In Tandem: Making Progress on Two Sweaters

Lately, I have had the urge to make progress on both sweaters that I have been making since each of them was at a point where I needed to sit down and concentrate on the shaping. Kearsarge had been sitting in a corner patiently for a long time, needing some focus on the neckline shaping. I spent a bit of time with him and am pleased to now have the back and front completed.

This pattern is written so that you must knit a different pattern on the sleeves than on the body. I am a bit sad to be finished with the wonderful basketweave pattern (one of my favorite to knit because it is interesting yet simple and easy to get into a flow while knitting it). The sleeves are knitted in mistake rib patterning, so they will be great for carry-along knitting. I hope to be able to put this sweater to bed soon.

The sweater that I have been designing had also gotten to the point where the second front needed some concentration while shaping the neckline. Here are the two fronts and the back completed.

I am really liking the way this sweater is coming together, although, I am still a bit concerned about how narrow the two fronts look. I had this same fear when I knitted Lisa Lloyd's Ravensong, which is also a fitted sweater, but it turned out fine once blocked. I just keep telling myself to trust my blocked swatch since it shows how much the lace opens up, and it has the measurements upon which I am basing this design. Now, I am going to move on to making my calculations for the sleeves.

You might have noticed that both of the above sweaters are knitted in pieces. Some of you might be wondering why I don't knit them in the round, as knitting in the round has become so popular. I have knitted several sweater in the round over the years. I do enjoy that style of knitting at times for some of the following advantages it has over knitting flat:

• You can try the sweater on as you go along if you knit it from the top down.
• The knitting is continuous, so it is easy to get into a great flow.
• Once the knitting is finished, you only have to sew in the ends -- no seaming!

For all of the above reasons, I usually knit a simple pullover in the round from the top down. One major disadvantage that I find with knitting something as large as an adult sweater in the round is that it gets heavy and cumbersome the bigger it gets. It also become difficult to carry around in a purse for knitting on the go. Lastly, it sometimes feels as if the knitting goes on forever since there aren't any clear stopping points when one moves onto to something new.

So given the advantages and keeping in mind the disadvantages of knitting sweaters in the round, I find that, overall, I enjoy knitting flat pieces a lot more. I also like the final results better. Some of the advantages of knitting flat pieces are the following:

• The pieces are portable since they tend to be small or easy to roll up into a small piece for easy storage in a purse.
• Once a piece is finished, you get to move onto something "new" since you are beginning a new piece with its own cast-on, shaping, etc. This makes it seem like the knitting goes by more quickly.
• The seams seem to give the finished piece more stability, and they provide a great place to hide the yarn ends securely.

As for the seaming, it isn't my favorite part, I will admit. I like it for a brief amount of time when I first begin it, and it feels really cool to be putting together "puzzle pieces" in such an efficient manner. However, it loses its appeal fairly quickly for me, becoming something I just have to force myself to finish in several sittings. I can't do it all in one sitting since I am too slow for that, and I get back pains. However, once I reach the home stretch and finish, there is no better sense of accomplishment!

Product vs Process?

A discussion that regularly takes place in the crafting world is whether a crafter is a product or process knitter/crocheter/spinner, etc. My answer to that question has always been a resounding statement of "I am all about the process; the end product is just a bonus." During all of my years of knitting/crocheting/spinning, I have rarely had less than three projects going at a time (at least not since the very early days). I almost always finish these projects, but it often takes me months or sometimes years to do so. No sock has ever been left without its mate, but it may have waited quite awhile to be paired before being put in the sock drawer. Blankets have lain folded in a basket for years before becoming big enough to cover anyone properly. Sweaters have been tucked into corners, with only a sleeve to go or a button band to be picked up, for a very long time before something in me rises up and forces me to sit down and finish them! None of this ever bothers me, though. I knit because I love knitting! The garments/items are an added bonus, but they are not the end in themselves.

