That magical sweater in a week thing

Do you recall how I wound all that yarn?  Well Friday morning this happened.  I swear by all that I am that it was only going to be a swatch.

By Friday evening, it was here,

and that was it for the day.  My hands gave out though my heart really really wanted to keep knitting.  Saturday took it to here.

I couldn't stop.  If you have not recognized the design, it is Ysolda Teague's  Liesl .  I have knit this twice previously and just like those times, this is a great knit.  It hooks you with it's interesting chart as you increase down from the cast on neck line, in the lace pattern.  It's 3 plain rows and one pattern row make each section feel as if there is almost no work at all involved and before you know it, you have a sweater.  Seriously, this is a hard thing to put down.

I am making  a couple small changes to the pattern.  I did add two extra stitches to the high neck cast on.  I am knitting all rows stockinette because of the weight of this yarn.  It looked overly bulky with the garter stitch row.  I also added extra stitches at the underarm to make an extra pattern repeat as the sweater grew longer to accommodate my hips.  I added four stitches and then just knit them plain until it was time to increase.  But the time I needed them, I realized that I would only need one pattern repeat extra on each side, so I adapted where I started the lace chart to work.   

By Saturday evening, I had knit a healthy third of a sweater.  It survived two try ons and if I can just say, it will do.  It isn't perfection.  If I was doing it over in this yarn, I would take off two stitches at the cast on, but those extra two stitches and the relaxed fit they give, mean this sweater will be seriously great at wearing over loose shirts.  That is probably a good thing because this lace design needs to be worn with something underneath and my vast wardrobe (not) contains only a few white shirts, none of which look right or feel right under most of my other sweaters.

I knit only desultorily Sunday, not really doing much knitting at all until Sunday evening.  Obviously, this is going to be one of those sweaters that is done in almost no time flat.  It's a chunky yarn so of course it will go fast but there is so much more.  There is a really lovely feel to this yarn.  It is the angora, I suspect.  It is only 15 % angora, but it completely changes the way the yarn feels running through my hands.  And yes.  Yarn love.  Big time.

By Monday evening, I had the two balls of light blue used up and it was time to face my colour problem.  In the end, that was easy. 

I knit two rows with the more teal coloured of the two dark blues.  It wasn't right.  The difference between the two yarns was so glaringly obvious and it had much more to do with the angora than the slight weight difference.  Had it had angora in it, the soft haze would have camouflaged the difference somewhat. Once I was knitting with the more teal looking Llama Silk, it just looked wrong.  There was no soft haze and that stood out like a sore thumb.  So, a not quite perfect but pretty darn good blue it is.

I knit a few rows this morning so you could see where I am at and so I would have the lace and button hole rows done.  Later in the day, when my thinking cap isn't so fresh, I can start knitting a few plain rows without any complicated rows. 

Not that they are complicated.  The feather and fan is a lovely simple lace to knit even in this chunky yarn.

I won't have quite so much knitting time the rest of this week but it is in a good place to knit while chasing little people (not that they are so little anymore).  Cassie and Marcus have a fall break and mommie and daddy asked if the kids could come here to give the babysitter a week of respite.  Since keeping the babysitter happy is directly in my best interest, a sleepover at grandma's is in order. 

I need to get my other grandchildren here for a sleepover too.  They are an hour and a bit away, but it is winter and it gets dark so darn early these days.  Driving in the dark is pretty much over for me, unless the road is really quiet.  But soon.  Grandkid sleepovers are really the best.  I have to work on their mom and dad.

The Coffee Blanket

I had a problem the other day when I was trying to stuff the new comforter.  It was just not working at all. Everything was sticking to the fabric but not staying in place till I could baste the batt in place.  I ruined a couple batts trying.

I finally gave up and had some Bailey's in my coffee.  I actually took a break and did something else amazing but I will tell you that tomorrow.  

