Manly Gift Along

Sidetracked no more

Gosh it's been so long since I posted an "along" update. I suppose I could have posted all my small projects since they were manly as well. I've done each of my three guys a cabled hat for Christmas and since then I've done each of them either mittens or half-fingered gloves. Those things complete, I've pulled out the green Aran sweater for Jason again and am cruising along on the back. I thought after such a long hiatus that I'd have to relearn the cables again but not so, it's as if I was working on it only last week.

my first project done for this KAL

Hey all!  I'm finally done with the first of many projects that I had in the queue for the hubby:
   
These are toe-up garter rib socks that I sorta designed:

More info and pics can be found on my blog.  I'm going to be finishing my second project soon so I'll be back.  Thanks!  Tiennie

Happy Friday!

Any progress pics to share?  Show us something - even if it's miles of stockinette (the usual case with men's sweaters, and one of the reasons they need a support group!)  We can at least drool over the yarn or commiserate!

I will probably cast on for another sweater for my hubby in a few weeks.  I have this orange and black Burly Spun yarn that I was thinking I would use to make him a Harley-themed sweater.  He likes ribbing, so I was considering making that a part of the design, but I don't want it to be too much like the other sweater.  I'm thinking mostly black, with a thin orange stripe around the chest and around the bicep, and maybe the shape of the Harley logo in the back just under the neck (eeek, Intarsia!)  Thoughts?

Fixed the Signature Issue

I took a look at Typepad's Knowledge Base and figured out how to configure the blog to show the author's name for each post.  The problem now is, some people's first and last names are showing up.  If this is a problem, I would assume you could make the change when you log into Typepad somehow.  Please let me know if that's not the case and maybe what we'd have to do is resend an invite using just the first name or something.  Let me know!!

Who's Talking?

Hi Everyone!

I've noticed with this blog that I can never tell who left a particular post. Is it just me? I'd love to start keeping straight who is doing which sweater etc. Help!

Kristen

Knitting on the Edge

I am very naughty, I knew using Rowan Denim that it would shrink about 20%, this is accounted for in the Jamesey pattern.  My gauge was spot on prewash but I didn't bother to wash the swatch.  Today I threw it in with a pile of dark cottons and the yarn gods have been kind to me.  The swatch came out exactly as it should and I really love how the colours have turned out.  It's almost tweedy the way the slightly lighter shades of blues fleck through it and overall it has turned out lighter and much softer.  He was a little skeptical of it when we got it but now loves it.  It's given me a little boost of motivation to get it done as soon as possible.

-- Mel

 

New Jamesey

Hello everyone, I'm Mel, a knitter in the highlands of Scotland who has just started a Jamesey for the DH.  This won't be his first present by any means he's received hats, socks, a scarf and an Adirondack sweater in the past.  I loved Jamesey since it first came out in Knitty and with a bit of coaxing has convinced the DH that he'll look really lovely in it.  I'm knitting it in the smallest size with Rowan's Denim yarn in Nashville.  The colour is extremely blue, much more than it does in photos, so I'm hoping it will fade a bit in the first wash.  It's actually not all that bad to knit with, just a little stiff and of course my hands turn blue afterwards.  I'm about 7 inches into the body and it's fabulous for TV and reading knitting, I'm hoping to get through half a ball a day to be done before we go to Japan in April.  I'll take pictures once it gets a little more exciting than ribbing.

-- Mel

Avast! I spy a Knit-along!

Hello Ladies! I'm so thrilled to be able to join this knitalong! My name is Kristen, and I've just been entering the addictive world of knitting blogs and knitalongs.

I have just started knitting the Avast! sweater from Knitty (for my dH) and was about to start my own knitalong. I got as far as trying to think of a good name when I decided to search for a knitalong that might already be going. Tada! Here you are! And I started in January!

As far as I can tell, I'm the only one knitting Avast, although it's listed as a suggestion. I'm having a great time doing the cable band. I was really irritated using a cable needle for a single stich cable, so I searched the blog world for some excellent instructions on knitting without a cable needle. It's been smooth sailing from there. We'll see how boring it gets when I get to miles of stockinette.

When I showed this pattern to my husband, I was surprised that he liked it too and said he'd wear it. However, he did say that it needed to be made of "really scratchy wool". I didn't go that far because I found some Patons Classic Wool "Merino" on sale for $3.99/skein at Michael's. It's a good heather gray at a nice price!

It's so fun to see all the great men's sweaters coming along here. Keep up the good work and the inspitation!

My Replacment Cable

After a week of swatching, I decided to use this cable from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge as the main design feature of DH's sweater:

I will probably flank it with a version of the plaited cable from the original swatch, but I'm blocking both swatches before deciding on the finished design. Depending upon how much space I have to play with, I'll use either a vertical row of twisted stitches, some seed stitch, or a two-stitch twist to separate the motifs.

I've explained more about my designing process, which lifts freely from such expert knitwear designers as Nicky Epstein, Alice Starmore, and Deborah Newton on my blog, and I've also posted my chart of that cable (to be "proofread") when I knit with it.

So I hope to begin the actual knitting in earnest next week.

Marjorie

The Best Laid Plans...

After swatching the charted pattern, I realized that the sweater was not going to turn out as well as I hoped.

The cables are nice and warm and lofty, but the double-moss stitch and the diagonal stitch areas aren't. So I've abandoned this sweater, and I'm going to make one up using more of an all-over cable pattern. I'm actually thinking of big sections of cable (say about 20 stitches) separated by narrow bands of seed stitch. DH want's pockets, and this would be an easy way to have the vertical cable merge into them. I'd like each cardigan front to have three panels, and so careful measurements are in order. So I'm back to swatching, and I'll post a couple of alternatives and ask for your preferences.

I'm disappointed that this sweater isn't barrelling along at a faster rate, but I know I'll be happier with the finished garment by making these adjustments and changing my plans.