Lion Brand Notebook
News, Ideas and Information for Crafting with Yarn
Lion Brand Notebook
News, Ideas and Information for Crafting with Yarn
The Cable Luxe Tunic is done — woo-hoo! As a designer, many times I have to work on wooly projects in the summer and cool lightweight projects in the winter, so it was a pleasure having this wonderfully warm project on my lap these last few weeks when the temperature was rarely reaching double digits!
After sewing up the seams, I wove in the ends and ta-da! Here is the tunic right after I finished it:
My students often have questions about weaving in ends and the Learning Center has a section just about weaving in your ends.
So, what is really the final step in finishing your tunic? Wash it! A garment always looks better after it is cleaned. Just make sure to follow the instructions on how to wash your tunic by looking at the instructions on your yarn label. I used Wool-Ease and no wonder “ease” is in its name — I just washed it gentle, cold water, and a gentle cycle for the dryer as well. I also turned it inside-out for the wash and it turned out so soft and pretty.
Speaking of pretty…the tunic has finally met up with its intended owner, my oldest daughter, Lizzie. A perfect fit — and look at that smile!
This will be a super warm and easy-care sweater for her to take to college in upstate New York next fall. (I think I was smiling just as much or more seeing her wearing it)!
This has been a wonderful Knit-Along and I thank all of you who have participated, asked questions, given advice, or even have this tunic on your “to do” list. You can access all of the posts for this KAL (and the first KAL for the “Tree of Life” afghan) by clicking here. We’d also love to see all of your finished projects! Add them to the Lion Brand Customer Gallery OR our Flickr group!
Happy knitting everyone and enjoy your tunics!
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Posted in Community, Knit-Along, Knitting, Tips & How To | 16 Comments »
It’s hard to believe that I’m near the “finishing line” of this Cable Luxe Tunic! Actually, I still have one sleeve to finish–and I will try it on my daughter before I finish the sleeves. The yoke was very fun to do, and I realized that at the end that I could have done this yoke in the round on the 24″ circular needle. If you decide to do that, just remember that you have to knit one round and purl one round to get the garter stitch. Also, if you work in the round with garter stitch, you will still get a “jog” (or a line) at the beginning of the round when you switch between the knit rounds and the purl rounds. Here is what the back of my yoke looked like when I finished:
I bound off on the wrong side of my yoke to create the purl ridge at the top of yoke – which is very pretty. If you do this in the round, then you may want to bind off purlwise at the top. It really took very little time to sew the back yoke seam because sewing up garter stitch is basically sewing under each ridge from both sides.
There is a great tutorial of this sewing technique in the Lion Brand Learning Center. Now here is the yoke seam all finished!
OK, now the only sewing left to do is the side seams, but make sure you sew the underarm seams first that was shown in my fourth post. The sleeve and side seams are just reverse stockinette stitch. Again, I am sewing them with the right side facing, and I simply sew into each purl “bump” at the sides.
I found my edges curled quite a bit, so I spritzed them with a spray bottle and let them dry. This eased those edges to make the edges easier to sew. So now I just have to finish that last sleeve, get the right sleeve measurements, and weave in those ends! Thanks to all of you (especially Connie) who have been answering questions and keeping this KAL very fun! I better get my camera charged to take a picture of my finished Cable Luxe Tunic–and maybe have it modeled as well!
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Posted in Community, Knit-Along, Knitting | 19 Comments »
A Happy New Year to all of you! I’m sure many of you have been very busy these last few weeks with all sorts of holiday projects. My Cable Luxe Tunic has been sticking up out of my knitting bag trying to get my attention – and now it finally has it again! Quite of few of you have felt you’ve gotten behind on this KAL, but now that the calm of January is here, you can continue (or start!) this project and actually learn from all the hints that other knitters of the tunic have posted so far.
So, where am I on the tunic? I had thought that by now I’d have both the front, back, and both sleeves done — and would be working away on the yoke — the reality is that I have the back finished, and a sleeve done. When I finished the first sleeve, I realized that maybe I would have to adjust the length for my daughter, since she likes to wear her sleeves longer. I decided to put the sleeve stitches on a holder, and get going on the yoke, so that she can try it on before I finish the sleeves.
When I started the yoke, I caught myself ready to make another mistake! Luckily, I reread the instructions and saw that the circular needle I need for the yoke has to be a size smaller than the needle used for the body of the sweater. I needed a US 9 needle for the tunic, so I used a size 8 24″ circular needle for the yoke. The instructions told me to start at that back center seam of the cable strip and pick up all the way around back to the seam. I placed 4 markers on the top edge of the strip right above marking the spots where the back, left sleeve, front, and right sleeve start.
With the right side facing, I picked up the stitches just like I did when I picked up for the back, front and sleeves. I really love to use markers that attached to my knitting and this isn’t the only time I will use them for my yoke. I picked up the 130 stitches for the yoke, which is what the small size total stitch count. To make sure the stitches didn’t fall off the end of my needle, I put a point protector on the other end of the needle.
