A few things on a Friday

1. The sweater knitting continues around here, and I sincerely hope I am not about to jinx myself by saying such a thing out loud, but things might be well on track. I’m a couple of inches away from finishing the final piece of the cabled orange thing (which, yes indeed, I’ll be sure to share with you once the pattern is written up!), and my Ravine pullover now has two full sleeves and likely a good start on the back piece before the evening is over. The cardigan needs finishing and a collar and button-band still, but I’m choosing to believe that this part will be not much to worry about. (Probably.) In any case, they’re still super nice to look at while they’re in progress. Wool and cables are great.

2. The other day last week when I was in Toronto I had lunch with fellow knitter/teacher/designer Robin Hunter, and she commented on all the sweater chatter I’d been doing and the fact that, based on our bust sizes (which are only 1 inch different), we would be assumed to be choosing the same pattern size if we were making the same sweater. Now, would you guess from this photo of us that this is the case?

My guess is, probably not – and you’d be right! One or both of us would be modifying the heck out of the pattern to get it to what we want. Our cross-shoulder width measurement and sleeve and body length measurements would all be entirely different. It just goes to show – know your measurements and be groovy with modifying, and you’re more likely to get better results.

3. Finally, I have the pleasure of showing off a picture of the lovely cabled pillow pattern I have in the November 2012 (on newsstands now) issue of Canadian Living magazine. (I think you have to get the cat separately. The instructions are only for the pillow.) It’s a print magazine and they are generously giving copies to three lucky winners! So, if you’d like to win a copy of this issue, please leave a comment on this post, with your favourite thing about knitting cables.

With that, I bid you a happy weekend and good fall knitting ahead! I’ll catch you next week with, hopefully, more sweater knitting behind me.

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On the Subject of Sweaters, Part 6: Knitting it Up

This post is Part 6 and the last of a series of weekly posts on the process of sweater knitting: not exactly the nitty gritty details and techniques, but the opportunities and decisions you may encounter on the way to getting a knitted sweater that works for you. Previously, the topic was modifying the pattern.

Knitting it Up
To the outside observer it must seem very strange to be writing a six-part series on sweater knitting, only to devote one of those parts to the actual knitting of the sweater. The fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of thought and planning that goes into knitting a sweater, but often times we don’t notice the planning because it so often happens in the background of doing other things. We browse websites and yarn shops over days or weeks, considering yarn and patterns, and while the process of determining our best fit and style is sometimes acquired by sitting down once and for all and figuring it out, it is just as often a gradual learning experience accrued over time.

Sitting down to knit the thing almost seems easy by comparison – just follow the instructions along with your own modification ideas – but you may well have the opportunity for personal discretion at this stage, too. Ideally, once a knitter gets to the point of actually starting to knit a sweater, one should at least have some sense of what style and method of construction it is going to entail, and this will help you to know if you have any leeway in how to go about starting it.

For example, if you’re working a top-down pullover, there is really only one place to start – at the top, with the neck – and that’s where the pattern instructions will start. Later on you might have some discretion about whether to work the sleeves first or the body, once you’ve separated out those two portions of the sweater, but in the beginning your only major decision will be what cast-on method you’re going to use. (And in fact, the pattern might even go so far as to tell you that part too, you never know.) Anything involving out of the ordinary construction (like, say, something that starts at the bottom left corner of the cardigan front and magically works all the way around so that you finish at the bottom right corner with a complete sweater – I’m making this up but you just never know), you should definitely follow those instructions step by step.

On the other hand, if you’re working up a pattern that is made in pieces and then later sewn together, you might have a great deal of choice about where to start. The pattern instructions will most likely tell you to start with the back piece, because that’s quite typical, but there’s actually no rule that says you can’t start with the sleeves, or the front(s). In fact, I usually prefer starting with the sleeves because they’re pretty quick to get done and over with when you have energy going into the project. The sleeves will also give you an early indication of how close you are to gauge. If you mess up on one sleeve it is fairly short work to go back and start again on a new needle size if necessary, but doing this on the much larger pieces that make up the back or front can be more arduous. Another advantage of starting with a sleeve is that, if there is any kind of pattern stitch like cables or lace or colour-work involved, the sleeve gives you a smaller canvas to try it out on. Then, by the time you get to the body, you’ll have gotten the hang of it.

