Herbstlied - Swatching the Acorn Sweater

This is Herbstlied (translated from German means Autumn Song), the cover sweater from New Style of Heirloom Knitting, the wonderful Japanese knitting pattern book with only a few non-essential words written in English.

It's going to be my summer knitting challenge.




For the past several evenings, I've been working on a swatch.

It's been slow going. I'm guessing this 14 X 6 swatch took about 8 hours. Now I know what I need to do to get gauge so the sweater will fit. Even more important, I have figured out all the Japanese symbols in the stitch pattern charts plus the mystery of the how to knit the eight stitches at the end of the oak leaf lobes. (See end of post for detailed oak lobe instructions.)

The swatch yarn is Louet Topaz worsted weight Merino yarn knit with a #4 Knitpicks Options needle. Final yarn choice is still undecided. I do know it will not be this color (ginger) which makes me look three days dead.

The unwashed, unblocked swatch measures 10.25 inches from the stem (the center of the sweater) to the side seam. That will make 41 inch sweater, a good size for me. I'm hoping there are no surprises when I wash the swatch.

If you are thinking of knitting this sweater and want the fun of figuring out the eight stitches of the oak leaf lobe yourself, stop reading now.

Even knowing how it's done, I can't look at the stitch chart and see how it indicates a cable. Being able to read Japanese probably would have been helpful.

Instead I studied the stitches in the picture at the top of page 69 and figured out one way to do it. It may or may not exactly match the Japanese instructions in the pattern book.

This isn't going to make any sense unless you have the book, page 69.

The Eight Stitches of A

• Put the 3 shaded stitches on a cable needle and hold in back.
  
• Turn the next five stitches into one stitch as follows:
  
  • slip-knit-psso, knit, k2tog
    
  • turn work and purl three stitches you just made
    
  • turn work
    
  • slip, slip, knit, pass two slipped stitches over knit stitch
  
  
• Purl three stitches from cable needle.

The Eight Stitches of B

• Put five stitches on a cable needle and hold in front.
  
• Purl three stitches from left needle (the shaded stitches in the chart).
  
• Turn the five stitches on the cable needle into one stitch as follows:
  
  • slip-knit-psso, knit, k2tog
    
  • turn work and purl three stitches you just made
    
  • turn work
    
  • slip, slip, knit, pass two slipped stitches over knit stitch

Ordering Japanese Books

I have had some questions from some of you about how to order some of the knitting books you have seen here. Two of the easiest places to order from are YesAsia and Amazon Japan. YesAsia is in English, but Amazon Japan is a tiny bit trickier. If you have ordered from Amazon before, the layout and buttons are the same. But a way to make it easier is to click on the "In English" button on the blue bar beneath the tabs. It won't translate everything, but enough to easily search and order what you are looking for. If ordering from other sites, there are many automatic translators online that will help out a great deal. So now no excuses. Start shopping!

Progress on Elegance Knit vest

I am up to the bust increases on the back of the vest from Elegance Knit. So far the pattern has been easy to follow, with the only problem being that the border and middle patterns are each different row counts for each repeat. So I have to count each one separately, instead of assuming that where pattern 1 starts a repeat, pattern 2 will also.



Several of you noticed correctly that the bottom number on the chart was not the cast on number on this pattern. On this pattern, you were supposed to cast on, do the patterns, then come back later, increase, knit down,and add the ribbing. I didn't notice this until I was done with the ribbing, (knitting up) so I just decreased to the correct number of stitches and kept on going up. It doesn't seem to have made a difference in the look of this particular pattern, but a lesson was learned. Pay attention to the direction of those arrows!

Book Review - New Style of Heirloom Knitting

How do I begin raving about this book? I don't own a nicer book of knitting patterns, and I have many. There isn't a single project in this book I don't love.

Ready for a challenge? Not only are the designs complex and challenging, the patterns are in Japanese.

The designs are beautiful. The photography is artistic, but done to show off the knitting with multiple pictures of each garment on glossy paper.


There are six sections:

• Ganseys (2 sweaters)
  
• Fair isles (3 sweaters)
  
• Tams (3 fair isle, 2 cabled)
  
• Cables (2 sweaters)
  
• Lace shawls (3)
  
• Entrelac (2 sweaters).

I've picked out my favorite sweater from each section to show you.

Gansey
This beauty even has stitch patterning on the underarm gussets.

