Hey Presto! (modifications)

I've had a some questions about the modifications I made on the 24-month size of Presto Chango, which I'll call the Lightning Bolt Version (LBV). Sara, since I'm not sure that the email address I have for you is correct--and Karen, since you asked, here are the specifics.

About 2 weeks ago, I sent some pattern edits to Jimmy Beans Wool. Laura (Jimmy) was so reassuring and kind (because I was feeling like a complete idiot) in her reply and told me that she had forwarded those changes to her webmaster. The edits were posted today, August 17, and they correct the neck and sleeve on the larger sizes to more reasonable dimensions. The neck has been brought in on the 12- and 24- month sizes; the straight-across sleeve width has been decreased on the 24-month size. So what am I trying to say here? The Jimmy Beans pattern is now good to go. If, however, you are like me and are rarely content to knit a pattern as written, read on.

What necessitated the changes, you ask? I was very concerned that you lovely trusting knitters who want to make the 24-month size might have the same disappointment I had upon seeing the very-wide neck. Commenter Karen also pointed out the huge cuffs on the unmodified 24-month size. If you're after the full-on kimono look for the sweater, the big cuffs would be good, but I think they were a little too big--so they got changed.

After considering how to explain the LBV mods, I thought you might want to see exactly what got changed in the original version, as well. So, along with the sleeve and shoulder shaping and lightning bolt panel pattern that I post today, I will include those changes that I sent along to Jimmy Beans. I refer to the Jimmy Beans site throughout these pattern changes and I got the okay from Jimmy Beans to post this, so here we go.

P.S. If you are knitting for a chunky baby and want to have the original wider sleeve width at the top where it meets the body of the sweater, I would highly recommend shaping the sleeve so that it is not huge at the wrist; that's what I did on the LBV. The numbers for that mod are included below {in these kind of brackets}.


Changes are in red.

Back

• CO 36 (39, 45) sts.


• Rows 1-5: Work seed stitch, creating bottom band of back.


• Row 6: P across, increasing 5 (6, 6) sts evenly across the row; 41 (45, 51) sts.


• Row 7: K across.


• Continue in st st until back measures 6 (7, 9 {8 for LBV shaped sleeves}) inches from cast on edge.
  

Add Sleeves

• Cast on 24 (28, 32) stitches at beginning of next 2 rows; 89 (101, 115) sts.


• Work k1, p1, k1 on first 3 sts, stockinette across row and k1, p1, k1 on last 3 sts of each row until back measures 9 (11, 13) inches from cast on edge.


• Begin seed stitch band for neck edge as follows: K1, p1, k1 (cuff), st st 29 (35, 42) sts, seed stitch on next 25 (25 for all sizes) sts (neck border), st st 29 (35, 42), k1, p1, k1 (cuff).


• Repeat this row 4 more times.
  

Neck opening

• Next row: K1, p1, k1, st st 29 (35, 42); seed stitch 4 at neck edge, Cast off 17 (17 for all sizes), seed st 4, st st 29 (35, 42). k1, p1, k1.


• Sweater will now be worked back and forth to form one side of front.


• Continue in st st, maintaining 4 seed stitch border at neck edge and 3 seed stitch border at cuff. Work until sleeve measures 8 (10, 10 {11 for LBV}) inches, ending at cuff edge. Piece measures 14 (17, 19) inches from cast on edge.
  

Side fronts

• Cast off 24 (28, 32) stitches to end sleeve; 12 (14, 17) sts remain.


• Work remaining stitches for side front in st st, maintaining 4 seed st border along inner edge.


• When work measures 6 (7, 9 {8 for LBV} ) inches from sleeve cast off edge, work seed st across row, decreasing 1 (1, 2) stitch(es) by k2tog.


• Work seed st 4 more rows.


• Cast off remaining stitches.


• Join yarn to neck edge for other side front.


• Work back and forth in st st maintaining 4 seed st border at inner edge and 3 seed st border at cuff.


• When second sleeve measures same as first, cast off 24 (28, 32) stitches to end sleeve.


• Work remaining sts as mirror image of other side front.
  

Front panel with cascading leaves

• Directions for all 3 sizes are changed to the same stitch counts as the smallest size--please see the pattern on the Jimmy Beans Wool website. Buttonhole spacing and panel length are unchanged.


