Patterns of Behavior Sweater

At the beginning of the year I was on a kick to knit with the various beautiful yarns I've been acquiring over the years.

What was the point in having them tucked away in the dining room credenza if I wasn't going to actively enjoy them?

This plan was working well until two things happened.

First, I find it hard to juggle my personal knitting with my work knitting. There are only so many hours in the day, after all.

Second, in April I started the Patterns of Behavior Sweater.



The name will become obvious in a moment.

The original use-the-nice-yarn plan was to just knit the stuff. Keep it simple so projects would be completed and I could get on to wearing them.

That, obviously, didn't last long.

As I contemplated the Spring Pansies yarn I bought from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm during the 2011 New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival the idea of knitting another Schleppy Sweater of ribbing and stockinette didn't appeal.

No, instead it should have a big cowl neck.

And if I was going to work a cowl neck it should have an interesting stitch pattern.

And if I was going to do the neck in an interesting stitch pattern I should do the hem and cuffs in the same pattern to tie it all together.



Suddenly, instead of just knitting the yarn already I had fallen back into the old habits, ahem--Patterns of Behavior, of making complicated projects.

In this case, a sweater with Feather & Fan hem, cuffs, and cowl collar.

Despite all that I'd been zipping along, until it was time to start the sleeves.

Figuring out the stitch count for the cuff tripped me up. And then we moved. And then I had work knitting. And, well, you know how it goes.

I picked the sweater back up a week or two ago. Rhinebeck pressure, you know.

The sleeves flew along once I started knitting them. I decided to work them one at a time, in the round, on double points.

The yoke, which always seems to take forever when I'm working a sweater in the round, has moved along briskly as well.



I was working on the sweater last week during Adirondack Yarns' open knitting session and had a really constructive conversation about the collar with one of the other knitters.

We decided I should work the first part of the collar in stockinette stitch so I can easily work the increases to get to cowl size, then switch to the Feather & Fan pattern.

I'll have to remember to reverse it when the time comes since it's going to fold over and I don't want the wrong/back side of the knitting showing.

I'm getting really close to having the yoke done. Unfortunately, my left wrist is cranky so I think it's best to take a knitting break for a day or two.

At little rest now prevents a long rest later!

Uncooperative Sweater

Why are you resisting my efforts to knit you?

The sooner I finish knitting you the sooner I get to wear you. And isn't getting worn the ultimate goal of any sweater?

First you wanted this entrelac top. We all know how well that was working out.

Despite everybody else loving it, when I returned to you after a little break all I could see were the holes. Lots of holes. And the next tier I started pooched out funny.

I finally followed my gut and ripped that all out. At the same time I was still worried about running out of yarn. Fortunately a new batch of sample yarn arrived from KFI and I was able to dig through for potential greens and blues to round you out.

I settled on this delicious Ella Rae Lace Merino Worsted. It was so soft and lovely to knit with. It has a whopping 230 yards giving me confidence I would be able to finish the yoke without an issue.

We had a wonderful week together. I knit you happily, even ignoring when I skipped a raglan decrease and had to make it up on the next row.

We were making progress. You were going to be finished in time for the cool weather.

And all that time I turned a blind eye to the fact that the new green yarn wasn't the right shade of green. It's was too bright, we both knew it, and yet you lulled me into acceptance with your promises that since it was the yoke it would look ok.
That since it was variegated people wouldn't notice.

I knit all the way to the neck shaping, believing your lies, and that had to face the truth.

It looked terrible.

Hubby, who I can always trust to be honest and have my best interests at heart, said it was a lovely sweater except the top didn't match. Even the ladies at the Library Knitting group had to take a polite breath, then admit that it didn't look good.

Out it came.

I had selected other options from the new yarn and left them laid out on the sweater for a while on the porch so I could get natural light and debate about them.

In the end I decided to try to see you through with what remains of the three yarns left from your original yarns. I'm going to keep the light blue Willow Tweed on hand just in case I need it to finish the collar.

And I have a feeling that might be the case. Maybe I should start mixing it in on the yoke so it won't look out of place.

But know this, uncooperative sweater, I will have my way in the end. Eventually you will be cast off and worn!

Tiers and Gnashing of Teeth

See what I did there?

Each section of entrelac is a tier, but it sounds like tears?

Never mind. If you have to explain it, it isn't funny.

Anyway. I haven't actually cried, but I have been frustrated and annoyed.

After finishing the base row I was flummoxed on how to proceed for the first oblong row. The magazine just blithely says to knit the first oblong row and decrease one stitch in each oblong. Well, I had a devil of a time figuring out which direction to go.

I finally pushed the stitched for the last base triangle down the left hand needle and crawled down its back for the first oblong. The first oblong was thus connected to the first base triangle worked. Not really sure at this point whether that means I reversed directions.

I do remember that it took me a couple tries to figure out. And, in case you're wondering, entrelac is not easy to pick out.

Six of 19
The next problem is that entrelac is tedious to work.

It's repetitious—pick up the stitches. Back and forth, back and forth. Pick up stitches, back and forth, back and forth.

But at the same time it enough attention that you can't knit on auto-pilot. Because you have to pick up and purl two together and repeat.

After two hours of knitting yesterday I manged to work six oblongs. I surveyed the remaining expanse of sweater and was filled with dread. Thirteen more oblongs on this row. Three more rounds of oblongs and then a round of triangles.

It's going to take forever.

And my hands were a little cramped.

Rapidly Loosing Interest
This all caused me to look critically at the sweater as I decided whether I wanted to forge ahead.
I decided that my technique wasn't good and there were sloppy, gappy parts where I didn't pick up stitches well. I thought it was blousing out where the entrelac started, but to be fair it didn't have the weight of the sweater or being on my arm to help it out.

I told myself that frogging back to the top of the green section wouldn't be so bad, despite all the work I'd already put in.

After all, knitting is supposed to be fun. If I wasn't having fun what was the point.

