Hello, I am new here and can't wait to get started, but I have to wait for a few more projects to be off the needles. What else is new with knitters? Always wanting to cast on for more projects.

This is the yarn I bought at Maryland Wool & Sheep Festival this year:

It is Brooks Farm yarn new superwash wool Solana in a black/grey colourway. Feels very soft, but unsure how it holds up. Guess I am going to find out soon enough eh?

Knit on.

Lisa at www.knittingupastorm.blogspot.com

BrownBerry's CPH - Finished!

A few photos and details here, and the rest will be avaialable on my blog

Size: Knit in Med (size 36" bust)
Cast On: December 31, 2006
Cast Off: May 30, 2007

Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 in Color #23
Needles: US8 for body, 7 for button band, 9 to cast off


I picked up 324 stitches for the button band using 2 US Size 7 32" circulars so I could knit it continuously.

Many thanks to my photographer hubby who got up early to help me catch the best natural light. All foliage and landscaping are courtesy of his handiwork!

Thanks to all of you here for your tips, and your inspiring photos. It sure feels good to have a grown-up garment all my very own!

Progress

Body and hood completed. I still have to kitchener the hood. I have about 10 inches done on the sleeves.

Yarn - Beaverslide McTaggart Tweed color Sweetgrass.

I started a couple of months ago, but I'm a slow knitter.

It begins!

My CPH begins! (insert maniacal laughter)

I've been wanting to start for a while but with two other sweaters in the works, I've been putting it off. And then I couldn't find just the right shade of Cascade 220. Thankfully they love me (or my cute little girl) much at the lys and let me order from the color book. Now that they yarn has arrived my CPH is underway. I cast on last night and I'm hooked. Now let's just see how long it takes before I get side tracked. :)

cascade 220

hi all,

i'm just about to order my yarn for this project and need a little guidance. i saw that a lot of you knit the sweater using cascade 220. the question is, is the gauge drastically different, or am i really going to have to knit up a swatch to find out?

thanks!
stacy

Soooo close

I know that most of the posting out here recently has been for finished CPHs, but mine is still a Work in Progress. I wanted to share a great tutorial from Knitty.com which includes photos. This bit of instruction was very helpful to me in doing my first set-in sleeve. I used the weaving technique and mattress stitch, and I'm happy with how this first attempt has turned out so far (wish me luck on sleeve #2).

The tutorial is here on Knitty

Voila!





Hint: I blocked all pieces, then seamed all pieces (body and the sleeves) before setting in the sleeve and I must say this was VERY helpful in keeping my seam even all the way around the armhole. I think I would have had more trouble with bunching had I attempted to do this flat, so "tube to tube" is a good way to go! (P.S. That's a tip I heard on a previous episode of the Stash and Burn podcast about finishing)

To those out there still working on it, keep at it. And for the finishers - all that I've seen have been lovely!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

Here is a picture of my progress. These are the sleeves that I am knitting two at a time, and I feel like a knitting goddess because I have managed to do it without tangling the two skeins.

The Bad:

Being a Perfectionist sucks!!! I was happy knitting along, and got to the decrease for the sleeve cap and then realized that my stitch count was off after I did my binding off. What is my problem, you ask? I was supposed to do the increase 10 times for the 36" size, and the dummy that took over my head when I read the pattern initially read the "9 times" for the 32" size. I will chalk this all up to the fact that I hate writing in my magazines, so I didn't circle or highlight the number that corresponded to my size. And yes, I could have photocopied the pattern, but I seem to always lose those things. So, now I have the grueling pleasure of frogging approximately 20 rows of stitches.

The Ugly:

I read the chart wrong, and have done the cable twist every 8 rows, as opposed to every 10 rows. I have completed the back, front pieces, and the sleeves (almost). So am I supposed to take this out??? Not for a minute on God's great earth am I going to even fathom that notion. Every fault is a fashion, and the cables are consistent with each other. So I'm keeping it. Ha! Leave me a comment. Let me know what you think.

arrrgh. Forgot to switch to larger needles

My knitting has been lagging. I usually knit in the evenings, but my dog has recently decided my evenings are his, so very little knitting has been done in the past month.

I've finished the body and hood, but still have to kitchener the hood. I decided to start the sleeves anyway and was sailing along when I realized I forgot to switch to the larger needles when I finished the ribbing. I'm so disgusted with myself. I'll frog back tomorrow.

Oh well. It is only 3 rows.

