Girly Top: Two More Rows

That's it!

I just have to work two more rows on the collar, bind off, and I'm done!

Well, except for crocheting around the neck opening to stabilize it...

and attaching two buttons...

and weaving in the rest of the ends from the body seams.

But, aside from that stuff, I'm basically done.

Yes, I know it seems silly to have stopped knitting when I was so close. And believe me, I considered powering through and staying up past my bedtime if necessary to finish.

But I'd spent time online yesterday harassing other knitters about remembering to rest when they felt pain, so I decided to follow my own advice.

This combination of the cotton yarn on the Addi Turbos in a pattern just kills my hands.

I was fine for the plain stockinette stitch portions, but the way I use my fingers to manipulate the stitches while working the smocking and ribbing apparently causes stress.

Last night I kept having to stop after working two or three rows, stretch my hands, shake them, maybe wander around the house for a bit.

I could tell it wasn't wise to keep pushing myself.

I have to imagine I'll be able to get through these two rows and the bind off tonight without a problem, though.

Then I have to decide on buttons. I just need two.

I was looking through my meager button collection back when I started the sweater and I might have some that will work.

On the other hand, we used to have little rhinestone ones at the store. They could be cute if they aren't too flashy.

The button decision could delay the true finish until this weekend.

Girly Top: Forward, Collar

Finally managed to pick up the correct number of stitches last night.

Took about another hour, which is just pathetic. But in my defense I was watching TV, again, and kept stopping to actually watch the show. Then I would say, "oh, my goodness!" and get back to my knitting.

Anyway. I decided that I liked the look my work on the first neck edge (which is actually what you see in the picture). So I put a stitch marker after that batch of stitches.

Most of the back neck looked good as well, however it turned out I didn't pick up enough stitches, so I put a stitch marker at the area that could be fiddled.

The second neck edge was a lost cause.

It helped to realize I didn't have to squeeze all three missing stitches into the one neck edge. I was able to redistribute them across part of the back and the front.

Perhaps my method is too hit or miss.

Quadrants
Then, of course, the section of "Sweater Design in Plain English" I read this morning covered picking up stitches.

Righetti suggests dividing the section in half, then each half into halves. She points out it is easier to pick up a smaller number of stitches evenly across a smaller area.

And I went, duh. Because, of course, I knew that trick, and have applied it in the past. I just...forgot.

It seemed like such a smooth easy yarn I was working with. And the pattern even indicates how many stitches to pick up on each section of the neckline.

I was lulled into a false sense of security.

Collar Time
Hubby called me for dinner just as I was working my first few actual rows of the collar. I was also in the last few minutes of my show. But I halted both activities and tumbled downstairs.

It was just as well. After we finished eating I looked at my work and decided it looked too loose.

I was working on my US 4 needle when the smocking section on the body was worked on the US 3.

Switching straight to the smaller needle might have made and unpleasant and obvious change to the gauge. To avoid it I ripped back the three rows I'd worked by using the US 3 to pick up the first real row of knitting then pulling the US 4 out.

It was sort of slow going, but I didn't want to risk yanking the needle out, having stitches drop everywhere, and starting over again with picking up the stitches.

I was able to get back to the point where I could work the first few repeats of row 3 (which is the wrap row for the smocking) before bedtime.

The shame of it is there are only around 16 rows in the collar, from what I remember, so loosing those three rows of work was actually a significant percentage in this case.

I'm not going to worry about it, however, because it's only Wednesday and I've still got plenty of time.

My Apple!
A few weeks ago my mom and aunt came to town for a fund raising event for the Red Cross that featured chocolate dishes from local restaurants.

My aunt bid on, and won, an auction item. Which meant it was up to me to retrieve it for her.

Their office hours collided with my office hours, so the lady kindly agreed to meet me at 8 am today.

I was hoping to just leave the house for the day, but it turns out I'm not that coordinated in the morning.

Instead I had to leave then come home 10 minutes later to pack my lunch.

Of course this sent the puppies into a tizzy.

As I defended myself from Samson, I grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl, crossed the kitchen to put it on the counter next to the sink, then crossed back to the other side of the room.

I didn't even realize the apple had rolled off the counter until I saw Baru running victory laps with it in his mouth.

He must have made four or five laps before I said, "I see you, Baru." Then he settled down in the green room and devoured his prize.

Samson was so busy dancing around me that he missed the entire thing.

There was another half apple in the bowl. Instead of eating it, I handed it over to Samson. I was intending to feed it to the pups anyway. It was cut a few days ago and was getting brown.

So instead of a nice piece of fruit for lunch, I have a lame spinach "salad," which is just spinach with dressing since I didn't have time to make a full salad.

sigh

Girly Top: Neck Pain

Have I mentioned how much I dislike picking up stitches along an edge? Especially a neck edge.

Oh, I have? Several times?

Well, I'm not surprised because I really don't like it.

First, it's so loosey-goosey. Oh, maybe pick up each stitch, or every other stitch, whatever seems right.

I don't want it to "seem right!" I want a formula! I want to be able to pick them up correctly the first time, every time.

But that is not my fate.

My fate is to struggle with it for over an hour and still not have it right.

Yes, I know for a fact it was over an hour because we were watching Heroes, which we had recorded. It was a little difficult to watch the show and my knitting, which might have been part of the problem, but both had to be accomplished.

I considered working on my Green Step Sock instead, but the week is drawing to a close. (Yes, I know it's only Tuesday.) It would be a shame to have come so far, so fast, on my Ravelympics project only to fail now.

Anyway.

It took me several attempts to get the required number of stitches picked up along the first neck edge.

The back of the neck was a little easier since it is a straight line and mostly one-for-one.

Then I tried to copy the first edge for the second edge and it didn't quite work out. I was three stitches short of the required number.

