two buggy baby sweaters from Dale - my first fair-isles and first steeks

  

Volkswagens, Dale #10606, and Ladybugs, Dale #10005, both in Dale Baby Ull

---

And here's B bouncing around in his new sweater.

Boys and their bugs.

Well, adiós, my finishing fiesta amigos! I've cleared out my finishing basket and definitely earned a vacation. Oh, I'll still be knitting. And blogging. Just at a vacation pace. Blue blog, fly away home.

Look, ladybug buttons!

I feel like I've been working my way towards this sweater since I started knitting. It was one of the first patterns that I saw and thought, now that I have to make. But I knew I couldn't do it right away. So I practiced my basic knitting skills on those first giant blanket projects, made my first couple of sweaters, then learned continental knitting and took workshops on fair-isle knitting and steeking. Whew, what a long trip it's been. But I made it (literally!). And not a moment too soon - the pattern only goes up to a two-year size!

Stay tuned: as soon as the boys wake up, I can get an action shot of B in his bug sweater.

Just in case I wasn't getting tired of finishing yet, class time. We were working on seaming shoulders and picking up stitches for starting sleeves. For seaming shoulders, I usually I prefer weaving the shoulders together. I like the way you can get the stitches to look like they just go right over the shoulder. With a three-needle bind off they're matched but going in different directions. Don't know why, but that bothers me a little. I brought the ladybug sweater to work on while the students practiced their seaming. I really like the shoulders on this one. Dale has you do a couple of purl rows at the top of the shoulder and then seam through the purl bumps, leaving a little purl row at the edge. Cool look for a baby sweater. They have you leave a purl row at the sleeves too.

I've got the sleeves all done (facings sewn down too!) and just have the neck to go to finish. Tonight!

This is your machine on steeks.

Any questions?

Yeah, still on sewing hiatus, but I did rev up the Bernina this weekend to do the steeks on the ladybug sweater. Like my pretty little stitches? Snip, snip and ready for sleeves!

So watch out - the finishing frenzy is back on. I've got a load of finishing to do and there will be no cheating and starting new projects this time, because I've got a sore knitting hand. Due to a little too much knitting, a little too much stroller pushing and way too much across the table cup holding for toddlers ever so anxious to use the 'beeeeg kupp'. Get those party hats back on, the finishing fiesta is coming this way.

One bug sweater, reporting for steeking!

Can I tell you how annoying these bugs have been?! Apparently, the bugs aren't centered over the middle of the sweater. That, I thought, was the point of the pattern identifying a specific stitch in the middle of chart where you should start the round. But I guess not, since when I cast off the center stitches for the front neck opening, I had a bug on the left side and space on the right. Hmmm.... I knit a bit, couldn't deal with that assymetry every time I returned to that part of the round, ripped back to the divide for neck part, and set everything aside to crunch some numbers. I've got the split looking a bit more centered now by making the neck a bit wider and losing three stitches on one shoulder. Three stitches off (at 7 st. to the inch) is acceptable in my book.

Still why did they have me start the dang pattern where they did? Starting at a different point would have centered the pattern. I even scrutinized a sample ladybug sweater at my LYS and the pattern's not centered under the neck on theirs either. Can anyone help solve this mystery?

The finishing basket isn't empty yet. But before the fiesta can continue, the remaining projects need some work!

While waiting for my zipper, I sewed in the bands on the front of the ribby. I'm all ready to add that zip, unfortunately it's arrival has been delayed due to a little online ordering form snafu. Next week, I hope!

And here's my progress on the ladybug sweater (The little spots on the bugs aren't so visible in the picture, but believe me they're there. Just feel the need after working three colors in each of those rows to be sure that you know: they ARE there!). One more set of bugs to do and then the steeking and sewing can begin. That last bug row is going to be a bitch though, as the neck shaping begins smack dab in the middle of it and I've got to figure out some neck steek solution to shape it properly and yet not have to knit back and forth (as called for in the pattern - I say "ha!" to that!).

