Size Matters

Many of you are getting very creative with your sweaters! I love to see the variety.

Remember that when you use a decorative stitch, the ratio of rows/sts has to change to keep the sweater the right size. For instance, if you knit in garter stitch (knit each row), and you follow the basic pattern, your sweater will turn out short and wide. To correct this, experiment with adding a few extra rows (to increase length) or using fewer stitches (to reduce width).

Remember that the sweaters should be 3" wide, 3.5" long, with sleeves 3" long x 1" tall.

Keep 'em comin'!
-nina

KnitNet Article

KnitNet, an online knitting magazine (www.knitnet.com), published an article about Red Sweaters in their Spring'05 Edition. You do not have to be a member to read the article - just follow this link, or click on the "new or just visiting" button off their main page to see a sample!
The article is in the "Notes in the margin" section, about halfway down the page. Enjoy! And thank you, Sharon Airhart, for the article.

Coming soon - an article (or blurb) in a major knitting magazine!! (ever hear of Vogue Knitting?!)
-nina

........Tails..........

After looking at over 300 different sweaters, I am still amazed at some of the creative things you guys are doing. And I don't mean experimental stitching - I mean the ways you all interpret the directions - specifically, the sleeve tails.

I have seen tails range in size from 1/4" to 3 feet long. I have seen tails hanging from the top or bottom of the sleeve, from shoulders, neck, and bottom. I have seen some with no tails, some with as many as 8 tails. Some tails neatly gathered into little bunches, some wrapped around the body 10 times, some secured with bag ties, others tangled loosely into a web within the envelope. One sweater has a very cute 1" loop at one end, and no tail at the other.

I know that no matter how many times, no matter how clearly I explain, I will continue to see this variety. And that's OK. It's all part of working on a project of this scale. But I'll explain the tail in detail anyway, for those of you who are curious :)

The long tail at the end of the sleeves will allow me to tie the sweaters together so they can be easily suspended in the tree. Imagine this: 4 sweaters lay on the table next to each other. Take the tail from sweater 1 and pass it through the sleeve and out the neck hole of sweater 2. Take the tail from sweater 3 and pass it through the other sleeve and out the neck hole of sweater 2. Tie sweater 1 and 3 together. Then take the tail of sweater 2 and pass it through the sleeve and neck hole of sweater 3, then tie sweater 2 to sweater 4 inside sweater 3. Continue this procedure for as many sweaters as you have, continuing to tie the odd sweaters together inside the even sweaters, and even sweaters together inside the odd sweaters. This will create a chain, or garland, that can drape or wrap or climb around the tree.

The ideal tail will be approximately 1 foot long (so there is enough room to pass the tail through the neighboring sweater and tie a knot), and it will emerge from the sweater at the TOP of the sleeve opening. That means that after you finish sewing your side seam, you need to weave the tail along the outside edge of the sleeve opening until it reaches the top of the sleeve - then secure it in place with a knot. The sweater will not hang correctly if the tail starts at the bottom of the sleeve.

I hope this explanation helps. If not, don't worry about it. I'll fix your sweater when it gets here :)
-nina

Tons

I'm back and sorting through piles and piles of sweaters! It's going to take me some time to catch up with website updates (runway and gallery). But I'm going to try to at least keep the counter up to date.

Lots of deaths in the last 2 weeks. We're up to 1605 dead, and as of today I have accepted 331 sweaters. That leaves 1274 sweaters still to knit.

Please keep sending in those sweaters!

Remember - to guarantee that your sweater will be accepted, use Red Heart yarn in color Cherry Red. I am accepting some other brands and shades of red, but not all of them. If you want to be sure that your sweater is accepted, email me privately if you are unsure of your color or brand choice, or just use Red Heart yarn in Cherry Red. I hate having to reject sweaters :(

Keep on knitting! and crocheting! and thinking about current events!
-nina