Cablepalooza

This yarn has been sitting in my stash for quite some time. I picked up eleven skeins of Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in a grey-blue colourway called “Faded Quilt” when I was passing through New York City on the way back from Charleston a couple of years ago.

I may have fallen in love with the name as much as the colour.

It’s been waiting for just the right project – and I think I’ve found it. This is a diamond cable saddle shoulder sweater from the Patons Australia book 1252 Weekend knits, featuring more than a dozen sweater patterns for men and women.

The patterns are written for Patons Zhivago which, at 20 stitches to 10 cm, is a perfect match for Shelter.

As Steven will know, I started out originally with a different pattern from the same book but had a panic that it might be coming out a little on the small side and if I had to go up a size I was worried that I might not have enough yarn. So I swapped to this pattern instead, and I’m actually quite glad that I did (although I like the other pattern too – for another time).

I appear to be the first person to knit this design and I had to add it to the Ravelry pattern library myself, which is odd because it’s a great pattern and I’m hoping I might encourage some other knitters to join me in knitting it. It’s also pretty straightforward, although I should take heed that I haven’t got to joining the saddle shoulders yet – something I’ve not yet attempted. So far the back is done and I’ve started on the front and it’s all going surprisingly quickly.

I also decided to cast on for a slightly more complicated pattern alongside this one.

Ilam is a design from the Rowan book  Autumn knits in Cocoon. Isn’t this a great colour!? “Seascape” is a beautiful deep blue green that I absolutely fell in love with.

I usually purchase more yarn than recommended but with my last Rowan sweater I had almost four skeins left over at the end so this time I went with the recommended seven skeins. I still had a horrible foreboding feeling that it might not be quite enough, which was borne out by a couple of other knitters on Ravelry so I bought one extra skein to be sure – different dye lots, but in my test swatch I couldn’t spot any difference. My plan was to use the odd dye lot for the ribbing, so that if there was a subtle difference, the break in textures would hide it.

Ilam is a beautiful cabled men’s vee-neck sweater. These cables are way more complicated than anything I’ve done so far, with the front and back featuring panels of 8, 20 and 24 row repeats. I had to borrow Wayne’s coloured pencils to make sense of the it all. Having started though, I think the beautiful deep blue-green Seascape might not be the best choice. The dark colour makes it difficult to “read” the knitting, and it also makes it difficult to see the cables – which is at least part of the point of tackling a project like this. A lighter colour would show off the complex cables, so I’m thinking that Ilam might get put aside for another yarn, and the Seascape Cocoon might end up being used for another pattern – perhaps Askrigg.

Now that I’ve bought the extra skein, I’ll have enough yarn.

Thwaite

For the last day of #blogjune in which I embark on a new knitting project.

This is the men’s version of Thwaite, a cardigan designed for Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky yarn by Marie Wallin from the Rowan book British sheep breeds collection.

It’s a simple cardigan but with some neat detailing around the collar and the button closures. I would have been very happy to knit this in the Rowan yarn but this is one of those Rowan publications where they omit the smallest men’s size so those of us not built like rugby players are in a bit of difficulty. I wish Rowan would at least list the sizes they do have in their books.

I’m getting around the sizing problem by substituting a similar yarn with a slightly smaller gauge. The Rowan yarn knits to 13 stitches over 10 cm and I’m using Morris Norway which knits to 14 stitches which should come in at just the right size. I picked up the Norway on special at the Morris sale last year. It comes in a range of “natural” colours, mine is charcoal grey.

 

When knitting goes wrong

For day 12 of #blogjune 

I love vintage knitting patterns and have quite a stash, mostly from the sixties, and have actually knitted from quite a few patterns such as the Brown Bear Pullover which I knitted earlier this year (and wore to work today!) and my most recent knitting saga, the Mustard Jumper.