When I made the comforter last time, I didn't remember having so much trouble.  Last time, I was putting the batts into a pre made duvet cover.  If anything, it should have been much more difficult that time.  But I remembered nothing traumatic, other than the knotting taking forever and being hard on my hands.  

There are dozens of blogs out there where detailed information about doing something can be found, but my own? Not so much.  My blog is generally full of enthusiasm and chattiness but there are darn few details about anything.  I can go back for information but all I normally find is how much I loved a yarn!  

Still, it was worth the look.  Maybe, just maybe.  And this time, I found exactly what I was looking for in this post, on my Comforter  made just after I moved here.  

So, last night well after dark, at 6 p.m. (tis the season where I really struggle to find a reason to stay up till 8 p.m.)  I sat down and basted batts together.

I have to sew another seam on the top yet, to fully replicate the duvet part of this process but the quilt sandwich is going to happen. Today.  

I just have to lay it all out on the guest bed and roll.  I am kind of looking forward to this part.  And then there is the knotting.  

November 11

We shall remember them.

As a group, we and them can be large and anonymous.  Make it personal.  I will remember him.  I will remember her.  I will remember them.

Things of today

The blanket is ready to stuff.

That sounds silly when it is said like that, but it is the truth.  I am about to put the batts in place and am ready to start the basting and pinning and putting. 

The only problem is that it isn't one.  It is two.  I have the bottom ready for blanket two, but haven't quite decided about what the top will be.  I am debating between fabrics.  I don't want to purchase more, so all the picks will be from my large shelf of fabrics.  I don't want to chose the blacks even though black is the logical thing to use with the above fabrics.  The vast majority of my black fabric is for pants or skirts in weight and in fibre and quantity on hand.  My plan has always been to use fabric for stuff like this that I wouldn't use any longer for clothing. 

I have this piece of yellow.  It is huge and if I recall right, there are 5 metres of it. Once it was a planned suit.  You could do that in the 90s.    I could do the back of the second blanket in a single swath of yellow.  I would do it at the drop of a hat if it was for me, but if it was for me, I wouldn't be using the black!  I would use only the yellow. That would leave me with weird bits of other fabrics that I have no intention of using for anything else, and that is not the optimal result here.

I think that my biggest job today is going to be sitting in front of the fabric shelf, digging in the fabric stash and figuring out just what I will use.   It may not take long but you never know. 

I hope it doesn't because after all, I do have a blanket to stuff .  

A Colour Conundrum

I have a bit of a colour conundrum going on this morning.

I purchased some Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky a good long while ago intending to make some colourwork vests.  The urge to make that vest has long gone but the yarn remains. A few stash dives ago, I got the idea that they could be combined in different ways to do other things.  I had a cream and two blues that would work nicely in a sort of gradient sweater.

The lighter blue looks a little washed out here but it looks quite nice in real life. I like it, but...

It was when I was last organizing the stash and came across another yarn that was very similar in weight in a slightly different blue that I like even better, that the trouble began.

The yarn is Diamond Luxury Collection Llama Silk.  It has 123 meters in 100 grams rather than the 100 meters in the Debbie Bliss.  Not a perfect match but I think it could work as long as I was careful to keep my gauge.

It would mean that the darkest colour would be a little more of an open fabric but I am not all that concerned by that.  What concerns me more is that this mildly less beefy yarn with a healthy amount of Llama fibre in it, would cause it to hang very differently than the other, particularly because it would be a slightly more open fabric.

I am debating if I should worry at all just yet.  These are the darkest colour and would be knit last in my plan.

These skeins were all wound up this morning just to get them off the sofa and ready to do a swatch.  While I did that, I also wound up a sein of very pretty Urth Worsted for another pair of wrist warmers using Cat Bordhi's wonderful designs. 

Isn't  it pretty? 

The work continues on the blanket and some knitting on my green jacket is the order of the day.

