alternatives...

Girlfriend Hoodie

Forgot to tell you something else – I think I mentioned hoodie back there but that may change too! Actually last year I made that ‘noodie’ https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/05/what-do-you-call-hoodless-hoodie.html – it started to be like my Girlfriend Hoodie
https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2015/06/manfriend-hoodie-pattern.html


Tumbleweed
 

but I ran out of yarn – anyway, I wore that quite a bit, especially at Christmas time and it was great for looking good but you/I could still work in the kitchen – no bottom sleeve/snug cuff that can’t be easily pulled up, to get in the way! I liked the narrow bands for the hem of the body and it’s just a trifle longer that the GFH, so I’m aiming for that shape/body-wise here but wanted a long sleeve that I could roll up out of the way if I had to get my hands dirty, if you know what I mean! Am going with the sleeve from Tumbleweed (Knitwords #53) a little fitted, a little longer, with a slit at the bottom so it opens up to roll back easily to a 3/4 look, but the sleeve cap is done the same way as the GFH. Hope I didn’t lose you on all those little changes!

what do you call a hoodless hoodie?...

A noodie! LOL!  not sure that will catch on, but I’m loving mine! I wasn’t going to say anything because you already know I can be a bit obsessive. I was just going to quietly knit this thing and keep it to myself but I’m also somewhat of a show-off, I’ll admit it! With my Girlfriend Hoodie pattern in mind, I started off making three pockets - oh, did I say three? Yeah, I was doing that decrease hack and loving it - it's so much faster than that old, outlined full-fashioned decrease and it truly looks nicer and lays flatter - but in my excitement, I must have been operating on auto-pilot and thinking of other things and on the second pocket, I ended at RC078 instead of the 82 rows of the first one - somewhere in there I didn't knit two rows between the battenburg transfers - easy to do when you are shortrowing at the same time and there is something happening on every row instead of just every second, and not concentrating! I made the third pocket (16g each, by the way), paying full attention and got it perfect.

before washing
 

 In my haste for glory, I hadn’t weighed my cone at the beginning, just took the old information from that old post and acted like I had the same size cone (1.2 lb/520g) as the plumberry one. In my mind I was making a half-sleeved hoodie (do you like that ‘half-sleeved’ term – I saw it for the first time on something the other day and decided to use it a few times just to see if it catches on!), knitting the half-sleeve in the battenburg lace, the body a little longer than the  original version, with narrower bands to compensate (those deep stockinette bands do take more yarn so that was a consideration) and of course a hood, because, after all, this is a hoodie, right? 
After both sleeves were knit (I did weigh them, 46g each), I jumped right into making the back, determined to get it made plain before I could reason my way into jazzing it up unnecessarily. I kept saying to myself that people behind my back would notice the beautiful half-sleeves without being distracted with random patterning up the back and though I got it done quite quickly, was rather dismayed to notice the diminished size of the cone! ouch! The back was 84g so that meant that much again for the fronts and I still had bands to do – the hood would take about half the weight/yardage of the Back and I began to readjust my vision. By the time I had the Fronts done I saw this garment as a zip-front, summer cardigan with picot hems and neckband with half sleeves in lace. Final tally, 42g left, good thing nothing was written in stone! Oh, and because of the shrinkage factor, when I first tried it on before laundering, it was like, yuck! this is way too big, but sure enough, the machine wash and dry sorted it out fine!

 

P.S. The hems were ‘Knitting on the EDGE’ #3 – I used the neckline technique from Borderline, KW #25 and added 8 shortrows to centre back and fronts (but not to pockets) to even out the A-line.
MSP here I come! I'm teaching at Founders Fest in Minneapolis, July 28, 29, 2018.
Google Midwest Machine Knitters Collaborative for more information and registration! Hope to see you there!

zippered....

