Continuing apace

I sat for several hours early this afternoon and worked on the Still Light tunic.  I stopped to rest, to have a short nap and then knit another couple of hours, book ending the bulk of my day with knitting. There would have been more knitting but I spent the morning looking for a package that did not turn up where it was supposed to.   It was found but it was not where it was supposed to go at all. 

All this knitting on one project over the course of several days is making the most marvelous difference.

My hand is the just below the stitches that were put on holders for the pocket and you can see how far I have come since Friday.  Friday was the day I put the pocket bits on the holders.  It measures almost 5 inches now and that is just so exciting. It is easy knitting and takes almost no effort.  the yarn and needle combination means it just slips along.  (nickel needles and Drops Alpaca yarn.)

And when it is laid out, you can see the elegant shape of the pocket as it drapes effortlessly.  It is a wonderful design detail and the signature of the entire garment. 

The knitting looks ratty, but in a few more days, I will give it a cursory blocking.  I want her to try it on before I finish the bottom off.  I want to see if I have it the right length and if the fit is just so and doing that demands blocking.  It is such an elegant little thing...

I may be a little in love with this project again.  Might just be.

A madwoman's ramblings

I am knitting away like a madwoman on the still light tunic.  I managed to get almost 3 inches done!  With a pace like this, it might almost get done by Christmas.

It leaves me hours and hours of time to think and reflect and ponder the big and little things in the world, and it allows me to contemplate the state of things.  I thought of things I pin on pinterest much too much.

I rarely pin knitting.  when I do it is something that I haven't found yet on Revelry and I don't have time to search for it there.  Or stitch patterns.  I think I pinnned a few of those.  Generally though, the world is full of Ravelry and that is enough for knitting.

Pinterest started for me, earlier this year when I started working on my quilt (which is languishing).  It was a convenient way to keep track of where I saw something that looked possible for border treatments.  Then I noticed a pretty blue and white something and well it just sort of went nuts from there.  

A friend asked if I knew what tambour embroidery was and I started pinning embroidery of all kinds.  Some are things I would love to have time to do and some are just such pretty things I pop back just to look at them and admire them all over again.

I pin miniature things too.  Tiny things to create little worlds that sit as perfect unsullied moments in time.  I had to stop and ponder that for a good long while.  The idea of tiny perfect worlds goes right back to Friendly Giant and that little group of chairs around the fireplace as we all settled down to watch to the show.  

That is Pinterest in a nutsehll.  Pictures of tiny perfect worlds. The world in still life. Pretty blue and white rooms that would never stay so pure, deeply organized places and spaces that won't ever remain so, fashion that I like but would never ever wear, going back in time and forwards in time.  Pintrest is a place where you catalogue your feelings in pictures.  Pinterest, for the unwary could be a place where you feel like less because you know you will never live up to those perfectly staged moments.  

That is the thing you see.  Perfect moments are not life. Life is chaotic and loud and smelly and occasionally dirty and painful and joyous.  And it changes in the blink of an eye, usually in moments and events so small and so quiet that they slip you being aware of them unless you are sitting there waiting, watching it happen.

Here is to chaos and imperfection and noise and dirt and smelly messes. Here is to life with just a dash of dreams on the side.

Back to business

That is how I feel today. And it has nothing to do with a job interview or anything.  It is that all the small projects are done, that I am back on my planned work.  The hats and the blob made me feel so off course, but that is done now.  Well, the blob isn't but I am almost at the end of the sleeve cap.  another hour or two of work and it will be on to the sleeve itself, plus I have a process in place for getting large swaths of it done.

Yesterday I pulled out the Still Light tunic for my daughter in law.  What with all these visits to her house to play with my sweet kiddies, I managed to get her to try it on.  And guess what?

It fits!  I's so close to the right length that the shortfall I was worrying about will come about with wear.  This is alpaca and it will do its lengthening just about how you want it to be.  If I would have done another set of increases, it would have been fine, but this is ok too so we are going with it.  She was a little disturbed at the width of the front till I showed her how the pockets turn under in the finishing.  she was also disturbed at how short it was, till I told her how many inches there are left to knit!  I think the picture of the completed garment has gone from her mind.  That is how long this has been on the needles.

