Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting.

Knitting Progress on the Birthday61 Sweater

Here’s the knitting progress I’ve made on the Birthday61 sweater pattern. It’s slow going, but will be worth it in the end.

Welcome to my blog post update about this never-ending knitting project. I knew that this type of stitch would be slow going, but wow… it is worse than I thought.

I wouldn’t care, because I love the act of knitting, but the queue is filling up with projects that I need (and want) to begin.

Body is knit on the Birthday 61 sweater
body finished
Tubular bind off at hem of Birthday61 sweater
Tubular bind off
Knitting a sleeve on the Birthday61 sweater.
Sleeve #1

I began knitting this sweater back on November 5th, 2024. I’ve been working on it, with some delays, for nearly six months. Over the past couple of weeks, it’s been my only knitting project because I really want to get it finished.

The Birthday61 pattern is easy to follow and is well written, with tutorials to help. The Biches & Bûches La Petite lambswool yarn is lovely. The fabric is so soft and squishy. This keeps me going.

I just finished knitting the body by doing 3/4 of an inch in twisted rib. It flows nicely into the alternating rows I just finished. I also did a tubular bind off as the pattern says.

The whole pattern consists of alternating rows. First: one row of knit one below, and purl one. A “knit below” means I have to find the correct spot for the needle (see my photo below). I have to pull the yarn a bit to find the perfect place to make my knit stitch. After this row we do an entire purl row. Twice around completes one row. This makes for very slow going.

Example: 22 full rows equals 1.5 inches of knitting. Compare this to 22 rows knit on my Warm Up sweater that comes to 4.25 inches.

knit one below stitch
Knit one below – the knit stitch for the Birthday61 sweater.

Tubular Bind Off

As was suggested in the pattern, I did a tubular bind off. It is the first time I ever did a long, body hem this way. Because I am knitting with a nice wool yarn, I could use a shorter tail and then spit-splice a new piece of yarn. This worked out well, and the bind off looks quite good.

Time to Try On Birthday61

Now that the body is finished, I can try it on. So I did …… and honestly, I’m not keen on the fit. This is depressing, but washing a project can change it dramatically. I thought it would be looser.

Now I have begun the first sleeve. Right off the bat I messed up. The knits and purls have to match up. The pattern says to begin with a full purl row, but that was not true for me. I don’t know if I made a mistake when putting the sleeves on hold. And who can remember when I did that months ago? I’m using Magic loop, which is not a favorite of mine. So, this sweater is getting more and more aggravating.

divider image animals in sweaters

Animals in sweaters (individual) images some from Alan_Frigns at Pixabay.

Knitting Life

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Modeling Photos of the Doublemassa Hat

The Doublemassa massive hat knitting project is done. I have to model it for the full effect, so here goes.

Don’t get excited, no gorgeous models here. But the Doublemassa deserves to be photographed while worn. I’m the only one around to do it, so here goes.

I’m a little late posting this because life got busy! But I do need to share the final photos of this knitting project.

Tips For Finishing the Hat

First a note on finishing up this knitting project. One key thing I want to mention is to be sure and weave in your ends BEFORE you make decreases at the crown. I spit spliced my wool, and only had two ends to weave, but I had to pull that section up through the crown opening.

I ended up pulling the whole hat out just to check for ends. Maybe next time weave as I go, or at least keep track of how many ends there are. Wool makes yarn splicing easy, and this means fewer ends hanging.

two ends to weave in
Only 2 ends to weave
Doublemassa hat inside out.
Inside out

As I began the crown decreases, the hat was finally long enough to fold the brim and try on. This hat is seriously cool! It fits like a charm too. I’m knitting it for my daughter and she has a small head. I hope she likes the fit. The Rauma wool is quite soft, so no itchy problem there. I highly recommend Rauma.

Photo below: At this point all I have left to knit is the crown decreases. I’ve swapped out the 16″ circular for DPNs. Once that is finished I need to make a fun tassel for the top.

Doublemassa hat brim folded up

Making the Tassel

Tassel directions are included in the Hat’s On book. However, the directions are not great. I found a good video to follow, but the tassel must be attached to a hat without an inside access. I wrote a blog post about making and attaching the tassel.

Washed and Blocked

Fontana immediately claimed the hat as her newest cat bed!

Doublemassa colorwork snowflake hat knitting is complete
Unwashed
Thick brim in colorwork snowflake design of Doublemassa hat
quick try on
Doublemassa drying on blocking boards
Blocked and drying
Black cat sitting on drying mats that hold the Doublemassa hat
Perfect cat bed size

Modeling the Hat

I hate to show too much of myself, but in this case the Doublemassa deserves to be shown on a head. My head was it, so here goes.

All my knitting photos are selfies. I prop the camera somewhere and use the 3, or 10 second delay. Usually I go outside, unless it’s too hot. Then I do a lot of cropping and fixing, … oh and deleting too!

These photos would look a lot better with a snowy background and me wearing a puffy winter coat. Instead it was a hot, cloudy morning.

wearing Doublemassa hat
Doublemassa hat

The Doublemassa really is an impressive pattern. I used colors I already had, but this would be pretty in many combinations. The pattern is available in the Hat’s On book (paid link) by Charlene Schurch.

If, as a knitter, you get a request for a hat that is warm over the ears – this is it! I don’t know how you get much warmer than a 4-layer fold.

Knitting Stories continued…

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Knitting Scarf No. 4 Using a New Cashmere Yarn

Another little scarf knitting project called Scarf No. 4, has a fun texture and rounded edging.

When the tiny scarf bug bit me, I ordered some nice yarn and got knitting. I’ve completed two Sophie Scarves so far and now I’m starting to knit “Scarf. No. 4”. It’s scarf knitting project three for me, but it’s named No. 4. I should have planned that better.