Which might be a pattern repeat, but I'm not going there. I'm going to squeeze them in somehow.

By the time I'd gotten that far it was 10:30, i.e. bedtime, so I shoved it into my project bag in disgust, tossed it on the dresser, and pulled the covers over my head.

Hopefully with fresher eyes tonight after work I'll be able to spot any gappy spots.

Hopefully I won't have to go all the way back to the beginning.

grrr.

Girly Top: "Sew" Delightful

Do you see that?

It's actually starting to look like a real sweater!

Very exciting.

What is also exciting is how quickly I was able to seam it up.

Let's see, according to my Twitter timeline, I was able to set-in both sleeves during one marathon 3 hour session Friday night. With, apparently, breaks for playing on the computer and probably dinner.

Then I got both side and sleeve seams done in bursts on Saturday, in between gallivanting across the countryside with Hubby and going to the movies, finishing around 11 pm.

Now, maybe that doesn't sound fast to you, but I'm sure it usually takes me much longer to sew up a sweater.

I don't know if it's because it's a little, short sleeved thing or because it had full on selvedge stitches, but I think it went together a treat.

Not the Voice of Experience
It's not like I've made a million sweaters, but I'm pretty sure this is the first one I've made with a legitimate selvedge stitch.

And by that I mean not just assuming the first and last stitches will be eaten by the seam. This pattern calls for the first and last stitch to be knit on every row, making a garter stitch column up the sides.

This greatly reduced the fussing involved of squishing the edge out while trying to find the ladder to grab for the mattress stitch.

I was just able to bounce from side to side, boom, boom, boom. Because they were right there obvious.

Now I want all my sweater patterns to be like this.

On the other hand, like I said, it is a short sleeve top, so that might be helping.

No Zipper Required
Another exciting turn of events is that I'm going to be able to skip the zipper.

The pattern calls for a zipper down the left side for ease of entry, I suppose.

I saw someone on Ravelry who said she was able to get the sweater on and off without it and it gave me hope.

I figured I had nothing to loose since I was sitting there sewing it up anyway. If it worked I could move ahead. If it didn't I would be stalled. I was already plotting finding out how much the tailor at our dry cleaner would charge. Happily it didn't come to that.

After all, since the bottom section of my sweater was technically sized for a person who would take a 34 inch bust I expected to have wiggle room.

And it worked! Yippee!

After I got both sides sewn up I slithered into it, then bounced into the living room. Hubby got a gleem in his eye, which indicated it looked good. So I dashed up stairs to the full length mirror and saw it fits quite well.

Now I just have to get through the collar.

Open Wide
I was still rather concerned about how open the neck line is looking, so I took it into the store Sunday.

We looked at the picture and decided the smocking is going to both draw it in and fill it in, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

I got hardly any work done on it Sunday. I was being good and focused on weaving in the ends from the seams. But then it was time to watch TV, which is not conducive to either weaving ends or picking up neckline stitches, so I switched to my Green Step Sock.

The heel has been turned and the gusset picked up. Decreases here I come.

Girly Top: Getting Close

On Tuesday I wrote this long post, as I do, and when I hit the "publish" button I was redirected to the login page.

I thought that was a bad sign, but I completed the login process only to be greeted by a polite message that they could not process my request at this time.

And my post was gone. poof!

There wasn't even a draft saved.

I was so traumatized that I've been unable to blog since.

Well, that and we were closing an issue and you know how cranky and unavailable that makes me.

Shape Armhole, Shape Neck
Fortunately, I was not so traumatized that I was unable to knit!

That would have been rather disastrous to my Ravelympic aspirations.

On Tuesday I was just finished the bottom patterning and starting on the stockinette stitch portion of the body.

As of last night the knitting is basically done!

I think I have one more row to work on the shoulders, then I can three-needle bind off the front to the back.

Let the finishing commence!

Shoulder Shaping Rebellion
The pattern is not written for a three-needle bind off.

It is written with some step shaping, a traditional bind off, then sewing the shoulders together.

I rebelled against that, just worked to the required number of stitches, left them live on a holder, and cut the yarn.

I didn't even short row them. Mainly because I botched picking up the short row wraps on Nell's shoulders and I'm worried about botching them again.

Of course, now I wish I had worked the shaping since I've finally been reading my copy of Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti and have a better understand of why sweater shoulders are shaped.

Oh, well, too late now.

Actually, I might have to count rows. I might have worked rows even that should have been shaped, so I might have enough yarn to pick them out and shape them. But I wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were you.

I am a little concerned about how wide the neck opening looks when I laid it out for the picture.

I'm pretty sure I worked the neck shaping properly. It just kept saying X stitches Y times. But I went a head and worked the bind offs every other row.

I mean, you basically have to. The yarn isn't in the correct place otherwise.

My coping mechanism is reminding myself I'm going to pick up around the opening and work a little collar.

On Track
The knitting just flew along. I'm a bit surprised it only took me about seven days to knit the front.

This gives me nine days to work on sewing it together, weaving in ends, and working the collar.

This is where things get dangerous.

I don't like finishing.

I like the idea of finishing.

And I like the magic of turning these pieces into a sweater and the way the stitches suck together as I'm sewing, but the actual process doesn't appeal to me.

Also, I can't watch TV and seam a sweater at the same time, which conflicts with our evening activities.

I might have to be focused and work on the sweater when I first get home before dinner while Hubby is doing school work.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and the second green step sock is ready for its heel flap. Thanks for asking.

Bread and More Bread

Well, I wasn't getting much knitting done on my Ravelympics project for most of the day.

No, instead I had the urge to throw more flour around the kitchen.

This time I made King Arthur Flour's Classic White Bread. What I like about their blog is they give you extra little tips that aren't contained in the normal recipe. The pictures are helpful as well.

Like this whole idea of rubbing the top with a stick of butter when you first take it out of the oven, which is why mine looks so shiny. Really increases the butter flavor.

