My knitting can evolve and change

The body is done!  The body is done!

I am pretty darn pleased.  

You see what I mean about the grey.  It would look peppier if I had used a darker grey but so it goes.  It may not be everyone's colour range.  I am not sure it is mine, but it has been extraordinarily fun to knit.  If you want fun it a knit, it is hard to do better ghan this sweater.  There will no doubt be more of these narrow stripes with the wonderful play of colours.  

I have been thinking about sleeves though.  This sweater has closer fitting sleeves than the grey Mrs. Hunter's sweater.  I have been struggling to knit the last sleeve on that, so I hope these will be easier.  While I was pondering sleeve problems (small circular needles), it popped into my head that I ought to try magic loop.  

I love knitting on DPNs but sometimes there are too many stitches, such as on the grey sweater.  I seem to cramp up on the short circs and it makes the process a problem.  Trying magic loop may be a good option because my hands will get a break and a change of movement as I move the stitches on the cables.  It seems fiddly to me but it may be the solution to the issue I am having.  

I have always been a devotee of DPNs and metal tipped circular needles but it only makes sense to try different things to resolve a problem.  I hope this helps. 

That Grey

I made another colourset yesterday!  

I have only two more rows of this lush blue and I can start the bottom ribbing.  Yippee!

I have only one regret.  I wish I had picked the darker of my two grey's as my main colour.

You can see them here.  The dark grey with the red and the lighter grey with the purple.  My strong contrast heart wants to use the dark because I like it better,  but, and it is a big one, I want to save the dark for using with some Kauni I have.  I chose to use the lighter grey to conserve the dark.  The lighter grey was a sort of oops purchase.  I thought I had the darker grey colour number but alas.  That lighter grey has never really had a plan.  I thought this would be a good place to use it.  

Yes, I could have sent it back and reordered the right colour, but I never do that.  Ever.  It has always seemed silly to me, to return yarn.  There is always a way to use it.  Hats.  Mitts.  Small things if nothing else comes along.  And so, I ended up with an entire bag of lighter grey Palette. ** 

I did order some needle tips.  Part of my needle problem is that I am finding wood tips are working better thse days.  With my bit of familial hand shaking, a metal needle feels unstable.  Losing that 4.5 mm tip is a big loss, but I have never had a lot of tips in 4.5 or 5 mm and above.  I had a few but not the whole range.  I ordered 2 wood tips in each 4.5 and 5 mm.  

I ordered some yarn too.  But then you knew that.  I can't wait till it comes.  New yarn.  There is a wee squeal of joy in my soul.  

**  This was a choice made a very long time ago. The yarn has been in my stash, as have all my lovelies, for a long time.

Wind in the Trees

Much better knitting yesterday.  It probably is the weather and the freshness of the air,  but the slight change from what it was (cool, cloudy, not rainy) to what it is(a bit over warm, sunny, thunderstorms), is likely what led to it. And the lack of smoke.  I just couldn't settle.  Yesterday, I settled.

I made a full colourset!  Woo-hoo.

I think the next set will be the last.  With a rib it will be the length I wanted for this sweater.  Then sleeves.  That's going to be interesting, hoping against hope that I have enough yarn left.  

For the last few weeks I have had to work on not feeling rushed.  My thinking seems to have veered into rushed thinking and it takes actual work to get my head out of that.  I have to tell myself that I have nowhere to be that I can't sit for a few moments and listen to the birds speaking outside or watch the breeze in the trees.  I have always loved the sounds of wind in the trees. I listen to the world.  I hope you do too.

I don't have to like it

Knitting continues to be sluggish.  I wish I understood the problem.  I love knitting this sweater.  My thoughts are consumed by knitting, always by knitting.  I wake in the morning looking forward to knit.  Oh well.  Sluggish it is but I don't  have to like it.

