Stornaway sweater

Recipient: BIL #2
Designer: Alice Starmore
Pattern: Stornaway
Source: Fisherman's Sweaters
Completed: January 19, 2005
Colours: Cream
Yarn: New Zealand wool, fingering weight
Completed status: Given May 13, 2005
Pictures:

The whole thing

Detail of the pattern

Detail of how the shoulder strap extends into the sleeve - isn't that totally cool?

2005-Jan-20

I think my husband thinks I'm a bit mad. Last night I did a vaudevillian dance in the kitchen, followed by a hora dance down the hall, grinning like a maniac the entire time. These were extreme happy dances because I FINISHED THE SWEATER. The joy is palpable! I soaked the sweater in Eucalan and then blocked it. It's still pretty damp but it looks TERRIFIC all stretched out and drying, and it seems to have softened up in the Eucalan, which is great. By Monday I expect I'll be able to wrap it up and send it off. 'Hooray' does not even begin to cover how happy I am about all this. I'm ecstatic. This project is officially DONE. I feel giddy.

2005-Jan-19

Time for a confession. Early in this project, way down at the bottom of the body, there was a small section of the yarn which had this bright reddish-pink colour on it. "Hm," thought I, "some strands of red fluff have gotten wrapped around the yarn there. I'll just ignore it, keep knitting, and pick the fluff out later." Well, guess what - it wasn't fluff. In my defence, it really did look like fluff, but alas, it was not. I don't know whether it was dye, or pen ink, or what (or whether it was something I did or whether I can blame the person who sold me the yarn), but it was on there to stay, and it showed up nice and prominently against the cream colour, right smack dab at the front of the sweater. Great. After I finished the sweater, I tried going over the area with duplicate stitch to cover it up. This helped some, but the pink was still pretty obvious. So I resolved that I was going to try my Dryel stain remover on it before washing it in Eucalan. This is what I did last night. IT WORKED. I was skeptical at first, because the stain remover was a bit sudsy as I was applying it, and the disappearance of the stain may just have been because the suds were hiding it, but when I went down this morning, the suds were gone and so was the stain. Well, almost, anyway. Enough that you wouldn't be able to see it unless you were really looking closely at that specific spot. I am tremendously pleased (and relieved). Next step: Eucalan!

2005-Jan-17

IT. IS. DONE. Okay, I got lazy and didn't wash-and-block it this weekend, but the sweater itself is completely knitted, and all the ends have been woven in. This makes me deliriously happy!

2005-Jan-14

Just 8 more rows to go on the cuffs. If I'd been able to resist the call of the Spanish Knight sweater, I'd've finished the whole cuff last night, but hey. By this weekend I expect the whole thing to be finished, the ends woven in, and the sweater washed and blocked. This is my goal.

2005-Jan-13

I AM WORKING ON THE CUFF. Yay!!! 22 more rows of ribbing and I can cast off and be finished. I can't believe it. Victory is so close I can almost taste it. Mind you, I will still have to weave in a few ends and wash and block the thing, but essentially, completion is within my grasp. I'm almost afraid to triumph - don't want to tempt Murphy's Law or anything.

2005-Jan-12

Nothing but sleeve. Lordy, I can't wait to finish this. Only 97 stitches per round and it is still taking forever to get to the cuff. Perhaps tonight.

2005-Jan-11

Approximate 25 rows to go before I hit cuff ribbing.

2005-Jan-10

Great progress made this weekend. Sleeve shaping is now finished and I'm working my way towards the beginning of the cuff ribbing.

2005-Jan-7

More sleeve shaping done - about 56 more rows to go on that.

2005-Jan-6

I estimate 70 rows left for the sleeve shaping. I also now think that my estimate yesterday of 145 rows left on the sleeve shaping was a gross understatement, so don't go thinking that I've done 75 rows in a day!

2005-Jan-5

Sleeve is really progressing. I estimate about 145 rows to go of sleeve shaping.

2004-Dec-31

Sleeve #2 proceeds! Underarm gusset is almost done.

2004-Dec-30

I started getting back to this one last night - work continues on sleeve #2. I've only got about 10 more rows to go before the underarm gusset is done and the sleeve tapering can begin.

