raglan sweater knit with crazy colors and my left hand



based on Shona from Kim Hargreaves' A Season's Tale in Regia's Crazy Colors yarn

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Somebody stop me! I am totally suffering from startitis, which is causing some pretty bad put-aside-is and not-complete-is! I wanted to practice continental knitting and so I just jumped in on my next project, a raglan sweater for me in Regia's 6ply Crazy Colors yarn (I'm calling it the Crazy Continental sweater). I'm hoping that the bold colors and crazy stripes will mask my tension issues. I'll have good tension for a while and then suddenly two rows that are wicked loose. But it's still coming out OK, with no distortions in the sizing or shaping and I'm pleased with how it looks.

Oh how I want to get back to Elizabeth, now untouched for a week, but I am determined to get this left-handed knitting down. And then after the two-color two-handed knitting class this week, I want to start right away on the Dale sweaters before my hands forget what they learned. But perhaps I can start slowly by making a real swatch this time. My severe startitis usually prevents me from swatching appropriately.

Maybe I need to see a knitting doctor who can put me on some sort of project diet!

Made some progress on the crazy continental since my last post. I've just begun the raglan shaping. I think my tension is becoming more even, but I wouldn't swear by it. And I'm still not knitting really "cleanly", I mean like you see in instructional photos. The left index finger seems to have the most to learn and while it's still building up strength and experience I'm cheating a little with occasional help from other fingers and a lot of wrist movement. But I think I can catch a glimpse of the promised continent.

And in a brief excursion back to American knitting, I decided that I just had to pick up Elizabeth and finish the front before I set her aside any longer. I don't want those stitches sitting on the needles to get too stretched out. I just finished it this evening (see here) and will work a bit on the crazy continental and the dale swatch before I come back to redo the sleeves. That requires more ripping and washing, so I need to psyche myself up for it anyway.

A combination of a few things has driven me to reorganize and rethink my stash. First, we are slowly outgrowing our apartment and I've got little baggies of yarn stuffed here and there and that just will not do! Second, I saw that KnitDad took on the challege of organizing a few weeks ago and thought that seemed very admirable. Finally, I started reading Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English and was thinking more about what sort of sweaters I should (and not could) be making for myself. That led me to decide that the projects planned for the stash might not be very well-suited for me.

So, I gathered up the random bags from here and there, organized everything in the official stash box (an old picnic basket with handy-dandy straps for smaller items like sock yarn), and sat down with my also overflowing stack of pattern books. I've decided that the Linen Drape (I love the periwinkle color!) should become Flame from Rowan #31 (Jackie Blue is working on this one). And the colorful collection of Cotton Glace should become a fitted stripey summer cardigan, maybe Smoulder, which is also in Rowan #31, or Flourish from #29.

I can change the patterns I'm using, but not the colors in my stash, which I hear may be a problem. Some of my fellow Knitsmith knitters were talking about "their colors" last week. I've never understood it when people got "their colors done" etc., but they made it sound, well, pretty sound. And they dropped the horrifying suggestion that those colors that I like best (ie, my whole stash!) may not be those that look best on me. Well, I look down and there is my crazy continental just choc' full of colors that I like. Hmmmmm.... Despite this unfortunate revelation, I began the raglan decreases (have a look see), because I love this sweater, dammit!

Anyone out there care to assuage my fears about this whole color thing?

1. So I'm watching old episodes of "Changing Rooms" [you all know about "Changing Rooms"? The original British show which inspired "Trading Spaces". OK, they copied it. Anyway...] and the crazy designer woman wants to KNIT huge blankets for the sofas [yes, it's exactly the same show: one designer, a thousand dollars/five hundred pounds, and TWO days!]. She's got a knitting machine alright, but the first thing she does is pull out the instruction manual. Yikes! Forty-eight hours, honey. In one, you can run down to the store and buy blankets, even nice ones, even cheap.

2. Got a new holdeverything catalog in the mail yesterday. In addition to selling all kinds of outrageously expensive furniture-y basket-y things, they're selling a Cable Knit Christmas Tree Skirt for $129! [No, it's not on the website.] Omigod, that is ridiculous. Big selling points from the blurb: "keeps the tree stand hidden" [well, that's worth big bucks] and "provides a vibrant background for wrapped gifts" [what gifts? I blew all my Christmas money on the damn tree skirt!].

3. And then there's me. Had one of those, 'well if I just keep knitting this problem will go away' moments. My pattern for the crazy continental is really only pieced together from patterns here and there (plus I'm using yarn with a different gauge), so I should have known that the sizing was likely to be a little unreliable. Well, I did know, but I was in denial. Since I'm trying to nip those sizing problems in the bud now (after my Elizabeth fiasco), I decided better late than later. So, back I go to lower the armhole shaping a few centimeters.

