Patterns of Behavior Sweater

At the beginning of the year I was on a kick to knit with the various beautiful yarns I've been acquiring over the years.

What was the point in having them tucked away in the dining room credenza if I wasn't going to actively enjoy them?

This plan was working well until two things happened.

First, I find it hard to juggle my personal knitting with my work knitting. There are only so many hours in the day, after all.

Second, in April I started the Patterns of Behavior Sweater.



The name will become obvious in a moment.

The original use-the-nice-yarn plan was to just knit the stuff. Keep it simple so projects would be completed and I could get on to wearing them.

That, obviously, didn't last long.

As I contemplated the Spring Pansies yarn I bought from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm during the 2011 New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival the idea of knitting another Schleppy Sweater of ribbing and stockinette didn't appeal.

No, instead it should have a big cowl neck.

And if I was going to work a cowl neck it should have an interesting stitch pattern.

And if I was going to do the neck in an interesting stitch pattern I should do the hem and cuffs in the same pattern to tie it all together.



Suddenly, instead of just knitting the yarn already I had fallen back into the old habits, ahem--Patterns of Behavior, of making complicated projects.

In this case, a sweater with Feather & Fan hem, cuffs, and cowl collar.

Despite all that I'd been zipping along, until it was time to start the sleeves.

Figuring out the stitch count for the cuff tripped me up. And then we moved. And then I had work knitting. And, well, you know how it goes.

I picked the sweater back up a week or two ago. Rhinebeck pressure, you know.

The sleeves flew along once I started knitting them. I decided to work them one at a time, in the round, on double points.

The yoke, which always seems to take forever when I'm working a sweater in the round, has moved along briskly as well.



I was working on the sweater last week during Adirondack Yarns' open knitting session and had a really constructive conversation about the collar with one of the other knitters.

We decided I should work the first part of the collar in stockinette stitch so I can easily work the increases to get to cowl size, then switch to the Feather & Fan pattern.

I'll have to remember to reverse it when the time comes since it's going to fold over and I don't want the wrong/back side of the knitting showing.

I'm getting really close to having the yoke done. Unfortunately, my left wrist is cranky so I think it's best to take a knitting break for a day or two.

At little rest now prevents a long rest later!

Schleppy Sweater: It Grew!

Not in this picture. This picture is from when I finished it.

I put a rush job on washing it in anticipation of some cool, rainy weather we were supposed to get. That paid off as I was able to wear it yesterday.

Have I mentioned I don't handwash my knits? That does not surprise you as we've already established I like the path of least resistance.

So I threw the Schleppy Sweater in the machine on the hand-knit cycle in cold water with a few other handknit sweaters and multiple pairs of handknit socks.

But the Schleppy got the place of honor on the mesh drying rack. On the dining room table no less. I guess Hubby didn't have any papers to grade last week as he didn't protest at all.

After it dried it looked a little loosey-goosey. I tried it on to discover it had grown in length about an inch. It was also much softer and more snuggly and the collar fit a little better.

Surprise!
On the one hand, this growth surprised me since Hubby's Striped Turtleneck Sweater didn't grow.

However, his sweater has seams and I hear tell seams stabilize a sweater (as in preventing growth in length?).

On the other hand, it shouldn't have surprised me because I seem to remember Margaret, another staff member, saying something about Zara stretching because it's so soft.

However, I was like, "lalalala can't hear you!" And carried on knitting my sweater in the round.

Technically I think this is the first time my refusal to wash swatches has resulted in a project fitting differently than anticipated.

A Whole Inch
After taking the sweater back off I took some measurements to confirm my suspicions.

I'm sure it grew all over, but it seems focused in the long stockinette stitch portions between the collar and the waist and elbow ribbing.

The extra length in the body isn't such a big deal. In fact when I finished the sweater I secretly wished the body was a wee bit longer, but I didn't say anything. However, the corset ribbing seems to have slipped from around my ribs to more around my waist as a belt. Which just confirms I should have followed my original instinct and raised it an inch.

The extra length in the sleeves is much more noticeable. Instead of ending at my first set of finger knuckles (as planned) it now reaches to my finger tips. Although this is warmer it isn't terribly practical and kind of negates the need for the thumbhole. I am compensating by just pulling/pushing the sleeves up.

Interestingly the Raglan decrease was planned as 8 inches long and now measures 9 inches. This is consistent with the 1 inch of growth. However, I never measured the decrease line when the sweater was done. It was planned for 8 inches. I knit until all the stitches were decreased. The sweater fit. Why measure it?

Twitch
I admit it.

Part of me wants to pull it out to the body joining and shortening the sleeves.

But once I take that step how far do I go?

Do I rip the body back and raise the waist ribbing as well?

Might as well reknit the entire sweater at that point.

The urge is passing. It still fits well and looks adorable, so I think I'll live.

Future Perfect
Of course all this information is going to be very useful for future versions.

I've decided I'll keep the body the same, aside from raising the waist ribbing an inch. This will also balance the body better.

When I designed it I was only considering the body length to the armhole when I placed the waist ribbing. I forgot all the fabric above the armhole making the waist ribbing look a little low of center.

The sleeves are totally going to be shorted by 1.5 inches. I was surprised all along at how long they were anyway. I'm also going to shift the elbow ribbing up half an inch.

Oh! And I think I've figured out a way around the stretched stitches in the underarm.

When the pieces are 8 rows short of the desired length I'm going to increase 2 stitches every other row, then put them on a holder on the next row so I can Kitchener stitch them closed.

This will be like wee gussets and also give me something to aim for when joining the sleeves to the body.

I Laugh at the Inch
See that? Total learning experience which will make my future projects better.

I'm so mature.

