spud says hi

Giant post of finished objects, plus one question for the future

1.  Laminaria (ravelry), knit in Malabrigo Lace (just over two skeins), on size 2 and 1 needles (Knitpicks Harmonies), started January 7, 2010, finished March 8, 2010:

 

Now, this is a lovely shawl.  The pattern draws on Estonian lace patterns, which are gorgeous to begin with, and arranges them in quite a dramatic way.  There's a small starburst pattern, a larger one, and then the dramatic swoopy edging.

Here's the transition from the larger starburst/flower pattern into the edging... it flows really nicely.  And it's simply a very, very nice pattern.  The initial flower pattern is incredibly easy to memorize, and the larger one isn't that difficult, either (perhaps particularly if you're a loose knitter, as I am).

Now, what's really amazing is how much it grew in the blocking.  When it first came off the needles, it was about 56 inches from tip to tip, and about 25 inches from nape to point.  Plus all textured and ruffly.  Now, actually, even here this kind of looked cool.

But then I blocked it--and I blocked it hard.  It's actually a slightly tricky pattern to block, because it doesn't make a smooth triangle.  The different patterns are all slightly out of gauge, in a way, and so it doesn't just grow out from the nape evenly (it's a shawl pattern that starts with a few stitches at the nape, and grows out and down), but ends up flaring.

See?  There have been those who compare the final shape to the Cylon ships from Battlestar Galactica.  Those people are not wrong.  Even here it goes like that, even though I tried to combat that a bit.  I went down a needle size between the first and second patterns, in order to minimize the irregularity of the shape of the finished shawl (what can I say?  I like regularity).

I am, in the end, extremely pleased by this.  Somehow it feels like the most formal of the lace shawls I've knit.  I think it's a combination of the shape and the weight of the yarn.  The other triangular shawls I've knit (and there are only two) have been either much plainer, or in a thicker yarn and thus more muffler feeling.  And stoles, even in a fine lace weight, always seem scarf-like to me.  But this, with the fineness of the lace and the triangular shape and the pointy edges... this screams "lace shawl!" to me in a way the others don't necessarily do.

2.  Latvian mittens (my own pattern), knit in Limbažu Tīn, which is yarn I bought in Riga last fall, on size 0 needles, begun February 12, finished February 28, 2010 (these were my main Ravelympics project):

OK, these were so much fun.

Despite the fact that the (very few) votes in my last questioning post moved toward the red with gold design mittens, for some reason I ended up drawn to the cream with colored design version.  Except that when I cast on for the first mitten using the pattern I'd originally drawn up, it was so far too big that... well, it might have worked for a muff.  But a mitten?  No.

So, I went back to that amazing webpage with all the pictures, and refigured various things.  And this is what I came up with.

Construction-wise, this was pretty simple.

I cast on 56 stitches using Judy's magic cast-on, with a second size 0 needle.  I joined to work in the round, knit four rows, then did a row of k2tog,yo for a pretty edge, knit four more rows, and then joined the hem by knitting together the stitches off the two needles (i.e., the main working needle and the second needle that had just been hanging there for a while).

That's what it looks like on the inside.

Then I knit up in pattern until I was ready to put in the thumbs.  I didn't bother with increasing for the thumbs, because when I look at the pictures of actual Latvian mittens they don't seem to have thumb gussets.  Basically, when I got there, I used a bit of waste yarn to do like an afterthought heel space for the thumb--I knit stitches on waste yarn, moved them back to the left needle, and knit them again with the working yarn.  Then when I was done with the whole thing, I went back, pulled out the waste yarn and put the revealed live stitches on needles, picked up a few stitches to close the gaps that form at the sides, and knit up.

The other thing... I just did a pretty basic set of decreases for the pointy top, decreasing every other row.  I kind of wish I'd started them a little later and done them every row, for a less pointy top, but they're fine as they are.

I blocked them on a piece of cut peg board.  My mom thought of this, and my dad cut the piece for me, and it worked really well. 

