size issues?

Hi everyone. I am at the point on my Sunrise where I am up to the WS knit row before I start the hem for the left front. Problem is, the front of the jacket looks too small (too narrow). Yes, I swatched before starting and tried many needle sizes to get it right (and my gauge was perfect!), but as I've knit this (back piece included) I seem to end up with a row gauge that's different. Meaning, the back piece, while OK in width, is a bit short in length (about 2 inches, total). I'm OK with the shorter length, but problem is that as I've been knitting in a radius (some rows 'sideways') it seems that this problem with row gauge has affected the width of the front. Just wondering if anyone has any clever ideas for how to make it wider across the front without mucking up the whole thing. I guess I could continue on with the pattern for the next size up and knit another 10 or so rows, but I'm concerned that then the length of the front pieces will then be longer than the back piece. I know I could get a little bit of extra width by blocking, maybe that's a better solution?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi there from Woolongong....well Wollongong Australia really

Not a terribly exciting post but I thought I should flash the start of my sunrise - I am lucky enough to sell Karabella Soft Tweed so of course I am using it - in the lovely Blue tone. The photo washed out the blue but it is so nice.

I started with the back a while ago and I kind of lost my groove with it all (too many other WIP's), then when talking with some friends at Stitch n Bitch on the Weekend they mentioned that it had been advised to start with the fronts....so I came home - put the back on stitch holders and worked on the sleeve. I am almost ready to start the section after the sleeve. Yahoo.

The end is sight... I hope

Sunrise Circle Jacket back
Originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Left sleeve and front - tick
Right sleeve and front - tick
Back - darts are complete, just commenced the raglan decreases.

I thought I was going to cut it pretty fine with the amount of yarn I had left, so today I went and bought another ball of yarn. Would you believe, 5 or 6 weeks later and at a different store to last time, I managed to match the dye lot. I'm guessing that it must have been a very big batch but I'm still pretty impressed nonetheless.

I'm a little concerned about the length of the sleeves. Holding them up against my arms, I'm guessing that I'll have to try and frog back some of the cuffs. It may also end up being quite high-necked. Time will tell.

On a positive note, I really love that s2kp2 double decrease technique. I can think of a couple of other patterns on which it would be worth trying this one out.

newly finished!

I started over after making one and discovering I'd misjudged my mom's size (it was a gift for her). Here's the redo (a bit small on me):

I'm really happy with it. I made a handful of modifications in order to "improve" on the last one as best I could, including attempting more professional-looking decreases and finessing the shaping at the back. None of my modifications were necessary, but it was fun to think of ways to make an already great sweater into what I wanted it to be. Read all about the changes on my blog.

This pattern is so delightfully easy and fast, I still enjoyed knitting it a second time. Of course, I was planning on making myself one, too—that's going to have to wait a few months! I figure I might as well wait until early fall to do the third one, especially because I can't bear the thought of doing 3 in 4 months :) Good luck with all of yours as you progress!

New Girl

Hey everyone! I just started last week, so there's really nothing to show yet. Will you believe that I've been knitting for three years but just now learned the long-tail cast-on? I'm a novice, I know. This is only my second adult sweater project, too. The first was an utter disaster, I don't like to talk about it. :)

I'm using my favorite yarn, Cascade 220, in a light green so I'll probably look more like a frog than a sun when it's all done. I appreciate reading about your experiences and I hope to have pictures to share later this week!

Triumph!

When last we caught up with our interpid knitter, she was encircling her Sunrise with a large green frog, about to do battle. We're happy to report that Mr. Frog did not need to nibble more than a little of the upper back to make it fit properly.

However, the services of the elegant Mr. Frog somehow were needed at the sleeve cuffs, to the tune of three inches plus the hem. I haven't the foggiest idea why that happened, other than maybe I have really, really short arms.

But anyhoo, it's done! Details on the blog if ya need 'em. And thanks everyone, I really enjoyed knitting along with everyone, and I'm very tempted to knit this again in a solid color, maybe even add some fair isle or texture along the jacket fronts.

Finally starting

I'm the worst KAL-er EVER! I finally got my yarn for this jacket and will be starting on Sunday. For Mother's Day I asked to do whatever I want and this is what I want!

The frog pond is about to overflow

I started my SCJ on Wednesday last week and by Sunday I had done all this

But it has all had to be frogged. My tension (gauge) was so far out that the top of the sleeve was above my ear!
I have gone down to a 4mm (US 6) needle and the tension seem to be fine now, as long as I remember to knit more tightly than usual.
I am now up to raglan shaping again - just as well there's no deadline for this.

taking a close look at k2tog through back loops

Hello All—

Back when I made my first Sunrise, I noticed that the k2togtbls weren't nearly so neat and clean as the k2togs on the opposite side. Since they form the border between the arm and the half-circle on one of the fronts, this discrepancy was really noticeable.