I discussed the matter with my walking buddy, Judy. Turns out she used to knit and crochet when she was younger. (I don't think she does anymore.) She in the "you come so far" camp, but agreed that if it was pissing me off I shouldn't carry on.

I decided to put it on scrap yarn to get a better look at it before doing anything rash.

Into Rotation
Of course I decided to run that test when I was at the library knitting group. I was fairly sure they'd all tell me it looked like hell and I should take it out.

You are not surprised to hear they didn't.

Noooo, they all said it looked awesome. However, none of them wanted to take over for me.

There was one voice of doubt at first about how there is a lot going on in the sweater anyway that it didn't need the entrelac, but once I pulled it on everyone loved it.

I explained how tedious it was to work. I pointed out the sloppy bits. I said I might run out of yarn.

They would not be dissuaded. They pointed out how far I'd come and how much it would suck to rip back. They pointed out that each round would go faster because of the ever decreasing stitch count.

Add to all this the fact that I made the tactical error of only bringing the sweater with me. I meant to grab my Cotton Spiral socks but forgot. So the whole time I was whining about the sweater I was also knitting on it.

I'd like to point out that for the hour or so I was there I only managed to work three oblongs.

Lame!

Anyway. The consensus was that instead of focusing on the sweater I should put it into rotation. I should just have the goal of working two or three oblongs every day and eventually it will be done.

Really, it's the first day of July. It's not like I need to wear the sweater tomorrow. Plugging away at it might be the best solution.

It had better be worth it.

Whose brilliant idea....

was this entrelac yoke nonsense anyway?

What a pain in the patootie to work.

Nineteen little eight stitch triangles. Back and forth and back and forth.

Ok, that was an exaggeration. I'm knitting backwards instead of turning and purling. Turns out it's a useful skill to have, you should learn it.

Not that it makes things easier. I'm totally taking a break because my fingers were cramping a little.

Also, don't try to multi-task while you're working entrelac. And by "multi-task" I mean watching something on TV that you actually want to see.

I finished off this first round while "watching" Shrek Forever After. Yeah, almost restarted it because I didn't really feel like I saw it.

No Turning Back

On the other hand, I feel like I've come to far to change my mind now.

I thought the 10 rows of decreasing (every other row) at the start was going to kill me, but this foundation row was a killer.

Still, it would be a shame to waste all of my hard work so far by frogging it and doing a normal raglan yoke.

I'm going to move forward with the faith that it's going to look awesome and be worth the extra effort.

However it does make me wonder about the insane people who knit entire sweaters in entrelac.

Entire Sweaters. shudder

Yarn Worries

Of course it will only look awesome if I actually manage to finish it. If I run out of yarn it's going to look pretty sucky.

Does entrelac take more yarn than stockinette? It must, right? I mean, it's a stitch pattern and stitch patterns always take more yarn.

Sigh.

Well, I have another, different, blue skein on tap for when this one runs out. Then there are some green yarns left to fall back on.

But what if I run out in an akward place? What if I don't even make it through the first oblong row?

Man, I should have worked those decrease rounds in green yarn and saved the blue stuff for the real entrelac.

Wish I'd thought of that two days ago.

Ok, time to put the kettle on and start picking up stitches. There are oblongs to knit!

Green Schleppy: Join Sleeves to Body

The Green Striped Schleppy Sweater is back in play.

Have I mentioned the Green Schleppy to you? Oh, once, back in April to complain about the sleeves.

I started this sweater during my single ball, striped project, hoard wrangling phase several months ago. Specifically February.

I'm following the pattern for the Schleppy Sweater I designed for myself last year.

Wow, was that already a year ago?

Anyway.

The idea was to use up many single balls of green yarn I have. The stripes on the body are each 15 rows. The mess up on the sleeves came because I didn't account for the fact that the sleeves were going to have more rows than the body and didn't plan to make the sleeves stripes either narrower or wider to account for that fact.

Nope, the sleeve stripes are each 15 rows as well.

This led to me working through the stripe sequence and coming up short on length. After pouting over it for a bit I decided to restart the sequence and also accelerate it to get the top of the sleeves on the same yarn as the top of the body when I joined them.

I think it will be fine.

Entrelac. Are You Insane?
Since I knew from the cast on that I probably wouldn't actually have enough of the green yarns to finish the sweater I also selected two blue yarns for the yoke.

I figure it's the yoke, it can break from the rest of the sweater.

Then in March I came across Meg Swansen's article in the Holiday 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting about working an entrelac yoke.

This seized my imagination. I was already working the yoke in a different color. Making it in entrelac would just make the color change appear justified.

I looked up her other articles in the series in case they had helpful information.

I tracked down my Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits and taught myself entrelac using the tutorial.

I did some math to prepare for the entrelac even though I was still working on the sleeves.

Knitter's Block
And then the sweater stalled.

I had too many WIPs and this one was tossed aside in an attempt to pair down what I was working on. After all, summer was coming, I wouldn't need a long sleeved, wool blend sweater for a few months.

I know I function better with just one project at a time. Ok, maybe two. I can see progress. I don't have decided what to work on. I just pick one up and go. Still I can't stop myself from casting on multiple projects. Especially when I get mad at an uncooperative striping sequence.

Ironically, my abundance of WIPs was a contributing factor in me getting this sweater out again.

The thought of my multiple WIPs overwhelemed me and I decided that I just needed to finish something. The Green Schleppy seemed closest to completion as well as easiest since it is mostly stockinette stitch. (At least until I get to the entrelac part.)

Another inspiration was the copy of Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard I picked up on Saturday.

It's an interesting book. The patterns are nice, but really I'm after the instructions about knitting top down sweaters in the back of the book. I intend to apply the knowledge to all those lovely skeins of sweater quantity yarn I've bought at fiber festivals lately that are destined to be other Schleppy Sweaters.

Also, the Green Schleppy was sucking up a large number of needle resources. The body was on a long Denise cable. The sleeves were being worked two-at-a-time in the round so they were taking up a set of DPNs as well as a long cable and set of Denise tips. Not to mention numerous stitch markers.

