Thursday, February 23, 2006

Enjoyed a lovely, relaxing getaway in Florida:

So did Krystyna:

We both returned to Michigan with our minds and bodies made whole again:

Although we'd each give our right arms to go back to the sunshine and warm weather:

What's left to do? 

• Complete the second sleeve
• Sew the sleeves to the body
• Weave in ends
• Sew down the neck facing
• Tweak the hem
• Throw it in the washing machine
• Throw it in the dryer for fifteen minutes, and then
• Lay flat to finish drying

Without the fuzz of wool, it looks like there are lace panels as well as cable panels in this fabric (look at the part that hangs below Sheila Dummy above, and try to ignore the flared hem). 

I'm liking the Euroflax linen a lot.  I'm already planning some summer tanks out of a few different colors . . .

I'm also liking the concept of monogamous knitting a lot (I have no idea if I used the word "monogamous" correctly, but you get the idea).  I feel much more focused and productive.  Will I be able to continue being true to only one project at a time?  Probably not, but it's good to know what it feels like.

Speaking of being true to only one project at a time, I'm happy to report that no socks were attempted during my escape to Florida.  I even managed to visit a lovely Floridian yarn store without making any purchases, although I did help Mother-in-Law Number Two pick out a cable needle, and followed up by teaching her how to use it (hooray!).

Heard from Sister Number Two -- she loves her St. Brigid (whew!).  I couldn't resist, and had to try it on before I sent it to her.  Son Number One was my official photographer on a sunny Michigan day:

It was very difficult to give St. Brigid up, but I know she's gone to a good home.

Off to knit and shower and knit and teach and knit and eat and knit and knit and knit . . .

Sarah

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Krystyna is chugging along.  I reached the underarm, split for the front and the back, and finished the decreases for the back armhole shaping.  I'd show you the photos I've been taking, but they all look the same.  She's packed and ready for Florida (as am I).  See?

Not that I think the Knitting Olympics qualify as a crisis, you understand.

I've got some audiobooks and the makings for a sock in my carry on.  What?  No, you must have misunderstood.  I said I have the makings for some Jaywalker socks Krystyna's SLEEVES in my carry on.  What kind of an Olympic cheater knitter do you think I am? 

Here's why we're leaving:

It's supposed to snow every day while we're gone.  Too bad!!

See you next week!

Sarah

Monday, February 13, 2006

As of this morning, which means as of Sunday night, I had 7 eight row repeats of the cable pattern done.  See?

As of this evening (okay, technically it's Tuesday morning now, but I don't count it as such until I've been to sleep and woken back up), I have 12 repeats.  See?

Didn't I do well today?

The hem is curly.  For now.  If it insists on being curly after blocking, I'll cut it off and build another, non-curly hem.  So there.

I'm thrilled with my progress so far.  I have most of the day off tomorrow -- can I make it to the underarm where the back and front separate?  I've decided to make it a little shorter than called for in the pattern -- just eight rows, which will save me an hour of knitting.  After tomorrow, though, life gets pretty busy.  Appointments, classes, packing, and a long weekend in Florida.  I think I'll work on the sleeves there.  My father-in-law tells me it's been in the forties at night where we're headed -- what kind of an escape from Michigan's cold weather will that be?  Oh -- I just checked, and it will be in the eighties while we're there.  That's better!

Sarah

Saturday, February 11, 2006

I sort of accidentally did the provisional crocheted cast on for Krystyna a week or so ago.  After I was about halfway through it, I remembered that I wasn't supposed to cast on until the opening ceremony.  Since the provisional cast on involved scrap yarn, I was able to justify/rationalize continuing as being part of the training.  After all, I was still swatching, too.  No sweater knitting with the ACTUAL yarn was attempted, however.

I started the first row with the ACTUAL yarn at about 3:00 Friday afternoon, during a little lull in the class I was teaching at Rae's Yarn Boutique in Lansing.  Rae was starting her Olympic project, too, so it was like a mini-knit-in.  I carried Krystyna with me to my evening class at The Yarn Garden in Charlotte, where Kim (the owner) had her Olympic knitting ready, but I didn't make any more progress until I got home and got the kids to bed.  Amazingly enough, my family had remembered to record the opening ceremony, so I started watching it at about 11:30 p.m.  When it was over, the clock read 2:55 a.m., which freaked me out a bit.  Here's what I had on the needles in the wee hours of Saturday morning:

What the hell was I thinking?