Still, there is a lot of momentum in the first couple of days when you start a project, and you might well be the sort of person who prefers to use that momentum on the largest piece, to get it done and out of the way. It’s one of the many reasons sweater patterns tend to direct you to the back piece first, and it can be very satisfying. And don’t forget that there’s also no reason you can’t do more than one piece at a time – sleeves make portable projects, as Elizabeth Zimmerman always advocated, so you could reserve those for your on-the-go knitting and save the larger, more shaped pieces for work at home.

Ultimately, use your discretion to do what will work for you, as you would at every step of this process. Take the moment to look over the pattern instructions to get a sense of what you’re in for, and if there is flexibility in the construction, use it to your own advantage.

Hope for awesomeness, expect a few annoyances
The more leg work you do before you start knitting your sweater, the less likely you are to encounter problems during the knitting-it-up part – and indeed, this is often the case for knitters who spend time thinking about fit, size, gauge, and measurement before they cast on. Still, challenges do sometimes happen, and I would say that at least 80% of your challenges or frustrating moments are likely to happen in the first 20% of your knitting time with the project. It happens to all of us, and I can think of about half a dozen projects just in the last 6 months when it’s happened to me.

Here are some examples of dumb things that have happened to the best of us (probably you, too), at one time or another:

-Casting on the wrong number of stitches and then having to re-cast-on, or immediately increase/decrease extra/missing stitches in the first row

-Making an error in the establishing rows of a stitch pattern and having to rip back to get it right.

-Accidentally casting on with the wrong needle size, because all of your needles look the same and you forgot to double-check the size before you started, and you’re not entirely convinced it’s going to make enough of a difference to the final product to make you rip it out and re-cast-on with the right needle.

-Discovering that the yarn you loved in the skein and managed a tiny swatch with is turning out not at all how you expected once you started to work with it and you’re not enjoying the process at all.

-Discovering that the yarn you loved in the tiny swatch is now pooling entirely differently when knitted up in a large garment, and you need to pull back several rows so that you can start alternating skeins every couple of rows to stop the pooling.

-Getting to the waist of the body and realizing that you have carefully and accurately placed all of the decreases for the waist shaping…on only one side, but not both, and now you have to rip back.

-Discovering that even though you swatched for gauge, and knew what size you should be making based on gauge, now that you’re actually knitting it in pattern, the size isn’t turning out how you thought it would at all, and you have to rip out to cast on a new size. (This was me this past January, when I was knitting the Gwendolyn cardigan. I ripped out, re-knitted in a happier size, and all was well in the end.)

-Something else that’s happened to you (that you might want to tell the story of in the comments – we all have stories of triumph over knitting adversity).

-Something else none of us have thought of yet.

Vigilance in that first 20% of the project time is key. I point this out not to discourage you in advance, but to point out that the sooner you can identify what your mistake is – or if you’re making one at all – the sooner you can fix it and get on with things. The next time you discover a mistake in your knitting, remind yourself that it takes a knitter with some experience to recognize where the mistake is, and that you are capable of fixing it. If you’re baking a cake and realize, when it is half-finished baking, that you forgot the baking soda…there’s not much you can do about it at that point other than get out a new set of ingredients and bake a new cake. With yarn, you get a do-over. You can have five or six do-overs, even. It doesn’t make the do-overs any more enjoyable necessarily, but it still means they are possible, which is the important thing. You can’t say the same thing about all crafts, and it makes us lucky to be knitters.

Knitting world has a way to make that easier
Because there are a lot of knitters in the world, and a lot of sweater patterns, and a lot of knitters have made sweaters successfully, there is a lot of knowledge circulating out there that falls into the general tips-and-tricks category. Keep yourself aware of the tips you hear or read, and store them away in your brain if you think you might need them later.

I think a couple of things that are pretty consistent pieces of advice, particularly to the knitter less experienced with sweaters, would be:

-If you are working flat, put a removable marker on the piece in progress that will identify the RS of the work from WS. If you are working in the round, use markers to note the beginning of the round and the sides of the garment.

-If you are working with charted patterns, don’t hesitate to make your charts easier to read by making a working (personal) copy – add Row #s if the pattern didn’t come with any, blow them up to make bigger or easier to read.

