Rollin', rollin', rollin...

Though the streams are swollen...

Keep them doggies movin'...

Rawhide!

Yes, as soon as the first one is finished, so the next one begins =) The home stretch on the Sugarloaf sweater (prematurely referred to as the "Child's Park Sweater") was agony, especially in the humidity. And the loaginess from the red meat and red wine on the 4th at the boyfriend's mother's house didn't help either. Such is life! But last night was the final push. Did a few inches, tried it on, still needed another inch or two, did another inch or two, tried it on, still needed another inch or two. Could probably still use a little more length. But I'm now gun shy (and finger weary) of longer sweaters, as I tried in sweaters past to make it "long enough, and then a few inches longer" just to break me of my laziness. The Cottage Street Pullover, for example. And it didn't look so good on me. Just didn't hit the hips right. So this, I feel, right now, is just right. Will probably look like a belly shirt on the long, lovely model we use for the catalogs, and then I can feel guilty all over again, but for now I'm happy. Oh, and the sleeves still have a skoonsh more bulk at the shoulders than I'd like, even though I added an inch to the length of each, but as I said previously, that's the way of things for ribbed and cabled sweaters. Still, a lovely, soft, cuddly, and as you can see, figure-molding and saucy little number. Not too casual, not too formal. Just right for just about everything. Took 10 skeins for the small! So it weighs a bit, but it would be so nice on a cold fall day, out to get a bit of coffee.

But now, on to the long awaited Stockbridge sweater, pictured above as just a wee little crescent. Idea is a raglan crew neck, almost all brown, with a rich, slip-stitch pattern in a few different colors on the forearms. Very autumn New England. Very nifty. I'll try to post a picture of the pattern stitch soon. Sadly, the bulk of it will be not-done-fast-enough stockinette at 5 sts to the inch. But at least I've made a few sweaters with this shape before, so not too many tough decisions to make.

What I've got is 30 sts for back neck, 10 sts for either sleeve, 4 for seam sts, 2 for the front = 56 sts. A very Barbara Walker ratio, there, and it leaves a lot of room for larger sizes. Good auspices. Soon, the neck front shall be cast on, the whole thing joined in a round, and the sleeves divided off when the chest is around 34". I think it'll actually come out to about 33 2/3", but a little close is a little cute, and those skinny girls need sweaters too, having no natural body fat to keep them warm in the winter =)

The tough thing will be deciding how much to decrease on the sleeves before the patterning starts. It's a good 8.5" long at least with no convenient places for decreases, and that's without ribbing. So that only leaves me around 10" before the patterning to do any decreases I gotta do. So do I steeply decrease to get me roughly the wrist circumference and pray the wearer doesn't have shapely forearms? Or do I decrease more leisurely, like a normal sleeve, and have a somewhat floppy and loose forearm? Time will tell, I suppose, though I don't have much of it!

Onwards and downwards on the next sweater!

A Day of Reckoning

10:30 AM, morning of the 4th of July, 2007. All of the following criteria have been met:
-Day off from work due to holiday
-Sleeping in a little later than normal
-Daily oblutions completed, the super deluxe holiday version which includes a minty face mask and lemony hand treatment
-House cleaned to standards such that I won't see anything in need of cleaning to distract me during my task to come
-A cup of strong, Yunnan tea has been made, perhaps with some Wuyi oolong to follow
-Photos of my works in progress taken.
-Screwed around on the internet for an hour to get that out of my system.
-Blog updated.

The task set before me is to finish this sweater:
Yes, this is the sweater I set out to finish, oh, the weekend before last, was it? And how far have I gotten? Finished the second sleeve and worked a bit on the body. Yeah, gold star work there, kiddo. Anyway! Water under bridges now. I have about 2 more full pattern repeats to go for it to be a good length. I think I can make it. Also, I think I need to lengthen the sleeves by one more decrease increment. They're just beyond my wrists, but I have stumpy arms, and the decrease they left off with wasn't flush with the ribbing. Plus, I feel a little bad about the bulk at the sleeve caps. It's going to happen with any ribbed sweater, I think, since the armhole's only going to be so large and is not going to stretch, whereas the sleeve you're fitting into it is all stretchy in girth. So unless you stretch it to its utmost when you fit it into the armhole, making it look wonky when it's not being worn, you're just going to have a roomier upperarm. Anyway, I think that making the sleeves a little longer will help compensate for the thickness.

Not only does this have to be done by the 20th, I have 1 and a half more sweaters and a pair of socks to knit by that time. So this sucker needs to get finished freaking today.

Speaking of which, I've gotten to the lace part on the socks! Hoorah!


The lace is definitely moving around the sock, but I can't really say how. It's not a typical spiral formation where the lines of decreases and increases just keeping marching along their paths. Only two pattern rounds, the increases and decreases returning to what looks like their original positions with each repeat. And it's not like the sock itself is moving around my needles, either. the little tails are staying at what looks like the same place. Intwiging! It's become my new bus project, and since the bus takes 30 minutes each direction each day, I'm getting some good work done on it.

But enough blather! It's almost 11! I'm burning day light! And I've polished off my cup of tea. Time to brew some more and get moving.

An eccentric solution

While I'm not yet prepared to photograph my whole stash - so much mess, so much shame! I have found an odd, but not unpleasant solution to most if not all of my single, messy skeins that may eventually get thrown together. Garlands! Get yourself a cone of 3/2 or 5/2 cotton, the one pound has lasted me for years so far, and string em up! Tie em in a loop and hang them around the house on hooks you can stick on the wall. I have to use the ones that can hold up to 3 lbs. Smaller ones just aren't up for the task. Looks a little crazy, but hey, I got a lot of yarn. If I didn't decorate with it, it would just be clutter, anyway.
There are others in reds, pinks, neutrals, black, gray, greens, oranges and yellows. But these are probably the best pics to represent them. I'm thinking one large garland or a few small ones could make a cool ripple afghan. But not now! No! Have other fish to fry! I've got to keep telling myself that, at least.

So the Sugarloaf sweater is plugging along slower than I'd like. What can I say? It's been hot. But the second sleeve is done and I've been working down the main body. I was going to show a picture of it on me, since I though it was, oh, probably around my bottom rib or so. Nuh uh. Try just enough to cover the bra. Not a little depressing. And too risque to show here. So much for getting it done this weekend! But if it gets to a decent length, I'll post it.

One of the things that have been distracting me from it are the socks I'm test knitting for Melissa for her new book, which also have to be done by the 20th. I'm doing the "Sailor's Delight" which are lacy, cool looking socks. Erin, the editor, told me she needed someone to do the smallest size to check the math. And luckily for me I have little stumpy feet. It's been enrapturing, but, GUH! Melissa! TWO INCHES of ribbing? Kill me! It's like an extended sock purgatory! I want to get to the lace already! Heh, no, it'll look great. I'm just a bit of a spaz.

Almost there!

I think I do them a little differently when I do two at a time. I work side 1 of sock A, side 1 of sock B, side 2 of sock B, side 2 of sock A, and that's a round. She has you doing it side 1 of sock A, side 2 of sock A, side 1 of sock B, side 2 of sock B, though you disregard which side is which when you come down to the heel flap and just work them on the same hemisphere of the knitting. So it took a little mental re-calibration for me, not to mention my heart rebelling a little from the top-down socks since I love toe-up so much. Mainly, I think I've been designing for myself long enough that I'm sort of like a horse released into the wild. I've had so much fun romping around on my own that I'm bucking a bit at the weight of a saddle when I have to knit from a pattern again. Even still, it's been great so far and I'm really excited to see the lace come about.