WoolGathering

By Leaps and Bounds

2012-01-20T09:55:00.000-06:00

I had forgotten how fast crochet goes.

And how greedily it consumes yarn.

I had some reservations about this pattern. They were confirmed when The Princess looked at the first four squares and opined that they looked like they came from two different projects. True enough, the pattern alternates predominately green squares with predominately rose ones. While it seemed a good idea when I chose the pattern, looking at the first four squares? Well, maybe not.

We also discovered that some of the colors just do not play well together. In fact, some of them need to be kept on opposite sides of the playground, or at least have a fence between them. The navy and the slightly brighter blue there in the foreground are the worst offenders. Since they really needed to be separated, and I really needed all the squares to match, I've added an additional row of single crochet in the arbtrary color of my choice to every square. Which, of course, means I have to adjust the pattern for the final two rows, the ones that square the circles.

Then we devised a Plan. Rather than repeating the same four squares until we had enough for the blanket, we would opt for a freer, more eclectic approach. Each square will continue to contain the main color - the navy, although that may not make it as the background color -- and the two neutrals as written up in the pattern. The other colors would be movable. I drew up a list of the colors from A to H as I had assigned them for the first four squares, then set up seven more series where I successively bumped each color down. So A became B, B became C and so on, skipping when the color choice was navy, taupe or oatmeal.

I think I'm going to like it.

And did I mention that crochet is fast?

Something New

2012-01-13T10:21:00.000-06:00

I fully expected to have already posted about a finished red sweater, but it's not (how's that for a mix of tenses?). Finished, that is. I had decided on the buttons (the slightly larger not-so-shiny ones). It was all bound off. I did one last try on and had to face some sad and sorry music. Think Dead March in Saul kind of sad and sorry, with that whole cadence of slow inevitability thing going on.

I want the collar to be deeper. A good thing, insofar as it means I'll probably use up all of the red yarn instead of having a useless half-skein or so left over. It's just that this particular decision means more than simply un-binding-off. I need to shift the button holes. I also need to keep the various stitch markers in place, which means no frogging. I have to undo stitch by stitch. It's resting comfortably on my dining room table, half-way through the tinking process, until I get up the intestinal fortitude to finish the job.

Fortunately, winter has arrived in the Midwest big-time and I've decided what I really need to do is start an afghan. Lately The Princess and I have stopped enjoying shoving the stash around and started to feel annoyed and embarrassed by it. A knitted afghan could make a bit of a dent in it. I've added a couple to my Ravelry queue, downloaded a couple more, and stored some in my Ravelry library.

Then, I rememberd one thing and figured out another. I already have an afghan started, and crochet uses up a lot more yarn than knitting.

I need to track down three more skeins of the red, one of the blue on top of the pile, and the rest of the navy. Then I need to decide on one more color. We're talking 30 skeins of Cascade 220 here. If I pull this off, I almost won't feel like I have to sneak yarn in here in the dead of night.

Impasse

2012-01-07T08:49:00.003-06:00

Still stuck on the button thing. DianeH's comment was right on target. No single button came out ahead of any other. I'm on my own.

I have at least narrowed down my choices, though.

Neither button calls for a large button hole. Which means so I can go ahead and do the math for yo/K2tog eyelets instead of the more tedious one-row buttonhole.

Well, at least I'll be able to finish the knitting part.

Decisions

2012-01-06T09:33:00.001-06:00

There was red knitting in the Daisy bag. It is the red sweater. For lack of any other inspiration, I've been knitting away at it pretty much exclusively. Odd, since I won't need a Christmas Sweater for almost a year from now, but there. Like I said. Lack of any other inspiration. All this monogamous knitting has, however, brought me up against design issues. For example:

Seed stitch, 1x1 rib, 2x2 rib or garter stitch for cuffs, waistband, neckband and front bands?

Decision made.

Plain cuffs or something a little different?

Decision made.

Neck band, shawl collar, pointed collar?

Decision made. By the bye, did you know that if you're working in garter stitch, you don't need to pick up the wrap together with the knit stitch? Neither did I.

All those issues settled, yet here I sit, seven rows of garter stitch and a bind-off away from a finished sweater. It's the whole button thing.

Button, button, I've got too many buttons. I foresee a fashion consultation with The Princess and Their Father tonight.

The Annual Gloat

2012-01-05T12:35:00.001-06:00

I do have real knitting to write bout, but first , there's the obligatory "Eat Your Hearts Out/Look What I Got" post.

First of all, I forgot to tell you all about St, Nicholas this year. You'll have to take the chocolate Santa and peppermint stick as given.

The yarn is Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere in Anya's Garden and the pattern is the Anne Shawl by Schaefer yarns. The thing is, on the website, the yarn looked red and blue and brownish gold. In real life, it's purple and green and brown. I see charity knitting in my future.

Then, someone must have heard my dismay at not getting any knitting presents last year, because this year, while they were few, they were choice.

A skein of Prism Yarns in . A gift certificate to my favorite yarn store. And a knitting bag.

That knitting bag is a Daisy Bag by Offhand Designs, who were going to close when the designer/owner moved out of the country, is back, at least on a limited basis. I've been longing for one of these bags ever since I bought one for the Princess. I have eyed them at Stitches Midwest. I've bookmarked them at Dreamweaver Yarns and the Offhand Designs website. I've handled, explored, turned them inside out at Knitche. I just couldn't ever settle on one.

Thank heavens for Christmas and sisters, or I'd still be without one. Now that I have one, though, I'm thinking about another. There's that gift certificate, you know.

Looking Back

2012-01-01T19:49:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a leaf out of Wooly Headed's blog this year and for the year end/beginning post, here's 2011 in review by way of the first line of each post for each month I posted.

January: It's astonishing how difficult it is to concentrate when you know water is dripping from your kitchen ceiling and has been since Monday evening.

February: We, like a wide swath of the country, have gone all white and buried, like a Currier & Ives print. It seems then particularly appropriate to tell you about our second Christmas.

March: I think I might be playing hooky.

April: This will never do.

May: Well, while others try to track down the poem from last post (yeah, good luck with that), I'll take you all back in time to the Green Shawl.

Then there was a lot of empty space.

August: It was a big day.

Then I disappeared again.

November: So says Eeyore in Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

December: Here's the part where I cast about for someone else to blame.

So. There you have it. Happy New Year.

From our house to yours.

Historical Post #3

2011-12-27T16:26:00.000-06:00

I'll double-check, but I do believe this is the last of the old news posts that never made it to the Blog proper, although the title implies I had more to say, so maybe not.

Originally Titled "Gobsmacked All Over Again, part 1."

August 20, 2011

The Princess and I stole away to Knitapalooza (known to the rest of the world as Stitches Midwest). We've done this for the last 4 or 5 years. My mother, sister and nieces meet us there. We rent hotel rooms. We have a knitting/girls' escape with classes and yarn and good food and room service for breakfast.

I truly love Stitches Weekend. I love shedding all my responsibilities. I love the Market. I love that we take the weekend (although now my ambition is to get there on the Thursday, when it opens). I love that I learn something new every time. I love room service (No, really, I love room service - someone else cooks your food, brings it to your room and then comes back and takes the mess away. It is my firm belief that there is room service in heaven.).

I still haven't gotten up the nerve to sneak a camera in, though, so we'll just have to make do with my after the fact photos.

Class this year was Kathy Zimmerman's Ruffle, Frill and Scalloped Edgings.

I'm afraid I'm no longer sure which was which. The Princess took the class, too. It was humbling to receive proof positive that she is a much faster and better knitter than I. You'll have to take my word for it.

In a true miracle of self-restraint, the only yarn I bought this year is for gifts, which, as we all acknowledge, doesn't count toward stash accumulation. It also means I can't show it to you.

Actually, now that I think about it, I might have bought some yarn for charity,

but that doesn't count as stash, either.

Okay okay, okay. So I might have made one measly personal yarn purchase, a mere single skein.

Silk Merino worsted from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm in Norwich VT, 1375 yards.

Yeesh. Some people and their expectations of full disclosure.

Nothing like getting the past out of the way before the New Year.

'Tis the Season

2011-12-24T23:57:00.009-06:00

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming from tender stem hath sprung.
Of Jesse's lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the Virgin Mother kind.
To show God's love aright, she bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I hope it's filled with joy (and knitting).

It's Coming on Christmas

2011-12-20T14:43:00.000-06:00

I was so smart. I scheduled the cleaning people to come in this week. Too bad my house is nowhere near ready to be cleaned. I have Christmas decoration boxes on the dining room table, wrapping paper and presents on the bed, cards strewn across the kitchen table (I know I had two boxes, I know I did, but can only find one and so am frantically scrambling to find the extras from previous years). Ah well, at least the bathrooms will be clean and the floors washed.

At the moment, I've been ousted from the Kitchen, so thought I'd update the four pitiful pieces I manged to finish in time for the Christmas Market. I never did finish either the pink thing or the red thing.

Apple Green Cowl.
Pattern: Cowl'd and Frosty Morning (free!). Just followed the directions after adjusting my needle size and took what came out.
Yarn: Dream in Color Groovy (bulky weight) in Happy Forest, one skein.
Needles: Addi Turbo's. US 11/8 mm.

Infinity Scarf
Pattern: Purl Ridge Scarf by WestKnits (Ravelry Link) (also free!) with modifications for bulky weight yarn. Basically, I guessed. Figured what I thought my gauge might be and cast on accordingly (124 stitches?), hoping to get at least close to the dimensions recommended by the pattern. Did only three repeats and bound off, which left me with about 2 yards of yarn.
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns Superwash Merino Bulky, in Cobalt, almost exactly 2 skeins.
Needles: Addi Turbo's US 11/8mm.

The Grey Cowl
Pattern: I kind of made it up as I went along. I know it's 2 x 2 ribbing, and the third rib is twisted every other row, but I can't remember what I cast on for, somewhere between 40 and 50 stitches. Then knit until I ran out of the alpaca.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Charcoal and Blue Sky Alpaca Melange in Licorice, double stranded.
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 10/6mm.

The Cedar Leaf Shawlette (yes, that one!)
Pattern: The Cedar Leaf Shawlette.
Yarn: Handmaiden Lady Godiva in Woodland.
Needles: I forget. I would bet US 8/5mm, but maybe US 7/4.5mm.

I'm sorry to report I haven't a clue what my gauge was on any of these projects, so take the needle sizes with a lot of salt. I knit American style; my knitting is tight.

Two of these, the Cedar Leaf Shawlette and the Green Thing, I brought along to the Market thinking they would maybe help other knits to sell, but figured I'd be taking them home once the Market was over. The Green Thing because it was, well, eye-searing, and the Cedar Leaf Shawlette because no one would pay the price I put on it. They were the first to go. Good thing I'm not in retail anymore.

All of which is well and good, but doesn't answer the burning question of the season - will I get a red sweater knit by Saturday? Or should I give up and scout the early sales?

Single Shot

2011-12-16T09:03:00.003-06:00

I need the reassurance. I'm not a total slacker. I do have some things to offer the Christmas Market. Just not as much as I had hoped.

Here's a picture.

If the Internet ever decides to let me in for a prolonged period of time (say, more than 20 minutes or so). I'll post details.

Is there a patron saint of computers? I may need an intercession.

Test Patterns

2011-12-15T09:15:00.000-06:00

No, I haven't abandoned the blog again. My Internet has gone all wonky and will hardly let me in. This will, of necessity, be brief.

Spending one's days with Tech Support eats in to one's charity knitting time. Knitting like the wind isn't really a possibility for The World's Slowest Knitter. She needs to find some knit-in-one-night patterns.

Hope these will work. I'll let you know. More later.

Found It, a.k.a. Semi-Historical Post #2

2011-12-09T09:28:00.002-06:00

Ha! I knew I had written something about the Super-Secret Knitting Present before. I wrote it mostly to show off my row-counter, but also to remind myself why I couldn't cast on for a red sweater yet. Since I feel, if anything, more miserable this morning than I have for the past two days -- they were apparently only the opening salvo-- you'll have to content yourself with this snippet.

Originally Titled, "No, It's Not Kokopelli"

Dated 11/19/2011

Perhaps the real impediment to my red cardigan is the super secret Christmas gift I'm supposed to be knitting, symbolized here by my handy-dandy row-and-repeat counter.

Note that "supposed." I'm finding this four-row sixteen-stitch repeat fairly tricky. I think it's a combination of the difference of only three stitches per row, and every row (including the wrong-side rows) being different by three stitches. I need to Pay Attention, which slows down productivity considerably. There have been evenings where I've knit 12 or 16 rows only to get a single repeat knit correctly. Which explains why I need the additional visual the counter provides to prove that I do, indeed, progress.

I'm pretty sure I'll persuade myself to go ahead with a red sweater soon, if only to give myself the break of some mindless knitting. I just need to get a little further along. Sadly, as the above shows (and this is as much of a hint as you're going to get until after Christmas), I've only knit 21 repeats out of the remaining 50 I need to knit before I can knit the last 36 rows.

I love my row-and-repeat counter, which explains why you needed to read a post about lack of progress on a project that you already know I finished.

The Score

2011-12-08T10:34:00.002-06:00

I ignored my own very excellent advice and decided to push forward on the Monteagle bag yesterday. This morning I forged ahead on the bind-off - and found that I've lost two stitches. An examination of yesterday's knitting revealed some really wonky stuff, and I realize I have no recollection of what I thought I was doing or how this extremely odd section of knitting happened.

I should listen to myself.

Encouraged by what I thought was my success in pushing the Monteagle bag toward completion, I worked on the Super-Secret-Present Knitting Project. That went a little better.

Then again, it was later in the day and I suspect the antihistamine was wearing off.

Goals

2011-12-07T09:24:00.003-06:00

I have mine set for today.

First, I should probably tell you that I have some Super-Secret-Present Knitting that I need to finish. I know. This is the first you've heard of it. It involves charts.

It's close. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Second, I need to finish the Monteagle bag. DianeH, in the comments, assures me that it grows. I still feel the need to add to it; my veil stitches are pretty much already stretched out. I'm pretty sure this will involve the addition of a section of right-and left-crosses. The alternative is to invent some open stitches of my own and we all know how possible that is.

The only impediment to these goals? I have a massive head-cold. Knitting convoluted stitches and from charts may be fraught with more perils than I am in a position to cope with. Kind of like that sentence, which looks wrong to me, but I can't figure out where. I suspect it has something to do with the preposition at the end.

In No Fond Return of Love, Barbara Pym observes that "Life's problems are often eased by hot milky drinks." It could be that a more attainable goal would involve cups of tea and old Castle episodes.

What Was I Thinking?

2011-12-05T11:49:00.001-06:00

This chews rope, and at the moment that's the kindest thing I can think of to say about this pattern. I started with verve and enthusiasm. By 2 PM Friday afternoon it looked like this.

This is what happens when you start thinking the pattern isn't so bad, and that however dreadful the right crosses are, they're a piece of cake compared to the knitting through the back loop, double yarn over, knitting two together through the back loop with a double yarn over that the left crosses require (not necessarily in that order), so you blink once and look at your knitting to find that three (or maybe two) ( or maybe four) (it's hard to tell with all those double wraps) stitches have fallen off your needle and you have no idea how to read the knitting and pick them up.

Things are better this morning, although we had a similar scene on Saturday when I finished the second set of horizontal stitches and only had 83 instead of 84. I never did figure that one out, just gave up and skipped the last psso, figuring the join looked wonky anyway, and this would just look wonky in a little different way.

Turns out, it's wonky in a little worse way, but now that I'm past the veil stitches, there's no way I'm going back to try to fix it.

My current dilemma? It's small. At least, I think it's small. All those loose stitches make it hard to know for sure, but I am somewhat concerned that I've finished the veil stitches (yes, I know I have 4 rows instead of 2, that's because I made them half as long as the pattern called for) and I still have 70 grams out of a 100 gram skein. I can't imagine the last four rows (something called a bind-off stitch and again involving double yarn-overs) and the garter stitch handle (even if it is supposed to stretch out to 20 inches) are going to need more than twice the amount of yarn than the body of the bag.

I truly despised the right- and left-cross stitches, but find I am contemplating doing one and a half sets (one right, one left, one right) before I go into the final stretch.

It really does look that small to me, but then again, maybe I'm still not thinking straight.

