Got my yarn this morning, Cascade 109LE. Very Pleased with it. it is lovely and soft and ooh so purple, my favorite.
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Here is a photo, excuse the sorry state of the wound up ball of yarn. Don’t have a yarn winder thingy, so used an empty loo roll. They do say practice makes perfect and I do have another 19 skeins that need winding up.
Have to go pick up the kids from school, hope to do my swatch before I have to start dinner.
I think if I put pocket in my coat I want them hiding in the seam line.
I went to Kinko’s at lunch and had the graphs enlarged to 11 x 17, they will be MUCH easier to wrok with (at least for my old eyes). Unfortunately without thinking ahead I had them laminate the charts… I was going to color code them and forgot all about it.
Ideally I should have taken the enlargements home, color coded and taken them back to laminate. I am going to see how difficult they are “as is”, I might end up redoing them.
Ginny - Since the chart is larger it might be OK to use as is. maybe you could just put them sticky notes under the row you are knitting to keep on track.
Well done for finishing your sweater.
I have done my swatch with 6mm needles which I think is 11’s, and get 12.5 stitches to 4 inches. I can live with that. my row gauge is completely off, at 21 rows per 4 inches not quite sure how the designer gets 16 rows with a yarn that is supposedly a little bit less bulky than the 109.
How would be the best way to wash and block this yarn. Hot or cold water. Artlady I am sorry to say I do not have any fiber wash, so would normal liquid soap do or should I use Shampoo. I have heard some people use shampoo with good result.
Yea, I picked up a pack of post it’s after I realized what I had done. I wasn’t thinking, the shop girl said “we have a special on laminating, would you like it laminated” and I didn’t stop to think, I was so excited at the thought of a LAMINATED graph!!
We’d usually color-code our charts first before laminating. Did you color-code before or after enlarging? I have some of the ‘self-laminating’ sheets. It’s a cold laminating process. But they are only the standard sheet size 9x12 called SELF SEAL by GBC. Got a pack of 50 sheets at Office Depot or Staples.
To block: [U]knit the pieces first.[/U] Don’t block [I]anything [/I]til all 5 pieces are knit. Never block with hot water. I use coolish water. Not frigid cold, not warm.
Yes, I’ve heard that some folks use shampoo, however, the PH of shampoo might not be the greatest. Do you have access to any type of sweater wash? Eucalan?
Anyone care to input on that one? I’m not fully informed.
I personally might not do the full bath style of blocking for SYLVI.
I might use my old standby: pin the pieces down to the blocking board and mist the tar out of them…and leave til bone dry. OR, lay damp towels on the pieces and leave til bone dry.
I always do the full bath style blocking when the yarn needs ‘bloom’ to fill in the stitches, or if the yarn needs to have excess dye and dye odor removed (as in Donegal Tweeds), or if the yarn is filthy (like Malabrigo Merino) from the get-go. You wouldn’t believe how much soil comes out of Malabrigo!
This is the wash water left behind Malabrigo Merino
color “natural, undyed cream”!
The filth wasn’t my fault! I knit this coat very quickly. The pieces were impeccable. But, hidden in the depths of the fiber was lots of soil from the sheep’s wool. I think undyed Malabrigo is especially dirty cuz it doesn’t receive the extra dunking from a dying process!
I don’t think my Rowan POLAR will be this full of soil. At least I don’t think so. :??
I’ll wash my swatch in a small white saucer, and see if I get any soil from it!
There is a cuff diagram from the designer. She posted a rough diagram over at Rav for someone.
No, haven’t cast on yet. Feb 1st. I’ll have more input about the cuffs after I cast on for them.
Am finishing up John’s Jacket. Seaming all done, and currently in the process of knitting the collar. Next: installing the zipper, and slip-stitching the pocket linings in the inside!
The LOG CABIN stashghans for the January KH-KAL took a lot of my time away from John’s Jacket…so I am really focusing on getting it done before SYLVI. I did allow myself the luxury of color-coding my charts though! I totally enjoyed that! And I got my folder prepared. But the actual knitting will have to wait til Feb 1st unless I get his jacket done tonight! I hope I do! But, it depends on how fussy and time-consuming the zipper is! Ach.
Like many of you, I’m trying to finish up other projects so I can focus on Sylvi. I did let myself start swatching. I’m using Cascade 109 and I’m a tight knitter, so I’m getting gauge on 11s. When I washed my swatch, I realized just how stretchy it gets when wet. I could pin it out huge or squish it down tiny. I ended up just letting it dry flat without pinning it. The fabric looks a little holier than I was hoping, though. I wanted a nice thick fabric. I think the seed stitch would look better on 10.5s. What to do, what to do?
Well, what I really did was hide the swatch in a drawer and get busy trying to finish my Swallowtail shawl. :teehee:
Anyway, look at what I found over on Ravelry! http://www.ravelry.com/projects/anNu/sylvi-2 It’s a heavily modified Sylvi sweater with the design on the front! :mrgreen: People sure are getting inspired by this pattern!
