spud says hi

At last.

So, the other day I was sitting at my desk, when I heard a strange noise by the kitchen window.

When I went to check it out, I saw that it was again a visitor, one who had Ziti somewhat interested, but not quite enough interested to jump up and scare him away.

See?

Yes, he's got a piece of pizza crust, and yes, he's sitting between my window and the screen.  Indeed I should probably shut the storm window to stop that from happening, but, honestly, I think the kitchen would get too hot too often if I did that.

Anyway.  In knitting news, I revisited an old project this winter.  This comes from the long saga of this sweater.  If you'll remember, this was yarn I bought ages ago that I initially meant to be a sort of cabled sweater, then the Jolie cardigan, and then made into a very different sort of mock-cabled, shawl collared thing last winter.  I finished it mostly then, and wore it a few times last year.  But it was never quite right.  I never put buttons on it for the simple reason that the shawl collar part hadn't been done right.

You can see the problem here, in a picture from last year.  I made the ribbed part a bit too generous (i.e., I picked up too many stitches) with the end result that the fronts sag too much.  Every time I tried to line up the fronts with buttons, there was inequality and ickiness.

That might have been OK, given that it made for a sort of dramatic front closing when done like this, with a pin rather than with buttons.

But on top of that were other issues with the collar.  I made it flare out by placing increases in the ribbing more or less at the four points where the (in this picture invisible) raglan sleeve shaping happened.  Except in this iteration, they were placed a bit less than more, which means that the collar doesn't quite work, and flops unequally (this is more visible in the other picture from my last post on this sweater).

Because of these two problems, I decided last fall that the thing to do was to re-do the collar.  And so first I pulled it all out.  That proved to be a bit tricky, given that I'd washed the sweater a couple of times, and even though I treated it gently, the yarn had gotten a little pilly and felted.  Still, it came out reasonably well.

Then I had this.

 

You can see the construction of the main body better here.  The mock cable rib, the switch to stockinette as the neckline decreases begin, the raglan sleeve shaping.  This time I carefully noted where I'd placed the increases on the side of the neck that I liked better, and mirrored them on the other side (I'd just been off by a few stitches, but a few was enough to throw the whole thing off).

Then I picked up stitches all around the front and neck.  This time I picked up significantly fewer stitches, to the point that as I was knitting the ribbing I worried that it was going to ride up too much, rather than sag down too much.  However, I trusted that I could block out the ribbing enough that that wouldn't matter, and indeed that seems to have worked.  I again did increases into the ribbing pattern at four points around the neck in order to give the collar a bit of give.  And I placed four buttonholes such as to make the final sweater double breasted.

The result?

 

Pretty much exactly what I wanted.  The buttons, by the way, are ones I bought in Paris last February.  I intended them for this sweater back then, and only now have finally put them into place.  The collar's a little less dramatic than in the last version--it's possible I should have picked up a few more stitches around the neck itself in order to give it more sweep.  However, in the end, I think I'm happy with how it came out, and happier with this iteration than with the first.

My only concern?  You can see even in this picture how pilly and fuzzy the yarn has become.  That's... not so cool.  It just makes it look old really quickly, which given that this ended up being a slightly formally styled sweater is not quite right.  On a cushy knock-around hoodie?  No problem.  On this?  Eh.

Buttons. I still need buttons.

The final iteration of the once Sea Inside inspired sweater, then Jolie cardigan, now finally made-up sweater, is done.  (Except for one thing.)

Here's what I did.

The bottom half (ish) is done in a simple mock cable rib.  I have to say, that's one of my favorite stitches for something visually interesting and yet totally easy. 

Then I switched to plain stockinette stitch (after a single row of purl bumps on the right side to mark the change).

I knit a few inches, and at that point started the collar decreases.  When I got to the armholes, I paused, and knit the two sleeves in the round.  I did them at the same time so I could be sure the increases were the same, something I'm generally not very good at making sure I've done.