They arrived and guess what? In my excitement, I had placed the order before I had finished the front edges against my own advice and, of course, the 22 inch that I originally decided on is too long! I had added a
brass-teeth #5 22 inch as well but didn’t care for the look of the brass with my tobacco brown hoodie so I am attempting to adjust the length of the #3 molded plastic coffee bean one. I need to shorten this by 2 inches which is 17 teeth on each side…I’ve only gouged my knuckle once, not a big deal, I can handle it – no blood on the garment is my standard. The hardest part is prying off the metal stops at the top of the teeth. I managed this with the aid of a little flat-blade screw driver and a small pair of pliers. After fully cleaning the teeth off one side of the tape, I realized that I only needed to get them off about 3/4 of an inch above the new finished length. The easiest part was replacing the stops, using needle nose pliers. Even though I am not totally happy with the colour of the zipper, I’m going to sew this in and then re-evaluate the situation. A couple of days ago when I realized this zipper would be too long, I placed another order with zipperstop.com and I have a #3 nylon coil in seal brown coming, along with a few others I thought would be good stock to have ;-), to add to the 6 others – like this jewel green one (not) that I thought would go with the cilantro linen that I couldn’t resist the first time! Glad I still have those old pinking shears! Haven’t used them in 20 years but you never know, do you?

Machine knit like you know what you’re doing! ;-)

P.S. got this all done yesterday and I wore it for the rest of the day…love it! Particularly the weight and texture – can hardly wait for hot weather! And what do you know, Cathy  R. must have known – she’s invited me to do her seminar in Monroe, MI next summer – the 21st and 22 of July 2017 – more on this later!

Happy New Year to all! I’m into mottos lately, like, ‘machine knit like you stole the yarn!’ Or, how ‘bout ‘machine knit like you could write a book about it!’? ;-)

final details...

My linen One-Row-Tuck GirlFriend Hoodie is done, awaiting the arrival of the zipper - I did order it from zipperstop.com and it should be here, maybe even before Christmas! I ordered two - a nylon one that was a #3 lightweight and a #5 metal, brass coloured teeth option and I can decide which one will be best - I have not particularly liked the nylon coil ones but I thought maybe it was time to try one again - the lightweight part caught my eye! and they seemed pretty cheap so what the hay? The hoodie's all finished up, washed and dried, bands on, ready for the last thing of machine sewing in the zipper. I opted for slightly narrower hem bands than the original MFH pattern - if you go to 'Just the Flax' (KW#47), I used the same graded-tension bands, same number of stitches, but I started at T10 and went down from there by one dot per row for 7 rows and then back up - yes, there is an extra row (8) on the front side of the band - that helps it to lay flat and not curl over or under. I made the cuff narrower yet, only 5/6 rows, but again same number of stitches as the cast-on edge. I used all the same finishing techniques as the Manfriend Hoodie, with the outside seaming  and the same front edge stabilizing for the zipper installation... I'm so happy with this, I'm looking around to see what else I can use for another one and, even though it's freaking cold here and this is supposed to be warm weather wear, I won't be waiting, I'll wear it as soon as the zipper is in - we do have central heating!

progress report and tweaks....

I have the back done and I'm very encouraged by the fact that the remaining cone looks almost the same! of course, the first thing I do is throw the back on my scale and it weighs in at 116g and that's with the waste yarn at shoulders and bottom edge! I weigh the cone and it has 424g remaining (started with 540g) so that translates to 116g for the back - not going to knitpick here and just call it 120g. I know that I had been weighing individual pieces in the past in certain projects for various reasons. On my second Omega hoodie (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2014/12/zipped-off.html)
I kept track - it was wool crepe deluxe (2200 yds per pound as opposed to the 1750 ypp for the linen) and a little different shape, but it will give me an idea of the ratio of the pieces. The back was 124g, back band was 20g, one sleeve with cuff was 92g, the hood was 74g and with band added it was 90g, front with pocket and band was 84g. That all adds up to 586g - take the bands out - they were all 5cm, doubled - that's about 70g for bands, so I'm very confident that I should be able to get this GFH done with pockets and hood, with contrast bands at least.
I've been thinking of you KAL-ing with me (hope springs eternal!)and figured I should add an extra consideration because this wouldn't be in the original MFH/GFH pattern as they are knit in stockinette. With the stitch pattern I am using, you may have noticed the vertical lines - there are actually 3 vertical lines separating the two reversed diamond-ish motifs. So I centred the pattern so the three lines run up the centre of the garment because that will look best but I wanted to remind you of my extra little tweak for patterns with vertical lines. After the underarm shaping is done for your size, or, actually before it is done, check and see where the vertical lines are placing in the shaping. Your finished garment will look much nicer if you can have a line (or two or three) running up the straight edge of the body after the underarm up to the shoulder (hope that makes sense). I did change mine - I made the shoulder wider by 2 stitches in order to have two vertical lines at each edge - of course, if you have chosen a stitch without vertical lines don't worry about this! :-) oh yeah and because of those three vertical lines, I added an extra stitch on one side, at the left for the back and will flip the pattern for the fronts and add the extra stitch at the right...and don't forget the yarn marks every 10 cm....oh, and I found a part cone of WCD leftover from Tobacco Road (KW#53) that is a very close match - instead of the beige linen...

