south of the border

well, kind of south of the border. i started it, rather. the waist "shaping" has turned out rather nice & seems to be hitting me in the right places.



i am loving this pattern. can't foresee any problems that will make this baby unwearable. a nice contrast to my just-finished argyle vest :(

one more mod i'll be doing...i'm making the whole body a bit longer, by doing more rows of the 2 x 2 ribbing. however, since this will be hitting me past my waist and into my hips, i'm going to add some "real" waste shaping from here for a few rows. nothing drastic, maybe 8 stitches. i just think i have wide shoulders & would prefer this sweater to not be super super tight at the waist & hips but be a bit more curvy.

Finished!



I finished Forecast on Thursday and I'm very pleased with it, though I probably should have made it longer and started the ribbing higher up on the body, so it didn't "cut me in half".

I haven't much time right now, so for more details, hop over to my blog.

Good luck to all who are knitting this - I really enjoyed it.

tangerine

This is my first post on this KAL but I started forecast over a week ago. I'm LOVING this pattern to bits and things are going pretty smoothly.



The yarn is cascade 220 and the color is burnt orange but I don't know where the label is right now. I went up to size 6 and 8 needles and I'm making the medium size sweater. I'm also going to do Winnie's alterations. I can't wait until it's cold enough to wear it!

Progress

Sorry about the dark photo - it's so gloomy here that a good photo is impossible. As you can see, I've finished the body and I'm two-thirds of the way through the first sleeve. I'm really enjoying this knit, and the fact that it's so easy to make modifications to the original pattern. On the sleeves I've started the ribbing above the elbow and I hope it works out okay. I've put some lifelines in so I can rip out any modifications without going back to the beginning. As I'm knitting the sleeve ribbing on 3.5mm needles, it's taking longer to knit than any of the rest of it (I knitted the body on 5mm and the body ribbing on 4mm). I'll post a more comprehensive account when I show the finished garment (if I can squeeze into it - it's on the small side). I already know I'll knit another!

I'm in Love

...with my Forecast. See? She even helps out with the yardwork, which is more than I can say for my (two year old) son... Come check out this post on my blog to see the whole story of our day together. Thanks to all of you for inspiration and tips!

PS- I suppose if I had to add one tip to the pot, it would be to buy your buttons in person. I did, and I'm so glad, because the buttons I picked out first, shiny silver ones from Spain, were beautiful but would have completely eclipsed this sweater. Keep in mind that you'll be sewing TEN of these puppies on, and choose something that you can handle in that number. I went with something darker, more burnished, so that the sweater could speak for herself.
-JulieFrick

fall forecast...

at least when i dismiss my fear of not finding any buttons that would really work on this when it's done, i've had a change in heart over the color of my forecast.

instead of looking like a yellow that someone with orange cheeto stained hands touched all over, the color now makes me think of some of the gold leaves around our neighborhood:



you can't quite tell from the pic above, but there is the tiniest hint of green mixed in there with the gold & orange in the yarn, just like that leaf.

i've divided sleeves and body & have a few inches of body done.



so far, my mods have worked out well. i first modified based on my row gauge being off. though it ended up being much closer to the pattern gauge, and i just realized i swatched in stockinette, not garter. doh! the other modification i've done so far is making the armholes/sleeves a bit smaller by skipping a couple arm increases. now i'll just keep knitting & trying on until i want to start the border.

this is my first top-down knit, and though i agree with elizabeth zimmerman that it sucks to knit all the exciting shoulder shaping first & then have to knit just straight body, i can see how it really helps one end up with the right fit & design.

Done and dusted

Finally, it's done and dusted - and just in time for the family birthday weekend away.

Mum **loved** her Forecast, and the fit was fabulous. I think the pattern flatters a narrower shoulder and smaller chest than my own - both of which Mum has, which is how I figured it out.

Neither of us could get over how soft the Cleckheaton Country 8-ply was. It's a relatively inexpensive yarn (most wool-based yarns are expensive here, in spite of all the sheep), but a very soft one for 100% wool.

In my excitement, however, I completely forgot to take any photos, d'oh!

Tentative Beginnings

Hi! I'm Alice from The Knitting Princess and the Pea and this is my first time on a KAL. I've already found it useful, as I couldn't for the life of me figure out whether the cable pattern was right and wrong-side rows or what, and I found some useful info here, so thanks! I've only ever managed to knit one garment that fits properly, so it remains to be seen what size this one turns out to be. My tension is so tight I've already gone up to 4 and 5mm needles, instead of 3.5 and 4.5mm. I think it still may be snug. Still, the pattern is very easy (considering I've never knitted cables or bobbles before, or ever used a chart). I found it simple to remember the pattern after the first repeat and it doesn't really need much concentration to get it right, although I can't take my eyes off it when doing bobbles or cables, so no watching TV! Anyway, I'm enjoying this so far.

The yarn is the Cascade 220 recommended. It's one of the heathers shades and I've included a real close-up of the colours - aren't they lovely? Varied but subtle. And the texture of the yarn is fabulous.


Okay, it just remains to be seen whether I can manage to get the sleeves at the right stage and make it fit properly and then there's all the picking-up-stitches in a tidy manner! But one step at a time.

CABLE CHART
For anyone else attempting this and confused about the cable chart, it shows right and wrong-side rows, beginning with a right-side row (row 17). On all the right-side rows the plain squares on the chart are knitted and on the wrong-side rows all the stitches are purled, right across the chart and the whole length of the row. It doesn't matter which way you read the chart, left to right or vice-versa, as long as you are consistent on the actual cable row. I started the chart from the bottom.

slow Forecast

slow Forecast, originally uploaded by the pig wot flies.

Forecast is FINALLY past the armholes and into the body. It should be a little quicker from here on in, especially now I'm using Cmeknit's no-turn bobble technique. It's quicker (although I still have to turn my work once because I'm knitting the bobbles from the wrong side after switching from purled garter stitch to knit garter stitch) and seems to produce a neater bobble.

I wondered if anyone had any tips on adding short row bust shaping to Forecast? I think I'm going to need it, but I've never done short rows in garter stitch. Has anyone else tried it with this pattern?

intro

hi all. good to see there's still a few of you around. i just cast on my forecast. i'm knitting it in rowan cork in the color "gleam" i got at a steal on ebay. i haven't decided if the color is like a yummy ripe peach or like yellow that someone touched all over with orange cheeto stained hands. but i think i'll like the finished product.