Some vintage patterns are commanding prices that rival a brand new knitting book these days but we scored quite big at the Shepparton op shops a few months back where the going rate was 20 cents for a pattern or $1 for a book.

My lovely friend Kerryn has found a few wonderful bundles of patterns for me too, mostly sourced from country op shops and mostly wonderful. Except perhaps this one.

The knitted tank top is pretty gruesome isn’t it, although its saving grace is perhaps that it does distract one’s attention from the trouser situation.

The chap to the right seems lost for words. Quite so.

 

 

My head fits!

For day 11 of #blogjune – in which we are nearing the finish line on the mustard jumper saga

I was a bit stumped for ideas for a blog post for #blogjune but Kay and Janice on Twitter last night suggested a jumper update.

I am very happy to report that my head now fits through the neck of the mustard jumper! I realise that it would be an unusual v-neck jumper in which one’s head would not fit through, but I still consider this an achievement.

I now just need to finish the seams and weave in some ends so it’s almost finished.

If you’re a listener of the Stash & Burn knitting podcast this might remind you of those seemingly endless knitting projects that drag on for years, like Nicole’s Dad’s sweater or Jenny’s Bourne sweater. Anyway, it will be nice to finally wear it. The weather is getting cold here now so it will be great for early morning dog walks and working in the garden.

Mustard jumper progress

For day 7 of #blogjune – an update on the mustard jumper situation 

For those of you following along at home, the saga of my mustard jumper continues. Looking for the silver lining, this should at least provide a few days’ worth of blogging for #blogjune.

My attempt to add a couple of extra stitches to the neckline didn’t really work out so Plan B, C, D, E, F, whatever… is to change it into a v-neck. That way my head is sure to fit!

I’ve undone the neckline completely and ripped out the raglan shoulder seams. The top parts of the back and sleeves had gotten a bit ragged so I ripped back a couple of rows and reknit those, and then I’ve ripped out the front down to the armhole decreases. It’s chunky weight yarn so it shouldn’t take too long to reknit the top part of the front.

 

When your knitting fights back

Day 4 of #blogjune – in which my head is too big for my jumper

I originally knit this jumper over a year ago using a vintage sixties pattern. The yarn is lovely, Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky in a rich mustard yellow called, as you’d expect, “Mustard”. It isn’t just yellow though, there are flecks of paler yellow, buff and apple green. It’s beautiful, and sadly has been discontinued, which is why I’m still persevering.

My first attempt was ok, but I was never really happy with it. The neckband was a bit too tight, the body was fine, but the sleeves were sort of puffy. The puffy sleeves were odd because men’s knitwear from the sixties usually has a slimmer fit. I wore it a few times and then in a moment of bravery (or madness) I ripped the whole thing out. I’d had an extra skein left over after the first attempt so I was pretty sure I could start over and make something new.

The next attempt was using a modern pattern for a plain set-in sleeve sweater from Patons book 1232 Inca Men. I got the back and most of the front done, but it was enormous even though I was knitting the small size. I ripped that out too.

By this time the yarn was starting to look a bit second-hand so I thought I’d try to revive it by winding it into hanks which I then soaked and laid out to dry. The yarn was looking almost back to new so I set to work again, this time using a seventies pattern for a raglan sweater from an old Spinnerin book, Spinnovations – groovy!

Nearing the finish line, I had sewed up the raglan sleeves and picked up and knit the ribbing for the neckline and luckily I thought to try it on before sewing up the rest of the seams.

My head would not fit through at all! Did people in the seventies have thinner heads? Drat and double drat. So I’ve ripped out the neckband… just the neckband this time.

I’ve put it to one side for now to have a go at fixing things next weekend. My current plan is to undo one of the shoulder seams so I can knit the neckband flat, working a few extra stitches into the neckband so it isn’t so tight and then sew it up. Wish me luck… if it can’t be salvaged this time I might just turn it into a giant scarf.

