ASJ Pockets Progress

Our trip to the wool festival the other weekend inspired me to haul my Adult Surprise Jacket out and work on the pockets.

It was a combination of being surrounded by all that wool and knowing that if the pockets had done I could have worn it to the fair.

Well, maybe not as it was threatening to rain on Saturday and did rain on Sunday so a rain coat was the way to go...but the potential had been there.

I'm going with the construction EZ gives in the pattern for an afterthought pocket. On the right you see the flap for the first pocket knit and waiting to be sewn down. On the left I'm working on picking up the stitches for the second pocket.

This method requires cutting the fabric of the finished sweater, which might give you some insight into why I've been dragging my feet.

When I settled down to do the task it wasn't as bad as I expected. Perhaps I had selected a "sticky" section of yarn to place the pocket because all hell did not break loose when I snipped the strand.

I was able to carefully pluck the yarn out of the stitches while placing the newly live stitches on double pointed needles.

There was a false start because I messed up the increases she recommends, which can only be expected when you knit while watching TV. When I saw the pocket was going sideways I just ripped it out and worked increases at the beginning and end of every knit row. Heck, it's a pocket. No one should be looking at it.

I knit the first pocket to be about a deep as my iPhone is long on the assumption that I will mainly be dropping my iPhone in it. Also, that should be a good depth for a curled up hand. Actually, any longer and it would have gotten dangerously close to the bottom of the sweater.

You will note I typed "the first pocket." The second pocket is still in the state you see it in the picture. Which is to say a state of potentiality waiting for the rest of the stitches to be picked up and knit. I seem to remember we were watching something good on TV and the stitch transfer was too fiddly so I put it aside.

I really should finish it. But today the temperature has jumped up into the mid-70s F. Not really sweater weather. Did you hear that rushing sound my motivation made as it went by?

Down the Clay Button Rabbit Hole

You may remember that when I finished my Adult Surprise Jacket I was a little stuck for buttons.

Don't worry if you don't remember it was several months ago.

Anyway. I worked the button holes recommended in the pattern, which are over three or four stitches. At a gauge of 3.5 stitches to the inch they are some big button holes, which means I needed big buttons.

Also, it's such a colorful sweater I knew they'd have to be either really boring buttons to not compete or really fancy buttons to hold their own.

At the time the women in the library knitting group suggested I get some Fimo clay and make my own buttons.

Of course at the time I laughed because I don't do those kinds of crafts. But the idea got into my head and I mulled it over on a regular basis.

Mulling led to watching many videos on YouTube which led to me believing that I could make buttons if I put my mind to it.

By the time I came to that conclusion it was after Michael's had a sale on clay. Not only did I miss the sale but their supplies were pretty devastated.

It wasn't really a problem in the end since I just wanted the primary colors along with black and white. I wasn't looking to make a big investment. After all, I just needed 5 buttons and didn't know if I would be successful or enjoy it.

As a result, instead of buying actual Fimo brand clay I bought the off-brand for $1.29 a block. It seemed to work fine, but since this is the first time I've ever used such a clay I can't really compare.

Plotting
Before plunging in I wisely took the time to consider how I wanted the buttons to look.

This led to perusing Flickr for "fimo buttons" to see what other people had done. There are a lot of pretty buttons out there!

Because of the size of my buttonholes I decided my buttons would have to be around 1" across. I also thought square buttons would be good to echo the angular stripes in the jacket.

I knew wanted some of those classic stripey buttons you see. They seemed attainable because a YouTube video from TheCraftsChannel made them look really easy.

I liked the flowers as well, but they looked harder and I didn't think I felt that ambitious.

Since a template was in order I drew several 1" x 1" squares on a piece of paper and doodled some ideas. Then I finally plunged in.

Stripes!
The first cane I made was the black/white and purple ones. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I cut a few slices off and it actually looked like it was supposed to!

All excited I showed it to Hubby. "Is that how it's supposed to look?" he asked. I confirmed it was. He said he was proud of me.

He's so supportive.

After making that first cane it was time for dinner and I wasn't able to return to the buttons for a week. It was very annoying.

But then last Saturday I woke up at 3 A.M. and couldn't fall back to sleep. In my sleep deprived state I thought it would be a good time to work on the buttons.

I made the green/yellow and blue cane. Then I made the red/purple swirl. The goal was to use as many of the colors from the jacket in the buttons as I could.

I found that it was easier than I expected, but also took longer.

I didn't invest in tools at all, just used what I had around the house, but I could see how the supplies available at the craft store would have been helpful.

For instance, the stuff I bought is labeled "non-toxic" but I didn't want it on food prep equipment. Therefore, although I was using my normal rolling pin, I was putting the clay between sheets of cling wrap.

Also, I was using a box cutter and a razor blade to do the cutting. The box cutter was fine for trimming, but the striped blocks were often longer than the razor blade forcing me to make two cuts. The people in the videos had long blades that allowed them to slice down on a block in one smooth motion.

Flowers!
Eventually, I started to get sleepy again, but I was on a roll and didn't want to have to clean up and then haul everything out again.