The rain in spain

Going back to green

It got quite cold overnight.  It was a fierce reminder that what I really need to focus on is my coat.

It may not be the most exciting project in the world, but it is what I will be knitting on today but I have to say, I am really going to miss working on that pretty blue Willard.

At the same time, work can continue on the blanket.  Or blankets, should I say.  I pulled out the container yesterday and realized that I have enough batts for two blankets.  So, I guess I am making two blankets.  I just really would like this stuff gone, and I have a feeling that I will be able to get rid of a nice warm blankie faster than I was able to get rid of the batts. 

I asked several quilting groups and had no takers.  This mystifies me, because wool is a superior blanket making material.  I think that quilt making these days isn't about warmth in the same way it isn't about the actual quilting part of the process.  These days piecing is all and that is a very sad thing to have happened to such a noble craft.  Something is lost in losing the balance.

Ah well.  Knitting remains and that is more than enough. 

Stop selling things short.

I got up yesterday and knit.  I just knit the whole day.**see note below

It doesn't really look like a whole day of work, does it?   It is pretty significant though. 

I made a second change to the pattern right at the neck.  Rather than going with the raglan the pattern uses, I decided to go contiguous.  Not that anything is wrong with raglans, but I don't think they look as good on me as I wish they would.  It is such and easy way to knit a sweater.  Nice easy increases or decreases till it is long enough, and wide enough, but that nice easy to knit style isn't something I am as comfortable wearing as I am with a more fitted sleeve or a round yoke.  Contiguous is my personal answer to that.  Every row increases till the shoulder width is established and away you go. 

It may not look like a lot of knitting, but it is.  What you see here is about a third of the way down the sleeves, possibly a quarter but somewhere in that general length. Rational me knows that this was a big job,  but there is part of me that feels like I accomplished nothing.  I am going to smack that part hard, and make her look at it till she sees and accepts that it was a lot of work and she did a great job.  But I will also organize my day a bit different today.  There will be knitting, but I am going to make myself go and do a few other tasks first.

What with the winter arriving as it does, I stole the woolen blanket I purchased at MacCauslands from the guest bed and am using it on mine.  It is wonderful.  Why on earth did we ever think acrylic blankets and polyester comforters were better than wool?  They are more easily washable perhaps but they are not as nice in any other way as wool to sleep under.  Not even close.

Because I was a thief and because the guest room is usually a bit chilly at night, the guest room needs a warm blanket.  The cotton comforter it has, paired with a cotton blanket underneath isn't enough even with a selection of throws.  I have a significant number of wool batts and a huge stock of fabric so I mean to put them to use.  I am going to do as I did with my own comforter

and make a simple knotted quilt.  The last time I did this, it took four full days of work to do the tying, but it also took a couple days getting things set up and basted before that.  I was working with a duvet cover that time, where this time, I have to do a bit of sewing before I can even think of basting the layers together. 

There is a bit of a deadline on this project.  I have some company coming the last day of November-first day of December.  I do not want this project to be laying all over the floor in the living room, or tossed in pieces on the bed and pressed into service.  It needs to be complete. 

So the task for today is step one.  Dig out the giant bins that the batts are in and wash iron and sew the fabric I need for a nice big comforter.  I'm going to have to reorganize the closet the batts are in as well.  You can't take big things out without figuring out the best way to put the spinning fibre back in.  If it was just the washing and the sewing, it wouldn't be much at all, but the reorganizing takes time.

And then I can knit. 

**This is the part wherein I smack myself.  My first thought was that I did not do anything but knit. Ha. Not only did I get a good part of a sweater done, I made a real hot lunch for myself, did three loads of laundry, made my bed, went through my sock drawer looking for socks to repair, did the dishes, put the small garbages together, planned what to make for dinner, made dinner.  Plus I went through me tea box again to weed out yet another tea I should have read the fine print on before buying.  Darn licorice root.  It is everywhere.   This is already a decent day of work before I add in my knitting.  Why do I, why do most of us sell these small, time consuming, tasks so short?  They are the busy work of life, and someone has to do them. They are work and it is time to count them as such.
  

