knitting

I have had two projects in my knitting basket for several years. One I recently finished while on a stupidly long car trip — flying would have been a better choice, but we really knew we had gone somewhere (see here). The other is this:

It was going to be the Union Square Market Pullover by Kate Gilbert from Interweave Knits, fall 2005 (Ravelry link). The sweater is beautiful, and a quick Google search reveals that Eunny Jang did a beautiful rendition (here). This sweater really is gorgeous and there is nothing wrong with the pattern, but I simply don’t think I will ever finish it.

There are several reasons for this:

• I was only able to get gauge with a needle size that bamboo doesn’t come in, and I hate metal needles.
• The knitting goes very slowly.
• I have changed my clothing preferences and now now I only want to wear tops that are hip length or longer.
• Finally, when I started this project I was having health problems, and I really shouldn’t have been knitting at all (I had problems picking up a full mug with one hand at the time), and the project makes my hands hurt just by thinking about it.

I also don’t think this is a good candidate for unraveling as the yarn is sticky and falls in love with itself and would be ruined in the process.

The reason this has come to a head is that I have recently discovered that Kristina Wong is soliciting unfinished knitting and crochet projects for her performance art piece “Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to be performed in Santa Monica this fall.

This is brilliant. I can separate myself from my failure to finish the piece and help further the cause of art and social awareness.

I will send it off tomorrow.

Here is the information Kristina has put out in her call for contributions (sourced from the Crochet Me blog):

Here’s how you can participate:

1) We love yarn and knitting projects that come in any color OTHER than black and white.
2) Remove your needle or hook from the piece. If possible run some waste yarn through the loops. No need to bind off. I’d prefer if it wasn’t!
3) Write a note describing yourself, why you knit, and what the project was supposed to be and why it never came to be.
4) Send your unfinished knitting projects by SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 to:

Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
C/O Kristina Wong
PO Box 251664
Los Angeles, CA 90025

I have finally got a pdf version ready for Lyra’s coat.

Download it here: Lyra’s Coat. The original version is still here.

It is almost time to start wearing it again.

One of the best things about a long car ride is time to knit, and driving from Saskatoon to Kansas is very far. I spent at least 6 days in the car and knit almost the whole time — and I finished the Leaves and Waves shawl from Knitty, Fall 2004 by Kat Coyle.

I am so smitten with the shawl now it is done and absolutely over the moon about the fact that the oldest work in progress from my work basket is done.

It took so long because I got bogged down in the stocking stitch section. I don’t think I would ever do another project with quite this combination of yarn, stitch pattern, and size of pattern — I kept dropping stitches, but the dropped stitches were almost invisible in the mohair. Ironically, the lace sections went faster.

I could have knit several sweaters in the time it took me to make this.

All the same it is beautiful now, and it is just sufficiently unusual to really appeal to me. I like traditional lace, but it never looks like I would really like to wear it. This on the over hand is (in my opinion) a perfect combination of traditional stitching and textures with asymmetrical design.

It is also rectangular, and for some reason I find rectangular shawls to be more wearable, and I wear a lot of shawls. I think it is because I treat them like security blankets — just call me Linus.

Here are my newest gloves in an almost completed state:

When I submitted Gloves Can Be Deceiving to Knitty Amy asked me for pictures of the gloves in the process of being sewn up, but I didn’t have any (I didn’t have a digital camera, so I didn’t document every aspect of my life as obsessively as I do now), so I didn’t want to let the opportunity to pass this time.

I am very happy with them.

I spent my day off this Monday (happy Saskatchewan day to one and all) writing the pattern out, so I hope to make it available in a couple weeks. I have the seamed version now and I plan to do another version knit in the round.

They really do help you channel your inner princess, and I anticipate being very grateful when they meet my three-quarter length sleeves in the middle.

There are two new online knitting magazines that are definitely worth checking out.

The first is Twist Collective: it has some wonderful designs. The sweater that most fascinates me is Little Birds by Ysolda Teague. I would love to knit that one, and sometime I might. The patterns are fee based; however, you can look at all the eye candy for free, and the patterns really look worth the money.

The next is Knotions, which is also quite lovely. I was initially a little confused when I went to the pattern page because the patterns were familiar, but that is because they are mounting some patterns from Magknits. The new patterns are here.

The Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits pattern previews are out, which always excites me.

I don’t actually have time to knit anyone else’s patterns anymore as I can’t seem to find time to get all the ideas in my own head out in the time I can devote to knitting, but I love to look at them still.

