Fiber Musings – Page 48 – Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast – mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

2013 Spring Cleaning #1

On 22 Mar, 2013

The next few posts have no photos because they’ve already been ripped out.

I started Tea Leaves last summer and finished it in time to wear at SOAR. It should have been the perfect fall cardigan to wear all California winter. A fabulous mid weight sweater to throw on over T-shirts or turtlenecks. I even received some beautiful buttons handmade by Denny that would have been fabulous on the sweater.

Except it wasn’t.

Even after careful measurements, the sleeves were 2-3″ too long. I don’t know how that happened because I measured several of my favorite top down and yoked sweaters and used those numbers as my guidelines. It’s possible that I forgot to account for the nearly 3″ of garter stitch cuff.

Even if the sleeves had been of the right length, they were too tight. So tight that I wouldn’t have been able to comfortably wear anything other than a tank up or sleeveless shell under it. I might have fooled myself into thinking it was okay if the sleeves weren’t too long.

The sleeves were no only tight at the upper arm, they also sat right under the arm pit. There is no room for any shirts underneath to bunch up. You know what I’m talking about — the inevitable extra fabric you get when you wear a top with some ease. So, if the under layer has ease, the top layer needs ease too. This didn’t. It had negative ease. Not only was it uncomfortable, it was unsightly. After a perusal of the discussion forums on Ravelry, I found that a lot of people had issues with the too snug sleeves and added stitches to make it wearable.

Lastly, I wasn’t too fond of how low the neckline is. It felt like it was falling off my shoulders. Of course, it wasn’t because those darned sleeves made sure nothing moved.

So, there they sat. Washed, blocked and lonely since the end of September. Last week, the cat found it and decided that it is the perfect cat bed. Before she had a chance to circle once as a precursor to settling in for a long nap, I made the decision to rip. She was not a happy kitty.

While ripping the sweater, I started my research on how to fix this sweater.

Sleeves

I already knew I needed more sleeve stitches to start, but how many? I pulled out my notes from Janine’s EPS Yoked Sweater and crunched some numbers and compared them with the written pattern. I was stunned. Absolutely floored!

I knitted the 40″ sweater. For a 40″ sweater, the pattern instructions had an upper arm circumference of 11.4″ inches. Seriously. 11.5″. No wonder my arms were protesting. I can’t fit into that even without a shirt underneath.

According to the EPS calculations, the upper arm should be anywhere from 33% to 40% of your finished chest circumference. With a 40″ chest, the range is from 12.6″ (skinny narrow) – 15.2″ (loose), with the average in the 13.4″ to 14.4″ range.

2″. The sleeves are too narrow by two whole inches. On Ravelry, I see many knitters adding “a couple” of extra stitches. I don’t see how a couple of extra stitches at 5 st/in is going to help. Many of these people also said “blocking” and lots of it.

Neckline

Vicki did a fabulous review on her Tea Leaves Cardigan in Episode 12 of her podcast. She talked about the short rows she did to have the sweater fit better on the shoulders. She also pointed out that the pattern discussed the short rows! I completely missed it because it was not in the main section of the sweater pattern but in the notes section under gauge and notions. Thank you, Vicki!

Decision

Well the decision has already been made. The sweater has been ripped all the way back to the last ruffle and yoke increases. Some people added the short rows in the stockinette stitch sections between the ruffles. I couldn’t face the ruffles again right now so I will be putting my short rows after the yoke section. I already added one set of short rows. I will knit a few rows plain and then add in another set of short rows. Each of these sets is 2 short rows, if that makes sense.

I will be adding 2″ to my underarm for the sleeves, once I get to them again. I am hoping that the short rows will give me extra depth in the sweater as well so that it will not be sitting right at the arm pit. I’ll try it on as I go and decide if I need a bit extra depth. I couldn’t use the EPS calculations for the yoke depth because this sweater has a low neckline to start.

Of course, those 2 extra inches for each sleeve means that the body will be 4″ larger in the circumference. I will need to try on as I go and decide how to manage all that extra girth. I can turn it into more of a swing coat by adding even more stitches or do some waist shaping.

Lessons Learned

I buy and used published pattern because I want mindless knitting. Just follow the written pattern and turn the brain off. Unfortunately, this pattern didn’t fit the bill. For the next sweater I knit using a published pattern from a new-to-me designer, you can bet that I will double check all the numbers at critical points to make sure that the fit works for me.

For this sweater, I would have been better off making it up as I went, using only the rough instructions for the design elements that I like. In this case, the ruffles.

Last lesson? Try the sweater on as I go. Seriously. I know better.

Ghosts of Spring Cleaning Past

By Ann

On 21 Mar, 2013

In General

The last time I posted about my spring cleaning effort was back in May 2009. I think it’s high time to go through it again.

Let’s start off with a walk down memory lane with the status on the projects I identified back in 2009.

