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Yarnmule




"Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while,
then take up the sock again." - Dorothy Day

Victory is Mine!


Now that's a fitted sweater! Try number two is finished, and it's what I envisioned it being all along.

A little front detail:




The hemline raises up at the front and back, then dips down toward the side seams, courtesy of the diagonal ribs.


And a close-up of the cable:



Pattern: Paulina, a free pattern from Berroco. This pattern was actually pretty good; the directions were clear, there didn't seem to be any errors. It was the little things that drove me crazy. The gauge was given in ribbing and in cable pattern, but not stockinette. I don't know about you, but I find measuring gauge in ribbing pretty much impossible. There was no schematic; it would have been nice to know how big the pieces should have been as I went along. This is partly me trying to blame the too-big sweater on the pattern, which is just wrong. I could have stopped at any point and measured, and figured it out if I thought about it. But let's face it, I'm clearly not very observant, and it would have been nice to have some blinking red warning lights or something.

Yarn & Needles: Filatura Lanarota Royal Linen, 50% cotton, 30% viscose, (rayon in the states) 20% linen. Color number 1, less than 8 skeins. It's a bit difficult to say how much yarn I actually used. I had 10 skeins, and I have 2 untouched skeins, plus many partials leftover. I did have 4 separate skeins attached at the same time for the shoulders, so I think I could have done it with or 7 if I economized. The yarn is a little bizarre; lots of tiny plies in beige and white, which looks like it would snag a lot, but didn't. It looks like kitchen twine coming off the skein, but softens up right away. I expected it to hurt my hands, but it didn't. Washing and drying made a huge difference in this yarn, smoothing out the stitches and softening the fabric considerably, giving it nice drape.
The first time around I used a size 6 needle, which gave me a nice drapey stockinette stitch. I knit ribbing a little looser than stockinette though, so I went down to a size 5 for the final go. This would have been too tight in stockinette, but it worked out beautifully in the end. I got enough structure that it doesn't stretch out of shape lengthwise, as cotton tends to do.

Mods: Every mod I made was because of the first failed attempt. The seams were bulky, so I worked in the round. It was too big, so I took out 16 stitches; four on each side of both cables. The front neck split was too high, so I dropped it by 10 rounds.

If I could do it over: Hey, I already did! That's exactly the way it should work. The first time was disastrous, but fixable. The second time is pretty much perfect.

I'm flying to L.A. for work later this week, which should provide plenty of knitting time. I hope to finish the Slipstitch Rib socks on the plane. And now that the Bob Dobbs is my only home project, it's flying off the needles. Of course, the knitting won't be the labor intensive part of this project; I'm already afraid of the miles of duplicate stitch that lay ahead.

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Ugh

I've sort of gone to the land of the lost, haven't I? Don't worry, you haven't missed much.

I got a promotion at work. It's a small company, so promotions tend to fall into the category of "wow, there's this huge job that nobody is doing, and you seem perfect for it!". So yeah, there's this huge job... I've been working 10 to 11 hour days since Labor Day. It's cutting into the knitting time significantly. At the beginning of the week, I had 16 rows left on the Lunch bag sweater. Today, I have 14 rows left. I've only worked on it one night this week, and I got through two rows before I fell asleep on the couch with it in my hands. The big push is over though, so I think next week things should settle down to a dull roar, and I will get my life back. This is important; at this point the pizza delivery guy has seen me about as much as my husband has.

I am making reasonable progress on the Slip-Stitch Rib socks though; I think I'm around 3/4 of the way done with the foot. It's a good thing I knit on the train, or my fingers would be absolutely twitchy by now. And of course, there's always the weekend. I'm hoping to finish the Lunch bag sweater on Saturday, just in time to pack it away and take out the fall clothes.

Still no word on the wedding shawl either. She actually bought a dress, but can't find a picture of it online. She's promised to send me digital photos. She and my brother are moving into their new house today though, so I imagine it will be a while before I see anything. I am waiting with bated breath...

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It's What?

I realized today that it's almost autumn. I got home from work at my usual time, and it was already dusk. Wow, when did that happen? Was it really just over the weekend? Granted, I had a four-day weekend, but still. Of course, this means that you will all be dealing with poorly colored knitting photos until, oh, June or so. OK, not really; there are always weekends. But for now, here's a really bad photo of something you've already seen!


Here's another; proof that I made it to the armholes.

Yes, I made some progress this weekend. This time, I tried it on (I learn slowly, but apparently it happens eventually). It's much better, nice and fitted, as it should be. I'll have to come up with a different name for it though; Lunch Bag is no longer appropriate. I am not even remotely upset about that. If all goes well, I should be finished in about a week; now that I've decreased a bit, it's moving along pretty quickly.

I also finished the first of BBMM's Slip Stitch Rib socks. This time it fits (man, I say that way too often). No photos of that though, not until the pair is complete. That may take quite a while, as I'm not particularly motivated.

I'm hoping I get a final wedding dress decision this week. I am dying to get started, and would love to spend Saturday shopping for a pattern and some yarn. If not, I will get back to the Bob Dobbs vest that I abandoned so long ago, in favor of the Lunch Bag re-do. After all, autumn requires sweater vests.

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