KarenJoSeattle

Off Like a Thundering Herd

Not only do I have the Motley Crew-Neck blocking, but I have four days worth of knitting on my next sweater. I may actually finish this one before the end of the month.

OK, so it's Cascade 109 Tweed at 3.25 spi on 7mm/US10.75 needles and a basic top-down cardigan from Karen's Unpattern, but it's a sweater I need and will use for days hanging around home or casual walks and errands. And it will knit up quickly. I've done knitted-on front bands in seed stitch, will pick up and knit a seed stitch neck band and trim the cuffs and bottom with seed stitch. I did a garter stitch detail on the raglan line that echoes the seed stitch trims.

I haven't done many buttonholes and I believe they'd look funky at this gauge regardless, so I'll blanket-stitch them with some crewel yarn, probably double stranded. I have some nice classic black buttons in my stash. And I'll do my first real pockets also trimmed with a seed stitch band. I'm debating if I should do the pockets in some lighter-weight gray Cascade 220 I have in my class-yarn stash. If I feel adventurous, I could double-knit them. Maybe.                                                 

Cascade seems to have discontinued the yarn. Either that or everyone cleared it out at the same time to make way for Spring and Summer stock. Actually, it's not on the list of cuurent yarns at Cascade's site. I bought 3 different colors marked 40% off of Cascade's already reasonable price. And I got free shipping. This is color 7616. It feels soft, not at all scratchy, but shows no sign of wear where I cast on and ripped the first few rows four times.

I have enough for probably five sweaters. I hope we don't get tired of it.

Houston, We Have a Heel

I finished the gusset and heel turn on my sock today. And I rewound the washed yarn from the frogged sock so it's ready to reknit.

That's about all the knit-related work I accomplished. Unless you count the past-midnight yarn order I placed last night.

I got the bright idea that instead of ordering a few sweaters from Scotland like I have every year for a few years now, I should knit some nice basic v-necks and cardigans in solid-colored but yummy yarns to take their place. So I ordered the yummy yarns.

The fact that I probably missed the opportunity to place a sweater order this year through my usual shop likely had less to do with this purchase than did stumbling onto a good on-line sale of some yummy yarns. That and the fact that I've started to feel like I haven't knit a sweater for ages. And the fact that I actually haven't finished a sweater for ages.

The boxes of yarn I already own had no impact on this plan. In my favor, my stash of really nice yarns mostly contains finer-gauged things. I ordered all DK to heavy worsted weight so simple things should knit up relatively quickly.

 Oh, I did wind another skein today; one of the yarns I bought at the Madrona Winter Retreat last February. It's the first wound of the many I brought home from there. It's also the only heavyweight Bluemoon I bought. I'll make a simple scoop-neck with some picots.

Or maybe I'll finish my 3/4 done cardigan first.

I had a plan.

Well Stocked

This will be brief. I have to be up in less than four hours to head off to an all-day sock workshop with Lucy Neatby.

I expect I'll return home with a fried brain and more information than I can absorb. I'll love it. And then I'll do it again the next day. And the next.

Lucy spoke last night (Wednesday) to a special meeting of the Seattle Knitters Guild. As a member of the board (newsletter reporter) I went to dinner with Lucy and a bunch of other board members beforehand. Both the food and the company were good.

My favorite yarn store, Churchmouse, sold Lucy's sock book, many of her patterns, and, most importantly, all of her DVDs at the meeting. I owned three DVDs. Now I have a complete set. At least I have a complete set until she puts out five more next year.

A few of those new ones I may skip. She'll do a beginning knitting and a first sock video. Also, one will go with a doll kit produced by a charitable organization called the Dolly Mamas. Not that I don't think a pink-haired Lucy doll is a good idea. I just never get around to kits.

But the possible ones on more double knitting and Intermediate/Advanced techniques I'll definitely need.

We'll see if I can manage a post tomorrow or not. This workshop assumes you have knit socks at least once. It covers various ways to take those socks to another level. Or, given that it's Lucy, a different dimension.

My decidedly Earth-bound sock-in-progress has a heel after three attempts. I watched most of Lucy's first Sock DVD while I knit this afternoon. These DVDs contain so much useful stuff, I need to just run them all a few times each while I work on simpler knitting. My brain doesn't have room to knit anything complex at the same time. A sock heel was pushing it.

@!#*@ Guage

I haven't posted for a few days, but I have been knitting and happily making progress on my project. The body of my center-cable EZ EPS sweater was close to the needed length to join to the sleeves.

Note that 'was' is the operative word here.

I knit a decent-sized swatch - in the round, with the same needles, in a ball of yarn from the same dye lot. I'm a good swatcher, usually going overboard, if anything. I figured my stitches needed for the various dimensions. Then I started with the sleeves so I could double-check that everything was going OK on smaller pieces.

I actually ended up speeding up my increases on the forearm of the sleeves so they wouldn't feel tight around the elbow. The gauge came out spot on in the first sleeve. The second sleeve fit just the same. Everything looked good.

Yesterday, after a couple of days of some good knitting commute time, I'd reached a point on my sweater body where enough hung off my 32" needle to stop looking like a steroidal ruffle and start looking like the sweater it would be. Last night it occurred to me that it seemed a bit larger than I'd expect.

I measured my gauge. Can you see a difference in the stitches between the sleeve on the left and the body on the right? Neither can I.