To the rest of the world, it looks exactly like that.  In my head, in my knitter's blindly optimistic soul, this is no longer just knitting.  This is a sweater, an fine stylish almost finished one.  I might have 10 or twelve inches of length, two sleeves, and the pockets still to knit.  I may not have used half the yarn so far, but in my heart of hearts, this sweater is done.

So much of this is plain stockinette that it is going to be my potato chip knitting, my sock knitting, my don't have to think about it knitting.  I can do it while playing with the kiddies, and while chasing puppies.  I'm good. I got this.

Unbridled optimism.  Another thing to add to the long list of things I learn from knitting.

The need

I always wanted to knit because I wanted sweaters.  Not sweaters like I could buy in the store, but something better. Eventually, that became something that fit better than what I could find in the store, but I have always been about the sweaters.

Out of the blue, I got a call yesterday about a job that I applied for back in March.  There is little chance I will get it, I am outside their target group, but it would be so lovely.  It would be only a 5 minute commute which would be the nicest thing about it.  No city driving.  

And the first thing I thought about was Ripstick.  I wish I had paid attention to it so that it was done.  It would be such a great sweater to wear to an interview.  

I will look at it but I don't really expect there is enough time to do all the finishing and I do want the finishing to be right.   I only short change myself, if I shortchange the finishing of a lovely garment.

There is always the lovely Myliu Lino to wear.

With a dark winter shirt underneath.  Perfect.

A feast of hats

All of them are just so cute!

Isaac will have to wear his without rolling the brim but the others all will be able to roll the brims nicely.  I am very pleased with this kind of cuteness.  Still all cuteness must end, and I am done with knitting them.  Done done done.  

I just wish I was done knitting the blob, but once again, I have managed to avoid it.  I feel very conflicted about this since it is getting quite cold and I sure could use it.  But I take heart that I am learning a lesson on this coat.  

Don't.

Not too bad for a simple lesson I ought to have learned a long time ago.

Snow

It snowed yesterday.  It is supposed to snow. It's winter.  I guess that is normal.

But I don't have to like it.

I will be outside shoveling.  Or something like that.

OK, I haven't tried to shovel yet.  My neighbour did it for me.  He is nuts, if I may be so bold as to say that and I love that about living here.  All these nutty people making me feel cared for.

One of the guys bought a blower last year, just a leaf blower, but he used it to do a whole lot of snow clearing.  My plan is to use one I bought earlier in fall to keep my deck clean and to do the small snows.  I had it all set up to go out and do it, till I was ready to plug it in.  The plug was built up so that it could only be used with a single ended plug.  I had to go out for an appointment, and then came back and did some plastic surgery on the plug end.  Good to go I thought.

I went out to try it.  I was so full of excitement and the feeling that yes I could do this.  I really could take care of the outdoor stuff, or at least some of it. Flipped the power switch and...No power.  No sound.  No blowing.  The outdoor plug is dead. I checked.  I came back inside and plugged the unit into a standard outlet.  Works fine.  Checked the breakers.  All is good.  The plug is really dead.

My get up and go left as fast as it came.  I will sort it out later, after I have coffee.  Because when all the world is falling apart, knitting and coffee are all that keeps me sane.

More hats!

I have one more hat to go here on this hat-a-palozza I have been on.  It will look a lot like this.

I finished this much knit yarn hat on Friday afternoon and will be completing its twin today. They are the same colour and the same monkey topper for my two little boys. My wee boys are both monkeys in their own inimitable ways.

 I finished this hat for Carter on Saturday.  I wasn't going to make but one hat for each of my kiddies, but this one was by special request.  His other Grandma and Pappa liked the way his first Aviator fit and wanted another. How could I not?  It is, just like Cassie's yellow hat, knit out of Inca from Fibranatura with car buttons, not dinosaurs.

Blob knitting continues.  I finished sleeve one and moved on to sleeve two.  I am so excited.  It feels like this project might just end!  It did not get a lot of attention, but enough to get a good start on sleeve two.

 It kind of looks like it is an octopus wrapping its tentacles around a prey doesn't it?

And yes.  Grandpuppy.  They had a lovely pup last year, but the pup got sick and could not be saved.  This pup is not a purebred but a 3 breed cross.  All of her formative breeds are herding dogs and she is going to be a really really good keeper of the kids.  She already guards them when somebody she isn't familiar with comes up the stairs.