I love them, even if I finished them just as winter seems to be ending.  Ah, well.  I've worn them twice anyway.

3.  Another Braided Ball, using scraps of Knitpicks Merino Superwash DK, and sock yarn, on size 6 needles:

There's not that much else to say about this, other than it continues to be a super cute and super clever pattern.  This time, because I had not enough khaki knitpicks yarn left, I striped it with a self-striping sock yarn (Lorna's Laces, in pinstripe), held doubled.  I actually really like how the strips came together.

4.  The question for the future.

So, I have for quite a while thought that I want to make a cardigan version of the Venezia sweater.  Except with different colors.  Now, I initially decided that this was going to be my ravelympics project, but I failed to order yarn in time (or, rather, I failed to pay for fast enough shipping for the yarn to arrive in time).

Here's what I originally thought I'd do.

These are colors of KnitPicks Palette, a fingering yarn that seems to be a good substitute for this kind of colorwork.  Basically, the original pattern has dark blues shading to pale blue/green contrasted with creams darkening to gold.  That creates the slight striping effect.  I thought I'd try for the same, except with browns darkening through oranges to gold, contrasted with creams darkening to a brown tweedy green.  (My interest in this color combination has everything to do with a scarf I bought in Riga, which is oranges and browns highlighted with a tiny bit of green.  These are not colors I thought of putting together before, but it turns out I really like it.)

So, I ordered these yarns, and then sat down and swatched.  And it's not... quite... right.

Now, I actually like the colors, but the current arrangement isn't right.  I think the browns to gold part works fine (plus, how can I not like a set of colors that includes masala, turmeric, and sweet potato?)  But the creams to green just doesn't work.  The second to last color is too dark, and makes the pattern fade away, and the whole thing seem too striped.

Because I am a dork, I futzed around (BADLY) with photoshop and mocked up what this might look like if I extended the cream color up through where there's now that dark tan color, leaving the green in the center because that was kind of one of the guiding thoughts behind the whole thing.

I think this works... right?  It's a different look than the original, not just because it's a different color family, but because it's ... I don't know, just, different.  But more or less I think it's OK.  The question, though, is whether the green works or if I should go for the dark tan there instead.  That would be more of a transition from the cream, even if it would be a different feel.

Hmpf.  I'm undecided.  And I'll have to buy more yarn, whatever I decide.

Right enough

Although most of my knitting over the past two weeks has been ravelympics inspired, and though I finished up another cool woven ball (which ravelers can see there), this one in grey, olive green, and striped khaki and multigreys, earlier in the week, and then just this morning finished grafting the end of the thumb of my second Latvian mitten, I'm not ready to write about that one yet (and particularly because the second mitten is drying, so photography... well, later.

Instead, there's this, which I have decided is right enough to be considered finished.

 

It is my somewhat modified version of A Cardigan for Arwen, knit in Textiles a Mano Bariloche.

The modifications?  Seamless construction.  I knit the body in the round up to the armpits.  Then I knit two bands of the cable pattern, grafted the bands shut into cuffs, picked up stitches along one edge of the cuffs, and knit up the sleeves.  Then I joined the sleeves to the body and did your normal raglan shaping for the sleeve caps.  I as I got close to the proper armhole length, I had a few more stitches along the back neck than I wanted, so I did a row or two with extra decreases in the middle, and in the end I think that actually helps the collar/hood hold its shape well.

I like it.  The pattern doesn't call for any closures on the front, and I think I'm OK with that.  There's a chance I'll want to put some sort of single clasp closure on it... but I'm not sure about it.  It's a snug fit pulling the edges together, though I could do it--I could even do a zip front if I really wanted to do that.

The one remaining question is... the hood.  I am very, very unlikely to wear the hood up, for two reasons.  One, I almost never wear hoods, and two, it is, as I suspected, a tiny bit too short, so although it's wearable, it looks a little awkward.  The question is, do I leave it as it is, as a design element, or do I do some other kind of collar.  I'm thinking the answer is leave it as it is, but I'd be interested in strong opinions toward the other possibility.

