NaKniSweMo – Body

As it turns out, a sweater with miles and miles of brown stockinette is not so good for the blog.

It’s coming along though! I have about 13 inches of the body done.

NaKniSweMo – Swatching

As you know, I always fail these knitblogging challenges. No matter. I’ve decided to sign up for NaKniSweMo. I can totally knit a sweater, start to finish, in a month. After all, that’s what I did for DPP and that was done on #4s. This time around will be a bit happier and easier.

I’ve chosen to do the famous-for-a-reason O W L S sweater by Kate Davies. I chose this sweater because it was EVERYWHERE at Rhinebeck, so I got to see how cute it is in person. Second, I have yarn that’s the perfect color for November, and for owls.

Around here, the oranges and scarlets of October fade to the rust and tawny brown of November.

So this Lambs Pride Worsted in my stash, in “wild oak” is the perfect color.

Look, I did a swatch and everything!

Coming out of hiding

Last night I mentioned that my first trip to Rhinebeck is coming up.  As I was writing that I realized that, indeed, Rhinebeck is only two weeks away!  What should I wear?  It seems that everyone who’s anyone is making a Rhinebeck sweater (as those in the know have for years, of course).

I haven’t started (or finished) any new sweaters recently, so I was thinking hard about what I could whip up in two weeks. Then I remembered this:

It’s my Pinstripe Pullover that I put in storage back in March.

I have about two inches left of the body to do before I start the sleeves. Think I can finish it in time?

Cathode

Have you ever seen a pattern and said “what a preposterous garment.  I would never wear it in public, non-knitters wouldn’t get it” . . . and knit it anyway?

Meet Cathode. It’s completely preposterous and non-knitters don’t get it. Heck, even knitters don’t get it. Just ask the new SnB I’ve been going to (God bless them for humoring me so ).

I don’t hate it. I actually kind of like it. The superdeep ribbing with extreme negative ease makes it about as flattering as any sweater with bulky boucle could be.

Look at that negative ease! It doesn’t even look like a sweater when not being worn, it looks more like a washed-up sea creature.

The thing that makes it cross the line from simply odd to utterly bizarre is that collar. It looks particularly weird from the back.

The real reason I knit this, I guess, is that Artful Yarns Circus was on sale at Woolcott about three years ago when I was living in Cambridge. I completely fell in love with the colors, and Cathode was the most obvious use for it. I found this yarn to be a real bear to work with – it was so fluffy that it was much easier to pierce the stitch than to knit it properly.  The finished product is very warm though, even with the short sleeves.

Oh, who am I kidding? It doesn’t make any sense (at all!) but I like it anyway.

Blue Streak

Exams are approaching fast, so I’ve felt very scattered and unsettled lately.  I’m very close to finishing both Serrano and Cathode, and despite my best efforts to finish projects I found the lure of new projects to be irresistible.  I couldn’t help but notice that they share a common color scheme with Cathode. 

While my love of the color green is well-documented in these pages, blue is my real favorite and I really appreciate a good purple.  I’m not sure I’ll wear Cathode much (more on that in the upcoming FO post) but the colors have worked their way into my brain, and I just want to look at blue and purple all day.

That and my anniversary is coming up, so maybe I’m just especially drawn to blue because of the time of year.

I started Ishbel in that wonderful tosh sock I mentioned the other day.  This is perfect project for soothing myself with mindless knitting.  I’ll run out of the stockinette portion soon enough though.

I also started Wisteria in Cascade Sierra. I wasn’t sure what I would do with this yarn, but it’s such a nice Wisteria-like color! I’m also pleased with the definition of the cables so far. This is the perfect project for when I want to focus on something other than law. Soon enough I’ll be done with the cabled yoke, and it will be zombie knitting, so it can take Ishbel’s place in that regard once I get to the lace portion of Ishbel.

I also have some dark blue cotton fine for Orangina, but I haven’t cast on for that yet. I probably won’t be able to help myself though.

The blog may be be rather quiet for the next month or so, but I have the feeling I’ll have plenty to show for it on the other side of all this.

Wicked

Wicked is finally finished, after two years of hibernation! Hooray! Thank you Finish or Frog KAL!

 

Also, thank you to my law school knitting buddy Diane for providing some inspiration.  Did I ever tell you that I admired your Wicked in Federal Income Tax last semester?

I like the way it turned out. I think I was unhappy with it before because I (sound familiar?) wasn’t happy with the way I looked in general. To be honest, another reason I let it sit for so long was that I wasn’t thrilled with the pattern itself. I find Zephyr Style patterns to be so simple (which is a good thing) that sometimes make silly design choices (which is not such a good thing). For example, the instructions for my size call for 33 cable motifs around the neck. I hate the way it looks when prominent seams fail to align with prominent design elements. Why not 32 cables, so it DOES align?  So anyway, I did 32 cables, and aligned the raglan increases with the cable motif. It only added like a centimeter in length.

I knit the cuffs two years after the bottom hem, so they don’t match exactly. But who cares? Close enough, right?

I decided to do 3/4 length sleeves because it’s such a great color for spring that I didn’t want it to be excessively warm. I used Knitpicks Andean Silk, which is quite cozy. I’m happy with how it turned out, and happy that it’s the perfect weather this week to wear it!

WIP Wednesday – Sweater Edition

First of all, I’m delighted to report that I’m very close to finishing Wicked.