But, rather than my original 21 stitches in four inches, I had knit the body at 19. Over the 212 stitches that became 4.3 inches. Added to that, I'd forgotten to do the few stitches of shaping I'd allowed for when figuring out how much ease I wanted - a hazard of doing a design-your-own project without specific written instruction, but who actually writes themselves instructions for one of these? I should have at least left myself a sticky-note reminder.

This is merino yarn, so cutting and steeking the sides is not really a good option. Plus I'd expected a visible difference in gauge, though I will admit I don't seem to have that issue. So, maaaaybe I could steek? But, then there's the ribbing that really needs to be a bit tighter in gauge.

Personally, I know I won't be happy unless I redo it. But I haven't actually ripped yet. I will, I will. Give me a a day or two to mourn first.

And to think about whether I need to wash all of the yarn if I rinse the kinks out of the frogged stuff, given that the swatch didn't change gauge when washed except over the cable pattern. And think about what to do about the gauge difference. The sleeves and the swatch are smaller tubes than the body and knit on two circulars rather than one. Do I try the body on two circulars? Go down a needle size? Just refigure based on the new gauge and go with it since I can't see a g*!!#-@&* difference between the two?

To console myself I bought some new yarn for a scarf I had decided I needed. I've worn my neutral ivory and beiges Silken scarf so much that the silk is starting to show wear along the edges. I need another in similar colors. Plus, I had a full Yarn Card so spent only $4 + tax for a new Silk Garden scarf I 'need' and for a good diversion.

I may utilize some stash for another diversionary scarf, too. I actually have a tendon in the base of my right thumb that would appreciate a few days or more break from cables. Tomorrow I'll try to get up a post on last weekend's workshops and the origin of the tendinitis - right after I rip 18,656 stitches.

And the Winners Are...

Regular commenter Robin H won first pick in my Blogiversary drawing. Second choice goes to apparently blogless April.

Thanks to everyone who commented. It was good to see so many people. And I will make an effort to spend more time with the groups I've joined on Ravelry - at least some of them.

In the meantime, I have gotten some of the body of my EPS sweater knit.

Look, it's a cable! And the color came out pretty accurate, too.

And, Ryan, I actually bought cotton for my ribbon washcloth. And I believe I have appropriate needles in the same place I am.

One Sleeve Done, One Sleeve Undone

Before I left Seattle for California on Sunday evening, I quickly took a few of what turned out as rather fuzzy photos of the EZ EPS sweater sleeves.

One is pretty much done. I may decide to add a couple of rows when I try it on next time I pick up this project. The other is a hank of mostly de-kinked yarn awaiting reknitting the next time I pick this up.

The projects aren't getting picked up much the last couple of days. We're spending time on the phone or running around to do the one thousand and one things needed when you change houses. I'm sure we'll manage to overlook a utility.

I did do some knitting on the Casbah scarf on the plane. It measures maybe an inch longer than it did in this photo. But the color here is pretty accurate, though maybe a bit light.

I really don't expect this scarf to progress very quickly as I have it on US1/3mm needles. Fortunately the rows are short-ish - 55 stitches.

I do seem to expect the sweater to make amazing progress despite my putting absolutely no time into it. Since this piece knits up at 5.25 stitches per inch, when I do work on it it goes at a good clip. Course part of the reason for that results from knitting sleeves. I haven't started the body yet.

I seem to also expect the blog to produce itself while I'm busy lately. I really should figure out some good, short types of posts for when I have no knitting to show you - like tomorrow.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall

So, I had a couple of bus trips today plus a chunk of time between appointments when I knit on my cabled sleeve for my EPS sweater. I got into a groove and whipped along at a nice clip, finishing almost two repeats of the pattern in half an hour while I sat in a coffee place, sipped a cup of tea and people-watched.

Apparently somewhere in that groove I spaced out on the part where I stop and look at what I've knit once or twice a repeat to make sure everything lined up and crossed correctly.

Of course, at a point in there they didn't. And I hadn't noticed for quite a few rows.

I now have the cable section on a separate needle ready to drop it down and reknit it. Tomorrow morning when I'm fresh with a clear and resigned mind, I'll do the drop.

If you'd like to see  a beautiful cabled sleeve for a saddle-shouldered EPS sweater, check out Franklin's (scroll past the current exploits of Delores.) He devised a neat die-out for the transition of his elbow-length cable section to stockinette. I'll bet he finishes his first, too.

I got my mind off the current snafu tonight first by ripping the other sleeve with its multiple issues. The rip involved almost an entire ball of yarn. I planned to wind the unknit yarn into a skein for a quick rinse and hang-dry to unkink it.

How do others reskein yarn into something long enough to fit back onto a swift? This was my solution.

This exercise also provided an opportunity for me to realize that the color of this yarn doesn't actually lie that far out of my normal range, given that I apparently already own pants in a co-ordinating color.

After that I worked on what turned out as two swatches for a simple scarf to provide alternative knitting at times I can't or won't handle cables. I also wanted a second project on the needles for some traveling I'll do next week.

My original plan involved knitting this in stockinette in the round with columns of purl stitches to make an edge turn. Then I stopped to consider that this yarn, Casbah by Handmaiden, measures 325 meters in a one of a kind skein of small yarn - two socks worth at 8 to 9 inches around. I wanted a scarf 6 to 7 inches across or twelve to fourteen inches around - and therefore well shorter than two socks end-to-end.  (Note - the yarn is more blue-gray and less lavender-blue than the photo.)

So, I'm knitting flat with a longer seed stitch edge than that pictured.

