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| This hat was made by one of the members of our knitting circle. I think it is funny and looks great. |
I made two sweaters in June for myself. Yes, it’s been months
of totally selfish knitting, nothing extraordinary here, but it is the end of
June already and time to think seriously about gift knitting. Otherwise I might
get into trouble like last year (see here) when I barely finished my gifts
before their actual recipients came home.
This year I have some rather ambitious plans and picked
several challenging projects for gift knitting. We’ll see what happens (I’ll
keep you posted, promise).
But first things first: I’ve got to brag about my last
finished sweaters (you’ll find all the technical details on their respective
Ravelry pages, as usual). I love them both and am really proud that I made
myself finish them. Why? Both were done on tiny needles. The green one had
intricate cables all over, which didn’t make the work more difficult but slowed
it down considerably. And both have an interesting construction. It looks like raglan
but in reality it is more like saddle shoulder. It requires attention and
focusing when blocking as well as when sewing parts together.
First “aside” comment: ABOUT BLOCKING. Too often I hear people
speaking about blocking in terms that I would call derogatory. In the Knitting
group on Facebook knitters often keep asking questions like “what is blocking
and is it really important?” The answer is – YES.
Blocking is an extremely important process of finishing your
knitting project and it consists of putting the wet parts of the future garment
into shapes required by the pattern on a special mat and then letting them dry.
Before you start blocking the parts, you’ve got to soak them in Eucalan or any
other wool friendly soaking liquid for at least 15 min. After this, be very
careful to not overstretch or distort them in any way, because wet knits become
extremely stretchy and pliable. Then you need to spread each part separately on
a special mat (I use these ones from KnitPicks) into desired shape and pin them.
Personally, I am a big fan of using wires for blocking (something like these).
It is a pain to put wires through wet knits but the result is worth the
trouble. Highly recommend!
My first sweater – Lucky Green – has been in my queue for a
very long time. Yet, I kept postponing making it because I was dreading long
hours spent on many tiny cables. It turned out that the cables were much easier
to memorize and faster to knit than I had predicted. When I finally started working
on this pattern (again, from a Japanese knitting magazine), it became quite
addictive.
The yarn for this project – Rowan Pure Wool 4 ply in a
bright green color – was discontinued and I had only 8 skeins altogether. Yet,
from my previous experience with this yarn, I knew that it is extremely
stretchy and you can basically do whatever you can with it when it’s wet. That
is why I didn’t make my sweater longer in the torso (I compensated for
shortness while blocking) but put some additional rows into the raglan
decreases (I didn’t change the number of them, just spread them on more rows)
on all parts.
I must confess that I made a mistake at the beginning of
work because I wasn’t paying attention (guilty, but it happens to all of us!).
I forgot to decrease two stitches after the ribbing on the back. That is how I
got an extra knit stitch on each side. I had to repeat this mistake for the
front since the back was already finished when I had noticed it and I didn’t
want to unravel it. Later on, these extra stitches became handy because I used
them for sewing and they formed a perfect even seam at both sides.
I called this sweater Lucky Green because I was making it
(or at least trying to make it) while waiting for doctors’ appointments (yes,
plural!). Yet, every time I would start working on it, I was called to get in
and see my doctor. Not much progress on the sweater but I cannot complain. I
hate waiting, especially at the doctor’s. My last appointment was crucial
because it was scheduled only several hours before our flight to Florida. I
took the sweater with me and it didn’t disappoint. I went through and was
finished in no time. So… it must have been the sweater, definitely the sweater
since I don’t consider myself lucky.
My next project was another version of Lou from Phildars Nos
Fils Essentiels that I made in January from a very sheddy and hairy yarn. This
time I used Drops Baby Alpaca Silk – thin, silky, and soft – for a summer
sweatshirt style loose oversized sweater.
It is much easier knitting something for the second time
while using the notes made the first time. That was the reason for picking this particular design. I needed a project for mindless
knitting to take with me to the knitting group and relax and Lou is a perfect knit
for relaxation.
The only modification I made this time was using smaller
needles for the corrugated part (in “point de goudron”) of sleeves. The
stockinett part of the sleeves was knit on US 4 - 3.5 mm, and the corrugated
part – on US 1 ½ - 2.5 mm to compensate for its stretchiness. I used US 4 – 3.5
mm needles for the side pieces in “point de goudron”.
The hardest part of this design is putting all
the pieces together. And at this point blocking comes in handy because it can help with sewing.
I blocked the front, back,
and sides at the same time on wires close to each other the way they would be eventually sewn.
It made the sewing faster and easier than it was for me with my first version of Lou. My second version is called Cinnamon. It is light, silky, and breezy.
I like this design so much that I might make another sweater
like this, even though normally I avoid repetition.
Now, my two new favorite sweaters finished I have to hurry
up with my gift knitting because there is not much time left. Probably, I
should have started in February, as Colbert mentioned recently.
My first gift is a sweater for a man (not my husband!) who
is a really devoted fisherman. I promised him a fisherman sweater almost a year
ago, when I came from Scotland where I was blown away by the strong winds and
fantastic ganseys. Originally, I wanted to make a traditional gansey from some thin wool
on tiny needles but changed my mind. First, because it would’ve been my only
gift (and possibly the only project) this year given the thinness of the yarn and
the intricacies of the design. Second, because there is not much use for a
traditional gansey in South Florida.
I had some Rowan Calmer in my stash for a
while that is more suitable for a warm climate. Plus I managed to find more of identical yarn in the same shade on Ravelry
(score for me!).
My design of choice was found in the old Rowan knitting book Rowan Denim. I picked
the man’s sweater on the picture – its pattern looks great in Calmer, and I
like the overall design since it has the exact mixture of elegance and
restraint. Remember, it is going to be a sweater for a fisherman, not an office
worker!
Second “aside” comment: ABOUT THE OLD KNITTING BOOKS AND
MAGAZINES. In my opinion, it is hard to invent something new in knitting.
Pretty much like in music, where there are only 7 notes and a finite number of
their combinations. In knitting there are only two major stitches – knit and
purl. So, basically, everything “new”
has been already invented, we just need to look it up carefully in the old knitting
books and magazines, of which I’ve collected a lot over the years.
Speaking of this particular knitting book – Rowan Denim -
style and fashion have changed since the 80s, but the design remains relevant
and looks modern. I just had to spend more time making gauge and doing careful
calculations to pick up the right size (hopefully). The
fact that there is a big range of sizes in this book is really helpful.
And this is what I’ve been working on lately. There are also
several cardigans for my children in my near future – they crave cardigans like normal children
crave chocolates. I’ll keep you posted about my progress.
I’ll be traveling for
the rest of the summer and sometimes to places with only sporadic Internet. To
follow my adventures you’d better go to my Instagram page since I post there
much more often.
Until next time,
Anna
