The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

Cute Boy

It seems like years ago when I started knitting PT’s Modified Cambridge Jacket. It kind of was! My first update about this sweater was on September 6th.

I just reread that post hoping to know what I was wearing while knitting it. Probably a tank and a skirt. I miss you, September.

By September 12th I had it cast on and the rewrite was on.

Because I only worked on it while PT was at work and if he went out and left me home it was another month before I had any real progress on the thing.

And another month after that, November 12th to be exact, before I was finished with the body and stupid sleeves, which I was terrified were going to be too long. I added buttons on December 9th, boxed it, and put it under the tree.

No Monkey Sleeves?

It fits! It fits and looks good. The sleeves aren’t ridiculously long, the buttons look good, the sides look seriously great. I’m some kind of boy sweater knitting genius!

Good for Napping

It is also functional! PT was very happy and kept kissing it throughout the day. Overkill? Yes. But I was surprisingly self conscious about this gift! If he didn’t like it, it would be a huge failure, December 23rd, and no present. And what does that say about me? I don’t know what kind of knitwear my own boyfriend would like? I look through Interweave Knits and name students who would love each sweater!

It was a lot of pressure. I can see validity in this sweater curse, for real. So if you are going to knit a sweater for any boy, knit one for PT, because he was the perfect hand knit sweater recipient.

Now I just have to wait for him to dump me.

PT always says to write a lot about nothing at the beginning of these posts because he follows this blog on his Google Reader, so he gets a few sentences fed to him before he has a chance to mark the entry as read. The problem is that I don’t have a lot more to say about PT’s sweater!

When we last visited PT’s Modified Cambridge Jacket I had finished it but I was very worried about the potential monkey-like length of the sleeves.

Oh no.

Remember?

To take my mind off that I attached the toggle buttons!

Buttons!

I’m glad I decided to go with buttons and not the half zipper. While out shopping with PT a couple weeks ago he went on a rampage about how half zippers have no point. ‘If it is going to be a pullover, be a pullover! If it is going to be a zip up, be a zip up. Half zippers are like the worst of both worlds.’

Dodged a bullet with that one.

However when I slyly pointed out a similar sweater to this Modified Cambridge Jacket, he said, ‘I just don’t know if I could pull that off.’ I never really know what people mean when they say that, but I don’t think it is good.

Well, the sweater is wrapped and under the tree, so we can only wait and see for the final decision. Damn you, sweater curse. Damn you.

When we last visited PT’s Christmas Present I was mostly breaking from it. The sleeves were taking FOREVER, and I couldn’t see it ever ending. It was really boring, even with knitting them both at the same time.

But since finishing my Girl Friday Sweater I haven’t had any big projects in the works. I’ve been chipping away at my list of presents to make, but it forced me to suck it up and finish those sleeves.

Thank GOD!

And finish I did! A little too much, actually.

Monkey Arms?

I’ve been using this blue H&M sweater that PT wears a lot as kind of a gauge for the size of this sweater. The style of the sweater isn’t worn as closely as the blue sweater, so I was shooting for slightly bigger.

You can see how close the body is! The collar pops up bigger, and it is a little longer.

But those sleeves! How did that happen?

Oh Dear

It’s like three inches longer. PLUS -

SLEEVE FOIL!

Despite taking 10 stitches off both sleeve totals, those stupid sleeves are still too big I think. I studied the Ravelry project page for this sweater and everyone noted how huge the sleeves were. But it looks like I should have eliminated at least 5 more stitches from the pattern, totaling 15 extra stitches for the sleeves? That is insanity.

Boobs and All

So my dress form has boobs, obviously.

BOOBS!

And I have boobs. And hips!

Hot Back!

So it is very hard to tell what this sweater actually looks like. I know the back looks good!

Damn Sleeves

And the sleeves look long.

Bottom Ribbing

But I love the side ribbing, and the bottom ribbing that I added.

No Douche Collar!

And I’m glad the collar doesn’t look like a douche popped collar. I was worried about it. And the shoulders look manly! I’m so tempted to run outside to look for a PT sized boy and make him try this sweater on.

Original Sweater

So I took this zip up Ann Budd design and made it a pull over! Potentially gigantic sleeves and all. Better a little long than a little short, I think. Worse comes to worse I can fix them later. I guess.

Now I just have to run over to JoAnn and get some toggle buttons for the front closure. Who needs a zipper when you’ve got toggle buttons?!

And with that I have no projects listed on ravelry as in progress. And right now, looking around my apartment nervously for something to do, there is nothing to do. Will I make it to January 1st before starting to knit my next sweater?!

When we last visited PT’s Christmas present I was dumbing the pattern down like nobody’s business. I was getting increasingly worried, though, as I was getting closer and closer to that collar.

A Little Neck Magic

I separated for the neck when I got to the front shoulder ribs and just did a simple wrong-side slip stitch/right side knit rolled edge. Then the pattern was talking about casting stitches off, and I wasn’t about it.

I followed the decreases like it said in the pattern, but the stitches that it said to bind off I just held on spare double pointed needles, with the thought that I would pick them up when I tackled the collar.

