Persistent Knitter

At the end of last year, I test knit a sock for theknitter.com. It was a really cute snowflake pattern in pretty thick yarn. While working on the cuff, someone asked me if I was making a sweater. I told them I wasn’t, but that started the wheels in my head turning. After getting permission from the original pattern author, I took the snowflake & cuff pattern and designed a simple toddler sweater from it. Here’s my daughter dancing about, refusing to take the sweater off despite the fact that it’s over 70 degrees this day:

I hadn’t washed or blocked it yet, so it’s still curling up on the bottom too much. I washed and gently blocked it this morning, and it stretched quite a bit. I was a little suprised to see that the color bled in the water - I was just washing it in the sink despite the fact that it is done with superwash yarn (Mission Falls 1824 Wool). The white snowflakes now look a bit purplish to me. What does one do with your yarn if you know it’s going to bleed?

The first sleeve for Hardangervidda:

I just love that the name of this sweater has the word “danger” in it :)

First let me say that I hate not having the tools on hand to work on a project. So I do tend to overbuy a bit. If it’s 3am (yeah, right) and I want to knit, I want to knit NOW and not wait until tomorrow when the store opens to buy a needle.

I finally decide to make my husband a sweater - I chose Hardangervidda from Dale book #126. (Can I link directly to the image from here so it shows on my page? Is that Ok in the blogging world, or considered stealing the other server’s bandwidth? Hmmm). It’s a very nice sweater, with just enough fair isle work to challenge me; I’ll be doing steeks on it. Plus my husband actually likes it.

So while searching for needles for this sweater, I’ve really come to hate the US numbering system. It’s stupid, inconsistent, and really annoying. If the needle says US#2. What does that mean? It depends. On the brand, on the materials the needle are made of. In addition to having to buy a bunch of needles, I’ve also purchased two new needle sizers (they each have a different set of holes on them - one doesn’t have 2.5mm and the other doesn’t have 2.75mm).

Most of my circulars are 24″ and 32″ long… I originally bought them for socks. I’d like a 40″ length for the body because I don’t want to squish my sitches too much. There are THREE different sizes of needles required for the body. One for the hem, one for the patterning, and one for the stockinette. Ok, so there are three new needles bought - four if you count that I wanted to try a different brand (Crystal Palace bamboo circs).

Then there are the sleeves - same sizes, but much smaller circumferences! So I’ll need DPNs to start out, and maybe small circulars for the upper part of the arm. Two of the DPN sizes I already had. But then I realized I needed 3mm. Try finding 3mm needles in DPNs. It’s not easy. Especially when the LYS seems to be out of most of the smaller sizes, and especially when I don’t like Pony Pearls for the most part (points are too blunt, and they are a bit bendy for my taste). I’ve gotten over that because I had to use some ponies in the 2.5mm size for the cuff. So I had to buy 2 new pairs of DPNs and I bought two smaller circulars (16″ lenght addis) to try doing the upper part of the arm on. I’m saving ALL my reciepts for these needles, because I might not even use them, in which case they are going back to the store!

I swear I’ve spent more money on needles for this pattern than I have on the *^%$^ yarn!!! The sweater is coming along though.. I’m past all the patterning on the first sleeve and am in the stockinette part of the arm. (There is a LOT of this). Pictures to come soon hopefully…

Here are some of the needles I’m trying and my thoughts on them:
* Crystal Palace DPN - my favorites. I like the sharp points & the way they feel
* Addi Turbo Circular - not sure I’ll like these for this project, they might be too slippery. Time will tell - I have one in 2.5mm for the hem.
* Addi Natura Circular - these are on order. Hoping I’ll like them as they are what I have for the body. I think I also picked up some 40″ turbos in the same sizes just in case.
* Pony Pearl DPN - So so. Blunt Points, really bendy. I started to not hate them while doing the cuff of the first sleeve
* Lantern Moon DPN (rosewood) - Expensive! But beautiful. Not used on this project - got them to finish sleeves on my daughter’s snowflake sweater.
* Crystal Palace Bamboo circular - bought one to try on the body. Not sure I’ll like the join, but the tips seem to be made of the same great stuff their DPNs are.
* Skacel Stainless Steel (?) DPNs - Just trying these out, but I like the way they feel. They are colder than the bamboo, but very nice to knit with

So here I am, playing around with a blog. For some reason I’ve felt the need to share pictures of my latest projects, and ponder on the design decisions I’ve been making on the things I’m designing (which admittedly isn’t much). I’m totally inspired by Wendy’s blog.

The format will change, the colors will change - lots will be changing. I hope to get some pictures up soon!