That $*(@$(ing Baby Sweater

Ugh argh sorry!  I did not mean to abandon you for so long!  But you know how it is, the holidays come and all of a sudden you're expected to spend time with your loved ones and cook real dinners and send out cards and stuff.

Sometimes I am not a very good grownup.

But I do occasionally finish a project, and, lo, the dreaded baby duplicate stitch sweater is among the finished!

PATTERN: the rather euphemistically-named Plaid Jacket by Linda Medina from 60 More Quick Baby Knits: Adorable Projects for Newborns to Tots in 220 Superwash Sport from Cascade Yarns.  Mine remains the only project on Ravelry.  You know why.  This is the largest size, 12-18 months.

YARN:  Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport (100% wool, 184 yds/50g skein) in colors Blue Knight, Bit of Blue, Bulldog Blue, and Mallard.  I used just about the whole skein in every color except the dark blue contrast, where I only used about 33g. 

NEEDLES:  US 3/3.25mm

NOTES: The knitting of this little sweater was easy and pleasant.  The finishing, however . . . ugh.  According to my notes, it took me nine days to do the duplicate stitch, and that's with working pretty diligently every day.  If one were to plan ahead, one could work a purl channel at the appropriate places in the pattern while knitting, enabling one to use a crochet hook to do the duplicate stitching.  If one has not planned ahead, though, this doesn't work (the hook spreads the stitches too much).

Was it worth it?  You decide:

I rather think it was.

Setbacks

So far, this has been a rather frustrating week.  Remember the baby sweater?

A very bad picture by way of reminder

All the pieces are knit, and all the extant ends woven in.  Next is the duplicate stitch to form the plaid pattern.  At first, I thought this would be a doddle, as I could use the crochet hook method (explained very nicely here), but it turned out not to be workable.  (The crochet stitches spread the knitting too far and make it look funny.)  So now I am duplicate stitching, stitch by tedious stitch.  It is customary at this junction to request that others send alcohol, or chocolate, or whatever the knitter's personal vice may be, but in this case I don't think that legal stimulants will cut it.  Send methamphetamine.


Next, my mindless sock-in-progress went from this (plus about two inches, since I worked on it at the movies the other day):

to this:

as I finally accepted that it was going to be too big to fit the intended recipient.  The good news, I suppose, is that eight fewer stitches will be that much quicker to knit.  But!!

And finally, I have hauled out a UFO that is positively ancient, by my standards--it was begun in March 2012.   It's a top-down raglan sweater (read: boring), and I don't really like it?  I think I will like the finished product, but the knitting of it is tedious, and I didn't do a very good job with the pattern.

Or this photo.

I feel like casting on something very easy and bulky, just so I'll have the satisfaction of finishing it.

Not Quite So Speedy

After last week's hectic productivity (I finally finished the Daybreak!), this week has been more sedate.  I've worked more on the sweater for my little cousin . . .

(almost done with the back)

. . . and launched the second Animal Crackers sock.  
 

My brain is teeming with many ideas for this and that, but I am resolved to remain semi-monogamous until these are done.  Maybe.

This and That

So I didn't end up finishing my third Camp Loopy project.  *sadface*  Which meant, of course, that come September first I dropped it like a rock in order to finish up the big version of Lapstrake.  (Which is live, now, by the way!  Go buy it!  50% off until September 30!)

Having finished Lapstrake, I immediately cast on for two NEW things, instead of working on one of my languishing WIPs.  Because that's how I roll.

The first is a Golden Orchids shawl for Wollmeise Withdrawal Madness Month, in my very oldest skein of Wollmeise.  (It's not that old.  I'm a late bloomer.)  Here, Gozer assists me by modeling for you (and looking very confused).

The second is a Plaid Jacket for a baby cousin of mine.  (I realize that the link is wholly useless, since it has no pictures and the only project listed is mine, but I will try to take good notes and pictures.)

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's back to Golden Orchids I go.

Lions and Tigers and Babies, Oh My

About two years ago, there was a spate of babies in the land.  I knit this little sweater with a certain recipient in mind, but after finishing it and seeing how FREAKIN' ADORABLE it was, I reconsidered.  To be frank, I was not sure the intended recipient's mother would appreciate a handknit properly.

So I sent it to my friend Catherine instead, because she rocks, and because I thought it would look awesome on her little boy.  In, like, two years, because it came out kinda big, and said little boy is still pretty little.

(I actually knit this pattern twice that summer; I made a version in the Mid Valley Fibers handspun I bought way back when and gifted it to a baby cousin.  Sadly, I don't have a picture of that one.)

Here There Be Dwagons

The baby sweater is finished! Here it is, blocking. (Complete with the Irishman's toes.)


And here is the finished product:

Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull, about 1.5 skeins 8523 (green) and 0.5 skein 0090 (black). This color of green has been discontinued, unfortunately.

Pattern: "Baby's First Tattoo" from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, size 3 months, 3/3.25mm needles.

Once again, I used intarsia for the motifs rather than embroidering them afterwards. Here's a closeup shot of the adorable dragon.

There was a moment of extreme panic when I realized I was going to run out of green halfway through the second front. (And I'd already finished the damn sleeves, too.) Fortunately, a Ravelry hunt came up a partial stashed skein, and the very nice owner traded it to me for some of my leftovers. Even better, although the dyelots were different, it's impossible to tell which is which.

Once again, I found the pattern frustrating--even more so than last time, honestly--and I'll definitely never knit it again. (Especially because I'm finally out of the black Baby Ull.)

Bits and Pieces

Pretty much same old same old here. Irtfa'a looks pretty much the same as last time. I've done about 20 edging repeats, so it is still stuck in big black blobdom. I've at least gotten into a rhythm with it, so I can do a couple repeats every time I watch TV or whatever. (The Irishman and I are watching Studio 60--he's a big Aaron Sorkin fan, and we've already gone through Sports Night.)