OK, and what the heck... a picture of the first Latvian mitten.

Yeah, just a few ends to weave in.  Just a few.

America's next top model

So, here we have my rather adorable new (well, relatively--she's 3.5 months old) niece M, modeling my latest knitting creation.  Granted, at this point she needs some help with the sitting upright, but, still.  I think she's clearly in the running for future glory.

This is a slightly modified version of the Pinwheel Sweater pattern available at Elan's.  The child version of the sweater is supposed to be for someone from 6-9 months up to 3-4 years; it's a big coat on a small child, an then a regular sweater on a bigger one.  I made this smaller than the original, largely due to the yarn I used.  It's TyDy sock, so a much thinner, lighter yarn, on size 2 needles.  The entire sweater was made from one skein, plus a tiny bit--seriously, like one inch of one sleeve--of a second skein.  It's big enough on M that I'm hoping it'll take her through this spring and then next fall/spring, too.  The sleeves were made extra long to cope with that--right now they're significantly cuffed, but later that can be adjusted.

The construction of this is almost exactly like that of the circle sweater I made when I first started this blog, many moons ago.  You start in the center, knit out a circle, more or less, and place waste yarn (well, the pattern calls for doing a provisional cast on, but I did an afterthought heel waste yarn placement).  The only differences are that this has a stockinette section at the center, while the other was all garter stitch (well, actually, that original pattern called for a slip stitch pattern, but I did just garter), and that this uses the increases to make the circle grow as a decorative element, while the other hid them.

The result is a sweater that wraps around with a cut-away front, basically, and a big huge collar that can be almost a hood, at this point.  (Though M's clearly more interested in eating her hand than in modeling.)

Or, turned down, a big shawl collar.  I put one button on it, to be closed with the loops of the edging (a quite clever i-cord bind-off, which took a long time [basically, a car trip from Chicago to Madison, plus some extra time] but was worth it in the end).  I think that as M gets bigger, the button will have to move--but that's very easily done.

Also, this qualified for the Ravelympics!  I cast on on Tuesday, finished the knitting on Friday, and added the button on Saturday.  Amazing!

Not again.

So, I am finally nearing the end of my mauvey-pinky Cardigan for Arwen.  And once again... I don't have quite enough yarn, I fear.  What is it about this yarn and my choices for it??

Now, really, it's not that bad.  Basically, the hood, visible at the top above, is probably just a hair too short.  Maybe a little more than a hair.  I think I can squeeze another row or two out of the yarn I have, but that's going to be it.

It's not that bad because I can easily change it into a different kind of collar, probably a big sailor type collar because that seems to go well with the cardigan.  The fancy thing to do with that would be to try to make the cable go along the bottom of that, but that's probably beyond what I want to figure out how to do.  Because, seriously, this hood has taken ridiculously long.  I can't figure out why.  Maybe I'm just tired of knitting it?  I don't know.

The other thing the hood did is pool.  That is, the slight variegation of the yarn started to stack up in big color patches rather than be evenly spread around, as it was in the rest of the sweater.  Unexpected!  But, given the slight degree of variegation, nothing to problematic.  Now, if it had ended up looking like giant, I don't know, red and yellow patches, well, that... I'm not sure I'd appreciate that.

In other news, I'm currently living with a cat named Daisy.  Daisy is very, very sweet, with a little meow, who sleeps on my legs and begs to be petted first thing in the morning.

She's also good at camouflage. 

 

See?  Well, do you??

Where've I been?

Any guesses?  How about this?

 

Hmmm... that might not be helpful either.  What about this one?

The answer, my friends, is southern California.  Now, it's been a few weeks since I got back, and I've just been extremely lazy about posting them.  Well, and I went to Toronto for a few days, and I moved into a housesitting gig, and I spent time with my sister and niece and nephew when they came to town last week.

But earlier in January I had a wonderful, wonderful time visiting friends near LA and in San Diego.  So the pictures are, in order, a giraffe at The Living Desert, knitted wire jellyfish at the Mingei museum in San Diego, and part of the Getty Center, but more the amazing late day sky.