Another Confession

2011-12-02T11:07:00.001-06:00

I kind of inadvertently poached a bag this summer. A very cool and not replaceable because it came from an event kind of bag. Had I said, "This isn't mine," instead of "Is this for me?" I wouldn't be in this fix. Had the owner of said bag given me a lecture on avarice or offered it in such a way that I could have back-tracked, I wouldn't be in this fix. She was so warm and gracious about it, though, that I felt I would be even more badly behaved if I refused to take it. As things stand, I've been feeling ~~wildly guilty~~ a little uneasy ever since. She's coming into town next week and I think I have finally come up with the salve my conscience needs.

I could knit her a bag. It, like the original, would not be replaceable. It would be cool. It would offer back what I probably really shouldn't have appropriated in the first place.

I decided, for lots of reasons, on the Monteagle Bag from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It looked cool (see above requirement). It was Anne and Kay. I haven't knit a Mason-Dixon pattern in a while (and no, I am still not willing to talk about the state of the mitered square blanket, so don't ask). Besides, I actually have a stash of Euroflax Sport that I need to start knitting up.

I scanned the Ravelry projects for tips. Provisional cast-on to do a three-needle bind-off instead of sewing up at the end? Sounds good to me; three-needle bind-offs are fun. That, and I don't really trust my whipstitch to hold up under pressure. Then I got to all these, well, I can only call them grim prognostications. Warnings. Caveats about the "trippy" stitches.

No way, I thought. This is Anne and Kay. This will be a great knit. I did my cast on and knit the first four rows last night. Then I got to the 5th row. The 6th row is no better. Neither is the 7th. Need I go on? Go ahead. Take a look. There's a link to a free copy of the pattern here (scroll down to below the picture). I'll wait.

Now all those warnings about dropped stitches and video tutorials make sense, don't they. This is going to be an even better conscience-salver than I realized. It might even cross the line over into penance.

The subtitle of the books reads "Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too." (Italics mine.) Indeed.

A Real Wool-peddler's Shawl

2011-12-01T12:45:00.056-06:00

Here's the part where I cast about for someone else to blame. I choose the Scarlet Knitter and her red Tehri shawl. I thought I liked the subdued Tehri-variations on Cheryl Oberle's Wool-peddler's Shawl, a la Kay Gardiner. Months ago though, when I saw the Scarlet Knitter's version, I lost my heart. I wanted a red shawl, except I really didn't want to knit another Tehri version. The green shawl was languishing while I tried to steel myself to frog it. To cast on, even for a red version, seemed foolhardy.

In Folk Shawls, Cheryl Oberle notes that what made a Wool-peddler recognizable in the crowded market was the color of her shawl. It was red. As far as I was concerned, that meant I could cast on any shawl and as long as it was red it would still be a wool-peddler's shawl.

So I cast on for Mara from Madelintosh, a most aggravating pattern. It's free, and sometimes you get what you pay for. Poorly written to begin with, the new versions that purported to address errors in earlier versions did not. Even more annoying, the directions were (and still are, at least on Version 4) for a variation of the shawl pictured on the pattern. Not pleasant, not pleasant at all. Thank heavens for the Raveller's who figured out the the pattern and posted enough information for the rest of us to actually knit it. Much as I love the yarn, I will think twice, or possibly ten times, before I knit another Madelintosh pattern.

With all that said, behold the Mara shawl.

Proof positive that while I've been trying to get back to the blog, I've been knitting. Miracles do happen.

Not blocked. No ends sewn in. So I can't give final dimensions nor properly call it a finished object, yet.

Pattern: Mara by Madelintosh (go look at the projects on Ravelry first, as in do some extensive research).
Yarn: Madelintosh, Tosh Vintage in Tart, 4 skeins and the start of a fifth for the bind-off because I was too lazy to rip back and reclaim the yarn and had an extra skein, anyway.
Needles: Addi Turbo circulars, 40" by the end, US 9/5.5 mm.

Changes: I've decided I don't like holes in my solid fabric shawls anymore, so I did mirror imaged M1 increases, lifting the bar from the front for the two increases before the center stitch and from behind for the two after the center stitch. Once I finished the K1P1 section, I only increased stitches at the edges, not up the center.The ribbing along the edges is not 2 by 2 as specified in the pattern, its P2,K2,P1,K1 up until the center spine, then mirror-imaged.

Isn't it beautiful? Now you know the source of my desire for a red sweater.

Abject

2011-11-30T10:01:00.037-06:00

I was almost ready to publish the last of the historical posts, the one that would bring you up to date on this year's Stitches Midwest and was quite pleased with myself for posting on four consecutive days for the first time in who knows how long. It needed one more picture, but I couldn't find the one I wanted. No problem, I figured. I'd just take another. Then I made the dismaying discovery that the object I sought was not where I thought I left it. You may think I am unreasonably disturbed about this. Abject is, after all, a pretty strong word, meaning to be brought low in condition or status, contemptible, miserable, wretched. Let me tell you the story.

Truth be told, the summer of 2011 was not the best summer of my entire life. Not the worst, either, but I said yes too many times. Conned myself that since commitments did not actually overlap or conflict that I could handle it. I suppose I did, but it wasn't pretty and frankly, by the time Galena and then Stitches Midwest arrived I was pretty wrung out.

It may be that I was therefore disproportionately touched by the fact that the Girl Wonder* sent a package to the Princess that was not to be shared until we were at Stitches and dispensing party favors (which I can't show you, because it would spoil some surprises for her). The contents did not disappoint. Inside were knitters pins, once for each of us --that would include my sister and the Eldest Niece -- tiny balls of different colored yarn, stuck through with tiny knitting needles made from toothpicks with different colored beads for the tops and threaded onto tiny safety pins so we could wear them. Girl Wonder had made them. I wore mine all through Stitches.

This one is not mine. This is the Princess's. Mine was a warm and beautiful golden amber sort of brown and the beads on my knitting needles were red. It looked smashing against the blue of my hand-knit sweater. By the time I was ready to take a picture for the Stitches post, though, I had lost one of my needles. I put my pin (the best of the lot, I can assure you) someplace safe (I thought) while I either located my lost needle or replaced it. Instead I've lost the whole pin.

I could just spit nails. I'm so sorry, Girl Wonder. Would I be out of line to note that Christmas is coming?

* Right. I promised an explanation. Well, the Princess, during her sojourn on the other side of the pond was, for reasons that are lost to me, "Batman." Batman's companion is Robin, the Boy Wonder. The Princess companion, however, is female. Hence, Girl Wonder. I'm rather proud of it.

P.S. to Semi-Historical Post #1

2011-11-29T11:12:00.001-06:00

I realise I forgot to mention:

Best party bags, ever!

The recycled Sari Silk from the Oldest Niece is destined to be used in a Scribble Scarf, replacing the one that disappeared lo, these many months ago, as soon as I locate an appropriate co-ordinating yarn.

The mini crochet hook and the WIP needle holder (the tube thingy by the Tsock Tsarina) are from my sister. Strangely, while my full size crochet hooks tend to disappear, I manage to always be able to find that bitty stitch-picker-upper.

The Jennie the Potter stitch-markers, courtesy of the Princess and the Girl Wonder (I'll explain in a later post) actually came in a set of 6(5?). (Hey, I've had them for over a year.) (And I'm old~~ish~~) (And they've been dispersed across various Works in Progress.) (I'm impressed I was able to track down three of them.) I particularly like the little stitch instructions on the back. Not just K for knit. Each marker has a different abbreviation, like SSK or Cb F.

There. You're brought up to speed on Stitches 2010 (in other words, I'm done gloating).

Semi-Historical Post #1

2011-11-28T10:38:00.002-06:00

Originally titled "Backstory."
October 8, 2011

The problem with neglecting one's blog is that after a while updating begins to Loom. After a while, I sit here staring at a blank screen, overwhelmed by how much I haven't written. A backlog of seemingly mammoth proportions accumulates. Then there's the whole guilt factor. Of late, blogging has felt frivolous, an activity in which I do not deserve to indulge, When did that happen? After a while, one forgets that one began subjects which one never finished, like Stitches Midwest.

From last year.

Oops.

Last year's class from Sarah Peasley was all about Lord Kitchener. We did a section of stockinette rows to stockinette rows as a little warm-up and then went into what I can only call Extreme Grafting. Over there on the right side of the left-hand swatch? Not only is that grafting stitches to rows, what looks like a fold is actually a grafted hem. Along the top of the left hand swatch? That's grafting a picot hem.

I expect it's obvious from the right hand swatch that my attempt to graft 1x1 rib was less than successful. I can, however, attest to the fact that it is possible. I saw the swatches Sarah Peasley had, other members of the class managed it, and I have the instructions, should I ever feel an overwhelming need to do so.

The highlight of last year was, of course, the ~~brain-washing~~ indoctrination of another sane woman into the the whole knitting thing. It also, however, started a trend that has become the standard here at Chez Woolgathering.

Buy patterns, not yarn.

Not that I didn't buy yarn, it's just that I bought patterns to use up the yarn I have on hand, too. I know my stash may not rival that of a lot of Serious Knitters, but there's enough of it that I feel compelled to hide it when non-knitters come to the house. That attests to a pretty impressive stash, especially considering the speed with which I knit. My Stitches yarn acquisitions last year, then, didn't involve much in the way of Yarn Pr0n. Note the "much" because of course I have some to offer. I just bought few, and of small(ish) quantities,

in support of

-Ta da! - patterns.

We are not going to go in to how many of these patterns I have actually knit. I begin to think I have only found a new way to stash.

I wonder if 3-inch binders ever go on sale oat Office Depot?

Needs Must

2011-11-27T15:17:00.001-06:00

That was a lot of knitting around that chocolate turkey. It's all destined for local charity. Very local. There's a leak in the roof of our National Historic Landmark church building and the parish, like everyone else these days, is strapped. A clever parishioner came up with the idea of a Christmas market to raise some cash. So, with the conviction that if you make it they will buy, The Princess and I have embarked on an epic journey of small knitted objects. She, with a stash of hats (sorry Afghans for Afghans, charity begins at home), is ahead of the game. I, on the other hand, must start knitting as fast as I can, and we all know that's not very fast.

The item that is currently consuming my attention is the pink thing. It's supposed to be the Winding River Cowl from Knitting Daily. Already at the time of the turkey picture I was having issues. It calls for a three needle bind-off and I really think it wants to be grafted. What, after all, is the point of making the cables reversible if the piece itself is not, in point of fact, going to be able to be reversed.

The pattern tells you to end the cowl at row 14 of a 28 row pattern repeat. Let me explain a little bit about the construction of this thing. The cables alternate position, one set (the row 14 crosses) lining up on the right of the piece and one set (the row 28 crosses) lining up at the left. By ending with row 14, I'll have two right side cable patterns in a row. That can't be right.

Let's not even go into the lack of joy I'm finding in a 12 over 12 cable.

These are annoying, but I can work with or around them. I can, for example, refuse to end the piece at row 14, ending at row 28 instead and then Kitchener the ends together. There are, however, other issues which are my own fault. I chose a yarn that was drastically incompatible with the recommended yarn (one skein of Handmaiden Lady Godiva at 250 meters, 20 stitches/4 inches instead of two 150 meter skeins of Berrocco something or other at 22 stitches/4 inches). (Let's not think about how ironic it is that I, the world's tightest knitter, am actually getting the recommended gauge for my yarn.) I knew it would be wider than specified in the pattern, and at the time I started it, estimated it would be shorter, but not impossibly so. The plan was to skip the twist that would make the cowl into a mobius. This would, I hoped, mean I could work a shorter piece but still get an attractive, wearable item.

Today I checked the pattern errata. Turns out the cowl needs 3 skeins of Berrocco whatever. That means 450 meters of yarn, not 300. No way can I fudge my single 250 meter skein of Lady Godiva into something even close.

I think I'll go knit on the black thing while I contemplate the need to order another skein of Lady Godiva and debate whether I could get a pair of fingerless mitts out of the left-overs.

Teaser

2011-11-24T15:12:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving.

What I Want for Christmas*

2011-11-19T15:10:00.001-06:00

Ordinarily, it's impossible for me to post on a Saturday, since the Resident Adolescent Male, a.k.a. the Lord Protector, confiscates the computer, ostensibly for homework and long-term projects, although I sure notice a lot of YouTube and Hulu in the history. Since, however, I didn't manage to post all week, I'm asserting my parental right to boot him off for a while. I figure he can go do something low-tech, like read a book. You know, with pages.

So, about Christmas.

I want a red cardigan. I know I do because I've been accruing a substantial cache of red yarn for quite a while now. We're talking serious yarn accumulation here. A hoard of red worsted that would make the most acquisitive knitter blush. Stockpiles of it. When the aliens invade, if you want red yarn, here is where you want to be. I have Madeltinetosh Tosh Worsted (superwash merino) in Tart (from when there was no such thing as with Tosh Vintage), Velvet in Squoosh Fiberarts Ultra Worsted (merino, cashmere, and nylon) and Sweet Georgia Yarns Superwash Worsted (another superwash merino) in Rage, all in generous quantities.

Strangely, the mountain of yarn those three skeins represent hasn't stopped me from periods of Internet self-indulgence. I really have no business hunting high and low for Fiberphile Super Squish Worsted in Rosegold (thank heavens Eat.Sleep.Knit. only has it in Super Squish Sock). Nor to be haunting Miss Babs, frustrated that there are no skeins of Yowza in Vlads.

Despite the yarn lust, I know I'd be cranking along if only I knew which red to pick.

Maybe what I really want for Christmas is a green cardigan?

Oh wait, I forgot. I have almost as many greens as I have reds.

*This is really just an exercise to remind myself why I do not need to buy more yarn.

Historical Post #2

2011-11-10T12:41:00.001-06:00

Originally Titled "Steal Away."

August 30. 2011

Before I tell you about Stitches, I have to tell you about Galena, which is where a fair bit of the sweater knitting I hadn't told you about before happened.

We snuck away for a long weekend right before the Lord Protector had to start school for the year. It was wonderful. We went back to the Galena Historical Museum and saw their new high-tech presentation on Galena's most famous citizens (that would be Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia). Visited the American Old Fashion Ice Cream Parlor for home-made ice cream (twice). Walked all over the town and even made it to the Blacksmith Shop. Yes, Virginia, Galena has an actual working blacksmith. It was wonderful.

Most importantly, Fiberwild is still there.

Does souvenir yarn count toward stash?

What if I'm already knitting it?

"Days, Weeks, Months, Who Knows?"

2011-11-09T11:04:00.001-06:00

So says Eeyore in Disney's Winnie the Pooh. Although I can no longer remember the context, it seems an appropriate title. I took a look at my blogger "Drafts" folder. Lo and behold, I have not completely neglected the blog all this time. In fact, I have a number of posts that I started and never released. Over the next while, as I get my blogging life back in order, I propose to add the pictures and post them in the order I wrote them. It won't get me anywhere near the NaBlPoMo that November is supposed to be all about, but it just may get me back into the land of the blogging. They are brief, but they were meant to be shared.

Herewith, Historical Post Number 1:

Originally titled "Ambition."

August 23, 2011

What is it about a finished object that makes me want another? Shouldn't I be resting on my laurels? Nibbling bon-bons while I marvel at the wonder that is she who created something out of sticks and string? Instead I've added three new patterns to my queue, downloaded four more to my pattern collection, and am seriously eying another one. Or maybe six.

The most astonishing thing, though? The latest finished object is a sweater for me.

That's not the best part. I finished in time for Stitches Midwest, with a full three days to spare. All right, all right. Strictly speaking, I admit there are some ends still to be woven in, and mind you, I may yet change the buttons, but by my definition it is finished in time for Stitches. Do you realize this will be the first time I'll have a handknit to wear there? You would think I was a real knitter or something.

Pattern: Neck Down Scoop Neck Cardigan from Knitting Pure and Simple, by Diane Souci (available at Patternfish).

Yarn: Mountain Colors, Mountain Goat in Dusty Blue.

Needles: The ever faithful Addi Turbos, US 8/5 MM.

Modifications - My shoulders are more vertical than horizontal. I added short-rows -- about 2 inches worth -- to the back below the armholes. For the first time, I have a sweater that doesn't look like the sides are longer than the back.

And I did a lousy job with the buttonhole-side buttonband. A row of half-double crochet across the top, though, and you'd almost never know it.

Maybe I should knit another one.

