Here at the End of Paper Things

Because I love a good pretentiously named sweater

I finished my first sweater of 2013 last night at 11, so technically just barely finished in January.  That means I'm still on schedule for 12 sweaters in 12 months.  Of course I started it mid-December but whatever.

I'm wearing a black camisole underneath (because I always wear a camisole underneath everything) so that lace is not part of the sweater.

The stitch pattern is lifted from Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts.... so you've seen it before.  It's a very simple stitch pattern so it was easy to sweaterize.  I worked it from the bottom up because I am perpetually indecisive.  This way I didn't have to decide on neckline shape or raglan versus set in sleeves until most of the sweater was knit.  

I worked faux seams along the sides of the body, running along the underside of the arm, and then up along the raglan seams.  I love using a raglan seam as a design element with a bold line or cable.  Plus the "seam" helps hide the jog when you change rows.  All cast ons and bind offs are of the tubular sort, worked over 2x2 rib.  I swear one day I'll get a tutorial up for that.

I'm an idiot and can't use the self timer on my camera apparently, but look how pretty the stitch pattern is!  Plus you can see the neckline.  The whole sweater is seamless so when I started the neckline shaping I bound off one stitch (for the bottom of the V) and cast on 8 steek stitches.  After I finished knitting I machine sewed the steeks (2 lines on each side) and cut.  I used a blanket stitch to tack down the steeks then picked up and knit the neckline.  It wasn't my first steek and I doubt it will be my last.  Sometimes I wonder why people say things are scary when they're really not that bad.  Steeks aren't scary, they're easier than the alternative!

Here's a more flattering but much less informative rear view.  The yarns are dark grey and off white (natural?  sheep colored?).  They contrast pretty well but I've noticed that from afar they seem to look more like a heathered solid.  

Speaking of which, the yarns were salvaged from two old sweaters.  The grey is wool and the natural is a really soft yummy angora wool blend.  The grey isn't that soft but the combination of the two is super snuggly and warm.  I'm glad I combined them because I didn't think a sweater out of the grey would be wearable.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the outcome.  After taking these pics we went for a bike ride and it was comfortable and warm enough to go jacketless (which in January in Seattle is no small feat).  Actually hurray for finally having a nice enough day for outside pictures.  I didn't actually do any bike riding but the boy is getting the hang of this bike thing =)

wip wednesday,,,

on thursday...  but wip thursday doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

still chugging away on my endpaper pullover.  i've finished one of the sleeves to the underarm and am just about to start the bust shaping on the body.  i cast on the second sleeve and have the ribbing plus about 2 inches of colorwork done.  all in all i feel pretty much on schedule to finish 12 sweaters this year.

but then, the year is still young eh?  anybody else have any overenthusiastic goals for this year??

tips & tricks: stranded

No, not that kind of stranded.  Today some general stranded knitting tips for your perusal, consideration, and general cogitation.

1. Keep the stitches on the right needle spread out like this:

Not scrunched up like this:

This'll help keep your floats nice and even.  When you aren't using a strand of yarn it's carried behind the stitches and makes a float.  The hardest thing for me when I first tried colorwork was keeping my floats loose enough.  Tight floats make your fabric pull in and pucker like crazy so this is pretty important.

2. Weave/catch/wrap long floats.  I recently saw someone imply that this isn't really necessary, and perhaps if you live in a world without watches, buttons, knobs, and wardrobe malfunctions it isn't.  For those of you who live in my world however, I recommend wrapping every 3 or 4 stitches.  Floats can easily get snagged and snagged floats leads to tears and curses.  They can also mess with your tension.  How do you weave your floats?  Like this:

Top left: two strands coming out of the work.  Top right: cross the strands

Bottom left: twist the strands around each other.  Bottom right: you can (kinda) see how the grey strand is coming out of the middle of the long run of beige stitches and that's how it's done.

3. Pick an easy pattern for your first go.  I don't mean pick a scarf or gloves (although fingerless gloves are an excellent starter pattern to practice your tension).  Pick a stitch pattern that's intuitive.  It will help you learn to read your knitting and you won't have to constantly refer to the chart (thus giving you more concentration to bestow upon maintaining your tension).

A simple chevron pattern is easy to remember and predict.

Endpaper mitts are a popular choice for beginner fairislers

How do you know if it's simple?  One way is to look at the size of one repeat.  4 stitches by 8 rows?  Easy. 10 stitches by 10 rows?  All right...  50 stitches by 100 rows?  Maybe not for your first go.

4. Work it in the round.  This is optional but highly recommended.  Why?  You can't read the pattern from the wrong side which makes purling across pretty much interminable.  Plus it's pretty hard to keep your tension nice on those edges (at least that's what I've found).  

5. Work it inside out.  Especially if you're working on DPNs or magic looping.  Otherwise the floats where you change needles are liable to be way tight.  As a matter of fact, as long as you're working inside out you don't need to worry too much about tight floats.  It helps keep your floats nice and long.  That's a good thing.  Remember tight floats mean tight sleeves/gloves/whatever and puckered stitches.

That being said, be sure to pull your yarns tight at the beginning of each needle.  Too long and loose floats can be unattractive.  I find I get the best results by pulling tight when I'm knitting the second stitch not the first.  If I pull the first stitch tight the yarn always ends up loosening back up.  This brings me to...

