green tweed +/- a purple cable = the perfect sweater



Able from Rowan #33, in Tahki Windsor Tweeds

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I had a long list of projects to rip and reknit this February, but got sidetracked by my cashmere Banana Republic sweater. Instead of ripping the rest of it this weekend, I decided to move on to another knit I've fallen out of love with, one that I did knit myself, my greensleeves (able) pullover. When I made it I was a few pounds heavier and it was already a loose fitting style. Once I stopped nursing and lost the last of the baby pounds, the sweater seemed way too big. The style is also meant to have a lot of drape - the pattern called for summer tweed - but the yarn I used is a stiff wool tweed and just felt too heavy and rigid for the style. I think it would work better as a jacket, maybe even this jacket. As soon as I got excited about the new pattern, I couldn't wait to start ripping.

looking for seams

back in pieces

riiiiiiip

ahhh, yarn

Almost as fun as ripping my own projects is watching others rip theirs!

Grauwal has ripped one project gone wrong and a cashmere thrift store find! Patti ripped out her Klaralund. Mary ripped a silly little sweater she wasn't going to wear. And Shannon ripped her dreamy creamy. Rip, rip, hooray!

Need some inspiration to rip and reknit? Here are some success stories from the February fixin':

Bonne Marie finished her tank to cardi adventure (steeking a store bought tank and adding sleeves - is there nothing she can't or won't do?!). And she's already blocking the body and picking out necklines for her new cardi in her reclaimed cash iroha. Colleen successfully shortened her Top Secret. Amy fixed up her mirror mirror sweater. Erica's posted before and after pics of her scarf redo. And my favorite success story of all, Jo pulled out her blankie-to-be-fixed and discovered that she loved it just the way it is. Awwww!

Fill me in on other updates!

I think this is the most pleased I've ever been with a sweater I knitted. I'm just so proud of myself for successfully adjusting the pattern for the yarn I had and after so many mistakes and outright failures on other sweaters, finally producing a sweater that fits me exactly as I wanted. All in all, this project was a real joy. I fell in love with the both the yarn and the pattern immediately and knew I had to put them together. The yarn was easy to work with - those 5mm needles were a welcome relief from my usual size 3's! - and moss stitch makes weaving in ends a lot less painful. If only it could be like this everytime!

Inspired by greensleeves and St. Patrick's Day, I started swatching some light green cotton chenille which I'm thinking about using to make a baby sweater for a friend who is expecting. No matter what my favorite color is on other days (I've got two boxes of blue yarn under the bed and purple and more purple on the way to me right now), today it is green.

It's not easy being green. Or cabled. The front of greensleeves has been a challenge. All the counting of rows and such. I guess it's been a long time since I've done cables! The sweater is also constructed unusually with the front cable bands actually continuing around and joining at the back of the neck. And then there's an error in the pattern directions regarding the shoulder shaping for the front. But the most difficult problem was the one I created for myself by substituting the yarn. My gauge is off, particularly the row gauge, which would be no big deal, but those front cables have to cross and then divide right at the V of the neck. So I had to do quite a bit of math to lengthen them just enough. I was a little unsure, but they came out just right!

Amazingly the good knitting karma continues with this sweater. So far it seems to fit perfectly and I've got way lots of extra yarn. I'll be finishing the seams and weaving in ends today and should have a finished picture for you by tomorrow.

I haven't been knitting much in the last few days. I think seeing the number of projects I have planned overwhelmed me a bit. I've been taking it easy. I almost started some crazy colors socks and then the Phildar mittens, but I decided to stick with what's already on the needles for now. And that would be greensleeves.

Here are the front pieces, joined with one cable cross completed. I'm really liking the way the monochromatic version looks, but I think the purple could have been quite lovely. Michelle and Peter had both suggested that I make a swatch of the purple cables twisting once to really get a sense of how it would look (what good knitters they are!) and if I hadn't already been swatched out, I might have, but I just didn't have another swatch in me. As it turns out, I had to redo the all green panel because I had forgotten to duplicate the waist shaping that I'd added to the back (I added a little shaping because, well, I like it, plus I thought it would save a bit of yarn). So I had to knit both front panels again. C'est la vie.

