More about knitting...
So for all (one) of you who are reading this blog for news about our family abroad, I hate to disappoint. This actually began as a knitting blog--an incentive for me to finish projects and a place to keep track of what I knit. Clearly I've strayed a bit in the past few weeks from my original intentions, but if you'll bear with me through my knitting narrative, I promise that our life abroad updates will continue. Hmmm...That's so backwards...
I was so bummed about the fit of M's sweater (shown above) that I didn't work on it for a few days. I kept looking at it and trying to decide: smaller needles or fewer stitches? If I switched to smaller needles, the sweater's width would shrink, but the knitting would be far too tight. Cascade ECO Plus is very light and squishy; it wants a looser gauge to be at its best. So the only real option would be to subtract stitches on the sides of the sweater. Doing that, I would lose the reason I chose the pattern in the first place. I love the double moss stitch on the sleeves and side. The solution? Wait a year or two for this pattern. I also made a resolution about sweater knitting in general, but I'll save that for another post.
I started fresh with the only knitting book I brought to Greece: Knitting Workshop.
I decided to use EPS to make a plain old stockinette pullover, but with a seamless shirt yoke. Trust me, it's much more fun to knit it than read about it. I. loved. every. minute. There was something very soothing about knitting the body brainlessly, and a treat to get to the yoke at the end.
I made only one mistake. I forgot about M's gi-normous head. When I finished the crew neck, I tried the sweater on him. We couldn't even get the top of his head through. He was secretly glad that the fitting session ended abruptly, and I think that he was hoping he'd never have to wear the thing.
He underestimated his mother's ability to improvise.
Enter the emergency placket neck steek. The cable needle is marking how long to make the steek, and the light blue yarn serves as a guide. Not having my own sewing machine, and not brave enough to try the one in our apartment, I used the crochet method to secure my stitches.* I took a deep breath and CUT my lovely sweater. Here's the before:
And the after:
Now for those sleeves...
*I have reservations about using the crochet method for slippery yarn, like a merino superwash. Cascade ECO Plus is very sticky, and I used Knitpicks Palette for the crochet stitches, which is also sticky and felts easily. Hopefully between the two yarns, the cut stitches will hold.
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picture borrowed from www.patternfish.com
I was so bummed about the fit of M's sweater (shown above) that I didn't work on it for a few days. I kept looking at it and trying to decide: smaller needles or fewer stitches? If I switched to smaller needles, the sweater's width would shrink, but the knitting would be far too tight. Cascade ECO Plus is very light and squishy; it wants a looser gauge to be at its best. So the only real option would be to subtract stitches on the sides of the sweater. Doing that, I would lose the reason I chose the pattern in the first place. I love the double moss stitch on the sleeves and side. The solution? Wait a year or two for this pattern. I also made a resolution about sweater knitting in general, but I'll save that for another post.
I started fresh with the only knitting book I brought to Greece: Knitting Workshop.
I decided to use EPS to make a plain old stockinette pullover, but with a seamless shirt yoke. Trust me, it's much more fun to knit it than read about it. I. loved. every. minute. There was something very soothing about knitting the body brainlessly, and a treat to get to the yoke at the end.
I made only one mistake. I forgot about M's gi-normous head. When I finished the crew neck, I tried the sweater on him. We couldn't even get the top of his head through. He was secretly glad that the fitting session ended abruptly, and I think that he was hoping he'd never have to wear the thing.
He underestimated his mother's ability to improvise.
Enter the emergency placket neck steek. The cable needle is marking how long to make the steek, and the light blue yarn serves as a guide. Not having my own sewing machine, and not brave enough to try the one in our apartment, I used the crochet method to secure my stitches.* I took a deep breath and CUT my lovely sweater. Here's the before:
And the after:
*I have reservations about using the crochet method for slippery yarn, like a merino superwash. Cascade ECO Plus is very sticky, and I used Knitpicks Palette for the crochet stitches, which is also sticky and felts easily. Hopefully between the two yarns, the cut stitches will hold.
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