Category: Knitting

Retirement, Month 2

If there was ever any concern that I would be bored in retirement, stop worrying. I am having a blast, with no regrets, and no thoughts of “oh, maybe I’ll keep my work privileges and work a few days here and there”.

Nope. Just nope. I’m already running into the problem of too many fun things to do and not enough days in the week. And we’re in a pandemic in crappy weather, so I’m stuck at home, indoors. Once the weather gets nice and we’re all given the green light to get out in public, I may have to give up sleeping.

Of course I’ve been knitting. I’m trying to pare down my WIPs (works in progress, for the uninitiated). My ideal number of on-the-go projects is five or six: a sweater, a sock, a lace thing, a simple mindless shawl for knitting when I’m doing something else, and perhaps one or two small things (think hat or mittens). I’m getting there. I still have 3 complicated lace shawls in progress, but my goal is to get that down to ONE complex lace shawl at a time, in the hopes of actually finishing things.

The sweater project that I mentioned a few posts back has been started. After a lot of dithering around, I found a CustomFit sweater pattern by Amy Herzog that is just what I was looking for. It is her Dockside Cardigan. If you aren’t familiar with her patterns, she sells pattern templates that you can personalize with your measurements and gauge.

That’s a photo from the pattern page on Ravelry. Isn’t that pretty? Here is where I am now:

I think this will be perfect for this yarn.

I have bunches of other non-knitting projects in the works, but I’ll save that for later. Happy Monday!

Unraveled

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.

Almost there

Whew. This is a LOT of seaming. I have the shoulders joined, the sleeves in, and one side seam done. I’ve been mostly estimating the fit until I got to this point, but I’m quite relieved to be able to try it on. I think this will be a wardrobe keeper once done.

It should hang better once the lace collar is knitted and sewn down, that will stabilize the shoulders better. And those clips holding one side together make it heavy on that side so it looks lopsided.

I predict that I’ll be happy with this one!

Getting closer

That is one big pile of sweater pieces right there. This is my Hudson Bay cardigan, which I started knitting about a billion days ago (pre-pandemic!). I’m finally on the second sleeve, then it will be time to finish the neck band and call it a summer sweater.

This is knit in pieces, which is hands down my favorite way to make sweaters. The front lace bands are knit along with the fronts. After the pieces are seamed, the live stitches at the top of the band are picked back up and the lace continues around to meet at the center back.

I think I’ll take a break from knitting to block the other pieces. That way once I finish this sleeve, I can do the seaming and get the rest of the knitting done while the second sleeve is drying. I’m ready for this one to be done, even if it is only February and I won’t wear it for a few months.

My new tea mug. And my new motto.

Finished Project

Actually, TWO finished projects.

The first is a huge one. After nearly 40 years of doctoring, I’m hanging up the stethoscope and retiring. My last day was one week ago, and I’m just now settling in and figuring out what the new life will look like. For now, it will be hanging out, reading, knitting, spinning, and catching up on house projects. And spending time with John, which is the best thing about retiring. If I’ve learned anything from my patients over the years, it is that nobody gets to their deathbed and wishes they’d spent more time at their job. They all wish they’d had more time with their loved ones.

And I won’t lie, this last year at work has been a little soul-sucking. Being a doctor in the midst of a pandemic can offer some challenges in a good way, but mostly it’s been a slog. So I’m not sorry at all that I’m out of it.

The second finished project is socks!

The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn, which is lovely. The color is named Hope, which is only available currently from Yarndale in England, with somewhat exorbitant shipping costs. (Though that didn’t stop me!)

The pattern is my same old vanilla sock pattern.

My next sock is already started.

The yarn is Regia sock yarn, I bought this eons ago to make socks for John. The blue is a little darker than true Tarheel Blue, but close enough.

I’m not sure what this blog will morph into now that I have more time to both knit and write. Stay tuned!

A boy and his hat

I started and finished a quick project this past week. After my spinning post recently, I rummaged around in the handspun yarn box and found this yarn:

I spun that ages ago. It is Targhee wool, the fiber was purchased from Spunky Eclectic. I think I spun it on my Schacht Matchless wheel. It’s a 2-ply, about Aran weight.

