you could call me...

obsessive! maybe compulsive! or even impulsive! I do tend to get stuck on something and I’m going to repeat it to death! No biggie, I think of it as keeping busy and it’s nice to be productive! Yeah, I’m making another lace, button-front hoodie. So!

Just to change it up a bit, I swatched a different lace pattern, this one from Becca https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/11/earth-to-mao.html, https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2019/01/unfinished-business.html 

thinking I had 2 cones of white Brittany. Turns out one was 'arctic', the other was 'optic' and there was a third one that was just 'white' - they were Bramwell Montana (says something about how old they really are), basically the same thing as Yeoman’s Brittany, the 2-ply soft cotton. I only noticed the colour difference after getting the swatch out of the dryer. What to do? You can’t plate with the lace carriage. Continue and over-dye it, may be an option. Adding in a second colour without stripes? Like, using the second colour just for the bands/borders so it looks like you planned it instead of just running out of yarn… like that Rich Raglan that was part of Serial Stuff 2 https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2013/11/who-needs-sudoku.html

Looking further, I found 2 part-cones of Brittany in 'clover', a dark blush/gray-ish pink shade, about 250g left on each. Not really my colour but truly, I was thinking of making this one for sister Janet who is quite a bit shorter than me. The finished weight of Holey Moley is 468g, so it could be kind of pushing it. Back-up plan needed! After more searching, partial cones of 'parchment', an off-white, looked like it would ‘go’ with the clover and, yes, impulsively, I dove into this new project! Without thinking it through, (and shortening my schematic to suit my much shorter sister!) I went ahead, so excited to see how using the parchment for the hems and bands would change the overall look and solve the yarn shortage issue.

To be honest, by the time I was finished the Back, I was in love with this colour and thought, oh well, Janet will never know, and it’s be too long for her anyway!;))

smug...

that was me! Finished up Holey Moley last week and I thought, ‘oh, if I had somewhere special to wear this!’

We are in a stay-at-home lockdown, basically since Christmas, but the last month, really serious, where only essential stuff is open. I knew I wouldn’t get new buttons until this was over and I couldn’t wait. The best option I had was 8 ivory, plain 3/4 inch buttons that would work so I painted them to as close a match that I thought would do – I have some acrylic paints in my craft stash – a drop of mustard yellow and half a drop of golden brown gave me a shade slightly darker than my pale primula cotton.  Finished them off with a clear top coat of nail polish to protect the paint and I’m ready!

I’ll back up a bit. Everything done, ready for the wash – I had hand basted the other edges of the pockets in place, the centre front edge is incorporated in the button bands – thought it would be prudent to get everything pre-shrunk before the final sewing and  figured it might work better to have them stitched down, rather than free-floating in the wash. Worked nicely, pulled out the basting, pinned them again and machine-stitched in place, lining up the pattern properly. This is so nice! Love it!

washed (note ruler)
 with bad, unwashed sleeve

I had the appointment for my first vaccine and although it was a cloudy, sort of miserable day and I wanted to be comfortable, I figured I’d wear this with jeans and sneakers. Walked in, health card in hand and the lady said, ‘I just love your sweater! ! You look so springy!' I said, 'thank you'. Her, ‘Oh, it has a hood too! I need one of those, where did you get it?’ 

I had to admit I made it. She couldn’t see my smug smile…I was wearing my mask! Made my day!

holey moley...

Brittany is a very fine 3/14, 2 ply cotton – Yeoman’s website lists it as 400g
cone/3380m, but it was on 350g cones at one time with 66 colours! Oh, the good old days! I don’t think I’ve ever used it single stranded – it’s way too thin for the standard gauge machine – even to use a tuck stitch at T2 – what could you make other than a baby’s something? Oh wait, I DID a couple of double bed things single stranded – a set of his and hers cardigans in double bed jacquard (Knitwords #34)  and, what do you know?, a little boy’s golf shirt in a tuck stitch at T2! That was Tiger in Training in #41.

Mostly I used it double stranded, for a washed gauge similar to a 4-ply yarn, but it is much softer and drapier by comparison. For example, Yeomans’ Cannelé is a 4-ply mercerised cotton (won’t have the same shrinkage factor) and you can get the same gauge using the same stitch size but the swatch from Cannelé will be stiffer and not as fluid, so not always a good substitute for each other especially if softness and drape are factors in the design. I like mercerised cottons for a crisp, more tailored project.

