Yarnoholic

Noro cabled scarf

2005-02-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

CIMG0245, originally uploaded by fifi.

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Bulky Cabled Sweater for Mom III

2005-02-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

CIMG0235, originally uploaded by fifi.

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Bulky Cabled Sweater for Mom II

2005-02-26T18:11:00.000-08:00

CIMG0138, originally uploaded by fifi.

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Bulky Cabled Sweater for Mom

2005-02-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

CIMG0135, originally uploaded by fifi.

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Noro Kureyon Scarf

2005-02-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

CIMG0268, originally uploaded by fifi.

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A public reply

2005-02-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

Below is my reply on LJ to people asking me questions regarding my seamless-top-down-set-in-sleeve sweater:

---

Hi all!

Here is the method I used (it's an entry I posted a couple of month back).

I did one thing differently tho. Instead of knitting the neckband first, I decided to knit it last so the neck join looks more smoothly. Since the neck is cast-on instead of bind-off, the seam (pick-up seam not sewing seam) will be thinner but will still give stability and hold shape of the neck.

In Barbara Walter's book she instructed cast-on waste yarn for the shoulders so the shoulder seam will be completely seamless (as if grafted). I used e-wrap cast-on instead. I feel e-wrap cast on give stability and hold shape of the shoulders but not as tight and bulky as other methods of cast on. The end result made shoulder seams look as if you did a three-needle-bind off. The top two paragraphs conclude my FIRST choice of knitting method.

There's a SECOND way to knit set-in sleeve seamlessly, which is converting the pattern circularly, knit up to underarms, knit front and back seperately, 3-ndl-bo shoulders and then pickup stitches around the armhole and short-row shape the sleeve caps. After trying to knit a sweater that way, I personally prefer the first method better. It is VERY DIFFICULT (at least for me) to convert a commercial pattern when picking up for sleeve caps then short-row... and I often have a hard time guessing how to space out the pickup stitches (if not spaced properly as the sleeve cap curves the pickup seam will pucker). Also! for set-in sweater designs that has STEEP sleeve cap shaping the second method would not work or makes the seam looks ugly/hole-ly.

That concludes my personal experience/opinion on the matter =)

Growing and growing...

2005-02-01T04:22:00.000-08:00

Casted on 36 stitches and knit in garter stitches:

One our later...

Three evenings of TV later...

Two more evenings and it'll be finished.

Yarn: Noro Kureyon, 100% wool, approximately 4.5 balls needed for the project
Needles: Addi-Turbo 24-inch circular in size 8
Project: A 8x64 scarf

Seamless top-down set-in sleeve sweater!

2005-01-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

Remember how I talked about wanting to knit a seamless top-down set-in sleeve sweater with sleeve caps knitted simultaneously with the body? Well I actually sat down and started working on it!

I chose a commercial baby-size sweater pattern (to speed up the experiment). The most difficult part is to convert all the stitch alternations up-side down and in rounds instead of rows (lots of pen and paper needed to keep track).

It is quite difficult to start (shoulder shaping, neck shaping AND SOON sleeve cap shaping all at the same time), but after I get pass the shoulders, it's smooth sailing.

Check out the in-progress pictures!

Too bad they're baby size so I can't try them on and feel the totally seam-free, stretchable vertically, horizontally and diagonally comfort =)

I'll post the picture of finished sweater when I get the chance!

Morphed Gauge

2005-01-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

Before I start to knit this bulky sweater, my 8 square inch of flat-gauge is 9sts/25rows. After I cast on and knit the sweater body circularly, I measured and my gauge shrinked to 10.5sts/29rows. Terrible, terrible, terrible!!!

There's just no telling of what my gauge will become when I knit circularly. Sometimes the gauge expand, sometimes it shrinks!

I've already knitted two balls of yarns when I noticed my gauge problem. I am so aggrevated right now I even thought of giving up knitting all together!

Grrr...!!!

