My recycled cashmere hourglass sweater is done and I hate it. Okay, April Fools is over, I love it!

April Fool's! Of course I love it.

How could I not love it? Isn't that sooooo much better than the original giant tunic-y thing?! That original sweater was so big that I managed to knit the body of the new sweater up to the armholes and in the round with only 3/4 of the yarn from the back of the original! That means I've got lots of yarn left over. I do believe I'll have to make a cashmere scarf and beret set this fall.

But back to this sweater. After my first sizing error, I stuck with the pattern numbers and it came out fitting great. There's enough ease, but it's still nice and form-fitting (instead of becoming uber-drapey like uhhhh, Klaralund - wink, wink). I also kept the body and sleeve length as given in the pattern and they worked out too. (Whew - I was worried about those sleeves!) I did however add two extra decrease rows to the top, to trim down the wide boatneck and give myself some bra strap coverage. So pattern, good (check the pattern errata though before you make one).

And the yarn, very good. It's a 65/35 cashmere/cotton blend that I recycled from an at least 10 year old Banana Republic sweater. It suffered a bit in the ripping (although I carefully ripped the entire sweater by hand instead of using the ball winder), making the yarn a little less tightly plied. And, of course, my hand knitting is nowhere near as even as the machine knitting of the original. But all this gives it a natural and casual sort of look, which I really like. Like the often irregularly dyed and sometimes slubby cash iroha that the pattern originally called for, it makes the sweater lovely and feminine without seeming so dressy and delicate that I couldn't ever wear it (can you tell I'm having a problem with some of the less casual patterns that some companies have been coming out with lately?). No, this one is just right: it's soft as can be, feels very comfortable directly against the skin and is cozy warm and fun to wear.

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.

In contrast to yesterday's post, let me share with you my progress on the Child's Placket Neck Pullover, also from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This sweater has the exact same structure as the man's zip raglan, but without the ribbing (and with the new corrected pattern) it's a whole different story!

babies are soooo much smaller than daddys!

The only change I made to the pattern was to add one buttonhole on the placket (the pattern doesn't have you make any and calls for beads that can be pushed through the knitted fabric instead of buttons). I've still got the seaming at the underarm to do and a little girly embroidery (I'm embroidering the baby's initial "E"on the front, see?), but the knitting went super quick. And I love how it came out. I was worried that the style wouldn't be girly enough, but seeing Wendy's beautiful finished sweater helped me change my mind. And the color of this Classic Elite Spotlight is so amazing that it convinced me. It seems so perfect for a little baby girl sweater, that I'm not even having the slightest regrets about taking it out of my stash and using it. Really no regrets. The remaining five balls are already earmarked for another baby sweater. I'm so proud of myself!

And it's all the in the yarn! I can't say enough good things about the Louisa Harding Kimono Angora. Really lovely colors, wonderfully soft - it just makes this simple little baby set so special.

Originally I had intened to make the angora booties from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but it turns out that the kimono angora isn't quite fuzzy enough to hide the things I don't like about the booties (like the rectanglar duck foot shape, the pinched look in back where the three-needle bind off begins, the holes at the corners where the cuff begins, and the ladders on the sides from the double knitting technique). With super fuzzy angora, it's all good, but without the halo, it's no angel.

I searched through my patterns and it turns out that I already had the perfect bootie pattern, Fiber Trends CH36 "Baby Basics". Not only did it match the hat perfectly with stockinette stitch and cute little i-cord ties and everything, but the pattern is perfectly written. I don't think I'm ever using any other bootie pattern! And they're so sweet too.

Then there's the hat. I absolutely adore the hat. It's the Children's Cotton Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Because it's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, you know it's stylish, clever, and - yes, you know what's coming - it has an error in it. Oh yeah, an error and there's no correction for it on the errata page. In the middle and large sizes, there are an uneven number of holes to pull the i-cord through. An uneven number of holes means that one end will be outside and one end will be inside. And that no workie.

