Nora's Sweater

Nora's Sweater. This was a fun knit.

Pattern: Nora's Sweater cover sweater on Interweave Knits Winter 2009
Yarn: Misti Alpaca. This was a nice yarn to knit with although it did turn my hands blue. Surprisingly, there was not a lot of color in the water when I blocked it. The yarn really bloomed when washed.

Needles: Size 7

Half of the front. I knit the front band together with the fronts, left the stitches for the band on holders and completed the collar after sewing sweater together. The pattern said to block before sewing together which in this case was a good idea because of the ribbing effect of the yoke and sleeves.

Back and back in set. When I bound off the body stitches, I folded the pleats and bound them off folded, rather than stitching them down afterwards.

Yoke and sleeves. You can tell where the yoke ends and sleeves begin by the pins on the sides.

Learn From Students

One of the students in my Norwegian Sweater class did not like the way her sleeve looked when doing in on the round on double point needles/15 inch circular needles, so did some research and found this way to make the sleeves. She worked both sleeves at the same time with steeks between the 2 sleeves. When she cuts, she will have 2 sleeves which she will seam and cover with bias tape. We learn something every day!

Knitting Puzzle

I am a knitting addict! Anything that has to do with knitting I must have. Here is the latest example.

The zigsaw puzzle might be available is some stores-I saw it in Alexandria, MN, but I purchased mine at www.springbok.com.

Arnhild's Knitting Retreat

The last full weekend of February every year, Arnhild Hillesland has a knitting retreat at the Gateway Hotel in Ames, Iowa. It's a wonderful weekend and we've made it a family affair. Annemor Sundbo was the guest teacher and keynote speaker. She was great! Classes are interesting, food is great, and the socialization outstanding. This year there were 70 people there.

My niece, Wanda, my daughter, Gloria, Me, my sister, Sandy, Annemor, my adopted daughter, Pam and my daughter in law, Bea. Missing is my daughter, Margaret who had to cancel at the last minute because her son was in the hospital.

Because it was the last weekend of the Olympics, this display was set up in the dining room and gold medals were given out at the last lunch.

Here we are with Susan and Ruth, who joined us to form a noisy, giggly group everyone wanted to be with to see what was going on.

Green Sweater Again

The first publication of the pattern has a red border and an errata page available at www.schoolhousepress.com. The revised pattern has a blue border. I used the red bordered pattern combined with the errata and had some trouble when I got to the neckline. Previously, the pattern had you cut the steeks, fold to the inside and stitch down and on each side of main body, fold under steek plus an additional 5 sts. But when I got to the neckline, I was supposed to have used those 5 sts to continue for a facing. I think I should not have stitched down the 5 sts until after I had completed the neck and I would have had a neater edge on the neckline.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater

The Olympics are over and so are the Knitting Olympics. My project also is finished and I am so happy with it. This is such a wonderful pattern with nice design elements. Of course we can expect nothing less from Elizabeth Zimmermann!

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater available from Schoolhouse Press.

Yarn: Ella Rae Classic

Needles: Size 6 US

Sleeve decreases are made on the top of the sleeve.

The sleeve is a deep dolman sleeve but has directions to make it slimmer. It does get small at the bottom, but fits nicely and keeps the gauntlet from sliding down the hand. The gauntlet is so cute at the bottom of sleeve when worn.

Underarm gusset. I just noticed the picture is sideways.

The steeks stitched, ready to be cut. I like to run a contrasting thread on the cutting line to make it easier to stitch and also to cut.