And under these lovelies, at the very bottom of the basket, the second giranimals jacket waits, last touched some six months ago. I pulled the poor, neglected thing out yesterday to see how much needs to be done. Some of the parts are sewn together, but once I've gotten the seaming done, I've still got many hours of embroidery and darning work to do on that crazy giraffe pocket!

The boys were tumbling about on the sofa while I was inspecting the giranimals jacket, and I was amazed at how much they've grown since I knitted these up. When I finished the first giranimals jacket, it was huge on B, but now it'll fit perfectly. I'd better get this finished fast before they grow even more!

Another row of bugs is underway. Send bug spray!

The bugs are back! At Knitsmiths on Sunday I picked up where I left off in March. But after about five rows, I decided that the whole thing was looking a wee bit small. B's grown since then, so this is not a trivial issue! So I ripped it all out (230 stitches) and started over with size US2 needles instead of US0's and now it's just right. And despite having been sooo bugly when I was working on it before, it's coming out rather pretty this time!

Other beautiful l things I've spotted this week: Kerstin's ChicKami, Rebecca's Smooch (wowza!), and LoobyLou's Janda. Man, I love that sweater! And the loveliest of all, Kerrie's wedding photo! Awww (sniff, sniff).

The bugs on the second sleeve of the Dale ladybug sweater are looking so much better than those on the first. They're actually pretty smooth and the sleeve doesn't poof out over that section. Makes me want to redo the first one. M u s t   r e s i s t .

I credit the improved tension to my having given up on the two-handed thing. Kathy mentioned in her blog that she's considering going back to using just one hand. And Teresa also came out as a one-hand-two-color knitter. So at least I'm in good company. The important thing is to get gauge, right? Who cares how you get there! I'm still using both hands to do the small color work, though: alternating one or two stitches in different colors. But the bugs are different every row and for some reason my tension just gets shot over larger floats and multiple rows with two hands. Maybe with more practice, I can improve my technique and really do it "right" again, but right now, I'd rather have a good looking sweater. Is that so wrong?

And speaking of good looking sweaters, check out Caroline's newly finished version of the volkswagen Dale sweater!

One bugly sleeve down. One to go. Bugly body to follow.

Made a little progress on the second dale sweater, which I am now christening bugly. My friend and fellow Knitsmith, Julia - who taught me how to knit! - started this sweater a while ago and the bugs annoyed her so much that she called hers the cockroach sweater! So those of you out there thinking of making this sweater (like Julie), be warned. The rest of the sweater is easy knitting, but those dang bugs are a pain! Oh and if you're thinking about duplicate stitch, check this out.

I finally decided that if I'm ever going to get this ladybug sweater done, I have to just pick a needle size and make it work. I started the sleeve off on US3, which was giving me gauge, but then through the bugs it started to look, well, a little bugly.

So I switched to US2's for the light blue and lo and behold I got gauge, it looks fine. Too bad the bugs weren't part of the miraculous gauge transformation. I wasn't up for ripping them out and redoing them though, so they're staying.

Man this bug sweater is being a pain in the butt! While I'm waiting for the proper size circular to arrive so I can restart the body, I decided to work on the sleeves, since I do have the appropriate double pointed needles. After twice knitting and ripping that first row of bugs on the body, I have now knit and ripped it three times on the sleeve. I just can't stand the way it looks. The colorwork looked great when I was knitting real tight, but with a needle two sizes bigger it's this big hideous loosey-goosey affair that I simply cannot abide. I've knit so much on this sweater that I should be halfway up the body, but alas I've got an inch of the body (and half of that is hem to be turned under!) and the same inch on the first sleeve. Aaaargh! And in the meantime, Cindy is almost done with her Kool-Aid sweater, Wendy has practically finished the body on Hank 8 and Michelle has made incredible progress on her intarsia plaid. What is my %*&#@ing problem?!

That is the question. A few days ago I would have said yes, but now, not so much!