Perhaps because I was sleep deprived I decided to give flowers a whirl. Once again, they were easier than I anticipated.

I'm pleased with them because they are my first attempt, however I learned some things right away.

I should have made the red part of the petals thicker.

I also should have made the notch in the white part of the petal and the purple stripe that filled it deeper.

I am, however, very pleased with my black/yellow center swirl.

Oh, there's another thing, I kept making things scaled down because I didn't want to them to be huge or use up all my clay. Well, bigger is sort of better. I think you could get the details, like the purple stripe in my petals, better if you make them bigger. Then you just roll it down to the size you want. Of course that means more buttons but you don't have to bake them all at once.

A problem I had was consistency in thickness when I rolled the slabs out and when I cut slices. I think you can tell the thick/thin issue in a few of the buttons. Both problems probably stemmed from inexperience.

Buttons!
Once I finished making the four motifs I packed them together with blue clay, rolled them to smooth things out, then wrapped them.

And immediately realized I should have used a different color core for the green/yellow cane or packed it with a different color. Oh, well, too late by then.

Oh, and another reason bigger would have been better is for size consistence. First I tried to roll the other canes down to the size of the red/purple swirl. Then everything got reduced again once I was shaping the final square button.

Finally the moment of truth came. I sliced up my buttons...and was disappointed.

They were smaller than I wanted and you couldn't see the motifs well.

Since I'd already invested all that time and clay in them I had nothing to loose.

I laid them all between two pieces of cellophane and took the rolling pin to them.

Magically they expanded and the designs were more visible. Huzzah!

After working so hard on the individual motifs I decided I didn't want them obscured by holes and yarn. I rolled up some scraps, sliced it up, and made shanks for the square buttons and the two big flower buttons that were test slices. I made holes in the other test slices since they have blank spots that won't suffer from being obscured.

The square buttons look good on the jacket, if I do say so myself. They aren't all 1". I took the biggest ones for the jacket, but I'm still going to have to sew some of the button holes shut a little. I suppose that is better than having to make them bigger. And I'm totally going to put a smaller one on each pocket...once I knit pockets.

More to come?
I didn't use up all of the canes to make the square buttons. I also didn't use up all the clay in general. I've wrapped it all carefully in cellophane and a Ziplock bag to keep it from drying out.

I think I have enough buttons for now, but I'm prepared if I get the bug again.

You will not be surprised to hear that I'm trying to figure out ways to put buttons on everything now.

I'm going to make another hot water bottle cover (oh, I never told you about the first one) and I'm going to put buttons on it.

And I'm trying to figure out how to work buttons into the next Schleppy Sweater I knit.

Seriously, I created a (controllable) monster.

Pockets?

I want to put pockets on my Adult Surprise Jacket.

In the pattern EZ says not to try to position them in advance.

She suggests putting on the finished jacket, noting where your hands naturally want to go, and placing the pocket in that location.

Now that I finally have buttons (a whole other saga. Oh there have been things to blog about, I just haven't been blogging) I can get a better idea of how the jacket actually hangs.

I put it on, buttoned it up, and pretended to put my iPhone in my non-existent pocket.

Then I froze and attached stitch markers to either side.

I spent the next hour walking around trying to spontaneously put things in my pretend pockets.

I'm not sure how much I actually managed to surprise myself, but the positioning seemed to work.

Now I have to take some measurements to make sure they match in distance from the front opening and bottom hem. I might also make them just a twinge wider.

Cutting?!
I'm a little worried about the idea of cutting the sweater to make the pockets.

Pam asked why I'm going to cut if I'm scared of the idea.

I pointed out that if I don't cut I'll have to do patch pockets. Now I suppose patch pockets would work for some people. But in my matchy-matchy world they won't work.

I'm out of most of the yarns I used to knit the sweater so I can't reproduce the stripes.

And, let's be serious, the jacket is eye-catching enough as it is without patch pockets adding to the visual interest.

Done: ASJ Epic

The last end was actually woven in on Dec. 2, but as I've been caring for sick puppies I was a little too distracted to blog.

The pups are feeling better, by the way. They seemed better Wednesday during the day, but relapsed that evening after bedtime.

I went to the vet Thursday and they said it sounded like colitis, which is an inflimation of their intestines which points to something they ate.

Now they have medicine they have to take three times a day for a week. At least it sounds like something passing (no pun intended) that isn't life threatening or chronic.

Anyway, the sweater.

Sleeves, again.
I really can't harp on how narrow the sleeves are following the original pattern. Mine would have have been about 12 inches around, which would have been negative ease for me.

Even with my slick little flap they are a little snug, probably since I'm wearing them over shirts, but they seem to be streatching out a little.

When I made my little shoulder flaps I didn't think about the neckline at all. After you knit the body you go back and knit an edging that includes the front opening so extra depth it added. It worked out ok because as you knit this border you increase at the beginning of each row and that little flare fit in nicely along the edge of my shoulder flap.

Still, what I think I should have done was pick up along the entire cast on edge, instead of targeting the sleeve section.