Although the pattern asks for a circular needle, the yoke itself is knit back and forth, so I placed a marker at the end of the row to remind me to turn my work and knit back. Could you knit this yoke in the round? Sure you can — all you need to do is remember to work the garter stitch in the round which is knit 1 round, then purl one round. And also remember that if your stitches get too tight around your needle after your decreases, you may have to switch to a 16″ circular or double-pointed needles to get to the top. I’m doing the yoke as it is written in the pattern, and I don’t mind the seam in the back which will continue from the seam in the cable strip. By knitting it in rows, I knit every row to get garter stitch this way.
For all the sizes, the yoke decreases every 6th row and for the small size I have to decrease 13 stitches evenly across each decrease row. To make this easier, I am using my markers again to mark 13 places in my knitting. Since there are 130 stitches, I will place a marker every 10 stitches (I decided to go in 5 sts on each end of the row — this still makes 10 sts between each marker, and I won’t have to decrease right at the edge of my row.)
Now I will knit the 2 stitches before each marker together on every decrease row. After all my decrease rows, I can remove the markers and just knit up until the garter stitch yoke measures 3″ from where I picked up the stitches. So that’s my plan and if all goes well, I should have this tunic ready to sew up next week. Here’s wishing you all a year filled with happiness, health, and as much knitting as you can fit in a year!
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Posted in Community, Knit-Along, Knitting | 20 Comments »
Greetings, cable-loving knitters, to the second Knit-Along (KAL) by Lion Brand! I am very excited to be the host of this KAL and look forward to making this gorgeous Cable Luxe Tunic along with so many of you. I was thrilled that so many of you voted for this tunic because I have wanted to make it for awhile myself! As a knitwear designer who sends away much of what I make, I have often referred to my two daughters as the “Cobbler’s Children” based on the story of a cobbler who sold all of the shoes he made, resulting in his kids being barefoot! The oldest of my kids, Lizzie, will be getting a fabulous cable sweater as a result of this KAL that she can wear as she goes off to college next year.
I have been a knitting teacher and freelance knit and crochet designer for about 15 years now. I learn so much from my students when it comes to explaining how to knit or finish a project, so I will do my best to answer questions or give you hints to help you with knitting this beautiful sweater.
First things first. Go ahead and download that pattern for the Cable Luxe Tunic! It is only free to download until November 27th, so make this the first thing on your list of things to do.
Now comes the important question of what yarn to use. Although the yarn used in the pattern is Wool-Ease, there are many yarn choices perfect for this pattern. Other yarns that would be great to use would be Vanna’s Choice, Cotton-Ease, Fishermen’s Wool, or Lion Cashmere Blend. Just remember to use a yarn listed as “Category 4 – medium worsted-aran weight” yarn and make sure you have at least the same amount of total yardage as called for in the Wool-Ease to make the size you want. A smooth, light, or bright color yarn will be best to show off all those cables!
What yarn did I pick out? Actually, I decided on Wool-Ease. One reason is that there were so many great color choices. The one I chose was a perfect pink, Blush Heather, that I know my daughter will love. Secondly, as she will be heading off to college this next year, this will make a wonderfully warm sweater that she will be able to wash and dry on her own. I will be making the small for her and I already have my 7 balls of Wool-Ease. I’m ready to get knitting!
My students know I am quite a stickler when it comes to making a gauge swatch, and it is always the first step to making sure a sweater will be the size you want. The pattern gives 2 different gauges, one in stockinette stitch and another in cable pattern. I concentrated on the gauge for the stockinette stitch, which will tell me the size of the largest needle to use. The gauge calls for 18 sts = 4″. An easy way I get the gauge is to make a swatch starting with the size needle called for — a US 8 (5 mm). I like to cast on either 3 or 4 stitches on each side of the 18 sts to make a garter stitch border, which makes it very easy to measure the center 18 sts in stockinette stitch. When I made the swatch using the US 8 needles, the measurement over the 18 sts was about 3.5″ — too small. To make the stitches larger, I went up one needle size to a US 9 and the swatch measured a perfect 4″ between the garter stitch borders. For this sweater, I’m most concerned about the number of stitches, rather than rows, as it will affect the width of the garment (although the row gauge was right on as well!) I will use a needle one size smaller — US 8 — for the circular needle for the yoke of the sweater.
Now, I’m ready for the first part of this sweater –- making the beautiful cabled strip (see above) that will go all around the tunic just below the yoke. This cable pattern is a 16 row repeat pattern, so I find either marking down on paper what row I’m on or using a row counter a great help. I will be busy knitting this pattern for 44″ during the two weeks until my next post. In the meantime, print that pattern, get your yarn, get swatching, and have a very happy Thanksgiving! (Our next post will be Dec. 4.) I look forward to seeing your pictures (join our Flickr group) and hearing from you!
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Posted in Knit-Along, Knitting, Tips & How To | 145 Comments »