Made anxious by the onset of warmer weather, I started knitting B's ladybug sweater over the weekend. Everytime it seems like good sweater-but-no-jacket weather and I want to put S's vw bug sweater on him, I think about how poor B is still waiting on his bug sweater. So I ignored my fear that I have probably forgotten how to do fair-isle and sat down to start the color work on Dale sweater number two. The two-handed stranding went great and I had just reached the ladybugs as I finally had to admit that my gauge was way too tight and the sweater would be too small. I ripped back to the light blue hem and switched to a larger needle. 'Knit loosely', I chanted, until I was distracted by the cute little ladybugs taking shape under my needles. Ladybugs complete. Check. Nooooo, it's still too small! I'm making the two-year size and the boys will be 2 1/2 by the time they'll start wearing these sweaters this winter, so I can't afford to be two inches off in final width. I pulled out the next sized needle and knit a bit further. I finally got gauge (crazy how different my gauge is on these two projects!) but it wasn't a bamboo needle and the stitches slipped all over the place, making the end result so crappy looking that I went ahead and frogged back to the hem again and immediately put in an order for the bamboo circs I need.

Luckily, B is still too young to realize that his brother's sweater is all done and his is barely begun. Besides, he had plenty of fun just playing with the yarn.

Thanks so much everyone for helping me through my latest crisis! Since you pretty much unanimously confirmed my doubts about the purple, I'll be ripping out the green/purple swatch this afternoon and going with the all green version. Some of you asked if I should even consider the monochromatic version, given that I might run out of yarn. I'm just going to go for it! I plan to do the second sleeve and then see how much yarn is left before I tackle the front. I think the front could be done with 2 full skeins. If there's too little, I'll try to do what Leigh suggested, and purchase some more yarn close in color to the green I already have, so the cable does stand out like I wanted but the effect is more subtle.

And don't worry about the inner knitting masochist. She has been appeased. I cast on 198 stitches for the second Dale sweater and after a couple of hours, I'd managed to finish a few miniscule rows. This should keep the masochist happy for a while!

Oh, and for any Knitsmiths out there, yes that is a different color from the 198 stitches and 5 rows I did on Sunday. I had mistakenly followed the pattern info for the alternate colorway. So for those of you counting along at home, that's three weeks in a row that everything I did at my knitting group had to be ripped out. Next week, no knitting - I'm bringing finishing work!

Ta-da! The first bug sweater is done. I was inspired to finally finish up this sweater after seeing the amazing Dale sweater that Kim just completed. And I made it through the tedious weaving in of ends by following Becky's sage advice about knitting and wine: "not such an undesirable mix". Oh yeah!

S really really likes the sweater. In fact he liked modelling it so much that it was hard to get a clear picture of both the sweater and him being happy about it! Here he was blurrily being excited about it right when I first put it on him. And here he was giving his mommy a little round of applause. Awwww.

For those of you wondering how I decide who gets which sweater, this time it was easy. Just a few days ago S said his first real word. You guessed it: car!

Elizabeth is still waiting (see yesterday), but the Dale sweater now has sleeves. Yippee! I wasn't sure of the exact seaming method that I should use, but I managed to copy Wendy and Flor's pictures well enough, I think. Here's the inside just after the sleeve was added and here's a picture after the little facing was sewn over the steek. I just love the little steek facing that Dale has you make. All that brutal cutting covered up so neatly: "Nothing to see here! Move along, folks." So here is the sweater now, getting closer and closer to being done.

I'm itching to start the next one!

Wow, both of my active projects are approaching the finishing stage. I finally finished the giraffe pocket for giranimals jacket #1 and managed to knit the small button band side of the asymmetrical front, which leaves only the large front panel to be knit. And the final steek has been cut on the first Dale bug sweater! I've begun binding off the shoulders to attach the sleeves. It's my first time using the three-needle bind off and I love, love, love it!

And now that I think about it, I've still got two old, long-neglected projects, native and elizabeth III, which are slowly becoming official unfinished objects. They will never get done if I don't somehow force myself to pick them up again, rip what's gone wrong, knit what's left and sew 'em up! So with all this finishing to be done and since all the other months seem to be dedicated to starting, I'm going to try to make February all about finishing. Here goes nothing: no new projects until these are done.

