After spending a week drying out from the final blocking – it’s DONE DONE DONE DONE!

Here’s the actual Nanny in the actual Nanny Sweater:

I sent it home with her, along with a bottle of Eucalan.  I have a feeling it will be well loved. :)

I know I haven’t posted in a long time, but I’ve been busy! I finally finished The Nanny’s Sweater.  Let’s all breathe a collective sigh of relief.  My final picture of this will be her wearing it, but for now, here is it doing it’s final "blocking" on a sweater dryer:

Pretty horrible picture, and it looks lumpy because it’s soooo heavy with all the water in it (I squished it out in a towel as much as I could).  The reason I did this final wash/blocking was to get the collar to lay down flat. The yarn really relaxes a lot when washed; and the collar wasn’t folding down very nicely pre-washing. I think it’ll be just fine as it is now.

Some (fairly random) thoughts on the making of the sweater.

I knit a swatch to start with, and I’m glad I did. the pattern called for a half moss stitch/half plain cable, and it just didn’t show up well at all in this yarn.  The plain cable was much easier to knit, and also showed up better in the yarn (do not judge by the above picture. it sucks)

I really hated the yarn at the end. It was nubby so it didn’t slide smoothly over my needles. There was plenty of Vegetable matter bits in it, so I think it’ll be scratchy (luckily it’s an outwear garment). For how much I paid for the yarn, I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe if you found it half price in a bin somewhere. Maybe.

I used a Debbie Bliss pattern, and in order to fit the wearer properly, I had to size down the pattern quite a bit. Length I left just about the same, but the width I really modified.   Since I did a swatch I had a fairly good guesstimate on my gauge. I knew the sweater would stretch width wise when washed.  I did a lot of calculations based on the pattern sizes, creating percentages and applying them to the sweater I actually knit. 

Due to all my careful planning, I did not have to rip ANYTHING out on this sweater! I’m amazed after all my torture with Hardangervidda, that this one went so well. I think the fact that it was knit in pieces helped some, and I was only working on small bits at a time.  I am doubly glad I didn’t have to rip because I don’t think the yarn would have withstood ripping out more than once, and it would have been torture.

I ordered 20 balls of yarn.  That was the amount the smallest size called for in the book. I ended up using 16.5 balls.  Not bad.  The yarn will felt so I can make catnip mice or something else with it if I wanted to. At this point I’m willing to sell my leftovers to anyone who wants to try the yarn out. I’ll make you a good deal – really!

There might be more thoughts later – but for now. YAY! I’M DONE!

PS. For those of you who were guessing about what my posting at 3am on March 26th was all about.  Only my mom really knew. I was born right around 3am on March 26th.

While knitting merrily along on The Nanny Sweater, I realized my index finger on my right hand was getting quite sore from pushing the left needle down to bring the stitches up near the point.  (The yarn I’m using for TNS doesn’t slide very easily even though I’m using Addi Turbos)   I thought about putting a bandaid on it, but the idea of such a sticky solution didn’t appeal to me.  I had a brief inspiration from my quilting days. Finger Condoms!

The office supply store calls them "finger pads". They come in different sizes so you can find the perfect fit. 

When I’m machine quilting I use one on each thumb and index finger to help give me some "grip" on the quilt as I’m moving it around underneath the sewing machine.   Sometimes I wear them on my middle fingers too during this process.

When hand quilting, I wear one on my right index finger (my thimble will be on my right middle finger) to help pull the needle through all the layers of fabric.

Now, for knitting, I put one on my right index finger, and use that finger to push the left needle down. It’s just thick enough to provide the padding I need; and the holes in it make it very breathable while I’m wearing it. I knit continental style, so it doesn’t affect how I hold my yarn at all (those of you who manipulate your yarn with your right hand might not like this solution as much).  It’s take-off-able so reusable until the rubber on it breaks down so much from pushing on the same spot over and over and over. I doubt that will happen too soon as I bought a set of these finger condoms years and years ago for quilting, and haven’t bought new ones since.

PS. Can anyone guess why I picked this particular time on this particular day to publish my blog entry?

This sweater defies good color quality in the pictures. Bah! Here are the sleeves blocking:

They are done done done!  As soon as I get the front bands knit on, I’ll attach the sleeves and seam up the sides.  Then it will really look like a sweater!

I bet you thought I had forgotten about The Nanny Sweater!

I’ve been plugging away on the sleeves.  It’s going slow as my hands start to hurt if I work on it too long at one time, plus it’s not very portable so the only time I have to work on it is in the evenings after the kids are in bed.

I’m almost done with the sleeves:

I’m doing them at the same time so they come out the same length and the increases are all in the same place without any extra effort. The only bad thing is the two balls of yarn tangle a bit as you turn back and forth.  I did the fronts that way too – and it is the best way to go.

I’ve also reblocked the body again. The cables looked a bit flat from it’s first blocking. This time I was more careful and didn’t stretch anything out, and layed it with the back down, and the fronts on top so they came out the same size. It made the length of it 1" shorter, which is good!  Based on how much the sweater body grew in blocking, I’ll be stopping the sleeves approx 1" short of what the directions say so they don’t turn into huge monkey sleeves.

