splityarn

well worn

I've had it in my mind since last year to do a rundown of previous knits. I mean, you post the FO shots, you rave about how happy you were when you finished, but there's so rarely a post-knit, post-wearing review. I think I may just devote January to exactly this point. I'm busy getting the shop ready for the next boxbag update anyway, so FO's are going to be in short supply for the next few weeks.

First up, The Husband Sweater.

Out of the two sweaters I've knit for the Husband, EZ's Seamless Hybrid gets the most use. I finished this in December 2006 and while it didn't see a ton of wear in Austin, it's a wardrobe constant here in Boston. Seriously, sometimes it's hard to get it away from him long enough to wash it. That fact alone makes it hands down my most satisfying knit, ever. (I only got these photos because I told him it was still drying.) This is the sweater that other knitters point out to their spouses to convince them that they need a handknit of their own.

During the first few wearings it pilled like CRAZY. I was worried for a bit, but like a new carpet, it only needed to shed a little and now is back to only minor pilling here and there. After a few washings, the stitches are all perfectly even and uniform. Cascade 220, you're my hero.

Eventually I'll make him another just like it with only two mods:

The bottom hem, because it was knit closed, has a tendency to flip up. (TechKnitting wrote a great post about why this happens.) Next time I'll just bite the bullet and seam it down rather than muck about with the provisional cast on.

The purl gutter on each side of the front raglan decreases is at times charming, but mostly I just think it looks messy. I'll try the next one without it.

There will definitely be another one for him and most likely one for myself. With a little waist shaping? Heaven in a sweater.

Original finished object post and the details on Ravelry.

another wardrobe staple

The first sweater I knit for The Husband was such a roaring success that I was definitely going to knit him another. He wears that first one so much that it's challenging to get it out of rotation long enough to wash it. Enter Husband Sweater #2. It's another Elizabeth Zimmermann, this time the seamless raglan. If I want to knit something that the Husband will actually wear, it has to be basic; clean lines, nothing too busy, no bright colours. This one fits the bill nicely.

At one point today while he was wearing it, I smoothed the sweater down on his shoulder and gazed admiringly. He chuckled and said, "I'm never sure if you're doing that because you love me or the sweater." Truthfully, it's a lot of both.

 Pattern: The Seamless Raglan from Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: 5 skeins of Cascade 220 in colour 4002
Needles: Size 8 US (5.0mm) Bamboo
Started: September 29th, 2007
Finished: November 4th, 2007
Modifications: None, but I followed Techknitting's advice with the transition of ribbing to stockinette. I think it's made a big difference to how the cuffs lay. On the last row of ribbing, I slipped all the knit stitches instead of knitting them. The cuffs look great and the fabric doesn't flip up at all. I'm going to do this with all my ribbing from here on in.
Final Verdict: I should have knit the body about an inch longer, but other than that, it's pretty dang good.

Ravelry project details

no means no

Husband Sweater Numero Dos is coming along. The sleeves have been attached and I'm working my way up the raglan decreases. Along the way I've found this sweater's nemesis though; an 8.5 pound kitten named The Keymaster. Teek is still learning what he can and can't play with in the house. Knitting WIPs are definitely on our No list. Night before last he ate one of mum's scarf projects so I've endeavoured to secure every last piece of yarn in the house before the situation gets out of hand. While getting some sweater progress photos this morning, he zeroed in on the excitement. The spray bottle seen with the sweater is not for blocking, it's for cat discipline. I left the scene for one minute to refill the bottle and returned to find him INSIDE my project bag, paws around the yarn ball.

He's learning slowly but at least with all the water spritzing, he'll be clean.

knit to perfection

Two months to the day after I cast on, the Husband Sweater is off the needles and I love it! The fit is almost perfect. Next time I'll make the arms shorter by an inch or so, but other than that it's a knockout. I probably could have knit it in half the time if I hadn't had to rip from the shoulders back to the underarms. Then I reknit one of the saddles twice; I was a perfectionist with this sweater, I wanted it to be worthy of the Husband.

The Project Details

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Seamless Hybrid from Knitting Without Tears

Yarn: Cascade 220 in colours 9459 (the heathery tobacco-ish green) and 4002 (charcoal) for the inner cuffs. I think it took 5.5 hanks? Maybe 6. I can't find the original receipt, so I'm not sure how many I started with.