What else?  I had my first In-n-Out burger, I saw people I haven't seen in too many years, I had really good Georgian food at a very odd restaurant (which you can get a sense of from its website).  I talked and talked and talked.  I dabbled my feet in the Pacific (not that I haven't done that before, but I believe in doing that when one has the chance).

And now I'm back and settling down to work.  And knit.  I'm starting to plan for the ravelympics, but I'm not sure if the yarn I just ordered to do the most ambitious project I'm considering will arrive in time.  We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm closing in on the end of this.

This is my somewhat altered version of the Cardigan for Arwen (ravelry).  I've liked this pattern for ages, and I always thought this might be a nice melding of yarn and pattern.  This is the yarn I used for the cable wrap thingy that I had to frog due to not enough yarn.  But I loved how the cables looked in that other version, and so thought that using the yarn for something with cables made sense.  Thus, this.

The somewhat altered bit is the sleeves, as you can perhaps see.  The original pattern involves knitting the sleeves kind of sideways (kind of like in the sayuri pattern I just did), but I decided to knit the cuffs as bands, then pick up stitches on one side and knit up two normal sleeves, and then to join the body (which I'd knit in the round) and do raglan decreases.  I'm happy with this decision.  I'm just now at the hood part, so... I'm nearing the end, and can perhaps finish before the Olympics... er, ravelympics, start.

This worked

Well, the picture's a little blurry, but the sweater's lovely.  It's my cardiganized version of the Sayuri Sweater, from Sensual Knits.  (And how about that, that's pretty much the whole pattern, just without pictures.  Google books, you are crazy.)

I really liked the look of this sweater, and thought it would be a perfect way to use this gorgeous yarn I got from Textiles a Mano before leaving Colorado.  Three years ago.  Yes.  Ahem.  Basically, the stitch pattern is quite simple, so it wouldn't war against the variation in the yarn.  But it's an interesting enough construction to keep me from being bored knitting it.

I also knew I just don't wear pullovers much anymore, and so I wanted to make it into a cardigan.

Given that I was making a few changes, I also made some changes in how I knit the thing.  The pattern has you cast on provisionally for the back essentially right above the linen stitch band, knit an inch or so, then cast on additional stitches for the sleeves, knit in one piece up to the shoulders, then split for the fronts, knit down, cast off the sleeves, and knit down an inch or so before joining.  This made no sense to me.  Why have little one inch seams under the arms?  No clue.  So I provisionally cast on for the sleeves and back all at once, knit up and over the shoulders, splitting for the front, did a three needle bind off to finish the sleeves, and then joined up immediately.  I picked up a few extra stitches in the armpits to close the hole that would be created without them, and decreased them over the next few rows.

The result?  No seams, except for this one.

That's a sewn down turned hem.  I.e., I knit the sweater as long as I wanted it to be, did a row of wrong side knit to make a bottom edge, then knit in stockinette for an inch or so before binding off.  Then I folded the edge over and sewed it to the back of the sweater.  A pain for someone who doesn't much like to sew, but very worth it in terms of a nice edge.

I also very much like the way the linen stitch adds just a bit of interest but without really vying with the colors of the yarn.  Sometimes I feel like it's not very visible, but then it's been commented on, so I guess it is actually visible.

You can also just barely see the way I finished the sweater here, too.  After I sewed the hem, I picked up stitches all along the fronts and neck, and then did a four stitch applied i-cord edging. 

I am, in short, exceedingly pleased with this sweater.  It's an excellent last knit for 2009--and it probably will be my last finished knit for the year unless I get the motivation up to frog and reknit a hat--a HAT!--for the third time--THIRD!!--because it's still too big.  Argh.

Bye, July

Yeah, so I'm not entirely sure where this month has gone.  There was of course the end of my stay in Moscow, with all the archive-wrapping-up and packing and traveling that entailed.  And, shockingly, fairly few anecdotes to tell, except that my special trip to the Historical Library for one last cinnamon roll ended in sadness, as there were no cinnamon rolls to be had.  Only apple dumplings, which were good, but not AS good.