Exceptions: (You didn't really believe that up there did you?) I already started brown butter on Wednesday, therefore it's not really a new project and I could work on that. And technically speaking, the on-going giranimals and Dale bugs projects entail two sweaters each, so starting giranimals 2 or the second Dale bug sweater would also be kosher. But besides that no new projects. Come on people, that's still tough! That means no fuzzy feet felt-along for me. No Charlotte. No big, slouchy cardigan. No greensleeves. And no, no, no buying yarn for that as of yet undiscovered perfect project that I just know will turn up in a week or two.

I cut the first armhole steek yesterday. I didn't have time during the boys' naptime to get started on the second one. But perhaps that's best. I'm much more nervous about these armhole steeks than I was about the neck steeks. Now I have the opportunity to put this steek to the 'project bag' test like I did those. Then again, perhaps I should try to do the steeks as quickly as possible so that I can sew in the sleeves and cover them up as soon as I can. What steeks? Cutting? Where? I don't know anything about that. Oh, ignorance is bliss.

Slipped the bug sweater on one of the boys yesterday to see if it will be big enough. It was a little weird looking on, since there aren't any armholes yet, but there's plenty of room in it. When I took it off him, he seemed disappointed. In fact, both of them were almost admiring the sweater and looked to be eyeing it for themselves. Maybe they're starting to get used to me measuring them and slipping half-knitted garments on them. Whatever the reason, this sweater they like!

I did it! I cut my first steeks. After finishing up the knitting on the body of the Dale sweater, I was really excited about cutting the steeks open and seeing how the neck would turn out. I also have one sewing class under my belt, which means that I knew how to thread my machine and run a line of stitches. I figure that and a bit of chutzpa is all you really need, right? OK, that, chutzpa and Geane's Knit a Norgi page by your side. So I pulled out the Bernina for its inaugural run.

Wanna see?

As you can see from the pictures, I first went to work on my old swatch from the steek workshop I took in November. I put the first sewing lines to the test with a lot of picking and pulling and decided to try making the machine stitches a bit smaller. The second steek withstood my abuse much better. So, off I went. Back neck steek on the block. Two, uh make that three, lines of machine stitching on either side and then snip down the middle. Not too bad, really. The front neck steek was a little scarier. It was quite a bit longer and came down to one single stitch for the center of the v-neck. I was worried about missing the opening and sewing (or worse, cutting!) into that stitch and below. But nerves of steel and a constant refrain of 'I can knit this again' got us both through unscathed.

Now, I need to recouperate before I can even begin to think about doing the armholes. We'll see how the steeks hold up to lying around in the project bag for a few days. If they survive that, I'll consider it.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had to put the bugs on hold because my circular needle was too long to keep knitting in the round after taking off the neck stitches (and adding a small neck steek). Shortly after buying a new needle today, I stumbled upon Marilyn's, aka the Knitting Curmudgeon's, latest blog entry describing a technique that could solve the problem, by pulling a so-called magic loop of circ cable out of the round of knitting and just pretending that the needle is shorter. Marilyn does a good job summing up the pros and cons of the technique, so check out her thoughts.

Then later today, Michelle, aka another knitting blogger, mentioned the same technique in my comments and posted some pictures of it in progress on her blog. How helpful (and handy, as Marilyn would say!).

The idea looks pretty cool. I'm almost disappointed that I was able to get the needle that I needed! I think I will try it out when I start the sleeves of the second Dale sweater, since I found it difficult to deal with the two-color knitting and the basic double-pointed five-needle fumbling all at the same time. I'd love to be able to avoid that in the future. I had thought about those teeny little Clover needles, but can you really use those with adult sized fingers??

Anyway, thanks to you bloggers out there for being so gosh-durned knowledgeable and sharing your experiences. And since this is my blog and it's all about sharing my experiences, here now (brought to you by new size one, 16" Crystal Palace bamboo circs) my funny kangaroo pouch developing over the back neck steek.