Someone decided he needed a hat. I found a pattern for a simple hat, but soon abandoned the pattern and just knit, trying it on the model as I did.

And the finished hat:

Yarn details are above.

I cast on 104 stitches, did 2 by 2 rib until it was “deep enough”, then knit plain stocking stitch until it was “tall enough”, then decreased around until I had 8 stitches left, pulled the yarn tail through, and it’s a hat. He wanted a “skull cap” kind of hat, and that’s what he got.

What I learned: Knitting hats doesn’t have to be complicated. And they are small enough that if you guess wrong on gauge or number of stitches, just rip it out and start over. Also, I don’t knit with my own handspun enough. This took about 300 yards of yarn, I have lots left.

There may be another hat on the way!

Vinum Mendacium

As promised, a finished project post. It came off the blocking board today.

Project Details:

  • Pattern: Larch, which is a free pattern available on Ravelry. I’ve renamed it Vinum Mendacium.
  • Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, color In Vinum Veritas
  • Needle: 3.25 mm
  • Started: February 27th 2020
  • Finished: January 5, 2021
  • For: ??
  • Modifications: None
  • Project/Yarn Rating: 5/5 (of 5). The pattern is very simple, I was initially annoyed by the non-paired decreases (instead of using SSK on one side and K2Tog on the other, it just uses K2Tog throughout), but it doesn’t look like it makes any difference in the finished shawl. The yarn is very soft and squishy. It is superwash, and not available any longer, except in my stash, where there lives several different colors of this.
  • What I Learned: I actually can finish things if I just sit down and do them instead of starting whatever catches my fancy. The dates would indicate that this took forever, but I started it, knit a few inches, then it hid in a bag until late December.

And another photo:

Garter Rib Baby Blankie

And it’s a finished project! Actually it was finished a couple of weeks ago, I am just a lame blogger.

  • Pattern: Garter Rib Baby Blanket
  • Yarn: Cloudborn Superwash Merino DK
  • Needles: 4 mm
  • Started: November 21, 2020
  • Finished: December 19, 2020
  • For: A co-worker’s new grandson
  • Modifications: None
  • What I learned: I can indeed finish something in a timely fashion if I practice project monogamy.
  • Project/Yarn Rating: Very easy pattern, can be easily modified for size. I was surprised at how nice this yarn is. I bought it at WEBS on sale, the main criteria was that it needed to be washable, and it needed to be blue. I have enough left for a small project. It is the perfect Carolina Blue, so my Tarheel husband may get a hat out of this.

And a few more photos.

And just because I like to live dangerously:

Vinum mendacium

I finished a gift project yesterday, so it’s on to something else that’s been in time out. I’ll show the gift thing once it’s dry and gifted.
This is the something else:


That is Larch, which is one of those little neck things that I love to knit and wear.
The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. The color name is In Vino Veritas*, which I’m sure is why I bought it way back when.
I’m not sure I mentioned this on the blog, but I quit drinking earlier this year, in January. I suppose that if I had known what 2020 was going to look like, I’d have reconsidered that, but I’m glad I did.
In that light, Vinum mendacium* seems like a more appropriate project name. I will say that I don’t seem to have as many totally ridiculous knitting screwups since ditching the wine and vodka.
But that does look like a lovely cabernet in that photo. Or perhaps like I spilled a whole glass of wine on my knitting.

*In wine, truth

**Wine lies

Coming up for air

Or,

Finished Project

I really didn’t intend to disappear for a month. Like everyone else on the planet, it has been a crazy town couple of months. Work is nuts, but at least I have work. I’ve had zero social life, but at least I have a great place to live, and lots of online friends to commiserate with. And I don’t live alone, I have a terrific husband who has helped to keep me from losing my mind.

Here’s the thing that was finished:

Project Details:

  • Yarn: Acme Fibres Merino Superwash fingering
  • Pattern: Amalthea, from Anne Hanson
  • Needles: 3.25 mm
  • Started: July 15, 2020
  • Finished: November 21,2020
  • For: Baby Zane, my newest grandnephew
  • Modifications: None, other than the occasional screwup.
  • Project Rating: ***** for both pattern and yarn. Acme primarily sells undyed yarn, but the cream works beautifully for baby things.

