Happy Birthday Mom!

July 27th, 2008

Before I head off and give this away, I feel I should post some pictures of the finished shawl for my mom. Click on the images to see larger sizes, ’cause you can see the lace much better enlarged. Oh, and ignore the model, not one of my best photos of me

I love how these Faroese shawls sit on the shoulders. They’re so comfortable, and if it wasn’t in the middle of the summer I’d be wearing this around the house.

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Dissecting a Pattern – Sage Cardigan

July 20th, 2008

So I’m very nearly finished with my mom’s birthday shawl, and I’ve completed all my deadline knitting for the store. This has gotten me to thinking about the [Sage Cardigan](http://lilygo.blogspot.com/2007/02/sage-cardigan-details.html) pattern that I bought a few months ago. I’ve been itching to start this sweater, and even have the yarn and swatch all ready to go. I just need to get the needles, and go over the pattern a bit.

As I was going over the pattern, and deciding if I could follow the instructions straight or neede to adjust to my size, I had a few thoughts about the pattern itself. This is a very unique pattern in that it’s about 30 some pages including line by line instructions and charted graphs for each piece. I think (especially for me) this is a bit excessive, but the charts make it really easy to write up simpler instructions. When I’m knitting a simple sweater piece, all I need to know is the stitch pattern I’m following, and when I need to do the decreases and increases. I’ve translated these very thorough instructions into something for me more like this…

Decreases = 15th, 6th 2x, 4th 9x, etc, etc

Since the front and back follow the same decrease and increase pattern, that makes my instructions even more condensed. However, I would have found the charts very handy if I had decided to mesh two different sizes together. My bust and hip measurement fit the large size nearly exactly, but my waist (as is usual) is a bit smaller than the schematics for the large. I could have altered things very visually to decrease down to the medium for the waist and increase back up to the large for my bust. I figured I didn’t mind having 1″ positive ease in the waist, so I’ll be knitting the one size.

There is one thing I will be changing in this pattern, and that is the length. I tend to prefer longer shirts for style reasons and my bust tends to lift the hem of my shirts a bit higher. Since every size has the same length measurement, I figured this choice would fit me better. It helped a lot that the designer put in a fairly detailed measurement schematic for the whole pattern so I could easily figure these measurements out. Also fairly helpful is that she has included instructions for lengthening the body. I did mention this pattern was thorough, right?

Next to the construction methods of the sweater. The body is done in 3 pieces (2 fronts and a back) and seamed up. My general preference with everything is to go seamless as much as possible, and make extensive use of circular needles. However, when looking at the photos of this sweater I think I like the seams. They add a nice line down the sides, probably add some structural integrity, and will make transporting the sweater with me as I work on it much easier. I think I can deal with my dislike of purling for this piece just so I can get it right.

Also, the sleeve and shoulder pieces are attached in a way that I highly approve. I don’t like seaming when it’s not necessary, and I will do something the long way (well, in knitting anyway) if it means getting it just right. This is exactly why I love grafting. I enjoy the process some, but I especially love it because the finished piece looks so wonderful when done. I was very happy to see that the sleeves and shoulder areas involve a lot of (oh so wonderfully seamless) grafting. It just seems silly to me to bind off two pieces only to sew them together when you can take a bit more time and do it right.

I am so excited to start this sweater, and will have to fight with myself to take my time so I do it right from the very first. The yarn is one of my favorites (Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk), the color is perfectly suiting me (light leafy green), and the sweater just looks lovely. Now I just need to sit on my hands and wait until I can get the right needles for this.

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Someone Else’s Deadline

July 13th, 2008

For those of you that knit for gift giving, you know the minor stress of that deadline. I know a lot of gift giving knitters create a list of gifts they want to knit for Christmas, often find they’ve overestimated what they can do, stress close to Christmas, and probably get less done because of that stress. Well, that’s what I do anyways. I find that deadline stress gets me really anxious to do my own knitting instead of the gift knitting. I’ve learned that Christmas knitting must start in July/August in order to maintain my sanity and stock up before winter.

I know that there are others of you who have done real deadline knitting where you are beholden to someone else. You may even receive some sort of compensation, which adds its own sort of stress. Well, for the past month I’ve been doing some of that kind of knitting, and have learned a lot about myself in the process. Real deadline knitting where I have more than just myself to disappoint is a lot easier. I almost treat it like work, and set goals for myself in stages. Although it doesn’t hurt that this has been an easy knit. This weekend my goal is to get the ends woven in so that Monday and Tuesday I can work on the last bit of knitting (which I don’t yet have instructions for).

I’ve even managed to get a little personal knitting in without taking time out of my “work” knitting. I have another personal deadline soon for July 26, and it doesn’t matter that I set the deadline for myself. I have no choice but to finish *this* birthday gift because last year I forgot Mom’s birthday. Bad idea! This one I can actually show you, and I’m really excited with its progress.

It’s the faroese shawl I’m making for Mom’s birthday. It’s a simple garter stitch shawl with a bit of lace on the edges. I chose a lace pattern from Vol. 1 of the Barbara Walker treasuries and knit it in garter stitch instead of stockinette. It took me a while to find just the right lace for this, but I think this will suit my mom and the shawl perfectly. I really can’t wait to finish this and see it blocked and laid out, which makes it so much easier to get done by the 26th.

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