If I did have time to knit someone else’s pattern (so if this were, let’s say fall 2004), I would be most likely to knit the orange/red/salmon cardigan with short sleeves and cables in the “Signature stitches” story in the Vogue issue (I like all the sweaters shown in the preview for that section) and the “Afterthought darts cardigan” by Theresa Schabes, which is similar to some ideas I have kicking around in my head.

I don’t think I could ever have too many cardi’s and the “Afterthought darts cardigan” looks eminently wearable. The only change I might consider would be to make the sleeves three quarter length as I like all my sleeves to be three quarter length, and the only change I would consider on the Vogue sweater would be to have a straight garter stitch border on the sleeve instead of the chevrons that seem to be there in the picture.

I love knitting for that reason, you can’t walk into the _______ (insert mainstream clothing store of your choice here) and say: “I will get that one, but in green, with long sleeves, and with the buttons on that sweater over there.”

I was trying to get the knitting machine working again. I had Glenda come over to teach me about it and while she was here it all seemed so very logical, but then she left and the logic went with her.

At this point what I want to make is a stockinette stitch rectangular shawl — that should be easy enough, or so I thought. I have this lace weight silk noil, which I want the shawl to be made of — of course that won’t be happening any more.

I got cast on and was going along as pleased as punch:

And here is a look up its shirt:

My yarn was wound; I had done my swatch; everything was going according to plan, when I noticed I was dropping a few stitches here and there, but I thought — it’s the first thing I have made with the machine and its for me and a rustic style anyway, so I will carry on. It doesn’t look that bad:

Here is the kind of thing that was giving me a hint something was wrong:

Then there was more:

Finally the whole thing had a bit of a fit, threw up its metaphorical hands in the air and in a final insult to me and my efforts, broke the yarn with a snap and the whole middle of the shawl jumped right off the machine and just sort of hung there.

There are no pictures of this stage as I had to peer through the space between the beds and up from beneath to figure out what had happened. I am used to hand knitting — you can always see the part where you made the mistake even if you don’t know what you did or how to fix it.

So I took the whole thing off the machine and don’t have enough yarn left to start again, and I have another weird bit of knitting to figure out what to do with. I think it may be calling out to be another cushion cover:

When I was a child, one of my favourite stories involved a prince who fell in love with a commoner who would not marry him until he had a trade, so he learned to weave cloth. They ruled for several years, but he didn’t know how people really lived in his country, so he dressed as a poor man and went out into the city to see for himself.

He was taken by a group of priests to a cave and forced to work with others as slaves. He found an old friend in the cave and together they made a very precious piece of cloth that would only be suitable for the queen, and in it he wove the story of his capture and where he and the others were being held.

This was done in such a cunning way that the priests would not be able to understand the message, but the queen would. Whereupon she rescued everyone.

This story mesmerized me — I loved the idea of a message in the cloth, and I was thinking of how to do something like that myself.

This is my scarf with a secret message in progress:

So far the message is really secret as you can’t see the way I have rendered Morse code into the stitch pattern, but I will be more explicit and post symbol charts for this particular rendering in a few days.

I will now leave you with a final picture and a note: it is an Armenian story called Anaeet.

I love it when movies deal with things I like and give them a disproportionate level of importance. Perhaps it is confessing too much, but I love The Mummy, and a lot of that is the importance it attached to reading a book.

I went to see Wanted over the weekend, and I think I can say without giving too much away that a central part of the narrative revolves around “the Fraternity” a guild of medieval cloth weavers who formed a secret band of assassins a thousand years ago, and who are still in business — in both the textiles and killing business. Aside from the interesting observation that they appear to be running a cloth factory that only produces rather coarse cotton or linen plain weave fabric (I think this should be forgiven as it makes for quite nice spare images, and spools of thread in other colours do occasionally make an appearance), messages woven into the cloth in code are central to the plot.

I have been thinking about ways that messages could be incorporated into knitting for some time. So far, I have been focussing on Morse code, but really all sorts of codes could be knit into different garments.

I have been working on a project to create a lace scarf incorporating Morse code, and I will post about that with pictures and codes in general more extensively in a few days.

Well last night was the first night it has hailed so far this year. Yesterday was so hot (please humor me if you live somewhere that gets really hot, I have lived in the tropics, I know of what I speak), and the thunder started rumbling in the distance at about 10:00pm, and as we lay in bed the hail started, and I feared for my flax.