Stop Me

Seriously, I need you to reel me in on this one.

Because even I know this idea probably isn't good. And when you know your own idea is kind of whacked, well that's a bad place to start.

I want to make a Rainbow Bright version of the Schleppy Sweater.

Color/Number Alignment
Think about it. It would be almost perfect.

The Schleppy Sweater took just over eight balls of yarn.

There are seven colors in the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).

I can get six of those colors in yarn (no indigo). Two of the colors would have to be a little more represented (probably red or blue, since I like those, although red and purple would make more sense since they the ends). Unless I wanted to introduce pink, powder blue, or lavender, but I really wanted to stick with the primary colors. But it would basically be one for one.

And I'm not talking narrow little stripes dancing happily up the sweater.

I'm talking big blocks of color!

Cast on with the red and knit until it runs out (hopefully at a side seam). Switch to the orange and knit until it runs out. And on up the sweater to the collar.

Colors Balanced
It would be my Chakra Sweater (chakra wikipedia link).

oooohmmmm

As obnoxious as it might be I feel like I could totally carry it off. First, I'm not above sometimes making a spectacle of myself clothing wise. Second, on first glance I still look like I'm in my 20s, so I don't always have to dress my age.

The thing is, I have to make up my mind about this soon. Strike while the irons hot, as it were.

You see, there is one, lone ball of bright melon orange Zara on the shelf at Westport Yarns. And I can't see us reordering that color any time soon.

Once it's gone my dream of a rainbow sweater will be gone with it.

Done: Schleppy Sweater!

Betcha didn't think you'd ever see that post title, did ya?

As you might have surmised, this means Hubby did not make me do yard work on Saturday. This allowed me to just park myself on the couch and make one mighty push to finish to the exclusion of all else. (Well, aside from trying to catch up the laundry.)

And not only is the sweater done—it fits! And fits rather well, if I do say so myself.

Really, the whole "fitting" thing was up in the air for me the entire time. I guess I should have trusted the math. Or the process and the math.

This means I really do know how to measure myself correctly, measure a gauge swatch, do a bunch of scary math, and end up with a decent sweater.

Do you know what else it means? I'm feeling rather smug and insufferable at the moment.

I understand this is when some knitting or other yarn related disaster will strike.

Oh, hey does that horrible tangle last night in my skein of Austermann Step I'm using for hubby's socks count? I hope so.

It also means that I'm already plotting my next self-designed sweater. hehehe.

But I have to swatch first. And I'm trying to quickly read Paden's Knitwear Design book so I can cross reference it with Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English.

You know, add to the confusion a bit.

Project Stats
(Does it matter that I'm not consistent with that subhead?)

Project name: Schleppy Sweater

Source: A TravelingAnn Designs original. Making it unique and one of a kind! wheeeee!

Yarn: Zara Print Tweed in colorway 5110. It took 8 balls and a wee bit of a ninth, which really ticked me off. I had to dip into it for the collar. It's possible that if I hadn't done a mock turtle neck I wouldn't have needed the ninth. Of course, if I hadn't done the integrated mitts I might not have needed it either.
I weighed the sweater using the kitchen scale (what? Like you haven't?) and it was 401 grams. (This will come into play for my next sweater.)

Needles: Us 3 and 5

The most brilliant part of the sweater, aside from the fact that it fits and looks good, is those integrated fingerless mitts.

So fun to be able to pull them down when I need them. Ahh, instant warmth.

It took me about a month to make, including the initial math crunching. It might have taken less time if I hadn't knit three sleeves.

Collar Contortions
The collar took me a lot longer than you would have expected.

Or not, since I always have to do things the hard way.

I have a wee bit of shaping in the front so it wouldn't choke me. That is, instead of working the front and back the same, I put a dip in the front.

Since I don't like picking up stitches at necklines, and I was working in the round anyway, I decided there must be a way to work short rows or something.

Despite the fact that I know how to work short rows from my sock knitting experience the collar was a train wreck.

(The picture is on the way back out. It looked worse in person.)

I put the center six stitches on a holder, then worked flat back and forth, then tried to work back up. Ick!

I think the problem was I didn't wrap and turn. Instead I either K2Tog, K1 or P2Tog, P1 (depending on the row, obviously) then turned, slipped the first stitch and worked the row. This decreased the stitches, but gave me nothing to pick up on my way back out.

When I saw how icky it looked I just yanked it right out. It was only 12 rows, after all, and I'd wisely strung another lifeline before I started.

For the second, final, attempt I just bound off the stitches like a normal knitter. It was very easy to pick up as it was five stitches on one side and six on the other (I worked one row even in stockinette stitch and decreased the extra stitch away before starting the ribbing). So I could have saved myself some trouble if I'd just done it the regular way off the bat.

I did not change to the US3 for the collar ribbing since I didn't want it to be too tight.

Not that it mattered.

I bound of the last stitch, slapped a locking stitch marker in it, excitedly tour of my pajama top, pulled on the sweater, and bonk! It wouldn't go over my head.

I gave it a little tug, thinking perhaps a lifeline was hooked.

Nope, the bind off was too tight.

I must have made a little whimpering sound or other sound of annoyance because Hubby commented on the fact it didn't fit. (If he laughed I managed to block it out.)

It was a simple matter to pick out the bind off and switch to Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Cast off as documented in this Knitty.com article.

Me, Being Slick
Which usually leads to trouble. As evidenced by the collar business.

Remember how the other day I did all that crazy stitch jiggering to avoid having to sew shut a hole in the armpit?

It worked, but I'm not sure it was the best solution.

Oh, it feels fine when I'm wearing it, but I was examining it in the mirror and it doesn't look terribly secure.

