Pain in the neck

I finished Boy 2’s sweater this weekend.  It was quick and easy.  That is, it was quick and easy until I picked up stitches around the neckline and put in a very simply 2x1 ribbed band.  After that, it didn’t fit over the boy’s head anymore!

Sorry for this truly terrible photo (I don’t want to lay this down outside right now – everything is covered with dew).  This is how it looks without the neckline (which I already tore out):It fits over his head fine like this.  The stitches around the neckline stretch and it goes over.  But after I pick up stitches, which is something you usually want to do in order to stabilize a notoriously stretchy and potentially saggy area, it doesn’t fit anymore.  It’s not about the 2x1 ribbed band (which was stretchy in its own right).  It was definitely the picked-up stitches that caused the problem.

I’m bummed.  The neck is the CAST-ON EDGE.  To redo it would require ripping out the entire sweater.  I used the formula in the this pattern and it resulted in a 36 stitch neckline.  I thought that sounded too small and upped it to 40.  I guess I should have trusted my instincts and increased it even more.

Here’s a close-up of the unfinished neckline, which really requires something to make it look more attractive, I think: Again, sorry about the glare off the floor (that' was even taken with no flash!).  So, what should I do?

1. I could try a different edging.  Maybe an applied i-cord  or a crochet edging (like crab stitch?) would be stretchier?  I’m not sure.  Couldn’t hurt to try.
2. Could I steek this a little to make a johnny collar look?  I’ve never done a steek and I’m not sure if you can do one if you didn’t plan to do one and leave a steeking area to cut.
3. I hate to put this down as an option, but should I rip the whole thing out and start over?
4. Is there some other simple way of finishing the rough stitches at the neckline that will not result in tightening them up too much?

Help needed!!!!

A soft sweater for a sweet boy

My youngest caught a whiff of the yarn fumes at this spring’s Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  He picked out this very soft merino-angora 2-ply at Jamie Harmon’s booth: There’s a chill in the air, and it seems like a good time to whip this sweater out.I’m using the same top-down raglan pattern that I used for the Bada Bing sweater last fall.  It’s going quickly.  Here is where I was last weekend: This photo looks kind of strange since I plopped the ball of working yarn in the neckhole… but you get the idea.

I have the body done now:I’ve decided to rip that sleeve back and begin again, decreasing more quickly.  My little guy has skinny spaghetti arms, and this sleeve already seems too flappy for him.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have made the raglan seam quite as long, but (a) I was hoping this would fit him for two winters, and (b) I want him to be able to get this on and off on his own, or else he won’t wear it at all (like the last pair of socks I made him).  So I erred on the size of large.

The colors in the first photo are truer than the ones in the second photo.  I had to shoot the second one in the pre-work wan light of my front porch today.  Outdoor photo opps are harder to find this time of year!

Yarn delivery

After a deliciously agonizing period of deliberation, I’ve made some choices about solid sock yarns from Simply Socks Yarn Company (part of my winnings!) for two projects in my near future.

First, Pam chose this Tangled Garden pattern for her prize socks: We picked the colors “pink” and “wheatgrass” for these:

And S1 settled on the colors “green,” “mocha,” “brick,” and “chocolate” for her Mad for Plaid fraternal quadruplet socks:

These are going to be FUN!

FO: Butternut Scarf!

I bought yarn and pattern for this project at Sock Summit in 2009 (Glory Days DK weight BFL, dyed by Briar Rose Fibers, pattern by Anne Hanson) and cast on last October.  Somehow I got very sidetracked and only just now finished it.  Still, just in time for fall! I tend to like my scarves on the long side, and I figured there wasn’t much point in saving leftover yarn, so I kept going for a while.  The finished, blocked scarf is 9.5” wide and 79” long. This is my first real lace piece and it needed to be blocked seriously, as lace does.  Luckily, my friend Gretchen has blocking wires, which I borrowed for this task.I also had a heck of a time photographing this.  I’m not sure the colors are done justice in these pictures.  Come visit, and I’ll show you my scarf!

Much better

Braided cable with garter bead, the right way.

A very productive meeting!

Ack!

This sock just wasn’t looking like the picture in the book.  I kept going a bit, thinking that it might be a few repeats until the cable pattern would really begin to show.  But no.  This is supposed to be a cable braid and it doesn’t look braid-y at all. I stared at it pretty hard during my morning meeting and decided it looked too stretched out.  It might look more braid-y if I made this an 8-round repeat rather than a 12-round repeat.  I started that pattern (seen here at the very top) and decided I was right – isn’t this starting to braid now?

I googled the name of the pattern (braided cable with garter bead) and discovered that there are errata on the publisher’s website.  DOH!  This has happened to me before and I swore I would never begin a new pattern without checking Ravelry for errata.  Serves me right, I guess.  I was kind of pleased that I figured out the correction without seeing the errata first, though.

Home for lunch.  Rip rip rip.  I tried to pick up a row of stitches near the top of my ribbing (see the bottom needle inserted in the photo above?), but it didn’t work very well.  I can pick up knit stitches and stay in the same row just fine, but purls are another matter.  Fixing it was so time consuming that I finally just ripped out the whole sock.

Started over in afternoon meeting.

Tomorrow I have an ALL-DAY meeting, the kind with tons of people and not much audience participation.  Primo knitting, people!  I’ll post a progress report.

So far I love the colors of this yarn – so many shades of orange and brown and gold.  But it’s kind of splitty and all this ripping isn’t helping. 

October is for Orange

Fall is probably my favorite season.  There are things I adore about every season, but fall has a whole lot going for it:

• the return of cool air
• bright colors - blue skies, orange pumpkins, apples in red and green and yellow, mums in purple and rust and orange and yellow and red
• high apple season - bring on the applesauce, cider, and pie!
• two birthdays in my family (one is mine)… 

Fall is a season when knitting feels right.  I wore wool socks for the first time in a long time a couple of weeks ago. 

And each time fall rolls around, I itch to knit a very autumnal sock.  This year I pulled a very orange skein out of stash:

This is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in colorway “Foliage.”  It has so many yummy shades of orange in it.  I’m using Charlene Schurch’s Braided Cable with Garter Bead pattern on a sock for Sweetie.  Kris is making a sock in this pattern, and hers is stunning (I’m happy to steal inspiration when I see good stuff!).  The yarn color is more like the first picture than the one below.  I’m not far enough along for you to see the pattern yet, but I have cast on:

I also finished my Ecology Socks last week.  I know it took me a few weeks from start to finish, but the number of hours couldn’t have been many.  This sportweight yarn just flies off the needles.  These will be so cozy this winter!I knit an afterthought heel on these to preserve the striping pattern.  The heel is knit exactly like the toe, with a kitchener graft at the end.  Very comfy.  And look how well they match!  Matching is definitely not required in my socks, but I’m pleased that I can do it when I want to. I’m getting close to the finish line on my Butternut Scarf.  I’ll push to complete it this week so I can actually wear it this fall.

Happy fall!