A pretty crochet border

...or how good it feels to complete a long-time UFO.  Damn good!

I started this project, a nice, cool summer top, so many years ago that I don't remember when. Judging from intervening house moves it was at least three years ago, but could be longer.

It is finished!!!  Ta-da!

I am so pleased. The feeling of satisfaction at completing something that was cluttering up my space: it is a priceless, unbeatable feeling. To no longer come across it and having to think: "Oh yeah, I need to finish that at some point, soon, whenver...".  Such a relief!

I do have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too many unfinished projects hanging around like a bad smell. Triggering uncomfortable, opppressive vibes.

I want to no longer contribute to even more of them. It has to stop: either complete it, throw it out or do something (whatever it is) with it. Give to friends, to a charity shop, rip it back down if it's knitted, throw it in a clothes collection bin for making blankets out of or whatever they do...

I don't intend on exposing myself to the disheartening pressure of wanting to go through everything I have lying around and get this fixed right this minute, if not yesterday - I will take my time over it.  I am able to do this on a gradual basis, I don't have to stress myself out.  I will look at a few projects at a time, both knitting and sewing or quilting projects, and decide on which one 'grabs' me the most.  I like using spontaneous urges that have me pick up one specific thing - it usually means that I successfully deal with it.

As I mentioned, my sewing group is having a two-part sewalong on looking over UFOs, one was in January, the next one Part 2 is in March.  This proved extremely beneficial: I got the urge to look at just this or that UFO, and had started to do a little sewing here and there too.

Then I came across some of my knit UFO projects that are too numerous to mention - this is just the first one I was able to do something with.  I had absolutely no idea how I was going to deal with a gaping big neckline, the thought of knit ribbing was a bit offputting.

Seeing how pretty this crochet border looks, I am extremely glad that I looked for something else.  I do save a lot of photos I find inspiring. One of them was of a page in a Japanese book, an edging there inspired the top half of my border. I improvised the other part at the bottom:

I put down a foundation row of double crochet stitches.

I was able to go 'around' the corners by not crocheting into every stitch. The top part of the pattern then also missed out a stitch here and there to make it lie flat.

Same at the back.  You can also see that my "seam line" between sleeve and body looks a little odd. I used the seamless method* by decreasing at this point in every second row. The kink in the line comes from switching from decreasing in the body area to decreasing at the sleevehead.

This method is probably a bit better for fibres that are smoother and will pull into place a bit better than this cotton yarn.

I made the ribbing in a K2 P1 pattern.

This photo shows the problem of the neckline very well: not only is it too big, the fabric also rolls in as well as out in several places. This would have never looked good or felt comfortable if left like this - I was really unsure what to do with it for a long time.

I can also see now that I could have decreased between sleeve and body a little more further down. You live and you learn!

Overall I am content but not ecstatic with how the top looks on me.  I am utterly delighted in an over-the-moon way that I finished it!

Yay me.

Now where is that other WIP where I need to do my magic with the squashed sleeveheads? Lemme at it!


PS: The seamless sweater method* has been explained by Elizabeth Zimmermann in at least one of her books, and also by Tuulia who developed a pattern that you can buy.

Slippery slopes - it's a snow white jumper!

I finished a few more projects (yay to me!) - I'll need to write them up gradually.  I must have put more time into knitting and finishing things than writing about them.  Not the worst way round of doing things!

So here's the white jumper in Gedifra Amara.

Pattern:   Seamless jumper by Elizabeth Zimmermann
From:       Knitting Without Tears

I have a feeling that this yarn is being discontinued.  I bought one ball at John Lewis and then found the yarn pretty cheap on a website. They had nine so I snagged them all up.  I had started what was going to be a little scarflet (in a feather and fan pattern) which was going to be my 'leave at work and take with me to knitting group when I forget my normal knitting' project.  I must think of another one to bring in and leave under my desk (Note to self: bring it, don't just sing it).

Then I found that I needed ball No 10 as well.  I wasn't totally sold on the scarf idea in any case so I ripped that one down without much in the way of regret.

The pattern is wonderful, I really, really enjoyed knitting this!  I'm sure you're aware that I've got a soft spot for Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns and this one is just as idiosyncratically described and wonderful to knit as the others I've tried.  I just love it.

This version of the seamless sweater has the saddle shoulder detail.  I love the way the decrease line curves towards the body for an inch or so, then runs upwards for a good bit before it comes across to the neckline near the shoulders. It's a great shape, very flattering!