The stitches look rather stretched and I wonder if that will put extra strain on them and shorten their lifespan. I can see them snapping and the side unraveling. There will be tears and I'll have to rip back the yolk, picked the dropped stitches up, and knit some kind of gusset.

This is, however, what the math told me.

I think it would have been better to have bound off stitches, or some little gusset thing, or something to relieve the strain in that area.

When I make another one—because I really want to. Several actually. I can do a striped one and maybe a solid one with cables, and....—I'll have to address that. Binding off doesn't seem the answer, so I'll have to figure out a gusset.

Ok, I believe that is everything. I wore it yesterday and everyone said it was lovely. I had it at the store Sunday, just to show off, and everyone there liked it as well.

Would you like to know a secret?

I haven't finished weaving in all the ends. I wore it and all the ends aren't woven in. I'm such a rebel.

I think it's going to take as long as knitting the thing did. I got all the body ones done, but the sleeves are still waiting. I'll have to focus on that tonight.

Schleppy Sweater: Plugging Away

I'm on row 26 of the yolk.

Still over 200 stitches on the needles.

In around 20 rows I'll start the neck shaping.

I endure.

If the weather is nice the weekend I think Hubby is going to make me do yard work with him.

That will cut into my knitting time.

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.

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.

Schleppy Sweater: More Whining About Math & Measuring

Worked a few rows last night.

Made it through the ribbing on the left sleeve elbow. Worked at least one increase row.

Not much else.

I've got 52 stitches on this sleeve. The goal is 66. I did some math the other day. I've worked just over 100 rows. I should have around 135 rows total to get to 18 inches long (see what I mean about my measuring? I don't think I have long arms, I don't have a problem with clothes not fitting properly. So why am I knitting these sleeves to be 18 inches long? And that is not including the mitt.)

Oh, speaking of the mitt, those 100 rows are including the mitt. So I've got 70 in the sleeve. Which means have plenty of room to finish my increases, which should take around 56 rows.

I'm tired just thinking about it.

I've never had a problem knitting sleeves in the past. I usually do them two at a time. I knit them, and it's fine, and it doesn't seem to take an unusually long time. But these sleeves. Boy howdy, am I sick of them. Maybe because I've technically knit three sleeves now.

Speaking of which, after I finish this left sleeve I have to figure out where I left off the right sleeve and catch it up.

This was going to be a simple post telling you I have nothing to post about.

What really worries me about this 18 inch sleeve nonsense is that I won't really know if they actually fit until the sweater is done.

Or at least several rows into the yolk so I can try it on.

And I'm not looking forward to ripping that much knitting out of the sleeves are too long.

A "too long" body I can work with. If my aim was off there it will just land lower on my waist, no biggy.

What might save me is that I am trying on the sleeves as I go along. If they seem long enough before they reach 18 inches I'll stop.

Which opens the door to them ending up too short!

ahhhhh! I can't handle the uncertainty. Must. Knit. Faster.

Speaking of Knitting by Candlelight

During the week of the 14th my friends who live near the coast were without power for up to four days because of a wicked storm that ripped through the state.

Four day. Can you even imagine?

I had to brag that during the five years we've lived in our house we've only lost power once for around 15 minutes.

These are statistics that should not be said aloud as it brings you to the attention of the blackout gremlins.

At Least an Hour
Yep, I was playing online last night when "click" everything went dark.

The dogs flipped out. As though barking would help the situation or make the lights turn back on.

I had to use my cellphone as a flashlight to get downstairs to the real flashlight to dig in the drawer for the electric match to light a bunch of candles.

At first Samson was like, "Whatever," and went into the puppy fort. Baru was sticking to my heels. Later on Samson came down, too.

My main concerns were zombies, vampires, and that damn sewer ejector. I was acutely aware that I couldn't run any water since I don't know how big that tank is or how long the power would be out. I tried not to think about what we'd do if it was an extended outage.

Happily, it was only about an hour. It finally occurred to me to call the electric company. The recording said 1 a.m., but five minutes after I hung up the lights came back on. Of course the dogs freaked out again, which was about as helpful as when they flipped out when the lights went out.

I spent most of the time wandering around the house with my five stick candelabra feeling rather gothic. Samson and I peered out the windows to see if the neighbor's had power and saw what we thought was an electric company truck go by.

I got hardly any knitting done. Mainly because I couldn't decide where to settle. I debated hiding in the bedroom, but didn't think I could light myself well. I decided on the living room with the candles lined up on the coffee table.

Turns out the bedroom might have been a better choice. When I gave up and went to bed I put the candelabra on my dresser, which has a big, tri-fold mirror. Of course that caught the light, amplified it, and threw it back into the room.

A girl can't win.

This has potential
I was just reading Pam's blog post about these fancy cable decreases.

I might have to try them on my Schleppy Sweater. If I ever get to the Raglan decreases. I think I saw someone mention these on Ravelry a few days ago. It was intriguing, but there wasn't a good description.

However, my yarn is pretty loud, I mean, colorful so the detail might not show up.

Now I Get It

Or at least I think I do.

I have seen, but not read, blogs with the theme of "I design my first sweater."

I'm always conflicted about this theme, as it doesn't seem broad enough for a whole blog.

How long does it take to design a sweater? I think.

How much detail are you going into? I wonder.

The initial concept. Selecting the yarn. Swatching. The math. Can you really milk it for an entire blog?

How frequently do they blog?

And how long is this blog going to go on? Do they finish the sweater and then stop blogging? Or do they continue blogging, maybe with a new sweater design, but without updating their theme?

I'm sure some of these questions would be answered if I actually read any of these blogs. But there are only so many hours in a day, so I choose to remain ignorant in favor of accomplishing other things in life.