On the other hand, I'm usually going for a crispy, crunchy crust, so I'll probably stick with brushing the top with water when it first goes in the oven. But you have to try these things at least once.

Although I let it rest for five minutes after taking it out of the oven, I totally burnt my fingers trying to cut a slice (or two) so I could munch it while it was still warm.

Definitely a different flavor than the Scali bread I was making earlier in the week. But still very tasty.

I'm not sure that mine rose as much as theirs. I think the kitchen got a little chilly. But it still fluffed up nicely and tastes good. If I keep this bread baking nonsense up I'm going to have to get a new box of dried milk and see what difference it makes.

Part of me wanted to put the large version of this picture in the blog because I'm so very please with the interior texture of this bread, but that would have been silly because the picture is so huge.

Seriously, the bottom and side crust are nice and crispy, the interior is soft and chewy, and the top crust is all soft and buttery. So many textures and so much flavor to enjoy, what's not to love?
I'm going to have such yummy toast with breakfast tomorrow.

Obviously Samson, who is a little blurry because he was in motion when I took this, totally understands what I'm talking about. Or at least he thinks he understands and would love to experience what I'm talking about first paw.

After all, we're talking about a pup who likes bread and loves butter, so that loaf would be right up his alley. Which is why it safely tucked away in the cupboard over the stove.

I also made a loaf of banana bread. I noticed last night that our bananas had been ignored and got overripe. Whipped that up with the recipe I always use from "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking Basics." (What?! I bought it when I got my first apartment after college.) I like to put a half cup each of chocolate and peanut butter chips in it.

At this point, between the three loaves of bread, the peanut butter cookies, and the banana bread, I have blown through the bag of flour I bought barely two weeks ago! I need more flour. Wow, I've done a lot of baking lately.

I was a very busy girl today.

Let's see. I mixed the banana bread and put it in the oven, then mixed the sandwich bread, then went to the library, then shaped the sandwich bread, then played online, then put the bread in the oven, got the laundry going, then finally settled down to knit around like 3 pm. Oh, and I played fetch with the pups a couple time.

Knitting
Just now before I came up I made it through the pleats section of Stella's Blouse. About 30 rows. I'm a bit concerned that it's taken me like 4 hours of knitting to work 30 rows, but they are 121 stitches each and there is a pattern.

Of course, now I'm into the smocking section, which won't go much faster. But after that it's all stockinette stitch all the time, and I'm expecting that to whip along. Especially since it's going to have far few stitches to work.

I had to stop because I have to decrease many, many stitches away before I start the smocking and I didn't want to have to figure out the math to balance it. I remember that was rather painful on the sleeves and back.

Of course, I seem to remember the one sleeve had other issues I didn't discover until I was trying to decrease.

Instead of straining my brain, I went to this calculator, which did the math for me. yipee!

At the same time, I'm having to remember to take breaks, stretch, and rest my hands. I kind of forgot the combination of the cotton yarn with the Addi Turbo needles is a bit rough on me.

Really, I'm not accustomed to working with the Addis. Oh, I like them fine, but generally I spend most of my time knitting with bamboo or birch double points for my socks, or my Denise Interchangeables, which are plastic. None of those needles are a slick as Addis and it's a bit of an adjustment.

However, it's bed time now, so more knitting is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

All Riled Up

The winter Olympics, and therefore the Knitting Olympics and the Ravelympics start tonight!

I will not be participating in the first two, except vicariously.

As I understand it, The Knitting Olympics are for projects cast on and finished between the opening and closing ceremonies.

I'm all about finishing a work in progress, so I'm sticking with the Ravelympics, which have far more event categories.

My plan is to finish my Stella Blouse aka Girly Top.

All I have to do is knit the front and seam it together.

I believe I've even already cast on and worked a few rows, at last count, so I'm over the hard part.

I know I can finish a pair of socks, even a pair of Hubby Socks, in two weeks if they are my only project. So I'm wondering how a sweater front compares to a pair of socks. It's a thicker gauge, so that has to help.

Anyway, I'm going to be confident in my ability to complete this challenge. And if it's not quite done on Feb 28, at least I'll be well on my way.

Tartan Sock Update
As promised, I counted stitches at many points on the first sock last night.

I counted on the toe just after the side seams and before the shaping. I got 60 sts.

Damn.

I counted across the instep and got 28. Which didn't make sense because I know the pattern is 30 sts wide. So I was looking at a 56 st sock. Where did the toe morph back into 60?

Oh, right, four stitches were eaten on each side for the seams.

Damn.

I counted the heel flap again and it's still 28 stitches wide.

I looked closely and think I found the second decrease.

It appears that I probably accidentally decreased those two stitches away since they are both on the same half of the heel flap. That is, if I'd planned them I would have deleted one from each half when I joined the flap together so things would have been balanced.

So it looks like I'll decrease two stitches from the second heel flap just to make them match.

As it is, I've continued on the instep and think I'll probably go ahead and finish the pattern repeat, weave in the ends, then double back to the heel flap like I did on the first one.

Of course, this is all out the door at 9 p.m. tonight when the Olympics start!

Hubby's Chunky Scarf: 8 Knitting Days

I forgot to mention yesterday that the ejector is right next to the washing machine.

The washing machine is fine, but the floor in front of it took a hit.

I would prefer to avoid doing laundry until the clean-up is complete. However, this will rapidly become a problem since I didn't do laundry over the weekend and we will soon run out of clean clothes.

Why, yes, I will avoid doing laundry at the drop of a hat. Don't we all?

Ravelympics 2010

In a moment of insanity I signed up for the Ravelympics again. You know, because I did so well back in 2008.

The Ravelympics are a take off of the Yarn Harlot's original Knitting Olympics.

