No more knitting progress on the LMKG zip raglan to report. Instead of knitting, I've been shopping the last two days. But I haven't been neglecting hubby's sweater entirely; I was on the hunt for the perfect zipper. I really, really, really wanted a zipper just like in the pattern with a big ring in a nice contrasting color. But I couldn't find any like that around home, so I thought I'd check in Germany.

und fündig!

It's nowhere near as cool as the original, still, it'll do. The zipper might not be much to look at but hey, look at the view from the department store cafe!

It may be a no-name, small town department store, but it has one hell of a view. And sock yarn.

oh wie schön is Canada

This is my new favorite sock yarn. It's called Canadian Color and it's from Regia so you can machine wash it and it's got that crazy 10-year guarantee and everything. And this style makes the coolest stripes! As you may know, I have a little difficulty with the whole variegated yarn thing, but I really dig stripes.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea, it's not all this lovely out here in the Hinterlands. An aunt tipped us off that there was Regia sock yarn on sale for 20% off at the local SparKauf, so we went to check it out.

the "SaveBuy"

They did indeed have Regia on sale, but not in any colorways that I really liked. (Note: Havanah Color is variegated, Canadian Color stripes.) Pssst, if you're looking for FunFur, I know where you can get some cheap! German knitters are waaaay into FunFur.

Still, we didn't come home empty-handed. My father-in-law picked up orange reflective vests that the Germans are required to have in their car in case of an emergency. Woo hoo. Well, he was excited to find them so cheap. And I found these little lovely boxes of sewing notions by Prym. (Have you looked at the Inox needles in your LYS recently? They're all called Prym now.) They were just soooo cute, I couldn't resist!

apparently the Prym people were big in the snap business

Amazing what you find when you go looking for a zipper. Stay tuned tomorrow for another shopping adventure!

Both sleeves of the LMKG man's zip raglan are in, the ribbing matches up (hooray for math!), and I'm working my way through the raglan decreases on the yoke. Boy, there's a lot of them! In fact, doesn't the whole sweater look crazy skinny and long with all that ribbing cinched in?

Now I know why the pattern says "with ribbing lightly blocked". Maybe not too lightly, huh?

Okay, you warned me. You told me that there were big problems with the decreases in the men's zip raglan jacket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I had no idea how serious you were. It's bad. Let's begin by looking at that pattern picture again.

So the front of the sweater in the picture looks great. When the ribs come up to the raglan decrease line from the body and the sleeve, they match up. Where there are knits on the body, there are knits on the sleeve. It's all lovely. Now, if my calculations are correct, you cannot achieve this look following any of the instructions as given. The only way I can imagine that she got hers to line up is that she knitted the smallest body size and the largest sleeve size. Those are the only sets of numbers in the pattern that can make the ribs match.

Here's the problem. The ribbing on body and sleeves is a 4x4 rib. When you divide the body at the armholes after knitting in the round, she has you put eight stitches on a holder at the sides where the sleeves will be joined in. For every size except that smallest size those stitches are an even rib repeat (4K 4P or 4P 4K). So far, so good. Now, these eight stitches will be sewn to eight stitches from the sleeve for the underarm. In order for the ribbing to line up in the raglan decreases as it does in the picture, the ribbing needs to be at the exact same point on body and sleeve. That means, you'd need to remove exactly the same section of ribbing from the sleeve that you do from the body. But she has you knit the sleeve so that the round starts and ends with purls. Even if we ignore how the increases affect our stitch count, there's no way that the last four and first four stitches in the round are ever going to match the eight stitches from the body. Because the sleeve begins and ends with the SAME type of stitches, they just aren't ever going to form an even rib with 4 knits and 4 purls. Add to that the fact that in one of the sizes, the increases leave you with just 2 purls in the middle and in another size 6 purls, and it's clear that the sleeves are the real problem here.

Shannon and I put our heads together and worked out exactly what needs to be changed in order to make things work. First the body stitches have to be divided as in the first size, with 2K - 4P - 2K (or 2P - 4K - 2P) being removed for the underarm. And then the sleeve increases need to end as in the largest size, with the sleeve beginning and ending with 2P (or 2K), so that there will be 4P (or 4K) in the center to fit nicely into 4x4 rib. (Yes, you could change the sleeve so that the first stitches and the last stitches are opposite, but then the increases won't look as nice in the center of the sleeve. See....)

beginning with K1, ending P1

beginning and ending with P2 (as in original instructions)

With just a few changes, you can still follow the instructions as written for body and sleeve, keeping even ribbing on the body and a symmetrical line of increases on the sleeves and still make the ribs line up.

BODY:
For the ribs from the body to match up with the sleeves, the body stitches should be redistributed.

39 1/2": follow original instructions
42": 38 sts for front, place marker, 80 sts for back, place marker, 38 sts for front
46 1/2": 42 sts for front, place marker, 88 sts for back, place marker, 42 sts for front
51": 46 sts for front, place marker, 96 sts for back, place marker, 46 sts for front

SLEEVES:
For the sleeve to begin and end with 2P (or 2K), the stitch count has to be 64 or 72.

39 1/2": cast on 48 sts, beginning and ending round with K2; work only 8 increases to 64 sts
42": cast on as instructed; work only 8 increases to 64 sts
46 1/2": cast on as instructed; work 12 increases to 72 sts
51": cast on 48 sts, beginning and ending round with K2; work 12 increases to 72 sts

So that's what we're doing.

I know better than to be fooled by Shannon's attempts to convice everyone that she's lagging behind in our little two-woman zip-up raglan knitalong. Despite what she says, I could just see her, every night, knitting away on the jacket and then showing up at knitting group having already started the sleeves. (Note: My fears aren't completely irrational, as I'm knitting at a smaller gauge and am also not usually as monogamous to one project as Shannon is.) So I've neglected my other projects, like the failed cork sweater and my neapolitan socks, and have been knitting as much as I can on hubby's zip-up. I'm at about 12" now and am just a smidge ahead of Shannon, who generously knit something else at knitting yesterday.

While I sit knitting at top-speed to "keep up" with Shannon, I can't help but think of my son, B, the older twin, who always wants to be first at everything. Yesterday, both boys got up from the dinner table to use the bathroom - not exactly something you think he could turn into a competitive sport. However, when B was all done and standing in front of the bathroom trying to pull his pants up from around his ankles, he caught sight of his brother coming down the stairs from the upstairs bathroom and immediately started running to beat him back to the table. He made it about 10 feet before the pants tripped him up and he took a header into the Playskool toy garage. We've tried explaining to him that everything isn't a race, but he only seems to remember this principle selectively, like whenever they're eating or building Legos together and B thinks that S is ahead. B will admonishingly remind his brother, "it's NOT a race!"

It's not a race, Shannon. (Wink, wink.)

... try, try something else. Introducing the cure to my lace leaf pullover blues:

A zip raglan (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts) for hubby, who is long overdue to get a sweater. He said he wanted something soft and gray. While the Manos in the original is lovely, I didn't think it would pass the soft test, so I focused on finding some merino. And a quick peek in hubby's side of the closet revealed that he already had several gray sweaters, but could use something blue. So I compromised with blue-gray Bingo. It's not the same gauge of course, but after swatching it appears that I can knit the next size up to get the proper measurements with my yarn. (Who's made this sweater before? What's up with the four inch difference in finished sizes? If I were on gauge, I'd have a terrible time deciding which size to make!)

Shannon is making one for her guy too and we're sort of knitting along together. With her encouragement (read - she came over having already knit about four inches!), I've managed to get this far already.

One ball almost done. Only fifteen more to go. Jeesh, men are big!