But I'm Starting to Understand
After all, the Schleppy Sweater has consumed my blog since I announced it on March 7. Granted I don't blog on weekends and I don't blog every day. Still, eight out of my 17 posts this month have been about designing this sweater. Which is almost half.

In fact, that post about the dirty dish flow chart doesn't really count, so it is half.

And the posts that weren't about the sweater once I started it were just filler because the sweater was in a calm spot where it was actually working out so there was nothing to report.

Which is another question. What if these other erstwhile designers are better at measuring and math than me and their sweater knits up as anticipated? That must be a boring blog.

Still, the Schleppy Sweater seems to be back on track (again) and once I'm done knitting it I'll work on other projects.

Really, by the end of April (I hope) you won't hear about the Schleppy Sweater again, aside from footnotes as I reference what I learned for other projects.

Which means that if my theme was limited to "I design my first sweater" I would have blogged for about a month and been done.

On the other hand, everyone blogs for different reasons. Not everyone is interested in keeping an on going journal. In fact, a tightly controlled blog on one topic that was informative, useful, and finite would probably be a good thing to have around.

Go out on a high note, they say.

I should probably find of these theme blogs so I can commiserate, or at least find out if they are having as many problems as I am.

And, shoot, if the simple Schleppy Sweater is providing this much fodder (especially considering the excruciating detail I like to share about the most inconsequential things) just imagine what a treat you are in for when I start designing those cabled sweaters I have in mind.

Schleppy Sweater: Sick of Sleeves

"Are you making gauntlets?" Hubby asked.

No, it's a sweater. These are the sleeves.

"But they cover your hands."

Yes, and if I'm not cold I can fold them back.

"That's neat," he said. "Did you think of that yourself?"

And I had to admit that I saw someone mention the idea on Ravelry.

At which point he lost interest and went back to his video game.

Faster, not better
Pam and Margaret were much more interested when I brought it into Westport Yarns today.

I explained how the first sleeve had felt too tight when I increased every 9th row (right? I worked 8 even then increased on the next row) so on the next sleeve I increased every 4th row (worked 3 even, increased on the following row).

But all the increases all ended up taking place before my elbow. Which was awfully fast. Really, I need a happy medium.

I was trying it on last night and noticed it was bulging strangely near my elbow. I figured it was a combination of the increases and the ribbing colliding. I poked at it and tried to smooth it out.

The part of me that was tired of knitting sleeves said that was just the way it was going to be and I'd have to deal with it.

The part of me that likes things done right said that was the most ridiculous thing it had hear considering I was designing this sweater from scratch. The fussy part pointed out that the bulge would always annoy me, especially since it was in my power to fix it.

Fortunately, it was time for bed by then so I didn't have to worry about it any more.

(Random picture of Samson! Tired from a game of fetch.)

Well, when I put both sleeves on Margaret immediately asked what I was going to be wearing under the sweater. I said nothing. She said the left sleeve was too big then.

Pam said the left sleeve really was schleppy while the rest of the sweater wasn't.

In the mean time, the right sleeve has suddenly started fitting better. I guess all the times I've pulled it on and off trying it out have stretched it out and given it a chance to relax.

So, basically, I'm going to stick with my original increases.

As Pam pointed out, I'm not loosing anything since I was intending to rework a sleeve anyway. It's just a different sleeve.

Ribbing Under Attack
They both said the short/15 row ribbing at the elbow was better than the tall/30 row version.

I have to agree with them. I was already starting to suspect that. It ended up being much more, um, more than I had anticipated.

(Random picture of Baru! Who wouldn't sit still so he's blurry.)

However, they also both turned their noses up at it. Didn't like it at all. They said elbows aren't really an area that needs to be highlighted. (Even though I missed the elbow.) And they didn't really "get it" as a design element. Although they were down with the idea of it on the body for waist shaping.

Despite their protests I still like the ribbing. And it's my sweater. So I've chosen to ignore that little piece of advice. ha!

Of course this means I won't be going back and extending the ribbing on the body. The whole point of the ribbing on the sleeves is to match the body.

Schleppy Sweater: Whose Brilliant Idea Was It

for me to design a sweater from scratch?

Oh, right, it was mine.

So many nice sweater designs already exist, but no, I had to take the hard way.

If you see me typing crazy talk about designing a sweater again, please lock me in the closet until the impulse passes. (Of course, I reserve the right to revoke that request once this sweater is finished and turns out awesome.)

When I embarked on this project I read somewhere that if you are going to design your own sweater you have to be prepared to rip out and rework parts or all of it.

Well, I thought I was prepared, but actually having to do it still sucks.

Sleeve: Bad at Ease
The sleeve is not working out. It is too snug. To the point of being uncomfortable, if I'm being honest.

Seriously, it looks like an alien skin costume.

Hubby was no help as this crisis was developing.

I put on the body piece and held it up. Then pulled on the sleeve. I asked if the sleeve looked ok.

He said the sleeve looked great. That he liked it and I should leave them detached. As knitting-punk was not the look I was going for with this sweater, I decided to ignore him.

Unfortunately, I could not reach this level of honesty about the sleeve during the first day or two of knitting when it was only up to my elbow. No, I had to live in a state of denial for four knitting days, by which time it reached my upper arm. Which is to say, it's almost done.

I think I know what went wrong.

Part of the problem is that I apparently don't have the least bit of understanding of the concept of ease. This does not surprise me since I don't grasp spacial dimensions in general. You could pluck me from my living room, put me into a new room, and I wouldn't be able to say for sure how they compare. I've lived in my town for five years and can never remember the order of the stores on the main drag (which baffles Hubby and makes his life difficult. He has learned not to ask my opinion on travel directions).

