Project: Jumper

It’s day 40. I have a front panel, a back panel and half a sleeve! I feel like I’m getting on quite fast with this. 

  
I decided to go down to 3.25 mm needles for the ribbing on the sleeves. I made swatches with three different sized needles and didn’t get the exact measurements the pattern said, but I think it should fit me.  It’s difficult to imagine it fitting though. What I’ve got so far is looking really narrow, but it does stretch a lot. I don’t want it to look too tight. I’ll have to wait and see once it’s blocked. I’m also thinking of blocking the front and back panels soon to check that they definitely fit!

  
I tried a new cast on for the sleeves. A tubular cast on to allow it to stretch. It involves casting onto a length of wool that you eventually cut off. In my picture the bit that is getting the chop is the blue wool. Here is a link to the tutorial I used:

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2015/11/tubular-cast-on-tutorial/

It took me a good few goes but I eventually got there. You have to cast on half as many stitches as you need plus one. This part confused me, I ended up with an extra stitch that I just ended up knitting together with another, because I couldn’t deal with starting again (again). I don’t think it’s noticeable though.

  
The tutorial says that you can use it for 1×1 ribbing as well as 2×2. I think it looks better for the 1×1 though. I’m hoping it’s just because I know it’s there, that I can see where it goes from 1×1 to 2×2 for the main pattern.

I’m on the increases for the sleeve at the moment. I’m not so sure I’m going about it the right way, but it looks alright. I have to do increases but keep the rib pattern the same. So I’m just knitting into the front and back on the first and last stitch on the increase rows. Where the ribbing changes, I’m knitting into the front and purling into the back, or vice versa, whichever is required to keep the pattern right. 

In other news, I delivered Mr Elephant to his new home (sans tail). I did make a tail and now I can’t find it! It is in my room somewhere. I packed some wool to take with him to quickly make a new one, but I didn’t grab enough, so decided that my baby friend is young enough that she doesn’t know he is supposed to have a tail, right? Also, is the tail not likely to be the first thing that gets accidentally ripped off? She did seem to like him anyway.

Toodle Pip for now,

S.