Pretty Blues

I'm lucky.  Really lucky.  I am posting from what may be my new computer.  The landlord was down in his office after answering my interminable list of questions about what my new computer should be, when he looked around and spied his duffel bag on the floor and he realized there was a laptop in it that he hasn't used since at least June.  He pulled it out and came charging upstairs with a deal for me!  I will try this one and if  I like it he will make me a deal. This laptop is larger than I wanted but it is probably the size I would have ended up with.  This relieves my mind some what.

I did knit on my very pretty Myrtle sweater on Saturday but on Sunday, I treated myself to a new adventure.   I pulled a really pretty yarn out of my stash.  It is a lovely blue yarn, but it isn't the one I thought I was going in for.  I started to dig in the stash for my Briggs and Little Regal in Quoddy Blue and came out with this lovely Royal Tweed from Lana Grossa

The goal is to make a Willard in this pretty soft tweedy blue.  That leaves the Quoddy Blue Regal for another sweater like that beguiling  Rusty Tuku (even if it isn't the same gauge, the idea beguiles me!).

I saw the Willard sweater a few weeks ago and with its long tall collar and my need to keep the chill off the back of my neck, it seems like the perfect knitting for a winter that is just setting in.  Willard was also a great pick for Sunday morning knitting because today was another F1 race, this time at COTA in Austin.

The first thing I did was start the pattern by making a change.  As usual.  There is no reason why I shouldn't be knitting this in the round right from the start.  Fitting the neckline is easy enough with short rows and by starting with the collar, the collar itself can be my substantial swatch.

I cast on first thing in the morning and knit till race coverage started at 10:30.  I just kept knitting.  And knitting.  I did measure and I even checked my gauge a couple times, and by the time Valtieri Bottas won the race, and by the time Lewis Hamilton won his sixth drivers championship,

I had the collar completed.  Well two rows from complete, which is good enough for me.  Knitting while watching something so compelling to watch can be a challenge.  It is easy to start knitting fast and so tightly that you almost cannot move the stitches on the needles.  My hands can reveal how I feel far too easily. Not that I had to rip back at all.  Not this time at least.

I did have to put it down though by the end of the race.  I had been knitting from early morning and with the added tenseness in them from watching really exciting racing, my hands were crying 'uncle.'

When I was digging for yarn, I didn't just dig out one kind of yarn.  I pulled out the whole container of yarn.  The container also held this delicious thing.

I have an idea for this very nice bulky yarn.  It might be a little risky.  I am not sure if the weight is going to look right in a lace pattern, but I think it is worth the time finding out.

The green coat will be knit on this week.  The Myrtle will be knit on this week.  But there is some fun and new yarn to play with too.  

Yup.  There are things you cannot escape from.  Some of them, like ripping back a sweater are small even if in the moment they feel huge. It isn't fun but if you do it,it is so much better.  

Some of them, like my computer going toes up, are like the sting of a wasp.  It hurts like heck but in a week or two, it will be resolved.  I am going to get a moderately priced laptop to replace the desktop.  The desktop was Brian's and became mine so when my little lappy's wifi died and could not be replaced, it became my primary,  but it was something to work around.  A new little laptop will be a much better fit.     

 And then there are some things where you just want to pull the blankets over your head and hide forever. But even this, even this, you crawl out and do because there really isn't any other way.  

People I care about are in that last bunch today. They are close and the three of them will lean on each other till it feels right to stand alone.  Me?  I will be like a windbreak, standing just on the edge, being there for when they need a little shade or a place to find shelter.  

I don't think that went how I wanted.

Just as I was going to write a post last night, my computer got the great blue screen of death.  Or maybe imminent death.  Sigh.

