Ready To Knit

I am joining the fun of getting ready to start my Central Park Hoodie! I just received my yarn order from Knit Picks today. I have chosen to use Wool of the Andes in colorway Cranberry. To me, this is a warm and fuzzy feeling color and I thought it would be perfect for this sweater. I have also decided that I am going to knit the body in one piece, like several others have done. I really dread seaming so I really like this idea. I will be doing my swatch this weekend and hopefully ready to start the body!

Some progress, finally!!!

I am finally making some progress on my Central Park Hoodie. I am up to the point where I am working on the hood. Here are some pictures of the shoulder seams. I crocheted it on the wrong side using the Single Crochet stitch.

Wow!!! What a neat seam for my first try. This is why it is very important to bind off loosely.
Now it is starting to actually look like a sweater.
Progress on the hood, about 4 inches.
I added the cable to the center of the hood. It looks better this way. Only 7 more inches to go!! Woohoo! You think maybe I can finish this before the week is done?
Although there were many distractions while knitting this sweater, I am all excited all over again, and I am still in love with the color.

Progress

Knit, knit, knit and we have a hood. I carried the cable up the hood, because it would drive me crazy just ending it at the neck. Knitting can really bring out the grouchy perfectionist inside. Or maybe I knit so I can let her hang free and not drive my family crazy with trying to keep all their ducks in a row.

Here's the top of the hood. I grafted the two sides together, but I'm not satisfied with how it looks. The cable on the hood where the two edges meet is very sloppy. I'm not sure if doing the three-needle bindoff as the pattern suggests would look better or if I just need to fiddle with things until I'm happy. Any ideas?

I want to figure this out, and get the edging started, I could have this finished for September if I keep plugging away.

too late for the tips!

I stumbled across this KAL yesterday and think it was a sign that it's time for me to pick up my Central Park Hoodie again! I worked on it last fall until Christmas knitting waylaid me and then again until it got too hot to consider knitting a long-sleeved cardigan in California. I edited the picture from knitscene to keep track of progress on my own blog, and have included it here. All I really have left is one sleeve, then the seaming and picking up stitches for the hood and button band (which I plan to make without buttons and holes). Seeing all the finished CPHs posted is making me anxious for mine (knit in pink-flecked brown tweed from Tahki Stacey Charles), so the KAL may be the motivation that gets me to wear this sweater THIS fall. Unfortunately, I have found all you lovely ladies too late in the game to take advantage of all the good advice on how to knit the body in one piece and short-row the shoulders. When I started this project last year I was not brave enough to try and figure it out on my own ... but now I am and might be a little cranky when it comes time to seam all the pieces I finished a year ago :)

D's CPH

After reading Lauren's post about knitting this body of the sweater in one piece, I thought this was an excellent idea - I also hate seaming.

I have made a few adjustments, eliminating a stitch at each edge for selvage, then adding an extra set of cables – which will be under the arms (where the seam should be).

I am knitting the hoodie in Medium size (40"), so I adjusted the pattern, so I have 10 stitches inbetween each set of cables.

CPH FO

Just in time for hot August, my CPH is done! I think it took me about 3 months.



I used ONline Cora. Mods: Short-row shoulder shaping and 3-needle bind off. More details on my blog!

Thanks for hosting this KAL, I've enjoyed knitting the hoodie as well as reading the suggestions and comments!

Sleeves

The Central Park Hoodie is seeing lots of consistent knitting. I can't wait to finish. I finished the fronts up last week, and have started the sleeves. I am not actually going to knit both sleeves at once, but I wanted to get the ribbing out of the way. This wool is not very pleasant to rib on 4mm needles. Much more comfortable to work on the larger needles.

And I am blocking the fronts and back right now. The yarn softened and bloomed just wonderfully. I was a bit worried the hoodie was going to be to snug, but now I think it will be just fine.

I really want to finish both sleeves by Sunday, and then I'll just have the hood and edging to go. It might even be finished by the end of the month.

Lisa's CPH

Knitters, may I present my Central Park Hoodie!




And yes, I know I am no good at taking pictures but I do try.

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heather in Lavender #2422, 7 1/2 skeins

Modifications: My gauge was a bit smaller than the pattern's so I knit a size 44" bust but it's closer to 40". I knit the body in one piece and the sleeves in one piece so I wouldn't have to seam them. Excellent! I also made the ribbing on the cuffs only 3" instead of 5" because it just seemed like too long of a cuff. The buttons are iridescent shell buttons and I would have preferred wooden ones but I just didn't find any that struck me. This hoodie is probably going to need a strip of ribbon behind the button holes to stabilize it but I haven't gotten that far and I might never. All in all, a lovely knit that went fairly quickly. This is my first finished adult sweater and I am rather pleased with it. :)

Now I'm ready to go to on my trip to Alaska!