One last photo, since I don’t finish something (or post) every day.

The pattern is easy to follow, no glitches that I ran across. While this isn’t a beginner project, if you have some experience with lace, it is a pretty easy pattern. The whole center is just garter stitch, and the lace edging is a simple repetitive lace pattern. The only part that challenged my brain a bit was the short row corners on the edging.

Marching band

I finally rounded the third corner on my deadline-knitting-baby-blanket. My husband just came up with the best explanation of short rows ever.

The body of this is a big square, knit out from the center. When you finish that, you turn the thing on it’s side and knit the edging back and forth all the way around. The corners are mitered so it ends up flat when you are done. There are various ways to do that, this pattern uses short rows to add more fabric at the corners.

I laid this out and was explaining this to John. He got up off the couch, and with an “ah-ha” look, said (and mimed) “it’s like you are at the inside corner of a marching band turning a 90 degree corner”.

Exactly.

New socks!

I finished these earlier today. The yarn is Three Irish Girls McClellan fingering, which is a wool/bamboo blend. It’s my usual basic sock recipe, knit on 2 mm needles.

Next up is more WYS (West Yorkshire Spinners) socks. I have a bunch of this yarn already stashed away, but saw this recently and couldn’t say no.

Aren’t those pretty fall colors? The yarn name is what got me, though. It’s Hope, as in, I Hope the pandemic settles down soon. And, I Hope (HOPE!) that next week’s election results in a landslide win for the Biden/Harris team.

The little bag is very cute as well.

You can buy your own Hope yarn here.

And now for something completely different…

First of all, thank you all for the sweet condolences on our loss of Lewey. A million things every day remind us of him, but in a lovely, happy way. We don’t know yet if there will be another pup in our future, it is just too early to decide that.

So here’s what’s new in the Knitting Doctor world.

I joined TKGA (the Knitting Guild of America) last week sort of on a whim. I’ve been curious about their Master Handknitting certification program for a long time, but figured I needed a block of time free to do all the work for that. My friend Dorothy completed this earlier this year, and it inspired me to look at this a little more seriously.

I am retiring as of February 1st next year, just a little over 3 months from now. I turn 65 next fall, and was planning on a late spring retirement, but moved it up recently for all sorts of reasons. So now I’ll have that big block of time, with no further excuses!

I decided to start smaller. TKGA has a number of terrific looking “correspondence courses” that are much less involved that the full certification process, the one I have signed up for is Basics, Basics, Basics. It is just what it sounds like. I have the first lesson in hand, as well as the yarn, and will get organized and start working on this in the coming months. After reading through the materials, as well as a bunch of things on their website, I’m already starting to look at my knitting more critically, which is the whole point. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have my biggest hurdles with even tension and finishing techniques.

In the meantime, I have a baby blanket to finish.

The lace edge is knitted on around the garter stitch square, I’ve finished half of it. It’s a bazillion repeats, with short row sections around the corners, which is something new for me. I have been under the misinformation that the baby is due about a month before it really is, so I have a bit of a grace period. This should be a rule for family babies. Just tell me it’s due the first of November when it really isn’t, and I might finish the project before the kid gets his driver’s license.

That’s all I have. I hope your new week starts out well. I’ll leave you all with one last Lewey photo.

Making progress!

Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific NW. It’s going to be close to 90 today, and warmer tomorrow. At least it will drop to the low 60’s at night. That’s a good thing, since we don’t have air conditioning.

I am making progress on my summer cardigan. Which is another good thing, since it is actually summer.

The back piece (on the bottom in that photo) is done, one of the front pieces is a few rows short of the armhole shaping. It’s mostly mindless except for that cable/lace border, which is pretty easy.

You might not be able to tell, but the edging on the front is an I-cord edge, which is pretty cool. I don’t think I’ve done one of these on a sweater before. It does pull in a bit, making a slight curve in the edge rather than being nice and straight. We’ll see if that blocks out. The yarn is mostly cotton with a bit of cashmere, so who knows. I can live with it either way.

I’m off to find a relatively cool corner to knit.