I finished the back of the crazy continental. Boy is this thing ready to be blocked! I can't even get it to lie flat for one little picture.

So, how do I like it, you ask? Well, I think that the crazy stripes are just the right thing to draw attention away from my uneven knitting. I seem to have reached a little learning plateau with the left hand. My tension problems haven't gone away, but I'm still practicing and that is the point of the sweater and, as I was just saying, the crazy stripes. Otherwise, the thing is still too long. I took out some rows before the shoulder shaping, but I need to shorten even it more. I couldn't go back any further at the shoulder because there is waist shaping and that would move the waist up to my bustline. Not optimal! So, I'll most likely cut the last 5 cm off at the bottom and reknit the small bit of ribbing back down from there. I've done this before (with my new year's stripey sweater) and it was pretty easy and relatively unproblematic - certainly when compared with everything I've had to do with elizabeth III.

That's the long way of saying, I'm liking the crazy continental so far.

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!

I'm getting a lot out of my most recent knitting book purchase, Sweater Design in Plain English. Maggie is my new hero. I feel like I am finally getting some tips that are going to help me make better sweaters. As we have seen, I can make yarn into a sweater, but I can't always make it fit. What I need is a way to tell when a pattern is going to produce something that isn't going to fit me well and then the way to adjust it so that it does. Well, this book explains how to take measurements correctly and how to convert those measurements into armhole depth and raglan shaping and bust darts, whatever you might need. Exactly what I was looking for!

What I really really like about this book is that Maggie doesn't just give us some formula to use, but rather explains what is happening. There's a chapter about how different stitches and stitch patterns "act", ie, how they change your gauge, how they stretch with wear, when/where it is best to use them. And the whole last half of the book goes through a series of patterns which are less for making than they are for learning. They take you through the planning process of progressively more complex sweaters involving more and more shaping and leading up to top-down, in the round sweaters. She makes the process so clear that I am actually starting to believe that I could design a sweater. Of course, I have no orignial ideas, so I'll be sticking to published patterns, but I hope to feel more confident about tweaking them so I can use the yarn I want or make them to the exact size I need.

Empowered with my new knowledge, I immediately set off to take some proper measurements and check out the crazy continental. I'm just winging the pattern for the sweater by mathing up a pattern from A Season's Tale for different gauged yarn. Since I'm just learning continental, I'm worried about my gauge and the shaping, so I wanted to check what I've already done against a good set of measurements. Well, it checks out okay so far. I'll be making the front about 4cm shorter than the back (since it will be too long, as I suspected), but otherwise the width and armhole openings look like they could work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

And here's the front of the crazy continental after some weekend knitting. I'm really happy with how how the tension is improving. It's almost as even as my right-handed knitting now. Lookie!

The editor and several contributors to Knit Lit had a reading at the Booksmith today. They scheduled it to coincide with our weekly knitting group so we could all come and bring our knitting. It was great fun and the stories were beautiful and sweet and funny. If you haven't checked out the book yet, you should!

Unfortunately, I ended up being that annoying woman who keeps having to get up and go outside. You know there's always one of them. I'm just not used to it being me. First, I arrived a few minutes late, since I totally forgot that it wasn't regular old normal knitting group and I parked a ways away and enjoyed my stroll to the store through the lovely fall weather we've finally been having. Then I just had to pee - I'd been thinking about it the whole way over - so I had to get up and run out to the coffee shop next door. And then, my husband called twice (during a very touching story about a dying grandmother) because the boys had gotten into the Balmex and he didn't know what to do. But, thankfully, after the first twenty minutes, all my crises were resolved (they didn't eat any Balmex and certainly not enough to be harmful) and I was able to enjoy the stories and even managed to knit some!

While I was there, I cast on for the first sleeve of the crazy continental. After spending way too much time yesterday doing all the math to come up with a sleeve that I liked in my gauge, I was excited to finally start it. I'm doing a wide full-length sleeve. The body of the sweater should be pretty form fitting (I hope!), but I wanted the sleeves to be kinda hip and loose at the wrist. So, I decided to start with the full number of stitches (about one third of the body stitches, says Elizabeth Zimmerman) and do a straight sleeve up to the raglan shaping. Reading Knitting without Tears again almost convinced me to do the sleeves in the round, but then I remembered that the point of the crazy continental was to practice knitting and purling with my left hand. And since I'm getting practice knitting with my left hand while doing the fair-isle work on the Dale sweater, there was no way out of doing the purling here. And speaking of the Dale sweater, I'm just past the ribbing and am about to start the pattern on the body. Stay tuned!

Nope, not the Dale sweater. I wish! I haven't worked up the courage to start the pattern yet.

But I've passed the halfway mark on the first sleeve of the crazy continental. I should be doing the raglan decreases later today. There have been a couple of spots where my tension went bad, but usually only for about ten stitches at a time and I've been able to pull those stitches tighter and spread out the extra yarn through the rest of the row to even it out. I really think the long, straight sleeves are going to look great!