I have been debating long vs. short, zipper vs. buttons, collar vs. hood…
Artlady - I just wanted to wash the swatch to see if the yarn changed gauge. I was wondering about the holes in the fabric. As Maureen said I to want a nice thick fabric.
Maureen thanks for the link. just love that sweater. I can see my self doing this pattern more than once with all the different modifications it has limitless possibilities.
Did you know that Ravelry ‘Mari’ Tikru (who knitted what she’s calling SYLVI 2) is the actual designer of SYLVI #1? Yep. That’s her! It’s nice, however, I much prefer SYLVI #1. I think SYLVI 2 could be very cute on the right body type. Not mine! :teehee:
I decided NOT to block using the FULL DUNK wash method. I’m going to use the pin and spritz and leave til bone dry method. When it comes time for actually washing the coat…then the secret to re-sizing it to the original size is to first make a pin outline of the dry coat…then when it’s wet you can lay it back down within the ‘chalk outline’! It will be the perfect size once again! Been there, done that!
I learned this ‘pin outline’ trick from necessity. One of my favorite designers refuses to give schematics. So, before blocking the pieces, you have to make the pin outline to get the pieces back to the size they supposed to be, cuz sometimes when they’re wet they grow enormously.
Yes, you’re right…you can squish the pieces into slightly smaller schematics, or let them dry larger, or let them dry according to the schematics! You can do the same thing with the ‘pin to the blocking board dry, mist the tar out of them, leave til bone dry’ method, too.
Hi Karina! I think you should wash the swatch and see if you can coax it into a thicker fabric. However, if you knit your coat pieces according to the gauge given (12st=4")…then squishing the pieces into thicker fabric will prolly result in a slightly smaller size. Maybe you could consider making a size larger so allow for the squish factor?
What size did you say you are making, Karina? How far off would the ‘size up’ be for your bustline and frame?
I am thinking about making the next to the largest size I think 44 inch, but since doing the gauge swatch am thinking I might go down to 5.5mm needles and do the largest.
i am soaking my swatch and it is giving out a lot of colour. the water turned purple pretty much as soon as the fabric went in the water. Hope that is not a bad sign.
I find alot of GOOD yarn does that, I wouldn’t worry too much.
I am using Artlady’s pin and spray blocking. I cannot imagine dousing the entire coat in water anyway, what a nightmare!!! This coat is for my daughter but I will recommend she dry clean, I cannot imagine her taking the care required to block and wash.
I was planning to work on this today and tomorrow, but decided to wait til the 1st, I’d much rather be following in Artladys’s footsteps than breaking through the ice. So many questions, ALREADY:shock:
[B]Hi Karina![/B] It is just excess dye coming out. Not to worry. Some yarns retain more excess dye than others. My daughter’s leaf green Central Park Hoodie (Tahki Donegal Tweed) bled a lot of green excess dye into the wash and rinse water! I had to do the full bath blocking for it cuz that yarn is so ‘hard’ and scratchy. The washing and rinsing really softened it up and the stitches ‘bloomed’ really really nice. It isn’t ‘soft’ like Malabrigo, of course, but it’s now ‘less scratchy’! That’s Donegal Tweed for ya!
[B]GOOD NEWS TO REPORT:[/B] My husband’s “John’s Jacket” is almost done! I’m in the homestretch! I finished the turned down stand-up collar last night, AND got the right side of the zipper stitched in! The left side is pinned, and needs stitching this morning! I think I’ll knit some facings for the inside of the zipper… and then tack the pockets into place…and VOILA…done! :happydance:
I have a set of BIC Mark-it Permanent markers. I tried one of the pens on some plastic and it did not come off. Maybe these would work over a laminated chart? Just a thought. I like the idea of having the chart laminated personally.
Here is the collar I made for John’s Jacket. It was knit by simply picking up the stitches all around the neckline and back neck edges…and then 1x1 rib for maybe 2.5"…then switch to a larger needle size and do a row of increases…then a couple plain rib rows, then increase row again, then a couple plain rib rows…then bind off when the entire thing is a bit over 5" tall. Turn the collar to the inside and whip stitch into place!
FYI: the purpose of the increase rows is to widen or fan out the collar so that the ‘increase top portion’ will be easier to whipstitch into place on the inside.
VOILA!
By being ‘double’…it stands up nicely. I will do a collar similar to this for SYLVI. Just a nice, pert little standup collar. I could see a collar like this on Sylvi…but not the zipper necessarily. Maybe Celtic clasps? Or self yarn frogs and loops?
I ended up just letting it dry flat without pinning it. The fabric looks a little holier than I was hoping, though. I wanted a nice thick fabric. I think the seed stitch would look better on 10.5s. What to do, what to do?