Tag Archives: cardigan

Inspiration: Mr. Roger’s Mom

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Everyone (at least in the US), knows Mr. Rogers, and his beautiful kids’ TV show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Each episode begins with Mr. Rogers entering his house, changing his shoes and zipping up (or buttoning up) a cardigan sweater while singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”  (I still know all the words more than 20 years after I last saw the show.)Copyright © 1995 - 2008 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). All Rights ReservedBut, did you know that all (or at least, nearly all) his sweaters were knit by hand by his mother, Nancy Rogers?  How wonderful is that?   It totally makes sense.  Of course Mr. Rogers wore sweaters knit by his mother!25988[1]One of her sweaters has even ended up in the Smithsonian.   You can visit it in D. C. next time you’re there to pay respects to Mrs. Rogers.

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And, one of the most famous Mr. Rogers quotes (at least it pops up on my Facebook feed most frequently) is about his mother:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” — Mister Rogers

Mr. Rogers’ mother must have been a pretty amazing lady.  So let’s raise our knitting needles to Nancy Rogers (and all the other amazing mothers) this Sunday while we celebrate Mothers’ Day!

 

(And Happy Mothers’ day to all you mothers out there on the internet!  Especially Mom, Grandma, and Kris (my Mother-in-Law)!)

Stellar Jay Sweater: Gauge and Math

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It’s here! It’s here! Let’s all ooh and ahh at the beautiful yarn!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANext step is to whip up a swatch. I have been brainstorming this sweater, and I think that plain stripes are too boring, so I’ve decided to do a little scallop design between each stripe, so I’m going to include that in my swatch, to see how it looks. Two birds. One stone.

I knit up a square of fabric about six inches by six inches. And I’ve worked my scallop pattern both right-side-up and upside down, to see which I like better.

This is the upside-down version, but I think it makes the scallops look a little rectangular.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the right-side up version, which I like better.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This means that I will need to work my sweater from the bottom up, which is important to know when I start designing my pattern.

I pulled out my gauge meter (you could just use a ruler or tape measure) and measured out my gauge. I got 5 sts per inch and 7 rows per inch in stockinet stitch on size 8 needles.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, now that I know my gauge, and the general design I want to use (bottom up pullover), I do a little math and sketch out my pattern. I’m basing this one on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Percentage System, to give me the bones of the sweater, but I’m tweaking it a bit to deal with an all-over stripes pattern, instead of only a yoke pattern.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABelieve it or not, those chicken scratches make sense to me. I usually sketch out my pattern like this (on a drawing), before I start knitting. Then, as I knit up the pattern, I’ll make notes into a notebook or on my computer in more standard knitting lingo. But, for now, this will do nicely for me.

Now I get to go cast on! Woo!

Stellar’s Jay Sweater: Planning

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In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I am essentially an 80 year old woman in a 28-year-old’s body.  I love drinking tea, watching procedural cop dramas, puttering around in my garden, and obviously, knitting.  When I was in college, I tried to deny it, but I have given up.  I’m an old lady, and I’m A-OK with it.

As an old lady, I spend an inordinate amount of time watching the birds that are hang around my bird feeders on the back porch.  We get house finches, juncos, chickadees, and squirrels (who have already destroyed two bird feeders).  But my favorite birds by far are the Stellar’s Jays that live in the great big cedar tree in the corner of our garden.stellers_jay[1]I’d never seen these birds until we moved to the PNW.  They are incredibly striking, slightly bigger than a Blue Jay, and their colors are spectacular.   They’re a super dark, rich, black on their top half, and a bright cerulean blue on their bottom half.  They have a great big crest of feathers on the top of their head, which looks like a particularly sassy mohawk.  I love watching them hang out on our porch.

In honor of my favorite bird-feeder visitor, I thought I would make a sweater inspired by their gorgeous plumage.  And, I am going to bring you along on the design and knitting process.

My plan is for a pullover worked with a bold blue-to-black gradient inspired by the Stellar’s Jay plumage.  The design is still a little hazy in my brain right now, but I know it will solidify once I start playing with the yarn.

I’ll start by ordering some of my favorite sweater yarn: Knit Pick’s Swish Worsted.   It’s a super-wash merino wool, so it’s both durable and super cuddly soft.  It comes in about 40 colors and is pretty reasonably priced.

