Pink Things

I'm sitting here feeling just a little odd.  I know I have no reason to feel this way, heaven knows there are enough things to do, but I feel just a little bereft.  I always feel this way when a big project is done.  

Yes.  A big project is done.  The pink Gregale sweater is done.  

I picked it up yesterday and worked on the sleeve over my lunch hour.  I was down to 6 rows and the bind off so I did that quick last night.  The first thing I like to do when I've put that last stitch in is to try it on.  

I love it.  But I am unsure of it.  I've been wondering if a tunic is a good idea for a large short person who carries the weight at the hips.  And lower if the truth be known.  I knew that I had to knit at least to my widest point and I worried that doing so would swamp me.  And yet, I could see me looking very elegant in it, worn with a nice straight skirt or trim pair of pants.  In my minds eye I always look elegant and crisp.  But I am also know that my minds eye can lie like a sun of a gun.   

This sweater makes me feel good and that is my usual standard for if something is right.  I have come to trust it and ignore all the rules of shoulda woulda coulda.  And yet...  

 If it looks right in other eyes, I might be very interested in knitting more tunics while tunics are in fashion.  If not, I'd rather know.  So, please do advise.  You all have better eyes than I.

  

All the other ongoing things

Last year I worked very hard to get my WIP pile under control.  It worked well, and I was really really pleased with myself.  This year I was just going to knit for joy.  

And I am.  I have been having a very good time, but I still feel driven to get some things done like sweaters.  I was feeling very compelled to knit sweaters earlier in the year and did a few and started even more.  

and soon,

I wish there were more.

Then there was the sock event.  Driven is the only way to describe that whole month. 

And lately, I have been thinking shawls.  Soft lovely lacy stunning shawls that are so beautiful I want to cry.  I don't feel quite so driven by this last.  Shawls are too delicate for driven feelings.  They are more like a craving to knit, craving to wear, craving to have the yarn run through my fingers.  The lovely beaded one from the MOOi I got at the RCY sale for Ludmila from Kiev is just a breath of what I want.

My knitting is filled with joy. 

I have also amassed a stunning number of WIPS.  The basket runneth over.  When I started this post, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the new stuff but I'm not anymore.  

There is a pair of stranded colour work mittens on the go.  They are my kitchen mittens and they are just where the pattern gets complicated.  I have to take some marking tape up there to get back on track.

I have a work project, a nice little bag that is for those times when I would go crazy if I couldn't do something.  

There is a blanket that I am doing out of left over sock yarns. No rush there.

There is a very pretty shawl that may or may not work out.  Its a dye lot thing.  There is another pretty shawl that is about to go for the big fancy edge.  

There is a bag that just needs the lining sewn.

There is a basic black turlteneck that is going to get frogged and restarted as a contigously beginning.  No point making knitting hard if you are knitting black and simple.

The rest of the things in my WIP pile are older shawl things that I do intend to complete and that I am working on once in a while.

You know, I think I feel pretty good.  I know where I am going with each of them and I know if I will keep them or not.  

Its a long list, but it isn't unbearable. After 6 months, I think I feel pretty good, even if the WIP baskets are overflowing.

What I am working on today.

Though I have all these stunning yarns, and though I did start one new shawl, I do have a plan for the next few weeks that has nothing to do with any of the lovely things I have just put into the stash.

Remember this?  It is a really lovely Clapotis made out of some pretty, pretty Wendy Happy Sock yarn.  If you haven't seen Wendy Happy, it's Bamboo so it is deliciously soft, but in no way right for practical socks.  It will be a magnificent shawl if I ever get it done.  It has been on my needles since December of 2010 and I really don't want to have to take it to 2013.  That would just be bad karma. If I work hard I might get it done by the middle of next week.

And the pink sweater.  I am knitting on that too.  I have about a third of the sleeve left to do, so that won't take long, but then I have to decide if I need to add to its length and go tunic or shorten it and go comfortable casual sweater.  I should get the sweater done in a lunch time or two.

I have to focus on these and get them done before the baby knitting begins.  And I can hardly wait for the baby knitting to begin!

Another Mother

My daughter in laws mom will be coming for two weeks in the fall when the baby is born to meet the new sweet one.  Or will be if the government of Canada and the department of immigration are working right.  

I'm looking forward to it and wanted to knit something Canadian for her. 

I don't know if there is anything particularly Canadian about what I am doing but it is a more or less a Canadian yarn and I am knitting it.  That will have to do.

It starting like this.  Here is hoping that the cast on is loose enough because I really really want dramatic points.  I had the perfect amber copper beads in my stash.  