Here's the simple fix:

Cast on and follow pattern as written until eyelet rnd.
Work eyelet rnd as follows: K4 (6, 8), *yo, K2tog, K2; repeat from* to end.
Follow pattern as written to end.

Still, it makes a gol'darned beautiful hat. What are you gonna do?

(Again, I've got to say that I love this book. Most of the errors, like the eyelet round error above, are something that an intermediate to advanced knitter can work out for themselves once they are aware of the problem. It's beginners who I really worry about. The patterns are so simple, it seems to me that this book should be a great book for beginners. But sadly, with all the errors, I can't really recommend it for new knitters.)

The placket neck sweater from LMKG all finished and wrapped up for a long trip to its new home.

I used some scrap Manos Cotton Stria for the embroidered initial and found a button in the very same pink for that single buttonhole that I added. The embroidered initial was a great suggestion that knitbuddy, Shannon, made when I was looking for a way to girl-up the sweater. And once she mentioned it, I remembered the template for initials given in this child's sweater pattern in Hollywood Knits Style. (And now I'm remembering how super cute that Suss pattern is - I just may have to make it for the next baby on my list!)

I really enjoyed knitting this little sweater. I think it only really took me two nights to knit it and one more evening to weave in ends and do the embroidery. It's a sweet design, doesn't require much yarn, and looks so adorable on tiny babies. And, finally, with that corrected pattern, it's all I'd hoped a Last Minute Knitted Gifts pattern would be!

what's under this blanket thing?

This weekend I had the great pleasure of presenting fellow Knitsmith, Johanna, with a "Circle of Friends" baby blanket (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts), knit for her by about 15 of her knitter friends. It was so amazing to be a part of this project!

It all started out with Dani and I picking out the yarn (Manos Cotton Stria) in the bestest, brightest girl colors ever. (We waited until right after Johanna found out the sex of the baby to get started with the planning!) We made up kits for each of the seven strips with instructions and just the right amount of yarn and sent them out to everyone. It was so exciting to hear that one knitter was done and sending the kit on to another and then to start receiving the finished strips back from everyone.

After about two months (so not so "last minute" actually!), I had all the strips and was able to finally lay them out and see how the entire blanket was going to look. Despite problems with 15 knitters each trying to get the same gauge and cotton being the stretchy fiber that it is, it looked awesome! Something about how those colors line up on the diagonal really catches the eye and keeps you from noticing any irregularities caused by having had 15 different sets of hands work on the thing.

A couple nights of seaming and it was ready for gifting. Oh boy, oh boy!

Johanna likes it - hooray! And here's the blanket with baby tadpole. It's the perfect size!

I would definitely recommend this project to any group of friends (or single friend) wanting to make a gift for someone. It was super easy to knit (garter stitch strips with color changes to create the look of squares) and easy to seam (mattress stitch, whipstitch - I think this thing would look good no matter how you seamed it!). It's great for a big group of knitters even if they don't all have the same skill level or get the exact same gauge, and it's a breeze for the few seamers at the end, since seaming strips is way better than seaming individual squares. It ain't exactly last minute, but it is a really special knitted gift. Here's hoping tadpole agrees!

With my funky hat in time out for coming out too small, I've moved on to making funky baby hats.

I love this "cotton children's hat" pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (note: see my post about the small error in this pattern) and had some Berroco Celtic in a pretty pink and brown colorway leftover from knitting up the store's sample swatch. So I put the two together and now wee one will have the sweetest little hat ever (for her sure to be bald head!).

More funky baby hats are in the works, including that Lola hat designed by B.

One more holiday knit gift to add to the list! How did this happen?

I swore I wouldn't do any holiday knitting this year. My list for the holiday gift knitalong blog consisted of two overdue baby sweaters already on the needles and two craft projects to do for the boys (more on these later!). And then came the felted bowl (still awaiting felting) for my great aunt, who always gets a knitted gift - come on, you remember the hotties! And now, the man's cashmere scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (yes, there are corrections for this pattern). I dug this lovely, but long neglected cashmerino aran out of the stash and I hope I can turn it into a handsome man scarf for a family friend fast.