Each pattern in the book is only charted out for one size. The Japanese assume if you need a different size, you can chart it out yourself. This sweater is charted at 36 inches/92 cm around.

Gauge is about 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch. I figured this out "reading" Japanese and converting from centimeters. I haven't figured out yet how many months it might take to knit, but I'd like to give it a try.

Fair isle
The book has three fair isle sweater designs, a pullover, cardigan (in picture), and a vest.

Each sweater has a coordinating tam style hat.

Cables
It was when I saw a swatch from this sweater on the Crossed in Translation blog, I knew I had to have this book.

Fortunately the one size provided, 38.6 inches/98 cm, should fit. Only the challenge of figuring out the pattern remains.

The gauge is worsted weight (I think). 5.5 stitches/inch and 8.5 rows/inch.

The second cabled sweater is Am Kamin, the intricate Aran knit featured on the Crossed in Translation blog.

Lace Shawls
Here's a peek at all three lace shawls.

The white shawl, Mountainash, has its own Yahoo Group Mountainash.

There are helpful documents in their Files folder on reading Japanese patterns in general and this one in particular. And, there is one breathtaking picture of a finished shawl in the group's photo section.

Entrelac
Think of the color possibilities for this sweater.

Anybody brave enough to give it a try?


Book Title : nitsuto ni koishite shimada toshiyuki no se ta butsuku dentou nitsuto no atarashii densetsu
Author Name(s) : shimada toshiyuki
Language : Japanese
Publisher / ISBN : 4529039927
Release Date : October 19, 2004
YesAsia Catalog No. : 1003858802
Price : $18.49
Link to buy book : here

What I've figured out so far

I held my tongue to the left, crossed my fingers, spun in a clockwise position, and chanted "Blogger, Blogger, Blogger!" and was finally able to upload these pictures.

On to the tutorial!

Here is the top of the pattern.




1. Yarn requirements
Still not sure what yarn is called for. I did find the symbols for merino wool in here, but not sure if it's a blend or not. The 200g is self explanatory, and I'm guessing the number after the 5 means skeins.

2. Needle size
6 for main body, 4 for twisted rib. These are Japanese needle sizes and are different from American ones. There is a conversion chart in one of the links in the sidebar. They don't exactly translate, but you should be able to fiddle around and get gauge on one of the sizes close to the one called for.

3. Size
The first number is bust size, second is measurement across the back, not sure about the last one.

4. Gauge
See that ladder looking symbol? That means stitches. The symbol after 33 is rows. So on our smaller needle size, we are looking for a gauge of 23 st and 33 rows, and on the bigger needles, 27 st and 33 rows.

5. Pattern notes
I have not been able to decipher any of these yet. I'm not too worried about it, since the pattern is fairly straight forward. If this was a more complicated pattern, I would be a little more concerned.



1.This is your cast on number. (The 1 is very faint at the bottom of the picture, Photoshop was being funny while I was putting this together.)

2. The amount of stitches to increase after the ribbing.

3.The amount of stitches in the middle panel.

4. The amount of stitches of plain stockinette on either side of the pattern panel.

5. Twisted Ribbing.

6.Rows in increase.

7. Stitches to decrease per side.

8. Times to repeat.

9.Amount of stitches at waist after decreases.

10.Increases.

There is a chart for the Twisted Rib, and the middle panel, with symbols that are fairly similar to American ones. If anyone sees any errors, let me know, I'm still new to this! I hope this helps you decipher some of those awesome Japanese patterns that you have around but have been too intimidated to try. You can do it!

Blogger is a pain, but I will prevail!

I had the wrong email address on the sidebar for joining the KAL, if you have tried to email me in the past few days, try again with the corrected address.

Blogger is being a pain, and I was only able to upload one picture. I had a whole lovely tutorial planned out, I'll try again later and see what happens. This is the vest I am going to be knitting from Elegance Knit.



Fabulous? Oh, yeah.

Elegance Knit

I recently ordered Elegance Knit after seeing it on Fleegle's blog . Shipping was amazingly fast, and it ended up being a little over 22 dollars with shipping. The patterns are amazing, but deciphering the instructions is a little tricky. I decided to start on something simple, so I am making the beautiful vest on page 18. I will be posting bits and pieces as I figure them out; if anyone else wants to knit along, jump right in!