It is doing this naturally though, so I have high hopes for it.  

The pattern I am doing is a Susanna IC design, Icicles.  She has some really lovely designs but I chose this one because I would love to make one for myself.  Remember this?

Yup. This one. Icicles.  

Textured Stitches

I picked up the Book Textured Stitches in the Interweave Hurt Book Sale.  Umm Interweave?  Book not hurt. Just saying.  


But what an excellent buy.  And it means that I did not have to buy from Knitpicks to get this kind of price! 

Its a great book.  Lovely patterns and an interesting premise.  The writer, Connie Chang Chincio does some really nice things and opens up eyes with the way she uses small bits of texture stitches to adorn but not overwhelm the sweaters.  I love it.

BUT 

The book has one irritating problem.  She says some things that, and never supports the statement, and never explains why she supports the statement.  I take some issue with that.


"To prevent possible stretching, the fronts, the backs, and the sleeves, are knitted separately and joined with stabilizing seams." (Pg 119, Connie Chang Chincio)'


Like a mantra, it is repeated.  I heard the same thing while taking Sally Melville's classes.  


I've wondered about this. I just felt the statement was wrong.  I'm not sure why, and I could never explain what I felt, but there just seemed to be something wrong with this.  

I would like to respond.  Or rather, I would like other much smarter people, much better knitters, respond for me.

We've been discussing this a little at my knit groups.  OK.  I have been asking about it because of my very very nice Bamboo Tape and the contiguous method of knitting sweaters.  And then one of the very smart people I knit with pointed out that raglans seem to hold their shape just fine and they have no shoulder seams.  The seams raglans have are most definitely off the shoulders.  I thought about that a lot and I agree. Icelandic style sweaters, or other sweaters knit with the round yoke don`t seam to suffer this either.  


I mentioned that on the contiguous thread here, and another member posted this response.  

"While there is a natural inclination to assume structural support in a man-made object is ADDED by a seam, the materials research scientists disagree with your statement. In fact, seams are a weak point. What is being confused here is a tight length in a flexible mesh…knitted fabric with a shortened expanse that prevents stretching. This is a strut, not a seam, which is a fundamental aspect of design. Seams are not necessary for strength, as in any living organic body, sweaters, or other objects created with flexible meshes."  (Ravelry member NewYorkbuilt)

NewYorkbuilt goes on further to say:

"The knitted object, as noted by such authors as Deborah Newton In Finishing School, Priscilla A. Gibson Roberts in Knitting In The Old Way, or Maggie Reghetti in Sweater Design in Plain English has no need for seams. Tightness in a strut built on the shoulder stops stretching. The body supports the shoulder material at the top of the arm, the chest and the back.

The key as stated earlier is to beat the daylights out of your swatch, torture it, MURDALIZE the wretched thing. Then wash, dry and see wha’ happened. You will learn much more about your stretched shoulder area.

Also, as SuzieM has noted in the group pages, most people make their shoulder lengths TOO LONG. The correct shoulder measurement is from the crest of the acromion bone to the base of the neck. If you go longer than this, the shoulder area will stretch, regardless. It has to. A fundamental aspect of OUR design." (Again, the fabulous NewYorkbuilt)

So not only does a seam not help, it makes it weaker. Think of how often a seam splits under tension and how seldom the fabric beside it does.  

It is the tightness we give our knitting that is doing the job of keeping things sitting pretty on the shoulder.  And a lot of really good people have said it and supported it with sweaters, knit over and over and over again.


So yes.  Finally something that makes sense to me, in terms I actually understood.  I`m not saying that knitting should never be done with seams (though I do not like to knit that way) and I am not saying that every sweater isn`t going to show some wear and weakness at the shoulders.  What I and some smart people and a lot of observation are saying is that if you choose the right yarn and knit without seams, You are going to be just fine.


So long as you swatch and `murdalise`it so you understand how your yarn will perform. Aye, there is the rub. 


Words that designers say are taken to be truth by the average knitter.  Too often, it is unsupported truth. Document it, research it.  Then say it.  Explain why before spreading a mantra that just isn`t quite all it is made out to be. 


The book is a good one, do consider it.

Faitful for a week

And that is as far as it goes it seems.

We weeded the garden on the weekend.  It is a subsitence sized garden. A very, very large garden and even with two of us working, we did not quite finish in the 6 hours we put in. (Out of practice.) I'm going to have to go out and finish the corn and carrots in the evenings.  Its picky work, cleaning the rows so that each tiny plant can be the best it can be, but if we do it now, our returns from the garden will be so much bigger, and every year after we will reap the benefits of a cleaner garden.  As back breaking as the work is, I appreciate every moment of it.