12 step...

Last month, I admitted that I had an addiction to that Battenburg stitch pattern (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2016/05/obsessive-compulsive-addictive.html ). Well, now I'm not so sure what I was addicted to. Was it the stitch pattern? Was it the yarn? Or was it my GFH? I have been wearing that natural-coloured one non-stop and although I am loving it, I feel that it didn't go far enough and I've been dreaming of making another one. I was contemplating my stash of Bonita - the pale blue (nah, it's never been my favourite shade - it actually has a dull, almost dirty cast to it and the other sweaters that I've made with it are mostly left on the shelf) or red (although I am totally partial to red, I do have a couple of good, serviceable red cardigans/hoodies at the moment) and then! I recalled that I've been hoarding 2 cones of black Bonita - I know, I never told you, sorry, but we all have our secrets!
Anyway, I thought, what better way to get this out of my system? Knit an entire GFH out of black Bonita using the Battenburg stitch pattern!! That should cure me!
I'll admit, it has taken me 4 days to complete the back and, yes, for me, that's like almost a year! But I have really tried to limit myself to no more than one full repeat (40 rows) at each sitting and I have been working on other things!
I'm really trying to break the GFH design - I'm going to use different bands! It will be more 'dressy' with all the open lace work so I thought the stockinette bands won't do it justice - I'm waffling between the shortrowed lace edging from 'Nougat', KW#49 and/or one of the 'XOXO' trims from 'Band Practice'. And I am trying to talk myself out of the hood, I promise! But I do think it would look really cool to have the casing fold line in the centre of the stitch pattern...

obsessive, compulsive, addictive...

Can you be addicted to a stitch pattern? I mentioned the other day about making myself another Girlfriend Hoodie and how I had been meaning to do a knitted version of that purchased hoodie...well, another part of that was, upon finishing up my prototype of the Church Cardi, I was still totally in love with that Battenburg stitch pattern and it dawned on me that there was no need for a lot of useless experimenting, just use that pattern vertically up the sleeve of my new hoodie!

 The purchased hoodie has a vertical column of stitching and cut-outs on each sleeve and up the front, half on either side of the zipper. This will be so easy, I thought.
I banged out the sleeves in no time, just filling in bits of time here and there, you know, without really planning to spend the whole day at the machine.  I sat back and admired the sleeves, ignoring the little voice in the back of my mind that the 'floats', which are over 3 empty needle spaces, were going to be too long and would catch on things - I just didn't care, I was committed!
The next day, as I began knitting the pockets and fronts, I kept thinking, this will be done in no time, because the back will be totally plain and so will the hood. Well, when I cast on for the back, all of a sudden on row 2, without really thinking, virtually unconsciously, I began transferring for a single column of Battenburg to run up the back...what the?? oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound as they say and next thing I know I have this growing motif happening on the back like it has a life of its own! After I got 3 repeats wide, I tried to get it under control and cut back but I still couldn't stop until I got to the top, reasoning that no one would really be able to tell because the hood would hide some of it anyway.
As I started the hood, still planning on making it plain, I again found myself addictively hanging onto that 7-prong tool and not just making half of a repeat to run beside the drawstring casing, but doing a full one!
I love it! After machine washing and drying which I did to the first one (http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2015/06/manfriend-hoodie-pattern.html ) and all the others I've made since (this is number 7) the strings/floats tightened up very nicely and it's all good!
I'm thinking, I could use one in pale blue (ha, ha! you caught me! I did add a pale blue and a red zipper when I ordered the ivory one - zipperstop.com)...but my yarn has come in for the Church Cardi!