Shoulder shaping

2004-12-05T01:58:00.000-08:00

I was in Taiwan for 10 days. I'm now back!

I had to fly to Vancouver before I can catch the plane to Taiwan. I brought this vest with me and gave it to my mother when I was in Vancouver (the vest is a tad bit too small for me).

It does fit her. However, this vest is made with a general pattern from Ann Budd's "Knitter's handy book of patterns". Her vest design does not have shoulder shaping (the shoulders are bind-offed straight). It looked odd on my mother because of it. The top of the armband flared up and did not fit the shoulder tip.

I would just like to say that, from this experience, I found shoulder shaping NECESSARY for any kind of sleeveless top, especially bulky vest! (because bulky knitted fabric does not drape well.)

Bad tubular bind-off

2004-11-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

See how the neck edge is all flared out? Even though I did tubular bind-off with absolute ease (thanks to many sock-toe weaving, I've mastered the bind-off with a sewing needle technique!) the end result is still disastrous.

Reason being that tubular bind-off isn't suitable for bulky weight yarn. There's a way to fix it though, which is knitting the last two row knit one slip one (or something like that, I'm not quite sure I'll have to look it up) with a needle two size smaller before binding off tubular.

SO BARBARA WALKER THOUGHT OF IT FIRST!!!

2004-11-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

I've finally came up with an idea of converting commercial set-in sleeve patterns to be knitted seamlessly. The method seems to be extremely complicated at first, but I'm sure it is doable. So I posted my method on the Live Journal's advanced knitter's knitting community blog to ask for other experienced knitter's opinion... and guess what, some girl referred me to a book, Barbara Walker's "Knitting from the top". In one of her chapters, Barbara Walker gave specific instruction on how to knit set-in sleeve sweater from the top while knitting the sleeves and the body simutaneously. The method is EXACTLY the same as the method I came up with. I was shocked! I felt kind of dumb because I proudly presented my method without realizing the knitting legend has already published her method 30 years ago. Anyways, here's my posting on the "advanced knit":

In a desperate search for a way to convert patterns to knit circularly, seamlessly, I even came up with this crazy idea for knitting set-in sleeve sweater (converting from a commercial pattern):

- Cast on and knit the neck band, and then cast on stitches each side of the neck band for shoulders.
- Knit across the shoulders and the back side of the neck band for start of the back of the sweater, knit down for a little more than an inch, stop.
- Pick up stitches at each cast-on row of the shoulders and knit down for front, using short-rows to shape the front neck line while knitting on front of the neck band. Also stop after knitted for an inch or so.
- Pick up stitches on each side, those stitches will be the top of the sleeves. Join in a circle and start to knit around.
- Continue to shape the sleeve cap (doing increases where the "seam" is suppose to be), the front neck line and later the front and back underarms according to the pattern.
- When reach where the pattern says to bind off for underarm, leave the sleeve stitches on holder, cast on for underarms and continue to knit around down for body.
- At last, put sleeve stitches on circular needles, pick up some more stitches at the underarm and knit sleeves down.

Does this sound do-able!? I know it looks so very complicated especially at the beginning, but to me, if this method works, it is worth every bit of the sacrifice. Not only I am bad at seaming, I hate seaming and I hate bulk at seams. I haven't actually try knitting it yet... but I might!

What do you guys think??? It would be so great if I can hear your comments on seamless knitting and eleminating seams for set-in sleeve sweater.

more school works

2004-10-31T03:54:00.000-08:00

Yup, I'm still progressless (knit-wise). I haven't abandon this blog! In fact, after my finals are over, I'm going to tackle CONVERT COMMERCIAL PATTERNS TO KNIT SET-IN SLEEVES FROM THE TOP DOWN!! Whoohoo!!!

school works

2004-10-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry peeps, I'm behind on my school works (again), so I won't be updating my blog in the next little while.

