Christmas Sweater WIP

About a month ago I mentioned that I was swatching for a sweater that I was hoping to make my husband for Christmas this year. I can't believe it's been a whole month since then, but I thought I'd check in and show you how it's going.

I've got the back just about done, which I'm really excited about as it's nice to see it taking shape. I'm a little nervous, however, because it's taken me just about a month to knit this since I can only knit when my husband isn't home, and I only have a month left to knit the front and both sleeves... But I'm really hoping to take things up a notch and just try knitting a little faster and to make sure I'm really utilizing all of the time that I have. (aka don't stop knitting for any reason). Hopefully in one month today this sweater will be wrapped and under the tree.

The pattern that I ended up using is called Squall and it's by Michelle Wang for Brooklyn Tweed. The pattern is really clearly written out and the cable pattern was really easy to memorize which makes it a joy to knit. I also love that she gives you instructions on how to work the cable without a cable needle because that really helps to speed things along (which I so desperately need at this point!!!)

Anyway, I just wanted to show you how the sweater was looking so far. I hope if any of you are partaking in some festive knitting that it's going well for you! 

How to do a Gauge Swatch

A gauge swatch is something you should really do before you knit anything that you want to make sure will be the size that the pattern says it is. Because of this, when I first started knitting, I was determined never to make anything other than scarves and mittens that you could sort of check and make adjustments to as you went. I was really intimidated by the idea of a gauge swatch because I didn't know how to do one properly and I didn't want to waste my time and materials on knitting a square that would take all day.

Eventually I broke and figured I understood the basic idea, and would do gauge swatches. Unfortunately I was doing them completely wrong. I would knit the number of stitches and rows that the pattern suggested, and hope that it would come out to be 4 inches. I've since learned how to do a gauge swatch in a craftsy class that I took a couple of years ago by Faina Goberstein called "Sizing Knitwear Patterns"  I know that I'm probably not the only one who didn't know how to do a gauge swatch or who might be intimidated by them and I just wanted to make a post sort of explaining how to make a reliable gauge swatch that will help you make sure your finished garments will fit you once you're done knitting them.

Firstly, cast on enough stitches so that you will for sure have between 4 to 6 inches of knitting, and then cast on an additional few stitches for an outer boarder. I will usually do between 4 and 8 stitches on each side. 

Next you want to knit the bottom border for your swatch in something like garter stitch or ribbing so your swatch doesn't curl at the bottom. When your border is about 4 rows long you can start working in the pattern that you are swatching for. For this example I'm swatching in stockinette stitch. The first and last 2-4 stitches are going to be your side boarders, so you wanna work your first and last 2-4 stitches in something that doesn't curl like garter stitch, or seed stitch in the case of this example.

Once you have about 4 rows of your stitch pattern work you want to start sewing in guide lines to make measuring at the end easier. Take a waste yarn in a contrasting color that is about 5 or 6 times the width of your swatch and using a yarn needle and thread half of the waste yarn into a stitch that is 4 or 5 stitches from the border and leave the other half of the waste yarn as a tail. The waste yarn isn't going to be knit, it's just going to be woven into the knitting and will be able to move freely. 

You now want to thread the waste yarn along the other stitches on the left hand needle to mark off the total number of stitches you'l be counting. You want to consistently leave the same number of stitches between the marked stitches to make counting easier in the end. I like to mark every 5th stitch.

You want to stop marking off stitches about 4 or 5 stitches before the border stitches start.

Next knit across the row, careful not to knit the waste yarn into the stitches, and then because I marked off every 5th stitch, I also want to mark every 5th row, so I'm going to knit 3 more rows.

My next row to work is now the 5th row. Because I want to mark this row I'm going to take that long tail we left at the start to mark of the stitch on the left hand needle that's in line with the first stitch we marked off.  Then I'm going to take the end of the yarn that's where we stopped marking off stitches at the end of the work and I'm going to use that to make the stitch on the left hand needle that is directly above the last stitch we marked off.

Keep marking off every 5th row as you knit your gauge swatch so that you are marking off a square in the middle of your swatch.

Once you have knit between 4-6 inches of rows, and you want to finish your square, work to the next '5th' row and mark it off as you have been. Now before you work that row, take the waist yarn from the beginning of the work and mark off every 5th stitch the way that you did at the start of the swatch. Both ends of the waist yarn should now be coming out the same stitch and should form the corner of your marked off square.  

Now you want to wash and block your swatch the way that you will be washing and blocking your finished piece. I let mine soak in lukewarm water for half on hour, and then laid in on a towel to dry.

Your Gauge Swatch is Now Complete!! 

On to the Measuring.

Instead of counting your stitches within a 4 inch section on your knitting, you just have to measure from one guide line to the other. You can count your marked stitches to see how many stitches are in that section. I have 5 marked stitches, 5x5=25, so there are 25 stitches in that section. I measured across at a few different places to make sure it was accurate and got 5.5 inches. If I have 25 stitches, divided by 5.5 inches, then I have 4.55 stitches per inch which I can now use to see if my gauge is correct for the pattern I wanted to use with these needles and this yarn.

 Likewise I can see that I have 5 marked rows, so I have 25 rows in 4 inches. 25 divided by 4 is 6.25 rows per inch.

I know that was a pretty wordy and picture heavy post but I hope that it was helpful to any of you who may have been having trouble with gauge swatches. Thanks for reading! 

