Jess's Gansey - Knitting Daily

Jess's Gansey - Knitting Daily

New Moderator Needed

After almost 4 years of running the HanneAlong website, I need some help. Would anyone be willing to run the knitalong? 95% of the job is simply receiving requests and adding them as members through Blogger's website. Very simple! Please comment on this post or email me at beckyATbeckyanddanielDOTcom if you'd be willing to help out. Thanks!

Jazz

Has anyone tried knitting Jazz using just a single color? The stitch is sort of a herringbone. I wonder how it would come out in a single color just relying on texture. I saw someone wearing a lovely woven jacket (not jazz) that was a very subtle single color herringbone and that's what made me think of it.

I'm glad to have discovered this group and to be invited in. I have only recently discovered Hanne Falkenberg and am smitten! I just received my DaCapo kit and can't wait to begin. Just as soon as I get the store in Copenhagen to send me the pattern in English. Somehow I think this is going to be challenging enough without having to cope with Danish (or Swedish, or whatever they are) instructions!

Finished

Complete, but not exactly like the original pattern. I swapped out colours since the m*ths had eaten enough of what I had that I pitched the whole mess.

Not liking to sew things together, this became an exercise in EZ origami. That first row was almost 1000 stitches long, but it got easier every row. Knitting back and forth across the upper back turned out to be a non-issue. I shorted the sleeves since I was both going out of my mind with boredom and I never fold up sleeves anyway.

Progress report - Pyramide and Pagode

Thank you so much for letting me join the group.

I've knit both Mermaid (color #7) and Solo (#1) in the past year. I started Blues last winter, but lost interest after proceeding 2/3 the way through both fronts. Now if I could figure out where I put the rest of the yarn....

I am seriously drooling over Donna (just released). Hoping that one of the merchants has the kits at Ally-Pally (National Knitting and Stitching Exhibition at Alexandra Palace, Oct 8-11) so that I can get a better idea of the color choices.

Currently on the needles is Pyramide




which now only needs the 7 neck rows and sewing together and -

Pagode, which is a long and sad tale. I purchased the kit in Denmark, oh must have been early to mid 90s. Instructions, of course were in Danish. I started the kit, wrong as it turns out, but made some changes because I just was not going to knit all that garter stitch. Obviously it became apparent that the drape was not right; plus the color combination did not thrill me. Putting it aside to marinate, I moved on to other projects.

Hauling it out of storage this spring, I found extensive moth damage. So much for all that lovely yarn, the planned frogging and re-knitting. The pattern had not, alas, under gone a magic transformation into English.

Having now knit two other HFs, being able to read a graph and the starting stitch counts (plus all those wonderful pictures of everyone's wonderful projects from Ravelry) I decided to do it my own way. Casting on a million stitches, I indulged in mindless knitting for weeks with replacement yarn in better colors (Harrisville shetland and some leftover HF) as a one piece project before hand cramps and brain death set in.

Admitting that I had too many projects on the needles, I pulled it out of hibernation about 15 days ago to restart from the inner burgundy stripe and got this far a week ago before going back to Pyramide and a couple of other projects -



This is the view from the back of the sweater. Knitting it in one piece has been an interesting challenge. I am now up to the sleeve shaping on the back and have only about 60 ridges to go.

Right. If I can find where the darker grey has decided to hide.

If anyone wants the details on how to do this as a one piece, I would be happy to share.

-Holly

Solo

I'm having fun with Solo, I'm about half way around the body. Now that I've knit a couple of her patterns I can see the logic of her instructions. This one is for DD.

Pygmalion

Has anyone here knit Pygmalion? Any comments? It's so different than most of her other patterns but it looks so comfy.

HF Plissé

Thanks for letting me join the KAL! Is anyone still working on Plissé? I started a year ago and gave up, but now I'm game again and I'm working on the front. I'm hoping to find a spreadsheet, because I'm working in the chocolate and can't see a thing! If not, I guess I will have to graph it myself, but I sure hope not to have to reinvent the wheel.

