Ouch. Yes, that was a painful decision. In case you can’t tell what that blob is, it’s the Vanilla Sweater, which I started LAST FALL. I got it almost to where it was in that first picture and decided that it was too snug, and that I needed to do some body increases. Which would have been fine, except I was almost ready to start the bottom hem. I put it in a bag and hid it, like you do, thinking it would fix itself.
Right. Fast-forward to earlier this month. I hauled it out, tried it on again, because, you know, it COULD have been fixed in the back of my closet.
Nope. I went ahead and did another several inches, adding some increases, because throwing more knitting at bad knitting will turn it into good knitting.
This morning I sucked it up, and with the help of a friend, took the whole thing back to just after I started knitting the body, and I’ll do it properly.
I started a new project a few days ago. It’s a lovely pattern, and lovely yarn, and the whole damned mess almost got tossed in the trash this morning.
The pattern is Quatrefoil, by Janina Kallio. It’s a dead simple lace shawl pattern, easily memorized after the first few repeats. The yarn is divine. It is Creamsilk, from DyeforYarn on Etsy.
I settled in this morning for some relaxing knitting, or so I thought. The yarn is 100% silk, and very slick. I wound it up using my swift and ball winder, which clearly was not the way to manage this.
It took me about three hours to get it untangled and wound up. Isn’t that a pretty nostepinne? It’s made out of holly, made and sold by Dancing Goats on Etsy. They have some lovely tools if you are in the market for a little post holiday gift for you or someone you love.
The right tools make all the difference, as usual. Back to knitting.
As it turns out, this yarn does not want to be knit at 20 stitches per 4 inches. I sort of expected this, which is why I did a swatch. It also doesn’t like being knit into cables. The heathery alpaca/wool blend just really wants to be stocking stitch. Fortunately I’m not bored at all by miles of stocking stitch.
So here’s the deal. What I want is a plain long cardigan, knit in pieces, seamed, and with a wide shawl collar. I don’t want to do a top down cardigan. My ideal gauge for this yarn is at 17.5 stitches per 4 inches. You wouldn’t think this would be a tough pattern to find, but there you have it.
You do know where this is going, right?
It looks like I’m cobbling together my ideal sweater on my own.
This is either a brilliant idea, or quite insane. But how hard can it be?
No, not that Hudson cardigan sweater. That is finished as of this morning. The bit of collar that was finished last is drying, and then I’ll do a “finished” post.
It’s this*:
I started this one forever ago. 2018, according to Ravelry. The pattern is Shinsetsu, which is quite pretty. That is nearly the whole back, about a few inches short of shoulder shaping.
Here is what it looks like now.
I have gotten at least marginally smarter about choosing flattering patterns as I’ve had more experience in sweater knitting. This pattern is gorgeous, but it is intended to be worn with quite a bit of positive ease, and has a drop shoulder type of construction. This is actually very similar to the one I just finished. However, that one is in a lighter yarn, and the fabric has a lot of drape. In this yarn it will just be a big bulky sweater with a lot of baggy bulk under the arms.
I sort of knew this. I kept knitting along until I got to the part at the underarm where you add even MORE stitches to make it wider. Then it went into time out when I got distracted by a new, shiny pattern. There probably was a reason why it went into time out.
Also, if you click on that pattern link, and look at the photos, you’ll see one of my knitwear designer pet peeves. The model is crouching down, or standing with her arm out, holding the sweater out. No straight-on shots to show what it really looks like.
Anyway, I adore this yarn, and want a wearable sweater out of it, so out it came. John was a bit horrified. “All that WORK!”
I’m swatching again to make sure, but I think this will be the new sweater. It has a much more fitted profile, and I like the cables a lot more.
Stay tuned.
*Cat included for scale. I put that sweater down, and picked up my phone to take a photo. That’s how long it took Ripley to make herself at home.
Now there is a broad topic! Specifically I’m referring to knitting goals. I keep saying that I’m the slowest knitter on the planet, which probably isn’t true, but I do tend to dither around a lot starting new projects and not finishing anything.
I finished Quill in somewhat record time, for me. What was different? I planned ahead, and had a target date. Duh. It shouldn’t surprise me that this actually is effective, I suppose, since it works in every other area of my life that requires some process getting to completion.
I have way too many projects going at the same time. So it’s time to whittle them down to a more manageable number. I’m going to work on these things, and just pretend that all the other ones don’t exist for now. In particular, I have five different lace projects going at once, which mostly means I don’t get anything done on any of them.