-If (well, more like when, I suppose) you need to rip out a whole row/round, try ripping out a portion at a time, not the whole row all at once – especially if you are working with slippery yarn. It can make things a bit easier to take steps like that one piece at a time.

Listen to all the advice and take all the planning you like, but at the end of the day, remember to do as pleases you in the end, even if it does involve a few moments of trial and error. Knitting is our hobby and except for working with yarn and knitting needles, none of us are actually required to do anything, so. Go forth and knit away. It is true that sweaters are not the easiest projects in the world you can knit, but neither are all sweaters always the hardest things you can knit, and there’s nothing at all wrong with challenging yourself from time to time if it pays off in the end.

It has been a pleasure to write this little blog series and I hope it’s been a useful one for you! Certainly, I am neither the first nor the last person to blather on about knitting sweaters. I highly recommend taking advantage of other resources online, from your local library or yarn shop, and taking classes whenever possible to supplement and expand your knowledge. Goodness knows I’ll have to figure out something else to do with Thursdays on this blog. I’d better get cracking on some new Works In Progress to tell you about.

Happy knitting to all!

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Diving in

It’s technically fall, now, here in Southern Ontario, and although we’ve still not fully entered bundle-up territory (at 20C today I was still sans socks), there was enough of a temperature dip over the weekend to throw the knitter’s brain into action. Suddenly, I want to knit all the things. In my head, I am knitting all the things. All of these things, in fact:

That’s a pile of 2 potential sweaters and about a zillion accessories. They’re all going to be awesome, I know it.

What I am actually knitting, however, is this new cabled thing that just a week ago was still a pile of orange yarn. (It’s Cascade 220 Heathers, in colour #2425, because someone asked last week and the colour number is the best I can do – it’s probably formally named something awesome like persimmon or blaze).

Although I am not used to enjoying the colour orange quite this much, I’m not all surprised to be enjoying cables, and basically I just want to keep knitting nothing else but this until it’s done. (I can’t, because there are other designs and class prep and other people’s patterns and then there’s that pile of yarn up there in the top picture, and, um…yes. What was I saying again?)

I usually tackle sleeves first to get them done and out of the way quickly, but this time I went the more traditional route of knitting the back first so that a large part would be complete, and I’m glad I did. This is what I want to be my Rhinebeck sweater and if my pace continues like this, I’ll have it done with time to spare. (Probably. I think.)

What fall knits are you lusting after this month?
Happy knitting this Tuesday!

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If it’s a colour jag I’m okay with it

Yesterday, I finished up the sweater that resulted from that pile of delicious Madelinetosh tosh DK I bought on impulse over the summer. It’s great, and it’s almost ready to get shown off, and I am excited to share it with you, and this Sequoia is such an autumnal red-orange colour that the timing really couldn’t be better.

Like a lot of knitters, I have the tendency to stick to certain parts of the colour wheel when choosing my yarn colours. Reds, purples, greens, pinks are the shades you’ll see a lot of in my stash, and I love them a lot, but I’m trying to branch out. Yellows and oranges are the least common colours for me, so I’m approaching them a bit sideways by bringing in orange first, sneakily by way of red. Reddish orange, yes, I think we can be friends.

I did up the button-bands, and finished it all up, and gave it a bath, and now it’s blocking while the notes are off with the tech editor, which is all fantastic.

But I have to admit, I might be even more excited over the fact that I get to bring a new pile of red-orange wool onto the needles. This little stack of Cascade 220 Heathers has been waiting in the wings for almost a year, and I’ve known since about February exactly what I want to do with it.

There’s just so many awesome yarns out there, and so little time. I’ve got other colours waiting in the wings who might not stand for this orange colour jag business for too much longer. Better get knitting.

Happy Tuesday, knitting friends!

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On the Subject of Sweaters, Part 4: Reading the Pattern

This post is Part 4 in a series of weekly posts I’ll be doing on the process of sweater knitting: not exactly the nitty gritty details and techniques, but the opportunities and decisions you may encounter on the way to getting a knitted sweater that works for you. Previously, the topic was yarn selection and substitution. 

