Tag Archives: husband

Husband Sweater: Slow and Steady

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I’ve been working away on the sweater for my husband, and I’m starting to make progress.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m already to the armpits!  Woo!  Now I just have to do the rest of the sweater…

The yarn I’m using is a really lovely cotton yarn, and I’m totally in love with the finished fabric.  It’s crazy soft and luxurious-feeling (especially the swatch that I put through the washing machine)!  I know my husband is going to love it.

But you know what I don’t love?  Actually knitting with the stuff.  There’s something about cotton that is kind of hard on my hands.  I don’t know if it’s the fact that it has almost no spring, or if it is stickier on my needles than wool, but it’s a little bit of a pain to knit.  Instead of sitting down in the evening and working through several X-files episodes, like I usually do, I’ve been slogging my way through a couple rows per night, which is making this sweater rather slow going.

But, I think I’m really going to like the finished product (or at least I hope I will!)

Are there any fibers you don’t like working with?  Or am I just being crazy?

The Husband Sweater: Yarn!

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My husband picked out the pattern for his sweater, and the yarn, too. And here it is:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAKnit Picks Comfy Sport in Planetarium and Whisker (AKA, navy blue and gray).

Let’s just take a moment to remember the example pictures on the pattern:

img_4328_medium2_medium[1]I wonder where he got the idea for a blue and gray sweater?  A sweater with stripes is far enough out of his comfort zone, so I’m not going to raise a stink about the color choice.  (And, he is a Ravenclaw, so I suppose blue and silver is pretty on point.)

The yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend, which I usually wouldn’t use for a sweater.  But, my husband runs super warm, so anything with even a touch of wool doesn’t get worn, except on vacation to the Great White North.  So we’ll see how it works as a sweater.  Have any of you knit a sweater out of cotton?

I worked up a little swatch on size 5 needles:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI got gauge with size 5 needles, not size 7, like the pattern suggests.  Which is weird.  I’m usually a pretty average knitter, but I guess I won’t argue with the swatch gods.  Maybe it has to do with the fiber content?  Cottons don’t really stretch, but wool (like the pattern asks for) is quite stretchy.  We’ll just have to see.

Cross your fingers for me!

 

 

Husband Sweater: The Beginning

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This year, I didn’t even try to get my husband’s Christmas present finished in time.  I didn’t even have time to start it before Christmas.

(Sorry, Tristan.)

Instead, when we did our gift exchange, I told him my plan.  I am going to make him a sweater of his choice.

And, because the last one I made for him never gets worn (except when we go back to the Midwest for Christmas Break), I asked him to pick out everything about the project, so that he would end up with exactly the sweater he wants.

He’s typically pretty simple in his clothing choices, so I suggested a few patterns for him to start from.  He’s a big cardigan guy, so I started there:

Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd

I could see Tristan wearing this sweater all the time.  It’s simple (almost too simple), and very manly.  No goofy colors or weird stitches.  Not even a button band.

3500883460_570d467ee9_z[1]Ranger by Jared Flood

I really like this sweater, even though it’s a little fancier.  (I actually might make this for myself.  I guess just like Jared Flood Sweaters… I’m actually wearing my Cobblestone, right now.)

Ranger1_medium2[1]But, no.  Tristan would have none of the sweaters I suggested.  He went down to his office in the basement, and looked at Ravelry for more than an hour.  (I thought he was playing Diablo… apparently not.)

And he picked out this one:

Émilien by Ariane Caron-Lacoste

img_4328_medium2_medium[1]I know!  Crazy!  Colors! Stripes! A hood!

But, as surprising as it was, he was very sure about what he wanted.  So, here we go!  A stripey, zip-up hoodie for my husband.