Because of the vertical shrinkage with my yarn (Beaverslide McTaggart's tweed) I have to figure out how to elongate the sleeve cap. Pencil, calculator, and graph paper should do it.

Pics to come.

Here we go!

So, I still haven't decided exactly how I'm going to attach/use the toggles for my buttons, but I did take some pictures of my CPH this evening. No modeling shots as I'm alone (other than the cats) but I did my best to capture the spirit of the Central Park Hoodie in my table top pictures. I'm happy with the way it came out, although I think I was so afraid of everyone saying it was too smal, that I might have knitted it a bit too big. :)

Anyway, here are the pics:







Here are the details:

Yarn : Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran Weight (9 skeins)
Size : Cast on for the 44, increased to the 48 after the waist to accomodate curves (what I should have done is decrease back down again... the shoulders are too big.
Needles : 7s and 9s

Modifications to the pattern:

1. Well, I started by knitting the back and the 2 fronts in one piece. This was helpful in making that part go faster I think.

2. I used a 2X2 tubular cast on to start on the body and the sleeves.

3. I knit the sleeves in the round and increased on the underside of the arm.

4. I did Short-row shaping with a three-needle bind-off for the shoulders.

5. Continued the cable up the hood to the top.

6. Grafted the hood together instead of binding off and seaming it.

7. Added some short row shaping to the hood, as well as the button band (to make the hood rounder and to increase the length of the band along the sides, but not across the top of the head.

8. Knit the button band all at once rather than in 2 pieces.

9. Used an I-cord bindoff around the entire button band.

This is the first sweater I've succesfully made that fits me! Mostly everything else I knit is for babies or toddlers or is a size S to serve as a model at the LYS I work at part-time. Too bad the day I finished this 100% wool sweater, it suddenly became summer. :(

Thanks for all the support and help all the way! I have 2 full skeins left over (does anyone else have extra of this yarn/color) and I think I might try to make a matching small hoodie for my neice. :) That's another project for another day though. :)

About to begin

I already have yarn to start my CPH and I'm looking forward to it. This will be my first project in a while that I will knit for myself. Yay!
BTW, I am using ONline Cora and have no idea which size to make yet. Gotta swatch first.



- Eva

CPH done!!!

Yarn used: Cascade 220 Heathers, color #9453 Amethyst Heather, just over 7.5 hanks
Needles: Size 7 Knit Picks options circular
Started May 1, finished May 17... I got distracted while I was knitting it because I wanted to try my hand at a shawl.
My gauge was off by quite a bit, but I liked the look and feel of the tighter knit fabric, so I just followed the 44" instruction to accommodate. It's a bit too small for me to button or fasten closed, but I didn't intend to do that, anyway, so it's all good. :-) I also knit the largest size sleeves because I hate tight sleeves, especially in the upper arm area.

I knit the body in one piece to avoid the seams and had intended to do the same on the sleeves, but decided against it. I also added length to the sleeves because I have gorilla arms. :-) My seams at the shoulder area could definitely use some help and I picked up too many stitches for the ribbing, but I'm too tired of knitting this one to try it again. I can deal with the floppiness of the ribbing for now. I have extra yarn, so if I get adventurous I'll go at it then!


Great knitalong with some great help!!! Thanks for letting me be a part of this!

Stacee

So close...

I've been working on my CPH since October of 2006 (I think I bought the yarn for it last July or August). Anyway, I am SO close to being done, but the ribbing has taken so long, partially because i have close to 360 stitches per row, but also because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the buttonholes. I put them in and then ripped them out 3 times I think! Now I believe I have settled on doing toggles, but can't find any pictures of the sweater done with toggles. Does anyone have a CPH done that way?

Also... now that I've finished knitting, it's time to bind off. I tried a traditional bindoff in pattern and I didn't like it, so then I tried a sewn bindoff for 2X2 ribbing, but didn't like that either.... and NOW (finally) I think I've settled on an i-cord bind off, but I had finished almost 1/3 of the ribbing when I realized that I was running out of yarn and needed to start a new skein and ALSO I wanted to do an applied i-cord to neaten up the bottom of the ribbing along the bottom edge of the sweater.

Man.... what a process.

So hopefully pictures soon! And if you have any images of the CPH with toggle buttons, please let me know! :)

Hood Kitchnering

I am almost done with knitting the hood. I want to kitchener the hood rather than seaming it. I've made lots of socks and know how to kitchener knit stitches. But I don't know how to handle the purls stitches on either side of the cable.

