Finally

It was so cold today that I fetched the red-red-red sweater from the guest bedroom and put it on. The fit is far from perfect, but I said, Screw it, I'm wearing it to work. So I did. But I did not show it off.



Details: I started with the "Miss Priss Hoodie" pattern from Schaefer Yarns but I used Cascade 220 instead, then eliminated the zipper, knit it in the round on US7 needles, added lace stitchery on the sleeves and front ("lace diagonal" and "snowdrop" respectively, from The Knitting Stitch Bible), and tried a couple different necks (including a snood) before settling on one that would increase the likelihood that I would actually wear the sweater.

If I had a do-over, I would increase the garter stitch rows at the cuffs and the hem, as they have a tendency to curl. And I would have made it a little bigger, as blocking didn't add as much width as I had hoped. And I might have chosen a yarn with more drape. But I like the color and I like the way the material breathes. It is both warm and comfy. So, even if I don't wear it out and about much, I will still definitely wear it. In fact, I have it on right now.

Time to put on all my wool and check on the lunar eclipse.

Small Accomplishments

My previous employer was big on diversity but we did not get MLK Day off, much less Presidents Day. The holidayless stretch from New Year's to Memorial Day seemed endless. Current job is the pits, but at least we get those two days off. So today was a do-as-little-as-possible day. My biggest accomplishment was eating the last piece of fruit from the citrus box I purchased from a co-worker at xmas (school fundraiser). Oh, and I got a haircut and brow waxing. Woo-hoo.

The red-red-red sweater cannot dry fast enough for me.



My son came up with the idea of blocking wool sweaters on plastic bags, but he placed his over an electric blanket turned on low. Alas, I have no electric blanket and my waterbed is long gone, but I could set up a fan, I supposed.

And for some reason, I just can't face the Jaywalkers. For one thing, I made a mistake on the gussets, and I'm contemplating how anal I shall be about it - the pause before the frog. Also, I need a break from US1 needles. So I pulled out the US6's and a cone of cotton for Mason-Dixon baby bibs and burp rags.



My SO made this turntable for my cotton cones. Slick, huh?

What a Maroon

Yesterday, on my way home from yoga, I stopped in at Sarah Jane's to see if I could find some wool to match the maroon in my Math Geek scarf. I ran into my SO in the parking lot (no, he was not buying yarn, he was after coffee), and I was explaining my dilemma of wanting to make some maroon and black mittens to match the scarf. We both examined the scarf in the light of day and discovered it is not maroon and black but more of a berry, cranberry, and navy. In my defense, there has not been very much sunshine around here lately.

More about yesterday: Needing some motivation to vacuum, I rearranged the livingroom furniture, a side effect of which is there is now more natural light where I sit (and knit) on the couch. Needing something simple to work on - socks on US1 seemed too myopic, a lace shawl in fingerling involved too much counting - I started Lark's Bubble Wrap Cap in the same yarn as the Math Geek scarf. Not needing it, I kept being reminded that the yarn is berry, cranberry, and navy.

Now something about today: I finished the red-red-red sweater!!! At least, the knitting part and the grafting the armpits part and the weaving of the ends part. Now all that remains is the blocking part. However, I tried on the sweater one last time, and since it is so freakin' cold today, I kept the sweater on. The blocking can wait until a warmer day.

(You David Sedaris fans have probably read Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. I am contemplating a companion book: Dress Yourself (and Your Baby!) in Wool and Cotton. Besides the sweater, I am wearing my Clara Barton socks, and when I took pity on the wildlife and went outside to fill the bird feeders, I added the Math Geek scarf and the hat from the Chunky Winter Set. Yes, I did resemble a homeless person, but believe me, no one else was outside to witness my fashion statement.)

For the record, the red-red-red sweater is still seamless and purl-less, but now also snoodless. I was really attached to the idea of calling it the Snoody-Hoody, but the snood part was just too bulky. Maybe in another yarn, one with more drape, it would work, but not Cascade 220. And for you purists, the seamless part may be compromised by the armpit grafts, depending on how you feel about grafting. I find it much simpler than seaming - even though I had to resort to The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques to learn how to graft live stitches with bound off stitches - that I declare it to be different from seaming. So the seamless status of this sweater stands.

Speaking of babies (and I was, more or less, two paragraphs ago), a friend of mine just became a new grandma, so she is getting one of my "grandmother sets". That's the last set, and I have more friends who are expectant grandmas, so it's time to knit some more. Babies are messy!