The landlord is going to look at it this evening.  But if it needs replacing, I am not sure what I will do.  It's not scheduled for replacement.  At least I have this tablet. 

I knit yesterday.  I knit a lot.

I pushed hard to get to where I could see the ripples from the increases, and I did.  But I don't think I like what they are doing.  I may be ripping back to the welt and redoing. 

I hate that, but it is what it is.  I hate doing that but the very best thing about knitting is that you can.  You can make it better.

So I will.

And now for something completely different

and completely the same!

I ended up working on the sleeves of my coat and got it to the end of the green sleeve island.  Just a few inches with the grey but that can happen when it happens.  I wanted to start working on the body of the sweater again.

Before I did that, I made time to try it on to double-check that I was getting things right.  Math is one thing but math can lie.  I wanted to see and feel it for myself.  All is well.  All is more than well, and that little bit of future success made knitting all the more interesting.

I kept knitting until I got to the place on the back of the sweater, where I wanted to do a line of increases.  I wanted to knit the back of this sweater like the back of Argo, where there is a row of increases forming the smallest bit of a gathered ripple across the back.  It allows me, with so many stitches to add between waist and hip, to have a garment that is not just an a-line but rather more of a straight side. 

On Argo, that increase line is the point where you move from garter stitch to stockinette, so the larger than usual number of increases are hidden in the change.  I wanted to do a welt trim to help hide them here.

Knitting the welt is kind of interesting.  There are all kinds of great videos on the net for this simple technique, so I won't go over that here.  I will merely show you my result in this rather beefy heavy wool. 

I am rather pleased with that bit of a ridge.  The increases will happen on the next round and should tuck in nicely under that bit of a visual bump. 

I do have a bit of a quandary about colour blocking.  Should I do the colour blocking as it is on my Argo, with the change happening right about this point on the garment, or should I just go with the grey at the bottom like my original plan?  So many choices.

It is just a little bit cool though.  The welt is neat, to use that very 1950's phrase.  A different technique for me, but still knitting.  It is good.

Looking for Inspiration

Yup. The lull is hitting me big time.  I have been knitting a little, slogging away at sleeves, pondering the coat project.  

The need for the coat is becoming urgent.  Cold hit yesterday with some ferocity.  No serious snow but the cold has arrived.  The coat slipped from small pending need to urgent as the wind blew in.

I am very close to the end of the second sleeve.  I am looking forward to that. Sleeves can be irritating.  No doubt about that. The length of the green on the sleeve has been determined by how far the lone ball of green allotted to sleeve one went.  There will be grey at the cuff too, but that part will be knit later for both sleeves.  I'd like to get past the green first.

The thing I have been pondering is pockets.  The easy thing is patch pockets, but I think I prefer a side seam pocket that is tucked away,  almost hidden.    I could do an afterthought pocket too and that is why there is pocket pondering. 

I am going to continue pondering today but as usual after a big knit is complete, I'm going to go dig in the yarn.  It is time for a good toss of the boxes, and I need the inspiration that digging in yarn gives me.  I need the colors, I need the textures, I need the cozy feeling that playing in something I dearly love gives me.  

There may be some knitting with Einband later today.  If nothing else works, that will. There is always inspiration in the Icelandic.  

Hun is a Honey of a Thing

I am sitting here this morning wearing my completed version of the Hun sweater.

There isn't anything like it.  Putting something on that you took from yarn to wearable garment is simply the most amazing thing.  Nothing compares to this feeling.  Nothing.  It is such a sense of fulfillment of a goal, of a challenge, of proof to me that I can do this, of proof to the universe that this knitting thing is mine, that there is only the mill and the mail system between me and the sheep (gross oversimplification but still). 

Even knitters will think that I am a bit crazy to be talking like this, but some of you will know.  Knitting is the very heart of me and I have a very deep emotional connection to it and my yarn.      