If you buy from a market garden or CSA, remember food comes at the price of a lot of labour and you are getting off cheaply, no matter what you are paying.
Remember to say thank you.

The consequence to knitting is, first off, that I did not have time to do a whole lot of knitting.  Second, my hands were aching and tired.  Holding and swinging a hoe  took everything out of my hands.  I couldn't do anything heavy or large, and certainly no cotton/non wool yarn knitting.  There just wasn't enough there to give.

So I worked rather desultorily on the wee gray that might be a vest bling thing.  But even that soft smooth yarn became too much.  So, what is a knitter going to do?

Clean house or clean stash?  You got it.  I played in the stash.  I also cleaned house, but that isn't finished yet either - an unfinished weekend all around it seems.

It was time to go through the boxes and really have a look at yarn, and make sure everything is good.

For those of you unlucky souls who do not have a stash, going through the stash is the single best reason to collect a stash.  Digging in it, pawing through all that yummy goodness is reinvigorating and rejuvenating.  I feel younger than springtime with a newly kindled fire in my soul.

What I really need is some nice light new small shawls in pretty colours and yarns that are light in weight but stunning enough to offset the very very plain summer wardrobe of almost t-shirts that are my under a sweater wardrobe the rest of the year.  So to the digging was not just the usual digging. It was directed digging.

There are a couple of things in my special things collection that are going to come in play.  I have some very pretty Ruca in soft colours, that is going to be a Blossom shawl or some other budlike lace pattern, something that will handle its soft but frequent colour repeats with style and grace.  I have no photos of this because it went back into its easily accessible box.  It sits right behind my head though.  I'll not forget.

And then these were pulled from the bottom of the bottom of the closet where all the not a sweater yarns are.

Seduce, lovely Seduce from Berocco.  A pretty drapey something, I think.  A Berthe Collar perhaps?  

Then there is this pretty slinky skein that I kind of ended up with when buying a bag of other yarn that I coveted.  This was totally an accident but a very very pretty one.  A single 400 m skein of Yarn Pirate's Merino Tencel fingering weight yarn.  Small shawl country for sure.   

Then oh my coveted, longed for something from Classic Elites Fresca.  I love this yarn.  It develops the most delicious halo with its angora content.  It will be a Clockwork or a Daybreak, but until I sit down to buy the pattern I will not know which. I suspect Clockwork, but don't put Daybreak out of contention just yet. 

And then these.  Oh my precious.  These are almost too pretty to knit, but If I don't knit them the magical Noro colours will remain forever hidden. 

And that would be a crime against the universe. Noro Kiramecki above and Sekku below.  I have only 1 ball of the Kirameki, but two of the Sekku.  One of them is going to be Citron  and the other is going to be Revontuli huivi or translated,  Northern Lights .  Either shawl can be made with 1 and both can be as large as you want.  I cast on the the Revontuli with this one, but the knitting seems very fine.  I might change my mind yet.

but then again, when I look at all the projects in Sekku. This pattern speaks to me in this yarn.  


I'm under a spell.  Bewitched.  Let the good magic flow. 

Unfaithful

Even with all the progress on the pink sweater, I haven't been very faithful to it.  I've been playing with other things that happened in the stash.  

One sign of an unfaithful knitter is other knitting has to be the next half finished project.  Now you might think that had all my efforts gone to pink, pink would be done, but not so.  This was knitted when my hands were tired of the very sturdy non stretchy nature of Remix (after about 6 hours of knitting)  or tired of wee garter stitch and when my head just needed a little something different.  It isn't much of anything and has a long way to gob before its life as a project can be confirmed or denied.  It may not be anything yet though I am generally aiming for a vest.  I have 864 metres and it is a worsted weight, so I'm seeing just how far it can go.  There should be enough for a something.

I'm knitting it out of Flicker from Berroco which was given to me by a friend. It is different than my usual choice of yarns because of the tiny bits of metallic shine in it.  I'm generally not into bling in my yarn but it is very subtle, and I can see how one can easily fall for its incredible softness.  There is much here to love.

Flicker is a tubular yarn.  It is constructed by a strand (or 2 or 3) being knit into a tiny tube and they yarn you work with is that tube.   That construction makes it incredibly light.  It almost feels as if you are knitting nothing but air. Like any tubular yarn and like most things with a non-metallic sparkly fibre component, it is catchy so you do have to do each stitch with a little care, but its baby aplaca makes knitting it a pleasure.  The best part?  It gives a fabric with the most amazing spongy light interesting texture and feel.

