Schleppy Sweater: Preview

I was prancing around in my unfinished sweater again last night, much to Hubby's consternation.

This time instead of transferring the project to a yarn lifeline I was able to spread the stitches out over the three intermediate cords from my Denise Interchangeable set. The cords did hold the opening out like a hoop to a degree, rather than allowing the fabric to drape naturally, but it was good enough to give me an idea of fit.

"I don't understand," Hubby said as I swanned through the bedroom. "How high is this neckline going to be?"

Oh, it's going to be a turtle neck. I'm just trying to test the fit.

He balked when I thrust the camera at him and initially refused to take my picture.

"It looks goofy!" he protested. "You can't put a picture of it on line looking like that."

I assured him that he just doesn't understand because he doesn't knit. People need to see my progress!

1/4
At this point I've worked 17 rows of the yolk. According to my admittedly questionable calculations I'm supposed to work 60 rows total. So I'm about a quarter of the way there.

The sleeves are actually reaching much higher up my arms/shoulders, but since they have no support they are flopping down in the picture.

I can't decide if I'm concerned about this or not.

They probably need more fabric since they have to go up and over my shoulders while the front and back of the body are just going straight up.

Also, the sleeves are getting smaller quicker than the body, which will probably play into how they all interact as the knitting moves along.

Soon. Soon the sweater will be done. I just have to keep plugging away.

Schleppy Sweater: Peak-a-Boo

Even before I reached the row where I was supposed to join the sleeves to the body I knew I was going to have a problem since I'm not binding off any stitches for the underarm.

(Photo: this is looking at it from the inside. I believe the body is on the left and the sleeve is on the right.)

This means there is no gusset leaving the door open for a hole in the armpit. Also, there were no little flat spots to line up.

The second problem was easier to overcome. I put the sleeves on, made sure the ribbing was straight, then clipped a removable stitch marker to the center of the armpit.

I used those stitch markers as a guide to match the center of the sleeves to the side of the body.

I thought I'd address the first (hole) problem when I was in the process of joining all the pieces together, but I ended up flustered and forgot.

Mind the Gap
Fortunately, I only worked one row after the joining and then ran a lifeline. Then was dragged away to play pinochle. (shudder)

When we got home on Sunday I took a hard look at the situation.

As Lucy Neatby would say, those were some unhappy stitches.

Instead of being snugged up next to their neighbors on either the body or the sleeve as they wanted to be they were being pulled in different directions. It reminded me of the little hole you get at the top of the sock gusset after picking up the heel flap.

I knew the hole was exacerbated by the proximity of the needles. And it occurred to me it might be less noticeable once the sweater was done. But I also knew I'd probably have to go back and sew it shut some how.

Either way, it was unacceptable and had to come out. Good thing I had that lifeline in place!

Fancy Stitch Swapping
I put the front and back of the body on separate needles.

Then I divided the sleeves over two dpns each.

(Photo: this is looking at it from the outside. If you click on the picture it should take you to a bigger version on Flickr. The blue/purple yarn is my lifeline. It will just pull right out.)

Happily, everything was already lined up properly because of the lifeline.

Ok, stick with me, it didn't occur to me to take pictures while I was knitting.

Have you ever been working in the round and done that trick where you move the first stitch cast on off the left hand needle to the right hand needle, then pull the last stitch cast on off the right hand needle over the moved stitch as though you were binding off but keeping it on the left hand needle? Then worked the formerly last stitch as your new first stitch?

It helps prevent that little gap on your joining row.

Well, I did something like that.

When I got to the end of the front of the body, instead of working the last stitch I slipped the last stitch on the sleeve (second dpn) to the body needle, then moved the last body needle over to the dpn.

Then I knit the moved sleeve stitch.

Then I moved the first stitch for the sleeves off the dpn over to the back body needle, and pulled that first body stitch over to the first sleeve dpn.

And I knit around like normal. Repeating the process for the other sleeve.

Yes, it was as fiddly as it sounds and the stitches weren't happy being yanked all over the place, but I bent them to my will!

There is a little X in the underarm now.

Haute Couture
After fixing the gaps I worked a few rows then couldn't resist trying the sweater on to see if it really had a fighting chance of fitting.

I transferred everything to a second lifeline and squirmed into it.

"Um, is that all there is?" Hubby asked, looking at me sideways. "Because it's kind of revealing."

The sleeves came up my arm and the body just barely covered the important parts. It was basically a strapless sweater. Stylish, but not very practical.

He confirmed that I should NOT take a picture of it in that condition for the blog. Sorry.

I guess it fits. It's a little hard to tell since there is nothing to anchor the top. I might try it on again in a few more rows. I might be able to take a picture of it next time, since it will be less revealing.

Now I'm just slogging through the yolk and raglan decreases. It felt like each row took a really long time to work, and then I realized I started with 300 stitch. So, yeah, that would take a long time.

I'm not expecting any more knitting excitement until I get to the neck shaping about 40 rows from now.

Chomp!

It was a dropped food bonanza for the pups this morning.

