This is the Remix

I’ve been knitting steadily along on my candy stripe raglan pullover. The waist shaping is finished, and I’m basically just deciding on where to start the ribbon at this point. Because I have an odd obsession with even numbers, I think I’m going to knit until there are 12 gold stripes.

I also want to put a kangaroo pocket on the front. I want it to be colour work, and it has to be awesome. This is of course dependent on how much yarn I have left, but considering that I’m almost done the body and have only used 4 balls of mission falls 136 in charcoal, I don’t think that would be a problem. Here’s a shot of the back shaping.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the sleeves. I think I want 3/4 length sleeves, but that feels silly. I don’t know – I guess I have some time to think about it. I have to say that I really like the versions of this sweater online that have long sleeves as well.

I’ve been working on my neckerchief, but I think I dropped a stitch. In fact, I know I dropped something somewhere. I ripped back a bunch and thought I caught the error, but it’s still there. Honestly, I think the ripping back and reknitting over and over again has exacerbated the problem, but it’s enough of a problem for me that I think I’m just going to start the whole damn thing over.

The picture above is what the stitch pattern is supposed to look like.  I think it’s really cool, and it reminds me of the stuff I’d see in my great grandmother’s house.  I want my scarf to look that way.  But it doesn’t, because I messed up about midway across one row.

It’s driving me nuts.  As are the conditions of my windows, but give me a break – it’s February in Montreal.  I’m going to rip it all back.  I think that I could have have handled it better if I had understood the specs of the pattern better.

You see, the finished measurements are supposed to be so that the final width across the widest part of the neckerchief (the side that goes around your neck) is 1 yard 16 inches.  I had no idea how big a yard is – 3 feet?  Seriously?  For some reason, I thought it would be smaller than a foot.  Regardless, I don’t want a giant shawl, I want a small neckerchief, so I’m going to recommence by casting on enough for about an inch and see if I can get something closer to what I wanted.

But isn’t it pretty?

And miles to go before I sleep

Last night, I re-cast on my sweater.  I’m making that my start date for this sweater?  Why?  Because I did it three times, and I think casting on that many times negates the first attempt at knitting.  I may be wrong, and the knitting deities may chastise me, but that’s how I roll.  That said, here’s my collar! (In lovely Mission Falls 136 superwash, using the Candy-Striped raglan pullover calculation, that is.)

The stockinette is rolling, so it’s actually quite a lot more impressive than it looks.  Or at least, it’s quite a lot more impressive than it looks to me, which is an entirely different thing.  Still, having knit 2.5 inches in about that many hours ain’t bad.  And that’s taking the work I did on my socks into consideration.

I knit two inches on my socks as well.  That’s using 2.75 mm needles, and I’m a tight knitter.  It took a long time, and my right thumb hurt when I went to bed, but that’s what I did.

See, I’m knitting them two-at-a-time.  That means that the two inches I knit last night is actually equal to four.  This is what I keep telling myself, at least.

I cast these socks on January 11th.  That was 11 days ago!  And I think I probably have another two inches per sock (four inches total) and then the two inches of decreases per sock for the toes left.  Now, I know that I haven’t knit for at least two days out of being busy, and another two days making my Saartje’s booties, but still. I feel like a bit of a slow poke, and it’s affecting my self-esteem more than I’d care to admit.  That said, from what I recall, I usually can knit one adult sized sock in about 5-6 days.  Then I knit the other one, which usually takes less time because I’m not figuring out the pattern, so let’s say 4-5 days.  At the outset, I knew I was in for about 11 days of knitting.  Subtracting the four days of impetuous relaxing or knitting baby booties, I have four days to finish these before my ego has been entirely deflated.

I’ve tried to make myself feel better by reminding myself that I usually automatically deduct 10 stitches from the cast on amount because I have tiny feet, and usually only knit about 4-5 inches on the foot before I decrease for the toes.

I’m knitting this pattern as specified because it’s for Ariadne Knits, and also because I want to start listening to other patterns before I stampede off and end up drowning myself in redundant stitches.  But golly.  I didn’t know it would be this hard.

Inner City Pressure

I adore Flight of the Conchords deeply, so I figured I’d share this video.  I’m also feeling some inner sinus pressure.  Who could resist a pun like that?

I started sewing buttons onto my sweater yesterday.  I placed two correctly.  And then?  And then.  I messed up, and sewed one button about one stitch too far up and then I based another button from that button, and now I have to take them off and re-do them.  It feels insurmountable until I look at those shiny new buttons.

Aren’t they lovely?  I love metal buttons in general, but gosh, I love these buttons.  This colourway of Lamb’s Pride Superwash Worsted has a silver tone to it, and the silver buttons pick it up.  Here’s a more detailed shot.

Does anyone know what those crests symbolize?  I’m working under the assumption that they don’t really mean anything, but I don’t want to be like the one girl I knew in High School who wore a Le Tigre shirt because she liked tigers.

