Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The sweater

So I'm sure everyone remembers this, it was only one post ago:
I love texture
Here it is on its recipient:

it almost matches the lilacs!
Front action!
So, this is a free pattern from Berroco that I knit up for my Mom.  It uses their Vintage yarn line (info available from pattern link) in the color used for their photo shoot.  I almost never use the color/yarn from a pattern, but this time the color just said it needed to go to Mom... and so it has.

The buttons are from JHB, and they are imitation pua shell in pretty neutrals with a little bit of blue.

As to the craziness:  This was knit for a petite woman of about 5 ft 2.  I had to change the way the increase and decrease rows were knit.  So, to make sure they matched, I knit the 2 fronts and the back at the same time so that the increases were in the same place on all pieces.  Then, because I needed to make the sleeves for someone who doesn't have orangutan arms, I knit the 2 sleeves at the same time.  The big trick is to have a really long needle to do both of the fronts, and a separate ball of yarn for each thing that's cast on.  So, the fronts & back were knit on 2 needles, as though I was doing 2 at a time socks or something.  The sleeves were also knit on the same 60 inch needle so that I knew that they were knit at the same increase/decrease rate and that they were definitely the same length.

The pattern called for 8 skeins of yarn, I used about 6.5 total.  I have some left-overs and I'm not sure where they'll go.

We did go to the wool and fiber festival this weekend and as soon as I find my smaller cable I will pull the pictures and do a full post about it.  I was hoping to get this up on Sunday, but ended up working on Sunday plus late hours the last 2 days....

But shortly, you will hear the story of this handsome beast :


and I will be giving away some yarn as well.

3 comments:

  1. Pretty pattern, pretty color. Beautiful Mom in her beautiful sweater; the color is perfect for her. Working all the sections together is the best way to be sure everything matches up, but it can make the progress seem slower than it is.

    I like the new look of your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow..the cardigan looks really nice..
    Hmmm..was it a Mother's Day gift..?

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a lucky mom! Beautiful sweater - lilacs still??? Mine are long done....Cant wait to hear about that handsome fellow....

    ReplyDelete