Spring Things

This was a very productive weekend.  I almost got everything I hoped for done.  My plan was to finish my London Fog sweater.  

Sleeve one  is done and sleeve two is more than half done.  I could have finished sleeve two but on Saturday morning, this happened.

I simply fell into sock knitting and it felt really good.  If you look at the last post, you can see how far I took it.  It's just fun to work on it.  In a way, it feels as if it rejuvenated my knitting life.

It is more likely that it is the extra sunlight we have in March.  In March it feels like spring even though we are a way away from actual spring weather.  As you see, my London Fog has short sleeves.  That's a spring decision.  (It's also a running out of yarn decision.  I could not have made it to 3/4 length sleeves).  

Spring is in my head and it's time to pull out my Mashup sweater .  This is the third spring for it and I would like to see it be a complete garment.  It's time.

I want it all

I had a good day knitting yesterday.  Indeed, it was a good day overall.

I stuck with London Fog and I am very pleased. I was a bit concerned about having a good match of the colours but it's pretty good. It may look a bit stripey but that is the nature of hand dyed yarns.  I alternate skeins and I am good with what happens.  I hope to finish this sleeve today.   

It's also Friday.  I know that I had planned for socks for Fridays and this week, with my midweek sock day, I am not sure.  

Okay.  I am sure.  It's so cute and I want cute socks. I guess I will knit both!  

Socks

I needed to knit yesterday.  I needed to knit as if spring was right inside my little knitting world.  The problem was that every project I took out was not right.  

I thought for sure the Staffin would be right.  Something new and different but no.  I took out the London Fog but no.  I looked at all the socks and none of it felt right.  I looked at my bag of sock yarns and thought maybe?  

And then this happened.  It was truly delightful.  A pair of basic work socks and my soul is filled.

I started knitting a pair of socks in stash yarn in similar colours a while ago but I was really not satisfied with the yarns.  My main green yarn was too different in weight from the Kroy I was using for the toes.  It was just wrong.  When I ordered this yarn

 to make a Flea for me since my first one had a gauge issue,  (The first can be seen going about cheerfully around Saskatoon.) I also bought this yarn.  

Drops Fiesta.  A really nice Dk weight yarn that is perfect for socks.  

I made a pair of socks last year from it and have leftovers but not enough for more socks.  It seemed right to pick up more Fiest and then, after making my planned socks in this new yarn, could make another pair with the everything that remains.  

So I started another pair of socks.  I have lots of sock yarns and socks on the go but a good pair of socks on 3.25 mm Dpns just what I needed. Yesterday was just the right sort of day for new green socks.  

Today I will go back to knitting on the London Fog.  It's sleeves won't take long if I stick to it and maybe, just maybe, I will have a new sweater to wear next week.   

Just sayin'

Then it's just sleeves.

Almost at the ribbing.

I want to complete two rows in this skein, and then the ribbing will be done with one skein rather than altering two.  And next is simple sleeves.  I have to weigh the yarn I have for sleeves so I can split it in two evenly.  I do have bits left from other skeins but I would rather not use them.  I kind of have a plan for them.

Somewhere in the many boxes of stash there is a single skein of soft kelp green from Midknit Cravings.  It coordinates perfectly with the London Fog color.  I hope to be able to make a nice striped cowl.  At the moment I am thinking a Litmus cowl.  I might not have enough to do that but if not, something in the line of a Huj Tub cowl , striped, will be a perfect wearable for keeping the chill off the back of my neck on windy days.  

On to the ribbing now.  Lots to do.  Plenty to knit.  And endless cups of tea in lieu of my beloved coffee.  One hiccup in a wonderful world.  

Then it's just sleeves.  

My Quandry

I didn't get much done on my socks.  I did not really feel it and my hands were quite shaky.  Saturday was much better for knitting and I had a decent amount of knitting time.  

I stayed with my London Fog sweater.  It is getting so close to the ribbing it hurts, so to speak.  It was still a bit of a challenge to knit though.  It was such an interesting weekend.  It was the second race of the F1 season and with all of the regulation changes, it is a sort of chaos, mechanical troubles, reliability problems but more than that, it is really interesting racing as the drivers learn how to get the most out of their cars.  Its very exciting and I can't knit when it is too exciting.  My tension gets much too tight.

