In answer to Melanie’s question, the width of the collar = 15″ across:
I think that mine may be narrower because I pulled up the collar a bit with the i-cord edging. I’ve seen other pictures and the collars seem wider. The actual shoulders will conform to the wearer because of the raglan shaping.
My zippers just arrived and none of them are great — one is so bright it’s like neon green! Whoa, put the lights out please! One is really dark but kind of goes. Not sure what I’ll do yet…
Eris is wonderful and I don’t mind saying so. I made a sweater that fits like it was made for me :). Yes, they ALL are, but in fact, only some actually do ;).
All of my trepidation went out the window post blocking. It is a thing of wonderment — when all the variables came together in the right way. One small problem: The sleeves are about 1-2″ too long, but that is totally easy to fix with top down sleeves! I was also pleased that there is very little evidence of ‘rowing,’ which often happens with back-and-forth stockinette stitch. [Rowing occurs when one’s purl row gauge is slightly larger than one’s knit row gauge].
Now, here is the source of my pre-blocking angst:
The place where the collar joins the body of the sweater rolled over funny. I know that’s pretty technical talk! But it looked weird when I tried it on, and I was nervous it would not block out, but it did. Woo Hoo! Here it is after blocking, just flopped onto the table:
I think my short rows are better on the hem shaping — I had a bit more practice with my Japanese short rows by then.
The sweater fits great. I will actually post a picture of me wearing it once I get the zipper sewn in. In the meantime, here is Lucky Lettie, draped in the fantabulous Eris:
Yarn: Cascade 220, Color #9460
Needles: US 5’s (cabling) and 6’s (body)
Cost: about $60 (incl. pattern and zipper)!!!!! It only took 7 skeins of yarn! (at least I think it took 7 — I bought a bag of ten skeins and three are untouched — not heavy mathematics there)
For those of you contemplating this pattern, I say go for it. The pattern is extremely long, but it’s no more knitting than an average sweater. Jenna just provides too much a lot of detail. It is not as forgiving as the Rogue Hoodie if you have gauge issues (because of the collar and hem cabling), but it can work. The one thing I recommend is to do after-thought I-cord edging (using 5 sts) and for that all I did was omit the edge sts along the neck and hem edges. It took extra time, but I believe it was well worth it. I did this on the hood of Rogue with very nice results.
It is true — another “FO” graces our pages. I finished Eris this evening and now she is drying. I’m not entirely done — I am waiting for the zippers I ordered. I’m hoping one of them will work. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -> these are my crossed fingers :). This zipper should be a lot easier to put in than the one in Oregon because of the way the fronts are constructed.
Here is the collar:
And the sleeve:
My sleeves are a little different than the pattern. I just did not like the way the original hemline looked on the sleeve. I tried three times and it looked terrible, so I finished it off like the fronts using a 5 st I-cord bind off. When I decided to switch to this edging, I had to add another inch to the sleeve which is another reason I changed up my sleeve decreases.
I will put her on Lettie when she is dry and take another picture or two. I sure hope she fits ME, too!!
Now all I have to work on is my lil silk top, so it should get done pretty quickly. What is next, my friends, what is next?
PS — Could someone please explain to me why Sally needs a one-pound cone of Zephyr laceweight?!!?
PSS — I remembered where Marina must have seen Erisort:
Shelly Kang posted this picture on her blog after the Yarn Harlot’s visit :). That’s Kim on the left (the friend who gave me Lettie) and Shelly is on the right.
I can’t blame this one on the knitting gods! I have had to rip back the sleeves a few inches on Eris — I was literally at the point of binding off the sleeves and thought, “Hmmmm, they really seem too small/narrow at the wrist.” They were. So now I’m backing up a few inches and changing my decreases to every 8 rows instead of every 6. I should still be blocking this baby today.
Sally and I both have unnaturally small wrists — we’re such delicate flowers, aren’t we?? Plus, I am unnaturally tall. So what I usually do is cast on for the smallest size sleeve and continue doing increases to get me to the size I am making, which tends to be one of the largest sizes. I can then accommodate my delicate wrists and the unnatural length of my arms in one fell swoop. That often works. What I also do is take the bottom hem of the garment and wrap it around my delicate wrists and pull it over my hands to see how many sts I need for the wrist and then calculate my sleeve increases (or decs when top down) from there. I did both these things, but it was still a little bit off.Â
I am working on the silk Vittadini top. It is not quite as mindless as I had hoped: even though it is stockinette in the round, the ten-ply yarn can be split easily so you need to look at it while knitting. Darn it!
