A Knitter’s Blog

  I really have to thank Lijuan’s Tango pattern for the inspiration for this vest. As I was knitting the neck warmer/hat, I kept thinking that the small cables would be beautiful in a vest.

I am afraid that I never did finish the neck warmer. It is still sitting in my knitting basket.

I began to really explore the idea for the vest and decided that I would like to do a form-fitting cropped vest. The rib would be much longer than normal to be sure that the vest hugged the midriff. The remainder of the vest would be cabled.

The first swatch was done in the round and blocked. I was disappointed that although the cables were visible they really lost stitch definition in the blocking.

While studying the swatch at the left, I started to think about my semi-completed neck warmer/hat. I loved the way the cables looked unblocked.

I had my hands inside the knitting and realized that I was stretching the fabric. I think I was playing with the fabric to see at which point of stretch the fabric would be most appealing.

A thought occurred to me. Why not design the vest based on stretch rather than a blocked finish?

I could use the gauge of the blocked swatch but the final vest would not be blocked, but stretched to fit several sizes.

Note the cable definition at the left in the unblocked swatch. Also, there is compression in the length of the stitches, therefore the color changes are much more distinct.

In playing with the gauge of both swatches, I realized that the fabric would stretch easily up to 8 inches. Unbelievable! And even with the full stretch of 8″, it would still retain more stitch definition than a blocked piece. Therefore, I extrapolated that an unblocked vest knit with numbers from the blocked gauge for a finished size of 37″ would have a finished unblocked circumference of 28″ and would fit a person size 32, 34, or 36 and still look wonderful.

This is one of the few times that I ignored row gauge, and wrote directions in a pattern based on measurements rather than rows.

At this point, all of this was just a picture in my mind. I quickly computed the numbers using Sweater Wizard, worked on my cable placement and sent my ideas off to Lynn Miller to knit my ideas in reality.

The vest is knit in the round, split at the underarm. The only seam is at the shoulder.

I asked Lynn not to do any finishing because I hadn’t decided on a trim. When Lynn was finished, she photographed the vest with her daughter wearing it. It was exactly as I had pictured.

I emailed the picture to my friend Nancy McFarlane, and she loved it. I told Nancy that my only remaining issue was the trim. I just couldn’t decide what to do around the armholes and neck. I was thinking about a crocheted border.

Nancy immediately suggested Crab Stitch Crochet (reverse single crochet). It was the perfect solution.

This vest will look as fit as well as the day it was first worn as long as it is never wet-blocked. It is a “dry clean only” garment.

Filed under: Knitting, Projects by cwulster
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Ring of Lace is a pattern by Heartstrings. I can’t describe how beautiful it is and how clever. It is not a Moebius, just a simple circle of lace that is gorgeous.

I combined the pattern with a luxury yarn that suits the design and does not break the bank. The yarn is Cheryl Potter’s (Cherry Tree Hill) Possum Lace.

As with all Heartstring’s patterns, the instructions are very straight-forward. Nothing is left to assumed knowledge.

I chose to use the “crochet over the needle” cast-on. I was so surprised to see the suggested size of the crochet hook. The Size H crochet hook was enormous in comparison to the 3 mm knitting needle. I wondered why.

To my dismay there was nothing eye appealing about the ring after I completed the last bind-off stitch. The ring was small and the yarn overs had no definition.

My stomach sank, and I thought maybe I had chosen the wrong yarn. However, once I blocked it, I had a piece that was both delicate and airy. Had I not followed the directions to the letter regarding the cast-on and bind-off, I would never have been able to stretch the ring to the correct dimensions.

Lesson Learned…Lace really needs a loose cast-on and a loose bind-off, as instructed in this pattern, in order to stretch the piece correctly. Thank heaven, Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer guides us so well when she writes a pattern.

Filed under: Knitting by cwulster
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I am sure that by now, many of you know what a Flat Feet flat is. For those of you who don’t, I’ll just go into a brief description. A flat is a knitted rectangle with waste yarn at either end. Two rectangles are joined with more waste yarn. Two flats joined = two socks. One flat (two flats joined by waste yarn) is more than enough yarn to knit a pair of socks.

