Saturday, October 18, 2008

I Promise You that I Still Knit...

Though I sometimes wonder where I find the time!

I finally finished up the Sugarplum Raglan Sweater. I actually had a lot of fun knitting this. It was very mindless to just knit and knit and knit. This sweater is really super comfortable too. I wore it the other day when it was a bit cold out and it kept me toasty warm. It is soft and cuddly. I could wear it all the time! It is knit out of my handpainted Superwash Worsted in Color Dark Sugarplum Fairy and the pattern is Knitting Pure & Simple #265 Top-Down Raglan. I made a couple of adjustments to the pattern. I lengthened the body and the sleeves a little. I also did 2 inches of ribbing everywhere it said to do 1", so sleeves, waist, and collar. There is also an error in the pattern with the sleeves, which seems to be pretty common with these patterns. I made the 42", but when I counted my sleeve stitches after picking up I had the amount needed for the 46". I went back through carefully with my math and sure enough the pattern is wrong. I decided that I didn't want to take the sweater clear back out to the sleeves, because the fit was fine. So I did some more math and figured out that if I still decreased at the same rate, plus a couple extra decrease rounds, I would have the perfect sleeves. I will say that the benefit to these patterns is that I can try them on as I go so it is much easier to adapt them to fit my body.

ETA: I am so sorry. After going over the numbers with the lovely designer, Diane Soucy, I see that the error is all my fault. I looked at the wrong number when increasing for the back. I saw the next size up, which of course would make the sleeve number wrong. The pattern is correct as written. My sweater is still very comfortable, so I am not going to rip it out. I will probably make another one in the future with the right numbers!

The next project off the needles is the Passport Pouch by Chrissy Gardiner. This was a breeze to knit. I just love it! I knit it out of my Silk Sport yarn in Color Midnight Rose. It only takes a 50 gram skein to knit it, so I have divided all of the skeins to make perfect Passport Pouch Skeins. Just think, for under $20 you can have a pure silk bag perfect for evenings out or a wallet/cell phone bag for those trips out shopping when you want to pack light.


Lastly I knit the Snowdrop Lace Scarf out of Silky Sock in color Sugarplum Fairy. This was also very fast and fun to knit up. The pattern is easily memorized and so much fun to see those rows upon rows of snowdrops appear. I was even happier when it was blocked. The silk in the yarn just made this scarf light and flowing, while the merino wool made it warm to wear around my neck. This is definitely a favorite that will get a lot of use during this chilly fall weather.

I have dyed skeins of all of the above yarns available. However I am still photographing and doing inventory of all of the yarn, so I only have a preliminary list up in the shop of what is available. They are completely ready for purchase. I just need to get their detail pages up. If you have any questions feel free to email me (lavendersheep at gmail dot com) or leave me a comment and I will get back to you as quickly as I can.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry that you had a problem with the pattern, but for you and others knitters, there is no math errors in that pattern. I have an email address and my office phone number on each pattern, you could have conntacted me if you had any questions. I also have a page on my site that explains why I design the sleeves the way I do.

Diane Soucy

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Yvonne.

Diane