ARTLADY'S Central Park Hoodie KAL

Hello! :waving:

I knit the Central Park Hoodie for my DD in October 2007.
Click HEREto view the details of that FO.

I loved hers so much that I’m making a CPH for myself as well! I’ve just been waiting to find a yarn [I]to inspire me[/I]! I finally found [I]my yarn[/I]! I’m using the new [B]Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed[/B] in color 09, a medium denim blue.

[I][B][COLOR=Blue]Anyway, would you like to join me in a CPH-KAL? [/COLOR][/B][/I]
Since I have been down that road once already, I might be able
to guide you through a pleasant knit and a successful outcome!

The pattern was originally featured in the Fall 2006 Knitscene. The pattern was available in sizing from 32"-48". The [I]new[/I] PDF download has sizes 32"-60".
Wow! A size for every body!

There is also a corrections page. One small minor correction. CORRECTIONS PAGE

Here is the Central Park Hoodie [I]model sweater[/I] which used Tahki Donegal Tweed.
I used this same yarn in the same green as the model for my DD’s CPH.

I swatched my CPH and cast on yesterday…and here is a photo
of my BACK…at 14.5"…ready for the armhole decreasing.

So dear knitter, if you would like to join this KAL…you are most welcome!
In post #2 BELOW, I will list a few tips for getting started.

If anyone joins this KAL, I have additional tips & photos ready to go.

Don’t fret that I’ve progressed this far into the sweater.
You want your mentor to be ahead of the game, don’t you? :teehee:


Added on May 15th:
Here is a photo of my completed CPH

More photos on page 18. I knit the size 44…but
(on purpose) knit a slightly larger gauge… to render a size 46.

  1. find the appropriate (gauge) yarn
  2. knit a 4"x4" swatch
  3. use stitch markers
  4. use row markers
  5. prepare to knit the pattern as set forth in the design directions

Comments on 1) through 5):

  1. [B]www.yarn.com [/B]carries the [COLOR=Blue]Tahki Donegal Tweed[/COLOR] and the [COLOR=Blue]Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed [/COLOR]that I used for both CPH’s. Something you might like to know is that WEBS gives a 20% discount on purchases of $60…and 25% discounts on yarn orders reaching $120!
  2. knitting a [B]gauge swatch[/B] is one of the most important steps for a successful fit
  3. [B]stitch markers[/B] for cables within the row help a lot!
  4. 10-row-repeat [B]row markers [/B]help me keep track, with no mistakes… the cable twist is executed on row 3 of each 10-row repeat
  5. if we set out to change the construction design of a sweater, we can create more headaches than we believe we are going to avoid! (more to follow on that issue!)

[B]

MY 6 STITCH MARKERS across the row:

[/B]

[B] My fancy ROW MARKERS![/B] Yes, [COLOR=Red]little red threads,[/COLOR] easy to install, easy to see,
and easy to remove before washing and blocking!

I have the Cascade 220 superwash and have been told that the yarn really changes after washing/drying. My first step is to swatch a 4x4 piece and then throw it in the wash and dry to get my gauge.

I live in an apartment and don’t have a washer and drier on premises so I drop off my laundry and pick it up from wash & fold. I will swatch tonight and then will plan on finding a friend who is willing to wash and dry it for me.

I swatched the Cascade 220 Superwash on size 8 needles and got 18 sts at just a smidgen short of 4" and 25 rows to 4". I blocked the swatch and it did indeed ‘grow’ a bit.

After careful pinning I was able to get 17 sts and 24 rows to 4" as the gauge calls for. If I really wanted to, I could have stretched it a tiny bit bigger - hopefully this won’t impact the final product. I’m hoping that if the finished seamed sweater does grow a bit more that I’d like, a quick tumble in the dry will bring it back a bit.

I think I’m going to go ahead and cast on my first piece. If anyone thinks I should go back and re-swatch/use different needles based on what I wrote above please let me know ASAP. I would love any all feedback as this will be my first sweater.

Thanks!

Oh yea - I was too impatient to find a friend to wash and dry it for me so I just blocked it. I’m hoping that it won’t make a huge difference… fingers crossed!

Hi Artlady
I would love to join you in the CPH KAL.
I am going to finish my Tempting II first…I have 31/2" done on the yolk
so I shouldn’t be much longer. Yours is looking great I really like the colour.

Hi Susan! :waving:

I am so happy to hear that you are such a diligent swatcher! :cheering:

In other CPH knitalongs, I have read that the Central Park Hoodie [U]sizing runs smallish[/U]. So, if you are knitting your size…and if your CPH grows a bit…it will be all good. A lot of knitters say they wished they had known. They would have made a size larger. I am knitting the 44"…because the 48" is way too big. [COLOR=Blue]I got PERFECT GAUGE with a US8…so I upped it to a US9…giving me a stitch gauge of 17 st = 4 1/8" instead of 4" exactly.[/COLOR] T[U]his itsy bit of extra width[/U] will give me more ‘ease’ for the 44" chest size. It didn’t affect my row gauge!

