dynagirl » Stornoway

Sweater #3 – Stornoway completed!

Miriam — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:08:00 +0000

It’s finished! It’s finished! And it fits and Dad loves it!
This was his Christmas present in 2003 – he unwrapped Alice Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters, and got to pick a pattern and a color. The wool is 5-ply gansey yarn, “Frangipani” from Meade Farm in Cornwall in navy (as opposed to dark navy), and was wonderful to work with – easy on the hands, strong, clean, and not a single knot. It’s weird, after almost two years on the needles, I’m going to miss this sweater. I’ll definitely be making another one similar (for myself this time!), and definitely be using this yarn again. In the meanwhile, that damned intarsia bag must be finished, and Too Big Rogue must be sewn up, possibly felted, and then zippered. Then it’s on to Eris and a baby Dale for a newly-babied friend in Canada.

Here’s the pictures, click ‘em to enlarge.

Stornoway: one-armed bandit!

Miriam — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 14:23:59 +0000

Just one sleeve left to go! This is going much, much faster now. The extant sleeve would have been completed about four weeks ago, but I lost time when I had to frog it back to the shoulder (with about seventy [!] rows done) because I misread the decrease instructions. D’oh. TIP: Read the directions out loud. It’s easy to accidentally skim past things when you’re deciphering knitting code at the same time.

Since it’s the beginning of August, and there’s still some time before weather my Dad will want to wear this in arrives, I’m going to put it aside to finish up some projects that have been mouldering behind the couch.

Stornoway update: minor second surgery

Miriam — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:08:56 +0000

At Father’s Day, I was able to check against the model — a good thing, since the armsyce was one pattern repeat too small. Given that the length of the sweater was already where it needed to be (since it’s not a dress), I’ve since cut down one repeat into the side panels and re-started the sleeve. It will be much better this way. Click the image or here for a larger image; all the better for you to see the mistake cable that isn’t normally noticeable when worn.

Stornoway neck achieved!

Miriam — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 12:24:53 +0000

Finally at the top! It was great fun getting to the last row of the back, and then knitting the shoulder straps. It’s been a long, long road — I started this in February 2004 and still have a ways to go with the sleeves. If I’m done by November, I’ll be happy. The sick thing? I’m thinking about making one for myself when I’m done.

The photo above is a detail of the shoulder join, and the linked photo is the whole body. The photos are really a bit crappy, because this navy is so dark.

Stornoway surgery

Miriam — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 14:31:44 +0000

I’ve been working on this sweater I’m making for my father since February. Now at the armscye (knitting word for arm hole), I put the back on a piece of junk yarn and started working on just the front. Before this, all the stitches were jammed tight on one needle, and I was unable to see just how freakishly large the sweater was. Oops. My dad has a little pot belly but he is no John Goodman. I took it home at Thanksgiving; we were BOTH able to fit into it – at the same time!

I was getting gauge just fine; I double-checked the pattern, however, and noticed that the crucial pit-to-pit measurement wasn’t given. NB: When Alice Starmore says “large,” she means it, and how.No! I am an idiot and was looking at the metric column, not the inches. Duh.

After finding the correct width by comparing Gigantor with a sweater that actually fits my father, I decided to lose three of the four panels that create chevrons near the sides of the sweater — you can sort of see them on the top photograph. The stitches were secured by crocheting a chain of yarn up each side of where the new seam was to go. I used Jamieson’s shetland wool for that, as it’s such a sticky yarn that Fair Isle knitters often cut their steeks without even securing the stitches.

It took almost a full day’s work to do the surgery — possibly a bit long since I’m a novice at this — but it sure beat unravelling almost a full year’s work. Hopefully it will go a little faster from here on out.

Stornoway Death March continues

Miriam — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 18:29:13 +0000

Almost, I think, to the arms. I’m going to ditch the gussets and and steek the arms in, as following the pattern as written seems insane at this point. The sweater will be roomy enough without gussets, and gussets would mean that I’d have to start knitting back and forth instead of in the round. This four-hundred and twenty-six stitches per row is slow enough going as it is! It’s my father’s christmas present from last year — he picked the pattern and the color — and I’d like to have it done for him by this Christmas. You know you want to see it bigger, so click the photo.

unfinished business

Miriam — Mon, 24 May 2004 16:59:55 +0000

Rogue now has a hood (sort of) and one sleeve. When I say it “sort of” has a hood, I mean that all was well and good until I got to the end of the decreases and realized that they are seriously off-center: the back of the hood is swung off dangerously close to the back of the right earlobe. What. The. Fuck? The center stitches and increases seem to be in the right place — but the decreases, which do follow in a straight line up from those, are obviously wrong. I haven’t frogged it back yet, in the hopes that I can figure out / get help with how to unravel and re-hook the wayward stitches. One sleeve is done, and the other is barely started. I was bored with the stockinette sleeves and I’m frustrated with the hood, so I’ve been spending more quality time with Stornoway. Two rows a day! Quel satisfaction.

The colors are seriously whack in these photos, as the Rogue is much more like the previous entry, and the dark navy Frangipani that is Stornoway is super-dark navy.