The pink thing will likely be finished this weekend, and who knows.  If it keeps up raining and I can't get to the garden,  the choice for weekend tasks is housework or knitting. All of us know just which thing I am most likely to do!

So much to tell

Every once in a while, it seems there is so much stuff to tell, that I just don't know if I could possibly tell it all before I forget.  Sometimes it just bubbles over.  Today it's like I'm a fountain of champagne bubbling out over the top of the bottle, bubbling merrily along.  It was an extraordinarily good weekend.

A wee bit ago, I started knitting to replace a basic wardrobe piece, a black turtleneck.  I am still working on it. 

I am loving the yarn.  Its just a very inexpensive black cotton from a South African company, Elle.  I suspect it was a discontinued line because the place I got it from was selling bags of it for dirt and I do mean dirt, cheap.  I have 3 bags of it, so I am just thrilled that I like knitting it.  Wouldn't it be awful to have 3 bags of something you loathed?  

Though I confess, its hard to imagine loathing any yarn unless it was that stuff that grannies knit slippers out of in the 70's.  I loathe that still.  

This project sits on my desk.  Its kind of in the way, sitting here buried under pencils and paper pads and a Russian dictionary.  Its kind of crowded by a couple glasses from the weekend (time to clean this study again), but it just sits here dark and quiet.  Its really well mannered, I must say.

  

I take it out every now and then and knit a few repeats of the pattern.  I have to finish a repeat though.  Each time I leave it sit mid repeat, I mess it up.  I have decided that it is so busy that no one will notice.  I didn't, till there was photographic evidence.  I submit to you the evidence.

I've messed up more than once and will likely do it again.  There is no fighting it.  I will live with it or rip it all back and just do a rib.  There is merit in the thought.  The debate rages on.  Ribs would be fine, but this is kind of fun.

There was much knitting this weekend, much much.  I worked very hard on the rose sweater and I am so pleased.  Contiguous is working out very well, and oh I love this yarn.  More on that later. 

And Son 2, tall, tall man that he is, came and tried on his now complete sweater.  It looks really good.  Almost to good to believe that I knit it.  From the back.  More about that tomorrow.  

I'm mulling how I am going to proceed on it.  I don't think it will take long to get the fix done, but I am kind of debating how I want to get there.

Anyway, busy busy weekend, and busy week upcoming.  So much to tell.  

Knitting is like that

I made good progress on my pink sweater.  

Oh my gosh.  I'm knitting a pink sweater.  I thought it was coral.  I have to be careful how I wear coral, but pink I can wear, no problem! Seriously, it was not till I put in on to see how it would fit, that I realized how pink it was.  Not pastel pink, rosy pink!

Please don't ask me what I was doing with a bag full of Remix in a colour I was not sure I could wear.  I can only say in my defense that it looked more pink in the store?  I am feeling a mite silly since I have been worrying about how I was going to use a whole bag of coral.  I am in fact, knitting it now so that I would use the colour while it had a little bit of a fashion resurgence.  But a nice rose colour never is out of fashion. The joke is on me!

I digress.  Sorry.  I was knitting away and really enjoying it. I tried it on, and the fit will be just about right.  I love it when knitting math works, when numbers and gauge match and make sense on the needles.  Anyway, I was cruising.  I knit a whole bunch and decided to take count of my sleeve stitches.I didn't want to end up with sleeves that were too large again.  Its a little bit of a beginner mistake and I have done this a few times now.  I know better.  

So count I did.  By stitch count I was 10 increases per sleeve from where I would want to knit straight.  

Whoa Nelly.  I'm only about a third of the way down the sleeve. That should not happen till about 2/3rds of the way. Something is seriously wrong here.

An enthusiastic knitter mistake. Sigh.  I really ought to pay better attention to what I am doing.  See that dramatic bell on the inrease line?  Yup.  I'd been increasing every round.  Sigh.  Its supposed to be every other round.  Every round isn't going to produce a nice fitting sleeve. Every round might be pouffy looking.

Back to the drawing board.

There.  That looks so much better!  hahaha

It does look a little pouffy here, but the shoulder is squished up on my needles.  When it is sitting flat it has a really nice tailored look which is what I am going for.  The line of sleeve increases is much better and that is what matters here.

It does seem to be moving along nicely, though the knitting is never going to go so fast as I want if I keep having to re-knit.  But getting it right is completely possible in knitting.  

I'll take my mulligan and move on. Knitting is like that.  

Genius

Every once in a while, genius spontaneously erupts.  This is true of every human venture, but it is particularly true in knitting.

