Archive for October, 2004
Halloween is my favorite holiday! My hubby and I carved our pumpkins last night. His is the better one on the right. I will look forward to all the cute kids coming around getting candy tonight. Although, we usually don’t get very many since our apartment is situated in the back of the complex.
In knitting news, here is the back of Klaralund already:
I started it yesterday morning and had a hard time putting it down. I am totally mesmerized with this yarn! It’s incredable! I love to see how the colors are going to appear as they are knitted up. It’s funny, because Melissaj mentioned that she is also knitting Klaralund right now using the same colorway, but mine came out differently. I think that is so cool…No two sweaters knitted with this yarn look exactly alike. I’m also noticing that each skien is different, too. I used about 1.5 skiens on the back. The first had this gorgeous blue, but no green. However, the second had the really pretty green that you see. Anyway, I am loving working with silk garden. I love it so much that I just ordered some more on e-bay in colorway 88. I think I’m planning on knitting Karlsro from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book 1. I also am trying to order (but am having some issues) some Noro Kochoran in colorway 36. I ordered 3 skiens to knit Gesta from CTH Book 2. So, as you can see, I am going through a little Noro obsession right now. Probably spending WAY too much money, too.
October 31st, 2004
A finished Zimmerman sweater with bell sleeves.
Pattern: Raglan no-seam sweater from Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman.
Yarn: Karabella Softig in Rose. 7.5 skeins
Gauge: 3 st. per inch in stockinette
Needles: size 11 - Denise interchangeables.
Completed: 10/29/04
I hemmed her up this morning so I could wear her to work (friday is “wear-your-knitted-sweater-to-work” day. In my world, that is.). I was going to hem the sleeves, too, But I didn’t have time to do it this morning. I’m still trying to decide if I should hem them, but I kind of like them the way they are now.
I like the way this sweater turned out! It’s very comfortable to wear, as it’s cotton. And it fits really well. The neck didn’t turn out to be a boat neck, though, but that’s okay. I never did figure out how to construct a boat neck.
The inside of this sweater is so janky. There were so many threads to weave in, and I need to figure out how to deal with weaving in loose threads. I don’t feel like my weaving job is very good. I’ll have to find a good book that discusses how to do this in detail. My problem is that the little ends tend to poke through to the front of the sweater and it drives me nuts!
There were some issues with major holes that I had to fix in the underarm area were the raglan shaping starts and the underarm weaving begins. I’m still not so sure why this happened , but I think it has to do with the yarn. Or not. I don’t know. Hey, I’m still a newbie at all this 
So, not too bad for the fourth sweater I’ve ever made, eh? It’s definately NOT perfect, but I think I’m getting better. I’m definately learning more and more with each project.
October 29th, 2004
The lovely and wonderful Jody Pinault came to my office during lunch today and taught me how to spin yarn with my new hand spindle. I am so stoked! When I came home from work, as soon as I walked in the door I showed my husband my new craft and he took some pics to document this occasion:
Ugh. I need to do *something* about my hair. sigh.
I am so excited about this. Jody brought some fiber for me to practice with. She included about an ounce of cashmere! It is soooo soft. Just lovely.
In scarf knitting news… I finished my SCU orange scarf and wore it to work today:
And I started another one using my LaBoheme yarn that I got in Spokane. The colorway is Safari. I recieved my Noro Cornelia Tuttle book 2 in the mail yesterday and decided to knit the Trana scarf. I think it will work well because it looks kind of short and I only have on ball of this yarn. At more thatn thirty dollars a hank, I should hold off buying another for a scarf. Here’s what I have done so far:
What a wonderful fiber-filled day today was!
I need to jet. Gotta go eat dinner and then knit a little bit on my Zimmerman. Have a great evening!
