Category Archives: sweater

I remember now

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The Bacardi Cardigan sweater is knit on circular needles though knit flat.  The reason is so the color changes don’t have to start and end on the same edge.  If the color you need is on the other side, just turn the work over and start knitting/purling from that edge. It can get tricky but it saves from weaving in hundreds of ends when finished.  And weaving in cotton yarn has challenges quite different from wool.  It’s slippery, doesn’t like to stay put and has a mind of its own.

I remember now why I put my Bacardi Cardi in hibernation.  Besides having six balls of yarn attached to the needles…

…the edges are wonky.

Some areas are nubby and the yarn doesn’t want to lay flat.

And the tension is too tight or too loose in places.

I think I must…

…rip it

and start over.

One plus is that I do have the correct gauge with US #5 needles even though I did knit a swatch earlier, it was good to know that the swatch didn’t lie.

I found a few videos on making a better selvage edge while carrying several colors of yarn that might be helpful.  I would need to add another stitch to each side but if it helps with that unevenness and bulk, it will be worth it:

  • This one is a great technique and is right to the point of what I was looking for.
  • Way #5 in this video.  This is the same technique as above and begins at 8:51 but watch the entire video if you want other to see other methods.

I also asked the designer, Barbara Gregory, for suggestions.  Her reply:

One suggestion for the edges is to occasionally work the first stitch of a row (preferably a row of a single color) with one of the yarns that is being carried up the edge. This stitch will not show once seaming and bands are completed, but it will anchor the carried yarn and help you to maintain the desired tension along that vertical edge.

 

My other thought regarding the edges is to do seaming and picking up of stitches for the band more than a single stitch in from the edge if necessary to get a clean edge.

So I’m ready to try this again!

Digging into my stash

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6

After my SSSK socks, I needed something else fun and colorful to knit.  So I dug into my stash and came up with this fun yarn by Berroco.

This cotton/acrylic/nylon blend yarn, an Aran weight, is Calico in color 1829. Unfortunately it’s discontinued now but I checked on Ravelry and several people still have some in their stash, too.  I know I bought it on sale years ago with no idea of a project what-so-ever.  I just liked it.  Eight balls of 90 yards isn’t enough to make much but that’s all that was available.  The matte red and coral colors are on one side of the strand and the shiny blue, green, gold and orange colors run down the other side so when it’s knitted up, the yarn twists and makes an interesting fabric.

I searched through Ravelry for patterns as well as magazines, old books and booklets and found nothing I loved in that yarn weight and yardage.  So after swatching, I took elements from two patterns to make my own.  Lace Hem Topping and Drops 90-18.

The back is finished.    No color pooling, just fun.

Above is one side using the stockinette stitch and below is the reverse.

 

Redo, redone

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I couldn’t gift an item that was sub par so I removed one button/snap band, lined up the ridges and snaps and sewed it back on.

I feel better even though I’m sure the Birthday Girl didn’t care.  I did.

The color is hard to capture on camera but the above picture is pretty close to the actual color. I try to include a care tag and a bit of extra yarn with all my gifted items.  It also shows how many stitches are in the item.  The gifts weren’t opened before we left so no pictures of the model and sweater.

Rookie mistake

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I finished a sweater for Mr. Aitch’s grand niece’s first birthday and I’m not happy with the result.

Funny how I didn’t see the lopsidedness of the snap band and the ridges until I took the pics.

I didn’t want to pick up all those stitches for a button band and should have just done a 4-5 stitch edging on the two front edges as I was knitting.  But no.  I wanted to add a fabric button band and snaps to make it easier to fasten and unfasten.  Not matching up the horizontal ridges was a rookie mistake.  I had such a time of getting those snaps on (I broke three in the process) that I just want to be done with it.

The party is Sunday and I’m debating on whether I should just remove the sewn on button/snap band and knit it OR give it as is and be embarrassed to gift such shoddy work.  And we know that I won’t do the later…