Category Archives: february baby sweater

Top-down seamless cardigan

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With all that top-down-seamless-making-it-up-as-I-go cardigan button angst, I decided to go with the mustard buttons.

I had the perfectly matched sleeveless shell to wear with it.

Instead of sewing on the buttons, I used these tiny codder ( or are they cotter) pins that were in some of the button boxes from iPad aunt.  The button shank was long enough to fit through the knitted button band so I could wiggle the codder pin through it.  No tedious sewing and I can change out the buttons as I wish!

Plus I decided to just go with three buttons.

The pin nestles right into the knitting.

I love this sweater.  The colors played well together and from a distance, it looks like a solid color.  The Debbie Bliss Mia yarn felt good in my hands.  The color did bleed a bit.

The “false” seam kept the sweater from twisting.  I just did a line of reverse stockinette at the “seam” line.

The thing I don’t love is the fit.  Yes, I tried it on as I knit but after soaking and blocking, the sweater grew.

My swatch was five inches to the inch but I think I swatch too tightly (just want to get it done!) and when I’m knitting, I’m more relaxed.  This ended up being four stitches to the inch.  So it’s a bit large.  Like six inches too large.

And it stretched throughout the day.  The neckline was almost to the edge of my shoulder!

Other than starting over, I’m at a loss as to a solution. I don’t have any problems ripping it all out and starting over with fewer stitches, especially knowing that I have enough yarn.

Seems like I’m batting ZERO so far this year with sweaters that fit.

What would you do?  Rip or ???

 

Top-down progress

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April showers bring May flowers so the true colors are not quite shown in the photos below due to the snowy/rainy and cloudy days we’re experiencing this week.

Finished the body and began one sleeve.

I need to find my bamboo double-pointed needles as these metal ones are very slippery and the stitches fall off the ends.  Of course, I could use more than four needles with fewer stitches on the needles.

Picot hem – though I did not cut the green yarn yet.  Just in case I don’t like it, I can rip it out and try something else without worrying about having too much or too little yarn to work with.  I really hope blocking will keep the bottom edge from curling.  If not, I’ll need to come up with another plan.

Cable cast-on two stitches and bind off five.  Place the last bind off stitch back on the left needle, cable cast-on two stitches and repeat to the end of the row.  Not hard but it uses more yarn.

If you have been following me for some time, you know I don’t like to sew seams.  However, seams do add structure.  So I made fake seams by doing a reverse stockinette stitch at the center underarm point all the way down to the hem.

It looks like a seam and will (hopefully) keep the sweater from twisting out of shape.  Have you ever used that technique?  More importantly – does it work?

Making it up – part 2

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It’s been dark and dreary all week with clouds and rain so I wasn’t able to take pictures of my top-down-circular-yoke sweater.  At least all the snow has melted from last week!

The colors are so close in tone that they almost blend together. 

It’s very difficult to tell them apart while knitting particularly under incandescent lights.

I decided to go with a two-row stripe and since I have one more ball of the mallard (green) color, I began with it and will use it as the button band color. 

The increase rows are distracting to me but that’s the nature of this beast.  Hopefully blocking will even out those stitches so they are less noticeable.The wrong side.The neck edge is just four rows of garter stitch.  I was thinking of making a picot hem for the sweater but keep the garter stitch at the sleeve hem.  Just not sure.  Would two different hem edges look dumb?

Making it up

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I just can’t be without some knitting project.  I am addicted to yarn and sticks.  After finishing the last project, I couldn’t bring myself to work on the Bacardi Cardi just yet.  Concentration is needed for the color charts and all those yarns hanging off the sides.

My plan is to knit a top-down, circular yoke, seamless sweater.  For.  Me.  Like this:

Or this:

Using these two colors of yarn that were…wait for it…

…on sale.  654 yards of Debbie Bliss Mia in Mallard (green) and 545 yards of Aqua.

I searched and searched the interwebs and Ravelry for a simple top-down circular, seamless adult-sized sweater.  I found the Knitting Fiend Yoke-u-lator and plugged in my numbers.  Voila!  A simple pattern for the math.

I’m also using Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters 

…and the February Baby Sweater on Two Needles from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitters Almanac because I need more detailed instructions.

My granddaughter’s green sweater is the February Baby Sweater on two needles and the taupe and tan sweater for my grandson is a combination of the February Baby Sweater and the Knitting Fiend calculations.

There is not enough of one color of either so this sweater will be two colors.  Not sure if that means evenly spaced stripes, unevenly spaced stripes, color blocks, or something different.  I’m just making it up as I go.