I was awake by 5 this morning and did a couple of rows.  That felt better.  All was moving along nicely until I noticed that there were stitches not on a cord.  I took the unstrung tip out of my work and a tiny spring fell out.  Tiny spring fell to the floor and is gone.  It is what it is, but I don't have to like it. 

This is a big problem.  I don't have any inactive 4.5 mm tips of any kind.  I have one set of 5 mm tips and lots of 3.75 mm tips.  I have been thinking of getting a few more tips  in the 4.5 and 5 and 5.5 mm sizes but I really don't want more.  And now I am going to have to.  It is what it is but I don't have to like it.

Now, all this, makes it sound as if I am grumpy.  I am really not.  I am just about to switch to the last colour on the sweater.  I think.  I have been measuring and debating how long this sweater should be.  I want it long enough to keep the chill off my lower back and the optimal length for it, should be about one more colour set plus hem rib.  Then sleeves.

I am looking forward to these sleeves.  It will be interesting to see if I left enough yarn of the various colours to complete them.  For now, it is time for another cup of coffee and I like it.  

Seven

Just this morning my daughter in law, Olga, posted this on her Facebook page.  

"Friends Kyiv, is everyone alive?  "

I never imagined this.  I never could have.  It was not in my experience.  I did not know anyone in any of the trouble areas of the world places so while I cared that it was going on, it was not personal.  

This is personal.  It rips my heart apart.  No one should have to ask this in fear and agony.  

It is personal to every person who is a refugee from Ukraine and every person who loves that country.  It is personal to every person with family in Gaza.  

I didn't really understand it before...what it is to live and have to ask that question hoping against hope there will be an answer. 

"Friends, Kyiv, is everyone alive?"

7 died last night in Kyiv.  Canada, please don't fail them.  

Weekend Stripes

It was a pretty good knitting weekend, though, as ever, my dreams were grander than the reality of what I can actually do.  

The body is getting quite long, though I still have several colours and increase rounds left to go.  I love this sweater, and I suspect it will always give me a great deal of joy wearing.  

I have decided on my next knit. I think.  There is a week or two more knitting to be done on this one and who knows where I will go.  I am going to knit a good swatch with the yarn because I am not sure I will get gauge but I do like the idea of it.  

  

Finding clarity and my joy again.

When you get the blahs, knit colour.

And that is what I did.

I thought about knitting on the other teal top.  That Mashup of yarns is pretty spirit lifting, but my soul wanted this.  And needed it.  I feel a lot better after giving myself permission to just knit.  

The idea of being a responsible knitter is weighing me down.  I do want to clear out the older things in my WIPs bin.  I have done that and I am really pleased with it.  But the whole idea of not letting myself cast on willy nilly, was getting me down.  I have always found knitting whatever I felt like, kept my heart flying and my spirits joyful.  Trying to force the issue was dragging me down and I found that instead of knitting on what I felt I should knit on, I wasn't knitting at all.  

I am going to finish that sleeve a little at a time.  There is so little to do on it but I am not going to force it.  I am going to knit on the Mashup yarn sweater too because I really want to wear it.  But I am also not going to knit where my soul isn't.  Those things can wait.  

I am just going to let joy lead the way.

I am feeling a little blah today.  It is too chilly out to have the doors open and I miss the birds and the sounds of the world.  At the sameme time, it is raing so yay.  

I am knitting and putting and am thinking about baking and generally just spending time in and around the house.  Yeah.  I got nothin.

Responsible? Maybe.

I was responsible yesterday.

It doesn't look like a lot of knitting.  It isn't really but...but it is.  Truly it is a lot of knitting.  It's as much as I can do in two days of working on it.  I don't mean full days. My hands couldn't tolerate that.  But there is at least a couple of hours of work each of two days.  These are three quarter sleeves, thankfully, so it ends not tons of work.  I would call this a plodding on sort of knit.  It will be appreciated next winter.

I was also irresponsible.  Go me.  

I am through the first colour repeat and started on the second where the magic of this sweater keeps on happening.  

