a little knitalong for a big sweater



Banff from Knitty knit in Kilcarra Cottage Tweed salvaged from my ex-ribby cardie

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Yup, the ribby is slated for frogging. It makes me sad, but it just doesn't suit me, especially once it grew after blocking. I'm not a gal who needs ribbing wrapped all the way around her butt. So, it will have to go. It's funny to think that many of the ribby knit-alongers are still working on theirs while I'm getting ready to rip mine out. I'm either waaaay ahead or waaaay behind them now!

And what do I want to make? Something more my style. Something like this! Yes, knitty comes through again with a pattern I have to make. A hip, bulky sweater with ribbing around the waist. Yes, that's more like it. I'm learning!

Now that I know what I'll be making with the yarn and I've got a whole support group of rip-alongers, I'm actually getting excited about tearing the cardie apart. I know many of you also have unfortunate projects made with the best of intentions and the most fabulous of yarns. Next week we will reclaim those yarns, ladies! Be sure to take some pictures. This is going to be fun!

Despite the fact that it's getting crowded over in the knit-along sidebar, I'm joining knit-alongs like it's going out of style. I signed up for Kate and Theresa's Must Have Cardigan Knit-along and then Laurin's Vintage Knits-along. And now, since you asked for it (well, Amy did) a Banff knitalong.

PS- While the Phildar knit-along is going strong, some of the other knit-alongs are slowing down. I know of two ponchos, one ribby, and two wannabe sweaters that are still active. Anyone else out there have a knitalong update?

Wrapping up the ribby rippy.

One last before picture.

And after.

Want another view?

Think it'll be enough to make Banff? I can't wait to find out. Seriously, I can't wait. Hey, Banff babes, how's your Banffs coming along?

Fnished the first Banff sleeve.

Don't you just love raglan decreases? I could do them all day. And can I just tell you how much I am loving this sweater in this yarn. All of you who are afraid of ripping or are stuck staring at your newly ripped yarn, know that it can be good again. I can't believe how happy I am to be reknitting!

Note to Banff-alongers: There were two teeny-tiny corrections made to the instructions for the sleeve shaping. The Knitty pattern has been corrected with the new numbers in pink, so check it out. The pattern is so clear and straight-forward though that I bet you won't even need the corrections. Once you see what it is that's being done, you won't need the numbers anyway. I certainly didn't notice that there was any problem with the numbers and my sleeve came out right.

Time to gush some more about how much I love this pattern and this sweater in this yarn. It was so the right decision to rip out my ribby to make this sweater. There's no way I'll have enough yarn to finish it, but I'm having too good a time knitting this to worry about that. I'll think about that tomorrow! For now, I'm moving blissfully along to another sleeve.

And in an effort to move more of my too numerous wips along, I've begun to reknit the sleeve of my bumpy blue phildar sweater. I'll be knitting the sleeves straight, giving up the bell sleeves in the hopes that the yarn will hold out. I'm not feeling too confident though, especially since I'm trying to save my good yarn karma for Banff! Think the yarn gods will look more kindly upon me if I buy more of this yarn in a different color to make another bumpy phildar sweater??

Banff-ers, phildar fillies, how you all doing?

I've retired the rip-along - what a blast that was! And I continue to love, love, love my new sweater with the old yarn. Finished one more sleeve and just have the front and neck to go.

Hey, rip-alongers, let me know when you finish new projects from your ripped yarn. I wanna see! And did you all catch Carissa ripping out her St. Brigid and Leigh ripping out her Accordian last week?! Gasp!

With mya now all done, I declare the finishing fiesta officially on. I'm gonna try in the next few weeks to seam my way through the current projects. First up is Banff. She is now all knit and sewn up.

Oh yeah, there's still the collar to do. And the only yarn I have left is the little handful lying next to it. Will it be enough? Let me give you a hint - no. But I'm charging ahead anyway.

How fitting that my love affair with Banff culminates on Valentine's Day.

I love this sweater! I only wish I'd had more yarn to make the body longer and the collar larger. I am hopeful about blocking it longer, though. Considering that stretching was one of the problems with the original ribby cardie I knit with this yarn, I don't think it'll be too difficult to get another half inch out of it. Of course, knitting those sleeves an inch or two narrower would have given me plenty of yarn to lengthen the body, but I LOVE those sleeves! They are my favorite thing about the sweater. I blocked the ribbing out on the sleeves so they would be nice and full. But I did not block the ribbing on the body. I wanted it to hug my waist, otherwise the whole sweater would just look too big, I think (note to those knitting this sweater: I also went down a couple of needle sizes to a US8 and had a gauge of 16st/20rows over 4". So that also slimmed down the bulkiness of the sweater a tad). Now I think it looks perfect! Even with the shorter collar. That's as far as the yarn would take me. I bound off the neck with a two foot long scrap I found at the bottom of my project bag! Another small miracle from the yarn gods, who have watched over this yarn twice now.

(PS - The blue blog is moving! I'm outgrowing my space here and am switching servers. I'll be taking a week off to transfer everything and get the new blue pad all set up. Come back in a week and I'll direct you to the new - and ever so slightly improved - blue blog. See you then!)

I've had some requests to share the modificiations I made to the Banff pattern to make my Banff on Safari. I didn't start out with the idea of making a downsized Banff, but as I was limited to only the yarn that was in the original sweater I was recycling the yarn from, I couldn't make a genuine, big Banff, and yet I just kept thinking that this sweater had to become a Banff, somehow. So here's the somehow for those of you who are interested in a Banff with a more standard fit.

Banff on a Budget

Measurements

Bust: 42"
Length: 22"
Sleeve Length: 17 1/2" to underarm
Sleeve Width: 14" at underarm

Instructions

BACK: Cast on 74 st. and work in 2x2 rib for 4 1/2", ending on WS row. Switch to stockinette stitch, increasing as indicated in the pattern. Work even on these 78 st. for 10". Bind off and do raglan decreases as written in pattern until 34 st. remain. Follow shoulder instructions as in original pattern.

FRONT: Work as for BACK above, doing ribbing, increases, armhole bind offs and decreases until 46 st. remain. Then follow instructions as given in pattern.

SLEEVES: Cast on 38 st. and work in 2x2 rib for 4 1/2", ending on WS row. Switch to stockinette stitch, increasing 6st. evenly over the first row. Increase one stitch at each end every 16 rows until you have 50 st. on needle. Work even until sleeve measures 17 1/2", ending with WS row.

(Note: I kept the original ribbing from the store model that I was working with. That sweater had narrower sleeves at the bottom. If you want to have a bigger, straighter sleeve like in the real Banff pattern, I'd suggest casting on 46 st. at the beginning of the sleeve, increasing 4 st. evenly on the first row after the ribbing, and leaving out all other increases.)

Bind off 4 st. at each end of next two rows. Work raglan decreases as given BUT instead of working the raglan decreases every row, *decrease in next four rows, then work one row even*. Repeat from *to* until 8 st. remain. (This has the effect of spreading out the decreases, similar to if you were doing decreases on both ends of a single row every two and every three rows alternately.) Follow pattern for top of sleeve.

Sew it up. Pick up 64 st. around neck for turtleneck. Work neck in 2x2 rib as long as you want (I had enough yarn for 8") and bind off in pattern.

These modifications are also posted in a separate Banff on Budget page in my free patterns section.