Weekend Neck Down Pullover

Knitting Pure and Simple has a great pattern that is proclaimed to be a “weekend” knit. If you spend the ENTIRE weekend knitting, it could be done. However, if you have a life it may take a little longer, but not much. This sweater took me just over a week, knitting a few evenings during the week and a couple hours on two weekends. It is a GREAT, FAST sweater! The picture below is my result.

Some things that are fun about this knit is that:

• It is knit from the top down. This allows you to try on the sweater as you are knitting it to see if lengths are correct.
• There are no seams to sew up when you are done. Really! This sweater is knit in the round, totally! I did need to weave in a few ends, but compared to sewing up the body and sleeves, this is nothing.

Knitting Stats

Suggested yarn is a super bulky weight with size 17 needles 29″ circular, double pointed needles size 17; size 15- 16″ circulars; or sizes to get the gauge. I used

• Yarn:
  • Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Thick & Quick, Wheat 402.
  • I used just under 6 skeins.
• Needles:
  • Size 13, 16″ circulars for the neck
  • Size 15, 24″ for the yoke
  • Size 15, 32″ for the body
  • Size 15, double pointed for the sleeves.

A note about needles: this yarn is so thick (and quick) that I could have easily used size 15, 16″ circular needles for most of the sleeves. This would have made the project go much more quickly. I actually used the 24″ circulars to begin the second sleeve but after two decreases had to switch over to the double pointed. I’m not sure if you could do the entire sleeve with 16″ needles, but it could be close.

Neck: The pattern calls for knitting the neck 3″ (or is it four?). If I were to knit this again for myself I would only knit the neck 2″ and go with more of a “mock” turtleneck.  At 3″, it seems to bunch up a bit.

For the Yoke: Having never knit this pattern, the directions were a little confusing to begin with. I wasn’t sure which kind of markers to use (the circular “slip” markers are needed) and where to do my increases for the yoke. But after one try and a change of markers, I realized that you need to do an increase on each side of the markers.

Otherwise, this is a great pattern. Fun to knit and fun to get quick results.

A note to family members: If you want me to knit you a sweater for a gift, this one would be great! I can knit it up in no time at all!

Very Easy Ripple Shawl

This was a long project. Not so much because it took a long time to knit, but more because I was knitting two other projects (a sweater for my husband and another for my sister) at the same time and this one took “a back seat”. I started my wrap in August of 2006 and finally finished in February of 2007.

This shawl is a great first lace project, so I’ve been told, and the free pattern can be found at http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/kms-rippleshawl.html.

Don’t let the ripples scare you as this truly is an easy pattern. Basically, two rows are knit with a third being purled. Only one row out of a repeated pattern of four has any variety. After knitting something this long, I looked forward to the “funky” row. It made the project interesting, yet not too challenging. I’m looking forward to knitting this again in a nice burnt orange alpaca that has been waiting for just the right pattern.

Knitting Stats:

• Needles- I used a size 6 needle (Addi Turbo circular, as usual).
• Yarn- A nice Frog Tree blend of 85% pima cotton and 15% silk, sport weight. Color- 830
• Number of skeins- 6.5
• Final length- the pattern calls for 60″ but I made mine a little longer and went for 66″.