Sweater – Page 3 – Hopefully Creative

Ochre Obsession

So, I went on holiday and tried on a sweater. It was ochre, from Primark and I loved the colour. The fit however, terrible. The sleeve height was so high, that it felt really constricting. The colour was good, I liked the neckline (even if my friend hated it, he said there was too much fabric) and it had pockets, always a win.

This was the start of my ochre obsession. I really, really, really wanted an ochre sweater now. Since my local fabric shops do not have something like this fabric, I started scouring the internet. I found some fabric that looked nice and even bought some more fabrics because the hoard is never full enough.

I’d already found the pattern I wanted to use, a shortened version of Lekala #4742 – Tunic with Hood. Once my fabric arrived, I was slightly disappointed. It wasn’t stretchy as I’d assumed it would be and one of the cut ends frayed a little. However, I really liked the colour, so I got to work quickly. Shortened the bottom by 12 cm, and followed the instructions apart from using grommets instead of sewing buttonholes. After it was all sewn together, it felt a little tight in the armpit, so I decided to add a little diamond piece of fabric to increase the range of motion.

The hood is ENORMOUS, I think it will fit two heads – I’m guessing something may have gone wrong with Lekala’s sizing there. However, I still like it quite a bit. Because of the size and the position, I’m not sure the hood is super functional as a hood, but I still like the look of it on the front. The fabric is super warm, so I might need to wait for a little to be able to wear it comfortably.

I may want to make something like this again, but some things would need to change. I would want to use a more stretchy fabric such that I could take the side seams in a little and reduce the swayback action going on. The size of the hood would need to be reduced by at least 5cm in height, if not more. I may want to add bands to the sleeves and bottom although I quite like this sleek look too. Now to wait for winter to wear my ochre dream.

Grey Scale Sweater

This project got started with the yarn. I saw three shades of grey that I thought would complement each other, so I bought them. In my library of Ravelry, I found a sweater that I liked the look of, the EazySqueezy Sweater. Well, I liked the interpretation of the lady in pink, not the original which was a type of ribbing all the way through. So I decided to attempt to copy her version.

Took a bit of trial and error but eventually settled on 22 stitches and a 1×1 ribbing. Knit to the armhole divide while increasing two stitches every 11 rows. I may have overestimated the length of my arms (or I thought I was a monkey, also possible), the sleeves are very long. However, this is fine as they can be rolled up and now have space to shrink. I may also decide to remove some length if it bothers me too much. Divided for armhole, then divided for the neck hole, all sort of trail and error. Made the front of the neck hole deeper than the back and kept on knitting the top. It took about 2.5 ball of the darkest grey. Then I picked up and knit the medium-grey along the chest hole. I quickly decided to take it in by 10 stitches or so because it was quite wide and continued decreasing for some shaping. Once the one ball of medium grey had been knit, I switched to the light grey. Then increasing again for more shaping and I ended with a high-low ish back, which also helps in identifying the front vs. the back.

I still need to wear it out for a full day, also to test the monkey arms. But I like the colours and the fact that I finally finished a pattern that had been in my library for years now. I also picked up another knit project that had been cornered for a bit again, in hopes that I can continue without straining my wrists/arms too much. Knitting with thicker yarn is easier for some reason.

Eighties Revival

Remember all those sweaters I knit? More Grey, Now a Francis, Accidental Harry Potter Sweater, Frankenpatterned Leaves, Holes and Isis Tailcoat? I had a little yarn left over from all of those and decided to patchwork myself a sweater, using an additional ball of purple. It is fairly reminiscent of the enormous sweaters of the eighties, although this one is slightly more fitted. The base patterns are the Knit Crew Sweater and Patchwork Sweater, which I adapted to my liking to fit. These are the notes I made on Ravelry.

It took me a good few times of cast on and frog to get to where I needed to be. The black yarn is slightly thicker than the others, so I could not use my normal amount of stitches. There are some blocks with eyelets (red) and the sleeves have really random patterns. On the front and back are seams cross-stitched together. This is because the method I chose at the start (knitting in the round) does not work as well when you want to change colours. So I decided to knit about twenty stitches in a loose strip that I would seam later. This worked remarkably well. The rest of the sweater is not actually patch worked, it’s just colour changes.

