A Post For Helena

Don't mind me, I just need a place to post a diagram and notes I'm helping a (Portugese!) friend out with.  I'm too cheap to pay $5 so that I can upload photos to Ravelry's forums.  We're designing Seamless Hybrid Sweaters for ourselves and this is her first time, so this is for her:

Does this make sense, Helena (click on it to see it bigger)?  When you send me the other measurements I need (see my notes on Ravelry), I'll add them to this.

Sweater Progress

Yo, what up.

I have good news: my front darts turned out perfectly.

Onwards!

SWAG!

Ok, so mentioned this on Ravelry (to my peeps), but it bears repeating:

I love Elizabeth Zimmermann. 

I recently bought two of her books, The Opinionated Knitter and The Knitter's Almanac Commemorative Edition when KnitPicks had them on a deep discount for their February book sale.  They arrived about a week ago and my brain has been completely blindsided by the awesomeness.  Holy crap.  I'm getting the shivers, just thinking about how awesome these books are.  For reals.  Go and buy them now.

Also, I bought some yarn.  You have to understand something about this yarn, before I show it to you.  I have been lusting after this particular yarn in this particular colour for over a year.  Jenny posted it in January of 2011 (second photo from the top) and when I saw it, I fainted and then, when I regained consciousness, I fainted again.

We were talking about yarn/pattern obsessions on Ravelry and I remembered it and posted it and then smacked myself in the head for not just buying it already and then I went and found it online and paid for it and waited an eternity for it to arrive and then fell on the parcel like a pack of rabid hyenas when it arrived.

And then I fainted.  And then I fainted again.

The wool is so smooth and even that it almost feels like silk.  And I think this yarn contains every single one of my favourite colours ever and I am totally in love with it.  In kind of an illogical and irrational way.

Oh crap, what am I going to make with it?

Progress has been made

This is going to be another long-winded knitting blog, so if you couldn't care less and would rather go and watch paint dry than hear me blather on for an age on this, know that I won't be offended if you bugger off for a while.  I'll let you know when it's safe to return.

I've been diligently working away on my Seamless Hybrid and have made a couple of important discoveries:

1. You are never ever so good at something that you stop making mistakes.
2. The mistakes just get more "interesting" (read: frustrating).
3. As I would have known, had I taken the time to figure it out, performing a short row doesn't add ONE row to your knitting, it adds TWO.

To demonstrate:

The blue lines represent the regular, in-the-round knitting that form the body of my sweater.  The orange lines represent the short rows.  So when you do a short row, you're adding two rows to the section you're working on.  Right.  Lesson learned.

Apparently, I am also not past the point of accidentally twisting my knitting when I join to knit in the round.   I wasn't in the mood to knit a Moebius sweater, so I ripped it all back (2" worth of sweater) and started over.  Grrrr.

But who cares about all that?  I have some progress to show you.  First, I should probably tell you that I decided to make this sweater in a funny way.  My main area of concern was the bust area, so I decided to start with that.  It's not a top-down sweater, though, so I had to get creative.  I have no idea if this was a good idea or not, but I started with a provisional cast on at the armpit mark and started working down from there.  When I'm done with the body of the sweater, I'll pick up the yoke stitches and work up to the collar.  Smart?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I'm sort of channelling EZ on this one and have taken on a devil-may-care attitude.  We'll see if it works: you'll be the first to know (well, after me, of course).

Admittedly, I have a bit of an advantage with this whole design-as-you-go process: I have a custom body form/mannequin to use as a reference:

The top edge is the provisional cast-on.  The bottom edge contains my needle cable (with the nifty little end caps that come with KnitPicks interchangeable needles).  The markers are helping me keep track of the sides of the sweater and the location of the back darts:

No, it isn't perfect.  I think I need to add some darts below the bust on the front (I pinned it there for these photos) and that means ripping back 2" of work to put them in.  I'm not worried about that, though: it goes quickly.  I'm so used to knitting with fingering weight that this worsted feels like rope.

But the short rows did the trick!  I'm not sure why I'm surprised because I've heard it from enough knitters to know that it SHOULD work.  Still, I'm pleased.

