My CPH is Done

I've finally finished my CPH, or as I've dubbed it, The Soccer Sweater, since it will be worn at my kids' early morning soccer games in Fall and Winter. The yarn I used is Black Water Abbey in Pink Heathers. It was truly a labor of love, since it took me about three months to complete it, but I am oh so happy! that it's ready to be worn.

I made the 40" version and used less than 7 skeins of the yarn. The mods I made were grafting the hood, knitting the button band in one piece, and picking up about 50+ less stitches on the button band.

Read more about it at my blog. Good luck to those who are still toiling away. It's worth all of the effort!

Mary

Dim Sum Knitting

Already in progress

I just joined the KAL and my CPH has been in progress for a month or so. My progress has been slowed lately by the 100 degree heat in my area in California, but I am eager to get this finished before it turns cold again.

Heres what I have so far



I'm doing the fronts at the same time so I can make sure they are the same size.
I'm using good ol' Cascade 220, so far, so good.

Casting on!!

I'm finally casting on tonight...eeeeeee! Anyone else get that pre-cast on giddiness?

Putting it All Together

I'm in the process of seaming my CPH together. I've completed the shoulder seams so far, using the directions from Knitty originally posted by Brown Berry.

Because this is a mulespun yarn, I will need to wash it so that the yarn will bloom after I finish the seaming. With the warm weather that's on the way, drying won't take too long.

I can't wait to post pictures of my finished CPH!

Week Three (a bit late)

Warning: Very Long Post Ahead

This is week three's progress report and I have to say a break can be the best thing for both of you sometimes. Mostly because I messed up. I worked the right front wrong and accidentally bound off two more stitches than I was supposed to (no worries, the following instructions are correct, I just had a blonde moment further on down the line). I thought, "Oh heck, two stitches aren't that big of a deal and I hate ripping back so, onward!" Yeah.

I replicated my mistake on purpose for the left front. All was fine until I went to sew the shoulder seams. (insert swearing here) To quasi-fix it, since I was in no way going to rip back 19" of knitting, I had to undo my cast-offs and re-do them in a manageable way to get the cables to line up. I think it kinda works but, it probably doesn't matter because my shoulder seams look like junk anyway. Have I mentioned yet how bad I am at seaming? It doesn't like me much either.

Next I went to pick up the stitches for the hood and again, not my strong suit. I'm lousy at picking up stitches. I counted as I picked them up but somehow I counted three too many at the end. Came back three days later and recounted to discover it was correct. Maybe the knitting fairies came and visited while I was out of town last weekend. Or maybe I should stop knitting when it's past 10:30 pm. Now we’re sailing along again. *phew*

Now, by request, how to split the single piece of knitting at the armholes to work the shaping. Once you have knit the 14 inches or so solid and are ready to work the armhole shaping it's time to remember where the front and back pieces are. Take a minute and place stitch markers where your seams would have been. To find these again take the number of stitches you would have cast on for the right front (if you were working it separately) minus one. So if you were supposed to cast on 38 in the instructions count 37 stitches in and that is where you will be splitting your work. You can do the same thing for the left front starting from the other end. To double check yourself count the back piece and it should be two stitches shy of how many the instructions said to cast on. Now place the work on three separate needles or cords.

To start working the armholes the only tricky part is the first row (for the fronts) or two (for the back). Let’s start with the right front. With the first (WS) row it says to bind off (X) number of stitches. You are already short one stitch on the seam side so instead of binding off (X) number of stitches bind off (X-1). Work the rest of the pattern as written. For the left front, the first (RS) row of the armhole shaping, do the same thing.

The back piece is worked similarly. Under “Armholes” it says to bind off (X) number of stitches at the beginning of the next two rows. Bind off (X-1) stitches at the beginning of the next two rows and work the rest according to the pattern. You should be set.

Sorry this was soooooo long. Have a great week!

Nearly finished

I left my CPH for some time off on other projects so I should have had it finished by now...with the impending trip I have leaving 8.10am this Friday,arghhhhhh,its been a race against time to get it done along with two others so I can have a choice of a handknit to take with me.

I did the cable up to the top of hood to find that the cables didnt match and it also made the hood heavy so I ripped it back and last night reknit it!

