How to make a cold man happy

I did it! I finally managed to knit my hubby a sweater..... Unfortunately, as a welder who is required to wear FR (Fire Retardant) clothing, he wants to wear it to work as wool is considered an FR material.  I suppose as long as he doesn't think he's opening an FR knitting sweat shop, I'll live.....

The sweater is knit with Cascade Eco+ in a dark green. It was knit top down with some ribbing to provide a slimmer look without compromising on the roomy fit he wanted (my own pattern with measurements off of a non-FR jacket that had the fit he liked) and steeked to make a cardigan. He loves it and I'm trying not to envision the environment that my hard work will be living in.... dirt, sparks, grease, sparks, smoke, sparks, dangerous gases, sparks...... he loves it and will probably wear it every single day of winter... and that's all that matters...

Here are some pics, including a photo that makes weaker knitters cringe (you know who you are).....

BTSS 2011 (Chey Version)

It's that time of year again... time for me to set aside my selfish inclinations for hand knit items and knit for someone else.....


........my children.



I started the tradition in 2008 (Eli's Grade 2 year) with This sweater for Eli,  followed by sweaters in  2009 and 2010. I also started Chey's BTSS tradition last year. This year the whole BTSS (That's BACK TO SCHOOL SWEATER) kind of snuck up on me. I hadn't really planned anything for either child and was sort of thinking maybe I'd skip it.... traditions be damned.....  but when I saw a skein of Madelinetosh DK yarn in Mansfield Garden Party.... I knew it would become something for Chey....... the only problem was that there were only two skeins left. OK... it wasn't really a problem, since I decided to buy them anyway and try to figure out what to do with them later....... in the end,  I decided to knit a short sleeve cardigan and finally cast on three days ago....

My plan was to knit a top-down, steeked (steeked means cut... sort of) cardigan and planned my knitting accordingly with a four stitch panel of stockinette between the button bands. Adding these stitches works perfectly for the crochet steeks I like to use. I found some remnants of fingering weight yarn in a complimentary palette and choose a crochet needle that was several sizes smaller than my knitting needles (I probably could have gone down at least one or two more sizes). Using a lighter weight yarn and small crochet hook helps to prevent the crochet steeks from stretching and pulling the line of knitted stitches, causing bunching and curling in the finished garment. I then started crocheting up one of the two centre lines of stockinette.

Once that was completed, I started crocheting a second line of crochet down second of the two centre lines of stockinette

This leaves a nice little set of ladders to cut.......

and cut.... I did.....

I prefer the crochet method of steeking because it seems to leave a nicer edge with very few stray bits of cut yarn

Finished sweater........ still needs to be blocked (the sweater is a bit stiff and curls a tad, but I know a good soak with fix it up real nice..... )

BTSS 2011, part I of II is complete.....

This is what happens when you are forced to do nothing.....

On Tuesday last week, I woke up to a severe pain in my hip. I couldn't walk, I couldn't sit, I had to ask Eli to put on my socks...... I drew the line at asking him to help me get my undies on ..... THAT was half hilarious, half tear inducing. I had to throw them on the ground and try to scoop them up with my disabled leg and then carefully, reach down to my limit for pain to pull them on. Going to the bathroom was also interesting, but I'll spare you the details... I'm sure the underwear picture that is now indelibly stuck in your mind is enough information for one day..... ...  I spent the first day limping slowly around my house, laughing (in between the dark spots that formed when I moved too quickly in any one direction) at the fact that from the back, I looked like a 90 year old woman in severe need of a hip replacement, but from the front.... SURPRISE..... a 37 year old woman appeared and in pretty good shape, if I do say so myself...... The second day... the urge to knit struck and as, I really couldn't do anything else...... I managed to knit 3/4 of a sweater in 3 days..... the last 1/4 of the sweater took another 4 days (I had to fix my house after 5 days of not being able to do anything)..... and yesterday, I was done.....

The pattern is True North by Amy Swenson with several modifications to make it bit shorter and to close with a zipper, rather than a longer belted cardigan as it was intended...... I had originally intended to sew in a fleece liner, but I'm apparently not very good at sewing, so it remains unlined. I love it! It's going to be my casual spring/fall jacket..... The sleeves are too long for me and I think I'm going to cut off the cuff, but I want to wash it and wear it a bit before I decide.

Nice, eh?

Blue Steel

Anyone a Zoolander fan?? I immediately thought of the movie when I downloaded this picture..... Eli's version of "Blue Steel"

If it wasn't obvious already, I finished Eli's BTSS 2010. This cardigan was my first real attempt at steeking (I have steeked once before on a sweater that didn't work out... the steeking was OK, but it didn't fix the problems of the sweater all of which were knitter error). Steeking, for those who don't know, is when you knit your sweater as a tube and then cut (yes, I said cut) either the fronts or sometimes even the armholes in order to finish your sweater. Apparently  this is handy for fair isle, as purling while changing colours is a pain in the backside (I say *apparently* because I haven't knit a full fair isle sweater before and therefore cannot use my own experience to qualify the above statement). Steeking is also handy for any sweater who grows up wanting to be a cardigan, but who's knitter is too lazy to purl (yes, I'm pointing at me).

Eli's cardigan began it's life as a top-down raglan crew neck sweater (my own design). It looked like this:

I then researched steeks and decided to attempt a crochet steek. Which looked like this:

I then held my breath, grabbed my scissors and began to cut. Which looked like this:

The cardigan held.... but the crochet pulled on the fabric a bit too much, causing it to ripple and stretch. I decided to re-do the steek, by crocheting a new reinforcement row on either side of the original in smaller yarn and much smaller hook....... Much nicer (but no pictures).... 

I then sewed down the steeked edge, sewed in the zipper and Voila! Cardigan done...... and steeks are my newest friends....