By knitting two seperate flaps I ended up making the back neckline deeper than it should have been.

Of course now that I know how it works out if I ever make it again I'll follow the alternative directions for deeper arms.

Collared
My alterations made the neckline very open. That made it look unfinished, sloppy, and oversized when I first tried it on.

I knew some finished was required and a simple collar seemed the best bet.

The collar in the pattern seemed more about the baby size. I got out my big Vogue Knitting book and discovered that collar was basically the same.

My first attempt didn't work out because I didn't pick up stitches along the front evenly. One side went all the way down to the outside edge of the neck opening and the other side fell a few stitches short. It made the entire sweater look crooked. sigh.

I pulled it out but despite being careful still fell a stitch short on my pick up. This time I figured it was close enough.

I just picked up each stitch around and worked in garter stitch. I worked Sl1, k2, kfb, k to end on each row. Additionally on every, oh, fourth row I worked a KFB one stitch in from the corners on the back section to give the back a little more fullness for the fold over. I worked the collar for about 18 rows.

Buttons? Pockets?
Now all I need are buttons. And they are going to have to be big, honking buttons. I followed the button hole directions in the pattern, which are over four stitches and at 3.5 sts/inch they are some big button holes.

My need for buttons makes me wish I was still at Westport Yarns. Not only did we have a good selection of buttons, but I would have had a ton of advice on which one to select.

Turns out the women in the library knitting group are as much of a bad influence as any knitters you would meet. They suggested I should make buttons out of fimo. They were like, "You could get blue and green like in your coat" and they made it sound all easy.

Of course, the big problem is now I have that idea in my head....

I think I'll also probably end up adding pockets. But I want to wait until I have buttons so I know how it will actually close.

Project Stats
Pattern: Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I have the ABC booklet with all the sizes and expanded directions.
Needles: US 10
Size: I aimed for a 35" chest.
Yarn total potential yardage: 1131

  Yarn Name                  Yardage         Amount Used
Noro Kogarashi                  165 yards            used all
Queensland Collection Sandstone 65 yards             used all
Noro Kochoran                   176 yards/100g       41g left
Queensland Collection Mist  2 at 54 yards=108 yards  used all
Ella Rae Country Tweed          82 yards             used all
Araucania Coliumo               95 yards/100g        17g left
Araucania Azapa                 147 yards/100g       17g left
Ester Bitran Tirua              163 yards/100g       34g left
Louisa Harding Millias    2 at 65 yards=130 yards    used all

Remember, if you want to see the specific yarns, I made a little map on a close up picture.

This pattern was a lot of fun. It only took me a month of concentrated knitting. Project monogamy for the win! I'm sure the big gauge helped speed me along.

I do have a desire to make another one, which is saying a lot since I'm not usually a pattern repeater. However, I'm resisting the urge.

I think my next sample yarn sweater will be a top down cardigan. On the other hand, a small project to cleanse my palate might be in order first.

Oh, Puppy Poop

Don't you hate it when life interferes with your knitting?

[Samson!]

I was really hoping to get the shoulders seamed yesterday. However, I was beside myself in a tizzy and ripping bad mood for like all damn day and it just didn't happen.

I was going to do a three needle bind off, but since I wasn't firing on all cylinders I tried to just pick up the stitches onto the needle. That quickly got too tight to continue so I abandoned it.

Then I decided I'd be bad and just whip stitch the damn thing. Hey, a three needle bind off would have left an obvious ridge, how would whip stitching be worse? But things slid out of line and the neck didn't line up with my extra shoulder flap thingy so I had to rip that out.

Finally I went back to the three needle bind off by picking up and knitting stitches onto the needle. I only got one done when it was time for dinner. After dinner I gave up all effort at appearing human and went to bed.

Hopefully today will be a better day all around (although it's starting out ugly).

Note: no knitting content ahead. Just a metric ton of whining and sick dogs.

Poor Sick Puppies
My hysteria and general emotional instability yesterday was brought on by extreme fatigue.

We came home from the in-laws' on Saturday surviving a hairy scary ride through the mountains of Vermont in the snow.

Then we ended up staying up until 1 am watching UP off our DVR. What a cute movie. We just loved Dug to pieces. He reminded us of Baru.

I was awoken at 5 or 6 am by the gentile sounds of a dog throwing up. Then Samson started running around whining, so I threw on my PJs and raced outside with him to discover he had diarrhea. The poor thing, no wonder he was frantic. At least we made it outside in time.

Sunday was spent racing outside with Samson so he could go to the bathroom and being in distress about what we could do for him. He was, happily, still in good spirits, which was a good sign it was just an upset belly and not something more serious. To add to our puzzlement, Baru seemed fine despite the fact they eat the same thing.

Until dinner time, that is, when he pooped all over the bathroom. gag! At the time I thought it was because we never walked him properly. Oh, we took him out to pee, but we were so focused on Samson that we didn't really give poor Baru time to do anything else. In hindsight the bathroom incident was an indication Baru had the same stomach bug.