It has been worn and it wears quite pleasantly. The neck is remarkably high, but it does not bother me. We will see how often it actually sees the light of day, because I’m not 100% sure that it is super work appropriate. On the other hand.. How often do I really care about that?!

Right after finishing this one, I frogged a pair of socks and cast on for a new set. They are now slightly beyond the toes, so who knows. I might just finish socks this year.

Finally Finished

Sometimes you have these projects that are nearly done, so very nearly done, but not quite. This was one of them…

Back in the day (summer 2015), I’d just finished the Winter Sweater in Summer and had quickly cast on a kangaroo sweater with a similar yarn (here is my project). It was dutifully knit all the way to the top, adding some additional shaping here and there. I struggled with the collar a little but got it all worked out in the end. There were seven buttonholes, about a million ends to weave in and I just didn’t want to do it. I didn’t feel like it at all. Into the box it went, and it stayed. It came out occasionally only to go back in when all the hairiness from loose ends kept going on. Pure drama.

Cue the house move in December. With the project so close to completion I didn’t want to just throw it away. I also didn’t want to finish it just for the second hand store. I’d since figured out what my problem with it was; I chose the wrong pattern. I don’t do large collars very well, nor do I do semi-long length sweaters very well. I just wasn’t going to wear it, even if it was finished, hence the back burner. But, my brother’s girlfriend was coming to help with the move, and she is skinny, although quite a lot taller. I asked her if she would like it. If I only had a target to finish it for, I might even get it done, or so my thoughts were. We chose some buttons from the stash, which meant I had to close three button holes, but that was fine.

img_20170129_202521850 img_20170129_202550969

I realised a little while ago that the holiday which was my deadline was approaching quickly, so I sat down on a Saturday and Sunday to weave in all the ends, to put on the buttons, to finish the button holes and to just make it presentable. The project was finally completed, the relief was palpable. This is the project on the receiver, marking the end of a struggle!

img_20170226_111824412

Gaia in Red

You are by now probably aware that I have a box of projects that I gave up on partway through. Some of these projects have been in there long, others shorter. Today I’ll show you another saved project that entered the box at least two times. It’s a cotton cardigan and the pattern is called Gaia.

Gaia is a free pattern by Kristen TenDyke that features a button closure and a lacy bust section at the front. Originally it has fairly short sleeves and a band of different stitches beneath the bust. Since I don’t generally wear short sleeved cardigans, I lengthened the sleeves. The instructions were fine, it did take me a while to figure out how to increase to the bust, but the knit-along on ravelry helped me out.

I first chucked Gaia in the box when I had the body done completely and one sleeve set up. It was winter and I subconsciously knew I was never going to wear a cotton cardigan in winter and therefore there was no hurry to finish it. I think it again went in the box with both sleeves partly done and it stayed on my ironing board waiting for some anti-gaping ribbon to be installed on the button bands for quite some time too, I sort of chronicled that in the ravelry-project.

This shape!

When even the model picture shows gaping in the button bands (and only two buttons buttoned), I guess that there is something to worry about. This is the one real negative I have about the pattern, that the button bands gape so much, even after I tried reinforcing them with ribbon. Below you can see the before picture.

Front

There were some really nice matching buttons in my stash that were also the right size, so that made me very happy. I have worn the cardigan a bit since I finished it, you’ll see it in a MMM round up at some point. It’s not perfect, the sleeves have become shorter than intended and there is still some gaping, however, it’s not uncomfortable to wear so it might see the daylight more often.

Sweater Sweater back

I have also finished some socks, so you’ll see those soon.

Time Crunch Sweater

This sweater was actually finished on March 28. I started writing this post a while ago, and then forgot to finish it. So here it is anyway, the first two paragraphs were written in March, the rest today.

Most people have bad habits, or so I’d like to believe. One of my bad habits is going to the Wibra (local shop that also sells yarn) to check whether they have new yarn in stock. — Now, I don’t need more yarn, I have tree boxes full of the stuff and a sheep to spin. It’ll be years before I get through the stash. This however does not seem to be enough for me to stop setting foot in the yarn shop. — Three weeks ago they did have new yarn in stock. A variegated white to black, bulky, 100% acrylic yarn. I needed to have it, so I got 5 balls.

