FO: Shawl-Collared Lattice Sweater, Pour mon Mari

I am always on the prowl for the perfect guy sweater. Men are very particular- they usually have a well-defined comfort zone when it comes to fashion, and anything teetering on the edge of normal will not get worn. It has to have unique details, but not too complicated or fussy or delicate. Color is important as well- the more drab and boring the color, the more loved it will be. Think of dirt, of UPS Brown, or the color you get when you mix all your watercolors together. That's what we're aiming for.



Cables are okay, but he says, "nothing too Irish". So no crazy cabled fisherman sweater, which aside from the basic plain sweater, seems to be the most popular men's pattern.

I found a pattern in Knitscene the fit the bill. It's called "The Lattice Sweater". I dug around in my stash and found some appropriately drab Cascade 220 Heathers in the color "Sparrow". I got to work on it- I knocked out the sleeves first and then did the body up to the 'pits when I was in Orlando on a business trip.



Everything gets joined at the yolk with raglan decreases, and the neck is split and the lattice cable gave me something interesting to do, finally. Except that I mis-read the instructions and ended up doing half the amount of decreases necessary and realized pretty late in the game that this would fit off-the-shoulder. Sigh.

I tinked back to the armpits, joined everything again, and did the correct amount of decreases. Much better now. Funny fact- when I realized my error in decreases, I denied it at first and continued to knit another few rows before I ripped it back. What the hell is wrong with me? In the end, knitting the yoke a second time didn't kill me as much as I thought it would.

I am going to re-knit the shawl collar though. As it is now, it's not big enough, and it's always teetering on wanting to stand up on its own. I want it to be bigger and drapier. He agrees. A little drama is okay once in a while.




Despite the fact that half the sweaters I've made haven't gotten any use at all this year due to the fact that it rarely hits a temperature cold enough, I keep slogging on with woolie knitwear with the plan of moving to someplace very cold one day. Maybe I should start taking classes in Scandinavian languages and brush up on my reindeer-herding skills.





At the suggestion of a friend, I think there should be some short-rows in the back to give it more shape. The front wouldn't ride up if there was more space for the shoulders. When I fix the collar, I might as well just keep going and rip back a few inches into the sweater as well.



Aside from the minor fit issue, he loves it. It was finished in time for his birthday, but since I fitted it to him multiple times it wasn't a surprise. Surprises when it comes to fit = not a good surprise at all.

I used a full six skeins of Cascade 220 and size 6 needles (size 5 for the ribbing and the collar) to get 19 stitches per 4 inches. I made the 44 3/4" size- his chest with a t-shirt on is 42". It's fitted, but it still gives him a good amount of ease. He loves it (and if he didn't, he wouldn't have the heart to tell me, but since he's already worn it a bunch I'm just going to stick with "he loves it") and I'm happy with it as well. Viva winter!

FO- Lion Neck Cardigan

I forget how much city there is around me after a long snowy winter. As the weather turns suddenly, getting outside becomes a priority. I spent the past few days revisiting New York places that I abandon during the winter. Central Park, the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park. All of these places are much nicer when you aren't sliding around on ice.

I had finished this rather dramatic cardigan a few weeks ago. Thankfully, the nights are still cool enough to need a cozy layer and I have gotten quite a bit of use out of it already. I was always a little leery of sweater coats. They looked frumpy and too bath-robey for me. I was fond of one that I had a few years ago that had a collar trimmed in ostrich feathers. One of my co-workers got drunk and told me I looked like a Mexican wrestler. ¡Dios mío! That comment tainted my Bette Davis fabulousness I felt when I was flouncing around the office donning my elegant sweatercoat.



It's just fabulous enough. The ruffle makes it Bette Davis chic, but not so overboard that it would be considered Bette Davis drag queen impersonator chic meets Nacho Libre. Meow.







The specs:

I used 9 skeins (about 1000 yards) of Rowan Scottish Tweed Chunky in Burgundy (funny, I just noticed that it's not a tweed yarn at all.) It's a fuzzy woolen spun 2-ply yarn. It does have a bit of an itch factor to it, but not so bad that it's uncomfortable on my bare arms.

The pattern is a top-down raglan from Wendy Bernard's "Custom Knits". It's a simple and fast knit, with enough shaping to make it elegant and slimming. I made the large size- in the sample, she has a tie that stretches across the front to hold the two cardigan halves together. I would rather have them meet in the middle and button in the front, so I went up a size from what I normally would make based on measurements. I crocheted an loop and salvaged an oblong wooden button from my button bucket. Unsurprisingly, the ruffle took a ton of yarn- at least 240 yards. After blocking, I ripped the sleeves back and re-worked the ribbing since they grew quite a bit.

*****
I have two woolie sweaters that are almost finished, and then it's on to more seasonal knits for me. I approach this time of year with mixed knitterly feelings- wool is my absolute favorite material to work with, but it's hard to sit on the beach in 80% humidity with an ever-growing wool sack resting on my lap.

