Ah, the moment is finally here. The unveiling of my first handknit sweater. A sweater that I love so much, it hurts a little bit when I take it off. So without further ado, I give you my Seamless Hybrid.
Pattern: Seamless Hybrid from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Cordovan (5 skeins) and Olive Heather (1 skein)
Needles: US #7 - 24″ Circular, 8″ Circular, DPNs
Price: $30 for 6 skeins at WEBS
Knitting Time: Sept. 1, 2007 - Nov. 21, 2007
Inspired by so many others before me, I used EZ’s recipe to create a comfortable sweater with a few personal touches.
I chose Cascade 220 because it was inexpensive, and because it’s a true workhorse. Perfect stitch definition, beautiful colors and a dream to knit with, it’s really a great sweater yarn. I shamelessly copied Fricknits color choices, originally planning to only use the olive color for hems on the sleeves and body. But once I worked the brown and olive yarns together, I fell in love with the combo and knew that I had to include some green in the body. So the idea of stripes was born. (More on this in a bit…)
Once the striping was decided upon, all that was left to do was knit, knit and knit. I actually switched between English and Continental a few times, since a few tests showed that my gauge was the same in both, even though I was fairly new at Continental. It was the first time I’ve ever really thrown caution to the wind with my knitting technique, and thankfully it worked out fine. Not to mention that I got some good speed with my left hand on the body, which helped out a lot. Then once all the pieces were done, I joined them up and worked the yoke, finishing in time to wear the sweater for Thanksgiving.
The neck was the only part that gave me a bit of grief, since there were a few holes after picking up all the stitches, but I was able to use a bit of darning needle magic to close them up at the end.
All in all, I’m pleased as punch with this sweater, and I’ve already worn it 4 times since its completion. It was quite effective at staving off the cold lake air in Chicago. I’m definitely going to have to get a new sweater on the needles, because I think I’ve spoiled myself for store bought sweaters. It’s just such an amazing feeling to wear something you made with your very own hands…I get a bit of a high everytime I put the sweater on :)
Now that the sweater is unveiled, we get to have a fun little contest. See, the stripes might look a bit random, but they actually spell out a hidden message. What could it be? That’s your job to figure out. So get out your Little Orphan Annie decoder rings and get ready, because here’s the rules:
- The picture shown below is the exact stripe sequence on the body of the sweater, and the entire message is hidden in those stripes.
- The message starts at row 1 and ends at row 80 as shown in the picture. I’ve split it up into two pictures to save space, but don’t assume that the location of the split tells you anything about the message.
- Anyone is allowed to make a guess at what the message is, but you must back that guess up with reasoning; i.e. “I think that the message is X, because Y and Z.”
- Guesses without proof will not be eligible, i.e. you can’t guess “Emma and Dallas!” on a gut feeling. This is like when your math teacher would mark you down for writing down the answer without showing supporting work ;)
- You don’t have to make a guess to comment, so if you aren’t the puzzle type, and just want to say hi, please feel free to chime in with other comments!
- The first person to make a correct guess will win a lovely Yarn Nerd prize package, guaranteed to have 3-4 skeins of yarn and maybe a few other goodies.
Got all that? Good. Now here’s your clue. Happy decoding everyone! (And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my last contest…I’ll announce the winners of that one when I get a winner for this one, promise!)
Oh, and if you’re keeping track, I will be 23 tomorrow. Man I’m getting old! ;) I highly doubt I will post tomorrow, so I’m going to wish myself Happy Birthday a day early!
Happy birthday tomorrow! You share your birthday with my husband. It must be and auspicious day for math nerds. :)
The sweater looks amazing. I’m going to put Jeff to work decoding your message.
Oh, I know what it is! There’s a nice conversion mechanism on the web– but since I just got a great package from you, I probably shouldn’t play :)
In my excitement about the secret code, I didn’t write anything else. It’s a handsome sweater, and I don’t blame for your wanting to wear it all the time! The color combination is really great.
