Monthly Archives: November 2013

She’s got the World on Her Shoulders

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Let’s talk about shoulders.

80s-Shoulder-PadNot those shoulders (although they are impressive).  Sweater shoulders!

I’ve been thinking about shoulders lately (because that’s what I do).  They’ve been on my mind especially since I’ve been wrestling with the Sweater-Formerly-Known-As-Peggy-Sue.

It’s important to know the types of shoulders when you’re planning out a sweater, since they totally change the look of a sweater.  Different sleeves/shoulders flatter different people.  I know that I have narrow (ish) shoulders, so raglan sweaters aren’t the best look on me (so why I chose to make a raglan-sleeve sweater, I’ll never know).   But my husband looks great in raglan-sleeves.  Go figure.

Anyway, here are some of the different types of sweater sleeves that you’ll come across in the wild, illustrated by yours truly (so forgive the lopsided-ness).

Set-in Sleeves

sweater set-inThese are your typical shoulders, they’re made to resemble the shoulders of a dress shirt.  They are a bit futzy to make, since you usually have to knit your sweater flat, then sew all the pieces of sweater together, but they end up looking really nice.  If you don’t like seaming, these might not be the way to go.

Raglan Sleeves

sweater raglanYou’ve probably seen shoulders like these on baseball t-shirts, and some hoodie sweatshirts.  They’re fun to make in a seamless sweater (although it is possible to make raglan sleeves on a pieced sweater, too).  For a seamless raglan sweater, you simply stack your increases or decreases (depending on if you are doing a top-down or bottom-up sweater) at the four points in front of and behind both shoulders.  They’re super easy.

Drop Shoulders

sweater dropThese are even easier than raglan shoulders.  Drop shoulders are the kind of shoulders you get if you make a sweater out of nothing but squares.  These are super good if you’re a new knitter, or if you want a cozy, slouchy sweater.  But, if you’re worried about looking sleek or sophisticated, drop shoulders probably wouldn’t be the way to go.

Yoke Shoulders

sweater yokeA yoke makes it look like your whole sweater is one single piece, with no obvious increases/decreases or seaming.  They’re really nice if you want to have a cool pattern or something wrapped around your shoulders (think about beautiful fair-isle sweaters).  However, they can look a little janky as you work them up, so make sure you block the sweater when you’re done to make sure it looks its best after all your hard work.

Of course, there are about as many variations of sleeves/shoulders as there are knitting patterns, but most sweaters you’ll find will fit into one of these categories, at least a little bit.  And, now you will be able to identify sweater shoulders when you see them in the wild.

Going with the Flow

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Peggy Sue is dead.  (Not the person, the cardigan.)  I tried to fix it.  I wanted the pattern to work so much!  But, alas, it was not meant to be.  I started off with the wrong gauge (I knew this was going to happen.  I took a swatch and everything.  I’m just dumb.), and didn’t compensate accordingly.  My sweater was turning out much too small.  I got all the way to the armpits (it’s a top-down sweater) before I realized the error of my ways.

I ripped it out, and tried again on bigger needles, but the fabric just didn’t look right.  This time I only got halfway through the shoulders (thank goodness). I ripped it out again.

Then I got pissed and threw it in a corner of my craft closet.  It sat there for a while gathering dust while I sulked.

Now, I’m knitting up my pretty blue yarn again.  It’s still going to be a girly blue cardigan, but this time I’m sort of making my own pattern.  I’m using my new favorite sweater book, the Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.  It’s a Seamless Yoke Cardigan, based in part on her Feather and Fan Flare sweater.  It’s at a nice fine gauge (or at least fine compared to sweaters I’ve made before).  I like to make my sweaters with chunky yarn and big needles, but I wanted this sweater to turn out a little fancier and girlier than my usual projects).  But, instead of the fussy little cables on Peggy Sue, I’m using decorative increases and garter ridges around the yoke, hem and cuffs.  And, since it’s a yoke sweater, not a raglan, I think it will be more flattering on me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe funny thing is, though, that now that I’ve got it growing on my needles, I really like the contrast between the red yarn of my provisional cast-on and the pale aqua blue.  It’s making me think that I want to use red or maroon buttons on the sweater.  Which is ridiculous, since the whole point of making this sweater in the first place was to use my pretty blue buttons.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABut, I suppose that takes me back to my original point: It’s important to stay flexible when you’re knitting.  It’s so easy to get bogged down in the details, and keep slogging through a project that you no longer love, or something that you figure out won’t work for you.  And, it’s so hard to abandon a project that you’ve poured hours and hours of your life into. But, it’s so much more satisfying (and fun!) to make something that you love than to slave away, determined to finish the project as you planned in the beginning.  Just because you start on a project, doesn’t mean that it’s the one you have to finish.

How have you had to be flexible when you work on a project?

Icing on the Hat Cake

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I love my little red hat, and I bet you love your hat, too.  But, I feel there is something missing… something extra… something… fluffy.  Also, I have some leftover yarn that I want to use up.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m going to make a pompom to put on top of my hat!  (I realize that pompoms are something of a polarizing subject for folks, but I enjoy a good pompom from time to time, and this is definitely one of those times.)

Pompoms are easy to do, but probably the messiest project you’ll ever do involving yarn…the little scraps of yarn tend to go everywhere and stick to things if you’re not careful (that static cling will get you every time).  You have been warned.

Here’s what you need:

Yarn (The fluffiness of your pompom depends on the amount of yarn you use.  The more yarn, the more fluff.)

A book, coaster, cell phone, box or other small, rigid object that you can wrap yarn around.  The object should be slightly longer than the desired diameter of the finished pompon.  I’m using a tiny copy of Peter Rabbit that I have on my bookshelf for some reason.  It’s about 4 inches wide.

Scissors

A great big mixing bowl, pot, trash can, or drop cloth (optional, but recommended. Use his to keep your schnipples neat while you work.)

Step 1: Cut a piece of yarn about 2 feet long and tie a slip knot in the middle of it.  Set it aside.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAStep 2: Wrap the rest of your yarn around the book approximately 1 million times.  Try to get the yarn to build up into a big clump.  Stop when you get bored, or when you think that you have enough.  It might be possible to wrap too much yarn around the book, but I haven’t done it yet. Cut the yarn when you have enough wrapped around the book.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAStep 3: Carefully slide the yarn off the book, being sure to keep the clump nicely together.  Slip the piece of yarn you set aside earlier over the clump, and pull the slipknot tight.  Wrap the ends of the knotted yarn tightly around the clump a couple times and secure with a square knot.  See how the clump has now become a neat bundle of yarn?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAStep 4: Cut all the loops, and use your fingers to fluff out the ends.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAStep 5: This is the messy step.  With your scissors, carefully trim the ends of your yarn until the pompom starts looking nice and round. Go slowly, since you can always trim off more yarn, but can’t add any back in.  Try to avoid cutting the long tails of the tie-off yarn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAStep 6: Attach the pompom to your hat.  Use a tapestry needle to pull the long tail ends of your pompom through the crown of your hat, right at the top.  I like to just tie the ends together using a bow or other removable knot, so that if I’m having a pompom-ish day, I can wear my pompom hat, but if I’m having a curmudgeonly day, I can remove the pompom and wear the hat plain.  But today, is totally a pompom day!

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