And I'm almost halfway done with an entirely different project, my one hundred things about me page. It's wicked hard to come up with 100 little tidbits, especially ones that I haven't already written about somewhere else on my webpages. It's fun though. Enjoy!

Not too much to report from the blue room today. I'm still working on the sleeves for the crazy continental. The first is complete and I've got a few inches done on the second one. I'm thinking about going ahead and blocking the pieces that I've finished so I can sew them up (at least provisionally) and finally see if/how it fits! I still have to shorten the front, but I'd like to slip the whole thing on once before I decide how much to cut off. I don't want to have to do the cutting thing twice.

I'm having the same feeling about the sleeves that Clemence is with hers: they are taking forever! I was thinking 'oh yeah, I'll just whip up the sleeves and be wearing this thing in no time'. News flash - knitting is not only not a way to save money, it is also not a way to save time! At some point I think I started focusing on the finished product and mentally skipped over the actual knitting process. I started expecting a finished sweater and forgot about the knitting, which I really do love. Bad Alison! Does that ever happen to you all? How do you keep from letting the pressure to make progress (either from deadlines or your own expectations) get in the way of the pleasure of knitting?

I'm a bit under the weather today - stuffy and what not - so won't be doing too much besides necessary child care and resting. I did lay out some pieces of the crazy continental for blocking. That seemed like something I could accomplish while sick! Otherwise, I'm a little more than halfway done with the last sleeve, so I hope to start sewing things up this weekend. And maybe I can finally have something new to put up on the finished works page sometime soon. This cold bug is thankfully taking some of the (self-imposed) pressure off to complete this thing quickly. And thanks for your responses yesterday to my process/progress query! I'm trying to not let myself feel so rushed. Deadlines and expectations be damned - that's not why I knit!

Now, back to bed...

Not. Still sick. In an effort to make myself feel better, I knit up a little flower to put on the crazy continental. The flower is from Rowan Junior, and since I don't have a little girl to knit it for, I had hoped eventually to put it on a sweater for me. The crazy continental is just plain old stockinette, so I thought it might look good. I think it's pretty cute, but I'm not 100% sure about it. (Maybe I'll redo it and see if the colors work out differently. Or I could try to find complementary yarn scraps in my stash and make another one out of that.) It did cheer me up a little though.

The crazy continental is coming along. I've sewn up the sleeves and am working on the sides. Of course, I still have to shorten the back and then pick up and knit a little neck band. Oh, and weave in a thousand ends. But then she'll be all done (the shaping is quite feminine, plus I'm definitely keeping the flower, so it's a she). I slipped it on to be sure that the fit was right. Well? You asked for form fitting and you got it! And it feels wonderful. I was worried about it being a little scratchy since it's wool and I won't be wearing a turtleneck or anything underneath it, but it feels just like a comfy long-sleeved tee. Dare I say that I love it!

And getting here yesterday were some awesome Phildar catalogs and yarn. Woo hoo! Can I just say that I have fallen for Phildar, hard. I received their new layette catalog from Becky (whose projects are picture-perfect advertisements for their yarn and patterns) and got some of the yarn for a project from the last Phildar baby catalog from this online store in Canada. (Phildar fans, check it out!)

In other news, I'm slowly getting over the cold. Slowly. And I'm getting excited about getting back to the Dale bug sweater!

I'm finishing up the crazy continental. At the Knitsmiths (our local knitting group) yesterday I picked up and knit the neckband. The neck turned out to be more of a boat neck than a crew neck. I think that has to do with the number fudging I did and how close-fitting the sweater is around my shoulders. I like it though and the neckband finishes it off nicely, I think. I've really enjoyed sort of designing this sweater on my own and figuring out what I want it to look like and seeing how it worked out. I feel confident that my next sweater (the green cables I swatched for) will fit even better.

I also managed to deal with the other finishing issue: cutting off the bottom few centimeters of the back, which I decided early on was too long. I cut an edge stitch right above where I wanted the new ribbing to start, threaded a smaller needle into last row of stitches before the cut to keep 'em in place, and picked out the stitches below them all the way across. Fun! Now I've got this crazy strip of ribbing as a souvenir, I guess. Or a headband. "Oh, very Bjorn Borg," said Julia! I reknit the ribbing and am using EZ's cast-on cast-off method to make a nice cast-off edge.

Yesterday we also got to see the amazing Dale pillow that Emily just finished. It is so beautiful, it's like you gotta redecorate the rest of your house now beautiful. Seeing it really makes me want to get well so I can get back to the Dale sweater I put aside right before I got this never-ending, now-relapsing cold. Now that the crazy continental is almost finished, it's calling to me. "Come back. Fair-isle is fun, remember!"

I love it!