After we went to bed Sunday, Samson woke me up at 2 am and 5 am because he needed to go out. Seriously, he woofed. Hubby slept through all this, but I was delirious all day Monday because I hadn't had a good night's sleep in ages. I was also stressed out about the pups. I knew the combination was setting me up for a migraine, which just added to the stress.

[Baru!]

I called the vet and they said it sounded like the pups had just eaten something that didn't agree with them and would take 2 or 3 days to work through their systems. sigh.

By 9 pm I gave up and went to bed. Only to be roused by the gentle sound of a dog puking under the bed. Poor Baru was under there looking displeased. I also discovered that someone had throw up under there earlier in the day without us realizing. So I took them out and then crawled under the bed to clean it up.

By then it was 10 pm and I'd really had it up to here. So I took to aspirin and went to bed again. Hubby had been up at school working since dinner. This morning he said he came home, took Samson out, and didn't get to bed until around 1 am himself. Sounds like today is Hubby's day to be delirious.

Tuesday dawned with a migraine, as I had feared. We'd just been giving the pups rice the last few days, but decided this morning to give them a real meal to try to solidify things for them. Well, Samson was all for it. Actually, Samson has been showing signs of hunger all along, which was comforting. But when I called Baru for breakfast I heard him approaching, then he suddenly retreated. I came looking for him only to discover he'd had an accident on the bedroom floor.

sigh.

The problem is that unlike Samson Baru doesn't communicate when he needs to go out. He never learned to ring the bell like Samson does. Starting the morning cleaning up puppy poop isn't very fun, but how can you be mad at the poor things when you know they are sick? And can I add that we live in on old place so the windows are really bitchy hard to open. There I am desperatly scrabbling at the sash and storm window to let in some fresh air and the damn thing won't move. Really, it hasn't been pretty around here.

After cleaning that up I took them out. Not that Baru had to go any more....Samson seems on the mend. Baru was in high spirits. Even after I dragged him into the bath tub to rinse his fluffy butt off. eeewww. And he at his breakfast.

I resorted to a powerful migraine pill and we all laid down again. Now I'm finally feeling better and the pups are crashed out on our bed sleeping. Hopefully, for all our sakes, they'll get through this soon.

ASJ: The Hard Part

Despite my best effort to knit in the ends as I worked I still ended up with about 24 ends to weave in when I was done.

Since I was changing colors every 10 rows I knew I'd have a lot of ends to weave in at the end. Fortunately that realization hit me with the first color change and I immediately too steps to head the ends off at the pass.

Now, I learned how to weave in ends as I knit during a Lucy Neatby class at Knitting Central but I think this blog post shows the technique pretty well. There are a lot of pictures so if you're on dial-up you might get bogged down.

On the row I changed colors I would weave the color I was dropping. I would knit back on the next row normally. Then on the third row from the color change I would weave in the end of the new color. That way I quickly eliminated both ends. ha!

If I was so conscientious how did I end up with 24 ends to contend with? Simple. Things went south when I started running out of yarn. I was changing colors on right (public) side rows, but if I ran out on a wrong (private) side I just rolled with it. I find I can't do the knit-in-ends thing on the wrong side; the yarn is in the wrong place for me.

The Edging
A number of the ends were concentrated at the bottom right (on the body) corner. For some reason I couldn't weave there either.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture but I did end up changing yarn every two rows.

When it is time to work the final edging/border you knit across the last center flap row, then pick up stitches along one side of the flap, knit back down, across the bottom of the flap, and up the other side.

I thought this was going to be a really dreadful process because I don't like picking up stitches, but it turned out to be really easy. When I sat down to do it I reminded myself that it was going to be just like picking up along my beloved garter stitch heel flap, which is really simple. Just go for the strand in between the garter ridges. yippee!

Anyway. Since you go up and down one side before working the other side your stripes could end up uneven. As you know I'm a little neurotic about being matchy-matchy. Therefore I knit up and down the first side, across the flap, up and down the second side, and across the flap, stopping at the bottom corner where the row started. In this manner I got two rows of the color on each side.

Insert happy sigh here.

Pick Up Line
Oh, and the other cranky thing I did with the edging was picking up the left hand side (on the body) purlwise.

The right hand side picked up from the public side, which was just fine. But when I knit back around to the left side I was picking up from the private side of the work. This made an icky ridge on the public side.

Now it might have blended in with the garter stitch fabric, and it might have been covered by the button band, but either way I would know it was there! So I pulled that side out and picked it up again purlwise then went back to working garter. This made one little stockinette row so there is a blip in the fabric, but it's going to be covered by the button band. Also, no one should be close enough to the sweater to see it aside from Hubby and the puppies.

And if someone does see it I think it will be more attractive than the blobby edge from the first time around.

My new concern is that I didn't work a deep enough edging. The pattern says to work the button holes after two ridges then to work 4-5 more ridges. Well, I got so caught up in changing colors every two rows that when I worked the Noro Kogarashi rows (which is the yarn I cast on with) I got so excited I cast off. This was actually only three ridges after the button holes.

