Equestrian Blazer

So now that we're hitting the two month anniversary, people have been asking us how married life is. What am I to tell these people? My response has been sort of flippant... At least now my parents won't be embarassed if I get knocked up, and people don't start to shift from side to side and hang their head as if they just heard some dirty little secret when I mention LIVING with a MAN. But honestly, I don't really feel like anything has changed except for the outside world's view. I feel just as committed today as I did a year ago. I just have extra bling now. Okay, and maybe it's just less pressure. I'm hoping that this is all good, and not just the honeymoon period. Oh wait, that starts in about a week! Yay!

Enough about that already... I know what you're really here for.

Equestrian Blazer by Kate Gilbert
Pattern in Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Materials: Rowanspun Aran (100% wool. 220 yd per 100g skein) 340g in Gables. Size 5 Knitpicks Options needles.
Gauge: 19sts/30 rows = 4" pre-blocking
Finished size: 33" bust, 22" long (neck to middle of back hem), 21" from shoulder seam to cuff after AGGRESSIVE blocking.
Total yarn cost: $26 from Cucumberpatch UK

Started: November 8, 2006
Finished: December 12, 2006

Modifications:
Accidentally removed 1" of length just before shaping for armhole. Fudged the edging.

Discussion:
Where to begin. First, the fit I think turned out okay. I wore the sweater a bit more and it stretched some in addition to the aggressive stretching and pulling while the whole thing was wet to adjust the size. I attribute all remaining issues I have with the fit to the -1" of "petite fudge factor" I accidentally added. The collar opening is pretty wide, and since the whole thing is about an inch higher than it should be, the collar sort of sits on my chest a bit strangely. If my girls were any bigger, I think this would be disastrous. As it were, it doesn't seem to be a major problem, but I don't love the way the bottom of my shirt sticks out from the hem of the jacket. The jacket just isn't long enough. No, I'm not going to cut and graft in extra length. Not on a seamed sweater. I'll live with it, thanks. BTW, here's where I'm trying out the new camera's 3 second delay function. The old camera only had a 10s option. Yeah, 3s is just not long enough.

The edging is where I last left off, isn't it? Well, I decided to go back and pick up 4 sts for every 5 rows for the collar edging and 1 st for every cast on st for the bottom edging. I knit one more row and bound off in purl so it would be a looser bind off, and this worked like a charm. An unexpected hurdle was the simple instruction, "seam the short selvedges" between the collar and bottom edgings. Great, the only problem is that the edging switches right sides between the collar and the front opening, so it'll just look weird if I seamed it straight up. So I decided to sort of roll up the edging into a tube at the point where it meets and I seamed the pick up st of one to the cast off st of the other and worked around. At least this way, the reverse stockinette side is always facing, even if it looks a bit awkward upon REALLY CLOSE inspection. The only issue remaining was the collar's tendency to curl. The collar then met the steam iron and decided to behave. BTW, that one row buttonhole is my new favorite as it just looks so clean and has nice firm edges.

There were two things about the pattern that I would change if I had to do it all over again in addition to the edging modification I mention above. The sts for the left front (but not the right) were a b*tch to pick up on collar shaping rows. Upon careful consideration, I think this is because the increases on the left are done on the edge stitch, but on the right, they are done 1 stitch in from the edge, thus creating a nice selvedge to pick up sts from. It boils down to changing the collar shaping directions to ... purl to the last collar stitch, with the left needle, lift the purl bump two rows below last st completed and purl it, purl 1. See "Knit Left Loop" at knittinghelp.com for an example of this on the knit side.

I'd also change the sleeve increases. I followed the pattern exactly and had to knit straight from the last set of increases for 3+ inches before starting the sleeve cap shaping. This indeed formed a little, barely noticeable point under the arm as Jenna Wilson warned me. I asked the designer if this was as she intended it to be since the schematic made it look like the increases ended just before the sleeve cap shaping. She said it'd be fine, so I went with it. The sleeves look okay, but they do look a bit more roomy through the forearm than they do at the bicep, and I think that's because too many of the increases were placed lower on the sleeve. For my taste, I'd spread them out more and increase the overall length a bit as well. The sleeves seem short to me (and I have short arms!) and I made them to the specified length. It boils down to adding 2 rows between sleeve increases in the pattern.