The Obvious Question

2011-08-17T13:06:00.001-05:00

What else would you do once you've finished one shawl?

Has an obvious answer.

I Gotta Feelin' Called the Blues

2011-08-11T10:40:00.002-05:00

Observant knitters that you are, I imagine you noticed that the only real knitting that has happened here at Chez WoolGathering since May is the Melody Shawl. That real knitting, however, has produced that astounding, amazing thing, that Holy Grail of the Knitting World, a finished object in time for Stitches Midwest. At least, it will be once I cut it open, knot the fringe and block it.

I have to admit, this was fun. It shouldn't have been. It was 800 yards of light fingering weight yarn in stockinette stitch in the round with two fiddly twisted stitches ~~to over-look darn near~~ every round. It should have been onerous. It should have been mind-numbingly boring. It should have been, at least by the second skein, a tedious exercise in discipline and determination.

I blame the yarn.

July in a Nutshell

2011-08-10T11:28:00.000-05:00

So that was June. I'd like to be able to say that it all slowed down in July, except it didn't. There was the parade (not a single picture this year, even though we combined the Pirate's graduation party with the picnic). There was getting the Pirate set up with his sheltered workshop, some of which involved him making his displeasure over my Phoenix trip known. Then it got just too hot (not 115 degrees F hot, but then, here in the Midwest it's not a dry heat). Too hot knit on big woolly projects.

Of course, that didn't keep me from trying.

I tried to knit on the Original Afghan in the Round and made the interesting discovery that seed stitch is hotter to knit that stockinette stitch.

I tried to knit on the Last Gasp of Winter. That one needs to marinate while I reflect on what to use for the next solid yarn. Decisions, decisions.

I tried to knit on The Sweater. Did you know that contemplating 1x1 rib is just as hot as knitting seed stitch? Came as a shocker to me, too.

Which is how I came to ascertain that the Melody Shawl is the perfect July-in-Chicago-when-you're-hideously-over-scheduled knitting.

Soft. Lightweight. And it spreads nicely when you're trapped in over-air-conditioned spaces

but scrunches up small once you've been released.

It Was a Dark and Stormy . . .*

2011-08-08T09:53:00.003-05:00

. . . Spring. And early summer. So I left it all behind to go to Arizona, where dark and stormy are so far removed from reality that the words may as well not be in the dictionary.

Arizona is interesting. Did you know that in late June in Arizona, if you want to let your host's dog out into the (astro-turf) yard for a morning run, you need to wear shoes because the pavement and fake grass are too hot to walk on without risking injury?

Did you know that in Arizona, Saguaro cacti substitute for trees for bird's nests?

Did you know there is a cactus called Grandfather's Hair?

Did you know there is an awesome yarn shop called Knit Happens?

I got souvenirs.

The yarn is not local (it's Malabrigo sock in Arbol to feed my shawl obsession) (I thought it looked desert-y) but the stitch markers are. Somewhere there's a little white organdy drawstring bag with the rest of them.

I tried to blog about all this while I was out there. I just couldn't figure out how to get any pictures off my camera and onto the dinky notebook thing I'd brought along on the trip - no cord and I couldn't find a port for the camera's memory card.

Finally, let me just say in words of (mostly) one syllable, I don't care how dry the heat is, once the temperature is over 115 degrees F, it's too damn hot.

*Second in what I hope will be a series of getting you all caught up on the last 2 months.

Celebrate!

2011-08-05T09:59:00.001-05:00

It was a big day.

And he did a really good job holding on to his dignity.

Until the end.

Eh. dignity is over-rated.

The More I Stay the Same

2011-05-27T11:33:00.002-05:00

I suspect a little indirect Harlot influence. I should probably explain, apologetically, that as a general rule, if a pattern is written about on the Yarn Harlot, it's not something I would ever want to knit. In all the years I've been reading, I don't think I've ever looked at one of her projects and thought, "Eureka! That's it!" My response is more likely to be, "Well. Isn't that - interesting." All those socks.

This is not as heretical as it seems. What she does for me (besides delight, entertain and make me really, really happy that there are bloggers out there capable of writing good prose) is inspire me. I may be underwhelmed by the particular project, but will look with new eyes at the type of project. This is what I think happened with her latest foray into lace. I may have refused the to succumb to the herd instinct and knit Damask, but I found myself queuing up or downloading an awful lot of lace shawl and shawlette patterns. Like Rosalynde. And the Annis Shawl from Knitty. And the Weekend Shawl. And Seven Small Shawls by Designs by Romi. I may, perhaps, have been getting a little obsessive.

I showed these to my daughter. She looked at me like I had two heads. I didn't let that stop me.

Then I saw an ad on Ravelry for the Soleil Shawlette by Phydeaux Designs, it can only be had as a kit with one skein of the appropriate yarn from Sunshine Yarns (scroll down about halfway, there's one posted with a dark blue yarn). I think perhaps it was that Siren Song, the one about the rare and not so easy to obtain, the one with the chorus about color and hand (silk and cashmere), the one with the harmony of greed and acquisitiveness, that did me in. Not only did I buy the kit, I bought the only other available skein of their Cashmere Silk 2-Ply in Night Walk.

If you thought the Princess was a little bemused before, you should have seen her face when my package arrived. I believe her comment was slightly less blunt than, "But you don't knit lace," or "Have you completely lost your mind?" but not by much.

Truth be told, once I looked at the twisted drop stitches --they look like rays from a rising sun (hence, no doubt, Soleil) -- I found my ardor for that particular pattern cooling. One might say it plummeted to temperatures not unlike Antarctica in July. I know I had all those other patterns, but I remembered one I hadn't acquired. "Cladonia," I thought, "Cladonia could work." All that nice stockinette. The demi-lune rather than the triangular shape. Just a lace border. That could work. That could be worth it.

Except, of course, I had the second skein of yarn. Why this should be a deal breaker for Cladonia when I obviously had no issues with Soleil, I can't explain. We'll just go all ~~Oscar Wilde-ean~~ Oliver Wendall Holmesian* and say I refused to allow a foolish consistency to be the hob-goblin of my little mind.

I kept rifling my Ravelry queue. I pulled the shawl and stole books off my shelves. I flipped through pattern leaflets and stitch dictionaries. I cruised the Internet. Most of this done while my family was not around to stage an intervention. I started knitting yesterday.

It's Melody's Shawl from Morehouse Merino (kit, which I did not buy, here, pattern, which I did, here - scroll down.) It's thousands and thousands (880 yards worth to be precise) of stockinette stitches in the round. While it is lace-weight, the pattern has no need for a chart. No row-by-row knitting instructions. Nary a yarn-over or K2tog in sight.

The more I think I'm capable of change, the more my daughter has the opportunity to laugh out loud. It's good to have a purpose in life.

*Edited to add: Diane H is right. I only know two quotes on the subject. That one is from the great Supreme Court Justice. Wilde's quote on consistency is that it "is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

Non-Standard

2011-05-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

One of the things I love about knitting is its infinite variety. Like Shakespeare's Cleopatra, age cannot wither nor custom stale it. No matter how tired I am, how stressed, how sometimes overwhelmed with all the littleness-es it sometimes takes to make life work, knitting is a refuge. Even if I can't get to it, I find comfort in knowing it's there and hope in that knowledge.

Enough of philosophy, because that infinite variety can also come back to bite you if what you (a tight knitter) are trying to replicate is the work of another (self-described "very loose") knitter. The present object of my ire is the Embellished Squares Afghan. That bit where I ran out of yarn is the first repeat of the final pattern section. Now I only have two more repeats in the main color, then about 12 ridges worth of garter stitch border. According to the pattern, I will then have something that will measure 44" unblocked, 50" if when I block it.

Now, I freely admit, this pattern is stretchy. Further, neither Spudsayshi nor I have any idea of how our gauges compare - except for that assumption I'm making about her loose and my tight knitting. I've taken steps. I've upped two needle sizes to, I hope, bring my gauge up to a reasonable facsimile of hers. I like the look of the fabric - it suits the yarn, the needles and the pattern. Yet I cannot see how what I've got is comparable in size to what is pictured on the pattern page. I think I'm going to end up with a very heavy, very dark knitted doily. Too big for a wash cloth, too holey for a trivet, and much, much too small for a blanket.

Yes, I am aware that the nature of a square blanket knit in the round is that it increases by 8 stitches every other row. I'm further aware that, for this particular blanket, each section is 12 rows wider (3 repeats, additional 4 rows per repeat). That means it's increasing at merely an arithmetical rate, though, not at a geometric one. The deep, dark question looming ever larger in my mind is: will it grow enough? Or will I have to get clever and gerry-rig the pattern to accommodate my inability to meet the standard?

Not Horseshoes

2011-05-16T10:28:00.003-05:00

So close. I was so close. All I had to do was get to that last stitch-marker.

I swear, I knit faster and faster.

But the yarn won.

So close.

Waiting for Blue Skies

2011-05-12T08:40:00.000-05:00

If you've ever read the Betsy-Tacy stories by Maud Hart Lovelace, you know that the Ray family was dedicated to their traditions. Sunday Night Lunch, where Mr. Ray does the cooking, comes to mind, as does scrambling around in the dark to fill each other's Christmas stockings. When any member of the Ray family travelled, they brought home souvenirs to the poor benighted souls left behind (remember how Betsy meets Joe at the Willard's store? Good things come from souvenir buying.).

The Princess went to San Diego in March. The the Pirate, the Lord Protector and Their Father got t-shirts. I got yarn.

This is Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in 554/Fern Rainbow. I note that Crystal Palace is based in California, so my souvenir also adheres to the buy-local-products-for-souvenirs-otherwise-what's-the-point rule.

Something happens to me in late winter. I need to herald Spring. I need to know that someday, April will come "like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers,"* In a word (or six) I need to knit something green. The need was exacerbated this year by the eternal, cold, wet, greyness. The Princess, apparently mindful of this odd seasonal mindset of mine, provided.

The object is the Scalloped Soft Coral Scarf (it's free!) from the Crystal Palace website. It was fast. It was fun. It's not very big. A clear case of the pay-off that can be had by using a pattern designed for the yarn.

Let's admit right here that I did not swatch. This is an extremely soft, slightly fuzzy, single ply merino-nylon mix. I didn't think it would take well to frogging and I only had three skeins. I just decided to go up a needle size (how many times do I have to admit I'm a tight knitter?). This may or may not have been the cause of the one glitch I ran into. I ran out of yarn. At step 11, the pattern says to knit 6 rows of garter stitch. The yarn was running short so I stopped at 5 and still didn't have enough to bind-off. This was during that whole looking for a happy ending period, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. All in all, I decided it was fortuitous, though, since the scarf starts with 4 rows of garter stitch and this way the two sides match.

I now have one skein left, and am thinking of revisiting the fingerless mitts from Weekend Knitting. That, and buying more Mochi Plus and knitting another scarf or several. I could see this in 557/Autumn Rainbow. Or maybe 566/Feldspar. And maybe 607/Storm Clouds.

I don't know if knitting something green in March actually helped bring Spring to the Midwest. It's been unseasonably warm the past few days, but still intermittently grey, and the forecast calls for falling temperatures while the greyness stays. Maybe I won't knit the next scarf in 607/Storm Clouds, after all. Maybe 572/Jenny Lake would be a better choice.

* "Spring," by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Actually a quite terribly sad poem, but I love the line.

Whereof Reason Knows Nothing*

2011-05-10T13:32:00.000-05:00

Well, while others try to track down the poem from last post (yeah, good luck with that), I'll take you all back in time to the Green Shawl. When I last posted about it, I was debating which yarn/s to use for the border.

I made a decision. I went with the pale green and a narrow inner border in black.

I didn't like it pretty much from the get-go, but apparently had an out-of body experience. Or maybe I was posessed by aliens. Whichever it was, it was enough to make me knit on beyond sense, common or otherwise. I fell victim to ~~one~~ ~~a series~~ ~~a whole slew~~ an onslaught of knitterly delusion, where you think if you just keep knitting it will all come out all right. It didn't.

Rather than face the music, I buried the whole thing deep deep. Maybe I thought marinating it would improve things. It hasn't. I regret the green. Even more, I regret the black. I wish I had gone with the brown.

The problem right now is I just can't bear to frog it. Which is another example of the completely illogical workings of my mind. I have the brown yarn. If I rip back the green and black borders, I'll still have the main body of the shawl done. Ripping and reknitting would be a much quicker route to a finished object than starting something new.

I need to stage an intervention, but until then here I am, knitting away with red.

*Blaise Pascal.

About to Change

2011-04-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

I who so love scarlet
Wear a gown of black.
Quaintly fitted tunic
Buttoned up the back.

Unknown. (At least by me. I could have sworn this was by Emily Dickinson. Then thought it might be Christina Rossetti. Fell back to Edna St. Vincent Millay. Nope, nope and nope. I can't find the reference anywhere.)

Happy last day of National Poetry Month.

WIDTY [the day before] Y: The Yarn, Part 2

2011-04-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

I first came across Carol Sunday of Sunday Knits at Stitches Midwest 2010. The Princess and I spent a fair bit of time in lust-inspired awe of the patterns and the yarn, but ultimately couldn't decide and sadly came away Sunday-Knits-less. What really stuck in my memory, though, was one of the sweaters. You can see it here, but I have to tell you, that washed out blue doesn't do it justice. At Stitches she had a sample knit in a deep brown - so much better suited to a pattern called Acorns.

Anyway. Fast-forward six months. I bought the pattern from Twist Collective's Fall 2010 issue and gave myself the yarn kit for The Princess' birthday (in brown - Angelic 5-ply in Clove to be precise) to knit for her (someday). It will be a long-term project, one that will probably take years until completion because I am actually still a little intimidated by the memory of the beauty of the sample.

Meanwhile, back at Embellished Squares.

The more I looked at the pattern photos, the more I realized I wanted to mimic the stripes the designer had incorporated. Since I had chosen a variegated yarn for the main color, it made sense (to me at least and it's my blanket) to use a solid or semi-solid for the contrast. I really did mean to knit from stash, but the blues made the yarn too green, greens made the yarn too monochromatic, the browns made the yarn too gray, the reds were too harsh or too purple.

Then I remembered the email from Knitche announcing the addition of Sunday Knits yarn to their inventory. I decided that if I wasn't going to knit from stash, I could at least knit local (Sunday Knits is an Illinois concern). The Pirate had a day off, which meant I didn't have to watch the clock for his bus, and off we went.

That's Eden (merino and cashmere) in Wren (the lighter) and Twig and Nirvana (merino) in Raisin. Knitche only had the colors in the 3-ply, and only one of each color at that. The original plan was to take them home, compare them with the main color, choose one and then order that color directly from Sunday Knits.

Two problems. I really liked all three colors and the 3-ply is pretty much sock yarn - way too thin. Okay, three problems. Carol Sunday doesn't carry nearly as many colors in the 5-ply versions.

I decided to use all three colors, ordered one more of each in the 3-ply and am double stranding. These are only 50g skeins. I'm a little concerned I may run out. Then again, maybe that will be my signal to start the massive garter stitch border. There's clearly plenty of the Wistful.

What I Didn't Tell You Yesterday: The Yarn, Part 1

2011-04-27T10:18:00.002-05:00

I really needed to get back on the blog-wagon. I never would have left all this out in the Olden Days.

Back when I decided to knit Knitty's Totally Autumn I didn't tell the full story of my yarn indulgence. Not only had I ordered the requisite amount of Abundance yarn, I ordered a comparable amount of Wistful, an alpaca, merino, silk blend that comes in 500 yard skeins. Buying the entire dye lot? Of both yarns? Well, that was greed, pure and simple.

This was rather over the top yarn-buying, even for me, but I had been bitten hard by the afghan bug. At the same time as, and as a feeble excuse for, the Yarn Binge of the Decade, I also purchased the pattern for the Rosebud Blanket. At the time it seemed ample reason for the whole descent into the woolly maelstrom thing. That, and the fact the Briar Rose Fibers produces any given colorway in limited lots. If I wanted a particular combination, I had to buy it then or risk it being gone forever. Never mind that the clever and creative people at BRF were guaranteed to come up with many, many other combinations to which I would lose my heart. (The ability of the human mind to come up with rationalizations and justifications is truly a wonder to behold, isn't it?)

With all this on my conscience, the decision to knit from stash yarn was not simply understandable, it was almost a mandate.