Here’s the plan, in categories:
Sock:
Those are for John. I have one foot left to do and those are done. I’d like to get these finished by the end of this week.
Mindless Knitting:
Hitchhiker, for me. That is about as mindless as it gets. I’m giving this a 2 week deadline.
Sweater:
I have the back and part of one front done. This isn’t mindless at all, so that’s a good thing. I’m giving myself a deadline of September 1st on this. I have a warm woolly sweater in progress as well, and I’d like to get started on that before it gets cold around here.
Lace: No photo, since this one is a surprise project. It needs to be done by the end of October.
Bonus Project:
This has no deadline. This is the “potato chip” project. If I’m on track to get everything else done, I can do a square or two of this. I never thought I’d say this, but knitting sock yarn squares is a blast.
So let’s see how this works, eh? And remind me to not start any new projects until I have some of this stuff caught up. The exception is socks. I can start a new sock when I’ve finished a pair (two pair, actually, since I have another pair already started).
Winter Solstice is one of my favorite days of the year. I’m not a huge fan of the cold and dark, so even though the days are barely perceptibly longer from here, I still know that they are indeed getting longer. For the last decade or so (twelve years actually), John and I have done a huge solstice sit down dinner for friends and neighbors. It always turned out to be a 5 or 6 course meal for a dozen people, that involved days of planning and cooking.
Last year, we just decided not to do it. And we’re not doing it this year either. I still love to cook for people, but it had gotten to be more about the production and less about the fun of being with friends. The winter months are also often a challenge for me. The “undertoad” starts to grab at my toes and try to pull me under if I get too much on my plate and start stressing out.
I pulled out my Longest Night shawl this morning and gave it a bit of love. I’ve been knitting Euroflax linen “somethings” for Christmas gifts all month, and my hands forgot how nice it is to knit with soft silk and merino lace. Next time I decide to do something like that for the holidays, somebody remind me that I should start earlier so it doesn’t turn into a marathon. I still have one left to finish, but it’s close enough that I can take a break from it.
I’ll leave you with a photo of one of the Christmas trees at work. It makes me laugh every time I walk by it.
I hope your weekend is peaceful, and that you don’t have too much busy stuff to finish before Christmas.
This is all you’re going to get for the next couple of weeks. I’ve never been one of those organized knitters that start knitting Christmas gifts in January every year. I usually think about it around December 20th, therefore, no Christmas knitting ever gets done around here.
Last week I had the bright idea to knit a few things for a few people. Mind you, I picked some VERY SIMPLE things that I can practically knit in my sleep, more of a “stocking stuffer” type of gift.
Then I started thinking, well, I could do these for a few more people too! Pretty soon I was up to knitting about a dozen of these little Mystery Projects.
Right. I am insane.
Of course, though I had the yarn for a few of these Mystery Projects, I don’t have enough to knit all of them. This is despite the boxes and boxes and nearly half a million yards of yarn around here.
So I ordered more. It was supposed to be delivered Friday. I got a tracking notification from USPS that it was indeed delivered “at or near the mailbox”, whatever that means. I think it means it is “at or near” someone else’s mailbox, since I did not receive it. This makes the likelihood of me completing my Christmas knitting even more improbable than it already was.
This my friends, is why I don’t do Christmas knitting.
Kiri was a bust. I spent much of the day trying to get it started. The pattern is described as easy, for beginner knitters. After a couple of false starts and tinking back, I eventually ripped it out. I’m not a beginner lace knitter by any means, but there was something wonky with this pattern. I couldn’t get the stitch counts to come out, and I just didn’t like the look of the pattern in this yarn. Last but not least, I use Knit Companion to keep track of absolutely everything I knit, but especially lace charts. The grid on the pattern chart was “off”, with grid squares that varied ever so slightly from place to place. This made adding stitch markers and counts impossible. It was driving me nuts.
So here is the reboot:
This is much better behaved. The entire thing is charted, the pattern repeats don’t shift around aimlessly, and best of all, the main shawl body chart has 16 rows, 12 of which are plain knit or purl rows. This is much more what I had in mind to keep my sanity.
By the way, WordPress has stopped emailing me blog comments again. I can still reply directly from the website, but if I miss a comment and don’t answer you, that’s why. ????
This is why I don’t usually bother to match stripes on sock pairs. Three attempts later at casting on, I give up. These freaking socks are just going to be fraternal.