Before Casting On
So, you’re knitting a sweater. Let’s say for the sake of argument that you’ve done everything an ideal knitter would do up until this point: You’ve gone through a considerate process of selecting a pattern that you know will work for you and your sweater-wearing lifestyle needs; You’ve measured your body and considered what kind of fit and ease you want from the sweater and have chosen your pattern size (and style) accordingly; You’ve chosen a yarn that will work for the pattern in a colour that pleases you; You’ve even knitted and washed a gauge swatch (or possibly more than one) to make sure you’re knitting at the gauge you need…Now you can go right ahead and cast on and start the sweater, right?

Right! Well, more accurately, you could go ahead and do that. In fact, a lot of knitters would probably do that before doing any of those other things. You may have even been that knitter in the past. You might have been that knitter just this morning. In fact, there is really very little that is required of you in knitting – you need to use yarn and knitting needles, but that’s sort of it as far as hard-and-fast rules. You’re free to make changes on the fly if you think it will improve the final result, you can rip it all out and change to another pattern if you feel like it, or you can just knit blythely along and not change anything from the instructions at all and just see how it goes.

If you want to make sure you have a handle on everything you’re going to be doing to make this sweater, though, you should do that thing that most patterns put up towards the beginning of the pattern/magazine/book notes: “Read through entire pattern instructions first before casting on.” It’s the knitter’s version of RTFM (here, have the XKCD comic version, too), and if you’re feeling a little worried right now about having neglected this instruction in the past, don’t worry – you’re neither the first or last knitter to have skipped that step. I probably did it twice just last week. It’s also sometimes a matter of what level of experience you’re at, or familiarity with the kind of project, or confidence or willingness to just see what happens as you go that affects whether a knitter will actually follow that step. But you know, there’s just no harm at all in actually doing it, and it might even save you a few moments of confusion later on.

What To Look For
When they say ‘read through all instructions first’, don’t forget about all the pieces of information on the front page. You can generally count on a project description, materials list, gauge estimation, and possibly even a list of required skills to be printed even before you’ve flipped to the second page of the pattern. The project description may indicate things about the style, intended fit or amount of ease, and the method of construction (top-down, bottom-up, seamless, sideways, etc), although this will certainly vary widely between patterns.

Patterns produced by large, mainstream publishers will also often indicate a skills rating – easy, beginner, intermediate, advanced, and so forth. These categories also have some depth and breadth to them, and can feel a bit random sometimes, often because certain techniques are judged to have skills ratings on their own. For example, if a project has seams or cables, it is more likely to be charged as an intermediate pattern, but I could hold up a wide variety of patterns that qualify both as seamed garments and cabled garments, so I personally recommend ignoring the categorical rating and focusing instead on the individual skills required for the garment, and your comfort level of trying them out for the first time on that particular project if you haven’t done them before.

The materials will tell you things you want to know about the yarn, for sure, and most of our attention tends to go to this part of the materials list first. It’s what we’re spending most of our money on and it’s the part of this whole endeavour that can make or break a successful pattern – poor yarn choice can result in a garment that gets resigned to the back of the closet, or ripped out only to be returned to yarn state and re-knit into something else.

However, the rest of the materials list can also tell you a lot about what is going to happen in the process of making the pattern. If a skills list is not provided, reviewing your materials list and the pattern instructions can help you with this. Consider what each of these materials are likely to be used for. If it calls for buttons, then you can anticipate having to work some kind of buttonholes during the knitting or finishing process. If it calls for a tapestry needle, you can expect to work some kind of seams, or possibly kitchener stitch for grafting under-arms or joined collars at the back of the neck. If stitch markers are on the list, that likely means you’ll be working with differentiated stitch repeats that need some markers to help you keep things straight; or, it could be a sweater that joins to work seamlessly at a raglan or circular yoke, and stitch markers are needed to differentiate the sleeves from the body. If waste yarn or stitch holders are included, then you can anticipate having to put stitches aside at some point – perhaps for the under-arm of a sleeve on a seamless sweater, or for a three-needle bind-off for a sweater shoulder, or for the centre of the scoop-neck of a pullover. (Other popular occasions for this include the thumb gusset of gloves or mittens). And finally, if it calls for a crochet hook, you can expect some kind of crochet work at some point, most likely in the finishing stage for edges or embellishment.

In general, what you want to be looking out for when you read the pattern instructions is how it is constructed and what kind of steps will be involved in achieving that construction. Also, what kinds of techniques you will need to do. Is there waist shaping involved? Do you need to measure yourself to make sure the waist shaping will meet you at the right spot, or would some adjustment in length be desirable/possible?

