Basic Sweater

Recipient: DD
Designer: Deb and Lynda Gemmell
Pattern: Basic Sweater
Source: Top Down for Toddlers: No-Sew Knitting
Completed: April 18, 2006
Colours: White with coloured flecks: "Periwinkle", #456
Yarn: King Cole Sapphire Confetti DK, 98% acrylic/2% nylon, DK weight
Completed status: Might be a bit too big for DD yet
Pictures:

2006-Apr-19

Done!

I would love to show you how much yarn was leftover, but I can't because there honestly isn't any. Just a few cut-off ends. I couldn't believe it. I barely had enough to do the cast-off. I had to go back to the beginning of the cast-off and tighten the stitches all the way along to eke out more yarn for a few more stitches. And I still managed to run out about ten stitches before the end. Fortunately, my cast-on tail at the collar had been pretty long, so I used that to finish the cast-off. After I wove in all the rest of the ends, I had a few pieces of about 5" long, which I used up to fix the gaping holes at the bottoms of the armscyes. Thus...nothing left but little bits. Amazing.

2006-Apr-17

This saw a bit of action this weekend while waiting for DD to complete some potty activities. I also brought it to work with me today, intending to work it as my project for the evening once the socks were done. Alas, since I had to do more work on the socks, I only ended up working on the sweater on the drive home. Stocking stitch in the round on 4mm needles with white yarn is so ideal for car travel knitting at night. Several more rows got done. I estimate I've got about five more rows before the yarn poops out.

2006-Apr-9

Well, I did it. I frogged back the rolled hem of the body back to the decrease, cut the yarn and started working with the leftover. Astonishingly, I got two additional inches on the body out of it! Now I'm re-doing the rolled hem with the yarn I used for the original rolled hem:


I've probably got close to fifteen more rows to do and then I'll cast off. With any luck, I'll have very little yarn left over when it's all re-knitted up. Then I just have to weave in some ends, and I'll have another finished project!

2006-Mar-31

Hooray! The knitting is finished!

Even more incredible, I had enough yarn to do it all. More than enough. This much more, even:

(hand included for scale)

This has me thinking. (Always dangerous.) There's not enough there to make anything else, really. But there is enough to do more rows on the body of the sweater. And I generally find baby/child sweater patterns to be short on the body (and simultaneously long in the arms, which is bizarre).

And so, despite the fact that I am only a few woven ends away from completing this project, I'm going to give myself more work on it. I'm going to: frog the bottom of the body back to the row before I decreased for the rolled edge; cut the yarn at that point and set aside the frogged yarn, which I know will more or less be enough for the decrease row, the rolled edge and the cast-off; join the leftover yarn (pictured above) to the body and keep knitting until I've done as many complete rows as I can with it; decrease for the rolled edge, joining in the set-aside yarn once the leftover runs out; knit the rolled edge; and cast off.

This should leave me with as long a sweater as possible using as much of the yarn as possible. The sweater will be a triumph of efficiency and, more importantly, will not be too short on my daughter. Hooray.

Now all I have to do is convince myself that I don't mind the extra work.

2006-Mar-11

I've been working on this a lot this week and I'm coming to the conclusion that, amazingly, I will probably have enough yarn. I did the entire yoke and worked about two inches down the body all with the first ball. So far with the second ball, I've completed one sleeve and am so far down the body that the beginning of the rolled bottom edge is about an inch away.


(although I think this was taken a little bit earlier in the history of the body knitting)

There is still a fair bit of yarn in the ball, and I can cut back on sleeve length because the completed sleeve looks a bit long. I know I'm tempting Murphy really badly with this, but I think I have a good chance of making it.

2006-Mar-6

Sometimes, plans change.

You may notice the complete absence of this project on my list for 2006. It wasn't even on my ideas list for 2007 (yes, I have a preliminary 2007 list...shut up :). The impetus for this project just kind of came to me like a bolt out of the blue on Saturday. For some reason I plucked my copy of Top Down for Toddlers: No-Sew Knitting off my knitting book shelf (I love how that sounds...I have a knitting book shelf!) and thumbed through it. Just for fun. Not really looking for anything, just revisiting the book, flipping through, la la la... The first pattern, the Basic Sweater, didn't even remotely jump out at me. Until I started noticing the yarn with which one of the sample sweaters was knit. It was instantly recognizable as Magic Garden 'Buttons', which I've used before (and which also, it seems, does not felt) and really enjoyed. It's mostly New Zealand wool, very soft, with brightly-coloured polyester flecks here and there.

This put me in mind of another yarn I own, King Cole Sapphire Confetti DK. It is absolutely not New Zealand wool, it's acrylic (2% nylon), but it does have brightly-coloured flecks throughout it and a single boucle-ish ply to liven it up, and it's pretty cute. Very baby. I got it as a Christmas gift from my MIL when I was pregnant. The problem is that she gave me 200g of it. That's not enough to make a blanket, but it's way too much to make just one baby garment. Plus, it's mostly white, which I always try to avoid in knits for babies because it'll just get grungy. So I've been agonizing for years over what the heck I'm going to make out of this thing.

Fast forward to me on Saturday, staring at the Basic Sweater pattern in the book. Hey, I thought, you know, DD's growing out of some of her sweaters. She'll need new ones. And hey - I need to do something with that Confetti yarn. And hey - she's way past the spitting up stage and has actually been seen to be careful about spilling stuff, and some of her white tops do stay sorta clean. And hey, this will be a quick knit...

Next thing I know I'm casting on for the rolled neck.

There's just one problem: I'm doubtful that I will have enough yarn. I'm making the 4-year size, which calls for 6 50g balls of 123 yards each. Instead, I have 2 100g balls of 307 yards each. Logic dictates that I will be 124 yards short, which is quite a bit. Tough to fudge. On the other hand, patterns usually overestimate how much you'll need. And often, I find that sleeves in baby/toddler patterns are way too generous in length. And...and...and...well, to hell with it, I'll never know if I have enough until I try to knit the thing. Right? It's not like I've got anything else to do with this yarn. Right?

And so. Once again I have set myself up for failure.

I'm cutting corners, yarn-wise, where I can. For instance, I knit just 1.5 inches on the rolled neckline (the length for the 2-year size) instead of the full 2 inches that the 4-year size calls for. (The neck looks fine.) I scoffed at the need to have an entire row devoted solely to placing markers while merely doing more stocking stitch. (The top of the yoke looks fine.) That kind of thing. Also, as much as I would love to knit this thing continentally so that it would really zip along, I need the tighter gauge (read: greater efficiency with yarn yardage) that I get by throwing with my right hand. I'm figuring, if I can complete the yoke and one full sleeve before my first ball craps out, I'll probably be okay.



Famous.
Last.
Words.

Especially since I'm not sure I'm going to make that goal. At lunch I completed the increases on the yoke and gleefully continued reading the instructions, sure that I would be starting the sleeves. But no. I had to work another 2.5 inches of stocking stitch (248 stitches per row) before I could do that. Ball number one may crap out before I even get to the first sleeve.

Stay tuned for the universe giving me my come-uppance. It should be fun. (For the audience, anyway.)