Today at lunch time during a 20min break I started the sewing up of the arms and tonight I will have it ready to knit the edges...tommorrow at the hairdressers I will,I mean WILL finish that part and then scoot down to the wool shop to get some togel style buttons....

As it stands...

Armholes and Shoulders?

I have been making tremendous progress on my CPH - in a little over one week I've done the sides and back (I'm knitting them in one piece) all the way to the armholes. This is my first cardigan, though, and as I'm looking ahead at the instructions to come I'm a little bit confused. Mainly I'm wondering why the pattern gives different measurements for the armholes for the fronts and back - 6 1/2" for the fronts and (I believe - I forgot to bring the pattern and I'm at work) 8 1/2" for the back. Will the reasoning behind these different measurements make sense as I begin shaping the neckline? As I said, I've never made a cardigan before, so I'm having a little trouble envisioning how all the pieces fit together.

I promise to post WIP pics soon!

Some Progress

I've made some progress with my Hoodie, although it's a little too hot to knit with this yarn right now. I've also tried the short row shoulder shaping, which seems to be much better than the ordinary bind off.



Thanks for collecting all the FO's!

Eva (FantasyKnits)

Closing in on the Finish Line

Thanks to Jill for letting me know that I haven't posted here for a while. This is the current progress on my CPH - despite the number of setbacks (which you can read about on my blog), I'm still enjoying this project.

This is my fifth time picking up for the ribbing. I'm not too discouraged, since this is my first button band. I'm using this project as a learning tool - first time kitchenering the hood, first time doing short-row shoulders, first time doing a multi-cabled sweater, etc.

Here are some other pictures of my work. I'm very proud to have come so far in this CPH, and it's because you have inspired me.

finally picked a yarn!

i'm going with the new o-wool balance. it is a 50/50 blend of organic merino and organic cotton. i've gotten 12 skeins in a pretty dark green color, and will start knitting as soon as i finish assembling the baby yoda sweater i'm working on now.

CPH KAL FO Summary

I've got the yarn for my CPH now! Cascade 220 Superwash. My gauge is just a little short after washing the swatch and applying a little stretch I'm at 17.5. 48" would be perfect for me around but 14" arms are going to be small, so I'll have to figure that out.

Not all of us are in Ravelry yet so.... I've been perusing this whole KAL over the last couple of days to find examples of Cascade 220 CPH and then I saw someone else who was looking for a particular yarn and I thought I'd take it upon myself to summarize the Finished Object Central Park Hoodies! I know there is a lot of other great info here so don't just skip by it. There are some abandoned CPH that I would love to see how they come out or hear what happened to them! If you want to add info or modify what I put down here, please, leave a comment and I'll update the table in a day or two.

Short rowing your shoulders.
Knitting the body in one piece.
Gauge discussion on Knitter's Review.

These women are all linked on the table below but their CPH page is great... Crossroad Knits

Name with FO Link	yarn	size
Brown Berry	Karabella Aurora 8 - 11 skeins	36"
Lara	Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran Weight (9 skeins)	44"/48"
Stacee	Cascade 220 Heathers 7.5 hanks	44"
allie	Plymouth Encore Worsted 4.5 skeins	36"
Kris	Berroco Ultra Alpaca 7 skeins	44"
sienna	Diamond Galway Heather 7 skeins?	?
Octopus Knits	Cascade 220 almost 5 skeins	36"
soCherry	Cascade 220 5 skeins +	36"
Lynda	Cascade 220 - 5.5 skeins	40"
Brenda	Sirdar Donegal Tweed	44"
Hilary	Cascade 220	48"/44"
Liz K	Cascade 220	36"
rachel	peace fleece worsted 6 skeins	36"
Bear Knits	Peace Fleece - 5.3 skeins	36"
Stacee	Lion Brand Wool Ease	?
Tonya	Tahki tweed -7 skeins	?
Moirae	Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed ~12 balls	?
Tigers	Bendigo Mills 12 ply Rustic	48"
mary	classic elite skye tweed	?
Christina	DB aran tweed	44"
Pam	Cascade Sierra Quatro - 7 skeins	40"/34"
knitseashore	Plymouth Yarn Plymouth Tweed	?
Liz T	Tahki Donegal Tweed	?
Tracey	Ella Rae Classic Under 7 skeins	40"
Cara	Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran	36"
Liz K	Tahki Donegal Tweed	?
Katyaflutes	Tahki Donegal Tweed 7+ skeins	40"
aquaknits	cascade 220	?
Tiennie and this	Tahki Donegal Tweed	?
Kara	Peace Fleece	36"
Sue	Bendigo Woollen Mills	48"
Elizabeth	Lamb's Pride Worsted	?

