A Bit of Spring

It was so warm today (-2?) that I wore a spring coat (with a couple of sweaters underneath). On the way home, for the first time, perhaps, since I learned about my mother's illness, I bought flowers as a gesture of optimism.

And when I got home, my Blanche Too sweater had dried, after wet-blocking last night. I was intrigued to see how it's the colour of new grass and spring shoots:

Note: It's more sage than these (after-dark) photos would indicate.

The neck looks wider on the dress form than it does on me because the form is stretching it width-wise. Still the neck is wider than I'd like it to be. It's as much medieval wench as 50's lady but for all that, I can get with it. Lord knows, I've got the décolleté.

Apologies for overexposure. It's tricky to take pics in mid-winter twilight...

The pictures don't really do it justice. It's actually a lovely sweater and the yarn blocked beautifully.

It's the perfect length (22.5" from back neck) but the front neck could stand to be a bit higher. I told you that armscye was too long.

On the plus side, the modified sleeves fit perfectly into the modified armscye and they're a fine length, just above the elbow. This sweater is a pretty good fit. Not flawless, but good enough that most people won't be able to find its flaws.

This is the first time I've ever back stitched in sleeves. Usually I mattress stitch (horizontal to vertical):

Gotta say, back stitching takes 20 per cent of the time and it doesn't look bad when it's done. It doesn't look as good as mattress stitch, however. I do think that back stitching gives more structure to the finished shoulder which, in this case, is welcome news. The shoulders, like the neck, are slightly too wide (I should have made the sweater smaller above the full bust and blocked the shoulders closer to the midline... Next time.) But the shoulder seam ensures that there's just enough integrity.

See here how the front neck band was picked up and knitted from cast off stitches (per the sub-optimal instructions):

You can see the ridge between the base of the front neck and where the sweater body ends...

Compare it to the back neck band which was merely continued after taking stitches off a holder:

No ridge where the back rib meets the body...

I'll have you know I picked up those front stitches incredibly neatly. If you enlarge and then zoom in the top photo (full sweater), you'll see that every knit stitch aligns. Alas, it's never going to be as pretty as the back.

I can't say I enjoyed making this, but I do think I'll enjoy wearing it.

But what do you think?

Blanche Too: Making Progress (Plus Knitting Math Details and More Bitching!)

As you can see, I'm making some progress on this sweater:

Blanche Too Jumper

A few, in the weeds, pieces of info:

• I'm making the size 34 with mods. Mods include: 
• Going down a needle size on the body and 2 needle sizes on the rib to get horizontal gauge.
• Making the size 32, from a length perspective on the sleeves and sleeve heads (Sleeves are more or less the same circumference as the 34, for what it's worth.)

• My vertical gauge gets more stitches to the inch than the pattern gauge, regardless of which size I'm making, which is working on my behalf since it means I don't have to make as many changes to shorten the relevant areas.

• Having said this, I still need to add some length to the size 32 sleeve head because the combo of going down a size and knitting more rows to the inch (than the pattern gauge) means I'm still short half an inch of fabric length on those sleeve heads.

• Sleeve head depth does not align directly with armsyce depth, as I've noticed in the past. When I have checked ratios from the pattern, as written and do the math, using all of the pattern instructions and gauge for a size 32, the armscye is 7.5 inches deep but the sleeve head is 5.6 inches deep.

• I've gone with 5.75 inches of depth over 46 rows to split the difference between the sleeve head depth of the size 32 and 34.

• I made the armscyes @7.5" deep (size 32 depth) but the left is slightly longer than the other (something I tried to fix numerous times before deciding that I was apt to start wrecking things if I kept removing rows). That's driving me crazy but I sense it will block out as the difference isn't significant.

• At 7.5" armscye length, (what I went with to keep things simple since I've got to consider potential complexities with the neck band proportions), the idea was that I'd be able to just knit the size 32 sleeve (designed for the 7.5 inch armscye). One of the bullets above shows that didn't exactly work, but it was my best option short of drafting this pattern for myself.

OK, hopefully all the math has now been considered and I can just work from my notes to complete the final parts: knitting sleeves, knitting neckline pattern, seaming in sleeves, weaving in ends.

One last word on the pattern - which has once again disappointed me:

In the circular instructions, one is advised, when creating the front neckline, to cast off a certain number of stitches. I carefully followed those instructions. However, when one goes to the neck pattern instructions (which are, stupidly, in the flat pattern area - esp. given that this part of the work is done in the round whether you've made the sweater flat or circularly?!?!), those instructions advise you to pick up and knit the front neck stitches off the holder you've kept them on.

Now, I may suck at reading knitting patterns, but I've looked this over 15 times and I can't see how I'm misinterpreting things. Point is, now I'm going to have neck seam (vs. continuation of live stitches) where it shouldn't be.

That pisses me off big time.

Look, I don't really care about that seam. It might actually give more structure to the neck band, which is something I generally appreciate. The seam will really be most visible from the wrong side, though my rib pattern will not be continuous from the body. Of course, that might be me trying to put a good spin on things since there is NO way to go back and fix this without incurring hours of work for minimal gain. Work I do not intend to undertake given how I feel about the project thus far.

If it were my mistake, I'd be kicking myself. Somehow, though, since it's the pattern's error (as far as I can tell), I'm not so fussed.

See why it's a good idea to put all of your instructions, for one method, in the same section of your two-part pattern?? I suspect someone would have QA'ed that error, if there'd been a consolidation of info.