I’m going to install a zipper and I don’t want my CPH to be a body-hugger when zipped up! :eyes: Aaargh. I want my CPH to resemble a [B]hooded jacket[/B], not a zip-up sweater. Jackets should have room to spare when zipped up.

I took a photo of my BACK, unblocked. It looks fine…but wait til you see how the [I]appearance improves[/I] after blocking! I will post comparison photos later! For blocking this CPH, I’ll handwash & rinse each piece in lukewarm water using UNICORN FIBER WASH & RINSE, pat out the excess water between bath towels, and then lay out the damp pieces on the blocking board til bone dry. Donegal tweeds are kinda scratchy…even this luxury tweed…and donegal tweeds are kinda chemically smelling from the dye, I think…so washing/rinsing/blocking will soften [U]and[/U] freshen the yarn!
The UNICORN FIBER RINSE has the slightest hint of lavendar, and it is lovely! CLICK HEREto visit their website. I bought the 16 oz bottles…and it goes a long long way! The people are quick shippers!

The middle 38 st are reserved on an OPTIONS cable.
These 38 live stitches will be the connectors to the HOOD, later on.

Loverly! Loverly! Happy to have you on board, Pauline! :cheering:

I am lovin’ this Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed! I’m so happy with the appearance! It’s everything I envisioned! The yarn (purchased at www.yarn.com) was $6.71 per sk after that 25% discount!

Artlady - Thanks for all the great advice!

Ok so the way I determined which size to make was sort of a cheater’s way. I took my favorite hoodie and zipped it up and put it on the floor and measured the circumference and got about 48. Do you think I should measure my actual body instead?

[COLOR=Blue]No. [/COLOR]If your favorite hoodie has a chest measurement of 48"…then you want your CPH chest measurement to be the 48" at least. I think the measurements that our pattern gives is for FINISHED MEASUREMENTS. I’ll go double check myself…but I think that’s right.

No, your way IS NOT a cheater’s way! It is the smart way! :thumbsup:
It is the way that most designers advise!

Here is my photo of my “workbook” for the BACK of this CPH.

Notice that I’ve made a copy of the cable charts, color-coded them, and glued them onto the notebook page, opposite of the first page for the BACK. This color-coding helps me to “learn” the pattern, and not “mis-cross” a cable! Ever done that? :eyes:

Here is a photo of my workbook for the LEFT FRONT.
Just the act of re-writing the instructions is an aid to sink the pattern steps into my brain. I know what I am gonna do each step of the way, before casting on. This “homework” speeds up the knitting process. It removes doubt and error, which results in time-consuming days at the frog pond! :teehee:

I am almost to the armhole region. Tonight I am knitting away to reach that 14.5"…Repeat 7/Row 4…needed to begin the armhole cast offs. I already know that the LEFT FRONT will measure 14.5" after Repeat 7/Row 4 because my notes from the BACK pieces tell me this. Won’t even have to measure. The little red threads are keeping track for me! (the 10-row-repeat markers)

Anyway, some folks think I knit fast. :shrug: I don’t.
I knit methodically…with preparation and a clear plan.
I keep a project notebook like this for everything I knit.

wow art lady, you are so organized! :thumbsup:

i’m going to bust out a blank notebook and get started on taking notes. I’ve never done that before but I must say I think it’s a good habit to develop.

I cast on the back and I have about 3 inches of the ribbing with the smaller needles. I noticed that the finished length of the back and side panel is only 14.5", but I would prefer it to be much longer. Will it affect the pattern if I just knit the length following the bigger sizes but keep the width for 48? I wonder if 150 yards is enough to cover that extra length? :think:

I downloaded the newer pattern from the website and it does NOT have the correction for the left front from the link above that reads:
Under “Left Front”
Row 2 (WS) *K2, p2; rep from * to end of row.

The pattern I downloaded says Under “Left Front” Row 2 (WS) *P2, k2; rep from * to end.

I was sent a corrections info page that said:


The errata is also listed below:

Under “Back” on page two, the first sentence after armholes should read:

Armholes: BO 4 (5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8) sts at beg of next 2 rows, then 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows-66 (72, 78, 84, 90, 102, 118, 126) sts rem. Dec row (RS) K2, ssk, work in patt to last 4 sts, k2tog, k2-2 sts dec’d. Work 1 WS row. Rep last 2 rows 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 7) more time(s), then work Dec row every other RS row 0 (0, 0, 0, 0, 7, 7, 7) times-62 (68, 74, 80, 86, 80, 92, 96) sts rem.