First, Bread
We buy this healthy, sprouted wheat, preservative free stuff that goes moldy by the time you get it home from the store. Since we mainly use it for toast, we keep it in the freezer.

We're at the end of the loaf and the slices were stuck together but good.

So I used the spatula to pry them apart.

The slice resisted, the when POP, flew into the air, then plummeted toward the ground only to bounce off Baru's head and land at his feet.

I made a play for it, but I knew it was a lost cause. He was in a much better position.

He promptly scarfed it down, despite the fact that it was still frozen.

Since Samson was jealous I had to pop off the heel and hand it over.

Then the Blueberries
As I fished around on the back of the top shelf to get the cantaloupe out I accidentally knocked a wee container of blueberries out.

It hit the floor, popped open, and spewed berries everywhere.

Since blueberries are still rather expensive this time of year I had a mad scramble to pick up as many as I could before the furry vacuums moved in.

Hubby was laughing, cheering me on, and updating me on the pups' progress.

I felt like I was on a game show.

I don't know my saved vs. lost ratio, but I felt like I did pretty good.

As I returned the berries to the fridge Samson started scoping out the bowl of cantaloupe. Fortunately it was still securely covered with cellophane so he couldn't get into it.

Over the Weekend

I did not get as much knitting done as anticipated despite the three-day weekend.

We went up to my in-laws' for Easter. This does not normally cramp my knitting style considering my mother-in-law is the one who taught me.

However, it was not meant to be.

Pinochle Sucks
The power went out Friday night shortly after dinner. (Power outages, story of my week.)

My FIL busted out a propane camping lantern and my MIL decided it was the perfect opportunity to corner me and teach me to play pinochle.

To say that I've been avoiding learning how to play pinochle for all nine years of my marriage would not be an exaggeration.

My MIL assures me they attempted to teach me back in 2000 when Hubby and I were dating, but I've managed to completely block out the memory. I did have a pretty bad cold at the time, so maybe it's cold medicine induced amnesia.

Anyway, it wasn't pretty. Or fun. Pinochle has way to many moving parts. As I repeatedly informed Hubby, rather shrilly, I am not cunning enough for card games. And having the 10 be worth more than the king is the silliest thing I've ever heard.

It didn't help the situation that my loving husband kept laughing at me when I made a mistake, which probably contributed to me being shrill. At least it also got him in trouble with his mom.

Needless to say, Hubby ultimately won the game.

Ratty Grey Mohair
The end result was I had bad dreams about pinochle that night.

I was in a yarn store. The only way to buy stuff was to win hands of pinochle. But the only things for sale were other people's works in progress and none of them were my style.

The only one I really remember was a caplet or shawl thing, perhaps, out of grey mohair. It was on a coat hanger for some reason, with the working yarn trailing off it.

It was all very traumatic.

Saturday Was Better
Hubby and his dad went to the dumps (i.e. the town landfill) and ran some other errands, leaving my MIL and I free to relax and knit.

She was knitting a Christening blanket in a lace pattern that I've seen before.

I had previously finished the left sleeve of the Schleppy Sweater. I moved on to open the bind off on the right sleeve and knit the handful of rows required to work the final increase and bring the whole thing up to 18 inches (measured from the correct marker!).

You might remember that the body shrunk about half an inch on me. I transferred the stitches from the lifeline back to the needles and then worked a few more rows to bring it up to 13 inches.

Then I joined the whole mess together and promptly began running a new lifeline, just to be safe.

More Pinochle?!
I didn't get very far when hubby dragged me kicking and screaming back to the table for another game of pinochle.

I decided it was best to approach the situation with the mindset of being cannon fodder. I thought it would make it easier to handle.

Didn't work out, of course.

The one time I got a hand that I thought was good causing me to bid aggressively and win the three cards in the kitty (which didn't help me at all), my loving husband proceeded to take more tricks. The end result being that I didn't score enough points causing me to loose the hand and go down the 230 points I'd bid.

You would think it would have occurred to him to throw the hand, allowing me to win, boosting my confidence, and perhaps getting me interested in the game. But he couldn't suppress his competitive streak.

After that I went into major princess Pollyanna mode throwing down cards as I waited petulantly for the game to be over.

As you might expect, Hubby won, again. My MIL tried to assure me that there was nothing we could have done against the great hands he was dealt, but I was impervious.

We discussed playing some other game, but decided it was too late to get into anything and I was finally able to slink off to the couches and pout.

Sunday for Socks
It's a four hour drive, so we hit the road after lunch.

I didn't like the way I'd joined the sleeves to the body of the sweater. Because of this I packed it in the back with the pups and left the socks I'm making for Hubby up front.

I was able to turn the heel, pick up along the heel flap (which wasn't easy in a moving car), and start the gusset decreases before we got home.

The sweater is a post for another day.

Schleppy Sweater: Tricky Tapemeasure

I made it through all the increases on the left sleeve last night bringing my stitches to 66.

Then I worked three more rows to bring my row count to 65 (actually 165 since I don't have a three digit row counter), which should have been 18 inches.

This was very exciting.