A friend is making the Hybrid sweater and I was 'helping' with it.  I'm sure that all the information I've thrown at her is more likely to put her off!  I must say that I enjoyed knitting this one so much that I'd like to try the Hybrid sweater next.

The yarn is very slippery, it literally flows onto the needles and runs back off them!  The yarn was pretty easy to unwind from the rolls of cardboard: you just had to hold it up and let a bit of it spill off!

It is made from a cotton core wound around with nylon thread.  The colourways in white and black are great: same colour for the cotton as for the nylon.  I feel that other colours just aren't as successful: the shade of the cotton is a lot more muted and dull than the nylon colour.  I think it gives the resulting fabric quite an old-fashioned look, I'm just not keen.  I first became aware of this yarn when I spotted the bright turquoise shade and went up to investigate.  On a closer look I chose the white instead!  Still, I'm not sure, but they may be discontinuing that.  At least John Lewis had it in their sale, 'to clear'.  It might be a summer yarn that's being rotated with whatever winter yarns Gedifra wants to get into stores.

   

I'm slightly annoyed that the decrease line at the shoulders is not perfectly straight: there is a kink at the point where you change to knitting the shoulder bits backward and forwards.  Minor niggle though.  I quite like my idea for the neckline: I did a K1 P1 ribbing and I think I used a thinner needle a bit further in - did the ribbing for long enough so I can turn it in, - but I also added some more stocking stitch and increased a few stitches around to make sure that I could sew the inside down in a suitable spot.  It worked alright!  I can still pull the jumper over my head - which has got to be the most decisive criteria for wethehr a jumper is suitable for wearing!

I really enjoyed this knit.

My pink Elizabeth Zimmermann Cardigan

An end to a long labour.

This project is finally finished. Which is a minor miracle, seeing how long it took me.

Yarn	Mirasol Qina
Needles	5 mm
Pattern	Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater
from	Schoolhouse Press

 
I just looked back at previous blog posts about this cardigan and I am flabbergasted to find that it is the project I mentioned the most: in a massive five posts!

Not that you would want to look at them but just to show that I'm not exaggerating:

My first steeks!
Steek update
An inspirational pattern (all about The Green Sweater story!)
Something has to be done
My crafty state of play

I learned a lot from this project (also see my Ravelry project page).  I was aware that this incorporates quite a few things that were new to me like steeking, gauntlet cuffs, dolman sleeve shaping or the square neckline band. Oh, and phony seams!

It was huge fun to do these things, one at a time.

I learned that it's a good idea to do the phony seams before turning the hem up: ladder the rows of your "seam" stitch right back down to the bottom stitch (careful to keep the bottom stitch or it gets very fiddly!) and hook them back up with a crochet hook: pull through the two strands from the bottom two rows, then one strand from the third, and carry on like this (2, 1, 2, 1...).  It gives a very nicely defined pseudo seam up the sides!

If you do the hem first you may find that you sewed up the stitch you're meant to be laddering, which is precisly what I did. Ahem.

Steeks are not scary.  Amazing as it is: as long as you machine stitch at least a couple of lines either side of where you'll cut, you're not going to run into any problems of cut ends unravelling.  I have not tried crocheting instead of machine stitching.

What hasn't turned out so well:

The body of this cardigan is way too short.  It looks a bit ridiculous on me to be honest.  An unhappy discovery.  I suppose I could try to lengthen this but there is another problem: I disovered only now after the jacket had been hanging up for some time that the yarn is too heavy for this pattern.  What used to be quite a reticent square neckline to start with is getting bigger and bigger.  The shoulders threaten so slip off the hanger and I will definitely store this folded instead.

The applied i-cord (are you meant to do the button loops this way? I couldn't quite figure it out from the pattern) is a bit bulky although it stabilises the centre front edge very well.  Unfortunately it does not hide the gaping gaps in said centre opening because I think that I didn't get the measurement across my boobs right.

If I wear this cardigan unbottoned then that won't show up.

The sleeves turned out a little long (I thought I'd tried it on and determined the right length? But this could be down to the 'getting longer' in the shoulders problem that I mentioned above).  That's just about okay.

I may have to think of sewing in a staying band under the shoulders, that might improve things a touch.  So grafting the shoulders may not be such a good idea: seams would have made this more rigid.

In summary: I loved the techniques involved, I really enjoyed making this (even though it took so long), I may wear this every so often (I hope) but all in all I am thinking of making this again to incorporate what I learned.  Next time in a yarn that won't be too heavy to sit and drape lots better, and I would lengthen the body by about 2-3 inches.