I have stolen this picture, quite shamelessly, from my daughter in law.  

I will pay penance, because the next thing on the list is Fern fingerless mittens for her.  I started those last year, but lost confidence in the yarn's colour gradient.  I have chosen a new yarn for them.  I think it will have the lovely lofty cable-ability that the first yarn did, and I am certain of this yarns colours.  All bright clear strong and oh just so lovely.  After hats, I am really looking forward to it!

It's official.

I am tired of knitting hats.

The day was spent chasing cats, kids, and puppies and keeping them out of each other's hair and knitting in between, till I decided to harness Marcus to try the hat on.  It was pretty and a mix of my favourite colours.  Easy Peasy right?  Marcus even cooperated.

Unfortunately, the hat did not.

It was too small, Same hat as before with 6 stitches removed rather than the recommended number of neven less, same needles.  The only thing wrong is I am knitting more firmly.  Sigh

It was ripped out, the stitches added back in, knitting recommenced,  and I am about where I was when I ripped it out.  They will be done, but not without frustration it seems.

My secret

I am not a real big fan of fun fur type yarns.  I was not a fan when everybody was making those boa scarves and I was not a fan when they started waking up as the wave of ruffle yarns began.  In general this knitter, is not a novelty fan.

So when I tell you that I have this little secret, that is kind of hard to admit to the world, you will understand.

That fuzzy green nylon section   BEST. PART. EVER.

I know.  It makes no sense at all, but I love knitting this part of the hat.  It is pure unadulterated smooshy gooshy goodness and I love it.

A yellow hat

The other day my granddaughter Cassie, pulled a big yellow ball of chunky yarn out of my basket and said she wanted a yellow hat.

I had planned only the pink hat for her this year, but I went along with it because days later, she is still asking for her yellow hat.  

The big ball of yellow was Inca, from FibraNatura.  I made a baby blanket for Carter out of it and it was a great kiddie yarn.  It held up well under ordinary washer and dryer care.  It would make a great hat.  But what pattern for a chunky yarn?

I've been working with what I have pattern-wise, so it quickly became clear that it needed to be an aviator hat.   

  I am not sure of the buttons I have used yet.  They are small and most people finish them off with big buttons.  I choose little dinosaurs because we growl and play scarey dinosaur all the time.  Perhaps some embroidery around the little dinosaurs?  That feels wrong.  Good as it is I think.

But a hat is a hat and that is that. 

A little bit of magic.

I was sitting last evening watching TV and knitting when I realized that I have nothing to show off this morning, and nothing to say.  It isn't like I didn't do anything this weekend, but the knitting is pretty darn plain.  I worked on the blob.  Sleeve one (I wish I could say 2) is about 20 rows from completion.  I worked like a demon on it on Saturday.  Sunday I picked up and knit on my Bridgewater shawl.  Laceweight is good therapy for the heavy thick needles of the blob.  I also went to brunch and chatted with my son while he did tall guy chores, like changing batteries on the smoke detectors.

Yesterday, though I played.  

This is my silly tree, one of those full height, pencil slim trees that you figure will just look odd.  I bought it on impulse because...well...it fit?  Or something like that.  In truth, even as I worked getting my storage space up to snuff, I dreamed of feeling Christmas again.  I need to feel Christmas again, a big hearty Christmas.

2011 and 2012s Christmas were given over to knee surgeries and I barely had time to get any shopping done, 2013 I barely remember, and 2014, a Christmas of slow reawakening.  This year I really want Christmas, my old Christmas feelings, and cookies and Christmas cake, and the music. 

My shopping is almost done.  It is always best to get that part right out of the way early. And now, in the most meandering way, once the shopping is done, the decorating begins and winds itself through November, so that December can be all about magic. 

This slightly goofy looking, skinny tree in my study, brings Christmas here, where I sit most often on long dark days, to keep the magic of my Christmas in my heart. 

Yoooooshi

I heard about a yarny video game a while ago, but life moves fast and it slipped my mind.  I was talking with son 2 about good games for my oldest grandson, and he just went to town, telling me about 3 before I even thought about writing it down.  He was really excited.

