Possessed to Knit

Twinflower Completed

Here is my completed Twinflower for my sister, Teresa, as a slighlty late birthday present.  I selected Knit Picks Stroll Sport in the Holly Berry colorway because Teresa prefers machine washable yarns.  I used my size 5 (3.75 mm) Addi Lace fixed needles for the body and my size 4 (3.50 mm) Addi Lace fixed needles for the hem and the cabled neckband.  The set-in sleeves were a bit of a challenge, and Amy Herzog has a helpful blog about setting in sleeves here.  I also made a sample of a sewn hem and a knitted together hem, and the sewn hem looked much nicer.  I found some heel reinforcing yarn in a similar color at Fibre Space for sewing the hems down.   I will mail it tomorrow and I certainly look forward to hearing how it fits.

Derica Kane Cardigan Completed

Here is my completed Derica Kane Cardigan.  The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza worsted weight yarn in the Sugar colorway.  I used size 8 (5.00 mm) Addi Lace clicks for the body and size 6 (4.00 mm) for the ribbing.  I started with two 8 oz skeins of yarn and switched skeins every two rows to help blend the hand-dyed colors more evenly throughout the body and the sleeves. 

I made several adjustments to the design.  I lengthened the sleeves by about 2 inches and the body by almost an inch.  I brought the neckline in closer to the neck and added an inch to the raglan yoke and two more buttons.  I followed Lucy Neatby's Finesse Your Knitting advice and removed the stair step decreases from the neckline.  Miss Babs Yowza yarn is wonderful to knit with and is a very soft superwash merino yarn. 

Justin's Top Down Raglan Completed

I completed Justin's top-down raglan a while ago and am just getting to writing about it.  As with most knitting projects, the second one comes out a little nicer than the first one.  My Ravelry sister, Laura, went to her local fabric store and bought more of these football buttons so I would have enough for Justin's sweater.  I am a firm believer in buttons making or breaking a sweater.  Of course, there were lots of baseball buttons at my fabric store.  Justin wanted football buttons and that is what we gave him.  Now that the colder weather is upon us, Justin & Joshua are happily wearing their matching cardigans to school each day.

Thank you to Laura for all of her help with the football buttons.

Joshua's Top-Down Raglan Sweater Completed

Here is Joshua's sweater complete with Thomas the Train style buttons.  The sweater is size 10 and is a little big on him for now, he will surely grow into it.  After cutting and finishing the steek, I worked the neck band and button bands on size 5 Denise needles in k1, p1 rib.  I picked up 3 sts for every 4 rows on the stockinette part of the sweater and 4 sts for every 5 rows on the ribbing part of the sweater for the button and buttonhole bands.  The neck looks a little wavy to me, maybe it will look better when he wears it.  I had never used Berroco Vintage before.  I did not find any knots in any of the skeins and it knitted up nicely.  I look forward to hearing how it washes up.  This yarn is machine washable and is 50% acrylic, 40% wool, and 10% nylon.  It is starting to get cooler these days so Joshua should be wearing it very soon.

Colin's Sweater Completed

I completed Colin's sweater this week and here he is modeling it.  I used the Hearts Rib pattern with the Polo collar from the Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters Pattern and size 9 Addi Turbo needles.  I used size 8 Addi Turbo needles for the collar.  I went up a needle size from Caitlin's sweater as hers fits snuggly and Colin is about 7 lbs heavier than her.  I didn't want to interrupt the heart motifs so I ended up making it a little bit longer.  I made the Large size sweater and the XXL size for the bottom piece.  It fits him comfortably and is maybe a little bit big, but he doesn't seem to mind.  I used 4 balls of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the Fired Brick colorway.  Now Caitlin & Colin each have a sweater for the winter season. 

Caitlin's Sweater Completed

Here is Caitlin modeling her new sweater for winter.  I made her the mock cable sweater with the Polo collar from the Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters pattern.  I used 4 balls of Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the Wisteria colorway and my size 8 Namaste straight glass needles.  She seems to like it okay so far, but time will tell if she tries to wiggle out of it.