This all translates into a too snug sleeve. It's not a delusional self-image. I measured correctly (I think) and believed the tape measure. I just don't understand how 2 inches of ease relates to what the tape measure told me.

This might have been addressed by keeping in mind the fit standards according to the Craft Yarn Council of America here, which list 1-2 inches of ease as "close fitting. " One printout I have even says "body skimming." For what I had in mind I should have been in the 3-4 inch range.

Measure Twice, Knit Once
The next problem is that I measured my pudgy upperarm and my scrawny wrist and nothing in between. This makes no sense considering I can see that my forearm has a larger circumference than my wrist.

Finally, I learned that just because I can spread my increases out over the entire length of the sleeve doesn't mean I should.

The sleeve is almost at the final length before the Raglan shaping and I still have one increase to work (which probably indicates an error in my math somewhere. I was sure I'd have several inches to work after the final increase before it reached the max length). Because the shaping is so gradual, the sleeve doesn't start fitting nicely until somewhere well above my elbow.

Also, since I'm ripping the poor sleeve apart, I totally missed on the ribbing. It lands below my elbow rather than on it. On the other hand (sleeve? snicker) I've decided to make the ribbing 30 rows, which should be 4 inches, rather than the current 15 rows, which is 2 inches. It should sit over the elbow area better at that length.

Back to the Calculator
I think I can salvage the mitt and cuff portion of the right sleeve. I like the way they fit. I've actually bound off the sleeve and am preserving it for comparison as I work the left sleeve. Then I'll frog the right one and rework it.

I've measured my arm in more places to have more stitch counts to aim for.

I'm going to increase 4 sts on the row right after the ribbing. Then increase 2 sts every 4th row.

On my first attempt I worked 8 rows even after the ribbing before my first increase. Then increased 2 sts every 8th row. Now I'll be working the same number of increases in half the length.

The right sleeve is tightest in the area just after the cuff, so the quick increase there should help.

Back to the Body
Since I'm revising things, I took another, harder, look at the body.

First off, it shrunk while in my project back. It was 13 inches when I put it in there and now it's 12.5 inches. It would appear I was smoothing it out a little too enthusiastically as I was measuring it.

But I've decided that I'm not happy about how low the corset ribbing is after all. However, instead of ripping out the ribbing and shifting it up two rows or whatever, I'm going to work it for 15 more rows so it matches the sleeves. Problem solved.

The overall fit of the body is acceptable. It is not as obscenely tight as the sleeve, but also not as loose as I had in mind. This makes me wonder if I actually just prefer "body skimming" styles in my knitware and subconsciously defaulted to that as I began the design process.

This all blew up on Sunday. Since I needed time to come to terms with wasting four plus days of knitting, I put the sweater aside and worked on Hubby's socks for a few days until I had quiet time to rework the sweater pattern.

Emergency fallback projects. Why pure project monogamy isn't practical.

Schleppy Sweater: Sleeve Time!

You know what that is?

Thirteen inches of sweater body!

Yippee!

Now, I know it looks kind of little, but I will remind you of two things.

First, I'm kinda little. Second, it's squished up on the needles.


Keep in mind, I did put it on a lifeline just after that middle ribbing and tried it on. It does seem to fit. Not sure if it actually fits well....but it wasn't skin tight and it didn't seem to be huge. Hopefully that means it's fitting in the way I envisioned.

Since I still don't trust it, I'm going to go through my sock yarn scraps to put in a long-term lifeline in case I finish all the knitting and the top is all wrong.

I considered using a piece of trusty kite string but it seems harsh and I'm mildly afraid of the kite string damaging the soft Zara.

I also briefly considered using some of the Zara left over from Hubby's Striped Sweater, but that might take up too much room and affect the fit.

Sleeve the First
I reached the 13" early in my knitting time last night, so I dove right into the first sleeve.

Very exciting.

I only managed 15 rows before bedtime.

Apparently, I'm incapable of casting on in a satisfactory manner on the first try.

Usually I decided the leftover tail is too long and a waist, so I try again.

But then then tail is too short to weave in securely, so I make another attempt.

Sometimes it looks too tight, or sloppy, which requires yet another cast on.

Fortunately multiple complaints can apply to a single attempt. I think went with my third try last night.

I'm using the US5 on the idea it will make the hand part a little bigger so it will be easier to fold back if I want to.

I worked 15 rows of ribbing, which pleased me greatly. Then on the 16th row I bound off two stitches for the thumb hole. On the next row I cast two stitches back on over the bound off stitches.

Then I worked an 18th row so get the needles away from my erstwhile thumb hole so I could try it on.

Yeah, it didn't fit. Waaay to small.

Then I tinked back to the 15th row. Then it was time for bed. sigh.

I think binding off four stitches should do the trick.

Schleppy Sweater: Making Progress

I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly the Schleppy Sweater is working up. In around 10 more rows, give or take, I should be able to put the body aside and start the sleeves.

Since I'm working it in the round I'll have to catch the sleeves up, then I can join the whole mess together and finish it off with no seams.

I sure hope joining the sleeves makes sense when I come to it. I don't have any underarm bind off, which probably means I did some math or measured something incorrectly. I'll worry about it when I get there.

Try It On
On Saturday evening I got through the corset ribbing and was ready to add my third ball of yarn when I decided it was time to see if I was actually on the right track. It measured about 8", as expected, which means I'm nailing my row gauge.

I'm pleased to report that it actually seems to fit!

I transferred it to my trusty spool of kite string and put it on. I held the cast on edge at my hips, where it's supposed to be landing and held the top up. The corset ribbing could have been a wee bit higher, maybe two rows, so I'm not going to rip back to change it. The circumference around my body seems on target as well.