Birthday scarf

The linen stitch scarf is finished! I was listening to some old Stash & Burn podcasts while I was nearing the finish line with this project where Jenny says that when you get three quarters done with a scarf it is just grim determination to get to the end, and it’s true, but I’m so happy with the result now it’s done.

I’m calling this my Birthday Scarf because I finished it on my birthday last week, although that isn’t strictly true on account of me messing up the bind off. This weekend I soaked and laid it out to dry and then unpicked a couple of rows to redo the bind off according to some notes from Hilary Smith Callis for her Cerus scarf pattern.

Of course I should have known how to bind off in linen stitch because I knitted Hilary’s Cerus scarf back in 2011 using Rowan Tapestry. My Birthday Scarf though is knitted in Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend in a variegated olive green colourway called “Augusta”. I based mine on the pattern for a linen stitch scarf in Bruce Weinstein’s Boyfriend Sweaters, a book that I bought at Barnes & Noble on Union Square in New York City on my way back home from the Charleston library conference last year, so it’s a nice reminder of my trip too.

The Cerus scarf was knit longways over 355 stitches. Bruce’s book has versions knit both longways and, well… what do you call the opposite of longways? Normal? Anyway, Bruce says the non-longways version is more masculine so that’s his pattern for men. I’m not sure I agree, but as I’d already knit the longways Cerus I decided to go with the short version this time and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Bruce’s pattern is for five 50g skeins of Silk Blend and has you cast on 71 stitches, but as I had two 100g skeins I made mine a bit narrower and cast on 57 stitches. I think it’s plenty wide enough. It’s certainly long enough, longer than I am tall anyway, which is apparently the rule of thumb for a man’s scarf.

One thing about linen stitch, for me anyway, is that as it involves alternating slip stitches in different patterns on front and back I find it very easy to lose concentration and drift off pattern. It is much better finding out that you’ve duffed up at the end of a 57 stitch row than 355 stitches so, if you are planning to have your first shot at linen stitch, a non-longways scarf might be a good bet!

Linen stitch really does come into its own with a variegated yarn. The variegations help to show off the woven effect of the stitch, while the slip stitch pattern helps to break up any pooling. My two efforts have been with with tonal variegations but I think it would look pretty awesome in a multicolour yarn, or using alternating strands of different yarns. Linen stitch is reversible and doesn’t roll in, so great for scarves, although there is a definite front and back as you can see in the picture below. I like them both.

There are plenty of patterns around for linen stitch scarves. The main tip is that you’ll need to cast on an odd number of stitches and for a neat edge knit the first and last stitch of every row. I’ve seen some patterns which don’t tell you to do this and I think it does give a really neat finish. You’ll also need to go up at least two needle sizes from the recommended needle size for your yarn. The recommended needle size for Silk Blend is 4 mm and I went up to 5 mm which came out fine, but even so with quite a dense fabric. For something with more drape you might even want to go up to 5.5 mm. Also, to avoid my mistake, check out Hilary’s tip for the bind off!

• Project page on Ravelry

Christmas knitting

How is your Christmas knitting going? I’m almost done, and I might even squeeze in an extra project!

The orange Christmas sweater was washed and blocked last week so it’s ready to wrap up this weekend, knit in lovely orange tweed Peace Fleece. The pattern is from a hysterical Patons vintage book for raglan sweater patterns in several different gauges for men and women.

The patterns are actually really good,  you just have to get past the photo shoot which looks as if it might have been directed by Benny Hill. I’m calling this the Librarian Sweater, those 1960s librarians sure look like they got up to some fun in the stacks.

It was only when I got to the final seaming up that I discovered a rather startling mistake. Well, I did discover it quite early but I thought it would be ok. The pattern has a quite modest 12 rows of ribbing for the waist and armholes and I had knit 16 rows for the back. I just figured I’d knit 16 for the front and use 12 rows of ribbing on the armholes. Sadly, I thought I’d knit 16 rows of ribbing for the back but was actually 18 rows so I was 2 rows out between the front and back. Drat. I’d done one side seam before I noticed and it didn’t look too noticeable, so I eased it a bit more on the other side and with blocking I don’t think anyone else would notice it.

