Friday, September 19, 2003

 

A Blustery Day

Well, the tail of hurricane Isabel hit Toronto last night, which made it a perfect night to snuggle on the couch and knit. I only made one small, fixable mistake last night so I accomplished a whole bunch:

I'm stretching my brain powers and trying to memorize the cable pattern. It's really not hard; I just want to limit my reliance on the charts because it makes for faster knitting. I also want to learn to cable without a cable needle so I can speed it along a bit more. That's my weekend project.

Today is still rainy so its the perfect day to curl up with a good book (I would say knitting, but it's work day). Mine is going to be Foucault Health and Medicine. Hardly a page turner, but it means I'm getting some work done!

9:43 AM

Thursday, September 18, 2003

 

Team Knitty!

I just joined Team Knitty in the CIBC Run for the Cure for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. I would love your support. Just click the pink button on the left to donate. Thanks!

10:25 AM

 

Oops!

So I'm working away on my Must Have Cardie and watching last season's cliffhanger of The West Wing, having a great old time. Then it's almost 11 and I notice I screwed up the large diamond cables. Shit! The cable pattern is written down and there is a chart and I was using the written down stuff, except the last three rows of the pattern were on the next page and missed them. Shit. Craig, my sweetie took these pictures of me as I was undoing the cabled sections in an attempt to redo them and not rip out like 12 rows of work:

Here's a close up. The trick is to just undo what you have to fix and take all those strands in the right order and reknit them properly:

And, well, I was having trouble figuring out what the hell I did wrong.

When I did one panel back together I didn't like how it looked. The tension was messed up because the cable changed and so I ended up pulling out the needles and ripping out the 12 or so rows. I got it all back on the needles, did two rows to straighten stuff out and was in bed before midnight. This morning I spent a few mintues on it and all is well (I'm working off the charts now) but I haven't regained my lost work.

Since a bunch of you have been asking here's some more about the pattern. It's a Patons pattern called Street Smarts (500989) and it's available in Canada at Lewiscraft and Ram Wools. I think you can get it at Patternworks and TornadoWood in the US. This pattern takes 6-7 balls of Patons Classic Merino Wool (223 yards) or some worsted weight equivalent. I'm using Brown Sheep Naturespun in a similar colour. I think Ram Wools offers this as a kit.

And, I wanted to say I'm using my Denise needles for the first time and I like them. They are not as slippery as my addi's (of which I don't have this size) but the joins are super strong and easy to assemble. They are quiet and lovely. I'm happy I bought the set and it will be my first choice for any project I don't have the addi's for. And, the money I save will definately go to yarn! In case you're wondering, Threadbear sells them.

9:34 AM

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

 

Finishing and Starting

Emma and I were home sick again yesterday, but she's better today, and I finished these:

They're a Christmas present for a friend. I used Rob's Broadripple pattern and Cascade Fixation, but I knit this pair from the toe-up. It was fun but I'm ready to get into wool sock yarn again. Xander (my almost 3 year old) wants a pair of socks so the next pair I start are for him. Everytime I knit he asks: "Is it for me?" so I think it's time.

But I didn't start another pair of socks yesterday, instead I started this:

It's called the Must Have Cardigan, and oddly, when I saw the pattern (Paton's Street Smarts #500989FF) last year I decided I had to have it. My handknit wardrobe is missing a fall cardi and I like the look of this one. I had some Brown Sheep Naturespun worsted in the stash and this is what I accomplished last night:

Now that I have the pattern set it's an easy knit. It feels good to work on larger wool after the koigu--it just goes that much faster.

Well today is our first back to normal day. I still feel shitty (this cold won't die!) but it's time to get back to the keyboard and books and get writing. I always get panicky after these delays. It's like I can see the clock ticking on my degree.

8:26 AM

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

 

Phew!

It worked. It worked. It worked. It worked. Hooray!