Heading for Disaster?
I don't know if it was the idea that I can't start a new sweater until I finish an active sweater or the desire to be knitting one of my own designs, or a need for US6 needles, but I ran and got the Green Schleppy out.

Having joined the sleeves to the body last night I've freed up all those needle resources and reduced it to a long cable and needle tips. I've also freed up the knitter's block and feel like I have good momentum to finish it.

Now I'm working through the initial raglan decreases and heading toward the entrelac. I've already realized my initial math was based on incorrect numbers. I'm smart enough to wait until I finish these first 5 decrease rounds before I start crunching numbers again.

And then the fun really starts.

Messed up those sleeves

Hmmm, I don't know how to rotate a picture I uploaded using the mobile app.

Oh well, you get the idea that it's an in-progress sweater body and sleeves.

Wow, those colors are not accurate at all. That's what happens when you take pictures at night.

Two mistakes have been made on the sleeves, which might tempt you to say is proof I have a lot to learn from the Master Knitters program. However, these mistakes are more from lack of planning and inattention rather then lack of skills.

I'm following my Schleppy Sweater pattern. I found coordinating green yarns all in the same weight (DK).

The body was worked in stripes of 15 rows each. I stopped the body at the underarms and then started working on the sleeves.

The 15 row stripes continued on the sleeves and that is where things went wrong. You see that both the body and the sleeves are not at the same yarn. The problem is the sleeves should be 16.5" long and are currently only 12.5" long.

I suppose this means I should have worked wider stripes on the sleeves. Or narrower so I could move through the sequence more quickly.

Either way, you won't be surprised to read that I'm not going to rip them out and rework them.

No, I think I'll restart the stripes. I'll work 15 rows, or as many as I can, with the cuff yarn, then more stripes in the faux Fair Isle. That should bring me to about the correct length. After that I might work a few rows in the yarn to match the body just because I can.

In the end I suppose it will be fine.

The second mistake I made is less noticeable. I placed stitch markers to designate where the increases for the sleeves will be. Instead of keeping the increases lined up in the center of the sleeve around the end of the round I kept working them inside the stitch markers. This caused the increases to continually shift out around the sleeves.

Ooops.

Well, the increases are mostly on the bottom of the sleeve, i.e., on the under arm. So, once again, I'm not ripping out!

Hubby's Sweater Update

After all that big talk in the blog post on Wendesay I came down with a bad head on Thursday. Spending most of the day hiding under the covers is not condusive to blogging, or many other activities come to think of it.

Then Friday I was feeling better but was busy catching up from Thursday.

Regardless, I'm here now.

Let's go with Hubby's Vertical Stripe Box Stitch Sweater as today's focus project.

How We Got To This Point
At the beginning of the fall Hubby declared he was ready for me to make him another sweater. This time he wanted vertical stripes because they are slimming.

I quailed inside because vertical stripes are a challenge to knit, but what Hubby wants Hubby gets.

Now his announcement may sound obnoxious, but it's not if you think about it. I don't bother wasting my time knitting for him until he has made one of these declarations. Well, except for socks. I knit those for him randomly and he only has after purchase approval rights on the yarn. If he doesn't like the yarn I keep it for myself. Socks are small and harmless so I feel safe being bold with them.

Hats, scarves, and sweaters require a larger investment of time and should be approached with caution.

When I first learned to knit I made Hubby a hat, which he promptly rejected for various valid reasons (unrelated to my skill, it was a perfectly fine hat). That was all I needed to lay low and wait for him to request things.

In fact the rejection of that first hat made me rather surprised when he requested a hat at the beginning of the winter. But he had input this time and has worn this new hat everytime he's gone skiing, which has been almost every day.

The problem with waiting for declarations is that once they are made communication breaks down. Although very fashionable, Hubby doesn't "speak yarn" and mostly knows what he likes when he sees it.

So vertical stripes was a good start. And I know he likes colorful (really, he wants something in tweed yarn, but I haven't found one I like that would be good for an entire sweater). The box stitch came about when he got into my stash and found some swatches.

Sideways
I was going to knit the stripes bottom up using intarsia style twisting on the wrong side, but it didn't look very good. Instead I'm going sideways. I'm knitting in the normal direction, cutting the yarn after every 12 row stripe repeat but when I'm done I'll turn it on its side.

Things were progressing nicely until I had worked my way through all the stripes I thought I would need. Despite my calculations that 13 stripes would be 25" wide my piece kept measuring 23" wide. This was not going to be wide enough.

I kept checking the math and measuring the piece and the numbers didn't change. Finally I rechecked my gauge and sure enough I was getting about 7 rows per inch instead of the 6 rows per inch I got in my swatch. sigh.

I went ahead and knit the next color in the sequence and it seems to be the right width now. phew.

I started with the back, since it wouldn't have neck shaping or anything. Now I'm working on the front. I'll be able to measure the back piece and use it as a guide for which rows should include the neck shaping on the front. I'm doing a drop shoulder style so I don't have to worry about armhole shaping.

Of course I'm being clever, because I never learn. I started both pieces with a provisional cast on and left the other end of the back live. My plan is to graft the side seams using kitchener stitch. It seemed to me that trying to seam over the cast on and cast off edges would be too difficult. The shoulder seams are, of course, going to be sewn especially since they are the side of the work and there was no way to leave it live. I was also clever on the side edges and worked the first and last stitches in garter stitch as a selvedge.

I'm hoping this makes the shoulders easier to seam. On the bottom edge I'm going to use those stitches to pick up and knit down for the ribbing.

Far From Over
There was a while when the back seemed to be taking a long time to knit. Then suddenly it was done.

Hopefully the front won't take long.

But I don't anticipate finishing the sweater quickly, mainly because I'm stumped about the sleeves.

It would be easiest to just do them in horizontal stripes, but I don't know if that will clash with the vertical stripes of the body.

I've been mulling the sleeves over in my mind and can't decide how I would work them in vertical stripes and accomplish shaping. My current brilliant idea was be to start provisionally in the center and work out toward the end decreasing by shortening each row. Then go back and work the other end out.

