The Home Stretch
12 Feb
My Tea Leaves Cardigan is very nearly done!
After casting off the last stitch on Monday, I’ve been working slooooowly on weaving in the ends and sewing up the sleeves, hoping I could drag it out until today so I wouldn’t be tempted to start my Ravelympics project too soon (more on that in another post!). With four hours to go until the Opening Ceremonies, I still have one sleeve to seam.
The pattern calls for the sleeves to be knit in the round but, and I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this here, but I am useless when it comes to DPNs. My knitting always looks like crap, unless I’m working on socks from the toe-up, which somehow come out fine. So until I learn magic loop or how to knit a tube with two circular needles, I’m forced to knit my sleeves flat.
These are the only buttons I have that would work for this sweater, but I’m not convinced that they’re right for it. I’d really love to hear your opinion.
Here’s a closer look at them. As you can probably tell, they have red and gold sparkles on the front, and I’m thinking something a little simpler might look better.
Best be off to finish things up! I have my yarn wound for tonight, and I’ve already knit a gauge swatch so I am ready to go the moment the ceremony starts. Oh, but one last thing before I go:
How handsome is this guy? He’s happily purring away on my lap as I type this.
Doesn’t Addi made 12″ circulars? You can probably avoid magic loop, 2 circs, and dpns, all of which I find fiddly.
And although I LOVE those buttons, you might want to try a solid color. I think that they get lot in the variegation of the yarn.
I agree – buttons are lurrrrvely and devine, but I think something simpler would do your Tealeaves more justice. You could try them, though. And if they don’t work – Switch!
Kitty!!
My large-gauge knitting looks OK on dpns, but I hate hate HATE knitting on dpns larger than about US3′s, so I always knit flat as well. And you get the extra bonus that your sleeves will keep their shape & length better than ones without seams.
magic loop is so fantastic, and its really not hard at all!
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques
Love the Tea Leaves! Simpler buttons – yes. Knit flat when you can knit in the round? Crazy! (I’m just about the worst seamer ever) One trick I learned is to tug on the first stitch AND the second stitch of the next dpn to avoid ladders. Plus, blocking can even out a lot of sloppiness. Gorgeous colorway, btw.
Aw, your handsome guy has the same colourings and facial expressions as my Pippa!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dyedinthewoolhandmade/3001111463/
Beautiful sweater…and VERY beautiful cat! I’m not great with DPNs either. I can make them work most of the time, but not without a lot of sighing and cursing under my breath.
love the sweater! it looks like it will be really warm … it’s one I want to knit as well!
Love the cardi!
Yeah, I agree that something simpler would be better for the buttons, just because the yarn already has so much “activity” in it with the variegation. I would personally go with a darker purple button, something subtle that shows off the sweater itself.
Oh, and the magic loop is mostly about pulling out the extra cord in the circulars. You can google it and find videos. Super easy, and saves you the seaming!
Getting Addis 30 cm circs revolutionized my sweater knitting. I used to stall like crazy when I got to the sleeves, now I can get half a sleeve or more get done in a couple of hours. Might be worth to try out.