It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! It’s time to cast on our Delancey Cardigans and get this show on the road!

Last week you gauged, and from there you have decided which size to knit, whether that is Alexis’s new plus sized pattern or the original, and you have decided if you are going to follow her notes for shortening Delancey. So with all of these things considered, you are going to knit this sweater with the most educated guesses you can to get a sweater you love.

Laura's Delancey Swatch

So it’s time! Grab your main color and let’s do this.

This Week’s Delancey Cardigan Goal: Work your Delancey pattern through row 54.

Casting on 5 sts to start a sweater is pretty unusual, but we are starting this sweater by knitting to triangles that will become the bottom sides of the sweater. It’s fun and keeps you on your toes!

Melissa's Swatch Options

I hate paying attention to row count as much as the next knitter, but it is a vital part of knitting Delancey. Pull out a notebook or stick a sticky note to your pattern and keep track by hash-marks, or by writing out each row, making a note by each row number where you have to stripe or change something. Notes while working this pattern are really helpful!

Especially with your striping. Following the pattern as written, you are starting your striping on row 30, which is not noted in the pattern but as a note at the beginning before the instructions start, and striping is resumed every 24 rows. If you are working the shortened version, like I am, striping starts on row 20, and is resumed every 18 rows. And you are on your own with working in your striping! So keep good count of your rows.

Jamie with some Gauge Math!

And a little hot tip: SSK decreases are always hard for me, so I just K2tog through the back loops. It ends up looking the same and for whatever reason takes less hand eye coordination.

Once both side triangles are worked, they are joined together and all your sweater sts are worked back and forth. You’ll get a few rows past your joined side panels this week.

So cast on and start working the bottom of this cardigan! Email me pics or share them on the forum. This is going to be FUN!

Related Sweatshop Love:

• January 30, 2012 -- Delancey KAL Starts Next Week! So Let’s Swatch.
• January 16, 2012 -- Announcing our Winter KAL Sweater: The Delancey Cardigan!
• September 19, 2011 -- Fall KAL – Let’s Vote!

I watch a ton of TV. If you follow me on twitter you’ll see me tweeting up a storm about all the terrible shows and movies I watch. That 6 hours a day that the average American watches? I’m bringing up that average like crazy. But when you work from home you need stuff going on! Sometimes I sit and knit all day, and I’m not going to do that just staring at the wall.

So here is a carefully constructed list of my go-tos. Shows and movies I’ve been watching for years and have just discovered, perfect for hours and hours and hours of uninterrupted knitting, broken down by the level of knitting difficulty.

Super Challenging Knitting and/or Pattern Designing

These are mindless watches that you can concentrate on or not. You can never take your eyes off your elaborate chart pattern, or keep writing your pattern, and still know exactly what is going on on the screen.

1. Greek

Greek!

Silly, fun, and totally over the top, Greek is so easy to watch it catches you off guard when you realize how much you really like it. It’s a world I was never a part of and never wanted to be a part of, but while watching these 70+ episodes you almost wish you would have been a part of it when you had a chance. Almost.

2. All of Jane Austen

Ohhhh Mr Darcy

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all knitters love Jane Austen, so when I need some tried and true Austen, I set up a marathon: Emma (the Gwyneth Paltrow one), Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson), Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly), Becoming Jane, Mansfield Park (Johnny Lee Miller), Clueless (it counts!), and, finally, Pride and Prejudice with our good friend Colin Firth here. It’s all just delightful candy!

3. Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks!

It has gotten to the point now where when I put in Freaks and Geeks it’s like visiting old friends but SERIOUSLY, not in the lame way people say that about, like, Friends. I’ve watched the entire series, one glorious, perfect season, dozens of times, and every time I laugh and LOVE IT so hard it makes me want to start it right over again. The only problem is that my crush on Neil gets grosser and grosser the older I get.

4. The Office, American Version, Seasons 1-6, ep 5

The Office!

Watching The Office is not at all like visiting friends. It’s like being a fly on the wall in a room that you don’t want to leave but are very happy staying a fly. It’s funny and easy, and you love Jim and Pam, and when Jim goes to the other office and you meet Andy, and when they come back, and it’s all before Dwight stops being endearing and starts being super creepy.

Why Seasons 1 – 6, ep 5? Because that is when Jim and Pam get married. Nothing after that really matters.

Kinda Challenging Knitting, but Manageable with a Few Distractions

You are almost on autopilot with your knitting, but still have to pay attention to shaping, or cables, or sizing. These shows have lots of physical comedy elements, or crazy drama and fighting, so you have to keep a closer eye on them, no matter how many times you’ve seen them.

1. Arrested Development

Arrested Development

Amazing and hilarious in every way, Arrested Development has been rewatched almost as many times as Freaks and Geeks has. You remember it being funny, but it’s always more funny than you remember. And you forget things! Like Mrs Featherbottom! And how amazing Liza Minnelli is! And Bob Loblaw! God. Fantastic.

