Hi everyone! I've been looking at this blog for a while now because I love this book! Felow portlander, larissa, has started a state-fair-along to get more people to enter knitting, or anything really, in their local fair this summer. I decided to join so I wanted to knit something really interesting for the fair. I knew that I wanted to make something from this book and after much deliberation, I chose the ogee tunic.
I'm almost done with the first sleeve and so far I haven't found any pattern errors. I didn't set out trying to make it in the same color as in the book. I originally wanted to knit it in pink or lavender but I couldn't find a color that I liked. Since I'm on a time crunch, I didn't want to waste too much time choosing yarn so I went with this pretty turquoise color. It's knitpicks merino style and the color is tide pool. I got guage with a size 5 needle so it's working out well!

If you'd like to visit my main blog, it can be found here.


Tags: Ogee Tunic_

Plum Blossom Yarn

In answer to Helen's question, I used some mystery yarn that I bought at the Marukai 98 cent store in Gardena, CA (near Los Angeles). At the time that I bought it, they had several nice colors, including taupe, sky blue and cobalt blue. As you can see from the scan, it is a cabled cotton. The yarn was very nice, with only about 1 knot per skein which I didn't mind.

It came with a pattern for a lace sweater and claimed to knit at a gauge of 5 sts/inch and 6.5 rows/inch. The swatch with the taupe yarn came out 4.5 sts/in, and the pink came out smaller than that. I had to double the pink yarn to get 4.5 sts/in. At 98 cents per 50 gram ball, I wasn't about to complain.

If you live in LA or in Hawaii, you should really check out the Marukai 98 cent stores. They have bamboo needles for $1.59 (or maybe $1.49) per pair. The needle sizes are mismarked, but I just measured them and wrote the correct size on the needles. They have lots of gross acrylic yarn, but look down low. The cotton stuff was on the bottom shelf where only my 5 year old could find it.

The Marukai store location in Torrance does not have the nice cotton yarn. Only the Gardena one had it. There is another Japanese 99 cent store nearby called Papier et Plastique in the Mitsuwa shopping center at the corner of Western and Carson. Origami paper galore.



Tags: Pentagon Pullover_

A finished project.

Oh, even after that basalt tank fiasco, I picked up the book again.
I thought this droplet hat would be a great transition back into it...



The pattern seems to work out fine...and it only took a couple of days to knit.
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed.
Pattern: Droplet Hat from Knitting Nature.
Adjustments: I added a little length...my row gauge must have been off. So I didn't end up making the last set of bobbles. I think the three bobbles up the side of the droplet looks just fine. I also forgot to do the ribbing twisted at the rim of the hat...oh well.

The way Norah does the bobbles is a great technique to learn. It's like cabling without a cable needle...less work for bobbles. Give it a try, even if you don't make the hat.


Tags: Droplet Hat

My Projekt

I knit the Phyllo Yoked Pullover and it was a hard job to work all the pieces without any pattern! Finally I can start with the yoke. I show it to you when i´m ready!
If You want, You can visit me in my blog www.wollball.de - see You later.......

my approach to knitting projects is definitely... organic.

still in the works: the spiral scarf (which hasn't budged since that last posting), turbulence (the sleeves are dawdling), the phyllo yoke pullover (no pix yet of this ecoknit wonder but i'm ready to begin the yoke sans sleeves in about 30 more endless stockinette rows on the front), and now....



here's my 4th (yep) WIP from knitting nature. the beginnings of the bubble pullover, ladies and gentlemen, in berroco ultra alpaca in 'fennel'. i'll be the first and most vocal critic of berroco's designs, but this yarn is luscious. gorgeous stitch definition, übersoft, and sooooOOOOooOo easy to knit with. it's superdreamy. it's like, my dream boat. it's, well, fantasy yarn.

need i say more?


Tags: Bubble Pullover

Plum Blossom Revealed

I have renamed the swirled pentagon pullover "Plum Blossom".


Here is a closeup of the yoke


and this is the back, showing the waist shaping.


I did not find any additional errors in the pattern . It was really a fun and challenging design. Like Grumperina, I thought the sweater came together really well.

I tweaked the pattern slightly.

