Tag Archives: NaKniSweMo

by

Moving sloooooowly.

I wanted to quickly post an update on my NaKniSweMo Rocky Coast Cardigan. I finished it on December 3rd. Three days past my deadline, but a sweater in 24 days is not bad.

photo (7)

The color in that shot is a horrible representation of the beauty of the yarn, but I took it with my phone when it was cloudy and weird outside yesterday, and it’s better than nothing. I have no modeled shots yet because I’m a bit under the weather right now, and I was planning on doing them today.

Just last night I was talking about how I haven’t gotten sick really since Z was born, with the exception of barely getting the nasty cold she and Matt both got when she was 2 months. Well, apparently the universe saw fit to laugh at that one and I woke up last night with a scratchy throat and swollen glands. It could be allergies, given our warm burst of weather lately, or it could be a cold. Z is coughing and sneezing more than usual, so I’m leaning towards cold.

I just can’t seem to get enough Hannah Fettig lately, so I think my next sweater adventure will be the Breezy Cardigan in some Hazel Knits Hoppy Blonde I’ve had in my stash since my birthday.

But right now, I scarcely feel the energy to swatch. I’ll get back to you.

by

Close enough!

The end is nigh, people! I made the sleeves longer than the pattern called for because I wanted to make sure they went slightly past my wrists as I like to wear them. They’re 18.5 from armpit to cuff, so a full 2 inches more than the pattern called for. It took almost exactly one full ball of yarn. If you’re looking for more details on this project, check here. The deadline is too soon to keep rewriting them.

The sleeves weren’t quite at the 3.5 inch ribbing the pattern called for, but I said it was close enough because I really didn’t want to have to join a new ball of yarn just for a bind off!

After the bind off it looked pretty close to 3.5 inches. I might have had enough yarn to make it one more row (as shown in the picture), but it would have been really close, and I would rather be one row shorter and not have to rip out or join yarn for one more row.

Turns out though… I got a bit impulsive when snipping the yarn on my second cuff. I thought I had come to the end, but I had to turn and do the second side. Soooooo, I had to do a Russian join anyway.

Bleh. I don’t think it’s that noticeably thicker.

Here is the whole mamajama so far.

I have to do the bottom ribbing and pick up for the ribbing around the fronts and neckband. Oy! Just today and two more days after. I might not get a chance to block this before it’s photographed and called declared finished for the deadline.

If you need me I’ll be knitting!

by

Making it work.

What’s going on with this Rocky Coast Cardigan? It looks like I’m knitting on two different parts at once. Well, I sort of am. Matt, Z, and I were in the car on the way to our first of three Thanksgivings and I was chugging along on the body. I realized I finally had enough length to do the ribbing. I checked my pattern. Lo and behold I should have remembered to bring a smaller needle for the ribbing. Oops.

What I had remembered was a 47″ size 5 needle to use when doing magic loop method on the sleeves. I was able to leave my 40″ needle in the body and start on my sleeves so I would not get behind on NaKniSweMo. Taking the baby to my parent’s house is prime knitting time because everyone wants to hold her (and even change the diapers) so I’m free to knit most of the time. I’m pretty close to the elbows last I checked and overall I’m feeling confident about my progress with 7 days left.

The needle and ball still attached at the bottom became a bit cumbersome every time I turned the sweater, so I rigged this:

Now they stay intact while I turn the sleeves. I’m really glad I added the additional stitches (about 2 inches worth) to the sleeves, as well as the yoke length. They definitely would be too snug if not for that.

Okay…just two more Thanksgiving dinners to go and about 5.5 hours to go in the car to get to those places. KNITTING TIME.

by

Half the month is gone!

I’m not going to panic yet. This is five day’s work shown above. I’m about to enter my day 6 of this challenge, since I didn’t get my yarn until the 10th. I feel like I’ve been moving along fairly well, despite Z’s new short nap cycles. (We suspect teething).

Once the sleeves were separated from the body, that made the rows start to go much much faster. I think I’ll be able to make some good progress today. As mentioned before, I ended up making the largest size in the Tiny Rocky Coast, but I’m aiming for the schematics of the Rocky Coast Cardigan in the 36″ size.

If you’re a wacko like me that only wants to knit with sock weight yarn, I did one full additional increase row for the sweater, then I did additional increases on just the arms for the next 6 knit rows. I don’t want to give too much info about the pattern away, since it is for sale, but if you are working from the pattern you would be able to figure it out with that info. I wanted to make sure the arms were a bit wider and the yoke was a bit deeper, since many knitters had issue with that on the Rocky Coast. The author has included instructions for adjusting the sleeves and yoke on that pattern, so I kept that in mind when working on my Frankenstein version.