I jumped out of bed this morning and ran out to check on it:

See it is verdant and not in least trampled to the ground. Jon tells me that if it were trampled to the ground it would make me a real Saskatchewanian — because I would have lost a crop to hail. The summer is new: it may happen yet.

The cauliflower is also okay:

Taking pictures of cauliflower makes me think of Kaffe Fassett — he was the first designer who got me really excited about knitting, though I started with needlepoint. I think my cauliflower would be different from Kaffe’s (see Glorious Needlepoint): I think I would put some weeds in mine and holes where the bugs have eaten their share. I made his pear panel, and now it occurs to me that all these years later I still haven’t made in into a cushion or anything.

I like having a blog because it makes me complete things — under your watchful eyes I feel I need to produce something worth telling about. The knitting is running apace, but I am mired in projects I can’t write about. One think I will tell you is that I have a design coming out in Knitting in the Sun by Kristi Porter, which will be published next spring barring a flood or something. I sent the pattern on Sunday, and I am almost finished my sample. I am also very excited to be published in the same book as Stefanie Japel (see here). It makes me feel very accomplished and important.

I have been waiting for what seemed like forever for a package in the mail, and guess what — it just arrived:

This package, which looks so small on my table has loomed large in my mind for the last few weeks, as it contains yarn with a deadline attached. Here it is in the fibre:

It doesn’t look so threatening now does it? And here I will throw in a gratuitous yarn shot for good measure:

I have had such a frustrating time photographing this vest. These represent the fourth time we have tried to take good pictures — the last ones were okay, but I think they were too wintery, so here is our latest kick at the can:

The vest is great, but for some reason it hasn’t been easy to photograph well.

If you are interested in buying the pattern, the pattern page is here.

I just looked back and realized it has been quite a while since I wrote about my cabley gloves, and now they are so close to being done. I had forgotten how fast they work up when you do them this way.

Just look:

They always look like a dog’s breakfast at this stage, but I am very happy with the way they have turned out. It almost (almost) makes me look forward to winter, or at least October, so I can wear them.

Wisp is only a pattern in the broadest sense of the word and borrows heavily from Debbie New’s scribble lace technique from Unexpected Knitting, which is quite frankly one of the most wonderful knitting books I have ever come across.

I believe I have mentioned this before, but I think Debbie New would be the most fun person to have in a knitting group. I can just imagine what it would be like:

“So, Debbie, what are you working on?”

“I am using this great lace weight wool I got to knit myself a boat. I have dyed it puce and am going to get one of my sons to cover it with epoxy and take it camping.”

If you could convince Debbie to join, it might be worth starting a knitting group, just for that.

Note: I was initially scared off by statements from Amazon and bookstores about how long it takes to get the book, but Schoolhouse Press seems to really have it together, and it was worth the wait.

[MC] 1 skein of bulky novelty yarn (shown: Milkyrobot Girls Throw Snow, super-bulky handspun, 40 yards[36m])

[CC] 1 skein coordinating fingering yarn (shown: Sandes Garn Sisu, 173 yards[158m] per 50g, colour 1042)

1 US #17/12.75mm circular needle

Tapestry needle

Gauge

Not really important and difficult to measure.

I am working on the best most wonderful thing I can come up with for my second skien of yarn from Milkyrobot. It’s difficult to know exactly, because I don’t think it would work well in anything too complicated. It is also not enough to make anything of any great size. I could do something in a simple lace pattern, but I worry that would be boring and predictable.

I confess I live in dread of being boring and predictable.

I think I would like another scarf out of it, but how to do it? I have come up with three toning yarns in brown that I want to knit with it to make the scarf, and I think it should be made in sections of colours/textures/yarns.

Here is my second attempt.

Knitting with four balls of wool at once is a pain, and I am not sure that four straight stripes will do it for me, so I think it may be time to rip it. I really don’t recommend ripping out lace weight mohair (or any mohair really), with mohair you really are committed. It’s good that lace weight mohair is so cheap per metre, because I think I will just end up tossing that bit.

I think that for the next iteration, I will work a stripe of handspun first, perhaps 4 or 5 sts in k1, p1 rib, then knit the rest onto it, by picking up sts along it, as surely part of it should be knit perpendicular to the rest and, and knitting to the sides as I go. this will give me more control over how the scarf is evolving and be easier to work — less tangly.

I really like the effect of the lace weight section though. Somehow the contrast with the handspun greatly appeals to me.

