Slipping On Slipped Stitches

The summer of 2015 is supposed to see me knitting three, long-queued garments.  My Valentine, probably the easiest, is finished.  Always start with the easy and work your way up to the difficult - that's my motto.

Second on the list is this vest, knit in a slipped-stitch pattern.

 

I think it must have jumped my self-imposed, easiest-first queue  because for being only in secon place, it sure has me discombobulated.    Despite the relatively simple,  slipped-stitch pattern, the construction is confusing.  What could be a very easy knit  - if the designer had  chosen to knit two fronts and a back -  is complicated by knitting, mid back to mid front.  Add to that her decision to mitre the corners and somehow accomodate armholes and whew!  I'm confused.  

Further complicating all of this is  the pattern's lack of numbers.  According to the rows already knit, I am ready to start the armhole shaping. But nowhere does it tell me how many inches of knitting I should have at this point.  Is this how much vest I should have before starting the armholes?

 I have no idea.  In fact I don't even know if I am knitting top down or bottom up or middle out.  (The last one, I think.)  Would it have hurt to tell the knitter this?

At this point in my knitting, it's a guess.   So--- guess I'll keep  on knitting and see what happens.  If I can't make it work out, I'll revert to a two fronts and a back version most designers would have used.

One Summer Sweater

Two sweaters and one vest were planned for my summer knitting.  So far, one sweater is finished.
It is one long in my queue and I am pleased to have it in a wearable versus ball-of-wool state.

Pattern:   My Valentine by Elizabeth McCarten.

Yarn:  Patons Classic Wool.  Purchased a couple of years ago at the Listowel Yarns    tent sale held every summer in August.  Specially for the sale, they package Patons Classic (normally sold in 100 g balls) in 400 g balls.  The year I purchased mine, the 'big ball' was priced at $12.  Equal to about one third the normal retail.  I bought two big balls and used one and about a third of the second ball.  Cost of the sweater?  About $15. 

Needles:  Although the pattern suggested - and I did start that way -  a bigger than normal needle size to give the sweater 'drape', in the end I used a 4.5mm, a standard size  for  worsted weight yarn.

Mods:  Not many.  The pattern is well written and easy to follow.  I did choose not to put the cable pattern down the back.  For some reason, while centre front cables seem decorative to me,  a stripe of centre- back cable always seem like a  target.

I say not many mods, but truth is,  I guess I am not really sure.  This is a top-down knit and as always with that type of  construction, I  use the pattern to get started with the suggested number of cast on stitches  - and in this case the cable instructions - but after that,  I knit to fit. 

I like a moderately snug underarm on my raglan sweaters.  With top-down knits it is easy to keep trying it on until the underarm is exactly as desired.  Remembering too,  that it is meant for me - a woman -  I stopped increasing a couple of inches shy of desired circumference, then divided  sleeves from body.  Once divided, I supplied the sweater with  those two missing inches through  bust  darts. A simple line of increases that stretch  from underarm  towards the bust.

The trim, the same  at neck, bottom and sleeve cuffs, is a row of purl, a row of knit and a cast off in purl.  A neat and tidy, small trim.  I did mine with  the same 4.5 needle as used for the  body.

I like it. 

A great addition to my winter wardrobe.

Cowl For Christmas

Last year you might remember that I knit nine H20 hats for my great Christmas give-away.  This year I decided the give-away would be cowls.  Back from the north, with a grand daughter in tow and limited knitting time, it was a perfect opportunity  to start cowl number one.

Knit with one ball of Riot by King Cole, a chunky weight, 70/30,  acrylic/wool blend, with 134 metres, it is a design of my own making.  I cast on 125 stitches, working both the  cast on then 3 rows of K1 P1 ribbing with a 8 mm circular needle. 

After the ribbing, I switched to a  6.5 mm needle and worked a sequence of 5 rows of knitting, 5 rows of purling like so:  Knit 5 rows, Purl 5 rows, Knit 5 rows, Purl 5 rows, Knit 5 rows.

Following that, I  reverted to the 8 mm needle and finished with three rows of K1 P1 ribbing before casting off.


Earliest start to Christmas - Ever!