Several Issues

The error shown in yesterday's post actually resulted from catching and knitting the first knit stitch next to the cable panel with the last purl stitch defining the cabled braid. When I started knitting again and noticed it a row or two later, I tried just making a replacement knit stitch. In the knitting it didn't show much since that edge rolled under. But when the sleeve was on my arm and stretched out it showed quite a bit.

If I'd only had that error, I'd definitely just rip or drop back and fix it, depending on how competent I felt at the moment. I'd have about a dozen rows to reknit - not much since it's on the lower part of a sleeve.

But I already had one other thing that bugged me. For my set of increases in the first row after the ribbing I did nice, neat Make Ones. Then I spaced out on the second set and forgot I was not knitting seed stitch as I have so much lately and did a pair of Knit-into-the-front-and-backs. In seed stitch I find this increase easy, in a similar rhythm, and it blends in well. It does not blend in well in stockinette. Actually, when I first noticed a few rows later I thought they were an error.

But I'm resistant to unknitting the cable. This really is my first sweater-sized cable project and I haven't gotten comfortable with the whole process yet.

I had a third issue. As planned, this sweater would have a V-neck and need to fit over a shirt. The first sleeve looked like it would end up fitting a bit tightly around the elbow when I got that far so I added one set of increases. This improved things but I thought I'd still get some binding around a bent elbow.

One issue I could live with. This many felt like sloppy work.

Sleeve #2 has two extra sets of increases in the same length. Given that the cable in my swatch grew just slightly when washed, though the gauge didn't change, I think this will give me the ease I need without a floppy cuff. And note that sleeve #2 lacks about 3 rounds to match funky sleeve #1 just 30 hours after I cast it on, with a normal amount of knitting fit into the day. That seems like a fair trade-off for a sleeve I feel much better about.

One bit of serendipity; I have an 8-row stitch pattern and 8 rows between increases. I'm using a chain of markers to count rows for the increases. The same chain tells me which row of my stitch pattern I'm on. I love it.

And for something not orange, finally, here's a specie crocus from my garden. These always make me feel like Spring must be close, even though they bloom in late Winter.

New Knit Nite

At Madrona I learned that a twice-a-month Knit Nite happens at the WAC, just 8 or 9 blocks from my place. Last night I attended my first one.

Since I arrived a good hour after the start, the conversation was already in full swing. Actually, the size of the group usually resulted in more than one conversation happening at once.

I know one member from the Guild, Sue in red on the left, and I met Jenn, in the black sweater on the right, at Madrona. Otherwise, this group consists of all new-to-me knitters. Still, I felt comfortable as soon as I sat down. I hope my California real estate deals don't keep me from attending at least one of next month's meetings.

One note - even if you only have an eight-block walk home, use the restroom before you leave the bar.

This morning when I got out my EPS sleeve I noticed a little souvenir of Knit Nite. I ignored it for a few more rounds, but then had to try the thing on to see how noticeable it would be. I'm torn as to whether I want to continue to ignore this, rip back and reknit, or rip and start over. I have a couple of other minor things I'd change if I did restart. Interestingly, based on placement I did this before my red wine even arrived.

Ultimately I did the logical thing - started the second sleeve. That should give me some time to come to grips with what needs to happen to Sleeve #1. And I can try the other changes.

Deborah (gray sweater on left), here's the link to the one source I know of for this discontinued yarn. For everyone else, the color is between that in the two photos; a rosy rust called Maple. The price is for a bags of ten balls.

Cables in the Round

In the last two days I've cast on nine times and knit four cuffs for my EZ EPS sweater.

I think this one works, finally.

For some reason yesterday I just couldn't getting my knitting brain to kick in. First I couldn't knit the first row and join in the round successfully. Then I didn't catch that the issue I had with my cable came from not accurately converting the pattern to circular knitting until I'd knit a second cuff.

The 'Wrong Side' rows for the 4-rib braided cable of my swatch are symmetrical so I could just convert knits to purls and purls to knits. (Ignore the unidentified error in the middle of the cable panel below for this discussion.) (K2, P2)x2, P1, (P2, K2)x2 became (P2, K2)x2, K1, (K2, P2)x2 without regard for which direction the stitches traveled.

But the 3-rib braided cable I used for the sleeves has a first row of K3, P4, K2, P2, K2. When I first converted this I forgot that I would not just knit this wrong side row from the right side, but also in the opposite direction so I needed to knit P2, K2, P2, K4, P3. (No, I didn't swatch this cable - officially. Sleeve = swatch) I'm sure I've learned this idea before but (Ssh, don't tell anyone) this is my first non-class or fooling around cable project so this time I had to learn it for real.

The other wrong side rows read Knit the Knit Stitches and Purl the Purl Stitches so no issues there. That actually lead to some confusion as I only had a problem with one row and it was the first one after the cast-on.

Then today, after spending the afternoon looking at Roman art from the Louve and panels from the Gates of Paradise with a very large number of other people, my brain tried and failed to figure out a clever way to start this cuff with a couple rows of something akin to the 2x2 ribbing before morphing into the cable.

I went back to my original plan to start the cable at the sleeve edge and am finally pleased.

While working on the swatch I had an 'Aha' moment and a 'Duh' moment simultaneously. If I intend to knit my sweater in the round, I knit my swatch in the round. Since it usually takes me a couple of needle sizes to get a good gauge, this can take a lot of time and yarn.

However, I also knit in the round on two circular needles - which are knitting opposite sides of the swatch totally independently and can be different sizes. I used a purl row to mark change in needle size on my swatch after I came to this realization.

I made sure to measure row gauge in the center of each side where it would have less influence from the change in gauge.