I confess I like to knit gloves the way many knitters seem to like to knit socks — they are so satisfying.

They don’t take too long, they fit in your bag, and of done right they so closely mirror the dimensions and contours of the body — three dimensionality at its finest.

Here is the beginning of my newest creation:

I love knitting gloves on two needles: it is very satisfying and there are no double pointed needles to mess with. I don’t hate dpn, but I find that straight needles are just so much easier to work with. I do think I will write the pattern for both circularly knit and flat knit versions though, so you can all decide for yourselves.

I am making them cabled as that makes them warmer (I am not sure that gloves could ever be too warm here) and hopefully look spiffy. They will also have substantial cuffs that will be able to either under or over the sleeves of your coat.

The yarn is the Instant Gratification from Brooklyn Handspun that I wrote about before.

I plan to write up the pattern in both versions and post it in the next couple months.

Within the next few days I will be posting the free pattern for the scarf I made with the Girls Throw Snow Handspun Yarn I bought from Milkyrobot a few months ago.

Here is a sneak peak:

Grumble, grumble, scowl. . .

I just spent the best part of an hour ripping out the yoke of my current project, and I was so close to being done, but it wasn’t right, so now this is what I have to show for my labours:

Jess at Milkyrobot has interviewed me on her blog here: Interview: Sarah from Parallax Knitting. If you are interested in my knitting, spinning and generally fibrous life, please check it out.

Okay, so I was a little disheartened about the whole Christmas present sweater fiasco. I was so demoralized about having to undo the stitching and unraveling the sleeve caps (again) that I kept procrastinating on fixing the problem. Then my mother came to visit, and she suggested just pinning the extra fabric, stitching it, the trimming it, and finishing the edges.

Now I have read about this kind of thing, and I know you can cut your knitting in this way, but I was never sufficiently frustrated to try it before (you see, I am used to my projects turning out).

The whole exercise has been a success and here is a little tutorial in case it ever happens to you:

Here is what the shoulders looked like before:

They were in fact worse than they appear in the photo if you can credit it.

The next step was putting the sweater on inside out and pinning it where the seam should be:

After this I basted the shoulder where it seemed like it should be, I did a few iterations of trying on and fixing the seam:

After I was happy with the seam placement, I sewed another line of stitching about three quarters of a centimetre from the first one and trimmed it:

Eek, my knitting is cut. This is something I never wanted to happen:

But in the end it was all worth it, as now it is actually wearable:

So that is the last of my Christmas presents for 2007, yeah!

I got this yarn in the mail a couple days ago, but I haven’t had time to write about it yet:

It’s from Brooklyn Handspun, and it’s called Instant Gratification in the “Kinda Camo” colourway.

I am so happy with it. I have started swatching it, and it works up so smooth and my cables show up very well. It is very soft too.

I am planning to make some gloves with it — I make gloves as other knitters seem to make socks and always seem to have another pair in me. The only thing I would observe about that is that it makes sense to have large numbers of socks, but a little less sense to have large numbers of gloves (for most people, single socks and gloves make even less sense, but that doesn’t mean that knitters don’t make those too).

It must be strange of me to wind my balls of yarn by hand when I have a yarn winder, but somehow I think they just come out so pretty that way.

I have just finished reading Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years - Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber; it was wonderful and transported me through time to see the work all those women did making things to make their lives a little more beautiful. It appears to be out of print, but I was able to order a copy from ABE Books without difficulty.

I loved the descriptions of making linen and wool, and I have come up with the brilliant idea of growing flax in the backyard.

Sure, it may not look like much now, but I will dig it and plant my flax and grow it and ret it and spin it. I anticipate that the flax I grow will not be good for “clothing,” but I can always knit a table cloth or a rug or something from it.

I need to dig the garden soon as the weeds are already growing. You see, last year I let it go “fallow” so there may be a bit of a battle to get this started, but I think it is a wonderful, if somewhat eccentric, idea. I have looked up the Flax Council of Canada’s website and they advise the farmers to plant it in the middle of May, and I plan to do the same.

I’ll keep you posted.

This sweater is close fitting and an exercise in three dimensional knitting. The whole sweater is knit in one piece from the neck down. I confess one of my parameters was that I wanted a project I could work on without looking, and after the yoke shaping this can be done. The final product is something I would make in more colours and with differing length sleeves and textures, but I am already onto my next eccentric project.