• As the panel is knit, make a buttonhole in each side at an interval of 2 (2 1/2, 2 1/4) inches, approximately every 12 (15, 14) rows. The top buttonholes should be 1/2 inch from the top.


• Repeat the 8 pattern rows until panel is 6 (7 1/2, 9) inches from cast on edge.


• End with 5 rows of seed stitch (remember the top two buttonholes) then cast off.


• Panel measures 7 (8 1/2, 9) inches from cast on edge.

Finishing

• Sew up seams on sides and under arms. Sew on buttons, using buttonholes on panel to mark placement for buttons.
  

Lightning Bolt Version sleeve shaping

• Follow directions for casting on and working body as above.


• After adding sleeves, work 4 rows. On next row, knit to 4 sts from left edge. Bring yarn to front work, slip st from left needle to right, take yarn to back of work and slip st from right needle back to left needle; turn work. (If you haven't done short rows before, this is called "wrap and turn", often abbreviated as "w&t".) Purl back to within 4 sts of edge, w&t. *Knit to 6 sts before previous turning point on this sleeve, w&t. Purl to 6 sts before previous turning point on this sleeve, w&t. Repeat from * 2 more times (4 turning points on each sleeve).


• Now this is the nifty part: Knit all the way to the cuff. As you reach a wrapped stitch, pick up the wrap together with the stitch it encircles. Knit the two strands together, making sure to lay the stitch yarn over the top of the wrap yarn and so that the wrap yarn disappears behind the stitch.


• Continue to knit the sweater, following directions for making the neck opening.


• After about 2 1/2 inches of sleeve after casting off for the neck opening, start the short rows again: work to 22 sts from the cuff edge, w&t the next st. *Work back to neck edge, turn and then work back to 6 sts past last turning point, w&t. Repeat from * 2 more times (4 turning points). Return to neck edge, then work all the way to the cuff edge, again knitting the wraps together with the sts they encircle. Finish knitting sleeve as directed in original pattern, taking measurement of the sleeve only at the point where it meets the body. Finish sweater front as specified in the pattern on the Jimmy Beans site.


• Join yarn to neck edge for other sleeve and follow shaping directions as for first sleeve. Finish front same as other side.

Lightning Bolt Version shoulder shaping

• This is going to take some time to put into words. I fully intend to edit this post to include this info after I'm done knitting the blasted magazine sweater. If, however, I don't get back to it, I followed the shoulder shaping instructions for the Bog Jacket found in Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I did four increases every other row as I approached the top of the shoulder, then 4 decreases every other row as I came down the front of the shoulder.
  

Lightning Bolt Version front panel

(This panel was designed for the 24-month size before the neck opening width was changed to be narrower. It would still work for the revised 24-month size, but it would bow out a little, as it is wider than the opening. That might be a good thing, considering little tummies bow out, too.)

• Cast on 27 sts. Work 6 rows in seed sts, just as for original panel pattern, placing buttonholes as directed. Work one plain row of knitting between seed st borders, increasing 4 sts evenly across row (31 sts).


• Keeping 4 sts on each edge in seed st, work zig-zag pattern across the middle 23 sts.
  

Zig-zag pattern:

1. K3, k2tog, k3, [yo, k2tog] twice, yo, k11.


2. Purl.


3. K2, k2tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, [ssk, yo] twice, k3, ssk, k6.


4. Purl.


5. K1, k2tog, [k3, yo] twice, [ssk, yo] twice, k3, ssk, k5.


6. Purl.


7. K2tog, k3, yo, k5, yo, [ssk, yo] twice, k3, ssk, k4.


8. Purl.


9. K 11, yo, [ssk, yo] twice, k3, ssk, k3.


10. Purl.


11. K6, k2tog, k3, [yo, k2tog] twice, yo, k1, yo, k3, ssk, k2.


12. Purl.


13. K5, k2tog, k3, [yo, k2tog] twice, [yo, k3] twice, ssk, k1.


14. Purl.


15. k4, k2tog, k3, [yo, k2tog] twice, yo, k5, yo, k3, ssk.


