One Sleeve Done - and needing more advice

Hi All,

First, thanks to Shameka, Pam and Tiennie for great advice on sleeve length and blocking (and reminding me feverishly that blocking is like doing a swatch – skip the step and you’ll regret it).


So I finished one sleeve this weekend (!) and as I’m progressing, more questions are arising. Thanks in advance for putting up with my beginner-ness! I realize that I’m being very (probably too) prescriptive about this – I think I’m just too nervous to screw anything up.

I’m trying to figure out the order of blocking and finishing, both seaming and doing the hood.

After finishing sleeves, but before doing the hood, it says to sew shoulder seams. I guess at this point, before doing the hood, I should block the back, left and right fronts and sleeves? From there, I will seam the shoulders.

After that I will do the hood and then the front bands and hood edging. After doing this – should I isolate the front bands/hood and block those while trying to avoid getting rest of the sweater wet?

Finally – any tips on seaming? I have my Vogue knitting book ear marked to the 10 different ways to seam – just wanted to see if anyone had some advice on what the best way would be for this one.

From Joyce:

Our newest member emailed me with this question (below). I thought I'd post it here for the group to read as I am unsure of the answer:

I have started the project and already have a question. I am not sure what the pattern means by continueing the pattern while progressing with the cable patterns.

HELP!

I have looked through the blog and guess no one else had this problem understanding the pattern.

Thanks for any help.

Joyce

If anyone can help Joyce, please post it here. Welcome, Joyce!

—Jeanne

I'm off!

Hi everyone,

All your work has been very inspirational to me, enough that I'm finally biting the bullet and starting my very first sweater for ME. (Also my first cable project, yikes!) I cast on last night.

I'm using Cascade 220 in a heather color (I think it's called Silver Spruce Heather) that I first bought almost three years ago to make a sweater for my son; I think it's much better suited for this. I knit pretty tightly so I got gauge on 10s, but didn't like the fabric, so I decided to go down a needle size and up a sweater size. We'll see how that works!

I'm really excited about the knit-along (my first – thanks Jeanne for hosting us) and about benefitting from all your wisdom and experience. My goal is to finish before hoodies go out of style! Now if only I didn't have to wait for the kids to go to bed to knit ...

Happy to be part of this KAL

Hello,
Today has been an exciting day. After eyeing the CPH for some time and reading this blog getting inspiration I finally committed and decided to make this beautiful sweater. Since this is my first sweater I decided not to use the Tahki yarn but instead opted for the Classic Elite Skye Tweed which is on clearance at WEBS. While I love the bold colors many of you have chosen I ultimately decided a more neutral color was best for me.Sixteen balls of beautiful tweed in the Scottish Mist colorway arrived today. The name of this color also appealed to me. I've traveled to Scotland twice now and it is one of my favorite vacation destinations.
I've already swatched and am anxiously waiting for my washed swatch to dry so I can verify my gauge and start knitting. Hope I can finish this sweater before winter ends in cold snowy upstate New York.

Status and Questions for the Group

Hi Everyone!

I love seeing everyone's progress - it makes me more and more excited and anxious to finish and to wear my new CPH. Here's my progress thus far.

I am using Donnegal Tweed Homespun– the yarn called for in the pattern. The color is a deep purple - #845 - and I love it – it’s perfectly rich and bold.

I just finished up the front right side and I’m on to the sleeves. I have a couple of questions that hopefully you can give some advice on.

First is sleeve length. I keep reading that many people feel that the sleeves are a bit too long. Are a lot of you finding this issue? I’m wondering if I should do 4” on the cuff ribbing instead of 5”.

Second- this is my second sweater ever and my first was knitted in the round. When you seam together at the end, it’s best to block, right? (edit: i realized this wasn't clear - i meant is it better block it BEFORE seaming or after)

One last thing - as I started my right front piece, I noticed that the pattern was wrong - the correction is on the Knitscene website. Here it is: Under Right Front on ribbing: Row 2 (WS) * p2, k2; rep from * to end of row

I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions on the hood – the part that is really scary right now :)

Can't believe this is so easy!!!

This is my first sweater project, and my first Cable project as well. I can't believe that I am actually making a sweater, and not getting bored. This pattern is very easy to follow. I am using Cascade 220 yarn. I think that it is much softer than the Donegal Tweed, and more affordable as well. And I absoluely love this color. This is a picture of the back piece. So, now it is on to the armhole shaping. Will post more pics later.
I must apologize for waiting so long to post. I have been sidetracked, because I had to make 3 hats for relatives, and one for Charity after I started this one. New York is brutally cold right now, so I felt an obligation to get the hats done.... so now I can fully focus on the sweater in the weeks to come. Ahem, that means finally focus on ME!!!!!! We all have to find time to treat ourselves, even if we are kindhearted and do nice things for other people. It's sad that I knit so much and only have pictures. This sweater will be my "live" masterpiece. LOL!!

Greensleeves... Cast on

The ribbing on my sleeves is done! Now I just need to finish those, do some seaming, and knit a comfy hood!! So excited about this sweater. More details on my blog.