Category: Knitting

It was even worse than I thought it was.  And I thought it was really bad.

For those of you who are joining our saga in progress, I picked up the Rowan Anise sweater, which I had cast aside a couple of months earlier in favor of finishing holiday knitting, while in the grips of a really bad case of the flu.  I was bored.  My temperature was well over 100` and I was taking an interesting cocktail of decongestants and asthma medicine.

Who was I fooling?  Disaster was pretty much a given here, right?

But it was worse than I thought as I struggled out to my local yarn shop with the disaster that was Anise in hand.  I was about one day shy of being better — you know, that feeling when you know that by the next day you’ll be feeling good again?

Let’s review the bad knitting photo.

Mistake one involved length while mistake two involved patterning.  But the blatantly obvious, so stupid that a novice knitter would see it immediately mistake, the mistake the all of y’all were too kind to comment on and that Jamie, the incredibly wonderful woman at my LYS, who patiently helped me reboot the sad mistakes in this sweater, gently pointed out, without even a hint of snarky laughter?  Mistake number three, the major, no hope of ignoring it mistake, was the fact that I, ahem, did the neck shaping on the wrong sides.  Look closely at the picture.  She the four stitch moss stitch border that should be on the meeting inside edges on the front, but is instead out on the side seams?  Enough said?  Jamie was very kind.  She even helped me realize where in the pattern I went wrong (I won’t bore you with the details, let’s just say that knitting both fronts at once, putting them down mid-knit, and knitting sick created the perfect storm).

After an entire day and very late night of re-knitting, Anise was ready to be blocked today.  It still has some problems and I am afraid, as I have been all along, that it is too small despite the fact that my gauge is spot-on.  But it’s pretty.  Those moss stitch panels are a thing of wonder and beauty and blocking really brings this one out.

Sleeves are in progress — two at the same time, since the flu is gone.

And a final note of thanks to Squirt, the cat, who remained happily napping on Ellie’s bed instead of making a beeline for knit items being blocked, which he usually loves to nap on.  I need to make Squirt a bed of Alpaca, his favorite fiber, out of gratitude.

I am a bad knitter.

That inner impulse that says, "oh, go ahead, it will turn out right" is usually wrong.

The Rowan sweater had been pushed aside, in favor of Christmas knitting, for a couple of months.  But it was calling me.  So, midway through a really bad case of the flu, I pulled it out the week of Christmas and finished the fronts.

Looks pretty good, if unblocked, doesn’t it?

The problem?

There are actually two, major problems (I’m not going beyond the big ‘uns).

Problem #1, a little bit hard to see on the picture, is that I can’t count.  Apparently, when the pattern told me to stop on the fronts 8 rows before I stopped to do the neck shaping on the backs, I stopped about 8 rows too early.  As knit, this sweater would likely be a good fit for a hunchback, or maybe not even then.

I spent last night trying to convince myself it wasn’t all that bad and that I could block the fronts into submission.

But, there is also problem #2.  Apparently, while doing the decrease rows, I stumbled out of pattern.  There is a segment where I break out of Moss Stitch and into something, um, else.

I spent last night trying to convince myself this was a charming pattern enhancement.

I really was going to give it a go, knit the sleeves, sew it up, go looking for a new friend with an oddly shaped back and maybe some thick coke bottle eyeglasses.  But I can’t, heaven help me.  It’s really awful.  It’s bad knitting and I’m going to have to rip it out, figure out where the heck the moss stitch pattern and the decreases went south, and make it right.

I’m still in denial about the fact that despite the fact that I got gauge this looks a little bit small for me.  That’s what New Year’s getting back into shape resolutions are all about, right?

In less distressing news, I finished the blues & browns Be Sweet Tea Cozy.

It’s loveliness incarnate, but that is all about the yarn.  This yarn is absolutely wonderful and I have enough stashed to do a sweater for me and a skirt for Ellie this year.

I’ve also made just a wee bit of progress on the Habu Kusha Kusha Scarf.  Just a few more rows.

And, I’ve swatched for a pair of socks for myself in Shibui’s beautiful Orchid colorway which is sort of a riot of Lily Pulitzer Pinks with a touch of green (not any red as it appears in the picture).  I auditioned a couple of different stitches for the ribbing, but am still undecided.  This yarn is so pretty that I think simplicity is going to be the key to these socks.

I have a little bit of good to go with my bad.  But I’m off to bed, going to get lots of sleep and a good headstart so I can figure out what’s wrong with Anise tomorrow.

My Mom has left to go home to California, so my plan for the day is to console myself by sitting on the couch with Ollie, watching Lord of The Rings (he knows it all by heart) and starting on Habu’s Kushu Kushu scarf kit.

The kit has intrigued me ever since I first saw it, because it is knit from two yarns — superfine merino and a metal yarn that is used for industrial purposes like making internal organs for cars.  They are both whisper fine yarns, and it’s going to be an interesting knit because it’s knit on different sizes of needles throught, all much larger than I would expect for these yarns, and then lightly felted at the end.