16. Purl.

• Continue to place button holes as specified in original pattern. Repeat 16 rows of zig-zag pattern until 1" from desired length. Finish with 6 rows of seed st, evenly spacing 4 decreases across in first row of seed st.

power to change

***Whoops! I just realized that I jumped the gun and picked the winner a day early. If anyone missed entering for the froggy and sock yarn and still would like to send me an email, I'll give away more yarn tomorrow on the proper deadline. If no one else enters, I think I'll pick another prize winner anyway. It's fun. :D

I really like the Random Number Generator. The last time I picked a prize winner, I discovered that I have to do the same thing that I do with stoplights. When I'm driving along and approaching a stoplight, I have to say out loud, "I'm going, I'm going, okay NOW I'm going!" And up until the moment I say NOW, I will stop if it turns yellow; after that point, I have passed the point of no return. What's the official term for it? You know, the words they use for when you've gone past the point where you have enough fuel to fly back where you came from... ?? The Point of No Return? (Would that be the PNR in military jargon? I have a brother in the Air Force, for crying out loud; I should know these things!)

Anyway, I could sit (and have sat) for an embarassingly long time, hitting the "Again!" button and asking for new numbers to be generated, just for the fun of seeing what will pop up. So when I selected the prize winners last time, I had to say, "I'm picking, I'm picking, okay NOW I'm picking!" Please don't let this distress you as to whether the choice is truly random. We are assured by the Random Number Generator website that each number is truely random--like atmospheric noise, they say--and not just produced from a mathematical formula. (Speaking of randomness, and to confuse you, I have a random picture of yarn to spice up the story. This is Hello Yarn Fiber Club's May selection, 5 ounces of Blue-Faced Leicester wool, called "Cricket". I got 297 yards of worsted weight 2-ply yarn out of it. I think it's the most beautiful, gentle, sublime mix of colors I have ever seen in wool. It's softly spun and very fluffy. I can't wait to knit it.)

Tonight, to choose the winner of the froggy and sock yarn, I said, "I'm picking, I'm picking, okay N--aaaarh!" Because the power went out just as I was going to get the final number. Grrrr. It's just as well. Now I can go into it fresh and just say that the first number is the one (won!). I can play around with more numbers later... (Another random picture of yarn: Boberly is knitting a hat out of one of the new colors of Noro Silk Garden. I'm not sure of the color number, but there's some very bright pink in there! Doesn't it make a pretty flower? She saw this yarn at the LYS on Saturday and asked if I'd teach her to knit a hat. She's only done flat knitting up until now. I think she's quite impressed with herself, and she's smitten with the Silk Garden. I know I am.)

Back to the Random Number Generator (that would be the RNG): The winner is...Number 2!!!! (Hang on, I've got to go look at the emails and see who that is.) It's Nell of Chicken Knits! Yay Nell!

Little Lovey PeeWee (that's LLPW) has started sleeping through the night! (Hallelujah!) Not every night, but about every other night. The other nights she has been waking up at odd intervals and shouting things like "I NEED IT!" She's a funny little bird. She finally let me take pictures of her in the Presto.


I have to admit that I'm very disappointed in how the neck fits her. She has skinny little shoulders, but I think that the pattern needs a serious edit to bring the neck opening in closer on the 24-month size. If anyone reading this happens to be knitting the bigger size, I'm going to contact Jimmy Beans and see if they wouldn't mind letting me tweak the numbers to fix it. If you've already knit it, you have my sincerest apology. I didn't realize until I actually knit the 24-month size that increasing the neck opening at the same rate as the body width would come out this way. The 6-month size will be unchanged; I think it's fine as is. The 12-month and the 24-month size neck openings will be changed to be the same measurement as the 6-month. (They will all have 17 stitches cast off for the neck opening.) The front panel will be the same width for all three sizes, just increasing in length as needed for each size. (This was Jean's brilliant suggestion when I presented her with the problem.) I'm sorry I'm such an amateur. Tsk. I'll do better next time!



Can you hear her? Can you hear LLPW singing her favorite song? It's by Laurie Berkner: Boots, boots, B-O-O-T-S!

Change-O!

My cutie 6-year-old has let me know that spelling a word c-h-a-n-g-o means that it should be pronounced "chan-go" (rhymes with fandango). Hmmm. Anyhoo, here it are!