The sleeves were joined, and I used basic raglan shaping to finish up the body.  At the very top I had to do a slightly off shaping--by which I mean I wasn't necessarily decreasing on both the sleeve and the body at the same time--in order to get things shaped properly.

As you can see, I placed the armholes such that the fronts were quite a bit too short to close in the front.  This was actually purposeful, though I'll admit I meant it to be a little closer than it turned out to be.

Once the body was done, I picked up stitches all along the edge.  Three stitches for every four rows along the straight parts of the front, and then I think one stitch for every row along the slanted bits.  And then I knit a lot of two by two ribbing.  I also placed markers at four places--basically, where the raglan shaping lines ended, though I somehow got a bit off center, as you can see in the real thing--and did increases there to give the collar a bit more ease, in hopes that it'd fall in a nice shawl form more easily.  I think it worked.

Now all I need are buttons.  My mom and I went looking, but unfortunately we saw the perfect buttons at a place where they weren't for sale (at least, not alone--they sold them with kits, but that's it), and thus spent the rest of our time searching for that ideal, with no success.  Ah well.  I'm bringing this sweater to Chicago for the holidays, so perhaps the button stores there will bring me greater luck.

And I do actually plan to try to write this up over the holidays.  At which point I'll hopefully have a picture with buttons, and with better light, to go with it (the color of this was really called "cappuccino," and I think that's an admirable description of its real color--milky coffee).

Something else

Now, if you click on the tag for this post, you will, I think, see all the various things I've thought of doing with this yarn.  It was first going to be something that imitated a sweater I loved in The Sea Inside.  Then it was going to be the Jolie Cardigan.

The first never got off the ground, planning wise.  The second gave me minor fits figuring out what was going on with the pattern, and then a horrifying realization about its butt-flap (not visible in pictures), and then a realization that the yarn and the pattern weren't a good fit.

Then, about a month ago, I had a thought.  Use the yarn doubled, and make a comfy, shawl-collared cardigan that would be made slightly fitted by extensive ribbing.

And this is the result (as of now, being blocked, without buttons).

I am, I think, very happy with it.

There are a couple of things I wish I'd done a tiny bit differently.  I did increases in the giant ribbed border in order to get the collar part to fall open naturally, and one of them isn't placed as well as it could be.  And I feared that it was going to be too tight, and thus didn't place a proper button hole for true double-breastedness.  (I may, very bravely, do some sewing and snipping, but that scares me, so I might not.)

I might also try to write this out as a pattern, because the sizing issues with this would be less problematic than with the frost flowers cardigan.  But we'll see how ambitious I get.

Two, too

Yup, the second one went much faster than the first.

Now, here's the thing.  I should probably redo the first one.  I knit the second sock reversing the hand in which each color was held.  In other words, for the first sock, I had the brown yarn in my left hand, and knit it continental.  The cream was in the right hand (more or less) and was thus knit English.  For the second, I reversed that.

What that means is that the yarns cross over each other in the back differently; they have to cross over to keep the fabric together, but the direction of the cross influences the way the front side looks.  It is apparently something called "yarn dominance."  In the way that I'm knitting, the yarn that is held in the right hand (which ends up crossing over the other yarn on the back) is less visible on the front... or less crisply clear, perhaps.  The yarn in the left hand (which ends up under the other yarn in the back) is dominant on the front.

In this picture, that effect is less apparent because the flash made all the cream look brighter.  But even in this picture I think you can see that the little crosses, especially, look brighter and clearer on one sock.

I'm also finding that this effect is not explained in some books I have, even if it seems like it should be.  In Knitting in the Old Way Priscilla Gibson-Roberts doesn't seem to mention it; in fact, she suggests that beginners at stranded knitting hold the more used yarn in their dominant hand (i.e., if they knit continental in the left, as I did) and the highlight in the other.  I'm not sure that that's actually good advice, because if you're normally a continental knitter, like me, that makes the highlighted design, er, lowlighted.

