aran knit along

Three Months?

2005-07-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

So, ok. I haven't been working much on my aran until now, but I'm finally starting to see more than the first three rows, so it's exciting.

Here's what I have as of this morning:

Progress.

Closeup.

I hope to be at Knit Nite tomorrow, so I'll see you at Java Station! :)

Startitis

2005-04-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the blue hand-to-hand is in the UFO pile- just too brain dead to work on it these days. I've statrted another EZ. This time a percentage sweater with a cable up the front. A little more mindless, but the easy cable pattern keeps it from being too boring.
http://ooobabyknits.typepad.com/ooo_baby_knits/images/peachy.jpg
Knit on!

monster, monstrous, monstrosity

2005-04-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

i have lost track of how many years i have spent on this project. i got back on it this past wednesday. i went full speed with the sleeves and, as of this morning, i have joined them to the body.

the yellow bar is for scale. it's 13 inches long. the width looks small, doesn't it? i expect it to expand by two inches (four all around) once it's blocked. note how the cables on the sleeves are smaller than those on the body. that's because the sleeves are knitted with 2ply weight while the body is 3ply. yes, big fubar.

this stage of the knitting is slow and difficult. the sweater is more unwieldy now more than ever. and heavy. i have to put it down and recuperate every half round. plus the yarn i'm using is really rough. my index fingers and thumbs are getting pretty chafed and calloused. not fun at all.

the challenge now is the shoulder decreases. i can think of no other method than the simple raglan. even then, i suspect it won't be easy.

how is your aran coming along?

2005-03-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

my aran-along offering: rogue-in-progress

It's going. Slowly.

2005-03-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I have been working on my sweater. Just working on it slowly, that's all. I am about 2/3rds done with the back. I am going to do the sleeves next but I plan on doing them at the same time. That way I know they match and I will do them faster.

k9, p2, k8, p1, k8 ..... rrrriiip!

2005-03-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm lost in sleeveland.

I've finished the back of my sweater, and was about halfway done on sleeve #1, until late last night when I was putting it away for the day and I realized I forgot to cross one of my cables about halfway down. Thats always fun. I calmly put it to bed, and in the words of Scarlett O'Hara thought... I'll worry about that tomorrow. Which unfortunately is today. Now I have to rip down about 3" of cables and increases to fix the problem. Maybe the fact that I received my new order of yarn yesterday can distract me enough for the weekend to make this little problem a non-issue.

I keep meaning to post a progress pic., but I have to wait til Saturday when I can get a daylight shot that shows the cables. The one I took in roomlight with the flash looks like hell.

Hows everybody else coming along?

"The Pattern's in the Mail"

2005-02-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

I ordered the pattern for this sweater:

It's the cable Aran pattern of my Irish family heritage complete with descriptions of the symbolic meanings of the cables and my family crest.

But... they (ClanAran.com) emailed me back to say that their sweaters and patterns have been more popular than they had imagined and everything's been taking a month longer than usual to get out.

I wish they could just scan and email it to me then. Don't they have scanners in Ireland?

Anyway.... I'll continue to wait for my pattern in the mail - and perhaps I'll do the saxton scarf in the meantime or something else to ease my cable cravings.

progress report: slow

2005-02-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

there's a gnarly underarm gusset on the left sleeve but i'm too embarrassed to show it. took me six tries, that one sleeve.

i ordered a pair of 47" long circular needles anticipating the joining of the sleeves. i suspect i won't have them satisfactorily knitted until second week of march. i'll try to post pictures of whatever little progress i make. i hope to see yours in the meantime.

a finish line?

2005-02-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

should we make an arbitrary deadline for the knit along to end?

I've almost completed the back of my sweater and the thought of doing two sleeves and the front seems a distant goal, not to mention the fact that my motivation level always drops severely after gettting the first chunk done. If I had a deadline to meet, it might - MIGHT - gift me the boost to get it all done. Otherwise it may be on my needles til next year. What do you all think - or should I just shut my mouth and knit....?

at a stand still

2005-02-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

i've got no progress to report. i do have this link to share.

i hope your projects are going well.

short ribs

2005-02-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a really bad pic of the short ribbing on my sweater

it actually looks ok in this picture. I think the more length I get to the sweater the better I'll like it...

to rib, or not to rib.....

