Elegance Knit Cover - Episode 3: The Math

I needed to resize and go up a bit, so I just added two more rows of twisted stitches at each side. One row is over 3 stiches.

This gave me 144 + 6x2 = 144 + 12 = 156 stitches. It measures 49 cm unblocked and I hope to go to 53cm after washing and blocking.

And here it is what I've managed in about 6 rainy days.

A closeup.

The pattern is easier than I thought. Each side of the butterfly has one yo and one decrease in each row and it's quite obvious where to place them, as the pattern flows in continuous lines.

I am using Addi Lace needles and they are GREAT for the job, with all these twisted stitches. Do not even think of attempting this pattern or anything similar without lace needles.

Last Episode - The Sleeves

Finally finished the sleeves.

and this is my chart. I am not going to explain the chart - if you read the history of this sweater you should know the meaning of all these codes by now.
I replaced the 'x' in the chart with 8 (by matching the parts together in different stages) but obviously it should be calculated individually, based on your body part size. And expect to have to frog, so consider a lifeline at some point, towards the end of the sleeve.

As you can imagine, a lot of guessing was involved in this - as I never did this kind of curvy sleeves before. I'm so glad though I finally moved out of the rectangle knitting land :).
I sew everything together on Sunday, the sleeves are perfect, just that I'm not sure I'm totally pleased with the neckband, so I might take one repeat off tonight. Or add another one ... One way or another, we'll have an FO soon.

Getting closer - The Neckband Story

I've tried a few combinations of yos and decreases for the neckband pattern, finally decided for this one.

In order to keep things Japanese, I coded the chart in the Japanese style and this will be your homework: to figure out the interpretation :).

It's a 6 stitches repeat pattern, so make sure you pick up a multiple of 6 stitches around the neckline - in case you want to use this pattern yourself, obviously.
I was quite lucky to get 96 stitches from the first picking attempt - this gave me exactly 16 repeats, (not 11 like I said before - thanks Joan for spotting this).

These are the moments when I feel God being on my side :).
Otherwise you have to increase/decrease a few stitches to get to a multiple of 6 stitches.

So, did you finish picking up the right number and knitting two rows of purled stitches?

Good - next thing - place stitch markers for your lace neckband - and of course I expect you to start placing them at the middle of front part first - in order to align the center stitch of the front with the center stitch (no. 4) of you neckband pattern. See the red line? That's the center I'm talking about.




Now, If you've done your homework right, that's what you'll be getting two hours later:




Neckband done. It does look a bit like the original ...but I'm not very sure about being identical.

I used my own method of casting off here - I invented it long time ago - but it might as well be a famous one - I never read any knitting books :).
...And it goes like this : * knit two tog, slip the stitch back to the left needle, purl two tog, slip the stitch back to the left needle * repeat from *. The p2tog produces a small bubble - and I thought they look nice in the overall context.

Right, next I am diving into the sleeves math and this is going to be tricky - stay tuned for the next episode.

A little intro & I'm finally ready to roll!

My name is Jenny and I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. I purchased my first Japanese knitting book book a couple of years ago but never made anything. Later I got caught up in the Au Kamin cardigan craze and so purchased that book. Not very long after that, things got very busy at home and work, so my knitting life was pretty much on hold. If you check out the last dates on my blog you can tell how long its been - the baby shown just turned 3 and has moved from the bathtub to the beach!

So now I'm back and have been stitching away at several projects। When the Japanese knitting bug hit again, I was all in. I spent a few years in the quilt world before returning to the knitting world, and enjoyed watching the progress of the young Japanese quilters who had come to the states and taken up quilting with a vengeance. What impressed me most was their use of the traditional geometric patterns transformed with the Asian color pallet. It is this same sensibility in design and color that I enjoy so much in the Japanese knitting books.

Now I have more books ordered from Japan, and I am finally actually knitting. Well closer to the truth is that I am swatching. And ripping. And swatching. I have been trying different yarns and needle sizes.

Thanks to our fearless leader, Silvia, I had a bit of a starting point. I chose the cover pattern from the KE #8, pulling the chart from 250 Stitch pattern book that arrived just about the time this group got started. (I haven't been able to put my hands on the actual pattern book #8 - I have three others that I'm waiting to receive.

What I like most about these patterns is the fearless use of cables and lace providing some dynamite looks. What I like least about these pattens is the fearless use of cables and lace resulting any quite a few backside increases and decreases. This was a major reason I have swatched so many times!

The second reason was working from the chart. It isn't that the chart isn't clear - it is. I just kept losing track. I also had a devil of a time trying to wrap my mind around the left and right leaning decreases on the purl side. Soooo:


First I created a spreadsheet with the chart written out row by row.


Then I printed out index cards with individual rows, each on a separate card and now I have a flip book to work from. Much easier to keep track of things! TECHknitter just addressed this same dilemma. Hmmm .... order a book from overseas to translate to English .... no wonder the Au Kamin KAL was called crossed in translation.