That might be easier than trying to start at the side of the cuff, increase up to the center, and decrease down again.

Maybe when I get to the sleeves I'll knit a swatch and explain the stripe directions to Hubby.

He'll be the one wearing it, after all.

Bias-V Progress

It took me a few days to recover from the chaos of the stripes colliding with the shaping.

I resorted to building a massive chart of the entire sweater in Excel to see how it would all work together.

Yes, that took an hour or two.

Why the entire sweater? Because I thought it would be easier to have the stripes progress up the chart and seeing where the colors end up rather than trying to start at the armholes and having to determine the color placement from the sweater.

The chart turned out to be a good idea not only for the stripes but also for the neck shaping.

Despite having reworked the numbers for the v-neck shaping I rebelled against the new figures and was going to go with my original math.

However, when I plotted it on the chart I saw that it did indeed not work. The neck shaping stopped at a point beyond the end of the shoulder shaping. There was a distinct lack of stitches where stitches needed to be for both sets of shaping to happen.

It was a simple matter of flipping the page over to get to the new neck numbers. I plotted them with a red boarder so I could really see the difference. I also had to replot the shoulders since they were based on the top of the v-neck. I was able to cross-reference the revised chart rows with the number of rows I had predicted for the armholes in my original round of number crunching.

I'm pretty sure everything is happy now, but the real test will be when the sweater is done.

The result of plotting the stripes was that I decided to maintain the charcoal grey on left shoulder even though it's only going to be three stitches. I like having the colors continue.

I was also able to see that the dark blue was not going to jump across the gap and eat the black/white yarn until all the way up at the shoulder.

What I did was box out the shape of the sweater, then copy paste the colors up to the neck shaping.

Then when I got to the neck shaping I used a lighter version of all the colors to plot them across empty space. This allowed me to follow their natural progression. Also, it gave me a chart of the back of the sweater.

After all that work I realized there was something I could have done to make my charting life easier.

I made the chart by copying each individual color two rows at a time, moving my cursor up and over, and pasting.

The next day, after I was all done, I realized I could have copied the two rows all the way across the sweater. The relation of the colors to each other would have been maintained just as well.

sigh.

Return of the Bias Striped V-Neck Shell

I recently finished a cabled hat for Hubby. I designed it, so it was no small feat. There was a lot of reworking involved. I'll tell you all the gory details in a future post, hopefully after I have the pattern written up.

I bring the hat up because it was one of those projects that left me...unsettled?...feeling at a loose end?...those phrases are a little too negative for what I'm trying to describe. I can't think of the right word at the moment, but I'm sure you felt it too.

I finished the hat and had to cleanse my knitting palate. I had to take time and savor the accomplishment of finishing the hat. I wanted to knit, but nothing I had in progress seemed appealing. What I really wanted to do was cast on for something new with some of my Rhinebeck yarn, but that would have been irresponsible.

Since I wanted my hands to be moving, but didn't want anything taxing, I fished out the Bias Striped V-Neck Shell.

Yeah, Stockinette
This is a little top I'm designing fro myself using yarn leftover from the striped sweater I made Hubby last year. I was very excited when I started it, but hit a major wall after I took that design class with Shirley Paden in July and she declared that my v-neck shaping numbers wouldn't work. Oh, and moving didn't help the situation either.

Anyway. I hauled it out and discovered that I had reworked the neck shaping numbers at some point. Also, I could still understand the pattern I'd written for myself, which was very exciting. After a quick measure to check the length I was able to jump right back into knitting it.

Boo, Fancy Stripes
However things got ugly pretty quickly.

As you can see the stripes march across the sweater to the left. On each right side row I work one more stitch in the color to the right maintaining the stitch count. So, to clarify, each color has 13 stitches (although one has 15 because the math didn't work). The light green eats the dark blue which eats the black/white and on across the sweater. As the color drops off the left I attach it to the right and continue the pattern.

This was working out very nicely, expect I didn't plan for how the armhole and neck shaping would affect the pattern. Actually I probably figured I deal with it when I got there.

Well, I'm there and I'm stuck.

As you can see in the picture the stripes already when squirrley because of the armholes. This is actually attempt number two. For my first attempt I continued the grey on the right but it ended up with only like three or four stitches between casting off the armholes and having to add in the tan/white when it dropped off the left.

(Also my pattern said to decrease two stitches each side but I bound them off and didn't end up liking how that looked. Frogging was necessitated by the double whammy of ugly shaping and bad stripes.)

On this second attempt I abandonded the grey when it was down to two stitches. It's alittle abrut, but I tell myself it's OK becuase it's under my arm. No one should be close enough to notice.

Now my problem is the chaos the neck shaping is causing. Between the neck shaping and the slide of the colors the black/white yarn in the center is rapidly disappearing. The dark blue already ate one side. Technically on the next right side row I work the dark blue is going to jump the gap. At this rate the black/white is going to get cut off in the middle of the row!

Since I'm using leftover yarn I made a lot of decisions based on conservation. I thought I'd be clever and start with the front so that if I ran out of colors it would be on the back and maybe less noticible. The v-neck was also an attempt to save yarn (less territory to cover). My ability to make sleeves will be dictated by how much yarn is left after the body is done.

I'm debating not letting the dark blue jump the gap yet. Give the black/white a chance to get ahead. But I don't know if that will distort the stripes. After all, the dark blue is being encroched upon by the green as well as the neck shaping.

Now I wish I had knit the back first so I would have complete stripes to refrence. I would have been able to plot the flow of the colors on the front against the colors on the back and decide how to work the slide.

Lightbulb!
Seriously. As I was just sitting here typing this post it occured to me to work up a chart with the colors. Brilliant! It won't be easy because of the shift, but I can color it all in then slice out the neck.

Excellent. This should fix the problem and is easier than knitting and ripping.

I know what I'll be doing tonight.