2. Lord of the Rings, extended versions

LORD OF THE RINGS!

Like 11 hours of making fun of Orlando Bloom, but STILL FREAKING OUT when he and the dwarf are going to die as friends at the very end? Helm’s Deep is bad ass, all the women glow and are totally kick ass, and Viggo is super hot and in basically every scene.

3. Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is fantastic and keeps getting better. When I rewatch Parks and Recreation I even rewatch those first 4 pretty terrible episodes as kind of a tribute to how far the show will go, and the addition of Adam Scott and Rob Lowe in season 3 is like ice cream on a huge warm brownie. Every person in this show is loveable, and that is so rare.

4. The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd

Half nerdy IT department tribute, half The Office-like shenanigans, The IT Crowd is so fun and hilarious that you forget you started watching it to look cool and keep watching it because you love it so much. Roy is all famous now because of Bridesmaids so talking about how good The IT Crowd is isn’t going to make you that cool anymore, anyway.

The Most Mindless of Mindless Knitting

You’ve got 13″ of St st to get through. You can stare at the TV uninterrupted for hours while knitting because these shows require a lot of attention.

1. Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

Is Gossip Girl the worst shit ever? Oh yeah. It’s worse than the worst shit ever. The show must have found a way to spit crack at you through your TV because you can’t get enough of the mean girls, the sex, the drama, the outfits, and the soundtrack. Much like how Parks and Recreation has all characters you love, Gossip Girl has all characters you hate. Even the ones who are suppose to be the good characters do terrible things to the evil characters. Everyone is hot, and evil, and you have to read a TON of text messages to keep track of what is going on.

2. Harry Potter, movies 1-4

Harry Potter!

(I like to live in a world where everyone still looks like this) The first four movies are delightful magical romps! When things start looking super scary *cough* MOVIE FOUR *cough* you just start watching movie one again! And everyone is alive and happy and Voldemort is still just kind of a foggy thought. And nothing else bad happens!

3. The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries

The above picture should be enough to sell this show to you, and to explain why this is a show for mindless knitting, but on top of the HOTT there is also lots of fighting, really fast vampire fighting, people constantly being killed by surprise attack, and there are lots of flashbacks to like 1492 and 1864 to keep track of. And hot vampire sex. The most surprising part of The Vampire Diaries? How legitimately good it is.

So dial up the Netflix, grab your knitting, and get watching! And if you’ve got more suggestions be sure to share!

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I’ve been in Minneapolis for over a month now, and have gotten a few knitting and teaching gigs around town I wanted to share in case you, too, are in Minneapolis!

Digs Studio

I’m teaching quite a few project classes at Digs Studio just south of Uptown in Minneapolis. Projects like my Chunky Cabled Cowl, WORK+SHELTER Hand Warmers, and Cabled Change Purse. If you click over to their calendar you can see all the classes they offer at Digs, and anything that is my pattern I’m teaching.

I’ve also been going to Thursday night knit nights at 2nd Moon Coffee Cafe on Franklin and 22nd. I get there around 6pm, grab a coffee and chill for a couple hours. All are welcome to join!

See? I’m leaving the house sometimes! If you have any questions about these classes or knit night, you can always email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com, and contact Digs to sign up for a class by emailing info@shopdigs.com.

Related Sweatshop Love:

• July 7, 2011 -- Twin Cities: Lets Knit!
• June 1, 2011 -- The Fam in the Twin Cities
• May 25, 2011 -- Minneapolitans
• May 20, 2011 -- Goodbye (Again) Chicago

Our next knit along sweater, the Delancey Cardigan, starts a week from today! I know everyone is excited about it because our rav group has grown by leaps and bounds. I’ve been getting tons of emails from knitters ordering yarn and buying up the pattern.

And remember! Alexis Winslow‘s coupon codes end next week, so if you want in on this KAL get it now! Use coupon code DELANCEY50 for 50% off the pattern price, OR, if you’ve got your eye on the Delancey Cardigan and another of Alexis’s patterns, use coupon code DELANCEYBOGO to get them buy one, get one free.

PS – Alexis just released a plus sized version of this pattern! Check it out here.

This Week’s Delancey Cardigan Goal: Gauge.

My Delancey Swatch

It SOUNDS easy, but we’ve got some decisions to make out of the gate here. I’ve done a lot of reading of reviews of this sweater from knitters who’ve finished it, and the consensus seems to be that Delancey comes out big. So if you like oversized sweaters, stick to the pattern and you will get a beautiful, slightly oversized cardigan.