The idea of both is to choose a knitting or crochet challenge for yourself to start and complete between the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

The Ravelympics are hosted through Ravelry. You join a team based on one of your interest groups so you can have moral support.

This time I was smart. I only signed up for WIP-Dancing with Stella for Team TARDIS. For this event the goal is to finish a work-in-progress (WIP) that you haven't touched since at least January 12.

Last time I signed up for two events and was overmatched. But I figure all I have to do is knit the front and sew it all together. That should be totally doable in the 17 days allowed.

However, it also means I only have eight days in which to finish Hubby's Chunky Cabled Scarf.

25 Grams

I have been practicing strict project monogamy. Well, except for the Green Step Sock, which is my travel project so it doesn't count. (Started the toe shaping on the first sock, thanks for asking.)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish the scarf before my eight days have expired since I'm rapidly running out of yarn.

I weighed the balls this morning. There are 25 grams total of blue and 29 grams total of green.

Considering the amounts are being split between both halves since I'm knitting them consecutively I'm expecting to blast right through them.

Not Matchy-Matchy

Despite my hard work in catching the second half up, the two halves don't actually match.

This is not apparent to the naked eye.

I thought I had worked the first half in repeat increments of one, half, and one-and-a-half to keep everything square. Turns out I didn't.

I knew I had ended the first half on a green section after row 12 (a full repeat). When the second half was reaching the top of the final green section I was falling short of a full repeat. But both halves had 11 rows of green. I couldn't understand it.

I thought perhaps I hadn't advanced my row counter properly, so I went ahead and cabled, then put both halves on one long cable needle.

The second half was short. Just a wee bit. I tried to stretch it out, but it sprang back.

So I started counting rows, since I'm neurotic, and discovered my mistake went all the way back to the very first blue section.

Yes, I did briefly consider ripping it all out, but I came to my senses in time.

I put the scarf in time-out for a night and spent some quality time with the Angora Bed Sock of Power and Fortune.

Rolling With It

The scarf has won. I'm embracing its unintended randomness. The two halves are cabling at the same time, but not on the same row (one is 5 the other 11), so I've resorted to two different row counters to track them individually.

I told you I'm neurotic.

I was afraid that if I just skip ahead to the row 11 cable the pattern would go all wonky. Separate tracking was the lesser of two evils.

One benefit of all this is that since I've been working on the scarf so diligently Hubby is free to engage in other pursuits that don't involve yarn-napping.

Too Many WIPS

I blame my sporadic blogging last week to having too many projects on the go.

Scattered knitting leads to scattered blogging.

Five Project Rotation

At least I think it's still five. It could be more at this point and I'd never know.

This is a far cry from where I was last year, practicing project monogamy, and finishing projects.

It happened subtly. I got frustrated with the Tartan Argyles and put them aside in favor of Stella (Girly Top in the side bar). I needed a small travel project, so I cast on the Angora Bed Socks of Power and Fortune. I ditched everything for Hubby's Striped Sweater (which is, of course, finished). I needed a mindless project for proofreading and line waiting, so I started the Green Step Socks. Hubby wants a new scarf.

Now all those have been ditched for yet another sock.

Phew. I can hardly keep up.

Rather than go back to project monogamy, even though I know it works, I decided to go with a rotation. Each day I would work on a different project.

It was working rather well. The ABSoPaF were flying along. The Tartan Argyles are through their first diamond.

There were two problems with this idea. First, I never wrote the rotation down so wasn't sure which project I should be working on. I figured as long as it wasn't the same project as the night before I was good. Second, seeing the progress on a project made me want to stick to it and get it done.

I guess monogamy is my first instinct.

Error Prone

The Girly Top was also part of the rotation, but wasn't working out as well.

When I abandoned it for Hubby's Striped Sweater I had the back and both sleeves done. When I picked it up again, I had a devil of a time working the set-up row. Which was an issue I had when I first started. I remembered having and issue and over-thought the situation. In the end I must have started it four times before I got it right.

Then I was working on the Tartan Argyles and the pattern wasn't working out right. I saw I had messed up on the previous row. As I was tinking back I saw that I'd made a second mistake of not working the diagonal line in one spot. Fortunately, both mistakes were on the same row.

The ABSoPaF were a whole other, special issue. I knew I might have to fudge things since I started at the ankle with a provisional cast on. I thought I had it right, but six rows in I went to cross the cables and had too many stitches on one side and too few on the other. Happily, the yarn is a bit sticky, so I was able to just rip back without worrying about running stitches. The judicious application of many stitch markers to establish the first couple rows got me through it.

Don't even get me started on the number of times I had to restart Hubby's Chunky Cable Scarf. I lost count.

Realigning

Everything is back on track now.

I think when I'm done with P's sock I'm going to go back to working on one project at a time.

Part of the reason I started the rotation was because I couldn't decide which project to prioritize. Which one was closer to being finished? decisions, decisions.

Now, however, that question has been answered. Hubby's Scarf will get priority.

Getting puppy eyes from Samson and Baru is bad enough. I don't need them from Hubby too.

Hubby's Sweater: Knitting Friends Rule

My charcoal yarn deficiency has been remedied.

My new favorite person, P , was going through her stash and discovered 1 3/4 balls of 1469 with which she could bear to part. (Obviously I've liked her all along, but the champion in the quest for more of the correct color yarn deserves an elevation in status.)

The swap took place yesterday. I exchanged my two balls of close-but-no-cigar 1468 for a pair of creams and handed them over.

These new balls are a different dyelot, but the correct color in the wrong dyelot has got to be better than a totally different color. And the stripes will totally help me out here. Now I have 2 3/4 balls to get me through the sleeves and collar (remember I still had the fourth ball I originally purchased.) The back and front each took one ball and a bit. What's that rule of thumb? The sleeves together equal the back? So I should be fine.

