Man's Norwegian Sweater -- Rauma 138RS

When the cabled sweater was giving me problems I would work on this for a break. Ha! Some break! I did the increase row just above the ribbing on this one 6 times!!!! The first few times I was doing the math wrong, or at least thought I was. I kept coming up with too many stitches near the end of the row.

Now you have to remember that this row started out with 277 stitches supposedly! So, I would knit across, count, and tink (un-knit) all the way back again and again.

I finally thought to count the ribbing stitches again and discovered that I didn't have 277 stitches but 297 stitches! No wonder I couldn't come up with the right number after increasing!

Instead of ripping and reknitting the whole ribbing I left it and increased to the number I needed for the patterns in the body. I was so glad to finally get past that and start working on the patterns. They are much more fun!

In all of the times that I knit that one row I didn't see any change in the yarn that I was working with. There was no fraying or fuzzing. It didn't start looking worn at all. I am very impressed with the quality of the Rauma Strikkegarn. It holds up very well even when re-knit again and again so I am sure now that it will hold up well in the finished sweater.

Pattern -- Rauma 138RS V-Neck Cardigan
Yarn -- Rauma Strikkegarn

Finally Making Progress

It seems like this sweater has taken forever to knit! I would knit a ways and discover that I had forgotten to change the second strand to the next color.

If it wasn't that I would find a cable that was crossed wrong. I actually had the right front knit all the way to the shoulder when I discovered that one. I had to rip a bunch of it because some of the stitches were already bound off for the neckline curve. Then I dropped the 6 stitches of the cables down about 20 rows to fix the cable. I am getting rather good at that now!

At this point the body is knit and ready for the shoulder finish, so I started the first sleeve last night. I still have to remember to count the 9 rows of each of the different browns while crossing cables every 4 rows and increasing 2 stitches every 12 rows! See why it gets messed up sometimes?

I think the sleeves will move along more quickly though. Hopefully I will have a finished sweater soon!

Pattern -- Rauma 2090RVF Short Cabled Cardigan and Hat

Yarn -- Rauma Vamsegarn & Rauma Finullgarn

Rauma Sweater progress

Last week I was going to show you my progress on the hat and sweater set that I am making for Arnhild to take to the TNNA trade show. I didn't find the time to get it posted though. So here is where I was last week and where I am now. The sweater is going really fast!

The hat is finished. The sweater is now about 27 centimeters or 10.5 inches. The cables are looking really nice. There are 4 cables across the center back and 2 on each front. This will be a heavy sweater which will be really nice for the cold Iowa winters.

I also started a traditional Norwegian sweater during Arnhild's sweater class at the Blue Heron Knittery. Arnhild would like to have this one as a model to use for a while but eventually DH, Jeff, will get it.

You can see that this one is not going quite as fast! It is a much finer yarn (Strikkegarn) and size 3 needles for the ribbing. There are also a lot more stitches on this one. The ribbing on the blue sweater had 122 stitches, this one is 277! I think I have just a couple more rows of ribbing to go. Then I get to change to size 4 needles and start working with 2 colors.

The yarns are natural black and cream colors which are beautiful together. I have always admired these sweaters with the stars on the shoulders. It will be a very handsome sweater. I have a lot of knitting to go though.

Blue Heron Knittery

Arnhild and I made a visit to Decorah this past weekend. I was able to sit in on Arnhild's Norwegian Sweater classes at the Blue Heron Knittery. Sarah has a beautiful shop on West Water Street. I just had to share some pictures of it with you.

I didn't get a photo of the outside of the shop though. I will have to go back for that! Downtown Decorah is beautiful with l0ts of historic architecture. The Blue Heron is on a corner and has lots of decorative work and a tower on the building. Sarah has done a beautiful job with the inside of the building. She removed a false ceiling to expose the original stamped tin ceiling and replaced the hardwood flooring. Well, as they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

We had a great time learning how to make some of the beautiful sweaters you see here in the pictures. Thanks Sarah for being such a gracious hostess!