Then there was an exercise in... well, I'm not sure what.  My graduate advisor died in April, surprisingly quickly after being diagnosed with and treated for cancer.  And I got asked to oversee cleaning out his office.  This was an enormous task, because he kept everything.

At first, it made me want to clean out every file, and never buy a book again.  But then I'd find random cool things.  Like those boxes up there on the second to top shelf?  Old computer punch cards.  Or there were other little things, like a map of the Moscow public transportation system from 1964.

What's truly amazing about that one is that I can see that a fair number of bus/tram lines I've often taken have the same numbers and routes.

Or then there was the set of propaganda photographs, probably also from the early '60s, telling of the wonders of Moscow.  This was just one of the images from that.

(They were a little warped, which is why I had a problem photographing them without having them obscured by light.)

And now I'm trying to get some other work done, as well as get some exciting, but unphotographable knitting done.  Why unphotographable, and why exciting?  Well, my sister's having twins this fall, and so there's much knitting to be done... but I kind of want to keep it a secret.  A few things, though, have made their way onto my ravelry page, so if anyone's interested in what I'm making, look there.  I've already decided that something's probably the cutest thing (or things) I've ever made, though that may change soon.

So in the meantime, here's the other thing I've been making.  I cast on for this because I was waiting for the yarn I ordered to make baby things to arrive. 

It's not very exciting yet, is it?  My plan:  to take the Sayuri Sweater and make it a cardigan.  (Holy moly!  It looks like a large part of the text of the book from which this pattern comes is on google books--just without the photographs!)  I don't actually like the picture I've linked too that much; it looks more interesting in the book photographs, and in the pictures people have posted on ravelry.

I'm using some of Laura's yarn, her Wuxi, which is a merino/silk blend that's really, really soft and lovely.  And I'm doubling it, to make quite a nice warm cardigan.

And the colors?  Quite gorgeous, I think, if a bit autumnal for the last day of July.  But, by the time I finish this, it'll be fall, or nearly that.

Waiting

That's a nearly live look at my apartment.  Boxes, boxes, everywhere.  Glassware waiting for the movers to pack.  Me, somewhat anxiously waiting their arrival (they're not due for another 40 minutes, but already I'm anxious), and thus deciding to blog instead of pace.

OK, this image has already changed, as I looked down, saw my shredder, took off its wheels and taped its cord to it, and put it by all the boxes.

Anyway, if I haven't posted much recently (as I haven't, after quite a good start to April), it's just from the sheer overwhelming number of things that are going on, good and bad.

• I got tenure!
• The end of the academic year.
• Preparing for a move (this move, mostly into storage, and a little bit that's coming with me to places else during my sabbatical [though after saying for weeks to my mother that I wouldn't have any trouble fitting that "little bit" into my car, I'm now realizing just how very full my little car is going to be]).
• Preparing for a trip to Moscow that was going to start on Tuesday but which has been postponed by 10 days because of visa complications; this is actually probably a very good thing, as the preparing for this has taken a back seat to preparing for the move, so having a bit of enforced breathing space is not necessarily a bad thing; also, it works better for my landlady in Moscow (yes, E again!).
• An unexpected and very sad funeral--my graduate advisor, who I'd known was sick but hadn't realized was that sick.

And there's probably other stuff, too, but that's all I can think of right now.  Anyway, it's been filled with work and emotional swings, and thus has been exhausting.

Of course, knitting has helped keep me sane.  A few weeks ago I started to try to finish everything I currently had on needles, as part of my planning what to do with all my yarn during this next year.  I picked out yarn for three sweaters to bring with me, plus a good selection of needles.  I picked out two projects for this trip to Moscow:  socks and a lace shawl, neither of which has been started, but both of which I'm ready to start.

I finished a pair of socks which are currently packed somewhere and thus unphotographable.  I finished an experiment that I'm still not sure worked.