The pattern mentions a variation of slimmer sleeves: that sounds very intriguing and I think I would go with that.

I am thinking of Jamieson's Shetland wool: there is a 2 ply which is called a jumper weight, there are some really lovely colours!  Keeping my stash in mind, I won't be buying any more wool any time soon though...

.

My crafty state of play

Part II.  It's November and I still have as many works in progress projects as I did in June.  Some of them still the same ones, some of them are new.

My aqua Malabrigo shawl is finished as is my heathered blue Niebling shawl.  The Alpaca shawl in dark red is also done - do I detect a pattern here that I managed to finish the three shawls out of these five projects and left the two garments incompleted?  I'm not even wearing any of these three shawls very often - and I would get more use out of these:

My EZ 'Green' Sweater

The Debbie Bliss Prima halterneck summer top

The Dolman Sleeve cardigan (otherwise knows as the Elizabeth Zimmermann Green Sweater) just needs some buttons and button loops adding, and the Halterneck Summer Top needs straps.

It might help if I picked out some buttons, maybe that would motivate me?  For the Summer Top I need an idea of what pattern I want to use to make nice broad straps.  They should hide the bra straps and could be in quite a fancy pattern, I'd love something like a square with four leaves in the round, and adding as many squares as are needed to get the length of the straps.

Some of my other 'almost there' projects are these:

Also Debbie Bliss Prima



Trachtentuch B by Engeln

 

Bamboo summer top


The green Prima top has wing sleeves, they are not attached all the way round.  I need to neaten up the raw edges of the arm scye, they look awful just now.

The Trachtentuch needs to be cast off and then I want to dye this.  It is undyed sock yarn from Violet Green - I haven't made my mind up yet what colour I want this to be.  I am toying with either a rosé (a muted pink) or a brown that's in between a rich chocolatey to a dark cocoa bean brown?

And the Bamboo summer top needs some flower petals adding to the stalks (my gauge was out by so much that I didn't want to insert bobbles only to find later that I didn't like their placement) and then I want to dye this as well.  The chalky blue colour doesn't do anything for my complexion (I look a bit ill in it) so I'd like this to be a darker blue.

And these are just some of my items that are close to completion but languishing in WIP hell for now!

Something has to be done

My crafty state of play:

15 completed projects

 5  projects in hibernation (Not even going to worry about those)

22 unfinished projects (Arrgh! Mea culpa, mea culpa...)

This is not good.  This is really terrible in fact. Even worse is that I actually thought there were 17 WIPs on my Ravelry page but I missed counting a row of five, whoops-a-daisy.  (Counting properly has a lot going for it).

Something has to be done!

If I look at all of those then I'll be struck by paralysis.  Not gonna, therefore.

So this is the plan: I'll pick only a few projects to focus my attention on.  That should reduce procrastination.

First success to be reported: my Blue Jitterbug Lapis Kerchief - I only wove in the ends (numbered two, so no problem) and blocked it because I wanted to show it as completed on my Ravelry page! Plus wear it too, of course.  That might have had something to do with it after all...

Absolutely up-to-date state of play:

16 completed projects

5  hibernating projects

21 unfinished projects (I must be mad)

I will pick the five projects that I can finish the soonest.  Which are all stuck at a stubborn 95%!  For various not very good reasons...

My heathered blue doily by Niebling

Because I finished the knitting part and 'just' need to cast off: after three sessions I'm not even half way round - which goes a long way to explain why this is so difficult! Still, not long to go so that's the decisive reason to complete it.

Bright pink haltertop

Main reason: because I love knitting this and it is has exciting design challenges.  I am making the pattern up as I go along, starting from a plain hem (it will lie flat with lots of blocking), slightly fitted to the waist.  Then I did a turned hem cast off for the back and carried on the front with decreases either side.  The photo does not show it properly, I had to fold the top in half vertically to avoid the top rolling down too much. I am knitting a facing for that top of the front piece and then I'll do straps.

Challenge: I am splitting this yarn from 6 ply to 3 ply and ran out so will need to split another ball.  Then full steam ahead!  Can't wait.

Alpaca shawl in dark red
I just need to block this Alpaca 4 ply and it would be fabuloso!  Main reason against: I quite like sitting on the seat that I use for blocking, so that one requires a bit of planning.  Should be one of the easiest to complete, he-he.

Aqua Malabrigo Shawlette

Oh shoot: same reason as above!  It just needs a good block.  I really need to have a word with myself!