I am staying with the London Fog sweater till it's done.  I think.  I have to tell you that this box of yarn

Is calling to me.  I know there  are things I ought to be doing instead but it's my knitting and I can do what I like.  I am the only knitting police.  At the same time I love finished objects so unless I stick with a thing I won't have it to wear or to snuggle under.  It's such a quandary. 

Did I mention I have a pretty darn good life?  If the worst thing in a day is which thing should I knit, it just cannot be bad.  

Sock Day

It's Friday again and that means socks.  Let's have a look.

Not a huge change since I picked it up last but there is change.  That makes me happy.  It means there will be socks this year.

One of the wee differences between magic loop socks and my more usual dpns seem to be a slightly looser gauge.  It's not enough to make a huge difference between socks in a pair, about two stitches over the whole width, but it is a bit looser.  I am sure that will adjust as I get more practice on the long needle.  

I hope to make it to the heel today.  We shall see.  With our changeable spring weather and the general tiredness from time change, my hands are much shakier than normal.  I will give it a shot and see how it goes.

Almost there.

I made it to the last series of garter ridges. 

I am following the set up and ridges from the Willard sweater for this and it is giving me a very pleasing result.  

This all means that I have 10 to 15 rows of knitting (depending on how long it is) till I start the ribbing.  Then all that remains is sleeves.  

I did a try on before the last ridge set and am very pleased.  I would not have needed the last set of increases but it will be OK.  It's certainly not worth  reknitting.  The top fits really nicely and that's the part that really matters in a sweater.  

I am wearing my Myrtle sweater today.  It's really great to have it back in the rotation.  It also reminds me of the other sweaters that need some repair.  Most of them need some sleeve cuff repair so it won't take much time to do it.  I do need to get it done because several of them are spring favourites.  

And that reminds me of a sweater in my WIPs bin.  It is the third spring from the cast on.  Time to get that done.  I think I am going to have to head there right after the London Fog sweater is done.   

Meandering Through Cowl Patterns

While knitting, I spend a lot of time dreaming about what else I want to knit.  The last few days I have been wearing this and generally admiring it.   

I have spent way to much time looking at it, admiring the colour change and flow.  I love Kauni and long colour changing yarn.  I can hardly wait to knit the Kauni sweater I have planned to knit as this is.  Garter stitch in a plain yarn and Kaubi stockinette.

Wearing this also makes me want to knit cowls that will work with each of the sweaters I knit.  I have always worn my shawls as neckwarmers in winter and as shawls in summer.  The disadvantage of my shawls is the ends untucking and getting in the way.  Cowls don't have that problem.  

Why cowls you might ask.  Because I cant seem to knit a turtleneck that sits right on me.  I have a short neck and jowly chin and find they just bunch up my sweater when I wear them.  It's okay wearing one as an under layer to the days sweater but I don't want to wear one everyday all day.  I can take a cowls off on sunny afternoons when the house warms from the sun shining in.  

Here are a couple that I wear all the time.  

Three colour Cashmere Cowl by Joji Locatelli

Topsy Turvy Moebius by Susan Rainey 

Huh Tub by Natsha Sills

I think there will be more of each of these plus a few more of the Litmus Cowl by Jude Harper which is a plain narrow tube that is striped.  It is perfect when wrapped twice around your neck.  

I am certain there are a bunch of other great cowl patterns out there that will be perfect to wear with my knits. I think today, in between my knitting time, I will take a gander and see what else I can find.

Good Places

While all the things to knit in the future are calling to me and waiting for me, I did the responsible thing and stuck with what is on my needles.  The London Fog continues.

I am on to the last section of stockinette before the last rounds of garter.  I feel pretty good about this because I had no idea if I was going to have enough yarn.  There will be just enough yarn to get to the length I want and a skein and a half for sleeves.  It's a good place to be.

Avoidance and Resolution

I had a profound revelation yesterday about one of my projects.  I was watching Bobbie of the Inspired Knitting podcast yesterday.  She did a 2 part Frog or Finish podcast and it was really interesting to watch her assessment of the WIPs.  Somewhere in there, she spoke and it made me think about my own avoidance troubles with a project I wasn't quite into. 

