Give it to Kari! She likes it!

It's not easy for a mother to knit something that the daughter likes. At least that's been the case at our house. I finally hit the jackpot with the Circle of Life sweater. On Kari, it's more like a coat since she is a little vertically challenged, as my husband teases. You can turn the coat upside down and it is a waist length, large collared sweater. You can see the sweater on another model at http://www.knitwords.com/. Mary Anne keeps the pictures from the current issue up until the next one comes out.

I really had fun designing and knitting this garment. It's different from anything else I've made and it combines a lot of techniques. I made it out of Forsell's Pure New Wool, which is a very nice yarn. (Maybe I said that before when it was in progress.) Needs steaming now and then, I noticed.

If I were to knit this again, I might make it as a semi-circular shawl and omit the sleeves. The swirls created by the short-rowing are graceful. If you click on the smaller picture, you will get a larger pic that shows the swirls better.

So now, I'm on to another project. Pictures to follow. Stay tuned!

Going around in circles

More on the adult circular sweater. It's been occupying my knit time of late. I spent many hours (days) knitting with the worsted weight wool using my Brother KX350. Actually knit the whole circle, which involved a lot of transfers and much patience, 12 wedges. When I got done, I hated it for a couple of reasons. The thing ended up to weigh a lot and I didn't even have the sleeves knit or attached yet. Was thinking I'd have to consider it a winter jacket, which was never my vision. Also, although the yarn was gorgeous on the skein, and ok on the swatch, I didn't like it at all when knit in wedges.

Why didn't I quit before finishing the whole circle, you ask? Very good question. I guess I thought the colors would grow on me and the weight wouldn't seem so impressive off the machine. The more time I invested, the more I hated to give it up. But, after sleeping on it a couple of nights, I decided to start over on my standard gauge machine. It makes beautiful, more intricate lace without eye- popping- brain numbing- hand transfers and the weight of the garment wouldn't be an issue.

I have some beautiful Forsell 100% Pure New Wool that knits up so nicely. Swatched a little, tried some different lace patterns for a border, and off I went. I had the opportunity to have dinner with Mary Anne last weekend and got some advice on finishing the thing. It's going to have cut and sew armholes for the sleeves. She suggested cutting an identical sized circle out of muslin or other throw-away fabric, as she did for the cover garment a couple of issues ago, and snipping into that for armholes. Using that method I can hopefully get the sleeve placement right. I think I have an old sheet I used to use to cover the garden to protect from frost--can use that. I would hate to cut into my hard earned knitting and make a mistake after all that. If they could move Thunder Bay to Minneapolis, I'd be one happy camper.

I still need to knit the scallops and haven't decided which color to use. Have knit a couple of trial runs that I can easily rip out. Am debating between white, blood red and a brown (not pictured). I'm pleased that this scallop makes the edge behave without curling. If this masterpiece turns out, I'm hoping MA will publish it. We'll see! Any preference for color?

Women's Circular Sweater

I've been stewing over my adult-sized circular sweater to knit on the midgauge. I think I have my lace figured out, bought some yarn I like and have done some swatching. I'm thinking I'll make one wedge 1/2 the total diameter of the sweater, plus some ease, plus enough to overlap in the front. It's different thinking "circularly".
Can't get enough of my blooming hibiscus. Trying my macro setting on my camera and am getting slightly better results. I think I'm focusing on the stamen, but the absolute clear focus seems to lie a little behind. Click on the picture and I think you'll see what I mean. Tricky! I love the pictures anyway, even if they aren't going to win any contest.
Hope you have a nice weekend.