There's no way this is going to turn into an adult sized sweater within sixteen days.  No.  Way. 

On the bright side, though, how many sports do you know of for which you can wear your pajamas?  Tee hee!

Regret #1:  The pattern called for a stockinette stitch hem, with the turning (knit) row worked on a larger needle.  I like to use a purl row as my turning ridge, so I did, using the larger needle as suggested by the pattern.  If I had it to do again, I would either stick with all knit rows, or use the same, smaller needle for the purl row.

I love a hemmed edge, and I really like using the three needle join in order to make a built-in hemmed edge, as opposed to sewing the facing in place afterwards.  For those of you who aren't "in the know", you use a provisional cast on of some kind (provisional means you can remove it later and you'll end up with upside-down "live" (ready to be knit) stitches on that edge).  Knit the hem and the facing, with or without a turning ridge in between (you can see the purl row at the bottom in the photo above -- it makes a nice fold line).  Then take out the provisional cast on and put the new live stitches on a spare needle.  Hold the original needle and the spare needle parallel with the hem folded (wrong sides together), and knit a stitch from the front needle together with a stitch from the back needle.  Repeat across the row, and you end up with a very cool finished hem.

This works great unless you forget and do a three needle bind off instead of a three needle join.

Regret #2:  I caught myself after binding off about half a dozen stitches accidentally.  Binding off ALL of the stitches would have been a huge bummer.  HUGE.

Did I mention that the hem was worked on 292 stitches, in the round, on a size 0 U.S. (2 mm) needle?  Fussy and fiddly, fiddly and fussy!

Today (Saturday), I knit at home (again in my p.j.s), then at the monthly charity knit-in at a local book store (this month's charity was ME, apparently, because I wouldn't set my Olympic knitting aside for even a moment to work on this month's afghan square), and then again at the Claddagh while waiting for my corned beef sandwich (very yummy, but I should have ordered the fish and chips that I usually get -- Regret #2.5).  Then at home again, while watching the pairs figure skating (every time they put up the "Pairs Figure Skating" graphic, I read it as "Paris Figure Skating").

Here's today's progress:

That's a little better, eh?  Almost looks like fabric! 

You're looking at three and a half repeats of the eight row pattern.  I need seventeen repeats up to the armhole.  Let's not even do the math.  I'll just knit way more tomorrow, at the Second Sunday knit-in at Woven Art in East Lansing. 

Regret #3:  There are two different sweaters photographed on the pattern.  I prefer the one on the front, which has lots more of the loose-looking eight stitch cables you see in the photo above.  The one on the back has a bunch of the smaller four stitch cables in a row.  This difference is not explained anywhere on the pattern, but what I've discovered is that the medium size, which is what I really need, is written with more eight stitch cables, while the large size, which I'm making because I'm knitting to a different gauge than that called for in the pattern, achieves the size difference by adding extra four stitch cables.  If I had figured this out 36 hours earlier, I would have used a larger needle, hit gauge, and made the medium.

Poop.

I'm not tearing out what I've done, so I'm embracing the four stitch cables, which actually look quite nice, especially after implementing Plan B:

I wanted to get to a full four repeats before I gave up for the night (well, really I was shooting for six), but it's already after midnight and since I was up until 3:00 this morning . . .

. . . off to bed I go.

Sarah

Friday, February 10, 2006

According to the Yarn Harlot's January 17th entry, we can begin our Knitting Olympics projects at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern time) today, as that is approximately when the torch will be lit in Turin.  Unfortunately, I'll be teaching a class from 1:30-3:30, after which I may be able to squeeze in the hem of Krystyna before I leave to teach in Charlotte from 6:30-8:30.  I won't be home until after 9:30 tonight, so I'm not even going to be able to watch the opening ceremonies unless my family of boys remembers to record it for me (doubtful).

During my "training" for the Olympics, I swatched with three different sizes of needles.  It's unusual for me to use the needle size specified in a pattern, since I'm such a loose knitter (shut up!), so I usually end up using two sizes smaller.  I had to go LARGER to get the gauge specified in the pattern, but I prefer the feel of the fabric done on a smaller needle, so I'm going with a larger size sweater on a smaller needle.  Already setting myself up for failure, aren't I?

I tried to finish up some projects since the next two+ weeks will be devoted to one sweater.  How did I do?  Let's take a look at the sidebar.

