Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Finished Object: Gathering Intentions

Gathering4.jpg
Excuse the wonky colors in photo. The colors in the photo below are more accurate.*

Pattern: Gathering Intentions from Inspired Cable Knits, smallest size +
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50% cotton, 50% acrylic, 100 g) in pink, less than 7 balls used. Yarn was a gift from Barbie.
Needles: US size 7

Modifications:
1. I wanted something between the smallest size and the next size up, so I added a few stitches to the fronts and back. Then, I adjusted for the extra stitches in the shoulder shaping.

2. I did the set up rows as described for the back on the front and both sleeves. I asked Fiona Ellis (the book author) why she didn’t include the set up rows on the other parts of the sweater and she gave me a wholly unsatisfying answer. If you want to know the details, email me.

tie.JPG3. Instead of making two I-cords for the hem and sewing one to the inside and one to the outside, I made one long I-cord and threaded it through the knitting. I did the same for the I-cord tie at the sleeve.

4. Adding stitches to the front and back and using short-row shoulder shaping created a mess at the shoulder seams. Normally, I decrease two stitches across cables when I reach the end of the cable, but this didn’t look quite right. After much messing around, I ended up doing cable crossings on my 3-needle bind-off row. The word fiddly is an understatement. I needed to grow at least one more hand. Unfortunately, the nuclear radiation from my smoke detectors was not enough to cause a spontaneous mutation and I had to forge ahead with just two hands.

Bone-Head Move: As you can see, only the left sleeve has a tie. I knew that I wanted to put the tie on the left sleeve because I’m right handed and a tie on my right sleeve would be sure to end up in any food I ate or cooked while wearing the sweater.

Naturally, when I started setting in the sleeves, I didn’t bother to look at the sleeves because, as we all know, sleeves are interchangeable. That’s why most patterns say, “make two.” You see the flaw in my logic, don’t you? I did a great job sewing the left sleeve to the right side of the sweater.

General Comments: I love this sweater already. Wearing it is like wearing a comfortable old sweatshirt. (The ties are reminiscent of the shredding cuffs and hem of the sweatshirts that I refuse to throw out.) A cotton sweater is much more practical in Houston than wool sweaters. However, if I did this sweater again, I would make the body a bit longer.

I'm not playing with the I-cord, says Scout

* It's interesting that this photo looks greenish on one of my computers but looks okay on the other computer. And the sweater looks practically fluorescent on the first computer and just find on the second. Oh well. It's not a scary pink sweater.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beee-yew-tiful. :)

Yay for pink Cotton Ease!

Anonymous said...

Great work there! On my monitor, the top pic looks like a mellower pink than the bottom-most one, but it looks lovely in all of them.

Anonymous said...

ABsolutely gorgeous sweater!

amylovie said...

It looks great on you. The ties make the sweater stand out.

Amy

Anonymous said...

That is my absolute favorite sweater from that book! It is gorgeous and looks fabulous on you!

Sheryl

Anonymous said...

I got this book for Christmakkah. Another opportunity for us to have matching sweaters presents itself. It has to happen eventually.

The sweater looks beautiful and looks really good on you. I bet the i-cord ties are great to fidget with, just like, as you say, fraying cuffs. I love the idea of building that into a garment from the beginning!

Oh, and if you have time, I'd like the details please.

Jennifer said...

Gorgeous! Great idea to only do the one tie. You're right, a tie on your dominant hand would end up with food or ink on it. It looks like the cotton-ease has nice stitch defintion too! Lovely!

Anonymous said...

You made it through all of the pink cables! Yay! It's really lovely. Your changes to the pattern's size made it a perfect fit, too.

Anonymous said...

The sweater looks great on my computer! You knit sweaters like nobody's business, girl! I'm impressed.

Theresa said...

Looks great. I heart Cotton Ease.

Anonymous said...

I ventured over from the fall cable KAL after seeing your sweater there - It is just BEAUTIFUL and the color looks soft and lovely on my screen. I also had a grand time in your flicker album!

Anonymous said...

Oh that's a great sweater! It's one of my favorites from that book, but then out of the patterns in the book I want to knit 90% of them!

YOur kitty loves the ties I see!

Anonymous said...

It's gorgeous!

Dorothy said...

Absolutely beautiful. I love the pink color on you and the fit is lovely. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say that you have a beautiful sweater!
(And that your cat looks like a slightly smaller version of my fat boy! ;-) )

-Blu roux (from knitty)

Anonymous said...

The shaping on that sweater design looks great -- a nice slim line -- not too baggy or too tight like some sweaters are. It looks wonderful on you, especially the color. ;) Scout looks fabulous with it too, and must be thinking, "finally, a sweater with a built-in cat toy! Why didn't someone think of this before??"

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

P.S. It is comforting to see that someone is as determined to finish her UFOs as I am, no matter how challenging. Whew!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Great that you managed to pull yourself together in the final spree and finish it before NY.

C+SK said...

Wow! What a stunning sweater!!

Anonymous said...

That's beautiful! What a unique design! I love it.

Unknown said...

That is amazing! I just bought this book, thank you so much for your comments, I will pay attention to that when I try this one. Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Some pink can be VERY scary!!! LOL
I love your sweater! Peerfect stitching! :-)

Anonymous said...

That is beautiful!! Nice job!

Elizabeth said...

It's beautiful! Wonderful job. Glad you pushed through your knitting apathy and resulted in this lovely sweater.

Meredith said...

Fabulous! It looks wonderful on you. I hope that when I attempt mine (someday) it comes out just as nice.

Anonymous said...

Great sweater Laura! The pink doesn't look at all scary on my monitor. It also is a great color on you. I didn't realize you could get that great of stitch definition with Cotton Ease. I'll have to keep an eye out when it returns to stores.

Anonymous said...

The sweater turned out great!

Your cat is absolutely, totally, and completely adorable and I would like to steal him. I'm amazed at your non-blurry cat photos.

gretchen said...

love the sweater and the color!! nice!!

Anonymous said...

my favorite color!

Anonymous said...

Exquisite!

Did you hear they are bringing back cotton-ease? Woo hoo!