Check to make sure you know what size you’re making, and take a pencil or highlighter (perhaps on a for-personal-use photocopy of the pattern if necessary), and underline or circle your own size notes at the part where various stitch counts or pattern repeats are given for multiple sizes at once – a la S(M, L, XL, 2XL) or similar. Does the pattern refer to charted stitch patterns? Double-check them to make sure you’re familiar with the notations the charts use, and refer to the glossary as a reminder.

How many words does the pattern devote to the instructions? A lot of printed publications aim to reduce the amount of page space taken up by a pattern, to keep the page count down and therefore keep printing costs down. Sometimes this results in them shortening everything. Not just K instead of knit, but “st st” instead of stockinette stitch, “g st” instead of garter stitch, “EOR” instead of end of row, and so on. Are there any abbreviations in the pattern glossary that you’re not familiar with? A lot of self-published patterns that are sold online are likely to have more wording and overall information in their written instructions (because they are limited only by what they can put into a PDF file, not a printed page), however the bare truth of the matter is that style varies greatly between designers and between publishers. Every so often you may just happen upon an instruction that isn’t worded as clearly as you would like, and this is when a solid reference manual or helpful knitter friend can be useful.

The other key piece of info to at least glance at – if for no other reason than to see if it exists – is the pattern schematic. The pattern schematic will hint at the shape and style of the garment, and give you at least a minimal amount of measurement information at a glance. Most schematics will indicate length, bust circumference, sleeve length, armhole depth, and shoulder width, but many will also go as far as to tell you sleeve cap depth, wrist circumference, length from waist to hem or from waist to collar/back of neck, and more. The photographs should also at least hint at this kind of shaping and fit as well, and you can judge for yourself based on your own measurements and body knowledge if this could be modified to fit you better. If there isn’t a schematic, some of this information can usually be deduced from the written instructions. If you are working from the bottom-up, it will tell you how long to knit for until breaking to work the armholes, and that will indicate length measurement from the hem to under-arms, for example. Again, schematic information does vary a great deal, so your mileage here may vary.

As far as techniques, you’ll be able to tell from reading through the instructions if you need to work increases and decreases for shaping, if charted instructions are required, and so on. Don’t be too intimidated if there are techniques or steps you haven’t done yet. You have to start somewhere. If you’re knitting a sweater with cables but haven’t done cables before, well, there is just no rule anywhere against that. Dive in if that is the cabled thing you want to work on. It IS true that the technique you haven’t tried yet has the potential to trip you up more so than familiar knitting steps, and you might well have to rip out and re-knit something along the way, but that’s not really a reason not to try it.

…And then change it if you want to
The best time to have a look through the pattern instructions is to discover if or how much to modify the instructions to fit your size and style. A great deal about size and fit can be customized by modifying existing patterns, and very often only a few things. This will be the subject of next week’s post in this series!

Until then, happy knitting, and have a few more resource links in case you need them:

Charts Made Simple, by JC Briar – for knitters who struggle with working from charted patterns, or need help learning how to do this effectively.

Knitspeak, by Andrea Berman Price – a guide to all the little glossary terms and knitting idiosyncracies that make up pattern notes and knitting language. This is a really fun pocket-sized guide.

The Secret Language of Knitters by Mary Beth Temple – a humorous guide to knitspeak that includes not just jargon but vernacular like “design element” (mistake that became a garment feature), and so forth.

Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – if you want to learn a bit about knitting technique and the struggles we all encounter, and laugh at yourself at the same time.

Principles of Knitting, by June Hemmons Hiatt – the last reference manual any knitter may ever need, because it is so comprehensive about everything from swatching to buttonholes to finishing techniques. For reference use more so than bedtime reading. (Heh).

Until next time, knitting friends!