An Update on Yesterday's Post

Hey y'all. It occurs to me that I did not turn my most considered critique to the Blanche Too pattern, in yesterday's post.  I can't say why that is, exactly, but I'm going to pin it on excessive workload and mid-winter misery, both of which have undercut my ability to be as objective as possible.

Having said this, allow me to qualify a few things:

• It didn't take me 2 hours to figure out how the flat and circular patterns intersect. It probably took an hour. I spend another hour trying to figure out how to operationalize the instructions.

• On that point, I'm willing to admit that I'm perhaps not the most intuitive reader of knitting patterns. 

• Susan Crawford patterns, of which I have made 3, are not the type to hold one's hand, metaphorically. I mean, they hit all the points, but they tend towards the old-school. I do realize this, I mean I've bought many of her books. In fact, her patterns are synonymous with modernized vintage knitting, in my mind, and those books were my impetus to take up the craft. So respect where it's due.

• Alas, you're only as popular as your latest hit. I still don't recommend that you make the circular version of the Blanche Too - unless you are experienced and you read knitting patterns without issue. And if you're still considering it, I do suggest that you read the entirety of the circular instructions to ensure you've got them down. If, after that, it all seems fuzzy, just knit the sweater flat. Those instructions, while not warm and cuddly, will get you from A to B in a straight line. 

In closing, and I'll try not to harp on it any further, all of the instructions, for a particular method of construction, should live within the overarching section which details that method. That's just good technical writing. Blanche Too is a simple, short-sleeved, largely stockinette jumper. It would have been pretty easy to make this pattern far more approachable than it is.

Slow Going

I've got one of those hovering-in-the-background projects going on. You know the kind I mean. The kind that gets picked up and put down on a whim, vaguely unenthusiastically. This sort of project, as is the case for me right now, is so often of the knitting variety. Since there's no way to finish a hand knit on a whim, they're all too easy to cast aside - even for me, the self-professed, product knitter-plus.

My project in question is the Blanche Too sweater by Susan Crawford:

I started it at the beginning of January, after the hideous, Xmas gift rush, and I have to say, it's not so fun. 

For starters, though I may have said that I wasn't going to worry about fit, that I'd knit the pattern as written, I am apparently incapable of doing so. Truth is, I'm all too aware that my high-hip to waist span is short, that between my torso and base of the underarm, I require more length to serve (in the finished product) as depth.* I also know I need a shorter-than-average length from underarm to top of shoulder, where I am quite short. If you add to this the fact that I rarely get gauge (and certainly didn't with this project) - vertical OR horizontal -there was a lot of mathy thinking to do, even if it didn't amount to crazy alterations in the long run.

Moreover, the project is largely worked in stockinette stitch, knit in the round, and man, it's been boring. (Oh, and it's a bottom up knit so there's been no easy way to try for fit as I've knit.)

Having said all this, that's not even what really kills my buzz for this project. 

What really kills my buzz is how mediocrely the pattern has been written. Frankly, and surprisingly, I feel the instructions are sub par, especially given the designer's reputation. Here's the thing: She provides directions for knitting this garment flat AND in the round, all in the same pattern, which does seem like a great idea.

Alas, the in-the-round instructions are an afterthought (perhaps unsurprising as author, Susan Crawford, is a vintage knitting specialist who values the art of seaming finished, flat pieces as in days of yore). Ironically, I can get with seaming. If I'd known how meh the in-the-round instructions were going to be, I'd have gone with the flat pattern instructions.

Furthermore, knitting this "in the round" amounts to knitting the tube of the body, to the armscye, and the tubes of the lower sleeves, to the sleeve head, in the round. (Note that, eventually, in both sets of directions, one picks up and knits the neckline detail.) 

However, you still end up knitting your sleeve heads flat. You still end up knitting the armscye to shoulder "straps" flat. You still have to seam in the freakin' sleeves. Um, I appear to have saved myself mattress stitching 2 side seams (easy work, btw) for the pain of spending two hours trying to figure out where the in-the-round instructions merge with the flat pattern instructions.

See, it hasn't actually been clearly delineated where one - considering the flat pattern instructions, and having theretofore worked in the circular version - is meant to begin. And it's not particularly intuitive, though the two sentences provided on the topic would lead you to believe that it must be. At very least, would it have killed her to actually restate the flat pattern language, in the appropriate places, within the circular instructions?

 

As it is, it's only because I've gotten cozy with the math - and I've made many sweaters - that I have any idea of what's going on. Here's hoping I can finish this garment this weekend, if only to be done with it (and, optimistically, to have a new, fitted sweater from which I will get a lot of use).

Has any of you attempted this sweater? Thoughts or feelings? Positive vibes? Let's talk!

*On the topic of adding this extra length versus short row bust darts, the fact is that I'm too narrow in the torso for the bust darts to be of much use. When I add them, invariably the whole sweater gets too big. I find, and here's hoping the theory holds, that an inch of extra length from waist to armsyce tends to do the trick.

Staying the Course

You know what makes it really hard to shut up and just knit the project you're actually working on? Like, the one you swatched and blocked for, and are 6 inches through the body of, and for which you stashed that ridiculous quantity of online-purchased wool...

Shit like this (click on the image below to see the entire collection):

Whatever.

On the plus side, I'm 6 inches into this pattern:

Blanche Too by Susan Crawford

Using this yarn:

Quince and Co. Chickadee in Lichen

Of course, I have a lot to say about the whole process it but it's going to have to wait for another post...

In the meanwhile, thoughts or feelings about any of this?