Note I used my new size 7US Addi Lace needles. I really, really like the way these feel and knit. I do need some shorter ones for this project.

The yarn is Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Maple. The first photo above shows the color most accurately. Jaeger no longer exists, but Cucumber Patch does still have some.

More Swatching for EPS

Today I remeasured my swatch for my EZ EPS v-neck and found rather than 3 1/2 inches I only had 2 3/4 inches. I continued on it tonight while watching TV and fiddling with photos for Ravelry (and posting a bug report). I have 3 inches now, but will continue for at least another half inch.

Tomorrow I'll take a ferry to Bainbridge and back, so that will make for some good knitting time. I want to get to the point where I can cast on the body before I fly down to California for a few days on Thursday. The body tube should make for good travel knitting. I assume that at this small gauge the body will take quite a while, but I can easily start a sleeve if I need to. These parts don't take much figuring.

Here's a quick overview from KnitPicks on EPS. EPS stands for Elizabeth's Percentage System, a sweater designing sytem from Elizabeth Zimmerman's books.

I also started to reread some sections of Knitting Workshop on the bus today. I was headed to Remedy Teas to meet with my friend, so I did manage to reschedule that meet up before my trip. We enjoyed Remedy, which has 150 teas to choose from and nice light from a wall of windows on this sunny day.

Afterward I found two silk flower arrangements at a store across the street that will work very well in the Bainbridge house in lieu of fresh flowers while it's up for sale. I even managed to get them home unscathed on the bus during rush hour. The woman who sat next to me commented one would go really well on a dining table - the one I planned for the breakfast table.

A is for Allergies - ABC Along 2008

I need to get tested to figure out what I'm actually allergic to.

Besides allergies to molds and mildew, mohair, dust mites, my cats, angora, manure, milk, basically anything with a carbon atom in its molecules if I inhale it, in the last couple of years I've developed allergies I can't identify with symptoms I haven't had in the past. These new allergies seem to be both contact reactions and food allergies.

Occasionally my eyelids react to something. The first time they did about 15 years ago, they got red, swollen and tender after we burned some probably moldy wood in the fireplace; then again very time we used the fireplace or the air pressure caused down drafts until we got the chimney cleaned.

Last year I thought I reacted to a pinkish eyeshadow. I still think that, but it seems to have opened some door to reactions to other, unidentifiable agents.

This episode may relate to something I ate. Unfortunately, it's likely not something we cooked but rather a meal out, so I don't know what it was.

On a more positive note, I've knit enough swatch to determine gauge for my EZ EPS Sweater. I've also had more wine than I'll mix with actually measuring for gauge at this time of night, so tonight I'll just admire the thing,though it looks like I'll be around 7 stitches per inch. Not too bad for sock yarn and I like working with this Fleece Artist Merino 2/6. I bought this through The Loopy Ewe, but it's currently out of stock.

The color still shows as less green in these photos than in real life. The color way, Olive, does have more gold than green. The photos at Loopy are closer, though each skein has slightly different proportions of the colors.

I'm On the Road Again

Tomorrow we drive about two and a half hours to visit over night with Spousal Unit's parents before flying back up to Seattle for a couple of days. We'll fly back down here on Sunday. So, once again, I need to decide what to take with me in the way of knitting projects on a short trip.

I've finished less than half of the second sleeve for my Jaeger Biscuit cardigan , so that goes. Maybe when I get back I'll be ready to block the pieces and knit on button bands.

Though the flights will only last a couple of hours, we also have airport waits, shuttle rides, and some free time around the events we're going back for. I optimistically expect to get the sleeve done before the return flight.

I have two more small things to take along. First, I'll wind the red and taupe hand-dyed skein skein into two balls to double strand a beanie for a college-aged nephew about to have surgery to remove a rod from his leg. (Note - I still need to ask his mother how big his head is.)

The blue Jamieson Shetland will make a swatch for a heavy shawl. I knit one of these in a chunky weight several years ago as about my third project when I restarted knitting. The stitch pattern, basket weave with a seed stitch infill, came from Barbara Walker's Learn to Knit Afghan book. I used the reverse side of a bell ruffle so the increases and decreases wouldn't show.

I want to develop versions in two lighter weights and a scarf. When I start swatching I'll post some photos of the original shawl.

I guess I'd better pack a large SASE, too, since I won't have any checked luggage. Knitting needle don't usually cause any problems nowdays, but better to have a back-up plan.

I'll post on knitting back backwards tomorrow before I leave. I have the photos ready - just need to find a reference or two in EZ.

It's Wet

The weather today consisted of rain interspersed with showers. The outdoor humidity registered 95% when I checked, though indoors with our central heat it measured 33%.

Despite the dryness inside the house, twenty-four hours later the cardigan still feels damp. It's heavy enough that I don't want to pick it up until it's really dry.

The prediction has the rain tapering off tomorrow morning, but the temperatures won't warm up much.

I can show you the buttons I'll sew on once it dries. These are a gray-colored pearl with a metal shank held by a small knob on the front. They pick up the gray tones in the yarn nicely.

Back to My Knitting

Sorry, I kind of disappeared into a different on-line world the last couple of days. I got lost in a couple of perfume blogs, plus this site for sample decants. When I receive my order I'll let you know if I find anything new I like. The last time I tested out scents, most of the ones I ended up using came from Guerlain, but they've discontinued many of their EDPs (Eau de Parfums) and already they don't show up often at retailers.

