Slowly Knitting Along

In last couple of days I have not accomplished much knitting.  I've started on the second Pembroke Vest for my other nephew.  The back is complete and about half of the front is finished.  After that is the finishing: blocking, sewing and knitting the neck and armhole ribbing.

Girl's Sweater Update:  I've not knit the revised swatch for the girls' sweater.  I did however draw the intended finished object on paper.  More pictures on this front to follow!

Speaking of the girls' sweater, would it be cheating if I held off the design process and chose a sweater that is already designed with no known issues?  I'm seriously considering this for at least one of the sweaters.  Alana's sweater to be exact.  After all she does live in New Orleans and has no need for a wool fair isle sweater.  Additionally, I happen to be the proud owner of a really cute short sleeve cardi pattern that I purchased in Atlanta at Stitches South.  Sounding very tempting considering that Christmas is less than 70 days away. 

 

Moss Diamond Blanket

Vicke left the following comment the other day. 

I love this design! Even though I have never knitted, I would like to make this into a 5' x 6' blanket. As a beginner do you have any suggestions for me and can you please tell me how much/kind yarn I would need to create a soft durable blanket. Thank you very much for sharing. Vicke

Vicke, I’m glad you asked! 

Before beginning a project such as this, I always have a plan.  The first part of that plan includes what yarn I am going to use.  I can’t stress enough how important yarn choice is.  You see, certain stitches just look better on some yarns than others.  Take cables for example.  They look fantastic in a nice wool or wool blend yarn as the yarn is able to have some give to it and will fill out in the blocking process.  However in a linen yarn, they look awful.  Linen just does not have the “give” or “springiness” that wool does resulting in cables that look forced rather than an elegant cross over of stitches.  With that said, this pattern is a combination of knit and purl stitches and these stitches look fantastic in just about anything.  I’m only asking if we can refrain from using acrylic.  Please use the good stuff.  If you are gonna take the time and effort to knit something lets at least know we will enjoy the feel of it when its all put together.

Vicky mentioned that she has never knitted but wants to start.  Most new knitters are more successful with a bulky yarn that knits up at 12-14 stitches per 4 inch.  A good yarn choice would be Elann.com PeruvianHighland Bulky. I LOVE this yarn and am very excited it comes in a bulky weight. 

Now that we have our yarn picked out lets work on the pattern.  We know the finished dimensions are to be 5’ by 6’ which converts to 60” x 72”.  We also know that we should get 12-14 sts per 4 inch which equals 3 -3.5 sts per inch with our yarn choice.   In order to calculate how many stitches needed to cast on we multiply our total length in inches by the number of stitches we get per inch.

60 inches in length x 3 sts per inch = 180 sts to cast on.

All blankets look more finished when it has at a least one inch border.   I’m going with a seed stitch border because this will compliment the seed stitch found in the pattern.  A seed stitch is simply a knit one stitch followed by purling one stitch.   This is a repeat of 2 stiches. Remember we want a one inch border and in our yarn 3 stitches is equal to one inch.  If we designate 4 stitches for the left and 4 stitches for the right side of the border, our border will be a little bit more than one inch on each side.

We calculated that we needed 180 stitches total for the blanket and 8 stitches for our border leaving 172 stitches left over for the center.

180 total stitches – 8 border stitches = 172 stitches left over for the center pattern.

Now for the center pattern.  It is a multiple of 12 stitches.  So to figure out how many repeats of this pattern we will need, we just divide our center stitches by the pattern repeat.

172 pattern stitches / 12 = 14.33333

Well in knitting there is no such thing as .333333.  You either have a stitch or you don’t.  No left overs are allowed which means we need to find the answer that will give us a whole number.

An easy way to do this is to take our number of stitches per repeat and multiply that by the whole number of repeats just calculated.

12 stitches per inch x 14 repeats = 168 center pattern stitches. 

Because we adjusted the center pattern stitches to be 168, we need to add on the 8 border stitches to come up with 176 stitches to cast on. 

Moss Diamond Blanket

Materials:
Yarn = Elann.com PeruvianHighland Bulky
Needles = US10


With US 10 cast on 176 sts .

Row 1: *k1, p1; rep from *

Row 2: *p1, k1; rep from *

Row 3: *k1, p1; rep from *

Row 4: *p1, k1; rep from *

Row 5: (k1, p1) twice, follow row 1 of Moss Diamond Pattern to the last 4 stitches, (k1, p1) twice.

Row 6: (p1,k1) twice, follow row 2 of Diamond Pattern to the last 4 stitches, (p1, k1) twice.

Continue repeating rows 5 and 6 substituting in the appropriate row of the moss diamond pattern until you have 5 ½ feet in length. 

Repeat rows 1-4 and then bind off. 

NOTE: The Moss Diamond Pattern will be repeated 14 times

Moss Diamond and Lozenge Pattern
A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, pg 17

Multiple of 12 sts.