Outside Encouragement
On Sunday evening I went to a potluck with the other Westport Yarns, nee Knitting Central, staff members to celebrate the transition.

It was a little messed up because the Connecticut coast was walloped by a massive rain and wind storm Saturday. Half the people in attendance were unable to bring their contribution because they lost power and couldn't cook.

My town didn't loose power at all. In fact I didn't realize how bad the storm was until I was on the Merritt Parkway where I could tell trees had been down. There were more downed trees in the area of the store.

But it worked out fine. Giggles made butternut squash soup. I baked a loaf of that Scali bread. The hostess wisely picked up some fancy deli salads. ABB made ambrosia, and there were two types of cheesecake, cookies, and other desserts.

My bread was a big hit and everyone was duly impressed. I actually had to bake two loaves because I knew Hubby wouldn't let me take it out of the house. In fact, when they were out of the oven he tried to run off with both of them, but Samson jumped up and tried to snatch them, causing Hubby to return them to the kitchen island.

I also received a few pats on the head for attempting my first sweater design and the fact that it actually looks like a sweater. People even identified that the center ribbing is intended as waist shaping.

Schleppy Sweater: Back to the Calculator

Can you make a mistake while knitting a sweater you designed yourself?

Which is to say, if you alter a published pattern on the fly and it isn't a mistake, doesn't that mean altering a pattern you cooked up yourself isn't a mistake either?

This is the question I was struggling with yesterday when I realized I'd worked my ribbing for 1.5 inches when I meant to work it for 2 inches.

When I first realized my mistake what had happened I figured I should go with it. But then I remembered all the ribbing at the waist and elbows was also planned to be 2 inches, which meant I had to double back to ensure all the ribbing matched.

Fortunately, I'd only worked 5 rows of stockinette stitch, so it wasn't a big loss. I've decided I'm going to work the ribbing for my beloved 15 rows, which is what I always work on my socks. I'm pretty sure 15 rows should end up working out to 2 inches anyway.

Facing Reality
The second Schleppy Sweater disaster yesterday occurred when I finally sat down and typed up the pattern.

This forced me to come to terms with the fact that the numbers I had for my Raglan shaping were all wrong and were never going to work.

On the bright side, I'm only 10 rows into the sweater. Plenty of time to regroup. At least I wasn't stubborn enough to knit the damn thing before I admitted my error.

I know just what happened.

When I did the math, as instructed, I would have had 24 sts left at the back neck, which is just a hair under 5".

That didn't seem wide enough, so I decided I would leave 30 sts, but didn't also add 6 sts back into the sleeve tops (as instructed).

Then I figured out the interval for my Raglan decreases based on the body numbers. Since the sleeves are supposed to follow the same progression I did not double check them. Nope, big old blind spot of denial.

However, when I was typing up the pattern I had to look at the numbers and say, "Those decreases aren't going to get me to that number on the sleeves." I would have 12 sts left on the sleeves, not 6, and that seemed to wide.

Fudge It
I tried to find ways around it.

I debated binding off more stitches on the sleeve underarm. That seemed silly because then the flat spots wouldn't match up.

I debated just reducing the number of stitches in the sleeve in general. That was bad on two fronts. First, I would have to rework the increases. Second, having 2 inches of ease on the body and 1 inch of ease on the sleeves struck me as goofy.

In the end I had to suck it up and rework the numbers based on 24 sts left at the neck.

The good part is this means my decreases will be every other row, which is apparently traditional. The weird part is now I don't have to bind off any underarm stitches.

Since I was tweaking things, I also redid the front neck shaping. Well, I had to anyway since it originally based on 30 sts. I realized my original numbers would have eaten up all the front stitches and collided with the Raglan shaping. I tried to make it so that I'll have 6 sts left on the front (3 on each side). I won't know for sure whether it worked until I get there.

Neckline Worries
The neck opening will be wide enough.

I hope.

Between the stitches on the back and the stitches on the sleeves it should be fine.

Right?


I mean, that's what the math says anyway.

Not that you can trust numbers.

Photo Note: I made The Guy in the Art Department take this picture with his iPhone because Boss Man is out of the office today. It's a pretty gloomy day, which is why it's dark.
And, hello, can you see why I'm concerned about the small circumference?

Possible Tactical Error

On Sunday I was, for unknown reasons, working on a pair of socks I've started for Hubby. As opposed to working on my Schleppy Sweater, but perhaps the sweater math wasn't done at that point.

I waived the completed cuff at Hubby.

He obligingly fingered the yarn, said it felt nice, and asked if they were for myself.

I said, "nooooo."

And he got all excited that I was making him new socks.

I haven't touched the socks since. I'm trying to focus on the sweater. The "socks" are a cuff and three rows of leg.

The reason this might be a problem is that eventually Hubby is going to notice his new socks aren't done. At which point he'll start campaigning on their behalf.

I've got time. I don't think he knows how long it should take me to knit a pair of socks (about two weeks if I'm focused).

Why, you ask, did I show him the sock if I knew how it would all play out?

I wanted to make sure he liked the color. Which is silly because I've shown him the ball of yarn repeatedly and every time he approved it. Maybe I secretly hope he'll reject it so I can have it for myself.

Really, what I should have done is wait until the sock is further along so he can really see the color/pattern. Right now it's just a reddish brown cuff.

Ah, I'm sure it will be fine.

Sweater Update
I'm a few rows into the stockinette portion of the body. When I get a little further along I'm going to check my gauge. I'm sure it won't match my swatch and all my numbers will be invalidated.