The ‘problem’ with bulky yarn is that it’s often used to make fairly warm sweaters. Spring was approaching, which meant that I had to start and finish this project quickly. I’d found an inspiration on Ravelry, namely the Eased pattern by Alicia Plummer (here on Ravelry). I thought that the yarn would work nicely with this type of project. However, I was not willing to really follow a pattern for this, so I improvised, more on that here.

Front

I figured I’d gotten enough experience with knitting sweaters in the round so the body wouldn’t be a problem. For the neckline, Eased shows some kind of join or something, but I wasn’t interested in that, so I just cast on stitched and ended up with a seamed tube. I put a shoelace through it and continued knitting. Using a raglan increase to get the sweater shoulders/sleeves/body. Then the mantra ‘keep on knitting’ got stuck in my head, for both the body and sleeves. I knit until beyond the wrists and created a hole for the thumb. This may be the reason this sweater is inappropriate for summer…

Thumb hole

This sweater also has a new skill, the Russian join, which meant that I only needed to finish four threads (sleeve, sleeve, neck, bottom), a true revelation! The project has been worn a couple of times since, so it really was just in time. Right now it’s actually pretty warm here in the Netherlands, and the sweater is in the cupboard for the time being. It’s very comfortable and I like it a lot!

Front Back

I’ve been saving up my projects, so prepare for onslaught!

Winter Sweater in Summer

The Wibra is a Dutch shop that sells loads of different things. They also have a cabinet with different types of yarn. The assortment changes quite regularly, so I stop in from time to time to check if they have something interesting available. Not very long ago, I went by and found some yarn called Bella. It’s characteristics are 75% acrylic and 25% wool, about 62 meters per 100 gram and it should be knitted up on size 8-10 mm needles. I took some balls of the brown/beige-ish colour way because it looked nice.

Then I went online to see if I could find a nice pattern in a super bulky yarn that I wanted to knit up. I stumbled upon this pattern, 135-23 Ginny, on ravelry here. These are the notes for my project. I’m not very good at religiously keeping notes though. The reason I chose the project because I always seem to knit up stuff that leave my neck cold. This sweater had a really nice collar, and was knitted in the round. I decided to make an attempt at getting it to work.

So I knit up a swatch on my new size 10 circulars, bought especially for the project, and found my gauge too big. So I recalculated the pattern to suit my gauge. I started with a provisional cast on, from youtube. I also made sure to decrease a little extra to get a slightly more fitted look. I didn’t do the stripes because the fabric is busy enough.

I knitted/’drafted?’ set in sleeves myself, as the pattern wanted sew in, but I don’t like seaming at all. I roughly based it upon the tutorial found here. After knitting the entire sweater, the cuffs and hem were knitted. I cast off using this and this very helpful tutorials. I used about 5 balls to make the entire thing. Above is what it looks like. You can’t really see the collar very well, so I’m thinking about knitting a similar one up in a more solid yarn.

These are some detail shots of the neck and cuffs. I’ve worn it once now when it was quite cold, and really liked it. It’s nice and warm, it covers the neck sufficiently, but it isn’t boring. While I don’t know if I’d call it flattering necessarily, it doesn’t look massively too large for my frame I think.

I wore it a while ago as we’ve been having an official heatwave in the past week. I thought I’d died and gone to hell, it was that hot. So I, of course, had decided that I needed to knit another sweater, from this yarn type but in blue/green shades. That on my lap was even worse, but I hope to show you that finished project soon too!

Red Diamond Sweater

A dud was knitted. *sad face*

I’d found this free pattern, the Diamond Girl Knitted Top by Julie Farmer, on ravelry here and decided that it would be awesome to knit, especially in red. So I cast on and found out that my cast on wasn’t nearly stretchy enough. I kept on knitting though, but eventually removed the cast on edge while keeping the already knit rest. I figured this was like a provisional cast on right? So I could always go back and cast off the edge later. I think I also was off gauge, so it knit up a little big. This is the link to my ravelry page about it.