I’ve re-blocked Serrano, and the shoulders are working out much better. Now the only question is what I ought to do for a closure, which is a topic complicated enough to deserve its own post.

Cathode is also coming along nicely.

I’m about 2/3 of the way done with the bottom ribbing, so I can probably finish in a few weeks. I’m trying to finish Cathode before Serrano, because Serrano is lacy and light enough to wear well into spring. I know the bottom part looks preposterously small, but it’s very stretchy. I also think that negative ease is important with something like this, since it has the potential to really swallow me up if it’s too big. I had considered lengthening the sleeves, but I think I’ll stick with the short sleeves. I had also considered doing a smaller collar (which is why I did a provisional cast on at the neck) but I might as well do the big goofy one. It’s never going to be a “normal” sweater, I might as well follow the spirit of the pattern and make it totally nutso!

And now for the bad news. DPP had been relegated to a space bag to wait out the summer.

(There it is, hanging out with Tailored Scallops)

This project had really become a slog, which is heartbreaking considering that it’s my own pattern.  But it was a slog the first time too, and as I’ve discussed, it put me off knitting for a few months.  This project embodies knitting angst for some reason.  Part of it is just the way things have worked out – as of this writing, Foliage is still on the Ravelry Top 20.  I’m a little bummed that after my initial success DPP has been, shall we say, noticeably less popular.  But again, as we’ve discussed, knitting is my HOBBY.  The fact that DPP has become a slog, for any reason, justifies a time-out.

But the good news is, I’m almost done with the body and I like how it’s turning out. Some time this fall I’ll pick it up with renewed energy, and it will be finished in no time.

Vestee

Pattern: Vestee by Marjorie Brigham
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Bunny Hop Print in “Blue Jeans” (3 skeins)
Made for: Baby Nate
Worked on: December 13, 2008-December 24, 2008

I finished it before Christmas, but between all the snow we’ve had and leaving town for a few days, I didn’t have a chance to deliver it until last night. Baby Nate is not a year old yet, but he’s pretty big so I knit the 12-month size. It fits him perfectly! I’m very pleased with the fit, since I don’t have much experience at all with babies and I was flying blind, having not seen him for a couple of months.

I think the yarn works well with the pattern. The texture still shows up, and the mottled look will hide stains better than a solid color would have.

There was a tiny bit of pooling, but nothing major. I’m very happy with how it turned out.

My own DPP – Sizing

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.  I have much gift knitting to discuss, but I think that’s best wrapped into a larger year-in-review post, since I don’t know where to start and I’m about to be without my computer for a few days. I’ve decided instead to begin my series on knitting my very own Pinstripe Pullover (I did not choose the word “dainty” and I always forget to use it). I intend to document my progress in meticulous detail, since this blog really dropped off when I couldn’t share what I was doing the first time around. Also, I hope that my commentary will be helpful to those who decide to make it for themselves.

I started it on Election Day, but I had to abandon it for holiday knitting right after that. When I picked it up again for the trip I saw that my tension was REALLY wacky (probably from all the drama of watching the results) and I had made a mistake. I want this sweater to be perfect so I ripped it out and started it over, so I’m right back to where I was at the end of Election Day.

I hesitated in starting my own because I agonized over what size to make (ironic, huh?). I have a 42 inch bust, so I was right in between sizes. I decided to make the 40.5 inch size because the pattern as knit with Alpaca Silk has quite a bit of horizontal stretch to it.

Here you can see the swatch I did for the Interweave sample. In the unstretched state there are just about 7 stripes (28 stitches) in four inches.

When the swatch is stretched, I can get six and a quarter stripes (25 stitches) to cross those four inches pretty comfortably.

Using that math, it could fit a 46 inch bust, not that that’s what I would recommend.  Once I’m done with this I would love to get several other women to try it on so we can do our own size 12 Interweave Gallery.

I am heading out to Chicagoland to visit my Grandma until Tuesday. My mom, dad, and sister are coming too, so it’ll be a holiday visit to Illinois with the original Mooney clan, just like old times. The Pinstripe Pullover is a great project for travel to visit family, since that nice deep ribbing requires little concentration.  When I return, I’ll begin my year-end series of posts!

Ahhhh…

I had my last exam on Thursday night, so (assuming I passed them all) I’m halfway through law school.  Craziness.

It started snowing early yesterday afternoon, and there is nothing more delightful after exams than being snowed in with nothing to do.  It’s also very pretty.

I’ve been knitting, of course. My friends had a baby in July, so I started a Vestee to give him for Christmas.  I bought the yarn the week he was born, but I had a hard time deciding what to make with it.  Now that it’s winter, a sweater would be appropriate.  He’s a big baby, so I’m just making the 1-year size with the knowledge that he’ll fit into it soon enough.

A couple of weeks ago, some exam-induced fever dream made me think that it would be a good idea to start Cathode.

I knit the ribbed collar part at the top of the photo at least two years ago, probably three. I bought the yarn (Artful Yarns Circus) at Woolcott & Co. the first year we lived in Cambridge. It was way way way on sale, and my very favorite colors, so I figured I’d find a good use for it. I started Cathode at some point, and in a conversation with my husband the words “muppet pelt” came up, so I decided to figure out something else. It sat idle for years, but as I said, I decided to start it again. I’m not sure how long I would want that collar part to be, so this time I started with a provisional cast-on so I can add the collar later.

I tried it on, and it isn’t terrible, so I might actually finish it this time. Once I’m done with my holiday knitting I’ll find a way to pull it off with flair.