EZ Dolman Sleeve Sweater (known as The Green Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann)

Photo evidence to the contrary (I did knit up the neckband since then) this is very close to finishing.  I only need to sew down the centre facings and attach button loops. Oh, right: buttons!  Completely forgot about those - I should think about what to choose, can't believe that this didn't occur to me before!

The reason why this project is still a WIP is that the weather got much nicer and warmer and I didn't feel like working with wool. The yarn is very gorgeous: Mirasol Qina, a lovely, though slightly heavy quality.

That shouldn't stop me though.

And that's those five projects that I ought to be able to finish soon.

Wish me luck!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - Wednesday: One Great Knitter

This blog entry carries straight on from my post yesterday.

The One Great Knitter who inspires me is Elizabeth Zimmermann (there is lots of stuff on the Internet, I like this article remembering her). I have her Knitter's Almanac and I enjoy the mix of very different projects.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac

I have made the 'Hurry Up/Last Minute' sweater, the December project. Because it is to be knitted at 10 stitches for 10cm it is meant to be a really quick project.  I needed 12mm needles! Knitting this became a bit of a weight lifting exercise too, even on circular.

I cast on on 31 December lat year. Imagine my amazement when I was done three days later! Well, make that three and a half days to be scrupulously honest. But it was very quick. I love the way the wishbone pattern works and gives your torso a lovely shape even if you are a bit bustier. It is a great pattern! I would make this again as well but would start to decrease slightly earlier for the shoulders because the Wendy Viva yarn I used stretches quite a bit row-wise (if that makes sense) and therefore the sweater hangs just a little heavy from the shoulders. Decreasing a little earlier (3-4 rows only?) and then over a few more rows should easily take care of the problem.

What I love about Elizabeth Zimmermann's way of writing is her voice that you can hear in her books: I love it that she writes about how she developed her patterns, some stuff about her life, and that she then gives her 'pithy directions' to follow if you do not wish to re-read the longer description. She coined the phrase 'to unvent' something which I believe stands for not actually inventing a thing because it was probably invented by someone else long ago (nothing truly new under the sun) but that she unvented it: as if unearthed and re-discovered. It is an interesting phrase.

Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes

I also have her 'Knitting without Tears' but have not studied it in detail yet - the few things I caught sight of, when glancing through it, are all concepts and techniques I know about. It would have been useful to have had this book when I picked up knitting again late last year - after a break that possibly lasted about ten years or so. Those ten years back I had put down the project at the time, just for a bit, and didn't come back to until February this year. The result was the Black and White top I blogged about in March. I would not have been able to carry on with this raglan seamed top at all ten years ago. I was making up the design as I went along and got stuck on the underarm shaping. It was Elizabeth Zimmermann's Wishbone sweater project (Hurry Up/Last Minute sweater) that put me back on track: I just had to cast on three inches worth of stitches for the bit under the arms, and off I went! It meant no further problem or delay and I could finish this top in a few weeks.

I love to learn new things and knitting (or any kind of craft) is very rewarding when you want to discover and try out new things: there is so much to learn! And you can keep going as much or as little as you like. Elizabeth Zimmermann's writing encourages me to try things I don't know how to do yet. I feel encouraged to try my hand at designing more items, and to look out for techniques I hadn't even heard of a few months back. I am very likely to buy another one or two of her books and will definitely be looking out for further patterns by her.

Fridica blogged about a little dress which came out extremely gorgeous! This also an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern (the February baby sweater project from the Almanac!).

Steek update

Carrying on from my earlier blog entry about steeking the Elizabeth Zimmermann cardigan, here are a couple of photos of the steeks I didn't show before.

This is the steek of the right sleeve (on the right as worn).  I had sewn along the centre of the six steek stitches with my sewing machine, i.e. on top of steek stitch number three and stitch number four.  I am not sure how easy this is to see in the photo,  The loose threads at the bottom may be the most visible bit.

Again, I put in four sewn lines keeping the line to be cut in the centre - these are about half a knitted stitch's width apart.  The knitting needle sits at shoulder height, the bottom of the photo shows the cast on steek stitches - these will get folded inside and sewn down by hand and become facings.

Cutting the garment open between the middle two sewn lines:

I then grafted the shoulder stitches closed and began to pick up stitches for the dolman sleeves from a column of knitted stitched three stitches in, i.e. not inside the area of the steek stitches but the last 'proper' stitch either side (the three steek stitches need to remain as they are so they can be folded inwards).  I then knitted these picked up stitches off together with the live stitches kept on waste yarn at the bottom of the armhole to make the second sleeve.

