Did you start?

What's going on with the new sweater? Did you make a swatch? I need to get some yarn too.

Shawl-Collared Jacket-NEXT!

I bought the recommended Homepun yarn today on sale at Joanne's for only $20. If I like the pattern I might make it again with better yarn.

I'm confused by the first line of the pattern. Slip stitch the first stitch then knit the rest? Is that right?

And just straight needles for this one?

DONE!

Finished, just in time for it to be too hot outside to wear it! Oh well. I think it came out good. I'm weaving in the ends now.

I'm going to start on the "shawl" cardigan style next.

Here's mine

I'm working on the arms now.

Arms done

Finished the arms, bottom still too short. I like it though!

One Arm Down

Hey, with my new iMac I can take pictures directly from the computer! This will make blogging much easier!

I think I need to make the sweater longer at the bottom. I got impatient and bound off too soon. I'll do that after finishing the other arm.

How about a picture of the green one???

Yoke

Here is my almost-finished yoke. I've gotten past this point now, but haven't taken pictures!

I suggest that a row or two before dividing for the sleeves and body, you switch to one circular needle, if you haven't already. I did it using 2 needles and it was a pain. You will need the 2 needles again later to do the sleeves.

What's going on?

I've finished the yoke and started on the body. How are you doing?

Sorry I'm not good about downloading pictures. I'll try to do it soon.

Uh-oh Spaghettios

I think I messed up something. At the end of each increasing round instructions, where it says work 3 rounds even in pattern, does that mean you do the increasing round, finish up the rounds 3 and 4 of the lace pattern and then work the same lace pattern (Rnds 1 to 4) 3 more times...aka 12 more times around with no increases until you get to the next increase rnd?

I just realized I have not been doing that. I'm only on Inc Rnd 5 so hopefully this doesn't matter? I tried on my collar and it looks ok. Will it be messed up if I do it right from now on?

I'm not sure these are helpful. The first shows the position of yarn and needles when you start knitting in the round. The second shows the round in progress. Note that you pull the back (non-working needle) so that the stitches are in the middle of the needle, and the ends just hang down in the back of the work.

Mistakes

I made 2 mistakes so far. One was that I got so excited when I got to the first increase row, that I didn't read the instructions. You're supposed to increase only in every other set of purl stitches, but I increased in every set.

Should I go back and fix it? Nah. I just skipped the next set of increases and continued with the pattern from there. It won't show at that point in the pattern....later on it would.

But then I forgot what row of the pattern I was on and knitted one row twice...I had to take the row out and redo it or it would have looked terrible.

I'm sure you will be more careful than I was. Just be sure to read the pattern!

Here is a picture of the neck in progress. You can't really see, but I have it on 2 circular needles.

Knitting in the round on 2 circular needles

1. Cast stitches onto one of the needles.
2. Slip half of them onto the other needle (there will be 25 on each).
3. Make sure the stitches are not twisted around the needles, but laying flat along them.
4. Bend the 2 needles in a circle, so that the join between them is on your left, and the open end is on the right. The ball end of yarn should be on the back needle. Check again that the stitches are not twisted.
5. You have 2 needles, front and back. You are going to work with the front needle only first. Push all the stitches near to the right end of the needle. Take the other point, bring it around to the last stitch on the right end, and put it in as you would normally do to knit a stitch. Take the yarn that is hanging off the back needle (this is a slightly tricky step) pull it close to the front needle, and wrap it around and knit it off. Then knit the next stitch as you normally would, and keep going. It is just like knitting with straight needles, only they happen to be connected to each other.
The pattern says to knit this row in the lace pattern, but I think it would be easier to knit it plain for one row, or do K4 P1 around to maintain the ribbing.
6. When you get to the end, turn your work around, and repeat step 5 with the other needle. You always knit from one end of the needle onto the other end of the SAME needle. If you start knitting from one needle to the other, you will have problems.

OK, give it a try! I will post photos if you have trouble!

Eureka?

This seems to be 13.5 stitches. Does this look right? I am using 11 size circular needles. Do I still need to get the dpn? They didn't have them at the store I went to in that size. But I can look elsewhere. I also checked and I am definitely not twisting the stitches. I guess that little pattern is just going to be the way this knits up. It's ok. I like it.

Hey!