1. I used a different yarn which yielded a looser gauge. I compensated by following knitting instructions for a petite size body and yoke and a small size sleeve.
2. I added waist shaping, making 4 decreases/increases every 6 rows 5 times.
   
3. This one is a biggie. I translated the instructions for knitting the sweater in the round. I joined the sleeves and the body at the underarm as in a traditional yoked sweater. After 8 rows, I divided up the knitting in 2 parts, left and right side. After binding off the last of the body stitches (row 26 after joining), I finished the sleeve (39 rows after joining).
   
4. I made the decreases decorative, like the ones I learned in making this cardigan.
   
5. If I were to make the sweater again, I would have made the sleeve cap about 2 rows shorter. Your row gauge may be different than mine, but I think the fit of my sweater would have been improved without the very slight wrinkle at the sleeve cap.
   
6. I omitted the turtleneck.
7. I did not fasten off the half pentagon at the back neck until there were 2 stitches in each section. (The pattern said 6 stitches.)

I bought the yarn at the Gardena Marukai 98 cents store for 98 cents a 50 g ball. The label said it is 100% Peruvian cotton, manufactured in Japan. I bought 14 balls and used 12. The yarn sure is soft to wear and washes well. I did not find the yarn in the Torrance Marukai store (but found some sushi-shaped candles which were not available in Gardena). Did anyone find the yarn at the Marukai stores in Hawaii? I would love to get more, but can't find any more in Los Angeles.

You can read more on my blog.


Tags: Pentagon Pullover_

Still chugging along...

I don't have any really exciting progress to report, but I figured I'd post what I have so far anyway. I've finished the left front of the Hex Coat, and now I'm on to the right front. Here's the left front in all its splendor:



You may have noticed that I have only 9 total indentations (counting the half ones at the top and bottom) instead of the 11 indentations that the pattern calls for. This is because my row gauge is messed up. In the swatch that I made, the row gauge (after washing/blocking) was 22 rows=4". The gauge in the pattern is 25 rows=4". My stitch gauge is right on at 17 st=4", so I was too worried that the row gauge was a bit off. So far in my actual, non-swatch, the row gauge is closer to 20 rows=4". I still think this isn't a big deal, but I decided to cut out two hexagons on each side so this sweater coat doesn't eat me alive! I think it's going to work out well too with the armholes, because the petite measurements in the schematic call for 8 1/2" armholes on each side. I was a bit concerned that this would be a bit small for wearing this over clothes and such, so I'm happy that with my sloppy row gauge, my armholes are closer to 10".

No snags in the actual pattern yet. This particular pattern is very specific on how to do the increases and decreases on each side, because they need to be a certain way in order to attach the hexagons that go down the front. The one thing she doesn't specify though, is what form of m1 you should use. This is just a minor complaint though, and simply stems from the fact that she's so specific about what kind of decreases to do. I've just been knitting through the front and back loop and it seems to look fine, so I'm happy.

I just returned from vacation where I got little to no knitting done, so I'm hoping to pick up the pace a bit from here on out. These could be my famous last words.


Tags: Hex Coat_

Obsessed ;-)

Since I started with my Hex Coat on Thursday evening this week with my friend Claudia in our knitting group I can´t let my fingers off this project. I already frogged the first 20cm because I didn´t like that the edge of the rib part was shorter than the part of the moss stiched one. I had some doubts that the hexagon couldn´t fit. So I restartes the ribbing with 4,5mm needles and I think it´s O.K.

Because I´m not a patient person at all I also began to knit 3 of the 23 hexagon at the edge of the fronts.

See how my progress is just at the same tim I´m writing this post.



I´ll keep you informed about further progress and learnings. And I´m curious about the other Hex Coats I already saw having started in this blog.

Hugs Claudia.


Tags: Hex Coat_

turbulence pullover

Hi everyone. My first post at this kal.

I’m knitting the Turbulence U-Neck Pullover in Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk. Here’s the finished back piece.
And I started the front with the delicate center cable.