I wished I would have thought of that when I was binding off the back! I hate picking up stitches when I could easily just hold the stitches to be worked later.

Magic!

Ok, so it wasn’t as easy as ‘magic!’. I picked up those stitches so many times, trying to get the numbers right, trying to get my ribs to match up, trying to get my back ribs to match up, trying to make sure there are enough stitches on both collars so they weren’t lopsided! The part that was magic was when I threw my hands up and stopped counting, deciding to just work the ribs out and not worry about the number of stitches. And how many stitches did I end up picking up? Oh yeah it was the right number of stitches.

I kept up with the rolled edge in the front and followed the decreases as the pattern calls for three stitches in, kinda. I wanted to keep the rib, so I fudged it a little.

Douche Collar?

Now, of course, I’m all worried that it looks like a douche-bro popped collar! Does it? If it’s a sweater, does it count as a popped collar? I don’t know the popped collar rules!

Big Enough? Cute Enough? GAH!

Freaking out isn’t the right way to put it, but I’m a little concerned that it is too small. I put it on when I was done with the collar and it seemed short, even though I did that trick where you pull out a sweater your boy liked and wears a lot and measured it to that sweater. I’m hoping my boobs are throwing off the dimensions.

I can always block it a little longer. Right?

Sleeves Two at a Time!

I’ve got a pretty good start on the sleeves, though I haven’t picked them up in a while. Since PT and I had those baseball issues, and the Tigers lost, and I couldn’t even look at him much less his stupid sweater he didn’t deserve.

I’ve read the ravelry.com notes on this sweater and many people who’ve knit it have said that the sleeves were too big. So I’m keeping the increases at a minimum; I’m sticking with the first instructions, of increasing every 6th row however many times. I’m just going to keep doing that until I feel like they are big enough. Or something.

Yeah, I don’t really have a plan for the sleeves. That is why I have to do them at the same time. I don’t take good enough notes to duplicate soup, I’m not going to be able to knit two sleeves that look the same.

Pudge Loves PT's Yarn!

I feel like this project is going very slowly because I can only work on it when PT isn’t home. But luckily for me, however unluckily for PT, he has been working late the past few nights!

I keep everything I need for the sweater in a bag hidden under some other bags. I pull it out when I’m working on it, so just in case PT comes home I can just shove it in a bag that looks like a million other bags of yarn I have all over the house! As you can see, Pudge Rodriguez approves of the yarn I picked out.

Progress!

Last time I checked in with PT’s Modified Cambridge Jacket, I had just barely cast the thing on. I was trying to figure out how to cast the entire sweater on as a pullover and add a ribbed hem. It looks good so far! I had to knit the whole body for 14 1/2 inches before dividing to work just the back piece.

Side, and Armhole Shaping

The side ribbing looks great, I really love the K2P3 ribbing. I stuck with the instructions for the armhole shaping (smallest size). I kept up with the pattern, only two ribs made it through the decreasing, until I was supposed to add more ribbing at the shoulder blades.

Shoulder Blade Ribbing

As written: Mark center 22 sts with waste yarn or removable markers. Next Row: (RS) K1 (edge st), work in established rib to 12 sts before marked center sts, [K3, M1, P1] 3 times, K22 marked center sts, [P1, M1, K3] 3 times, work in established rib patt to last st, K1 (edge st).

… seriously?

I knit my ribs. [K3, PFB] 3 times, K3, P2, (17 new rib sts), K to within 17 sts of established rib, P2, K3, [PFB, K3] 3 times, work ribs.

Love it! I’ve got 23 center stitches instead of 22, but I’m not sweating it. I had to do some finagling to knit the body in the round.

The real challenge will be figuring out the front! I’ll be knitting both sides at the same time to the front rib, separating for the button band? Maybe?

I’ll worry about that when I get to it!

So the Ann Budd pattern is getting a complete rewrite.

I’ve been looking at it and trying to pre-figure everything out, but I decided to just jump in and figure it out while I’m knitting. So far so good!

I checked the gauge with the Wool of the Andes and size 8s, but it was big, so I bought some size 7s. The gauge is still a tiny big, but I’m going with it, I’m just knitting the smallest size sweater.

Like I said before about the Cambridge Jacket pattern, I’m changing it to be a pullover. I don’t trust a crocheted edge, they always curl up, so I added a rib bottom in pattern. I’m knitting a size small, so I cast on 185, K 46, placed marker for one arm, knit to 46 stitches from end, PM for second arm.

Join, PM for center, K1 *P3,K2, repeat from* around, end with K1.

K in pattern for 1 1/2 inches. I kept the P3 pattern for the 4 ribs closest to what will be the armpit on each of the fronts and back, so you are working a St st on the center 57 sts on both the front and back, and working a P3K2 rib for 38 sts, 19 sts on each side of arm markers.

Ribbing Done!

So far so good! I finished the ribbing and I’m working on the body. For 14 1/2 inches. The sizing looks good! I love the yarn and the color is great.

Next stop armholes! But these 14 1/2 inches are  going to take a while.