He highly recommended Yoshi's Woolly World.  He said it was just darn cute and seriously, it is.

Go to the 4 minute mark to skip the initial chatter, but then it is just completely watchable.  I am not going to tellyou how long I watched.  If I said I was knitting at the time, you might believe it, but I wasn't.  It was just fun.  Seriously FUN.  

The other games were just as good.  Splatoon and the Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker.  Both very very cute and right up his alley.  I picked up both of these in the end (one for his birthday and one for Christmas).    

But the nerdy grandma in me really really wants to get him Woolly World yet.  We shall see.  I might have to get it ahead for next year. Aw, just admit it, old girl.  The nerdy Grandma in me wants this for herself!

More stuff that never made it to Ravelry

In the early days of Ravelry, the Edmonton Knitter's Group was formed.  It has been a wonderful source of contact, communication, learning and community to local knitter's and artisans.

One summer, round about 2009 or 2010 - I forget exactly - a local desinger and the group moderator decided to do an Edmonton Knitter's group only Mystery Knit Along.  

In the way of such things, each week we were sent one clue.  Easy peasy, right?

Not so much.  I learned more knitting that shawl than from any other project I have ever attempted.  I fought hard to knit to stay on track and managed to stay right up to date with each clue the whole summer long, and then I made an error and had to rip back.  I got behind and the lovely shawl sat, unfinished for a very long time.  About 3 years ago, possibly 4, I sat down and sorted myself out and finished it.  Then it sat, waiting for blocking, and waited again, for an extraordinarily long time. I finished knitting it sometime in 2012 and it then sat waiting to be blocked.  It was the bridge too far in my block-a-palozza of early 2013.

Somewhere along the line after that, I part blocked the body of the shawl and several months later, I finally blocked its magnificent edging.  And I never really talked about it much here because I always thought that I would do that when I finished it. There may be occasional appearances of it here as I was working on it and as I blocked it, but in general, I did not talk about it that much.  It always needed work.   Even once it was fully blocked, I felt the need to do it again and do it better.

Once I moved to my wee home, it sat in a corner on the pile of things to do, till my recent organizing spate, when I took it out, had a good talk with myself and decided to start wearing it.  And I love it.  I absolutely love it. It really is quite perfect as it is for the way I use it.

 It spans about 7 feet across and this laid out photo doesn't near do justice to its details.

 It is a masterful design in the Estonian tradition.

 A strawberry motif that starts it off merges seamlessly into a flower motif

that merges effortlessly into a fan type of motif

that expands to lay the foundation for the dramatic fan edging.

Each week we knit one motif and each week we learned a thousand new things like fantastic innovative ways to slip increases in sight unseen, to the innovative spine and edging, to beautiful and complex motifs.

It was an epic adventure to knit and I still dream of knitting a second in a laceweight that will really show off this skillfully designed project.  The yarn I used was Knitpicks Palette a soft fuzzy fingering weight, and not really suited for it.  Much of the drama of the patterning is lost in its soft edges which is sad for the pattern but a bonus for me.  I love the way this yarn drapes and clings to my shoulders, forming a warm and downy cocoon.

It still waits to be listed in Ravelry, and if it never does, I suppose that is ok.  At least I have shown it here.

I had this yarn

River City Yarns, my lys, had a magnificent wrap that came from an old pattern freebie from Estelle yarns.  Estelle doesn't have that freebie printed any longer and that is kind of sad.  It really was magnificent.  It was knit in one direction only and each row started with 6 or 8 inches left for a fringe and at the end of each row you cut off 6 or 8 inches and left it for a fringe.  It was made of 5 or 8 different yarns with different characteristics.   Whoever knit that lovely thing was a master at putting things together.  (I think I know who knit it and yes, she is a master at this)

I think of that wrap often.

Some time ago, during one of my many adventures through my stash and leftover bits and bobs, I found this ball of yarn.

 It was one of my first purchases from the old Red Bird Knits and one of my first lessons in how colour on a monitor can be very different than colour in real life.  It is lovely stuff dyed by Fleece Artist, IIRC.

And then in the big jar with all the special leftovers, I found this pair.