Part of me says this is going to be fine since it's basically just the button band. The button holes have been placed and that will dictate how much I have to work with when closing it. Still, I'm not going to cut that last yarn until I can try it on.

Which brings us back to another hard part.

Weaving in the ends went very quickly last night. phew. Now I just have to close the arm seams. I'm really happy there are just two seams since I don't like finishing much. I think I'll go with a three needle bind off. I just have to select the color to use.

At this rate I might have finished project pictures to show you tomorrow!

ASJ Near Final

This is what my Adult Surprise Jacket looks like as I'm knitting. A strange, amorphous blob.

It's also rather big and heavy, which is kind of OK with the chilly weather arriving. When I'm knitting it I don't need a blanket on me.

I'm in the final push now, but although I'm very close to finishing I'm also still very far away.

Now I have to pick up around the perimeter from one orange stitch holder, down the side to the needle, across the bottom and up the side to the other orange stitch holder.

I shudder to think how many stitches that is going to be.

The two flaps sticking up at the top of the picture are not involved. Those are the sleeves.

Not seeing it? Well, maybe this picture will help. This is what it looks like folded up proper.

I'll be picking up stitches from one side of the neck opening, all the way down and around to the other side.

Sleeves!
Since you have no perspective you probably can't tell the arms are 3/4 length at this point.

I left the body and worked on the sleeves for a while in an effort to get in as many colors as I could. This led to me using up the rest of the rest of the turquoise Mist and the dark green Millias. They will not be reappearing in the body. I'm ok with that. Part of the idea of this jacket is to have uneven stripes. (right? right?) And to me it was more important to have the sleeves tie in.

I might make the sleeves longer depending on how much yarn I have left in the end.

They do fit a little better with the addition of the little flap. Not perfect, but I have faith they will stretch.

Flummoxed
The body length is below my butt. The body will get a bit longer because now since I will be picking up around the edge and knitting for a few more rows, which will also close the fronts more.

For all my claims about welcoming uneven stripes I am probably over thinking the edging.

At this point I have the Ella Rae Country Tweed on the needles. I think I'll go ahead and use that for picking up along the edge. For all I know I have such a large territory to cover the Country Tweed will be exhausted on that one row.

If I stay in sequence the next yarn I should use is the blue Araucania Coliumo. On the one hand I like this because it will bring in those bright colors from the top to the bottom. On the other hand, it will also double up on those bright colors at the top.

Part of me is saying I should go back to the Noro Kogarashi that I cast on with. Finish how I started. However, if I make th sleeves longer the Kogarashi is technically the next yarn in line. Of course it might be cool if I could end both the body and the sleeves on the same yarn. Only I don't think I have enough left for that.

Part of me is saying to throw caution to the wind and finish the stripe sequence at the bottom. At this point it would be the blue Coliumo, the bright green Araucania Azapa, and the multi colored Ester Bitran Tirua.

But that is dangerous because the longer I knit the body the longer my final perimiter will be. And boy howdy will I be ticked off if I run out of yarn and have to tear back a bunch of knitting to harvest yarn so I can finish.

I wish there was a way to know how much more I can knit with the yarn I have.

Another part of me, but I'm ignoring it, thinks I should use all the colors in the edging by working just two rows with each of them. For all I know I'll start running out of yarn and have to do that anyway.

It's high drama here. If I'm lucky I'll finish this over the weekend, but I'm not holding my breath.

ASJ Leaps and Bounds

Two things to start.

First: I have got to get better about blogging more regularly! When I don't I feel the need to catch up on all that I've missed and that way lies madness and procrastination.

Second: Seriously? I haven't blogged since I swapped the Millais for the Silky Wool XL? That was, like, 116 rows ago. Ok, I checked and it was also almost two weeks ago, which is a lot of knitting time when you are practicing project monogamy and using chunky (3.5 sts/inch) yarn.

But it also brings us back to my first point.

No Issues
Things have been moving along smoothly with my ASJ since I made the yarn swap. Perhaps that is why I haven't been blogging. Who among us would not rather be knitting instead of writing about knitting?

There was one minor moment of ennui after I had increased back up to my original cast on stitch count and put the end stitches on holders. I thought it was going to be time to move on to the center flap, but then re-read the pattern and saw I had to continue increasing.

I had a moment of "uh-oh, that's a lot of garter stitch" but the color changes helped pull me through. And, really, it's just mindless garter stitch. Talk about auto-pilot knitting.

I did waffle a bit over the wording in the pattern at this point. It says to continue working the increases at A & B until you reach the next target number. For some reason I suddenly decided it meant to work only one increase. Fortunately I realized that would be silly before I did any damage. Of course you need to continue making two increases. The outside edge needs to grow because it's making the fronts of the cardigan.

Armed for Trouble
When the sweater was a decent size, probably the size in the top photo, I could no longer stand the suspense and had to try it on.

I used locking stitch markers to clip the arm seams shut and tried it on. At that point it reached my waist. This helped me decide how much longer I had to knit the center flap (I'm aiming for around 23"). The body is going to fit with a nice amount of ease. Sure the fronts were a bit shy at this point, but I'll be adding to them later.