[Which reminds me. Did I say somewhere that I didn't like France? Well, I take it back. I would like to repeal my being con them and apologize for having chuckled as the asteroid from Armageddon destroyed Paris. No freedom fries for me, thanks. I'd rather sign up with the francophiles than play these silly reindeer games. And by silly reindeer games, I mean evil propagandizing war-mongering ways. Dismount soap box. Start planning escape.]

I'm about 1/3 of the way up the second sleeve of greensleeves and the first of my three remaining skeins is thinning out. The tension is mounting. I am so anxious to see whether or not there's enough yarn, that I might just have to do some marathon knitting to find out.

Speaking of marathon knitting, you have got to check out Inga's Lopi sweater that she made last month in FOUR days (from 2/12 to 2/15). Incredible!

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!

Crisis time again. As hinted at in my last post, I started the front of greensleeves. I cast on one half of the front (the cable splits at the bottom) and started the moss stitch in green and the cable in the purple tweed. Result: I was not as thrilled with it as I had hoped. At first I thought it might be because the purple doesn't quite match the blue flecks in the green tweed, so I tried switching to the blue Manos yarn that I originally planned to use with the green tweed. That didn't really do it for me either. Next, I tried some of the tweedy yarn left over from the boys' giranimals jackets and it still wasn't quite right. I'm beginnng to think that loving the idea of doing a different color on the cable doesn't equal loving the result. Maybe switching colors makes the cable seem too bold or breaks up the panel too much. I'm not sure what bothers me about it, but something does.

Of all the yarns I tried out I liked the purple the best, so I ripped out the other test swatches, put the purple swatch on scrap yarn and then cast on for the other side of the front using just the green. The more I knit the monochromatic version, the more I like it, but my inner knitting masochist is starting to pout. I think I'm strong enough to overrule the inner masochist and actually let this project be easy, but I'm not yet convinced about which swatch I like best.

What do you folks think?

The good knitting karma continues. Halfway done with greensleeves and I've used a little under three and a half (of seven) skeins. I just might make it! I finished the back over the weekend and had a little bit extra from the second skein to use on the first sleeve, which I finished yesterday. I had problems recalculating the decreases on the sleevecap for my gauge and measurements. Once again, Maggie's Sweater Design in Plain English came to my rescue with clear explanations of just how to shape everything. After reknitting the top of the sleeve twice, I think I've finally gotten it right.

This is two weeks in a row that I've had to rip out all the knitting I accomplished during my Sunday knitting group. Two weeks ago, it was the giranimals pocket and this week, the green sleeve. Oh well, at least I have fun there. Last week, while I worked on my green sleeve, I also helped Dana with her first sock. Which is actually really cool, since Dana was the person who brought the green tweed to the yarn swap and I brought the sock yarn that she's using. How neat is that!

Halfway up the armholes on the back of greensleeves and I am still unsure about whether I will have enough yarn to complete the sweater. I've used one and half skeins (of the seven that I have) on the back so far. That's not enough for me to say that completing the sweater is impossible, but also not enough to say that it is probable. So, I continue to knit.

Emma made a great suggestion the other day that I definitely want to try if I do think that I'll run out of yarn. She suggested doing half the front in green and the other half in the purple yarn that I had planned on using for the cable. Then half the cable would be green and half purple and they would wrap around one another. Neat, huh? I didn't know what I was going to do if the yarn ran out. I am really fixated on using the green yarn to make this Able sweater and can't imagine it becoming anything else. Up to now, I had been practicing the Scarlet O'Hara method of dealing with the possibility of failure: "I'll think about plan b tomorrow." But now I have a plan b, and a good one! Thanks, Emma!

Greensleeves is underway. I started with a sleeve, naturally, and I'm loving the moss stitch! My only concern is that I might not have enough yarn. If you remember, this is the yarn that I got at our knitting group's yarn swap back in the Fall and I'm not really sure how much I've got of it. It looks to be about 7 skeins at 175 yds each, but one skein was already wound and may not be complete and the 175 figure is from some book somewhere and wasn't printed on the ball bands. I did some math comparing the gauge/yardage requirements for Able to my gauge/estimated yardage of the green tweed and it seemed doable, but now that I've used one whole ball on the lower half of the first sleeve, I'm worried. So, I stopped there and have decided to go ahead and cast on for the back. I'd rather run out of yarn on the sleeves than on the body of the sweater! If I have to, I could redo the sleeve and use a bit of the purple on the cuff.