First Attempts at Sewing

Lately I've been doing something a little different, and have been trying my hand at sewing. I have always wanted to sew, and can even envision maybe sewing halloween costumes for if I have kids one day, but I started to think that it was never going to happen because all of my past attempts have been really unsuccessful. Really, I had given up on sewing, and if it wasn't for my sister who can both knit and sew incredibly well, I don't think I would have tried sewing again. 

My sister is both incredibly supportive, and persuasive, she mentioned that if I knew how to sew I would be able to make cozy wool skirts that really wouldn't look the same at all if they were knit, and that was enough for me. We went to the fabric store and picked up some wool fabric, and then she helped me with every step of making this skirt, and now it's done! I'm so incredibly excited that I actually sewed a garment, and it worked out.

The finished skirt!! While I was making the skirt I figured that it would look like a learning project and that I would never wear it, but it turned out so well that I actually think I will wear it quite often!

While sewing this skirt my sister and I also realized that my aging, very basic sewing machine was probably reaching the end of it's life. At least the end of it's life with me. The fabric just wasn't feeding very nicely, and certain things were just not possible to do with that machine, so we did a little research and I ended up getting a new machine! 

This is the Singer Fashion Mate 7256, and I absolutely love it. It is much quieter and smoother than my last machine an it has a ton of fun stitches to choose from as an added bonus. I think I'll be using this machine for a really long time.

Playing around, trying out some of the decorative stitches.

It's actually been really nice to kind of have a second hobby so that I can walk away from knitting for a few hours, and then come back to it refreshed. Not that I can take too many breaks though as Christmas is fast approaching. I'm hoping though to have enough time to make a cute Christmas-y skirt soon so I can wear it when the Christmas season really kicks off. 

Gauge Swatches and Secret Christmas Knitting

I wanted to do something a little bit different this year for Christmas, and with how happy my husband was with his hand knit hat, I figured I'd knit him a whole sweater. Thankfully I decided this in September, and would have tons of time to complete it, even though I can only knit it when he is not home.

I remembered that there was a pattern that he mentioned liking when I was scrolling through Ravelry one day so I figured that would be a good one to make, cause I already knew that he would like it! I ordered the yarn straight away and was so excited to get my gauge swatch finished up so I could start the sweater. Problem was, after I blocked the gauge swatch it had WAY too many stitches per inch. Like, it was shockingly far off. I'd never had that happen before. I tried making a second swatch with bigger needles and it was still way too far off to make the sweater. It seemed like by the time I got the gauge swatch right I'd be knitting with huge needles, and this would be a see through sweater. 

I decided to abandon the sweater, which was a really tough call because I was really excited to make him the one he wanted as a surprise. I searched Ravelry and found another sweater pattern that I think looks really nice, and seems like it's sort of his style.

The swatches for this one worked out much better. I still had to make a second swatch because the first one was a tiny bit off, but I'm completely certain that when the second swatch is done blocking it will be spot on, and I'll finally get to cast on. (A month later!!) 

I guess the moral of this story is to always knit your gauge swatches, because if I hadn't, I'd be half way to making a sweater that would have been even too small for me and wouldn't have made for a very Merry Christmas. 

I've also decided to finally take my family members' advice and start saving my swatches to eventually be used in a blanket! I thought it would take basically my lifetime to save up that many, but I already have a nice little pile going. I'm excited to see how the blanket will eventually look and I like that each swatch is a little piece of a larger project that I made or - in the case of the tree motif up top - didn't make. I think it would be cool to have a big blanket with a little piece of all of those projects in it. 

I ended up making a pile for worsted weight or heavier type yarns, and a little pile for fingering weight swatches. I'll probably make two blankets eventually so they will be somewhat consistent throughout, even if just in yarn thickness. 

What do you do with your gauge swatches? Keep them forever for reference? Rip them out and reclaim the yarn?

A Day at a Corn Maze

On the weekend I spent the day with my sister at a corn maze to take engagement photos for her with all the pretty fall colours. It was a super chilly day, but it was so worth it to get the photos, and to get to play around in the corn maze.

The view standing on tower at the start of the maze to help you get your bearings.

The corn maze was actually a lot of fun and it was just challenging enough to keep us guessing. It was fun to take turns guessing which path to take and to joke with other people in the maze that, going through beaten down paths in the corn was in fact "utilizing a resource", and certainly not "cheating". 

I was also way too excited for the petting zoo. I really do think in another life I must have had a whole farm or something cause I absolutely love to go and visit farm animals any chance I get. I'm actually not even totally certain I won't have farm animals in this life time.

Firstly we got to visit a pure white Llama who was quite a joker and would turn and face his butt to anyone who was standing by his pen for long enough in his opinion.

Next we saw some adorable and very friendly baby goats who let us pet them and hang out with them for a while. They were amazingly soft and this one had the most incredible bright blue eyes!

Next we finally got to visit with the sheep! Which are probably my favourite animal in the entire world, and not just because they keep me warm with soft fuzzy wools. They had about five baby sheep in the pen and they were all really friendly and sweet. It was nice to get to sit with them and pet them. It was surprisingly difficult to leave the little sheep and I only half jokingly told my sister we were going to have to pull around the car 'cause I was taking one home.

Lastly we went through their massive steel building that was entirely filled with pumpkins on bails of hay and lit with all kinds of pretty white lights. We managed to leave with only a few pumpkins each which I think was an exercise in restraint for us as they had so many different ones! It was nice to pick out pumpkins that were grown and picked right there as well. It was also really nice to get to pick something out and take it home, even if it couldn't have been a sheep.