I’ve been reading this kal for a few weeks now and I love seeing all the projects come to life by other knitters from this book. The Roundabout Leaf Tank is also on my list – and I’ll definitely be using your notes!

brooke



Tags: Turnbulance Pullover_

Sidetracked

Moving along with the Leaf Tank, albiet a bit slowly, when I got sidetracked by the Sunflower Tam. I picked up some buttery Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran and could not resist making this my carry-along project. Gauge was sufficiently off that I had to rip the entire thing out once, go down a couple needle sizes, twist the knits in the ribbing, and cast on 80 stitches (whew!), but now it will fit my daughter... next winter.
<>
My real dilemma is whether to bring my cone of Denim Silk along on my 2-week trip back home. I don't want to put the leaf tank down for 2 weeks. Is it crazy to carry a cone across the country?

Starting Cabled Spiral Pullover

I have been swatching, and plan to start the Cabled Spiral Pullover today. But there are some issues to work out before I cast on.

- gauge: If I use 5 mm needles I get gauge exactly, even the row gauge is perfect. And it looks nice enough. But out of curiosity I tried 4.5 mm needles too, and obviously the gauge is a bit off, but the fabric I get is perfect, absolutely perfect. The math tells me that I could knit it one size bigger and not have to make any adjustments, but I haven't worked out the row gauge math if I do that. For the large stockinette parts it doesn't matter, but I'm unsure about the cabled section.

- shape: It looks very boxy and square in the book, and as I read the pattern I realised there is no shaping whatsoever. Will have to modify that, the question is how much. Should I just add some careful little waist decreases to keep with the designer's intention of a loose fitting garment, or could I go a bit further without compromising the designer's idea?

I'll be using unlabelled cashmere from Pinnsvindesign, it's been in my stash for a long time now, waiting for a pattern that is good enough for it!

Tags: Cabled Spiral Pullover

Hey, look! Another Leaf Tank!

Here's my progress so far:

I'm using the Berroco Denim Silk in "Cayenne".

This is about a week's worth of knitting; I've slowed down in the last few days, though, because it's almost time to do some math. Since the tank is photographed on a stick-straight model and I'm, er, curvier than that, I'm planning to shape this tank by do some evenly spaced decreases as I progress up the spiral. I've got a little more hip than bust, so hopefully this will keep things from flapping in the breeze up top, and the tank will end up being a bit of an A-line shape instead of just straight up and down.

Wish me luck. Advice, concerns and stern warnings welcome. :)


Tags: Roundabout Leaf Tank_

FO: Roundabout Leaf Tank

Today I finished and blocked the Roundabout tank in Berroco Cotton Twist:
This was very fun and a great learning experience. I did find one error in this pattern, though...Row 2 of the 2-row pattern for the straps listed on page 111 should read thus (corrections in bold):

p3, yo, p2tog, p2(2,3,3,2) 3(3,4,4,3), [k2,p2] x times, delete p1(1,2,2,1), yo, p2tog, p2

I wrote a near-novella on my take on this pattern. I hope it can be helpful to others in the midst of, or planning on, making this top. So as not to take up huge bandwidth, feel free to hop over to my blog at sknitty if you want to read all about it.

Tags: Roundabout Leaf Tank_, FO_, Errata_

Slow but steady hex coat progress

I've started working on the left front of the hex coat:





Tags: Hex Coat_












I've gotten a bit further than this picture shows, but not much. (I'm in a wedding this weekend, and silly me thought I would be doing a lot more knitting than I actually am doing!) Anyway, so far the pattern seems okay, though I haven't really gotten into anything all that involved. It took me awhile to decide what size to make, since I'm not entirely familiar with ease allowance conventions for sweater coats. In the end I went with the Petite, since I'm a 37" bust and the bust on the Petite is 41 1/2. My rationale was that this should be more than enough ease in an oversized sweater, so hopefully it will make a nice fitting sweater coat. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm using the yarn that the pattern calls for: Reynold's Lite Lopi. I'm using one size bigger than the needles called for though. After making a swatch and washing it, I got the exact stitch gauge with size 9's, though I think my row gauge was a bit off. Again, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I love this book!!

I saw the pictures Grumperina has on her blog and knew this book had to be mine! I received it for my birthday a few weeks ago and have been drooling over it since. I have ordered the yarn for the Hex Coat, but am really having trouble deciding which of the projects I want to do first. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted on my decision and progress. Your projects look beautiful so far!! Thanks so much for sharing your work.

