This is a report card of my progress on the testknitting for the Teen booklet.  The sleeves are coming along.

At least one sleeve is. A top down always looks so much better once the sleeves begin. I had a random thought, could you work both of them at the same time? I was thinking of trying it but the 4 balls of yarn dangling was a deterrent for this project. I might give it a shot on a one colour garment some time. (I think this photo is a reflection of my fuzzy brain this morning. How does the camera do that?

I started the testknit of a lace tunic and it's very enjoyable knitting, except for the 2 mistakes I made (totally my own fault) which had to be tinked back to discover that there was one more mistake I had overlooked. Sometimes tinking is really rewarding. Now I'm back on track.

-Deb

Yes, I'm still honeymooning with the stripes. We are doing wonderfully well. But I've run out of black yarn for the moment so I'm taking a small break and working on editing patterns. Trading the needles in for the keyboard means my fingers are still a-twitching.

Just the sleeves to do, we're on the home stretch. If you want to see one of the other Teen sweaters we are working on, check out  http://mommabearknits2.blogspot.com/ . Bernice has her sweater done! I am trying to catch up.

-Deb

Lace Shawls

Thought I'd drop in a photograph of the shawls I'll be taking to Stitches West in 11 days. (Wow! That show snuck up fast!) I've really enjoyed knitting these shawls and it's so interesting to see the different effects with different yarns and colours.

The shawl on the right is knit in our Cabin Fever Silk & Silver fingering weight (superwash merino/silk/sterling silver) which I dyed in shades of black/blue and hints of purple. You can't see it in the photograph, but the silver gives it a lovely, subtle, glitter. Very pleased with that. The pattern is leaves surrounded with ripples and the border has little clear beads with silver in their centre.

The shawl in the middle was the first one I did and it's in the Fibre Isle bison light sock weight yarn in it's natural colour. Very light and delicate and lovely to work with. The pattern is leaves and medallions and the beads on the border are clear glass.

The shawl on the left, which I just completed, is knit in Shelridge Farm's superwash merino in DK weight. The colour is "celery" but it said leaves to me! I'm taking these to the show as kits as we stock or dye all these yarns.

All of the shawls are knit from the top-down beginning at the garter stitch centre. And all the shawls are done using the "Knitting Lace Triangles" by Evelyn A. Clark. I am a big fan of hers! 

I've been writing up, and test knitting, the accessories for the teen book over the last few days so knitting up the samples, in hopefully their final format, is my plan for the long weekend while watching the Olympics. First off is the scarf to match Deb's Waffle Jacket. The mittlet looks lovely and I think the scarf will be terrific.

- Lyn

Big projects don't give me much to talk about. I am being very monogamous. This is the only project I am carrying around with me. We watch movies together, listen to audio books together, slip in the odd stolen round together.

And we are getting along famously. So if I am ignoring you a little you know who I am hanging out with. I will return when the honeymoon is over.

-Deb

I know this stuff can make your head hurt. It's so much easier to do than it is to explain. But I AM SO EXCITED. I think this is going to work. I will try to explain . . . more techy talk.

In a regular top down you increase at the beginning and end of 4 sections of the sweater: the shoulder section, Back, second shoulder section and the Front. That makes 8 increases every second round. To make the Front lower than the Back of neck, you need to put more rows across the back of neck - in essence you are raising the back of neck in order to lower the Front of neck. How to accomplish this is tricky and there are several ways to do it.

For a moment go back to a regular crew neck sweater, for the collar you pick up stitches across the back of neck and then pick up stitches for the front of neck. There are a lot more stitches picked up for the front of the crew neck collar, right? How can we duplicate this process when we are working from the top down beginning with knitting the collar. The new way I have come up with, and I really think this is going to fly, is to cast on extra stitches on the front of the collar. Then work the short rows: work across the the shoulder, back of neck, second shoulder and down the Front a little bit, TURN, purl back across shoulder, Back and second shoulder to other side of Front and work down the Front a little bit, TURN. Continue to work across the back of the sweater, working down a little further on the Front each time.

So what I get is a Front of neck with only a couple of rows on it.

And a back of neck with lots of rows on it. Which raises the back and lowers the Front. The new trick I figured out is to put an extra number of stitches in the collar for the Front of neck and then work the increases in the shoulder section, back of neck section and second shoulder section ONLY - 6 increases worked. No increases are worked in the Front section at all, the number of stitches in the Front section stays the same. So if the back of neck has 30 sts in it and the Front of neck has 42 sts, I could work the short rows and make the increases in both shoulder sections and in the back of neck section until the back of neck catches up to the Front of neck. When the Back of neck also has 42 stitches I stop the short rows. Ta, da the Back has 12 more rows than the Front so the Front is lower and both Front and Back have 42 sts. It works!

Here's a close up. The shoulder (on right side of photo) has sts increased in it and the Front (on the left) has no increases. I have written all this down and it still makes sense. I am delighted. Let the stripes begin.

-Deb

The experiment didn't work. It somehow doesn't look right.

The stripes are too round at the top and there is a giant blip in the fabric where I began the raglan shaping. So the combination of round yoke shaping into raglan shaping is not working for me.

I really want this more traditional looking set up of the stripes. This is the standard raglan shaping where,  because there are short rows lowering the front of neck, the beginning of the round is at the Left Front shoulder. All the pairs of increases would start at the Left Front shoulder. But the stripes should begin at the Left Back shoulder. So that means you would begin your rounds with your increases at the front shoulder and then at the back of the shoulder change colours for the stripes. Too confusing. So I thought I would try putting the short row shaping in the collar.

Front

I think this is going to work. The back is higher and it gives me the traditional squareness for the stripes. I just have to write out the short rows as plainly as I can. OK, I'm going to do that right now. See ya,

-deb

I'm experimenting again. It sounds like there should be bunsen burners and funny shaped glass vessels with green liquid bubbling away. My green yarn is producing results without any bubbling.

I am playing with the space between the short rows used to lower the front of my top down garment. My normal spacing for short rows: work to certain spot, turn and when I come back to the same side I knit past the first short row and turn 2 stitches later. This produces a 45 degree angle to the ribbed neckband.

Here I knit 3 stitches past the first short row turn. It flattens out the angle of the neckband.

I am working on a striped top down pullover. The problems arise when you think of working short rows to lower the front of the neck and work stripes at the same time. If I did this as a raglan top down the beginning of the round is at the Left Front shoulder - the short rows are worked from Left Front shoulder, knit around the back of neck to Right Front shoulder and back again. But the colour changes for the stripes should take place at the Back Left shoulder so they are not as visible.  So I'm experimenting with a combination of a circular yoke (like an Icelandic sweater) for the beginning, short row shaping. Then I will knit around to the Back Left shoulder and switch into a raglan style for the stripes. So far the neckband and short row shaping is going well.

I'm listening to an audio book of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It makes all the plain knitting go by pretty quickly. Although I have noticed that there seems to be no mention of knitting in this book.

-Deb