Stuck at the steek again. Back neck steek this time. The VW sweater instructions say to cast off 35 stitches to begin the back of the neck. I placed them on separate yarn instead of casting off and then was about to cast on 5 steek stitches as I did for the front when I realized that my circular needle was just too long for my new number of stitches. I needed shorter size one circs and the yarn store is closed Mondays and it was a holiday anyway, so no chance.

Never fear, a new project is here!! Becky hooked me up with this fabulous Phildar baby catalog a while ago and it turns out we both wanted to make the same jacket pattern. I was saving these until next fall, but Becky wants to start hers now, so I just had to jump on the virtual bandwagon with her and do another knit-along. Fun, fun!

Since I couldn't continue with my Dale sweater, I swatched a bit with the Phildar yarn, a wonderfully soft alpaca tweed called Legende, got lucky with the gauge and started the back. Sorry to jump ahead, Becky, but what's a girl with the wrong sized needles to do? Today it's off to the yarn store and then back to the bugs!

Check out fluffa! as our knit-along gets underway. And in other virtual knit-along news, be sure to watch Emma and her friend Sissel's knit- and felt-along.

I got some encouragement and tips from the helpful folks at my LYS to do the neck steek kangaroo-style. So here's the body with the steek begun! And a close-up of the steek. I didn't mark where the steek stitches began so I accidentally shifted them after a few rows, but I'm not going back. And I think I should have done the edge stitches right before and after the steek stitches in the background color instead of doing the pattern there, but I'm not going back. I think that once I pick up stitches and do the neckband, it will look fine. That is, after I CUT it!!

It's so freaky looking that I just can't wait to cut it open to see how the neck comes out. It's a brilliant solution. Apparently I can sew and cut right down the middle of the steek stitches and don't have to worry about any of my machine sewing lines showing or messing up the nice neck shaping. And there's no way I could leave it like this, so no chickening out of the cutting part! Of course, I also have to cut the sleeve openings on the sides and that does seem more like I messing up a finished garment. Better read over Flor's tips again before doing that!

As for the knitting, I think I have finally totally gotten the hang of the two-color knitting. The little dudes and the first four rows of bugs are kinda lumpy, but this last row of bugs is coming out perfectly flat. For unknown reasons, the tension with my left hand has suddenly made a dramatic improvement. (Blush. Curtsey.)

I picked up my Dale bug sweater and realized that I hadn't posted a picture of the progress I'd made before my in-laws arrived. Well let me do that right now:

I'm pretty excited about having gotten so far. The bugs are kinda lumpy, but I just keep telling myself that pressing it will make everything look perfect (or at least good enough for my first fair-isle).

I'm just one row of vw's away from starting the neck steek. I don't want to cast off stitches in the middle for the neck and then have to do the two-handed, two-color thing back and forth, so I've decided to do some sort of steek here. But I'm not 100% sure what sort of steek I should make (it's supposed to be a v-neck, by the way). I was thinking I'd just cast off the center stitch and then cast on new stitches above to make a little kangaroo pouch thing, like Elizabeth Zimmerman and Alice Starmore suggest, and like Wendy did with Luskentyre and Rosendal. But I've also seen people just knit a shapeless tube, use the machine sewing line to "create" the neck shape and then cut out the extra knitted fabric (described here). I think this is the way the Philosopher's Wool people do it. And the woman who taught the steek class I took had done this Dale sweater that way.

What to do? All the decisions in this steeking deal seem so frighteningly final!

Kim has started her first Dale sweater and (unintentionally) shamed me into getting back to work on my Dale bug sweaters. Thanks, Kim!

I was surprised at how well I was able to pick up the two-handed fair-isle knitting again. It actually felt pretty natural. I managed to finish the heads on the little row of dudes at the bottom of the sweater body and have finally begun the bugs (volkswagen, that is). Check it out! Although it's going pretty well, I do find myself knitting and knitting, desperately trying to get to the few one-color rows between the motifs. Just 10 more rows to straight knitting... just 7 more rows to straight knitting... just 2 more rows to straight knitting... aahhh....

