Sock Yarn Stranded -- now with pattern!

Special note: from now until 2/14/10, I will donate 50% of the proceeds from all my pattern sales to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts.




Here it finally is! I'm really pleased with this one. Not only is the finished sweater way cute, but I worked really hard and carefully on the pattern to make it easy to follow.



On Ravelry, I noticed that a lot of people who were using my baby sweater patterns seemed to be people who were using some of the techniques in them for the first time. Some of them expressed frustration, therefore, in trying to decode abbreviations or use techniques that I assumed they already knew. So I decided to write a pattern that would also teach people all the techniques involved in the pattern (within reason -- I don't give instructions for how to cast on or anything!). Indeed, this pattern will also teach knitters how to do all of the techniques involved in my other patterns.

So this pattern includes an extensive appendix, with photo-illustrated instructions for how to do my favorite M1 increase, how to ssk, how to work stranded knitting, how to pick up stitches for a buttonband, and how to seam with mattress stitch. It also includes a glossary of all abbreviations.



As for the pattern itself? It's also clearly and simply written, with lots of added instructions to walk people through stranded knitting and steeking (remember my fascination with this cool kind of steek!). It also uses sock yarn -- about a pair of socks' worth of the MC, and leftover scraps of self-striping yarn for the fair isle patterning. Sock yarn is great for baby clothes -- soft, machine-washable, a great gauge for making not-too-bulky garments, and made in a huge variety of colors and patterns. I ogled sock yarn for a long time before I ever made my first sock. I don't wear hand-knitted socks, but I am addicted to the yarn and love to find ways to use it!


Specs:
Size: 3-6 (6-9, 9-12) months
Finished Measurements: 20” (21”, 22”) chest, 10.5” (11.5”, 12”) long
Gauge: 7 st and 9 rows = 1 inch
Requirements: size 2 (3 mm) circular needles, 400-600 yards fingering weight sock yarn in main color (MC), plus leftovers (about 75 yards each) self-striping yarn in two colorways

I am charging for this one -- not a lot, $2.99 -- because I really did put a lot of work into it. I think it's well worth the cost. It's a Ravelry download -- I'm assuming that's an okay way of offering it, but comment if you can't access it. Click the "buy now" link at the top of this post if you want it!

But I am also offering just the appendix for free. Not only is it a useful tool for sort of intermediate-novice knitters, but it's also a way for me to preview the kind of instructions and care that are in the for-sale pattern. Here's the link:

download now

Yay for adorable baby-sweaterishness!

Sock Yarn Stranded

The sock yarn baby sweater is finished! I'm quite pleased with it.


The stranded yoke looks just darling.


The wrong side is the neatest of any fair isle work I've done -- I think knitting in the round is the key here (the first time I've done this with a stranded sweater!).


The steek threads are all snipped down and hidden underneath button band ribbons. I had to put the ribbon kind of halfway into the button band, but in fact, I think that it looks fine, and it makes it much easier with the buttoholes. Other sweaters with ribbon-faced button bands I've made, I've used my sewing machine to make buttonholes on the ribbon to match the eyelet holes on the button band, and they are a pain to do, plus the shapes of machine-made holes and eyelet holes are not the same and it's just an awkward business.


Here's the other side. I have to say, I may be a pretty neat knitter and finisher, but I am a total moron at sewing on buttons! My knots are never neat, you don't know how many times I threaded the needle through the wrong side of the button or the wrong side of the band and had to cut the thread, and then I had to rip out and reposition almost all the buttons at least once in order to get the bands to lie flat. Ugh!


But all in all, a totally fun knit and a great finished product! I've written up pretty detailed instructions and will post them soon.

Cheaters never -- or in this case always -- win

The birth of another friend's baby gives me another opportunity to design baby knitwear! I am super excited about this design, because it makes use of a lot of cool "cheats" to make something pretty simple look pretty complex. One of those cheats is a kind of steek that I learned about in Robson/Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way. Like many people, I've been a little nervous about trying out steeking, despite the fact that so many people do it every day with total success. Plus, I was using a superwash yarn, which is not "sticky" enough for many kinds of steeks. But the kind of steek I used here works really well without any sewn reinforcement!


After I knit the neckhole ribbing just like a regular cardigan, I cast on eight extra stitches and started knitting in the round. Whenever I came to the eight added "steek" stitches, I knit with both yarns held together (if I was on a row with two colors). After I was done with the yoke pattern, I unraveled the eight steek stitches all the way up to the cast-on.


Then I cut four "rungs" of the ladder formed at a time and knotted them together on each side of the steek:






The advantage of this kind of steek is that it is totally controllable. You are guaranteed that you'll only be working with the steek stitches, and you can cut and tie them as slowly as you want to. No scary sewing and cutting knit fabric!

Of course the disadvantage is this:



Every single row means two ends to weave in on each side of the cardigan front. Pretty messy! I am still deciding what to do about this fact: I am inclined either to "french braid" them down the front or to trim them down and sew a ribbon on the inside of the button bands to cover them up.

The rest of the pattern is forthcoming, as soon as I've finished knitting the sweater!

Thrift, thrift, Horatio.

It's been quite the crafty weekend here at Looking Glass Knits, and also quite the weekend for trying new things. After yesterday's pleasant experience with the tubular cast-off, I was heartened to turn my attention to another finishing challenge that has been waiting around here for a while: the $5 sweater.


Lots of New York neighborhoods have cheapo clothing stores of one kind or another; the one in my neighborhood is called Pretty Girl, and it is full of a mix of cheap off-brand stuff and name-brand stuff that is damaged or otherwise offloaded by the makers. When I last visited Pretty Girl, I picked up a 100% wool sweater with a somewhat expensive label in a gorgeous color for $5.


Can you read that? It says "J. Jill," but it has been slashed through. The only problem was that it was too boxy for my taste. Hence the afternoon of knit-altering! I successfully sewed and cut my first steeks!

First I carefully ripped out the side seams. I was too lazy also to take out the sleeves, which fit me quite well, along with the shoulders and boob area. This took a bit longer than I thought it would because the wool was fine and pretty sticky (though these were good factors for the success of the rest of the project).


Then I hauled out the sewing machine and sewed a line of straight stitches about an inch and a half in from each edge.


Having been lazy about not taking out the sleeves, I curved my line out to the armpit and hoped I'd be able to fudge it into looking okay with my seaming.


Then I seamed up the sides by hand, just inside of this line. This part was identical to seaming a hand-knit sweater. It was a little wiggly in places, but I evened it out, and I was able to fudge the armpit area beautifully.

The finished seam is nearly invisible.


I cut the inside "hems" of the new seam, and the sticky yarn held the ends together so that this raw edge is very neat.


Significantly less boxy.


And the fit? Lovely. In fact perhaps a little too form-fitting, but a little steaming will even that out -- it's always easier to block something a little bigger than to try to shrink something, in my experience.


Yay for my first time steeking! It was easier than I thought it would be. This was a good project to try it out, because if it went horribly wrong, I didn't mind losing $5. But it didn't go horribly wrong, and now I am much more inclined to knit something steeked in the future!