I've got the correct number cast on, according to my math, but it sure doesn't look big enough to fit.

sigh.

And I still have to type the pattern up and stash it in multiple safe places.

Which I think I'll got do right now.

Schleppy Sweater: The Hard Part

All day yesterday was devoted to designing my sweater.

I remember brief breaks. I ate a couple times. I managed to wash the laundry (although it is not folded or put away). I spent some time sitting on the floor measuring sweaters to decide on length.
But that counts as part of the design process even though I wasn't sitting at the dining room table.

Basically 9 to 5 was spent with a bunch of books, a calculator, and a couple of colored pencils.

And I couldn't really tell you why it took so long. But I sure hope it gets easier. And my experience designing socks didn't seem to help at all.

You Got That Number From Where?
If you've read "Sweater Design in Plain English" then you are familiar with the layout.

The first half is a general design discussion. She talks about body types, tells you which bits to measure, discusses how the knit fabric behaves, and introduces color theory. All the kind of background stuff you need to think about first.

The second half is the number crunching part of creating the actual designs.

She starts with a simple drop shoulder sweater, like the striped one I knit for Hubby, then gets more complicated as the book progresses.

However, the chapters also get shorter as you go along. For the first few sweaters she takes you through step-by-step of each part of the sweater. You multiply this measurement by that gauge and it gives you this number which affects that number on the other part. It all looks nice and logical and straight forward. Each sweater also tends to introduce a new element.

But as you get to the later designs she skips the first few steps. Oh, you know how to find the number of stitches to cast on for the body, we'll skip straight to the neck shaping. Which makes sense as you're reading along.

And I was just reading. Since I had no need for the first few sweater shapes she covered I just read the book and did not work my own numbers along with her. This is, of course, a totally different way of engaging with the information.

Then, when I finally reached the chapters on designing Raglans she kind of throws everything previous out the window and tells you to start at the neck/Raglan seams, then jump back down to the bottom and work back up to meet the seam figures.

Pencil to Paper
She also has these nice little charts in the back for recording your project information. So I dutifully made a photocopy of the one that has a little box to draw my sketch. Which of course was much to small for practical purposes. I quickly ended up flipping the paper over and doing all my figuring on the blank back side.

[I should really scan this precious piece of paper and upload it to Google Docs so I can be sure I don't loose it. Actually, I need to write up the information on it into a coherent format and put that in multiple safe places as well. Redundancy can be good.]

Anyway. I figured out how many rows I had in which to work my Raglan decreases.

I figured out how many stitches to cast on. My desired width by my stitch gauge called for 82.5, which isn't possible. I rounded up to 83. That wouldn't work for 2x2 rib. I went with 84, because a little extra ease wouldn't hurt. To double check, I cast on 84 stitches, joined to work in the round, and counted out the pairs of ribbing to make sure it would work. [Note: this is an example of foreshadowing. This information will come into play later in my story.]

I figured how many stitches to have left at the back of the neck.

And things fell apart a little. Mom and I didn't measure the back of my neck. We measured across my back from shoulder to shoulder, but not the actual neck. So I tried to measure it myself. Then I compared the numbers given in SDiPE, my big Vogue Knitting, and "The Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns," which I'd borrowed from the library, and decided on a number, which didn't quite fit the scenarios given in SDiPE because I needed more stitches not less. But I understand fudging is allowed.

[This morning it occurred to me I just had to divide the cross back number in thirds, which ends up being the number I finally settled on.]

I figured out how many to cast on for the sleeves and how many to have at the upper arm, and how many to have left at the top.

And things fell apart again, because I couldn't remember how to figure out the increase frequency.

The entire time I was flipping back to earlier chapters to see the steps for each sweater part, since I hadn't retained any of it since I'd just read it the first time around. I flipped back to where she covers sleeve increases and see I'm supposed to multiply my number of spans by my row gauge.

How the hell do I determine my number of spans again?

Then in the next breath she pulls a number out of the air.

Holy Smokes! How does that help me?!

I decided that if she was just going to make numbers up, so would I! And it worked out rather well. First I decided to increase every seven rows, but I seemed to still have theoretical room, so I changed it to every eight. I might have to fudge that if they don't land on right side rows.

[Note: That is another example of foreshadowing. If you remember from yesterday's post, I'm planning to work the sweater in the round, so every row is a right side row.]

And I sat back proudly and looked at all my notes. I had my lengths in red like she instructs. I had my cast on amount, it was circled in my math and noted in green on my layout. The same with my sleeve cast on, with a notation about my increase frequency.

I was ready to start knitting.

Not So Fast
Except I didn't have my Raglan decreases worked out. I knew the starting and the end numbers, but not how to get there.

How the heck did I manage to miss such an important step?

I reviewed the instructions for the Child's Raglan Turtleneck again. I missed it because she doesn't have math charts. It's an easy formula so she just says it in text.

Only it doesn't work for my gauge. My armholes would end up an inch too short.

So I flip ahead to the adult Raglan. There is no formula! It's a wishy-washy, freeform draw it on graph paper solution, which hadn't made sense at the time. The Vogue Knitting book isn't any better as it just throws around a bunch of mysterious math without a very clear explanation of where the numbers came from or how they were selected.

Rather than try to free hand it (mainly because the graph paper I photocopied out of the Vogue book didn't have enough rows), I fired up Excel. I prefer to work knitting charts in Excel because it's easier to erase mistakes. :-)

But then, when I was sitting there with the (digital) graph paper, Righetti's step by step instructions suddenly made sense because I had something to which to apply them. Once again it would have been helpful if I'd remember that bit about dividing the cross back into thirds sooner because I needed the neck to shoulder tip measurement to make the graph solution work.