Having ditched (for the time being) the Rosebud Afghan, or indeed any lace pattern involving charts, while and at the same time having found Embellished Squares, I should have been ready to knit my merry way along for weeks and weeks. Except (are you ready for a further foray into rationalization and justification?), Embellished Squares, as designed, is knit with two yarns, one solid and one self-striping. I tried, I really did try, to persuade myself that knitting with variegated hand-dyed yarn obviated the need for a contrast color.

I failed.

Three times.

Let's See What Happens

2011-04-26T16:21:00.000-05:00

This will never do. April is almost over. Not a single post to show for it. I can cheat and call in one of my National Poetry Month poems -- and may yet before the week is out -- but the Woolgathering that goes on here is supposed to include the knitted variety.

Good thing I have a new project. Here's the bare bones.

I considered finally knitting this. That determination didn't last long. I had so enjoyed knitting an afghan in the round, that I decided to start another one. This decision had nothing to do with my wish to delay knitting up however many inches of seed stitch at over 160 stitches per side.

Meet Embellished Squares or The Last Gasp of Winter. The pattern is here.

I swore I would knit from stash. That resolve didn't survive the second repeat.

Because no knitting project I choose can ever run smoothly, I picked one where the designer says,"I am a very loose knitter." We all know that I am a very tight knitter. She knit on US 7's. I'm knitting on US 9's.

And yet, the proportions still seem off. I contacted the designer via Ravelry. According to Spud Says Hi, she made the first color change about 2 inches from center, which means I'm pretty close. And frankly, I just don't want to think that hard and relocating the color changes is more work than I want from a project right now. Maybe the thing to do is stick to the pattern. It could be interesting.

Looking for a Happy Ending

2011-03-30T15:02:00.002-05:00

The good thing is, once I had the afghan off the needles, I could actually see it, something I hadn't been able to do in its cephalopodic state. The further good news is that I don't like the eyelash yarn knitted up any more than I did during the knitting process. Theoretically, this should mean that I'm okay with ripping it off and binding off with the previous yarn.

The bad thing is, the afghan is paradoxically bigger than it seemed while I was knitting it, but smaller than I expected it to be. Furthermore, I really, really wish the colors were deeper, like the center square. Since they're mostly not, the center square is an uneasy occupant at best. It looks like an alien.

This leaves me with choices. I could:

1) Let it go, slip the stitches back on the needle and bind off. I learned a lot and I can just order up another Big Bundle or plan to pick one up from Rex and Bjorn when they come to Stitches Midwest. This has the advantage of a certain elegant simplicity, not to mention I could chalk one up in the Finished Object column. Furthermore, I would have been true to the project and the pattern.

2) Continue on with the plan A as outlined above, that is, lose the eyelash yarn, bind off and call it done. This has pretty much the same advantages as Number 1. I don't have quite the same degree of project integrity, but then again I don't have to look at eyelash yarn for the rest of my life.

Neither option addresses my color and size issues which lead me to:

3) Buy more yarn. Specifically, another skein of the yarn in the Super-wash Merino, the same yarn that now stands out like the proverbial petunia in an onion patch.

Which means:

I would have to keep the eyelash yarn. I'm pretty sure I won't want to take advantage of the rolling propensity of stockinette stitch with a smooth yarn. Ergo, the Super-wash would have to be a seed stitch section and the eyelash yarn would have to stay as the dividing line.

I wouldn't be able to call the project done for a while. It takes a lot longer to knit 120 yards worth of yarn when each side is over 150 stitches than it did when the sides were shorter. Plus I'm pretty sure I would want to knit the entire 200+ yard skein. I mean, what would I do with the less than 100 yard remainder otherwise?

My color and size issues, however, would be addressed.

Is anyone really surprised to learn I've already placed the order?

Glitches

2011-03-29T11:58:00.012-05:00

It's very sad. So sad. So very, very sad. You know how things seem to come in waves? Or maybe it's that I get caught up in enthusiasm. I was, well, still am, mostly, so excited about my current knitting. This particular project is large, so there's not a lot to say, even if I had the time to post as often as I want. "I knit another 120 yards and changed skeins again" is not going to grab the reader after the ninth or tenth time you've written it. Bumps in the road, snags in the project, now, those make for blog fodder, so here I am.

First, let me state, unequivocally, irrefutably, categorically, that I despise novelty yarn. It's a pain to knit with. It's near impossible to read. And just try finding a couple or five lost stitches in this -

when your combing through 664 of them. Or maybe it's 665. Or 668.

One might be justified in wondering how I, the queen of stitch markers, tumbled into this pit of despair. Too clever by half, that's how. That, and a complete ~~refusal~~ ~~inability~~, oh, let's be honest, refusal to heed the tell-tale signs of imminent disaster.

The Princess and I are knitting up semi-matching afghans a la the Lorna of Lorna's Laces Book. When I last posted about this project, I determined to finish it off. I was so close, just that last bit of one and then the eyelash yarn. I figured it wasn't ambition, it wasn't that competitive streak, it was a slam-dunk.

Like all primrose paths, the going seem sweet and easy until I got through several rows of the (now known as) Truly Deeply Annoying Eyelash Yarn and began to consider how irked I would be if I ran out before finishing the bind-off (yes, that's how close I was). Which is when I remembered an old Yarn Harlot post on -- at about the same time HRH proposed -- the no-additional yarn crochet cast-off. Basically, all you do is pass the stitches over each other using a crochet hook.

Except I'm a tight knitter. A very tight knitter. I doubt I was more than twenty stitches into it before I noticed a complete lack of elasticity. No give whatsoever. Another twenty or so and I noticed the afghan seemed to be puckering. At either of these points, I could have easily reversed direction, but no. I had to decide to finish an edge. Then I had to decide to round a corner. Then I had to hide from myself for a bit before I could acknowledge that I had to go back and undo.

I found it a lot harder to reverse that bind-off than seems reasonable. It was so simple to perform it in the first place (I'm blaming the yarn here). In a flurry of dramatic activity - truly, it took forever, but in retrospect it's all a blur - I ended up with between one-third and one-half of the stitches live. With what I thought was exquisite care and patience, I replaced them on the needle and then I counted.

Well, there we are, back to the start of the story, with possibly 664 stitches, but more likely 663, or maybe 667. I sat down with it again this morning and all I know for sure is that I do not have the same number of stitches on each side. Really, I don't think I have any option now but to frog all that eyelash yarn and re-knit.

Or I could frog it and just use it for the bind-off.

Into Trouble

2011-03-03T11:59:00.007-06:00

Ha! Hahahaha! What, you may wonder, is the excuse for this excessive glee? It doesn't take much. My teleconference for today got cancelled, so here I am.

If I see a yarn I love, I tend to but large quantities of it. I hate the idea of the yarn speaking to me of afghans and sweaters and finding I have only enough for a scarf and hat. This acquisitive disposition of mine gets me into trouble ~~sometimes~~ ~~often~~ usually.

My greatest downfall is hand-painted yarn. I'm a repeat member of the 10K club at Eat.Sleep.Knit.'s Yarn Marathon. I get a visceral sense of satisfaction when I've made the half-marathon and thus achieved free shipping for the rest of the year.

This is all a lead up to Yarn Pr0n disguised as epiphany.

I bought this yarn, Sweet Georgia Knits Superwash Worsted in Cypress from the aforementioned Eat.Sleep.Knit.

I want to knit it up. Into something. I just don't know what. I set out to do a gauge swatch, a simple little 6 inch square. Then I started thinking. I hate when I do that. Thinking about how this is superwash yarn and can be expected to expand under the influence of blocking. Thinking about the nature of hand-dyed yarn, where even the same dye-lot can mean variations between skeins so great you wouldn't even call them the same colorway. Thought about the lines of demarcation that can result between such skeins in long stretches of stockinette. Thought about circumstances where I could live with that and where I couldn't. Realised I wanted to turn this yarn into a sweater, which behooved me to take my swatch a little further.

Did I say a little?

A tour seems called for.

Bottom section - done before thinking started. Straight-forward stockinette stitch from a single skein of yarn, really just testing out needle size. This marked the moment when I strove to get the recommended gauge, but not the moment when I thought about the superwash aspects of the yarn.

Next section - ribbing. Ribbing makes me think, perhaps because I get so little satisfaction out of knitting it. It made me think I probably ought to try to mix up the skeins if I wanted something resembling a homogeneous product (yes, you can use "homogeneous" for something other than dairy products; I looked it up).

Which brings us to the next section and this is all mixed up. Toward the bottom, I'm alternating two skeins of yarn, knitting two rows from each. Too stripy. Then I added a third skein and knit one row from each skein, just like the Island Embrace Blanket. This left me with an almost overwhelming desire to stab myself with my knitting needles and I still didn't like the look of the fabric. I went back to knitting from one skein on larger needles, taking refuge in trying to get gauge.

Shortly after which I put the swatch away and tried to pretend I didn't want to knit with this yarn anyway. See Aesop and the Fox and the Grapes.

I was going to stop the story there, but I won't. Time passed and I kept ignoring the yarn and the swatch, until this week. This week I remembered the lost Scribble Scarf and how Kay and Ann set up the pattern to produce stockinette stitch, even if you only use one row of a contrast yarn. It all hinges on circular needles. With circular needles, you knit across, slide the row back, and knit the next row.

Okay, this is the epiphany part, the top section of the swatch. On circular needles, I can knit from two different skeins of yarn and get a fabric that preserves the subtle variations in color without getting all stripy about it and without engendering a death-by-knitting-needle-wish. I knit one row from the first skein. Slide it back. Knit a row from the other skein. Turn the work. Purl one row from the first skein. Slide it back. Purl one row from the other skein. Ta-da and repeat Ad infinitum.

Not Here

2011-03-02T11:27:00.002-06:00

I think I might be playing hooky. I could be wrong, but I sat down at the computer this morning and realized I didn't have any deadlines until Saturday, no meetings until tomorrow, and that my prep work for both is pretty much done. I sat here and stared at the monitor for a bit, completely at a loss; if I'm not scheduled, I don't seem to know what to do with myself.

That said, it shouldn't be a surprise that knitting has been pretty thin on the ground. The latest afghan grows apace, but since it's knit in the round, it's not exactly photogenic. Observe.

Then again, it's not every knitting project that can serve as it's own knitting bag.

Once I finish the last 120 yard skein and bind off, I expect a transformation not unlike straw into gold, but for now to me it looks like an octopus minus the tentacles. A colorful octopus, but an octopus nonetheless. (Now go back and click that link. I had no idea how cool octopi are.)

I'd be done now (that sounds so Firesign Theater, "Antelope Freeway, if you lived here you'd be home by now"), except that I'm opting for a slightly different finish than the pattern calls for. At one point I thought to use my Giant Skein for an AB-Fab afghan and ordered extra yarn (lots of extra yarn) to accommodate the plan. I'm using a small part of it (the rule, set by the contents of the Giant Skein, is 120 yards of any given yarn) to expand this afghan by one more section. Yes, I know that means I'll end with a stockinette section instead of a seed stitch section and that stockinette stitch will curl. That's the idea. By ending with stockinette in the feathery yarn, I (hope) I'll get a narrower edging, while knitting the last seed stitch section in worsted weight yarn will keep the afghan flat.

In fact, maybe I will try to use some of this loose-ends time effecting that transformation. That will give me a good excuse to browse the website looking for a new colorway so I can knit this again.

Aberrations

2011-02-09T11:51:00.000-06:00

1) A deviation from the proper or expected course. 2) A departure from the normal or typical.

I am never ahead of the game. Never. I am always a day late or a dollar short. I get a lot done when a deadline looms but all too often that "lot" is not enough. I sometimes feel I live in a chronic state of too little, too late.

Not today ace, not today. I'm still feeling a bit smug and astounded by what we sent off, Priority Mail (as opposed to the ghastly expensive Next-Day Air), to AFSC in San Francisco. Well in advance of the Valentine's Day deadline for this year's Campaign for Youth.

Three sweaters, one pair of socks (that last courtesy of the Princess; I don't do socks).

I find I am enjoying my self-satisfied virtuousness. These are really rather nifty knits, even the Purple Sweater which has haunted this blog and my home since the 2008 a4A Youth Campaign. That's three campaigns ago. Details of the struggle are here, here and here ( among other places). I am deeply, deeply happy that it's gone.

Sock details will have to await the Princess uploading them to Ravelry. Sorry, not my knitting.

The other two sweaters, now, for those I have details.

Pattern - Green Mountain Spinnery's Rosemary's Little Sweater from The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book.
Yarn -Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in Balsam.
Needles - US 8/5 mm Addi turbos for the body and sleeves, US 7/4.5 mm for the cuffs and bottom ribbing, 24-inch for the body and three 16-inch for the sleeves (now my most favorite way ever to knit small tubes. I may never go back to standard DPNs).

Pattern - Green Mountain Spinnery's Puntas Sweater, also from The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book.
Yarn - Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in Blue Gentian with touches of Moss and (I think) Rhubarb (lost the label).
Needles -Again, US 8/5 mm Addi turbos for the body and sleeves, US 7/4.5 mm for the cuffs and bottom ribbing, 24-inch for the body and three 16-inch for the sleeves.

Maybe if I do something three times it's not an aberration anymore?

Christmas Again or Mostly English

2011-02-02T10:56:00.001-06:00

We, like a wide swath of the country, have gone all white and buried, like a Currier & Ives print. It seems then particularly appropriate to tell you about our second Christmas. Third, if you count Epiphany (which, when I was growing up, we sometimes referred to as Little Christmas). Fourth if you count the Feast of St. Nicholas.

Ever since The Princess spent her junior year abroad, she has gotten a box from the other side of the Atlantic in time to open Christmas morning. This year, we knew it might be close. We knew there had been knitting ( I have to get the Princess' permission to take a picture and post it. For now you'll just have to take my word that it's nifty). We (like the rest of the world) just hadn't considered that weather like I saw outside my window two days ago would intervene. Not just the storms that struck the east coast with such ferocity, but the storms that stopped ground transportation and closed airports in Europe. Christmas came and Christmas went - no box. New Year came and New Year went - No box. Little Christmas - well you get the idea. This past week,though, it was Christmas again. This year I know the giver. It felt like a bit of Norfolk in the dining room.

"So. Nice story. But what about knitting?" you say.

Diane H sent me this a couple of weeks ago and it occurred to me, I did sort of duck the whole Christmas post thing. Once upon a time, the Christmas season lasted until Candlemas day, so I could argue I'm only a few days late instead of weeks and weeks. Besides, this references so many of my favorite things (Christmas trees, helping people with disabilities live independently, East Anglia, knitting), how could I go wrong? When the Christmas box arrived, I decided I could share and give you all a nice multi-faceted knitting/Christmas/Norfolk experience to cheer the post-blizzard, snow-bound experience.

Happy Christmas, again.

Not a Drop to Drink

2011-01-12T09:58:00.005-06:00

It's astonishing how difficult it is to concentrate when you know water is dripping from your kitchen ceiling and has been since Monday evening. That said, in lieu of a proper post, here is what I'm working on.

It's this yarn. The pattern is from this book.
Plumber is due in an hour.

Never Did Run Smooth

2010-12-31T10:06:00.001-06:00

No Christmas post?

No day after Christmas/Boxing Day/St. Stephen's Day (gloating) post?

No anniversary (33 years and counting) post?

I'll just have to write a last day of the year post. Closure and all that.

The variously named Grey/Gray/Eldest Nephew/Oldest Nephew Sweater did indeed get finished in time for the Great Gift Exchange on Christmas Eve. I even remembered to work in the phony seams.

The home stretch was not, however, without trauma.

Trauma #1. You'll just have to take my word for it. The trauma was so great I didn't photograph it. Despite all the careful measuring both with ruler and yardstick (because tape measures stretch and are therefore unreliable) and against the original sweater, despite having the Lord Protector stand in for fittings, despite previous experience with this yarn, when compared to the original sweater the finished object came out about 1/2 to 1 inch short in the body -- which I could have lived with (knitting stretches) -- and a good 3 inches (!) short in the sleeves. (I know. That was a dreadful sentence, both in form and content. Imagine the horror that must have engendered it.) A fitting on the Lord Protector -- forced into mannequin service as the only available young male -- was not reassuring. It didn't matter that my brain knew he is taller and stockier than the Eldest Nephew. I foresaw Christmas Sweater Disaster looming and wished I had heeded The Panopticon's video and bought the Eldest Nephew a new pair of roller skates.