2005-02-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

After much ado, I decided to start my sweater with the handpainted yarn with the color that Im not crazy about. I dont know if my pattern is technically "aran" but it consists of a series of a few cables virtually butted up against each other across, creating a really nice deep texture. (Photo to come - digital camera issues). My question for you all is - Im really not a big fan of long ribbing at the bottom of my sweaters, and this pattern shows that. I tried my sample pattern swatch with no ribbing, but its too wavy across, so i started my sweater with only 4 rows of ribbing , just to pull the bottom edge in a bit. Now I think it looks odd, but maybe its just me. Have any of you done a sweater with short ribbing?
hey - kudos to thuy and holly for figuring out the stitch issue... gosh what did we do before email and the internet?!

deciphering the poom's english**

2005-02-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

holly and i bounced back and forth on starmore's instructions like a couple of ESL kids. holly had it right all along. the only stumbling block was the centre bit.*

here is my interpretation of the mess after our discussion, shown upside down for stitch clarity.

hole check

we figured out that the instructions is nothing more than a way to stuff five stitches into one, with the centre stitch being the middle one of five. this is one of those instances where a picture would say it all. but that would be too easy.

* the correct spelling would be center.
** my friend bean once referred to debbie bliss as a poom. i imagine she feels the same about alice.

whee for thuy!!!

2005-02-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

i was IMing with Thuy this afternoon about my vexing cable issue and she solved it! it's all in how you think of the 'centre' stitch. but maybe she will post, with her great picture of how it SHOULD look.... (hint, hint...)

second, a technique question

2005-02-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

is everyone doing cables with a cable needle or is anyone doing them without, as described here and here? just curious....

first, a call for help

2005-02-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

i am doing swatches at the moment - figuring out what stitch patterns to use - and i am having a problem with one of the stitches. it is a decrease 5 stitches into one, described as follows:
sl decrease 5 sts tog thus - sl 3 knitwise, one at a time, with yarn at back, drop yarn, then * pass the second stitch on right hand needle over the first (centre) st; sl the centre st back to left hand needle and pass the next st on left hand needle over it**; sl the center st back to the right hand needle and rep from * to ** once more; p the center stitch.

this is what i get:

a big fat hole! any ideas? i'll try anything that pops into your mind at this point!

sleeve, take eighteen

2005-02-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

good god, what is happening to me?

i finished one ball of the mismatched yarn for the sleeve. the color difference is unbearable! if one discolored arm is already driving me nuts, two will surely kill me!

so, i've decided to use the 2ply of the original batch for the sleeves. i can work with the gauge difference because they're entirely separate from the body. i'm sure there will be a slight incosistency where they will join to the body but at least it won't be as obvious as the color difference. wish this darn light bulb was switched on before i sent briggs+little $65.

i truly hope that you're doing better with your project. have a great weekend, everyone! try not to do any fancy cables during the superbowl.

It's Finally Here

2005-02-02T06:17:00.000-08:00

My yarn arrived from Handpainted Yarn Monday. The color is alot darker than I had anticipated, its almost black with turquoise and deep green variations in it. Really nice - but it doesnt speak "aran" to me... I'll decide what to do with it over the weekend. If it doesnt work out for the aran sweater, I still have my blanket to work on for the knitalong.

Happy Araning everybody....

2005-02-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

I started my sweater about 3 days ago. And so far, I love working on it! Granted it takes me about an hour to get through two rows but still! :) I did make one large error but I was only one row above it so I frogged back to the error and fixed it. Hopefully it will go smoothly from here on out...

I am having trouble with my photo host so the picture is sort of cut off.

note the snazzy button on the side bar

2005-02-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

holly did it. everyone's name is on it. 100% official.

i did not say rabbit rabbit this morning. in fact, the first word i uttered was no. so much for good luck.

my aran progress as of yesterday:

as i feared, the cables look very much cramped. too late now. i have to learn to like it because i'm not going to rip it.

here's the sleeve:

top

seam

i ordered supplemental yarn from briggs+little and received them within two weeks. unfortunately, it's a cold gray that doesn't quite match the batch i own (which i suspect was not made by b+l). i wavered between using the mismatched yarn and continuing to search for the perfect match. it really hurts me to have to give in but i did. lesson learned.

all the screw ups plus two

there will be a ghastly line at the underarm where each sleeve is joined to the body. i hope it won't be so obvious. otherwise, i will have to take the project to the fireplace.

