Oblique

Thanks to my friend Jenn, who was working when I stopped by my LYS earlier today, I finally have pictures of my completed Oblique to share with you!

Pattern: Oblique by Veronik Avery (Fall 2007 Knitty)
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool (100% wool), color 8085, approximately 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: September 15/December 4
Mods: slight changes to the collar (see below)

I am completely thrilled with this sweater. I wanted something that would be warm and roomy, like a guy's old sweatshirt, but with a little bit of style. This truly fit the bill.

It took a while to get into a good rhythm on this sweater, which is part of the reason it took almost three months to knit. Every row has three different stitch pattern, two of which are a four-row repeat and one of which is an eight-row repeat. I had to make sure I was awake enough and had enough attention to spare when I worked on this sweater, and I also had to make sure I had my row counter handy. Eventually I had the stitch patterns memorized and could tell which row I was on without the counter, but I still needed it when I got to the shaping so that all my parts would match up.

This was the first time I'd knit a real (i.e., sewn up) raglan. I've done enough top-down raglan sweaters to understand how the shaping would/should look, but I'd never had to sew up raglan seams before. I discovered that I didn't loathe sewing up raglan sleeves like I do set-in sleeves; in fact, I quite liked it! The only thing about raglan seams that I didn't really care for is that I had to sew them all up before I could pick up for the collar, which meant that by the time I got to the collar, I had the weight of the whole sweater on my needles. I guess it's fortunate that the collar isn't that big and was relatively fast to knit.

The collar is where I did make a few modifications. For starters, I picked up about 12 stitches more than I should have (I don't know about you, but I never seem to pick up the same number as the designer!). I made sure to keep the additional stitches in a multiple of four so that the ribbing wouldn't get messed up. I also bound off for the collar in plain knit, rather than in rib as specified in the pattern. The reason for this is simple: The button bands are knit first, and the pattern didn't specify to bind them off in rib, so I just bound them off normally. By the time I got to the collar, I needed to match the button bands. I actually think it was a rather wise mistake design feature on my part, because had I bound off the collar in twisted ribbing, it would likely have been a little wavy and loose. I believe I also ended the collar a couple of rows early for aesthetic reasons.

The final verdict is that this is a great sweater; in fact, I've been wearing it almost every other day since it was finished. It's very warm and cozy, so it's also been doubling as a sweatshirt over my pajamas when I'm sitting in bed or at my wheel in the evenings. I'm definitely a fan of raglans now, too, so this won't be my last one.

Photos* to Come

Well, at long last, my Oblique is finished. I did the raglan seams and picked up stitches for the collar last week at knit night, finished off the collar on Friday night, and sewed up the rest of the seams on Saturday. It is exactly as I hoped -- big, cozy, and exceptionally warm. I wore it with my pajamas a couple of times over the weekend while sitting around and watching TV, and it very much has the oversized sweatshirt/stolen father's cardigan feel to it that I was going for.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get in a photo shoot over the weekend, and this sweater really deserves some shots in good lighting, so you'll have to wait to see it. Besides, it really needed a good wet blocking to even out all the stitches, so it's soaking now (and I expect will take a few days to dry) along with a pair of colorwork mittens I'd been working on during my lunch breaks for the past couple of months. For now, I hope you'll settle for a little preview -- in this case, a close-up of the buttons I'd been saving for just the right project. I just love the little design etched around the circumference.

Now that my sweater is finished, knitting of holiday gifts has officially commenced. I'm limiting myself to only a few things that are fast projects, so there will be no Holiday Knitting Crazy here as we get closer to Christmas. I also cast on for a hat for Rainbow, who, while she won't know the difference between a hat that's a gift and a hat that I force her to wear on a daily basis, really needs something stylish to wear for her first Christmas trip. I'm very excited about this particular hat, as it's being knit out of some of my handspun Polwarth from this summer. If there's enough yarn leftover, I might have to make a chapeau for me to match!

*Good photos, in natural light -- I promise!

Oblique: The To Do List

• Knit back - check
• Knit two fronts - check
• Knit two sleeves - check
• Knit left button band - check

• Knit right button band
• Seam raglan seams
• Knit collar
• Weave in ends
• Sew on buttons
• Block

The list is getting shorter!

No More Delusions

Reality has set in: There is no way my Oblique is going to be done in time for Thanksgiving. For some reason, even though I've knit quite a few sweaters, I always forget how long sleeves take. The good news is that I've started the raglan decreases on sleeve #1 (and am quickly approaching the end of my second skein of yarn).

(By the way, can I just say how much I hate this time of year for taking pictures? If the sun comes out at all, it's out in the middle of the day when I'm at work. There never seems to be any natural light when I'm home. So please accept my apologies for this horrible picture.)

I imagine that I'll get in some decent knitting time next weekend, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to get this done to wear to Thanksgiving dinner. By Christmas seems more likely, especially because I have to put this down for a bit to do some super secret knitting.

Please don't forget that there's still time to do some good and win some handspun in return!

Sweater Mojo: I Haz It

I don't know whether it was the sudden cold snap last week or the depressingly early sunsets of eastern standard time, but something has caused my sweater mojo to come back in full force. The last time you saw my Oblique, I only had about six inches done on the back. It sat like that for some time and then, all of the sudden, I felt the urge to do some serious sweater knitting. I powered through the rest of the back in a matter of days, completed one front in a weekend, and am now roughly two-thirds of the way through the second front. I'm hoping to finish it off tonight.

After this, there's just the sleeves, seaming, collar, and button bands to be done. It's a slim shot, but I may just finish it by Thanksgiving.