Sleeve-to-sleeve Sideways Construction

Perhaps you'll enjoy seeing the sideways construction of my new cardigan.  This one is knit in one swoop from the cast on of the right sleeve ribbing all the way to the left sleeve ribbing bind off.  That makes for a large swath of fabric in the lap once the end is in sight.

Part of the brilliance of working this cardigan in one piece is the use of two provisional rows at the center front.  The arrow points to the bright yellow that is holding live stitches on the right and left fronts.  Use of this technique lets the color flow across the (eventual) opening and the row count flow across the front through to the back.

That big hole in the middle is the neck.  At first the written pattern for this section confused me greatly.  Luckily daughter who crochets knows how to read a pattern and visualize what must happen.  She explained it to me in different words than the designer used.  'Twas like a Stewart Light Bulb turned on at 150 watts. 

This one piece construction means that only two seams are required.  One for each side.  It was impossible to mess this up.  The alternating bands of stockinette and garter made it so easy to see how it all lined up.  I chose to work each side with two threads.  First from cuff ribbing up to underarm.  Then from the body side edge up to the underarm. 

After the seams were worked, the pattern directs that the provisional rows at the center front are removed.  That leaves the following for the edging:  pick up live stitches on one front, pick up and knit stitches around the neck, pick up the live stitches on the other front side and then pick up and knit stitches around the whole bottom.  That was a whole heap of stitches on a 40" needle, but 6 - 8 rounds and the thing was done. 

And I am still happy.

Bring On Spring

Be thankful to the knitting spirits that you are spared the major error that took place on the cardigan.  After two hits and a miss, there was an opportunity to practice my frogging skills.  Let the record show that I've still got it!  I can frog with the best of them.

However - - I can also score big time!

Just look at the way that the hem line blocked out.  Pat me on the back and declare this work excellent.  You might recall that I was afraid that the hem would be a miss.  But it took a bath and relaxed into a lovely shaped line.

Do take into consideration that the model here is daughter #1 (she who crochets) and thus the sleeve is for moi who prefers a Medium sleeve opening and daughter is quite solidly in the XSmall category.

The cardi looks, excepting for the sleeve opening,  great on her smaller frame and still it fits me.  The shaping of the front  is not very pronounced and the neckline is designed to fit close/high in the back.

I am hoping that this will be just enough to ward off the chill of a breeze whether from the afternoon wind shift or the blast of an air conditioner.   Go ahead and click on the photos.  Look at those stitches.  Two strands of Silky Alpaca Lace worked on a size 8 needle are sheer when held to the light, but still have the warming impact of alpaca.

And don't forget the sheen of the silk.  Just enough is there so that, when needed, this one can go out to dinner as easily as it pauses for a bit of gardening.

You are probably sick of my mentioning it.  But just look at that fake seam.  I still love the way the centered double decrease shapes the hem (with hints of the mitered work it could become), yet allows the entire body to be worked in one fell swoop.  Well, until it is time to separate for the arms.  You know. 

Whippie! 
After all, if you aren't happy with your yarn results, why bother?

Two Hits And A Miss

Hit #1  
The summer Open Front Cardi is ready for a little 3-needle bind off at the shoulders.  This has been a breeze to knit, partly due to the lovely Silky Alpaca Lace.  The yarn never fails and has just enough silk to give that classic sheen to the stitches. 

I must be right on the mark with row gauge.  When I finished decreasing the front edges, it measures the exact length needed with out having to "knit even until..."  So, perhaps this is Hit #1 and #1.5.

Hit #2
The fake side seams are definitely right on the mark.  Here I've adjusted the photo so that you can marvel at the way the centered double decrease makes that lovely raised "seam" to delineate fronts from the back.  The yarn - even held double as this is - is so light that there is no bulk along the line.

This little bit of shaping results in an angled hem line.   The pattern is designed to be no muss, no fuss simplicity.  I'm hoping that it will look casual enough for wearing with jeans and still be right at home with dress slacks on a summer's evening out.