It was a pretty good day all around.  The doors with their full screens were open all day long and it seemed a shame to close them at bedtime.  I hope for a repeat today.  There might be some sewing or at least sewing prep.  I feel sort of sewish.  Is that a word?

All the Colours

My Friday snit disappeared once I started knitting colour.  And the evening brought a fierce thunderstorm that put down a good amount of moisture, even if a lot ran off rather than soaking in.

I knit a lot on Saturday.  The day went by so fast.  I could not believe it was 5 p.m. when I finally looked up.  Yesterday was more desultory knit wise.  The whole left me with this.  

I love it.  It is not going to be too everyone's taste, but it is to mine.  The other thing is that even if I never wore it ( I can't imagine that happening), it is so much fun to knit.  I am fulfilled.  

I can see myself knitting another of these sweaters in simpler colours.  I have a couple of yarn lines where I have a range of colours that could make stunning garments.  I wonder how few colours could be used?  This sweater is one of those all the colours in the bin sweaters.  More is better in this version for sure.  

One of the reasons I wanted to knit this sweater was to ramp up my ability to knit colourwork carrying the colours in one hand.  I really want to get my Scandinavian Star Vest finished this year before I do any other colourwork.  

The simple lice of the Flea sweater is perfect for practicing the technique.  My tension on both yarns is much better now and I am looking forward to getting even better.  Then when I get back to the vest, my work will also be much faster.  That is something to look forward to.  

So we are back to Monday.  Chores and laundry are the order of the day.  Will I knit responsibly today and finish a sleeve on the Mrs. Hunter's sweater?  Will I knit the teal garter stitch sweater?  Will I knit socks or will I blow responsibility away and knit the marvelous colours on Flea?  

I am calling uncle on this Friday.  From here on in, it is going to be the weekend.

This entire week has been smoky, and grey orange skies and this morning, we woke to rain and cold.  It is 13 degrees just before 2 p.m. It is drizzly*** and I am cold and I want cookies and a warm cup of cocoa.  Keith said he is baking peanut butter cookies tomorrow so I can't really bake some now.  A surfeit of cookies would happen and I would end up eating it. All of it. 

So I am going to knit colour for my mental health.  And while I work on my knittingI am going to work to get over my crankiness too.

***I wouldn't be so bad if it was a good rain but it is just futzing.  Not hardly real rain at all.  Besides, there is only 1 Puddle.  One I tell you...

Sticking with a thing

After my foray into the Geddy Tee, I stayed responsible.  Meaning work happened on the older teal project.  

I enjoy knitting on this even though gauge is small and the rows are long.  The tiny insertions of colour keep it interesting.  There are only 4 ridges between the colour sets so you are always subconsciously waiting for the next step.  Ah, the power of striping.  

The other thing these stripes tell me is that I am half done the side panel before I start the sections that form the underarms.  That is the most thrilling of all.  It marks significant progress is being made and that this top is not too far from done.  

It is going to be my knitting again today while I sit and try to avoid the smoky air.  We have filters, the Honeywell kind and while they do an excellent job, they don't do the whole house at once.  But it is what it is.  There are thousands on thousands of square kilometers of bush out there, and fire is part of the cycle of the natural world.  If I keep telling myself that, it might help.  Otherwise, I will sip and knit and drink tea and pretend it is one of those miserable winter days.  

Unraveled

I woke yesterday, determined to have a better knitting day.  And I did though it was not in any way how I thought it would go.  

I knit on the grey sweater.  I knit on the teal.  My hands and my heart were not in it.  I have been spending too much time playing stupid games and that does affect my knitting.  

I decided to frog another longstanding WIP.  I had been waffling.  It is lovely yarn but it is a fingering weight and I simply do not feel the love for that weight of yarn.  I have some truly gorgeous teal buttons for with it, and as I was unraveling it, I was planning to start over making the same sort of thing.  Cardigan.  Buttons. Long sleeves.  

