Rusted Root
I should officially move this one into the FO pile! I started Rusted Root in March as a palate-cleanser during the rush to finish Na Craga. I tweaked the pattern a fair bit based on mods I saw on Ravelry (using tubular cast-on for the neckline, adding a few rows in the sleeves, putting in hip shaping, etc). I was unhappy with the waist though, and at knitting camp last weekend I decided to frog it back and try something different. The girls suggested a simple roll edging (rather than a rib). I think it really works! It makes the whole thing just a little more casual, which is appropriate given that it’s really just a cotton t-shirt. I’m still not sure it’s the most flattering style for a large-busted gal, but since when has that stopped me before? I used 3.5mm needles for the ribs and 4.0mm for the body. The yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Buttercream, and I only used 4 skeins! More details over on Ravelry.
Tag: jumpers
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Rusted Root
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Na Craga
It’s finished! I dragged the Snook out for a photoshoot this morning. There’s a slight visible line from my drying rack across the front, but I’ve already steamed it out for Show delivery. The light was too nice not to go for the photographs right away.
As I said on Ravelry, I kinda feel like crying a little bit, like when I finished my first half-marathon. This WAS a marathon. Getting to the finish line is just such a relief. Regardless of whether it wins anything, I think this may be the knitting project that I am most proud of. Thanks to all you guys for your great comments, advice, and encouragement.
More photos are on my Ravelry project page and on Flickr.
The pattern is “Na Craga” from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting. Unfortunately the book is out-of-print and used copies sell for hundreds of dollars. Luckily a kind Raveler was willing to share hers with me so I could knit it.
I ended up using 19 skeins of Naturally Harmony 10ply. The last skein (used for the collar) is a different dye lot, but I can’t spot the difference at all. The twisted ribbing was done on 4.5mm needles, with the body and sleeves being done on 5mm. It took me nearly four months to do the actual knitting, and then the sewing up took another two weeks. It’s being entered in the 2009 Sydney Royal Easter Show Arts Competition in class #119 (Aran Knitting). I’ll update if/when it wins a prize!
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Nearly done…
Only two more seams to go on Na Craga! I’m hoping to finish it by Thursday night so I can give it one more wet block before I drop it off at the Show on Saturday.
UNINTERESTED CAT IS UNINTERESTED BY YOUR CATALOG POSES.
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Blockhead
Blockhead
I just realized that I forgot to properly document my most recent Finished Object! “Blockhead” was designed partly as a Halloween costume and partly just as a jumper I thought the Snook would like. The pattern itself is from Wendy leaflet #5101, which is the exact same one I used for the Long Sleeve Cotton Polo. Because the zig-zag would be done as intarsia, I couldn’t knit the body in the round as I normally do. So the front and back were knitted separately to the armholes; then the whole thing was joined up on one circ for the yoke and collar. The yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% merino) that I ordered direct from the mill in the US. It was ridiculously cheap (luckily I got it before the Aussie dollar collapsed) and I used less than 7 skeins for the whole jumper. The yarn was wonderful to knit with, much less splitty than the Jo Sharp cotton, and I think it’ll be a good weight for our climate. Snookums actually graphed the zig-zag for me (after much analysis of the comic strip) and it’s available for download as a PDF here. Now all I need are some buttons and it’s done! -
Tintin Jumper
This was a special surprise birthday gift for my nephew Kurt, who is a big fan of Tintin. I used the pattern for “Jumper with Raglan Sleeves” from Panda Handknits #204 (“11 Handknits for Kids”). I noticed that in many of the illustrations of Tintin he’s wearing a sky blue jumper, so that decided me on the colour. Ma Snook provided me with a picture of Tintin and Snowy, which I transferred to knitter’s graph paper in Photoshop. The main areas of colour were knit in intarsia, but the smaller details (Snowy’s tongue and nose, and the black outlines on their faces) were embroidered on after the fact. I also decided to put “TINTIN” in block letters down one of the sleeves, just to keep it interesting. It was a fairly quick knit, and the only annoyance was weaving in all the ends and sewing it together. (I normally like to knit in the round, but the intarsia in this case prevented that.) I knitted it out of Filatura di Crosa Zara, and I probably used 9 balls of the blue and 1 of the white. (I used scraps of random 8ply for the other colours.) I used 4mm needles and finished it in just over a month. He and his parents are coming over Friday for dinner… I hope he likes it! (Ravelry details.) -
HIGHLY COMMENDED!
Holy crap! Some of the girls over on Ravelry went to the Easter Show’s “Arts Preview Night” tonight, and they reported back that my Road to Golden won a Highly Commended Award! That’s so awesome! My first official knitting ribbon. Of course, now I can’t sniff that my work is unappreciated in its own time. It’s a trade-off.
Update: The awesome Ailsa took lots of photos, and there are a couple of Road to Golden in there. [1, 2] I’m stoked that it got displayed on a mannequin instead of being stretched all to hell on fishing line. But this is weird: is my jumper holding hands with the one next to it??
Update later: The official results are now up!