 The back is a tiny ball of Elsbeth Lavold Angora and a nice large fluffy ball of Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit.  The Peter Rabbit is a very similar colourway as that first ball of yarn.  And that was when it hit me.

Wrap from store?  Probably not, but scarf made in the same way?  Oh yes!

So then I started looking through for other things that would work together.  These soft tones, neutrals and delicate blues and blue grays.  Over time I assembled bits as I came across them, eventually ending up with these.

 At the bottom are the two balls that started it all, and then clockwise, a ball of handspun from NomadAli with Findlay Family Fibre Works, a local to Edmonton spinner and fibre artist, who gave my old Babe spinning wheel a home.  This is the most recent addition to the mix.  Then a full skein of Schulana Angora Fashion from the Angora fest of a while ago, a ball of a blue, softly spun  unkown name wool from Lang.  I got it in a bag of demo balls that my boss from the yarn store had received over the years.  My tones were all blues, and this ball is the perfect soft blue addition. Then a ball of natural Alpaca from a local Edmonton grower with that small ball of EL Angora tucked just underneath.  In the very centre is another ball of creamy Alpaca from that same Edmonton grower. All the yarns are fingering weights and up.

It led to this.

I am usually very careful to list projects on my Ravelry project page.  Those pages put up by all those nice people have helped me so many times over the past years.  What a resource and I am determined to do my part.  But this little project has never been listed.  To me that means I must have started knitting it in the sad winter of 2013 before I moved.

I am working from my memory of that wrap.  Sections of a colour using only occasional garter stitch and stockinette, changing the sequence at random.

Not all the yarn above will be used. If I used the entire ball of that soft blue for this scarf, it would overwhelm the delicate goodness of the rest of it.  It is an accent though and I do love how it plays against the delicacy of the rest.

Yarn play.  That is what this is. the challenge and the joy of putting pretty things together.

And a very nice change from the blob.

I Will Remember

One of many

https://www.youtube.com/user/VeteransAffairsCa

I will remember.

There is blob knitting in the morning, and then what?

First thing in the mornings, I have been working on the blob.  That works great for the blob, but it is pretty much all the knitting I can do.  My hands are done, done, done with the weight of this thing, and there is going to be a while after this where I work on lace just for the rest.

I have no idea how to fill the day without knitting.  Really I don't.  I did some errands, I bought shoes, I put up hangers for seasonal things outside the door.  And then what?  Well today, this.

 I have been planning this for months.  Years really.  I think I was planning this before Cassie was on the horizon.  I am making tea towels with blue and white motifs.

They are not the fatastically detailed ones I might want to do someday in the future, but these are more about seeing if I can do a decent job picking up the very very first kind of handwork I ever did, all over again.

I recall a set of yellow ducks with days of the week that my Auntie Lorraine and mom worked on us with.  I recall drying dishes with these self same towels.  It's a kind of trip down memory lane to a long ago delight.

I'm writing this Tuesday evening before 7 p.m. and the next thing I am going to do is crawl into my bed and read a good book.  Maybe Miss Marple and maybe the second volume of the Poldark series.  Might even look for a new book for the kobo, but the original plan to knit some more this evening, is just not going to happen.  

These hands need rest before I ruin them.  Looking forward to the blob being done.

Mostly Mr. Blur

Well, I am working on it anyway.  Sleeve cap 1 is done but there is still a lot of knitting to go.  I will give my hands a break till later this evening so I am going to find something very different to do for the rest of the afternoon.  We shall see how it goes.

Anyway, onwards.

I did do a bunch of knitting yesterday.  There were moments where I didn't think it would get done, but the results of my knitting finished up just fine, though I can tell you it is hard to see from the photos.

I present Mr. Blur.

After he took it off, I joined the hat and neck just a touch farther.  If I was knitting this again, I would pick up 3 more stitches on each side and I would cast on 6 fewer.  This was good, but as he wiggled and pulled, his ears started peeking out.  Part of the thing about knitting a hat this way is that there are no ties, no ear flaps and no need for a scarf when you take little ones out. 

Mommy approved!  Now I have to find a yarn for my other little guy who needs a hat.  And then both boys little Christmas hats.  And then...

Take it on Faith

Just look at it.