I have added incentive to knit faster. Some poor soul contacted me via Ravelry scrounging for the black/white chine. She (?) said she can't find it anywhere. I told her I would let her know when I finish my project. I bought three balls total and don't think I'll need the third, since each sleeve is probably only going to have one black/white stripe. But I don't want to give her false hope, and I can't fight my instinct to hoard until the sweater is done. (Or at least passed that stripe.)

Holding Pattern
The uncertainty about finding more 1469 put Hubby's Sweater in a brief holding pattern over the weekend. I worked both sleeves up through the black and maroon striped then stopped because charcoal was next. I didn't want to bust into 1468 until I knew I had to.

This freed me to work on Stella for an evening. Remember Stella? Lovely sweater. First thing I did was count stitches, which made me realize I'd dropped one of the edge stitches and it ran, oh 8 rows or so. Most of my knitting time was spent ripping out and reknitting. I'm terrible at picking up edge stitches. Actually the only thing stopping it from going all the way to the cast on edge was the fact I had changed to a new ball of yarn and the knot caught it. sigh.

I think I started with 14 rows of st st and ended the evening with 18 rows. wheee!

The amazing part, to me, was that Hubby didn't comment on me not working on his sweater. Maybe I'd been keeping him updated about the yarn situation. I remember showing him the two colors at one point. Anyway, I expected him to protest but didn't hear a peep.

Earlier in the week he asked when it would be done. I said if I'd married someone my own size it would have been done weeks ago.

That's me, wanting a big, strong protector for a mate. Wasn't thinking about knitting/crocheting sweaters when I was creating my "perfect husband" checklist.

Consider yourself warned.

Foggy
So most of these pictures have nothing to do with yarn.

I came down this morning, let the pups out, and thought, "Outside just looks wrong."

It took me a second to realize just the river was fogged in, so I couldn't see the other bank. Usually everything is fogged in.

I tried to get pictures of it, since it looked cool. It looked weirder at 6:15 am when it was still relatively dark out, but I figured the camera wouldn't capture it.

I see now that I should have uploaded the original, massive size, so you could see details better.
For comparison, here is the same view after the fog burned off.

Maybe I'm just easily amused/impressed.

Stella: Second Sleeve Slip-ups

The Tartan Socks continue to languish. I'm really leaning toward frogging them and following a traditional argyle construction. Although maybe I should soldier on for the good of the wider knitting community.

There is that rule of thumb: As long as we're knitting, we're happy.

Pair of Sleeves
This is all good news for the Stella sweater.

I finished the second sleeve last night. Mercifully, it looks like the first one, which was in some doubt for a while there.

First I had trouble transitioning from the pleats to the smocking.

You decrease a number of stitches as you work the smocking set up row. Well, I hadn't worked all my decreases and ran out of stitches.

I thought I had front loaded them too much, so pulled it out and started again. No dice.

The first sleeve was not so tricky. I examined it, counted spacing, and even put safety pins on the decreases to they would be easier to see/count as I worked the second sleeve.

Still didn't work.

Finally I had the brilliant idea of counting the number of stitches with which I was starting.

Yep, not enough.

I told Hubby I didn't know what we were watching when I worked that last row, but I messed up big time. I worked all the pattern decreases without the paired increases. sigh.

So I had to pull out 3/4 of that row and rework it. Obviously, the set up/decrease row worked fine after that.

Cap It
The smocking and most of the main sleeve section went fine until I reached the last set of decreases in the shaping.

You decrease every other row X number of times. My plan was to advance my row counter only on the right side/decrease rows. Turns out I started automatically advancing after every row. I arrived at what should have been the last decrease row, according to the counter, but I had waaay to many stitches.

I had to sit there, reading my knitting, counting decreases and making sure both sides were even. sheesh. At least I didn't have to pull anything out.

But then the penultimate direction was to decrease 2 sts at the BEG of the next two rows. I however decreased 2 sts at BOTH ends of the next two rows. And couldn't figure out why I was waaaay short on stitches. I figured that gaff out much more quickly.

You can see why I'm happy the sleeves match!

As soon as I finished the sleeve I cast on for the back. I was able to knit two rows before bedtime. I'm really surprised/excited at how quickly this top is moving along. I just have to stay focused.

Casting On: Stella Blouse

I have spent most of the summer knitting socks and practicing project monogamy.

This has led to me actually completing projects in a timely manner.

I don't know which aspect of my current knitting habits I'm tired of, but I suddenly had the need to start working on a sweater again.

There are, of course, many projects I want to start. But starting them all at once is counter productive. There are two I've been both wanting to make for a while, and have all the materials for.

One is the Stella's Blouse top from the Spring 04 issue of Interweave Knits. When I first saw the pattern all those years ago, I knew I was going to make it, but I thought it was over my skill level with the pleats and smocking and all. I bought the magazine, and apparently one set of circular needles, but no yarn. Didn't want to get to far ahead of myself.

It has lurked in the back of my mind since then. It was never forgotten, just on the back burner. In fact, this pattern was the inspiration for putting smocking on my Top Down Alpaca Mitts.

Last year or so I bought some Rowan Cotton Glace (the yarn specified in the pattern) in light blue.

The next hurdle was the smallest size was a 34 inch bust and I'm a 31 inch. That is three inches of ease, which seemed a little excessive. Happily, I was able to track the designer down on Ravelry and tell her my predicament. I said I was intending to ditch 10 sts, 5 each front and back, right after the smocking was done.

She said that was a good plan. Then explained how it would affect the stitch count further up the sweater.

I was all set to make it, I just needed the time.

Second Choice

The other sweater I was considering was Iris, a shrug from Rowan 35.

It looks pretty easy-peasy and functional. I have five balls of Rowan Calmer (the yarn specified) in denim blue. They are leftover from the bag I bought when I made my Superhero Sweater (seen here). The only thing stopping me from making it was time.