Difficulty

intermediate

Size

Finished bust 32 [36, 40, 44]inches (80 [90, 100, 110]cm), shown in size 36 inches (90cm)

Materials

4 (4, 5, 6) skeins Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran (100% wool; 175 yd [160m] per 100g), colour#415 Maze

set of US 9 (5.5mm) double-point needles

16″ (40cm) US 9 (5.5mm) circular needle

29″ (74cm) US 9 (5.5 mm) circular needle

Two kinds of stitch markers

Tapestry needle

Gauge

15 sts and 20 rows = 4″ (10cm) in k1, p1 rib, slightly stretched

I just finished my latest creation. I took it with me on my last trip and worked on it on the plane, and I perfectly gaged how big it could be before I would run out of yarn.

This is all I have left:

Surely that is a thing of beauty.

Download pattern here: Josephine.

Originally published in Magknits, March 2008

Materials

6 (6, 7, 8, 8) skeins Rowan Big Wool (100% wool, 87 yd [80 m] per 100g); colour: tremble #35

US 17 [12 mm] circular needle, 16 inches (40cm) long

US 17 [12 mm] straight needles

OR

US 17 [12 mm] circular needle, 24-32″ (60-80 cm) long

Stitch markers

Tapestry needle

7 1.75-inch [44 mm] buttons

Gauge

7.5 sts and 10 rows = 4″ [10 cm] in stockinette

I was away this week in Washington DC, and the cherry blossoms were in bloom, just as they should be. I walked around the mall and here is proof that I was actually there:

The weather was beautiful. I walked so far trying to see everything.

Now I am back in Saskatchewan, and this morning I woke up to this:

Hmmm, but I got some wonderful yarn at Stitch DC, which makes up for it all.

The black is some wonderfully textural linen from Habu; the grey is silk and stainless steel from Habu; the blue is hemp for knitting from Lanaknits.

I was so excited; I haven’t found Habu yarns at any of the yarn stores I have been to in Canada. I have so many ideas about what to do with it all.

I will keep you posted and wait for the snow to melt.

I have finally finished Lyra’s red sweater coat from the Golden Compass!

Here are some preliminary pictures:

The sleeves grew quite a bit in the wash, so keep that in mind. They started as a bit short, but now they are to my knuckles, but what can you do?

It’s very fun, and I am looking forward to wearing it.

I will post some better and more posed pictures in a few days, maybe I’ll even get it together to put on makeup.

As we previously discussed there is a small problem with the placement of the pockets on my coat, so here are instructions to show the way I have dealt with this little problem.

This is what they are like now:

I cut half the threads that make the coat at one side, slightly staggered, so the join won’t show too badly and unwind the cast on edge:

Then I cut the other half at the other side and unwound those too:

Finally, I will put the yarn on a tapestry needle and graft the two sides together:

The unevenness will go out after I “block” it — actually this will be more of a “wash.”

I am almost done Lyra’s coat. I tried it on today and I only have a few more inches. Actually, the whole thing is so heavy that it grows and I think I should stop sooner than I intuitively think I should.

The pockets are a fiasco. The coat has grown from when I made them and they are no longer anywhere near my hands. I could do Elizabeth Zimmerman’s method of cutting the yarn and taking out the stitches to make holes for the pockets, but the coat is so heavy I think I would have to reinforce them in some way and I just don’t think it will work well, so the pockets will be nixed for my sweater.

I think I will be posting a technique of how to undo pocket holes in the next few days, so you can all look forward to that. Just remember if you are caught up with me in knitting this that I said you should make pockets where you want them, so if you placed yours as badly as I did, it is not my fault.

I have a couple pictures of me knitting the coat:

It is enormous and overflows my lap. I wish it would be done now. Just a few more inches.

I just wish I had a bathtub to wash it in — it will overflow the kitchen sink as well, and it is musty!

I have gotten back to working on Lyra’s coat again today. I was having a little break from it, partly because I have hardly had a complete minute at home, and partly because I would need a duffel bag to carry the great damn thing around with me.

I was thinking about all the yarn I am using up, it is so nice to use all this that would probably otherwise never get used. It makes me think about my sister who once had an unworn wedding dress from an old store that was closing. My mother made me give it away when my sister wasn’t there because she felt it was unlucky, and surely she was right. There must be something unlucky about something that is made only for a special event and to represent a wonderful life to come that is never used for that purpose, but instead sits in a basement for years in a garment bag.

