Okay Knits » Sweaters

Sweaters

Olivia

09.25.09 | Tags: Sweaters | Comments: (3)

I think all sweaters should be knit with the intention to minimize the amount of work require to finish it after everything has been knit. Take for example this Olivia cardigan. The pattern called for knitting the two fronts, back and sleeves to be knit separately, seamed up and then you pick up a bizillion stitches for the neck and also for the two sleeves to finish those respective areas. Too much work I say! So I radically simplified it so that I can knit this in class with the minimalist amount of thinking.

I arbitrarily decided the number of stitches I needed for the sleeves after knitting the written 91 stitches for the sleeves and seeing how humongously poofy it was. I did about an inch of garter stitches for the cuff and then switched to stockinette. I spaced out a bunch of increases to give the sleeve a little poofyness but not as much as the pattern called for. Some straight rows were knit before decreasing the sleeve to the written number of stitches.

The fronts and back were knit together up to the sleeves and then I did raglan decreases until I got it down to the number of stitches being picked up in the pattern. I then did a bunch of garter rows, added a button hole, decreased some more, knitted a few more garter rows, decreased again before casting off. And voila, a perfectly fitting sweater that I put minimal brain effort into (all my brain effort went into studying.)

This has to be my most nonchalantly knitted sweater. All my other sweaters I worried about getting the sleeve decreases correct. Constantly counting the stitches. This one was very different. I was confident that this will turn out alright, no worries that it won’t fit me properly. I guess that has a lot to do with having knitted a SWATCH! *gasp*. I was all anti swatching in my last few sweaters which caused me to constantly worry that it won’t fit me. So from now on, I’m gonna swatch!

Pattern : Olivia by Kim Hargraves
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, 6 skeins
Needles: Size 3
Time to Knit: about a month
Gripes: I may have to move the placement of the button, its a bit wonky.
Ravelry Page for this

Wicked

08.07.08 | Tags: Sweaters | Comments: Comments Off

I am a delinquent blogger so today I will be posting up all the FOs completed since my last post. I’ve been very busy knitting. I just finished Wicked in 6 days. It was a wickedly easy knit, lots of mindless knitting while watching lots of mindless tv. I wanted a warm sweater that I can snuggle in in winter. I made the sleeves freakishly long since I like it that way. As for the body, I just might add another 1/2 in or so to make it also freakishly long or I can be lazy and start my Ravelympics project tomorrow instead of fixing this. Speaking of Ravelympics I will be doing the Vest Vault. I would have signed up for more if school didn’t start next week. So, I’m giving myself three days to finish a vest otherwise I don’t think one vest would be a challenge to finish in 17 days.

Pattern:Wicked
Yarn: 4 Skeins of Patons Classic Merino
Needles: #7 Knitpicks Options
Gauge: Hahahahaha, I picked up the needle and yarn and casted on for the neck I didn’t even try it on until I had separated for the sleeves! I’m glad it worked out perfectly.
Time to knit: 6 days monogamously
Modifications: Repeated the cables for the bottom instead of moss stitch. Added the pocket after everything was knitted.
Gripes: the body could be longer.

Ravelry Linky

Tilted Duster and on swatching (or not)

03.10.08 | Tags: Sweaters | Comments: (1)

Pattern: Tilted duster, Interweave Knits fall 2007
Yarn: 5 skeins Bernat Lana in Chocolate
Needle: size 8
Time to complete: 2 weeks in February
Modifications: I went down two needle sizes and knitted a size up from my usual size
Gripes: it doesn’t line up fully at the front, can’t figure out how to position the buttons to make it line up.
The Ravelry Page

I haven’t worn this too much except for one day when it was really warm (in the morning) but then it cooled down in the afternoon and I was freezing my but off walking home from the subway. Though it may not keep me warm on cold days, I really do like how this cardigan turned out. It fits just right, with the right length and long enough sleeves.

