Fini!
Ah, it does feel nice to finish a project. I finished my Tree Jacket (although, it's not a jacket, so the name really bugs me!) I will miss knitting on this a bit - it was a very fun knit. The fabulous yarn didn't hurt much, either. I made a few changes to the pattern, and it actually came out very nicely, I think!
Here's the finished object, blocking. Boy did my cat LOVE the fact that I was using those blocking wires! He had to be kicked out of the room, and the door shut tight!
Here are the changes to the pattern I made:
First, because my yarn was fabulously NOT a solid color, I chose to knit the garter stitch portion in stockinette stitch. I really don't like the jogs of color you get using different colors in garter. Yuck. But this way? YUM!!! I really love drapey, long turlenecks, so I really stretched the 7" measurement for my neck. LOVE it!
The other major change was the way I knit my sleeves. This is what I did:
After picking the sleeve stitches back up, I knit in the round for 3 rounds. Then I decreased two stitches on each decrease row by doing a K1, K2Tog, K to 3 stitches before the end, SSK, K1. I did that decrease row every 5 rows three times, then every 9 rows 3 times, then I knit straight until I wanted to do the lace pattern (which, for me was 27 rows). Once I made sure I had a multiple of 8 to be sure the lace pattern would fit, I knit the lace pattern until I was happy (again, for me, this was 32 rows or 16 sets of the lace pattern). Then I did the K1, P1 ribbing for two rows and bound off like the pattern suggested. This kind of mimics the garter/stockinette combo that the original pattern has, but since I didn't want to do garter with this one, I tried that. I really love it!
I'll post pics of me actually wearing it tomorrow, when it's nice and dry.
Oh, by the way, I used 3 hanks of Brooks Farm Solana. I maybe have 100 yards left? (I see a scarf or hat in my future!) I began this as the size M, but wound up with stitches for the S on the lace pattern - kinda in-between, like many people were finding.
Here's something really funny. At Stitches my mother and I chose some Brooks Farm (see how I love them!?)Rialto to knit my son's teacher and teacher's aide. They have been with my son for 3 years (he's in a Montessori school) so they really deserve a NICE gift this year!!! We chose the orange/melon color for the aide because she's a fiery, hispanic woman who just makes us laugh. Also, she eats habanero peppers straight - to "clean you out." ACK! I think that fact was in our subconscious the whole time we were selecting! The blue is for his teacher. These colors are more muted and calm, but she can be really feisty and funny at times. One image I always have of her is her dressed in her formal African gear (she's 1st generation "American" and still has that lovely accent and everything!) The colors are blues and blacks similar to those here, and she was positively radiant in them, so these seemed to be "her" colors.
The funny part comes in here- the shawl pins I just happened to have lying around. I picked them up at a clearance sale at Hancock fabrics, just in case I might be able to use them some day. And now, we are knitting shawls out of these, perfectly matching colors. Those are the only two shawl pins I have lying around, and they match perfectly! OMG! How funny! Take a look:
Here's the finished object, blocking. Boy did my cat LOVE the fact that I was using those blocking wires! He had to be kicked out of the room, and the door shut tight!
Here are the changes to the pattern I made:
First, because my yarn was fabulously NOT a solid color, I chose to knit the garter stitch portion in stockinette stitch. I really don't like the jogs of color you get using different colors in garter. Yuck. But this way? YUM!!! I really love drapey, long turlenecks, so I really stretched the 7" measurement for my neck. LOVE it!
The other major change was the way I knit my sleeves. This is what I did:
After picking the sleeve stitches back up, I knit in the round for 3 rounds. Then I decreased two stitches on each decrease row by doing a K1, K2Tog, K to 3 stitches before the end, SSK, K1. I did that decrease row every 5 rows three times, then every 9 rows 3 times, then I knit straight until I wanted to do the lace pattern (which, for me was 27 rows). Once I made sure I had a multiple of 8 to be sure the lace pattern would fit, I knit the lace pattern until I was happy (again, for me, this was 32 rows or 16 sets of the lace pattern). Then I did the K1, P1 ribbing for two rows and bound off like the pattern suggested. This kind of mimics the garter/stockinette combo that the original pattern has, but since I didn't want to do garter with this one, I tried that. I really love it!
I'll post pics of me actually wearing it tomorrow, when it's nice and dry.
Oh, by the way, I used 3 hanks of Brooks Farm Solana. I maybe have 100 yards left? (I see a scarf or hat in my future!) I began this as the size M, but wound up with stitches for the S on the lace pattern - kinda in-between, like many people were finding.
Here's something really funny. At Stitches my mother and I chose some Brooks Farm (see how I love them!?)Rialto to knit my son's teacher and teacher's aide. They have been with my son for 3 years (he's in a Montessori school) so they really deserve a NICE gift this year!!! We chose the orange/melon color for the aide because she's a fiery, hispanic woman who just makes us laugh. Also, she eats habanero peppers straight - to "clean you out." ACK! I think that fact was in our subconscious the whole time we were selecting! The blue is for his teacher. These colors are more muted and calm, but she can be really feisty and funny at times. One image I always have of her is her dressed in her formal African gear (she's 1st generation "American" and still has that lovely accent and everything!) The colors are blues and blacks similar to those here, and she was positively radiant in them, so these seemed to be "her" colors.
The funny part comes in here- the shawl pins I just happened to have lying around. I picked them up at a clearance sale at Hancock fabrics, just in case I might be able to use them some day. And now, we are knitting shawls out of these, perfectly matching colors. Those are the only two shawl pins I have lying around, and they match perfectly! OMG! How funny! Take a look:
posted by Heather at
11/10/2007 11:09:00 AM
2 Comments:
Those shawl pins had to be destiny; that is so funny & cool. It's really sweet of you to knit something for the teacher/aide.
Your Tree jacket is stunning! I love the colors in it & your mods seem perfect. I know I couldn't have made that many changes to a pattern without messing up big time, lol.
When did you learn to do all this? I am so impressed with your "skills". I don't even know what blocking is, let alone what to do with wires!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home