I laid the sleeve out on the coffee table and measured it. 22 inches.

How the heck did I overshoot it that much?

Oh, I'm measuring from the cast on edge, which includes the mitt length. I should be measuring from this stitch marker.

I moved the end of the tape measure and the sleeve was then 16 inches.

Two rows short of the goal.

What the heck? 135 rows should be 18 inches based on my row gauge. What is going on?

I couldn't work two more inches the sleeve looked so long already. I tried it on.

It reaches very far up my arm. Almost into my armpit.

How far into my armpit is this damn thing supposed to go? I've already said it's not an alien skin costume! I don't want it to be skin tight.

I measured myself correctly. I did the math correctly. But it's not working out! How the hell am I supposed to figure this out myself?! What I need is a seamstress.

Where the hell am I supposed to find a seamstress!?

Ok, calm down. Who in my family sews?

My Mom
I'm pretty sure she used to make clothes when I was little. I definitely remember she made stuffed animals.

Once she made me this awesome alligator. His body was corduroy and his mouth was open so she used that zig-zag tape for teeth. And the pupils on his button eyes were the silhouette of a cat sitting up.

But a stuffed alligator won't translate to sleeve fit. Besides that was back in the 1970s, she probably won't remember.

My Cousin A
But I don't know if she makes clothes or if her talents are limited to last minute elf hats for the Christmas pageant.

Besides, it's Easter this weekend. I won't be able to get in touch with her. If she isn't in church then she is delirious from lack of food and sleep from spending so much time in church.

My Aunt T in CA
Now she is a seamstress. Her talents are very much in demand for sewing vestments for priests.

But take all that stuff I said about my Cousin A and Easter, double it because Aunt T is a priest's wife, and add a three hour time difference.

Obviously I'm on my own.

Wait a minute.

I'm measuring from this stitch marker at the top of the ribbing before the stockinette stitch starts.

That is the top of the cuff. Why would I put a stitch marker there? I don't remember. But I did it on both sleeves.

I should be measuring from this other stitch marker that indicates the row where the mitt stops and the cuff starts.

Let's see....from there the sleeve measures....18 inches.

um...

ok...

Forget everything I just said.

Schleppy Sweater: Say That Again?

You know how sometimes when you are learning something you can read the instructions or have someone explain it a dozen times and just not get it?

Then someone else comes a long and explains it just a little bit differently and it suddenly clicks into place?

Well, I had that happen this morning. Not that it does me much good at the moment.

Got My Book
Yesterday I stopped at Westport Yarns on the way home from work and picked up my copy of Shirley Paden's new book "Knitwear Design Workshop".

The other staff members were circling it like sharks. Turns out some copies came in damaged and they were waiting on replacements. In a situation like that the priority is customer orders, of course, the sales floor, and then staff orders. Apparently someone kindly decided that my need to have a copy was more urgent. Probably based on my current feeble (pathetic?) attempt at sweater design.

I'll do a review after I've had a few days to look at it, but I can tell you a few things right off the bat from my breakfast perusal.

Again With The Ease
It has a really nice table of contents. The sections are broken down and each subsection has a page number listed.

You might not be surprised to hear that I flipped straight to the section about ease.

There I read that "standard fit" is 1 to 2 inches of ease. Of course I had just figured that out for myself last week so I wasn't terribly impressed.

Then I read the commonly heard advice to "measure a sweater you like and use it as a guide" and a light bulb went on. Most of the sweaters I own, and all the sweaters I've made, are close fitting. So of course when I measured them to use as a guide I ended up designing a close fitting sweater!

Therefore, I would alter that classic advice to be "measure a sweater you like with the fit you want and use it as a guide." This way it is spelled out for ninnies like me. You want to design an oversized sweater? Well use an oversized sweater you like as a guide. So simple, yet I didn't figure it out until now.

The irony is I have this size medium hand-me-down rugby shirt making it pretty big on me that I tend to reach for when I'm cranky. It is kind of what I had in mind when I decided to make the Schleppy Sweater. Only every time I thought of measuring it I thought, "Naaa, that's too big."

Some part of my brain was working against me. Although I did say I want this sweater to be a little tailored/attractive and I don't think the ruby shirt interpreted in yarn would have been.

Raglan Lightbulb
Then I flipped to the section about Raglan shaping. There was a call out box with bullet points.

One says that the sleeves and body have to have the same number of rows, but not necessarily the same number of decreases.

I had to read that sentence several times since my brain kept refusing to acknowledge it.

It meant that all of my panic when I was first knitting the sweater was unnecessary. I didn't have to rework the numbers after all.

I thought you had to have the same number of rows and work the same number of decreases at the same time on both the sleeves and the body. In all my scenarios to avoid recrunching the numbers it never occurred to me to try to decrease more stitches in the sleeve proper (I debated underarm cast offs).

Of course I don't know what that would do to the look of the decrease line. One of the nice things about Raglans is that nice sharp line along the decreases and increasing or decreasing the frequency might mess it up.

Oh well, at this point I'm not going back to the old numbers.

But next time, next time things will be different.