You can just barely make the ends of the short rows out in this photo (sorry, but I am kind of addicted to my iPod's camera at the moment and didn't feel like dragging out my behemoth Canon 40D for one picture).

To recap:

1. This mannequin represents the best $200 I ever spent.
2. I am going to rip back to insert some darts in the front.
3. I adjusted my scheme for inserting short rows because I figured out that each one adds 2 rows of knitting, not just 1.  I knew I needed 9 extra rows (maximum) in the bust area.  I ended up putting in 10 (5 short rows), because the math worked out really well, but it was probably overkill.  I could have stopped at 8 (4 short rows).  Maybe when I rip back to put in the darts, I'll take out that last short row.
4. The back darts are beautiful.

Seamless Hybrid Part I (Planning)

As I mentioned in my recent posts, I'm attempting a Seamless Hybrid sweater.  My Ravelry peeps are kind of following along, so I'm going to post my steps so that they can a) follow along or b) watch the train wreck as it unfolds.  If you're not here for the knitting, feel free to come back in a few days.

So here goes (please note: I have no idea what I'm doing - copy me at your own risk):

Planning Stage:

Using my yarn and a circular needle, I knit up some swatches until I got the right fabric density/softness/etc and blocked my swatch.  I got: 18.5 sts/4" and 28 rows/4".

(Helena, if you need metric, let me know... I'm horrible for flipping back and forth between metric and imperial.  The blame can be laid entirely at the feet of those pesky Americans - they refuse to switch over to SI and they're kind of the boss of us, so we have to learn both.)

(Americans: you're not pesky.  I'm just kidding.)(Also, you're not really the boss of us.  So don't get any ideas.)

Sorry, where was I?  Oh yes.  I took out my measuring tape and measured a few things:

• My upper bust circumference (at armpit height)
• My bust circumference (fullest part of the bust)
• My ribcage circumference just under my bust
• The vertical distances between all of these imaginary horizontal lines on my torso
• The circumference of my upper arms (at armpit height)
• The circumference of my arm at the elbow
• The circumference of my wrist
• The vertical distance between wrist and elbow and then from elbow to armpit

I drew myself a little diagram of my body, showing all of these things.  Note: these are called ACTUAL BODY DIMENSIONS.  If you need a starting point, you can borrow this image from my Magic Raglan pattern (don't worry about the raglan length or collarbone - they don't apply, here):

Then, I drew up a little sketch of how I want my sweater to look.  I know that I want to make a jacket-style sweater and that it needs to have positive ease (meaning: I want it to be loose so I can wear a couple of layers underneath). To do that, I added 2" to each of my actual circumference measurements and wrote them down on a sketch of my sweater.  Note: these are called FINISHED DIMENSIONS.  I also wrote down the vertical distances (in inches) between each of those important points on the sweater (armpit, bust, ribcage, etc).

Here's the key part of your design: shaping.  If you want a non-manly sweater, you need to look at a few things.  One of them is shaping.  It is not easy to figure out how shaping works, so don't expect a magic formula that will make it all just come together for you.  (Also, I'm not a fashion designer, so I'm just fumbling around in the dark here, myself.)  Here are some key areas where you can place shaping:

• Some increases/decreases along the side "seams" of the sweater body (because this is a seamless, there are no actual side seams, but you get the idea)
• Some short rows at the bust area
• Some increases/decreases to form darts at the back, under your shoulder blades
• Some increases/decreases in the sleeves, so that they fit more snugly.  Bell sleeves can also be very feminine...
• Some ribbing along the side seams to "snug" everything in
• Some ribbing just under the bust, so you get an empire waist effect
• Look through some of your favourite patterns to see where they have placed some shaping to see if you get any other ideas.

One of the problems I ALWAYS run across is that if I choose a sweater size based on my bust dimension, the sweater is too big.  My bust is 38" around, so I fall in the "Medium/Large" range.  Trouble is, my ribcage is only 32.5" around.  That's a big difference.  When I try shirts on in the store, I almost always end up buying a Small (Medium at the very biggest).  So I am going to try something with my sweater: I'm going to design it so it fits above and below the bust and the fullest part of my bust is going to get some extra fabric in the form of short rows.  I am going to ignore the measurement of my bust at its fullest point.