The first knitter to figure out that you could take one long strand of rope like material and pick it up through the other one on the needle, over and over again, to invent knitting out of what most likely was a nalbinding or netting technique.  Genius.

The first knitter who realized that if you did one little thing different, you were not knitting wrong, you were purling.  Genius.  

The first person who discovered if you just kept knitting around and around, you would get a tube.  Genius.

There have been hundreds of flashes of genius in knitting that changed our lives right up to and including Barbara Walker, Elizabeth Zimmermann, Judy Becker of Magic Cast On fame, and Jeny Staiman of Jeny's stretchy cast off fame.  Genius.

I would like to add another name to the list because really.  Genius. 

SuzieM invented a way to knit a top down, set in sleeve that starts with the cast on row and is knit all in one peice.  She calls it Contiguous.  It does not replace the genius of Barbara Walker's simultaneous set in sleeve, but rather builds upon it.  Serious flashes of genius here.

The technique has ample room for different looks, from single stitch shoulder 'seams' to saddle look shoulders right down to no 'seam stitch at all, just an interesting patterning.

I picked up my yarn and needles yesterday to begin Gregale and contiguous is what happened.  It isn't the lovely blue bamboo tape I was contemplating, but another round of the gorgoeus Remix, from Berocco, this time in a soft coral/ pink/rose called Blush.  It wasn't a decision I seemed to make, so much as my hands seemed to take it on themselves.     

By evening I was ready to separate for the sleeves. I knit a few rows and then realized it wasn't going to work.  

It would be too pointy and narrow for my rounded, chubby shoulders. If you look above, you will see what a lovely little triangle it is forming.  It needed to start with more stitches, but it also needed to grow wider faster for a good fit.

So back to the drawing board.  I pulled back and reknit doubling the first few increases on the sleeve.  Its making a much more pleasing line that I hope will look just right.  A little time will tell if I have the rate of increases right.  I have to get below the neckline to where I join it and begin knitting in the round.  Then I can have a quick try on and check.  

I'm trying to keep the long shallow slope of the neckline.  That was a little challenging because on Gregale, as designed, the shallow neck slope begins midway on the sleeve, right about where a seam would sit had it not been designed with raglan sleeves.  (I wasn't quite ready to try getting that width on a contiguous knit foundation.  I think I know what I would do if I wished to restart, which I don't)     

Anyway, with the rain this week, the garden and more work in it, is going to have to wait.  There will be ample time to move  this sweater along.  And if the weather forecast is right, I'll be able to work on it sitting in the sunshine on my back deck.  

SuzyM, I think time will prove me right. The flash of genius that sometimes happens in knitting popped in your direction, you caught it, and ran with it.  Genius, SuzyM.  Pure genius.

To be or not to be?

I can't finish the blue sweater till I have a good clear head on my shoulders, so I have spent my time these last few days thinking about what is next.

I really wanted to try a contiguous knit.  BrendaKnits linked to the Contiguous group on Ravelry and I passed the link on to my friend, Knittydee (on Rav).  She finished  a Romy and oh my it is gorgeous.  

I also wanted to use a really great summer yarn, some Rowan Bamboo Tape that I have in my stash.  Its a yarn that is a smooth as butter in a colour that is the softest of soft blues.  Stunning stuff.  But the yarn is a grower.  According to everyone who knit it, it grows width wise and it grows lengthwise because of its tape construction, so using it for a garment can be a challenge. I knit a sweater once with the yarn and by the time it was done, the project was much much too large for the intended recipient. That was so long ago and so early on in my knitting skills.  I am much more able to knit to the yarn than I was.  I'm not a hundred percent sure that a solid stockinette garment in it is going to be a good idea and I am not ready to knit contiguous and to try to get a pattern established. That is just a little too much challenge right now.

I thought and thought and by the time I was ready to knit it, I had lost my gumption for that plan.  So what next?    I really don't know for sure.  

In the meantime, and because I can always find more space for unfinished objects, I am casting on for a Gregale   but it will be top down and all in one piece.  It looks nice and simple, and it will be so, once I get going, but there is enough challenge in the shaping of the neckline to keep my wanting to learn new stuff part of me busy for a while.  

I'd knit it contiguously but it is a raglan, and part of what I like about it is the raglan shaping.  So...off I go.  Into the wild blue yonder.  Or should I say Blush?  

If I can't sort out the raglan shaping to my satisfaction, then I will change the sleeves and go contiguous.  Who knows?  I might go there straight away.  

Because contiguous still sounds like a really really great way to knit a sweater.

Misbegotten

If this doesn't look misbegotten, 

I don't know what does.  The neckline hangs funny.  The sleeves look goofy.  The shoulders are square.  It droops.  This is why finishing was created!

