Hello Knitty

Do you know what happens when you knit the majority of a top three months ago and then try to talk about it?

You don’t know what to say!

Bottoms Up is a lovely little top. Most of it was knit in April and then I abandoned it, 90% finished, to start Twenty Ten. I finally got around to finishing the knitting at the beginning of July, and then it sat around, unblocked and without the ends woven in, for another three weeks. Bad, bad knitter.

There is a lot of twisted rib in this pattern which I LOVE. It’s not the most exciting thing to knit, but there isn’t much else that looks better. The yarn is Elsebeth Levold Silky Wool, a go-to yarn for a lot of people but one I’d never tried before. I’d consider knitting with it again, but one thing to keep in mind is that it stretches a lot when blocked. I made the size 36/38, and if I were to knit this again I’d make the next size down to accommodate the yarn.

I did take a few notes while knitting Bottoms Up. It’s not a pattern I’d recommend for beginners. I had to make a number of changes to it (which I documented on my Ravelry project page, linked below), partially because as written the torso would have been really short and partially because, well, there was just an easier way to do things. And I am all about keeping it simple.

HelloKnitty’s Bottom’s Up – Ravelry link

Since I mostly knit cardigans, swatching for projects knit in the round isn’t something I have to think about very often. But with the finished project I’ll show you on Friday I had to do that very thing, and I discovered a nifty little trick I wanted to pass on.

As some of you probably know, when you knit stockinette in the round your gauge is different than when you knit it flat. This is because when you knit in the round you’re only knitting knit stitches, where as if you knit stockinette flat you’re knitting and purling, and the tension when you knit is different than the tension when you purl.

For example, to make gauge on the Whisper Cardigan I finished last summer I knit the sleeves, which were knit in the round, on a size 3 needle. When I began knitting the back, and switched to knitting flat, I had to go down to a size 1.5 needle to get the same gauge. That’s quite a difference.

In the past, when I had to swatch for a project knit in the round, I would get a 12” or 16” needle, cast on enough stitches that I could comfortably knit in the round, and knit until I had a large enough piece to measure. When I make a flat gauge swatch I usually cast on around 35 stitches and knit for 4” but the in-the-round swatch it always required way more stitches and took a lot longer. And if you’re anything like me, spending more time than absolutely necessary on a gauge swatch is to be avoided at all costs.

There is a way to knit a stockinette gauge swatch flat that mimics knitting in the round. It’s genius, and simple. Here’s what you do:

Cast on however many stitches you want to cast on. Knit one row.

Instead of purling the next row, slide your stitches back down the needle, bring your yarn across the back, and start knitting another right side row.

The wrong side will look like this. See how there’s a length of yarn that’s been brought across the back from the right to the left? Make sure you don’t pull the yarn across the back tightly. You’ll want a little slack.

Keep repeating until your swatch is the size you want it. The back will be kind of a mess when you’re done.

Voila! No purls, only knits!

I can’t remember where I learned this but it’s definitely a trick I’m glad to have in my knitting toolbag.

Maybe I should make this a regular feature? If you have a knitting technique you’d like explained, or a general knitting question you’d like me to talk about, let me know!

That would be the first finished sleeve of Goodale. All that’s left is the other sleeve, the collar, a little sewing, and blocking. Yay!

If I were my normal self I’d say you could count on seeing pictures of the finished cardigan by the end of the week. But lately, and I’ve never been like this before, I’ve had no motivation to block or photograph anything. I should look forward to it. My blocking table is set up down in the basement where it’s nice and cool. And my summer wardrobe, which is more than a little sparse due to every piece of summer clothing I own no longer fitting, could use the extra tops.

Basically, I need someone to come over to my house and start cracking a whip.

With Goodale coming off the needles tonight, this pile, which is all finished but unblocked or unphotograped projects, is about to get a little larger.

I am on the one track mind express to knitting town at the moment.

A couple weeks ago I kinda challenged myself to knit five sweaters in two months – from the beginning of July to the end of August, mostly because there’s a number of cropped or short-sleeved sweaters I want to knit right now and it would be nice to finish them before it gets too cold to wear them.

And then Jodi challenged me to a sweater throwdown to see who could knit the most sweaters this summer, which I happily accepted because I’d already completed two sweaters in July alone (neither of which you’ve seen yet) and I love winning.

So even though I’m usually all about knitting I got even more down to business and knit Watershed in a week, which is sweater #3 of the month and sweater #1 of my five sweater challenge. Here’s a sneak peek, even though it hasn’t been blocked yet and doesn’t look like much:

And I started on Goodale, which I highly recommend if you enjoy endless rows of stockinette.

Tuesday night I finished the yoke and separated the sleeves. If all goes to plan I should have this baby finished by next Wednesday so I can start my next project, which I think is going to be Abalone. I want to have it finished by the time I leave for vacation on August 10th. I’m heading to Santa Fe, where Jodi and I will be meeting up for an epic clash of cardigan knitters. The Southwest won’t know what’s hit them.

As soon as the pattern for the Twenty Ten Cardigan was released it moved to the top of my to-knit list. I’m always a bit of a sucker for asymmetrical designs, and being that I started this in April, the idea of a short sleeved sweater was very appealing

It fits perfectly (I purposely knit it in a slightly smaller gauge so it would be more form fitting) and the pattern was so easy to understand – if you’re a fan of interesting techniques you’ll appreciate the short-row sleeves. I love the little details like the floppy collar that looks just as great unbuttoned.

And the tiny pocket you can barely see unless you know it’s there. This was the first time I’d ever knit a pocket!

That being said, Twenty Ten was a total snoozefest to knit. With the exception of the cuffs and sleeves, it’s all moss stitch. Knitting this was so boring I lost the will to blog and it made me completely lose my knitting mojo for about three weeks because I couldn’t bring myself to knit another row of k1, p1.

The pattern calls for bulky weight yarn, but I knit mine with worsted and went up a size or two to accommodate the change. I used MadelineTosh Vintage, which is pretty much my all-time favorite sweater yarn now. It’s such a dream to knit with. The color is Dahlia and I have no clue what size needle I used. And even though moss stitch sucks up the yarn it didn’t use a ridiculous amount – just 900 yards.

These pictures were taken by the lovely Sarah (aka Sarie26) on Bainbridge Island while I was on a mini-break in Seattle in late June. Thank you dear!

HelloKnitty’s Twenty Ten – Ravelry link