And then I got side tracked.  Most delightfully, effervescently side tracked.  

As I unraveled, I thought about the yarn and all the different things I had dreamed of doing with it.  I thought about a yarn I had planned to use with it at one time.  

That yarn is some old Socks That Rock in the colourway Alina.  At one time, I was going to make an Elton sweater with the teal and this yarn.  I used to have a striped swatch.  Since I was now going to double the teal,  I wondered if the Alina could be effective held double.  

Mixed results.  Bottom is the teal yarn doubled.  Then a strand of Alina and a strand of the teal.  Then two strands of Alina.  I searched my favourites to look for a pattern where I could use the two yarns.  Oddly enough, I did not feel like stripes.  The pattern that caught my eye was the Geddy Tee.  I thought I would try that.

Magic happened.  Well to my eyes at least.  The squares are done single stranded.  Not strictly to the pattern but I am going to run with it.  Singles for the squares.  Double for the body knitting.  Good to go.

And that was my day.  Odd that it went from unraveling to starting something new and fun.  

Ridges and Rows

Knitting was sluggish yesterday.  No particular reason for it.  I just did not get there.  

I knit a few rounds on the Mrs. Hunter's sweater.  Sleeve  number two is started but is moving slowly.  It is as much the gauge as anything, but it makes my hands hurt.  Well, tingle to be precise.  So slow is as slow does I guess.  Finishing will happen just not as fast as I would like.

Then I worked on this.  

I am finished section one and part two is underway.  The sections are divided by a garter ridge of the different dyelot of the teal, a ridge of Noro and another ridge of the off dyelot teal.  It's a little hard to see here but on the other side, it shows up brilliantly.

It is subtle but but very visible.  

There is a fair bit of knitting to do.  About a third of the sweater in my estimation, but is is lovely restful knitting, with its long straight garter stitch.  I am looking forward to this top.  The fabric is lovely and the colour is striking.

I guess I am in a colour sort of mood right now, evident in the Flea and this yarn Mashup.  It's all good, though I find myself having to restrain myself from casting on my next thing.  I am looking forward to that too.  So much lovely yarn.  So little time.

Colour Joy

Here we are.  It is Monday again and I wish there was another day of weekend.  The rule is that I can only knit on Flea on the weekend.  That was my deal with myself when I let myself cast it on.  I am having so much fun knitting it that it is painfully hard to stick with that deal.

This is the colour progression as of this morning.  So far, there is not even the suggestion of colours not going together or  not working.  At least to me.  Colour is such a subjective thing. Even when I start feeling this one is not going to work, it somehow just does.

I have just split sleeve and body.  

I am so happy with the way it looks.  

I have decided to add more colour combinations.  If I stayed with my original 12, I would have lots of yarn for the sweater, but to keep to the same pattern repeat would not be possible.  Even as it is, it might be tight to get a second repeat and then have matching sleeves. Palette has 211 metres per 50 grams, so holding it double, a mere 105 metres.  

By adding more colours, I know I will only need to do two repeats of the entire range.  I hope.  It is either that or knit the lower body in the simple grey base colour I am using for ribbing.  I would hate that so I will try this.  I have picked the strongest colour contrasts that are left in my box of yarn.  With luck it will balance with the rest of the colour joy.  

Crossing my fingers.  Hoping it works.  But not till next weekend.  

And yet

I have been responsible all week and let me tell you that I am really looking forward to the weekend.  

I only worked on existing WIPs all week.  It's great really.  The Mrs. Hunter's sweater has only 1 sleeve to go.  I am only resting from it to give my hand a change.  It's the old story.  Small round things on circular needles are hard on my hands.  There was just never a point where I could switch out to my dpns.  

For the last couple of days I've been working on this top.  

The last thing I did on the it was to finish the front side panels.  It sat for a few days while I worried about side two.  Never fear.  That was wasted.  I made actual notes on how many stitches I had cast on between front panel and back panel to for the side of the shoulder.  Sometimes I amaze myself.  