I think it will be ok and what isn't ok, I think I can adjust.  

The problem is the sleeves.  As I was knitting the sleeves, there should be a point about 2/3 of the way down the armscyce, where I stop increasing.  I didn't.  So the sleeves are a little wide.  I think I can tuck in enough fabric on the sleeves that it will be fine.  Two small seams in an otherwise seamless garment.  

This sort of adjustment isn't for this morning.   It for a good fresh brain ready to tackle a little innovation.  

Once the sleeve adjustment is done, there is a small matter of the fancy schmancy hem trim and a little blocking to sort out its current oddities and we are good to go.

I am really looking forward to this.  I have a wee blanket made from this yarn that has been more often a shoulder cosy than blanket.  Thing is, it has been washed and machine dried several times, and it is just a great fabric. 

I know how this yarn performs, I know how it feels, and I know how it drapes.  Everything here was done  taking these things into account. I can't wait to be able to wear it!

Ack!!!!!!

I've got the blue sweater done but for the finishing and the finishing

is going to take a while.  This is 1 full ball all around the neck and botton edges and it has taken hours to knit.  (Well not that many but it sure feels like hours)

All of this edging will be folded back and sewn to make a flashy little lining.  I don't have enough of the blue to do it in blue and the brown is not quite right to have it really show off.  As a lining, though, well it makes me think of years and years ago, when Merv Griffin would flash his suit jacket lining off to his viewers.  It will just be a quiet sort of flash as I walk and move through my day.

The last time I tried it on, the sleeves seemed wrong.  I don't know if it is that they are truly wrong or if it just the time in all my projects where I am convinced that I have knit the ugliest thing known to mankind.  

What I am not looking forward to is that if I have to reknit, I have to take all the brown edging off.  Common sense tells me to take the brown off and try it on again and if it needs fixing, to fix it. 

I'm just going to keep working on it.  Another row or two and I can pin this mile of brown edging back and then find every needle of length in the house and see how it fits with and edging and the finished details attached.  Details can make a big difference to the way it hangs and fits.  

So onward to what might very well be futility.  

Back in the Garden

Way back in the mists of time there was a song with that title.  Crosby Stills and Nash.  There are several versions on Youtube if you need to check.  This is neither here nor there, but last night I was truly, back in the garden.

I love my garden.  I love the end result.  I love having stuff in my freezer all winter long.  I love bringing stuff up and knowing these were planted by my hand and picked, and stored and to my table without the intervention of any major corporations.  I love the idea of growing my own food, taking care of something so fundamental just me and whatever weather should happen my way.  It pleases me in  every way.

But you know, gardening sucks.  It is very, very hard work.  At this scale, it is between you and a hoe and the ground, or you and a watering can and the ground, but it is all hard work.  And it will continue to be hard work all summer.  With me back working full time, its going to get a little hairy.  When will I get it all weeded?  When will I pick and freeze my peas?  Make pickles?  Pick berries?  Tend to my knitting?

The way I figure it, I will be doing a lot of garter stitch this summer, and a lot of small projects.  That works out ok with the grandbaby coming.  Babies are all about small things.   Wee socks.  Tiny caps.  Itty bitty sweaters.  Little things with feet that are so sweet you just want to snuggle them even without a baby in them.

But I also know that once the garden has been completely planted, which barring rain, will be finished this weekend, I have a couple weeks of open time before things need weeding.  There is always the week or so where you can't do anything because it isn't up yet and another week where you have to let it grow a bit till you can thin it out and weed in the rows (Should they need it.  My garden will need it.).  Free time and I hope to get in one more sweater before the sweater knitting for me must be put aside. 

The question is which one.  It has to be something simple enough that I can speed through the knitting like a house on fire.  It has be be interesting enough to want to keep me at it.  The debate rages on, with at least 2 different yarns and 3 to 4 patterns in contention.  I am really waffly about one.  It is kind of like Miss Congeniality in a pageant show.  She is good and nice, but her chances of winning are slim.  And yet...

I'll run through them over the weekend and try to make a decision for Monday.

Rain

It rained at the farm last evening, so no gardening for me.  It gave me the chance to finish up the sweater.

The knitting is now done, unless I knit it a little longer.  I think I'd like to get all the finishing done and then get him to try it on again.  

Those pesky underarm joins will really change the way it sits and hangs.  That will be the real tell if extra is needed.  Does it look right after it is ready to wear?  That is the question.

I'm happy to be done and debating the next thing!  I've a little time, since I have a few more inches on the blue denim look sweater and that one will be done before I start yet another new thing.