6. Blocking works wonders.  I don't have a good before and after, but trust me.  Blocking will smooth out most tension issues as long as they're not pervasive (think lots of too tight floats).  Be aggressive (just be sure to block your swatch so you know if everything's gonna get crazy big).

7. Work your gauge swatch in the round.  I know, I know.  But do it anyway.  If you don't believe me, try it both ways.  I think you'll be surprised.

8. The purl faux seam.  Sounds crazy right?  Why would I work something in the round and go to the trouble of including a fake seam???  Because it will hide the jogs between rows and that's a good thing.  Plus it gives you a good place for increases/decreases.  All my decreases are worked on either side of that purl stitch.  I've tried using a knit stitch instead, and while it looks all right it doesn't really hide the jog as well.  Not that anyone but you is ever going to look that closely at your non-seams.

9. Find what works for you when it comes to weaving in ends, but remember that you've already got some extra yarnz to hang on to.  Do yourself a favor and try the braided or Russian join.  They're both pretty great but I think the braided join is easier.

10. Use a nice cast on.  Seriously.  Use a tubular cast on.  Just do it.  Techknitter's tutorials are generally brilliant.  She doesn't seem to have one for casting on 2x2 ribbing but now that I've done it I might put up a tutorial on how it works.   Seriously, though, why waste all that time and effort and not use the nicest looking cast on you can find???  I promise, it's not that hard.  I don't even need to look at the tutorial any more (I use tubular cast ons always).

See how pretty and stretchy?  Tubular cast on for 2x2 rib

11. Steek it.  Seriously, it isn't that bad.  If you have any sewing experience at all and a sewing machine I can highly recommend that option.  Block your piece, sew your reinforcements, cut, turn, sew.  No big D.  Even with superwash wool it's unlikely to all unravel as soon as you cut (after sewing your reinforcements of course).

12. Don't be afraid.  Tackle this one step at a time.  First try knitting in the round, then the tubular cast on, then a small stranded project, then a whole stranded steeked sweater or blanket or whatever.  Just remember people were doing this before you ever started knitting and they'll be doing it long after you've been buried in your favorite knit cardigan.

13. Finally, and this one may seem obvious, but do not put two different stranded WIPs in the same bag together and then knit.  Tragedy will ensue.

I hope that the wisdom gained from my abject failures (I jest; most of them weren't that bad... but some of them were pretty bad) can help someone just starting out.  If the internet had been then what it is now it would have definitely saved me some bitter tears.

tips & tricks: colorwork

So I originally wanted to write a post with some advice for those wanting to tackle colorwork (e.g. fair isle) knitting for the first time.  Once I uploaded all the pictures for this one, though, I decided it would be way too big for one post if I put up everything so stay tuned; there's more to come tomorrow.

Today's  topic: what to do if you realize that you messed up on the row before (or even a couple of rows before).  This is basically how it works with any kind of knitting.  Frog not; just drop the offending stitch right off your needles.

Take your right hand needle (or an extra needle) and pull on the yarn to one side of the offending stitch, thus pulling it out of the loop (stitch) below.

... and here it is once you'e pulled the stitch out.  Repeat as necessary for as many rows as you need.  I prefer to fix one stitch at a time, though, for simplicity's sake.

Now stick your right/spare needle through that recently liberated loop (in this case grey) from right to left/front to back (things can get a bit shifty but hopefully you get the idea.  If you pick this stitch up twisted or backwards it will show.  Of course, it's your sweater I'm not gonna make you fix it.  Then again, if you aren't gonna fix it right why fix it at all?).  

Now that you've got the grey stitch on your right needle, what color should be above it?  In this case white (tan/beige/whatever) is next.  Note that this example was staged and the stitch was fine to begin with.  Ironically when I picked this up and started knitting today, though, I'd done 3 stitches in a row wrong.  Would that I'd gotten pictures of the real thing but alas this will have to do for now.

Anyway, find the beige strand (called a float) from the correct row and stick your needle under it.  It should be behind the stitch on your needle.  I think it's worth mentioning if it's in front of that stitch you'll end up with a purl not a knit stitch.  This is kind of a biggie.  Especially if you're fixing several stitches in a row or going down several rows.  Picking up the wrong strands can mess up your tension and just generally ruin your day.

Now it's time to get your left needle involved.  Stick it through the front of the grey stitch with the beige strand still laying across the right hand needle.  It will basically look like you're about to do a normal knit stitch except that you're not hanging onto any yarn tails.

Now pull that beige strand through the grey stitch with the right hand needle (again just like you're doing a normal knit stitch)

et voila!  

It is fixed.  

This is the same general idea you can use to fix a myriad of mistakes: a miscrossed cable, a knit instead of a purl, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head but for realz if you don't know how to do this it's worth learning.

Obviously this post is already very photo heavy so I'll be back with more colorwork tips tomorrow.

wip wednesday

it's gettin' there

isn't it purty?

left: last week. right: this week

i thought this sweater would take forever but i'm making pretty good progress.  we'll see if i make it to 12 sweaters this year, though. my guess? not at this gauge! 

wip wednesdsay

with christmas over i can't help but breath a sigh of relief.  no more deadlines, no more shopping, no more getting all kerbobbled...

and now i can spend my time being selfish.  sweater #1 of (hopefully) 12 to be finished in 2013.  

i've got half a sleeve and a few inches of the body.  i love colorwork and i think it looks really good in these neutrals.