I have loved my colourwork Scandinavian Star vest pattern since I started knitting.  I planned for it and started to knit it several years ago.  It was one of the projects I was going to knit and finish this winter.     I have been avoiding both my older colourwork projects.  It isn't that I was avoiding them, I realized.  It was that I was avoiding one of them.  The Star Vest is knitted bottom up and that is what it was all about.  I utterly loathe bottom up sweaters.  Utterly and completely.  

The idea of spending time knitting with no idea if it's going to fit seems ludicrous to me.  It might work ok for many but I have fit issues.  My upper body, shoulder to bustline is an inch shorter than average.  I have a large difference from my upper bust measurement to my full bust measurement.  My hip to waist ratio is way off average and has always been an issue when I sewed plus it is short.  And last, the distance from underarm to hip is several inches shorter than average.  All these are things are hard to adjust and adapt if you are starting from the bottom.  Starting from the top means I can try it on as I go to get the fit I want and need.  (All the same issues arise in sweaters knitted in pieces).  No matter what the pattern says.  

So I thought about the vest

and then I very quickly ripped it out.  

I left the bottom bit for now.  It was such a twisty mess.  There was a huge difference between pulling back the stuff knitted in the new way I learned versus the older way I did it.  It will be there if I need it to finish whatever I make.

That job done and that weight off my mind, I set out to find a new pattern for the yarn.  I really do want to knit the yarn.  It's Cascade 220 and who doesn't love that.  

Opps, there I go.  I have a sweater plan already and it will soon be underway.  I think I need to finish London Fog first.  And there is also the gorgeous Hiraeth to do.  Plus that new Staffin.  Yum.  So much to knit and so many more to cast on.  It's a great kind of life, this knitting life.   

Getting there one row at a time.

Hi Fay.  Lovely to hear from you.  The yarn on the blue sweater is some cones I got from Webs sales way long ago.  2008 or 2009 I think.  The colour is very similar to Quoddy Blue from Briggs and Little.  There is no mill tag inside the cones so I have no idea of the source.  

I wore the sweater yesterday for a bit.  Still needs a couple more good washes till the weaving oil is out of it.  The scent of it was so strong on wearing it that I dreamed I could smell it last night.  A couple more good washes till it is wearable.  Maybe three.  It's a beauty but it smells.

 I did not work on my London Fog sweater ( a colourway name from Midknit Cravings).  I sat and watched F1 stuff and then realized I was kind of avoiding knitting.  I craved something new.  I yearned for a change.  I know that I have a gorgeous yellow sweater that is new to my needles.  I know there are many other things to knit in my WIPs bin but oh how strong the urge was.  I caved.

Let me first say, we have a lot of snow yet.  We tend to get lots of snow in March so it might be spring for you but for me it still feels winterish.  I went through all my planned project sweater bags and ended up with my yarn for a Staffin sweater.  The yarn I am using is Ultra Alpaca in this deep cherry red.  It's almost burgundy but not quite.  It's going to make a lovely warm sweater.

It's a very different thing for me to follow a pattern where it is just simple stripes and plain stockinette and a pattern with patterning that determines the look of the garment in it.  I have a bit of a problem when numbers and letters are on the same row and I really find it a struggle.  You have no idea how difficult it is for me to stick, word for word and row by row to a pattern.   I have always admired those of you who can.  For my sweater to look like the design, I have to stick as close as I can to the written words.  

I plucked up my courage and followed as I could.  Everytime my anxiety over this got too much I put it down for a bit.  I decided it was okay to do this until I "got" where she was going with the pattern and the short rows but I was going to stick with it till I made it through.  

When I knit a new shape or something with a lot of texture, and considering my issues with letters and numbers on the same line piling up at the end of a row, I need to understand where the map of the pattern is taking me.  Then I can pick apart everything and put them back where they belong.  Once I understand the heading I can generally muddle that into a sweater.   

I get the Staffin now.  I get what I need to do to get nice increases in pattern.  I get how the design sets up and what goes where.  However...