  

It always feel good to finish up a sweater.  Like nothing else on earth.

Half Done

Half done is well begun.

I'm well begun.

I knew it wouldn't take long to knit the collar and after just an hours worth of time this morning, here we are.  Half done.  

The collars lovely shape comes from its use of short rows across the back of the neck Those are all done and now I just have a few inches straight to knit for length on the front and it will be done.  I'm working the collar on 4 mm needles and knitting quite tightly.  I hope the collar stays nice and firm and crisp looking. A sloppy shawl collar can kill the look of a sweater.  

The finishing will consist of grafting two seams at the underarm and sewing the collar front edge to the sweater.  I've woven almost all the ends in as I went along so there is just a check of them to make sure they are secure before I snip them and voila, it shall be complete.  Well, that and one other thing.

When the big guy tried the sweater on, it seemed a little short to me.  He thought it was ok, but I am going to snip off the ribbing and knit an extra couple of inches.  He is tall, with long legs, and he really doesn't need a short sweater making him look like Urkle. 

A little hampered

I'm a little hampered this morning because I don't have any access to my pictures.  I suspect that my pictures would look a lot like the last time I showed you whatever project.  That is one of the things I dislike about big projects.  There just isn't the opportunity for flinging photos about like there is when you work on small things like socks and mittens.  There is always a point where it looks exactly like it did last time.

It isn't that there was no knitting.  There was lots of knitting.  The blue cotton plain jane summer sweater is down to the point where it is just straight knitting.  It won't be long now till I have to make some firm decisions about the finishing touches.

The big fella otherwise known as son 2, came out and tried on his sweater.  It looks just about perfect.  You will be delighted to know that the sleeves are perfect.  The body is just the right length, and if I do just a few more rounds at the neckline, it too will be perfect.  The only part left is the ribbed shawl collar and I don't anticipate any trouble from it.  

And then there is this.  

 Its a little shawl made from a local indie dyer here in Edmonton, Dandelionfluff. Very pretty on a bamboo viscose wool base.  I've been tinkering away on it at lunch and occasionally at knit night and it is small but the number of stitches is significant.  

I'm thinking about putting the edging from the River Valley Shawl on it.  It is a edging based on an old Estonian pattern.  It is a brilliant edging, but like each clue in the River Valley shawl, there is something new to learn in it and after it sitting so long, I find I am a wee bit intimidated. On the original shawl, I ripped back my error on the edging, and I am ready to for clue 6, yet I hesitate. 

I was wondering if I could get over that hesitation by knitting that edging on something so far from where it belongs, far from that very very challenging shawl. (So challenging that the designer decided never to put it up for sale even though it is stunning).  I am going to take today and do a little math and see if the stitch counts are where they need to be for the edging to work out.  I have to take into account one fussy foolish bit.  I started this as a Multnomah, and Multnomah has that little 5 stitch spine.  I'm not sure how that will work out with this edging, but I shall see what I come up with.  

The math and counting at lunch time, and either finishing the Big fellas sweater tonite or working on mine.  A busy day ahead.  A busy week ahead, but I need to get these things both out of the way in very short order.  

Its gardening season, and for the next few weeks, that will be a kink in all knitting plans.

In the Middle

Here I am once again, in the middle.  

I'm still working on the cotton sweater.  Its midway down the bottom, right about where I like to insert some short rows to better fit my backside.  I have in fact just finished the short rows.  You could say it is all downhill from here.  I have a few more increases to my optimal width and then just a few rows for length.  Not far at all.  I will have the main part of it done on the weekend.  

As I have been knitting, I've been thinking about stockinette.  How often have you heard people say that its just miles and miles of boring stockinette?  I am never going to believe you because in my world, it does not happen.  

I start at a woman's large to get a nice fit at my shoulders and at my underarms.  After that I have to rapidly increase because everything below is a whole other kettle of fish.   It is, in fact, far beyond the kettle, rather more like a rather large lake beyond a kettle.  Suffice it to say, when I knit a sweater for myself,  I have a lot of knitting to do.  And yet, I am seldom bored by the volume of stockinette.  

It is more like a challenge.  There are all sorts of things to consider, even in the simplest of  shapes.  There are the increases needed to make the hips fit.  There is the how and when and how often.

The first shaping I need is at the underarms.  I need to get a lot of inches in a very short space so that it fits nicely at the bust.I usually do a split increase.  I do one increase just as I come to the under arm (the flat part where you cast on or off stitches through the underarm) and one as I get to the end of it.  If you do all the increasing so close together as I have to, you can occasionally get a little bit of a wing thing on the side and this helps to mitigate that. It is a little bit of divide and conquer, but it keeps the silhouette more gently sloped outwards. The other thing is that it gives me the option, if I need a few more fast increases somewhere along the way (as in I miscalculated), to put them where a side seam normally would be. Its kind of interesting watching all that shaping happen.