The arms, however, are a different story. They are a bit snug. There are directions in the pattern for increasing the armhole depth, but I didn't follow them because I'm small. This, of course, was ignoring the fact that I have pudgy upper arms. sigh.

Since it was too late to turn back, I decided to jury-rig it. I debated knitting a narrow strip to sew into the sweater, but that would have been an extra seam to worry about. And I wasn't sure what color to use.

Then it suddenly occurred to me I could just pick up along the case on edge and knit the flap from there. I was debating over color still when I realized if I use the Noro Kogarashi I had started with no one would every know.

I'm not sure what this will do to the neck opening. It might make it hang low in the back or it could balance out and be fine. As soon as I was done and laying in bed I realized I should probably have just picked up along the entire length rather than just along the arms, but by then I'd already cut the yarn so I wasn't going to start changing things.

Depleting Resources
Which basically brings us up to date on my progress.

Oops, I told myself I'd break it all up into smaller posts. Oh well. Danger of falling behind.

At this point the length is about 22" or 23". I have used up all the Sandstone, the denim blue Mist, and the purple Millais. The turquoise Mist and the dark green Millais are not long for this world.

Therefore I've put the bottom edge on a holder and jumped to the sleeves.

As it stands the sleeves are only elbow length. Kind of goofy on a jacket that is butt length. Since I don't want to end up with single color sleeves I'm going to knit the 10" needed to get them to my wrists in order to maximize the stripe possibilities then return to the body. The goal is to use up as much of the yarn as possible since I don't want wee scraps laying around.

If I start running out of yarn after knitting the sleeves it will be an easy matter to harvest some of the yarn from the body.

Epic, ASJ: I'm Increasing!

There is no point in trying to get a decent picture because it's a rainy, miserable day here in NH.

I didn't move to NH to get rained on. Where is my snow!? I was promised snow!

Anyway. I finished the decrease section much more quickly than I anticipated. Or maybe it's that I reached the increase section sooner than anticipated. Either way, I'm working my way back out to my original cast on number.

I can't decide if I'm actually progressing as quickly as I think I am or if it is just an optical illusion because of the stripes. "Oh, look, I must be knitting fast because it's time to change colors again!"

Yarn Hurdle Surmounted
I know you're just dieing to hear how I sorted out the issue with the off gauge yarn yesterday.

Well, I did a little bitty swatch with the yarn doubled. Really, it was so small it was an insult to swatches everywhere. For this reason it seemed like I got 3.5 stitches per inch with the yarn doubled. That made no sense at all, but I figured I roll with it. (Or would that be knit with it?)

I worked two rows and decided it was time to stop lying to myself. I didn't have enough rows to measure the gauge again, but I knew something was wrong. The new rows felt much bulkier than the previous rows. They were also a little more firm. Basically, they stood out like a sore thumb.

Before the situation could escalate to catastrophic proportions I put down my knitting and made a move.

I dragged all the bulky KFI yarn out onto the porch to find an appropriate substitute.

Now, like I said, I had that blue and red Sandstone which would work, but I really prefer it with the red top down sweater yarns. However, I did through the brownish Sandstone into that mix so it could marinate.

I was back to square one.

Then I stumbled across the swatches I'd made from the Louisa Harding Millias which I was going to make into a blanket. Well, I decided several days ago to stop fooling myself on the blanket front. So I frogged those bad boys and reallocated them to the ASJ!

I already knew I liked the yarn since I'd swatched with it. The purple one was a good color sub for the purple Silky Wool XL and the greenish black one works toward the end of the line where the yarns go all blue and green. Things were a bit bright down there anyway.

And the yardage of both balls is about equal to what I lost removing the Silky Wool XL.

Huzzah! Back on track.

As I started knitting I realized another reason the Millias is a better fit is because the construction is similar to the yarns I've already used. It has an open, fluffy feel to it where the SWXL is a dense, crunchy yarn. That might have been another reason it wasn't working for me in this project. Especially coming right on the heels of the Mist yarn.

Which is a good reminder that texture is as important a consideration as color.

More Reallocation
Since I was being all energized and efficient, I also moved the three balls of SWXL to the worsted weight bag AND moved them on my spiffy yardage spreadsheet as well.

There's something to be said for this being organized business.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my knitting!

Epic, ASJ: Like Potato Chips

I can't stop knitting it!

I'm totally obsessed and don't want to stop. In fact the only reason I'm blogging is because I don't want to get to far behind and one of my yarns is giving me gauge issue. (More on that later.)

Changing yarns every 10 rows was totally the right decision. I think that is part of the reason I can't put it down. Another reason, of course, is all the pretty yarn I'm using. Finally, it's a simple enough pattern.

In The Morning Light
I have to admit, I did not feel this way when I started. I lost a little momentum with the stealth knitting I had to do. This caused me to cast on the ASJ and put it aside for two days.