After this one though, no más!

Ooh, this is a very manly scarf. It's all nice and texture-y, but not pretty or pattern-y. It reminds me of a nice houndstooth or check. Very male. And the beige cashmerino, what man wouldn't wear that?

The Last Minute Knitted Gifts pattern calls for a chunkier cashmere, so I've adjusted for my smaller gauge, casting on 35 sts and working in pattern as directed. Since I've subbed yarns and gauge, I'm not sure how many balls of the cashmerino I'll need. This first ball got me to 15", so I'm hoping that three will be enough (the pattern measurements say the scarf should be 50" long). If I'm lucky, I'll only have two more late nights of knitting (and we're talking, I'm so tired from working all day and really should be sleeping, what with the pregnancy and school tomorrow, but I've got to knit these few little Christmas gifts... nights) to go.

My favorite Christmas album playing on the ipod.

Presents wrapped and ready to ship to the in-laws abroad.

The fire hydrants have their snow flags.

The boys made candy houses after school.

And I can cross one more present off my knit gift list!

I went for a good manly length of 40 inches on the man's cashmere scarf, just enough to cross over your neck and tuck under the lapels of a manly jacket. It only took me two and a half balls of the Cashmerino Aran and four days to knit this one. (Gotta credit an unexpectedly warm day and long playground session yesterday for the early finish.) It has to be sent too, so it's good that it went quickly. A perfect Last Minute Knitted Gift, I'd say!

I was just thinking that the baby needed something blue. Thanks to my friends and family, wee one won't be stuck wearing only boy truck/soccer ball/train hand-me-downs; she's pretty set now with pink onesies and sleepers. And I made her a pink sweater and a white sweater and a purple sweater. But she should have something lovely and blue and girly too.

All I kept thinking about was baby pants, baby pants, baby pants, I gotta knit baby pants. It seemed like a good way to use up a small amount of yarn and when I saw the cool pants that B knit for her daughter and posted here at the baby bumpers blog, I knew I had to try making some. I ordered some blue jean blue Knitpicks Shine Sport (since Elinor gave it such a good review here) and pulled out Last-Minute Knitted Gifts to make the awesome little drawstring pants for wee one. (Check out the ones Mames made here!)

I've already got one leg done. I'm doing a little picot edge instead of the seed stitch to girl it up just a bit and I love how they're coming out! The Shine is sooooo soft it's unbelievable and I think the whole pair may only take two balls (um, that's $5 for a pair of pants, people - that's lower than babyGap prices!).

And then, as I started knitting my something blue for baby, I received a wonderful surprise package in the mail.

This beautiful little sweater was knit by Karen at wooly-minded. It is so sweet! And it's in a beautiful blue-purple shade of Rowan wool cotton. I just love the little squiggles along the edges. I remember seeing them for a while in some of the Rowan patterns and thinking they're cool, but there's no way I'd actually make all those! Thanks so much Karen for such a lovely, special gift.

And now baby will have some blue things. Blue girl things. Blue is good.

Lots of panting here. No contractions, just pants knitting.

The Last-Minute Knitted Gifts pattern calls for rather long legs for the newborn size, even when following the special instructions to knit to schematic measurements and not instruction measurements when substituting a non-shrinking yarn for the denim. (I've never seen Joelle Hoverson, but I'm guessing she's very tall.) With the extra length in the legs, I had to dip into a third ball of the Shine, so now the pants have cost $7.50 to make. Still a bargain though for a fabulous yarn and a cute pair of pants!

I'll be adding some elastic to the waistband before I close the top hem and do the drawstring, since I agree with Elinor that it does help pants stay up better. And I can't help thinking it'll be more comfortable for the baby than really tying the pants snug. Ouch!

A second pair of baby pants is already in the planning stages too. I'm hooked!

Another thing I finished on the way to having a baby...