Rows 1 and 2: *K6, p6; rep from *
Rows 3 and 4: * P1, k5, p5, k1; rep from *
Rows 5 and 6: *K1, p1, k4, p4, k1, p1; rep from *
Rows 7 and 8: *P1, k1, p1, k3, p3, k1, p1, k1; rep from *
Rows 9 and 10: *(k1, p1) twice, k2, p2, (k1, p1) twice; rep from *
Rows 11 and 12: *P1, k1; rep from *
Rows 13 and 14: *K1, P1; rep from *
Rows 15 and 16: *(P1, k1) twice, p2, k2, (p1, k1) twice; rep from *
Rows 17 and 18: *K1, p1, k1, p3, k3, p1, k1, p1; rep from *
Rows 19 and 20: *P1, k1, p4, k4, p1, k1; rep from *
Rows 21 and 22: *K1, p5, k5, p1; rep from *
Rows 23 and 24: *P6, k6; rep from *
Rows 25 and 26: *P5, k1, p1, k5; rep from *
Rows 27 and 28: *P4, (k1, p1) twice, k4; rep from *
Rows 29 and 30: *P3, (k1, p1) 3 times, k3; rep from *
Rows 31 and 32: *P2, (k1, p1) 4 times, k2; rep from *
Rows 33 and 34: *P1, k1; rep from *
Rows 35 and 36: *K1, p1; rep from *
Rows 37 and 38: *K2, (p1, k1) 4 times, p2; rep from *
Rows 39 and 40: *K3, (p1, k1) 3 times, p3; rep from *
Rows 41 and 42: *K4, (p1, k1) twice, p4; rep from *
Rows 43 and 44: *K5, p1, k1, p5; rep from *

Repeat rows 1-44.

To read the chart, start on the bottom right (right side of fabric).  The next row, or return row, starts on the left with row two (wrong side of fabric).  The blank squares are knit on the right side (odd rows) and purled on the wrong side (even rows).  The dot squares are purled on the right side and knit on the wrong side.  The red lines indicate where the center pattern stitches are and repeats 14 times.  The 4 stitches on the left and right side of the chart are the border stitches.

Note:  I have not knit this blanket, only the 12x12 inch square (1 square foot) which took about 100 yds of yarn.  Our blanket is 30 square feet (5x6 = 30) and will require about 3000 yards of yarn.  Our yarn has 76 yds per skein so we will need about 40 skeins of yarn to complete this blanket (3000/76 = 39.4 ~40).  Please know this is only a rough estimate. 

Vicke, I'm hoping this is what you were looking for and look forward to seeing your finished blanket!  Again thank you for the great question!

Design Swatch

Thank you for all of your input on which design you like best.  Turns out we are on the same page because I liked the second one as well.

 I swatched it without the repeat of the brown and pink perries on the top.

The results are definately less than satisfactory.  OK I'll say it, I hate it.  Truely hate it.  What is it
that I hate about it?  For starters you can barely see the pink hearts at the top.  The hearts are spread apart too far and I'm not all that crazy about the brown stitches in between the hearts. Those gotta go. 

Good thing I swatched huh?  I could have knitted up an entire sweater only to have found out that I hated it.  So its back to the drawing board. 

I removed the brown stitches between the hearts and pushed the hearts closer together.   Hopefully the swatch will turn out to be a winner.

The Finished Pembroke Vest

The vest is finished and I could not be more pleased with the results.  The gamble I took with the gauge paid off.  The size is perfect!  However this was not always the case, about half way through the vest I was starting to sweat it because the width seemed to be a bit narrow.  The great thing about ribs and cables is that they tend to pull in during knitting and can be stretched out during the washing and drying process.  I pulled out one of Sydney's shirts and measured it up to the vest and it is perfect.  I also put it on Sydney and even thought she insists that its too big on her, it appears to be a perfect fit. I'm just hoping for pictures of a little boy in it with a pair of pants, long sleeve shirt and a cute tie.

Christmas gift count:  2 Christmas knitting gifts complete, 3 to go for the kids.  Ray told me that he really likes the wool socks I made him awhile back and would like another pair.  With that said, my list just got longer.  LOL  Additionally my sister mentioned awhile back that it would be nice if she had some slippers. 

So the count is now:

My family:
Ray: socks
Karolyn: personal design
Sydney: personal design

My sisters family:
  Mary (my sister): slippers
  Alana (niece): personal design
  Bryce (nephew): Pembrook Vest = complete
  Jacqueline (niece): Clara Dressy = complete

My brother John's family:
  Trenton (nephew): Pembrook Vest

That sure is a whole lotta red! 

The Girl's Christmas Sweater

As I'm working on the Pembroke Vest for the boys my mind keeps wandering to what I'm going to design for the girls.  I know that I want to use Elann.com's Devon, a discontinued yarn of which I have a large amount.  I'm also thinking that the girls would love hearts on the Fair Isle Yolk portion of the sweater. 

I've been mulling over a design in my mind for awhile now and decided it was about time I get it out of my mind and onto paper.  

I came up with 3 variations of hearts and I just can't decide which one I'm going to knit up.

Heart Design #1

In Heart Design #1 I've stacked the hearts and added a bit of brown color in between the hearts.   I also included a little perrie design at the top and bottom of the hearts motif.