Needles: Size 8 bamboo

Started: October 28, 2006
Completed: December 28, 2006

Modifications: According to EZ's directions, I knit the t-shirt yoke. You knit one saddle, bind off half the stitches and continue knitting the half saddle across the back and graft it to the second saddle. It makes the back of the sweater a little higher than the front. You may remember that there was going to be a gray cross on the front as well, but I've scrapped it for now. I may duplicate stitch it in later on, we'll see.

Final Verdict: I love it! The Husband has been wearing it since the photoshoot, so I'd say it was worth waiting for.

I hear the bells

The goal of NaSweKniMo was to complete a 30 000 stitch sweater in under a month. While I didn't finish the Husband sweater by the 30th of November at midnight, I came pretty close. I still haven't finished it, but I have knit more than 30000 stitches. I didn't work out the exact math, but I'm up over 37000.

The progress you see here has since moved backwards a little. That intarsia cross in the center wasn't working for me; the scale was too small and due to a miscalculation, it was about 2 inches too high. I was also using a funky method for the colourwork that I wasn't particularly keen on. I would knit across the first row (stranding the green behind), drop the charcoal yarn and then continue with the green all the way around. When I got back to the charcoal, I slipped all the stitches across, turned the work and purled back, slipped them all across again and then joined a new strand of green. I knit the entire cross this way, weaving in the ends as I went to tighten up the edges where the stitches weren't joined every other row. It was working OK, but I wasn't thrilled about it. When I got to the point where I would start the saddle shoulders, I realized that I had 2 more rows of the cross to complete, with no rows left to knit on the body. There was only one thing left to do. Frog.

I ripped all the way back to two rows above the arm join. I checked with the Husband about duplicate stitching the cross in afterwards and after getting a nod of approval, I began re-knitting without the intarsia. The frogging was painful, but only because I hadn't listened to that niggly "this isn't working" voice in the first place. Why didn't I heed my own warning bells?

automatic stitching

Since I began to knit, I've always been fascinated with folks who can knit without looking. I was always amazed at tales of people reading and knitting, watching TV and knitting (instead of just listening), or going to the movies and knitting. I knew it wouldn't be a tricky skill to learn, but the fear of having to rip back was always too great. Thankfully I'm over that fear now and I'm fairly confident that I can fix just about any knitting mistake. The first few times I had a go at it I kept glancing back down at my hands. Was I doing it right? Were my hands making the stitches correctly? Did I miss anything? It's like when you're rock climbing and you're have to push yourself backwards over the edge of the cliff before you belay down. There's that moment of "holy crap, what the hell am I doing?" and then once you're over, you're fine. Well, maybe it's not *exactly* like that, take out the physical danger and the over-the-edge feeling is the same.

I've been practicing with the Husband Sweater and 624 square inches of stockinette later, I've got it down. I still glance every now and then to see where I am, but I'm officially ok with not looking to make sure my hands are executing a stitch I've done millions of times before. Seems silly that I ever worried about it when I think about it that way.

Some folks have wondered what the Husband Sweater will look like, so I thought I'd share the official mock-up that I'm working from. Don't worry; my knitting is much better than my drawing.

second sleeve? check!

The Husband sweater, although it needs a better name, is flying along. I've successfully avoided Sleeve Island (hey Pixie, try knitting the sleeves first. That way you don't get stuck with a pile of almost-vests) and started the body this weekend. I'm going to try and finish it up by the end of the month, so I guess that makes me an official NaKniSweMo participant.

I know I said originally that I was going to try and design this sucker myself, but I've decided not to. Everytime I sat down to work out the math or tweak some part of the cobbled together pattern I kept thinking that someone must have done this work before me. And better. And I was right. I decided to use the Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Hybrid pattern from Knitting Without Tears. I showed some pictures to the Husband and got immediate approval, so I'm taking the pressure off myself of having to create THE Sweater. The yarn is Cascade 220 in the imaginatively named colour 9459.

a sleeve and a little bit more

I've finally started the Husband's sweater. I cast on a sleeve Saturday and I already have one finished. I've knit so many socks and small gauge projects in the last few months that I forgot how fast bigger needles can be. Size 8s feel like logs, but the knitting goes like lightning.

I've never used a provisional cast on, but I found a great video showing exactly how to do it. I've tried the one on Knitting Help before, but the last flick of her wrist is too fast to see which side she brings the yarn up. No great loss, because this provisional crochet cast-on alternative was kind of fun. A little awkward to get started, but that's because I'm no pro with a crochet hook. I must have done it right, because that jumble of red waste yarn, charcoal and green have become a very respectable hemmed cuff.