Almost too large to manage without sitting in front of a table. I have made an executive decision and am knitting the sleeves from the top down, but I will knit them flat.  There is an almost 100% possibility that the blob will be felted and then sew up at the sides and underarms.  I have a feeling that any shaping that is needed particularly on the sleeves, can be more easily be addressed in the flat form and less easily addressed if knitted round.

As you can see, sleeve one is begun.  I hope to do quite a bit more work on it tomorrow while sitting wee kiddies and my fondest hope is that by Wednesday, sleeve one will be complete.  

Or is that that I am worrying because this is so completely and utterly winging it?  So many variables.  So many ways to screw up.  By the size of the wee beastie, I am going to have to find a laundromat and regular sized machines to felt it in.  That means that how it felts and how fast it felts could be very different than what I found here at home.  Eeeeeep.

And then do I have the math right?  Are the increases in the right place?  Do I have enough increases and enough stitches for the right fit after felting?  I am trying to play scale games in my head and am utterly discombobulated.

Taking it on faith is very hard. 

Moving Along

Though it is not like knitting when I am at home, I am managing to get a fair bit done.  The wee hat is moving along nicely.

I think there will be one more section of the mutli coloured yarn and then I will start decreasing.  It fits nicely on the wee master and I am really looking forward to it being done.

Cassie emptied out the whole bag of yarn last night just for fun.  She petted certain ones and spent a lot of time looking at the chunky versus the skinny yarns.  she was realizing that they stuff grandma used could be all sizes.  It is fun watching her make these little discoveries.


Anyway, I am looking forward to going home this evening.  I love my kiddies a lot but they sure do make me appreciate quiet.  And stillness.  Mostly stillness.

They are indeed

They are indeed the little hat kits with the stuffies on top.  I am enjoying these enormously! And am very pleased with the fibre.  Nice and cushy.

Hat 2 done today, and just two little monkey topped hats to go on this Christmas knitting.  

More kiddie sitting  for Thursday.  I am taking the blob with me.  The way that my DILs job is working out demands it.  She has a client on Friday as well as tomorrow so I will be staying overnight.  The blob will give me all the knitting I could possibly need to get me through till I get back home.

I completed the felting of the sleeves swatch and it was completely unrevealing.  The sample where I picked up every third stitch is too few stitches and the other where I picked up every second is too many.  So I suppose I will stick with the 2 for 3 or 3 for 4 rule and hope and call it good.

Might tuck that green little hat in the carry along bags too.  I can work on it when I am tired of big needles and can give it a sizing on Marcus head. That way, when I am knitting the monkey hats, I will get his sized just so!

  

Knitting with kids

I did not have to do that before so it is a whole new ball game for me.  I will get used to it and they to me doing it.  It's already working better than the first day I knit while they were playing.  I did make one fatal error.

I took this hat and had Cassie try it on.  She loved it and did not want to take it off.  Stupid beginner mistake and I made it.  Oh well.  We did eventually get over it, but it meant I had to stop working on it.

I wasn't happy with my decrease rate, so I decided to do what the pattern said. Third time is the charm.   It worked.  Funny how that goes.

All is not lost.  This blog is still winging it.  I followed the hat pattern as written only for that and the number of stitches to cast on.  The pattern for this kit is designed for stockinette and that means I would have to know their head size far more closely than I do. Ribbed is always a great way to make a hat fit longer and fit better.  For my two older grandkids, I am using the small adult size and I'm not sure about my little boys.  Carter is about 6 months older and is a bigger kid all around. Bigger bones, taller, sturdier looking.  I think his is going to be this size to make it last the whole season, but Marcus is one of those little fellows who never stops moving.  I think 6 stitches less is going to be a better fit for him.

I have to say, I was skeptical about these kits.  They are cute which is why I bought them, but the yarns are manmade fibres so they are just not going to be as warm as wool.  I have to say that I am really pleased with the end result. The yarn, a scrumptious thick dense blend, at the heavy end of category 4-5  done in the ribbing, makes for a pretty pleasing hat. It is deep and cushy and will do a good job of keeping my wee ones warm and happy.

When I got home last evening, I sat down and wasn't ready to start the next of these Christmas hats.  I couldn't knit on the coat (still fulling it) or believe me I would have.  I started this.

