St Brigid: September 2007 Archives

I did it! I got through the front!

i'm a little curvy since i'm still unblocked

And damn if it doesn't feel good. For the first time on this project, I feel like it's completely doable. Not just if-I-hope-and-pray-and-don't-have-to-rip-back-too-much-or-f-up-the-armholes-or-the-front-split.

A couple details:

front split

I'm giving enough detail so someone else could copy me if that's of any interest. I'm sure I won't remember this in a few months.

The front consists of 8 repeats of the main cables. I split the front at the start of repeat 6. Instead of continuing with the Chart D (the big center chart) I split them into Chart E (split) Chart C.

Then, to make a smooth edge, I did an attached 3-stitch i-cord edge flanked by a single purl stitch as follows:

row 3 Follow Chart C. You'll have one extra purl stitch in the middle before you start to follow Chart E. Increase 1 using a lifted increase, knit f&b into the center purl stitch (these 2 sts split to form each of the i-cord edges), increase 1 using a lifted increase, and then follow Chart E.

row 4 When you get to the area with the new increases, slip the first increase purlwise wyif, m1 knitwise, slip the next st purlwise wyif. Attach a new ball of yarn, slip next st purlwise wyif, m1 knitwise, slip next st purlwise wyif, knit Chart C.

At this point, your attached i-cord has been setup. Next step is to add in the purl stitch between the i-cord and the cables.

row 5 Knit in pattern until you reach the i-cord. M1 purlwise, k1, slip 1 purlwise wyif, k1. With other ball of yarn, k1, slip 1 purlwise wyif, k1, m1 purlwise, cont with Chart E.

All following WS rows Cont in patt to purl st before i-cord, k1, slip 1 purlwise wyif, k1, slip 1 purlwise wyif. With other ball of yarn, slip 1 purlwise wyif, k1, slip 1 purlwise wyif, k1, cont in patt.

You've now split the neck and have an i-cord on each edge.

setup for hood

As you can probably guess by now, I'm going to continue the cables flanking the i-cord all the way around the hood. To give the hood a comfortable fit, I stopped knitting the center cable one repeat before the end (in other words, I knit 7 repeats instead of 8). Those stitches are on some waste yarn and I'll pick them back up and continue once I start knitting the hood.

armhole decreases

I find that armholes can often distort in the curved area, misshaping it and creating a larger armhole than I wanted. To address this, I slipped the first stitch of each row.

For aesthetics, I also decreased into the armhole. So, at the start of rows I did a k2tog, and at the end of rows, I did a ssk. I did these decreases one stitch in from the edge.

So, decrease rows went as follows (always on a RS row):

Slip 1, k2tog, cont in patt until 3 sts rem, ssk, k1.

All WS rows were:

Slip 1, cont in patt until end

Once the decreases were finished, I stopped slipping the first stitch because I didn't want the armhole to bind. I just wanted to give it some extra support.

shoulder bindoff with cables

This is the place where I winged it the most. If I just bound off I would have had too much cable splay -- the bound off edge would have been wider than the garment itself.

After a little experimentation, the solution that worked in most cases was to decrease whenever 2 cables would have eventually crossed. Occasionally, I'd notice there was still a bit of splay, so I'd tink back, decrease another stitch, and continue on.

staging the front

What would a St Brigid post be without showing you how I took the pics? With autumn's arrival, morning light is getting less abundant. Lolly's post this morning reminded me of my own light tent. So, I took it out of the back of the closet so I could get some decent pics early enough this morning.

Thank you!

If you've made it this far then you deserve a huge thank you! All your comments have really motivated me to keep on going. And while I haven't personally responded to each one, I want you to know how much they're really appreciated. Thank you thank you thank you!

At some point with every sweater project, I lose interest. The same old color and stitch pattern just does me in. I find myself daydreaming about something new -- lace! smaller needles! a scarf! bamboo needles! pink!

If it wasn't for Rhinebeck I'm sure I'd have put aside St Brigid for a timeout -- inevitably to be finished another year. But since I've publicly declared I'll be wearing St Brigid, and since I really want to, I'm not quitting.

But I did need to pump myself up about this sweater again.

I pinned together the front-in-progress and the back so I could try it on.

There were a few nagging concerns I had about sizing:

• Would it be wide enough? I made it a little wider than most of my sweaters to compensate for the thick cables, but would it be enough? I want a well-fitting sweater, not a hug-my-curves sweater.
• Was the length good?
• Did I choose a good armhole depth?

I'm happy to report Yes! Yes! and Looking Good!

The width and length are great. The armholes look good (the armhole goes higher than my bra), but until I have the front done it's hard to know for sure. I had to guess where the back would sit on my body to compensate for the to-be-knit saddles.

While I'd be lying if I told you I still wasn't yearning to knit something lacy, pink and on smaller bamboo needles, I can say I'm ready to tackle the rest of the front. Wish me luck? Hopefully I'll be back soon with a finished front.

I finally cast off the back yesterday.

It took longer than I expected because I had to decide how I wanted to do the hood on the front in order to determine how many stitches to allocate to each shoulder. I think I've come up with a great plan -- I'm really excited and can't wait to see how the front hood transition works.

I wanted to block the back before I cast on for the front. I needed to make sure it blocked out to the measurements I expected -- and if not, come up with a plan for the front that would take that into account. Fortunately, it blocked out well and I'm good to go without any further mods to the front.

You may be wondering why I didn't do any neck shaping. This is because the saddle will create that neck shaping. So, all I had to do was slope the shoulders a bit. I'm still a little concerned with how I'm going to attach the saddles to the pieces, but I have a long way to go before I get to try that out.

oops

I only had 8 rows left on the back when I looked down and realized I missed crossing the center cable about 10 rows down. I knew if I didn't fix it right away I might end up avoiding it for a while, so I knit to that point and dropped down that section and re-knit it. After a wet block I can't tell (phew!)

pictures are hard

Getting pics of something as big and textured as the back wasn't easy.

First, I placed it on my coffee table and propped it up with one of my all-time favorite cookbooks*. I got good lighting but I couldn't keep the camera steady enough.

Of course, I couldn't tell that in my viewfinder, so it wasn't until I saw them on my screen that I realized I needed more pics.

Finally, the one that worked was propping it on the side of the coffee table and resting my camera on the step stool. It's still not perfect though. You might be wondering why I didn't just use the tripod. I'm wondering the same thing.

* My favorite cookbook -- CookWise by Shirley Corriher. It's no wonder this book got a James Beard Award for 1998 Cookbook of the Year. She doesn't just give you good recipes, she explains why things work and don't. In 1970 she divorced her husband and had to find a way to support her three boys. She's a biochemist by training and was the cook at the boys' school she and her husband founded, so she tuned to cooking. After 30 years in the food profession, she wrote Cookwise -- teaching you things like how to determine if a recipe is appropriately leavened, and why you need to do things like cream butter and sugar a lot -- it's the bubbles! I love her approach. She gives us the knowledge we need to create great food on our own, and includes recipes for lots of staples like breadbaking, pie crust, cookies and cakes, cooking proteins (meats), and making non-lumpy sauces. And since it was published exactly 10 years ago today, I thought it was a sign that I should give her a little plug.