Week 5 of the Knit Red KAL!

Just a quick update this week! One week to go and we have another nearly finished hoodie! Sara, who has just returned to work part-time at JBW (YEAH!), has been gracious enough to allow me to photograph her progress as she's participated in the KAL.

Our swatches! 

For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you may remember this photo of our swatches (left). Sara chose to use MadelineTosh Vintage in the Badlands colorway. She alternated three hanks throughout the body because they didn't match as well as she would have liked.

The staggering made all the difference!

Here's her sweater with the body nearly completed (right)! This was her second try. Working with hand-dyed colorways can pose to be difficult and Sara struggled a bit to get the colors to come out just right the first try. She opted to stagger the spots where she changed from one ball to the next, which really made a big difference and really helped mix the colors well.

Here's a little photo collection of Sara's Badlands A-line Hoodie!

This is how a top down sweater's raglan line should look, with that nice elongated stitch! 

The back view shows off those beautiful raglan lines!

Sara opted to do a three needle bind off for the top of her hood. The photo to the left shows how it looks on the right side. The photo to the right shows how nice and tidy the bind off is on the inside of the hood. This is a great join that is very sturdy and brings some structure to the soft drape of the yarn. Never done a three needle bind off? Have no fear! We have an instructional for that! 

Sara! 

And last, but not least, here is Sara modeling her gorgeous A-line Hoodie! As you can see she made some modifications. Instead of increasing for the A-line shape she did waist decreases and then increased again for the hips. She also added buttonholes all the way down the front and made the sleeves three quarters length. Here's how she did the waist shaping:

• Decreased 4stitches every 23 rows, 3 times (12 stitches decreased)
• After the last decrease round, work even for 13 rows
• After working even for 7 rows, increase 4 stitches every 7 rows, 5 times (20 stitches increased)

She still hasn't decided on buttons so we fastened it with a shawl pin. We'll have to wait and see what buttons she chooses, but based on her past choices I know they will be fabulous!

We have a few more A-line Hoodie's coming along beautifully - I can't want to see more finished projects! You're welcome to stop by our Facebook wall and share a picture of your finished A-line! 

Stay tuned, Diane and I will be filming a couple more videos! 

Happy knitting!

Terry