On Saturday, I pulled out all the implements of destruction needed to start one of them. I sat on the couch pouring over the pictures and patterns trying to decide.

Hubby asked what was going on. I explained and held up the two pictures for him to see.

He voted for Stella. He said it was my style top. So the decision was made. (Although I do wonder if he realized both are going to get made eventually.)

A Sleeve is Born
I was very excited to get gauge with the US4 called for in the pattern.

Usually I like to knit both sleeves at the same time. I'm not this time. Despite having a 32 inch circular, I didn't think both sleeves would fit on it comfortable.

Working them singularly is probably just as well, since it took me three tries to get the first two rows right.

Yeah, I know!

It was all because I didn't realize that the "set up row" was a wrong side row.

I kept starting row 2 and couldn't figure out why the pattern wasn't working out. The purl stitches weren't stacking up. I must have picked it out three times. Even after I figured out it was a wrong side row, I still couldn't get the pattern to work. I even debated whether there was a mistake in the pattern because I figured out how to force it to work if I changed the order I worked the stitches.

I finally gave up and went to bed. Of course, as always happens, I was laying there trying to fall asleep and the light bulb finally went on.

Row 1 is a wrong side row. I have to read the chart from left to right. NOT right to left, as I was doing. Of course it wasn't working.

I guess I've just been knitting so many socks, worked in the round so the charts always read from the right, that I forgot flat charts switch sides.

Well, I didn't hop out of bed to go knit. But things went much more smoothly the next time I sat down with it!

I'm just about done the cap shaping. It's very exciting how quickly it's whipping along. I guess when you go from 7 sts/inch on US1 or US2 to 5 sts/inch on US4 it is going to seem like fast.

The yarn is nice. It's a little slippery on the Addi Turbos. I do wonder it part of that is I've been working with either wool or cotton on wood needles for the past few months. But other than that, things are fine.

I Told You So

I finished Nell Wednesday night!
Yippee!
This sweater ended up taking me around two years, which is a crying shame, because it's not a hard sweater.

Well, it's not a hard sweater if you are able to work button bands and actually have them come out even.

Otherwise, it will take you a long time.

Of course most of that time will be spent ignoring it because you can't work a button band.

Let's Start Over
(In case you are wondering, I'm on the phone with Hubby in these two pictures.)
I started it in December 2006. The body and sleeves worked up very quickly in a matter of months.
But my idea of "slightly stretched" was not the same as the pattern's idea. And so things ground to a halt as I struggled with the button band.

I set the goal of finishing it for a business trip in June 2008, which didn't work out. Then I set it as my project for the Ravelympics during the Summer Olympics in 2008. That didn't work out either, but at least I got most of the seaming done.

Eventually, I gave up and had the brain wave in January to just sew it shut.

Then other projects distracted me and it continued to languish waiting for me to finish the collar.

But now it's done! I shall wear it on Tuesday at my conference. Everyone I meet will walk away thinking I'm really charming and talented without quite knowing why, when in fact it is the subliminal influence of my beautiful handmade sweater.

(I'm pretty sure the fuzzy face you see is Samson. Under his chin you can see the top of Baru's head. Taking pictures using the camera timer while being swarmed by puppies is not easy.)

To Recap
The pattern is Nell from the Kim Hargreaves Wool Cotton Concertina, which I've heard it now out of print. There are three other patterns that are also very cute which I also wouldn't mind making.
I used the Rowan Wool Cotton called for in the pattern in the "flower" color, which might also be discontinued.

(Hey, I bought all this during my glorious month at Patternworks back in 2004, what do you expect?)

The pattern called for eight balls, but I only seem to have used seven.
Needles US2 and US5. I generally have to go down a needle size on Rowan patterns.

I made the extra small.

And the only modification I made, which is—granted—a major one, was to sew the front shut rather than leaving it a cardigan.

Like I Said
The other day, this finishing stuff business is fun.

Manufactured Urgency

On Monday I leave for a business trip to Florida.
(Whoop-di-do. This will be my fourth trip to the Orlando Convention Center since I joined my magazine in 2006. At least I know my way around. And, hey, we're staying at the Ritz(!) this year, so that should be nice.)
Nell is so very close to being done, it occurred to be that if I focus a bit I might finish it in time to take on my trip.
I seem to remember setting trip to Florida as a deadline for Nell in the past, and, well, we know how well that worked out.

No, really, it's realistic.
All I have to do is finish knitting and attach the collar, seam one arm, and weave in the ends.
And I have six days to do it.
Shoot, I can knit a sock in that time and this is less work than a sock. Right?
Although some of it might be more tedious.
I wish this had occurred to me sooner. I might have spent more time on Nell and less time on my Cotton Ribbed Socks and making cute flower rings.
However, I worked on the sweater last night and the collar is almost done.
Ha!

Does that count as short rows?
When I worked the first half of the collar, I was puzzled by the directions because they have you work even until it reached the center back of the neck, then bind off in steps over five rows. For the second side you reverse the shaping so the steps are on the other end and the two pieces can lock together like a jigsaw puzzle.
At the time, this did not make sense to me, as it seemed to give you a bunch of extra fabric. I thought, "Why not just reach the center and seam the damn thing?"
Now that the second half is almost done, and I can see it in action, I realize this must be some strange version of short rows, but worked in two separate pieces. I think the extra fabric tab thingys are going to provide slack so the collar can fold over and lay properly.
I was folding it back as-is last night, and the top edge was definitely flaring away from the other half of the collar. Obviously it would never work in it's current incarnation.
Well, I shall be tackling that situation tonight.
I really think it's going to happen this time.