Yarn must be like that — it wants to be something, having it sit in a basement or closet for so many years it becomes musty must be wrong. Like the letters that never got delivered in Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal and made all the people who worked in the post office lose their minds because the energy of the undelivered letters built up and overcame them. Yarn must be like that, it wants to be worn and exist and go outside. I am doing what I can for the yarn in my life — what are doing about the yarn in yours?

I have just finished a project from my stash, and I plan to make the pattern available here in the next few weeks, but I thought I might give you a sneak peek at what was coming:

I still need to block it and photograph it properly, so you can get a better idea of what it really looks like.

And just because I love yarn closeups:

I have recently realized that I have become the resident knitting guru at my job. This role used to be filled by two other women, but I think having a few patterns published pushed me to the fore, and now anyone who has a problem with a project comes to ask me about it.

I am having so much fun with this, and the best part is that people have begun to bring me little offerings - yesterday someone brought me two little balls of yarn from her mother for when my knitting machine is fully operational. A couple of months ago someone else brought me two shopping bags of yarn from her stash for my Lyra’s coat, and before that someone brought me all her mother’s knitting needles.

This is just great. I feel like I should have a little shrine outside my office with knitting needles in sand instead of incense and balls of yarn as offerings. I just can’t tell you how much of a kick I get out of it when everyone asks me for help (and of course brings me stuff).

The irony is that I suspect that the other two women are actually better technical knitters than me. I just like messing around with yarn and making stuff up, but I won’t complain.

Pockets

Of course pockets in all knitting projects are optional and the original didn’t have any, but I have more or less dispensed with accurately recreating the sweater exactly (though this pattern could easily be done that way), I also love walking with my hands in my pockets, so mine will have some.

Work your sweater in garter stitch until you get to the part where pockets should be. I suggest trying it on (if you are anything at all like me this will be just the next in a succession in many tryings on) and figuring out where you want pockets.

At this point my sweater looks like this (click to see full size):

I am also adding a few stitches for hip shaping here, which is also optional and will depend on the body shape of the person who will wear it. I have already added 2 stitches in one row and will add 2 more a little later, this will add about 2 inches. I chose to do this staggered, so it wouldn’t suddenly bulge - I spend quite a bit of mental energy in clothing selection trying to make my hips not look like they bulge.

The next step is to figure out how wide you want your pockets. I figure I want mine about 6 inches (18cm) wide. Change the width of the pocket to align with the size of the sweater you are making and/or your preferences: smaller sweater = smaller pocket and vice versa.

The next step is to go back and work how wide each front side was. Then I suggest taking the number of stitches on each front side, subtracting the number of stitches to make your pocket the size you want, and dividing the remaining number by 2 and placing your pocket that many stitches from the edge.

Now you know how wide your pocket will be and where to put it, on the next right side row (so the garter pattern will work better) work as many stitches as will be the edge of your pocket, take as many stitches as make your pocket and put them on waste yarn or a stitch holder, CO as many stitches as will make your pocket (I suggest backward loop cast in this situation), work until you are the number of stitches between your pocket and the edge plus the number of stitches for your pocket and repeat the process with the holder and the cast on. Work to end, turn and work as usual.

I plan to work the pockets at the end with one strand of whatever yarn I have left so it will not be too bulky. I will K1, yarn over, K1, yarn over . . . , so the difference in gauge will not be such a problem, and in the next row I will knit through back loop, so there will not be holes from the yarn overs. I will post about this too, but I am outlining it now in case you want to change order of knitting or get ahead of me.

My version

My two fronts are 19 sts each. My gauge is 7 sts /4 inches (10cm).

(6 inches (15cm) for each pocket) x (7 sts / 4 inches (10cm) gauge) = 10.5 sts (say 11 sts) for pocket

(19 sts / front) - (11 sts for pocket) = 8 sts / 2 = 4 sts from edge

Knitting of course is amenable to fudging and now I see that I don’t like the distance from the edge that my calculations came up with, so am am changing it to 6 sts from edge.

So I need to K6, put 11 sts on holder, CO11, K to 16 sts from end, put 11 sts on holder, CO11, work to end. In the next row I work in garter stitch as usual.

This is about what it should look like at this stage:

March MagKnits is up, including my Josephine:

Note: Since Magknits is unfortunately no more, I have posted this pattern as a free pdf download here.

I have been having problems with my knitting machine see here and here). It hasn’t really given me any indication up till now that it wanted to do anything I directed.

I don’t know anyone who knows how to do this, so I have to learn with these:

Which is of course very hard. Finally last Sunday, I threaded the machine and tried to knit.