Blues instructions

Well, I'm working along on Blues and mostly it's going fine. I solved my yarn problem from the previous post and to my great surprise, I have a second yarn which fits nicely into the pattern. However, the line which says 'decrease alternately on the 7th & 8th stripe' leaves me confused. So I'm decreasing every 7th stripe by 2 stitches. The rest doesn't make sense. Does anybody have other suggestions for me?

gauge on Blues

I received Blues a few weeks ago and was horrified at my colour choice. I'm trying to solve it, but don't yet know how I will do it. Among other things I'm swatching the base colour with a strand of silk that goes very well. But I certainly don't get gauge. Is 60 stitches to 10 cm really possible? I'm even working on 2mm needles. Does anyone have a comment or suggestion?
Gillian

Hi! Thanks for letting me join in your KAL. I have just recently freed Mermaid from exile island and am ready to tackle the second half of the body. I was discouraged by the instructions that read to just reverse the instructions for the second half. And if that wasn't bad enough, I also just purchased the Diva kit (forgetting how disillusioned I am by the instructions!). It's a good thing that I love the designs.

Tina in Houston

Harmony Sweater

Has anyone knitted the Harmony Sweater? This is the first H.F. item that the directions seem confusing to me. I have knitted Tokyo and Stella without any problem.

Momaphyllis

Blues

Can someone who has the Blues kit, or has completed it, please tell me how much of each color was included in the kit? There seem to be both 2 color and 4 color versions. I'm interested in the info for either or both.

Thanks

Jazz sweater is done! I needed to redo the bottoms of the sleeves with a slightly smaller needle, as they seemed too long and too wide. I am very pleased with how it came out.

Blues

I'm looking for a copy of Blues (in English or that you can translate into English) that you'd like to trade for a different Hanne pattern that I have. Anyone get it for Xmas and finish it already? Trading patterns is perfectly legal, by the way before someone jumps on this and talks about stealing. Early on someone from Hanne's organization had a post confirming this, by the way.

If anyone is interested, please contact me off-line at elweyu@hotmail.com

Thanks and everyone's projects look fabulous. I've just finished Gloria and I love the way it came out. If I ever get a camera ...

Ballerina Done

I have finally finished my Ballerina. I had to do some steeking to adjust the size. I also added and applied i-Cord around the edge. I enjoyed knitting this wonderful design but am glad it is done and ready to wear.

La Strada

HI All

I've just joined your group and am looking forward to see what everyone is working on. I got 2 kits for Christmas, La Strada and Gloria. I cast on La Strada the other day and can see that this will take a whild, but it will be gorgeous!

Karin

Mermaid Shawl Collar

I was asked (quite a long time ago, I'm sorry!) for how I did my Mermaid collar. Here is as best as I can remember. Ask if you have questions.

I did the provisional cast on for the sweater at the Color A stripe AFTER the decrease for the shoulder (23 sts for size medium.) I started knitting on the right side so it matched up on the other end of the sweater. I then knit the sweater to just before you cast on the stitches for the other shoulder. Pin or sew the shoulders together at this point. I picked up the stitches across the back neck (46 for a medium) and knit both sides at the same time. That eliminated the back neck seam.



I don't have exact information on how I did the shawl collar as it is in the hands of its intended victim so I can't look at it to reconstruct my method. I placed markers on both sides as deep as I wanted the collar. I started on the center 80-90 stitches and started doing short rows until all of the stitches between the markers were used up. That gave me a collar about 7 inches deep at the widest.

MiMi, part two

Hi All,

I'm just about to frog part of this again... for the 3rd time. I've gotten myself hung up on these dratted texture stripes. Reading the swatch instructions, it gives an indication that 16 texture stripes gives more or less the 10 cm, and that the 16 texture stripes should be 48 rows.

But then below, it says that a texture stripe is seen as three rows knit and three rows purl.

Long story short -- I'd come to the second row of decreases, looked at the completed work, and thought.. that's way too small. So I ripped it out with the idea that a texture stripe should be 6 rows, and I'm almost back up to the 13 texture stripes. But at this point, I've nearly reached 16 cm... which is way too large. Then I looked at the actual dimensions of the finished garment, and realized I was right the first time.

Considering it takes me nearly 20 minutes to knit one of the rows (before any decreases occur), I'm seriously considering stuffing this thing in the closet and leaving it there for awhile.
-- Laurie

MiMi

Hi All,

No pictures yet, but I wanted to ask some advice. I just bought this for my daughter after seeing the sample hanging on the rack and handed over my credit card without looking at the kit.

My daughter is definitely a plus size, and the kit only comes in small or medium/large. I've taken the needle size up to US #6, and added an additional 35 stitches.

So far, I've completed 8 t-stripes, or 24 rows of pattern. The weave is coming out slightly looser than I remember from the sample, but that's okay. But I just wondered if anybody else had tried to enlarge a pattern, and what kind of results they were having. -- Cheers, Laurie

Blues finished

I have finally finished my Blues.
It was easy to knit when I figured out the instructions.

