What I finally ended up doing with the yoke was to use Elizabeth Zimmermann’s EPS (Elizabeth’s Percentage System) from her book Knitting Around for the yoke, all the while following the same rings pattern for the Red Rings Pullover pattern. The sweater fits fairly well, even though there is not any shaping in the body. I’ve been wearing it all day.

Overall, it only took 6 skeins to complete, and the owls turned out really nice. I’ve decided that I’m not going to do anything with their eyes — the original pattern by Kate Davies suggests to sew on buttons where the owl’s eyes are, but that’s 56 buttons that aren’t going to get sewn on by me. I know myself. The sweater will just sit in the “waiting to be finished” pile, and I won’t get the opportunity to actually wear it.

Rings and Owls

owls close up

Tip: The way most patterns are written, I can easily mess up where I am in the shaping and stitch pattern; so I took the time to write out the round numbers of each of the purl rounds, and each of the increase rounds on a 3×5 index card that I keep with my knitting. Then I cross off the rounds I’ve knitted, so I always know where I am in the pattern.

In order to keep the two balls of yarn from tangling together, I put each one in a zippered plastic bag, then turn the knitting clockwise every round or so. I’ve also heard of people using the plastic tubs from yogurt or cottage cheese. Just poke a hole in the lid and run the yarn through the lid before starting the project. I can’t seem to remember to thread the yarn first, so I like the plastic bag method.

I’m on row 12, only 112 more to go!

My newest project is a conglomerate of two patterns: Red Rings Pullover by Tonia Barry, and Owls3 by Kate Davies. I wanted to make a replacement sweater for the one that my dog ate — yes, Tucker P Macaroon pays homage to the saying “My dog ate my homework”. It was my first seamed, set-in sleeve sweater that I completed after just 4 months of knitting. It fit perfectly, and I wore it often. *Sigh*. Anyhoo, after I made it, I bought more of the same yarn in a different color thinking I would make another one, but never got around to it. Now that it’s 2009, and I have the rule that I cannot buy any more yarn until I use up what’s in my stash, and I’m in need of another sweater, I’m ready to forge ahead.

I like the Red Rings Pullover because it’s knit in the round (no seaming) from the bottom up. I was all set to just use this one pattern, but then the other day I found the Owls3 sweater pattern in Ravelry and knew I wanted to make that one as well. Since I was already making a sweater from the bottom up, why not merge the two? This is mostly what I do anyway, I’ll find a pattern that I like, then as I’m knitting it, I’ll change this and that, and one thing leads to another and the original pattern has been “hacked”. Modified might be a better word.

I’m almost done with the body. I’m going to knit both sleeves at once on one long circular needle, magic loop style, then after I join the body and the sleeves, I’ll start the owls.

I’ve recently started this project because I was in need of something to knit which didn’t take a lot of concentration (all of my other projects are fair-isle; I had three going at once, but have finished one). I belong to a knitting group that meets once a week and if I take something that needs concentration, I’ll invariably have to re-do whatever stitches I did over again, once I return home.

That being said, I had to start this project three times before I was able to get past row 4 without a mistake. I hate making mistakes in my knitting; I will usually frog back to the mistake and try to fix it, but usually will have to start from scratch if I’ve mucked things up too badly. I’ve learned to “unknit” pretty fast, though. Once I got the pattern down, and it’s not that hard, really, I plan to be working this shawl for a while. I’m using a yarn I bought in Taos, NM, but have long since lost the label. Fortunately, I inventoried my stash last Spring, so I know that each skein of said yarn is hand-painted, 100% merino wool, with 400+ yards. It’s not worsted weight, though it could be sport-weight. I’m using size 10 needles and it’s fairly loose-weave. The only variant I’m making from the pattern is to have the yarn-overs surround 2 stockinette stitches every other row. This helps me locate the yarn-overs by site without having to use markers (even though I have them in anyway).

A couple of things went awry with this project: the first being that I mistakenly thought I could use up a couple of skeins of yarn on other projects, wear them, then take out the yarn and re-use it in my sweater. Not! Another pitfall was when I hadn’t kept track of the dye lot number in my yarn, and then couldn’t find that color, let alone the same dye lot. These things are not something I ever considered.

So I started the sweater in October, and all was going along well until I joined the knitting in the round at the bottom of the armholes. That’s when I realized that knitting around and around for 14 inches was…boring! Here I thought that making a top-down sweater was going to be so cool because there was no purling involved, and no seaming, but then I realized that just knitting can be a downer in its own right. The grass is always greener on the other side!

I finally got down to the ribbing section on the body, only to discover that I was fast running out of the original color, so I knitted a 2×2 rib but didn’t cast-off. Then I got the idea to add different colored sleeves, and by the time I got down to the ribbing on the sleeves, realized that I hadn’t factored in any shaping, so the sleeves are wide. When I added the 2×2 ribbing to the cuffs, I wasn’t happy with the way the cuffs tightened, so I ripped out the ribbing and, once again, didn’t cast off. For the sleeves, I tried three endings, including bind-offs, before I settled on a 3×1 ribbing. The cuffs still curl, but that’s because I only had enough yarn to do 2 rows of the ribbing.

Once I decided on the 3×1 rib for the sleeves, I had to go back and re-do the body ribbing to match (that’s the way I am with my knitting), so I did just that until I ran out of the body color. The sweater is a tad too short, and I did find some leftover yarn in that same dye lot in the bottom of my stash, but am so done with this project!

Okay, so now I’m done with the sleeves and the body, but the neck line still needs work. I didn’t want to add ribbing, so I tried my hand with knitted on I-cord. I found some instructions for a completely different pattern that called for picking up the stitches, on every row, then doing one round of purl before starting the I-cord. But I so didn’t like the final product because the I-cord was too floppy. I then discovered another way to do knitted on I-cord, which involves picking up the stitches as I’m knitting the I-cord, not before. Also, I picked up every other row on the V portion, and every stitch around the neck. This helped pull in the over-sized V-neck.

I still need to block it, but I’m calling this one done. I love to make up a pattern as I go, but this is what happens when I do…there’s no pattern to follow!

Until next time,
Drea