I have the second side underway and I feel really good about that.  It's not a fast knit.  The yarn is rather fine.  It's Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool and while it is technically a DK, it knits light.  The multi is a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock.  It looks bright and happy and richly coloured.

I have also knit a bit on socks. 

Not a lot but it was enough that I can see progress.  This particular Kroy yarn just makes me happy. Simple stripes are always good.

The problem with this week is that I am dreaming of casting on.  I know the pattern.  I have the yarns picked.  I know I ought to finish another project before I cast on anything new.  Flea should be enough.  And yet....

A bit of a scare

Sleeve day two went well.

I am on the first row of the garter stitch welt.   Only one problem. The ball of yarn was looking awfully small when I left it and went to bed.  I was concerned.  I feared I would have to find another ball of yarn to do the neckband.  I only have one ball of yarn left for the other sleeve and maybe 50 m  left from the last ball of yarn from the body of the sweater.  I was going through all the options, including praying that somewhere, deep in the stash, I had something in this colour left from another project.

When I took sweater and skein out this morning for a quick photo, I fond this. 

It is less than a quarter of a skein, but more than I thought there was remaining.  With this, and the same amount left from the other sleeve, plus that last bit of yarn from the body, I should be okay.

It is a looser fitting sleeve than on my last few things, but it is what I was aiming for and if I have yarn left for the finishing, all is good.

Saved

I did other things on the weekend besides working on the really fun things.  The other thing was not fun, but it needed doing.

I love my Tolsta tees.  I have 3 now and there will be more.  It's a gauge thing and it makes the fabric so flowing and soft.  My green one is perfect for days up to 20C.  My favourite is the black cotton one.  It is so wonderfully comfy.  My third is my glorious marine blue and gold one.  This is the one that was the source of frustration.

The neckline opened up so much the sweater was hardly hanging on my shoulders anymore.  This was not a pattern problem, just a lazy knitter problem.  I should have used smaller needles for the ribbing.  I loved wearing it and I knew I had to do something.  

I tried crocheting a slip stitch band from the inside decreasing a few stitches.  It was too much. 

I had to think about it.  Elastic?  Trying a slipstich again?  Redo the band on smaller needles like I ought to have done from the start?  

I decided to give the slipstitch another go but no decreases this time.  Much better.  Then I decided to do another round at the top so that if the stitches looked a bit off, they would look ruched rather than sloppy.  

It works!  

A very positive result.

The extra fabric look at the sides is a result of a washed fabric and unwashed slip stitch.  It will settle nicely once it is washed again.  

A tee saved is a tee worn.  A lot.  

Sleeves day two is happening here.  Maybe some sewing too.  Possibly baking.  We shall see.

More weekend please.

The weekend sped by.  I wanted more time. I dreamed of more hours.  Today, I have to put it down and go back to one of my weekday projects, the ones I want finished and out of my WIPs bin.  Too bad because it's been a lot of fun.

What did I do all weekend?  This.

I.  Love.  This.   It isn't just stripes, it is colorful stripes. It isn't just plain stockinette, it's easy peasy stranded work.  It is the perfect sort of knit for a period where you might be a wee bit dispirited with the world.  Not that I am feeling down but I am very enamoured with this knit.  

I have no idea if the colours work together.  I don't care at all.  I love how it is looking.

The yarn I am using is Knit Picks Palette.  I have had a bunch in my stash forever.  I always thought I would do tons of colourwork.  I don't and this box of yarn has been on the give away list several times.  I kept it to use the greens with my miniature garden plan.  I am doubling the yarn because I want a warmer sweater than a fingering weight garment.  I also don't want it to take 11 thousand years to knit.

So, no knitting on that cool thing today.  Today, it is sleeve day.  I am about a third of the way down sleeve one on my Mrs. Hunter's sweater.  It is going to be so nice to have it off my needles, ready for cold chilly days.