I'm going to try my best to explain this in writing:

I know what my upper bust measurement is and I know what the ribcage dimension is.  I've figured out that if I measure between those two lines perfectly vertically (I measure this by standing in front of a mirror and holding the tape up in my armpit so that it can hang down straight along my side), I get 6".  BUT, if I measure the distance between those SAME POINTS down the front of my *ahem* boobies, across the fullest part of my bust, that measurement becomes 7.5".   

Right.  So what? you ask.  Ok well, I know that I need to vertically add 1.5" of fabric in the front of my sweater, between my armpit line and my ribcage line.  The goal is that there will some extra fabric there to go around my boobs - this will look like a bulge when the sweater is laid flat. 

What was my row gauge again?  Right, it was 7 rows/1".   So that means that between those two points, I will have something like 42 rows of knitting I don't do any shaping.  And it means that I need to add 7 or 9 short rows in that area (for the sake of simplicity and in the spirit of not overdoing things, I'm going to stick with 7) in order to get some extra space for the girls.  One short row will go right at the fullest point of my bust.  There will be 3 above that, evenly spaced between my armpit line and my fullest bust line (one per inch)(in other words: one for every 7 regular rows). {ETA: I revised this later on, when I made a discovery about short rows: every time you perform a short row, you're actually adding TWO rows of knitting into your fabric...click here for more info.}  Make sense?  Short rows are basically partial rows - they do not go all the way around the sweater body.  You sneak them in wherever you want them.  In my case, I'm going to make them run from armpit to armpit, across my bust.

Are you even still with me?

Other shaping I'm contemplating:

• Two vertical darts in the back, starting under my shoulder blades.  I need to take it in a bit back there - all my sweaters always gape in that area.  I need to go from 176 stitches (armpit height) to 162 sts (ribcage height), so I'm going to try and take it out of the body in the back, as opposed to just on the sides.  (Kate Davies did something similar in this most amazing dress she made herself - only it is very fitted and she calls it an arse-accommodator.)  Mine is much less exaggerated - just a little taking in.
• Some increases in the body (along the side seams), below the ribcage line, so it forms a slight A-line.

Feel free to step in here, Chris, if you think I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Decorative Stitches:

Another way to inject a feminine touch in to your sweater is to use decorative stitches (lace, cables, twisted stitches, etc) in various areas.  There are entire books dedicated to this sort of thing, so I won't get into details here.  Suffice it to say that if you want something to look more girly, it's easy to find a nice simple lace pattern that you can slip into the side "seam" area or in a panel up the middle of the back.  My yarn is variegated and has a beautiful sheen, so I think I'm going to leave it alone and just use stockinette stitch.  If you have an idea and you aren't sure how to implement it, let me know and I'll help you out.

Knitting, Phase I: Sleeves

Sleeves are a major component of the design.  Do you want bell sleeves, fitted sleeves, 3/4 sleeves?  This is something you'll have to decide (along with how many stitches you want to start with.  The Seamless Hybrid is a hem-up sweater, so you start with the cuff measurement, but you'll want to figure out how big around that upper arm needs to be and how often/where you're going to increase to get there.  EZ gives some guidelines in the form of percentages, but I've learned that these have been modified over the years to suit evolving fashions and are really just meant as a guideline.  I'm kind of ignoring them, myself.

I want long sleeves for this jacket.  I am notorious for underestimating how cold it is outside and I want to be able to pull the cuffs down over my hands if the steering wheel is cold.  I don't want any special shaping, though - just simple and easy.  In my particular case, that means casting on 42 sts (I figured that out by doing some math with my gauge and sweater schematic) with my 4.0mm needles and knitting in 2x1 rib for 4" (ALWAYS GO DOWN A NEEDLE SIZE OR TWO WHEN RIBBING - otherwise your ribbing is going to be schlumpy).  Then, switching to 5.0mm needles and knitting in stockinette, increasing every 5 or 6 rows as EZ describes in the Seamless Hybrid pattern (except I'm so lazy, I didn't even count the rows) until I got to 66 sts (which is 14" - that's the measurement I wanted for the upper arm).  Then I stopped increasing and just knit straight until the sleeve measured 22.5" in length (total).  Easy peasy.  My sleeves aren't *exactly* the same (see reference to laziness above), but you can't tell.

