I think it’s time I properly introduced you to jumper number three (which is really a cardigan). At Christmas I had three jumpers to finish, number one (for a Christmas present, overdue), number two (nearly in time for the birthday after the one it was meant for) and jumper number three (which is really a cardigan). Number three, or rather the wool for it, was my officially-being-middle-aged birthday present from the Man in the Shed.
(By the way, before this starts any debates about how old is middle aged you should know I intend to use my allocated three score years and ten and then die (from having eaten too many cream cakes and buttery things and generally not doing much exercise, except perhaps digging) before I get old and fall apart therefore I am now in my middle decade.)
It is the Ross cardigan which is from this book. I can’t remember how I came across this pattern but it is one where I just looked at it and thought, ‘Wow, I have to make that one!’ I have no idea why, whether it is the colours or the patterns or the shape or all of it together but I think it looks fantastic. My friend looked at the picture and said ‘Ew, no, that’s just weird.’ or something along those lines so it is probably just me having strange taste. Maybe now would be a good time to explain about the patterns on it – there are two Fairisle patterns, the left front and the right sleeve have one and the right front, left sleeve and back have the other. Normally I am mildly (is that the right word?) obsessive about things being symmetrical, (only certain things, not everything). I would tell you the story here about me being two and a half and the health visitor and the symmetrical pattern but you have probably heard it before and if you haven’t heard it yet from either me or my mother then the chances are that you will at some point. But for some reason this one is ok, maybe it’s because the patterns themselves are symmetrical or maybe because it is deliberately asymmetrical rather than just being a bit crooked, I don’t know but I love the pattern.
It does require some concentration though, I think I haven’t got round to showing you properly yet because I have been making it here and there between everything else – it is not very portable knitting. I’m almost done with the patterned bits – one sleeve left to do (if I can shake the nagging feeling that I’m going to run out of wool before I get there) but I think the button band might be a killer, (I’m not a big fan of button bands) and just look at all those ends! I am starting to wonder whether I will go insane sewing all of those in. Ok, more insane than I am now, is that better?
Ooooooooh, all those ends & hardly a beginning in them. You will go slowly insane and wish you hadn’t bothered, but when they are all sewn in, and you can begin the bands, it will be lovely. Yes, it is a conversation piece, but not while knitting naturally. I do hope the bands are knitted separately & surely not picking up stitches! Oh dear, the thought of it is making me feel quite giddy! Bit like poor Noël bear having been through the washing machine, & him hand wash only at the very worst! A quick rub down would have sufficed, but that’s not your blog is it, I get confused!
The bands are separate but I’d rather pick up stitches really because it never looks right when I sew it on except then the rib would go the wrong way and that would annoy me more!
Noël didn’t look too bad on it, he looked nice and fluffy anyway, was he one that you made?
Why don’t you machine sew the edges then simply cut them all off. No chance of them unraveling. I love the cardi . Look forward to seeing it finished !
Could do, I don’t trust my machining though!
-I think it is lovely!! I had the same thought on machine sewing the edges and then cutting the ends. It is not difficult. I just did this on a garment with lots of intarsia and in which I wanted to add more shaping. I literally sewed the seams together as if I were sewing a garment. There is more bulkiness; but, you will likely get this anyway with the many ends that you have. I would do things differently however with your garment since you do not need to do shaping.–> I believe I would seam the pieces together as you normally would and then machine stitch the completed edge to allow you to cut all of the ends.
-I will be buying the pattern and hope to get to it in a few years once my other many projects are completed. I look forward to seeing your finished project.
-Can you speak more of ANY ERRATA?
Sorry for the delay in replying- we’ve been away for Easter. Thanks for the tips on sewing it, I think I will have a go at that some time but maybe on something smaller first time round to see how it goes. I’ve spotted several mistakes in the pattern, it’s a gorgeous cardi but I’ve been really disappointed with the pattern,I don’t know how it got through testing! There is one line of the brown missing off the top of chart B and a couple of cosmetic things like grid lines/symbols missing in places in the chart which looks poor but doesn’t really affect the sense of it as the colours are ok. The big problem I noticed was that the after doing the increasing on the sleeve you are supposed to continue until it measures 17 3/4″ but if you are working to tension and assuming that your ribbing is a couple of inches you are going to have around 19″ just to get all the increases in. I checked it about five times because I couldn’t believe it would be that wrong. In the end I decided to go with doing all the increases as I normally add a couple of inches anyway (it would appear that I am a gorilla) but now I’m not sure if I am going to run out of the blue and possibly the yellow before I get to the end, (I’ll let you know how it goes, it’s going to be tight!) plus it says you need two balls of grey and I’m not even half through the first one so all in all it’s been a bit frustrating.
Wow. I have to say, I’m glad it is you going through the frustration and not me. I think I will not knit that sweater after all. The last time I dealt with a pattern that was so off, I spent hours and hours trying to remake the garment to fit. I hope to never go through that again.
Good luck to you. I still hope to see pictures of the completed garment.
Kathleen
Thanks, I’ll put some pictures up when I’m done with it!