My knitting moniker is taken from my license plate — or vice versa (chicken and egg?). But, I think of my blog name and Ravelry name as a big part of my identity. Recently I renewed my license tabs. To my surprise, I received a shiny new gift from the state:
They are so pretty! The letters are flat, though — they used to be raised. I suppose it is to save money. I like ’em!!
After my Eala Bhan sweater body and collar dried, I sewed the collar on. It fit perfectly into its slot and when I tried on the sweater, sans sleeves, it fit me, too! I did add an i-cord bead around the outside edge of the collar.
I am halfway done with one sleeve and getting completely bored. The more bored I get, the slower I knit! I may have to take a mini-break from this and knit up something small to break through the monotony. I have a few ideas already! 😉
A mini-break does not mean that I am abandoning my Eala Bhan, but knitting should not feel like work. My EZ Green Sweater is all sleeves, too, so I am really stranded on sleeve island!
We have not written much about our respective Eala Bhans. Early on, we kind of made a pact that we would knit this project in tandem and not post individually, on the off chance that one of us would speed ahead of the other. In reality, of course we knit at different paces: we have different amounts of time to spend, life and work and other projects intervene. But right now we are pretty darn close to each other, so we will post! (Note from Sally: No, we are not all that close. Susan is waaaaaay ahead of me. But that’s fine.)
The Yarn
The yarn is lovely. The feel of it, the wooliness of it, the depth of the color. It gets an A+!
When you take colorwork classes from Alice St@rmore, she presents you with a small white box which holds a sample of every yarn color. Of course, her color cards are required to identify the name of the color in question:
The Pattern
The Eala Bhan pattern is crazy detailed. For the collar, Susan had to move between three pieces of paper to track every row! It is easy to see that the sheer magnitude of pattern itself could turn off many knitters. But it is also very beautiful. Sally thinks it might be too dressy to wear often, but Susan thinks it will be a great work sweater.
Progress
We knit the fronts and back in one piece, knowing full well that this would be a slow go. What we did NOT anticipate was how slow the back would be once you made the split at the armholes! We thought we would breeze along after leaving the fronts behind, but it felt even slower! The fronts themselves were speedy quick.
Susan’s Eala Bhan Blocking
The collar
Susan is ready to start knitting the sleeves.
From Sally: I am NOT ready to start knitting the sleeves. I have finished one front. Mine is not yet blocked, and I hope it looks as nice as Susan’s does after the blocking. Here are a couple of my slower progress pictures.
Sally’s Eala Bhan before the split for the arms (the color is very true here)
Sally’s Eala Bhan with just the left front finished (unblocked)
Weather
And here is what Susan woke up to this morning: snow-flavored rain!
One thing great about knitting is that you can usually rip it out and fix it. The bad thing about knitting is ripping it out and fixing it.
I made a few mods to the sleeve for fit and construction. One thing I wanted was to finish the gusset decreases before I started the sleeve shaping — I did not want the increases and decreases to collide (been there, done that — did not like the look!).
I also did not want the sleeve to narrow quite as drastically. In the first version, I did my sleeve decreases every 6 rounds — now I am starting with the every 8 round decreases. This will mean that the sleeve stays wider where my arm is fat wider and get narrow where my arm tapers to the wrist. Duh.
So, I spent most of my weekend knitting time reknitting and figuring. That’s okay 🙁 . I had nuthin’ better to do…
Eala Bhan is also progressing. I have about 6 inches above the armhole split. Yay!!
PS: How many Trick-or-Treaters did you have? We had ONE. Uno. Singleton. Not a duo. I am now forced to eat all of the leftover Snickers before they go stale.
PS2: Today (Wednesday) I am wearing one of my “new” outfits, made a few weekends ago — made to go with my Sunrise Circle. And it does!!
Beep…Beep…Beep!! That’s the sound of my EZ Green Sweater backing up! My peeps decided I needed to start my sleeve over, and when the peeps speak, I listen.
I had a nagging doubt about my sleeve. I did not cut in as drastically as the original design, so the shoulder extension on the upper edge of my sleeve had to start much sooner than the original — the red line below shows where my shoulder was compared to the original. I was not terribly concerned, but concerned enough to ask my peeps about it at knitting last night. I did a striptease (no music!) and tried on the EZ. They said to rip it. No questions. Just rip it.
