Plugging Away

Hi, All. Not much more progress, but enough to post and let you know I'm still at it.



This is the back. I'm about 7 inches into the armhole. 5 more inches to go.



I'm pretty happy with it. The pattern is starting to really come out now. I've got 15 more rows to finish this particular motif and the I THINK I will do another row of trees. Not positive, yet. I really like this "off the cuff" knitting. You just never know where it will end up.

Hope the rest of you are still progressing. Take care. Tracy J

Neck and front bands

I have finished the "Cut and Sew" neckline and front bands. I have a step by step narrative on my blog. Pictures of the finished sweater will follow after its bath.

Getting There....

Hi, All.

I've just finished the underarm gussets and I'm starting on the chest.

I am pretty sick of lice. Can't wait for the sleeves :p

Here's the patterns that I have put together for the chest and shoulder area.

This will fill the 70 rows and then I will have 2 inches to play with at the top. Not sure what I will do there. I'm just making this thing up as I go along. It's fun.

So, how are the rest of you doing?

Take care....Tracy J

Coming tomorrow

I'm working on a steek tutorial. I'll publish it tomorrow. I can publish this on my blog and link to it here. I finished one sleeve and used that to measure armhole depth. I'll also do a "Cut and Sew" neckline tutorial. I'm still thinking about how I want to finish the neckline.

The attack of the gauge grinch

My sweater sleeve grows slowly. Many of you know the feeling. Knit, knit, knit, measure. No change! Knit, knit, knit. measure again. I have done all the increases that I calculated. The sleeve is still too narrow and shorter than expected. Check the gauge on the sweater body in the lice section. I wish I had measured the gauge on the swatch before its bath. I think it relaxed. Refigure using the new figures. I've almost finished the "extra" increases and the sleeve width looks good. I'm at 16" long and close to the 20" circumference that I aimed for. Lice will continue until 19" and then the zigzag pattern like the yoke peerie. The sleeve will be worked straight after I finish the increases. I'll count the rows of lice to make the other sleeve match.

The light is even closer

I know the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train!!I have 5 rows to go on the body and 3 of them are knit plain. What you don't see here is more zigzag pattern. I had to rip out 3 rows because I wanted it to mirror what is below the yoke. Next up is sleeves. After I knit one sleeve, I'll probably sew the steeks. At that time, I'll know exactly how wide the sleeve top is. I'm doing a round neck, as I don't look good in boat necks and this is a cardigan. The top of the sweater looks like it pulls in, but it is still on the needles. My shoulders are narrower than my hips anyway. I have a better picture of the yoke pattern, but don't look too closely at the zigzags. They are mirrored now.

Moving ahead. Finally!

Hi, All. I finally am moving forwards instead of backwards. Sheesh. I got my gauge with the headband and worked out the math quite easily. Then I start knitting totally wonky...either too loose or too tight. ARGH! I had to tear it out 5 times. That's bad when you are a wide body using not so heavy yarn. The yarn was beginning to look pretty frazzled. Anyway, I've got my gauge correct and am finishing up the bottom pattern. Then I'll start the lice. I think I will be putting in gussets at the under arm. I have no idea what I'll be doing for the chest patterning. I'm just winging it. I've got 10 inches or so before I have to decide.

No way will I be ready to steek at the end of the month. I'll just hide and watch while I'm slowly knitting away.

No headband but graphs galore

Hey ho, gang!

I haven't had the time lately to work on the headband and probably won't until later. I did do some preliminary swatching to check to see if my gauge had changed from when I did the Sirdal and nothing has changed, so I'm confident in my gauge calculations.

In the meantime, I've been doing designs for the sweater and taking all sorts of inspiration from Latvian, Estonian, and Scandinavian designs. The center panel will have the lily flowers separated with lozenges that contain images from my life. The lower panel will contain more traditional figures. Between the panels I'm thinking of doing a latticework similar to this.

The sweater will have a front half opening with a lozenge being the placket for the zipper. When I have a spare moment between jobs (the day one and the knitting ones), I'll sit down and work out the main charts for the lovely thing. The motif bands will be white on black with the lattice white on black. Cuffs and bottom edge will be hemmed. And as I'm pear shaped, the sides will have a wedge motif to disguise the shaping.

And they say I'm crazy. Muwhahahahahaha!!