I picked out two skeins of each color:

Black (duh)

23876Delft Heather

24095Dusk25150

Marine Heather24094Gulfstream25137Very Stellar, no?

When my order gets here, I’ll work up some swatches and start playing with math.  But for now, I think I need to go refill my bird feeder.  Stupid squirrels.

 

Pattern Spotlight: Baby Sophisticate

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A few years ago, it seemed like everyone I knew was getting married (including me, so I don’t really have any room to complain).  For some reason I decided that the perfect wedding gift was a hand knit or crocheted blanket.  I soon began to hate that decision.  When you have one wedding a year, it’s fine.  However, when you start having three weddings every month, that’s a lot of late nights.

Now, as the song goes, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…  a whole passel of babies (what’s a group of babies called?  A herd? A pod?  A holler?).

But this time, I am being smart about what hand knits I give out.  Babies get sweaters. Not great big blankets.  Maybe a little stuffed animal or a matching pair of bootees, if I’m feeling generous.  I’m a big fan of EZ’s Baby Surprise Jacket, but sometimes knitting even a tiny sweater in sock yarn is more than I’m up for.  When I learned that a friend was expecting twins, and invited me to a baby shower in a week, I knew that even I couldn’t bang out two BSJ’s in time.

I went to Ravelry and started poking around for an alternative, and I found the perfect baby sweater.  It’s the Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down.  It’s a free download and comes in two sizes, 0-3 months and 6-12 months.  It’s knit up on size 8 needles and Aran yarn (although I used worsted, which worked fine). OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s an absolutely adorable pattern.  It’s well-written and easy to follow.  The garter-stitch shawl collar makes the sweater look fancy, but it’s completely easy to do.  And, since it’s knit at a larger gauge, I managed to knit up two sweaters in about a week.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, if you have a skein or two of something superwash, and you know of someone (or six people) in the family way, keep the Baby Sophisticate in mind.

What’s On Your Needles?

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So, whatcha working on?  I’m curious.

I’m making a Peggy Sue cardigan.  It’s (hopefully) going to be pretty cute.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOn a trip to visit my brother in San Francisco, I came across the coolest fabric store I’ve ever seen.  I’ve now forgotten its name and its location, which is super helpful for all of you (and me, if I ever go back).  But, it had a gigantic wall of approximately 1 billion beautiful buttons.  I didn’t have a project going at the time, but I still bought some buttons to use for a future sweater.   Aren’t they the best?

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Ooh!  Aah!

Anyhoo, that’s what’s on my needles.  Let me know what’s on your needles (or hook).  If you send me a picture, I’ll even put it up on the blog.

Pattern Spotlight: The Baby Surprise Jacket

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E_Zimmerman

EZ was sort of the original knitting blogger, so I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for her.  She published a quarterly knitting newsletter in the sixties that you could get delivered to your house for 25 cents.  (A deal, if you ask me.)  She has a ton of really clever patterns to her name, and they’re all written in an interesting “conversational” style, which I really enjoy (although I’ve heard some people complain about it).

In my opinion, her most interesting/clever/cool pattern is her “Baby Surprise Jacket” originally published in Fall of 1968 (though it’s been republished in many places now).  It’s a little garter-stitch baby cardigan knit all in one piece.  As you knit it up it looks like nothing more than a random pile of knitting.  But, when you bind off and execute a couple simple folds and sew in two short little seams (along the shoulders), you end up with an adorable little sweater.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis sweater is one of my favorite things to knit for my friends that are expecting.  Here’s why:

1.  It’s easy to adapt the pattern for either boys or girls, or for babies whose parents refuse to tell you if they are going to have a boy or a girl. (Jerks)

2.  I’ve probably made half a dozen of these sweaters, and I still get excited when I get to the final step and get to fold up the sweater.  It’s like magic.  Or origami.  Or magical origami.

3.  This pattern uses just about the same amount of yarn that a grown-up pair of socks uses, so one 100g skein of sock yarn will make an entire sweater.  And, depending on the brand of yarn, you might have a little extra to make a matching pair of bootees or a little stuffed animal or something.  AND, this pattern looks really cool when you use self-striping sock yarn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, go get yourself a copy of this pattern and make a bunch of baby sweaters.  (Even if you don’t have any babies/preggo ladies in your life, it’s a fun pattern to try just for the heck of it.)