Celtic Critter Cardigan Retraction

My brilliant discovery the other day might not have been so brilliant after all.

The pajama top measured out to the same dimensions for which I was already aiming.

Well, except the pajama top has a 40 inch bust and I'm after a 35 inch, but close enough.

Of course, the sweatshirt was like 46 inches so the the pajama top was considerably smaller.

I guess the positive aspect would be that I have confirmation of how I want the cardigan to fit. If I can get the ease on the sweater to match the ease I want then I should be happy with the fit.

Hem Test
The lifeline, however, proved fruitful and informative.

Last night I transferred what I've knit over to a spare ball of yarn.

The dang thing measured out to around 50 inches!

I say "around" because it was also curving downward, which made it a little hard to measure.

I'm pretty sure the downward curve is being caused by the flare because of the increases at the bottom of the cable. I had wondered what the expansion in stitches would do to the fabric, but I hadn't figured on that.

So I have to reduce the number of stitches in the pattern repeat to reduce the circumference. But to attempt to control the flare and curve I think I'll figure out how many stitches I'll have after increasing for the cables, cast on that number, then decrease before I have to work the cable increases.

Just to make things more complicated.

To make it easier on myself, I think I'll do the first few rows in garter stitch instead of seed stitch.

Ok, time to go do some math. This pattern won't design itself while I'm playing on the computer.

Celtic Critter Cardigan Breakthrough

When last we spoke about the Celtic Critter Cardigan I had come to a screeching halt.

After knitting about 15 rows I had become convinced it was going to be waaaay to big. There would be no way to know for sure until it was done since I'm knitting it bottom-up in pieces.

I couldn't face the possibility of doing all that work for it to come out wrong.

I also couldn't face the prospect of re-working the math.

This paralysis was an issue on many levels. First, I want the sweater. It's going to be really cool and I have to use the yarn for something. Second, people are asking about it. ugh.

When I saw Pam and her sister over Columbus Day weekend they were like, "Simple. Put it on a lifeline and you'll get a better idea of how big it is."

Um, why hadn't I thought of that? But I haven't acted on it yet because I've been busy.

Proper Comparison Top
Then this morning I had an epiphany.

All my sweatshirts (all three of them) are in circulation now that I actually have to walk the dogs in the morning rather than just releasing them into a fenced yard.

Today I had on a sweatshirt and was walking around thinking, "This thing is frakin' huge!" Granted, it's a size large so I would expect it to be huge. But seriously I was swimming in it.

Which made me wonder how much ease it had and how that would compare to the ease I was calculating for the Celtic Critter Cardigan.

When I started the design process I used a leather coat I like as my guide garment. Of course the fit and drape of a leather coat is extremely different from the fit and drape of a knit coat.

I should imagine there is a difference between a sweatshirt and a knit coat, but they are probably more similar than leather and fabric.

Anyway, I get home and measure the sweatshirt and it's around 40 inches at the bottom with the elastic pulling it in. The CCC is planned for 44 inches for the bottom hem!

Now the body of the sweatshirt is around 46 inches and I'm planning the cardigan for 35, so that doesn't help much.

The sleeves, which is where I was really noticing the extra fabric, go from about 12 inches at the cuff to 20 inches at the upper arm. I'm planning for 11 at the cuff and 14.5 at the upper arm.

I'm going to be swimming in this cardigan!

Mission Statement Revisited
Now the goal of this sweater is to make an outer garment I can wear over shirts and such when it starts to get chilly out. But these dimensions are ridiculous.

I had put my pajamas back on in order to crawl around on the floor measuring the sweatshirt. I thought to myself, "Hey, these pajamas are loose without being overly big."

So I tried on the pajamas and the sweatshirt over first a polo top and then a turtle neck. I really think the pajama dimensions are going to work. Not that I've measured it yet.

However, I'm going to keep the length of the sweatshirt.

Yes, I do realize this means I have to rework all the math. sigh.

On the bright side, I got these really cool pewter buttons for the cardigan at Rhinebeck from The Rams Horn.

Can you make them out?

The Welsh Dragon and some Celtic Crosses! The knots on the far right are the ones I had orginally bought. They will have to find a life on another top.

Unintentional Kneesocks

The Angora Bedsocks of Power and Fortune! are out of control.

After kicking the Skew socks to the curb last week I took a look at the other WIPs hanging over my head.

On a regular basis, I decide that I function better with only one, maybe two, projects on the go. Multiple projects overwhelm me and I get annoyed by the lack of progress on anything.

Of course just becuase I know this doesn't stop me from casting on new projects even as old ones languish.

But I'm embracing the "clear the plate" phase and decided to return to the ABSPF! because the first sock was fairly close to being done.

These keep ending up on the back burner because I keep thinking they are "too complicated" for TV knitting because of the cables. Turns out the cables are only in two little spots and I flashed right through them.

Another issue was that I saw them getting taller and taller and realized I had to increase a few stitches in order to have them continue fitting, which was just adding to the complication factor.

Since they are just bedsocks, after all, I decided to stop over thinking the matter and just started throwing in some increases every couple rows with the goal of being able to work k2, p2 ribbing.

Then all of a sudden, boom! the sock was done.

And there was much rejoicing.

Particularly becuase I was pretty sure I was going to run out of yarn during the cast off and didn't want to have to unpick the cast off and last row. In fact, I just squeeked by with a little bitty tail left, which I did my best to knot.

I'm fairly certain that situation is going to come back to bite me.

And the second sock is where?
I don't generally suffer from second sock syndrome.

I often find the second sock is easier than the first because all the numbers are there and it's autopilot knitting. Especially in a situation like this where I'm making a pattern up.

The wild card is going to be how closely I follow the "pattern." This first sock fits, but it's a bit snug in places near the top where I didn't start the shaping soon enough.

I'm torn between tweaking the second sock to reflect what I've learned for an improved fit, or working it the same as the first. I'm really leaning toward just working it the same. If I have one nice fitting sock and one poorly fitting sock the poorly fitting first sock will just annoy me and I know I'm way too lazy to rip it out and reknit it.