FO- Opulent Raglan

As I was searching for a new project to cast on for, I realized that all the sweaters I made were heavy wooly winter affairs that get stashed away as soon as the snow melts.



I had some Elsebeth Laavold Silky Wool in my stash. It's a 45% wool/35% silk/20% nylon blend. It's a little unforgiving when it comes to tension and consistency, but it's a lovely, drapey, lightweight yarn. The yarn isn't a completely homogeneous blend, so you end up with a textured, tweed look.

I really like Wendy Bernard's patterns. She's really conscious of fit and it shows in the finished product. She does a lot of top-down raglans, so it's easy to try the garment on and tweak as you go. This pattern was from the Fall 2008 Knitscene.







I love the ruffly elbow-length sleeves.



I'm quite pleased with it, and it was a fast, easy knit. It's more femme fatale then girly-girl. I loved the details of the asymmetrical cable, the square neckline and the sewn hem. It's a very flattering, wearable sweater with a little bit of sexy oomph.

The specs:

I used 4.5 skeins of the Silky Wool dk weight in Gooseberry for the 36" size- about 864 yards and I used #US. I wanted a fitted sweater with negative ease, so I chose the size an inch smaller than my actual bust size.

FO- Winter Romance

It's the time of year where I get a wee bit stir crazy. That winter doldrum sets in and I start dressing more for comfort than style. I dream of the day where I won't need the soft gurgling of a humidifier to lull me to sleep, and hat hair would be optional.

I had 12 skeins of a discontinued color of Noro Silk Garden in my stash, waiting for a little inspiration.



I loved these colors together- royal blue, turquoise, peach and a deep purple balanced nicely with more neutral browns and grays. The whole effect reminds me of a cold winter dusk turning into a long dark night.

Try as I might, I couldn't find a pattern that I felt was right for this yarn. There are tons of patterns out there that utilize this kind of yarn, but I found a great deal of them unflattering or awkward. I wanted something a little sexy and, above all, flattering. Something this colorful needs a simple design but I wanted to make the stripes work with my shape.

So I sat down with a tape measure, graph paper and a calculator, knitted up a gauge swatch and started to design my own.

The end result:



I did not want horizontal stripes around my mid-section. No matter how much time I spend at the gym, I can not banish the feeling that my Buddha belly is here to stay. I can't help it. I love my carbs. On the other hand, I really don't mind appearing bustier than I actually am, so I was pretty okay with the idea of horizontal stripes across the boobs.

I started out by knitting a panel, grafted it into a tube and then picked up stitches along the top. I then did bust shaping- I found this guide to be most helpful when it came to placement. I also wanted to show a bit of skin, so I made a deep V-neck at the same time I started the raglan shaping. The sleeves are fitted until the wrist, where I increased them to a bit of a flare. I finished it by picking up stitches along the bottom and the sleeves for a couple rows of purl, and a row of single crochet along the neck. I have to go back and fix the top edge of the collar as it likes to fold down.



It fits me perfectly.



It's graceful, romantic and warm. Exactly what I want to wear this time of year to get me out of my winter funk.




I'm in the camp of "math is hard, it hurts by brain". Once I got over that fear, I found it really simple to figure out how to do the math on a sweater. Since the math was applied and not abstract I could get my head around it.


The specs: I used all of 9 skeins of Silk Garden- 1098 yards- on a size 7 needle. I went down to a size 6 on the trim. It took me a hair over two weeks from start to finish. I started out using EZ's percentage system but once I figured out how the game was played, I went along with my gut and invented my system based on my personal measurements. I tried it on quite a bit as I went to figure out how far I wanted the raglan decreases to go. That helped me make little tweaks for a better fit.

Winter Romance

This is the start of my Noro sweater:



I'm aiming for a graceful, form-fitting and flattering silhouette. I've finished the torso and I'm now debating what kind of boob-shaping I need to do. I'm leaning towards bust darts (ahem, my inclination is leaning, not my actual boobs) but I am also considering short row shaping.

So my Noro sweater has a friend (project monogamy is such a bore). I've also cast on for the Opulent Raglan by Wendy Bernard:



It's from the Fall 2008 KnitScene. It's a simple fitted top-down raglan with a pretty cable detail. It's exactly what I love to knit- lots of mindless stockinette stitch with a punchy little pay-attention detail.

I'm using some Elsebeth Laavold Silky Wool that was in my stash in the Gooseberry colorway. It drapes beautifully and has a nice crisp silk definition, and it softens up nicely once washed (ha! I actually washed my swatch and figured this out).



Here's the sweater so far:



I love top-down raglans because you can just string them up on some spare yarn (or really long circ needles) and try it on as you go. It really helps banish the "will-it-fit?" jitters and allows you to tweak as you go to fit your body.

I'm looking forward to this weekend...after which I should have a good amount of new spindles made and posted on the Etsy site, and (weather permitting) well-lit pictures of the pile of FOs I have sitting around in my dark living room.