At this point the Princess was sent off to Brooks Brothers for a gift card. Desperation, however, will drive one to any and all things; I went ahead and blocked the sweater.

Trauma #2. It blocked huge. Even huger than I had been expecting, given previous blocking experience.

Standing and staring in horror at the blocking board, I was irresistibly reminded of the "Useful presents" in "A Child's Christmas in Wales" where Dylan Thomas writes about "engulfing mufflers of the old coach days" and "zebra scarfs of a substance like sticky gum that could be tug-o'-warred down to the galoshes." The gift card was looking better all the time.

Trauma #3. No photograph here either, but The Cat, apparently compulsively drawn to a sweater so near to her own coloring, and at that time desperately in need of having her claws trimmed (see where this is going, do you?), not only nested on the sweater over-night, but managed to catch a single stitch on her claw. I cannot begin to express the panic. I was clearly not nearly as wedded to the idea of the gift card as I thought I had become.

Factor in my apparent complete inability to make a square into a circle (neckline) and the resulting gaping stitches where the corners had been. These had only been exacerbated when the Lord Protector did the fitting thing. The incredible stretching properties of the wet yarn had done nothing to improve matters.

There I was on December 23rd, I think I can safely say, not rejoicing. This does not mean, however, that my ability to deny reality was in any way diminished. In a mind-boggling episode of "wishing will make it so," I threaded up my Chibi and started weaving in ends. Which led to my final burst of creativity and decision to reinforce the stress points (the grafting under the arms, the corners of the neckline) and, while I was at it, to duplicate stitch over the Cat Disaster and several stitches beyond.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Otherwise there is no way that all of this should have resulted in a wearable sweater. The weaving in and reinforcing worked. The sweater pulled in some while it dried. I handed it over on Christmas Eve, along with the original and a sweater shaver (because the yarn is so soft, it pills if you look at it cross-eyed). It is a little big. I'll say I made it that way on purpose in case he ever wants to wear it over a button-down shirt.

Oh, and those 3-inches-too-short sleeves?

The sweater didn't pull in that much.

A Day at the Races

2010-12-17T15:49:00.003-06:00

I am prey to two mutually exclusive but nonetheless compelling convictions.

The first is that the eight decreases every other row necessary for raglan sleeves are way too many decreases in much too short a space and will result in a sweater fit only for the victims of head-shrinking tribes.

The other is that there is no way that that there are enough decreases close enough together to get to the 10 shoulder stitches Elizabeth Zimmermann says will mark the point where I can begin to shape the neck without knitting the most enormous sweater known to man.

Furthermore, (because things weren't interesting enough), I have to knit really fast, otherwise I fear I will run out of the remaining new, unused, pristine yarn (I have 3 full skeins of 136 yards each and some random bits) and therefore have to unravel and reclaim the vast quantities used up to knit the deliberate and accidental swatches.

Today, I'm going for the win. I'm jut not sure which one.

Elucidation

2010-12-16T12:29:00.001-06:00

Also procrastination. More on that later in the post.

While the truism states that one picture is worth a thousand words, the picture of the gray sweater clearly did not convey the right thousand. Joining the sleeves to the body on Friday was the goal, not the reality. In point of fact, the goal didn't have a more than a nodding acquaintance with reality. As of the last post I had 2 to 3 inches of knitting left on the body and a good 5 to 6 inches on each sleeve (the Eldest Nephew is strappy, not stunted).

Back on Tuesday, when I started this post (which means I had figured out another good word for the title), I had achieved the necessary for the sleeves, but still had a good 10 to 12 rows to slog through for the body (my theory is that it's a lot harder to knit big tubes than it is to knit small ones).

Now, however, the pieces really are ready to be joined and instead of brewing a fresh cup of coffee, grabbing my copy of EZ's Knitting Workshop and getting on with it, I'm over here at the computer, delaying.

Admittedly, it's a new computer -- very nice, with none of the odd behaviors the old one had developed after the poor thing's recovery from viral onslaught. Further, I could argue that posting to the blog is at least related to knitting (as opposed to playing multiple games of Mahjong Titan). Christmas, however, is not going to hold itself back until I finish the Gray Sweater.

And knitting hats for the Pirate and the Lord Protector won't do much to delay it, either.

Hoary

2010-12-10T10:30:00.000-06:00

Don't you just love a good word? My online dictionary and thesaurus tell me that hoary can mean "ancient" or "antediluvian," "belonging to, existing, or occurring in times long past," "gray or white with age." Dust-covered, in fact. It can also mean just plain gray. So appropriate to everything I have to write about.

To clear the air, let me state that the red scarf is languishing (read: dead in the water), the green sweater in all knit up (and has been for a couple weeks now), and I seem to have lost the blue sweater. Neither sweater has its (their?) ends sewn in. I suppose it goes without saying that they're not blocked, either, but I'll say it anyway: They're not blocked, either. Just in case you were wondering. That's all old news, though. Hoary with age, in fact.

Since the a4A deadline isn't until after Christmas, and I haven't a prayer of finishing the Red Scarf, I'm not going to worry about them for now. (Thank heavens for a knitting daughter who sent her red scarf off last week -- I think she posted a picture on Ravelry, though I'm not sure -- the OFA hasn't been completely frozen out.) Now I'm all about Christmas. Which might not strike you as a hoary topic until you are informed that new Christmas knitting is on a determined hold until old Christmas knitting, a.k.a, the Gray Sweater, is finished. And there you have hoary on multiple levels.

I am supposed to be inspired to knit feverishly so I can move on to other projects. So what if two of those projects are another sweater and an afghan? Once the gray sweater is done, I plan to allow myself to intersperse small knitting projects with the large. So many rounds of a sweater done? Maybe I'll knit a hat to match one of the scarves I gave last year. A nice swathe cut through the afghan knitting? Perhaps I'll cast on for that neck gaiter for the brother who was so taken with the one I knit for his wife. Serious progress on a sleeve? Well, there is that other brother who was supposed to get a scarf last year but didn't. Let's not forget to factor in a serious cold snap here in the Midwest and my sons' need for hats.

I'm noticing a pattern here. I think I can safely say that all of my knitting plans have their origins in events occurring in times long past. None of them are going to happen, though, if I don't get cracking on that sweater for the Oldest Nephew. I've set today as the day I join the sleeves to the body. Once I shake the dust of neglect off and do that, perhaps then it will again only be hoary because of the color.

Don't you just love a good word?

Raising the Bar

2010-11-13T16:03:00.000-06:00

Or at least we're going to make the attempt.

I'm not as far along on Rosemary's Little Sweater (that would be the green one) as I had hoped to be. That is to say, I'm not finished yesterday. I'm not even as far as I was on the Puntas Sweater (a.k.a., the blue one) as I was when I set my eminently attainable goal of finishing it in five days. Still, while not abandoning my newly declared rule of not setting my goals high, let's see what happens by next Friday.

I may have stacked the deck a bit in my favor. I don't know why I've made such heavy work of picking up the stitches for both these little sweaters, but I have. I noticed how close I was to attaining the finish line on sleeve 1 and it occurred to me that, once I had bound off the cuff, I might just put the sweater down for another year (or more) rather than face picking up another 60 stitches. I've only got four rows left on the first sleeve and have cleverly already hacked and slashed my way through picking up the stitches for the second sleeve.

I may have raised the bar, but I've set a ladder up against the pole.

Done

2010-11-09T15:42:00.001-06:00

Well. That was surprisingly successful. Don't even think about pointing out that a project isn't finished finished until the ends are woven in and its been blocked.

I'd try the method on green sweater, except I haven't even started the sleeves.

So, is the lesson here set your goal low; if you don't shoot yourself in the foot first, you may achieve it?

Resolved

2010-11-08T11:34:00.001-06:00

Despite the intense -- one might say, nearly overmastering -- distaste I have conceived for knitting sleeves,

I will finish this sweater this week.

Channeling Auntie M.

2010-11-05T10:06:00.005-05:00

My Father had this aunt. Well, he had a couple. This one was his mother's youngest sister. Auntie M. After a fairly severe heart episode, Auntie M. came to live with us. This was not entirely a bad thing, you understand --she had a sense of humor and so did we (I vividly recall channelling Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz; you know, "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!") -- but, let's just say it was not always stress-free.

One of Auntie M.'s convictions was that our family unit maintained a certain not always acceptable to her level of arrogance. "You McCauleys," she would say, "you think you know everything." She had a point. We had our ways of doing things, and we were convinced they were the best. We would make allowances for the uninitiated, but only so far. This family-wide quirk, not unnaturally, eventually got on her nerves. After one too many times when someone redid or improved on something she had done, she took a deep, theatrically mournful breath, the quintessential heavy sigh, and on the exhalation said,

" Failed again."

I'm not sure how the other family members reacted the first time they heard her, but I know I had to laugh. Honestly, did it really matter which rags were used on the floor or the windows. Or whether you wiped the kitchen table before you swept? (Okay, I totally get the rags thing - old t-shirts for windows, old towels for floors. Trust me. It really is better. Missing a few crumbs because you swept first? Maybe not so much.)

"Failed again." It became something of a mantra. It was certainly quickly picked up by Their Father and I still get to hear it anytime I go off on a rant about doors let slam and tissues not making it to the wastepaper basket. (You don't want to know about the time there were four tubes of toothpaste going simultaneously.) (Well, really. Four? At once? There are only five people in this household. If the toothpaste went on a road trip, how hard would it have been to return it to the medicine cabinet? Four open tubes of toothpaste. At the same time. Sheesh.)

All of which goes to explain what happened here with my excellent intention to NaBloPoMo. "Failed again."

November is also National Knit a Sweater Month. And no, I'm not even tempted. I have three sweaters on my needles as it is. I don't need to cast on another one while I ruthlessly abandon them.

It's just a swatch. (She said with all the conviction of one perilously close to jumping over the edge and sliding, gleefully, down the slippery slope)

'Nuff Said

2010-11-02T10:14:00.004-05:00

It matters.

You Say Potato

2010-10-23T11:25:00.002-05:00

Red Scarf ? Zero.

Other Knitting? Well - more than zero.

Puntas Sweater from The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book, for afghans for Afghans Youth Campaign. That would be last year's campaign for youth. Last seen here.

Rosemary's Little Sweater, also for a4A, same source, same vintage. Last seen in the same place as the Puntas Sweater.

Eldest Nephew's Sweater.

Last seen here (the picture at the bottom of the post, not the top).

Some might say it's avoidance; I'll say it's a new twist on incentives and rewards.

Po-tah-to.

Deja Vu All Over Again*

2010-10-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

Truth be told, I don't much like knitting scarves. I usually need a good reward system set up to get anywhere. Failing that, a really compelling incentive, like guilt, can work.

I'm trying to get a good head of steam up over my Red Scarf. With neither a reward or an incentive in place, the going is about as slow as the proverbial molasses in January. We're talking snail's pace here. Actually, no. Even that would be faster than my knitting. Maybe a dead snail.

I thought maybe if I could mark progress in something other than inches, that could be it's own reward. I started measuring by getting the first full stripe from the left side to the right (see the green markers). Once I'd done that, I thought, I could set the starting point for the next stripe and follow that up (that would be the orange marker).

It's not working well. I've only got two such stripes done so far. While gazing down at it in mild despair this morning, I noticed something else about it. It looked familiar. This -- given how infrequently I knit scarves -- made no sense. I knit scarves so infrequently that I can count them without taking my shoes off. I couldn't figure out where I had seen this before. For that matter, I couldn't figure out why it almost felt like I had knit this before.

The penny dropped when I looked at the wrong side.

I've knit a whole blanket like it. I just didn't recognize it until I turned the scarf over. Surely, then, I can pull off a scarf's worth.

Maybe, just maybe though, it's time to investigate rewards.

*Attributed to Yogi Berra.

Opportunities Abounding

2010-10-15T11:56:00.003-05:00

It's been one of those weeks where my life decides to impose on my knitting. I hate when that happens. Still, some things are important, so here's a PSA (two, actually). My favorite (all right all right, my only) charity knitting groups are in need. It's time to hop back on the charity knitting bandwagon.

Red Scarf, 2010. Made famous by Now Norma Knits, it's taken on a life of its own. Details at OFA. The request is out for red (or other unisex color) scarves for Valentine's Day care packages for college students who grew up in the foster care system but were never adopted. That still astounds and amazes me. Never made part of a family, but they've gotten themselves together enough to tackle college. Scarves are being accepted now through December 5. The princess has started an Island Embrace scarf. I've gotten the ScWiNoNa going in Lorna's Laces Brick.

The Princess assures me it's not pink, it's orange. I may have used Red Scarf as an excuse to order something from Brooklyn Tweed. I'll be making it in Long Johns.

Afghans for Afghans Campaign for Youth. Details here. Knit-and-Crochet-along is here. Pretty much anything and everything to keep 7 through 16 year olds warm (except, I think, scarves). Due date is December 2010/January 2011. Time for me to finish those Green Mountain Spinnery sweaters.

And even if I don't? Once Her Highness gets her latest pair of a4A socks done, I'm getting rid of that purple sweater.

Charity knitting: the perfect opportunity to rid my knitting bags of those unsightly half-finished projects and my stash baskets of that pesky yarn.

Counterparts

2010-10-08T10:46:00.006-05:00

Needles and pins. Pepper and Salt. Pen and Ink.

I wallowed in some heavy yarn therapy early this week. The first installment (yes, things were that bad) arrived yesterday. I want to use this yarn. I should mention that this is not the greatest picture. The yarn is darker, the colors richer, but I can't get my camera to cooperate. You'll have to trust me.

Briar Rose Abundance, 1500 yards of 100% corriedale wool in color 8232.

I've been casting about for an afghan for the front room for some time now. I think I've found it. I want to do Totally Autumn from Knitty's First Fall 2010 issue, but not in all those hot reds and oranges. Oh, I get the maple leaf analogy, but I think the lace pattern could pass for elm leaves, too.

I'm enamored of the dusky blue, the grayish green, the gold, and the rusty overtones of the brown in this yarn. They say "Autumn" much more eloquently to me than all those heated colors.

Warming a New Home

2010-10-07T09:56:00.000-05:00

I Ab-Fabbed in secret for a friend. I finished months ago; the Absolutely Fabulous Afghan by Colinette does knit up quickly. My friend has been over for coffee a couple times since the knitting was finished but I had about a dozen ends to weave in and the Ab-Fab afghan really needed a good blocking before I could hand it over. I finally delivered it yesterday, so now I can post about it.

Not only did I Ab-Fab in secret, I Ab-Fabbed in purple (the things I'll do in friendship's name).

Details.

Absolutely Fabulous Afghan by Colinette in Amethyst, which originally contained:

Mohair - Heather

Mohair - Cinnamon

Mohair - Lilac

Wigwam (cotton tape) - Lilac

Fandango (chenille/eyelash) - Lilac (?) (might have been Heather)

Zanziba (thick and thin rayon) - Heather

Zanziba - Lilac

Skye - Damson (although despite its plum-like name, Damson is Not Purple. Which makes me wonder if it was a substitution on the seller's end).

Knit on US 11/8 mm Addi Turbos.

Substitutions (Of course I did, I couldn't help myself). I'm a little vague about the details. This really did all happen about 6 months ago and I don't seem to have kept the labels of anything. Something purple and curly by, I think, Louisa Harding for the much-too-pinkish Lilac Fandango. Malabrigo Twist (?) also in something purple (Velvet Grape?) for the very pink Lilac Wigwam.

I'll knit purple, but I draw the line at Barbie.

The Closure Post

2010-10-06T18:03:00.004-05:00

Just for the record. I did finish Their Father's sweater on Friday.

Details.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Mallard/2448.
Needles: Addi Turbos US 7/4.5 mm.
Pattern: Based on the Set-In Sleeve Cardigan from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.
Modified: According to Their Father's Specifications.
Buttons: Leather-covered 3/4" shank buttons from JoAnn Fabrics.

Things to remember.

With a little patience and planning, it is possible to grow 2x2 cables out of 1x1 rib. Witness the knitting on the left. I admit, I had to chart it out before I could see it, but it was as simple as moving the stockinette columns over by 1 row.