It’s also my first v-neck sweater, which I was a little worried about, but which came out just fine.

My other Christmas knitting is three pairs of fingerless gloves for three brothers, and I have just two fingers left to go! There really is only one trick to knitting gloves: make sure you don’t knit two right ones (yes, really).

And, finally, I have quite a bit of red and white Millamia yarn left over from the Merry Knitalong this year and I thought I might get in a bit more stranded knitting practice – and a little boost to the Christmas festive spirit – with the Nordic Star Christmas stocking, a free pattern from Millamia. No promises, we’ll see how we go. Hope you have a lovely holiday season!

Merino silk gloves

Alas, the Kuma tweed vest (as Steven called it) has been abandoned.

Do you ever find yarn that was at its most beautiful in the ball? The Charcoal colourway of Cleckheaton’s Merino Silk was like that. The tweedy nubs were just too loud against the dark grey fabric. I was hoping for something much more subtle. Trust me, it looks better in the photo than in real life, possibly because Kuma is covering most of it up.

This was at least my second attempt at a vest from this yarn after starting out knitting a plain stocking stitch version. Then I thought a textured pattern might tone down the tweedy nubs a bit, so I started over on Jane Ellison’s Adam vest. It was certainly an improvement but I still didn’t really like how it was turning out. I thought about plugging on but I knew I wasn’t going to like the end result so it’s been frogged. I think this yarn is really cut out for smaller projects so the now twice or thrice used yarn from the vest has been  balled up and packed off to the op shop to find a new home and I’ll find a smaller project or two for what I have left.

I also bought a couple of balls of the Merino Silk in a different colourway, Ochre, and I think this turned out much nicer in a pair of fingerless gloves. I’d bought two balls but by reducing the ribbing by a couple of rows I managed to squeeze these gloves out of just one ball – with literally inches to spare.

These are working out nicely for early morning dog walks and the tweediness certainly works better in this golden brown and in a smaller project.

The pattern is from Patons Australia book 1218, Beanies, scarves and accessories for men and boys. With the second ball I have left over I could probably make a matching hat, although I’d avoid the hat designs in this book. Hunky Mark Savoia is one of the models and even he can’t carry off a knitted beret.

My knitting helper

I finished the back of my Adam vest yesterday and here it is washed and blocking, with some assistance from Kuma, although I am not entirely convinced that he’s really helping.

The design is by Jane Ellison and I was doing fine until I came to the armhole decreases. I’d usually set them one stitch inside, but as this is a slip stitch rib pattern I wasn’t sure how that would work with the slipped stitches so I made my decreases right on the edge. It did mean that for every second decrease I ended up with an extra knit stitch at the edge, but I couldn’t see any way around this while keeping the rest in pattern, and Jane didn’t mention it either, so it will have to do.

I cast on straight away for the front so we’ll see if I get it finished before I leave for the Charleston Conference in early November. I was thinking a vest might be good for air-conditioned conference halls that can get a bit chilly, no matter what the weather is outside.

I’ve also been perusing some patterns so I have some ideas for yarn acquisitions on my New York City stopover on the way home. Steven has been working on his Redford sweater using Brooklyn Tweed Loft, a simple design at first glance, but with some interesting details and I’ve been following his progress with interest.

They do have Brooklyn Tweed at Purl Soho after all, and some yarn would make a nice souvenir, so I’ve been contemplating a sweater’s worth of either Shelter or Loft. Now I just have to decide on a pattern, or two, so I know how much to buy. The BT Men Volume 1 came out just in time.

(ps: If you do happen to be a librarian attending the Charleston Conference, please say hello! I’ll be the one wearing a vest covered in dog hair.)