It’s not the accursed baby sweater (though I’m still plugging away at that), but I am trying to finish a project this evening. If I do, I’ll be sure to take photos tomorrow since I am already head over heels in love with it.
Progress
I finally finished knitting the body of the seamless top-down raglan baby sweater!
Now onto the sleeves!
I got gauge
Because I really am trying to improve myself as a knitter, I did something fairly out of character: I knit a gauge swatch for the Summertime Tunic. Further, I checked both the stitch count and the row count.
I wanted to make sure that the yarn actually held up to the gauge it claimed to be (yes indeed – you’ll have to take my word for it), and I also wanted to see what it felt like to knit with.
It is a dream. I love the color, which is called Sky Blue. I can just imagine how it will look against a nice Mediterranean tan. I’m happy with the stitch definition, and the feel of the squishy, cuddly yarn in my hands is fantastic.
The best part? It’s Red Heart Soft Baby. Each skein is 575 yards and costs $4.19. This means I will be able to knit the body of my Summertime Tunic for $8.38 (and I got free shipping). I can’t really argue with that.
This sweater is cursed
I’ve been knitting merrily along on the top-down seamless raglan baby sweater, and I just finished my 76th row, split for the arm holes, joined the body, and knit another four rows down.
I started wondering, though… why doesn’t my sweater look like the example? I scoured the pattern for where my math went wrong, and I counted the purl ridges to see it had about half as many rows before the arm split as mine did. Still I really couldn’t figure out where I went wrong.
I reread the pattern over several more times, checking my stitch counts, the number of stitches increased per section, and everything.
Finally, I figured it out. This is what I was doing:
- Knit row with increases – 8 stitches increased
- Purl
- Knit straight across
- Purl
This is what I should have been doing:
- Knit row with increases – 8 stitches increased
- Purl
- Knit, increasing again – 8 more stitches increased
- Purl
Which means I knit twice as much as I was supposed to, got a weird misshapen shoulder (err, baby capelet?), and will now have to rip it all back.
Sigh. Third time’s a charm, right?
I can’t believe I did something so dumb.
The good news is the father saw the sweater in progress today and said it was beautiful. He was really amazed by the evenness of the stitches and the softness of the fabric. I also learned that his wife just started knitting – another new knitter in the community!
(Let’s hope for her sanity that she doesn’t make mistakes like these.)
So Much Better
Despite all the other things in my life that I really ought to be doing, I couldn’t get over the disappointment of that stinking baby sweater. I was walking around possessed with frustration. I debated giving up knitting entirely and selling my stash on e-bay, as well as setting a small controlled fire in my bathtub.
I regained my sanity, however, and made a few more rounds on the internet, where I came up with the perfect solution:
So much more my speed.
This is a top down seamless raglan sweater designed by Carole Barenys, from Knitting on the Net. Omitting the purl ridges, it is exactly what I wanted.
Arbitrarily, I decided that Caron Simply Soft isn’t really worsted weight. I still didn’t do a gauge swatch (truly, I never will learn), but I used size 5 straights for the ribbing and a size 6 circular for the stockinette. I think it suits the yarn far better than any other combination I’ve tried. These are larger sizes than the pattern calls for, but the pattern makes a 6-month size sweater, so I’m okay with mine being larger.
The sweater seems to grow proportionately, so I don’t have to worry that it will get wonky the way it might if I did it to measurements. And if it turns out to be greatly over-sized, well, it will just fit the baby longer.
I’m enjoying knitting this so much more, and the knowledge that I won’t have to grapple with awful seaming is making me downright tranquil. I have to think that in some way the positive energy I am now putting into it will make it to baby Gabriel. I also get to pick out sweet little buttons, which I’ve never done before. It’s perhaps strange how exciting that detail has become.
At this point, I’ve done 32 rounds. I’m meant to continue increasing until there are 42 stitches on the sleeves. I did a little math to see what I may anticipate, and it goes something like this:
42 stitches desired – 8 initial stitches = 34 stitches to increase
34 increased stitches / 2 increases per round = 17 increase rounds
17 increase rounds * 4 rows per increase section = 68 increasing rows
68 increasing rows + 8 rows of ribbing = 76 rows to complete increases
If I am correct in this, then I am about 40% done with the increasing section. Not bad.
Now I just have to deal with finding time to knit while squeezing in the rest of my schoolwork and massive end-of-semester franticness.
Good thing Iggy is nearby, cuddling a sweater for inspiration.