2004-Dec-29

Well, this never ended up being given because BIL did not come down from Ottawa to spend Christmas with us after all. Which sucked. I'd much rather have had his company than not have to give him an incomplete sweater. However - what can you do. So I'm going to finish off the second sleeve, wash and block the sweater, and then we can mail off all his gifts.

2004-Dec-23

Sleeve #1 is DONE! Started sleeve #2 this morning - a futile gesture given how little time there is until Christmas, but hey, knitting is knitting, and the more I can get done, the more impressive the incomplete gift will be.

2004-Dec-22

I'm now half an inch away from being able to start the cuff on sleeve #1. I might actually have a bit of sleeve #2 started by Christmas.

2004-Dec-21

It's looking less and less like this will be finished in time. But at least I have finished the shaping on sleeve #1. Now I am working my way down to the beginning of the cuff. I haven't measured it yet, but I'm guessing I probably have about 2 more inches to go until cuff ribbing begins. Of course, then it's another 2.5 inches of cuff ribbing. Geez. I think BIL is going to have a beautiful one-armed sweater.

2004-Dec-20

I am starting to realise that there's a good chance I won't be able to finish this before Christmas, which sucks. I had really hoped to have finished sleeve #1 and started sleeve #2, and instead I haven't even come to the end of the decreasing on sleeve #1. My most recent calculations indicate that I have 21 rows to go before the end of the decreasing.

2004-Dec-17

Work proceeds on sleeve #1. I have finished the underarm gusset and am now decreasing for the sleeve tapering. It will only get faster and faster from here on in as the rows take less time to do (until I start sleeve #2, of course). The wonderful thing is that because it's no-sew, when I'm done the knitting, I'm done the sweater (except for washing and blocking, of course). There is now definitely a visible light at the end of the tunnel.

2004-Dec-16

This is the project I took with me to work today. I broke the yarn so I could wind a skein on my ball winder, since there is no way in the fiery depths of Hell that I am ever going to lug the 8lb cone of yarn for this project onto the subway with me. Unfortunately, the days are now so short (stupid winter) that it is pretty dark during the morning car ride, so I'm restricted to knitting only on the subway leg of the journey to work. However, I did get some rows done. I anticipate more productive knitting during my lunch hour today.

2004-Dec-13

Most of my focus this weekend was MIL's Christmas sweater, so this project took a back seat. However, I still managed to get a few inches on the first sleeve done. I'm very close to finishing off the underarm gusset. However, this also means that it's getting harder and harder to stretch the sleeve stitches around my circular. I've started doing the Magic Loop thing to compensate, but really the circular isn't long enough for that. I expect things will get better as I decrease even more stitches to taper the sleeve towards the cuff.

2004-Dec-10

Managed to get about 30 stitches done this morning. That's it. Woo.

2004-Dec-09

Well, I didn't get any responses to my post on Knitters Review, so I went ahead and implemented one of my solutions. See, the shoulder straps are worked perpendicular to the shoulder seams (parallel to the sleeves) - and the shoulder strap pattern (a 6-row repeat) extends into the sleeve. The shoulder strap instructions clearly state to end with a 5th row on the shoulder straps. Then, on the pick-up-stitches row of the sleeve, the instructions say to work the shoulder strap stitches (as part of the sleeve), keeping continuity of the pattern, which to me means to do the 6th pattern row. But then the instructions say for the next sleeve row to do the shoulder straps using the 6th pattern row - i.e., do row 6 on the shoulder straps twice. This can't be right. And I can't do row 1 of the pattern instead, because then the shoulder strap pattern would be completely out of sync with all the other motifs on the sleeves, which would super-dumb. So, for lack of anyone pointing out that I'm an idiot and the pattern is totally right and here's what you're really supposed to do, :) I instead just skipped working the shoulder strap stitches on the pick-up-stitches row of the sleeve - I slipped them onto the working needle but otherwise did nothing with them. I had to break the yarn and rejoin it after the shoulder strap stitches, but that was a minor concern. Result: my fix allowed the pattern to continue seamlessly, and the shoulder strap doesn't look at all stretched because of the "missing" row. I'm now about five rows into the sleeve and I think the whole thing is going to look extremely cool. The only problem is that the circular needle I'm using could stand to be a little shorter. It's okay now, but the number of stitches around the sleeve is only going to decrease as I finish off the underarm gusset and taper the sleeve towards the cuff. I may need to get a longer 3mm circular so I can do the magic loop with this sucker. We shall see.