As I was writing this post, I realized that my last three sweaters (Tilted Duster, Thermal and Notre Dame Pullover) have been fudged a whole lot. I did not knit with the recommended needle size or my size. I knitted Thermal 4 inches smaller than my bust, on a larger needle. The Tilted Duster and Notre Dame Pullover were both knit with a two inch larger bust on smaller needles. You might want to lecture me about swatches when I tell you that I didn’t swatch for any of these sweaters and I guestimated which size I should knit. I did however did start on the sleeves and I did make constant measurements along the way making sure that the size of the piece matched up to the given measurements. I think this way of not swatching is okay for wool since it stretches, I wouldn’t really do this for cottons/silks sweaters since they don’t have no give and will stretch out. In conclusion, swatching is not necessary condition for a perfectly fitting sweater as long as you have a measuring tape! hehe

Thermal

02.08.08 | Tags: Sweaters | Comments: (2)

Pattern: Thermal from Knitty.com
Yarn: 3 Skeins of Knitpicks bare fingering wool/nylon
Needle: #3 Knitpicks Harmony circular
Time to complete: 3 weeks
Gripes: a sock yarn knitted out into a sweater, I must be crazy!

Ravelry page

I think I was kind of nutty to knit an entire pullover out of sock yarn. But I love sock yarn and sock yarn makes a portable subway knitting project. This is a very warm sweater without the weight or bulk, so its worth it to knit a sweater out of sock yarn even if it seems to be nutty.

I didn’t start this sweater on impulse. I’ve been eyeing it for a long time. I had in on my Ravelry queue a few months ago but when I cleaned up my queue list, I removed it. I thought that I would never, ever want to completely knit a sweater out of sock yarn, I would run out of patience before I complete it. So out it went. But then I was obsessively looking at everyone else’s Thermal on Ravelry, I was entranced by them, so I had to knit me one.

I didn’t do a gauge at all for this sweater (which could have turned out very badly). I was very daring, I went straight to the smallest size, went up a needle size and started knitting the body. The smallest size on this pattern is too small for me but I didn’t know I would have enough yarn to make one size up, so the best solution to that was to go up a needle size. This was the closest project to have come to running out of yarn. When I was half way up the second sleeve I did a little measuring to see how much the first sleeve weighed and how much the second sleeve plus the remaining yarn weighed, I only had a few grams extra left over, ok, so I have enough to finish. Boy did I get lucky, I only had about two yards left in the end, my scale wouldn’t even weigh such little amount.

As nutty as knitting a sweater is (the time it took to knit this sweater, I could have knitted 3 pairs of socks), I’m actually planning on knitting a second one out of sock yarn. I’m nuts when it comes to knitting.

Scoop du jour

06.17.07 | Tags: Sweaters | Comments: (0)

Pattern: Scoop du jour by ChicKnits
Yarn: 9 skeins of Classic Elite four seasons cotton color 7606
Gauge: 18 st/ 24 rows on #9, the pattern called for gauge on #8
Needles: Knitpicks options #6, 7, 8 and 9

I bought this yarn from Webs during their anniversary sale intending to knit the dollar and a half cardigan. I tried swatching for that cardigan but I couldn’t figure out the lace pattern. It was so confusing and so I gave up on it.

This was my first time knitting a Chic Knits pattern. I have to say that the pattern is very well organized and concise. A little to concise for my taste though. There were some places where I wanted more guidance instead of decrease on this row, tell me to ssk or k2tog! I also had a confusing moment during the sleeve cap shaping. I was knitting the smallest size and I was told to repeat a decrease row marked as RS once and then every other time. So I decreased just on the RS rows once and then every other RS row. Something should have clicked in my mind when it was taking forever to do the decreases. I did all the decreases and bound off. Low and behold I have this gianormous sleeve cap! So yeah I think that part could be clearer for the smallest size and say decrease on a WS row once and then decrease on every RS row!

Another thing is that I got gauge on a #9 needle instead of a #8. The sweater did fit perfectly but I feel that the stitches are a bit too loose. I used a little less than 9 skeins which is about 900 yards. The pattern said 950 yards so I used half a skein less than prescribed. Hmmm, maybe I should have knit it on #8s. Anyways I like the sweater. I took the photo right after I added the buttons and before blocking.