I am also sitting here with only my nightgown on so there is plenty of skin to skin contact going on here and it isn't itchy.  There might be an itchy spot on an edge, but it is momentary and it goes away if I leave it alone, but the rest of the garment feels exactly like when I wear my Einband shawl.  When I am swathed in Icelandic wool it does not feel itchy.  It feels like there is a cushion of warm surrounding me, a soft cozy secret cushion of warmth.    

I know that many people are not able to do this, to wear Lopi against their skin.  I accept that I may possibly be weird in this matter, but I urge you,  don't just hold yarn against your neck and say ' oo, it is too itchy'.  You will be missing some of the most amazing things about Icelandic yarns if you skip it because of one small touch. You really have to swath yourself in it to understand.  

Or maybe I am reading this wrong.  Maybe I should be telling you all to just keep on thinking Icelandic wools are so itchy.  That way there will be more for me.  

  

There is a project sitting in my sweater chest that I rarely take out and even more rarely, wear.  I adored knitting it.  It was stimulating and interesting and challenging and just good fun but it never made it to the things I like to wear. 

It started life as a sampler wrap made of z series of twisted stitch patterns, which I liked but found awkwardly large.  I then turned it into a shrug by slicing a wearing opening into the steeking stitches.  That left awkwardly large sleeves which I did sew narrower, but without slicing out the excess fabric, it wasn't comfortable.  I really hated the thought of slicing all that lovely work.  

The I saw this cardigan on Ravelry.  The Walnut Cardigan  I started thinking that this is where this piece needs to go.  I deserve to wear and use this lovely sampler.  

Turning it into a unshaped cardigan would resolve all the issues that I have had with this.  The wrap would stay where you put it without having excess you have to tuck to hold in place.  It turns the wrap into a short sleeve garment with an almost shawl collar.  In this house, and my always feeling a chill on the back of my neck, it looks like the best solution yet.  

So, one day soon, this is going to be worked on.  It is out of the sweater chest and into my daily vision.  I will have to do a stash dive to get out the remaining balls of this yarn, but that's okay.  It is the season to have a good go through of all the yarn, to pull out what inspires me now, and to put away all that LettLopi.

The Responsible Thing

I had hoped that finishing the Hun sweater would keep me going through the after-the-big-project-lull, but it is not.  I feel a little cranky and put out with the world.   I have no idea what to work on.  

And yet there are ten thousand things to do.  

I have flooring to lay in the kitchen of my miniature house.   There is a large embroidery project to start as well as several smaller ones that I would love to do.  There are some soles that I would like to put tops on for casual shoes.  There is sewing, all kinds of sewing.  There is weaving.  There are always dozens of sweaters in the wings.  All these things are just waiting for me to man up and do.

And I'm feeling just a little bit stuck.  And besides all these things there is one other thing.

There is a sense of shame that I haven't worked on this project for a while.  When I listed sweaters on this blog a couple weeks ago, I didn't even mention this one.  I seem to have completely forgotten about it.  Which project?

It's a little project that I started in November last year.  Just a simple little fingering weight cardigan closed at the neck with these wonderful buttons.  

Since I gave my room a good cleaning and tidying a couple weeks ago, the buttons have been sitting there, in my face several times a day.  Every time I walk into or out of the room, they accuse me of ignoring them and their project, just by being there.  They taunt me.  Knitting shouldn't shame the knitter unless, like me, there are fifteen other projects sitting waiting for some attention.  I really deserve to knit this sweater for me.

BUT

I am not going to be swayed by pretty button guilt or by all the other things I would love to do today.  There is a nasty wind out there this morning and I woke several times through the night just because of noise. It wuthered fiercely between the houses here.    There is a skiff of frozen looking snow, possibly some frozen rain too, covering the lawns and the cars and everything else.  Winter may be setting in.