I have to pull back to fix a glitch.  One side of the front neck currently has this weird gorchy (Klingon pimple) bump and the other a nice smooth slide into the center.  Plus there are some of my raglan increases are just utter crap.  They need to be redone. I am going to pull back to where the short rows start and make it better.  That is the lovely thing about knitting.  You can redo and redo till you get it right.  

It's one of the reasons I love knitting.  It is endless mulligans (golf redo).  You pull back and the yarn becomes a pile of endless possibilities.  That pile of yarn is utter forgivness for whatever we did.  Who couldn't love that.

Today is small thing day.  Time to work on socks and ponder the wonder of knitting.

A Victory

I feel really great this morning.  

I finished the Blue Cones sweater and it's a winner.

It fits just right.  It's a really lovely blue.  It's exactly the right length.  Yes it needs a good wash to get the spinning oils out but it is otherwise quite perfect.  I am weaving in ends as I write.  

I don't know how other knitters feel when they finish a garment but I feel deeply fundamentally satisfied.  I took these cones of string things and turned it into something that is uniquely mine.  I made every single stitch, even the error stitches and no one will ever knit a garment exactly like this again.  This is me, jumping up and down inside my heart.  No one can take this from me ever.  This is success.  This is achievement.  This is the pinnacle of everything I ever dreamed I could do and be.  I clothed myself, a very powerful thing. 

And when I put that sweater on, I am armored and protected from the rest of the world.  Knitted garments, handmade garments have always been that to me.  It's odd but I remember the first time I wore something knitted to work and stroked it during the day, and remembered who I was.  I needed that so badly then.  

Ah well.  That was then.  I am not that person in so many ways any longer, but parts of her remains. It is a layer of long ago memory that is only part of who I am now.    

I am going to put in a good bit of time working on My London Fog sweater today. That one is starting to feel as if it is working up fast.  Yay me.

Blue Sweater

Another sleeve!

Another day or two and it will be done.

I haven't made many posts the last while with chat.  I haven't been feeling too chatty I suppose.  I waffle between contentment and curmudgeonly ness.  Joy is easy to chat about.  Curmedgeonlyness?  I'm not sure that anybody needs more misery in the world right now.  I have no patience for the stupid thing people do and I am pretty sure  my anger isn't going to improve things.  

The other part is that though I feel grumpy as often as most people, it's easier now that I am older to just dump those feelings.  I just decide not to carry the misery.  I still care deeply about things and still feel the same sorrow and anger but I can put it down and put it away.  I choose to look for the good in the world.  I look at snowflakes and water drops and I contemplate their shape and size.  I play with bubbles in my bath.  I breath deep the smell of my coffee.  I watch the sun rise up and the world awaken every day.  It makes my life better.  

I have the power to pick what I will be in the world and today I will be a person with a nice cup of coffee and a sleeve on a pretty blue sweater.

Feeling good

I had a great weekend.  It was one of those weekends where I could knit for hours and still felt good at the end.  Plus it has been light when I got up which means spring is on the way... Even if it's snowing this morning.  

I did knit for a while on socks.  Friday morning till lunch time so not too long but it was enough to remember that I really hate magic loop.  Oh well.  It's working better than with dpns at the moment.  

And then it was time to knit anything else.  

I thought that I would work on the yellow, but my hands ended up with the London Fog sweater. 

I was on the first row of garter ridges when I stopped on it last and now after two great days knitting on it, I am a row from starting the third ridge set.  Last night as I was putting it away for the night, I realized it's now sweater.  

Can I just say again how lovely this yarn is.  It's a speckled yarn and I completely went against the speckles trend, but now that that is over, I get it.  It makes a tweedy looking fabric.  I still could never do a pink with speckles or yellow with speckles, but this gorgeous grungy green muddy grey, with tweedy sparks of teal and mustard and green and garnet.  Now that's a thing I get.  I love how this looks.  

Knitting this is also interesting to alternate to the more rustic blue yarn.  It's so soft and springy.  It's makes me feel delicate and gentle when I am not normally gentle or delicate.  I am more of a mule I think or a bull in a China shop.  Feeling delicate makes me giggle at myself.  The yarn is nice and I appreciate that different sort of cozy.

It's chore day and time to get moving so I can knit.