And guess what?  I knit the sleeves first so that they act as insurance gauge swatches.  Turns out I got just a *little* tighter when I knit them up (it didn't affect the size of the sleeves, really) and I was able to adjust my gauge number as a result.  It means that I had to go back and adjust my numbers for the body of the sweater, but I'm fine with that.  Better safe than sorry.

(to be continued...)

Update

So, I posted a huge long message on our Woodcraft Ravelry board about my potential knitting retreat and I'm too lazy to re-write it for here, so how 'bout I just cut and paste it in?

Yes?  Ok.  Let's

"Hi, folks. I have news:

My mom has decided that she is moving cross-country this summer, from Ottawa to Kamloops (they’re 4 200 km apart). She dropped the bomb on me last summer when she (finally) came to visit, but didn’t make any solid commitments until this past Christmas. I waited until I knew that it was for sure before saying anything to anyone (she just called me on Thursday night to confirm everything).
So why am I posting this here?

Well, it’s because I’ve decided to drive there with her. We’re doing a cross-continent mother-and-daughter trip (kind of like Thelma and Louise, only without guns or convertibles or driving off cliffs), which we’ve both been wanting to do since I was 15 (which was an appallingly long time ago…blurg). The trip, as you can imagine, will take a long time, considering that we also want to stop over in Winnipeg (our home town) for several days to celebrate/visit/party/hang out with the family.
I think the trip is going to eat up all my paid vacation. The vacation that I was hoping to use while hosting a knitting retreat here. As it is, I’ll likely have to take a few days off unpaid in order to finish up the trip, so I can’t really take any additional time off this summer. You know that I manage a design/drafting firm, yes? Well, taking more than 2 weeks off in the summer would be somewhat irresponsible of me, nevermind that I can’t afford to go a week without pay (and I don’t want to increase the price for each of you, just so I can pay myself (my bills, I mean) out of your fees - no, I’m committed to keeping the price down). So I think I have to postpone the retreat for a year.

Poo, right?

I know. You want to give me the finger. I would, too.

Ok, but know this: you are still MORE than welcome to come and visit. If you’re in New England or somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard, you’re really not that far away - we’re about 6 hours from the Maine/New Brunswick border. And if you come over a weekend, I will TOTALLY take you out to visit all the cool stuff and be your tour guide. And I can help hook you up with B&Bs and campgrounds and send you all sorts of information to make planning easier. And we can still go to the beach and have barbecues and do knit nights after I finish work for the day and all that other cool stuff. I just can’t host you, personally. My house is miniscule. We’re sharing it with a few mice at the moment, and I assure you: it’s close quarters.

And the other consolation prize is this: I may be coming to a city near-ish you. We’ve decided that when we get to Kamloops, we’re going to drop everything off, refuel/refresh and then keep going to Vancouver and then on to Victoria. I’ve never seen the Pacific Ocean (for SHAME!) and there’s NO WAY IN HELL that I’m going to drive all the way across the continent (again) and then stop short (again). No ma’am. I’m going to get my hair wet.

So that means that we can meet up, y’all!  I don’t think we’ll be dipping down below the border (unless I manage to get my act together and finally get my stupid passport)… Anyway, let me know if you're somewhere along the TransCanada and you would like to meet up. The trip is looking like a last-week-in-June, first-week-in-July thing or maybe a first-two-weeks-in-July thing.

I’m pretty stoked about it, I just wish I had 4 weeks of paid vacation every year. That would be really nice."

ETA: I've received an invitation to stay over at someone's (M's) house in Vancouver and she's going to take me to Sweet Georgia Yarns and I'm so excited I can barely see straight!