To double the yarn, thread each strand into separate tension discs ad join in the yarn feeder. Otherwise, two strands together in the same side of the tension mast will cling together and ‘climb’ up, feeding unevenly, possibly causing loops and bumps in the knitting.

For my Holey Moley hoodie, I swatched at T5 (26 sts and 45 rows; washed 29 sts and 50 rows) and T6 (25 sts and 40 rows; washed, 28 sts and 45 rows).  Note, I’m using the Silver Reed which has a separate lace carriage that knits and transfers and the tension/stitch size is different than the main knit carriage – I would knit this double stranded yarn in stockinette at T7 and my lace carriage is about two numbers lower for a similar gauge – on a brother machine, I’d go with T7 and T8 for the same thing. I hadn’t used Brittany for lace, and I wanted a comparison. After the swatch was washed and dried, I liked the size of the holes (slightly larger) in the T6 part. In the charcoal wool hoodie, using the same stitch pattern, the holes closed up a lot for a more textured effect and I was hoping the cotton one would remain airy, without having to press it out every washing.

Unwashed

The main difference between knitting lace with wool and soft cotton: initially the cotton seemed to require more weight (on some transfers, only one of the strands transferred properly) which I added. The Back knit beautifully. The first half Front, not so much - there were a few random dropped stitches which I was able to spot and repair without having to rip back. I set up for the second Front, and briefly, it crossed my mind to think about the sponge bar but as usual, in a hurry, excited to get things done, I continued. It seemed fine. I took a day off and went back to knit a sleeve. Halfway up, after like 16 repairs, I admitted defeat and aborted it. Pulled out the needle retainer and sure enough, flat as a crepe!

https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2016/02/mental-note.html

Note to self, READ MA’s blogs on lace knitting before attempting a new lace project!

the power of suggestion...

 I got an email from someone asking if I’d ever used Yeoman Yarns Brittany? Does the Pope have a nose? Have you used it for plain stockinette? Heck, yeah! Does it bias? Never happened to me! But guess who has 2 cones of Brittany in ‘pale primula’, well-aged (as is virtually everything on my shelves!) – it’s not quite the Pantone colour of the year but I have a couple of rayon print fabrics, recently purchased, slated for spring dresses and I think this goes perfect!

My inspiration, that last lacy cardigan, Smokin’ – love it! And in this cotton, oh my, so excited!

So, what’s the big mystery about cotton? And how do you know what to do? You’ve probably heard the horror stories: it grows during wearing and ends up stretching out; it makes a really heavy, draggy garment, hard to work with because you need to pre-shrink before putting together, the garment biases and twists – NOT to all that!  My guess is these stories are based on hand knitting or people using industrial cotton, not meant for our knitting machines, something that should only be used for knitting dishcloths (and WHY do they make dishcloths??? – sorry, Bonnie from WI – she did give me 3 back in 2018, I think, at the Founders Fest and honestly, I used them and came to love them – sadly, the last one developed holes and I think it’s time to put it to rest).

unwashed swatch

Anyway, I’m talking about a very good quality cotton, meant specifically for machine knitting.

My method of using cotton – allow for the shrinkage when making your swatch. This yarn, (Yeoman Yarns Brittany) is what I call a soft cotton – not mercerised and has a matte finish. Sample out or test knit for the gauge. You want it to look a little loose because laundering will shrink it and cause the knit stitches to become smaller and tighten up. I do use the dryer but don’t over-dry – that will cause the cotton to become stiff and hard – if this happens, no worries, just add water and try again! My theory from here is that when you launder the garment, regardless of the stitch, whether it is stockinette, lace, tuck or whatever, it is all going to shrink at the same rate so there is no need to pre-wash the pieces before assembly. I make the entire garment, put it all together (yes, it will be too big, at least, too long) and then launder it and presto, you have a lovely finished garment that fits and was easy to assemble!

the truth...

Sometimes I don’t tell you everything. Yeah, I admit it, not wanting to say, after all that work, that thing sucks. I don’t like it. It doesn’t fit right. It didn’t come out like I planned.  http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/02/all-aran-ed-out.html

But, what to do about it?