Once again, Oscar has inspected my work and I’m allowed to continue. Phew!

by

And we’re off!

I’m finally getting started on a NaKniSweMo project for this year. I’m a little behind, but the yarn only arrived yesterday, so that was a bit of a hindrance. I got to swatch ahead of time and that helped.

I’m making the Rocky Coast Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. This will actually be some kind of Frankenstein version between the Rocky Coast and the kid version, Tiny Rocky Coast. I like the idea of making it out of sock yarn better than worsted weight yarn, and I think size 10.5 needles (or probably smaller for me to get gauge) would wear my hands out a lot faster.

By referencing both patterns I’m going to aim for the schematics of the 36″ adult version with a slightly larger gauge on the largest child size. The largest child size has a 34 3/4″ chest, so I don’t think this will be too much of a stretch to try to do width-wise. I will have to pay attention to the yoke depth and sleeve circumference with more care, but I think the larger gauge will take care of most of that, or I will add some increasing to accommodate.

After making the baby version for Zooey, the pattern seemed easy to execute and easy to alter. I swatched on US 5, 6, and 7 needles and decided to work with the 5′s. I’m a pretty loose knitter when I get going and the baby version blocked very nicely, so I thought I should err on the side of firmer cables. This yarn is Blue Moon Fibers Socks that Rock in the Mediumweight, which is a little bit thicker than the Colinette Jitterbug I used for the Tiny Rocky Coast. The site describes this yarn as a sport weight, but says it is not a “true sport weight” because of the energy. The color is Ochroid. Regardless, I like it and I think it’s all going to work out.

First, Oscar had to do a sniff inspection.

It passed.
Now…I just have to knit my little fingers off.

by

Wednesday, child, is full of woe.

Ok, ok…not everything is bad. I’ll start with what’s great: Obama was reelected, women made some great strides in the Senate with this election, and my fella was reelected for city council here (as soon as the official results are out). Those are all fantastic things in my opinion.

In my knitterly corner of the world, however, things are a bit darker. Last night on our way out to a Democrat watch party I discovered that my beloved Still Light Tunic, last year’s NaKniSweMo project, had a small hole! My mom saw it. I pulled out some of the matching yarn and started to fix it and discovered ANOTHER ONE. I don’t know if this is moth related, but I suspect.

It gets worse though. Today I decided to wash my Featherweight. I figured some time in the gentle cycle was no problem for this superwash yarn since Matt has socks made with the same yarn and we’ve washed and dried them several times. Well, I don’t know what was up with the laundry today, but the sweater and Matt’s socks came out a little fulled. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It’s definitely still wearable, but it’s a bit of a fuzzy mess. Superwash no longer feels safe.

Ok, it still gets worse. I decided to pull out my Larch Cardigan since it seemed weather appropriate today. IT HAS A HOLE TOO. I wish I was making this up. I would post pictures, but I think that would depress me even more. It’s a small hole and seems like a cut rather than a moth, but I don’t know because I’ve never had this problem before. I’m not sure what kind of bad juju I worked up to deserve this knitterly misery, but it sucks and seemed to hit all at once. My mom said I could have one of her cedar chests for sweater storage, so that alleviates some of my worry for the future of my sweaters. I refuse to use moth balls because the smell makes me gag. I plan on getting more lavender and maybe cedar balls for storage with my stash, but that is all in plastic bins, so I feel ok about it for the most part. Not gonna lie, I cried. Though I can repair the holes with matching yarn, it’s still disheartening.

Now for something more pleasant. My yarn for my NaKniSweMo for this year finally shipped today. As I mentioned in this post, I plan on making the Rocky Coast Cardigan with sock weight yarn rather than worsted weight yarn. I need to study both the child and adult patterns to get my numbers right, but I swatched with some leftover yarn in the same brand and weight to get an idea in the meantime.

I swatched on a 5, a 6, and a 7 size US needle. The size 5 swatch is at the cast on edge until the purl row and they progress upward. I think I will go with the 5 or 6. I want great stitch definition, and I think either will retain that as well as drape when blocked. I will probably use most of the numbers from the Tiny Rocky Coast pattern, but I need to consider that many making the adult version have had issues with sleeve and yoke so I may need to adjust some numbers there. I don’t know if this will be finished in November, but I’ll try anyway. I just can’t wait to get my hands on the yarn and cast on.

In case the beginning of this post bummed you out, I’ll leave you with some cuteness:

by

Be still, knitting heart.

NaKniSweMo 2011 is finished. I completed the Still Light Tunic, which is essentially a dress out of sock weight yarn. I am pleased. This yarn is a gorgeous delight to knit. I used Ella Rae Lace Merino in Mustard.