I'm kinda jealous...

I know it's not right, but my friend Deirdre sent me this photo - she made my Manfriend Hoodie for her son - she started out with Bonita (which my pattern called for) cotton in natural, knit it, finished it off and then dyed it aquamarine! AND then used her embroidery machine to add the skull and crossbones to personalize it for him. What a great job and what a great gift! I'm so proud of her because she hasn't knit for a while and I was pleased to help add to inspiring her to getting back to her machine and I love her finished product.
Huh! My GFH is getting kind of old, it's been a year! I have been wearing it incessantly and I do have a cone of the natural and an abandoned sleeve that would most likely get me a new hoodie...this brings back to mind a purchased hoodie that I have that http://knitwords.blogspot.ca/2011/06/snippets.html I had planned to do a version of and never got around to...

 

follow-up...

I am just finishing up making the pieces of my fourth hoodie - the navy one pictured here is for my friend Vickie's hubby (get better soon, big guy!) and the watermelon/hot pink one is for her ( I couldn't talk them into matchy-match ones). I needed to make a couple more for my demos at the Founder's Fest Seminar in Minneapolis, July 25, 26, 2015 (http://www.midwestmachineknitters.org/events/foundersfest/).  I will be showing seaming and finishing on the machine and as an extra class, sewing in the zipper - Dee said she'd bring a sewing machine just for this. So the navy one is all done, with the zipper pinned in place, ready for the sewing - I thought I'd show it here, because I wasted time looking for a navy zipper the right length and after a couple of weeks of finding nothing in navy that wasn't plastic, decided to opt for this black tape zipper with bronze teeth - I think it looks great and elevates the jacket from plain, old... to Wow, where did you get the nice hoodie? I already knew I wasn't going to be able to find a good match for the watermelon colour, so I'll keep you posted on my solution - a grey with silver teeth  or white with silver teeth...

manfriend hoodie pattern...

The pattern is ready! A comfy, wearable, durable, zip front hoodie for the man in your life and, a bonus pattern, GirlFriend Hoodie for the girls! The yarn is 'Bonita' from Knitcraft - 500g/1850 yd, mercerised cotton. The man pattern has 5 sizes,  finished chest,  44, 47, 50, 54, 57 in. Third size takes 750g.
The girl pattern, A-line (3 inches larger in hip), finished bust 38, 41, 44, 47, 50 in. Third size takes 650g. I got the two beige hoodies out of 3 cones of yarn. I have the yarn in stock, so if you can't find it from your regular supplier, I do mail order! (email me privately for cost and colours available.) And it's not like I'm saying, make matching hoodies for you and yours - I did it, planning to dye one (or both) to see what happens!
The pattern is written for the Advanced Beginner level, with lots of info on using shortrowing for decreasing, like the curve of the underarm, the neckline and the top of the sleeve cap; all the seaming is done on the machine, with outside seams on shoulder, neckline and sleeve cap to add a little extra design; the front patch pocket is made first and attached as you knit; lots of detail for stabilizing the front edge and sewing in the zipper, using the sewing machine - when you're finished this project you can move up to Intermediate! Oh, it's all just stockinette, so can be made on any standard gauge machine.
Order here, now, just click the 'Add to Cart' button under ManFriend Hoodie at the top right side of this blog. Thanks and talk to you soon!
P.S. thanks to Tom the machine knitting guy for testing this pattern for me! He did a great job!

also accomplished...

The 'Manfriend Hoodie' is made and finished - and I got all the pieces made for the 'Girlfriend Hoodie' so I can use them as a demo at the seminar in San Diego next weekend - I even promised to show the sewing machine application of the zipper installation  if they bring a sewing machine, to which they said yes!
I had hoped to get the pattern finished up too, but I need a bit more time and so do my proofreaders/test knitters, so you'll have to wait on that - I promise to have it ready by the end of May at the latest - you can find it for sale here - both patterns for the price of one!
I also wanted to mention that I will be at the Founders Fest in Minneapolis, MN, July 25, 26/15 and in Charlottetown, PEI for the Maritime Seminar in October 2, 3/15.
 Hope to see you!