Cables make knitting go faster. I'm convinced I knit both the front pieces in half the time it took to knit the back.

Things to reconsider.

As mentioned in the previous post, use short-row shaping and three-needle bind-off for the shoulders, move the armhole decreases in another stitch (I still can't help wondering if this is why the seams look so wonky to me).

Pay closer attention to ending the cables. There's still a part of me that wonders if I didn't do something at the bind-off that unbalanced the two sides.

Rethink the whole set-in sleeve thing. After all, would the sky really have crashed or the heavens tumbled had I opted for the modified-drop sleeve instead?

All things considered, I begin to see the advantages to knitting in the round and steeking.

Was it worth it? The jury's still out. Their Father's initial reaction seemed, to me, to lack whelm. In fact, I would go so far as to say he seemed distinctly underwhelmed.

On the other hand, it was seen in the wild. He put it on last night to read the paper without any ~~whingeing~~ prompting from me.

Enough

2010-10-01T17:40:00.001-05:00

I bet you've all been glued to your terminals waiting to hear if I finished the sweater in time.

Define "finished" and then define "in time."

Does finished mean all the knitting is done? Then it's finished. Does finished mean all the pieces are blocked and sewn up? Then it's finished.

Does finished mean the ends are woven in and the buttons sewn on? Does finished mean I'm happy with it? Then it's not.

I need to remember that a cardigan can be knit in almost one piece. I need to remember short row shaping for the shoulders so I can join the shoulder seams with a three-needle bind-off. Should I forget about short-row shaping again, as I surely will, I need to remember to slip the first stitch of the bind-offs. I need to remember to place my decreases farther in, maybe two stitches instead of only one.

Most of all, I need to remember that set in sleeves are just not worth it. I actually kind of enjoy sewing side seams. For that matter, I don't even mind the stitches to rows at the sleeve cap or the stitches to stitches under the arm. I think it's the whole setting the sleeves that gets me. All that pinning. all those transitions, from cap to sides, from the sides to the underarm. What with the pinning, stitching, ripping back, re-pinning, ripping out, I probably spent three times as long attaching the sleeves to the body as I did on all the other seams combined. The worst part? Even with all the checking of techniques from my various knitting books, even with knittinghelp.com and Berroco how-to videos on YouTube, even with all that evidence that I have sewn the sleeves in exactly how they should be, I'm not happy.They don't look as bad as they did before I steamed the seam allowances toward the sleeve,

but I'm still not thrilled.

It didn't help that the sweater still looked like an amoeba when Their Father got home. So, dinner and cake and pie and other presents and cards later, I picked up the sweater and finished the side and sleeve seams. Ends still hanging all over. No buttons. But at least it looked like a sweater. And it was before midnight, so I say it counts (my blog, my knitting, my rules).

Consider "enough." "Enough" means wanting for nothing, "I have enough." Enough can mean having too much, "I have had enough of this [fill in the blank]." Enough is adequate, sufficient, satisfactory, decent.

So, was it done? No. Not really. But it was done enough.

I Ask You

2010-09-28T14:48:00.003-05:00

What kind of man invites people to dinner when his wife needs to go off on a button quest?

All I can say is, it's a good thing he needs to be around to wear this sweater. Dire things could happen to such a man otherwise.

Not Much

2010-09-27T10:34:00.003-05:00

That's all I have to show for days and days of knitting. Remind me next time that I don't want to use cables for a sweater. I don't have pictures of the failures. Sorry. The fact is, I'm not even fully satisfied with the "success." I've knit the neckband four times in four different ways now. I think it was four times. It might be more. In between completely reknitting it, I've dropped stitches down and tried in situ modifications.

I've finally realized that the crux of the matter isn't the neckband it self. It's the way the cables feed into the neckband. I want the left and right fronts to match, allowing for the fact that I mirror imaged the cables.

They don't. Match, that is. It looks to me like the left front has an additional row of knitting. I'm wondering if it has to do with the way you have to bind off on a right-side row for the left front and a wrong side row for the right front. That's the comforting fiction I'm going with. I've run out of ideas and I don't think I can bear to frog the neckband again.

All of the above means that I am drastically behind on my time table. I've got the sleeves blotting in towels now and will pin them out and hide them in the Princess' room this morning. The only reassuring thing is that I checked stitch and row gauge over 8 inches of knitting and came up with 39 stitches and 52 rows, which worked out to a ratio of 3 to 4, which is the ratio the stitches to rows is supposed to come out to for the button-band. Thank the knitting gods, because I have to finish the knitting today.

Now, will someone please explain why I have only 6 buttons?

Not much. My worry is that, like the buttons, it will be not enough.

Impossible Dreams

2010-09-23T11:35:00.002-05:00

If, when I first contemplated this madness, you had told me that by 9:30 this morning I would have bound off both front pieces, I would have laughed myself into a stupor. Truly, looking over this past year or so, with the notable exception of the Christmas gifts, knitting here has been more about dwelling in the realm of possibility (sounds so much nicer than slacking) than actual production. (Remind me that at some point I have to blog about the Cedar Leaf Shawlette, finished lo these many months, in the last flush of energy from all that holiday knitting.)

I have one week to block, assemble and (here' s what's got me a little panicky) knit my first button and buttonhole bands.

I can do this. I 'm pretty sure. There's at least a chance. Doing it in secret had me stymied for a bit,(I can hardly use the dining room table or our bed; it's supposed to be a surprise, remember?) but the Princess and I have conspired. I'll do it in stages to accommodate that lack of large flat surface areas. I'll do it with her blocking board, which is twice the size of mine. And I'll do it in her room (their Father having a praiseworthy respect for his children's privacy, i.e. he just about never pokes his head in there).

On the theory that the next steps are the shoulder seams, the neck band and the button and buttonhole bands -- all which require the the back and fronts -- I've got the body pieces prepping now. I've gone for wet-blocking at this stage, rather than spray and pin or hit the steam button on my iron. If I'm going to have to pick up some number plus infinity stitches, I don't want to find that I've used a skewed ratio of rows to stitches. The schedule is pretty tight. Having to do the math is bad enough. Doing it with inaccurate data is not in the cards.

The plan is that tomorrow I can finish the neckband while the sleeves are blocking. In an ideal world I'll get the stitches picked up for the front bands, too. The weekend is not an ideal time for secret knitting, but I'll see what I get through - he will take off for a run at some point. And then there's all that nap time. If he comes down with my cold that could prove extensive. With a combination of chance and careful planning (and depending on how many times I have to redo the button bands), I can finish the seaming by Wednesday and do a final blocking in time to astonish him Thursday night.

Hey. It could happen.

Single-minded

2010-09-21T11:22:00.001-05:00

I have a dreadful head cold.

I find misery focuses one's attention wonderfully.

You Know You've Been Missing It

2010-09-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

The return of Foolishness on Friday.

I've been an awfully good blogger ltely. I think I've earned some foolery, and this appeals to the failed Psych Major in me.

You are Energetic and Bright

You view people with optimism. You have many meaningful relationships in your life.

You had more conflict with your mother than your father. Your relationship with her was healthy but challenging.

You deal with stress in an effective and competent matter. You are able to remain calm.

You are a natural multitasker. You enjoy being busy, even if the amount of things you need to do is overwhelming.

The Inkblot Test

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 11:22 A.M.

2010-09-16T09:23:00.003-05:00

Guess what I found?

An Ace Up My Sleeve

2010-09-15T11:04:00.000-05:00

The front (s?) of Their Father's sweater is still missing. Looking at the last photo I have of the project, it occurred to me that I may be looking for the wrong thing. I've been searching for yarn. Perhaps I should be searching for the muslin project bag with the yellow birds.

And I will. It's just that the days are slipping by. In that deep dark secret part of my brain where my knitting fantasies live, I keep envisioning giving him the sweater for his birthday, more specifically, this birthday. I know I do, because when little bits of fantasies bubble to the surface of my brain and pop open, in between the ones where I knit like Elizabeth Zimmermann, or the ones where suddenly the Blog is one of the top 200 knitting blogs and has the comments to prove it, I envision him opening a box and being astounded by the reality of his sweater.

Yes, yes, I know it's not going to happen. That's why these are fantasies. Still, my fingers are itching to work on this particular project.

I've been chasing ideas around my brain like a dog chases squirrels. I could marathon knit. People here are old enough to fend for themselves. So what if the Lord Protector will live on Flaming Hot Cheetos and the Pirate subsist entirely on birthday cake? I could double, no, quadruple my knitting speed. Hey, it could happen (and pigs may whistle but they've poor mouths for it). The sweater could knit itself, like the ones Mrs. Weasley knits (I seem to be having a hard time separating fiction from reality here). None of them, however, will work if I don't have enough yarn.

That's the crux of things. Memory is notoriously unreliable (seen Rashomon lately?). Yet my memory insists I have not one (as pictured) but both the sweater fronts started. Not knit very far, but started. It's not the loss of work that has me chewing my fingernails as if they were made out of chocolate, it's the loss of the yarn. Two sweater fronts means two full skeins of yarn. That's a lot. I could knit my fingers to the bone. I could knit so fast my needles smoke and I need to keep a fire extinguisher by my side. It won't matter if I run out of yarn.

I've been staring at my remaining supply. It's about 2.5 skeins, maybe a little more. In between wondering if I really overbought the yarn by that much, or if my doppelganger slipped in, frogged the fronts, reclaimed the yarn and wound it back into skeins, complete with manufacturer's label, I've been trying to gauge how much I've actually used so far, trying to determine if I have enough. I don't think the back took more than two skeins. Will two and a half be sufficient? I have to consider the cables. Cables eat yarn. I know each sleeve took a little more than two skeins. Will the fronts use more than that? There's a button band to consider. How much more will that need?

Well, you get the idea. All dithery I've been, when I'm not tearing apart knitting bags and stash baskets. When not occupying the forefront of my brain, it's been niggling at the back. Neither of which is actually knitting the sweater for me. Conditions were ripe for a brainstorm, and last night as I was winding up one of the remaining skeins, that's what I got.

I have a kitchen scale, well, the Princess does. We picked it up so we could translate some of her trans-Atlantic recipes. If it works on flour and sugar, it will work on yarn.

The back weighs 7.5 ounces. The sleeves weigh 9.4. The remaining yarn?9.6 ounces. That's close. That's really, really close. I could just make it. Or I could just miss.

Know what I just remembered?

I have the Swatch.

Celebrate! Celebrate!

2010-09-14T17:46:00.000-05:00

It's the Lord Protector's Birthday.

Are these the best candles or what? (Well, they are if you know his favorite class is Latin.)

The Clean Version

2010-09-13T13:23:00.001-05:00

Darn. Drat. Heck.

You know what the trouble with de-cluttering is? Sometimes things disappear.

Dang it. Shoot. Spit.

Their Father's birthday is the end of the month. Given my recent track record, I don't expect to have his sweater finished by then. Okay, maybe I indulged in a few delusions, which is why I went looking for it in the first place.

Nuts. Goldarn. Odd rot it.

I did, however, expect to be able to lay my hands on all the pieces before I made that determination.

Blast. Dad gum. Cheese and crackers.

Which One, Which One

2010-09-11T12:07:00.001-05:00

I've reached the point where I need to make a decision time. Sooner than I expected. The Green Shawl has reached the it-takes-forever-to-knit-a-row-while-at-the-same-time eating-yarn-like cup-cakes stage. That ball of yarn is only 2 or 3 inches across. I'm betting it's only got a couple more rows left in it.

I'm pretty sure I need to know what color to make the border.

And whether to add an inner border in black.

Going In Circles

2010-09-06T11:24:00.001-05:00

The good thing about abandoning projects is that you have something to go to when the current ones pall.

The good thing about being forced to bring 26 years worth of storage into your living quarters is that it makes you pathological about de-cluttering anything and everything you can.

The good thing about de-cluttering is that you have someplace to put the stuff you actually want.

The good thing about having someplace to put the stuff you want is that you can find things again.

Like the long lost skein of yarn I needed for the Green Shawl.

Which is why it got abandoned in the first place.

Playing With Color

2010-09-02T12:24:00.001-05:00

Way back when, at last year's Stitches, I bought these from Tess Designer Yarns for a gift afghan/housewarming present. When I figured out that the bulky variation wasn't going to work, I switched the yarn from 4 skeins of bulky to 4 skeins of worsted weight. Ever since I knew the worsted yarn wouldn't pan out for the afghan, either, I've been looking for another project for it. Otherwise I have to count it as stash, and I have a lot of it. Trading bulky for worsted resulted in a lot more yardage (570 yards per skein compared to 115). That much yarn kind of sings crochet to me.

I have this book. It has this afghan. I find the color scheme muddy and discordant, but I like the stitch. And the stripes.

Once again proving my firm grasp of the obvious, let me note that stripes mean more than one color. The Tess green is a given, but the pattern calls for four colors altogether. I'm thinking about Dream in Color Classy in China Apple. I'm debating between the Copper Penny Madelintosh DK and the Dream in Color Classy in Gold Experience. I'm wondering if Dream In Color November Muse would bee too dark. Maybe I should use up some of my Madelintosh DK in Turquoise. Maybe I should use five colors.

Further, since I can see no reason to be decisive when I can dither, perhaps I should confess that I also hear the call of the Moorish Mosaic Afghan from the Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet. That calls for a different color strategy. This one I think, needs the colors from the rug in the front room. It wouldn't be quite the stash-buster the stripy afghan would be. While crochet eats yarn, I will need to buy at least two skeins each in two or three more colors; I am sadly lacking in Golds and Neutrals.

Maybe I'll do both.

Maybe I just want to crochet. It has, after all, been a while.

Two Weeks

2010-08-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

So now I'm more or less up to date on the knitting front, I feel free to admit that the high point of the summer -- pause for dramatic effect -- has not, in point of fact, been knitting. It's been Our Company.

There was the getting ready of course, a summer's worth of it, but rather than go into that in ~~exhausted~~ exhaustive detail, let me, like Inigo, "sum up." First, the 3 deep 6 high incursion of storage boxes that has dominated my dining room since Last October(!) has been reduced to 3 boxes of recycling and 6 boxes of shred-first-then-recycling (All right, so the wall in my bedroom is now home to a 6 x7 row, but it's just a single row. There may be a few odd ones ~~tucked~~ stacked into corners). Secondly, we discovered the source of our chronic hanger shortage - they were nesting in the back corner of the Boys' Closet, unbeknownst to us because we haven't been able to get much beyond a foot on either side of the closet door for years. Let it suffice to add that the lists were impressive, and that we managed to get everything done and crossed off except for the two items at the top of List #2 that we could never decipher.

This is supposed to be a (mostly) knitting blog, so let me focus on that a little. There was Stitches Midwest, of course, but I'll save that for later. She knit and finished one project while she was with us, which means she pretty much knit every day she was here. She has a good start on her top-down model sweater from the Stitches class she and The Princess took. She may not be leaving us as a knitting convert -- I'm pretty sure she thinks we're a little mad, albeit in a nice way -- but that triumph of finishing a first knitted object is a pretty powerful thing.

So now it's the last day of Our Company. The word that comes to mind is "delight." The Princess, the Lord Protector and Their Father all approved her long ago. It was only two weeks, yet she slipped into our lives like she had a place waiting for her, a spot that was empty that we hadn't known about until it was filled. And yes, I know she's leaving today, but her place will remain intact, occupied.

Last night, she asked if she was a knitter now. We said that was for her to say. But we gave her knitting needles and a project bag for a going away gift.

A Disturbance in the Space/Time Continuum

2010-08-27T13:15:00.001-05:00

That's the only possible explanation for the lack of blogging going on here. I've got three, count 'em, THREE more posts, all written over the past few weeks, waiting for photos. I'm going to finish them up today and publish them all in one fell swoop. I never do that -- I always post on the same day I write -- but drastic times call for drastic measures. I think I'll even leave them with their original dates. They'll pop up periodically today as I finish them. Anyway, you've been warned.

Just to keep you interested, here's a photo of my souvenirs from Nashville. All from Bliss Yarns.

The clever little bag is a small (because they come in various sizes) Knitsack, local produce from the very talented Erin Lane (it says "tink" on the back). That bigger skein of yarn is blue-faced Leicester fingering/sock, also local produce by Jan Quarles at Daily Fibers (couldn't find a website), colorway #9498. The pretty stitch-markers are even more local produce by the also very talented Tactile Design and Press. I tell you, those Tennessee women are a talented lot.