Baby Sweater for the Almanac-along (February):

Oh!  So close!  Just a few more inches to go, and a couple of sleeve seams, but I won't have time to finish before 2:00 today (unless I knit while I teach . . .)

Entrelac Cardigan:

Hmm.  Maybe if I call it a vest instead . . .

Entrelac Pillows (for Son Number One):

Well, his birthday is in March.  That sounds like a good deadline to me.

Introduction to Aran class sample:

Not quite, especially now that I decided to add some beads to the 2x2 cables for a little pizazz.

Red Rose Bed (for Mica):

Well, at least the knitting is done.  Mica wasn't interested (a bad sign), so I added a can of cat treats for scale.  Better yet, here's the piano bench shot:

Mica weighs about five pounds.  I'm hoping this kitty bed shrinks quite a bit, but it's waiting until I can find an inner tube for a wheelbarrow . . . the designer's bizarre but fun suggestion for a blocking tool.

Sweet Cardigan:

No.  Unless you count completely dismantling it, which I did manage to do.

Women's Mitered Cardigan:

Let's just stick with the pretty picture of that one for now.  Nothing has happened since I blocked it.

What else?

Oh yeah -- St. Brigid:

DONE (finally)!  And currently on the wooly board.  Hope it's dry in time to mail to Sister Number 2 for her Valentine Birthday!

Sarah

Monday, February 6, 2006

There are no deadlines in the Almanac-along, but I felt the need to finish January's project before embarking on something for February:

I couldn't figure out how to decrease the top of the Swatch Cap without screwing up the established cables, until I heard myself telling my Finishing students that a three needle bind off done on the public side of the shoulders of a sweater provides a nice dividing line between, for example, opposing cables that meet at the shoulder.  Hmm, I thought -- I could just put some kind of a dividing line between the Swatch Cap's cables and the shaping at the top! 

So I did. 

I worked a three stitch i-cord bind off around the top, then a matching attached three stitch i-cord around the bottom.  Then I went back to the top, picked up stitches around the inside of the i-cord, and worked the top shaping in stockinette stitch, capped off (ha!) with an i-cord knot.  Finito!

Then . . .

Oops!  Sorry -- got distracted by the television for a few hours (WOO HOO!)

Then, I dove into February with a double knit pot holder:

What you can't see is that the center of this innocent looking square is a double thickness, and the whole thing looks exactly the same on the other side -- no reverse stockinette stitch to be seen.

I had done double knitting before, but always in two colors with a chart, which is much more involved.  This was way easier.  If I have time left in February (after the Olympics, of course!), I'll make either a dog blanket (Keiko is getting tired of that old blue towel) or a baby blanket with brightly colored double knit squares. 

Do you recognize that potholder yarn?  It used to be the Revelation Cardigan, which was definitely one of my least successful accomplishments.  I'm not even going to figure out where in my archives you can find it, because it's not worth revisiting.  The rest of the reclaimed yarn is being knit into a Moebius cat bed from A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting, by Cat Bordhi.  Coincidentally, the pattern for this cat bed starts with a Moebius ring which is finished off with a three stitch i-cord bind off, after which stitches are picked up around the inside of the i-cord and knit down to shape the base of the bed.  Sound familiar?  Didn't I just do this in my Swatch Cap?

The cat bed is currently enormous (and Mica is so teeny!) -- I'm semi-confident that fulling will whip it into shape.  I think I'll throw the potholder in the washer, too, and see what happens to it.

I've also started the baby sweater from the February chapter of the Knitter's Almanac, but didn't photograph it yet.  It's orange.

And St. Brigid is in the finishing stages, but you don't get any more photos of that until it's in my sister's possession.

And now, a little housekeeping.  When I move blog entries to archives, I delete the comments.  Otherwise, I think I'd have to edit each entry's comments to identify their new whereabouts, and I'm not interested in the extra work.  I'm not using any blogging software -- just Microsoft Front Page -- so I don't have any fancy schmancy automatic features available.  Anyway, I thought I was being really clever printing out my comments to be answered later, but unfortunately the printouts don't print the linked e-mail addresses, so those are lost. 

So to those of you who have been de-lurking to say hello . . . Hello!  I appreciate your comments! 

And to annmarie, who is a fellow Keith Olbermann fan -- I used two 50 gram hanks of Koigu for my ribbed socks -- they weighed about 80 grams total.

Lots to do, and not enough hours, so ta ta for now!

Sarah

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