Granville, done!

Finished up the final version of Granville. I re-did the front bands on my original. I had worn the gray one  (the colour name is ‘mushroom’ but I don’t know where that came from - I always thought mushrooms were shades of brown or taupe, but this is really a greenish-gray) anyway, I wore the gray one, back in October at Newton’s seminar, over a black dress and I was quite happy with no buttons on it, but I tried it since then with other things and decided I would like it buttoned. If you look at my sketch from back in September, the original design had three buttons at the top - so that’s what I did with this one, ‘cept I already had four buttons prepared and used them all - I really like it. The red or ‘poppy’ version, is for my daughter and, running short of yarn at the end, I made the bands a bit narrower and buttoned it from top to bottom which she prefers.

The pdf’s will be sent out to current Pattern-of -the-Month subscribers over the next few days. The accompanying article has notes on the racked cast-on, lots of double bed stuff, the 3X2X3 braided cable techniques, the neckline finish and all the extra details.

button tricks

 

I’m finally getting around to doing the buttons for ‘Granville’ - I wanted 3 or 4 large buttons just at the top but large buttons seem to be very hard to come by unless you have access to a good button shop which I don’t - we’re down to the local Fabricland as virtually the only source for buttons - even Wal-Mart doesn’t  have them any longer....so, not much  to choose from. And, when you have an off-colour like this ‘mushroom grey’ it’s really limited. Even discounting the size I wanted, it was tough - pewter was the closest thing, but size-wise the largest I could find were 7/8"/23mm - not big enough. I did find some reasonably-priced large black ones, but they are pretty boring and black buttons would limit what I could wear with it...I had some pearly grey buttons that were big enough and sort of the right colour, but they're really ugly and cheapened the finished look...what to do?

What to do? I didn’t want to wait for my next trip out of town to maybe get lucky, so I put two buttons together! The trick - line up the holes for sewing, of course and with my trusty, hot-glue gun, put a dab of glue on the bottom button, press the top one in place and hold for a second or two...

Most buttons are not totally flat, either top or bottom and, the bit of wax/glue makes a cushion between - what I did was...on a piece of Styrofoam, pin the buttons with two darning needles to align the holes and hold the buttons in place. Angle the needles out slightly so the top button can be pulled up to apply the glue and then quickly press down to flatten and set. If you mess up, it let cool completely and use a flat blade to pry apart, pick the glue off and try again...

'Granville' notes

Yesterday I made the back and it’s beautiful! Even though it seems like a lot of cabling - 320 turns, actually, on the back - it went fairly quickly and I had the back done in about 3 hours with a few breaks. As I was working, I was considering whether I’d make the vertical opening front pockets. My confidence was saying, oh, yes, do it!! After I got the back off and steamed, I could hold it up and re-evaluate the situation (one of reasons for making the back before the fronts). Holding it up in front of me and looking in the mirror, I could tell that with the weight of this finished fabric, the pockets would be too much and possibly add bulk in a place that I don’t need or want it. I could see they were not needed , especially now that I’ve changed this into a indoor-weight jacket.

Some things for you to think about before it’s too late...

My braided cables are turned every 6 rows, so make a quick cheat sheet and hang it right in your face - I set mine up so that the right hand cable row number was on the right side and the left side number is for the left turn. And it is a 3X2 turn, similar to half of the cable from Dream Coat, so on the row before the cable is turned, bring up the empty rib needle that is between the 3 & 2 of the cable to make an extra loop of yarn to make the cross of the cable easier and be sure to put it out of work after you drop the loop. If, inadvertently, a not-required rib needle gets into work and stays there without you noticing, don’t just drop the stitch - it will make an elongated line of stitches that will show - you can of course rip back, but I don’t bother - get real, this is ribbed !!! I just transfer the stitch to the main bed and put the needle out of work - this will show on the back side of the knitting, but won’t affect the front...

Begin and end the cables on the 4th row of the sequence, so think about where it will end at the top, before you have to transfer sts to the main bed.