My nanny has been working on learning how to crochet. I’m not teaching her, she knew how from somewhere before.  She picked up a book that is re-teaching her the basics.  I think seeing me knit more things than we can count (and finishing a few of them occasionally) has inspired her (or at least I like to think it has!).  She crocheted my daughter’s doll a great little blanket:

This is actually her second project, she knit my daughter’s little kitty a blanket too (much smaller, and only one color).

The doll’s name is Charlie, and according to my daughter, is a boy. (Nevermind that it came with a pink outfit and was named Shelly or something like that by the store).  To see my nanny talk about being able to use whatever colors she wanted (notice the white and blue in the center, and the yellow around the edge?), I know she’s hooked. It’s only a matter of time before she wants to learn to knit, and when she does – I’ll be there!

I finished both fronts of TNS; and did a 3 needle bind off with the back.  In order to see how long I need to make the sleeves, I need to block it. From my swatch, I know that it will grow width wise a bit and was counting on this fact when planning the size.  Here it is all laid out on my fab blocking board:

I decided to do a full wet blocking. That’s how I did my swatch too.  This is also the washing method I would expect to be used once it’s finished.  I filled my sink with enough water to cover the sweater (can I call it a sweater even though it doesn’t have sleeves? It looks a bit like a mutant vest right now), swirled a bit of Eucalan in to make it smell pretty and the just laid the sweater in, pushing it down into the water.  Drained the water from the sink and gently squeezed out the water from the sweater using a few towels.

Then I took it to the blocking board. I did some pre blocking measurements and post blocking measurements.  Now, while it’s drying, here are my findings:

The width grew just as I expected it to. My measurements for the number of stitches to cast on were right on target.  It grew in length more than I expected. I didn’t measure my swatch before and after, but for some reason made the (stupid?) assumption that the width was growing because of the cable pattern, and it didn’t really change lengthwise.  That’ll teach me to go by gut feel!

I tried to be very careful when handling it to not stretch it in any way, but somehow it must have happened a bit. When I first laid it out, the fronts were at 28" and the back was only 26" in length.  I’m so glad I measured it before leaving it to dry. I pulled on the back a little bit to make it match the length of the fronts.  I’m hoping I haven’t commited some horrible blocking error in doing this.  Worst case scenario, I get it wet again and re-block it, eh?

So I’m hoping that you’ll share your blocking experiences with me. Do you block before sewing the pieces together? (on Hardangervidda I didn’t)  What method of blocking do you prefer? Steam? Wet? Light spray mist?

Almost done with the two fronts of the cardigan, and here’s my progress on TNS:

Gee, I really hate how my camera doesn’t take true-color pictures! :)  I can’t wait to do the three needle bind off (slightly modified) so it is more than just a pieces. I can do that before I block it too since it’ll line up stitch for stitch.  The end of the front pieces is in sight, and I’m trying to not think about how much work the sleeves will be. Hopefully those will go quickly!

No exciting progress, but I have started the fronts of the sweater. I’m doing them two at a time to make sure they come out the same size. I experiemented a bit with where I took the picture, and what the background was. I decided that against my (ugly, dirty) carpeting was the best.  Here’s the latest progress:

I was hoping to have added the pocket linings already, but haven’t had as much time to knit lately as I want. My youngest child, who is already 8 months old, has decided teething and staying up a lot of the night is fun.  Nevermind that mommy wants to sleep!

I’m alternating my knitting time between TNS and the pair of socks I’m test knitting. The socks seem to go much faster, and the yarn is much easier to knit with, even though it’s on size 2.75mm needles!

I finished the back of The Nanny Sweater last weekend if you can believe it.

The colors really aren’t very true, but it was as good as I could get it with such little time.
25" tall, and just the right width (have no idea what that is right now, and it will block slightly wider)

Calculations Ahoy

After finishing the back, I spent the next evening’s knitting time with paper and pen and calculating what to do for the two fronts.  You’d think I could just blindly follow the pattern, but since I’m making a size smaller than any that are in the pattern itself, we have to do a little math.

It’s easy for the back – you just cast on 2 less repeats and there ya go.  The shoulder shaping stumped me until I realized what the shaping was for. It’s basically to let the sweater hang down a little bit where the drop sleeves are.  Based on the new sizing, I now know how many stitches are going to be considered shoulder stitches.

So how about the two fronts of the cardigan? I have figured out how many stitches to cast on, and will have to do a bit more thinking about the neck line decreases when I get there. I need to make sure I end up with the same number of shoulder stitches as the back.  An hour or so with pen and paper should hopefully eliminate any ripping time.

Next on the Agenda

I’ve also finished the pocket linings. No pictures yet, sorry.  Have started both fronts.  My friend Dianne suggested I knit both fronts at the same time so that they come out the same size.  That’s what I’m doing. The tangling of the yarns is driving me a bit batty; the yarn doesn’t slip-n-slide as I would want it to.

So on the pocket linings – being the non-joiner that I am, I couldn’t just knit the pocket linings as directed. I had to change it up a bit. Directions say to knit in stockinette until 6" long. I though that’d be an unholy mess of rolling fabric to try and sew down.  I’m doing a moss stitch border around the whole thing (only three stitches wide) so they are laying fairly flat.