2005-01-31T23:22:00.000-08:00

Since Thuy posted the "give me an Aran update", I decided to work on The Sweater. I innocently thought I'd do another pattern repeat. And then... I decided I hated the side pattern I'd made. It was meant to be trinity stitch, but I mis-translated the pattern from straight to circulars, leading to disappointment at myself every time I looked at it. So tonight I right-ed one side.

bad trinity

did I really do that? is wine better before or after these operations?!?!

sigh of relief

I'm too tired to tear the other side out now. I think I'll save that task for tomorrow's knitting group.

thirteen at the starting line

2005-01-31T10:40:00.000-08:00

13. cindi, inishmore by a starmore
12. michelle, hand to hand by e zimmermann
11. maura
10. summers
9. suzanne
8. alice
7. melissa
6. tracy
5. donny
4. thuy
3. holly
2. erin
1. chauntel

the latest participants are using pretty intense patterns. check out michelle's gauge swatch on her blog.

by the way, tomorrow is the official start date for this knit along. i hope to see everyone's update on his/her knitting progress. oh, and don't forget to say rabbit rabbit first thing in the morning.

button redux

2005-01-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

okay, i like thuy's button quite a lot. but, she has mentioned she wanted to change it, so i played around with her idea a bit. have you noticed that she comes up with all the good ideas?
anyway, here is what i ended up with. use it if you like.

oooh... yarn....

2005-01-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

my yarn came. 2400 yards of creamy soft goodness from beaverslide goods... drool

Meanwhile....

2005-01-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

Im still waiting on my yarn to come in for the knit-along. Supposedly it shipped yesterday, so Im hoping to have it by the weekend. Meanwhile, I'm going to make a simple cable beanie with some tweedy merino/silk I found at my local yarn store this weekend to get in the cable mood. (I'm over the blanket for now - I thik its the yarn. I dont like the Lions Wool Ease...).

I ususally make my hats on double pointeds, and knitted this swatch on 16" circulars, but I dont like the small needles at either end. I find them hard to handle. I do ok on the larger length circulars, so I guess I'm back to the double pointeds for this one.
How's everybody else coming along?

Getting There

2005-01-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

OK- My yarn finally came in the mail so that I can swatch the Debbie Bliss Hooded Cable Jacket. I'm doing it in Filatura Lanorata Luxor DK in white, and I just keep thinking, "Man, this stuff is thin!" So wish me luck. I'll try to have the swatch done by Thursday night's group so that I can ask any questions I may have while I'm there. Hope to see some of you there! :)

now we are ten

2005-01-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

the list, the list!

10. summers
9. suzanne
8. alice
7. melissa
6. tracy
5. donny (he's got a blog, y'all!)
4. thuy
3. holly
2. erin
1. chauntel

i think maura has also joined us. jayme, too. right? here's the icon with all twelve names.

I think I am ready to start.

2005-01-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

I have decided to do the Cable Hooded Sweatshirt from Debbie Bliss' Cotton Knits for All. I have found the perfect yarn from Smileys Yarns. Bernat Handicrafter 100% cotton yarn in a pale blue. And I did a swatch of the pattern panel. It turned out so well! I am not starting until Feb 1. I have a few other projects to finish before I start this one. Plus, this one will be an ongoing project. I expect it will take a good 4-5 months to finish. But I am really looking forward to it.

side seam magic

2005-01-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

i spend a lot of time lately thinking about how i might get lung cancer. i smell cigarette smoke all day long. it comes whafting in through the operable skylight in the bathroom. my @*!&%# neighbors must smoke like chimneys!

so, i'm going to die from second hand smoke. the good news is: i don''t have to rip my sweater.

how do you like that? i'm a regular magician these days. i've got a magic wand, everyone! it's called a crochet hook!

after the last post i thought long and hard about the cramped look of the cables. i really can't add anymore stitches to the sweater so that's the way it will have to be. the only problem left is the side seam design.

so the night before last i sat and stared at the sweater. those @*!&%# side seams! i didn't want to rip the entire sweater just for them. no one will even see them! i stared at it off and on for hours.

a bit more stout and a lot better looking than the original side seam. i had to jack a few near by stitches to make it happen. the only downside to this trick is that it looks all tweaked at the hem. ah, but it beats having to start over again!

i have proved yet again that if you don't want to do something badly enough, you will come up with a way around it.

how are you doing on your project?

i am almost embarrassed

2005-01-18T13:03:00.000-08:00

(but obviouly not embarrassed enough) to post my paltry progress so far. you see, i spent most of my meagre amount of knitting time this weekend on a different sweater, not much araning at all. the time i spent on the aran was used figuring out which cables i might want to use and which might fit the sweater shape i want and then working on a braid pattern that i modified from all three strands containing 3 stitches to consisting of two strands with 2 stitchs and one strand of 3 stitches. i am sure there is a pattern for this exact cable in a multitude of places, but what would be the fun of that?