And in other anxiety-ridden news, the knitted Christmas gifties I worked so hard to finish in time to send to Germany have apparently gotten lost in the mail. No sign of them yet, when they should have been there the week before Christmas. Aaarrggghhhhh!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

My new year's goal was to finish up all my recent projects so that I can now get back to the older projects I've still got on the needles. And the results...

Newly completed:

• my blue hat: Finished the quick little hat for myself in a jiffy and I love it. Lookie! The yarn is so soft and it feels so warm and snuggly on. I've named this project 'my blue hat' in honor of Becky (my blue house), who managed to find me what were practically the last skeins in all of France of this now discontinued color! Yea for Becky!
  
• mutssjaals: I finished weaving in the ends over the last few days. Obligatory cute pictures:

 

Old, but not forgotten:

• native, now in progress since Spring 2002. My mother is getting anxious to wear this and I'm excited to see what leftovers I might have of the Rowan Handknit DK Cotton.
  
• elizabeth III, in progress since Fall 2001. I have reknit the front and back (again!) and still need to rip out the sleeves, reknit them, sew it all up again, and pray!
  
• dale bug sweaters, in progress since Fall 2002. I was doing well on the first of these when Christmas knitting interrupted me. I'm looking forward to getting back to these and to try out the steeking with my new sewing machine.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with many successful projects!

Q: "What about those Dale sweaters?"

You didn't miss anything, I haven't worked on the bugs in a while. Shameful, I know. I put the first one down to focus on Christmas gifts. The mutssjaals are the last of the gifts, so I hope to be able to continue with the bugs in January. I'm now planning to have them (I have to make two, of course) done for the boys' birthday in July.

Q: "Are you continuing to knit continental?"

I haven't done too much continental knitting recently because I was knitting tiny stuff on double-pointed needles under deadline (holiday gifts). I did knit the Kureyon hat continental though, since I didn't want it to be one of those tight hair-mussing sort of hats. When I get to greensleeves, I plan to knit that continental (I did the swatch that way). Ditto for the brown buttah for my husband.

Q: "Can we see more pictures of the boys?"

OK, no one asked, but I'll throw some in anyway. Here they are with their blankies (the first things I knitted for them!) when they were feeling a little under the weather recently. And here's my favorite blankie picture of them all.

Q: "What no update on the mutssjaals, or whatever it is you're calling them?"

You've seen through me. I pretty much took a non-knitting day yesterday, so no news to report on the baby hat/scarf. But I'm gonna go check out Becky's site now to see if she's started hers. So join me!

A list of knitty things I am thankful for.

• The next project.
  
• Circular needles,
  
• a case to keep them in,
  
• and Elizabeth Zimmerman, who taught us (among other things) how to use 'em.
  
• Self-striping yarn (like the Kureyon in the hat I'm working on).
  
• Amazon.com's wish lists for helping me dream my dreamy little dreams.
  
• All things Phildar
  
• and fabulous frenchy friends who live near Phildar shops (you know who you are!).
  
• Chibi's
  
• My friend Julia for teaching me how to knit
  
• and my boys for looking so good in whatever I knit for them.
  
• Pottery Barn for sending their sheets in bags that are just perfect for knitting projects.
  
• Norway, for all of its amazing designers who inspire me to do fair-isle knitting (my first Dale so far).
  
• Knitty, of course
  
• and all you awesome knitbloggers out there!

Well, despite my attempts to psyche myself up, I didn't start the tiger socks. I did pick up the Dale bug sweater, though, and started the pattern on the body. But we've all caught another little bug here (what is it that's going around?!) and I have only been able to do a round or two at a time. So slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

And I confess - I thought about this a lot!

I am embarrassed to say how long it took me yesterday to cast on 210 (tiny) stitches (onto a size 0 needle!) for the body of the Dale sweater and knit this far. Suffice it to say, I have no other knitting to report on today.