Picture from Original Pattern
Okay. So I got home last night and ripped it out, started over, moved the pick up line about 6 sts east. Badda boom. Badda bing. I am certain that the sleeve will now be tres dolmany but I am okay with that. Progress shots to follow.
On occasion, a few of the peeps and I decide to also get together informally at another watering hole…everywhere we go, we pretty much take over the place!
Lest you believe that we do nothing but knit for ourselves, here is proof that we also give, give, give in the form of knitting!
Winters can get awfully cold in Minnesota and everyone deserves a hat or scarf made with loving care. We tried to use nice yarns hat we ourselves would wear and make a selection of many styles to fit a variety of ages. I hope the recipients know that we were knitting especially for them!
I am so glad I decided to re-embark on this project. I really am enjoying it, though each stitch makes me feel a tad guilty about Eala Bhan 🙁 . Oh, well, EB will get done, too.
The sleeves are the coolest feature of this sweater. They are described as “dolmans.” In my earlier post about this sweater, I said the following,
“The sleeves are described as dolmans, but I think a more accurate description is a modified drop shoulder with an underarm gusset. The appearance is that of a dolman, but it really isn’t. EZ was brilliant. As you knit the sweater, you “cut out” a huge chunk at the armholes, but then add it back in (gray section in illustration below):
This is interesting. There are many projects now listed on Ravelry and many of them have the appearance of a true dolman. I tried on my sleeve and it fit perfectly — like a normal (non-dolman) sleeve, just as I predicted in my earlier description above. I do not know why, but I do like it!!
My sleeve so far:
I could not get a good picture to save my life, so this is scanned…thus I could not get the whole sweater
It looks just like the original and fits beautifully. I am happy so far. I also am not shaping the sleeve as dramatically as was done in the original — it gets too skinny too fast for most people. I followed the pattern’s shaping until all of the gusset sts were decreased away and then I started doing “regular” sleeve shaping. That is why on my sleeve the bottom edge of my sleeve slants down — it would be straight across and be getting skinnier without the added sts.
“Regular” they are not. Normally on a top down sleeve, you would decrease 2 sts every “x” rounds/rows to get the stitch count desired. Because you decrease 2 sts at the top of the sleeve every other round, you must INCREASE along the [what would usually be] the underarm seam line in order NOT to decrease the stitch count. So, for every 6 rounds, I increase every other row twice, and then do not increase on one of the rounds, thus resulting in 2 sts decreased every 6 rounds. It’s all very backward and confusing! My brain hurts. After ten sets of these I will switch to every 8 row decreases (or “un-increases” as the case may be!). At least that is the plan, though it could change if the numbers indicate.
PS from Susan: I tried this on again before I went to bed last night. I thought, “What if I’m wrong? What if it fits wonky and I am delusional?” It fits. Looks good! I probably could have started my sleeves with the every 8 round decreases though. EZ was decreasing 2 sts every other round, so I thought I was safe with every 6. The sleeve fits and is about 3/4 of the way to my elbow. I may keep going and possibly rip back a bit if it gets too small too soon.
Sometimes you toss a project onto the heap that deserves to be there and sometimes you are hasty. I think I tossed my EZ Green Cardigan a little too soon. A couple of my knitting peeps are taking a class and making this sweater. I stumbled upon mine yesterday and thought, “Hmmm. It’s not so bad.” Can this sweater be saved??
I started this project so motivated and excited to be knitting this vintage homage to Elizabeth Zimmermann. All I have left to do are the sleeves and the final finishing. I think I’ll give it a go. The sleeves are stockinette in the round — mindless TV knitting.
My Eala Bhan is not forsaken! I am past the armhole shaping and speeding along on the back. “Speeding along” of course is a relative term!!
To Connie: I think Yvonne is teaching the class at Amazing Threads. I’m not taking he class, though — just revisiting the project!
To Nancy: The “basting” thread you see is actually there to mark the foldline of the center front and the pick up line for sts around the armhole. The sweater is knit in the round with steeks even though it is one color, so there are extra sts at the edges — when you knit flat you would just pick up sts with a one-stitch selvedge so a thread would not be needed.
I usually knit in my spare time. It is portable and I derive both pleasure and knitted garments from it. Yay. I used to sew much more than I knit, but those days passed many years ago when I decided that knitting allowed me to spend more ‘creative’ time with my family (instead of being sequestered in my sewing room!). This weekend I have to bust out the sewing machine again. I have no clothes to wear. At all. It is more than simply embarrassing.