I finally finished the 24-month-size. PeeWee won't let me put it on her for a glamour shot. It's just as well--I don't have the buttons sewn on yet. I posed the sweater with these daisy buttons but I only have 8 of them. I'll probably get some more of these green shell buttons

• Pattern: Presto Chango by yours truly; size 24 months.
• Yarn: Blue Sky Organic Cotton #81 Nut, just barely more than 2 balls.
• Modifications: I widened the cuffs from 3 to 5 seed stitches. I wish I had only done 4; 5 is a little too wide. I specified 3 stitches in the pattern because I thought it would be easier for people to remember to knit-purl-knit on the end of every row rather than worry about whether it should be kpk or pkp. I think I needn't have worried. After all, I didn't let that stop me from using 4 stitches along the front.
  
  I shaped the shoulders by increasing 4 times every other row on the uphill side of the shoulders and decreasing equally on the downhill side. I got the idea for the shoulder shaping from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Bog Jacket.
  
  The sleeves are shaped with short rows, 4 turns before the center line of the sleeve and 4 turns after. I was worried that I'd have a hard time matching the second half of the sleeve shaping to the first half (since I hadn't written anything down) but I just peered at the wrong side of the knitting and tried to do my turns in approximately the same places. I picked up the wraps and knit them in behind the stitches, but they did leave little lumps. They'll probably smooth out when I block it.
  
  I also knit a different pattern on the front panel. I knitted the front panel while listening to Harry Potter 7 read aloud by my dear friend Wendi. She and her husband hosted a weekend Read-HP7-Until-We-All-Pass-Out-Or-It's-Over-Whichever-Comes-First Party. It was fantastic. I got to listen to Harry Potter AND knit. In honor of the occasion, I knit a lightning bolt into the front panel. :)
  
  If anyone is interested in the specifics on the sleeve or shoulder shaping, I'll type that up and post it...

Jen of Knitting Sutra is having a great contest and looking for pool-defying sock pattern suggestions. Here are the details, so go give her your ideas--and be sure to tell her I sent you (because then I get another shot at the gorgeous German yarn and the nifty Dutch bag she's offering).

I can't bear it--I want to have a contest, too. I'm such a lemming. And I want to reward the hardy souls who made it to the end of this post. :)

Does anyone remember the frog accessory case that I tried to give away a couple of months ago? The prize winner never came back to claim it. Sad, I know. But I have learnt my lesson: I shall try again, but I will ask for email addresses! I'd like to send Froggy out to someone with some sock yarn--So if you're interested, send me a note at shoeless UNDERSCORE valerie AT yahoo DOT com (there's a link on my blogger profile) and tell me your favorite kind of pie. Hey, I like pie. It's not really a contest, is it. I just thought it would be interesting... I'll put your names in a hat and draw one out on August 1 after dinner, say 8 PM? Good? Okay.

no more pencils, no more books

Knit? Blog? School's out, dontcha know. There are sprinklers to dance in, trees to climb, bugs to collect. Also, planning the lemonade stand has been using most of my free time. I'm overcome with gratitude for the support from the good people who have visited our little virtual lemonade stand. Your kindness and generosity are a blessing. I thank you. PeeWee thanks you. Little bald kids with cancer who are just like every other kid and simply want to play--they thank you. If any of you gentle readers are new here and are following links from other's blogs, please see my last post for more information about the lemonade stand. Thanks for coming by! I so wish I were really pouring lemonade for you.

There has been a bit o' knitting, though. We have ball games every night, so I get a few stitches done in between yelling "That's okay, buddy. Nice swing!" and trying to sweet-talk PeeWee into thowing away the used sunflower seed shells she finds under the stands. I've been working on a 24-month size of the Presto Chango pattern. I thought I'd try out a few mods--shaped shoulders and sleeves. The shoulder shaping is done by coming out a few stitches from the neck (about 6 rows before the neck is bound off) and increasing on each side. Matching decreases will be done after reaching the summit of the shoulders and coming down on the other side. I've been shaping the sleeves by doing short-rows. I like the shoulder shaping, but the short-row shaping is causing me stress, because I didn't write down what I did as I did it and mirroring the shaping on the down-hill side of the sweater will likely be tedious and nit-picky. (How many stitches was that?!?!?)