However, I'll still take pictures of my knitting (if I actually have time to knit), so be prepared for massive picture updates after my study period's over ;)

Pre-Einstein Coat

2004-10-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

Check it out! I did ordered the yarns I want from Elann and they came! I'm going to knit that Einstein coat I have my eyes on. Here, I've made a swatch already:

Again, sorry about the poor picture quality. The swatch is knitted with size 10.5 needles. It's a little too small. Actually, the length is just right, but the width is a tad bit too narrow. I've tried knitting another swatch with the needles next size up (size 11), but the swatch came out too big. Conclusion: Use size 10.5 needles and hope for the best!

Crazy Green Socks

2004-10-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

My green sock knitted with Regia's Crazy Colour is finally finished! They're shown nicely blocked.

Here's me wearing the socks.

I'm now contemplating, instead of finishing that colourful pair of socks for my sister (which is being knitted on magic loop), maybe I should knit her a pair of green socks like this on double points instead. It is no fun knitting with magic loop, that's why I procastinate on Francine's socks. It's been on the needle forever.

Slowly moving forward

2004-10-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

I promised more updates after my midterm's finished, so here it is!

That centre ribbed sweater. The back piece is almost finished! Sorry about the poor picture quality... I guess it's tough to be artistic with a $5 digital camera and bad lighting.

Midterms!

2004-10-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, I have a whole bunch of midterms coming so I won't be updating this blog until the end of the week =P

I did not forsaken my crafty blog, I am just busy =P

I can knit 45 stitches a minute, BUT

2004-10-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

I practiced continental knitting all night long and I just can't seem to get the stitches flowing.

I timed myself. With worsted weight yarn, I can knit 26 stitches per minute continentally. When I tried knitting another minute with my usual English style, I knitted 45 stitches.

Should I keep on praticing continental knitting style until I'm "up to speed", or should I just give up? I feel I've made no progress so far. I've finished a quarter of my garter stitch scarf and I still feel very awkward knitting with yarn in my left hand.

100th

2004-10-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Yay~ I'm my blog's 100th visitor! (btw, I believe I'm also my blog's most frequent visitor...)

Sonya and her continental knitting

2004-10-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier this evening I attended an Alpha course at my neighbourhood church, and I met this nice lady from Germany. Soon Sonya and I started to talk about knitting as I asked her weither the sweater she's wearing's handknit (it's not). When I mentioned that I hold yarn in my right hand and I throw the yarn as I knit, she said she cannot imaging knitting that way. She's always been a continental knitter and she believes knitting left-handly is much, much faster than knitting English style.

After that conversation, I went home and cast on stitches for a tiny garter stitch scarf. I begun knitting left-handly. It was slow and awkward, and my gauge were all over the place. I've knitted 10 rows at least and it didn't get better. I really want to start knitting comfortabily continental style, but I have so many WIPs, I don't know wether I should wait till I finish knitting them first or pratice continental knitting first.

Sigh... I'm now at my knitting crossroad...

Pre-Nevis and being ripped off

2004-10-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe I'm ripped off! What you see are not 12 balls of yarns, there are only 11 balls! I paid for 12 balls, but when I got home, I checked and there are only 9 balls of yarn in that 10-ball bag! This sucks sooo much! In a way, it's my fault for not checking things before handing out my money. This is not some mistake that can be corrected by a simple refund or exchange... ugh! I'm sooo stupid! Anyways, those 11 balls of Patons UpCountry are for my winter jacket project:

See part of the sleeve are already knitted up? I'm knitting Kim Hargreave's Nevis from her A Season's Tale collection. I must say I'm a little disappointed in the shade of the yarn. "Silver mist" only my 2nd choice of colour. My first choice is called "oak" and my local LewisCraft does not carry enough balls at the moment. I bought "silver mist" anyways because my 40% off coupon is only good for that 3 day.