With the chart taken care of I still had needle and yarn to deal with. When I swatch, I usually try three different needle sizes. Two will usually have the same gauge and one will be higher or lower. They will all look different. I'll then decide which one feels right for the purpose.


I tried wool - I love to knit with it, but recently I can hardly wear it. This is a sport weight coned wool purchased from WEBS that I have in the stash. It comes off the come feeling "crunchy" but after washing it has a wonderful hand.


The first swatch is a US size 3.25 Addi. Tight to work and will mean alot of repeats. About 6.5 stitches to an inch.

The second swatch on a bamboo circ size 3.75.
Almost identical gauge except in row count. Much easier to work.

The third swatch is on a cheapo metal circ, size US 5 . At 6 stitches per inch, I'm afraid this one will stretch to the next size!

Not happy to stop there I pulled several other yarns. I have some nice cottons but I was afraid I wouldn't have enough in a dye lot to finish. Silvia, how much yarn will you use?

I'll spare you the photos, just know that there are little ringlets of about 35 stitches ripped off the needles and dropped all over the house and in the car. Latest swatch and possibly the final one is a Dale Hielo. This falls somewhere between a sport and DK weight.

I may still try one more needle with this but at about 5 stitches/1", I'm pretty happy with it. The light color also shows the work well also. sorry for the fuzzy pic - I was in a rush to get to the dentist and then to work this morning!

Hubby loves it when he walks in and sees me standing on a chair doing things he can't quite figure out!

Lastly, I had to figure out how many repeats, and from what starting point, and at what gauge will (hopefully) get me to a size 38 sweater. I have a spreadsheet for that too if anyone needs it!

My girlfriend thinks we are nuts trying to do this. She has seen my studio. She knows that I don't have any shortage of. Patterns in English! I do have co-workers that hail from other countries, so translation shouldn't be a problem. But most don't knit and I would have to teach them to knit for them to understand the terminology!

Oh well, that's why we are all in this together!

I promise my next posting will be shorter!

KnittenJen

More progress and decreases

I finally managed to finish the body - both parts, front and back - and I've started planning the neck band.

Just to say this again, I don't have the pattern book (and I gave up any hope to find the book anywhere online), so I'm doing my own thing here, just based on the pattern stitch from 250 Patterns Book. (Did I mention I love this stitch pattern? )

Right, and here's a progress picture.

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I designed my own sleeve decrease (based on another similar top pattern from Elegant Knit), which in Japanese reverse engineering would look like this:

The Japanese decreases (or increases) are coded with an 'one off' number of stitches to start with (optional), followed by several 'three numbers' sequences.

The 'three numbers' sequence has the following meaning : first number shows how many rows to knit after the last decrease, second number represents the number of stitches to be decreased and the third one tells you how many times to execute this decrease instruction.

So 2-3-1 means : knit another 2 rows - decrease 3 stitches - do this operation 1 time(s).

I've done a detailed chart as well, just so we see what's happening in real life, row by row.

Let's Knit Series #8 - Cover Sweater - Progress

Just thinking to post some progress pictures.

I expect the pattern to open up a bit after washing and blocking.
Both parts have the same size and I am going to stop here for the moment, till I get my books - as I think I need to start shaping for the sleeves now.
The yarn is lovely - if it's going to survive the washing test, I will definitely buy it again.

Now - this is a small part of my chart - just to show you that there aren't any major challenges in the pattern.

One repeat of the pattern is over 16 stitches and 30 rows - as shown at the bottom of the chart.

The background is always left blank - and every chart in this book will tell you at the bottom of the chart how to knit the blank squares (in case you can't just figure it out by looking at the associated swatch :)).

In my case, I'm purling all the blank squares (the horizontal line after the '=' sign stands for Purl) .
And more about Japanese knitting symbols here:

http://www.tata-tatao.to/knit/stitches/e-index.html

Let's Knit Series #8 - Cover Sweater - Part 1

Look, this is the beauty I'm going to try next, as the first entry of this blog.



It is the cover sweater from Let's Knit Series #8.
I haven't got the book yet but the chart is published in Knitting Patterns Book 250, first book in our list, so I've already started swatching, measuring and calculating.

That's my progress up to now.



Yarn : Debbie Bliss Cathay - very nice and soft cotton blend, unfortunately it does split like hell.
Needles : 3.75 mm
Pattern : based on the chart no 152, from Knitting Patterns Book 250, page 72.

First row (RS) : purl
Second row (WS): knit
Third row (RS) : start working in chart pattern.

I am doing 7 repeats of the pattern + 2 extra stitches for the edges = 115 stitches and this measures approx. 50 cm.

My gauge was 22 stitches = 10 cm in stockinette - obviously you'll need to swatch in the pattern as well.

The chart is very easy: just plain knitting, decreases (k2tog and ssk stitches) and yos.
The symbols are well explained and illustrated in the book appendix.

The only challenge with this pattern is that you work in pattern on both RS and WS - so there will be no relaxing times in between rows.