In other knitting news, I frogged what I'd started of the Jolie cardigan.  That was the beginnings of the back, seen here, and also about 10-12 inches of one of the front sides, basically all of which I knit while in New York.  I decided two things.  First, I tried doing the called-for butt flap.  Holding it up to my butt in front of the mirror yesterday, I decided that that was going to prove to be one of the most unflattering things I could do to myself.  Second, although I still quite like the low-front cardigan idea, and I like the diamond pattern (sort of visible here), I'm going to have to rethink this yarn and this gauge.  Basically, this yarn on this size needles makes a too-floppy fabric, I think.  To my mind, the sweater's going to need more heft to it in order not to look sloppy.  So, I'll either have to do this on smaller needles, or, as I tried swatching last night, doubled on larger needles.  The question is whether I have enough yarn for the latter option.  I kind of think I do, but I'll have to play around with it a bit before I decide.

What does this mean?  The only thing I currently have on needles is the Orenburg shawl, on which I've barely worked in the last month.  But last night I did two more rows, and I think I'm going to concentrate on that for a while, until I make it to half-way through.  At that point I'm going to put it on thread to see how big it's really going to be.

I did also wind some yarn last night for a couple more things.  I wound one of the Koigu skeins to start a sock, and also the pale green cotton to think about a tank of some sort.  For that one, I started a swatch of the Milanese stitch from Barbara Walker's second stitch dictionary.  It'll be a lacy tank, but the yarn is quite fine, so I think that's going to have to happen, no matter what.  Doing a stockinette tank in this yarn would drive me bonkers, as it'd be incredibly, utterly boring.

Change of plan

Way back when, I wrote of my vague plans to make a cabled sweater with some camel/cappuccino colored yarn I'd bought.  The plan was to make something reminiscent of a sweater I'd admired in a movie.

I've changed my mind.

Instead, I'm going to make this sweater.  It's from the book Vintage Knits (there are actually, it seems, two books of that title; this is the one of Rowan patterns), which I picked up because I'd seen assorted references to sweaters from it that I liked.  And this, it seemed to me, would be just about right for the kind of yarn I've got, and actually a bit similar in vague plans to the original concept, which had an all over diamond pattern on it.

There are two major reasons for this.  First, I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of cables.  Sure, they're lovely to look at, and I'd happily wear a cabled sweater.  But they're also a pain in the butt to do, since you've got to juggle the cable needle and... anyway.  I'm sure I'd get used to it, but I was starting to get annoyed just making a swatch.  This is a slip stitch pattern, which is much, much easier.

 Second, I'm just too busy to plan an entirely new project.  I can manage alterations of an existing pattern for different yarn or different fit, sure.  But starting from scratch?  Not right now.

To get started, I've made a swatch in pattern in the yarn I plan to use (which is wool from the house brand of my LYS, Lambspun).  It's really very soft yarn, so this should feel lovely.  The first swatch on the called for needles was too big; this one, a size down (7s) seems to be coming out almost perfectly in gauge, which amazes me.  It might be a couple rows short in height, which probably won't bother me because it'll just make the thing a bit longer, which is better than the alternative.

I actually had some major confusion over the pattern.  First, the slip stitch thing.  I had to look up the pattern in my lovely Barbara Walker stitch guide to figure out how to make it look right (which involves somewhat counterintuitive holding the yarn not where you'd normally think while slipping stitches).  And then the instructions are oddly written.  I was deeply confused for quite a while about some strange things about the back.  It's started in three pieces and then joined; initially, I thought it was three pieces of different length, joined, but have since realized that the pattern is just written strangely.  I'm still unsure about the three pieces thing, however.  Basically, it's going to make a butt flap.  Or perhaps it might be nicer to call it a double vented back.  But, really, it's a flap over your butt.  In a jacket that's fine.  In a sweater?  I'll have to see.

New project! And awesome TV!