My sweater is now 1.5" longer and it looks great. I'm hiding my face because I'm sick and I've been taking care of Emma (who has strept throat), so grooming is a bit low on my list. I'm glad to know that so far, for me, there's nothing a good blocking can't cure. And, making this sweater longer got rid of the extra boxy-ness so I like the line of it much better. I just wore it for the photo and I adore it already. I'm going to wear this one a whole bunch. I'll be sure to take more photos, outside, when the weather cools down and we have some sun (we're on the far end of hurricane Isobel so it might be a while).

I also did a few more wedges of my cashmere multidirectional scarf which is still lovely.

And the new KNITTY is up and it's fab. I've just looked at the patterns quickly but I'm loving Accordion and Rosedale (duh! it's Kureyon) and Beach and Emma would look great in Boo. And some of the others are piquing my interest. Here I was all happy with my current knitting plan to finish my WIPs and then get into my Kureyon entrelac coat and now I have all these other tempting patterns.

Congrats on the One Year Anniversary to everyone at Knitty! You're my favourite knitting magazine

8:03 AM

Monday, September 15, 2003

 

Goodies!

Friday I got this in the mail:

And it is gorgeous. The colours are perfect and are some of my favourites. As much as I adore Kureyon some of the colours are too pink and bright for me. This one (80) suits me fine. Too bad it's been discontinued.

I have to thank Theresa again for finding me this yarn and facilitating it's delivery to Canada. This on-line knitting community is the greatest!

Here's a close-up of a few balls so you can see the wine, teal, olive, grey, and black loveliness:

Now I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Noro 1 book so I can get started. I will try to swatch some entrelac this week for practice, but I still want the book so I know what I'm getting myself into.

The Koigu sweater is still drying so I can't say if my blocking worked. Thanks to everyone who suggested I lengthen it from the bottom. I just might do that. It beats taking the neck apart. The only problem I'm seeing is the stripe pattern. There are 6 colours of koigu in the sweater and they run in a particular order. I don't want to add a full set of 60 rows to this so I have to do some figuring. Let's just hope the blocking works.

Emma is home sick with me today and I'm still not better. It's amazing with kids. You give them some medicine and they bounce back for a few hours and play like crazy, while I'm laying on the couch feeling like I got hit be a truck, despite the (highly recommended) Advil cold and sinus. Emma did get whatever the family has worse than the rest of us so we're off to the doctor this afternoon just to check it's not serious. I doubt it is, but I want to be sure. Maybe she can look at me too. The only good thing about us being home is that I can knit while she lies in front of the tv. The cashmere scarf is humming along a bit slowly because I keep taking cat naps, but it's still week-day knitting time, so I'll take it.

11:02 AM

Sunday, September 14, 2003

 

Horrors!

I've been sneaking in bits of time to finish my koigu sweater all weekend. Just moments ago I cast off the last stitch, cut the yarn and try it on and...

I don't like how it looks on me. Shit.

I purposely shortened the length (originally 23") by about 2 inches because I'm short-waisted and I don't like my sweaters too long. Well, this was a mistake because the wide band at the bottom (4 rows knit, 4 rows purl; repeat 6 times) sits in the wrong spot and makes me look really wide. The sweater looks cropped, even though it's not.

I tried putting on a bra (I mean it is Sunday night) and jeans to get the right look, but, no, it's too damned short.

Craig suggests, carefully, that I might have to undo the turtleneck (like 100 rows) and all the neck shaping and lengthen it.

I tell him, carefully, that I think I'll try to block it first. I can't imagine ripping out 7 inches on the neck and 3 inches in the body--no way, not without trying other methods first. So here it is on my blocking board.

I soaked the body of the sweater, pinned down the shoulders and the neck curve and then stretched the body, then I pinned it just before the bottom band (which cannot be blocked or it won't look right) and I got another 1.5" out of it.

I hope it works and the line of the sweater doesn't get wonky or it jumps back to it's old length. Any words of encouragement from koigu aficionados would be greatly appreciated at this point...

10:12 PM