I finally did my workout video today while the Mountain Colors cardigan soaked. The cardigan now dries on the mats after shaping to the right dimensions. The stitches did relax into submission for the most part. I'm pleased with the results. Tomorrow I'll sew on the buttons and have a finished sweater - my first in about two and a half years.

And I started the second sleeve of my Jaeger Biscuit cardigan. If I don't get sidetracked again, I could have another finished sweater in a week. That is, I could unless the last bits of finishing take me as long on this one as on the last.

Based on my blog reading, it appears prompt progress on the finishing work accounts for many fast knitters' speed in completing projects. I, on the other hand, tend to put off anything resembling sewing or other not-knitting tasks.

My slow finishing can also count as part of my periodic version of reverse startitis. Sometimes I have trouble getting myself to start the next step of a project - casting on the next piece, picking up for bands, even adding in another ball of yarn if I put the project down first.

As far as I can figure out, occasionally my brain needs a break from whichever interest I've immersed myself in. Knitting takes priority most of the time, but plenty of things pop up to provide a diversion without even looking very hard.

Not a lot, but some progress has been made and life could be much worse

This evening I headed out to my newly reorganized hardware store here to look for the foam insulation sheets Robin suggested in the comments for the a previous post to use as a blocking board for my Mountain colors top-down cardigan. Apparently they haven't completely restocked yet and no foam boards could be had.

They did, however, have packages of a smaller size of the foam puzzle mats I use in Seattle, complete with cute edging pieces. These should easily store here and give me a familiar surface for pinning and drying my sweater.

I like these because they break down to a storable size, the pins stick in easily without going through to the floor, the knitted pieces don't slip, and the foam doesn't soak up the moisture so things dry a bit faster on them.

Plus, in a few minutes I am going to go up and do a little workout and nice stretch on that cushy surface since it's too late to want to soak and pin my cardigan tonight.

I did get the sleeves hemmed after I got home from the hardware store. I'm ready to soak and block first thing tomorrow, given that for me first thing starts somewhere around noon.

Today even at noon I'd barely started at all. I just couldn't wake up. My sister's party was over by 9:30, as Sunday counts as a work night for most of the guests, and we had things well enough picked up by ten. I lay down for a moment and woke up enough to go to bed at 12:30.

Then I just couldn't wake up today. I got the decorations down, but I haven't mopped the kitchen. Didn't I just do that yesterday? And I didn't get out to the stores until after 6PM.

Besides the too much food and wine and champagne last night, I think I suffered from having in the house today too little of the good stuff I normally eat. The cupcakes turned out really yummy, and looked fine with the glaze on them. But cupcakes, even vegan gingerbread with cranberry fig relish spread on one, don't have the same effect as my usual heavy on the fruits and vegetables diet. And alcohol gives me hot flashes, though much milder than the ones I got a few months ago.

When I got home from shopping, I had an e-mail from my Seattle house sitter/Garden Guy. If you missed it, Seattle had a day of snow Saturday; unusual at all and a bit more fell than normal in the usual rare snowfall. Then they had a rainstorm that came second in all time since records have been kept - about 130 years, I think. Six billion gallons of rain, according to this report. And it hasn't stopped.

We had a leaky window in our 19th floor unit. According to the response from our concierge, windows leaked all over the building.

Last year I missed the record wind and power outages; this year the record rain. Here in California we had sixty degrees worth of sunshine today. I think I'll go do that workout and contemplate my good fortune.

Alert! Alert! T-pin Shortage Ahead

So, I brought two partially finished sweaters, plus one unstarted and the yarn for a lacy shoulder shawl with me to California, but neglected to bring a stash of T-pins for blocking.

Today while in the city/larger town where I took my mom to catch her train, I checked a handy Michael's for more. They had only quilter's T-pins. I don't trust non-knitting-intended pins to handle wet blocking without tarnishing all over my work.

No problem. My small town here actually has a more than decent LYS for its size. I swung in about 30 minutes before closing. Alas, no T-pins in stock. Apparently, they have trouble keeping up with demand between orders.

They did, however, have blocking wires, with a small packet of T-pins included. I know even with the wires, which I definitely need, I won't have as many pins as I like to use. What you see is all of the T-pins I have currently.

What you also see is all I got done of the hemming on my sleeves. Spousal Unit didn't do so well with two days in a row of getting up much earlier than usual combined with a day of getting in and out of the car while we took advantage of the trip to run some errands and get a few presents. I drove both ways and only managed to set up my first hem and get about half a dozen stitches in while waiting for my mother's train to arrive.

Sunday evening the guest bed where I usually block here will hold coats and purses for the guests at my sister's fiftieth birthday party. Do I finish the hemming by tomorrow morning and count on the sweater drying in 24 hours? Or do I get the house cleaning and party prep done first and block the sweater after the party? Right.

Two Sleeves Down, One to Go

Yesterday during an hour's wait for a doctor to see the Spousal Unit at Prompt Care, I finished knitting the first sleeve of my Jaeger Biscuit cardigan. SU injured a rib during our drive to California two weeks ago when he leaned across from the back seat to pick up one of the cats off of the floor at the front of the car. The Dx is a ripped cartilage which will take three months to heal.

The wait made for a forced knitting session after a couple of days of no knitting. I realized I kept putting it off when I felt like I needed to do more figuring to determine if the sleeve would fit the armhole. When I looked at it finally, I decided that this yarn has so much spring the whole thing will fall into the realm of blocking to fit. This fabric has a huge amount of elasticity and, within reason, I can make it almost any size I want without much distortion.

We'll see how much of that is good analysis and how much wishful thinking.