It was so hard and I actually had to cut it loose (no pictures - painful memory I want to forget).

I then thought maybe I should try cleaning and oiling it - who could anticipate that old machinery that hasn’t been used in years might need to be cleaned and lubricated? - I never said I was good at this part.

After that the knitting machine and I had a time out for a few days.

Then today I got home from work and tried one more time and I was able to . . . wait for it . . . you guessed it . . . cast on!

I made a weird little bit of too tight ribbing with waste yarn, which I will one day throw in the garbage, but not today, because I made the knitting machine work.

Please pause a moment to consider my creation:

See it can be done.

$5.00

Of course you could just knit gloves on double pointed needles. Life would be more simple if everyone did things the same way, but not everyone likes dpn, and sometimes you want to try something different, just because you can.

Difficulty

Average

Size

One size

Finished measurements

11 inches [28cm] long (with cuff, without cuff 8 inches [20cm])

8 inches [20cm] around palm

Materials

Filatura Di Crosa New Malizioso [100% wool; 55yd/50m per 50g skein]; color: 4; 2 skeins

1 set US #9/5.5mm straight needles

Gauge

10 sts / 15 rows over 4 inches [10cm]

I want to knit everything on straight needles — absolutely everything.

I knit gloves on straight needles, see here and here. I also knit sweaters on straight needles, see here and the new issue of Magknits coming out in March. I also knit hats on straight needles, but that is a little less extraordinary, see here and here.

I partly dislike circulars and partly it just seems fun to do it that way.

I am so excited about my next pattern, which I will be posting this weekend if all goes well. I have a new (though perhaps unvented as opposed invented) way of making gloves on two needles, so I hope you will check back.

Here is a sneak preview.

Gloves on two needles never look like anything special when you are knitting them, then the metamorphose into something right.

Cast on stitches at underarms and work body of sweater:

This is about what your sweater coat should look like at this stage.

The sleeves are completed and it is now time to put the live stitches from the body back on your needles and cast on some stitches for the underarms.

The first thing you need to do is measure how large your sweater is without casting on for underarms. This means you should measure your two front halves and the back. These numbers combined are how large the sweater is now.

Next, you will need to work out how big it should be. I think I want 6 inches [15cm] ease. This is because I want the sweater to drape like a coat, and coats tend to be bigger, and because the fabric is so thick the inside will be smaller than the outside. (thank you Elizabeth Zimmermann, see Knitter’s Almanac, unfortunately out of print). If your sweater is much smaller, i.e. child’s size, you may want to have slightly less ease (4-5 inches [10-12cm], but that is up to you.

Subtract how big your sweater is from how big you want it to be, this will give you how much you need to cast on for. Divide this amount by two for each underarm and multiply it my your gauge, this will give you the number of stitches to cast on under each arm.

Put all the live stitches onto a long needle (I think you will need a circular needle for this), which will fold the sleeves in half. If you find that you didn’t end one end in the right direction and you will not start your garter stitch on the same (right side or wrong side) row, work one row to make it even.

Starting at the beginning of the row of the stitches you have on your needle, work to the first sleeve, cast on the number of stitches you worked out in the previous step; repeat for the second underarm. You will now have enough stitches on your needle for the complete body of the sweater.

At this point you can decide to work straight until the end of the garment, in which case, you can bid farewell to my instructions, such as they are. Just keep going until you are happy, bind off, sew on your preferred method of closure, sew the sleeve seams, wash the sweater (if you are using old stash yarn and your sweater smells a little fusty), block/dry it, and enjoy.

I however, have decided that I want pockets, I know the original didn’t have any, but I want them and it’s my sweater. I also plan to add a few stitches for a little increased room for my hips and walking stride. If you want either of these things, work to the point at which these things would be appropriate and I will try to catch up to you as soon as I can.

My version:

My sweater without casting on at underarms is as follows:

(11 inches [28cm] x 2 fronts) + 23 inches [58cm] = 45 inches [114cm]

If you think back to the measurement stage, my bust with clothes is 38 inches [97cm]

45 inches [114cm] - (38 inches [97cm] + 6 inches [15cm]) = -1 inch [-2cm]

My sweater turned out to be big enough already, so I will just start knitting the body, but if you need any added under the arms, follow the directions here.

This is what my sweater looked like before I joined for and started working body:

This is what my sweater looked like after I worked a few rows and sewed the sleeve seams with mattress stitch:

I found that sewing the sleeve seams made the knitting easier, so I did that now, but that is a matter of preference.