The sizing was a bit of a challenge as the mock cable pulled the knitting in a bit more than I expected and I might have been knitting more tightly with the glass needles.  I made the top piece in the large size and the bottom piece in the XXL size to compensate for the top piece being a little small.  I sewed the bottom piece for 4" on each side and then left a 4" gap for her legs.  The pattern starts with about 2" of ribbing and increases on each edge, every other row.  It turns out that the end of the row increases are neater than the beginning of the row increases, so I would suggest increasing at the end of each row starting with the first row after the cast on.

Matinee Coat Completed

I have completed the Debbie Bliss Matinee Coat for our neighbors' new baby, Kara.  I used 3.5 mm needles for the body and 3.00 mm needles for the edging, which turned out to be a little smaller than the gauge.  I thought about knitting it all in one piece with the fronts and back totally over 200 sts for this 6 to 9 month size.  I did not want all the yarn ends at the front so I knit it in pieces (with a 1 st garter st selvedge) and hid all the ends in the seams.  I knitted the sleeves at the same time and then grafted them into the armholes.  I used a 2 stitch i-cord for the ribbon.  If I were to knit this again, I would knit it all in one piece and knit the sleeves from the top down in the round. 

I did not have enough yarn to complete the edging and found two generous Ravelry members who also had this yarn in their stash.  LollyNo2 had 3 balls of this Baby Cashmerino and PennyB had a partial ball in the same dye lot.  I just had PennyB send me hers and was grateful to have LollyNo2 as a back up.  Thank you to both of them for their help and now I have two new Ravelry friends.

Matinee Coat

I've started the Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino book.  It is for our neighbors' new baby, Kara.  I'm making the 6 month to 9 month size, so I have a little while to complete it.  I've knitted with this yarn before and like it a lot as it is very soft.  I'm using size 3.50 mm Addi Turbo circular needles.  I probably could have gone up to a 3.75 mm needle as the gauge is coming out slightly small.  I have the back completed, pictured to the left, and I have started the sleeves.  I'm knitting them simultaneously which is going very smoothly for me, and this way they will both turn out to be exactly the same.

Justin's Top-Down Raglan Sweater Completed

I have finished Justin's top-down raglan cardigan, complete with basketball buttons.  This is the last of my Knit Picks Swish Superwash in the Red Pepper colorway.  They discontinued this color and fortunately, I had just enough to complete Justin's sweater.  I made a size 8 for him, instead of a size 6, as I had originally planned.  I thought with knitting it in the round that I would have a tighter gauge and it would turn out smaller, and it did.  My gauge was 5 sts to the inch on my size 8 Denise needles instead of around 4.5 sts to the inch that I got on Joshua's sweater that I knitted back and forth.  I look forward to returning to Lawrence's Aguona laptop bag tonight and feel better now that I have some more steeking experience under my belt. 

Practice Steek

This raglan cardigan is for my nephew, Justin.  I knitted on for his brother, Joshua last month.  I took the opportunity to improve the pattern and to practice my steeking before I cut the laptop bag I am knitting for Lawrence.  I haven't steeked a sweater for a long time and when I did, it was not with slippery superwash yarn. 

I essentially knitted this topdown raglan in the round with a six stitch steek which is outlined by the basting I added once I had bound off the sweater.  I sewed 2 rows of stitches one stitch inside the basting with my sewing machine on each side of the steek.  I have the steek partially cut here.  I then sewed a piece of seam binding to each edge and trimmed the loose stitches back a bit.  I plan to sew the seam binding invisibly to the inside edge of the sweater after knitting up the bands.  I have to knit the neck first and I am trying to figure out where to start picking up the stitches near the steek.  I am also concerned about the bulk of the steek edge as this is worsted weight yarn (Knit Picks Swish worsted in the Red Pepper colorway).  Hopefully, the seam binding will help me secure this unruly edge.