The smaller skeins of yarn are my very first Koigu, bought with a someday second Barn-Raising Quilt in mind - which at the time I thought might have to happen sooner rather than later because I crashed face-first into a Serious Dye Lot Issue with the Claudia Handpainted Walk In The Woods. That's a story with a happy ending, though, and it involves Stitches, so I'll save it for later.

Presto Chango

2010-08-18T11:39:00.007-05:00

I have been avoiding the decision for way too long, but last night I had the amazing good fortune to be surrounded by a team of young realists. That would be the Princess and her regal counterparts, the Eldest Niece and the Visiting Royalty. The result of our deliberations is that the Oldest Nephew's sweater has to go.

I may have paled at this news. Even gone a little green about the gills. Done some deep, sorrowful and heartfelt sighing. All that frogging. All that yarn reclamation. All that knitting to do again. Not that I mind the knitting. It's the starting from nothing all over that gets me.

Honestly, though, these young women are Thinkers. I'd really like to believe it was me (age and guile), but I'm pretty sure it was their (youth and skill) idea that I do the starting over part before I do the ripping out part. As they pointed out, I have many skeins of the yarn left un-knit. There is no reason why I couldn't cast on with one of the remaining skeins before I actually rip and reclaim. Kind of like knitting two sleeves or two socks at the same time, or the front and the back of a flat knit sweater.

I find myself irrationally cheered by this. It doesn't change anything. The sweater is wrong and will have to be knit over. I find myself taking great solace, though, from knowing I won't be at ground zero when I rip out what is now the largest swatch I have ever made.

As a sort of bonus, I think I can say that I'm pretty confident of my gauge now. Despite my concerns that the knitting was too loose, the fabric of the blocked no-longer-a-sweater looks good. This means I have a 12 inch, 242 stitch swatch - a pretty impressive sample on which to base my gauge. Admittedly I had to recalculate all my percentages a la Elizabeth Zimmermann. What's art without a little angst?

So, in an astounding feat of prestidigitation, albeit not of the "now you see it, now you don't" variety, behold the New Sweater.

That's 2 inches of 2 x 2 ribbing using the new, improved gauge swatch.

Snap. I just realised that I'll have to re-knit the sleeves from point zero as well; no saving the ribbing because 1/3 of 232 is not the same as 1/3 of 242. Good thing The Oldest Nephew's birthday isn't until November (and that there's always Christmas when I blow that deadline).

Three R's Redux

2010-08-10T11:36:00.007-05:00

Um. Yeah. About those gauge issues I mentioned last time. Once I measured the gauge for the sleeves, I took a good look at the body of the sweater. I've been dogged by a vague unease while knitting this project, a sense as I'm knitting of the general looseness of the fabric, a growing suspicion that the loops I'm knitting into feel awfully not-so-tight as they should. I've been ignoring this, because I planned the whole sweater to adjust for the change in my gauge, for going from a flat swatch to an in the round garment. As long as I had the tape measure out, I decided to check.

Everybody knows that knitters purl looser than they knit. This is like the given in a geometric proof, right? Like all triangles have three sides or the sum of the angles in a parallelogram will equal 360 degrees or that Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. It's the fixed star in the night sky of knitting. Therefore, if one is going to knit in the round, one's gauge will be tighter.

Not this one's. The body of the sweater measured 46 inches instead of 44.

The Oldest Nephew is not stocky. The Oldest Nephew is not scrawny, either, but he is lean. The decision to knit a sweater with 4 inches of ease was made, in part, to accommodate the incontrovertible fact that the actual sweater would knit up at a tighter gauge. The expectation was that the sweater would eventually measure closer to 42 or 43 inches, not a whopping 46.

In a last ditch attempt to cling to my delusion, I decided to block what I had. Rumor had it that Rowan yarn initially stretches out and then pulls in. Rumor didn't prepare me for the sweater stretching out to 50 inches. It didn't lie, either, because once dry the sweater measured less, just not enough less - 46.5 inches to be precise, which is still Way Too Big.

Apologies to the Oldest Nephew. He'll have to go off to Grad School gray sweater-less. This time the Three R's stand for Rip, Reclaim, Re-knit. Or maybe Rail (as at the heavens), Rend, beRate.

The Three R's

2010-08-07T10:21:00.005-05:00

One would think, on an 8 hour drive, that serious knitting would happen. One would expect results. One might, and not entirely unreasonably, expect to show significant progress. So not the case on this Nashville trip.

In part, that's because I did more driving than I expected. I'm not sure if it's that Their Father likes to drive more than he thinks he does, or if he thinks I hate driving more than I do, but as a general rule, once he gets behind the wheel, there's no dislodging him. I anticipated miles of Grey Sweater Knitting for The Oldest Nephew. That's miles of yarn, not miles of road. I did knit for miles of road, just not as many miles as I expected. Factor in the late start thing, so we drove more in the dark on roads that accommodate non-glacier-modified land forms (those caves in Kentucky? They're under hills. Big honking hills. Did you know?), and, well, on-the-road knitting just didn't happen.

The knitting at the conference? Not so much. Jinxed by a sliver of wood that caught the sweater about 3 inches down and sliced through 2 strands of the yarn - enough to make me feel I had to go back and splice. The sweater got traded in for blanket squares.

Once back home, I dealt with that repair (thank you spit-splicing gods)and, still in that delusional place where I would get the sweater done in days, started the sleeves. Then noticed they looked awfully wide for their length.

Through some mysterious concatenation of knitting circumstances, and despite the huge gauge swatch and previous sleeve-in-the-round experience with the Lord Protector's sweater, my gauge on the sleeves is horrendously off, almost a full stitch. I now have a second huge swatch, this one to determine which size wooden DPN's will render a sleeve that is in proportion to the body of the sweater.

The Three R's? They would be Repair, Remeasure, Recalculate.

Off the Road Again

2010-08-04T14:01:00.000-05:00

We're back. Nashville was hilly and beautiful.

The view from the back porch.

And sad and historical.

Stone's River Civil War National Battle Site (A.K.A. Murfreesboro to us Yankees).

And surprising.

An exact replica of the Parthenon, built for Tennessee's Centennial in 1897.

And even more historical.

The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, A.K.A. Old Hickory. Which nick-name he bequeathed to a confusing number of streets in Nashville and its environs (or maybe it's really one multi-directional street).

So you see, I haven't been neglectful. I've been Travelling. Circumstances combined to send us off to Nashville at the end of July (I know, who goes south in July? It hadn't been hot enough here and we needed to suffer heat more intensely?) It was wonderful. Even The Lord Protector said he'd go again.

And wait 'til you see my souvenirs.

Yeah, I Did

2010-07-13T18:14:00.000-05:00

To continue (you never dreamed I could milk a grey sweater for three posts, did you?):

I really did lose the original chart. I think it's probably somewhere in my Temporary Storage Locker (formerly known as the Dining Room), but I'm not about to disassemble that fragile ecosystem. I made a semi-valiant attempt, a sort of scratching about the edges of the thing, but determined pretty quickly that I was courting disaster at best. At worst, the EPA would have been all over me.

Then The Nephew had to go and get accepted at Grad School. Shouldn't he have his sweater before he goes? Would a Loving Aunt send him off to the wilds of Higher Education without a sweater? Yes he should. And no, she wouldn't.

The obvious solution was to go back to the sample sweater with which I had been entrusted, check the measurements, pull out the books and start again. Presumably this time I would end up with something I would like - at least well enough that I wouldn't have to lay it aside for months before I could convince myself it was worth knitting.

Behold, Chart #2. On real knitting graph paper, even.

Here was something that would work, I thought. Here was a sweater I would just love to knit. With this chart, Priscilla and Gladys at my side, I could produce a Knitted Wonder. I got as far as knitting the front and back welts. I even achieved the first join.

Then I did that thinking thing again. First, I bought Knits Men Want by Bruce Weinstein (photographed by Jared Flood) and read through it. I quote:

"Rule #2: Men Resist Change. . . . If he's over 15, he's probably got his style locked in - and he likes it."

Then I took a good look at the sweater he had given me. At which point I figured I might as well lose Chart #2.

I can't quite bring myself to knit a fine-gauge, v-neck, grey sweater entirely in K1P1 rib. Is it any surprise, though, that I'm knitting an EZ Hybrid Sweater? For my knitting excitement, this time I think I'll knit saddle shoulders instead of the Shirt Yoke variation.

Easy as Pie

2010-07-09T16:52:00.001-05:00

First off, let's establish that pie is not easy. Anyone who has ever made pie from scratch will tell you it is a process fraught with danger, a theater of high drama indeed, resulting in a dessert that gladdens the eye and heart or a tough, soggy, bitter-tasting disappointment of no small order. Forget the salt and you're eating mushy fruit in baked wall-paper paste. Don't ask how I know. Hey, I was a newly-wed at the time.

Precisely so, the quest for the simple grey sweater was not without its pitfalls. This is, in part, due to my nature. Just as I can never follow a recipe for pie exactly (I do not approve of skimpy pie filling), I can never make the simple straightforward knitting choice. It seems the path must always be convoluted. Twisty is the only way I know how to go.

Back when all this started, when I began to realize The Nephew was serious, I was fired by ambition. I would do some Real Knitting. I would knit a gansey, or at least gansey-style. With this goal I bought up what I think of as key texts (I can't help it; I was indoctrinated at an early age to research and original sources): Beth Brown-Reisel's Knitting Ganseys, Gladys Thompson's Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans, Sabine Domnick's Cables, Diamonds and Herringbone, and Priscilla Gibson-Roberts Knitting in the Old Way. Over the months I added XRX's Arans and Celtics and Alice Starmore's Fisherman's Sweaters.

I am so contrary. None of the patterns pleased me. Or if the pattern pleased me, I didn't like the construction. I wanted to knit the sweater in the traditional method, which meant in the round from the bottom up, split for the front and back yokes, join the shoulders and finally knit the sleeves in the round from the top down. This wiped out the XRX book. I didn't (and don't) like the wide necklines on the Alice Starmore sweaters. The Beth Brown Reisel patterns were mostly for children and women. That left me with Gladys and Priscilla, nether of which was big on actually giving a pattern to knit a whole sweater.

That's okay, I thought, I can be an Intrepid Knitter. I decided to go really traditional and make up my own. I charted out a knit-purl pattern for the yoke that pleased me, planned a welt instead of ribbing for the waistband and studied up on gussets. I had the yarn. I had the swatch. I adjusted for stitch and row count.

Then I set it aside to incubate or marinate or something. And then I lost the chart.

Strawberry rhubarb, anyone?

I Have So Been Knitting

2010-07-07T12:51:00.000-05:00

Right around the time I posted last month, it occurred to me that a summer of, "Here's a square," and "Oh, look. Another square," followed by "Surprise! I started a square," might not make for the most fascinating summer blog reading.

I began to cast about for a supplemental project, something to relieve that endless iteration, to vary the fugue on one note. Perhaps I could pull something out of the archives. I could knit on a project that I had been ignoring. One I had seemingly given up on. One that will let me take a high moral ground as I knit with stash yarn and clear out a knitting promise. It can't be Their Father's sweater - I still haven't resolved my cable up the front but not the back issues. An afghan in the summer seemed foolhardy to the point of madness.

Ah yes, just the thing. The Nephew's Grey Sweater.

Because nothing says fascinating summer blogging like miles of stockinette stitch in dark grey yarn.

Summertime

2010-06-08T16:31:00.002-05:00

I have summer knitting. I hadn't actually focused on this before, but the only time I work steadily on the Barn-Raising Quilt (from Knitalong? Remember?) is when we're on the road. And we are only ever on the road in summer.

In fact, we were on the road this weekend and I'm still recovering. To and from St. Louis in two days. All five of us. And while we had to book it on the way down (Exchange/Renewal of Vows at 6 and Their Father asked to take the part of Best Man), the ride home was almost leisurely. We didn't get close to the Gateway Arch, but we stopped at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers - you know, where Lewis and Clark started off.

There and back and in public at the breakfast buffet/Sunday brunch at the hotel on WWKIP Day, I expanded my collection of Barn-Raising squares. They're perfect travel and/or warm weather knitting. Small. Portable. Easily remembered even if I leave the pattern behind and easy to read if (when) I make a mistake.

I've added some colors. The dark green that shades closer to brown than I expected --over there on the right -- is Claudia Handpainted in Navy Olive. I note that she seems to have lost the navy in this dye-lot. The brighter green on the left is Claudia Handpainted in Jungle. See, I needed the Olive Navy because the colors were all too bright. Then the Olive Navy turned the Moss into kind of a bronze-ish gold, so I needed a real green to take it's place and . . . never mind. It made sense at the time.

At the rate I'm knitting them, I should have enough squares to complete the afghan in, oh, say, about four more summers.

Recovered

2010-06-02T11:05:00.001-05:00

Within the hour of reporting the loss here. Never underestimate the importance of actually emptying out your knitting containers.

Amazingly, my sense of humor, sense of perspective and general good humor were found at the same time and in the same place.

No such luck on the modicum of patience. I suppose it's a sad truth that what one never had in the first place cannot be restored (Doctor, will I be able to play the piano after surgery? . . . The wonders of modern medicine! I never could before.).

Missing

2010-05-28T11:33:00.001-05:00

1 sense of humor.
1 sense of perspective.
1 measure patience.
The sense I was born with.

More importantly, though:
1 skein Claudia Handpainted Fingering/Sock in Taupe.
1 partial skein ditto in Moss.
5 Barn-raising Quilt Squares, 1 each in Claudia Handpainted in Walk in the Woods, Moss and Taupe, and ShibuiKnits Sock in Dragonfly and Pagoda.
1 set 8" KA bamboo dpn's, US 2/2.75 mm.
1 set 6" (5"?) KA bamboo dpn's US 2/2.75 mm.

I know I had them. If I doubt myself, I can look right here. As of a year ago yesterday they all existed, ergo they must all exist now. It's called object permanence, or maybe it's the conservation of energy and matter. Something like that. So where did they go? And when I find them, will I also find my sense of humor, my sense of perspective, my measure of patience . . . ?

Knitting in the Tunnel

2010-05-25T11:58:00.000-05:00

It isn't a very good place for knitting. For one thing, it's dark. Also kind of twisty. Not to mention dank. But I'm not actually digging through the rubble at the moment, so it seems a better place than it's been. Undeniably, though, knitting has been rather thin on the ground. I can give you a litany of all my failures or a fantasy preview of all my plans. Perhaps both, clearing the decks and then going on to prove my ~~cockeyed~~ ~~indomitable~~ determined optimism (Hark. Is that Bernstein's Candide playing in my head? "Once one dismisses the rest of all possible world's one finds that this is the best of all possible worlds . . . .Objection! What about snakes?").

Anyway. It is said that confession is good for the soul. With that in mind, a not comprehensive, albeit indicative, exposition of -- let's err on the side of charity here and call it -- interrupted knitting.

The Great Race for Afghans for Afghans? Lost it. On three counts, because I didn't even manage to rid my house of the purple sweater.

Their Father's long-dormant cardigan? I am seriously looking at frogging the back because I don't want the cables from the front to just stop at the shoulder seam. Right now I just avert my eyes from it. Some ostrich-ish notion that if I keep it out of my direct line of sight I won't have to actually do something about it.

The Ab-Fab Afghan I Intend to Absolutely Love? Not even cast on. Even a one row, 17 stitch repeat of Old Shale is apparently too much. (One of the reasons the Great Sweater Race fell apart was because I kept blithely --blindly? -- knitting stockinette when I should have been reading the pattern, with the result that the green sweater lost it's cables and the blue one needs to find it's neckline decreases.)

Enough. On to the fantasy part.

Er. Hmm. It's seems that well is dry. How disconcerting. How fortuitous, then, that I have been invited to produce a piece of knitting that -- based on the above recitation of aborted knitting projects -- precisely fits the current shape of the knitting hole in my life.

Small.

Simple.

For someone else.

Too bad it's a secret so I can't tell you much more. How about this, though? I have to make one decision.

Which color? I can't be expected to decide - the light in this tunnel is terrible.

Two Hours

2010-05-24T12:21:00.000-05:00

Less, even.

Yarn - Tess' Designer Yarns Hand- dyed merino bulky in colorway Maine Woods and Waters.