Overall, the look is classic and there were plenty of clear, shaping instructions to keep your attention. This was certainly not a boring knit and if you like short rowing, this pattern is for you! The knitting was also pretty fast as it took less than 3 weeks of off and on knitting to complete all the pieces. It took just as long to seam and decide the fate of the edging.

A word about the yarn: Rowanspun Aran is a great bargain since the yardage is unbelievable and can be found on sale since it's been discontinued. The labelled gauge of 16 sts/4 inches seamed too loose for the yarn, but 17-18 sts was just fine. The yarn is a bit of a pain to work with as it's dry and stringy, but once washed, it softens nicely and fluffs up into an attractive fabric. There are definitely variations in the thickness of the yarn and the tweedy flecks make it a pain to maintain consistent tension. But of course, I love the look of tweed, so I'll put up with it. But DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, attempt to mattress stitch with this yarn! Pulling more than a couple of stitches together resulted in yarn breakage, so I had to be very careful to adjust the tension of the seam on EVERY row and even then I had a few breaks requiring me to undo the seam by an inch or two and felt the yarn back together. It was a royal pain and took me the better part of a day to seam everything! Unfortunately, I was stuck away from home due to a snow storm and had no other yarn to seam with, so this was my only option. A crocheted seam might have been okay, but I'd just as rather recommend seaming with a different yarn.

Previous posts about this project:
Just do it! on November 7, 2006
Progress on November 10, 2006
Why we block on November 20, 2006
The Suspense on December 8, 2006

the suspense

is apparently killing me. Will the jacket turn out? Will it fit? Will I ever learn to photograph red?


This is the state that the Equestrian Blazer has been in for the past 10 days. Seamed and ready for the border. Only I suck at picking up stitches again, so I've done it twice and ripped it out twice and I'm reconsidering my options. The instructions tell you to pick up one stich for every row. Common knitsense tells you that this is more stitches than one would normally pick up to expect it to lay flat. Sure enough, the border ruffled. So I ripped out and picked up 2 stitches for 3 rows since the gauge is 19 sts/30 rows = 4". This resulted in the bottom fitting like a boa constrictor and the collar ruthlessly curling inwards as if to hide underneath the rock that I'm calling for my own when I finish a whole sweater that doesn't fit. Should I crochet a little border on here? Maybe a little picot edging could be cute instead of a standard bind off? Or perhaps pick up some number of stitches between these and use a stretchy lace bind off?

I'm THIS close to finding a small friend to give this away to because I picked the wrong size to make. A word to the wise, when choosing sizes for this pattern, make sure to consult the schematic. The finished size that I was intending to make is 32.5". I met gauge exactly (that never happens, I should have been suspicious) and so my piece measured exactly the same across the back as the schematic shows for the back. Only, if you multiply the measurement for the back on the schematic by two, the result is 31.5".

Yes, I understand that the front has a deep V and so there's a bit of wiggle room when it comes to fit across the bust. But it just FEELS small. I wanted it fitted and have usually never had a problem with making something with a bit of negative or only one inch of ease. This one though... I don't know.

You'll have to wait though until it's sunnier out and I'm having a good hair day before I show you the fit. And maybe by then I'll figure out the trim.

Why we block

Mostly, it's because otherwise, our knitting would look like total crap. See example. I'm going to lightly block here just for ease of seaming, but I'm hoping a full-on soak will make the fabric bloom a bit to fill in those holes where the spin was a bit on the thin side.

I finished the fronts and back of the Equestrian Blazer from just two balls of Rowanspun Aran. I'm trying to figure out exactly how two sleeves and two rows of stockinette around all the edges of the jacket can possibly add up to another 2+ balls of yarn. I WILL however be slightly annoyed if I end up with almost a full 100g ball again when I'm done.

Cuz I'm living on the edge y'all. I decided that since I almost always (except just ONCE) end up with at least one full ball and maybe a partial on top of that after swatching and knitting up a garment that I'd just to hell with it go with what I had in my stash for this project even though I was a full 50 yards short of the specified yarn requirements in the pattern. What the heck. I can always make sleeves shorter to match my smaller frame.

