making it up as I go along

Some of you may remember a few months back, when I posted a photo of a vest offered by Chadwick's. It was a green crochet vest and I was seeking a knitted pattern for something similar.

I never did find a pattern, so I decided to make one up. This is the result.

As you can see, it's really nothing like the Chadwick's version. It's shorter and closer-fitting. I'd like to try again with a different pattern, but I thought this turned out well enough, considering I'd never made anything without a pattern before, and had to make it up as I went along.

Those with sharp eyes will notice the couple of inches of crochet trim all around. I made this with Cascade Fixation in Denim and thought the cotton/elastic yarn would stretch more, so my initial effort was too small. A little decorative trim to the rescue.

The lace pattern is a very simple openwork pattern from this scarf.
This photo shows the pattern better.



So -- not a complete failure for my first effort, but I'll pay closer attention to measurements next time.

Sweater Gift

I'm making a gift for a good friend of mine--a sweater in Mellowspun (Mary Maxim), peach, sportweight yarn called the "Easy Lace Cardigan." I found the pattern in the March 2009 issue of Creative Knitting Magazine. It's like the ones I made a couple of years ago from my own pattern, only with knitted lace trim at the bottom of the sweater and the three-quarters length sleeves. Here's what I have done so far:




It looks straightforward enough, but of course, since I so wanted it to be perfectly done--I flubbed up a couple of things. I forgot to knit the last four border stitches (not seen in photo) on a purl side, and remembered four rows of 235 stitches each later. I didn't want to take the rows out, so, one by one, I let the last four stitches drop and rewove them with a crochet hook. Yuck! I hate doing that, as I'm forever knitting instead of purling, and vice versa. Got that done. Then, since the skeins of yarn are only 1.75 ounces or so a piece, there's the weaving the ends in--and I messed that up, even though I was painstakingly following the knitting as I wove them in. Honest I was. Made the border look terrible. So I unraveled the weaved in ends and did it again. I almost threw the whole thing out and said forget it when the last part happened, but now it's almost unnoticeable, so it will be worth it in the end.

Thankfully, I already have great patience because of raising a son with mental handicaps and autism, so I can stick with that sort of thing. Though it's a bit frustrating to hit the snafus on a gift, and also, when you only knit about one hour a day--for relaxation.

Otherwise, I've been working really hard on a new proposal for Steeple Hill LI Suspense while I wait for the copyedits on Mistletoe and Murder, due out in November. Deadly Reunion (w/a Florence Case) is still available.
Happy knitting!

Knitting, Writing and Question

Hi, everyone!
I'm back after taking two months to finish my November book, and also do a bit of publicity for my February book, DEADLY REUNION. In the midst of that, I also had a request from a lady at church to knit her great-grandchild-to-be (due in April), a sweater and booties. I'm posting the picture with this blog. My picture taking abilities are kind of 'eh', but the picture should give you an idea of what it came out like. The yarn is Bernat's Baby Coordinates yarn, I think it's called.


So that's the Writing and Knitting. The Question part concerns resizing an existing pattern for a hooded woman's sweater from Simply Knitting Magazine. I want to use a certain worsted weight yarn for this sweater pattern, which calls for bulky weight yarn. (I don't like the way it drapes using two strands together, so that's out.) I already know a good method to resize. That is, refiguring the number of stitches (and rows) in the pattern by dividing the stitch amounts in my gauge (per four inches,) by the stitches gauge in the pattern to get a multiplier. Say you get 16 stitches per 4", and the pattern calls for a gauge of 13. You divide 16 by 13, get 1.3 (rounding up). Then whenever you have a stitch amount, like with casting on, you multiply the number of stitches called for in the pattern by your multiplier. Example: Say it says to cast on 150 stitches. You would multiply your 1.3 times 150 and cast on 195 stitches to equal the same inches, but in your yarn. Same thing with rows. That's easy enough and it worked in a sweater I did.

So what I didn't run into before that I'm worried about? When the pattern calls for the decreases of 1 or 2 stitches. Has anyone resized a pattern and had to decrease? Do I also use the multiplier for that? Since the last pattern I resized with this method was knitted from the top down, I've never done the decreasing part of resizing before. I would hate to get a whole lot knitted and then mess up the decreasing part of this. Can't find it on the internet.

Not a big deal--I just don't want to buy bulky weight yarn when I have so much worsted weight that would make great sweaters.
Flo