[Update: I don't think I'll be completing Nevis. Even though the suggested gauge for UpCountry is 13 sts per 4 inch and I knitted it to 12 sts per 4 inch, the fabric is still far too dense and heavy. When I hold the fabric up high the light can't even get through! The stitches are too stiff to work smoothly and my hand hurts (UpCountry itself is extremely thick and puffy). I think I'll frog what I've done so far and save the yarn for a pattern that calls for at most 10 sts per 4 inch of gauge.]

See the rainbow

2004-10-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I really hope I have enough yarn for this sweater. That picture shows one ball of kureyon knitted up. It's measured only 7 inch in length. I could possibily run out of yarn even before I get to the neck ribbing! Sigh... if I do run out of yarn, I guess I'll have to buy the extra ball from ebay agan. I just hate to pay for that expensive "ebay shipping and handling" fee.

This morning when I got to my car, there's a thick layer of ice on top of the windows. Winter is coming! It can get to minus 40 degree C at where I live! I've got my knitted scarf, mittens and toque. Now I just need a wooly Einstein coat to go with the ensemble! Now, what colour of Lopi style yarn should I get for that coat?

Men's sweater

2004-10-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, eh? It's Noro's Kureyon in colour number 95.
Divided by a row of purls, the right side was knitted with number 9 needles and the right side was knitted with number 10 needles. I was amazed how a size difference in needle could make such a big difference on the size of a knitted swatch!

I bought a bag of this Kureyon off ebay. There's only 10 balls in a bag, almost enough to knit a sweater my size in stockinette stitch and in stated gauge. But I HATE stockinette stitch! Along with garter stitch, I call them "brain dead" stitchs for self explanatory reason. But if I want an aran sweater, I won't have enough yarn. What to do? Then I found this pattern:

The picture is a little difficult to see because I don't have a scanner. I just used my digicam to take a picture of the picture. You see, it's a men's sweater (and yes, I intend to knit it for myself. Click here to find out why.) I'll have enough yarn to knit it my size because the pattern uses a looser gauge (15.5 sts to 4 in). It has reverse stockinette stitch background and a ribbed centre panel, so it won't use as much yarn as doing cables but the stitches will still be interesting.

My knitting history

2004-09-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a self-taught knitter. I learned to knit in December 2002.
I've just moved to Prince George from Vancouver by myself and I needed something to do to pass time while waiting for university to start in January.
with Pam Allen's "Knitting for Dummies" for reference guide and a basket weave afghan's pattern, I started my very first project.
I didn't finish it. After a few dozens of rows I casted off and turned it into a long skinny scarf.
Up until now, I've completed countless project, but I frog a lot more than I knit =)

Elann newsletter

2004-09-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

Being a big spender at Elann, they always mail a monthly newsletter to my apartment. Remembered I said that Elann carries a lot of not-so-nice-yarn with crappy colour at great discount? Well, NOT THIS COMING MONTH!

I'm so thrilled to touch the yarn sample that came with the newsletter. Gjestal Naturgarn? I have whole bunch of pattern that could use yarn at this gauge! It comes with so many different shades too! And Jo Sharp's silkroad aran and rare comfort... I thought those are two of the relative new yarns from Jo Sharp, why are they going to Elann? Is Jo Sharp going out of business? Anyways the silkroad aran looks so yummy (although the tweed has thinner texture than the regular), and the rare comfort? it feel so soft I can't believe I'm touching mohair!

I'm so happy... the hell with my yarn diet. I'm marking the yarn availability dates on my calendar!

Cutesy pompom maker

2004-09-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

Look at this cute set of pompom makers! They're by Clover, my favorite brand for my knitting gear (second favorite if we're just talking about needles only). I gotta tell you, the Japanese are so clever at inventing cute and useful stuff. I got them in Richmond. There are a couple of Chinese knitting stores in Richmond that carries bunch of Clover accessories and TONS of Japanese knitting books.