Are there any instructions on how to do this out "there"?

My First Sweater!!

I started this sweater in November and my love for it was rekindled when I found this group. I finished it yesterday and even wore it last night. I love the color and Encore Worsted was a nice, durable, affordable pick for this sweater. I have many more details on my blog.

Current Progress (Minus Frogging)

This is where I was last week with my CPH. I continued on with the sleeves in the hope that this would be finished by this weekend.

And then I discovered I could not live with the mistake. Yes, I made it twice on purpose. Since you are all a talented group of knitters I'm confident you'll find it at first glance.

On the plus side, I heeded Freda's
advice and washed my swatch a while back. I was surprised by the results. I'm still glad I did it.

I can't wait to post again with a picture of the sleeves done correctly! I feel as though this cable and I are now old friends, and I'm looking forward to doing it correctly.

Sleeve questions

Hi everyone,
I've never done sleeves the way that the CPH does them, so I have a question about the length. I'm really short, so I've had to shorten the length of the main part of the sweater. I was just curious where the main part of the sleeve is supposed to hit on your arm before you start the sleeve cap. I just don't want to knit them the way the pattern says and end up with it too long. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

FO: Central Park Hoodie

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca (7 skeins)

Needles: US 7 and 9

Start Date: March 29, 2007

End Date: May 7, 2007

Comments: sizes run small. I measure at a 40 inch bust and knitted the size 44. Some adjustments that I altered would be: increasing the ribbing all along each edge by about an inch. Plus, my stitch gauge was dead-on but the row gauge was very long, so I eliminated 2 rows from the pattern. It worked out great and the cables look perfect - not elongated like my swatch. I will definitely knit this pattern again and recommend it to anyone first starting a sweater or new to cables.

You can see more photos and comments on my blog. Thank you all for your support on this KAL...I can't wait to do another.

Photos!

With newly charged batteries in hand my boyfriend and I went to an appropriate area of town for a little photo shoot...

We didn't get any grand close-ups but at least I have proof it's finished!

hood and all.

More pictures & info will soon be available here.

Yay!

Now I can get started on this...or maybe this.

This KAL was fun. Thanks everyone for your posting and encouragement. Communities like this provide so much help and warmth; the online knitting community rocks.

Walnut Heather CPH finished

Yarn: Cascade 220 (#8013 Walnut Heather, 220 yards) almost 5 skeins
Needles: US 6 and 8 Denise circular needles

I really enjoyed making this sweater. There were a few overly exciting moments (like when I misread the pattern and muffed up the armhole and neck shaping of one of the front pieces and had to rip back a few inches), but overall it was a great experience. For more pictures and pattern notes (on accidental changes I made!), see my blog.

Cables

When crossing the cables both w/3 stitches back and w/3 stitches front I'm getting the pinched cable look. Any suggestions? I've tried using a slightly larger cable needle, however that doesn't seem to be the answer.

Moving On...

I must have been having a brain fart yesterday, because something so easy was not working out for me. I figured that, since it was hard that I wasn't doing it right. Those stitches were super tight, to the point where I thought I would break the connection between the needle and cord. I brought my hoodie to the SnB last night and they all confirmed I was doing it correctly. whew. I'm moving on and chalking it up to lack of sleep.



I think if I where to do this project again, I would add a slip stitch on the edge for easy pick-up's later on.

Take care & Knit-On
Kris

CPH #3 has been started

I have started my second (really my third, but the first was frogged and sold!) CPH and can't wait to finish!! Here's my progress so far:


I have a few more details on my meager little blog, if you'd like to stop by. :-)

Stacee

Picking Up Stitches?

So the one thing that I didn't think I would have a problem with is now my enemy. I bound off for the hood last night, and this morning on my commute to work I read the instructions...pick up 158 stitches along the left panel starting from the top hood. No problem. Easy. Done.



I picked up stitches oh so carefully. Easy. Count them up and what do you get, 80 stitches? HUH? Waz-dat?



Okay, I'm thinking...it's not so bad. I just have to pick up about double more. So, I see there are these bumps between the already picked up stitches. That must be where I pick up the extras from right?



I start picking up these bumps and gosh it is not easy and is definitely a problem. I don't even know if I'm picking up the right stitches and all my knowledge is flying right out the window.



I struggled to get most of these stitches on and can't imagine trying to purl these suckers once their all there. Am I on the right track? Any suggestion or advice would be greatly appreciated.