One Down, Two to Go

Dear Stuntmother,

When we took our Christmas card photo this year, we all wore hand-knit sweaters (no surprise there). DH commented that it would be nice to wear new hand-knits every year for the picture. Yeah, right. That means me knitting each of us a new sweater every year...I guess I'd better get started.

This morning, I finished the first one...that Noro Silk Garden had been insistently knocking on the stash closet door, begging for attention. I bought it 30% off at the Main Skein's going out of business sale last winter. They only had 11 balls, which might be a little scant for a sweater to fit me. I used Cosmicpluto's Easy Top Down Raglan pattern (Ravelry link), and decided that if it came to 3/4 length sleeves or a short body, that would have to be okay. Well, I got full-length sleeves and a normal body length, and have about 1/2 ball left. Yeah! I'll show it to you once it's dry and has buttons.

Next...

The DH has looked at countless sweater photos and patterns, and has deemed only three of them acceptable. Wow. Knitting for men is a challenge. Here is the planning stage of the Man's Fair Isle Sweater (creative naming!) from Scottish Highland Knits, which seems also to have been published with another title: Scottish Inspirations (?). This looks fun to knit, with baby cable ribbing, tweedy yarn (Rowan Scottish Tweed DK) and a very subtle stranded pattern on the yoke.

However...

It's knit in pieces, which means purling in stranded knitting. Um, no. I don't think so. I see no reason to do this, when you can just steek the silly thing. So, I'm in the process of re-writing the pattern to be worked in the round, with steeks for the armholes, neck and back shaping. It's a little tricky, since the placement of the yoke pattern depends on a firm grasp of your row gauge. I hope the little swatch is enough (it looks folded because I knit it in the round as a tube, then cut it up the middle, to simulate an unreinforced steek. No problem--no raveling). Then, I'll pick up stitches and knit the sleeves down to the cuffs. That way, I should be able to perfect the sleeve length.

Now, to find an appropriate pattern for the boy. For some reason, he seems to think he wants a rust sweater (he just learned that "rust" is a valid color name, which pitches him into a fit of giggles). I like this and this and this. Sorry--no photo in that last link. It's a pullover knit in doubled Felted Tweed, with a little half-zip at the neck, and one big stripe across the chest. Felted Tweed = Tweedy goodness, but not scratchy at all, and comes in lovely colors.

What do you think?

Love,
Eyeknit