Unspun Silk Scarf. This was finished during the effort but worn very infrequently. I don’t know why.
Rugs. Still love them. I’ve washed one of them again since because Waldo threw up on it. Unfortunately, I left it out in the sun too long and it faded. Boo.
Pinwheel Shawl. Finished but never worn. The arm scythe isn’t placed properly. It would work for someone with a smaller shoulder span. I really should donate it but it looks nice draped over the back of the rocking chair or foot of the guest bed.
Anarchy Sweater. It turns out that I’m not such an anarchist after all. I gave the whole mess to Grace to salvage the yarn. I have no idea what has become of it. In any case, it is no longer my problem. Update: Penny has shared her Flickr stream for the Tree Costume using the repurposed yarn.
Squirrel Mittens. Still not done and I’m starting to run out of niece/grand-nieces/grand-nephews of the appropriate size. It’s this year or bust.
Clapotis. Frogged. I still haven’t found a project for the yarn. But now it’s just stash, not an unfinished project. I can live with that.
Victoria Shawl. Still in the same, sad, forgotten state.

Score? Of the 7 projects, 2 still remain unresolved — after nearly FOUR years!

71%, or C- on a straight grading scale. Thankfully, we are not counting successes here; otherwise, the score would be even lower. I wonder what it might look like on a curve if we were to take into account of all the fiber artisans/crafters. Would I move up in the B range or down into a failing grade? I suppose consideration should be made that these were already in trouble to begin with, and not representative of my collective works. It’s a small consolation and sounds like a weak defense/excuse, even to my ears.

In any case, it’s not up to my standards. The only thing that I’ve ever scored this low was my Statics and Strengths of Materials course in college. This is why I don’t design bridges. However, I’m not ready to give up on my fiber related pursuits.

Energized!

By Ann

On 20 Mar, 2013

In Spin, Technique, Weave

(click for full size)

Here’s a dirty little secret. I have been obsessed with weaving with energized singles.

My first taste of it was my Collapse class with Anne Field and my experiments with pleats after that. Then there were the various classes and workshops with Kathryn Alexander. But have I done anything with it? Other than experiments as weft in my pleated scarves, no.

That is, until now.

I had purchased some hand painted BFL/Silk from Fiber OpticsÂ at SOAR. As I was spinning the fiber, I thought that it would be fabulous as an open weave shawl. Then I thought back to the energized singles weaving projects that has been simmering in the background.

I pulled out some undyed 75% Black BFL / 25% Tussah Silk from Ashland Bay, purchased from SOAR (2009?). I chose this fiber mix for a couple of reasons. First, it is similar to the Fiber Optics blend. More importantly, this blend produces a yarn with a crispness that I like for a singles project.

I spun the fiber into S and Z singles at about 55 wpi with 20% angle of twist. This is not a huge amount of twist. I believe Kathryn puts a lot more twist angle into her woven projects. I’ll have to go back and check my notes.

In the photo at top right, from top to bottom:

Alternating S & Z in both warp and weft (top). As you can see, it resulted in a very stable fabric. This was the first one I wove and it’s been sitting there and handled for about 10 days without much distortion. It would appear that the opposite forces kept the fabric under control.
Z in warp, S in weft (center). As soon as I took it off the frame, the sample pleated up horizontally. I don’t know if this is because the twining along the top & bottom prevented it from pleating vertically. Or if I swapped the Z & S warp for weft, or…
Z in both warp & weft (bottom). This just curled up like a leaf along the diagonal. Yes, in the S direction. Obviously trying to balance itself.

How I wove these:

I used my Hockett Would Work Hand Looms for sampling.
The yarn is “fresh” off the bobbin. They’ve been sitting on the bobbin for 10-14 days now, so fresh is relative. They are unwashed and unsized.
The samples were all warped at 16 epi (2 per dent) and woven with approximately the same ppi.
They were approximately 4″x4″ on the loom (10cm x 10cm).
I twined the top & bottom edges. This was tedious work for the alternating S & Z (top) sample because I need make sure I picked up the S & Z in the correct sequence. It’s kind of hard when they are the same color and working at night by the light of a reading lamp.
These are all straight off the loom, unwashed samples.

I had not planned on making two sets of these. I had planned to just finish these in hot water and see what will happen. After the second sample, I quickly came to the conclusion that this is not to be. I need to weave off a second set and preserve the before and after samples.

The other thing that I realized is that I have more questions that need to be answered, which translates into more samples:

Is it the twining that is preventing sample #2 from pleating lengthwise? Or is it the choice of Z in warp and S in weft? Will that alter if I swapped them? I cannot not twine because I need the twining to set the spacing and “finish” off the edges so the wefts stay put. Perhaps I can hem stitch for a more flexible edge.
Will the third sample curl in the opposite direction if I only used S spun singles in both warp & weft?

Stay tuned.