At some sale last summer I picked up this yarn--Auracania nature cotton, I think.  Four skeins, which is all there was of it.  It's a very slubby, thick and thin yarn.

In the recent past, I decided to see how it worked with the famed February lady sweater.  This is an adult sized version of a baby sweater--and of a baby sweater I've knit.  I started it with the normal garter stitch yoke (it's a top down sweater), but decided I didn't really like the yarn in garter stitch all that much.  So I instead kept garter stitch at the neckline and in panels down the front, but otherwise switched to stockinette.  When I'd done I think 15 raglan increases for the sleeves I thought, hmmm, I think this is big enough, and sure enough it was actually more than big enough.  So I started the body, did that until I just about ran out of yarn, and then finished the sleeves with a couple of rows of garter stitch with some signicant decreases right away, in order to give them a slight puff sleeve look.

There's actually also a third buttonhole, but I didn't think the sweater needed another button further down.

It's all a bit too big, but kind of nice for all that.

OK, back to pacing anxiously.

Maybe not

So, I went to Chicago over the weekend (incidentally, Porter Air is WONDERFUL), which meant that I had some flying and airport time to knit. And some time at my parents' house, as well. And that means I have some significant progress to show on my green "woven" cardigan, as I've come to call it.

The body's finished.  I knit up to the armpits, then split into the two front pieces and one back piece.  My first attempt made armholes that were far too big, but the second effort worked out just about right.  When I'd finished the body, I picked up stitches starting on the upper corner of the right (in the picture) front, going down the front, all the way around the bottom, and then up the left front.  I knit six ridges worth of garter stitch as an edging, increasing by two at each of the bottom front corners to make a corner, and adding in button holes between the third and fourth ridges along the left front (which would be the right front when worn).  It's a little odd looking right now, but I"m hoping a good blocking will tame the wobbles and smooth everything out.

The sleeve is going to be like the kind of sleeves I did on my red drops sweater-- top down, but with armcap shaping.  I did this once on the plane ride back from Chicago, but when I got home and tried it on, I wasn't entirely happy with it--a bit too big in the end.  So last night I pulled out what I'd done and re-worked the armcap, and I'm happier with it.

This, though, I think is going to need a bigger change.

Huh, it's hard to see, but the collar.Right now it isn't bad, per se, it's just boring.  A few rows of garter stitch to make just a nice little crew-neck edge.  But, again, boring.

Hmmm.  I could go bigger and do a polo collar, but I don't think I want that (though, now that I write that, I do have a summer weight polo-collared sweater that I've always liked).  I could make the band thicker.  I could do a roll neck collar.  Uh... there's not much more that I can think I can do without reshaping the neck opening, and I'm not in the mood to undo the amount of knitting I'd have to undo to make that happen.

Thoughts?  Anyone?

System update

I realized just now, as I took pictures of what I've been knitting, that one of the reasons that I may not recently have been all that enthused about knitting or photographing knitting or writing about knitting is the simple fact that I've been doing all my knitting in somewhat related cool, even perhaps dull colors.  I'm thinking I need to make a move to incorporate more color in my knitting world in order to jump start some excitement.

Even Ziti's been a bit on the sleepy side, so maybe it's not that.  But I think it perhaps is.

But in the meantime, I've been knitting three things, all of which got to a really annoying point earlier this week where I couldn't knit on any of them without thinking or frogging.

First, socks.

These are generic toe-up socks with footed toe shaping, and with a dropped stitch wavy rib/open pattern from one of the Barbara Walker books (I believe 2, since virtually every stitch I end up using comes from 2).  These had been going fine, but then I turned the heel while at a conference last weekend (during the last panel I decided to whip out the knitting, since I knew I had questions, and thus would be both participating and knitting, and thus showing all that that was possible) and I wasn't entirely sure I'd put it in the right place.  So I had to do a little comparison to be sure, and then also figure out what exactly I'd done at the back of the heel--basically, whether I'd started right in on the pattern or left some rows in plain stockinette.  I have figured all this out now, so I can get this going more rapidly now.