Where to start?  With knitting.

A couple of months ago (which is frightening) I noted that I had an imagined next project inspired by a sweater I noticed in the movie The Sea Inside, despite the fact that that's a serious enough movie that I shouldn't have been noticing the sweaters.

So, now, having finished the circle sweater, I'm going to move to that, or at least to planning it.  The sweater will be mostly a repeated cable pattern of some sort, with ribbed sides and sleeves.  Probably.  So, first, I have to decide what cable pattern I want to use.

Here are three samples.  If they knitted up a bit more evenly I might try something involving a patchwork of multiple patterns, but I'm not entirely sure about that.  The bottom lattice pattern is what I first imagined this sweater in; that or something like it.  The middle circle one is nice, too, but have I had enough of circles?  And the top gathered one is sort of cool... decisions, decisions.

Anyway, it's a beginning, and now I just have to pick something.

I also just did a fair amount of this sampler while watching a truly awesome episode of Veronica Mars.  I told my TV to shut up a couple of times.  And laughed... nay, cackled... at one point. Crraaazy!

Over the last couple of nights I watched the first batch of episodes from the current season of Gilmore Girls, thanks to the tape B sent (thanks, B... and, incidentally, SA grows more incredibly cute in every picture you post).  Not quite as awesome, but still some great stuff.  I got weepy during the last episode (which was about Rory's 21st birthday).  A couple of times.  Yes, I know, I'm a sap. 

I actually sympathize with both Lorelai and Rory at the moment, during their rift.  Lorelai I sympathize with because she's Lorelai, and Lauren Graham is fantastic and just makes you feel for her.  But Rory I sympathize with in a deeper way, I've just realized.  I actually totally sympathize with the character who's always been held up as perfect and pure and an angel, and who cracks under that pressure when faced with disapproval.  The person who's always been the responsible one wanting to just let go of all that responsibility and the hopes of others.  Of course, I don't so much sympathize with the way she's gone about this, or the person she's become.  But I do get it.

On the other hand, I have once again decided that Emily Gilmore is the most evil character on TV.  At least since Arvin Sloane went sort of good.  She's even more evil than Aaron Echolls, who's more just a psychotic jackass.  She's actively malicious, instead, and apparently completely oblivious to that fact.  Now and again they give her a trace of humanity.  But over and over, she shows herself to be completely thoughtless of others, despite an outward show of concern.  And vindictive towards her daughter.  Still.  Ugh.

I need a new project

OK, at this point I only have three projects going.  The circle sweater, which is still going to be lovely but is starting to bore me a little.  The sock, which is fine, but seems good to keep as a knitting in public project.  And the Russian shawl, which I'm just not that into at the moment, for some reason.  I think that frogging what I had did end up hurting a bit more than would be ideal.

So I think I need to at least start planning out my next project.  Which is, in some ways, a mildly embarrassing one. 

At some point last spring I went to see the Spanish film The Sea Inside about, essentially, assisted suicide.  It was deeply moving, and very thought provoking in rather uncomfortable ways.  In all seriousness, it was a fine film, with amazing performances that really stuck with me.

But as I was watching, I kept getting distracted from all the seriousness (which was also leavened with humor, it's not like it was an enormous sob-fest... and, actually, I don't think I'd find it as moving if it had been) by the gorgeous sweaters various characters wore.

The one that I liked best is pictured here and again here.  It's got a wide panel of a repeated cable pattern, with a wide ribbing for sides and sleeves.  I picked up some nice camel-colored wool last year that I haven't yet used, and I think I'm going to emulate this sweater in it.  I may try a trickier cable pattern... I've got that Harmony book of aran patterns, and will play around with things from it.  And I'm also trying to decide if there should be any shaping at the waist, or if the ribbing at the sides will be enough. 

I know I should keep going with one of the things I'm already working on, but I just need the fun of figuring out something new!

(Edited, because it's a Harmony book, not a Dover book.)