Those Japanese knitting books... I actually bought one. I can't read Japanese, but all of its pattern has a graphical chart and I can just knit from the chart. HOWEVER! When I bought the book, I forgot to check for the sizes of those patterns... all of the patterns are too small! They don't fit me! I shouldn've known because the dresses in those Chinese boutique in Richmond generally don't fit me either! This sucks! because all of the patterns in the book are so elegant and practical. There are a couple of patterns for men, and they fit me, so I guess I'll be knitting men's clothing for myself then. Grrr...

A couple of my WIP

2004-09-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

Regia Crazy Colour. I bought 9 balls off ebay! I have enough yarns to make a pair of socks for each members in my family... including me! Of course the first pair I'm knitting will be for myself. When it comes to knitting, I'm selfish.

Look at the stitches, they are humongous! When I first started knitting, all I will knit with are bulky yarns. Soon I discover a lot of short-comings of knitting with bulky yarns... they're more expensive (much more expensive), they're awekward to knit with, they are heavy, the seams are too thick, hard to launder... etc.

I prefer aran to chunky weight yarns now. I still got a whole bunch of Spinrite's White Buffalo left from my "bulky yarn era", so I'm turning them into a thick jacket. I'm following a Norah Gaughan's pattern. The pattern is originally written for bulky Lopi. I have an unsettling feeling as I knit this jacket, because my stitch gauge is half a stitch short and my row gauge has one row extra. My gauge swatch turned out perfect so I'm not sure why the gauge changed as I knit. Grrr... I don't care, I'm determined to used up all of my "bulky monster yarn". If the sweater doesn't fit, I'll just give it away or burn it.

I want an Einstein coat

2004-09-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sally Melville's Einstein coat has received so many positive comments on the clever construction and wearability, I'm so tempted to knit one myself!

But, I mustn't, at least not yet. I'm on a yarn diet. I promise myself not to buy anymore yarn until I reduce my yarn stash to 1/3 or at least produce one wearable sweater.

Sigh... $7 CDN a ball for 11 balls of Lopi, that's not too bad for a winter coat. However, I'm aware that the entire coat is knitted in garter stitch, which means gazillion and gazillion of brain-dead knit stitch. Knitting garter stitch fabric is actually worse than knitting plain stockinette, because the mistake is harder to spot and more difficult to fix.

Holes around the neck-band

2004-09-28T01:52:00.000-07:00

I tried at least 5 times picking up stitches to knit the neck-band. Now the neck-band is finished... why are there holes around the neckband? I picked up stitches EVENLY and CAREFULLY, and still, this happens!

Why oh why oh why??? Howcome bad things always happen to me??? I don't understand what could've gone wrong. Blame it on the yarn? Blame it on the loose edge stitches? Blame it on the fact that I could've been not picking up stitches right?

Tell me, what've gone wrong???

[Update: I frogged the neckband and sprayed water to dampen the neck edge. Hopefully, when the water dries the enlarged edge stitches will tighten up and ready to be picked up again. I'll have another go at it then!]

Must reduce yarn stash

2004-09-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Here, I'm starting a chunky sweater in a magenta colour.
I'm using yarns I bought from Elann. Sure Elann always offer great discount on their yarns... but man, they do carry lots of crappy yarn fibre in crappy colours. The yarn used for the sweater is one of my impulsive-online-yarn-purchases. The colour just look ugly on me.

Anyways it's a bulky yarn (the label says 13 sts to 4 inch, but I think that's a little too loose), stretchy, because it's 100% superwash wool. The reason I'm knitting it is only for reducing my yarn stash. If I actually use the crap yarns I bought, I'll actually feel better because then I'm not wasting things. I'm so cheep too, I'm following one of Berrco's free pattern, Kendra.

Will the sweater turn out to be as nice looking as Kendra? Let's wait and see...

Joining new ball of yarn

2004-09-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

Becky at fluffa told me she always joins new ball of yarn at the edge of the knitting. That sounds like a great idea. Btw, I completely trust her advice because all of the sweaters in her blog all looks so nicely done!

