Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Field of Stripes


Pattern:
Flax by TinCan Knits (Link to Pattern Page on TinCanKnits.com🔗)

Started: February 7, 2022

Finished: April 5, 2022 (9:36 am NDT)

Made for: Squish's 3rd birthday

Size made: 4-6 years

Yarns: Bernat Premium (100% acrylic; 360yds/329 m = 198g)
  • 53g of "58507 Red" (started with 53g; ended with 0g) = 96.4yds
  • 45g of "58510 Orange" (started with 63g; ended with 18g) =  81.8yds
  • 50g of "58514 Green" (started with 82g; ended with 32g) =  90.9yds 
  • 53g of "58521 Royal Blue" (started with 59g; ended with 6g) = 96.4yds
  • 33g of "58003 Dark Gray Heather" (started with 171g; ended with 138g) = 60yds
Total Yardage: 425.5 yds

Needle sizes: 4.5mm/US 7

Notes & Photos: 
February 7: Wee Squish's birthday completely slipped my mind last year *facepalm* so must make up for it! Flax in stripes of crayon bright colors should fit the bill :) Modification: I'm thinking 6 rnd stripes in order r, o, g, b. Might use black or gray for neck and cuff ribbings; not decided yet!

That being said, I will use option 2, casting on and knitting the yoke immediately and going back at the end to knit the neck band. 

Gauge is given as 18sts & 22rnds = 4inches/10cm, so definitely a 4.5mm needle with this yarn :) And size 4-6y starts with 74sts. Starting with the red. And there's quickly an increase of 8sts to make 82. To do this evenly I'm using Ann Budd's handy formula which I'll photograph from my sheet of paper. Yes, I'm using pen and paper; what can I say, I'm an old school Gen Xer lol

To summarize, my inc rnd will be: K5, (yo, K9) 3x, yo, K10, (yo, K9) 3x, yo, K5. On the next rnd I work the yo's tbl to get rid of the holes; gets rid of any pulling up that lifted bar incs like to make.

This is also my project for Yr 2 Potions at Ilvermorny. Declaration is here: 🧪⚗️ I can relate the project to a pewter cauldron which requires meticulous notes and observation, and also it's an alloy of garter st & stockinette, much like many cauldrons are made from alloys :)

later: Cast-on done! Here we go!
Red cast-on stitches on a circular knitting needle attached to a ball of red yarn. A black and white fluffy cat snoozes in the background, while a partially filled bowl of kibble sits next to the knitting needle.

later (9:25pm): I have 2 stripes done already :) It's pretty bunched up on my needle but I took a photo anyway:
In progress: a piece of knitting with garter stitch and stockinette sections, with a stripe of red that is 3 ridges of garter stitch high, and a stripe of orange the same height. There are some green stitches on the needle but most are still orange.

Green is the next stripe followed by blue, then back to red. I like how it's coming along. And once again the little fella won't get lost in a snowstorm :D

February 15: I'm at the point to separate the sleeves and body :) Knits for toddlers go so quickly! Here's how it's looking:
A striped project on a circular knitting needle. The piece is laid vertically and the colors from left to right are: red, orange, green, blue, red & orange. One section of the piece is in garter stitch while most of it is stockinette stitch.

February 22: The body and sleeves are separated :) I have the sleeves on two smaller sized circular needles instead of waste yarn; I find it easier to get the sts back onto the working needle from a smaller circ. I'm maintaining the stripe pattern through the body. Oh, my other minor change: I used cable cast-on for the underarm sts rather than backward loops. I intensely dislike the backward loop cast-on for more than 1 st. The way it distorts and you end up with weird gaps is really off putting to me. So I used my old standby. Here's how it's looking tonight:

February 28: It's growing :) The body measures 4" from the underarm. According to the pattern I need to knit straight down until the body is 9" from the underarm. Plenty of stripes left to go. I think it looks very cheerful.
The in progress sweater, upside down. The body is quite a bit longer than the last photo shown.

March 15: A bit more done. I keep measuring. Up to 7.5" now so the green stripe will definitely get done, blue might be a partial before the ribbing.
The sweater now has 8 full stripes below where the arms were split out.

March 17: Just finished the ribbing on the bottom of the body :) I got the full blue stripe in before the ribbing, which is 9 rnds of gray; the first was a knit rnd to avoid blips. Yay, progress! Oh and I bought a second set of 4.5mm dpns today so I can work the sleeves at roughly the same time (one will be a stripe behind) so that I know when to start subbing gray in for the red or blue since I'm really getting short on those. 
The sweater laid flat and turned right side up. There are exactly 4 repeats of the 4 color sequence followed by gray ribbing at the bottom edge. There are furry cat feet touching the right hand side of the sweater.

Note that I had an attempted photobombing with this first pic so I snapped a second one to reveal my attention seeker:
A black and white fluffy cat lays stretched out on the right hand side of the laid out sweater.

Big shock, the culprit is Jakey! (Yeah, no shock at all lol) So later in the day, cuz it's 1:32am, I will start the sleeves :)

March 23: Started the sleeves while watching Carrie Craftgeek's latest "live" stream; I watched like 2 days after she was streaming hence live is in quotes :)

So I'm working the sleeves in the recommended method of two-at-a-time. I wouldn't normally do this but I'm seriously low on two colors and I need to know exactly when to start substituting the gray for whichever color runs out first. 

I have each sleeve on its own trio of dpns and am working with a 7th one. I'm doing this by working a 6 rnd stripe in whatever color is next, cutting the yarn while leaving a tail, and immediately knitting the same color stripe on the other sleeve. One of my sleeves has a white marker for the BOR marker, the other has a black marker; white is my starting sleeve, black is the catch up sleeve. I have the orange stripe done; this was partially done, the sleeves sts were put on hold on what should have been rnd 5 of 6. And the first green stripe is also done on both sleeves. I just finished the first blue stripe on my white sleeve. Here's a photo:
In progress: The sweater is upside down once again, this time with its sleeve stitches on double-pointed needles. The sleeve to the right has a green stripe on the needles, the left one has a blue stripe.

April 5 (6:57am NDT): Been doing a marathon session to get the sleeves done! I've been taking care of Sistwerp who's had reflux, a stomach bug, and a muscle/tendon pulling in her neck. Yeah. All kinds of funsies. So I'm passed my deadline and I really need to get this sent today. I have the first sleeve done and only the cuff on the other one and the neckband left! Photo:
The sweater, top side up, with the finished sleeve on the right crossing the body and the left sleeve crossing over it with the double-pointed needles in place. The left sleeve needs its cuff completed. The neckline of the sweater is still not completed either.

And I have a photo of the finished sleeve showing the juxtaposition of stockinette stitch, garter stitch, and 1x1 ribbing. I think of the interplay of these 3 stitch patterns as an alloy building this sweater much like a cauldron is often built from an alloy of materials. The sleeve photo:

You might notice the gray stripe where it should be a red one. I did in fact run out of red yarn, which I thought might happen. Thank goodness I have more than enough gray!

Ok, let's try and get this baby done before the post office opens!

later (9:36am EDT): Done and all the ends woven in :) I think it turned out perfectly. I hope Cousin sends me a photo of Squish in his new sweater 

No comments:

Post a Comment