Summer Fling

I finished my top down raglan cabled sweater. It turned out a little bigger than I wanted, so I might have to give this to some unsuspecting friend, but I love the yarn. Rowan Silk Tweed, 8 skeins, size 8 and 6 ( for ribbing) needles. You don't need a cable needle for this yarn, as it stays right where you put it! Lots of fun to make, warm and cozy and not heavy as cotton might be. A great inbetween season sweater, but I miscalculated on the design so it is a bit bigger than I'd like. Oh well, next one will be perfect!

Filling in Triangles

Moving right along, I picked up along the angles and finished the sleeves, doing a double decrease on every right side row, and on the purl side every 4 rows to taper the sleeves, and SSK or K2tog on the edges to finish off the edge of the sleeves. The sides were worked similarly, but when I got to 30 sts on each side of the side triangles, I inserted a mitered square, and then finished off the triangles sideways for more interest. Now I want to add a bottom and center front garter edging and build up the neckline a little bit. It is coming along, although slowly because in the meantime I got inspired to knit something else!

Sleeve Details

I have used a three-needle bindoff to knit the gusset stitches together, picked up and added a row of mitered squares along the diagonal of the arm, and then picked up along the diagonals to knit the final rows of the last triangle to finish off the arm. As I want a taper to the lower arm, I will be knitting 3 rows knit, one row purl, and on every right side row make a slip2-knit one-psso at the underarm "seam". I will also make a double decrease on the knit wrong side row by moving yarn to the front, slip 2 sts purlwise through the back loops, purl one, slip 2 stitches over. This should provide a taper to the arm, and keep the bias knitting continuing as needed. As my arms conveniently are short, I won't be making small mitered squares here, but simply continue to end of the triangle. On the cuff edges, on every right side row, I knit1, SSK, knit to center underarm, S2K1PSSo, knit to last 3 sts, K2tog, slip1.
On wrong side rows, it is: K1, purl to last stitch, slip with yarn in front, alternating with a knit row which has the double decrease purlwise in the center, and slip the last stitch of the row with yarn in front. This will bind off on the diagonal at the cuff on right side rows only, and provide a slipped stitch edge at the cuff. I probably will do a garter edge for the final cuff, but I'll decide that later.. I'm enjoying how the striping is coming out on this, kind of asymmetrical but not too much. This colorway, 166, has some bright green and some pukey pinky greys, which I've used very sparingly. Luckily, this yarn is easily spit spliced, so I have been editing the colors! Lots of fun.

Pineapples

About 6 years ago,we cut off the tops of some pineapples, placed the tops in a pot with soil, and some time later, the plants rooted, and started growing. I have a small greenhouse room, and put these plants ( I now have 5 of them) in the sunny window....3 years later, two of the plants sent up some buds, and produced fruit! The pineapples were only 4 inches tall, but they were delicious. A few weeks ago, one of the plants decided to fruit again, so here is the developing pineapple! It is so cute! There are little purple flowers around the bottom, and the typical shape. It is such fun to watch this grow...

Divide and Conquer

As it is raining today, I apologize for the color of these photos (the incandescent lighting gives a yellow cast), but here is the current state of sweater progress. I have divided for sleeves, after reaching my target number of stitches, by folding the square in half along the shoulder lines, then marking every 14 sts and picking up at the underarms to make a mitered square from the 4th group of stitches from the corner. In my enthusiasm to knit this, I forgot to take photos of that process. Oops. In the upper right, you can see a folded square hanging off which becomes the bottom of the sleeve. In this design, I discovered that I could make a little underarm gusset by joining ( in a 3 needle bindoff) a group of sts on the diagonal section between the body and the arm. I think this will give a better fit and slimmer arms.
Here is a photo of the back:
I was clever here to get the colors to line up symmetrically on this row of mitered squares, but I'm sort of going for a random look, so on the front I'm letting the colors fall where they want.
Here you can see how the fronts relate to the back row of squares. I started at the underarms, and worked downward from there, as I wanted the center lines of the squares to be vertical. In this sequence, I can pick up along the sides of one square, and use the live sts from the straight portion, one group of 14 sts at a time. The only sewing is at the center back corner., where I must join the edge of a square to the corner. Sewing it gives a neater join than picking up and K2tog at end of rows, I think.

Olympic Sweater 2 part 2

So, now I've been knitting away on the straight portion below the first row of mitered squares. It is a lot of knitting; I'll need 30 rows to make up for the row. I could have added another row of mitered squarees instead, but I thought this would be easier. However, every other row is longer by 8 stitches ( 2 at each corner) so it is getting really long! My target is 112 sts in each section , so that is 448 sts. Lots of knitting! Here I've marked off roughly where the points to add next row of mitered squares will be, but those will be added after I divide for sleeves. Stay tuned for this!
My dear friend Melody Johnson ( http://www.fibermania.blogspot.com/ ) spent the day yesterday knitting a teensy version of my basic top down diagonal pattern, and posted it on her blog! It is so cute! Here I'm adding squares, but it is the same basic idea. If you would like a copy of the basic pattern, email me. It is a long pdf, and I'm charging $8 for it.
Off to work I go...more tonight...

Olympic Sweater #2

I have accumulated a stash of Noro Kureyon, and had the urge to make another version of my Olympic sweater, so I started it a few weeks ago. I love knitting modular one piece top down stuff, as I am lazy about seaming, and I don't like to worry about gauge issues. As I've worked with thisyarn before, I happen to know what to expect, so I plunged right in. The first order of business is to make a big triangle for the back, then establish the shoulder line, then increase until each section has 60 sts. Then I can add one row of 29 stitch ( 14+1+14) mitered squares along the diagonals to complete the square, starting them at the shoulder corners so I can continuously knit squares down until I reach the center back and fronts.
After that, I pick up 90 sts ( 15X6) along each side, and knit a bunch of increasing rows until I reach 120 sts ( 15X8) in each side. That is a lot of stitches! I have to use all the size 7 Addi turbo needles I have, and still it isn't long enough to lie flat. I suppose I could use my Denise cables, but those are presently holding some other projects hostage. At that point, I'll fold the whole thing up, and join for knitting the body and sleeves....better get back to knitting for now...