Seetaa no Monogatari Part 2.75

So, ... I ripped everything out again, re-casted on again, then did 6 rows of plain stockinette.  At row 7, I counted and divided the stitches for the front (46 stitches), back (46 stitches), sleeves (15 stitches each) and seam stitches (a total of 4 stitches).  And, proceeded to build my sweater (again).

At row 9, I barely had enough rows but, I was able to (re-)measure my gauge.  Thankfully, I managed to get 21 stitches to 4 inches, meaning that I was still getting 5.25 stitches per inch! *yay* (no more ripping out - for now at least!)

So, now, I just needed to keep on going until my collar starts to get more shape and "build" my shoulders.

Here's how far I've gotten (I've got a total of 24 rows so far and thankfully, my gauge is still 5.25 stitches per inch! *yes* :)):

I'll try to add a few more rows tomorrow before class so, hopefully I have enough done this week! :P  I hope my shoulders are ok ... they seem a little "tight" to my arms ... I hope I don't have to rip anything out (again)! :P  Well, we'll see what happens in class tomorrow. :)  

Seetaa no Monogatari Part 2.5

Since my last blog, I ripped out what I did, re-casted on 126 stitches and divided everything up using a 33% division rate (42 stitches for the front and back, including the seam stitches & 19 stitches for the sleeves).  It was turning out tighter than my first version but the collar and where everything appeared to be sitting seemed more normal and correct.  

However, since it was tighter (mostly because I was so irritate that it didn't appear to look right and I was increasing every row), I thought I'd stop and visit Kim to show her what I did (meagerly) over the weekend.  I would've gone ballistic if I had kept going only to find out next Saturday that I should've been doing something else! :P  Better to be safe than sorry, after all. :P

She advised me to rip out what I got (again, thank goodness it was only 4 rows deep) and re-cast on using her division (at a 37% rate): 46 stitches for the front and back, 4 seam stitches, and 15 stitches for the sleeves.  She said that if I like the rolled collar (which I did), I should cast on then do 4-6 regular stockinette stitch rows before I start divvying up everything.  And, I should be increasing every other row. :P  Once I get a good 2 inches of material, I'll remeasure my gauge (again).  It better be 5.25 stitches per inch! :P

So, I'm gonna give this new count a go at it. :)  We'll see how much I get done before my next class. :)  I need a nap now! :P

Seetaa no Monogatari Part 2

During our session #2, I shared my "issue" about having the same gauge when I used my US7 to US4 needles.  (Apparently, I was the only one who really made a gauge swatch using multiple sizes.  One classmate made the minimum size (barely a 5" square); while my other classmate made a swatch nearly as big as mine but it was because she was testing out various patterns she was considering for her sweater.)  Kim thought it was weird that I was compensating for the rest of the swatch but, in the end, my gauge swatch was what it was.

So, with Kim's help, I settled for using my US5 needles since that seemed to have the best weave and weight (not too loose or tight).  That came out to 19 stitches per 4" => 4.75 stitches per inch.

Then it was time to calculate how much to cast on. :)  Since I was the only one who was going to make a boatneck sweater, my instructions on how I needed to calculate my cast on stitches was a bit different.  

First, let me explain the basic schematic that we needed to calculate.  Basically, this is how you'd figure out a general basic raglan (no matter what type of collar you're going to do, except boatneck).  It looks like this:

Here's how you would calculate what you need to cast on with a basic raglan:

(stitches per inch * back of neck measurement) + ((stitches for back / 3) * 2 for 2 sleeves) + 4 seam stitches (1 each for the left front & back and the right front & back) + 2 front edge stitches (1 each for left and right side) = total number of stitches needed to cast on

This is what a boatneck raglan looks like:

It looks like this because you're going to measure how wide you want you boatneck around your entire neck and as such, you'll have the front and back in your calculation.  Here's how to calculate what you need to cast on for a boatneck raglan: total inches you want your boatneck to be * stitches per inch.  

So, mine came out to be: 24" for my boatneck.  So, my calculation was: 24" * 4.75 = 114 stitches total.  This is how my schematic looks like:

And here's how I had divided up the stitches: (Total # of stitches / 2) + ((total # of stitches / 2) / 3 * 2) + remainder of total stitches remaining.  