But work it seemed to. Rather than print the resulting graph, I just wrote down the decrease frequency.

Remember that Foreshadowing?
Finally, I had all the numbers I would need to knit the sweater. However, by then it was 5 p.m. and I was really tired. Probably since I'd been up since 5 a.m.. Possibly because all that math wore me out.

I was snuggled down in bed, feeling all accomplished and ignoring the basket of unfolded laundry at the foot of the bed, when I thought about the 84 stitches I'd cast on earlier in the day.

I thought, "Boy, that little circle didn't look big enough to fit around my entire body. Maybe it is just squished up on the needle."

That idea sunk in.

Then I had a second of complete panic when I realized I'd worked my numbers for flat pieces and I was going to work the sweater in the round. I was afraid I'd have to start over.

It was just a second, though. I just as quickly realized the sleeves were fine because they just fold in half and I just had to double the body cast on. phew.

Then I had another second of panic about how my gauge might change when I work the yolks flat after dividing for the armholes. But I remembered the point of working it in the round is that I can join the sleeves and continue working it all in the round. phew, again.

I'm Still Convinced It Won't Fit
I'm sure mom and I must have measured wrong. Either we measured one part when the book meant another, or we just weren't accurate, or some other disaster. I mean, do I really need 18 inch long sleeves?

I'm sure it won't be the right length. We measured me from neck to waist. The book keeps calling for underarm to waist. I don't remember us measuring that. I tried to measure it myself. It seems that number is just used as a double check, but if I'm wrong my armholes won't be correct. Although the numbers I have seem to double check properly.

I'm really sure I'm going to mess up this whole "ribbing as a corset" idea I have. I'm sure it will end up landing at the wrong place on my body. I might have to try to cheat and try the sweater on when I reach that point.

I'm really trying to be open minded about this. It's my first design attempt. I'm trying to accept that if I finish and it doesn't fit properly I'll have to rework the numbers, rip back, and reknit it. Hopefully it won't come to that. I'm thinking lots of lifelines might get installed.

At the same time, I'm also being a rebel.
I'm working the ribbing on a smaller needle, but threw caution to the wind and didn't account for the slightly different gauge.

I also didn't chart the fingerless mitts. The sleeves will be worked in the round, I'll just try them on as I go. And the numbers for the hand and wrist are close enough. Although I might work the mitts on the US5 to make them a little bigger, then switch to the US3 when it's time for the real cuff.

Down to Business
I was able to cast on and work five rows of ribbing before bedtime.

I was surprised that I wasn't more excited about casting on. I kind of thought it would be more magical. Casting on for my first self designed sweater...oooohh.

Maybe it's because I don't really trust the numbers yet.

Now my question is: If it took me all day to design a simple Raglan how long is it going to take to design those cabled sweaters I have in mind?

Schleppy Sweater: Plunging In

Wish me luck.

Goodness knows I'm gonna need it as I plunge into designing my first sweater.

I understand designing sweaters involves a lot of math. I haven't had a math class since high school.

Have I mentioned I was a Literature major in college? No math needed for that degree.

Really, you should have seen this coming.

After all, you don't read a book like "Sweater Design in Plain English" by Maggie Righetti for fun.

Well, you might, but I don't. Pure textbook means to an end reading.

The Vision
What I want is a warm, snuggly sweater for those blah winter days when you would rather stay in your pajamas, but you can't because you have to go out in public.

At the same time, the sweater has to be attractive enough so people don't realize it is a pajama substitute.

I'm thinking a simple waist length, no, hip length raglan mock turtle neck. I have some commercial sweaters in this style that I like very much so it seemed the way to go.

The high collar will allow me to draw down into it like a cranky little turtle as I glower at the foul weather.

I am also hoping it might be a little easier shape for a first design than a set in sleeve.

Of course I realize a drop shoulder sweater would be the easiest, but where is the challenge in that? And a drop shoulder won't be very flattering.

So I'm going to have 3 inches of ribbing at the bottom, then stockinette, then more ribbing in the rib cage area like a corset to give it some shaping, then the collar will be ribbing again.

I'm also planning ribbing at the elbows to continue the theme.

But the really clever bit is that I'm going to make the ribbing on the sleeves long enough to be integrated fingerless mitts!

How cool is that going to be?

I'll be able to pull the sleeves down to keep my hands warm without having to stretch the sleeves out. I think I won't make a full thumb. I'll just do a slit for the thumb. Wouldn't want to fold the ribbing back and have the thumb sticking out of my wrist like a little mutant flag.

Reinventing the Wheel
"But, Ann," you say, "there are plenty of free raglan patterns in the world. There is even a modular one in the back of your big Vogue Knitting book. Why go to the trouble of designing one from scratch?"

And I would reply, A girl's got to start somewhere.

I've already mentioned my ambition to design a cabled pullover like the sweater from that movie The Holiday.

You are aware of the stunning progress I've made on that.

And I bought all that yarn at Rhinebeck to design a cabled cardigan for a transition piece in the fall and spring.

You know, because I've made such good progress with designing my pullover.

Now there are many things holding me back from these projects.

Mainly excuses.

I needed my measurements. But mom helped me with that a few months ago.

I've had so many other projects on the needles that I haven't devoted time to all the time swatching necessary to design a sweater from scratch.

But my needles are clear except for the Angora Bedsocks of Power and Fortune! Oh, and the plain socks I started for Hubby last night.

And I've finally admitted that starting with a cabled monstrosity for my first design might have been a little ambitious.

So I will get over the design fear with a more straight forward sweater.

Then I will be unstoppable!

First, I have to go finish swatching for my ribbing. And read the rest of this chapter for the "Timeless Adult Raglan Cardigan."