Tag Archives: Berroco chunky

FO Friday: Charlotte Winter

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I finished an EPIC thing and I’m so thrilled I can’t stop smiling you guys. My Charlotte Winter is done and it fits like a dream! This is my first garment for myself in a long time. Having babies has been hard on my body and I haven’t always loved what I see in the mirror. But I for sure love me in this!

Pattern: Charlotte Winter by Carrie Bostick Hoge

Yarn: Berroco Chunky in Grey, Purple and Teal

Needles: US 13s

Mods: I added reverse garter stripes across the yoke to simulate color-work. I worked at a tighter gauge than the pattern and had to math out the size I needed.

It’s the most perfect tunic length and even in bulky yarn it is pretty darn flattering. I so love that I was able to get some finished photos with snow still on the ground. The rest of Kansas might not agree with me. But I’m happy for one last snow!

You can kind of see some extra fabric under the arms ala a dolman adjacent sleeve. My yoke stretched a little more than I had planned so my armpits aren’t in the armpits. That’s what happens with wet/heavy bulky yarn. But the fit feels good and I can always tighten this up a bit in the dryer. I LOVE how far the sleeves come down on my hand. It is so cozy! Plus I can always fold the cuffs up while cooking or typing. I always opt for cozy though…

I do see in this photo one stretched out stitch. It was easy to snag the garter bumps as I was turning this sweater around while knitting. I need to go back and pull the surrounding stitches back into place to close up that hole. If that doesn’t work I’ll duplicate stitch over it with some teal yarn.

I plan to give this an inaugural wearing and decide if I need to sew some grosgrain ribbon on the wrong side of the button bands. My top button is ceramic and very pretty but also very heavy. The bottom buttons are just plastic. I’ll see how it lasts during wear. Ooooo….I remembered when I was sewing the buttons down to leave room under the button for the fabric to slide under. Kind of like having a button shank under there. I usually just sew them down to within an inch of their life. But I feel like a proper knitter now!

Boy do I love this sweater…I gotta stop smiling!

Happy Knitting!!

Halfway Done With Sleeve Island

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This past weekend I managed to crank out a FO (finished object) that I will show you Friday. This finish really cranked my knitting mojo into high gear. It made me want to finish ALL THE THINGS. So I pulled out my Charlotte Winter sweater. I had been plodding slowly through the first sleeve trying to give my hands a break from turning a huge heavy sweater while sleeve knitting.

I was a good chunk through the decreases on sleeve one so I hunkered down and finished the sleeve. Purling in the round on huge US 13 dpns….NOT my favorite but I was committed.

I finished sleeve number one and immediately tried it on. It fits very nicely and snug. That’s pre-blocking of course. So I hope that means I won’t get a baggy sloppy fit after washing and blocking. I’m really hoping to get this done soon so I can get maybe one wear of this yet this extended winter.

Happy Knitting!!

Body Complete

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 I finally finished the body of my Charlotte Winter!

Bulky yarn on this cord length really bunches up the work. It can be deceiving. I might have measured on or four times…

That my friends is 16.5 inches of bulky garter stitch! And now I’m off to bind off and try it on and have my my husband double check it is an appropriate length.

Fingers crossed!!

 

Cast On: Charlotte Winter

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Over the Christmas Holiday we spent several days at my parents house and off of work. Hooray! For this I had a goal, I wanted to work on something for myself in the day leading up to Christmas. I had my birthday yarn all wound up and waiting. And I had also swatched and done my sweater math for the Charlotte Winter. THIS was going to be my “my parents can babysit so I can breathe and knit a bit” project.

This was the first day’s progress. Gotta love bulky weight yarn and big needles right? I worked out my color work plan started cruising through the raglan increases. I had a bit of trouble keeping track of right side and wrong side since I wanted the “wrong” side of the garter ridges to show. And I may have made a few mistakes but garter stitch is very forgiving and no one will ever know.

Stay tuned for more progress tomorrow!

Happy Knitting

Re-Swatching Because Swatches Lie

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Earlier this week I had talked about making a second gauge swatch but this time with stripes. Seriously glad I did…because my tension changed while working stripes!! Using this yarn and my needles and making stripes got me a LOT closer to pattern gauge. This means my first spreadsheet math would have had me make a WAAAY to big of a sweater. This washed and blocked swatch only has me go up 1/2 to a whole pattern size. Glad I checked before I had most of a sweater done.

This time I had some better light so I took some better pictures. I am still leaning towards the wrong side of the striping. And I think I’m going to mix and match the single and double garter ridge stripes in some sort of pattern. Stay tuned…

Happy Knitting!!

Sweater Math and Color Options

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I was a good knitter and made a gauge swatch for an upcoming sweater.  I off course was not happy with either the gauge at the recommended needle size or actually achieve pattern gauge. I just had to like my gauge at a different needle size. So taking my gauge I popped open excel and did some maths to figure out what size I needed to make to fit my upper bust at my gauge. And boy howdy did that stretch my brain. But I persevered.

So then I checked the pattern to see how much yarn I would need for the size I was going to make….and I didn’t have enough of the grey. But I know I had some more Berroco Chunky in my stash from some old sweaters.  I dug and found a blue and a purple…see below.

I made a WHOLE NEW SWATCH to see how the colors would play out. I am going full bore responsible knitter here guys. This is what my swatch looks like with stripes…

And here is a blown out photo of the wrong side of my stripes. Am I crazy (the answer is yes btw) but I like the wrong side better. It makes it look like poor woman’s colorwork ala the Playful Stripes Cardigan by Alana Dakos.

I need to wash this swatch version and mull over my options. I am really leaning towards the wrong side. But now….do I work single garter ridge stripes or double ridge garter stripes?

Happy Knitting!!!

Mud Season

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I have several skeins of Berroco Vintage chunky in teal burning a hole in my stash! It’s a birthday splurge purchase from last year. I really really really want to Mud Season by Elizabeth Smith!

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How cute is this!? Its very much spring and mud season here in Kansas! I’m crazy though. We are attempting to pack our house to move by May 11th. I’m in the middle of rehearsing a play. And my big kid day job is crazy right now.

Maybe I’ll just pull the yarn out and feel its squishy goodness and work on swatches? Oh and maybe mark up the pattern for the size i want? That can’t hurt me right!?