My blog about knitting, teaching, and being a mother to two energetic young boys.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Stick a Fork In It!

And call it done! I've finished sweater #3 - the ever popular Central Park Hoodie from the 2006 Fall edition of KnitScene.

I purchased this yarn from WEBS over a year ago with this sweater in mind. I know - it looks suspiciously like my other sweater, the Not Your Average Sweatshirt - just in cardigan form. I guess you could say I'm a sucker for cables.

Loved, loved, loved this knit. Relatively fast and fun. Pretty standard construction - knit the back, knit the two fronts, knit sleeves, pick up stitches for hood, pick up stitches for button bands, and then seam the whole shebang together. Piece of cake...

I have to give tons of props to Ravelry. If you haven't made use of this resource yet, you are missing out. While this pattern has been out for 2 years, I've found it certainly pays to wait a bit before jumping in. Then - I read the forums in Ravelry and learn from other knitters' experiences. Such as...

Running the double cable up the hood. The original pattern calls for a basic stockinette hood seamed together at the center. Not only did I continue the cable up the hood, but I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to do some short row shaping to make the hood less pointy. It is less pointy than my other hoodie, but still - I look like a gnome when the hood is up. I figure I won't wear it up much anyway. The other hood modification was to kitchner the sides of the hood together rather than do a traditional bind off and seam it up. Looks pretty good.

The next mod: Knitting a larger sleeve. Many knitters mentioned the sizing of this sweater runs a tad bit small. So - since I'm not a teenager with toothpick sized arms, I chose to knit the sleeves in the next size up (the medium, rather than the small size). Turns out - that was a fabulous idea - the shaping for the arm was perfect - no wrestling needed to set in the sleeves & I have plenty of room to wear a long sleeved shirt underneath. Yup - worked out just dandy.


The last modification was to pick up all the stitches along the fronts and the hood at once rather than do one half at a time as per the original pattern. I ordered a 60" cable from knitpicks (LOVE my options set!! - great gift for a knitter, hint - hint) and then spent the better part of an entire day picking up 300+ stitches and knitting a 1.75" k2p2 ribbing. I chose not to add buttons, so no button holes either. I figure I wouldn't button the sweater anyhow, so decided not to add any holes. Also - another suggestion from Ravelry - chose to do an i-cord bind off. Wow - that took a lot of time. Knitting three stitches for every one stitch bound off - but, the effort was worth it.

Bottom line - I.LOVE.THIS.SWEATER!!!

Dirty Details:

Size: Small (36")
Yarn: Donegal Tweed from Tahki Yarns (the suggested yarn for the pattern) 6+ skeins
Colorway: Can't remember - some purple color.
Needles: Size 6 & 8 from Knitpicks

Now... on to holiday knitting with a gusto!

ETA: Please pardon the crazy dark photos with the dreary dirty kitchen background. Getting good lighting for photos in December in Alaska at 9:00pm is a pretty tall order.

5 comments:

pdxknitterati/MicheleLB said...

Gorgeous! I love everything about yours. Sounds like we did some of the same mods, too: cable up the hood, band all in one piece. This is one of my favorite sweaters to wear, and I think it will be for you, too. I may even make another one. I used a plain worsted wool, and it's already getting a little pilly. And I think I want to make it with some wilder cables, too...I'll keep dreaming on it for a while!

Can you post up a picture of your i-cord bind off? It sounds intriguing!

Anonymous said...

The prettiest CPH that I have seen!!

(I have a Tahki Donegal Tweed sweater and am wearing it right now - love that yarn!)

carolyninAlaska said...

Your hoodie looks great! What a pretty color.

Diana said...

I had the privilege to see this beautiful, trendy sweater in person. It looks great. Plus you nailed the seaming. Maybe you can share your seaming technique with her knitting buddies in your spare time? I've also now added a CPH to my to do list.

Anonymous said...

It turned out wonderfully! I love the CPH.