Knitting: Bray Cap

In December, B and I went away for a full month and traveled to Costa Rica and Chile. We were camping and backpacking most of the way, so we had to pack light. But even then I couldn't resist bringing a knitting project along, and what best project to bring than a hat.

In fact, I brought two hat projects with me, and this one happens to be #2, which I started on the trip but finished here last week.

The pattern is Bray Cap by Jared Flood for Brooklyn Tweed. It is a mixture of cables and lace, for a  slouchy result. I probably knit mine a little looser than intended as it seems to be slightly more slouchy on my head than on the pattern photos, but I do have a rather small head, so that could also be it.

The pattern includes instruction for tubular cast on, but I couldn't be bothered, so I just did a regular cast on.

Once I got the hang of the chart, the knitting was pretty straight forward and it came together quite fast (except I forgot to change needles between the ribbing and the main part, so I had to undo a dozen rows and start over with the right needles....).

I used Madelintosh yarn from my stash, Tosh Vintage in colorway Badland (worsted). It was really nice to knit with and a good combination with this pattern. Plus it's 100% superwash merino wool, and you know how I love me some merino.

I'm really happy with the result, I love the color, I think it works well with the stitch pattern, and judging from the photos, it definitely fits into my usual color scheme.

It has been snowing a lot in Vancouver, which is highly unusual (we barely ever get snow in the winter, let alone that much snow that sticks to the ground and stays over a few weeks), but I kind of like having that excuse to wear my new hat.

B, snapped all these photos yesterday morning, just before I left to go to work, and I just loved all of them, so yes, that's a lot of photos of my face for one single hat... But it's my blog after all :P

The other hat I made while on the trip was Purl Soho's Traveling Cable hat. I have to go dig through the thousands of photos taken over the month of traveling to collect some for a blog post, so hopefully I will be posting some "action shots" in the near future.

Knitting: A Sweater for My Man

Back in the fall, I decided I would make a cardigan for Brice. I had actually never made anything for him (the two camera straps made out of remnant cotton tape don't count). Brice's daily uniform is a fitted black t-shirt and jeans. He 's always warm, even in winter. I would't even try knitting him a scarf because he wouldn't wear it, and he prefers hats with a brim, which I don't really know how to make. But when I saw this pattern, I knew it would be perfect for him.

The pattern is Slade by Michelle Wang, It's included in the BT Men pattern book by Brooklyn Tweed, but I purchased it on its own on Ravelry.

For yarn I used Berroco Ultra Alapaca, in Charcoal Mix (Brice picked the color himself). It's a really soft and warm yarn and a pretty affordable.

The sweater is knit in pieces and seamed together at the end. Based on Brice's chest measurements, I made the second smallest size. My only adjustment was to make the sleeves narrower and longer. I probably could have made it one size bigger, although B doesn't like garments that are too loose...

This is probably the most complex sweater I've knitted in terms of construction. My previous sweaters and some intricate stitches, but construction wise were pretty simple. This one had a tubular cast on on each pieces, stitches to pick up all along the front, a collar band and button holes. I got quite confused by the buttonhole process actually, and couldn't quite make sense of the instructions so I did a bit of googling and eventually figured it out. The whole thing took me about 2 1/2 months, which isn't that bad considering!

When Brice first tried on the sweater, I was actually a bit disappointed. The sleeves were a bit too long and tight (so much for my adjustements), the armholess were also too small, the overall length was too short in my opinion, and the band for the shawl collar was bound off too tight, with the front corners being pulled up. The only thing I could correct at that point was the collar, so I undid the bind off of the entire collar band, and used this technique for a stretchier bind-off. It worked really well.

 

Brice was thrilled with his sweater though and didn't seem to mind any of the flaws I was seeing. He's been wearing it  non-stop since I finished it. The sleeves have actually loosened up a bit so they're not as tight as they used to be. I think the sweater might have lenghtenned a tiny bit too, from hanging on the body, The only thing that won't change of course is the size of the armhole. You can tell that it makes the shoulders too short as well, and the collar doesn't really fold into the "shawl" style, but it lays flat on his shoulders, which I'm ok with.

 

Overall after my initial disappointment, I'm actually happy with the result. I think I started off with a certain idea of what I wanted the sweater to be, and when it didn't turn out prefectly like I imagined, I had a moment of doubt. I've definitely come around (even if some things still bother me a bit).

On Saturday Brice went for brunch with his running group. He wore the sweater and they all complimented him on it. Later on that night, we saw his friends again at a party (I was meeting most of them for the first time) and all of them individually said "You made Brice's sweater!"right after we got introduced. Goes to show how criticizing we can be with our own work, but in the end, it's nice to take a step away from the flaws and appreciate the finished product as a whole.

For the photos we went to one of our favorite spots for easy week-end strolls, and for once I was the photographer and he was the model...That was a lot of fun.