Steeking class was lots of fun. We watched the instructor cut the steeks on a Dale baby sweater (one I really want to make now, by the way!). Then we went to it, sewing and cutting our own swatches. I cut a placket opening on the Lorna's Laces swatch above. Wanna look at the back? Then I picked up stitches for a front band. And just like that, it looks all better. Now look at the the back. But wait, there's more! I also made a swatch with some mercerised cotton (Dale Kolibri left over from the knitted lederhosen). I cut an armhole opening into it and then sewed the other corner in as if it were a sleeve, making Frankenswatch! If you're feeling brave, check out the back of this one!

I have to say, I really enjoyed the steeking. Of course, they were only (s)crap stockinette swatches. But once I had machine sewed around the steek area, I didn't really have a problem cutting into them. I may wash the frankenswatches a few times, just to convince myself that the stitching will hold and those loose ends will stay put. Still, I feel like I'm ready and, more importantly, willing to do it for real.

So, now that I've survived steeking 101 and finished knitting the sleeves of the first Dale baby sweater, I'm ready to start knitting the body. Wish me luck!

Steek class is tonight! Here's a homework swatch still in one piece.

In addition to making a few swatches for the class, I knitted a bit more of the Dale sleeve and am almost done. I should be able to finish it today (during the boys' naptime). I wanted to have it finished before the class, so I can start knitting the body as soon I'm sure that I will be able to cut it! I'll be picking up some bamboo circs at the LYS to use for knitting the body. Like Kathy I'm having some slippage issues with the two-handed technique on the metal needles I normally use. I'm knitting very high up on the tips of the needles and the stitches want to jump right off the end. And I don't feel very confident about recovering dropped stitches in the middle of fair-isle color work.

Frankly, with the all over fair-isle pattern on the body and then the steeks, I'm starting to get a little scared!

Found a little bit of time yesterday to work on the Dale sweater. I'm about half way done with the second sleeve now. I'm really looking forward to starting the body, not only because it will be a lot more fair-isle work than the sleeves, but also because I won't have to do it on double pointed needles (grrr!) and I won't have to do a lot of increases (boooh!).

I am very happy with how the sleeves are coming out overall, but one thing that is bothering me are the increases. They just look bad in some places, especially where I was doing the pattern. I'm still learning all the knitting secrets like when to use which increases (for some reason the decreases seem more intuitive to me), so I thought I could try out some different methods on this sweater. I usually use a knit-into-the-stitch-below increase, which someone at Knitsmiths showed me and called an invisible increase. This method always looked good in regular stockinette before, but this time some of the "invisible" increases were coming out visible, even unsightly! Well, over the weekend I received my back issues of Interweave Knits and one of them had a very helpful article by Ann Budd on increases. So I switched to what she called a raised increase -- and what I've elsewhere seen as just make one -- that is, picking up the bar between the stitches and knitting it twisted. I had hoped this would really neaten up the increases, but the new increases kinda looked the same just a bit more bumpy. So I went back to my original method. Elizabeth Zimmerman suggests doing the same increase I was originally doing, but twisting the stitch picked up from the row before. I tried that too once or twice and it seemed to pull the color from the previous row up too much for my liking. Hrrmpf.

So, I think I've messed with the increase line enough on this sleeve! Maybe on the next set of sleeves (got two sweaters to knit, you know!) I'll try EZ's loop method from Knitting without Tears.

Do you all have a preferred method for increasing?

Got a call from my LYS yesterday and I've got homework for the Steeking class next week. Yup, I have to knit a couple of 6 x 6 in. squares to c u t ! I am terribly excited about trying out the steeking. I should be done with the sleeves for the Dale sweater by then and so it's appropriate, I think, that I learn the steeking technique as I begin knitting the body (to be c u t !).

All this cutting talk reminds me of when I was a new knitter (about a year and a half ago) and began going to the local knitting group. There were some mighty inspirational knitters there (some of whom have moved on to other cities and other hobbies). One woman, Melissa (hi, if you're reading!) was a great inspiration for fearless knitting. She knit fabulously and never used a pattern. And if anyone ever said "uh oh" she would respond, "you can just cut it!" Thanks to her, I had the courage to cut the body edging off of the the new year's stripey sweater last year, so that I could make it longer. I wish she had been around when I was having the problems with elizabeth III. She would have had some sound (but scary) solutions.