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Briefly on a Monday

Another Monday is upon us, and despite all the sudden back-to-school whiffs of fall in the air, despite my strong leanings towards casting on approximately thirty seven cabled sweaters, man we still have ten days left in August. TEN DAYS. I shall cling to them before the fall frenzy is upon us. And this Monday brings another giveaway. Thanks to the all-knowing Random Number Generator, I’m pleased to announce the winner of the Stella Collection copy from last week’s post is…

Commenter number 58, or Ginny. Congratulations! And never fear everyone, I will be back with more giveaways come the fall. Meanwhile, I’ve been getting in more knitting time behind the scenes here, and plotting a new set of designs along with projects for myself. The sweatery thing I started with that lovely reddish Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK is coming along and even has 2 sleeves and half of a back piece now, which is fantastic. I am considering knitting everything in this colour from now on, I love it.

I hope you all have a good start to your week! More from me soon, and keep some yarn close by as always.

Pattern Giveaway: The Stella Collection

Before the weekend is upon us, dear knitters, I have another giveaway for you this week! Tanis and Julie over at Tanis Fiber Arts have designed a set of four shawls and lace accessories for summer or light accessory occasions, all using different Tanis Fiber Arts yarns. They are all one-skein or two-skein projects and would be approachable for knitters looking to broaden their lace knitting skills. The Stella Collection is named for different star names (thus, Stella), but also Tanis’ sweet dog is named Stella, which is pretty darned cute I must say.

I quite like the Adhara triangular shawl and the Solaria cowl (above), but you can check out all four of the lacy patterns in the E-book here on Ravelry. To be entered to win a copy of the e-book, leave a comment on this post some time before noon EST on Monday, telling me what your preferred kind of lace accessory is! I’ll draw a winner some time on Monday afternoon.

Happy knitting this weekend! I hope you’ll get to enjoy some of the same fine weather we are getting in Southern Ontario this week. August has, mercifully, decided to be less humid and stifling than July and it makes for much more pleasant knitting time.

What’s the knitterly version of a hat tip

I spent the last couple of days in the company of Peterborough knitters, knitting and generally hanging out and being relaxed, which was quite nice.

The fine knitters at Needles in the Hay have been doing a knitalong for my Lakeshore shawl pattern, all using Tanis Fiber Arts silk. I was just tickled that they chose this for a knitalong, and after a little less than a month of knitting several of them have already finished. It is honestly making me want a second one of my own. (Teal, this time. I’ve already picked my colours. What, I’m not the only knitter who thinks about yarn colours at random intervals, right?)

Anyhoo, hanging with them was just ducky. Fantastic knitting, ladies, I am envious of all of your final products and look forward to visiting again soon! Stay awesome.

New week, new knitting

After such an awesome response on my book review/giveaway post, I’m sorry I only have one copy of the book to give away! But it is indeed a useful little book and I enjoyed hearing from you about cast-ons and bind-offs. Like many of you, I use the long-tail cast-on (thumb method) quite a bit, but it’s always good to have other options in your pocket for different kinds of edges. Thanks to the random number generator, I’m happy to report that commenter #255 will receive this book – congratulations, Lori! I’ll email you to get in touch.

In the mean time, I’m moving forward with some new projects this week and enjoying a couple of days of visiting with knitterly friends. The Turtlepurl socks are coming along…

…and I’ve treated myself to starting a new sweater with the Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK I splurged on in July. The sequoia colour is pretty much to die for, so much so I’m considering going on a colour jag with reddish-orange, just in time for fall.

Happy Monday!

Another year

Today is my birthday, and while it’s a working knitting day (still finishing up some of those pesky deadline projects), at least it’s a day I get to spend with yarn, and the non-yarn bits have been a bit relaxed so far. I’m planning a full do-whatever-i-want-day sometime next week as recompense for having to use my brain on my birthday – heck, the “have a pedicure then go buy an armload of Madelinetosh” seemed to work well on my day off a few weeks ago, perhaps I’ll repeat that endeavour. Practice does always help matters, after all.

But speaking of yarn – this morning I discovered that the mail had brought a lovely enormous box of it on my doorstep, from Knit Picks (to be revealed later in knitted object form, if all goes as planned), which I don’t think I have to tell you is a pretty great thing.

Then I had lunch with a friend. It was poutine. (I decided today would finally be the day I tried lobster poutine. It was pretty good but, I concluded, not actually necessary. Regular poutine is still awesome no matter what.

Now I am ensconced with my knitting and some cake, with a little new knitting reading to add to my bookshelf courtesy of one of my gifts – not too shabby.

Thanks for being out there in internet-land, knitter friends! If I could share my cake with you through the blog, I would.