But, now that I had time to think about how the stitches were divided up ... And, I think the initial was I split it up is wrong because, when you think about it, if the sleeves are 1/3rd each of your total cast on stitches (as how it's calculated in the basic (any collar but a boatneck collar calculation), then the back and front needs to be the remaining 1/3rd of the total cast on stitches.  As such, then the back and the front should be 1/6th each of the total cast on stitches.  And, I think the schematic should look like this:

Despite my reservations on how I was instructed to divide up the stitches, I bravely did as instructed and followed the steps.  After I got about 9 rows done, I remeasured my sweater to see if my gauge was still 19 stitches per 4" and guess what?!  It turned out that it's now 21 stitches per 4"! :( *yikes*  That's 5.25 stitches per inch (meaning I now have 1 extra stitch per inch)! And, my collar was starting to look weird:

When looking at it, where you see the needles, that's the back.  Where you see those yellow stitch markers, between those stitch markers are the shoulders.  Where you see that small space between the stitch markers (at the bottom of the picture), that's the "front".  It just didn't seem right ... like why would the shoulders start where my shoulders are?  To be clear, a raglan looks very much like a baseball T-shirt so, that means, the sleeves are over your entire shoulder, not starting from your shoulder ... In essence, it should look like this (except without the pocket):

And this is what the shoulder should look like & where it should be located:

But, when you look at what I have, it doesn't look like the top portion of this picture - at all! :(  I panicked and e-mailed Kim to ask if my number of stitches were ok.  She e-mailed me back saying that I should rip out what I have and cast on the correct calculation if I liked the way the fabric was.  Then, because I was mulling over the math of my sweater, I e-mailed her my question about how I thought the stitches should be divided and how my "top" was coming out funky as well. 

I'm going to rip out what I have, recast on what it should be (5.25 * 24" = 126) and redo the stitch count to what I think it should be too.  If it's still funky looking, I'll probably need to stop by on Monday to see if my sweater is turning out how it's supposed to look like ... :(  We'll see ... I think I need some luck here ... :P

By the way, here's what I'm ideally shooting for (just with 3/4 sleeves instead and maybe ribbed cuffs instead of a rolled cuff (or maybe I'll keep the rolled cuffs) - I'll figure that out when I get to the sleeves :P):

Seetaa no Monogatari Part 1.5

Ok ... I couldn't resist ... I continued my swatch using my Chiagoo metal US 5 needles and ... my gauge is still 5 stitches per inch!

So, I went down to my Chiagoo US 4 needles and ... my gauge is still the same, 5 stitches per inch!

So ... either I subconsciously have great tension in which I magically know how to make all the gauges match after a certain point or the universe is telling me something.  My swatch is now really, really big so, perhaps I really should stop now:

Here's the washed version:

It doesn't look like it stretch or shrank so ... I guess I can use any needle size, from a 4 to a 7? 8S

Now, I really can't wait for class on today! :)

Seetaa no Monogatari Part 1

I've finally started my first seetaa (セーター) no monogatari (sweater story).  I decided to take a class at Yarn Story with Kim, who's teaching the basics of raglan sweaters.  I thought it'd be a good time to take the plunge since it'll be National Sweater Knitting Month (aka NaNoSweMo) in November and it would help to set goals for me (to stitch 50,000 stitches in the month of November).

So, what's a raglan sweater compared to other "kinds" of sweaters?  Well, raglan is really a type of sleeve on a sweater and is generally considered as a "starter" sweater because you can knit it in one piece (there's no seaming) and that you normally knit it from top-down (meaning that you can try it on as you work on it for better fit).  

Last week Saturday, we started Class #1.  Class #1 was all about: what raglan is, what you need to know to get started, determining what kind of raglan sweater you want to make, and determining what type of increase (there's 4 types Kim offered to us) you'd like to make for your raglan sleeve.  

To start off, we learned how to measure our "back of neck" measurement.  That was ... interesting ... The average woman's back of neck measurement is between 5.5" to 6".  And, scarily enough, that's exactly my neck size.  For those who know me, I'm not a very large (in height or width) person ... actually I'm very small and petite; and I also happen to have broad shoulders for someone my size thanks to my father's side (and possibly a combo of my mother's side too). :P  So, what does this mean?  It means that: 1) I'm not as small as I think I am (bummer! :( :P) and 2) basically, if I want a smaller collar, I use the smaller size; if I want a larger or wider collar, I use the larger size.