so, i started out and got this:

but was unhappy with the way the strands disapeared into each other, so i modified the pattern, leaving one less row between cables. This meant that for my swatch, i had to make every other cable from the WS, which meant i had to use my brain this weekend, a duty that i had been avoiding up until that point. oh well, not every weekend can be brain-activity-free.

i am much happier with the second braid. it is hard to tell in these pictures, but the strands would kind of blend into each other at some off the crossings on the looser braid.
oh, here is the chart for this extremely simple thing (please don't post to tell me what book i could have found this in :) )

oh, i made a button also. i hope to get a better one later, but i need more aran pics before that is possible"

2005-01-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't decided yet how to use the aran-along webpage. Put all things aran here, and not on the regular blog? For now it's posted twice, for reasons it's entirely unnecessary to discuss.

The sweater is started, and this is the ribbing + 1st pattern repeat.

aran front

aran back

aran sides

Like Thuy, I had considered shaping. Then looked at EZ, and since she didn't I figured I wouldn't too. While I might be clever enough to devise a pattern where you could increase and decrease without making the sides look terrible, I'm certainly not going to do it now. I also looked at Starmore's Celtic collection, and several of those don't have shaping either. So a straight tube it is!

aran, take three

2005-01-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

i have to restart my sweater again. why?

1. the cables look cramped. they're too close together.

because of the extra ply in the yarn and the resulting larger gauge, i had to get rid of the supplemental stitches that took the space between the major and minor cables. the layout now looks a lot truer to nicholas's but, as you can see, it has already begun to look cramped.

2. the side seam pattern looks unsatisfactory.

you can see it to the left of the major cable in the picture above. i got it in my head to increase at the side seams to make the body bigger as it goes up. i used a simple cable that would get wider by one stitch at each twist. good concept, winpy result. i would like for them to look a bit more stout so they can hold up to the rest of the layout.

this means i have to go back to the drawing board. i think i'm going to do without the side seam increases. i saw how ez's aran in knitter's almanac has a straight body and wondered why she didn't taper it. now i think i know why.

third time. i hope it's a charm.

another sweater

2005-01-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

i've decided to start up another sweater for this project. i have everything ready: natural white yarn, needles, gauge swatch, cockiness, everything except a decent cable pattern.

that's one of the sketches i made in attempt to revise the pattern i used for the gray sweater. i learned to do that from zimmermann. anyway, due the difference in gauge between the 2ply and 3 ply, the number of stitches went down by 35. i have to omit a lot of the smaller cables in my original layout in order to achieve the desired circumference. grim.

how do you lay out your design?

buttons, but not really

2005-01-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

i'm not a big fan of button but since chauntel said she was going to make one, i thought may be i could too. may be.

is there a standard size for these things? i wanted to make it big enough to see everyone's names but small enough to not look obnoxious. this is the full image.

i think holly might be making a button too. anyone else?

...

i ordered yarn from briggs+little today. it's a hail mary attempt because i'm not sure if it will match what i have. ah well, at least it's inexpensive. $4 per hank and $5 flat shipping. the only down side other than not matching is that it will take three weeks to get here. is canada that far away?

i have some natural white yarn at hand that i might just start up another aran. one for me instead of jg. is anyone else using white yarn other than donny?

Thanks!

2005-01-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

thanks Thuy for setting this up!

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Here is where I am to date on my blanket - its worked with two strands of worsted weight (Im using Wool Ease - its not my first choice butI wanted to be able to wash it ) on size 10.5 circular needles. I think I was a little overly ambitious here - it will take forever to finish. I can usually only get three or four rows done in a typical weeknight evening. Im trying to finish up a scarf Im making with some Handpainted yarn before I jump back in on this one.

Speaking of handpainted yarn - have any of you used it? Its really terrific - but I have two skeins of the same color and I finished the first one and when I went to coninue with the other - its almost a totally different color - much lighter than the first. I guess thats the nature of the yarn, so now I have to work an equal amount of the new color on my scarf to make it look like I did it on purpose - its going to be a reaaalllly long scarf. Here it is shortly after starting the darker blue and before the addition of the second skein of the lighter blue....

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good luck eveybody.. Have fun
donny

yay!

2005-01-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

this is going to be so much fun!

all together now

2005-01-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

hello, everyone!

if you'd like to upload pictures, use www.imageshack.us. it's a free service. easy, too!