Jane of All Trades

So the past two weeks afforded me two great chunks of knitting time: the kids’ swimming lessons, and the Olympics.  During that time, I knit the sleeves of the Phyllo Yoked Pullover:

then started the body and knit upward from the hem to the underarm:

(Contrary to what it looks like in the crappy, poorly-lit pictures I took, both the body and the arms are made from the same color yarn–though neither color here is quite it.)

If you’re looking at this bodice and thinking, “What?  It’s a crop sweater?” or maybe, “She must have a really short torso,” well, you’re almost right.  See, I was knitting this tube on a shorter cable circular–maybe 26 inches.  And so it was all bunchy.  Around about the waist shaping (accomplished by dropping down a needle size, from a US 7 to a 6) I thought it was, perhaps, a bit too bunchy.

But I persevered, against all doubt, in the face of overwhelming odds, just like a slightly less-than-fit Olympian.

Then, when I was all done, I knit it off (gather after bunch after fold) onto a 41″ cable–you know, just to see what it looked like.

It looked like the bodice of a Sweater Knit for Two.

So it’s not that it’s too short, in the picture above, it’s that it has a bad aspect ratio.  It’s too WIDE.  Way too wide.  wide enough that I had to take out FOUR of those pattern repeats.  And size down my needles.

The irony here, of course, is that not only did I swatch and then do the requisite math (I’m using a heavier yarn and had no expectation of actually hitting the guage specified in the pattern), but then I deliberately *knit the sleeves first* so that they would be like a really big swatch, and I could verify that everything was working out as planned.

What went wrong?  Aurgh.  Insert wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Perhaps my math was off, though I double checked it.  Perhaps my guage shifted wildly, though I was sober while knitting and it doesn’t look much different than the sleeves.

Perhaps…  Perhaps it’s a trick of the cotton silk yarn!  That’s it!  It stretched.  Yes.  Laterally.  It stretched laterally under its own weight while I knit!

That’s the ticket…

So I frogged it.  And re-checked my gauge, and re-calculated the math.  And I’m re-kitting it, still in the hopes that I will have it ready to wear when I go to Vermont in a couple of weeks.

It’s looking kind of small.

SO I started this project…

…out of Malabrigo, which I love.  It’s going to be an afghan…

…or a lap blanket, depending on how soon I run out of money.

Because it turns out that a blanket’s worth of Malabrigo is a lot of money.  I’m really enjoying knitting it, though.  Malabrigo is like fluffy handdyed butter, and it knits up beautifully, and the color changes keep my inner short-attention-span knitter entertained.  I’m using the leftover odds and ends to make an all-Malabrigo patchwork, so if you have any, feel free to send them on by.

Simple enough question, but…

A few weeks ago I was on a self-imposed march to finish my many UFO’s.  That lasted for a little while, and I did make some progress…  And then I got the itch.  Several. 

My latest newly-started project Is the Norah Gaughan’s Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature.  Like manyall of projects in the book, it is equal parts genius (Oooh–interlocking spirals!  How did she think of that?) and perplexity (What woman (other than the fetching young model) really wants her nipple poking through the eyelet yoke?).

So there will be modifications.  The first is I am knitting everything in the round, and starting with the sleeves so I would have a small area to try out my gauge and the stitch pattern.  I’m taking the motif from the yoke and incorporating it around the hem and cuffs, because I’m not a big fan of the rolled hem on this design.  It took me awhile to get the pattern to work on the cuff, which I am attributing mainly to the late hour.  I knit and frogged this 3 or 4 times:

But I am happy with it now.  Once I had mastered it, I put it on waste yarn, knit the other cuff, and then put them both on a large circular to knit them together so that they would be unavoidably identical.

The cuffs are belled, seriously belled, and I sized them down a bit.  Then I knit them fairly closely through the forearm and started working increases around the elbow.  Which was great.  Smooth sailing.  I got all the way up to the bicep before realizing that perhaps I had worked too many increases, and the sleeves were a tad bit too big, and then I pressed on, knitting almost up to the armpit before admitting that I really needed to frog back to the forearm and re-knit.  I hate that.  I especially hate it when I am working two-at-a-time, because all of my care in having identical items is sure to go awry when figuring out exactly how far to frog back.

Aurgh. 

But I did, and re-loaded them on the needle, and it’s back to the races. 

Other changes:  I’m using Misti Pima Silk in olive khaki, knit at a gauge of 19 sts X 23 r to 4 inches.  This is a larger gauge than called for (21 sts) and so the requisite math ensued.  Plus, the overall look is a little more rustic. 

Plus, I will probably hold off on any eyelets until I am above the nipple level.