The other thing that suffers with my knitting is cleaning (ugh squared!). I am committed to doing a little of that this weekend, too. B-O-R-I-N-G!!!!
So, this weekend I plan on sewing and cleaning and not getting much knitting done — though I will still knit on my frequent breaks! 😉
Hour One: One bathroom cleaned and our bed linens in wash. Motivation already gone. Checked out fabric stash. Fabric options are there, but no thread or other notions. Run to store will interfere with continuity plan for day. See golden opportunity fading. Making more coffee to think.
Hour Three: Drank coffee; made list. Back from store with 80% success ratio. Is it too early to take a movie/knitting break? OK, even I know the answer to that one…will at least set up my cutting area. 🙁
Hour…??: It’s hopeless. I started cutting out one of my items. Younger DD called for ride. Came home and sat at computer. Can’t seem to find my way back to my cutting table. I need a break.
Day 2
I did finish cutting out Item #1. I am trying to decide if I should sew Item #1 first or cut out Item #2 and then start sewing.
Decision Made: Cut first, sew second!
Hour 3: Cutting done; one more trip to the fabric store 🙁 and now I will begin. I am not coming up except for coffee until something is accomplished!
Day 3
One item done except for the hemming. I will work on the second to the hem and then sit with a good movie to do the handwork. The Mad Men finale is on tonight 🙁 so no knitting or sewing then!
Second item done but for the hemming as well. Now to the TV for the handwork!!
Sunday night: all three items are done with 2 minutes to spare!! The third item has been marinating for two years an only needed to be hemmed. Three hems in one day — yuck!
Day 4
In the light of a new day, I don’t think I like any of the items I made over the weekend and may have to do some tweaking. 🙁
Day 5
I am wearing one of my new outfits today and actually got a compliment — mostly because it is new and not something I have worn every third day for the past 15 years! Woo Hoo!
Bummer! What mistake usually happens when you are doing multiple cables that cross in different directions? You guessed it: I mis-crossed a cable. Thank goodness it never got on the cover of an international knitting magazine! 😉
I have been very careful (or so I thought) as I have been working on my Eala Bahn. Part of it is because the yarn is so small you really don’t want to rip it out. I found the mis-crossed cable when I was at the same point 8 rows later and went, “Rut Roh!!” So I had to drop down and fix it. Ish.
Many of you may think of Sally and me as interchangeable knitters, but we are not. Our overall skill level, interests and taste are very similar, but we do differ. There are things that I do better and there are things that Surly does better. Sally is really good at dropping down and fixing her knitting. It can be rows and rows back and she seems to magically accomplish this feat.
Sally’s Feather and Fan Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. Sally discovered that she had left out numerous yarnovers several rows back — with hundreds of stitches on the needle, she did not want to rip it out. So, she dropped down and spit-spliced additional length into the rows before “re-knitting” the problem area. Okay, fine. Show off!! She has done many other equally amazing things like that.
Like I said, I simply mis-crossed a cable 8 rows back. It should not be that big of a deal to fix. I was able to do it, but it:
a- it was a PITA
b-it looks like $#*&^^%
c-I was actually pitted out! Or maybe it was just another hot flash…who knows?
In my haste to fix the major boo boo on the exact center back of my Eala Bhan, I neglected to take pictures before or during…but here are the after shots:
This picture shows exactly where the mistake was:
It’s sloppier where I fixed it, but I hope with blocking it isn’t noticeable.
I think part of the reason I made the mistake is because I am cabling without a needle. When you do cables that way, you kind of do the cabling backwards. What I mean is, for a 2×2 left crossing cable, the directions would normally tell you to place 2 sts on cable needle, hold to FRONT, k2, k2 from cable needle — left crossing cable. But instead I take the point of my right needle and go BEHIND the first 2 sts, so I can slip the next 2 onto the RH needle. The 1st 2 sts slide off the LH needle and then get put back back onto the left needle. Even though I have been cabling sans needle for years, I think my reptilian brain still cables the old way!
I need to pay a lot more attention.
PS — Thanks for all of your nice comments about the new deck. That is the good news. The bad news is that we are going to need much bigger buns nicer (= expensive!!) deck furniture!!
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