If you added stitches under the arms, sew the beginnings of the sleeves to the underarm stitches, then sew the rest of the sleeve seam straight.

I have come up with another method for swatchless knitting.

Debbie New has a few in her book Unexpected Knitting. They include knitting on the bias and adding stitches each side, like knitted dishcloths. At this point, I should say that I am only talking in a theoretical way at this point as I have never knit anything as practical as a dishcloth. This way you knit a piece with a right angle and then when your sides are as long as the shortest side, you start decreasing at the same rate, if you want it to be rectangular, you continue increasing on one side and decrease on the other.

She calls her other method log cabin knitting, and she casts on a few stitches knit a few rows, binds off, and picks up more stitches off one of the sides, knits a few rows, binds off, repeats. This can make a square or I suppose whatever rectangular shape you want, like a log cabin quilt.

I imagine Debbie New as the most fun person in the whole world to have in a knitting group.

Her ideas are great, but I have formulated another way, though it really only works when you design your own patterns.

My method was inspired by Norah Gaughan’s Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature. In it, you start with a strip of knitting and knit long enough to go around your hips then you start knitting it together with the beginning of the strip in a spiral making up the body of the sweater.

What I figured, was that you could just cast on some stitches and start knitting without making a swatch, because you could measure your gauge from your first piece and work out your pattern for the whole garment. Then you cast on enough to make the other side of the front or back or enough to do the whole rest of whatever you are are knitting and at the end of your first row, start knitting your new piece together with your first piece.

The stitch I use to knit the two pieces together is as follows: work in pattern to last stitch of RS row, slip 1 with yarn in back, pick up and knit 1 stitch from the first row of other piece, pass slipped stitch over, turn, slip 1 stitch with yarn in front, knit to end.  This stitch works when picking up from the left edge of the right side of knitting; I have figured out how to do it on the left edge of the wrong side, but it is more convoluted.

If you would like to knit a design I knit this way, please see my Morse code vest.

Average

Size

XS [S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X] (shown in size M)

Finished measurements

Chest: 28[32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52] inches

Length: 22.5[22.5, 23, 23.5, 23.5, 24, 24] inches

Materials

[MC] Rowan Summer Tweed [70% silk, 30% cotton; 118 yd/108 m per 50g skein]; color: 535 shark; 4 [4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7] skeins

1 set US #9/5.5mm straight needles

notions required: stitch holder, stitch markers, 6 three-quarter inch (2cm) buttons

Gauge

14 sts/20 rows = 4″ in stockinette stitch

Slouch Hat

When I was a child I always wanted asymmetrical things. I remember my mother explaining to me that one braid and one ponytail was not what people do; she may have been right, but I made this hat slightly asymmetrical anyway.

Difficulty: Easy

Size: M[L] (shown in size L)

Note: I used 2 skeins of Emu Florentine [51% Wool, 44% Acrylic, 5% Nylon]; 61 yards [56 m] per skein. The ribs may show much more if knit with a different yarn.

1 set US #9/5.5mm straight needles

Gauge: 12 sts / 14 rows to 4 inches [10cm]

For complete pattern see: Slouch Hat Pattern

I just had Jordi link to my blog from over at Above the gwb announcing the completion of my Russian princess in exile hat. It is so exciting to see someone has knit my pattern.

I read How Not to Write Novel: Confessions of a Midlist Author by David Armstrong. In it he talks of fantasizing about seeing someone, just anyone, reading one of his books in public, but never having it happen. I feel the same way about my knitting designs. I would so love to pass a stranger wearing a design of mine.

I occasionally Google my designs to see what others have done with them (this is much more feasible for me to do than say Norah Gaughan, who I have a big knitterly equivalent of a girl crush on, and I am sure we would be great friends if we ever met).

I come up with all sorts of things; for example Beth over at Knit knit knit knit (new url) was having trouble with my pattern Urban rustic gloves the February before last (here). I wonder what the etiquette is on this kind of thing, I suppose it is too late to offer assistance.

Amalas at Yellow wood made my Minimalist funnel neck as her first sweater, and look someone did it in Japanese, at 茶の間で編物.

It’s all very gratifying, but I suppose that if I continued and made it big, it would all become old hat in no time. If Pam Allen, Teva Durham, Norah Gaughan (sorry about the girl crush thing, I don’t really think I know you), Stefanie Japel, etc. (I count anyone who has published a knitting book in this category) are reading, please feel free to let me