This pattern is by My Favorite Things Knitwear (go here to see her pattern page at Ravelry). The scarf will measure approximately 49 inches and has a texture made by knitting and purling. It also includes an edging called “Distitch”. Watch this video to see how it is made. It’s very simple.

A Simple Way to Make a Neat Edge

In the pattern, the edge is referred to as “est” . It occurs at the beginning and end of the row directions. At first I was confused.

Here is what it means: When “est” is at the beginning of the row, it means “slip a stitch purl wise with yarn in front” and when it’s at the end of the row, it means do the distitch – or knit the two stitches together (see the video link above for how to do this). In other words, each “est” means to do that specific part of the edge, which all works together to form the nice edging.

Scarf No. 4 washed and drying on boards
Drying
Knitting Scarf No. 4
Nice texture

Pascuali is A New Yarn For Me, and I Think I Love It!

I am knitting this scarf with Pascuali Cashmere Charis. It is an organic Merino and Cashmere blend (70/30). The color is 06, which is a light brown. The strand is very round, and gives nice definition. ALSO… I was able to spit-splice the strand to the new one (yay) and continue on. (I could not do that with the Lang yarn when I knit the Sophie Scarf. I also had knots and splits in the Lang.)

cashmere yarn Lang, Pascuali
My cashmere yarn purchase with Lang and Pascuali balls.

I did need to skip some of the middle rows of knitting in order to head to the decreases. With any luck, I will just make it to the bind off.

The reason I am running out of yarn sooner than I’d hoped, is that I went up to a size 6 needle. The weight of this yarn just seemed to need bigger than a 4, which is recommended in the pattern. Now, I wish I’d chosen a size 5, as it may have been perfect.

Ran out of yarn

Swatching – Yes, Do It For This One

I usually don’t swatch for a scarf. But when the yarn amount is so close, it’s probably the smart thing to knit up a swatch. I’d have had to unravel it to use the yarn, but now I wish I did.

The swatch would have shown me how close I was to the yarn amount used. I may have realized that I needed to use a different needle size. Also the swatch, in this pattern, would have helped me to learn the pattern repeat. This would have definitely helped when beginning the scarf.

Scarf No. 4 wrapped around my neck

Scarf No. 4 is a really nice, soft little neck warmer. I definitely want to make another one using the size 5 needle. Also, I’ve found a new favorite yarn – Pascuali brand.

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My Solvi Sweater is Finished and This is My Review

I have finished knitting Jennifer Steingass’s Solvi sweater pattern and here is my review.

Jennifer Steingass is the designer of the Solvi sweater which is a pullover. I began knitting this pattern on October first. Now it is mid-April and I have finished the project.

The delay in finishing was due to many things, but mostly because I doubted a good outcome. Do you ever start knitting a pattern with much excitement only to loose that excitement somewhere along the way? If you have done enough knitting, I suspect you will say “yes”.

I love the yarn. I chose “Peacock” blue in Harrisville Design’s Shetland. What a beautiful fingering weight yarn, and in a great color. For the long colorwork yoke, I dug into my stash of fingering weight wool. I tried to keep a more muted color scheme going with colors that flowed into each other. I’m happy with the colors.

Solvi sweater finished

What caused me to pause this knitting project (many times) was the large look of the yoke. It seemed very wide, and the depth was an inch over the schematic size. I considered ripping it all out, but what a pain in the neck! So I put it aside and worked on other things.

Finally, I picked it up and got to knitting. I would finish and see how it was.

I was right. It ended up large.

The Solvi sweater knitting pattern shown on me.
Wearing the Solvi colorwork sweater

I like an oversized sweater, but this one is too much. I could easily have knit one size smaller and been happy with the fit! (I knit size D – or the 4th size.)

The sweater has a very wide neckline that flows into a wide, colorwork yoke. I like the pattern of feathers that comes down the front, but the whole thing is just too wide. This is my fault for choosing the larger size. There is nothing wrong with the pattern. Just be aware of the width of this sweater. My gauge was good, but I was between sizes and chose larger. It was my mistake.

I used the same size main needle for all the colorwork as well. I was considering going up a needle size because colorwork tends to be a little tighter. I’m so glad I did not do that!

Mods I Made

Because the yoke was getting too long I had to leave out a bit of the feathers pattern. This project has been put aside quite a bit, so I can’t remember exactly what I changed.

If I knit a larger size sweater, I often go down a size for the sleeves. I did that for this one. I followed size 3 (C) stitch counts so the sleeves would be more narrow. I also knit them longer. For the cuffs, I did not do the last row of tightening up, and instead did a tubular bind-off with a sewing needle.

Solvi cuff bind off

For this pattern, I finished the body first. I used a new skein of yarn for each sleeve. I had three little balls of yarn leftover, which you can see in my first photo above.

Solvi sweater in peacock blue wool

I will absolutely be wearing this sweater next winter. It will work best as a layer over a turtleneck on the coldest days.

I usually have good luck knitting Jennifer Steingass patterns. Her Ravelry pattern page is Knit.Love.Wool. and the link goes there. The previous sweaters of hers, that I have knit, have fit me pretty well. Her patterns are well-written and easy to follow. Most are colorwork patterns with stranded work done on yokes and sometimes sleeves.

Meadow Moon sweater Jennifer Steingass pattern
Meadow Moon
Goldenfern sweater pattern
Goldenfern

Now, I am moving away from colorwork yokes. Stranded knitting is my favorite thing, but an all-over Fair Isle is a lot more fun.

I’ve moved on to knitting fun little scarves and just finished up the biggest hat I’ve ever knit!

Please keep reading…

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