There was a moment of panic and stalling when I got to the second sleeve and realized I was running low on yarn. Several people on Ravelry have mentioned that the skeins were less than 100 grams when they weighed them. I did not think to weigh the skeins and plunged in confidently because I had at least 200 yards to spare when I started. When I was about three inches from the end of the second sleeve I realized I would run out. I cast on some socks to comfort myself in the meantime.

What would become of the precious pockets, last to be knit? I found some in mustard available at Loops in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is not that far from me. I frantically called them and asked them to check the dye lot. I was not that lucky, but Pat and Gina were very kind and sent me a skein that arrived the next day. Since I was already knitting from two skeins throughout the project to avoid pooling, there was not a drastic difference in the sleeves, but when I look at the pockets (knit from just that new ball), I can tell that dye lot is much more green.

One problem I had with the project was a small ridge that formed as I switched yarn from ball to ball. This is in the back and can be seen in the picture above. This did not go away in blocking as I had hoped, but maybe it will in subsequent washes. The Ella Rae also grew a bit more than I expected when I wet blocked it. I smooshed (technical term) it into the measurements as much as I could, but I might try to dry it just a wee bit next time I wash it. The yarn label says it may be washed on gentle, so I may risk a tiny bit of drying too.

Other than a couple of small flaws, I love this piece. I loved the challenge of the deadline of NaKniSweMo to encourage me to finish something in a timely manner. I think as I get more experienced with knitting I’m better able to tell what kind of projects I will love to wear. Though this is over a mile of stockinette to knit, I really enjoyed the soothing motion, the gorgeous yellow green sliding through my fingers, and the finished product.

by

Thar she grows.

It’s day 13 of NaKniSweMo and I’m feeling totally confident about being able to finish in time, or possibly even this week. As I was working on the increases, each row became painstakingly long and I feared that I was making no progress. Friday night I was able to set aside the 122 stitches for the pockets (see indentions in pictures) and now this baby is FLYING.

I’m at least 4.5 inches into the last 10 before the bottom ribbing. Even though this is my second blog post for the day (which feels strongly like a procrastination tactic…ahem, school) I felt I should post today at the time of the picture to show the accurate level of progress.

I’ve had a few days where I wore my hands out with trying to knit too fast, or just knit too long. I think I’ve been going off and on for at least 6 hours or so today, and everything feels pretty good. Maybe this is all just making my hands stronger.

I’m now feeling confident that this tunic will make it to a couple of Thanksgiving gatherings. I just won’t take it off when it’s done…

The leaves and light were being cooperatively pretty and it was a gorgeous 70 degrees out today. I probably should have spent less time knitting. Oh well. You can’t stop progress.

by

It’s Fall, y’all.

On my way home from my Law & Public Policy class today there was a break in the recent downpour, so I decided to head back out and take a few pictures of the changing trees in my neighborhood.

We are lucky in Arkansas to have upper 50′s and 60′s (Fahrenheit) weather right now. It’s balmy, with an earthquake (yes, earthquake) here and there. We’ve had two earthquakes that we could actually feel in the last few days that originated in Oklahoma. It’s pretty freaky, but mild so far.

Here are some pictures from my neighborhood:

Oh, and for a NaKniSweMo update…

This color defies me when it comes to rendering it correctly on the screen. In real life it’s gorgeous and alternates between looking more gold sometimes and looking more green at others.

I’m almost through the first set of increases. It’s already day 8 of this challenge (yikes!) out of 30. I feel I should be further along, but alas, other life happens. Last weekend my hands were throbbing after a Sunday full of hours of knitting. I begged the fella for a hand massage, and like the good fella he is, he graciously obliged.

I’m still happy I chose the Still Light Tunic. I think she’s going to make me feel pretty when this is over, and maybe I’ll even finish in time to wear it to Thanksgiving events. I am nothing if not an optimist!

by

NaKniSweMo 2011!

Future Still Light Tunic

This year I am joining the ranks of the ambitious knitters that dare to knit a 50,000+ sweater in the month of November. I have chosen the Still Light Tunic by Veera Välimäki. I have been captivated by the Ella Rae Lace Merino shown above (color number 9) for over a year. I was toying with the idea of buying it last fall, but I didn’t have a project worthy of it yet. After continuing to drool over it for months, I decided to just buy it with the idea that I would knit a lightweight cardigan. Then I saw Still Light, and I knew they had to be paired.

Though this yarn is technically categorized as a lace, scores of knitters on Ravelry say it’s more like a fingering (which the pattern calls for), so I decided to just swatch and go with it. I have more than enough yardage. I decided to cast on provisionally so that I can have a sturdy seam at the top as advised by this post. I think the stockinette will be conducive to studying as the end of the semester looms near. Now, can I actually knit a tunic out of fingering weight in a month and not lose my mind?