Frustrated Bloggee

Where I work, there are Internet security features in place that vary from month to month. I think what happens is, there is a virus alert and access to just about anything is clamped down. Then those with clout start complaining and things loosen up bit by bit, until the next alert. The upshot of this is, while I currently can read blogs at work (only during my free time, of course!), I cannot view photos that are in Flickr or PhotoBucket, nor can I post comments. By the time I get home, after spending the day on a computer, I am not too keen on more computer time, so I feel like quite a blog lurker. I try to catch up a bit on weekends, but, well, you know, life (and knitting) interfere.

Knitting like finishing the red-red-red sweater. Friday night I actually finished the knitting portion (ends remain to be woven in and the armpits need closing), but am still unsure about the snood-hood thing. It looks like a third arm. So Friday eve I wore the sweater around the house. The snood-hood is a nice feature... if you are outside. Inside, it has to be rolled up, so then it looks like a combination donut-cowl neck thing. This was okay until I had a hot flash. Yikes! So now I am debating removing the snood-hood and just having a funnel neck. Maybe I will wear it some more around the house today, before deciding. Or ask my fashion consultant, aka daughter. She has no qualms about telling me if something does not work.

Meanwhile, after the alpaca-as-sock-yarn fiasco, I got to wondering about the yarn I purchased for mittens. The yarn is distributed by Cascade and the label says "Jewel Hand Dyed". (It also says "avoid exposure to direct sunlight" which leaves one wondering about the dyes and dye methods used.) Examining the yarn, one sees that it is what Clara Parker calls in her Knitter's Book of Yarn a "thick/thin single". So what's it good for? Well, turn the page and one will find a pattern for a "Chunky Winter Set" using thick/thin single yarn! So I am in the middle of knitting the mittens, and loving them. (BTW, there is an error in the mitten pattern: row 1 of the gusset should include a M1 after the first pm.)

(Does anyone else have trouble getting mittens to come out the same size? Has anyone tried knitting two mittens at a time on circular needles? I have Knitting Circles around Socks from the library and am wondering if the same technique would work with mittens.)

I made another stop at Sarah Jane's Yarn Shoppe Saturday. This time the store was pleasantly busy, with a class meeting on the couches by the fireplace and a few women running back and forth between Sarah Jane's and the Bead Source next door. I was able to peruse the shelves in a more leisurely fashion and ended up buying a skein of Noro Kureyon for a pair of Maine Morning Mitts.

More news: I joined Ravelry. Or at least, I applied. We shall see how long it takes.

And I am now in the Knitting Bloggers ring! All I need to do is figure out how to get the button graphic to appear. Are there other knitting rings you would recommend?

I Feel Pretty (and Pretty Left Out)

In case you haven't noticed or you are new here, I updated the look of my blog. I maintain a blog for a local non-profit, and in the process of setting that one up, I was exposed to the new customizable Blogger, which is much easier to work with than raw html. Also, while I am not going to post a "101 Things in 1001 Days" list, I do have some lists I want to use, to help me keep track of what I plan to knit this year. This new style should be more helpful for that as well.

Meanwhile, despite my bad group karma, I continue to try to join knitting blog rings. I have received email and html from two, but have yet to be accepted in either. I know I'm odd, but c'mon! It's just knitting!

The red-red-red sweater is nearing completion. I worked the increase rows for the snoody neck and tried it on - perfect! Now I just need to make the neck longer. I'm not convinced I will like the end result, but if not, I will shorten it to a length I do like. That's the great thing about yarn: if you don't like what you knit, frog it!

It is extremely cold this weekend, so in anticipation of the dropping temps, I knit the dog a sweater, out of yarn left over from Sean's scarf. Poor Betsy has been less than enthusiastic about her fittings, just can't understand why I keep bothering her with this small blanket of yarn.



I'm still fiddling with the size, so it's not quite done.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I meant to post at least once this past weekend, but the days were just packed, in a good way. After a weekend like that, though, it was more difficult than usual to return to work today. I felt like I needed another day just for me.

The busyness started Friday afternoon, when I decided to stop at one of our new LYS's, Knitting Off Broadway. My first impression of this store is that it is less of a shop and more of a yarn boutique, like maybe the Von Maur of knitting. I poked around for a while, but I didn't have any particular yarn in mind and nothing caught my eye. Actually, I was hoping to buy some DPN's (more about my needle crisis later), but KoB is needle-light. So I walked out of a yarn store without making a purchase - unheard of! It would happen one more time before the weekend was out.

