I finished Newsom on Thursday.

Here’s the back:

The only mod I did was to do an i-cord cast-off on the front bands/collar, and to pick up and work a few garter stitch rows along the bottom edge, and do an i-cord bind-off there as well.

I made this from Shalimar Enzo Sport in the Thistle colorway and used the suggested needles: a U.S. 3 and 5.

That’s my August Camp Loopy project done. So I now return to my regularly scheduled knitting. I was working on a Comfort Fade Cardi that I set aside to make my Camp Loopy project. I returned to it last week:

I have the body and the huge shawl collar done, and have started the first sleeve. The pattern directs you to work the sleeves before the collar, but I wanted to get that huge expanse of shawl collar knitting done before working the relatively quick sleeves. I expect to have this completed within a week or two.

Meanwhile, Loki strikes a pose:

I have made some great progress on my Newsom cardi due to a couple of marathon knitting sessions this week. I have started the yoke, where you add the sleeves onto the needle and then knit up from there, decreasing to make the raglan “seams.”

That’s a raglan seam — here is the whole thing on the needles:

All is going well, but there’s a mode that I wish I had made. It didn’t occur to me until it was too late.

So, you knit the body until you reach the armhole. You knit each sleeve separately from cuff to top, and leave the live stitches on a holder. Then you incorporate the sleeves with the body and start knitting the whole yoke in the round.

What I wish I had done was to work the last few rounds of each sleeve back and forth instead of in the round, so that the top couple of inches of the sleeve had an open seam on the underside instead of being a continuous tube. When I incorporated the live sleeve stitches into the body of the sweater, I discovered how tight and unwieldy the sleeves were to knit across. It was very difficult to work the first couple of inches of the yoke because the beginning and end of the sleeve stitches are so close together because there is no “give” in the sleeve. I would have been able to spread the stitches out more if I had worked the top couple of inches of the sleeve back and forth. The way it was, you really need to magic loop to give yourself enough room to knit, but the longest circular needle I have in the right size is not long enough to magic loop with that many stitches on the needle.

I’m now past the point where this is a problem, but it made for some very uncomfortable knitting, and I consider it a design flaw. I went back and read some of the notes marked “helpful” for this project in Ravelry and noted that one knitter said she almost threw the project away in frustration when she got to this point. I feel for her!

But as I said, I am past that point, so all is well now.The more I knit, the shorter the rows get, so that’s a good thing. I am planning to pick up and knit a bottom band on the sweater after I finish the body because I think the bottom edge has a bit of an unfinished look.

Loki has his plan for the rest of the day:

. . . for another cardi!

On August 1, I set aside my Comfort Fade Cardi and started my August Camp Loopy project: Bristol Ivy’s Newsom.

I am using Shalimar Enzo Sport in the “Thistle” colorway, which is sort of a faded denim blue.

My work-in-progress photo looks a bit faded:

The color in the yarn photo is much more accurate.

This cardi has a interesting construction and so far is a very fun knit!

How Long Will It Take?

Loveknitting.com has added a nifty new tool to their site — a calculator that will give you an idea of how long different projects will take. The tool is here — do not be alarmed by the title of the page: Knitting for Christmas. Yes, it’s really not too early to be thinking about holiday knitting! Give the calculator a try!

Loki Sez:

Playtime?