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January 23, 2011

Hi Spud & Chloë Friends,

How’s everyone doing out there? I’ve had a lot of interaction on the Friends of Spud & Chloë Camp Hoodie Knitalong thread. Things seem to be moving along smoothly. I heard from many knitters who didn’t have their materials gathered up yet by last Wednesday. That’s just fine! Join in whenever you are ready. The thread will be going strong for quite some time as people work and have comments and questions. There is not a finishing date so there is no pressure.

I’ve had a few questions about switching out the fair isle pattern. You can either find a pattern that will fit into your stitch count when you want to insert the fair isle or you can adjust the pattern to fit your stitch numbers by adding or subtracting stitches on the pattern OR you can change your stitch count on the sweater to match the fair isle pattern.

For the sample pictured here I found a fair isle pattern that fit the stitch count of my sweater. That made things really simple and I didn’t have to alter the shape of my sweater. You have to decide what would work best for you. The stitch pattern for this sample in the photos is on page 230 in Super Stitches Knitting by Karen Hemingway. I used the Flowering Trellis border and the Crown peerie. I didn’t do the waist shaping on the size medium and the numbers worked out perfectly.

Now for the sleeves… I am pretty excited about how this sleeve is turning out. I went back to my trusty Custom Knits book by Wendy Bernard to see how she picked up and knit sleeves down from the armhole and in the round. You really need to get this book if you are interested in sweater construction and also if you are interested in knitting cute and stylish sweaters. I can’t recommend it enough as I think it is one of the most valuable knitting books I own as far as a reference for sweater knitting and patterns. I used Wendy’s technique for creating a cap sleeve using short rows (her instruction is phenomenal). Then after the cap was knit I did a rapid decrease sequence using double-decreases on the underside of the sleeve because the armhole is pretty generous and I wanted a fitted sleeve. It is looking really good. I am going to knit straight for about four more inches and then add a couple of inches of the k2,p2 ribbing before casting off. I will keep you posted.

I will write up the instructions for the sleeves and have it available in a pdf for you if you want to add sleeves to your Camp Hoodie. It is pretty fun! I should have this ready by the middle of the week coming up here. I want to do a couple of tutorials on the short row shaping for you, too. I will use the second sleeve to do this.

I’ll be back soon with a couple of non-Camp Hoodie posts, too. I have a lot of posts and fun things I need to share with you so stay tuned for that.

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