My Manos del Uruguay mittens are making me sad.  I took them into Ariadne and weighed them; the completed mitten weighs 32 grams and the ball weighs 19 grams.  Tragic!  I think I’m going to end up ripping out the cuff to see if I can re-knit the cuff in another yarn, and hopefully, that increase the yardage enough to make two gorgeous mittens.

I also cast on for Elizabeth Zimmerman’s baby sweater on two needles from her Knitter’s Almanac (Schoolhouse Press) last night.  I’m using Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash in Raspberry.  Knitting this sweater is a bit strange; the pattern isn’t as, well, blocked out as more modern patterns, but the writing flows nicely.  I like how the knitter is invited to change the pattern at will.  I’ve also decided to do yarn overs instead of invisible increases so that there will be space to pull some pretty ribbons through the sweater.

I chose the colour because it’s feminine but bright.  Babies are born basically blind, so bright colours are more easily visible to them.  Pale, pastel colours for babies don’t make a lot of sense to me.  The mother of the baby looks great in vibrant colours so I hope she’ll like it.

How’s the inner city pressure treating my kitties?

Separation Anxiety

Tomorrow, I’m getting some buttons from Ariadne.  I’ve finished one button band and am picking up stitches for the other.  I am so sad!  I cast on for this sweater on November 25th, and I don’t know how I’ll survive without it.  39 days of pure sweater knitting bliss… I think I’m going to end up casting on for a new sweater pretty much as soon as possible.

But, for now, I’m mollifying myself with some mittens.  I’m knitting Bella’s Mittens in Manos del Uruguay’s Clasica, colourway Olivewood.  This is a beautiful single ply handspun kettle dyed 100% wool yarn.  I’m pretty excited to be working with it.  My tiny hands are foiling me again, though;  I knit the cuff and it was way too big.  So I’ve cast on 10 stitches fewer to see if this will still work.  If not… well, let’s not think about that now, okay?

And I’m including this because I think it’s basically the best picture ever despite the lack of artistry.  Look!  They think they’re people!

Hard Yokes

I finished the yoke!  I did!  Last night.  I even did all the ribbing and bound off.  See?  I did it, all by myself.

I love this step in the process.  You see, I’ve already gone through and sewn in all the ends and tidied up different parts of my knitting.  I’ve knit too many things to want to have to sew in everything after the fact.  It’s much more satisfying to have a sweater when you’re done knitting it.

This of course means that I’m starting the button bands tonight.  Ariadne isn’t open until Tuesday, so I’ll have to wait to get the actual buttons, but I can get the button bands done up until I have to make the button holes!  Oh, golly.  This is exciting.

I’ve come down with a cold, and am therefore grumbling and moaning to myself.  Doing a simple button band shouldn’t tax my poor aching head too much.

Button bands have more importance than what I’m attributing them, though.  It’s important to make sure that you get a good balance of picked up stitches  - you don’t want to pick up too few (and buckle the fabric) or too many (and have a floppy button band).  You want the button bands to be firm, and wide enough for the buttons themselves to not deform the fabric.  It’s a delicate balance.

I’ll see if I can strike it right with the help of my supervisor, Bazorov.

And it’s the holidays…

and I’m terrible at keeping this blog updated when I’m busy, apparently.  I’m sorry!

Last night was knit night, and it was awesome.  I drank far too much (but it was Christmas eve eve, after all) and managed to go from  a sweater body with separate sleeves to having everything on one needle.  I felt super cool.

Here’s the before shot:

And the after shot:

I took  advantage of the ball winder at Ariadne to tidy up my ball remnants.  I also took advantage of the appreciative audience – holding up a garment that you’ve made significant progress on at a knit night is so much fun.   There are oohs and aahs and it’s so cool to have the magnitude of your skill applauded.  Knit nights to me are like the scene where you have to clap to save Tinkerbell in Peter  Pan.  They keep me alive and believing.

I’m amazed at how this colourway (Lichen) completely changes in different light.  It’s really more of a silvery green colour in daylight, but what my camera captures is a totally different story.  But that seems to be what I’m attracted to – lovely, complex, heathered yarns that aren’t too bossy.  Ariadne got in some Cascade 200 Heathers, and I’m really excited about trying some out soon.  The colours are gorgeous!

I’m going to try to finish this sweater by January 1st.  Can I do it?  I hope so!  It’ll take a lot of determination and just sitting down to work on the darn thing.

Slick as a school boy’s…

Okay, that’s a gross blog post title – but heck, it made you think of sleeves, right?

I know I sure have to spend more time thinking about these sleeves.  There are so many distractions that are keeping me from knitting on my sweater.  I love the pattern and it’s super easy to keep track of, but somehow it’s slipping through the cracks.  I’m going to try to knit at least two more inches today and see where that gets me.  They’re two thirds done already, but I want them completely done by Tuesday.  Likely to happen?