When I finally started knitting on Friday it was a rainy, gloomy day. We were watching TV so the living room wasn't well lit. And I was working with dark yarn and couldn't see the color changes very well.

This combined to cause me to think, "Ho hum. Miles of garter stitch. What have I gotten myself into." I knit around 20 rows, two yarns, before bed.

Saturday morning brought some weak sunshine. The pups and I trooped out to the porch to get a picture of my progress and BAM! I fell in love.

Look at how well those colors go together. In the dark living room they looked the same, but in the sunlight I could see the contrast.

The sunlight also revealed the color changes in the Noro that are in addition to the color changes I'm making by switching yarn. It all became very exciting.

So in the pictures the outside edge is Noro Kogarashi. This new yarn comes in 10 colors and is a blend of 51% silk and 49% wool. I have #10—Purple, Turquoise, Hot Pink. Like most Noro yarns it has a rustic feel to the structure, which brings out the softness of the silk without out any of the crunchiness. I like soft silk yarn and I like crunchy silk yarn, so this totally works for me. Since it's the start of my Adult Surprise Jacket the rows are longer and are almost drawing each color change out in separate sections.

The second yarn is Queensland Collection Sandstone. Another new yarn, this 53% Wool 47% Acrylic blend comes in eight colors. I'm using #8—Pale Peach, Hunter. This loosely spun yarn is composed of multiple strands of (at least) three different colors plied together. In this case it's green, tan, and brown. Since all three colors are throughout the ball the color has interest and depth without abrupt changes. The yarn structure also goes a little bit thick and thin, but it leveled out nicely in my sweater. The smoothness of it was a nice contrast to the rustic Noro as I was knitting.

Racing Along
As you can see in the first picture, I was already plunging into my third ball of yarn. In fact, as I write this I'm ready to start my fifth ball already.

That isn't the best picture, I took it with my cell phone. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be more pictures before I'm done.

The third yarn, right after the green Sandstone, is Noro Kochoran in color #83—Black, Purple, Burgandy. You might be familiar with this 50% Wool, 30% Angora, and 20% Silk blend yarn since it is already on the market. My color is one of six new colors introduced this season. It introduced a sudden bright spot to lighten up the jacket. The fuzz of the angora also livened it up with a new texture. Once again, the length of my rows brought the colors up in blocks, adding more variety to my stripes.

I like the black stripe, which I wasn't expecting, and think it and the following salt-and-pepper stripe make and interesting segue into the Queensland Collection Mist, which is the last yarn I knit. This new yarn is a 60% Wool, 40% Acrylic blend that comes in eight colors. I'm using color #2-Denim. Later in this sweater I'll be using #7 - Soft Turquoise and I have a ball of #5 - Tropical Brights squirreled away for the top-down sweater I'm going to make in shades of red.

Anyway. Mist is another softly spun yarn with a thick and thin texture. The size variation is much more than that found in the Sandstone. In fact, working with them side by side like this, I'd call the Mist slubby. The color variation that you see is caused by two strands—a shiny one and a matte one—that both shade from white to dark blue. It's very pretty and makes me curious to see what the other colorways are going to do. Because of the greater difference in the size between the thick and thin portions, and the shortening length of my rows, there is an interesting texture to the Mist section. The thick/thin portions lined up in little parallelograms.
Happily, it's not effecting my gauge.

Change Is The Spice of Knitting?
I instituted changing yarns every tenth row in order to blend the colors a little better and not end up with sleeves a totally different color from the body of the sweater. The unforeseen benefit is the excitement this adds to the process.

Before I have a chance to even think about getting tired of a yarn it's time to change! At this point every yarn is new and interesting. As I continue and they start repeating they will remain fresh. It's totally keeping me awake.

The shaping in the pattern is helping as well. This pattern is making me realize I really like those visual clues about my progress. That is probably one of the reasons I like socks so much and get bored with scarves so quickly.

A scarf is just one endless continuation of the same pattern with little indication of how far you've come and how much further you need to go. A sock, however, has all those turns and bends. This many rows of ribbing, this length for the leg, then on to the exciting heel flap and turn, and finally coast down the gusset to the toe. Socks are just riddled with landmarks.

Well, so is the ASJ, so far. I have to decrease at each marked point until I've decreased away 80 sts total. Combined with my color changes every 10 rows it's fairly easy to track my progress. wheeee!

Check back on me in a few days when all the decreasing and increasing is done and I'm just knitting straight on the central flap. We'll see how quickly my tune has changed.

Stalled
But I have to over come a little hurdle before I get there.

The next yarn in line is Elsebeth Lavold's new Silky Wool XL. I was looking forward to using this 80% Wool and 20% Silk blend since I have some of the original DK version. Also, the deep purple color, which is #11 out of 12, was going to return me to the darker shades I'd started with.

But my gauge is off. The ball band says you can get from 3.75 to 4.5 stitches per inch depending on your needle. I'm sticking with the US10 I've been using all along and got 4 sts/inch. The only reason I stopped to swatch was because the yarn felt thinner than the others I'd been using. On it's own I think the yarn at this gauge would be fine, although I personally would probably go for a little smaller gauge for a straight sweater. However, in combination with my other yarns I'm afraid it will make a thin spot in my ASJ.