Damn Doily Update
My mother-in-law reports that her friend loves, loves, loves the doilies. She apparently was showing them off to anyone who would stand still long enough.
MIL says everyone admired how beautiful they are and were impressed by the fine gauge and you just don't see work like that anymore.
It would seem that if anyone noticed one is slightly off from the other two they were too polite to mention it.
I think I also heard my MIL say something about getting me to make HER some, but I'm just going to block that out. :-)

Doilies! Nell! Sock! Wheeee!

The Damn Doilies are Done!
Yippee!
I actually finished them, like, last Wednesday. See, I miss a couple days of blogging and all hell breaks loose.
So I shall go chronologically and hope nothing interesting happens until I have you up-to-date.
Most importantly, I finished the doilies.
Phew!
I did my fake blocking routine of wetting them and smoothing them out with my hands.
I wanted to get a nice picture of them all together, which is why I didn't tell you this exciting news earlier.
Now, I just have to complete the equally challenging task of getting to the post office. Ha!

Doily Recap
These are basically the Spiralen by Marie Niedner & Gussi von Reden (that link will take you to the Ravelry page), which I expanded to be 12".
I used a US1 needle.
The yarn was some mystery crochet cotton out of my stash, and some fresh crochet cotton I bought.
They aren't actually hard, and they don't actually take a long time. Unless you are trying to make them bigger and you run out of thread.

I Worked on Nell!
When I finished the doilies, I thought to myself, "Boy, this finishing projects business is fun! I can see why people focus on it."
Having destroyed the poor Cotton Ribbed Sock at this point, I was inspired to get out my Nell sweater and have another whack at it.
You might remember I've been struggling with Nell for about two years now.
Knitting the body was a breeze, but I am apparently totally incapable of knitting a button band properly.
Because of this, when last we saw Nell back in January, I had sewn the front opening shut. Sure it's a cardigan, but it's not a wear over other clothes cardigan.
(Of course, I've also sworn off cardigan knitting, but I reserve the write to change my mind.)
I didn't sew the front completely shut, so it would still have that top-button-open look.
To work the second half of the collar, I picked up the seven stitches on the back of the button band just below the button and started knitting up.
However, as you might be able to see in this picture, I don't think it's working quite right.
The button is on the outside, and I think it looks goofy.
Sigh.
I've decided I have to rip it out, pick up on the outside/public side of the band, work the one button hole, and then continue on.
I will, of course, be sewing this little button band portion to the front of the sweater where it belongs. It won't be flapping loose in the breeze.
This new, planned arrangement should give me a more accurate illusion of a button down sweater with the top button open.

Cotton Rib Sock, Reborn
No picture for this one.
Thanks to a train trip into The City on Friday, and some project monogamy over the weekend, I've finished the first of the Cotton Rib Socks.
One down, one to go.
I stuck with the 48 stitches all the way down and the fit on the foot seems fine. The leg is showing potential for bagging, but I think that is just the nature of cotton socks.
I'm just going to have to ignore it and carry on!

Spring Was In the Air

Which inspired me to haul Sundae out for a little attention.
(Yes, I am using an old picture.)
The expectation of even more warm weather makes me think I should finish this thing so I can actually wear it this summer.
Don't get all excited, though, it's still not done.
I am so close, and yet so far from done.
I have to knit enough trim to reach up the last front slope and shoulder strap.
And then I have to sew the trim down.
And then I have to sew the shoulder straps in place.
THEN I'll finally be able to wear it.
I expect this to take at least another month (but I won't drag it out on purpose just to make my prediction come true).

Not Much

Not Much going on here.
Deadlines are going to be the death of me, but it's the industry I chose. And I'm happy to have deadlines to worry about.

New Year's Sock
Is moving along. It is taking me a shockingly long time to finish these. According to my Ravelry project page, I started these on Dec. 30. So it's been over two week. However, I can't remember if that was the date I cast on for attempt number one. Keep in mind I knit practically a whole sock then pulled it all out and started from scratch. That will extend a project's time line!
I have to work about 20 more rounds, basically the toe shaping, then I'm done.
Still, this long incubation makes me wonder if I've been getting less knitting time in the evening than I thought. It's not like these are complicated socks that they should take a long time to knit.

Next Up
Oooh, I can't decide.
I should go back to Nell for a bit. That sweater is sooo close now that I've decided to just sew it shut. It's a matter of getting some quite time to work on it. We've been catching up on our TV shows and I want to pay attention them, so auto-pilot knitting rules the day. Hmm, I guess that means I'm excited for baseball season to start up again.
Of course, Sundae has been neglected as well. But, come on, it's a lace camisole. Not practical for this time of year; it was 18 degrees F when I got to the office this morning. (If I heard someone say that I'd tell them summer comes every year. I can't be expected to listen to my own advice, can I?) Yeah, yeah, finishing it will not only get it off my plate, but put me in a position for the first rays of summer sun. Yawn.
I think, though, that while the weather is still cold, and despite the fact that winter comes every year, I should jump ahead and start working on Hubby's mancho. I haven't even shown him the yarn, which really could be a big hurdle. I'm not sure how long it will take me, but it will never get done if I don't start it.

Hatching Plans
But then again, I had an interesting idea for a project on the drive to work this morning. I kind of want to swatch that. There is one tricky part to it. I would work the tricky part and worry about the easy parts later. It's a simple thing, but with some kick to it, so I want to show the idea to Cynthia to see if she would want it for the store. Which will influence what yarn I use, which would influence stitch count, gauge, etc. Which is why I would just work up the tricky part first to get the general idea to show her.

Tartan Sock notes
I wore the Arrgyle Socks to class Saturday.
Now I've worn them both before and after washing. The fit still seems good, with little signs of slouching. However, I spent most of the day sitting crosslegged on a couch, so it wasn't a legitimate test.
Despite this, I think I still want to increase the stitch count of the leg with the hopes of improving the chart.

Ok, time to get back to work. I'm still eating lunch, but I'm eating slowly today. I'm actually really considering shutting down my computer so I'll be forced to concentrate on work and not play online!

