Knitting in the Big City

Can I get a Bronze?

I’ve had a lot of catching up to do at home and at work so it was a close call for finishing my Olympic Knitting.

There I was, casting on during the Opening ceremonies, knitting along, at a good pace, 100% sure that I would have this bolero done by the end of the Olympics. My sister-in-law's death knocked the wind out of me. What saved my chances for a medal? I got hooked on curling. I would even watch the non-US matches. Boy if you ever told me that I would be fascinated by shuffleboard on ice I would have happily told said that you lost your mind. But there we were, sitting with the family and watching the curling competition. To us the sport was new, different and pure. And since we didn’t know the rules of the sports we made up rules as we watched, thus making it loads of fun.

See even the kitties got hooked on curly, especially Wembley. She loved pawing at those big rocks when they glided across the tv!

And then that ugly monster, seaming, reared its head. Ick! The underarm seams are coming out really ugly. Why? Because on the left side I somehow had knit 4 extra rows!!!! The mattress stitch wasn’t going to work. The whip stitch wasn’t going to work. It was the good old sewing standby, the back stitch, that saved the day. I gave up a bit of professional finishing for even-sized sleeves on both sides.

So here we are, my completed Knitting Olympics project:

FRONT

BACK

He doesn’t look so GRINCHY does he?

DETAILS:

Pattern: Debbie Bliss Cathay Pattern book – Lace Trim Bolero (child)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cathay – 3.5 skeins of Old Rose
Needles: Switched off between Bryspun plastic circulars and Addi Turbos, size 5
Size: 18-24 months
Pattern and Yarn Source: Stitch Therapy
How long it took: Roughly about 13 days. I did need to get advice about seaming the sweater.

What did I learn?

1 - Increasing and decreasing for knitting an item in one piece.
2 - Seaming can be crappy.
3 - Finishing isn’t so bad.
4 - Tricks to keep track of the lace pattern while knitting about 4 feet of it.

Boo, the lace inspector

5 - I’m a better knitter than I give myself credit for. After 4 years I can say I'm a new intermediate knitter rather than an advanced beginner. Yeah!

Thanks Stephanie, et al, hmm.... Summer Olympics in 2 years?

Going into medal contention

Knitting on the sweater body is done. I need to block and seam.

Here are the lace bits for the sleeves. Once I got the pattern done they knitted up quickly.
I’ll knitted the lace for the sweater body tonight.

The Octopus Event

Well the bolero is looking more like an octopus than a sweater:

I’m working on the left sleeve and soon to be left front.

Off we go down the hill...

Here’s the progress on the child’s bolero sweater after using up one skein of yarn.

Details:

Pattern - Debbie Bliss Cathay pattern book
Yarn – 3 balls of Cathay in Old Rose
Needles: Clover bamboo circulars #5

Comments-
1- First time knitting an item in one piece. This can be addictive for children’s stuff.
2- Cathay is a super soft yarn but it has a tendency to split when it’s being handled too much – like during the cast on!
3- It’s the first time I’ve had to cast on to the existing knitting. It looks funny at first but as you make progress the piece looks less awkward.
4- Since this pattern is so much like the Lara sweater from last fall, I think I’ll break out the baby blue Alpaca Silk and make Lara in the next few months.

Knitting Olympics

I need to tell Stephanie that my project has changed from a baby blanket to a child's bolero sweater. I've chosen a Debbie Bliss pattern and it calls for Cathay.

Here's the sweater:

and here's my swatch:

The color is #9, Old Rose. used size 5 needles and I got gauge! I never made an item for a child, and certainly not a sweater that's basically knitted as one piece.