About Variegated Yarn (for Shameka)

Hi, Shameka,

In the comments I saw that you had questions about using variegated yarn on the CPH. I chose variegated yarn for mine and that's what has caused the delay in knitting it (and yes, I am the Administrator of this KAL *blushing from shame*).

To give you an idea of what happens or what to consider, please refer to my posts on the original CPH KAL (from when it was run by Christy):

http://christybelle.typepad.com/centralparkhoodie/2006/10/knitting_cph_wi.html

http://christybelle.typepad.com/centralparkhoodie/2006/10/bloggers_down.html

The post includes photos and there are a few other posts there featuring my color experiments that may help you decide. My solution so far is to knit the fronts and backs as all one piece on a circular and let the pooling fall where it may. That would work, but it won't result in the color shift that I liked so well when I knit the back only. If I were brave, I suppose I could attempt to knit the fronts as one piece and steek it to achieve the same pooling pattern.

Like I said, I'm still working this out in my mind and I think I'm going to buy a solid yarn for my first one. Let us know what you figure out!

Progress Report from Sleeve Island

My CPH is coming right along, in spite of the best efforts of my yarn to frustrate me.

See the sleeves? This was at the start of today's knitting session. At the end, the caps were almost done. Two more rows, then a bind off, and I can start sewing the pieces together and move on to the hood.

This is one reason it's taken a while:

Yarn barf!

Yes, these last two balls have not taken kindly to being removed from their plastic bag and being pressed into service.
In fact, they have protested vehemently.
Not only did they disgorge giant chunks of yarn barf, they then proceeded to get themselves tangled up in it.

Now, I've raised kids. Several. Including the ones who were able to make themselves throw up on cue. So I know what to do.


The miscreants were wrangled into submission, and both balls have now been knit to a nice spot with no tangles and just a smooth feed from the center of the ball.
Just in time too, since the sleeves are nearly done.

A little side note: at one point, both Knit Devil and I were challenged by Seattle Marie to a race. She was waaayyy behind us and offered some of her handspun as a prize to whichever of us finished first. Dim Sum Mary refused to join the challenge.
So what happened? Well, SM finished first. DSM is almost done with hers--only needs to sew in the sleeves and sew on the buttons. KD is not far behind, having finished her hood and with just the bands to go. I am dead last. Not only that, but I have another trip coming up and this is sooo not airplane knitting!
Oh well. It won't be CPH weather in SoCal for quite a while, now will it?

blue sky cotton

has anyone used this yarn for the sweater? if so, did you like it?

Week Two

I am now about two inches away from finishing the back of the hoodie and eight inches away from finishing each front sides. I can't believe this project is going so quickly! I say that now but I'll probably be cursing it when I'm doing the sleeves.

Someone asked about knitting the front and sides at the same time so I'll share with you all how I'm doing it. It might be right, it might be wrong, and any pointers you have would be appreciated.

To knit the sides and and back together I added up all the number of stitches that would have been cast on for the right front, left front and back. I then subtracted two stitches for each seam that would have been sewn (4 stitches) and cast on that remaining number. When working the cable patterns and the ribbing I had to start by reading the instructions and cable charts for the right front, then the back piece, then the left front. This means my fabric is knitted in this sequence from right to left: cable chart C, cable chart C, cable chart A, cable chart B, cable chart C, cable chart A, cable chart A. I hope this helps the anonymous poster who was having trouble with the cables. Happy Knitting!

Week one

It's been one week since I cast on and I'm still going strong. So far the pattern is simple but not tedious and I'm really enjoying it. I decided to knit the front and sides at the same time because I really hate sewing up knitting and I thought I could minimize the seaming this way. I only made one little mistake when I started the cable pattern (I started on the wrong side by accident) and I had to rip back about 4-5 rows. I thought something looked a little funny then but I've got it fixed now and I'm loving it.

I keep showing it off to all my non-knitting friends and they ooohhhhh and aahhhh. I think I might have hooked one of them and now she wants me to teach her to knit. Ha ha! Another convert... The powers of the CPH have her now.