A Fine Frenzy

Ok, so can someone tell me what it is about autumn that brainwashes me into thinking that NOTHING is more important than knitting?
NOT that I'm complaining, mind you.  I just think it's a little creepy, on Nature's part - the whole mind meld thing.

If I say "out loud" that I am finally {FINALLY} starting to physically feel normal, for the first extended period since May, can I be assured that the Universe is not listening, waiting to prove that I'm so obviously not in charge of me?  You hear that, Universe?  I swear I'm not thumbing my nose at you!

I bring this up because my new-found comfort allowed me to churn out the bulk of the knitting I still had to do on my cardigan: 

Which has led me to ask a question.  This is perhaps one better suited to a designer (Tora and Chris, I'm looking at you, here - but anyone is invited to jump in with their two cents' worth): 

I find the neckline to be too small.  I'd like to create a cowl-y collar, a bit like this.  However, I knit this from the top down, with some ribbing in the sleeves.  Result: I can not rip back the neckline and pick up the stitches without making a mess of it... or can I?  How big do I want to make the neck opening, so that it sits right?  I've never knit a cowl neck before, but they usually look great on me, so I'd like to try it.  I just don't have a good example at home to measure.  Also, do I still want the neck hole to dip down in the front, or can I get away with a boat neck shape, instead?

Would it be easier to {gasp} sew the neck hole with my sewing machine and {gasp gasp} cut the fabric, pick up stitches and proceed up the cowl?  Sort of like a steek, I think...

Anyway, if you could help me out, I would really appreciate it.

Next up:

And with this latest venture, I think I can safely say that I have a lot to learn about garment design.  That's ok, it's not really something I aspire to.  I think it looks really weird laid out flat like this.  But, it was fun and a good learning experience.  I've got to make some revisions to the pattern but once I do that, I'll publish it in case anyone else is desperate trusting enough to knit it.  It's not a difficult pattern and I found that I was able to knit most of it up while watching movies on my iPod Touch.  And of course, it may look totally ok when displayed on a little human.  We'll have to wait and see, won't we?

Other than that, I spent the weekend puttering around my new "studio" space (photos to come).  I went through my needles and updated my Ravelry needle inventory sheet.  Did you know this was available?  http://www.ravelry.com/tour/knitters-crocheters (check out item #4 in the list for more info - you can find yours under the "My Notebook" tab in the top-left corner of the screen)

What a fantastic idea!  You can log on anywhere and find out what you already have at home and avoid buying thirteen 4.5mm dpn's {AHEM, that doesn't sound like ANYONE WE KNOW, does it? *cough cough* Seriously, who DOES that?  Geez.  Pathetic.}.  You can even print it out in a small card format, to carry around in your wallet.  I haven't tried that yet, but only because my computer was out of commission and the printer is set up to use on my husband's laptop.

{By the way, my computer is back from the "hospital" and you know that scene in Forrest Gump, when Lieutenant Dan shows up at Forrest's wedding and shows Forrest his new prosthetic legs and Forrest says "Lieutenant Dan, you've got new legs.  New legs!!"?  That's how I felt about my iMac today, when I booted her up.  She's got new legs!  Not sure why I felt compelled to share that with you, but there you have it.}

Hey, speaking of Ravelry, have you been reading Wood's blog?  {Or maybe I should say Wood's blog being ghost-written by Jim?}  Did you see this most delicious little sweater she made for Juniper?  Yeah, I know.  Totally gorgeous.  Seriously.  Even the photography is lovely.  My point in sending you over there, besides shaming her into encouraging her to blog about her projects more, was to let you know about the group she has set up in Ravelry.  I totally snuck in and crashed the party {that's me, getting shitfaced and dancing on the table in the corner} and I must tell you, it's really FUN!  People are so enthusiastic to learn how to knit that it is quite contagious.  {FYI: you don't have to be a newbie to join - jump on in, the water's fine!}  We're going to start up a knit-along of this awesome cowl in a little bit, as soon as I can put together some instructional pages on cabling and provisional cast-ons.

If you'd like to knit (and/or learn) along, we'd be happy to have you!