Still Knitting on my sweater

I am almost done with my patternwork before the roses at the shoulder/neckline. still plugging away and loving every minute of it. the yarn is so soft and nice to knit with. i still think a colorwork sweater in browns with squirrels and acorns would be pretty!

Duplicate stitch the winner.

If I had to do it again, I would duplicate stitch the rose bands and not try to knit in the pattern. In this photo you can see the knitted in shoulders and the duplicate stiched button bands in the same picture. The knitted band took a lot of tweaking and wet blocking to look that smooth.

I have discovered that balling my hands into fists before I put the sleeves on prevents getting fingers caught in the floats. Put your watch and rings on after you don the sweater.

The reason you're not seeing photos of the completed buttonhole band is that I've reached another snag. The buttonholes on the lining don't match up with the buttonholes on the front.

The arithmetic to calculate buttonhole spacing was painful enough; I'm avoiding revisiting that problem. I suspect I should have verified that I had the same exact number of stiches on the front and back before I started. I hoped for the best and you see where it got me.

This knitalong is my first time participating in the knitting blogosphere, and I wish I'd jumped in sooner. I was telling some friends about it at Thanksgiving. Educated computer users, ages 60+ and 90+. Neither one had heard of blogging. (!) The hardest thing for them to get was "Why would anyone else want to read your blog?" The knitalong concept was a little easier to grasp.

Any discussion of why you want to read blogs leads to the Yarn Harlot. We went to her site and found "Mummy's Little Sweatshop" and read it aloud. The whole gang laughed and laughed. I was too shy to admit I read knitting books in the tub, too.

The first button band is coming along nicely:
Here's how I did it: I picked up stitches from the right side the usual way:

This is what the inside looked like. There was a loop on the back for every picked up stitch.

Using a smaller needle to help, I knitted up a stich in each loop. I used a second long circular needle.

Then I knitted the band circularly, as you would knit a sock on two circular needles. One needle for the right side of the band, one needle for the lining. When I finished, I wove the two sides together.

I pulled the yarn very firmly when changing needles. The transition looks good, I think. I used Cindy's technique and only knit the rose pattern in blue and green. I cut the green after every pattern row to keep the lining in one color. Before weaving, I duplicate stitched in the other colors.

Here it is partially woven:

My duplicate stitch is tighter than my knitted rose pattern but I don't think it matters. I couldn't think of another way to do it. I think the pattern is unrealistic thinking we could knit the multicolor pattern back and forth.

My extra yarn arrived in eight days and was a perfect match. Thank you Astrid!

Unfortunately I didn't order enough. The button band takes over half a ball of blue. So I've ordered more. It should be here by the time I need it.

Next challenge: Buttonholes!

Leslie

I've outfoxed myself

I finished the second sleeve and basted it in. I like the way it looks:



Here it is with the steek in the front:

The problem is that I've run out of blue yarn. I had to take out part of the sleeve hem to finish the second sleeve. That hem was too tight; I was planning to re-do it anyway.

It's not surprising I ran out: look how much knitting I cut away for the armholes:

I felt bad about a lonely ball of yarn traveling from Holland by itself so I ordered some Kaffe Fasset sock yarn to keep it company.

I have plenty to do before the yarn arrives. I can finish the inside of the bottom hem with white. I think I'll knit in my name and the year. That's an Elizabeth Zimmerman idea I've always liked. I'll experiment with the sleeve cuff. And I have to permanently sew in the sleeves.

Have you seen what Jean Townsend is doing? On her blog http://www.justmejeanie.blogspot.com/ she shows the bird pattern she's knitting on this sweater. I can't wait to see it. I think it will be lovely.

Leslie