I'm going to confuse you with some random pictures of yarn while I talk about something else: RAVELRY!!! Wahoooo! I got an invitation to join in last week--It is SOOOOO COOL. If any of you have put your names on the request list to join and have not heard from them, be patient, it is worth it.

The site designers, Casey and Jess, just put out a message tonight asking for understanding and patience. Apparently some people are getting frustrated with the wait. At the beginning of May when they put up the form for requests to join, they got 3,500 requests within 2 weeks (!!!) and another 1000 in the following weeks. They said that they're up to #1,166 now and working as hard and fast as they can to catch up with demand. There are beta issues they have to take care of before they can open up the site completely, but for now, it's metered merging.

We need one more picture...


Ah...Socks that Rock in Rooster Rock. See the brown and purple? Me loves it!

prizes, yours and mine

***Long, wordy post, not very many pictures, maybe an interesting story or two...

Who got the frog and the yarn? The handy integer generator at random.org spit out numbers 20 and 14, so that means Laura will get the frog and the mysterious S gets the yarn. I hope you are checking back to see if you won, because I don't have email addresses for either of you! Please email me (see the "contact me" link) and I'll get these items sent to you. If I don't hear from you by next Saturday, I'll pick another number. Fair enough? I'm so sad that I don't have prizes for every one of you. I think I'll have to institute regular prize drawings to help me feel better.

The first installment of my prizes from Jimmy Beans Wool arrived on Thursday. I've spent the past three days chauffering and applauding at various recitals and ball games, so I haven't had the chance to set everything out and take a picture, but I'll do that when the second box arrives next week. I did empty the contents of the white bag onto my bed last night and in the course of settling down to sleep, I might have rolled around in it. (Hey, the yarn smells fantastic and I'm a little lonely; Eric's gone to a show for the weekend.)

In her comment on the last post, Brynne pointed out something else that I had considered along with add-on cuffs for Presto, and that's knitting up a wider panel to accomodate an older, wider baby. (Lately I've been feeling cosmically aligned with other knitters. Is it the position of the stars? Is it the power of the wool? Is it the fact that I read your blogs and then forget what I've read and then read it again and it all seems so familiar? Sorry, what were we talking about?) Then Ali mentioned that the stitches could be pickup up around the cuff and just knit the sleeves longer, perhaps with a contrasting yarn. Good thought, Ali--and then you could knit a new panel in the contrasting yarn!

Also in the comments on the last post, Jen mentioned that the Presto pattern had been mentioned on the Knitty boards. Naturally I had to go see what was being said and a very nice person who goes by "lindydiva" suggested that the body of the sweater could be knit in a multicolor with pink and blue (or whatever) panels--handy if you don't know the gender of the baby for whom you're knitting. So many possibilities! I was thinking of perhaps starting up a Flickr group for all these Presto variations. I would love to see these great ideas coming to life.

Jimmy Beans of Jimmy Beans Wool is actually a lovely person named Laura. We've been emailing back and forth and she asked me what my inpiration for Presto was. I gave her the short version; would any of you like the long version? You would? Okay! (I like having these little imaginary conversations with you. You always say just the right things.) This is already one of the longest posts I've ever written. Let's just keep going!

My precious darlin' PeeWee, who just turned 2, was born with a tumor in her abdomen. Between the ages of 1 and 5 months, she had chemo to shrink it and treat the metastases in her legs. The chemo and subsequent tumor removal surgery did the trick and she is now, blessedly, cancer-free. She does have a few little residuals. They're not major and I do not mind them; they are an easy trade for the priviledge of being with my PeeWee. She's a terrible sleeper--prone to nighmares and easily startled--and she has a very touchy gag reflex. She doesn't throw up nearly as much as she used to, but we still have to be vigilant about foods that don't readily dissolve in the mouth.

Last fall, during one of those long pukey nights, I wished for all of her clothes to have interchangable front panels. Moving her around to change her clothes was often very uncomfortable for her and it would have been so nice to only have to unbutton the front and switch it out. This spring when I read about the pattern contest and saw the prize pack for the pattern contest, I zeroed in on the prize from Lantern Moon: a pair of Exotic Wood Needles, an Origami Bag, and a ball of 100% Silk Gelato. I promptly declared that I was going to enter that contest and win that prize, by gum! (Every day I fight the urge to spend all of the grocery money on Lantern Moon needles, and have you seen the Silk Gelato, have you?!?)

