baby sweater, take two

There were some pattern details that I didn’t really like with the pink baby sweater, so I decided to make it following my adaptation of the adult sweater pattern. I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Between the stretchiness in the yarn and the fact that it’s basically knit in ribbing, I’m hoping that it will have a relatively large window of use. I think the body circumference can not quite double with stretching, so the limit will probably be on arm/body length and not felting it. The yarn is sport weight: SugarBush Bliss, 70% Extra Fine Superwash Merino/20% Mulberry Silk/10% Cashmere and machine washable. It was lovely to work with and feels all squishy and soft.

I really don’t think there’s much I’d change if I were to knit this one again. I wasn’t quite sure what size I was aiming for when I started, and made things up a fair amount as I was going along. The shawl collar itself is the bit I’m the most dissatisfied with, mostly because it doesn’t want to cooperate when I’m taking pictures, and it slightly distorts the ribbing/cables, though I think that will disappear entirely when someone is actually wearing the sweater. I’m really looking forward to seeing what it looks like on!

Defying the sweater curse

We decided it was time to defy the sweater curse. The first question: what type of sweater do you want? Ummm… Do you want it to have cables on it, color work, be plain knit, or…? (I distinctly decided not to ask about construction details, like do you want a raglan, yoke, etc.) We decided cables sounded good, so then there was a long trawl through all the cabled men’s sweater patterns on Ravelry. And when I say all, I don’t actually mean all, because oh my goodness, so many patterns. Once I had a browser window with about 50 tabs of different types of cabled sweaters, we got to flip through them, on and off, for about a week. The first step was to familiarize him with different styles and designs, and let him think about things enough to start rejecting things. Eventually Mommy and I realized that we would have to make a decision on his behalf, and we started rejecting patterns and studying the construction. The final winner was the ‘Wuthering Heights’ sweater by Les Tricoteurs Volants. I kept most of the construction details (though I did have to modify some of them), but went with an all-over cable ribbing pattern. Since my main body pattern is more stretchy/pulls in a lot more, that meant I had to significantly modify most of the numbers with regards to how many body stitches, how quickly to add stitches at the sleeves, etc., but other than that I was able to use a lot of the construction information from the pattern. I’m really happy with how the construction worked out, though if I do this again, I’d need to add more sleeve stitches sooner, because the sleeves were almost way too small. I’d also shrink the armhole size, though that was something I went back and forth on with mum as I was figuring it out, and we went with a large armhole since the button down shirts he’ll wear this with all have huge armholes.

At the same time we were choosing a pattern, we also had to pick out a yarn. We ended up deciding on the Heather Line sport weight yarn from Jaggerspun, in charcoal. There are so many things to like about this yarn, including that: it comes on a cone, which means less time balling and way fewer ends to sew in, it isn’t a super fine wool, so it should hold up better in a sweater that will be heavily worn in the winter, it’s made by a local mill (1 hr drive), and it isn’t super expensive. I also like the heathered colors, and this charcoal is a lovely grey with a lot of depth to it.

There are a lot of in progress shots this time, because oh my goodness is there a lot of knitting in this sweater. The body had 384 stitches around, and I used about a pound and a half of yarn…. So you all get a chance to appreciate it, step by step. Well, I only put in about half the distinct steps. There was a lot of trying it on to make sure everything was going well, particularly at first.

The sweater starts with little shoulder pieces, that I’ve been calling ‘epaulettes’. Once you have these two shoulder rectangles, you pick up the long side on each of the epaulettes and between then cast on stitches for the back of the neck. Then there’s some short row shaping to build up the back (I had to play with graph paper to make sure that I’d be in the right spot in all my cables at the end of the short rows). For the front you work the two sides separately, doing the short rows, and you start knitting back and forth over the arms, doing semi-raglan style sleeve increases. When you get far enough down the front you get to add in the front of the neck stitches, and then knit in the round. For forever. What I hadn’t expected from just looking at pictures of people in their sweaters, was that the pattern I was basing this off has you switch from sleeve increases to body increases near the bottom of the armhole-it’s a nice touch, and it hadn’t occurred to me. I also cast on a few stitches in the armpit when the sleeves separated. At that point it was fairly straightforward-the body just keeps on going down, with the same number of stitches (a lot of them) to the hem, and the sleeves slowly decrease along the length to the cuff. Straightforward, however, does not mean fast. SO MANY STITCHES!!!

We’re both really happy with the result. There are some changes I’d make (I should have increased faster at the top of the sleeves, and maybe switched needle sizes on the ribbing at the bottom), but on the whole it was a resounding success.

baby sweater

With two friends due in March (on the 13th and 31st, coincidentally), I decided it was time for some baby knitting. My mom’s favorite baby sweater pattern is the shawl collared aran sweater pattern by Debbie Bliss in her 1988 book ‘Baby Knits’. Since it’s mum’s favorite pattern, I figured I’d give it a try. As we already knew, I’m not all that good at knitting a pattern straight, so there were significant changes, starting with knitting it in the round. Also, no bobbles. I do not like knitting bobbles. At all. So the front cable was modified accordingly. And some of the other cables were modified, by mistake more than intention… Also, I went with a seed stitch ground for under the arms and the sides.

Other than those modifications (and the detail of not knitting a gauge swatch, so I’m not quite sure if the sweater is the appropriate width), I more or less followed the pattern. I did follow the number of stitches, which was one of the key reasons for referring to a pattern in the first place. I was told I should knit a hat to go with, since I had plenty of extra yarn. I wanted something fairly simple, since I was knitting this while doing other things, so I decided not to use all of the cables from the sweater, but just do some basic 4 stitch cables.

The yarn is a sport weight in a colorway called ‘coral reef’ from Rocking the wool-from the yarnbox page on this yarn: “Megan from Rocking the Wool is an artisan hand dyer out of the Chicago area. Using 100% Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTs) certified organic merino wool, each skein is dyed using low impact dyes that are heavy metal-free acid and environmentally friendly. What’s so special about the GOTs certification? It means that, from start to finish, you have a yarn that is environmentally conscious. This is the best organic textile standard that you’ll find in the world. This link will bring you to a great break down of all the environmental criteria a yarn must adhere to receive a GOTs certification.” Given that the care instructions are to hand wash cool, it might have not been the best choice for a baby sweater, but I thought the color was perfect. I really struggled with getting the right color in these pictures. It’s pink, but not a super in-your-face pink like the first picture implies, and not orange as so many of the pictures I took while it was in progress turned out. It was really frustrating. I tried in all sorts of lighting, and I did try messing with filters to make it better, but I failed. So you’ll just have to imagine it in a nice soft pink color.

First finished project of 2020!

I made this sweater as a shop sample for Knit Locally, my local yarn store. It’s from Titus, by Baa Ram Ewe, a British yarn brand. Titus is a blend of British alpaca and longwool. I’ve used it before for lace shawls and I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it likes a bit tighter of a gauge than I used in this sweater, but I think the sweater turned out well anyway!

I made this sweater for a shop sample for the local yarn store, and they went to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC. I only barely finished it in time, and I laid it out for blocking the same morning that I needed to give it to them to pack! It was still a bit damp when I handed it off, so I didn’t have great finished object pictures of it until just a few days ago, when I saw it on display at the shop!