Then on the fronts there are short rows so that it fits my bustline correctly.  That takes some planning.  Too high up and it looks just a little odd, and too long forgotten and oh dear, bad, bad, bad - The sweater wants to do an outie, where I am shaped as a in-y.  Then there is the previously mentioned backside shaping for the shelf butt thing I have going on.  That has to happen in the right place too, plus too many short rows and it hangs low in the back, too few and it looks like its pulling up.

When you consider my height, and that the very bottom 3-4 inches of a sweater should not have any increases, it means that there is a lot going on in those acres and acres of stockinette.

Not boring at all.  For me.

It's a little like anything else.  Perspective and context make a huge difference.  

Complete

I love collecting. I have often wondered if that is what I primarily do.   I have a lovely little collection of cheap blue and white china.  I have a stupendous collection of books.  I have a linen collection, and then there is the yarn.  Oh and the rest of the embroidery stuff.  I get irritated when a collection cannot be completed.

When I started knitting, River City Yarns (who led me) had copies of   Gossamer Webs and the Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffman.  I eventually took both of these home with me.  I found Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls at Interweave in their damaged book sale a few years ago.  (IIRC.  My memory is a little fuzzy.)

But my collection was not complete.  I was missing the first in the series, Lace From the Attic.  I looked wherever I went.  I checked out some online vendors but it was out of print.  I even looked at getting a second hand copy, but till you added on postage...well, even my incomplete collection was not worth that kind of money.

 So the other day, when I was ordering a few things for spinning, I noticed a little something on the list of books.  The store had a copy of Lace From the Attic.  I could hardly believe it.  

My collection is complete.  Well worth the wait.  

These are not the 'big' lace books of the last 10 years.  They are small books, with not a lot of projects in them, but rather are published collections from very interesting people.   They are a little bit of history and a little bit of lace.  In their own small way they pack a punch far bigger than their dimensions would lead a knitter to assume.  Its a lot of very unique little bits.

I highly recommend them of you really love lace. 

Just in case anyone else is looking, Shuttleworks outside of Calgary  has a few more copies.  

One of those things

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have certain pieces of clothing that are just vital to my getting through a whole week at the office in office appropriate clothing.  Some of these items of my wardrobe are such that I would feel naked (and may in fact be naked) with out them.

Most of the things I have are old.  I have pants that are two jobs old (if that is a valid way to measure the life of clothes).  I have some tops that are three jobs old, and it is these I am writing about today.  I know.  It hardly seems like something a knitter would care about. 

When I worked at Macdonalds (yes I did as an adult, no less.  It was a great job when my kids were small), I bought one black and one navy turtleneck to wear when I worked in the drive through.  (for some perspective my 'kids' are now 31, 30 and 28).

I still wear them.  I have sewed underarm seams up a few times on both of them, but they have stood the test of time.  They were worn in summer on cold wet days and as many times as possible in winter.  The other day, I noticed a hole in the collar of the black one.  Right there on the top layer of the collar.  Right there, just off to the left front. Big hole.  As if t had been washed so many times, the factory twist of this very factory sweater just couldn't hold it together.  

I was devastated.  My most basic and most long lived of garments is on its last legs.  I thought about patching it, but I have nothing even remotely comparable to patch it with and on the neck, it would show up.  Why couldn't the hole have been in a place where the artfully tossed end of a smashing shawl could hide the flaw?  But nope.  Right there.  No hiding it. 

I knew this day was coming.  In the deep recesses of the stash lurks a bunch of fingering weight yarn for just such an event.  A whole footstool storage cube of it.  It rivals the sock stash in quantity of balls.  I bought a  wool cotton fingering weight, Mini Duett from Sandnesgarn, RCY in red and mossy green.  I also bought a cotton and acrylic that an online vendor had  in black and red, 3 bags each.  Yes I know.  2 reds.  You cannot have too much red.  2 different reds? Two different kinds of tops for sure.

This weekend I pulled out the black.  I need a garment to replace my basic turtleneck before fall comes.  I can do without over summer, but not winter.  So somewhere between here and there....

I swatched yesterday evening.  

A close fitting tubular garment with full sleeves and a mock turtleneck, in black fingering weight yarn.  Part of me wonders if I will be over the whole black sock thing after I am done with this. 

Part of me wonder if I will be blind.  Or nuts.