Tag Archives: sweater

Brown Sweater

I recently realised that I have a lot of projects on my Ravelry pages that aren't blogged. So I'm going to put in a few postings to catch up. Since it's some time since I knitted these, details are likely to be sketchy, but at least I'll have the photos in place.

First up is a sweater I knitted for my husband in Jean Wong's Level 2 knitting class (a simplified version of the Nihon Vogue course). The requirements are for a round-neck sweater; my husband picked the yarn colour and the simple k3, p1 rib pattern. The rest was customised to his measurements. The ribbing around the neck, waist, and arms is k1p1 on smaller needles.

I used Elann's Coto Canapone, a cotton/hemp yarn that shrinks when washed. Fortunately you do things properly for knitting class, so I did wash and block the gauge swatch. I made the body a little too long but am hoping it will shrink a little when washed again. I also made the ribbing around the neckline a little too deep; next time I'd make it only half the width. The yarn is hard on your hands while knitting, but does knit up really nicely and should wear well (my husband is hard on clothes). It's also a reasonable price, and is machine-washable.

Yarn: Elann Coto Canapone, 20 skeins

Needles: 3.5 for the body, 3.25 for the ribbing

Pattern: my own, based on k3p1 rib for the boddy and k1p1 ribbing

Comments: the yarn shrinks when washed

Dates: Started September 13 2008, completed November 12 2008

Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/laurendw/ribbed-mens-sweater

Brown Men's Sweater

Brown Men's Sweater

Pooling Sweater

I finished my son's sweater some time ago, but finally got around to taking the photo and cropping it and uploading. He likes it, it's none too big but will probably last a while since kids of his age tend to grow up rather than out. There's a bit of pooling; I actually quite like the way it came out. The zig-zags somehow match the speed at which he usually hurtles around.

kid\'s sweater front

the front

kid\'s sweater back

the back

kid\'s sweater front

another photo of the front

Sweater Progress

It's been a while since I posted about an actual WIP; in fact it's been a while since I posted at all (too much work at work, and too little sleep at home; at times we joke about giving the toddler the old-fashioned gripe water that really did put them to sleep for a while). So in this post you get two status photos, not one. This was my mindless knitting project while at Madrona, since there was only a small part where I had to pay attention to what I was doing.

The earlier version; the blue yarn is from the provisional cast-on. Nice and colourful and my son claims to like it (yes, he does like the pink bits scattered through). And since it's acrylic/nylon (Wendy Peter Pan Double Knit in colourway 1320), it's easy to toss in the washing machine (important with a 9-yr-old boy). Yarn reviews are available at Ravelry.

raglan sweater

The design is a simple one, mostly cobbled together from Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English, with a stocking stitch body and a horseshoe cable up the arm. I knitted the arms at the same time on two circular needles and I think it's actually easier to knit them flat and seam them! The bits of knitting and needles and yarn were forever getting tangled up and I think my gauge varied more than it usually does. Also, trying to graft together the sleeves and body at the underarms was more tricky than I anticipated because of the different directions the various bits of fabric were pulling in. I got it done eventually, and it should hold as I double-grafted some of it, but it was more tricky than I liked. Maybe practise makes perfect, or maybe I'll just stick to regular seams, which are easier to get right.

further along on the raglan kid's sweater

It turned out to be just as well I'd started with a provisional cast-on, since I am currently adding some more length to the body, knitting down. When you're designing "on the fly" as I was, provisional cast-ons make life a whole lot easier.