Introducing the Coziest Sweater Ever! After much angst about what kind of neck to do, I bit the bullet and just knit as as written - continuing the pattern as tall as I wanted, then binding off in pattern. I could have gone for the full, turned-down turtleneck, but I don't find them flattering on me. I intend to rip out the bind off and redo it, this time not binding off in pattern. I know it seems unintuitive, but the large swaths of reverse stockinette are tending to curl rather unbecomingly, and that is far more noticeable than the bind off being not perfectly in pattern. Overall, I am pretty happy with this sweater. It was fun to knit,...
In Which I Reevaluate My Hatred of 16" Circular Needles I had a wall of text for you, beautifully composed of course, but the elders of the internet saw fit to render it naught but a series of ethereal ethernet echoes. So pardon me if this is incomplete or disjointed - it's a shabby reconstruction of the elegant original. I decided to work the sleeves on 16" circular needles. This is unusual for me as I have a strong dislike for 16" circular needles. Long story short, they tend to cramp my hands, cramp my knitting style, and feel like I'm breaking them. However, EZ loves them, and I was not looking forward to Magic Looping sleeves at this gauge....
A Body Without Armholes So having gleaned all the information necessary from my swatch cap, I forged boldly ahead into the body. I decided that 200 stitches around would be right for the size I wanted to make, so it was dead simple - no extra purl stitches to deploy anywhere. The body knit up ridiculously quickly, due in no small part to the fact that there is no waist shaping, no armhole shaping, in fact no anything shaping until you reach to tops of the shoulders. This allowed me to cheerfully chug along at it through airports and plane rides as Mr. Mouse and I travelled to California for his company's annual meeting. In fact, I was working the...
January's Project is an Aran Sweater EZ was so obsessed with gauge and teaching knitters to understand its importance that she insisted on printing it in a completely different font each time it appeared in her books. It should be no surprise, then, that the first step of making a sweater is to do a swatch - and a large one at that. Allow me to make a bit of a confession. I am highly resistant to swatching. I would much rather cast on a sleeve or something small and rip it all out if the gauge doesn't come out right than swatch. If I feel I must swatch, I usually try to knit the smallest amount I think I...
I have long been utterly obsessed with the idea of spending a year knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac cover to cover. For the as-yet uninitiated, allow me to clarify: Elizabeth Zimmermann, often referred to simply as EZ, is the fairy godmother of (American) knitting. She was one of the main voices bringing knitting back to the forefront of the crafting community in the 1970s and 1980s with her no-nonsense attitude, conversational tone, and constant encouragement. She hosted a PBS television series about knitting and authored numerous books, and newsletters outlining her philosophy on knitting. I count her as one of the great influences on my knitting, and I'm sure many other knitters feel the same. Her advice to trust only...