And a Miss
The above seam photo hints at the big miss and here you see a longer length of it.  The pattern begins with a few garter ridges to set the lower edge.  As you might expect, there will also be matching garter ridges around the front/neck and the sleeve caps.

Just look at that roll!  If I didn't know better, I'd think that this is solid stockinette.  We are not amused.  Not one bit.  This mess better come out in the blocking.  If it does not, the whole cardi will become one big miss when the plan was for a huge HIT.


Think happy thoughts.  Think happy thoughts.  Think happy thoughts.

Dry Fit the Pieces

Finally forced myself to sit down with a mug of encouragement and finish the fronts of the Twist & Shout cardigan. (go all the way back to December blogs) This one hit a dry spell. It was just decor on the coffee table for weeks. But now I need it done! I know the exact date of the first wearing. So I am back in focus.

The instructions for the fronts were confusing at first. I still can't decide if what I knit is what the pattern wanted me to knit - but it looks OK. Even better, the fronts match the back at that all important arm hole/sleeve area.

Talk about a good thing that I always work two fronts or two sleeves at the same time. All of the cabling, decreasing, binding off and worrying about matching the back armhole shaping got the better of me. When I focused in on the final 24ish rows I had to read, read, sketch, count and read again. Just could not 'see' the way it was going to work because every time I counted there were either 3 or 6 rows more than there should have been.

Ended up writing my own version of the detail for each row and what happened on the right front and on the left front. Only then did it click in. Even the row count was working out to match the back. Somehow my mind kept missing that bind off for shoulder slope and bind off for neckline can not happen on the same row for each front. On the left front the shoulder was bound off on a right side row; the neckline was shaped on a wrong side row. And the OPPOSITE for the right front.

Toss in that shoulder bind off for the back was on every row - due to working one side on the RS and one on the WS. So, that was a total of 6 rows and I kept thinking that I needed to bind off the front 6 times. DUH - 3 on each front side times 2 sides actually equals 6. Who knew?

You know what? Once the brain clicks, the knitting is not so much. It is highly possible that more time was spent in the figuring out and rewriting than in the actual doing. But it is done.

The fronts, pre-blocking, dry fit well. I like it. Don't fret the center edge. It is rolling back in the photo. But it will be blocked and eventually a nice crochet edge will add a half inch to each front.

On to the sleeves!

Reflection and Celebration

A season of reflection - miracles - celebration. I am refreshed and restored.

We are fortunate this year to have the immediate family coming over for Christmas gumbo and a day of enjoying each other with expressions of love. And a fine gumbo it shall be - I can tell already. The roux was in the pot by eight 0'clock on the 24th and by ten we were sampling. Now it is resting in the refrigerator overnight.

There was one little mishap earlier. Well, when there are animals afoot little mishaps do occur. Know that my office carpet is amazingly clean. Sparkling and refreshed. I recovered from accomplishing an actual domestic chore (the carpet cleaning) by decorating another tree. Don't know if anyone will have the courage to eat it. But is matches the distant snow on the San Gabriel mountains.

I spent all afternoon working on the cabled cardigan. The back is finished and both fronts are on the needles with waist shaping under way. This one continues to bring me pleasure just in the making of it.

Oh, it was tempting to block the back as soon as it came off the needles. Just the back. 'Tis beautiful, I tell you. Absolutely beautiful. And the potential of pure perfection is waiting - just waiting for blocking.

But resist the temptation I did. Stayed content with working on the fronts. I always work both fronts (and both sleeves) at the same time. It keeps me organized, accurate in shaping and gives the grand delusion that a cardigan is composed of only three parts - back, fronts and sleeves. Far simpler to knit three things than five. Don't you think?

The pattern is quite specific that the left front should be knit first, and buttons applied before knitting the right and inserting the button holes. Call me a knitting rebel, but that would take 'forever' to do. I'll either very soon do a bit of math and figure out where to put the button holes or go buy a zipper.