Finished!

It's taken me a while, and it kinda makes me look like a linebacker, but my CPH is off the needles! You can read more about it here, but here are the main specs:

Yarn: Black Water Abbey 2-ply worsted weight in Pippin - 7 skeins
Needles: US 7 and 8 Addi 24" circs
Size: 48"
Mods: Knit the band as one piece, omitted buttons
Cast on: March 2007 Finished: August 2007

Except for my yarn choice, this project was a great knit. Unfortunately, the BWA two-ply is very tightly spun, and very rustic, and the two things combined 1) really hurt my hands and 2) made my cable tension wonky, resulting in unseemly looseness. (I tried wrapping stitches and Ktbls to tighten things up, to no avail.) But I love the pattern, and if I ever made another one would use a more forgiving yarn.

Thanks for hosting this great KAL. Through it I've made new friends and learned some new knitting tricks, too. Happy knitting, everyone!

MY CPH

I am using Cascade 220, Burnt Orange, #7824 thank you for looking

New!

Hello, I'm new here :-) I've been working away at my CPH this week and have completed the back and am starting up the first front.

I short rowed my shoulders for the very first time after hearing about it here, wow, I really like how they turned out.

I am hoping to get both fronts finished this week, will have to see how fast I knit.

My yarn is Briggs and Little Heritage. It's very sturdy. I mean I can just pull the needle out of the cables and rearrange the stitches and slip them back on in the right order and the yarn doesn't slip at all. Definitely outerwear this yarn, but my swatch did soften up after washing so it won't be to stiff to wear comfortably.

Hello All!

I'm new to this KAL and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Lauren and I'm thoroughly addicted to knitting! (Aren't we all? ) Please excuse the pictureless post, as I am at my mother's and am unable to upload any right now. Rest assured I am knitting away every moment I get. I am about 1/4 into the project, about 3 cable repeats away from shaping the sleeve caps. I chose to knit the body in one piece in attempt to avoid lots of seaming (hate it). I'm also planning on knitting the sleeves in the round, too. I'm using some Paton's Classic that I had lying around in a nice tangy green. The only mod I'm planning is lengthing the body a couple of inches to accomodate my freakishly long torso.

Anyhow, I am so happy to be here, knitting this fabulous pattern! Pictures soon!

-Lauren J.

Almost Home

Okay, I am almost done with my CPH. I'm about 75% done with my last sleeve and I need a little advice for the next bit.

1. I knit the body in one piece and I have the hood and button bands done, too. Should I block the sweater and sleeves before or after I put them together?

2. Any recommendations on how to seam the sleeves to the body and make it look great? I'm terrible at seaming and I could use any help you've got.

Thank you! :)

CPH

Hi all, I am working on the CPH in size 48". I have one sleeve to go. Modifications I made are:

- used Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran (bit harsh on the fingers, like knitting with a pot scourer!) in a dark tweedy blue (sort of French navy)

- made it a bit longer - 15"

- adjusted sleeve cap as my row gauge is more than the Tahki one

- used 4.5mm needles for the rib on the fronts and back as it seemed a bit tight. used 4mm for sleeves.

Here is a pic.

I need advice please - do you block before joining the shoulders for the hood and button bands? I think I have to soak this as it's so stiff I need to soften it up! But if I do this the hood and button bands will be a different texture so guess I need to soak them to at the end? Advice gratefully received!

(I'll be honest with you, I'll be glad when this is done, knitting on dark yarn is a bit debilitating after a while!!)

Finished!

It's done!!! Yay! The details:

Start Date: May 2, 2007
End Date: July 29, 2007

4 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool in teal

Mods: I knit the button band in one piece and hated it. The natural variegation of the yarn flipped from being horizontal to vertical on the ribbing for button band and it broke the sweater up and made a very flattering piece very unflattering. So I ripped out the button band (ripping 312 bound off stitches IS NOT FUN). Re-Knit the ribbing on the hood and then knit 2 pieces 10 stitches (7 in stockinette, 3 in garter to stop it from rolling). I also knit a one row button hole vs. the 2 row that was called for in the pattern.