KPP Fair Isle Cardigan Knitalong

Sleeves Joined!

[Drum rolllllllll]

I’ve joined the sleeves. Yes. The KipFee is a single unit now. I’ve done 4 rounds of decreases - bites out of the body - and have 4 more to do.

      

I also did just a wee tad bit of the rest of the SweaterMath which I offer to you now:

After I finish the sweater bites I’ll have 9 more inches to knit to get to my shoulders.

Row gauge is something like 8.5
8.5 x 9” = 77 rows

This is too bad. The pattern calls for a row gauge of 9 rows per inch and if I were hitting it, I’d have 81 rows to do all this in - but there you have it. That’s my gauge and I can’t change it now. The good news is, I’m knitting this to fit based on my body and my gauge. My body and my knitting don’t have to fit someone else’s pattern.

So. I have 102 stitches in the sleeve and they all have to be gone in 77 rows.

If I decrease 4 stitches in each decrease round (2 out of each sleeve, front and back) I need 25 decrease rounds plus or minus a fudge round.

This is good. 77 / 25 = 3

This means I can (if I want to): *decrease 2 stitches per sleeve for 1 round then knit 2 rounds without decreases. Repeat from *.

I am thinking, though, that this may make a pointed sleeve cap.

So. If I want the top of the sleeve cap to have say, 1.5 inches worth of knitting (12 stitches) I could subtract them from the initial sleeve total.

103-12=91 Ick. Odd numbered remainder. Don’t like that.

I’ll add one more stitch to that inch and a half, because then I have a nice even 90 stitches.

Alas, 76 / 22.5 (1/4 of 90) is 3.4 and I would have a heck of a time figuring out that row repeat.

Besides, I’m still not confident that one flat round at the top will give me a beautifully rounded sleeve cap. And I am thinking that instead, I’ll decrease 2 stitches on each sleeve every 4th round till I am getting near the end and then decide what to do.

In theory I know what to do since I’ve done this twice. But I can’t remember what it was that I actually did. Not mathematically, that is. What I did was knit till I got near the top and then filled in all the blank spots with stitches; some straight knitting, some short rows. The thing is, both of those sweaters were knit in plain flat yarn, not stranded colorwork.

And I believe I’ll go look at the Winter IK 06 issue because there is this - which is another knitted sleeve cap miracle. Maybe she has ideas I can use. I’m still flirting with a shoulder heel sleeve cap.

And there you have it. A tour through the echoing chambers of my mind.

EDITING POSTS!

Sheesh! I've tried to edit that previous post 6 times, and it just keeps reposting the original post, with confusing statements in it. Bummer.

I'll decrease 4 stitches in every round, where sleeve joins body. That's what I'd like to say.

SweaterMath

I have finished all the circular knitting of sleeve and body. I’m ready to join the sleeves to the body and begin knitting the shoulder section of this sweater. In other words, it is time to do TheMath.

• My sweater body is 320 stitches plus the steek stitches
• 160 in front and 160 in back.
• Right front will be the first 80 stitches in from the steek stitches
• 8% of sweater body stitches = 25
• I start loading that 8% onto holders after 68 right front stitches are knit
• There are 128 sleeve stitches minus the 8% leaving 103 sleeve stitches to knit next, joining sleeve to body.
• Knit 134 remaining back stitches and load the left front 25 stitches onto holders
• Repeat for left sleeve

Note. I am putting 2 stitches more in the front than in the back because that is where there is more of me

Total stitches on needles = 476 plus 11 steek stitches.

Whew!

But I begin decreasing in the next round - 2 stitches from the body sleeves in every round = 4 stitches each round till the body = 60 stitches on each front half and 120 stitches across the back.

That’s decreasing 2 stitches in back for 7 rounds
AND
2 stitches in front for 8 rounds.

Oh. And remember. All the time I'm following the color charts. I plan to do all the decreases so that a dark stitch shows on top, whatever pair of colors I'm knitting with at the time.