My other joy this Christmas Eve is tracking the Man himself on Google Earth - courtesy of NORAD. Surely this service, my friends, is a valid use of tax dollars. Yes indeed.

Decrease Dilemma

Where do you place your decrease stitches? And here, specifically, the dilemma is the decreases involved in an armhole. Of late it works best for me to place the decrease two (2) stitches in from the edge. That leaves two whole stitches on the outer edge and one is available for sewing in the sleeve. I can get the right 'look' when I do it this way.

Had to unwrap this cropped cardi to show you, and the photo is certainly a quickie, but putting the decreases in a few stitches results in a lovely line of pretty knit stitches that follow the armhole. This looks good to me.

One might presume that if it works on a gift, it will work on a personal item. Enter the current project. The cabled cardigan first introduced over here. Well, it is still twisting along easily. It is still shouting at me "this is gonna work!"

Groovin' and movin'. Flying along on a sunny Saturday. Going so great I never did put shoes on the whole day.

So, it was time for the armholes - - bind off on the next four rows and then start the decreases. We've all done this. Not a problem. Until you start counting inward from those two (2) edge stitches that shall remain un-decreased. Yep, a bit of fore thought and counting revealed that if I did my current decreases, the last decrease would actually involve the first stitch of the first cable. Oh, NO. A huge NO WAY.

Clearly, the purl decreases had to be worked only one stitch in - Knit 1, p2tog. Simple enough knitting. Scary for the future. This means that there is only the one knit stitch at the edge for seaming and the seam will be smack dab against one lone purl stitch that sets off the first cable.

See.
You can see it better in this other photo on the right - but what happened to the color? The sun had popped through and made this great grey turn blue. Is it just me? Please forgive the photography.

Any way, the barely enough room left will cause me to review my seaming skills. There is sure to be video watching in my future. And precise blocking. Extremely precise. And patience. Loads of patience which is not my forté.

But since this is only the back and there are two fronts and two sleeves left to knit, I can worry about that on Scarlett time.

Sentimental Knitting Journey

Gonna take a sentimental journey
Gonna set my heart at ease
Gonna make a sentimental journey
To renew old memories.....

Memories of knitting long ago. One reason to be truly enamored by all things yarn - spun, knit, crochet, woven - is that everything old is still wonderful! Witness this family treasure that I am honored to own. Knit by my mother's sister-in-law over 40 years ago. She was the only person in our extended family who knit.

"We crochet," was the way Mama explained it to me. As though somehow Aunt Lydia did not quite fit in the family because she used two sticks, and we only use one hook. Please know that at the time I was probably about ten - maybe twelve years old. We crochet. Got it. Francois family tradition. Crochet. Only crochet.

I clearly remember when I broke the family tradition of hooking (oh, get your thinking out of that gutter). It was a knit hat. Ribbed and knit flat then sewn. A festive white and bright orange. It was a grand experiment that almost got me demoted in the family because I flirted with the knitting arts. Oh, the shame of a daughter gone to the other side. Mon Dieu!

Isn't Aunt Lydia's cardigan beautiful? Time can't diminish the look, fashion trends return, and once again a Francois is wearing this beautiful red knit at during the holiday season.

Sentimental journey........To renew old memories.

Twist and Shout

Every now and then a project really takes hold. Really fretted and fidgeted over a next project for moi. You see, I mailed off the washcloth/soap gifts for my committee members, wrapped up Rae's BF B'day knitted gift, and finished the diamond root all within two days.

That leaves a lot of free time. Even managed to toss off four more washcloths as stocking stuffers (shh, don't look). After all that fast knitting - well except for the endless stockinette of the Root - my brain was ready for something more interesting.

Enter the Cabled Cardigan from Classic Elite Knits. Wedded to Lily Chin Gramercy from the stash and voila!

This one will keep me busy.

This one will not be done in two days.

This one will not be a fast knit.

This one will be fabulous (I can feel it already)