If I drop it entirely I'll be down 100 yards of yarn, which could cause issues later on. Well, I guess I'd have to make the body and sleeves a little shorter. My other option is to review my other sample balls and substitute one of them in it's place. I have a Sandstone in #4—Blue, Red, which I had allocated to the top-down sweater. I could use it here instead, but it has less yardage.

Decisions, decisions. I think I'll swatch with the Silky Wool held doubled to see if I get gauge. If it works it will reduce my yardage, but it will also cause less disruption to my plans.

Epic, ASJ: Sleeve Considerations

Yesterday I said I was just going to knit every ball of yarn with out fussing about distributing the stripes in any special way.

However, I'm backtracking on that statement.

The pattern, as written, apparently makes a short sleeve coat. To make the sleeves longer, after you've knit and cast off the body, you pick up stitches along the edges of the sleeves and knit down.

I occurred to me that if I just knit through every ball by the time I get to working the sleeves the only yarn I might have left are the two straight green ones.

It will be very jarring to have a mostly purple coat with green sleeves.

I'm debating how to get around this problem.

One option would be to knit half, or some portion, of each of the large balls into the body and retain the remainder for the sleeves. The issue there might be that I leave too much yarn for the sleeves and then end up with leftovers.

Another option is to work full on stripes. Maybe 10 rows or so in each color in the order I had settled on. This would make an even distribution of the colors and I wouldn't have to worry so much about leftovers.

It's not really an issue yet since all I managed to do last night is cast on. And I don't foresee getting to work on it tonight because I have some stealth knitting that has to take priority.

This all means I have some time to ruminate on it. But, after seeing it in black and white, I think I'm leaning toward stripes.

Post In Which I Confirm My (Knitting) Insanity

As though you still have any doubt regarding that matter.

I'm going knit an Elizabeth Zimmermann Adult Surprise Jacket.

I don't know anyone in person who has knit one, but I'm not going to let that stop me.

I do know people who have knit a Baby Surprise Jacket, but I've never knit one myself.

The pattern booklet I have that includes directions for the Adult, Baby, and Child versions suggests you knit a BSJ first to get the hang of it. But that seems awfully sensible and smacks of swatching, so I'm not going to.

Since May
This is not a decision I've come to lightly, and I don't think it should be approached on a whim.

For those people not surprised with the pattern...you cast on and knit it in one piece. As you work, it is an amorphous, amoeba-like blob that doesn't remotely resemble a sweater. Not until you are done and do a little "origami magic" does the sweater appear. It's a leap of faith pattern because you can't really try it on as you go along.

No, I didn't think of this idea last night. I've had this idea in mind since I received that massive box of KFI sample yarn back in May.

Once I realized it was mostly single balls I thought, "What the heck am I going to do with it all?" Because, really, I was only fooling myself with that whole swatch blanket idea. I don't make afghans. And I don't like working single sampler blocks. Which is why that project has died a horrible death.

Really, don't we all prefer to be actually making something? To have a finished item as the goal? I thought so.

It seems to me the ASJ is the ultimate Hoard busting project. Indeed, the pattern booklet even says, "As true knitters you may have boxes of leftover wools of about the same weight."

Prep Work
Hubby was shocked to see me vacuuming last night. However, it was a necessary first step before I could sort my yarn out on the floor.

I spent a couple hours last night sorting all my yarn by weight according to the recommended gauge on the ball band.

Then I made myself a little spread sheet of gauge, yardage, and how many balls I had. I've entered most, but not all, of this yarn into my Ravelry stash, but didn't think I'd be able to get the info I needed easily because I forgot about the export feature until just this very moment.
sigh.

Oh well, I would have had to clean it up and delete stuff to get to what I wanted.

Anyway.

I discovered that I can make several crazy colored sweaters in DK, worsted, and chunky weight. And by that I mean, I can probably make at least two sweaters in each weight.

wowza.

I decided to go with the chunky yarn for the ASJ, which required sorting the pile of chunky yarn by color to see if I can really pull this off.

The pile in the top picture is composed of purple, blue, and green yarn that seemed to harmonize. I have a second pile of red and orange yarn. That might become just a top down cardigan in the traditional try it on as you go style. A third, much, much smaller pile is browns and greys. Not sure what I'll do with those. Maybe the swatch blanket will be revived after all.

If things go well with the ASJ I'm thinking I might sort the DK yarns and make myself and crazy striped Schleppy Sweater.

I've organized the yarn into the color sequence I want. I think I'll just work through each ball and not try to do stripes by using part of it and saving part of it for further in the jacket.

Charged Up
For some reason I am so excited about this project that I couldn't sleep last night!

I spent time this morning adding suggested needle sizes to my spreadsheet, because I didn't think of it last night. Then I had to fuss with the order I'll use the yarn.

It's going to be Epic!

Now I have to wind the hanks that need to be wound. I should probably also swatch. grr. Then I can do the math and get started.