  

Yes it looks like a hat.  This one though is going to have something a little different.  My daughter in law wants a hat with a little something to keep the kids necks warm too.  I am aiming for something like this kitty hat from an old Paton's pattern without kitty ears.  My plan is to knit a regular watch hat and fold up the brim.  Stitches will be picked up from the inside a little more than 2/3 of the way around the hat and then a few stitches more will be cast on and a ribbed tube will be knitted down from there. The plan is to knit a slightly smaller neck tube so mommy doesn't need to get the kids to wear scarves when they are out walking.  

So today, I will felt the blobs sleeves test swatch and I will play games with yarn. Altogether, it sounds like a pretty good day.

  

While a blob swatch is out for felting

I am playing with kiddies again today.  It is starting to look like this is going to be a fairly regular gig, so I am going to have to come up with some sensible knitting to take along that will meet my regular knitting goals.

I have to stop there for a minute.  Gosh darn it, I do seem to have knitting goals.  News to me and I am going to have to think about that.  I thought all my knitting was free wheeling. Ah well.

I have been thinking about what will work as my take along knitting.  It needs to be something fairly simple so that it can be picked up and set down with ease.  I think I am going to start on a sweater for Isaac.  He really like Caters sweater and so did his mom, and there is plenty of the blue denim to make him a sweater too.  

Because he is a bigger guy, 7 in very short order, I am going to do a raglan or a saddle shoulder.  Either will work, but i do want it to be something that is going to last a while, just like Carter's.  So I am expecting to knit at least an 8 possibly a 10 and for sure the size 10 for length of body and sleeves.  He is a tall young man and every time I turn around, he grows.  I am going to copy Carter's in the design details.  that same seed stitch on top and alternating bands of stockinette and reverse stockinette.  Like Carters, there isn't going to be a nipped in ribbing at all.  I think that is a design detail we are long past and if I want the sweater to grow with him, I will be better served to have that loose relaxed fit look.

I also have mom's bolero to work on.  That would be a great take along too, because it is simple enough once I get past the sleeves increases.  Even during the sleeve increases, it is fairly simple.  I do want to block that before I go on, to see if I have the gauge I wanted.  It seems on the small side, and if I have to knit it larger, it seems a good idea to know now before I have to tink back the whole darn thing.

Anyway, there is knitting, there are kiddies and chasing of the same.  Life is good. 

Where was I?

It seems like so long since I blogged that I had to go back and check to see what I said last. All I know is that I am well rested.

I did a ton of stuff over the weekend, most of it having to do with putting stuff on shelves and going through papers.  Suffice it to say, I feel almost organized.  That was Friday and Saturdays work and Sunday?  Sunday was a day of rest.  I knit.

Which means the blob fronts are done.  I did not think it would happen, but Sunday, as I struggled not to look at another box of paper  found all the energy and gumption I needed and knitting was easy.  In truth it was a question of which one I was avoiding more. Turns out, papers.

As I knit that last front, I found myself with a question.  The plan was to knit the sleeves in place, but and this is the thing... what happens when you felt?  One piece will felt wide and the other will felt in length, at the seam, perpendicular to each other. If I knit the sleeves in, just how will I know how many stitches to cast on and will it work right or will it be a horrid mess.

Though there is a slight shortage of the gray yarn, there is lots of the green.  I thought it would be a good idea to do a swatch. 

Since I had two sides, there would be two experiments.  Side one was picked up at a rate that is equal to the stitch gauge rate or 3 stitches per inch.

This is what the math says there should be, but yanno...I fear my math may not be in sync with the vagaries of felting.  It looks so skinny, and I know, I ought to have done a bigger swatch, but by this point in the day my hands were utterly done.

For the second side, I picked up more, every second stitch.  I am quite certain that this is going to be too many but... 

Maybe somewhere in the middle will be the answer.

The shoulder seams and the fit in this area are what make or break a garment.  I really would like to see it work out at one of these two gauges.  Or somewhere in between.

I won't be afraid to have to sew (lapped seams if you were wondering) but I really don't want to have to.  I am not sure my machine can take the load!  Seriously, if the fabric turns out well enough but the shaping needs just a little work, then I will sew.

Of course there is always that bag plan.  Or a cat bed.

All I really know is that this is going to be something.  Something big.  It already is.