And a quick update of the two active projects at the moment: the front of the crazy continental (into the waist shaping) and the second sleeve of the Dale sweater (past the pattern and on to the stripes).

Finally got some knitting done. Yay! I cast on for the front of the crazy continental at Stitch 'n Bitch on Tuesday and managed yesterday to knit a few centimeters up to the beginning of the decreases for the waist. My tension is definitely improving and the motion of using my left hand is feeling a lot more natural. Finally! And last night I started the fair-isle pattern on the second sleeve of the Dale sweater. I think I'm doing a better job with the floats this time. They started out too loose at first, but I carried on and concentrated a bit more on getting the right length and weaving in the longer floats (the yellow especially) and it looks pretty good so far, I think.

Finally got my copy of the new Vogue Knitting (my fave pattern). Could someone tell me why I bothered subscribing? Maybe it was cheaper, I've forgotten. It certainly wasn't earlier. I've been hearing about it and seeing it about for a while now and no sign of it on my doorstep until yesterday. Sucks to be a Vogue subscriber with no patience. But it rocks being a Rowan subscriber! I subscribed online at the beginning of the week and had the latest magazine, newsletter, and the free purse kit delivered to my door yesterday afternoon. Not bad! I also subscribed recently to Interweave Knits and ordered some back issues. I've heard good things about their latest issue and so am looking forward to getting a big 'mag bag' from them soon. Finally, enough new magazines to oh and ah over until new ones come out!

Here's sleeve number one of the first Dale bug sweater.

Problems so far:

Well, I was so excited about doing the pattern that I (like many before me) totally forgot about the increases. Oops! I realized it as I was almost done with the people pattern. But the sleeve was still big enough for me to get my hand, wrist and lower arm into it, so I decided it was plenty big for one of my boys and started the increases there. I increased a bit faster to catch up with the pattern by the end of the sleeve. I don't think it's noticeable.

Next, there was some puckering/looseness in the pattern where the dp needles came together (see face of middle figure in photo). I had been trying to leave extra long floats there so that it wouldn't pucker, but now I'm thinking they may be too loose making the stitches uneven. I decided that I can live with the way it looks though, so I'll work on perfecting the floats on the next sleeve.

Finally, the sweater has a lot of stripes and stripes in the round create jogs at the start/end of each round. I've pretty much decided that I'm OK with that. The gauge is too small for me to try to knit the two colors together and then pull the undesired color to the back from behind. And I'm afraid I would mess up the pattern by trying to shift the jog around the sleeve as I knit. Plus, the increases there would mess up any perfect line anyway. So, I say, that's just what my handknit stripes are gonna look like, although I may care more when I get to the body. We'll see. (Any other tips?)

Joys so far:

I love working in the round! I'd never done sleeves in the round before and it is so neat. It makes the knitting so much more exciting when a totally finished sleeve is developing right before your eyes.

Ditto for the pattern in the fair-isle part! It was really exciting watching the pattern take shape. It actually encourages you to continue knitting to see how much more form the pattern will have after 'just one more row'.

And, I simply can't stand (in a good way) how cute this sweater is going to be!

So, here's how the sleeve is progressing so far. As you can see, I'm changing the stripes on the sleeves to match the background stripes in the body (pic here). I just thought that the stripes in the picture made the sweater a bit too loud. I got the idea from the Yarn Barn's Pat K. in her version of the same sweater, which she made for her grandson. (I also got my yarn from her!)

Coming Monday... the finished sleeve, warts and all.

The two-color two-handed knitting class was last night and it was great! I didn't really believe people when they said, 'you will love doing fair-isle', but they weren't lying. It is so cool! Boy am I glad that I took the continental knitting class first and practiced so much on the crazy contintental. I felt comfortable holding and working with the yarn in both hands and was able to focus on the stranding techinque. I think I had the most trouble with just keeping track of where I was in the pattern! So, I still need to practice to get my tension even, but otherwise I'm pretty proud of my little swatch.

I can't wait to start the dale duo!