The drawstring pants from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts! I just love the color of the Knitpicks Shine - just like jeans, but oh so much softer. They were quick to knit up and someday I think I would like to make them with the denim, but for now I wanted soft, soft, soft for wee one. They're still way too big and long to try on her (and more importantly, wee one is still way too little to tolerate a try-on and photo session), but for now they look super cute sitting there waiting for her.

The new and improved (read, now knit to the proper size) Last-Minute Knitted Gifts children's cotton hat! Wee one approves.

The pattern did end up being a good choice for this little quickie project. It was a fast knit and comes out looking adorable. What didn't work so much for me was the yarn. I can only presume that mommy hormones caused me to forget how much I dislike Rowan's summer tweed. The colors are great and I like the tweedy look, but it feels so stiff and dry. I don't find it a pleasant yarn to knit with. And apparently, the row gauge isn't quite up to par with it's fellow worsted weight yarns.

Note to self: Really, you don't like summer tweed. Remember you have a whole unfinished sweater in that yarn stuffed somewhere back in the stash! Now get out there and finish some hats in some yarns you really like!

Fellow knitsmith, Dani (who is making a beautiful Lizard Ridge afghan right now), had her wedding shower this weekend! Since she is the queen of knitted gifts, I knew I had to make something for her.

I remembered that she'd made the drawstring pouch from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts a couple of times for others and thought that she deserved one for herself.

I found a beautiful little skein of Artyarns Beaded Silk to use. Ooooh was it nice to work with! Sleek, soft silk and smooth glass beads. What a joy. The pattern was quick to knit up (living up to the book's title this time!) and the one skein was just enough. I filled the finished bag with Dani's favorite chocolates and voila, pretty gifty for the gifty goddess!

While I was at Purl in NYC a couple of weekends ago with my mom, she spotted a gorgeous sample scarf they had knit up in Alchemy's Migration yarn. It was a simple brioche stitch pattern (instructions are posted on their Purl Bee website) but what made it so special was how they alternated two colorways of the yarn, just like the Noro striped scarves seen here and here and everywhere on the web. I've always loved these scarves and how the simple act of switching yarns every two rows transforms each colorway by breaking it up and slowing down its color changes, blending its colors with other unexpected colors. But there's no way I could ever wear Kureyon or even Silk Garden on my neck. Uhn-uh. Soooooo, when mom saw this scarf and said she might like one for her birthday (hint, hint), I was skeptical. Then I went over and touched it. Ahhhhhh, it was soft and silky and light and lovely. I immediately agreed to make one for her.

We found the exact shades of Migration they had used (Goldeneye and Cinnamon Teal) and I dug out my ball winder and swift, which I never use anymore because I'm too lazy, to wind up two perfectly lovely balls of Migration ready to do this one right. (Only for you mom!)

I'm barely into the thing and already it's both as fun and as boring as I'd imagined it would be. My eyes will blur over from working the same pattern row over and over and over and over and over and I'll think I can't possibly knit that row another time ever, but then I'll catch a glimpse of how the colors have changed in those last few rows and I'm utterly beguiled into knitting more.

I've spent another couple of nights with my alchemy scarf (info here) and new things are happening. I was worried it might repeat itself, but this second section looks quite different from the first.

click to see the whole scarf now

It's gotten so boring though that I spent the previous night's knitting time dreaming of starting a new project. So I dashed out with wee one yesterday to pick out some yarn for the baby shrug I want to make from Vintage Baby Knits for Robin (the winner of my vintage baby knits contest!)

I wonder how many nights I'll be able to keep myself from starting this one.

alchemy scarf about halfway done!

"love" by shel silverstein

Just before we left for Germany, I packed up mom's Alchemy scarf and sent it off to her for her birthday. Happy birthday, mom! It was a treat for me to make this: what more could a knitter wish for than that someone says, hey, would you maybe make me this gorgeous scarf in this fabulous yarn? Yes, yes, yes!