Here it is.

It’s a rainy day outside, so I’m photographing on the dining room table, which means you can’t really tell that one of the yarns is a very dark charcoal and the other an equally dark shade of aubergine.

The Japanese pattern writing style is very different from ours and I was a little bit worried about it, but having looked it over, it seems very intuitive and logical.  You get a big sketch of the finished item, with directions starting at the bottom which say things like:

5-1-3
(+5)

which means knit five rows, increasing 1 stitch at the end of the fifth row, and repeat 3 times.

It seems quite easy as I look at it.  I hope that holds out!

70.  It doesn’t seem as old as it used to seem.  This is my Mom, on her 70th birthday, earlier this week.

Dancing in the rain, around and around in circles with her grandchildren.  It was like watching fairies dance in a ring.

Everyone should celebrate 70 (and everything before it) with as much gusto as my Mom does.  She enjoyed everything from the Pompeii Exhibit to Butterscotch Martinis after dinner (she liked the oysters too).

We all really enjoyed her birthday, especially as part of the lead in to Christmas.  It’s been wonderful baking batch after batch of cookies and visiting with friends who are here from out of town, although I got a little bit off schedule with one of those yucky migraines that refused to be banished for a few days.  Christmas morning has been nothing but wonderful, despite that feeling that it descended upon me before I was prepared.

I’ve got to go back to playing with my Ellie’s new Blythe doll and the "Blythe Mansion" — I’m sure you’ll be seeing it this week after we have a chance to deck it out properly.  But I did want to share a few little things I wasn’t able to blog about this week while I was down for the count.

Knitting For My Niece

After starts and fits I finally decided on this hat out of Tilli Thomas’s beautiful Flurries yarn — a concoction of merino wool and tiny glass beads.  It is incredibly soft and I hope it will keep her sweet little princess head happy.

Harry’s Yarn Stash

Harry decided this week that he needed more yarn.  Instead of snaking his paw under the top of one of my storage tables and claiming a ball, his usual practice, he batted all of my Be Sweet around on a table, before settling down in the middle of it.

I’m not sure what pattern he has in mind, be he is definitely as in love with the Be Sweet as I am.

I’m going to give him a run for his money on this one, as all of the luscious orange and yellow toned yarns are meant to go together into a spring sweater for me.  I will probably have to knit him a few catnip toys to buy him off, though.  He seems to have a particular affinity for Mohair, unlike my big black cat, Squirt, who can pick out a yarn with any significant Alpaca content at it from twenty paces.

Gifts From Wonderful Friends

Two incredibly special packages arrived in the mail this week, ahead of Christmas, from two of my friends.

The first came from Kathy.  She made me these wonderful ornaments, which went straight on the tree, and are sure to become a treasured part of our Christmas tradition.  They are so beautiful.  I can’t decide which one I like the best, so here they all are.

The second package came from Katie.  If you don’t read Katie’s blog you should.  She is one of the coolest and most talented people I know.  She can do anything.  Her wool felt is amazing.  If you want to just feel good about life and be happy, read Katies’s blog.  It always makes me feel like the world is just a little bit lighter and prettier that it was before I took a look.

The package Katie sent was so me.  We’ve known each other online forever, but I was amazed by how totally she nailed me.

The yarn is really beautiful.  Pure single ply merino.  I’m not sure if we have ever discussed it, but I love this yarn.  As much as I like beautiful colors, I also love the purity of simple, undyed yarns, and singles are always my favorite texture.  The handspun yarn is amazing too — soft little bundles of texture and color that I’m going to pet until just the right project comes along.  This little bag is a go bag for knitting and I’m not sure the photo really does justice to the fabric, but it is so sweet, so perfect.  I love it!  And finally, the book.  I’m almost positive Katie and I have never discussed it.  It was one of my childhood favorites, A Friend is Someone Who Likes You, by Joan Walsh Anglund.  My Mom read it to me over and over and over.  And I read it to my own children, over and over and over.  Ollie is a little bit rougher on books than the other children, and my copy is worn and tattered.  I’ve been bemoaning that fact for some time now, so you can imagine how surprised and how happy I was to open her package and see a perfect copy of the book in the package.

Thank you Kathy and Katie!  I hope both of you are having a wonderful Christmas with your families!

Knitting For Blythe

Blythe continues to be irresistible.   Ellie and I are having more fun playing with her!  But, I’ve discovered that there aren’t very many patterns for knitting for her, so knitting for Blythe means pattern writing, which is turning out to be lots of fun.

This is the set I knit up for her after blocking and finishing it.  I’ve started work on another outfit, with the leftover Tilli Thomas yarn.  Knitting for Blythe is lots of fun, because it’s a quick knit and she really likes everything I make for her.  She always has this very grateful look on her cute face.

I’m off to enjoy the rest of the day.  Whatever you are doing today, I hope you will have a happy fulfilling day, surrounded by friends and family.