Now do you want to hear the story of the pattern writing and submission? Allrighty, then! During another of PeeWee's wakeful nights, I figured out the construction of the sweater in my head and then sketched it out the next morning. I had been wanting to try Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton ever since reading about it on Ali's blog, so I ordered some and got knitting. I finished the prototype on April 28 then spent time on the 29th working out the other sizes. I got the final draft of the pattern written up on the 30th after my kids were in bed, then started trying to email it to Jimmy Beans at around 10:00 PM. I spent the next two hours trying to figure out why my blasted email program (Microsoft Outlook) wouldn't send, finally dissolving into tears at 12:10 AM, having missed the deadline. At 12:17 AM I had a brain wave: I opened up my yahoo email account, copied the entry into a new email and sent it off, telling Jimmy Beans that I'd had "connection issues" and would they please let me know if they could consider the entry for April's contest or not. Then I went to bed. I was sure I'd missed it.

The next morning, I had a reply from Jimmy (Laura) that the pattern had come through just fine and in time. The time stamp on my email was April 30, 11:20 PM!!!! Hooray for Nevada and the Pacific Time Zone! So if you read in their newsletter that I got my pattern in just before the deadline, you'll know they're not kidding!

Wow. That was long.

Edited to Add: I can't believe that I got so busy with telling stories that I didn't say this first-- Thank you so much for the kind and complimentary things that you've said about the Presto pattern. I appreciate it very much!

more Presto

PeeWee: size 24 months; Presto Chango: size 6 months. Marvel with me at the amazing stretch of the knit. Of course the sleeves are rather short--but fashionably so, don't you think? I tossed around the idea when I was coming up with the pattern of putting buttons on the cuffs and including instructions for extender cuffs that could be buttoned on later in a child's life, but I didn't do it. Maybe I should write that up. Any opinions on that?

Yes, the two photos in the last post are of the same sweater, same yarn. The top one is of the sweater on the lid of my piano next to an east window with late morning light. I put a copy of the picture through a Photoshop warming filter before I sent it to Jimmy Beans, but the one on this blog is the unfiltered copy--It's all washed out. The second shot of Kristen's beautiful baby and today's picture of PeeWee (though a little dark) more accurately represent the color of the Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton (#82-Nut).

I think that its time to spread the love. I have two things to share today. Firstly, I saw these little critters on Sheep in the City and I couldn't help myself; I ordered two. One will stay with me and the other one shall be sent out to one of you. They're made by Clover and there are some other versions besides frogs--CUTE!

Secondly, I have a hank of 4/8s merino, hand-dyed by the nice ladies at Yarn Today. It's 560 yards of 100% merino wool in a colorway called "Autumn Twilight". If anyone would like a little froggy case or a big hank of yarn, leave me a comment saying so and I'll pick the recipients with the handy online random number generator.

ETA: I'll pick the winners on Saturday morning (May 19). Yay! I think giving prizes is as fun as winning them!

Presto Chango!

I'm stunned speechless. We'll just have to go with a link or three.

Jimmy Beans Wool

Pattern Contest

Pattern contest winner: PRESTO CHANGO!!!.


And you're right, I didn't have the buttons sewn for the photo shoot, but isn't he beautiful? "No pictures, please!"

This is my first published pattern. I'm a little worried that the directions make sense to me because I wrote them, but will be confusing to anyone else. Anybody want to look them over and tell me what you think? That third link up there takes you to the pattern on the Jimmy Beans Wool site.

And while we're talking about Jimmy Beans Wool, they are a fantastically wonderful online yarn store--Try them out and see! They have a great website, a superb inventory, and lightning-fast shipping and customer service. (No, they didn't pay me to say that, really!)

I've got to go call my mom. She's the whole reason I submitted this pattern, because she always told me that it never hurts to try... I hope I can be as encouraging for my children as she has always been for me. Isn't it perfect that tomorrow is Mother's Day?