Saturday I finished the Math Geek scarf.



(I really need to sharpen my photography skills. Or develop some patience when taking pictures. Or learn better how to digitally enhance them.)



Details are:

• Pattern: Math Geek Scarf from the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar, March 21.
  
• Yarn: Cascade 220 Paints, color no. 9926 (it's maroon and black)
  
• Needle size: US7

The dimensions of my scarf were 3.5" x 58" before blocking. I tried to use up as much yarn as possible, so made 14 large triangles instead of the 11 the pattern called for. Ending with an even number also affected how I knit the last small triangle, but it turned out A-OK. I wore it to work today. Very warm and cozy.

This was the weekend for NFL division playoffs, and we watched the Colts (lose) Saturday night. Needing something to work on during the game, I selected another item from my private yarn store: a skein of Schaefer Yarns Anne in "Powder Puff" for a shawl. Quite a while ago, I started a shawl with this yarn, but the project just did not grab me and after it sat in neglect for a while, I frogged it. I'm liking this pattern much better, but I can't tell you where I got it; I photocopied the pattern from a library book but the pages don't include the name of the book on them. It might have been something like Scarf Style? The name of the pattern is "Shetland Triangle" and it calls for 548 yards of fingering weight yarn, so Anne is perfect for it.

I was feeling a little guilty about starting this shawl when I keep promising my daughter that I will work on her vintage lace top, but actually this project will be a good warm-up for the top. I had been working lace in worsted weight yarn. Working with fingering is challenging but should get me in shape for the (gulp) Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

Another project I want to get started on are the Classic Elite Inca Marl socks for my much-appreciated son-in-law. (On Sunday he installed my reverse osmosis filter system, which lead to replacing some of the plumbing under the kitchen sink as it had corroded and started to leak just when he thought he was done.) But I am having a needle crisis.

One problem is that I like to work both socks at the same time, so I need two sets of DPNs, but I have only one set of the size US6 that I want to use. Of course. And they are INOX, which I am not liking much these days because another set of them (the US5's) developed a tackiness that makes the yarn stick and throws off my gauge. I was hoping to find something at Knitting Off Broadway, but their DPNs were INOX and bamboo. I hate bamboo. But I like my aluminum needles, so I stopped at Joann's on Saturday, thinking I would pick up a couple of sets of Susan Bates. But they come in packages of 4 (I'd prefer 5 per package) and through the packaging I could see that the finish was flawed. Aargh! Again, I left a (sort of) yarn store without making a purchase.

Meanwhile, this weekend I was also fretting meditating on the red-red-red sweater. I reached the tentative end of the body, took it off the needles, and tried it on.



Well, at least it looks like a sweater.



But the neck was really boatneck-like, if you know what I mean. Very high in front, and wide. It later occurred to me that part of its shape was probably due to the fact I did not have the neck cinched up at all, but still. How should I move forward? I searched through all my pattern books without finding any ideas, so I set it aside. Again.

Today I stopped at the library and found on the new non-fiction shelf Suss Design Essentials, which amazingly has a sweater with a snood, just like I have been contemplating. So now I have an idea of what to do next and also have a little faith it might actually work out.

And then there was yoga, laundry, pet poop patrol, dog walking, wild bird feeding, and friends and family. Like I said, a very full weekend.

Fit to be Tied

Well, the Monkeys in Birches socks will fit me. Last night I knit most of one foot and slipped it on and voila! If I were the type to keep score, I would have said it was my turn for a pair of socks anyway.

The fit of the red-red-red sweater/hoodie is another matter. While nearing the armpits of the body, I found myself wondering, Is this going to be big enough? I checked the gauge (correct), measured the width (difficult to do with the lace and the circular needles), and finally took it off the needles so I could actually try it on. Well. It is a bit... fitted. Because of the lace up the front, I definitely need to wear something under it, and that something had better be form-fitting because there will not be much space between the sweater and me. I wondered why it fit so snug, so I went over the size info. Uh-oh. Where it said 42 inch bust, it meant that was the actual measurement of the hoodie, whereas I took it to mean the size was for a 42-inch bust. Argh!

So. What to do? I decided to plow ahead while trying to convince myself that blocking will add an inch (to the sweater, not to me) and that maybe I can lose 10 pounds really, really fast. (HA!) And I will stop referring to it as a hoodie since it is definitely going to be more sweater-like.