One thing I like about knitting with pure wool is because the ends will hold well even when I join new ball of yarn in the middle of the knitted fabric. (come to think of it, if the yarn is in other material, the joining site will become visibily clear when the sweater is being held up high.) I think I'm going to make a habbit of being a good girl and joins at the edge. Now I will just hate it if I suddenly find knots in the yarn while knitting across a row.

Colourful vest

2004-09-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

Since I still have bunch of yarns leftover from my dad's sweater (I bought enough yarn for two sweaters... I was gonna knit one for my dad and one for my mom, but underestimate the yarn amount. I now have too much yarns for one sweater but not enough for two.) I knitted a vest.

It's the same colourway as my dad's sweater. I followed the vest pattern in Ann Budd's Knitters Handy Book of Patterns. Having in mind that the last sweater for my dad could be a little too big, I knitted the vest much smaller (the vest was intended for my dad). With only 7 inch of ease, I let my dad try on the vest. It's too small. Darn! I again underestimated. I underestimate the amount of bulk that would go inside the vest since my dad likes to wear layers.

Still, with twisted rib borders and everything, this vest looks gorgeous. It could sort of fit me and my mother, so I think I'm gonna save it for good and not putting it into the frog pond.

Dad's Sweater

2004-09-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Look, it's my dad! and he's wearing the Lopi sweater I knitted for him!
The pattern is Susan Mills' design. It's a dropped shoulder sweater knitted with 6 different shades of Lite-Lopi. The Lite-Lopis are knitted double-stranded.
Since a dropped-shoulder design should be at least 6 inch wider at the chest area compares to wearer's chest circumference, I gave it 13 inch of ease! My dad's chest circumference is 33 and I knit the sweater to 46 inch around the underarm.

Check out the side pose!
The reason I gave the sweater so much ease is because my dad loves layering. He'd wear at least 3 shirts even indoor all season except one of those very hot summer days. With that amount of ease, my dad told me the size is just right. However, the arm sleeves are too long. The reason why the sleeves are long is because the chest circumference is too wide and it is a drop-shoulder design.

Check out the back. Can you see the lovely blended colour?
This is why I'm one of those "blind pattern followers". I just don't have the artistic ability to come up with lovely textures and colours for my own design.
I always comfort myself, "there are a lot of lovely designs out there already, why re-invent the wheel?"

Too short sleeveless

2004-09-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

This top is definetely going into the frog pond!
I don't trust Patons' patterns anymore. I followed the instruction carefully (although I'm using a different yarn... I used Colinette Point-Five instead of Patons Bella) and the top still turns out waaay too short!

I wonder why the model looks fine wearing the top on the cover of the booklet. After closer inspection, I found out model on the front and back cover are BOTH in a sort of bunched up position wearing the top, which disguised the top's "short" coming.

I gave the sweater top to my dad so he can bring it back to Vancouver for my mom to try on. She's only 5 feet tall so I figure it might fit her. Still too short.
Argh! I should've known! The length to the underarm is only 10 inch in lenght and the armhole is only 7 inch in length.

One thing I gotta say. A lot of blog out there focused on the "job-well-done" aspect of knitting. Knitters feel proud about the sweater they knitted and such. I wish there are more blogs out there that candidly say "I like the sweater, BUT..." or "I'm not going to wear it as often, BECAUSE..." even "I'm going to frog it right away, BECAUSE...". Reading blogs like that will give me insights, and learn to spot trouble pattern even BEFORE casting on.

Bottomline, I wish there're more blog that candidly tell you "there's a bad pattern.", "why I don't like this pattern", "why I won't knit this sweater again" and "I knit this sweater last year but I never wear it".
Got what I'm saying??? If I read more blogs like that, I could learn SOOO much!

Grand re-opening!

2004-09-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hi hi hi~!!!

I've finally decided to restart my knitting blog! Yoohoo~!!!

To kick start things, I will post pictures of my previously finished object for your viewing pleasure!

Enjoy and see you later!!!