And under “Right Front” on page 3, the first two rows of instructions after the sizes should read:

Sizes 32 (36, 40, 44, 48)" only:
Row 1 (RS) *P2, k2; rep from * to end of row.
Row 2 (WS) *P2, k2; rep from * to end of row.

Also, on some charts on page 6, the row numbers may have shifted. The corrected charts are now available.

No reference to the left front. So, I’m assuming they forgot to mention the “Left Front” Row 2 WS error? This would make sense because the back starts off in a rib stitch and if you follow the pattern correction for the right front, it is also a rib stitch… if i did not fix the left front error, the left front would start off in a ribbed seed stitch… right?

Upon reading the entire pattern and making notes into my notebook I’m realizing that the 14.5" isn’t the completed length.

If I’m interpreting this correctly - the 14.5" back includes the initial 4" ribbing and then i see that there is 9" for the armhole so the total is actually 23.5" for the entire length of the sweater…?

My favorite hoodie that I measured is 22" in length from the bottom to where the hood starts. So if that’s the case the CPH will be 1.5" longer, so I don’t need to add length.

Am I reading the pattern correctly?

Hi Susan! :waving:

I’m sorry I didn’t get to open up my 'puter yesterday! We have 4 grandchildren for the weekend, and we took them on a field trip yesterday! By the time I got home, I headed for a hot bath, a glass of wine, and bed! Early for me: 10 pm!

Yes, you are reading the pattern right. Our CPH is 14.5" to the armpits…and with the armhole region added, our CPH will measure 23.5". That is certainly long enough for me! If it’s too long it starts to look weird.

I will print the extra ERRATA you found and try to digest it later. I don’t know if it will impact the size I am making. I made the 40" for DD…and the 44" for myself…the directions for them don’t vary much.

I haven’t had any problems so far. I started and ended my ribbing for the BACK with K2’s. And then side seam for my LEFT FRONT also starts with a K2. This will not mean that the side seamline will have K4 because 2 of them will be enclosed within the seam…so the seamline will have a K1 on each side of the line. This keeps the continuity of the ribbing true. Did I say that right? :??

Anyway, let me go ahead and post this…and I will read up on the other issues you mentioned and get back to you! :thumbsup:

You are doing a fine job!

I wrote out my RIGHT FRONT workbook/notebook yesterday…and cast on for the RIGHT FRONT ribbing…but had to quit at row 4.
Grandchildren beckoned! “Let’s go Gramma!” I knit in the van a little bit, but then started to get kinda rummy. Had to quit.

U R right! That was the error. They just wrote the ribbing language wrong. When I knit my first CPH…even though I had printed out the correction…I actually forgot to look at it…but ended up doing the 2x2 ribbing correctly out of habit.

Of course, the RIGHT FRONT being a mirror image…any correction for the LF would apply to the RF as well. I forget if they messed up on the RF directions. Nonetheless, keeping our ribbing true is the rule!

:thumbsup:

Here is a digital photo of my RIGHT FRONT notebook page.
I made additional notations as I worked on the RIGHT FRONT.
But this is what I write up before casting on one stitch.

BTW, if you haven’t already figured it out…my notebook language has some mysterious numbers for the rows. To demystify the shorthand:
a number like 11/8 means Repeat11/Row8. In other words…this particular row 8 is within repeat 11.

12/2 means Repeat 12/Row2. Etc.

I wasn’t sure how much the yarn would ‘grow’ in the ribbing since I only swatched on the larger needles, so I knit 3.5" instead of 4".

Then for the back itself I figured I would need around 11" or so after blocking to get the 14.5" total if the ribbing didn’t stretch so I calculated that I would need to knit 66 rows since the gauge is 24 rows to 4". I suppose I could have knit to the back a little shorter since I’m thinking the 3.5" ribbing will stretch a bit, but I figured better safe to go longer than shorter.

I’m going to start on the armholes later this evening.

Here are some tips to help you along with the LEFT FRONT.

My LEFT FRONT, done…but still needs washing/blocking.

You know that I use little red threads to mark the 10-row-repeats.
This little gold thread is marking something different. It is marking the row on which I started casting off for the armhole. Why? Because we are now instructed to knit away until the armhole is 6.5". All you have to do is measure from the gold thread upwards to get an accurate measurement of your armhole as it progresses!

This is a shot of the top region of my LEFT FRONT. Note that 10 stitches at the neckline edge have been placed on hold. The [U]new [/U][U]neckline edge[/U] is now moved to the right…to the first k stitch beyond the 10 cable stitch repeat. I mention this because I’ve seen a lot of questions about this step/concept on other knitalongs. :doh:

This is a photo closeup of the 10 st that you will be placing on a holder (I used waste yarn). These 10 stitches will remain unused until later on when they will become a part of the hood. They will continue up and over the hood. Just forget about them for now.
I prefer waste yarn because holders get in the way when I wash the piece and lay it out to block and dry.

closer up