Unfortunately I mixed up two colors while watching TV. But as my dear husband said then it will be unique!

I made the M/L size and I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Ballerina

After on and off knitting, I am almost done with knitting Ballerina.  I decided to alter the edges of the pattern and finish it with a 3 stitch applied i-cord.  I first noticed this idea on the Raineysisters blog.  My problem is this.  I only have part of a ball of black yarn left.  I know I will need more to complete this design.  My kit was the black and sage green design.  I have a full ball of the sage green left and am asking if anyone has an extra black ball.  I would be happy to trade.  I made the small which is why I thought there would be more than enough black to apply the i-cord edge.  I will post some photos if and when I am able to complete the jacket.  Thanks, Jane

Gloria

I am currently knitting Gloria. It's moving along fairly well but one of the things I wish the pattern had was finished measurements shown at various points on the pattern schematic. Given that this pattern, like all of Hanne's patterns, has a very unusual engineering design (which is part of the appeal to me) it is very important to know that you are not way off on the sizing, and also, to make sure that you don't want to adjust the pattern slightly (several people have complained about the size of armholes or amount of material at the armholes on several designs). Even if your swatch before starting, even a very small difference can telescope into a large one when you are talking about a row with 4 or 5 hundred stitches, especially when the garment is curved like Gloria is.

I would like to contact Hanne and ask her for measurements for Gloria and suggest that she add that to her schematics, but I could not find a contact address on her website. Does anyone have one for her?

I would have loved the same sort of info when I knit Studio Long and Mermaid, by the way.

For those knitting Blues. How is it going? Any major bumps in the road on those instructions?

Knitting the Blues

I've bought Hanne Falkenbergs new kit, Blues, and like Suzy, I think it's lovely to knit. The yarn is half cotton and half lambswool and is knitted on 3 mm needles.

If it's a vest, a short-sleeved jacket or cardigan, I don't know. I bought the kit at Sommerfuglen in Copenhagen. They had one I could try on and I felt very comfortable in it.

Progress on Jazz

I completed the gauge swatch - it was a little off - too many stitches/rows - on the 2nd needle size, but the difference will make it a hair smaller, which will be fine.

This garment is knitted starting at one sleeve, across the body, ending with the other sleeve. So I have cast on, knitted up the sleeve, and have cast on the additional stitches for the body. I have a plane flight ahead of me, so I am hoping for a lot of progress over the weekend.

Blues Kit

For my hols, I have just bought the new Hanne kit in no. 1 colourway (4 colours). I have only just started it but the yarn is lovely to use; lambswool and cotton. I'll keep you posted as to the progress which hopefully will not take too long as it is sleeveless.

Suz

knitting_craze

Hi Becky,

Thanks for your invitation. I'm new to the blogging world (other than checking my niece's knitting blogs, so forgive if I'm not correct.

I started the Gloria sweater, got freaked out and set it aside. Tuesday night I went to the knitting guild meeting, talked to a couple of knitters and decided I was reading too much into the pattern. In other words, second guessing myself. I'm just at the beginning, so if you have any words of wisdom, I'd appreciate it. I love the way the colors work together. 

Marilyn

knitting_craze

DaCapo Finished!

Hello everyone. After three years of knitting my DaCapo, I have finally finished. Its been a journey, albeit, one with a satisfying ending. I just bought a Jamieson and Smith colour card and am debating a second sweater. I feel like a pro now.
Here is the story of my finish.

Help on choosing next project

I am more than halfway through Dacapo and in love with Falkenberg. I have been looking at other kits and have several questions. I am a hefty hourglass figure----I usually like swing jackets. I have been looking at Mermaid, Ballerina, and Gloria.

Mermaid and Ballerina seem to have some characteristics in common although Mermaid seems more fitted. Has anyone done both and have opinions on the pros and cons of each of them? Also, on cucumberpatch.co.uk for several of the projects it describes the yarn as 2 ply but knit as 4 ply. Does this mean the projects are knit with two strands? Looking at ravelry for these projects there seems to be a wide range of needle sizes used and i haven't been able to figure out if it is one strand or two of yarn.

I actually like small needles and fine gauge and have been quite happy with Dacapo, although I could see that for larger projects, one might want the fabric to have more heft.

Finally, I am not sure I have gotten the tension right on the self icord on my Dacapo--esp in the striped section. I was so worried that it would be too loose that I fear that I may have knit it too tightly. It does not pull, but it is considerably less stretchy than the rest of the fabric. I have not finished putting it together or blocking so that might change as well.

Thanks for any help.
Sandy