In the mean time, I've cast on for a new project.

Lofty Goals

Or is it "The best laid plans of mice and Anns..."

Anyway, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be done the Celtic Critter Cardigan in time for Rhinebeck.

Yeah, it turns out it takes a really long time to work 214 or so stitches in seed stitch. And then the stitch count exploded when I did the increases for the cables. It takes even longer to work 260 or so stitches in a cable pattern.

Which isn't to say I'm not enjoying it. It's just taking much longer than expected.

Actually, considering I haven't touched it in like a week it's going to take a long time indeed.

Excuses, Excuses
A few things are/were contributing to the lack of knitting progress.

First I'm still lacking in knitting time. Turns out instead of converting my morning commuting time into knitting time we've converted it into sleeping time. Which is awesome.

Instead of getting up at 6 am, being in the shower by 7 am, and trying to leave the house by 8 am. I'm not getting out of bed until 7 am! Hubby gets up a little earlier. The alarm clock must have been turned down during the move because I don't hear it go off any more. What has been waking me up is the tea kettle whistling.

The layout of our apartment causes you to pass through the kitchen on the way to the bathroom. Hubby has been putting the kettle on as he passes by. Very convenient for me.

However, I still have the goal of settling down to work by 9 am, so whoosh! There goes the knitting time.

Since my knitting time has been constricted and late in the evenings, I was focusing on those socks in the previous post. Did I mention that is the sock yarn my friends in Connecticut gave me? Well, I bought it with the gift certificate they gave me. Close enough.

Finally, I think I have a bit of a mental block over the sweater because the little bit I've worked so far seems awfully big.

I mean, it's supposed to be 44 inches because I want it to go around my butt and I matched the ease at the hem to the ease at the bust. After I'd worked a few rows I held it up to myself and it seemed a lot roomier than I had envisioned. Of course we've previously established that I have no concept of how ease on paper translates into the real world. We learned this when I made the Schleppy Sweater and it came out more formfitting than I expected.

Oh, by the way, it was a rainy, chilly miserable day yesterday and I got to wear the Schepply Sweater for the first time this season! It was so cozy. mmmm

You Call These Choices?
Anyway. I fear the hem of the Celtic Critter Cardigan is going to be too wide. I won't know for sure until the sweater is down. That is an awful lot of knitting time to invest for something that might not fit properly.

My other option is to rework the numbers. Scale down the bottom hem to closer to actual body measurements. That would mean reworking the bottom hem numbers and the decrease numbers to the bust target. And it's not just a matter of doing the math. There will be fudging involved because of the cables and wanting them to land in a certian place.

sigh.

I suppose the fudging might be easier since I have the current piece to use for reference.

Anyway, I should make a decision or this sweater is never going to be made. At this point I'm only about 15 rows in, which isn't a big investment in the grand scheme of things.

And didn't I say that accepting frogging as part of making your own design is an important step?

New Rhinebeck Knitting Goal
After I came to terms with the fact that I wouldn't finish the CCC in time I turned my attention to the other yarn I bought at Rhinebeck.

I decided I had time to knit a pair of socks. That goal was abandoned when the Simple Socks ended up taking longer than anticipated (see Excuse #1).

I've tossed that goal aside as well and have turned my attention to some of the other yarn my friends at Westport Yarns "bought" me. I've cast on for a scarf and have been knitting away on it.

See, I'm going to see Pam at Rhinebeck and figure it will be nice to show I'm actually using the yarn they got me rather than letting it languish in the hoard.

Not that I need to worry. As fellow knitters and crocheters they totally understand about having a hoard.

Or wearing half finished scarves with the needles still attached.

39 Knitting Days Til Rhinebeck

Just to make you panic.

Because misery loves company and all.

Cast your mind back to earlier in the year, before my life descended into chaos because of my interstate move, when I had the big idea of designing and knitting a cardigan in time to wear to Rhinebeck.

The motivation was that I bought all that yarn last year that I hadn't used, which makes it kind of hard to justify buying more.

The problem is my process go severely derailed because of the move.

So much for setting goals.

The sweater is still in the swatchy state I left it in several months ago.

The "design" is still just scribbles on a piece of paper. Or perhaps several pieces, which is a whole nother issue.

Boy howdy, I hope I can understand those notes now.

I have this vague memory that I have to rework the shoulders and sleeve caps.

sigh.

Well, I should go try to sort it out. Blogging about the situation isn't getting me any closer to being done.

Design Class, part 2

Returning to the idea of a blog as being as much a journal of what I've learned for my own reference as it is a public exhibition for the amusement of others, I shall tell you about the second half of the Shirley Paden Design class at Westport Yarns last night.

In the last class she walked us through designing the sweater body and the sleeve up to the cap shaping.

In this class she picked up more or less where she left off. We reviewed a double-taper body style with a discussion of fudging the decrease or increase start and finish points to make them land on appropriate parts of the sweater.

Being Sneaky
Having explained a crew neckline in the last class, she attempted to explain a V-neck this time.

I say attempted because we were all a bit math challenged. It's pretty simple math, but we all sat there and said, "Huh?" I put it down to end-of-day brain fatigue.

The way she runs the class is to give you sample gauge and measurements, then walks you through crunching the numbers to calculate stitch and row counts. Obviously she has the answers so she knows what is supposed to happen.

When we all came up short on her sample V-neck numbers she said, "Ok, let's try a different one, give me some numbers."

Since everyone else was sitting there paralyzed with math-fear, I started calling out the numbers for my Bias Striped V-Neck Shell. Now, if you remember, I had a devil of a time figuring this out because no formula I had access to seemed to work. I already suspect I'd done it wrong and her example reinforced that suspicion. Here was an opportunity to have someone do the math for me!

Well, Shirley got two steps into it and immediately said it wouldn't work. She didn't even bother writing all the calculations out. She said there were too many stitches for too few rows. Huh. So right there I learned something valuable. She said I would have to do a deeper plunge. By then people were a little energized, so they gave some alternate measurements for us to work.