That is until recently. What changed? I took to designing my own sweater. Now I desperately want to finish it so I can see how well it all works out.  The process has become the designing and the only way to find out if I like what I am doing is to see a finished object, unlike when I am following a pattern, and I already know how it will look when finished. So I have dedicated myself to mostly working on the cardigan I am designing (with a little crocheting of granny squares to mix things up at times) until it is finished. With this new mentality, I am making swift progress given my limited time to knit. 

I will let you in on a little secret. My hurry to finish isn't only about seeing what it will look like put together, but it is also about wanting to see if it is big enough once blocked and put together. I keep having a nagging concern that the right front looks awfully narrow. My blocked swatch measurements tell another story, so hopefully, that story provides the happy ending for which I am hoping!  My plan is to block all of the piece before seaming. That way, I can make corrections if the pieces are completely off. It will be a painful process if that happens because it will mean a lot of reknitting, but it just might need to be done.

Steady Progress

The end of the school year always means a lot of grading for a college professor, so as you can imagine, yarn work has had to take a bit of a back seat lately. However, I have made steady progress on a couple of items I have introduced here before.

I am finding that the Granny Patchwork Blanket is very nice to pick up on evenings when I am tired and unable to think too deeply about fiber arts. Each square is made in exactly the same manner. I have also decided to plan each row of squares in advance (as Lucy on Attic24 did) since it makes the project more portable. I am really started to get excited about how well the colors are coming together. Lucy talks about "soul" colors as I have mentioned before, and these are definitely mine. They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside when I see them.

The picture below shows all of the squares.

On the knitting front, I have mostly been working on the sweater I am designing for myself. This process is so much fun, and I wonder why I waited so long to try it! If any of you are considering designing your own garment, just jump into it. Really, what is the worst that can happen; it is just yarn. Here is the back piece:

As you can probably tell, this will definitely need to be blocked, and once it is, the lace will open up quite a bit in the central motif. One element of this design that I am so pleased by is that I was able to get the honeycomb stitch into it in a way that did not simply mimic the traditional Aran look. I wanted a touch of Aran but with the twist of a lace motif that resembles cabling. 

I have started the front pieces and hope to keep chugging along on this sweater until it is finished. Usually, I tend to knit many different things at once without sticking to any one project for any length of time. I guess you would call me a process knitter since I am never too concerned about how long it takes me to finish something unless I am knitting a gift or test knitting for a designer. However, this time, I really want to finish this project as soon as I can just to see how it all turns out. I also need to calm those negative voices inside of me that keep telling me "it might be too small" or "the color isn't going to look right on you." I know that once it is finished and blocked, everything will work out. Once it is completed, I will write a longer post on my design process and about all of the helpful resources I used to make it happen. It really has been a simple process and one that I am enjoying.

Busy Week - Not a lot of New Stitching Going On!

This has been an incredibly busy week for me for some reason. I always talk about how we have ebbs and flows in life and that when I have the ebbs, I try to take advantage of them by indulging in my crafts as much as possible. Unfortunately, this was a week where it felt like an entire sea flowed towards me, both at work and at home. I am steadily making my way to shore and hope to get back to some quality crafting time next week. I also hope to have something fun to show you then. 

Until then, I will just provide a little tease of something I have been working on quietly lately. I am trying to design my own sweater. Only once before (in 20 years of knitting) have I ever knit a sweater without a pattern, and it was a basic high-waisted rib, fitted cardigan for my daughter who was a pre-teen at the time. It was pretty simple, but I was pleased to accomplish the decision-making process and the math involved in the shaping at the time. This time, I am spicing things up a bit by trying another cardigan (this time for me) but by adding a motif with various stitch patterns to it. I have the back almost completed and am having a really good time working my way through this process. Here is a picture of the swatch I made to test out my ideas. 

Is anyone surprised that the first motif I designed myself contains the honeycomb stitch? :)  In case you were wondering, the yarn is Cascade 220.