Then there's the shawl.  Now, at some point a few weeks back I decided I wanted to get to work on another shawl.  I didn't want to do another one pattern stole, because those get boring and I wasn't in the mood for that.  So I initially decided to do a sampler lace shawl, either the one from  A Gathering of Lace (ravelry) or the one from Victorian Lace Today (ravelry and... what the heck, desiknitter).  And  actually went out and bought some laceweight alpaca to do this.  But then I got home and didn't feel like starting either one.  Instead, I started this.

Hard to tell, right, like it always is with lace.  It's the Springtime design from Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting.  The book was a great Christmas gift (thanks, Mom!), and one of the things I immediately fell for was this pattern, which was for a tablecloth in the original.  However, instead of cotton thread, I went for some grey alpaca I've had sitting around since I left Colorado--it's a thick laceweight or a fine fingering weight, I think, the same weight as the black alpaca I tried several things with before settling on the cabled shawl.

It went super quickly, until about a week ago when I tried to get one more round of pattern out of the yarn I had... but then realized that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish that round.  So I had to frog back to the beginning of the previous pattern repeat.  I had, for once, put in a lifeline at that place because I did know going in that I might not have enough yarn.  So this wasn't the worst thing in the world.  It just meant doing it, and although I'm sometimes too quick to frog things, when I know I have to do it I sometimes don't want to do it.

But, a few nights ago I did, and then I went on a rush to finish off the last set of pattern rows.  This involved in the end a complicated crocheted bind-off, which I finished this afternoon.  So now...

... it's blocking.  Again I got to use my cool blocking wires for the straight edge, although since the sides of this shawl are sort of scalloped a little bit I didn't use the wires for that.

Looking at what people have done with this on ravelry, I decided to imitate one alteration; the original pattern (aside from being square, which just means that I only did half of it) had a wider band of that open lattice pattern between the last leaves and those scalloped bits on the outer edge (not sure if this link works... it's pictured on page 87).  I decided I prefered this look, at least for a shawl.

The third thing is the green cardigan.  Again, this went quite quickly at first, but once I got to the armhole part, things slowed down.  First, I started the armholes too soon, and then frogged most of one front in order to make the body a little longer.  Second, I finished a whole front side and the back, but at that point I decided to see if I liked the armhole as shaped.  And I didn't.  It was far, far too big and gapey, given the way the fabric is likely to block out.

And so, here's where I am, and I'm about to be even less than this because I made a mistake on the armhole shaping again and want to redo it.

After all that, kind of boring.  I will say this:  I love the combination of yarn and stitch pattern, I really do.  I think the simple lattice is just enough interest without competing with the slight variegation of the yarn.  I think I'm really going to like the sweater once it's finished.  My plan is to do garter stitch button bands along the fronts, and actually possibly a garter stitch band around the bottom, too--I thought about doing that as I started, but ended up being uncertain whether it's what I wanted.  I now think it is.

I'm still a little uncertain about what kind of neckline to do.  I think a round one will work best, with again perhaps a garter stitch band.  But that might change as I again tackle the fronts.

Other updates?  Well, I have sabbatical next year, which means that I'm heading back to Moscow, and to charming landlady E, in almost exactly a month, assuming my visa comes through.  Before that I need to pack up all my belongings and move them into storage (I'm hiring people for the moving part, but not all of the packing part).  This is making me eat strangely, because I'm trying to use up whatever's in my freezer and pantry, and not to buy too much replacement stuff.  I won't be in Russia the whole year, but when I'm not there (which will be a while this summer, and then next winter and spring) I'll be in Chicago, or at least so goes the current plan.  So, a whole slate of new things to blog about.  Perhaps I'll get my blogging mojo back.  We'll see.

And one more thing, just because it's annoying me.  My DVD player just stopped working.  It's standby light is on, but pressing buttons either on the remote or on the player itself does nothing.  It was a super cheap DVD player, but I'm annoyed because there's still a DVD in it.  Humpf.  Disassembly, ho, I guess.