Froggity frog- Winging it sweater

I am down to only two of my WIPs from the start of the year- the everlasting sock yarn blanket and the hibernating ducky socks. This was achieved by finally doing something about this jumper:

It has been sat waiting since Christmas as I needed to improvise the sleeves and was not feeling enthusiastic about it.

I was not sure about the ribbing either, the combination of ribbing and chunky yarn gave me a look that kind people might describe as "fluffy". Less kind people migth be more blunt!

Frogging is a lot of fun, you would not believe how fast a jumper can be pulled apart. The four top sections that were worked flat gave a little trouble, but once those were undone I hooked the body section up to a ball winder and away it went!

I now have a pile of chunky yarn again. It will be a sweater eventually but I need to do some pattern hunting first, and this time no ribbing on the body!

Scrap down- The first of many

This is not really the first as I have done these before, but it is the first of my new round of mini projects. These are not really big enough to count as FO Fridays (under self imposed 52 projects in 52 weeks rules those have to take 6 hours or more), but I want to share them anyway.
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First up is this little one, made from leftover sock yarn as part of a Ravelry swap parcel.
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That is a UK penny for scale.

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Pattern: Tee-tiny raglan by Loribird

Needles: 3mm dpns

Yarn: Random sock yarn, it is about Regia/Opal weight and style in a self patterning green colourway. Black regia 4 ply for the sleeves (so they matched)

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A nice easy pattern, makes a cute little sweater in about an hour, maybe a little more. I think 2.5mm needles would have been better, it came out a little bigger than I was aiming for. Self patterning yarn with shortish repeats works really well on this pattern.

Scrap down- Toy sweater

I am still working away on my campaign to use up the unloved and neglected part balls that litter my stash.

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This week's effort is part of a bigger project that I will probably share on Friday, it is a doll sweater, made following Pull-Over for 16in Waldorf Dolls by Jennifer Constant, using some leftovers of Lion brand Wool ease in a dark green and 4.5mm needles.

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The first run through I followed the pattern as stated to work the body, it came out way too big so after a big of huffing and puffing and scowling at it I ripped it back. I am a little vague about where I went back to- I ended up with 64 sts around the body after casting on for the underarms. The sleeves have slightly different stitch counts, I think I missed picking up a YO increase when I was ripping it back. They do not look quite as different in real life as in this photo, plus it is for a toy so there is no way I am making it a third time!

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What pleases me even more about this project is this time last year I was making almost exactly the same sweater, in the same yarn, only in full grown man sized. Only this time it took a couple of hours rather than four solid weeks!

The sweater challenge, part 3

Hurrah!
It is finished at last. After some serious panicking that it would not be done in time and I would have to hand over an unfinished object again (it was one and a half socks last year) I put in a lot of knitting time and got it done by the end of last week. A bit of yarn end sewing in over the weekend and a tag with a cartoon sheep later it is sitting waiting to be wrapped.
I feel a bit lost without it now as the Christmas knitting is all finished but I guess I should do the wrapping before I start any new projects.
A photo will follow if I get a chance to wave the camera around on Christmas day :)

The sweater challenge, part 2

The half way update!
I keep being reminded it is only 4, 3, 2 1/2 etc weeks to go until Christmas, which is usually responded to by either "I know, argh too much to do" or "pfft, Christmas is ages away" (wishful thinking!).
It turned out the yarn delay was a good thing as it gave me a chance to recheck my gauge and realise I had put the numbers into the pattern the wrong way round! I felt like a bit of an idiot but it was a good save as I would have been making a GIANT jumper if I had carried on.
With the new pattern created from the correct gauge I decided to go back to the top down option, mostly because my only 5mm circular was too small to start on the body section, but fine for the neck.
Two and a half weeks and some crazy knitting later (literally every spare second I find) its going ok so far- I waver between confidence that it will be finished and wrapped in time and panic that it will not. So far the raglan shaping and most of the body is done, hoping to finish the body by Wednesday then start on the sleeves.
Oh and I have a vague plan to knit a few more gifts when I am done, I suspect those people may be getting chocolate and smellies instead!

The sweater challenge, part 1

I have somehow agreed to make a sweater for Christmas, that's right Christmas 2009, which is in 5 weeks! And I haven't started yet!

This has happened because all the other genius present ideas I had for my dad fell through and I went back to a previously abandoned plan. After running it past my mum who said she was sure he would like a sweater I got hunting for pattern on ravelry and some yarn on the internet.

I knew what I needed, it had to be simple, machine washable, and fast to knit to make sure it would be done for Christmas and would be worn rather than being tucked in a drawer.

Final decision is lion wool ease for the yarn and a raglan pattern in the round- largely avoiding purl and speeding the whole process up. There were a choice of two, both based on the percentage method:
A top down version
http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.guest.cfm

and a bottom up version
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATknitbynumbers.html

As I was waiting on wool delivery I knit a swatch and did the maths for both, they came out similar and I have opted for the bottom up version so I can add some depth to the armholes to correspond with an existing sweater (sneakily measured while on a trip back home).

There will be a few dimensions from the other calculation, like the slightly smaller neck sizing- as the wool is taking a while to arrive I knit a trial neckband to check it would fit, commandeering my OH's head as a tester (I wonder if I am risking the sweater curse by proxy!!??).

I will add some cables and a but of purling to make the pattern a little more interesting.

I am still waiting for my yarn delivery, sitting by the letterbox like a hungry beast, and am considering taking bets on whether I can be finished in time!