Now that I'm redoing it (it was a gift; turned out to be too small), I've decided to work on all the little things that could have been done better the first time around, and cleaning up these stitches is a high priority.

So, in case anyone else is interested, here's the results of my research.

What you see here is a small swatch with left-leaning decreases on the left and k2togs on the right. (I increased two stitches on each row so I wouldn't come to the end and have no stitches left!) Ah, those lovely, neat k2togs!

I tried 4 different left-leaning stitches. They're the stitches that are slightly 'bigger' than the others along the left side of the column, and they appear every other row—if you click on the photo you can see the Notes I made on the photo in Flickr. Starting from the bottom, we have

* A standard k2togtbl. I was trying to keep the stitches only on the tips of the needles, but I'm not sure how successful I was. This stitch looks big to me, and it's exactly how all the stitches on my completed Sunrise look.
* An ssk. For this one, I slipped just the first stitch knitwise, then k2togtbl.
* A true ssk. Here I slipped both stitches knitwise and then k2togtbl.
* An off-standard k2togtbl in which I worked the purl row before differently: I wrapped the yarn backward on the two stitches that would be knit together, so that when I came to knit them they were already turned and the tension was taut. I got this tip from the Knitty boards.

I didn't try an ssk in which I slip the first stitch purlwise and the second knitwise; I should have tried that, I'm sorry.

But for me the choice is clear: Since I can predict where the k2togtbls will go on the next row, I can easily wrap the yarn in the opposite manner for the purls on the row before. I could still use to finesse my purl tension vs. my knit tension for those stitches, but all in all this creates a nice, smooth, tight little decrease that I'm pleased with.

I hope this is helpful to others who are starting and might want to play around with this decrease a bit.

My Chocolate Sunrise is done

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Chocolate
Size 35 with no mods.
Started: 17 March 2006
Finished: 5 May 2006
The pattern was really self explanatory and I think it came out really well. If I made it again I would make a size bigger, so it's longer, but shorten the sleeves. The yarn was perfect gauge but seemed to have really bulky joins in almost every ball. It seemed like they'd glued two strands together to join the yarn. When knitted the join wouldn't bend and created a small hole in the garment. I recommend cutting these joins out when you come to them, then rejoin the yarn by "spit felting". I used that method when changing balls, so I had no ends to weave in. How great is that! More pics on my blog.

Starting in a few weeks

I have just joined this knitalong and will be starting my jacket in a few weeks. I am going to use a Jo Sharp yarn (Australian) which is a lovely texture.

FO, FO, FO me a Sweater

It's DONE; and I'm loving it!!!

Very nice fit, I love the length that my worked out to...it is a bit longer than the pattern shows but for me that works out great [I prefer my stuff long or else I am always pulling things down, I hate an exposed back]



I ended up using buttons instead of toggles. I received several sets of WONDERFUL vintage buttons from my bestest friend that she found at a yard sale. One of the set was 4 [perfect #] wooden button in the shape of leaves. As my jacket color is Deep Forest they are PERFECT!!

Hey Newbies, Start with the Fronts!

Hey all you newbies -- I just wanted to pass along a piece of advice that Kate, the SCJ pattern author, shared with the knitalong early on. She said to start with the fronts, and knit the back last so that you could adjust the back to fit the length of the sides. Many people have found that their gauge is off, and have had to adjust the back to match it.

Read Kate's original message here.

And a follow-up here.

Started . . . and halfway through

I finally remembered my name and password for the Blogger account, so now I can post an update on this site. It was so easy, too!

Anyway, I've finished the left piece and about three-quarters of the back (although this picture shows less). It is an extremely easy pattern to follow and goes somewhat quickly. I can't wait until I'm done! I like the way the darts on the back look. They come in and shape it nicely.

Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran
Color: darkness
Needles: US7

Gray/Black is so difficult to photograph, but you get the idea. I'll try to get some better shots soon.

Making Progress!

After so many false starts (how many times did I rip out? Three?), I'm really cruising on it now. I'm almost done with the left sleeve and have already started the right (the sleeve part is uncomplicated and thus good for group knitting). It's very exciting, although I'm really itching to have this done so I can catch one more cool day to wear it on!

Here's the "sunrise" part up close:



Here's an abominable shot of the whole thing:


Cross posted here