I hope you have a wonderful birthday tomorrow!
as far as the code goes: yeah right. i’ll leave that to you and your fellow supergeniuses.
as far as the sweater goes: loves it!
The sweater turned out great - it really is the perfect fit!
Ok, I supercharged my decoder and have the answer: HelloWorld. The code is binary, where green is 0 and brown is 1. Can I just say that it’s pretty much the geekiest thing that one can encode in a garment?
Happy birthday tomorrow!
Love the sweater! Happy early birthday. :)
Is it HELLO WORLD? Binary alphabet?
Congratulations! It looks great. I wouldn’t want to take it off either. Enjoy
Secret message = I’m giving this sweater to Michelle. Reason - I’m a dreamer :) Very nice! It looks very good on you.
Congrats on the sweater!
Long-time reader, first time commenter — :-) — but I couldn’t resist when I found out you were just one month younger than me. So tomorrow that will make us two 23 year-old Adam’s who knit! So happy Birthday too!
The sweater looks great! I totally cheated with the answer to your secret message, since I used a binary-to-text converter rather than converting it manually, but who knew Hello World could look so nifty? Yay for math nerds!
Happy early birthday! Hope you have a good one.
once again, your knitting and nerdery amaze me :). i can’t believe you only spent $30 on that sweater.
happy birthday. you’re still just a baby…
I’m late on this, but it is hello world. Is it weird that I knew that from the first byte? I’m weird, plus it would have been a good guess w/o trying.
well i was going to say hello world
but it looks like someone else got to it first
lovely sweater tho!
Fabulous sweater, Adam. Happy Birthday!
dude, that sweater is amazing. good for you.
and what is with the december birthdays. mine is this month too but later on in the month. go sags!
and i’m old enough to be your mother. now that’s depressing.
Excellent sweater and Happy Birthday!
WOW! What a great first sweater! And happy birthday to you… ahem ahem, 23 is NOT old! I figured it was binary code… I thought maybe it said drink more ovaltine, but that seems too long. Very clever!
Adam, that sweater is just fabulous! You look great in it, too!!
I can’t figure out the puzzle, but I’m betting it has something to do with “Young Frankenstein”–…”warm milk? Ovaltine?” But I know I’ll be marked down for lack of proof.
Anyway, have a wonderful birthday!!!
My first thought was binary code, but since so many others have figured out the ‘Hello World’ message, I’ll just settle for wishing you happy birthday! The sweater looks great, I might make one for my husband, who is a computer/math geek and would probably get a kick out of it too.
All of the science and math is making my head hurt, but the sweater looks amazing! Great job!
Adam, your sweater is a work of art! Hard to believe it’s your first one … you did an amazing job!
Adam - I’m in love with your sweater too! Perfect color combo, perfect knitting, perfect fit. Bravo! This is gorgeous! And yay for nerd code in knitting - awesome!
Hello world! In binary!
Hello world! In binary! Not that I’m the first or anything. :P
Still, it’s a fabulous sweater. :)
Echoing so many others, my first thought was binary code, too. Ah, well…the sweater looks phenomenal, and is a great birthday present to yourself! Happy Birthday, and many more! (23 is SO not old! Says the girl who’s now having to decide whether “mid” or “late” 20s is a more appropriate description. Oy!)
congrats on the sweater! its wonderful and looks great on you.
The sweater is absolutely FABULOUS! It is quite handsome and the colors are perfect!
I love reading your blog…real men do knit! (Not that my hubby does…but he doesn’t complain when I come home with more yarn. Thank God!)
To answer your “quiz”-”Hello World!” in binary code. Of course I am not the first to answer, but I love contests!
Enjoy the sweater!
Damn … and I thought I was so clever for working it out. Hello world. Even found the decoder ring you used at RoubaixInteractive, and the ovaltine reference ;-)
Been a long time since I used binary - my Elec Eng degree is from 1995. Nice work on the sweater, regardless.
Nice geeky sweater - isn’t what we all love. And great colors on you too. Happy b-day. Come show it off in our Ravelry knit group at the local Flying Star.