Or inadvertently in this case, take out an inch throughout the body because I can't read directions. Check your pattern schematic, or else you could end up shortwaisted in your sweater. Which, in my case, might actually be a nice surprise.

Since I probably won't be posting again this week, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Progress

It occurred to me that DH hadn't made an appearance on this blog in quite some time, so I thought perhaps that I should remedy that and also show you my WIPs at the same time. So here ya go. That's my Equestrian Blazer on the left, a little bit past the armhole shaping on the back. DH's Koigu Chevron socks are on the right just after turning the heels.

That's DH in the back. How he falls asleep like that (for HOURS I tell you) and doesn't wake up with a charley horse in his neck and rug burns on his knees is beyond me. Why he felt the need to fall asleep sniffing the corner of the couch I also couldn't tell you.

I blame it on the Glenrothes and 17 yo Glenfarclas.

Yes, in fact, I just left him there and went to bed after snapping this picture. What a loving wife I am...

Edited to add: DH wanted me to clarify because apparently I made it sound like he'd had too much to drink and passed out this way. No, in fact, my DH is talented enough to do this stone cold sober. To be fair, he had come over into my knitting space to nuzzle his head in my lap as I knit and fell asleep that way. But when I got up, he didn't seem to notice and just kept right on nuzzling with the couch as a suitable substitute. I still don't get how one can fall asleep kneeling, so I stand by my initial assertion that this is a weird sleeping position.

Just do it!

Yes, I'm one of those people who isn't a well informed voter. I don't know where all the candidates stand on specific issues that I care about. I don't know the pros and cons for all of the fourteen bazillion ballot measures that are to be decided. But I'm still planning on voting. At least I can and I am free to make any decision I want, as uninformed as it might be. So my question is, which is the lesser of two evils: to vote unintelligently or not vote at all?

So when I last left off, I was contemplating the pink socks. Several of you left me fantastic links for lace knee highs and I checked them all out. So, here's where I am now.

Yeah, not so much. I found out after a couple of inches of a very simple lace pattern that this super sproingy cotton yarn has something of a boucle texture to it that looks like CRAP in lace. So I think I might have to revert to plain knee highs here and tell my grandmother that her cotton pink lace knee highs might need to wait a little longer for the right yarn. Knee high Hedera sounds good... I just need to find a mostly cotton, smooth yarn that stretches appropriately for socks. Anyone? Anyone?

But since I couldn't just be stalled doing nothing, I decided to cast on for a pair of socks for DH. That's Koigu in a chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. It looks a lot like the zigzag Jaywalker pattern, but oh well. I tried to swatch for 4 other patterns with the Koigu, and nothing would show up with the short color changes there to muddy everything up. So, back to zigging and zagging.

I also tried a different toe here... something that Charlene Schurch refers to as a star-toe. I have no idea what that means, but I figured that with as mauled as DH's toes are from climbing, his toes tend to curl under slightly. I thought that a more round like toe might fit his feet better than the flat toe that seems to be pretty common to most patterns. We'll see how it turns out. But right now what's bothering me is the cast on. I did a Turkish cast on and then started increasing 4 sts evenly spaced every other round. So now I have stupid pointy places on the toe which I dislike. Do I pick out the cast on and just run the end through the live sts that I free to close up the toe? I'm scared of doing that, but I think it'll work. Anyone think this will be turn into another entry for Dumbest Thing I Did Today?

Finally, I got the Winter 2006 Interweave Knits on Friday. I knew there was a jacket and a sweater in there that I both have a comparable yarn for and want to make. So I started swatching for the Equestrian Blazer. First on US6 (bottom) and then also on US5 (above the purl ridge). Anyone notice a difference here? Yeah, neither could I. What's up with that? I think I'm just going to go with the US5 since neither seems tight enough to meet the gauge, but as it is, my overall size is only going to be 3/4" larger and I can deal with that for a jacket.

And yet again, forgive my inability to photograph red yarn. What's up with that?

Now, off to vote!