I changed some of the sizing on the front, by decreasing, there is no shaping in this originally and there was very little in my version. I decided to knit up the sleeves full length because I absolutely abhor elbow length sleeves. They are too short to be warm and too long to be short and comfortable. I would be continually trying to pull them down or push them up again.

Once I sewed it up, I finished the hems of sleeves and body. I decided the knit some extra short rows on the back to cover the butt a little more. I decided to leave the neck alone. So, while I liked the picture of the sample, I’m not a big fan of my own version. I feel that it’s overly large and unflattering. See the example above. Ps. The white that shines through are the letters on my shirt. Below, I’ve tried to show that it needs quite a lot removed in order to be a little more fitted.

I don’t think I necessarily want to wear it very often. So might just donate it to somewhere for someone to love more than I do. I don’t feel like frogging the whole thing as the yarn also isn’t something that’s terribly dear to me. I also don’t feel like trying to fix all the bits I don’t like, as that would mean frogging it completely. All in all, this one just isn’t a success. Luckily the next one I knit, is a success!

Accidental Harry Potter Sweater

Red and yellow seem to become Harry Potter colours really easy and really quickly. I only found this out after I’d finished most of my sweater though. Truth be told, I don’t mind. I like the sweater, it is comfortable, warm, pretty and it has stripes. Those stripes were a complete pain in the ass to finish, but that’s the life of a (somewhat new) knitter, I guess.

The original pattern is $5 in Paris which is free on Ravelry, you can see my very limited notes here. I now also remember why I thought I’d blogged about it, I did post the pictures on Ravelry. Sometimes you’d think I’d forget my head if it wasn’t stuck on. I did already show quite a few pictures of me wearing it, just see the M M M ’15 posts.

For the sweater, I basically fudged a bit and math-ed with the stitch counts to suit my gauge and called it a day. Also, the stripes were sort of supposed to continue along the arms too, but I’d ran out of white yarn, and so made them completely red. I actually like it like this, so happy accident!

You’ve now seen the front and back, and they were so pretty, weren’t they?! But the nicest bit is the neck. In it is this cute little tag I bought from a shoppy. I finished the neck with elastic, as it became a bit stretched out during the day and sank further and further off the shoulder. I hate off the shoulder everything, so that was not an option. This solution works, and it’s a nice pop of bright red on the insides.

I will write about the graduation dress when I have some nice(r) pictures. And once the day is over so I can tell all about the possible thunderstorm coming our way.

Holes

Happy new January etc.

As you may or may not know, people in the Netherlands are allowed to ignite fireworks in their own backyard and/or street from 18:00 on the 31st of December until 2:00 on the 1st of January. Being somewhat easily scared and with a severe dislike of loud bangs, you can understand my dislike of the party. However, apparently, most other people do like it. Anyways.

Way back in 2014, I finished a new sweater. The pattern, or as they call it recipe was called the eyelet yoke sweater and can be found here. I had actually completely finished the body and part of a sleeve when I decided that it really was much too big and baggy and not what I wanted. So I frogged and started again, using the very unscientific method of not knitting 1 every 8 stitches. And some calculations to get the yoke to work out.

Left the frogged version, right the current one. See the difference?

Now, the eyelet yoke sweater sort of has its description in the name. There are eyelets in the yoke, aka holes. Once I’d finished the thing it was difficult to think of something to wear underneath, because there were holes that would show whatever was underneath. Eventually I had the brilliant idea to just wear a blouse. I own two and even though they are blue and white, I don’t think they clash with the red in the sweater. I’ve now worn it out and about, and forgot to take pictures every time, so that’s why it’s ‘late’.

Here is was after a wash, you can see on the left that the bottom is not the same length all the way round, sort of. And on the right the built-in shaping which I may have overdone a little.

The left is the finished version of the bit with the holes, and right the frogged version. There is a little difference but not much.

Below you can see the thing on me. Excuse the horrid lighting, it’s winter, I feel like I’m in perpetual darkness with all the storms, rain and other light-blocking weather features.

And this is my ravelry project.

Tag: Sweater