Knit straight a little bit (at least 2 rows) while sipping wine and figuring out the sleeve decreases.... which I will think about tomorrow.

At

Tara

.

   

Second Sleeve progress

I'm so pleased with the progress I'm making on this second sleeve. The former first sleeve - the one with the boring brown cuff. Here it is in all it's yellowness, along with a couple of patterns. I had hoped to be further along for I spent most of Sunday in a car riding around with Himself. I'd brought along enough yarn to knit all the way up through the medium value lavender and yellow checkerboard. Alas and boo hoo, in spite of all those balls of yarn, I'd forgotten the orange and green yarns. I had to content myself with the pretty autumn colors instead of my KipFee colors. But by golly - I got that orange and green checkerboard done before I went to bed last night!

I'm off to the Knitters Review Retreat in Walker Valley NY on Wednesday and after yesterday's forgetsco fiasco I will leave my sweater at home and take sock yarn to knit on while I'm gone. If it weren't for all those ends to weave in, I'd say I was about half way through! 

One month update

Well, a couple of days late, and not much progress since my last post, but this is officially how much I've accomplished on this project in the last month.  (And yes, there are other projects in my life, like it or not.)   Because I think the inside is as interesting as the outside, I've included a picture of it inside out as well :)

How Do YOU Count To 394?

Hello Fair Isle Knitters!!  It's one of your knitalong hosts here finally casting on for the Palette Fair Isle Cardigan!  Yay!!

It's been a crazy month of changes for our family and I do apologize for not getting everything together in my personal life sooner so I could be a shining example of knitting progress.  hehe  But I've gotten started now and I feel the twinge of fair isle knitting obsession biting me!  A few others have mentioned how they are inspired by the color changes and watching the patterns develop.  I'm the same way and can't bear to put fair isle projects down.  It's great at keeping me interested and inspired to keep knitting!

So it was time to cast on.  And time to make a final commitment to a SIZE.  My bust is approximately 40" so I was leaning toward the 44" sweater.  At the critical decision-making hour I happened to be wearing two layers.  A close fitting knit shirt and a loose fitting button-up shirt over it.  I love how this bigger shirt feels and I have been dressing in layers like this during the winter for the past few years since I stopped working.  I have a few cardigans that I sometimes wear instead of a button-up shirt and have been looking forward to adding the Palette FI Cardigan to the list of choices.  So I took off my button-up shirt and measured it.  The front was 24" across.  Wow.  Does that really equate to a 48" finished size??  That's the next bigger size option from what I was considering for the cardigan.  It's big on me but really it's a very comfy size.  I looked at the sleeves on this shirt - they drop at the shoulder just like the pattern photos of the FI Cardigan.  I continued taking measurements of my shirt and comparing them to the pattern measurements.  My only real problem with this shirt is that the sleeves are a little bit too long.  The sweater sleeve measures 1" shorter than my shirt - perfect.  So my decision was made.  I cast on for the 48" sweater.

The number of stitches to cast on for this sweater is staggering to me - 394.  Three. Hundred. Ninety. Four. Tiny. Black. Stitches.  At night.  I really am crazy.  So while I watched "LOST" I merrily cast on stitch after stitch after stitch.  When I had filled up my 32" circular needle to the point of "surely this must be enough", LOST was over.  I started counting.

I'm using Addi Natura 32" bamboo circular needles, size US3.

I slid a scrap of white cotton crochet thread between stitches 100-101, 200-201, and 300-301, then one final piece of red yarn after stitch 394 - dropping off the extra stitches I had cast on before starting to count.  Then I recounted two more times.  If I can still count correctly, I think I have 394 stitches on my needles.  This is a very good motivator for weight loss.  The smallest size sweater has 96 fewer stitches.  I won't even do the math for how many fewer stitches that is in the entire sweater.

Next we'll see if I can join in the round without twisting the cast on row.  Wish me luck!  :)

One month's progress

Here's how much I've done on my KipFee Sweater in one month. I hope others will post a picture too.