Needles - US 11/8 mm Addi Turbos.

Pattern - Paddington Neckwarmer by Roxanne Wood/netofbeing.

Buttons from stash.

Skinny buttons and bulky yarn do not a good match make. I stripped one strand off a short length of the yarn, pulled the rest through the button holes with a fine crochet hook and knotted it several times to make a shank. I fastened the buttons on by tying the yarn around a stitch (as opposed to threading both ends through the same space).

I continue in the Tunnel of Life. While I am not yet convinced that the light at the end is an oncoming train, I grow mightily tired of finding out the light is only a place where the tunnel has collapsed and, not only have I not reached the end, I have to dig through all the rubble and repair it before I can go on. If someone could please send me a sense of humor I would be most grateful.

Two hours only, but it was two hours with my knitting needles in my hands.

Giddy

2010-05-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Such excitement over here at Chez WoolGathering. We have been hoping and planning for some time, but now it's definite. We are to have a Guest from a Foreign Land this Summer.

We're taking her to Stitches, even though she's not so much into the knitting thing.

Yet (cue sinister and diabolical laughter requisite for villainous, knitterly plotting of the taking over the world variety).

Racing Myself

2010-04-28T10:46:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, I can focus on a single project. I can knit with dedication, determination and purpose. This is not one of those sometimes.

Sometimes bribery works (see past four posts). This is also not one of those sometimes. When one has already in effect bribed oneself (note photo here with observation that I purchased enough yarn for 2 sweaters), the whole motivation thing is gone and one must admit that all one is doing is accumulating stash. More yarn is no longer a bribe, it's just pressure.

Sometimes time is incentive enough. A deadline can work wonders. I may have ended up with an afghan that I hate, but the time pressure of the Knitting Olympics assured that I ended up with an afghan. It's just not enough incentive this time.

The sad and sorry truth is that the fun part of the Puntas Sweater is done. It's straight stockinette in the round from here on until it's time to split for the sleeves and yoke, at which point it will be largely straight stockinette back and forth. So I've decided to set up a little competition. A race with myself, if you will. The knitterly version of playing checkers, right hand against left. I'm knitting this, too.

This is Rosemary's Little Sweater. Like the Puntas Sweater, it's a Green Mountain Spinnery pattern (That yarn for 2 sweaters? It's all Green Mountain Spinnery yarn, remember?). At this point it is also straight stockinette in the round, but I have little cables to look forward to.

a4A wants sweaters for youth. They want them in hand by May 14. That gives me 17 days until the sweaters have to be in San Francisco. That's the same number of days as the original Knitting Olympics. I owe them for completely blowing the last campaign.

It's an all or nothing challenge. I'm risking not finishing either sweater in time. The victory, however, will be on multiple fronts. I will be knitting against a deadline. I have to allow time for shipping, but I have already started, so I'm still looking pretty much at 17 days. It will be a victory over undue stash accumulation. The yarn will have been here less than a month. I don't think it will count as stash at all. And in some sort of twisted sideways way, it will atone for knitting a hideous afghan for the original Knitting Olympics when I could have been knitting sweaters for kids.

That, and sometimes project monogamy is just not what it takes to actually, you know, finish a project.

Epilogue

2010-04-20T14:40:00.003-05:00

" 'Sisyphus, Sisyphus,' hissed the snake,
'Sibilant, syllabub,
Syllable-loo-ba-lay.
Scylla and Charybdis
Sumac, asphodel,
How do you spell Success?
With an S-S-S!' " *

Details, details.

Pattern: Orphans fro Orphans Sweater from Knitting for Peace.

Yarn: Malabrigo Bulky in Velvet grapes, I don't remember how many skeins but suspect it was at least six. Bulky because I wanted a sweater that would fit an older child/14 year old. For some reason I convinced myself that lots of people would, as I had with the original Orphans for Orphans sweater, knit for the 8 to 10 year old group, leaving the 12 to 14 year olds in the lurch.

Needles: Addi Turbo's, US 11/5mm.

Adjustments to handle heavier (much heavier) yarn: Numerous, but I did a very bad job of keeping them straight. Some of them are scattered throughout the blog. Mostly they involved math to adjust stitch and row count to accommodate a gauge that had nothing to do with the original pattern. Also to place decreases, which were fewer because the row count was significantly lower.

Bottom line, though? I win.

* Excerpted from the poem "Cheers" by Eve Merriam (because April is National Poetry Month).

Part the Third

2010-04-19T19:58:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you just have to get your hands on new yarn.

Or a new pattern or a new technique. Or all of the foregoing.

Then you can feel rejuvenated enough to finally finish off the last bits of an old project which seems to consist entirely and debilitatingly of old yarn, old pattern, old technique.

Now, will someone please explain where all those ends came from? I think perhaps some more bribery is called for.

Part the Second

2010-04-14T13:28:00.001-05:00

String Theory doesn't just carry wool/mohair blends from Peace Fleece. They carry Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair.

I used up my credit. In fact, I more than used up my credit. It's the Lord Protector's fault. He couldn't tell me which color combination worked best, so I had to get enough for two sweaters.

By Friday evening I had Kitchener-ed the remaining side of the Knitting for Peace Sweater and picked up the stitches and knit the waistband ribbing.

But only on the strength of the ~~bribe~~ promise that now that that part is done, I can wind the yarn for a Punta Sweater.

Bribery - A Tale in Three Parts - Part the First

2010-04-13T20:36:00.001-05:00

Look familiar?

It should. Progress on the Orphans for Afghans sweater? That would be none. Zero. Zip. Zilch. It would seem my distaste for this sweater had reached irrational proportions. Even the promise and planning of the Punta sweater couldn't persuade me to move forward. After I posted here a week ago Friday, I admitted that serious bribery was called for.

I decided I didn't want to wait for an order of Mountain Mohair from Green Mountain Spinnery. Peace Fleece, I thought. Peace Fleeces is a wool/mohair blend. String Theory carries Peace Fleece. And I still had most of the Sidewalk Sale credit to spend.

String Theory is Far Away. It almost can't be called a local yarn store. I can't get there and back in time for The Pirate's school bus unless I plan very, very efficiently.

Both The Pirate and the Lord Protector were off from school that Friday.

Guess where we went.

I did say serious bribery was called for.

Duty Calls

2010-04-02T10:32:00.001-05:00

I bet you're wondering if any knitting is happening here, or if I'm just doing my best to replace all the yarn I donated a few months ago. As it happens, I am. It's purple. It involves large needles. It's almost a sweater.

It's been flopping around here for way too long. The repertoire of feeble excuses I have devised for not working on it is truly underwhelming (the latest was I had to wind up a new skein and spit-splice it on to finish the second sleeve). The time has come. I need to undo and re-do the Kitchener stitch up the left side, and then Kitchener the right (the yarn is so bulky; I don't want that thick seam). Once I've done that I need to pick up the stitches along the bottom and knit the waistband ribbing. I need to mattress-stitch the sleeves. Then I need to crab-stitch the neck edge. Most importantly, I need to get it out of my house. The current a4A campaign (items due in early May) is again (still) asking for sweaters.

I can't help but notice how many times the word "need" arises when writing about this sweater. If I said I was enjoying the knitting, I'd be lying. I need a bribe. One of my acquisitions at Stitches this past fall was the Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book. I think I may be falling in love with the Punta Sweater. It's the pink one.

Surprisingly, no one on Ravelry has knit it up yet. At least, I can't find it. It's not even listed on the Green Mountain Spinnery designer's page (although the cute little matching hat is).

I completely blew the last a4A Youth Campaign (yet another thing to hold against the Not-So-Absolutely-Fabulous Afghan). I'm not going to let this one stumble down the same road. At the very least, maybe I'll finally get Kitchener stitch down.

Local Custom

2010-03-31T09:50:00.001-05:00

The Pirate is on Spring Break this week. There are certain traditions that must be maintained. The first day of Spring Break requires lunch at Wendy's (double order of chicken nuggets, a Frosty, save the fries for the Lord Protector), and visits to Michael's to pick a craft project for the week and The Yarn Store to replenish his Rainbow Yarn. His Regia sock yarn has already been absorbed into his stash; I have no idea what the colorway was.

And I think I know what I'm getting in my Easter basket this year.

Dream in Color's Knitosophy in Be your own Superhero. Lantern Moon crocheted flower stitch-markers.

Unless, of course, the Easter baskets are still barricaded by the (stalled) Spring construction project that followed the great Autumn plumbing reconstruction. I think they might be. Maybe I should check on that. Maybe the new local custom will be Easter plates.

Did I Mention It Was My Birthday?

2010-03-29T10:13:00.001-05:00

It was. Last week. I got a present.

Then I picked out another one.

Have You Any Wool Luxe Worsted in Rage.

And I decided that by hook or by crook I was going to get an Absolutely Fabulous Afghan that I absolutely loved. So I went out and got still another one. Or eight.

Colinette Mohair in Velvet Damson and Copperbeech; Classic Elite La Gran Mohair in Claret; Mountain Colors Moguls in Sunburst; Colinette Skye in Velvet Damson and Tapis; Muench Yarns Touch Me in Redwood; Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in Red Rover.

I just love birthdays.

Converted

2010-03-26T10:28:00.002-05:00

First off, Sarah Peasley is brilliant. I went into the "Basic Intarsia Techniques" with mixed feelings at best. I didn't want to be converted. I didn't want someone up there burbling on about how adorable those animals in colors never found in nature on little kids' sweaters are. Sarah Peasley is not a burbler. She didn't get good at intarsia because she's devoted her knitting to it. She got good (if I'm remembering the story aright) by knitting through a vast number of intarsia kits for a friend who couldn't knit them anymore. She might even have gotten paid for it. She got good at intarsia because she had to. It was sort of self-preservation. This attitude toward intarsia I could get behind.

I had an arsenal of reservations about this technique. Intarsia is fiddly. Intarsia gets tangled. Intarsia leaves you with lots of ends to weave in. Intarsia can leave you with holes in your knitting. Three out of those four are unavoidable, but can be rendered bearable if you want the end product badly enough. The fourth, the holes in your knitting part, is completely avoidable if it's done right. If it's done right, it can even leave the back of your knitting looking extraordinarily presentable.

Fiddly? Undeniable. You're juggling awkward lengths of yarn in however many colors required for your pattern. You have to hold your yarn a certain way when you change colors in order to "lock" them. See the little vertical dashes of color on the wrong side? That's how your knitting should look if you're knitting along a straight line and have locked your color changes. Those diagonal lines on the picture below? That's how it should look when your knitting a pattern where the colors shift.

Tangled yarns? Well, yes. So you stop and untwist them periodically. Not actually all that big a deal.

Ends to weave in? That, too. One of the best things I got out of this class, though, was how to weave in ends. I'd always done it by guess and by golly before. The only rule I knew was to go in the direction the yarn/knitting was going. So beginning ends should be woven in going back and ending ends should go forward. It never occurred to me to go down or up on the diagonal, and then to double-back parallel to the first line of stitches. It's astonishing how much more endurable a task becomes when you're confident of the technique you're using.

Sarah also recommended this little gem from Sealed With a Kiss.

There's a whole intarsia sample in there. Not unlike the band sampler's worked by embroiderers in the 17th and 18th centuries (I used to do those, too). I've got quite a ways to go, but I expect I'll enjoy the getting there.

Into Intarsia

2010-03-19T09:39:00.002-05:00

You know what? I never told you about my Stitches class.

It's going to take a couple of posts. To begin, as sort of back-story, let's review my attitude toward two-color knitting. While I remember that I liked it while I was doing it, the fact remains that one of the longest running UFO's in my knitting repertoire are Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts, dating back to when See Eunny Knit was an active blog and last mentioned in this blog here.

Second, how about my expressed attitude toward argyle? (Read the comments, too.) Not promising, is it?

Lastly, I associate intarsia with Annie's Attic, Herschnerr's and acrylic, which conspire to foist truly hideous sweater's on children. Kay says it so much better than I, so let me quote from MDK2: "Intarsia is a big offender, and not just because it so often portrays our animal friends. . . . . I can hear you saying, 'But what about knitting a groovy catch phrase . . . - wouldn't that be super?' NO. That would not be super. Stop it RIGHT NOW."

Why then, did I take a class in it? Not because it was the only thing available. I registered early enough to get the early bird discount.

I took it so I could learn to knit argyle.

Excuse me. What was that?

I said, "I took it so I could learn to knit argyle."

I'm sorry, I still can't hear you.

Okay, fine! I said, "I TOOK IT SO I COULD LEARN TO KNIT ARGYLE."

There, was that loud enough for you?

Closing Ceremony

2010-03-11T10:03:00.003-06:00

I meant to write this last week, or the beginning of this at the latest. Except I mistook feeling better for being well and lapsed back into whatever bug it was that made things miserable during the Olympics. Here, then, is the final post on the World's Ugliest Gold Medal Winner.

I came up with some survival techniques. First, a cheat sheet. A sample of each yarn with it's corresponding color code. It meant I didn't have to keep track of which yarn was Fandago or Wigwam or Zanziba (Colinette is not so good at the giving their yarns meaningful names). I didn't have to label the yarn or keep the ball-bands with me wherever I was working. I didn't have to keep flipping the pattern pages over to check against the yarn list. Saved me time and infinite annoyance.

Lantern Moon small taffeta bags. The three mohair yarns lived in these throughout the project, color-coded, thus saving my sanity and themselves from annihilation. Mohair is really, really sticky. It's a parasite and will latch onto anything like a lamprey - all those teeth.

Post-it notes. Worked even better for keeping my place than the highlighting thing I did for the Not-Quite-A-Blessingway Blanket. Since the repeat was 56 rows long, this kept me on the right row until I could read the pattern from the throw.

General Observations -

The pattern just isn't that hard. I could be over-committed the first week and sick the second and still finish in a timely fashion. Granted that Friday and Saturday were intense, but that's two days out of 17.

Mohair is deeply annoying to knit with, and I will probably impale myself on a set of dpn's before I knit with it again, but it's not particularly difficult.

I have knit Art and I don't want to ever again. There is such a thing as too much. Too much texture (although that's the only thing The Princess likes about it). Too much color. Too much novelty yarn.

With all this dissatisfaction, perhaps you can understand why I felt a little queasy about claiming a gold medal.

I earned it for the discipline I didn't know I had before this project. I made very sure to keep track of the pattern so I wouldn't have to rip back. I marked off the repeats with stichmarkers and I devised systems to make the knitting more coherent. If I learned nothing else, I know how to count to 17, which was the number of stitches in the pattern repeat. I counted it so faithfully and with such consistency that I never want to see the number again. The Lord Protector will have to go from 16 to 18, bypassing his 17th year entirely. So will any grandchildren I may have.

I earned it for my persistence. By the time I reached the last repeat, the only thing keeping me going was a kind of grim determination and the knowledge that I wouldn't have to knit with that particular yarn again. By the time I knit the last 12 rows, it was the knowledge that with each row completed, I would only have so many rows left to knit. By the time I reached the last 4 rows, it was a matter of counting down the stitches. By the time I reached the last bind-off stitch, the only yarn I ever wanted to knit with again was the Skye.

I earned it for what I think of myself as a knitter now, as opposed to when the Olympics started. Maybe the knitting was that simple. On the other hand, maybe I am a better knitter than I thought I was. Maybe I am even a good knitter. And maybe the next time someone, with a faintly kindly patronizing smile, tells me that that pattern, that book, that technique is probably a little too hard for me, well, maybe I just won't believe them anymore.

Pattern - Scallops from Colinette's Absolutely Fabulous Throw Kit.

Yarn - also (mostly) from Colinette's Absolutely Fabulous Throw Kit, approximately 4 years old and therefore with some discontinued yarns. One skein each of:
Color A - Mohair in Renaissance.
Color B - Skye in Copperbeech (Substituted for Velvet Bilberry).
Color C - Mohair in Copperbeech (Substituted for Mist).
Color D - Zanziba in Autumn.
Color E - Wigwam in Lichen (Should have been substituted. The yarn that killed the project. I hated knitting with it more than any of the other fibers. And that's saying a lot. And I hate the way it looks in the finished throw. Completely and utterly, color and texture.)
Color F - Fandago in Venezia.
Color G - Mohair in Tapis.
Color H - Zanziba in Jay.

Needles - Addi Turbo's, US 11/8 mm.

Finished size - 42" by 55".