Cross Back
Unfortunately I can't actually use the new numbers we came up with in class.

During the last class Shirley had said not to include ease in the cross-back measurement. She said that shoulder seam should be accurate to the body for the sweater to look good.

I did not know this when I originally designed the Bias-V, so I had included 2" of ease in the cross-back to match the 2" of ease in the bust. Meaning I have to redo the entire top of the sweater.

This shouldn't be too painful as it should only be around two stitches each side.

Cap It
After we got past the neck shaping we moved onto the sleeve cap shaping. Lynn and I were really looking forward to learning it.

I had attempted to follow the book, but it boggled my little mind. Which, apparently, isn't hard to do. Frankly, the first time Shirley explained it was still like, "Huh?" But after she reviewed all the steps, and handed out the answer sheet, it started making sense. You figured out the bottom, which matches the armholes on the sweater, then the top, and decrease away whatever is left in the middle.

It's just getting to that middle that's the mind bending part.

I shouldn't have to worry about it for a while though, which might be a shame on some level since I won't get to practice.

The Bias-V is slated to be sleeveless until I know how much yarn I have. I'm not going to design sleeves until I know I can knit sleeves.

I thought I'd be applying this new sleeve cap knowledge to the Celtic Critter Cardigan, but it's not looking that way now.

Swoon! A Consultation!
An important part of the class is a "private" consultation with Shirley if you are far enough along in your pattern.

I say "private" because it's right there in front of everyone, but she's focused on you for the moment.

Anyway. I got to the store early since I'd gone straight from work. She also arrived about half an hour before class started, so I took the opportunity to show her my numerous, large swatches.

She said they were very nice. She might have even used the word beautiful.

I asked her about the cross-back measurement and if the no ease thing holds true since I'm designing a coat to go over other clothes. She said it does since that part of the sweater fits (rests on the body) differently than the bust area does.

Right there I have to rework my numbers.

I told her about the stitch count exploding because of the cable style I'm using. I said my current numbers call for 17 stitches on each shoulder but my cable needs 16. She suggested I do a drop shoulder or modified drop shoulder instead, which will get around the need to shape the area. I would still decrease stitches under the arm, and still have to rework the top in general, but I might get a bit more wiggle room.

She also questioned why I have two purl stitches between the border and the cable. I was like, "They are in the pattern." She was like, "Pifff! The pattern is just a starting point."

Of course, that would mean I have to swatch again to make sure I like how it looks.

Show Off
A few other people had projects that needed a consultation at the end of the class. There was a pretty mesh dress and a top with a lace hem.

Then Shirley told me to haul out my swatches again. Everyone crowded around and admired them and I got to explain all about the sweater concept.

Their eyes bugged a bit when they saw the number and size of swatches I had made. "I'm just going to sew them together and call it a day," I assured them, to general amusement.

A few people questioned if the center back motif was going to be big enough. Even though it is 5" by 6" it doesn't look that big in isolation. However, they weren't taking into account how petite I am. When I held it up to my back they agreed it would be just fine.

Other suggestions were made for adding cables or motifs to other area. I've taken them under consideration, but won't really know how it will all fit together until I start knitting.

Now I just have to get through a little more math then I can plunge in.

Celtic Critter Cardigan: Math Sucks

But I believe I've expressed my views on that point in the past?

During each of the three times I've sat down to design my own sweater I have at some point asked myself, "Why? There are so many lovely sweater patterns in the world already. Why not just make one of those?"

And I never have a good answer. ("Because I can," doesn't count.) Oh, sure, they might not be quite like what I had in mind, but they are perfectly fine.

This is the conversation I had with myself over the weekend when I tried to squeeze in some yarn time when I wasn't abusing our plant life.

Stitch Count Explosion
Part of the problem is the way these cables I've selected are constructed.

I don't know if you could really tell in those other pictures, but they aren't like normal cables. they don't start politely at the hem and march up the sweater.

No, they have cleverly placed increases so they spring out of nowhere, snake up the sweater, and then decrease to disappear again.

This means that your stitch count explodes from 216 to 416. wheeee!

Oh, have I mentioned I plan to work it in one piece to the armholes? That is why the number is so high.

Actually, it took me an effort to get to 216. Originally I had 220, just based on the st st gauge. Since I wasn't sure how many repeats that would be, or how they would fall out, I went ahead and cast on and worked the first two rows of the pattern. It may have taken awhile, but I think it was quicker than trying to draw out a chart would have been.

Turns out the cables didn't break nicely around the "side seams." However, seeing it like that allowed me to quickly see how many stitches to increase or decrease to adjust it. With the 216 each side seam lands plunk in the middle of a repeat, which will play in nicely into the side cables.

And it is those side cables, along with the cables along the front opening, that are causing my math issues.

Just Ignore It
Originally I thought, "Oh, sure my stitch count doubles for the cables, but it will go back down when they end."

I thought I would just ignore the extra stitches. Remove the 28 rows and 3 1/2 inches for the bottom hem from my calculations and move ahead.

Then I realized I can't ignore them because some of the cables, and their extra stitches, are continuing up the cardigan. argh! That's what I get for being so clever.

My sweater will increase by 32 stitches (if my quick math just now was correct). To complicate things, 8 of those stitches will disappear shortly before the underarm shaping occurs.

And then, because I'm terribly clever, they will reappear on the front after the armhole shaping starts so the side cables can join up with them and the whole mess can go up the shoulder.

(oh, it's going to be a work of magnificence and beauty, if I ever get it knit and I don't run out of yarn.)

So Ignoring Is Out?
Part of me still wants to ignore the extra stitches and do the math on the base st st gauge. How far off will it be, right? The cables draw in (a little), the fit should be close to the goal. I am making it over sized so I can wear it over things.

However, it occurs to me that if I have fake numbers like that and then have to count my stitches to correct a mistake I'll never know whether or not I'm right.

sigh.