My new blog is librarianknits.blogspot.com.

Happy knitting!
Risa

Problems with Swirled Pentagon Pullover Schematic

I knit the body up to the start of the armhole shaping and one sleeve is almost there.

However, the sweater schematic is misleading. On the left, it shows that the length of the sweater body (for the smallest size) is 22.5 inches from the bottom of the sweater to where it is joined to the yoke. If you do the math, adding all the other measurements in the schematic, it appears that 22.5" inches is the total sweater length.

12.5 + 3.75 + 5.25 = 21.5
body to underarm + armhole depth + pentagon height

The math still doesn't add up unless they meant for the body to be 12.5 inches from the beginning of the stockinette section instead of from the absolute beginning.

21.5 + 1 (ribbing) = 22.5

Are other pattern books from this publisher, STC, also this error-ridden?

On another note, the sleeve width is rather narrow. Even though I made the smallest size body and the next size up sleeve, the sleeve is still snug. It is still comfortable enough to wear without a shirt underneath the sweater. But I just wanted to warn everyone in case they wanted to use this as a layering sweater. If you add extra sleeve stitches, they should gather nicely without puckering into the stretchy yoke.

earlier posts: Making Progress, Swirled Pentagon Pullover Yoke Completed, Loving those Swirly Pentagons




Tags: Pentagon Pullover_, Errata_

Finished Shell Tank

This is the most beautiful book with the most unusual patterns I have ever seen. I want to make so many things in it.
I finished the Shell Tank. This is my first project from the book and I love it. It was a lot of fun to make, even thought it did have a lot of seaming at the end. The cable section was my favorite. Here is a picture of it being blocked.
I made it from Filatura Lanarota Summer Soft. The yarn was make of rayon and was very splitty and for my next one (and I will make another one) I will go with cotton.



Tags: FO_, Shell Tank_

Yarn arrived for the Hex Coat

Today the lett lopi island wool arrived and let me start to knit the swatch tonight. I know it´s not the right weather, 30°C, blue sky and finally summer in Germany!
But no excuses! I was warned that same colourways of this yarn will get wider up to 15% after washing so I´ll gonna wash the swatch before starting with one sleeve at once...
It´s a good project to knit while watching the World Cup at TV because of the moss stich doesn´t need attention ;-)




Tags: Hex Coat_

Leaf Tank Math Check

It's midnight in NY and I've just completed 36.5" and am ready to join. I'm going to run my math by you all and unless someone notices a glaring error, will join when I'm fresh (hopefully tomorrow). Here goes:

Pattern row gauge is 26/4" or 6.5 rows per inch. My gauge is 24, or 6 rows/inch.
The 36.5" pattern x 6.5= ~237 rows, whereas I have 36.5x6 = ~219 rows, or 18 fewer rows.
You are suppose to pick up every 2 rows ("2 rows above") which I take to mean every other row, but I'll have 18 fewer rows, so 9 fewer pickups, which will make my tank smaller.
To avoid that I'll add an extra pick-up every 12 rows (219/2 rows=109.5 -- 109.5/9 extra pick-ups = 12).

There's probably an easier way to do this math. Anyone want to give it a go?

PS picture to follow after I join :~}


Tags: Roundabout Leaf Tank_

Basalt Tank

I've had this book since it first came out, but only now have something to show. I've completed two hexagons on the Basalt Tank. I spread them on the floor to photograph and you can see that there were some obstructions, so I took another close up. I'm sorry Carolyn had so much trouble (and anger!) with this pattern, but grateful she went first so I had some heads up about the mistakes.

I did the first two hexagons flat, but have done about 20 rows on the third in the round. I'm doing this on 24" circulars and will switch to magic loop I think when there are fewer stitches. I'm using Classic Elite Premiere (50% Pima Cotton 50% Tencel) in boring brown (because it will match everything else I own).

I've also swatched last night for the Shell Tank with some Debbie Bliss Soho Summer I got at the WEBs Tent Sale. Actually I did the skinny left front piece as my swatch. Then cast on and did the ribbing for the back piece.