Today I finished up the knitting on sleeve #2 of the Mountain Colors top-down cardigan. Tomorrow SU and I drive my mother a bit over an hour away to catch a train. On my turn to be passenger I'll sew in the last four ends and hem the sleeves. Then this one needs a good blocking to unkink the wonky bits and make all theses hems behave, I hope.

I have yarn for another shoulder shawl and for one more sweater with me here. Plus I brought a couple yarns for large swatches to remember the pattern I designed a couple years ago for a big rectangular basket weave shawl and to try it in a couple other gauges. My mind only wants to think of sweaters right now, though. Luckily the sweater I want to knit will follow an Elizabeth Zimmerman 'pattern,' my first attempt at one of hers, and I want to add cables, a zipper, and a double-knit collar.

I've done none of these things before. Oh, I've done cables,but not on this scale or adding them to a pattern. And I've done collars, but not in double knitting. The zipper I'll hand sew in, but I want some kind of facing covering the edges.

That should keep me busy for a month, easily. I think I'll find myself grateful for a bit of swatching and other small projects once I get going on it.

And if I get desperate, there is a decent LYS in this town now.

I Don't Follow Recipes, Either

I have a respiratory allergy to milk, so after I volunteered to make a pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving dinner for nine happening at my house, I wanted to come up with one that I could eat.

Desserts challenge me and my system, whether I make them or have them at a restaurant. Fortunately, I don't feel I must have dessert on any regular basis. I do like a good pie, though, especially pumpkin.

When I was in college in the late 70s (I've been in college more than once) I got on a pumpkin-pie-making jag for several months. I sometimes made two or three a week. I haven't made one for years, though. Plus right now I'm somewhere where I can't buy the kind of shortening I'd actually eat.

I found this recipe for a graham cracker crust. In my version the yogurt became lemon soy yogurt, the graham crackers had ginger in them, and the cocoa powder went away. It needed ten minutes of baking.

Then I looked at ratios of ingredients for the filling in a few recipes to decide on my own. In place of the milk I added an extra egg and used maple syrup for much of the sweetener for flavor and moisture. I used cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves as I like my pumpkin pie spicy.

As you can see, I got a pretty good result, despite a bit of extra browning on the crust edges.

I also finished one sleeve of my top-down Mountain Colors cardigan after everyone else went to bed last night. I'd done some knitting during the evening, so I only needed about an hour of quiet knitting and blog reading to complete it.

Today, before all the guests took off, I showed one of my SILs an on-line source for the Jaeger yarn in my Biscuit cardigan and showed her how to knit back backwards.

She was knitting a turquoise Drops yarn she bought on a business trip to Sweden into a cardigan from an old Bernat pattern she'd seen in a magazine years ago and then tracked down on Ebay.

After everyone left, we gathered up stray glasses and straightened cushions, I washed guest sheets and towels and remade beds, and DH vacuumed floors and carpets. We have more cleaning to do but the place feels back to normal. I enjoy the arrival and I enjoy the leaving of guests.

This afternoon I made a dent in my backlog of blog posts to read and determined that my target number of stitches at the top of the semi-drop-shouldered sleeves on the Biscuit cardigan will match the size of the armholes on the already knit fronts and back.

A good family visit, a successful recipe invention, and a couple of knitting progress points achieved make for a very nice holiday.

So Very Close

Today we needed to take a trip to the nearest larger town for some things we needed and couldn't get here. Things we really needed such as a Tivo box because the schedule here is enough different to throw us off and we only have VCRs and also more champagne glasses for my sister's 50th birthday party.

I got the first turn as passenger and got this close to finishing the sewing of my cardigan neckband in the hour and a half drive. Yes, we are out in the country here and it's a long way to anywhere. But the countryside here is beautiful.

The band is now finished and sits pretty nicely for a first neckband on a cardigan.

And I have one more decrease on one sleeve and none on the other, plus the length on each to reach my wrist and a hem. I'm so close to finishing this sweater. I've sewn in ends already so when I finish the knitting I'll have just a couple more to deal with and buttons to sew on before I block it.

By Thanksgiving?

Heading Off to Sleeve Island

...by way of the Row Marker  Highway.

I reached the sleeve stage on both of my cardigans. Still, they don't feel the same to knit on. And they don't have the same amount of work left to do.

The top-down sleeves work from the shoulder down, of course, in the round. I need to stitch down the hem of the neck band, knit one third of one sleeve and half of the other. When I finish knitting I'll just need to sew the hems of the sleeves and sew on the buttons. There will be no seams to sew. I'll do a light blocking to get things to relax. It will be done.

The Jaeger cardigan gets knit in pieces. I've finished the back and both fronts. I need to knit the button bands, sew the shoulder seams, knit the neck band, knit one and three quarters sleeves, block the pieces, sew all the seams, reblock the finished piece a bit, sew on buttons, and whip stitch around the button holes to neaten them up. It sounds like so much. But this sweater still might get all knit before I finish the other one. The individual pieces are easier and more portable to work on than the entire sweater hanging from the sleeve I'm knitting.

Tomorrow morning we head out on a two day car trip. I think I'm packed, but we go off for the entire holiday season, so I always find something I wish I'd brought.

The two sets of sleeves will make up my car and hotel room knitting for the next couple of days. I'd really like to finish one of them.

Wow, I Think I Lucked Out

The registration for Madrona did not go smoothly this morning. A glitch in the system made classes incorrectly appear full. They shut the process down for repairs.

