A Sweater for Me

I've been searching for the perfect sweater for me for quite a while and finally found it. I'm making Buttercup.

This sweater has been in the top 10 of my queue for a long time. I've been hesitant to cast on given the bad luck I've had the past 2 years making sweaters for me. They either turned out to be not flattering on me or I outgrew them before I was even close to finishing. I've seen this sweater on many different body types on Ravelry and for the most part it was very flattering.

I've finished with the yoke and most of the body and have started on the sleeves.


The first sleeve is finished except for the fan and feather lace trim. I really love the feel of this sweater and since I've knitted with Hempathy I know it will soften up even more when soaked.

I'm still working on beading projects but not so much lately. I've been spending a lot of my time getting my knitting machines up and running again. To that end I attending a knitting machine seminar in Raleigh, NC this past Friday and Saturday. It was hosted by the Carolinas Machine Knitting Guild and Featured four instructors from the US and Canada. I learned a lot, got some things refreshed and met a lot of new people. I really want to learn to knit circular socks on the knitting machine and I now feel more empowered to give it a try. My stash of coned yarns is as large as the handknitting stash so I really need to get busy and put it to use. I also own four electronic machines and they are being wasted so it's time to get my ducks in a row.

Time is at a premium these days. I'm on the Women's Day choir at church and we meet on Monday and Wednesday, I attend exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and most Saturday's I have something going on. I'm also test knitting another pattern so I've replaced my regular knitting with that. I'm always amazed at how things are so slow and calm during the winter time and as soon as spring arises everything picks back up.

Man vs Machine

For many years I owned 2 manual knitting machines which saw very limited usage. In 2003 I bought my first electronic machine, a KH970. I played around with it the first year and Xmas '04 I made hats and scarves for all the kids, started learning how to use the numerous features available and started my first machine knit sweater. Somewhere along the line I got sidetrack. Mainly due to space or lack thereof and when the neck problems started everything got nicely packed up and stored away.

Over the past several weeks, I've been gradually getting familiar with the operation of the machine once again. I'd forgotten a lot of things but they've all begun to come back. Earlier this week I knitted this swatch and several others in preparation for a sweater project.


Yesterday after numerous calculations and recalculations I cast on a sweater. Even though I'm very secure about my handknitting skills, I'm still working on having the same confidence on the machine. I miss the ability to immediately check the length and width without having to go through some major effort.


Tomorrow if things go according to plan, I'll be able to finish most of the front and do the back on Saturday. The front is done using the garter carriage which runs independently so I'm happily knitting while it's running. I don't consider the machines a replacement, just a nice enhancement.

It's definitely not as easy as it seems. Yes, you move the carriage but all the setup and shaping requires human intervention and a lot of math! Here's to better knitting all around.