FO: An Armful of Tweed

CPH. C'est fini!

Central Park Hoodie
Knitscene, Fall 2006
Yarn: Classic Elite Skye Tweed in color 1243 (a.k.a. "Heath")
Needles: US 6 Addi Lace for ribbing, US 8 Susan Boye aluminums for body
Extras: Wooden buttons from Knitty City
Modifications: Kitchenered hood together

Now, of course I'm jumping with glee over my first for-me finished sweater! I'm starting to realize the wisdom of limiting my handknit gifts to people who will actually appreciate all the work I put in. Namely, me. I'm so happy that when I finished weaving in the last end on the sweater, I immediately put it on and walked around the apartment in it. Which caused my roommates to question my sanity. Wool? August? They shake their heads and leave me to my blissful insanity.

The Skye Tweed is a bit stiff to work with, but it softens with washing (I used Woolite). The wool definitely bled some in the first few bowls of water I ran, but eventually the color stuck. It was rough trying to seam with it, though, because the stuff likes to fall apart. It was also incredibly smelly when wet. Ew. But the final product is worth it. It's woolly and soft and thick and warm.

However, if I make it again, I will make the following modifications: Add two inches in length to the body, knit only four inches of ribbing on the sleeve cuffs, knit the hood a bit bigger, and remember to split splice all the way through if I work with wool.

So, first I am going to 'fess up and share the mistakes. Maybe this will shame me into paying more attention next time 'round:

This is the worst of the mistakes. I knit the left front first, which starts with K2 ribbing. I then knit the right front, thinking I start with K2 ribbing and not checking with the pattern first...and then realized only while the whole durn thing was wet-blocking that I'd thrown the ribbing off on the right front. Meaning that the cables, which are supposed to flow out of the K2 ribbing, does not. Exactly. Flow. Instead, it just starts without preamble and looks a little awkward. This also causes the seam on the right side to look a little off because I was mattress seaming a purl stitch with a knit stitch. But what the hey, a nice lady at Knitty City told me that in Turkish carpets, there's always one mistake put in intentionally...because only God is perfect.

Second mistake: The sleeves are quite, um, long. The photo above illustrates where the cuff ends without pulling. They're like sleeve-gauntlets. Who needs mittens when you've got cuffs like that? I don't actually dislike this mistake, though. I like long sleeves, even if they get a little too eager and try to get all in your food.

Now, for some details I like quite a lot:

Lovely wooden buttons from Knitty City. I actually went to M&J Trimming at first and purchased red wooden buttons. And then when I brought them home and held them up to CPH...

Well, let's just let bygones be bygones and forgive the poor buttons for making me think too strongly of bloody, murderous clowns.

The purls on the inside. I lurve these waves. They're so nice and soothing.

The sleeve seams. This marks the first time I managed to use mattress stitch with both confidence and a fair amount of accuracy. Also, this photo makes me think of the beautiful patterns of grain on a piece of wood.

Now, it's very difficult to take photos of oneself in a hoodie. There are dozens of blurry, I-can't-quite-make-that-out shots on my camera that I will have to erase. But I cannot resist saving this one. I only meant to get the hood in the picture, but clearly my angles are all wrong. Maybe it's because I did a bunch of the knitting on this while I watched the LOTR marathon on TNT last weekend, but I took a photo of myself that makes me look like a hobbit. A pensive hobbit. What could this pensive female Asian hobbit be pondering so gravely? World peace? Gold jewelry? A new sweater? Muahahaha. I think this hobbit has gone over to the dark side.