I'm so excited to be using this yarn finally and I really love the pattern, so I'm enjoying the knitting very much and remain hopeful that it will work out.

You've convinced me. And I won't keep you in suspense anymore about which pattern I'm using - it's Able by Kim Hargreaves from the latest Rowan magazine (#33). I wanted to have a simple sweater with a center cable and had just been searching around for the right design. I was looking for something a little different from the basic cable over reverse stockinette background. And then I thought, moss stitch. Everytime I see the boys' aran sweaters, I start itching to do moss stitch again. I know most of you would rather stick knitting needles in your eyes than do a whole sweater in moss stitch, but I like it. As long as the yarn and the needles are halfway cooperative, I enjoy the rhythm of switching from knit to purl. So this pattern was absolutely perfect. I'll be using the green tweed for the moss stitch and then will try to do the center cable in the purple tweed yarn that Dava gave me to go with the green. Cool, huh?

After working on it the whole weekend, I finally finished the giraffe pocket for giranimals II. And then I ripped it all out. It was way too small. The pocket for giranimals I had come out a bit too big (I had to shorten it to make it fit) and I seem to have overcompensated when making the second pocket. Ripping out all that intarsia work was not fun and the yarn is so fluffy from the alpaca content that it kept catching and knotting. I had to cut a good deal of it out and am no longer sure that I'll have enough of the blue yarn to complete the pocket. I'll get more somewhere, but I'm now annoyed with this jacket and don't really feel like rushing to finish it before the end of February. So there.

Who thinks I should start greensleeves?!

...as far as you're concerned ready-to-wear means yarn ends are no longer visibly hanging out of the garment.

I spent the boys' naptime yesterday weaving in ends on native and am only about 1/5 of the way through them. Sheesh, this is going to take forever! I actually wore my old crazy socks for months before I got around to weaving in the ends. Then out of sheer boredom, I just took them off my feet one day, wove in the four little ends and slipped 'em back on. Pathetic, I know.

...you long to start a new project.

I am dying to start greensleeves! I saw a pattern in the new Rowan mag that is perfect, perfect, perfect and I try every day to figure out an excuse for breaking my moratorium on new projects during February finishing month. Alas, I have failed to come up with anything that even I would find convincing.

...you can't knit anymore.

The back of giranimals II has been giving me such problems! I knit the back of giranimals I in what seemed like 15 minutes, but this one I had to rip out three times. Ugh! First, I messed up the armhole shaping and only noticed it when the sleeve ended up being too short. So I ripped back to the armhole decreases, fixed them and continued on until it came up short again. Measure, measure. That's when I realized that I had been measuring from the cast on edge and not the end of the ribbing. Rip back to armhole decreases, knit more, do decreases, c h e c k l e n g t h, and see that it is now way too long. Rip.... Finally, I finished the little bugger.

...you suspect yourself of subconsciously messing up a project just so it won't reach the finishing stage!

If the rest of giranimals II goes as quickly as the sleeve went, I'm in trouble!

...you start to actually like finishing.

Impossible.

New stuff that will most likely interfere with my plans to finish last year's UFO's:

• hotties: Dava, our Knitsmiths' founder made this hot water bottle cover from Rowan #28 and it was so amazingly beautiful that I decided I had to make it. I'll be knitting two (as always), but this time for my two great Aunts.
  
• greensleeves: I've been thinking about and planning this since I got the yarn at the Knitsmiths' yarn swap in November. Dava brought her new swift and ball winder to knitting group on Sunday and I wound all the skeins into balls. Now I'm really itching to start this project.
  
• brown butter: This vest for my husband, in Rowan's smooth as buttah wool/cotton, should be completed by his birthday (May), if I can just settle on a pattern!
  