I happened to be on line when the e-mail went out to re-register or try to register again. The first time I had managed to actually get registered after several circuits through the process, but in only two classes when I wanted five. On second try I got my five classes, including a tips class with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee I hadn't counted on getting. In addition, I registered for two technique classes and two on yarns. Yee haw.

My Jaeger Biscuit sweater now has a back and two fronts. The yarn has lots of twist and I knit it slightly tighter than normal, so the pieces are a bit uptight.

Today I got them to relax enough to let me pick up and knit my bands with less of a fight to get to the stitches. I blocked the three pieces lightly while I headed out to spend the afternoon with a friend.

I think the light blocking made just enough difference. At some point this fabric will need a fairly severe blocking to get it to drape the way a semi-drop shoulder cardigan should. I'll probably block again before I sew it together and do a serious job then. After it's in one piece I'll try a lighter block, but may decide I need more.

Most of that will actually happen in another state. On Wednesday we leave for our annual trip to California to do a series of holiday celebrations with our families over the next few weeks.

Darn

I spent all two hours of yesterday's knitting circle picking up stitches for the neckband of my Mountain Colors cardigan.

The notes from the Sally Melville workshop didn't help in this case. This cardigan runs top down. Her tips work for bottom up. I will use them when I get to the neckband for my Jaeger Biscuit cardigan. Stay tuned for that in the next month.

Yesterday at circle a bit of a reunion happened. One of my knitting friends who I hadn't seen for months showed up at the tail end. She'd planned to come for the whole thing, but the carpet cleaners showed up late in their predicted time slot.

That meant that all of the small group who used to show up every week for circle all sat at the table at once for the first time in maybe six months. We plan to do it again next week.

Back to neck bands. I kept looking at the picked-up stitches as I went, pulling out and redoing when things didn't look right. On Karen's advice, I picked up 3 for 4 all the way around, whether on rows or stitches, to prevent flop. The picot edge will make the band top heavy.

Because the gauge of my picked-up stitches on my front bands varied a bit, with some noticeably loose if you looked closely, I tightened up the stitches on the front edges before I started to knit them. After some experimentation and some fighting too much tightened stitches, what I found worked well was to use the cable of my US 6/4mm needle on which I was knitting the band and a US 0/2mm needle held together to size the stitches as I pulled excess yarn through the loops from the shoulder to the edge on each side.

When I started to knit, the left side looked like it would turn out lumpy after a couple rows. I decided to keep on for a few more rows and reassess.

Once I got further from the picked-up edge and it could relax a bit, everything smoothed out nicely. My tightened pick-up stitches looked even and not noticeably larger than my first knit row.

I sailed along and bound off, thinking I just had time to stitch it down and type up a quick post before bed. Before I pulled the end through and cut it, as is my habit since some frustrations early in my knitting practice, I took one more look.

Tomorrow I'll rip back and add that missing button hole on the back side of the hemmed band.

Milestones

Except for sewing in a few ends, I finished the back of the Jaeger Biscuit cardigan.

Including sewing in ends and whip-stitching the button holes, I finished the front button bands on the mountain Colors top-down cardigan.

One of the workshops I took from Sally Melville last May covered picking up stitches along a curve such as a neck edge. I'll dig out my notes and take them with me tomorrow to circle where I'll pick up for the neckband on the Mountain Colors cardigan. That was one of the things I learned that weekend that I promised myself I'd practice so I would remember them.

Let's hope I took good notes. Sally's rules for picking up worked very well and resulted in a nice, smooth curve.

One Step Back

I'm back to where I was this time last night, ready to sew down the button-hole-side band on the Mountain Colors cardigan.

Once the button band folded over as I started to sew down the hem it became clear that the button holes lay way too close to the picot edge and too far from the sweater body edge. Plus, they still didn't look as neat as I'd like.

And one button hole had one too few stitches as I can no longer reliably count to three. At least I can pattern-match well enough to make the corresponding hole on the underside of the hem the same size.

So I spent this evening ripping and reknitting.

Much better.

I should do a swatch of buttonholes. I think in something like a button hole, the techinique that works best for each knitter varies with the knitter's style and preferences. I'd like to determine the best method for me.

Plus I plan several projects that include buttonholes in the near future and would prefer to practice on something other than my actual garment pieces.

Not at Rhinebeck

I've said it in a couple of comments on other blogs, so I'll say it here, too. Next year I will do a 'Not at Rhinebeck' blogalong. Add the apparently several thousand knitbloggers who are off fondling fleece in NY to those who aren't usually on-line over the weekend and it's pretty quite out there.

Both sweaters are moving along nicely.

My top-down hemmed Mountain Colors 4/8s cardigan got one button band completed plus ends sewn in. Well, all ends sewn in but one that needs some fiddling because the join looks funky on the right side. I want to pick up and knit the other band to the row where I'd place the one-row button holes before Wednesday knitting circle.

I've learned one-row button holes at least twice, but never actually executed them for a garment so I'll want some direction for them. Hopefully doing two cardigans back to back, one of which has hemmed bands so needs the button holes done twice, will cement the technique in my brain.

The pieced cardigan in Jaeger Biscuit-colored Extra Fine Merino DK has 9 inches of back with a tad of waist shaping. I need to have a minimum of 13.5 inches for the next class, also Wednesday. That should be doable. I may even start on the armhole shaping as it's pretty straight forward.

The nice thing about a simple sweater done in pieces in a non-bulky yarn is that it fills the role of portable project as well as TV/movie project. Once I actually get the thing sewn together it will be a very useful basic sweater.