My Brilliance is Stunning

nell progress
Originally uploaded by TravelingAnn

I've sewed Nell shut.
It is possible this will be a case of me being too clever for my own good. It's possible there is some rule of knitwear construction that would advise against this, but I'm charging forward.
Now I know you can't just take a cardigan pattern and work it as a pull over. You have to account for the stitches/width contributed by the button band. Which I've essentially done.
Come on, this is a brilliant move.
Why has Nell been languishing for, what, two years? Because I can't get the stupid button band to look right.
Ok, actually, I can't get the stupid button band worked.
I finally got the left-hand band (holding the buttons) sorted out, but the right-hand band (with the holes) continues to get the better of me.
Then it occurred to me today, as I was waiting in line for gas, that the sweater is just going to be shut whenever I wear it anyway and I'm probably small enough to pull it on over my head.
It's not close fitting, but it also isn't a cardigan in the sense you would wear it over something.
And so, I've sewed it shut.
Be honest, how does it look?
I'm going to go up to the bottom of that last seed stitch band with the last button. Then I'll work the other half of the collar up from there. So it will be more of a shawl collar that what the pattern called for.
Of course, the collar has been about as cooperative as the button bands.
And when I put it on it seemed really big and way laying strangely because of the difference between the st st and the seed st bands. Which all made my heart sink.
However, it's been laying around for so long at this point that I should wash it before I wear it the first time. Hopefully that will even things out.
Ok, time to get ready for bed.

It's Over

The Ravelympics, that is. As well as the normal Olympics.
You will notice I did not say "It's Done" or "It's Finished" which might have implied that I had actually completed one of my projects. Which I have not.
I think this officially means I'm a looser I tried my best, gave it a valiant effort, etc.
The deadline was on Sunday at 8 a.m. or noon, I'm not really sure. I kind of lost interest when I realized I wasn't going to make it :-) and I had some other stuff going on (which I save for another post) that took precedence.
The Nell Sweater is in the same state you last heard—one and a half sides seamed, button hole band still only up to the first hole. sigh. It's a WIP (Work in Progress) for a reason.
I got a little further on Sundae. By, oh, Friday night I had the fronts at 27cm to match the back, which was the start of the armhole and neckline shaping.
All this time I've been working the fronts simultaneously, which I believe I mentioned in a previous post. But when I got to the shaping, I was totally flummoxed by the "reverse to match" directions for the right front. So I abandoned it and continued with the left, figuring it would be easy enough to catch it up and then work them together again for the "27cm on these 5 sts" bit for the straps.
I've "reversed shaping to match" on other patterns. I think I just hit this late at night, there was shaping on both ends, and the decreases weren't at the same rate. So trying to remember every row on one end and every other row on the other and doing it all on the wrong side for the one piece was just a bit too much. Really, you should have seen me trying to figure out why my yarn was in the wrong place when I cast off for the arm hole on the one piece. Oh, that's right, this one is done on the purl side.
The shaping on the left piece is just about finished after the train ride this morning. I've decided to stick with working on Sundae for now. I'm blowing off the end of Summer of Socks. I know, scandalous, but I already missed one deadline, I don't want to miss another!

My Other Weekend Activity.
I spent most of Sunday curled up on the couch with Hubby's laptop, one or the other dog (both of whom were annoyed that I was sitting on their end of the love seat), and the Learn HTML in a Weekend book from the library.
Oh my gosh, HTML is soooo cool! It's like this secret language that is actually just out there for anybody to learn. I made it through the basic tutorial, so I haven't reached the really cool and complicated stuff yet, but so far I'm like, "They pay people thousands of dollars to do this? Sign me up!"
During the tutorial I typed what looked like gibberish into a TextEdit Document, then I opened it in Safari (default browser) and not only did it look like something—it looked like it was supposed to! And then I learned hypertext links! Wow!
The feeling was like when you first learn to read patterns or charts. You follow these codes or squiggly lines and manipulate your yarn and suddenly you have lace or Fair Isle or even just a sweater. And people think you are so cool.
Anyway since I only know the bare minimum so far, I haven't really unleashed my new HTML powers on the blog yet. But I did put in a link to jump to the top of the page. So if you find yourself at the very bottom of the blog for some reason, you don't have to mouse or scroll all the way up anymore. Which, I personally, found annoying.
Ok, I'll try to get pictures of Sundae tonight. In the mean time, I need to do something productive work-wise.

Note To Self

The next time I decide to do some challenge that has me finishing a project in 20 or less days (fewer days? Where's my AP Stylebook....great clear as mud now. "fewer" might actually be the correct choice because I'm referring to individual days. anyway.) make sure the project you select requires big needles. I'm talking no smaller than US8. This fingering weight yarn on US1 business is just nonsense. Unless the project is going to be a sock.
Wait, why wasn't I smart like some other Ravelympians who chose socks for their projects?
Oh, that's right, I already know I can knit a pair of socks in two weeks. It wouldn't have been a challenge. drat.
As you can probably guess, things are looking grim for actually meeting either of my Ravelympic goals—finishing Nell or making Sundae.
As such, the next question is whether I persevere with Sundae or put it aside and go back to socks.
Because, of course, missing the Ravelympic goals has the double whammy of all that lost Summer of Socks 2008 time. The amount of time the Peacock Socks were taking combined with the start of the Ravelympics meant I didn't finish a sock during the last two week time frame. And now we are in the last two weeks of the whole KAL. September 1 is the last day of Summer of Socks 2008!
Which all means I can't even say, "Oh well, I missed out on the end of Summer of Socks, but at least I finally made Sundae."
In any event, I'm considering getting out the last ball of Jitterbug and trying to get a pair of socks done before Sept. 1. But I have to see how the mood takes me.
At the moment, I have to finish eating my lunch.