Romi just started her Peacock Shawl, so I’ll be able to knit vicariously through her for the next few days whilst I await my yarn. The good news is that she is using the same Zepher yarn Sally used (and that I am waiting for) and LOVES it. She says the shawl is flying off the needles. Be still my heart. So, I will track her progress and hopefully get to start mine before she finishes hers.
To the sleeves, Batman!
I’ve been knitting on Eris because I am still waiting ever so patiently for my peacock yarn (she says nervously, knowing that everyone knows she has NOT been patient at all), and was getting a little worried that I had over-compensated for the uptake needed on the collar.  I added my 5-stitch i-cord edge after the fact, and it looks WAY too tight here in its natural state:
Had I gotten carried away, as usual?
So, I placed Eris on Lettie to get a better idea of how it will look on a person and it is fine, even unblocked as it is:Â
And the back view:
So I’m less worried and therefore more apt to finish this sucker! Now I can sit by the window waiting for the mail to arrive ;).
PS — Tyna asked about the pattern:Â It can be purchased on-line on The Girl From Auntie’s website.
I’ve been flying under the radar the last few days, but getting some progress made on both Oregon and Eris. Marina kind of inspired me when she asked about the zipper for Oregon, so I knitted up all the bands this weekend. That means Oregon is almost a fait accomplis!Â
Eris is my take along. I am over halfway done with Sleeve Number One. I bought a new pattern off the internet this weekend and if I find the right yarn, I’ll share it.Â
In response to Betsy who asked about the hem shaping on Eris:
I may not have described what we are doing very clearly, but Sally and I opted to do a hem similar to that of the pullover version, but on BOTH sides. When you look at the pullover on the Girl From Auntie site it looks like both sides are shaped, but really only the right side is.
I have seen examples of the Eris Cardigan knitted up and the fronts seem to split at the tummy and I did not want to emphasize mine! I put the cabled corner shaping at both side “seams.” The pictures in my previous post show both sides of my cardigan. The fronts will be straight across. I will use a 2-way zipper* so I can open it from the bottom a little bit if I want. Because I chose to put the cables on both sides, I did not do the waist shaping. Mine will have a boxier fit.Â
*And about that zipper: I am just about ready to place my order — I don’t know the exact length yet. I get my custom zippers from Zipperstop. They have a ton of colors and many zipper styles. They cut to any length for $1 extra. They do not have a soft green, but the olive I ordered for something else looks like it will work. I’m using the plastic teeth because they match the zipper tape and will be less visible.Â
Back to knitting, you low lifes! Bloggiversary — is that even a real word? Too much celebrating and not enough knitting. What kind of a knitting blog is this, anyway?!!??Â
Okay, Okay!! I have been knitting, really I have! I have deemed Eris suitable for survival and completion. It looks okay, the hem no longer rolls and I think it will fit. So, I will work on the front I-cord edging and get the sleeves started. They will go so fast and all the hard finishing stuff is already done. Except for the zipper, which is putsy, but not horrible.
Here’s a close up of the overlapping cabled corners — after blocking, I think that’s as good as they are going to look.Â
I have also been playing around again with the Woman’s Continental — remember GiGi and her fabulous hairstyle?
I had already started the sleeves (one up to the raglan shaping and the other half way there). Then comes the fun part with the front bands and the collar, etc.Â
The front band has a form of brioche stitch, which I attempted to swatch — I had to “SOS” Surly to help me figure it out. I could not get it to work, no matter what I tried. The irony is, when Idonis was knitting this, I figured it out for her (?!!??)! How many brain cells have died since then? Can dementia be far behind? Surly said, “It’s easy. It works for me. Here’s what I did.” And, voila, it worked. It is easy and looks cute. What are sisters for?
We’re glad you enjoyed the contest — thanks again to all for the well wishes and support. Luv ya.
Well, Susan’s Eris is actually starting to look like a sweater. Mine is looking more like a bolero or a very impractical shrug with no sleeves. Here it is in all its “glory.”