Well I’ll admit that I first thought of morse code, but before setting to decode it, I just wanted to check what others thougth…. and I was corrected ;)
I love the sweater, and the idea with at hidden message is brilliant!
Oh and happy birthday! As I myself is 24, I don’t consider 23 to be any great age at all ;)
That is a fabulous sweater Adam!! Looks so good on you!! I love that you put the code in there, not that I’ll ever be guessing I just think it looks cool! :) Enjoy wearing it!
Happy Birthday Adam! I’ll leave the code breaking for the NSA.
Fantastic job, especially for your first sweater. Happy birthday!
I don’t know binary, I don’t see binary, I don’t think in binary. So while your sweater may be a friend of binary… I want to pretend it’s the UPC scan code off the jar of ovaltine! : )
My first thought (as well as my husband’s) was binary alphabet, and we got “Hello World”. I haven’t looked through all the comments yet, but I’m sure someone else got this way before I did…
It looks awesome, Adam! Great work, and I love the sneaky message.
Happy Birthday! I was 23 when you were born…but I am quite sure you are far more mature than I was at 23. Anyway, you are now half my age, but next year you won’t be half my age…it’s one of those weird number things. Love the sweater, but I was sure it said “Hi Mom” in binary…like I even know what binary is???? Just want to say that I love you and I thank the Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful son! ~Mom
My first guess was Morse Code, but yeah … binary makes much more sense. sigh A Yarn Nerd package would have been so great! :)
Seamless Hybrid looks fantastic. it’s totally on my “must knit” list … someday … if I ever finish the queue of sweaters waiting for seaming that are lurking around my house! ::double sigh:: Great work, though! Always nice to see another sweater knitter come into the fold :)
I would be tempted to make a sweater that says “Hello Back.” Or one that says “OMG a binary sweater!!!” And I love Kristi’s idea that it’s a bar code scan of Ovaltine… or maybe the numbers that are recited in the movie for “Don’t forget to drink more…”
…. Happy birthday, by the way. And 23 isn’t old. I’m teetering on the edge of 30 and MAN is it scary.
Hello World, in binary, which I now see someone figured out first, but I still had to get it in there.
What a great-looking sweater!
Well, I’m no good at codes and so on (although I did used to be able to read Futhark; may have to dig it out again). However! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear boy. Twenty-three…so you were born in what, (I’m figuring this out with paper and pencil) 1984, right? I sure am glad it wasn’t (then) like the book “1984″! Sorry you missed all the flash and color and drama of the ’60s and ’70s, but take my word for it, there was SOME FUN. And some drama. HOWEVER! That sweater is dreamy, beautiful, looks comfortable, is totally neat and tidy - and although I’ve never even thought about knitting a sweater (and I don’t often wear ‘em), I may just give that one a shot. And some may poo-poo Cascade 220 (though I haven’t heard any, actually) I use lots and LOTS of it. Love the feel, love the colors (although I generally use one of the many reds, knitting toques for voyageurs as I do) and love the stitch definition. Yep, I’m inspired, may try me one of those.
Congratulations on your fantastic sweater. The colors are great, and it looks amazing on you!
Happy birthday!!
Great job on the sweater, and happy birthday! I hope you have a great day tomorrow.
I LOVE the green striping, and that you have a hidden code (for some reason I can’t wait to find out what it is - but sadly have never been so good at the decoding thing).
Happy Birthday!!! Hope you’ve had much fun :)
It looks like maybe the why is missing on the many answers of “Hello World”. So here’s my guess for why. As I recall the first thing one does when learning a new computer programming language is create a program say “hello world”. So naturally, the first thing one has to do in sweater knitting is make one’s sweater say “hello world”.
It’s a lovely sweater. And I’m totally impressed by your geek-speak stripes. I’d have messed up the number of rounds while kntting and ended up saying “goodbye crewel world” or something.
I have no guess on the secret sweater message but i do know how it looks! Great job, Adam! The sweater looks awesome on you! The colors are fantastic and the striping looks great.