I don't think I have a choice today.  I think I have to gird my loins and knit on my sweater/coat. It may not be the project of choice today, but it is the project of need.  Serious need.  I do have other sweaters and will layer, as usual, but this coat is designed to fit coat like to be worn over my other garments.  It would be pleasant to not feel quite so stuffed into my gear when I am out and about.

The coat may be green and it may not be lace or have pretty little handcrafted buttons waiting for it, but the coat is the sensible thing to work on.  Winter simply requires it.

And the Next Thing

So one sweater all but done.   A very few ends to weave and button bands to do.  It is blocking as we speak and all I can say is O.M.G.  

I stop by the ironing board where it is drying in the hall just to pet it from time to time.  I am so pleased.  It wouldn't even have to fit well for me to love it. I haven't  tried it on yet.  At this point, I can wait.

Once I got my act together today, I did have to pick up some other knitting.  I had two very possible things to work on.  One, my coat sweater or sweater/coat.  I thought about this but it's green and I wanted something just a little different for today.  

I picked up Myrtle.

I had a bit of a revelation while knitting it this afternoon.  

I am knitting an entire sweater in a fingering weight yarn in lace.  It's a good thing it is a nice yarn and a simple rhythmic lace.  That could be overwhelming if I let it.  But it is stripes, it is pretty colors, it is interesting, blooming yarn. 

It just feels right.

On Leaving Sleeve Island

After sleeve island, the logical thing is to knit button bands.  So I did.  And then I steeked it. 

 It is possible that the smarter choice would have been to block it first but... oh well. And so a sweater is done.  Completely done.

There is always a bit of a lull when I complete a big project, but this one still needs blocking and buttons.  I am looking forward to both jobs.

I had the button box out from looking for buttons for dad's vest, so it was handy and I pulled out several interesting choices.

The buttons that I would have chosen in a heartbeat, had there been enough of them, are the five reddish buttons nearest the large button.  The red was a bang on match to the rust in the sweater,  but if you look closely, there are two different kinds of buttons: three have two holes, and the others, four.  I would have used the large button at the neck.  Had all the plain buttons had been the same, I would have but this way it felt like too many differences.  The other choices on the tray were okay but didn't really excite me.

Digging just little deeper, I came up with these

which are better than the average nice.  I would consider them my first choice bar none, had I not seen the way the wood buttons looked with the sweater.

The sweater is soaking now, and I am so looking forward to blocking and wearing this lovely thing.  It's been such a joy to knit it.  Ravelry may tell me that I've been working on this sweater since 2015 when I first pulled the yarn out and knit a swatch, but it hasn't taken very long at all. 

The first try was pulled out because I had forgotten a set of increases.  Then it sat because I moved, sold one property, sold the house, and moved again.  And then it sat...well, because knitting. And finally,  August of 2018 and last winter, when I determined that I really still wanted this sweater, I set down to knit.  It knit fast because of its striped nature.  The last colourwork section took more than another day, but each of the other stripes took an easy day of knitting. The two sleeves each took a very easy day, and all I did Sunday to finish up was knit two button bands.  I could have easily completed those on Saturday but I did have to visit the button box and then being evening, it just didn't seem like a good idea to start a part (buttonholes) that needed concentration and math.  It may look like it took four years, but really, it was a speedy knit.

And now, I have a problem.  For the past four years, the Lopi has had its own large storage container with all the knitting tucked there as well.  Since I started the sweater again, it lived in the WIP bins, where yarn and garment took up one whole bin.  The problem is the leftovers. 

Plenty for a second sweater of some sort, with sleeves, if I manage it right.  They need a home.  I am going to need to do a stash dive to find enough room or make enough room in one of my current containers for an unexpected sweaters worth of yarn.  I knew there would be leftovers.  Obviously so, considering I started with fifteen balls of green, but I thought I would use much more of it than I did.  I was expecting a vest worth of leftovers.  This is not unhappy.  Not at all.  I am kind of thrilled.  Knowing I get one more Lopi sweater out of this is wonderful!