This is a closeup of where I have divided for the sleeves so you can see the provisional cast on. Once I finish the body, I will pick up the sleeve stitches (which are on a holder), undo the crocheted provisional cast on, and knit up the twelve stitches I cast on. That way, there will be no underarm seam (just as with The Blue Shimmer). If the picture is confusing, my thumb is resting on the cord of my circular needle.
I’m way behind Susan with my Eris, in part because I got distracted by that red silk Sundara yarn I wrote about the other day. Once I recovered from the trauma of my lost cast on (thank you for all the sympathy), I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to put the whole project away for a little while or get it started to have as a second project. I was also spinning wildly on what size needle to use — I kept trying to do swatches and getting bizarrely inconsistent results. I decided to put it away for another day and concentrate on Eris. Then I made one small mistake. As part of my excessive worrying about needle size, I googled “Sundara silk” and “shawl” and found this:
It’s stunning and I was. Stunned that is. It’s the Icarus Shawl from Interweave knits, which I’ve already knit in Kidsilk Haze. Brook, whose blog entries on this shawl (including more photographs) can be found here, knit this beauty in the exact same color I had purchased. Well, one look at her Icarus and I was doomed. I had to play with my yarn.
I’m making the Three-Cornered Shawl from the Victorian Lace book. I don’t have an image handy; it’s on page 136 for those of you who have the book. The pattern calls for a backward loop cast on. I didn’t do it. Not only had I done it once, and not particularly liked the results, but I had come across some other knitters’ complaints about it. I swatched to make sure that the pattern would work with a different cast on and then decided to use a cable cast on (which I kept relatively relaxed because I didn’t want a tight edge). It looks fine. The backward loop probably gives a more invisible, delicate edge, but in the context of the whole shawl I don’t think it matters.
I’ve done the four-row beginning (Chart A), Chart B, and have just barely started the first repeat of Chart C. The pattern difficulty is categorized as “experienced.” It’s really not a hard pattern, though (apart from that cast on). The lace repeats themselves are small and fairly obvious — that is, they line up over each other nicely so that it is not hard to figure out where you are or whether you’ve miscounted. I initially put in markers to separate the repeats (just to make sure I had the initial counting correct when I set up the repeats), but I removed them after Chart A. Not only was it annoying to have so many markers, but — and this may be why they listed it as being for experienced knitters — the markers need to be moved fairly regularly as the number of stitches changes. Still, it’s a simple pattern with no lace patterning done on the wrong side rows (which makes it more of a lace fabric than a true knitted lace).
I have very little to show of it, but here is what I have:
I’m not sure that my shawl will be as exquisite as hers, but I’m hoping. If I hadn’t already knit Icarus, I’d probably be knitting it in this right this moment.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter our Anniversary Contest if you haven’t already. We are taking entries for another week. Details can be found by clicking on the link at the top of the sidebar (to the right).
I am definitely not enthralled by my cabled corners on Eris. They started out okay — I was pleased with my short rows (after three tries!). I used nonaKnits instructions, which are very nicely written and easy to follow. Here is a picture of the back of my Japanese Short Rows:
Why is it so “hairy?” I used thread instead of safety pins, because I couldn’t find enough pins. Anyway, I was happy with the way the short row shaping ‘shaped up.’ I’m not so sure about the cabled corners. The knitting seems coarse, like the yarn should be finer and knit to a tighter gauge.
I still need to add my 5-stitch applied i-cord edging. I prefer to do it afterward so it is smoother and I can adjust it to fit.  I found with the Rogue Hoodie that I preferred doing the i-cord edge after (click here for picture). I also realized that I should have done the front corners first because the front edging needs to overlap the back and mine is set up wrong — oops. Not to worry! I’ll fudge with grafting.
I continued onward and completed the I-cord edging across the lower back hem:
And the hem as a whole — albeit, a bit washed out in color:
Â
I’m still not sure what I think about this project. The hem wants to roll in a funny way. I did a light steam before I picked up my edge sts but it still rolls. I hope that wet blocking solves the problem — wet blocking certainly cures a lot of what ails my knitting 😉 !Â
PS — I completed the shirt-tail hem shaping on the right front and then tried the lil puppy on — I realized that in an effort to de-emphasize my tummy, I am now emphasizing my fat ass hips!! Ruh roh! 🙁
Â
Powered by WordPress