And Happy Birthday! I can’t believe you’re only 23. I feel like such a cougar. ;)
Happy Birthday! Sometimes the best presents are the ones you buy (or knit) yourself. It is a beautiful sweater.
I won’t guess since I had a sneak preview! You look maaaaaahvelous in your SH, and thanks for the shout-out. Mr. Frick wears his ALL the time. It is the BEST sweater. I may have to make another. Someday. When there’s actual knitting time in my life. I predict that will take a year or so.
Although others have spent way too much time in front of their computer this weekend^H^H^H^H^H^H^H guessed before me, I have to say that encoding “HelloWorld” in binary on your first (fabulous, amazing!) sweater is just fantastic. Ah, knitting and geekery. Two great tastes that taste great together!
010010000110000101110000011100000111100100100000010000100110100101110010011101000110100001100100011000010111100100100001!
That is pretty darn geeky.
It didn’t look like a Fibonacci pattern, so the next try was binary, but everyone else has gotten it so I’ll just say the sweater looks great and Happy Birthday. 
Yeah, I think it’s HelloWorld in binary code (what else could it be) BUT mainly I want to comment on that sweater. I LOVE it, and I really though it would take more yarn than that. I have the EZ book and I may have to make one for my son (I promise I won’t copy your colors). Great work.
And here I was doing it the hard way:
Happy decoding everyone!
0100 1000 0110 0101 0110 1100 0110 1100 0110 1111 0101 0111 0110 1111 0111 0010 0110 1100 0110 0100
Hadn’t gotten far enough yet.
adam that looks great! and might i add that you are looking very fit yourself . . you must still be riding to work. yay!
I’m not good with decoding anything because I have this um…mental block with anything that resembles math, but I DO LOVE your sweater! Well done!
many belated felicitations Adam. hope it was a good weekend.
well done on the sweater, good work and colour combo.
you modelled very well.
take care
THe sweater looks amazing. Love the colors. Isnt’ Cascade 220 great??!!!!
23? Old? Shame on you, reverse those numbers and you will find my age and just how do you think that makes us truly old folks feel ;) Anyway, Happy Birthday Kid and gorgeous, gorgeous first sweater, you’re way ahead of the pack in knitting chops!
Love the colors, it looks great on you and it compliments the New Mexico scenery well too!
Congrats again and Happy Knitting!
Well done Well done! It looks fantastic!!
The sweater looks great. I’m happy that I was able to crack the code before seeing all the commenters who did so before me. What a fun idea!
Yeah, I figured I was too late as there seem to be about a zillion other geeks out there, but did the binary conversion anyway, with green as 0 and brown as 1. I typed it out in eights and used this website to convert… http://www.tekmom.com/buzzwords/binaryalphabet.html So “HelloWorld” back at ‘cha!
Damn that’s a gorgeous sweater. Nice work!
Having just finished my first sweater ever yesterday, I completely understand the first sweater love. All I could think of today as I wore it was, ‘Man! I’ve gotta’ knit me another one of these things!” Ahhh, the comfort. Hope you’re enjoying your sweater as much as I’m enjoying mine!
Oh, and I’ve seen your yarn over at The Loopy Ewe, and found your blog through ravelry. (:
LOL Hello World in Binary huh,(?really?) wow….. giving birth to a sweater makes sense. I actually didn’t figure it out, so don’t add me in, I read the comments above.
I did want to pop in and say that I love the way your sweater looks! Hope you are just as happy with the next one!
’tis the holidaze and my brain is fried. no guesses here … but just wanted to say i dig your sweater!
Adam, congrats on your first sweater. It looks great. I have not been able to conquer the sweater but I swear I will sometime (I’ve been knitting a mere five years or so, I have fear issues, what can I say). It looks great. I cannot commit to decoding, but I hope it says, “I rock because I made my first sweater and I used continental.” Good job.
I just watched A Christmas Story again yesterday, and in the middle of it my brain went “BING, now I get the title of Adam’s blog post!” Tee hee. And then today I heard a real live radio commercial for Ovaltine! Who knew that stuff still existed? Happy Post-Holiday!