I also have yarn already for the spiral scarf and I've been eyeing some Reynolds Rapture for the sweater that looks like it has a sand dollar on the front of it (can't recall the name at the moment). WEBs is discontinuing carrying Rapture and is selling off the last of their stock at 25% off.

Making Progress

Making the yoke of the sweater was fiddly, but never boring. Making the body of the sweater is simple, but boring. SNORE. The body is 6" long and I am done decreasing for the waist shaping. Another 1.5" and I can start increasing. I intend to shorten the sweater and shape for the armholes at 14". At least it is good movie watching knitting.


Tags: Pentagon Pullover_

Ram's horn Jacket

I have started my Ram's horn jacket, I am using the Classic elite Renaissance yarn in the tuscon color, and I just love this yarn. It is not expensive, but the color is just subtle and small variations that you don't really see till it is knit up. I am moving slow on this, as I am juggling too many projects but love this jacket.I am up to the armhole decreases. I also put the hem in, knitting it in,I just suck at sewing and since I just did this w/my sunrise circle jacket, and love the look, decided to do it here. I also didn't make the hem 3" but 2.5 Why?? just wanted to get the hem done.. LOL
sherry



Tags: Ram's Horn Jacket_

Hex Coat

I won't be getting to my first Knitting Nature project until August, but I couldn't keep myself from joining now! I am really looking forward to everyone's FOs and working on my own. So far everyone's progress looks great! Originally I was going to use this Malabrigo (yum) for Sally Melville's Einstein Coat. But now I know that my Malabrigo is meant for the Hex Coat!!! yum yum yum! (sorry, picture placement on Blogger and I don't always get along)
Allegra @ FiddlesticKnitting




Tags: Hex Coat_

Denim Silk

I won a delicious cone of denim silk in Raw Linen from ebay and have started the Leaf Tank. It has been a good start. Casting on 24 stitches was basically a gauge swatch that kept growing as my stitch gauge is on. Also, this feels like knitting a scarf so far, but after one more pattern repeat, I join and then I think it will become a bit more complicated (my row gauge is a little off and I'm not sure if this will matter).

BTW, my LYS has Denim Silk on sale for $5.10/skein. I don't know what they charge for shipping, but if you are interested let me know and I'll pass on their website info, or google simply knitting + ny...


Tags: Roundabout Leaf Tank_

Swirled Pentagon Pullover Yoke Completed

I found another typo in the instructions for the final half pentagon. It said to continue in 2x2 rib when it should have said 1x1 rib.

Here is the back of the yoke, with the half pentagon filling the center back gap.


The instructions said to fasten off when there were 6 or 7 stitches on each DP needle. I waited until there were 2 or 3 stitches on each needle (and I used a single circular needle with markers instead). I plan to leave the yoke as is, without adding the 2x2 rib portion. I live in LA after all and we don't have turtleneck weather very often.

A gratuitous shot of the front of the yoke.


The yoke came together fairly well. There are very slight volcanos at the centers of the pentagons. (Volcano is a technical term in quilting when your lone star doesn't come out quite flat.) Hopefully, they will disappear when the rest of the sweater is attached.

If I had it to do over again, I would have started the ribbing k1,p1,k1...p1. Then, I would have decreased at the beginning of each section with a ssk instead of decreasing at the end of the sections with k2tog. I am working with 100% cotton yarn and I find that ssk stretches the yarn out less than k2tog. Hopefully, this will be less noticeable after the first time I wash the sweater. The pentagons would swirl in the opposite direction but the overall effect should be the same as long as they all swirled in the same direction.

going in spirals...

some more swirly spirals for everyone! i have been working on this spiral scarf in fits and starts, but i'm halfway (yarn-wise) through the project. approximately nine more hexagons (of decreasing size) to go, or as long as my supermerino agrees to provide. i find that doing them on one circular until you cant stand it anymore, then switching to two circulars, is my weapon of choice. much of this was knit while listening to 'the pleasure of my company' by steve martin, a book on cd... :)





Tags: Spiral Scarf_

Loving those Swirly Pentagons

[Only 2 of the 4 pentagons completed so far fit on my flatbed scanner.]