2004-Dec-08

AUGH! So I've hit a snag. The instructions for the sleeves appear to be wrong. Which is making me doubt my ability to read knitting instructions, because this is a Starmore pattern we're talking about, and I find it unlikely that there would be an error in her stuff. Basically, the instructions for the sleeves are saying that I should be doing the same pattern row twice - which makes no sense and will look dumb. I haven't been able to find any information on the Internet about this, either through Starmore's website or a Google search. So I've asked on the Knitter's Review forum, and will hopefully get an answer. If not, I can always send an email to Starmore asking about it. However, since this sweater has to be finished in 16 days, and since I didn't actually buy the book from their website, I may be SOL there. Fortunately, there are a few potential solutions to this problem which I can implement if I get really desperate. But crap, what a pain to run into this.

2004-Dec-07

Haven't had a lot of time to work on this since my last entry. See, I don't think I've mentioned yet that the yarn I'm using is on an 8lb cone, which means it's extremely non-transportable, so I can only work on the thing at home. And since I spent the evening at my parents, the only time I've had to work on it since the last journal entry is this morning. At the moment I'm working on picking up stitches around the armscye.

2004-Dec-06

THE NECK RIBBING IS DONE. Hallelujiah and praise the whatever. We went to bed late last night so I could finish it, but I think it was worth it. All the slogging has paid off. Now I get to start my first sleeve! Yippee!

2004-Dec-03

You know, it's a good thing I do this one in front of the television, because if I didn't have that to entertain my brain, the incessant K2, P2 ribbing would probably put me to sleep. I'm not even half finished this stupid neckline - with 2" done, I've still got 2.5" inches to go. Oh, well. I continue to slog through it.

2004-Dec-02

I probably shouldn't even be making a journal entry for this project today, given how little of the ribbing I did last night!

2004-Dec-01

I've discovered that 4.5" is a hell of a lot of ribbing. Sigh.

2004-Nov-25

Neckline ribbing continues.

2004-Nov-24

Well, the Magic Loop thing didn't work because my circular is too short. So either I need a shorter one to more easily fit the stitches around the neck, or a longer one to do the Magic Loop with. Sigh. In the meantime, I continue to stretch the neckline stitches around the circular I've got now. Ribbing continues.

2004-Nov-23

Looked up the Magic Loop thingy. It definitely looks promising. When I get my health back, I'll try using it. It has to be more convenient than how badly I'm stretching the neckline stitches around the circular needle right now.

2004-Nov-22

Shoulder straps are done! Those were fun - and man, they look cool. I'm very stoked about how this sweater is going to look. I'm now several rows into the 4.5" neck ribbing. My problem is that the circular needle I'm using is barely small enough to work - it's pretty awkward. I'm going to look up that Magic Loop thing I've heard about and see if it can help. Failing that, I'll just have to buy a smaller 2.75mm circular needle.

2004-Nov-19

Started the shoulder straps! Very exciting (albeit awkward) stuff. Highly cool. I can hardly wait to get home tonight so I can keep going!

2004-Nov-18

Woo hoo! I finished the back! Now I am all set to start the shoulder straps (yes, the pattern calls for shoulder straps, yay). I do need to fish out some of my other jumper-weight NZ wool so I can start the straps in a contrasting colour, but otherwise I'm all ready to go. Wow. This is really coming along.

2004-Nov-17

Got lots done last night! I now have fewer than 10 rows to go on the back before the shoulder! I'm so excited! Whee!

2004-Nov-15

Got a lot done. Not only did I start and finish the neck shaping on the front, but I'm almost done the back! Just a few more hours of work there and then I can do my first ever shoulder straps. At least, I think the pattern calls for shoulder straps. It better call for shoulder straps!

As of 2004-Nov-08

I'm about 2 inches from being able to start the neck shaping at the front. I'm still desperately worried about whether this will end up too scratchy, but I'm also starting to wonder how the heck I'm going to block this thing. I might have to sucker DH into making me an impromptu woolly board.