It's a nice kind of problem to have.  

Sleeve Island

Yesterday morning,  I was up and dressed well before 7.  By 8 I had sweaters on the drying rack and two loads of laundry done.  By 9 I had baked muffins, made my next batch of candied ginger for tea, done dishes and had reorganized my tea cupboard.  I did a healthy days work in just a couple of hours.  

Today not so much.  First off, there isn't a lot of the day to day stuff to do, and secondly, I slept in.  I hate sleeping in. It feels like half the day us gone and I haven't even got a dream to show for it.  

I am looking forward to today, though.  Today is sleeve island day. 

I am just about to start the colourwork for this sleeve.  It such a few stitches, that I don't feel it will take very long.  Then it's  a section of green and the sleeve band and done.  In my dreams both sleeves are done by days end.  In my dreams.

Beyond that, I wanted to mention what I usually do to short sleeves to make them fit better.  

When you are a large person, as I am, your arms are a bit padded out if you compare to an average size person.  You have more arm inches from the top of your shoulder to your end of sleeve than average. On a long sleeve, you don't  usually notice it, but a short sleeve can look very odd without compensating for it. Mind you, even on a long sleeve, it simply sits better if I count for it.  

My solution, or adaptation is to do short rows as soon as I can after starting the sleeve.  

On this sweater, with its  pattern band, it's  going to be a little trickier than usual.  I have added one short row in the green joining section so far, and I am debating where I can slip in another one or two without making the colour too wide and noticeable against the matching pattern rows on the front and back of the sweater body.  

The plan is too add one more black row before the colourwork, and then do the pattern a few rows and see if it looks okay.  If I have to, the extra short rows will be in that last green section of the sleeve, but I prefer to put them in, right where they are needed and best hidden, at the armscye.  

Keep your fingers crossed.  Let's  see how this goes.  

All the days

Did you know that Bach, my most favourite composer wrote 175 hours of music?  I knew it was a lot of music, 1128 pieces plus 23 own works which are lost or incomplete.  One of my fondest dreams is to own a set of his works, a complete set.  

Hmm, the price is almost where I could afford it.  The only thing is there are so many other wonderful things to listen to that it is hard to set one's own self just one composer.  But this may be a very good day for me to find a nice collection to add to my box of Telemann that I stumbled on when I was on my epic adventure.  Baroque music soothes my soul when times are trying.

This morning I need this to soothe my soul.  

 

And I think because that prelude is short, this.

And so on.  Find a playlist.  It is a good day for that.

 

I need this music that touches my heart.

A Dunce's Luck

I have been waiting on yarn from MacCauslands, to work on my coat again.  I ordered it back in September to replace the rich brown heather and it never arrived.  It was something I always remembered at supper time, long after their mill closed for the day or in the middle of the darkest night.  Daytime?   I could forget about is quick as you like with the regular challenges of the day.  

I called PEI yesterday to see if they had a tracking number and they did.  The post office showed it as delivered.  Only it wasn't.  We never even got a card for it in the mail.  

With no results I gave up and was planning on digging through my stash for something that would work to finish my coat.  The yarn is very well priced but the postage will kill you, and I just couldn't justify spending more.  

On my way home after getting some short people off to school, I picked up my mail and talked with the ladies at our local post office.  And

Wouldn't you know it.  The ladies at the post office knew about it.  They were starting to wonder what was going on.  They didn't realize that I had never gotten a card!  They did say it happens occasionally and I get that.  You wouldn't be human if you never made mistakes.  So this morning I'm looking forward to getting a move on my coat.  Winter is well on it's way.  

Knitting and the people I met through it have made my life so rich.  Every once in a while I have a need to say, that with my every stitch, I think of each of you, that every finished object I ever made is a testament to your support and the caring you have all shown me.  So if you need love and support back, it is here for you.  Sending giant hugs into the world today for all of you.  The world needs more hugs.