The stitch gauge for the stockinette yoke is slightly different than the cable piece, so make up the difference when doing that RTR at the top of the cables, before you set up for the yoke. Also, I used the stockinette gauge for my sleeve because it only had the one cable in it.
Weighting your pieces...On the back, I had 3 large ribber weights across the bottom, after the first 3 rows of the cast-on and I added a claw weight to each side and moved these up every 20 rows or so. For the sleeve and the front, one large ribber weight and the claw weights managed fine - most people tend to over-weight, IMO anyway...but, I do tend to babysit my rib work - I use my right hand to pass the carriage and with my left hand, I move the fabric back, beneath the rib bed, at the same time, watching for the odd tucked stitch which will happen, predominantly at one side or on the second row after the cable...

a sleeve pandemic

I’ve got 3 sleeves done...let me explain...actually, the first one was chocolate brown and took forever! Now, the sleeve is supposed to be purl stitches background with a single, braided, knit-stitch cable running up the centre of it. For the body of the garment, on my swatches, the cables are on the main bed and the purl stitches are on the rib bed (side away is right/outside), so it made sense to do the same thing for the sleeve. Actually, let me back up a bit again.
Often, I start by making the sleeves of a garment - for a couple of reasons. First, when trying out new techniques, it is usually easier to master new stuff on the sleeve rather than the back which is a whole big, piece. The sleeve, being smaller, allows you to work out the quirks of the technique or the design without it being a major deal, like for example, figuring out how to change from one needle arrangement to the next, between the cuff area and the main part. And if it doesn’t go well, not too much is lost, time-wise. And if you do make a few changes, it will be less obtrusive on the sleeve and you can usually get away with minor stuff.
So, I was using the chocolate brown and though I did get a perfect sleeve off, it took forever. Turns out that shaping on the rib bed is much more time consuming than if you were working the other way around. My end stitches were on the ribber, so the increases and sleeve cap shaping were all ribber stitches. I did shortrow some of the sleeve cap, but it was tricky. I was going to make the second sleeve in brown, the other way, using the main bed for the purl stitches and the rib bed for the cable (side facing is right side), but when I looked at the finished chocolate brown sleeve I decided that with this much work involved, I wanted people to be able to see the detail from more than 6 inches away!
I switched back to the mushroom grey and whipped off 2 perfect sleeves with the cable done on the ribber in half the time!
Funny how things come back to haunt you - I remember once saying that I’d never turn cables on the rib bed....turns out, it was quite easy...
I know, I know...remind me later to tell you how to re-use that chocolate brown, after all, it is real wool crepe deluxe!

caught stealing again...

 I’m back home and re-bonding with my metal bed machine - swatching madly...I saw the cutest jacket/cardigan - by the way, what’s the difference? What makes it a jacket? What makes it a cardigan? Anyway, this knitted thing that opened in the front - I tried it on and loved the style but it was made out of junk (in my opinion) but with a price tag of $79, I guess, what do you really expect? So I studied it and tried to commit to memory the details and when I got home, dashed off a sketch - I really wish I had learned to draw properly but at least I can sort of put down enough stuff to help remember the real thing - I don’t have a cell phone and I’ve never worked up enough nerve to carry my digital camera, so I have to rely on this method...



swatch1



swatch2

The jacket - it did seem heavy enough to be more like an outdoor-weight and with the big collar, I’ve now decided it was a jacket/coat - had tons of stuff going on, but it all came together. It was a dark charcoal tweedy yarn and I put it on with a black pencil skirt and even with bare legs, I thought I looked okay and of course, the clerk, hoping to make sales is telling me how stunning I look - who wouldn’t believe her? In my mind’s eye, I’m narrowing the bottom of the sleeve and, thinking the hem is sort of bulky - it was 1X1 rib, folded under, doubled, to add weight to it, maybe, but to someone as discerning as moi, it was crude - I could do better...and forget the outdoor version, I’m going to use Wool Crepe Deluxe and work on changing the big collar...

So, with my swatches, working first on the hem, I did full needle rib and then went to 1X1 on main bed only - now, how to get to the

9 X 8 wide rib without too much trouble? Some experimenting with bringing needles back to work quickly - I think I have it worked out by the 4th swatch...then, trying cables - Here, I chose 9 sts for the knit part where I was doing 3X3X3 braided cable, making the cables every 4 rows - too much work and too tight and with bringing up the extra needle on the rib bed on the row before, it makes too big a loop that shows...

swatch3

swatch4

Next swatch, change up the rib and have the 1X1 part knitting only every other row - nah, that’s not what I want -

8X7 needle arrangement works better, but 6 rows between elongates the cables out too much.

No 3 swatch:  narrowed the cast-on and went back to 1X1 look for hem, tried 3 different cables - too much going on and I lost track...

No 4 - changed colour, tried a racking cast on (yes!) , did my own braided cable 3X2X3 and by gosh I think I’ve got it!! See you in the ribber class at Newtons!!!