The Benefits of Swatching

I am a big proponent of swatching. I can hear some groans, but please listen to what I have to say. After reading about these benefits, you might actually see the ways it can be fun as well as helpful. The numerous benefits to swatching are as follows:

•  To determine gauge: This is the most common use for making swatches. I find it especially beneficial when I am using a new yarn (or even more importantly my own handspun yarn), and I want to see what needle size gives me the best hand to the fabric made from the yarn. I typically knit to recommended gauge on the ball band, but it is still nice to test out different needles to see which one gives the fabric the best look and feel. I always knit my projects to the gauge that looks best for the yarn I am using rather than to the recommended gauge by the designer. If the gauge that the designer has suggested is important to the overall look of the design, I will find a yarn that works well at that gauge rather than to try to make the yarn I have match the gauge (for example, if the design call for bulky weight yarn, it is probably best to use it since the bulky yarn might be providing the trendy look of the garment). Yarns will tell you what they want to be knitted into if you make a swatch, which brings me to my next point below. 
• To determine project choices: If you are like me, you probably have some yarn in your stash. I haven't accumulated a large stash, but as a result of having left-over yarn and yarn that was intended for a particular project in which I may have lost interest, I do have some yarn that needs a project. This is where swatching can be really fun! I begin to get ideas for projects to choose for different yarns in my stash, but I first make a swatch to determine gauge and to be sure I like the look of the pattern in the yarn I am choosing. Sometimes, I find that the yarn doesn't look as good as I thought it might in a given pattern, so it is back to the drawing board. This process can be inspiring since it challenges me to think differently about the yarn and gives me a good excuse to pull out books from my collection or to peruse Ravelry in hunt for the perfect project. I love this stage of knitting more than any other. The photo below illustrates the process I use and the way that a certain yarn can look a lot better in one stitch pattern than another:

The top row of swatches (2) were made to test out the yarn (Brown Sheep Nature Spun in Chuck Berry) for Lisa Lloyd's Staghorn aran sweater from A Fine Fleece. The first of the two is a swatch I actually made for another pattern choice before I changed my mind and decided to try Staghorn; however, it used the same cable motifs (XO and Staghorn), so it gave me a good indication of what those motifs would look like in this yarn. The other swatch is the filler stitch for Staghorn (double moss). After making these swatches, I wasn't loving the look of either of them in the Chuck Berry colorway. This yarn has a beautiful, deep color, but there is no tonal variation. I had envisioned Staghorn in a yarn with some heathering or subtle tone changes. So, I decided to try another swatch for another pattern. The result is what you see below the first two swatches -- the central motif for Lisa Lloyd's Halcyon Aran. Isn't it stunning!

I am pleased with the result of the yarn for Halcyon since that design seems to have a sharper, crisper look to it that is highlighted well in a yarn with one tone. I had also seen an example on Ravelry in a deep red that made me realize how nice this design would look in the Chuck Berry color I had. As you can see, swatching really paid off in this instance, and it was also a very enjoyable process. I felt like I had conquered a challenge since this yarn had been on may hands for several years. It was the left over yarn from an afghan I made and for which I seriously over bought extras. Swatching saved me from running out to buy more yarn and gave me the satisfaction of being able to knit from my stash.

And now for the last use for swatching:

• To test out you own designs: I have done very little knitting of my own design over the years, but I do like the challenge of creating something entirely my own. It is definitely something I want to spend more time on in the future (maybe once the kids move on and I regain some free time!). If you intend to do any designing of your own garments, though, swatching is essential. It helps you to test your ideas, test the yarn choices you make, and to figure out the math needed to calculate the design. IF you are considering doing your own designing, I recommend this great book by Deborah Newton, Designing Knitwear, in which she writes a dissertation on swatching!

I will definitely continue to swatch in the future, and I hope that some of you might consider trying it if you haven't done so before. It can be a lot more fun that you might have imagined.