 Heart Design #2

For Heart Design #2, I staggered the hearts and the bit of brown color in between.  I think I like this one a bit better than Design #1, but I'm still undecided.

 Heart Design #3

For the final design, I removed the perries and replaced it a little scallop underneath the hearts.  I'm not exactly crazy about this because I think that there should be a bit more color in the scallop section however I'm not exactly sure where the color should go.  Any suggestions?

Please let me know what your favorite pattern is!

The Pembroke Vest

Now that I have the Clara Dressy complete and out of the way,  I'm wasting absolutely no time getting started on the The Pembroke Vest.  I've printed off the pattern and its 7 pages long.  7 pages to tell me how to knit a vest for a toddler.  I don't have a pattern that is 7 pages long for an adult sweater. 

I'm still going with my original decision to knit the vest in Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran.  The fiber content is 55% Merion wool, 33% Microfibre and 12% Cashmere.  The label even indicates that it is machine washable!  Can life get any better?



I've decided to skip the swatch process.  I know, I know, one never skips the swatching process. Especially if one wants their finished object to be the correct size.

Don't be like me.  Swatch, Swatch, Swatch.

With that said, I have used Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran in a previous sweater and I got ball band gauge.  Does that count as doing a gauge?  I didn't think so either.

Either way, I'm diving right in and casting on 86 sts with my US5's.  Good God, wish me luck.  I sure hope that my bet pays off and it acutally fits.

*Keeping fingers crosses*

Manhole Covers

Remember my manhole covers?  Turns out they are off of the shipwreck William Dickenson, a tug boat that was built in 1893 in Benton Harbor, Michigan by E. W. Heath for the Independant Towing Company for use in Chicago.  In 1895, the tug boat helped in the search for the victoms of the Chicora.  In a newspaper dated 1904 from "The Eau Claire Leader" of Eau Claire, Wisconsin had an article saying: "A large touring automobile, with four shreiking occupants - three men and a woman - shot through the open draw of the Rush street bridge at 11 pm and plunged into the Chicago River, turning a sumersault as it fell." The crew of the William Dickenson along with Sailor Lewis Mohr rescued the four passengers. This story made National News.  We found newspaper articles covering this story from "The Waterloo Times - Tribune" of Waterloo, Iowa, "The Bismark Daily Tribune" of Bismark, North Dakota, and "The Daily Huronite" of South Dakota.

In 1923 the tug boat caught on fire in Marine City, Michigan.  The "Port Huron Times" reports: 'According to the crew, the fire is believed to have originated in the coal bunkers, late Saturday night.  Fought by the crew the fire was soon under control but broke out again more severely in places difficult to reach.  The vessel was cut loose from its moorings and allowed to drift out into chanel where it partially sank.  When the fire became so dangerous that it might spread to other vessels docked at the shipyard it was necessary to cut the burning tug from its moorings and allow it to drift away from its doc and nearby vessels.'

Today there isn't much left of the William Dickenson and there is even less now that 2 of her manhole covers have taken residence in my garage.  Ray cleaned them up a bit and upon closer examination they are pretty cool.  Some of the raised letters are backwards: the "D"s in Foundry and Indiana, and the "3"s .  The covers were manufactured in Chicago by the R M Eddy Foundry!  It has a simple pattern that radiats out from the center of the cover.  There is even an indentation where the ring used to be to lift the covers up.  Based on the amount of corrosion present, we don't think that they are entirely made of steel.  My guess is that it is made of gray iron, a common material used in Foundries. 

So how does one recover not one but two manhold covers that weigh about 50lbs a piece while being weighted down with dive equipment? Well, you would use C-clamps of course! You get yourself about 3 or 4 C-clamps, suit up, dive under the water where the visiblility is about 10 inches in front of your face, and start feeling for some round things that might or might not be your manhole covers. Then after you have felt around for a good half hour through the mud and underwater grass, you feel something that might be promising. Clamp on the c-clamp in several locations, tie your rope through the clamps, attach a lift bag and let the air lift up the manhole covers and pray to God Almighty that everything goes according to plan, because if it doesn't you are right back at square one with your 50lb manhole cover at the bottom of the St Clair River. Luckily for Ray, everything went according to plan, the second time around! 

The Clara Dressy

How cute is this?  I just can't get over it!  Totally adorable.  Too bad the pattern only comes in 2 sizes. Looks like I'll have to resize it if  I want it for my girls.  Goodness gracious what a fast knit this turned out to be!  The pattern is knit from the bottom up and starts out with seed stitch, which has great definition in cotton.  Then it transitions into the pattern followed by some plain knitting.  Once you get to the middle, you decrease half of your stitches and revisit your seed stitch for 10 rows before knitting the leaf patterned yolk.  Because this is knit in the round, when you cast off the garment is complete.  No sewing!  I love this feature! 

I did make one modification to the pattern and that was to add 2 inches in length to the dress section.  The pattern called for the length to be 9.5 inches for the size I was making and I felt that was a bit short.

One Christmas item complete, 4 to go.