Two Patchwork Cardigans

Recently, I bought an overlocker. It was threaded in four colors (blue, gree, red, yellow). Of course I tried it out with these threads because I was too lazy to change them (it's probably less complicated then it looks in the manual, but still ... ). I really liked the color effect on my grey test piece, so I thought seams like that might make a nice feature on the outside of a garment.
That thought matured quite some time in my head, and this weekend I thought I'd give it a try and started to construct a cardigan. I used different grey(ish) jersey fabrics - leftovers and recycled old t-shirts. I didn't use a pattern but eyeballed the pieces when cutting and assembling them (with my measurements in the back of my head).
Unexpectedly, it actually worked and I had a finished jacket on Saturday evening. The piece fits me well - even though the seams are not what you'd call neat and tidy ;-)

So, I decided to make a second one on Sunday - using two old XL sized t-shirts - also in the "seams on the outside"-look.  Unfortunately, the two of the thread bobbins were empty, so I had to learn how to thread the machine (and it wasn't that difficult - except for the fine motor skills that you need to thread the needles :)

This second one (in light green and teal) is less successful in terms of fitting, but it's still basically a wearable jacket.

There are several things that I learned when making these two jackets:

• threading an overlocker is easier than it first seems
• when using an overlocker I use up much more thread than I ever expected
• thread tension is important
• two XL t-shirts (especially if they are old and a bit distorted) are not quite enough to make a jacket for me
• when cutting pieces, better err on the generous side :)

Green Summer Top

I am always proud to finish tops or sweaters. I mostly knit accessories (scarfs, fingerless gloves) that don't need swatching, you just start and it will work because sizing is not an issue. But a bigger project - where size actually matters - is something special for me.
So I was quite pleased when I finished this nice summer top in green cotton. I bought the yarn about three years ago and had already made two other attempts to knit a top with it - but it just didn't work the way I planned (you can see photos of my failed attempts on the Ravelry project page).

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When I restarted this in April, I settled for a simple top-down raglan construction - with seed stitch on arms and shoulders, stockinette stitch on front and back, and seed stitch instead of a ribbing. I am quite pleased with it and I like how the seed stitch feels.

Here's a rough description of what I did:

• First of all, I knitted a swatch (yes, for sweaters this is a useful step, even though I don't like swatching) and calculating the stitches to start with and the increases (if you don't want to calculate yourself, there are raglan calculators available on the internet, e.g. one by knittingfool.com or one by From TheHartle).
• Since I wanted visible raglan increases I distributed the stitches for the back of the neckline and the arms in a way, that I would reach the arm circumference and the planned width of the back or front at the same time. (Example: I wanted an arm circumference of 40 cm and 50 cm as width of the back or front part. So when I started, the neck part of my raglan part was 10 cm wider than either of the arm parts.)
• So I distributed my CO into 5 parts: left front (very small), left arm, back, right arm, right front - and started knitting flat (RS and WS).
• For the raglan increases I simply did yarn-overs.
• The V-neck shape was created by a simple kfb/kbf at the beginning/end of each RS row. 
• Once the stitch count on the two front bits added up to be as high as the stitch count of the back piece, I joined it at the front and started knitting in the round.
• I started with seed stitch on the arms and on the back. After seperating the arm stitches, I continued in the round in stockinette stitch (also on the back).  
• This is a boxy top. so I didn't do any shaping around the waist and hips (as opposed to other summer tops I've knitted, e.g. this one). 
• I finished the lower hem in seed stitch again, first in the round - and then I separated the piece into front and back.
• The arms were finished in seed stitch in the round, too.

Looking forward to wearing this in summer.

Lying flat - the pattern for the little knitted hearts is available here.