Next was determining what kind of sweater I wanted to make.  My classmates had an array of ideas of what they wanted to make.  One person wanted to make a basic boxy crewneck sweater; another wanted to make a complex sweater with a pattern or cables involved.  While I love cabled sweaters, I didn't think I was ready to embark on that endeavor right off the bat.  Plus, because I already have yarn in mind that I wanted to use (and only 7 skeins of it in addition to the fact that the yarn is no longer made), I didn't want to take a chance on making a cable sweater and not having enough yarn (cabling uses a lot of yarn).  So, I've decided to make a boat neck, 3/4 sleeved, basic stockinette stitch sweater.  It'll be a plain sweater but since it's going to be my first sweater, I'm not expecting it to be super awesome.  I'm expecting it to be a great learning experience and at the very least, wearable. :)  Oh, and here's the yarn label that I'll be using for this project:

And then we had homework which was ... swatching!  Our homework was to make a swatch using at least two (2) needle sizes and the swatch needed to have a gauge of 5 stitches per inch.  I was a bit overzealous and made a big swatch piece:

The bottom of my swatch started with my Chiaogoo US 8 needles in which I created a border and started practicing what Kim calls her Type "A" increase (which is placing a yarnover on either side of my seam stitch (the stitch that creates the "shape" of the shoulder)).  I then found an interesting chevron pattern that I thought I might give a go at it.  Then after a few rows, I realized I hated it. :(  I hated the fact that 1) it wasn't coming out to the way the I thought the chevron would look and 2) there were long pieces of yarn that I know would get caught on something (and as such would irk me to no end knowing that my sweater could get caught and possibly ripped because of it).  So I gave up on that idea and just switch back to the basic stockinette stitch.  After about an inch of this, I measured my gauge and found that I had 4.5 stitches per inch.  

So, I simply finished the Type "A" increase and switched needle sizes to my Chiaogoo US 7 needles.  Since I was done with Type "A", I moved onto the Type "B" increase (which is to knit 1, yarnover, and knit 1 (again) into the seam stitch).  After about making a little over an inch of the Type "B" increase, I measured for gauge and came out to 5 stitches per inch! :) *Yay* :)  Then since I was making gauge, I decided to make this, my "swatch" square and moved onto the Type "C" increase (which is to make 1 on either side of the seam stitch).

Since Kim warned me that while I'm knitting with a polyester yarn, it won't shrink but, it might "relax" (aka get bigger).  So, being the anal person I am, I finished up the Type "C" increase using the size 7 needles.  Then switched to my Chiaogoo US 6 needles to see what gauge I would get with those.  With my size 6 needles, I started the last increase type, Type "D" (which is to knit 1 then knit 1 through the back loop onto the stitch on either side of the seam stitch) and found (oddly enough) that I got the same gauge as I did with the size 7 needles (5 stitches per inch).  

Now, I'm thinking that I should continue my swatch and try using my Chiaogoo US 5 needles just to see if my gauge will get smaller (or not). :P  What do you think?  Is it a bit of overkill?  After all, I figure better to swatch like crazy now rather than find out later that I should've used a smaller needle (swatch regrets) .... Well, my next class isn't until Saturday so, I've got some time to think about it.  I just gotta wash it now ... :P ... I'm think (this swatch took up a lot of my ball already), that I might wash this baby while still on the cable so that once Kim helps me to decide which size I should go with, I can unravel it and re-use the yarn. :D

And, as for the type of increase I'll be doing, I'm thinking I like the Type "D" one ... it's the one with the least amount of holes, seems to give the shoulders more structure than the others, and more importantly (for a seamless sweater), it "hides" the shoulder seam the most.

Can't wait for my next class! :)

I Love Yarn Day - My Oahu Yarn Crawl

Hubby and I took the day off to celebrate I Love Yarn Day and created my own Yarn Crawl. ;)  (Hey, if people can have pub or beer crawls, why can't we, knitters, have yarn crawls? :P)

So, to start the day off,  we woke up late (I normally start work at 6:30a so, waking up anytime between 8 - 9am is a treat for me) and made our way into Downtown to Isle Knit (located at 1188 Bishop St, Suite #1416).  It's a tiny little, nondescript store in an office building.  Basically, if you didn't know about it, I'm not quite sure how'd you find it! :P  I knew about this store for ages but never quite got around to going there when I still worked in Downtown.  So, as a birthday gift from my good friend, she took me there last year.  However, since I was a new knitter back then, going there was a bit overwhelming since it was packed with yarn from floor to ceiling and in every nook and cranny.  This time around, it was less overwhelming and I was able to discover what they carried a bit more. :)  Sue, the owner, was really nice and super helpful. :)  I ended up picking up a Noro Taiyo sock yarn and some Brittany wooden cable needles.