On a sad note, today is the last day of my xmas vacation. I have to go back to work tomorrow. *sigh* I had a great time the past 10 days, partly because instead of fouling my time off with to-do lists, then stressing over how much I did not get done, I just went with the flow and pretended I was retired and time was not of the essence. Not a bad way to live.

Knitting Today

Yesterday my SO and I ventured forth, heading north to a LYS one of my co-workers had visited recently. Knitting Today has been in business for about 15 years, the first eight online-only. The owner (whose name I neglected to get) is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, and the yarn selection wide. Some of the brands I was familiar with, but many were new to me. I came prepared to buy, though, and buy I did.

Here we have Zarina Print "Blues" which is a merino superwash destined to become a baby blanket.



I haven't even cast on yet, but I can tell this yarn will be a joy to work with, as it has a nice spring to it.

And my SO picked out this Di.Ve Autunno, for a new scarf:



It's also merino.

And this Classic Elite Inca Marl in "Tobacco Road" is for a special pair of socks for my special son-in-law:



Mmmmm - alpaca. My daughter will make sure these are hand washed.

Knitting Off Broadway is supposed to have their grand opening today, but the weather is so crappy (slush is falling from the sky) that I did not try to go. Their website is not up yet, so I'm wondering if they are ready for prime time.

And I learned from Knitting Today that there is another yarn store opening in the Fort, on North Anthony. My informants have been notified to keep an eye out.

Meanwhile, I am almost ready to attach the sleeves of the red-red-red sweater-hoodie and start the yoke.



Besides being seamless, this sweater is destined to be purl-less as well. To accomplish this, the hood may have to become a snood. We'll see how that works out. Every project is an experiment!

Two Steps Back, Two Steps Forward

I let the red-red-red sweater/hoodie ferment for a few weeks and finally faced the fact that, despite my original protestations, I could not go forward until I went back. Those extra stitches would not be apparent to anyone else, but they were right in the middle of the front of the garment and I would always know they were there. So yesterday I decided to make like a frog and rip-it back 18 rounds. And, actually, picking up 190 stitches in the round and reknitting those 18 rows (3420 stitches) was not all that bad. Now I can move forward.

This morning a little snow fell, so everything has a thin coat of white icing. I'm glad my son got out of Dodge before the roads slicked up, but whenever he leaves, it's like a little knife to the heart. I would support my kids in the pursuit of their dreams, even if it meant their moving halfway around the world, but I take a secret pleasure in the fact they haven't wandered too far afield.

Hiberknition

I am not a native Hoosier but I grew up in the Midwest, so when I first arrived in Indiana, the almost constant gray of its winter was a bit of a surprise. I am not affected by SAD, but still. This weather is growing tiresome. If I could stay home and hibernate, it would not seem so bad, but I actually have to go out and drive to work while slush falls from the sky. Ick.

The missing stitch on the red-red-red (are you getting tired of that phrase yet?) sweater/hoodie magically reappeared, but now I have two extra stitches. There is nothing like the body of a 190-stitch-per-round sweater to make one lose one's attachment to perfectionism. No way am I ripping out 1900 stitches of stockinette (I think that is where the offending stitches multiplied - it's hard to tell because of the lace pattern crawling up the front). Jeeze - I never thought about just how many stitches a sweater takes. Hmmm... 190 stitches per round, 6 rounds per inch, tap-tap-tap on the calculator - that's 17,100 stitches just for the below-the-armpit section of the torso. Yikes! Some things are better left unknown.

The Blue Lagoon blanket is also loosening my grip on perfectionism, at least as far as slavishly following a pattern goes. I made some modifications to the Sweet Cherries pattern because I wanted to carry the yarn up the side but it was too difficult with odd numbers of rows for some colors. The Blue Lagoon does not suffer from this problem, but the pattern looks like water, so I'm going with a more random version of the pattern repeats. Just for fun. After all, it is all garter stitch, so I feel compelled to inject something different to stave off the boredom. And I am not carrying the yarn up the side; instead, I break off and knit the ends in as I go. This results in less yarn wrangling. The blues are very soothing, too, so this is an enjoyable diversion.

Unlike the Trekking socks. Yesterday at lunch, it took me nearly an hour to knit ten rounds on the sole. That's 780 stitches, 780 tiny stitches on 4 tiny needles. This is why we knitters work on multiple projects at one time. When one is driving us nuts, we can give it a time out and pick up its jealous sister for a while.