At first glance, I would say, “I think not”.  But, with that said, I do knit rather quickly and I only (realistically) have about 3 hours of good, steady knitting until the damn things are done.  I could be underestimating myself, but if I can knit, oh, 126 inches square in about 2 hours then I can do 168 inches square in 3, right?  Or something thereabouts.

I love that Lamb’s Pride.  It’s hard to describe why I love such neutral colours and simple yarns, but the best reason is because of the stitch definition.  It’s hard to find a yarn that will retain that clarity and show off your work in the long term.  Variegated yarns will come and go, but a beautiful worsted weight in a neutral colour will pretty much always look great.

I’m sorry about my long absence from the blog.  I have a visitor chez nous and have had a super stressful few weeks past.  Things are starting to look up in the new year, though.  And I have some friends to get me through.

Two at a Time

Last Thursday, at knit night, FaerieCrafty showed me how to knit sleeves two at a time using the magic loop method.  My jaw was on the floor, ladies and gents.  It’s spectacular!

I hate snow and all things cold and wet, but I do love how the houses across the street look like gingerbread and icing.  Here’s another shot for good measure.

I just can’t believe that there are two sleeves being knit at the same time on the same needles. Same time!  Same needles!  I just – this is going to make my life better.  And I feel like I can maybe even get most of these sleeves done within a week or so.

I have a somewhat arbitrary deadline in the back of my head for this sweater.  And, of course, if I don’t reach it I feel as though I’ll get super upset – which makes no sense because there’s no need to get it done by any date ever.  I do have a bunch of other designs floating around in the back of my head, though, and I (rather pathologically) only buy yarn for specific projects.

A lot of knitters talk about their mythological stashes.  I have about a box worth of yarn, give or take.  The box is small, and it mostly holds skeins with which I have no idea what to knit.  It’s hard, when you have all this yarn that you didn’t choose but that you know is beautiful but you just… have no idea how to implement the beauty.

As for right now, I have to concentrate on knitting about 21 inches of pure knitted sleeve awesomeness in about a week.  I don’t know if I can do it, but I’m already 3 1/2 inches in so that’s a start, right?

Two sleeves!

Sticktoitiveness

I’m having major issues concentrating today.

Every night, I do the same thing.  I lay in bed and berate myself for not doing all the things that I had intended to do, and forget that knitting is actually my job – and therefore, that knitting is not procrastinating.  I plan a relatively mundane list of things to do for the next day, and then, I avoid doing said things.  Sometimes it’s going to the grocery store and sometimes it’s making phone calls, but always, I don’t do whatever the things are.

Right now, I have to go get a shower and wash my hair.  Then I have to go get some bloodwork done.  I need to go to the grocery store and get some olive oil.  I need to knit some more so I can get to the next stage of my project and I need to do laundry.  But I don’t want to.  I will, but I don’t want to.

So here goes.  I’m going to hop in the shower, go to clinic and the grocery store, and go home.  But I won’t enjoy one second of it!  Damn.  I want to eat cookies and take a nap.

Now here’s a picture of my sweater.  11 inches down, 4 to go, and then the sleeves.  Huzzah!

And actually, here’s my ball.  I’m on my second ball of Lamb’s Pride Worsted Superwash, and I love how it’s crumbling in on itself.  It makes me feel like I’m getting somewhere, you know?

As a final note, my cats have met a compromise on the shoe box situation.

As Promised

I’m trying to solve the mystery of the extra stitch today.  For some reason (and without any clear evidence of migration) a stitch has moved from a stockinette panel in my sweater to my cabling pattern.  I know that during the first cable pattern repeat I had the right number of stitches, so, at some point during the past few inches the switch happened.  I am a grump-a-saurus, and need to do some counting.

I am mighty pleased, though.  I’ve knit about seven inches since Wednesday afternoon on a piece of fabric that’s about 42 inches long.  Isn’t that amazing?  There is now a piece of fabric that’s almost 300 inches square, and that’s all my doing.

I absolutely love the Lamb’s Pride Superwash as well.  The cables are so crisp and clean-looking, and I love the sheen of the yarn in the sunlight.  It has that perfect heathered look that I love, and the colour variation in the yarn is so clean and clear.  Don’t you see those lovely blues and purples and yellows in the yarn?  Gorgeous.

It’s a pretty stretch of knitting, isn’t it?  Well, there you go.  As promised, beautiful pictures of my soon-to-be sweater.

It’s cool, too, how quickly this is knitting up compared to the first attempt.  I know that I spent a good week sketching out the cable pattern and another week just trying to figure out what kind of stitch pattern would fit the back best, but heck – getting so far ahead in the first week of knitting feels awesome.

Now here are my kittens!