The baby sweater is getting closer to completion--both sleeves are done, and the first front is alllllmost finished. It'll be done today, and I can at least get the second started. Then comes some blocking! The dragon is adorable, by the way.

And the cross-stitch continues.

I've finished a couple of things, but I think I'll leave those for future posts. I'm so ready to move on to new and exciting knitting--I've already got a few things lined up. (As in, balls wound, patterns copied, the whole nine yards.)

Baby's Second Tattoo

Yes, that's right--after all the whining I did last time, I'm knitting another Baby's First Tattoo (from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation). I know, I swore I wouldn't do it, but it's soooooo cute. And a really easy knit.

I mean, look, here's a back and most of a sleeve already:



Also, this sort of thing would be quicker and easier if I didn't get these bees in my bonnet. This sweater is for my newest little cousin, Sophie, who was born a week ago today. Her father's brother's daughter (how's that for complicated?) got the orange version of the sweater, so I thought it would be nice to make this one in a different color and with a new motif on the front. Her parents aren't really skull and crossbones people, and I didn't like the other pre-charted motifs, so . . . I made my own!


If you can't tell, it's a little Chinese dragon, and I think it'll be absolutely adorable. Now I just need to knit it . . .

Sweater all done

My new cousin now has a new sweater. I blocked the finished pieces before seaming and knitting the collar, as is customary. It also ensures that, whatever the gauge, the fronts and sleeves will be the same size. They may not look like what they're supposed to, but they'll be even, dagnabit.


Pattern: "Baby's First Tattoo" by Delia Lam from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, size 3 months, 3/3.25mm needles. Adorable pattern, but see here for why I don't recommend it.


Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull, about 1.3 skeins 3507 (orange) and 0.5 skein 0090 (black). I love working with Baby Ull. It's affordable but knits up soft and puffy. Also, it's machine-washable and therefore practical for baby clothes.


A back shot because I'm always complaining about their absence in books:


And finally, a close-up of the swallow 'cos it's just so darn cute. Rather than embroider the design over the finished front as called for in the pattern, I knit it in.

I hope it fits!

A rant

I mentioned in my last post that I'm knitting a "Baby's First Tattoo" sweater (from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation).

Now, I'm not an inexperienced knitter. I don't need my hand held, particularly when it comes to the basics. But if I pay money for a pattern, I expect that pattern to be well-written, clear, thorough, and reasonably error-free. Free patterns are different. Frequently they're simply the designer's notes cleaned up a bit--in that case, I don't expect polish or even clarity. (You ought to look at MY design notes if you want obtuse.) Anyway, most of the time such patterns are easy to figure out, and I've always found the designers to be super-helpful if they're not.

But as I said before, if I pay for a pattern, I expect a little more. Particularly from a book. After all, books take months, even years, to put together. Someone has to test-knit the garments for the pictures, right? And I know there are technical editors whose very job it is to check accuracy.

And yet. The Stitch 'n Bitch books are particularly egregious offenders when it comes to poor editing and sloppy pattern-writing. Don't get me wrong; I like the books--they're fun to read and many of the patterns are cute and clever. This sweater, though, has me tearing out my hair.

I've finished the back and both fronts of the cardigan, and I definitely have complaints. First, there are a few errors. One is just grammar/typo type-stuff, irritating to the grammarian but of little account to the knitter. The other, however, is much more serious. There are no directions as to how to finish the fronts. If you do the decreases as written, you run into a problem for the last few stitches--it's logistically impossible to continue in the same way. So do you make up your own decreases and continue until you have only one stitch and bind that off? Or do you stop when you run into the logistical problem and bind off then? Or do you stop when you reach the suggested length for the piece, decreases be damned? I honestly have no idea--because the pattern doesn't say. (I ended up stopping the decreases and binding off when the length matched the back. We'll see how that goes.)

Which leads to my second problem--I hate lazy pattern writing. Yes, it may seem like overkill to write the directions out for each front when they're near-identical. But "near" is not the same as "exactly," and you know, the reason I plunked down my $15.95 plus tax is because I didn't want to figure these things out for myself. If I wanted to design my own baby sweater, I would. I don't want the people I'm paying to do it to cut corners.

I do understand there are occasionally legitimate reasons for not providing perfectly complete instructions. For example, for symmetrical lace pieces, it would probably increase pattern cost to print reverse charts, particularly if the work is big. But for a flippin' baby sweater (hint: baby = small), how hard can it be?

Finally, this is a problem I have with this series as a whole. They're putatively designed for beginners, and it's true many of the explanations (particularly in the first book) are wonderful. Yet the patterns sometimes assume that you know nothing and sometimes exclude details that would be of great help to the experienced knitter, let alone the novice. The inconsistency drives me nuts.

Okay, I lied, one more thing. And here this series is by far not the worst offender. Color pictures are expensive. Photography is expensive. But if you're going to have color photographs in your book already, why not put in a few very clear pictures of the garment from multiple angles? Yes, that baby is cute, but I bet his back is cute too, and I'd sure like to see how it looks. Please?

Anyway, while the sweater is shaping up to be adorable, I can't recommend it. Next time I'm going to make up my own.

Lazybones

This has been a slow week on the knitting front. I did finish the mitts:


Yarn: STR lightweight (100% merino), colorway "My Blue Heaven." Pattern of my own devising, based on Sivia Harding's Queen of Beads socks.

Otherwise, this very boring bit of stockinette is the beginning of a "Baby's First Tattoo" sweater. My cousin and his wife had a baby at the end of last month, and I'd been wanting to knit this for awhile.


Now off to watch House and knit some more.