I became obsessed with the swirly pentagons in the bookstore and started a swatch right away. You can read about my gauge trials ad nauseum on my blog. Fortunately, after some sleep, my gauge problem corrected itself. I had miscounted the number of stitches.

Anyhow, the doubled pink yarn gives me 17 sts/4" and 20 sts per side of the pentagon gives me the right size pentagon for a size S. Because my gauge is slightly bigger than the yarn used in the book, I will use the directions for XS which will (hopefully) make a Small sweater.

Since I fell in love with the pentagons, I am knitting them first. (It's also because I saw Grumperina's pictures. The thought of turning the whole sweater round and round and round just made me feel tired.) After I knit the yoke, I plan to knit the body and sleeves in the round from the bottom, join them at the underarm, and continue knitting until I get to the yoke. I haven't decided yet whether to graft the live stitches to the cast on edges of the yoke or to bind off the body and sleeve stitches. Anybody have thoughts on this approach?

Knitting 1x1 rib in the cabled cotton yarn is hard on my hands and wrists. I can make about 2 pentagons a day before it starts to hurt. Maybe I will start on a sleeve and finish the rest of the pentagons another day.

Like Christine, I had difficulty figuring out the best way to knit these units. I tried magic loop with one circular (click for result) , 6 double pointed needles and finally settled on knitting with two cirulars. As I worked inwards, the dangling ends of the circulars became more and more awkward. But they still beat the DPNs falling out everywhere, dropping stitches. Magic loop worked well on the outer part of the pentagon, but became unwieldy towards the middle.

Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Grace.



Tags: Pentagon Pullover_

(A)symmetrical Cardigan

Hello! Another new member to this KAL here.

I've decided on the asymmetrical cardigan for my first project from this book (there will be many more). I'm very excited to try it, since it will be my first sweater ever. I am going to make one major and several minor modifications to the pattern.

First, the major modification. I don't look funky or interesting in funky or interesting clothes. I look weird. Since I'm about 98% sure that I will look unintentionally lopsided in this sweater, I'm going to make it symmetrical.

Minor modifications:
1. I'm going to use the slightly cheaper Karabella Aurora Bulky instead of the cashmere. The reasons are 1) as I mentioned, it is slightly cheaper, and 2) I have never knit with pure cashmere before, and KAB is an old and trusted friend. I will have enough problems what with this being my first sweater and all.
2. I'm afraid of sewing on the button band, so I'm just going to cast on for it along with the fronts and knit it along with them. (I might stick another buttonhole or two in there while I'm at it.) I won't bind the button band off; I'll leave them on a holder when I BO the front necks. After I knit the collar, I will graft it to one button band, sew around the neck with freeloop backstitch, then graft to the other button band. I'm thinking double chain selvedge for the free edges on the fronts.
3. I am concerned with the CO and BO halves of the waistband matching. I hate the way tubular CO for double rib looks; that slanty stitch drives me nuts. In my swatch, I used double alternate cable CO and decrease BO, and they're very similar but not similar enough. I think I'm going to stop knitting just before the ribbing begins on the bottom back, then knit the ribbing separately and graft it on, so the whole bottom edge will be a CO edge.

Stuff I'm still thinking about:
1. I haven't done any measuring yet, but I'm short and will probably need to shorten the sleeves. The sleeve cuff is very long, so hopefully I can just take a few inches off of that.
2. Side seams: backstitch or mattress stitch?
3. The sleeve seams scare me, since it will be a CO and BO edge I'm seaming together. Are there particular CO and BO methods that are best for this? Does it not matter, since whatever technique I use will be hidden by the seam?

ANYWAY.... sorry about the long-windedness of this post. Here's the swatch:





Tags: Aysmmetrical Cardigan_

Hex Coat

Hi! I just wanted to introduce myself - I'm Kellie, and I'm going to be making the Hex Coat. (Details will be documented as well on my fledgling blog, Cottage Knitting.) This is the first pattern I'm ever going to follow with exactly the yarn and colorway that it calls for. I love the look in the picture:






Tags: Hex Coat_











And luckily, Reynold's Lite Lopi is only $3.10 at Webs! My yarn should be here in a day or so - I can't wait to get started!