Tagged: octopus
FO: Embrace Octopus Sweater!
My MCAT is done! And so is the Embrace Octopus Sweater! I spent my study breaks these last couple weeks working on it so I just had to weave in the ends today (which took forever…). Here’s the finished product:
I’m driving back to Minnesota tomorrow (a 9 hour drive. Ick) so I’ll post a picture of me wearing the sweater once I’m there and have someone to take a picture of me.
Overall, I enjoyed this sweater but it was definitely the most difficult thing I’ve ever knit. The directions weren’t very descriptive (especially for a $17 pattern…) but the detailed charts were great. I just had some trouble interpreting the directions for the short rows of the neck. I’m not sure if I did it correctly but the sweater fits so I guess it turned out ok. The only part of this sweater that I really disliked was the left sleeve with the tentacle spiraling down it. I had to float the white yarn all the way around the entire way up or else I would have had 500 ends to weave in. It took forever and I just got kind of tired of it. I messed up a bit on the tension towards the bottom so it’s a bit tight but it works.
Just to demonstrate all of the floats I had to do, here’s a picture of the inside of the sweater:
The only thing I changed was using worsted weight yarn instead of bulky as suggested in some of the comments on the pattern. The sweater is a bit tight but I think that if it had come out too large, the octopus wouldn’t be as visible.
Overall, if you’re up for a challenge, I’d definitely suggest knitting this! It’s pretty fun and it’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever made.
Embrace octopus sweater: Just keep Knitting…
With the semester starting to wrap up and no exams for the next couple weeks, I’ve had a bit more time to continue working on the embrace octopus sweater. I’m knitting the second sleeve now which has a tentacle spiraling up it. It’s extremely difficult to knit since it’s so small in diameter and I have to float the white yarn all the way around while using double pointed needles. Keeping tension equal has been difficult too—there’s one portion that is a bit tight and a few spots where the white stitches are kind of loose. I’m not really enjoying knitting this and I just want it to be done. Unfortunately, that means pushing through it because I really want to wear this sweater! For now I’m just working on it a bit at a time since I get a bit frustrated with it pretty quickly.
Have you guys ever tried colorwork on double points? Do you have any tips on how to make it easier? I considered not doing the floats but then I’d have 800 ends to weave in and that didn’t really appeal to me either…
I just keep reminding myself how awesome this sweater is going to look when it’s done!
Embrace Octopus Sweater: sleeve number 1 is done!
Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. Classes have been kind of crazy and I’m getting ready to take the MCAT on May 17. With all of this going on, I’ve barely had any time to knit. I did however cast on the first sleeve of the octopus sweater a few weeks ago and I finished it today! This sleeve is mostly solid black with just the very top of the octopus’ head showing. It was quick and easy to knit up which was nice (although I still have to weave in a million ends because I didn’t want to float the yarn all around the sleeve). The next sleeve has a tentacle spiraling up the arm though so it will be a bit more complicated. I’m planning to cast on for it tonight but I doubt I’ll finish it before the end of the semester.
As you can see, the sweater is slowly starting to come together!
Embrace Octopus Sweater Update
Hey everyone! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks since classes started and I haven’t had much time to knit. Add the fact that this is a really complicated pattern and I haven’t had much free time and you’ll understand why I haven’t posted for a while. The octopus sweater is coming along slowly but surely. It’s really cool to see the tentacles take shape as I knit more rows. I love all of the suction cups!
Here’s how far I’ve gotten on the front:
And here’s the back:
This is a really difficult project so my goal is just to finish it this semester. One of my New Years resolutions was to watch less Netflix so unfortunately I have a bit less time to knit. Hopefully once I get back in the swing of things I figure out when I have time to just relax and knit.
Here’s a reminder of how awesome the sweater should look when I’m done with it:
Embrace Octopus sweater: part 1
Well, I’m still waiting to get the yarn from Knit Picks so I can finish the Afmaeli sweater (I ordered it almost two weeks ago!) so I started working on the Embrace Octopus sweater. This is the first time I’ve ever had two sweaters going at the same time but it’s a little less daunting than I expected. What is daunting however is the charts for the octopus sweater. There are 6 pages of charts with very small stitch blocks- they are definitely the most complicated charts I’ve ever used. They aren’t too difficult to follow, but they require a lot of concentration.
Yesterday I had a moment of panic when I realized I had somehow lost 5 stitches and my stitch counts were off. Thirty minutes and lots of frantic counting later I figured out where the lost stitches belonged and added them in. Thankfully I didn’t have to rip out any rows.
Right now I’m about halfway done with the main body of the sweater. The tentacles are looking pretty cool- especially the ones with suction cups! Besides requiring a frustrating number of floats, this sweater is actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. It just requires a lot of concentration.
I’ll update you all again when I finish the body section. No guarantees on when that will be though. Classes start up again on Monday and I won’t have time to sit around all day and knit.
Here’s what the sweater should eventually look like:
I am deviating from the pattern a little bit. Based on people’s comments on ravelry, I decided to use worsted weight yarn instead of bulky and go down a couple needle sizes. I was a bit worries about it being too small even after swatching so I tried it on after about 20 rows of the colorwork and it looks like it should fit just fine!
I decided to save a bit of money on yarn since I have so many projects going so I’m using Lion Brand wool-ease yarn which is 80% acrylic and 20% wool. Usually I hate acrylic yarn but this stuff doesn’t feel too plasticky and it has the added bonus of being machine washable. I got it on sale at Joann’s Fabrics for about $3 per 85g skein (each skein is about 200 yards). I bought 7 skeins for a ridiculous total of $21 in yarn for the whole sweater. A pretty good deal if you ask me even if it did mean I set aside my inherent hatred of all things acrylic. Like I said though, this stuff is actually pretty nice- I’ve used it in sweaters before and it’s pretty soft and wearable.
All in all, I’m really excited to wear this sweater!!
A Knit's Tale 