Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Olimpic Circles

It might not the best thing to admit...but I rarely watch sports. Not even the olimpics. I love sports as the next person, especially love doing them, but sitting down and watching it? Usually i feel they are waste of time. There are few exception of course, when Hungarians are about to win some big game, or Figure skating... Don't get me wrong, I am at awe at the champions, I admire them.
Anyway, knitting is different. I did signed up for the knitting olimpics, I've been trying to choose a good project and finally ended up choosing the Sunrise circle.
I wanted to make it forever, I remember having my heart set on some debbi bliss tweed on which I got outbid on e-bay. Because of the shaping, the width of teh sweater defines the length, the pattern does not leave much space for modifications. I was searching for a yarn that is very close in gauge to the original one... Then I looked through Ravely and saw that a few made this from Noro... Now that is an idea, so when I saw my estonian friend Marion knitting with this yarn I knew I found what I was looking for. The only trouble that the yarn is finnish, and not available in my country... I cannot thank Marion enough for ordering it for me and bringing all the way.
Knowing that I will have a ton of work in this time, some of which will have to be brought home I tried not to overcommit myself. But then I didn't counted on getting a nasty headcold/sinus infection and spending two days in bed, and trying to ignore my face feeling like I've been just punched, and knitting.
Aside from all that stockinette, the challenge of knitting this was in following the pattern word by word, stitch by stitch. Thankfully it is very well written. (I got it when Knitting Daily offered the booklet of the five most popular pattern. This is the secont thing I've knitted from it, but not the last one).

The only thing I've changed the length of the sleeves, and the point where I started increasing for the sleeves, making it straight around the wrist and lower arm.

I had very good luck in matching up the stripes, though the front edges slightly different. I loved knitting with the yarn, only two knots in the ten balls. The only place I had trouble is at the sewing up, where the yarn kept falling apart...Until I realized I should twist it between stitches (hmm being a spinner must have played in that thought.) .I Used 3.75 mm needles, which are much smaller than the suggested one. Which -once again- made me think about knitting loose, and liking the knitted fabric denser than usual... I knitted size 37.
I love the finished sweater :-)

Oh, and I kept wondering if my yarn would be enough... well I even had some leftover;-) The purple ball is 9 meters, the green one is 7 meters. None of them enough for two whole rows. The rest is just the bits I've cut off when I waived the ends in.

4 comments:

vardakeerutaja said...

looks really nice!

Brussels Chronicles said...

great result !

Anonymous said...

It turned out SO fantastic!! See? I knew you would have it all done in plenty of time, you super speedy knitter, you! ;)

ritarenata said...

few meters!!!! thaty like poker!
congratulation.
wonderful jacket.
ri