My yarn came and it's really nice. It's thinner than I expected though. The label gives a gauge of 2-3 stitches per inch with #10 needles, but when I knit with that size I got 4 stitches/inch! (That would be 16 sts/4 in, way too many for our pattern).

The best I could do was 14 sts/4 in with 10 1/2 needles. I will have to go with that and adjust it if necessary.

I used the "long strand across the back" method. I'm not sure I would recommend this for beginners because it's actually not so easy to keep the strand from pulling too tight.

Gauge Take One

How's this look? I think it's too many stitches. Should I cut the strings in the back and lay it flat? More worrisome: why are my stitches coming out like that? It's a neat pattern but it doesn't look my like normal knitting. I checked a book to make sure I wasn't knitting backward. I put the needle through the front loop and looped the yarn around from left to right. That's the way I normally do it, I think but I originally taught myself to do it backward, twisted, so I'm always hesitant whether I'm doing it wrong. Could it be this yarn turns out different than normal? Or is it knitting stockinette without purling that does it? I might try to do this again knitting a bit tighter. I was kind of loose because I got worried about why my stitches were coming out like that.

HELP gauge

I need a tutorial on how to do the gauge. I got 10.5 dpn bamboo needles. It says 13.5 sts and 20 rounds. So I cast on 13 stitches and then I'm like Huh? What is a half stitch? I've never knitted with these dpn either. Do I need to use all five needles? Do you increase your stitches as you go on to the next round? What the heck? I'm lost.

I bought yarn

I bought this Louet Riverstone yarn on Webs. The description said it was really soft and it was a great deal. (I don't see the yarn you bought there any more...things must move fast on that site.)

The color is fuschia. I have so many cool-color sweaters, I thought I needed something warm to cheer me up in this FREEZING COLD winter! Let's knit fast so we can wear them soon! Maybe by the wedding??

Now I just have to finish my other projects while I'm waiting for it to arrive.

My Yarn Came

It is nice and soft and not scratchy at all and the color was true to the picture. The balls are smaller than I expected. I hope I will have enough. I have to go buy the double pointed needles and then I can get started on the gauge sampler or whatever you call it!

That is all.

Yarn decision

I'm ready to order and getted started on my Citrus Yoke sweater. I think I like the Bazic one (superwash wool) b/c of the color choices. I'm going to order that. What size needles do you think I should use? I'm going to have to buy some of those double-pointed ones too because I don't have those.

Another Yarn for Citrus Yoke

KnitPicks Cadena also looks nice. It would be VERY warm. It's only $5.79 a hank; we would probably need 8 hanks.

Content:

70% Peruvian Highland Wool, 30% Superfine Alpaca

Weight:

Bulky Weight

Gauge:

3 - 3.5 sts = 1" on #9 - 11 needles

Amount:

110 yards/100 gram hank

Care:

Hand Wash/Dry Flat

http://www.knitpicks.com/Cadena+Yarn_YD5420129.html

Lory's unfinished knitting projects

Thought you might like to see what else I'm working on.

This is a sweater I knit for Michael's birthday in APRIL...he wanted to add a zipper and put felt over the shoulders but he still hasn't done it! He is so picky about his clothes I was going to let him do it so he could have it just the way he wanted. Anyway, I will have to try to finish it myself. Maybe for the next birthday!

Yarn: KnitPicks alpaca and I think Takhi tweed, held together. We bought the tweed yarn on our honeymoon (as you can tell we are quite the procrastinators when it comes to knitting projects).

This is a sweater I started for myself, made from yarn unravelled from a rummage sale sweater (that's how I know what a pain it is to do!) As you can see, it's from the top down. This was my experiment with doing set-in sleeves in one piece. I think it turned out OK. I love to knit from the top down. You can try on the sweater and even change the pattern as you go along, and when you're finished with the knitting the sweater is done -- no sewing!




This is supposed to be a pair of overalls for Brendan. The orange part is to go around his torso (I knit from the top down, of course!). Now I'm on the part to go over his bottom and soon will get to the legs. I'll add on straps to the top first.

The yarn is leftover from Michael's sweater. It will be very cozy if I ever finish it!

New Option

What about this one for the Citrus Yoke Sweater. (The New Tahki goes with the dolman sweater.)

Content:
85% Wool/10% Silk/5% Cashmere
Care:
Hand Wash
Weight/Yardage:
50g/60yd
Gauge:
3.25 sts = 1" on US 10.5
Knitting Weight:
Bulky