Usually after finishing something, I put it on and am so happy, I wear it for like three days straight! That red tunic, I didn’t even give it a name! When I put it on, I just thought, oh dear, yikes! I blamed it on my hair-do – or lack thereof! It was one of those days! Anyway, I did try the tunic on a couple more times, when my hair and make-up wouldn’t be the reason and yeah, I just didn’t like it.

I finally figured that I messed up on the sleeve – I had altered the original shape, narrowing the neck width, changing it into a closer-fitting round neckline, which brought the shoulder in. The top of the sleeve would sit at the top of my shoulder like a set-in sleeve, but I made the sleeve same as the original design, but, by mistake, the next size up! and although it all went together fine, there was just too much sleeve! The garment was bunching and thick at the underarms. It was tempting to just leave it, but I knew I would never wear it and I couldn’t give it away like that.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I took apart the side seams and ripped off the sleeves. It’s been kicking around the room since and I finally promised myself to fix it before I could move on to anything else.

Unravelled the sleeve down to row 60 – easy to figure where I was because of my notes and I still had the markings on the number strip to match up with the centre cable. Reknit the sleeve using the shape of the last one I made (charcoal lace – Smokin’ – ‘cuz that’s how I feel when wearing it!), so it’s much narrower at the underarm and then the curved cap.

Put it all back together, washed it to get the kinks out and yeah, it’s all good! I’ll be wearing it (Poppy Perfect) for the next three days! ;)

déjà vu…

This is not exactly a spring colour but, I love my lace carriage, and I had two full cones of this ‘charcoal’ Forsell pure new wool 4 ply and thought, I gotta do this! That Driftwood hoodie https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/11/under-wear.html  has been one of my favourite stay-at-home-all-day wardrobe staples – I love the shape of it, the feel of it (it’s a thickness thing!), the button front (instead of zippered) and it just makes me feel good. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/11/hind-sight.html

You’d think I already have enough hoodies but in assessing things, I don’t have an all-over lace hoodie with pockets, so that’s my goal. Choosing a lace pattern was the next step and this one’s Me-Cozy from Knitwords #48. I have used it quite a few times over the years and as I wanted lots of holes, somewhat geometric, and no multiple passes, this fit the bill. I searched my books for an appropriate hem/band/trim but rather than another ribbed band, I hoped to keep it simple. Looking at my original design, I saw the edging was totally easy, just a rehang, ewrap, knit a row and then the cast-off, all ending up looking like a garter-stitch little hem. I tried it out on my swatch, and I had the feeling I did this before! https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-betweenssometime-last-week.html  I’ll go with that again!

Just for something a little different and to avoid the issue of having to hang the bottom of that original pocket, incorporating it into the hem, I went with a patch pocket that would be sewn on afterward. https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2018/02/decreasing-hack.html

When it came to doing the front bands, I figured the patch pockets would look much nicer if that centre side edge was incorporated into the front band, a little risky but what the hay? The devil may care!

Pleased to report my new Franky seaming technique of putting wrong sides together works very nicely on this one too! http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2021/03/she-likes-it.html

Oh, I just love this thing! I see another one in the near future! Who cares about spring colours? I’d be very happy for anyone to see me wearing this! ;)

denim done...

I got the set-in sleeve seaming sorted. Seamed the underarm using that ‘franky’ seaming technique - I can see that becoming my go-to method! That turned the sleeve cap into a ‘circle’, so, to join it to the body, in sections, starting at one end of the machine, hanging as far as it could stretch, casting off that part and then hanging the next. Worked fine.

I had already decided the front bands would be stockinette with the chain-stitch in the fold line (Side Steps https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2013/05/snow-days.html  and I thought the collar would look great with that too. Took me two trys to get it right, with the chain inserted between the angled ends, but looks good. I did a riff on that chain stitch added to the pocket edge https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/fourth-times-charm.html 

I was putting off dealing with the pockets to be honest. Almost resorted to my back-up plan of closing up the pocket opening by grafting over the ravel cord opening - no one would notice, up then I wouldn't have pockets! I had been so pleased with myself, thinking this was going to be easy. Putting the opening (green line of ravel cord to hold the stitches) as I was constructing the body, thinking I'd just knit an inside patch for the actual pocket. Realized that wouldn't work for various reasons and then it finally dawned on me to just sew a bag pocket that I could hand sew the opening to the pocket opening and stitch the fold along the inside of the front band so it would be held in place and not sag below the bottom edge and still be totally useable, not showing on the outside in any way. It works! So happy!