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Road to Golden
This past Saturday, the Snook and I drove out to Homebush to drop off my entry for the 2008 Royal Easter Show. I knitted “Road to Golden” from the Fall 2007 Knitscene. It’s a modern fairisle jumper knitted on circular needles. I substituted Filatura di Crosa Zara for the yarn and had some fun playing around with colours. I’m still not entirely happy with the way the neckline turned out, but I figured I can always pull it apart after the Show. Now I’m just waiting for the results to come in… (More project details are over on Ravelry.)
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More Than Meets the Eye
From the front, it’s just a normal grey jumper with a patch of stripes. But from the side… suddenly you’re an autonomous robot life form from Cybertron! (More photos available on Flickr and Ravelry.)I’m proud to report that this is the first jumper that Snookums actually requested and helped design. Somehow he saw some shadow knitting and asked whether it would be possible to knit the Autobots logo onto the front of a jumper. I pondered this. Most examples of shadow knitting are scarves where you’re looking at the design from the bottom up (like in the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf). The Snook didn’t like the idea of having to do a back-bend for people to see the image, though. So then I toyed with the idea of knitting his jumper sideways from cuff-to-cuff… but that tends to make for a rather shapeless garment, and not something that looks very good on a guy. That left knitting the logo sideways and then rotating it ninety-degrees before incorporating it into the jumper. So that’s what I did. (Read past the jump for a link to download my chart.)
The pattern I settled on was Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “Seamless Hybrid” from Knitting Without Tears, mostly because I’d never done saddle shoulders before. I was also greatly inspired by Brooklyn Tweed‘s gorgeous version. (I nicked his idea for doing contrasting hems.) The yarn is Filatura di Crosa Zara in #1469 (Dark Grey) and #1494 (Light Grey). I used about 12 of the main colour and 2 of the contrast. I experimented with different ways of “mounting” the shadow knitting, and ultimately what worked best was just sewing it in as I went along. (Which meant that I was knitting back and forth and leaving a “window” for the patch, so there was definitely purling involved.)
Okay, so the final verdict. I guess I’d give this about a 9 out of 10 rating. The shadow knitting worked great, and the Zara is a dream to knit with. (It also feels incredibly soft to wear, which is very important for the Snook, who finds most wool prickly.) I’m just not 100% happy with the fit of the shoulders, though. My gauge was off from Elizabeth’s sample so I had to scale it up a little bit, and I’m just not sure her percentages for the saddles work as well this way. I think once it has a wash and a press it’ll look better though. (That’ll also help with the way the patch slightly pulls in a bit.) The Snook is happy and he has a new jumper to wear with a few weeks of winter left, so that’s all that matters!
Download my chart: Here’s a PDF file of the chart Snookums made for me. Start in the lower right and follow as you would any other knitting chart. If you’ve never done shadow or illusion knitting before, basically you’re just knitting 2-row stocking stitch stripes. Nothing difficult there, right? Well, occasionally – wherever there’s a dash on that chart – you knit instead of purl on the second rows. (So you’ll have garter stitch in that spot instead of stockinette.) And that’s it!
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Hooded Striped Top
This quick little knit is something I whipped up for my nephew Penn. The design is from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino Book but I adapted it to be knit in Sirdar Snuggly DK instead. (I used about 1.5 balls of each colour.) I also decided that I couldn’t be bothered with knitting lots of little bits and sewing them all together, so I modified the pattern to be as seamless as possible. The body was knitted on circular needles as a tube up to the shoulders, then armholes were machine-sewed and cut. The shoulders were then joined via a three-needle cast-off. I also knit the sleeves on circulars and added a few rows of reverse stocking stitch at the top of each to be sewn down as an interfacing inside the cut armholes. The neck stitches were left live and then knitted up into the hood, which was seamed again with a three-needle cast-off. A couple buttons at the neck completed the project. I hope it fits him! -
Productive Day
It was a very productive Saturday! First up was the Snook’s cotton jumper, which you may recall I finished over a year ago. Yeah, it’s taken me that long to put buttons on the thing. I just forgot! They’re lovely round carved horn from the button shop. Doesn’t it look nice?
Next is the Snook’s offering for dinner tonight: Seafood Gumbo. The recipe came from Herbie’s Spices and we picked up the seafood at the Fish Markets this morning. It has scallops, prawns, and crab meat. It was delicious! Just the thing for a cold winter night.
And lastly, those are some socks I just finished for my Secret Pal. The pattern is “Uptown Boot Socks” from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. Yes, this is the third pattern I’ve knit from this book. It has a subtle cable twist down the leg and the top of the foot that this photo really doesn’t do justice. (You can see it better here.) The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw colour 37. (One ball was more than enough.) I hope my Secret Pal likes them!
Oh, and what’s that you say? One of those socks appears… blockier than the other? That would be because Snookums has completed the prototype of my very own Sock Blocking Forms. This is basically a flat wooden foot in profile that you use to stretch the sock into the correct shape. I’ve wanted some for ages but I’ve never seen them in Australia, and I can’t be bothered paying to get them shipped from overseas. Instead I traced my own in Illustrator and made a resizable template. The Snook cut this one for me out of plywood. He still has to drill holes in it to allow the sock to dry faster, and then give it a coat of varnish so it doesn’t get moldy. I’ll be sure to show you the finished product though!