Pictured at the left is the remaining yarn from each of the two flats that were joined and the pair of socks knit from the flat.

The flat is then hand-painted. We sock knitters then unravel the waste yarn, and cast-on from the flat. There is no skein as we know it and we don’t unravel the flat and wind it into a ball, but knit right from the flat.

If you wish to knit two socks at once, then separate the two flats at the mid waste yarn.

If you are a first time Flat Feet knitter, you will see that unraveling can be fun. The frog will have turned into a prince with the kiss of your needles.

I loved knitting my Flat Feet sock. The tug from the flat was just enough to make tensioning the yarn very easy. I also love the grab factor. When I needed to stop knitting, it was so easy to grab the sock in progress and the flat and stuff the whole thing into a bag. My project was so easy to fit into my purse.

My flat was vertical stripes, which created horizontal striping in the sock. The horizontally striped flats will create wider striping. Then there are the freeform flats….who knows what the fabric will be.

Flat Feet are just plain fun!

Filed under: Knitting by cwulster
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When I first started knitting over 50 years ago, I don’t remember my mother or my aunts teaching me about gauge. I do remember going to the yarn store, choosing a pattern, and then the shop owner pointing us to the yarn from which we could choose to knit the garment.

Once we chose the pattern, there really wasn’t much else to do but to choose color. Bert, the owner, would check the pattern for size and the number of skeins we needed. She would then ask if we had the needles. If we didn’t, she would again check the pattern, and add needles to our order.

In those days, patterns didn’t even provide a row gauge. They must have provided a stitch gauge, but I have no memory of stitch gauge.

Most patterns were published by the yarn companies and were written specifically for their yarn. If you bought a Bernat pattern book, then you would be using the specific Bernat yarn. The assumption being that you would knit at the same gauge, using the same size needle as the person who knit the sample.

The pattern never directed the knitter to increase every x number of rows, but to increase every 1/2 inch or some variation of a measurement.

One was considered an accomplished knitter if the finished garment fit as it was intended to fit. In other words, if one could replicate the gauge of the person who knit the sample, then one could join the master knitting class.

There was no such thing back then of substituting the suggested yarn with another yarn.

My Aunt Teresa, an accomplished seamstress, was the only one I knew who really understood construction of the knitted garment. She never needed the text directions in a pattern. All she needed to do was look at the picture, and she could replicate any sweater.

However, if we asked her how she could do such a miraculous thing, she could not explain it to us. I think she had years of accumulated knowledge that just translated into the hand movements.

She was the person who saved my many failed projects when I was a young knitter.

It is unthinkable for us today not to know the gauge of our current project. It is equally unthinkable that we should start a project without knitting a gauge swatch.

Yet, many of us, caught up in the excitement of working with a new yarn and a new pattern, just cast-on and hope for the best.

How many projects that were started with “hoping for the best” have ended up in the unfinished box or given away to good will because finished, the garment didn’t fit the intended recipient?

More tomorrow…

Filed under: Knitting by cwulster
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A few months ago, there was a discussion that at our Yahoo! Group that lasted for several days. I hadn’t realized how difficult both the concept of gauge and the measuring of a swatch are for many new and intermediate knitters.

While the discussion was taking place, it occurred to me that I might assist by writing a tool for both knitting and crocheting that would calculate gauge and also provide a place to keep a running history of swatches that were knit or crocheted.

Swatch Wizard takes the math out of determining gauge, but it cannot help knit the swatch or help the knitter understand what gauge really means.

Over the next several days, I will be writing about swatch knitting and what a difference an accurate gauge can mean to a finished project.

Swatch Wizard assists you in swatch knitting by not requiring you to count stitches or ruler between ruler ticks. There is no trying to determine whether there is 1/4 or 3/8 of a stitch before the next inch begins.

Swatch Wizard works on the premise that you will cast on a given number of stitches and work a given number of rows. You will then treat the swatch as you would the finished garment or piece by blocking.

Measure the width and length of the swatch. Enter the number of stitches, rows, width and length into Swatch Wizard and the program will calculate your stitch and row gauge.

Filed under: Software, Techniques by cwulster
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