here for a while longer, because a big box o' green yarn just arrived yesterday!

This Candy yarn is so neat. It's a soft, light cotton/acrylic/elastic blend and look at how nicely it knits up. I may have to make another "nothing but a t-shirt" with this fun stuff.

posted by alison at 10:11 am | in fixit

Comments

Mmmm...candy yarn! I love it!

Posted by: Stacey at March 17, 2005 10:29 AM

speaking of nothin' but a t-shirt. Alison do you have a substitute suggestion for Rowan Calmer?

Posted by: Carla at March 17, 2005 10:36 AM

Carla, coming up with yarn substitutions for Rowan Calmer is hard! The yarn is so unique with it's softness and lightness and elasticity. I didn't put any substitutes in the pattern because I just don't know of anything that is going to knit up as well. But when pressed to come up with some ideas, here's what I think....

GGH's Samoa might be a good possibility - it's like a smaller gauged version of All Seasons Cotton. Since it's a cotton/acrylic blend and is spun so neatly it has a little sproing like the Calmer and is very soft. Otherwise, if you can find a cotton that is lightweight and even has a little elastic in it (like the Candy yarn maybe), that might work well. You could try Cascade's Fixation yarn since it has elastic, but it has a very different texture. The Dale Svale yarn is very light, but instead of being elastic and hugging your curves, it will be more drapey. If you're looking for a wide range of colors, Rowan's handknit dk or cotton glace, or Debbie Bliss's cotton dk might be good. The yarn won't be as
stretchy or as light, but the colors are very pretty. Another possibility is Debbie Bliss's wool/cotton which has some wool in it giving the yarn some stretch, but is suuuuper soft because of the cotton. It comes in AMAZING colors and is on sale in lots of stores because it's just been discontinued.

Heck any cotton you like in the right gauge will do fine, if you're willing to give up a bit of the elasticity. I'd just recommend staying with soft and lightweight.

I'll add this info to my pattern page for others thinking about substituting.

Posted by: alison at March 17, 2005 10:46 AM

That sweater you are reknitting is awesome! You're so clever to figure all that out!

I really like the way that Candy yarn is knitting up... I just might have to get my hands on some of that.

Posted by: Ellie at March 17, 2005 10:53 AM

Your Banff looks great! It's so good you were able to refigure parts of the pattern without having to rip out the whole sweater, very lucky. Candy looks nice!

Posted by: Vicki at March 17, 2005 11:17 AM

Oh cool, you have the Candy yarn! I saw the ad for it and was immediately smitten. Will be interested to see how it works up. I haven't checked on the price. Hope it isn't too much for my budget.

Posted by: Elizabeth at March 17, 2005 11:20 AM

Love the Candy! Webs carries it. Here's a link to their page so you can see pricing and yardage info:
http://www.yarn.com/yarns-knitting/candy.html

Posted by: alison at March 17, 2005 11:53 AM

Me likey your green yarn!

Posted by: Christie at March 17, 2005 12:20 PM

Great sweater! Alison, do you have any advice about ripping a sweater that was knit with 2 strands held together. It's my banff. I never wear it, and I'd love to get all those 1000s of yards of yarn back. But when I try to rip double strands I always end up with a wicked mess.

I suppose I'm joining the rip-along! Better late than never. :-)

Larissa

Posted by: larissa at March 17, 2005 8:53 PM

Fabulous work. A new sweater for you! A new sweater for you. Are you going to do a little dance?

Posted by: Wendy at March 18, 2005 9:07 AM

You should be Part II of the Interweaves Summer edition about reworking an old sweater!!!!!!! I'm so impressed!

Posted by: leslie at March 18, 2005 1:01 PM