Finished Project: Poolside sweater

A few years ago I purchased a few skeins of Estelle South Pacific cotton yarn from a store that was closing down near my work.
It took me forever to decide what to do with the yarn. I considered the sweater below from Phildar,

  

 But after doing a test swatch I decided I didn't like the result of the cable pattern with the yarn so the search for the right pattern continued on. Eventually I chose the Poolside sweater by Isabel Kraemer.

This sweater is knitted in the round, from top to bottom. The body is worked first, then you go back to each sleeve where the stitches have been put on hold and you knit them. The previous sweater I made was knitted in pieces and seamed up, so it was nice to try this other method.

 

What was nice about  knitting in the round was being able to try on the sweater early on in the making, and making sure the fit was correct. I did not enjoy however how long the rows ended up being, since it's knitted in the round. Generally speaking, I find that knitting in pieces is easier from a motivation persperctive, as each piece you finish is an extra step completed, whereas when knitting in the round, you have to knit the entire body before achieving the first step.

I really like how the stitch pattern on the body turned out but let me tell you IT.TOOK.FOREVER.
The thing is, it's one of those repeat patterns where you have to really pay attention. Forget about social knitting and having conversations while working on your project. This one (for me anyway) was a full-focus project. I could barely watch TV while knitting it. Hence the time it took to finish.

I made a size S. The pattern is designed with negative ease in the upper body, which makes the fitting a bit easier I think. As far as adjusments, I added a few rows at the top to make the armholes bigger. I didn't want the sleeves to be bigger though, so I balanced that by not adding additional increases on my additional rows, and making more decreases at the start of the sleeves. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but it worked out in the end.

To make the sleeves, I used double pointed needles. I didn't love that process as, again, it's a bit more focus-intensive as knitting flat and you have to pa extra attention to all needles and not dropping any stitches from any of them. In the end though it was nice to bind of the last sleeve and be able to put the sweater on right away (well, after weaving in the ends) without the hand-seaming step...

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Even though it's cotton, it's pretty warm. I haven't had issues with the cotton stretching, which was one of my biggest worries, but no major stretching so far, hopefully it lasts...

I just finished another sweater, for B this time, and the next one on my list will be a Phildar pattern with some black Cascade 220 yarn I purchased in Washington State on our Christmas road trop..

Favorite Sweater

I finished my sweater! I actually finished it before christmas, but didn't get around to taking photos until now.

I first saw this sweater on Clmandco's blog. The original is actually an RTW sweater by Sessun that she (and I as a result) fell in love with and decided to reproduce... and she provided her pattern here (in french).

Left: The original inspiration - Right: Clmandco's self-made version

I was so impressed by her result that I decided it was going to be my next sweater. 

The yarn is Laine Mohair et Soie by Phildar in "powder". It's 20% wool, 50% Mohair and 30% silk. I bought it on my trip to France last september.

The pattern was very straight forward, although I ended up making A LOT of changes. I first knitted 2 swatches but both came out with a higher number of sticthes and rows per 10cm (4in) square. I guess in that case you're supposed to use bigger needles and try again. Well, I didn't have bigger needles and didn't feel like making yet another swatch so I decided to recalculate the number of stitches based on my swatch and my measurements. 

I made some fit adjustments as well: added 4 cm to the length below the waist, and made the top (above the chest) 2 cm shorter so that the armholes wouldn't be as low. I also made the bands at the bottom and wrists 6 cm instead of 10.

All this meant I had to recalculate pretty much everything: number of stitches to cast on, to decrease and increase, where to decrease and increase them, etc...I was still able to follow her chart for the front lace pattern, but somehow it looks like I ended up with a lot more repeats (probably cause I had more stitches for the same surface).

The sleeves are were it got really tricky. Because I had changed the height of the armholes (and therefore the circumference), I had to pretty much redraft the sleeve cap. I searched the web for some tips and found several very helpful tutorials/calculators:

This one to figure out where to do the increases when knitting the sleeve.

This one to calculate how many stitches to decrease when knitting the sleeve cap

and this one explaining where to do the decreases when knitting the sleeve cap in order to get the proper curves and match the armhole.

This was all pretty overwhelming at first, especially the last link, but once I'd read it a couple times, it made perfect sense and in the end, I managed to knit a proper sleeve cap.

Other tutorials that I used:

This one for setting in the sleeve before sewing, and this one on how to correctly pick up stitches to add the neck band at the end (the pattern has you knit the band seperately then sew it, but I preferred picking up stitches instead).

I started over a couple times, the back, the lace pattern, the first sleeve, but in the end, it was so worth it. I really love how this sweater turned out. The yarn is SOOO soft and I'm really happy with the final fit. It could be slightly tighter and the sleeves are a bit on the long side, but given all the calculations I had to make, I'm pretty happy with myself. This is definitely one of my favorite sweaters...ever.

Sooooooo soft