However, that actuality may be an issue. I can't remember the last time I seamed a sweater. And we'll leave for a month and a half of holidays down in California just a few days after the last session of this class, so no opportunity to bring it to circle for help/moral support until January.

I'm not a good sewer. I am, however, a very good mender. I just need to think of it like mending. I've practiced with my hems on the Mountain Colors.

Could You Guys Stop Posting Until I Catch Up?

Last night I turned on my computer for a quick check of my e-mail. The Bloglines icon informed me I had 121 posts waiting for me.

I've got that down to 79, but I swear I've read more than 42 of them. It feels like I'd be back at square one if I took a couple hours off. Do you think maybe I have too many blogs on my list? A couple would be easy to drop as I don't know the writers that well yet. How can I let go of any more?

Why when I'm home for the weekend are the posts thin and when I'm gone everyone has nothing better to do than write long and fascinating treatises?

I guess I should mention that I got my Ravelry invitation almost two weeks ago. So far I've looked around twice. I don't feel like making the time for it right now. Soon, though.

Spousal-Unit and I spent the weekend in Salem, Oregon visiting my nephew at Willamette University's Family Weekend along with my sister and BIL. We had mild but decidedly autumnal weather and a very nice time. Sometimes I really like to experience my large family in smaller bits.

The linen stitch throw now measures about six inches. I think that counts as one third done. I made it about 30 inches wide. Eighteen inches seems like a good balance to that. Then I'll do a crocheted edge on the sides to neaten them.

So far I've also used less than a third of the yarn I planned. If I decide the thing needs more width, I'll have some yarn for it. That's always nice.

Diversionary Project

I started a new project today.

My current active WIPs include my cardigan, which has gotten fairly large and needs button bands before I complete the sleeves, and a beaded version of my shoulder shawl.

Tomorrow morning I leave for three days in Salem, Oregon to attend Family Weekend at my nephew's college with Spousal-Unit, my sister, and my BIL. Neither of the above projects seem appropriate for travel.

A few days ago I threw one of the cats' throws on the large ottoman in the living room in place of completed knitwear accessories. They've spent hours curled up on it since then.

So, I decided to start a more presentable throw.

I'm using Mission Falls 1824 superwash in linen stitch. So far it goes faster than I expected. I hope the stitch holds up to cat kneadings.

I did get another couple of inches knit on one of the cardigan sleeves, too. I had a period when I wanted something mindless and simple but didn't want the throw to get too large to pack in a small zippered project bag before I even left.

I get back Sunday. I'll probably miss an appearance by the mother/daughter owners of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden that evening at my LYS, a definite sacrifice. I'll also miss the Nordic Knitting Conference here this weekend.

But, we had a good time last year and it's family.

I'll try to get up at least one post while I'm gone.

Do You Ever Do This?

I didn't quite get as far as the button bands on my cardigan in circle today.

I finished the knitting ready to sew up the hem just before we started.

I finished the sewing just as we ended.

It's not absolutely perfect, but I'm pretty well pleased.

I did ask plenty of questions about those button bands and the neck band. I don't think I'll run into any major problems.

I'm sure I'll run into some minor ones.

This cardigan is based on Karen Alfke's sweater Unpattern and knit with Mountain Colors 4/8s wool in Silverbow, a discontinued color. Karen teaches a class on designing with Unpatterns, as well as several others, at Stitches East in Baltimore next week. She still has space in the class on the sock The Yarn Harlot cited as the only pattern she's ever knit twice without changing it.

I also figured out how I had managed to make a particular error repeatedly.

I kept finding that I'd picked up the thread between the two stitches at the point where I switched from one needle to the other in my knitting in the round on two circulars. I always caught it when I came on it since the loop didn't look or feel like a normal stitch. However, when I dropped it that left a too-long length of yarn between the two stitches which I had to stop and distribute through several stitches on either side.

I figured out that if I let go of my yarn while I rejiggered things as I moved from one needle to the next, I had a good chance I'd pick it up in a way that wraped it around the cord of the just finished needle where it waited, imitating a real stitch, until I came back around and had to stop and deal with it.

Haven't done it again since I figured that out.

Truckin'

A lot of knitting happened here in the last 24 hours -- not a lot of sleeping but a ton of knitting.

Yesterday morning this cardigan measured three and a half inches completed and was ready for the start of the front neck shaping.

Last night I I felt like knitting and had no one else here to take my attention from it, so I knit. The knitting felt good, I felt good, the evening flew by. Knit, knit, knit, knit.

I ran out of steam about 6 AM.

   

This afternoon I took myself and my top-down, Mountain Colors cardigan to knitting circle. With yet more furious knitting, I reached the point of separating the sleeves from the body . Suddenly, from an indistinguishable blob, I had something that looked like a garment. Ta-dah! I love that point in a top-down project.

Tomorrow my one mistake, a YO one stitch over from where it belongs, will get laddered down and chained back up correctly. Then I'll switch from body to sleeves. I can fiddle with the length if I need to but I want to ensure I have nice long picot hemmed sleeves and enough yarn for picot hemmed bottom and bands, too.

   

   

   

Actually, inadequate yarn seems unlikely at this point. I've used one and a half skeins and have five skeins plus two halves left; also two large, plunderable swatches. I may get a second sweater from this stash.

More often I buy too much yarn rather than too little -- a good thing as I often buy well ahead of when I knit it into something. This stash has a receipt dated three and a half years ago. That's relatively recent in stash age, but I haven't seen this color (Silverbow) around for a while.

Now I'm off to crash for, hopefully, way more than two hours of sleep tonight.