Before heading out of Downtown, we stopped by Beach Bum Cafe located at the First Hawaiian Centre (999 Bishop Street, ground floor (http://beachbumcafe.com/index.html) for a quick coffee break.  (I need to keep my poor hubby hydrated and caffeinated! :P)  He had a delicious coffee while I had some hot Jasmine tea. :)

Next was Needle Arts by Ursula Fischer.  I heard that this place has been around forever so, I thought I'd look for it.  It was supposed to be at 1717 Kalakaua Ave.  But alas, I couldn't find it so, I'm presuming that it closed down. :(

For lunch, we intended to head out to Meatball Hawaii (located at 845 Kapahulu Ave. (http://www.meatballhawaii.com/welcome.html).  It's a new place that's opened by the same person who opened the Whole Ox out in Ka'aako (but the Whole Ox had closed because they're renovating the area they were located in).  Instead, we found Kaimana Farm Café at 845 Kapahulu Ave.  They have an all day breakfast menu that was too good to pass up. :P   It's a cool little rustic place, right across from the Kapahulu Safeway.  Lunch was delicious!

After lunch, since we were in the area, I thought I'd detour a bit and check out Peggy's Picks, a local "antique" store that's been around forever at 732 Kapahulu Ave.  It was interesting but no comparison to a really good Goodwill or Salvation Army.  In many ways, it was more like a mix between a junk and kitschy tourist shop.

Then we were off to my favorite yarn shop: Yarn Story (located at 1411 S. King St., Suite#201 (http://yarnstoryhawaii.com/)).  Kim brought in some Knitter's Pride Trendz needles (they're plastic needles - just what I'm looking for so that I can knit while on travel) and I gave them a whirl. :)  I need to check out what size I'm using for my cable project so I can pick up the right size needle (it's a standard US size 8).  As I drooled over some wonderful bamboo yarn, Kim told me there's a sweater class she's going to have.  I think I might just take that class and use some of my polyester yarn to get me started on the road to sweaters!  Once I make my starter sweater and feel comfortable enough about what I'm doing, I'm definitely getting some bamboo yarn.  Bamboo Pop to be specific! :)

Then, we were supposed to head over to the Nimitz area to stop by at: U'i Mau A Mau (located at the Gentry Center (http://uimauamau.com/)).  This yarn store is generally for yarn to make leis and I thought I'd check it out anyways.  But since we woke up late and the day was moving faster then we were, we decided to skip it.

Instead, we headed off to the Windward side, to Kaneohe for Aloha Yarn (located at 46-018 Kamehameha Hwy (http://www.alohayarn.com/)).  I heard they carried Soak products so, I was very excited to check it out.  I've read about Soak in a lot of knitting articles and how it works really well with knitted products and best of all, it's no rinse!  All you literally do is soak your garment in the solution then just take it out and towel it off.  Well, while the concept was cool, Hubby talked me out of it by saying that he'd take care of all my hand washing and using Dr. Bronner's soap would be equally as good as using Soak (besides the fact that Dr. Bronner's is way cheaper than Soak).  So, to make up for not getting any Soak, I picked up some Painted Desert yarn instead. :D

Next, we went to Kailua, where we visited Yarn & Needlecrafts Ltd. (located at 46 Hoolai St. (next to Agnes Portuguese Bakery)).  This is my Tabi no Kami's favorite store so, I thought I'd check them out to see if they're doing anything special for I Love Yarn Day.  And, guess what I found?!  A Susan Bates U-cable hook for practically the same price I'd find on Amazon!  This was the deal of the day! :)

Since we were in the area, we also checked out:

• Oliver (located at 49 Kihapai St. (http://www.oliverhawaii.com/)) just around the corner of Yarn & Needlecrafts.  Their stuff was really expensive and nothing quite so special to justify the price. :P
• The Kailua Salvation Army where hubby found an awesome deal on film (yup, you heard me right ... hubby's into old school cameras and film; I get yarn, he gets film).  You never know what you can find at our local Salvation Armies or Goodwills. :)
• The Kailua Whole Foods.  We ended up eating dinner at Whole Foods and as a surprise, my wonderful hubby also bought me a basket. :)  He knew that I've been drooling over their baskets and was trying to find a more economical version of it.  I'm one lucky girl! ;)

(Isn't my basket so cool?!  And it fits everything I've got (so far)! :)  I love it!!! :))

Kailua town has been revamped since they opened the Whole Foods in that area so, it was fun to explore around there.  

Well, that was it for my yarn crawl this year. :)  Hubby and I had a great time. :)  He even said that perhaps we should do this yearly. :)  (Though my next yarn crawl will be in Japan and I can't wait. :))