Back Piece

Yeah! After having to start completely over, I have finally finished the back piece to hubby’s hoodie. Things went pretty smoothly and only at the end did I have any major boo boo when my Russian Join came apart. Luckily, with all the mistakes I have made since I started knitting in general, I have learned how to fix those without out having to unravel my whole project. I told hubby things were going too easy and it was time for me to make a mistake. He smiled at that one.  At the top I needed to put my work on stitch holders:

I had one that came with my learn to knit kit, but I needed another. As it is a few days before payday going out and buying one is not an option. So I mention my problem to hubby and here is his solution:

A nice piece of wire that I hooked together at the ends. It is nice to have a knight in shining armor around to solve all my DIY dilemas.

Smooth Transition

Well I have been working diligently on hubby’s hoodie (since the day I had to start over) and have completed the first stripe:I was then ready to start on the yellow stripe. Last time I had tried the Russian Join, I had not done it correctly and my two colors came apart. I went back and studied how to do the Russian Join again, so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake. I decided to use the Russian Join instead of carrying the colors up the side due to the fact that I am doing 36 rows to equal one stripe which means I would be carrying a good bit up the side that I could actually be knitting with. Plus I like how much neater the Russian Join looks if completed the right way.In order to make sure that I had enough orange I went ahead to the end with my purl stitches. Then I undid about 4 stitches to see how much yarn I used. I then added that amount from the ball of yarn. I cut the yarn from the ball and threaded it through the tapestry needle. I threaded the needle through the middle of the yarn piece that was attached to the knitting. I pulled it through just enough to make a loop. I then took the end of my yellow yarn and put it through the loop, after which I repeated the steps I had taken to make the loop for the orange.I carefully pulled the tails tighter, so that the loops disappeared and the yarns look like one. I cut off the excess tails. Finally, I purled those last 4 stitches to see if  I had lined it up right. If I had then when I started the next row it would be just yellow yarn and:I lined it up perfectly! It creates a couple of stitches that are thicker, but other than that it is clean looking. I carefully did a couple of more rows to make sure that I had indeed did it right. I am thrilled that it turned out right. Only 33 more rows and this stripe will be done. I will be doing 3 orange stripes and 2 yellow stripes for the the front and back of the hoodie and it looks like one ball of yarn covers 2 stripes. I went to pick up some more yarn, but Wal-Mart was out. Luckily, I have an orange and a yellow skein in the back room waiting to be rolled into balls. So I don’t need to worry about running out too soon. I just like to have extra on hand just to make sure I don’t run out in the middle of a project. Well back to the needles I go….

Unraveled

Well I am starting over on hubby’s hoodie. UGGH! I had even gotten a whole stripe done and was working the second. Needless to say, I was working on it when I shouldn’t have and made some mistakes that I could not unravel and fix. Right now I am doing review with little man, so I can’t knit. It is not like when he is doing worksheets, where he writes and I sit there as guidance. This means I have only a few hours in the evening time to work on it. Seeings how hubby’s hoodie is quite a bit more stitches per row, it takes me longer to complete one row. So where as I could complete a row in under a minute with little man’s sweater, it now takes me 2 minutes. Which may not seem to much until you realize I have to do 180 rows just to complete one piece. I tried to work on it yesterday when I was wore out and trying to recuperate from a busy week…I did 85 miles on the bicycle, and hubby had been off since Thursday, so we could take care of some errands. Well maybe by the time I get this done it will be cool enough for him to wear it…..

Chillin’ Today

As you can see, Honey’s new saddle is not a Brooks.  Indeed, budgetary constraints came into play here.  So, Tal and I dusted off the scooter and headed to Tallahassee to purchase a Specialized Dolce’ Gel saddle, 155mm.  It was about half of what we would’ve paid for a Brooks. I also went by University Cycles and purchased some Tuffy’s innertube liners for her bike.  No, noone makes tube liners for 28″ wheels, but a 700×35-42 works just fine and still overlaps by a couple inches.  We don’t have the money to be buying expensive $40+ Schwalbe Marathon puncture-resistant tyres, so tube liners will enable us to have less flats on cheaper “Dinged-Shins”.  Since we have been riding bicycles here in Crawfordville, we have had staples in three different tyres.  Once Tal and I arrived home with the loot, we all ate and decided to hang-out on the carport while I installed the abovementioned items on the Beauty.  I learned that it is possible to install innertube liners without removing the wheels on a bicycle, a good thing, as removing wheels on the Raleigh DL-1 can be aggravating.  While we were hanging-out,  I decided to pull Ginger and chicks out so the neighbors could see her and they could all get some fresh air and dig around in the grass next to the carport.  They actually spent most of the time foraging or trying to go where we didn’t want them, but getting an action pic was impossible, so I waited until Ginger sat down to warm the chicks.  I did not realize how much a hen talks to her chicks, but it is a constant flow.  She sounds like a dot-matrix printer. Cyclingchicken decided to work on her knitting.  She is starting a pullover hoodie for me .  It will be orange and yellow stripe on the body, green and yellow stripe on the sleeves, pocket, and hood.  Yes, a bit eye-catching, all-the-better for safety on the bicycle. After finishing, giving the chickies their afternoon scratch, and putting Ginger & chicks back in their enclosure, we all rode to that Golden Arches place for a soft-serve ice cream cone.  Wifey likes the new saddle, although it feels strange to her because it’s so much smaller than the spring saddle from the Kulana.  We’ll see how it does on the ride to Woodville tomorrow.

Finished :D

Last time I posted I had just finished a sleeve….Here is the other:

Next came pockets:

That was all for the actually knitting part. Now I needed to attach these to the front of the sweater. I looked at all the ways you can attach items together and decided on the back-stitch for the pockets. I really like the back-stitch a lot. It seems to hold things together quite nicely and is easy to do.

I took a picture of the inside due to the fact that you cannot see the seam on the front. I imagine if I had use blue for the red pocket and vice versa you would have been able to see it. I was working on the pockets last night and almost sewed the red pocket completely up.

I turned the sweater inside out to weave the seams. I worked from the bottom up on each side. I was able to complete one whole side before having to go to bed. I completed the other side while little man was working on school. In order to make my stripes match, I would line up a stripe and then pin the stripe to the left of it.  All that was left was to weave about in an inch and a half more on both sides of the collar.

Now time to model it on little man…and there it has stayed. He thanked me and really likes it a lot. I am so happy that it turned out and that he likes it. So now I will be ready to start on hubby’s hoodie come Friday. The only problem I have now is that there is nothing for me on my needles to do and I still have 2 more days……