If you want a more fitted cardigan, like I do, we are going to make a couple changes. I got one of the yarns the pattern calls for, which is Knit Picks Swish DK. The needle size appropriate for this yarn is 5, while the pattern calls for size 8. The first thing I’m going to do is drop my needle size down to size 7, which will tighten up the gauge, eliminating some of the stretch from wear and blocking, and make a smaller sweater just that easily.

About 3 1/2" Wide, 1/2" Smaller

My gauge swatch with size 7s came out 3 1/2″ wide and 4 1/2″ tall, which I was not expecting! Alexis wrote a really helpful post explaining that she is crazy tall, and that if you aren’t super tall you might want to shorten up the sweater. Because of the unusual construction of Delancey, shortening the sweater is not as easy as just starting my armholes early. I was thinking about doing this to begin with, but with my gauge coming out so crazy tall, I’ll for sure be following Alexis’s tips and shortening the body.

About 4 1/2" Long, 1/2" Longer

Even though my gauge came out at 3 1/2″ wide, which means I’ll lose about 4 1/2″ of sweater if I stick to the 36″ size (my normal sweater size), I’m still going down to size 33. I’d rather try to block a little bigger than get a sweater that is too big.

So next week I’ll be casting on for the smallest size, with my DK weight yarn and my size 7 needles. So much of knitting is guessing! With all the information out there about Delancey, this is my best guess for sweater knitting success. I hope you use this information to make the best possible guess for how to get your sweater the way you want it, too. Questions? Email me, or ask it on the forum.

And be sure to email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com if you want on the KAL mailing list!

We got this! And next week we cast on!

Related Sweatshop Love:

• January 16, 2012 -- Announcing our Winter KAL Sweater: The Delancey Cardigan!
• February 6, 2012 -- Let’s Do This! It’s Cast On Day!
• September 19, 2011 -- Fall KAL – Let’s Vote!

Handmade Ryan, who I know you are all acquainted with by this time, was asked to be part of the blog tour for the book The Crafter’s Guide to Taking Great Photos by Heidi Adnum. I was able to squeeze in a read this week so I was the member of the Handmade Ryan team chosen to take a look at the book. And I’m so glad I did!

The Crafter's Guide to Taking Great Photos by Heidi Adnum

First of all, this book is like candy. As it should be! You wouldn’t believe it if a book about taking great photos wasn’t filled with great photos. From the table of contents to the glossary, each page of Crafter’s Guide is full of some of the most beautiful pictures of handmade products, everything from jewelry to bags to knits to stationary. I flipped through it the first time like I’d flip through Vogue.

DIY Accessories Tutorials

I rolled through the book a second time to take it in. The lovely photos are telling you things, like how to make your own light tent and flash diffuser. What aperture means. The pros and cons to using props in your photos.

It’s full of before and after pictures, and the same product shot in different ways, showing how the different textures in your background effect the look of your product. You want your product to look like the products in this book, so you naturally pay attention to everything Heidi Adnum is telling you.

Photographing Knitting and Needlecraft

Heidi goes into photographing specific crafts and products in the middle of her book, and naturally I read the Knitting and Needlecraft section closely. She goes into the challenges to shooting such textured products and how to overcome them. She talks about the most flattering backgrounds and compositions, and answers FAQs like how to shoot floppy, soft knits. Then she interviews Jenny Gordy of Wikstenmade about how she photographs her knits (though I couldn’t find any knitwear on her site).

Heidi goes into this kind of detail with crafts like bags, dolls, fabric, and stationary, so if you make it, she can specifically help you shoot it better.

That Technical Stuff

Crafter’s Guide ends with help post-shoot. Cropping, color correcting, working with your digital files, sizing, and adding watermarks. Heidi even gives you ideas on what to do with your photos once they are looking their best, like sharing them on social media and working on your brand.

So yeah. I was really blown away by how much I liked The Crafter’s Guide to Taking Great Photos. I highly recommend this book if you sell handmade products online, if you shoot your craft and post pictures to your blog often, and if you are looking to upgrade your camera (or if you’ve got a camera you don’t really know how to use).

Written by a crafter for crafters, this book was easy to read, amazingly helpful, and instantly made me more aware of how the pictures I’m taking can look better. I’m excited to spend more time with this book soon!

Want to read more? Here are the other stops on the blog tour!

1/25 Mark Lipinski’s Creative Mojo Podcast

1/26 Rena Tom

1/27 CraftBuds

1/28 SweatShopofLove co-creator of @HandmadeRyanGosling

1/30 Artist Success with Lesley Riley

2/1 Jenny N Design — featured designer in the book

2/2 Rifle Paper Co. — featured designer in the book

2/3 See How We Sew

2/4 Imagination Kids Toys — featured designer in the book

2/6 Canadian Living Crafts’ Blog

UK Blog Tour

2/7 Feeling Stitchy 

2/8 UK Handmade

Australian Blog Tour

2/9 WhipUp.net

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