October 26th, 2004
I spent all weekend on my Zimmerman sweater. I want to get it finished promptly because I am going to start on Klaralund right after. I’m expecting my Klaralund pattern in the mail today (yay!) So I finished up the first sleeve, knitted the second sleeve, decided that the first sleeve was too big around, ripped it to the begining of the increases, and finished it up at around 5:30 yesterday evening amid “dueling stereos” at the apartment complex next door. (Do these people every stop partying? For the love of God! give me a freaking break! anyhoo….) I put everything on one long needle, making sure the underarm sleeves were lined up, and am working about an inch even before I begin with the raglan shaping. Here’s a pic:
My hands are tired! I’m talking muscle soreness here! My right hand is getting some muscle tone from all of this non-stop kniting
I brought my La Boheme “safari” yarn to work today. I’m almost done with that orange scarf that I started six months ago, and will start on a scarf using the La Boheme. I might have to find another skein of it somewhere. It shouldn’t be too hard. I discovered that my LYS, the Golden Fleece, carries this exact yarn! I love that place. I don’t know if I should just do straight garter or do something a little bit fancier. I’ve been eyeing Theresa’s multidirectional scarf that she just finished. That pattern looks intriguing. Hmmmm.
That’s all from this knitting corner. Hope you all have a great Monday!
October 25th, 2004
I am about halfway done with the sleeve. Here are a couple shots of the bell sleeve:
Not bad, eh? I think I might have increased a little tiny bit too much and maybe too soon, but what the hell. I don’t think it’s that bad. And when I try it on it probably won’t look awful. At least I hope not.
Knitting math. Here is how I figured all of this out. I used EPS (Elizabeth’s [as in Zimmerman] percentage System). I knitted up a swatch to figure out what my yarn gauge is. (3 st. to the inch. ) I measured a sweater in my wardrobe around the chest area to find out the dimensions in inches around. (37″) Then I multiplied my gauge by my dimension. 37 x 3 = 111. I cast on 111 stitches for the body tube. I knitted the tube until it reached my armpits. Since I want my sweater to be fairly long (I have a long waist) I knitted it unitl it reached 16″.
Okay, now for the bell sleeve. Based on the trumpet sweater at Girl from Auntie, I kind of pulled this out of my - well, you know. So, I deduced from the pattern that to make a bell sleeve you have to cast on 62% more stitches than what you decreased to. (If that makes any sense). Basically, in the pattern, after you do all of your decreasing you end up with (in the Trumpet Sweater pattern) 26 stitches on the needle. In the pattern, you cas on 42 stitches. So you cast on 62% more stiches and decrease every 3 row 4 times. Okay, so to apply this to my sweater, According to Zimmerman in Knitting without Tears, you should cast on for your sleeve 20% of your body stiches. For me, that is 23 st. Only, I’m making a bell sleeve, so I want to cast on more. So based on this figure, 23 st. I figure out what 63% of this is: 14, and then add 14 stitches to my 23: 37. So I cast on 37 stitches. Then I decrease every third row four times (in intervals of 9 stitches), until I reach 23 stitches.
As I was reading the sleeve instructions in Knitting without Tears, I noticed that after casting on, you start to increase. hmm. Apparently, the sleeve eventually is going to be 33% of the body stitches. So what I did was I just knitted about three rounds and then started increasing, as per Zimmerman’s instructions. I want my sleeves to be long, like they are in the picture above, so It think it will turn out just right.
I love knitting. It’s so fun to be challenged by little things like this. It is so awesome because you truly use both sides of your brain when you knit.
Have a good weekend!
Oh, I forgot to mention when I posted this earlier, I just raked in another new knitter 
. One of the librarians I work with came to me yesterday and told me that she would like to join our knitting group. She was staying in Capitola with some friends and was walking around the villiage when she happened upon The Yarn Place(a fabulous yarn store, and one of my fave LYSs). She said she found some yarn that she loved and she is going to try knitting a scarf. Yay! Another knitter! I also had a long conversation the other day with this guy that works here that knits. He’s is working on an afghan right now. So we’re getting a nice little group together. maybe one of these days I’ll take pictures if they will let me. 
October 22nd, 2004
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