• the blue sweater: Although this is the blue blog, I have yet to knit myself a blue sweater. I've seen a few fellow knitbloggers (Becky, Kim, and Clemence) work on sweaters in Giboulees, a fabulous bumpy yarn from Phildar, so I bought myself some for Christmas, in blue. I'm obsessing now about what exactly I want to do with it.

Well, one hat at least. I finished the hat and mittens for my neighbor who's expecting a girl. Yeah, I got to make flowers! I think I'll try to work on the tiger hat today. If I get a couple of these odds and ends out of the way, then I can return to some of my more self-indulgent projects (finishing the crazy continental, continuing the Dale bug sweater and redoing Elizabeth III).

But I'm still not thinking about this.

OK, I've got a few assorted little projects that I have to get finished by December (well, let's say middle of December). Clockwise from bottom center: I'm working on the back of the tiger hat for my nephew. I have yet to start the Opal tiger socks for my other nephew. I need a baby hat to go with the baby mittens for a neighbor who's expecting. And I have to knit at least one hat out of these Lopi scraps for charity.

Then there's the ends. I've got to weave in the ends on the crazy continental. I'm dying to wear it, but now that the knitting and the exciting finishing are complete, I'm procrastinating. I just have to wear it this week though, so look for the finished pic to be coming soon!

And once all that's done, I'm allowing myself to start thinking about this.

Spent some sick time yesterday trying out my swap yarn. I want to make a cool raglan sweater for myself based loosely on this pattern from the latest Vogue Knitting. But this yarn is nowhere near as chunky as the Waterspun Weekend called for in the pattern, so I experimented a bit with the gauge and how wide and long to make the cables. I'm so proud of myself for making a real test swatch. Usually I am such a loser about that sort of thing (and we wonder that I have problems later on!).

What am I doing swatching for something new, you may admonishingly (and with good reason) ask. Well, all the pieces of the crazy continental are knitted and blocked and need to be sewn up, but I've just been feeling too crappy and runny-nosey to be leaning over seaming up a sweater. So I was in search of some more good simple knitting (for my left hand!) to take my mind off of this cold. In order to indulge myself a little (hey, I'm sick here), I allowed myself to do the swatch but then (inspired by my virtuous swatching) I picked up a half-completed Christmas project, the tiger hat for my nephew. I thought I would try using my left hand, even though I knit the first half of the hat using my right. "So it'll be a bit looser. Then I won't worry that it's too small." Knit twenty rows... Nahhh, this half's not too small. It's humongous - fitting around my husband's head. Did I mention that my nephew is six. Rip!

I am inclined to believe that the universe is telling me to keep those works-in-progress in their project bags, think no further about those pesky holiday gifts to be completed, and start a new sweater. But that could just be the Nyquil talking.

We had a great yarn swap this afternoon at our knitting group, the Knitsmiths! There were lots of single skeins and odds & ends of all kinds of wonderful yarns -- enough for a scarf or edging or contrast color on another garment. And there were several abandoned projects (also made with amazing yarns) that people just couldn't get to work for them and were passing on. Some of them were so close to being finished it's sad to think that the new owners will rip everything out and start again. Dava brought a purple sweater that was completed except for the sleeve seams. The problem: gauge issues, too small. But tiny little Claire slipped it right on and it looked super!

I brought several skeins of sock yarn that I decided I probably wouldn't use and picked up over six skeins of some tweedy Tahki yarn in a lovely green. I'm hoping the color will look good on me since I have green eyes. The yardage wasn't listed on the skeins (anyone know what the yardage is for 100g Tahki Windsor Tweeds?), but I'm hoping I'll have enough for at least a cropped sweater. I also picked up a couple of loose skeins of Lopi for some charity knitting. After so many beautiful and luxurious projects for me and mine, I think it's time I knitted something for someone else entirely. I'm hoping that the whole knitting group can put together a batch of hats and mittens and bring them over to a local charity group for the holidays.

Best of all at the swap were Julia's old patterns and yarns from the 80's. Can you believe we dressed like that?! Some of the bobble-y, ribbon-y, 1981 Madonna-y stuff was picked up to be used as edging or to double strand with other yarns, but I fear the patterns were less fortunate. No way to update some of those things. Nope, not yet vintage, still ugly. But hilarious!