The Epic Sweater visits the Frog Pond

Weeeellll Sheeeit.

Epic sweater take 5. Or is it 6?

So I was whizzing along ( as much as an epic sweater can really whiz...) and arrived at the correct number of stitches to have a 40" around sweater. Good, right? Wrong. What should have been 9 or 10 inches of length to achieve that width turned out to be more like 6 inches. Lets look...


That is the sweater I'm basing this whole affair on. Note the length of the raglan lines. Mine is the same (or nearly) width. Shit.






Lets take a closer look...















And now the reasons why this whole thing will be redone... again...

1. Raglans are not supposed to have sleeves at 90 degree angles.
   
2. K does not have arms at 90 degree angles.
3. K is not built like a football player
4. K is not planning on taking massive amounts of steroids which would cause him to look like a football player.

As a bit of a pain reliever I have been knitting a little baby hat. Its going to be a veggie hat. It now has a stem! :)












This yarn is just basic Sidar acrylic in a color I like to refer to as "Don't lose the Baby!" If you can't find your child in this then you shouldn't breed.

The Epic Sweater

Epic, very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale); "an epic voyage"; "of heroic proportions"; "heroic sculpture"

This is an undertaking. Its a commitment to excellence that I rarely even aim for. But when its for K I go all out... I'm knitting him an epic sweater. It is in Fisherman's Rib. It is in nearly natural wool (very little dye, not superwash.) . The wool took me 4 months to procure. I bought sample skiens. I did test knits for ribs, cables, needle sizes, and color. I examined and repaired the old sweater ( a welsh import) for gauge, structure, and stitch.

I began knitting from the top down, and cut it loose.
















And cast on to smaller needles, and knit 1 inch... and ripped back.

And tried again with less stitches... and messed up the ribbing and ripped it back.

And tried again with different markers and was doing okay until until I realized I didn't have the right number of stitches for the rib, and cut it loose.


















Finally... Cast on 96 stitches. 5-m-5-27-m-5-11-m-5-27-m-5-6-m (m=Marker)

Joined around, and began to knit. Fisherman's rib is tricky. I need an extra marker for the round as well as for each raglan miter because you have to switch from knit to purl every round. It goes slow, what looks like a row is actually more like 4 rows. I'm on size 4 needles and getting something like 4 stitches per inch. The increases are tricky too, they have to be done in pairs to maintain the rib but not in the same round, so I actually am knitting a 6 row pattern.


1: Knits and increase
2: Purls
3: Knits and increase
4: Purls
5: Knits
6: Purls










SO Each of those added ribs along the miter is 6 rows of work!

I am up to a 24" needle now but only 1/3 of the way down to the sleeves. I'm going to do the whole thing seamless to avoid having my nice work botched up by seams. But I am going to add plain 1x1 ribbing at the neckline, hem, and cuffs.


So Epic. So worth it. So handsome.*

















*Him and the sweater! I can't wait to put them together!

Spring Rush

AH.... back to knitting and blogging. I've been a lazy ass on both accounts for some time now and I mean to rectify! Here's the lowdown on the spring knitting crazy:

• the county fair is only 2 months away
• I need 'thank you socks' for my TAs (oh, and another pair of socks for last years rock'in TA, she wants a pair for graduation, she loved the last pair so much!)
• I finally have yarn to knit K's sweater
• There are 2 teachers having babies at school, so they need baby blankets, 1 down 1 started
• I have my sweater to finish

That's still lots of knitting. I'm not sure what I'm entering in the fair yet, we'll see what's finished! I really want to enter one of my baby blankets. The only one I've ever entered was a half finished piece of crap that got a 3rd place.

Here's my most recent start on a baby blanket, my mitered blanket pattern (I just love it!) in vaguely girlish Easter egg colors....














I've also started K's sweater, for the 4th time, this time on smaller needles and with the correct # of stitches.















I also need to go to Trader Joes ( a good place to knit socks in line)
because my last batch of daffodils never opened! How sad! nothing worse than springtime without pretty daffodils!

Stitches Checklist

Counting down to the big yarn convention... and attempting not to completely go broke!

I'm planning on purchasing

• ~1100yds worsted wool for K's sweater
• 6 ply sock yarn. Enough for 5-6 pairs of socks (christmas presents)

Given the right price I might also get:

• Yarn for a sweater for me ~1000 yds
• More sock yarn
• spinning fiber
• wool carders
  
• ravelry schwag
• stitch markers

Wish me luck!

Blankie Done!

It got fixed, finished, and blocked!

Counting is....

Counting is something that, as a math teacher, I should really do well. I usually do it without thinking. My Mitered Baby Blanket is elegant in its constant and finite reduction of stitches. You start with 50 stitches between each marker and work your way down to zero. 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, .... when you get to 36 stitches you are half way done. A lovely sigma function....

As long as you don't drop a stitch.

As long as you don't drop a stitch, right along the miter, and don't notice that your count is off until 30 rows later.

Lets look.


This is my version of surgery.


<----The dropped stitch is strung on that circular

The other needles are holding the other stitches next to where the miter should be.


I could have just sewn in the dropped stitch at the miter. No one would have noticed.

But I like my nice stitch counts.

Dancing Legwarmers

These Legwarmers are a quick knit and the pattern can be adjusted for different yarn weights and needle sizes. Made originally for Barbara, who does a lot of ballroom dancing in a cold barn/garage.






Yarn: 140yds Aran weight, I used Mission Falls 1824 Wool (superwash)
Needles: US 10 Doublepoints
Guage: 3 stitches per inch

TR= knit the second stitch on the left needle, then the first one, then slide them off together.

Pattern:
CO 36 stitches (or any multiple of 3).
Join in the round being careful not to twist.
Rows 1-9: *K2 P1* repeat around
Row 10: *TR, P1* around
Row 11: *K2, P1* around
Row 12: *TR, P1* around

Do K2P1 rib for 8-10 inches then repeat rows 10-12.
K2P1 for 8 more rows.
Bind Off LOOSELY. (The legwarmers will stretch to fit over the leg)

Knit another one and you'll have a cozy pair of legwarmers!