I also machine sewed the four stitch lines down the centre of the cardigan for the front opening but I haven't cut this open yet.  I still have to knit the neck facing but will have to cut the front opening first to ensure I pick up stitches in the correct place and also so that the neck band will look okay.

My first steeks!

I am terribly excited: I started an Elizabeth Zimmermann cardigan using steeking for the sleeves, front parting and the neckline.  These are my first steeks!

This picture shows the cardigan with the neck steek sewn down and cut and also the left sleeve steek (from the perspective of the person wearing it). I hadn't sewn the other two steeks yet but I had picked up the sleeve stitches and knitted the couple of inches you can see in the photo.

If you haven't come across the technique before: steeking is a way of knitting a garment in the round, even across 'openings' like the armholes, centre parting or the neckline (you cast on a number of so called 'steek stitches' which will later form facings on either side of the cut to be turned inwards and sewn down) and then fixing the column of stitches with a sewn line to prevent the edges fraying, - then you cut the garment open between the sewn stitch lines.  It sounds quite scary, doesn't it!

There are two methods of stopping the thread ends fraying: you can crochet across a column of stitches - this is good with wool which will "stick" together but not at all satisfactory for any other yarn which will slip out from underneath crocheted loops. The other method is to use a sewing machine: reduce the stitch length a bit, then sew in a straight line up or down a row of steek stitches on either side of the line which is to be cut, about half a stitch's width from the cutting line.  It's a good idea to pick a colour that's not too much of a contrast to your yarn but it doesn't have to match a hundred percent either - these machine sewn stitching lines will be on the inside of the garment.

I chose to sew four lines in place of just two: the garment will be cut between the centre two lines.  Should the thread ends slip past the first, the second line of defence will definitely catch them!  I think that's a really good idea: the second stitching line does not show up in the finished garment and it provides a lot of peace of mind no matter how much wear the garment will get during its lifetime!

I was wary that machine stitching might distort my knitted fabric - it didn't.  I guess the trick is to allow the sewing machine to feed the fabric through by itself and not be tempted to start pulling or pushing.

Then it came time to make the first cut into my beautiful knitted cardie!  I thought I'd be more nervous, but I just wanted to get this done so I could start knitting the first sleeve!

My tip would be to only cut when you are able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.  I got distracted at some point and found that I had cut across my first sewn line!  Couldn't believe I'd done that.  Only for a little bit, but still.  That second sewn line I'd decided to put in came into its own there!  Good thing.

There is a disadvantage to steeking: your garment won't look anything like the finished article before you cut the steeks and that means that you can't try it on as you make it.  Holding the garment flat against you to check for size only works when you remember that you need to discount the steek stitches: the width of those will be become the two facings that get turned inside and sewn down, i.e. either side of the cut.

Norwegian jumpers and garments with a lot of colourwork or Fair Isle patterns are often steeked - for example if you wish to insert a zipper at the neck opening.  When knitting garments with lots of colours then using steeking means that you are able to knit the whole thing in the round: no purling involved!  It does make knitting a lot easier when you can see what you are doing on the right, stockinette side without getting confused by the strands of yarn carried on the purl side.

PS: I just thought of another advantage to using steeks: in three places my tension had been too loose - the stitches very much showed up for being way too big*.  The photograph still shows one of those lines (about two inches below the neck opening) and also two loops where I pulled the stitches into the right size while gradually transferring the excess to the centre of the garment.  I did the same to the loose row - then when I machine sewed the four lines down the centre, I made sure to leave the loops between the two middle lines.  When it gets time to cut the centre open I will be able to cut the excess thread off and no-one will ever know that my tension wasn't perfect in those three places!  I'm rather chuffed with my repair work here.

* Note: I just found a very insightful article by TechKnitting on the cause of uneven knitting: referred to here as 'rowing out'. I may have simply let my tension get much looser than at other times. If the loose stitches occur across just a few stitches then this may be due to taking too long to move your hands along while knitting off too many stitches. This is the most likely cause for these loose rows of stitches that show up way too clearly in the photo above. I can only recommend TechKnitting's blog - if you want to know why something works then this blog is wonderful. If you run into a problem that no amount of wondering and pondering can sort out, then checking this blog might just provide the answer and cause a positive leap forward in your progress as a knitter, if I can put it that way.
This is one of the things I like about knitting: there is always something new to learn no matter how much you know already. And picking up new tidbits of knowledge has got to be a very satisfying thing indeed.