I'm going to do my best to come up with real numbers. I'm going to figure out where these little stitch explosions occur and plan accordingly. And I'm going to figure out the row counts so I can plan for the cables to disappear in pleasing places. Finally, I'm going to work the decreases two stitches in from the cables, since I'm going to have cables where the decreases would normally go (see? clever.), to try to keep the shaping correct.

But I tell you one thing I'm not going to do.

I'm not going to account for the extra stitches from the back motif.

Screw 'em. The motif is only 5 inches tall. Those extra stitches aren't hanging around long anyway.

Celtic Critter Cardigan: More Swatches

I think I'm getting perilously close to the point where if I continue swatching I'm going to have done a sweater's worth of knitting without having knit a sweater.

That is part of the peril of designing your own sweater. Especially one with so many motifs.

Here you see the dragon head swatch. Can you make him out in the photo? He still needs to be tacked down and finessed.

The stitch marker on the left was intended for a second dragon, but I realized I wouldn't have room so I skipped it. After all it's just a swatch.

The book then says something along the lines of "attach dragon with applique techniques." As though that means something to me. And I suddenly thought, "Hmm, there is going to be a lot of fussy finishing involved with these dragons. Maybe I don't want as many as I originally thought."

Currently I'm thinking I'll whip stitch the dragon in place from the wrong side of the cardigan, i.e, reach up from inside.

In the book, there is a picture of the dragon with little whiskers embroidered on. They really enhance his looks, but embroidery is so not in my skill set. I had the swatch and the book in the store recently. Pam and Jane (one of our regular teachers who is a little flashier than me) were trying to convince me to use some sort of shiny red yarn for the whiskers to make him really pop. I am debating this idea. It might stand out too much. But that is rather far down the line.

Cuff Reject
As I mentioned last time, the top swatch is for the bottom hem and the front opening.

I was also planning that cable for the sleeve cuff. However, there are so many cool cables in Viking Patterns for Knitting that I couldn't resist the idea of perhaps incorporating more of them into the cardigan.

The result was a swatch of the one you see here, which is one I like and think looks "cuffy."

However, it looks anemic in comparison to the main cable, so I'm not going to use it.

In case you're wondering, there is a half cable on the left because I'm making all the swatches over 48 sts regardless of pattern repeat. My theory is this will make it easier to measure them for gauge and give me a better idea of how they might pull or flair. 8x8 swatch indeed.

Back Motif
The next swatch was this beautiful cable you see here. This is one of my favorites out the of the book. It's the Happiness Symbol Bisected by a Ring (or something like that). A smaller version, without the ring, is what I had wanted to put on the heel of the Angora Bed Socks of Power and Fortune!, but couldn't remember how to make it.

My plan is to center this on the back of the cardigan to break up the expanse of reverse stockinette stitch. I needed to know how tall and wide it will be so I can plot it.

I learned two things from swatching it.

First, it seems to pucker more than the other cables. However, I haven't blocked any of them so I'm not worried about it. Also, it will have the weight of the sweater pulling it straight.

Second, I'm going to have to float stitch markers up the entire sweater for it, or carefully plot the number of stitches it will be from the edge. The chart only has 4 sts on either side of the outer edge shown. Centering the very beginning of the cable in the middle wasn't a problem, but I got a little confused when it was time to work the increases for the outer rings.

See, swatching really is our friend!

Dragon Down
The last swatch (I thought) I knit was this wee one. Obviously not on 48 sts!

My plan is to have the cables grow up from the sleeve cuff and stop in dragon head(s) near the elbow. Then I want the cables to resume on the upper arm. The kind I'm using have stop and start points so I can skip a section like that.

What I didn't know what whether I could essentially work a dragon "down." As you can see, it came out just fine.

When I finished this second dragon I thought, "Phew. I've swatched my fingers off. I can figure out my gauge and start the scary math."

Ah-ha! Not so fast.
It occurred to me I had edged all my swatches in garter stitch, as you do.

I was planning to edge the sweater in four rows of seed stitch, just to be difficult.

It occurred to me I should swatch, again, with the seed stitch border to make sure it really will control curling and look alright.

The anti-curling objective seems to have been met. In the looks department it's kind of blah. The very bottom hem blends in with the rev st st of the body, which might be just as well, but is kind of annoying since seed stitch is so much work. However, on the sides, which represent the front opening, it looks just fine.

I'm also using this last swatch as an opportunity to work a shorter version of the main cable to see if I prefer it for the sleeve cuffs. The jury is still out, mainly because I haven't knit enough rows yet.

Color Variation
I don't know how well you can see the color variations among all the swatches.

Brooks Farm Solo is a hand-painted yarn. The general rule of thumb when working with hand-painted yarn is to blend the color variations from skein to skein by alternately working two rows from two different skeins. (i.e., rows 1 & 2 with skein A, rows 3 & 4 with skein B, back to A, etc.)

I wasn't planning to do that because I'm, you know, lazy.

However, seeing the difference in the colors of the various swatches when I had them laid out side by side for the photo shoot was very surprising.

Remember, I bought them all at once and they are supposedly the same dye lot.

But some of them look decidedly pink or washed out red in comparison to the others. After I saw it in the swatch I could even see it in the balls.

Also, I'm continually surprised by the amount of orange. Don't get me wrong, I like it. I think it is popping up in the cables in an interesting manner. And I realize it will be different spread out of the entire width of the cardigan rather than a wee 48 sts swatch. But still, hello orange.

Of course, all these color concerns are much more noticeable in the sun than they are in the living room.

The point is, I'll be alternating skeins.

I have three hanks I haven't balled yet. For some reason the colors seem more noticeable when in ball form. I'm going to try to determine which are pink and which are red and make sure I pair them up as much as possible.

Soon. Soon I will be able to start the real knitting on this cardigan.

Considering Mom just reserved our hotel room for Rhinebeck 2010, I better knit fast!

One Day Bowl

Since you know that nothing is simple with me you will not be surprised that this little bowl that took me around two hours to make has a very long back story.

We had a staff member at the store named Trudy. (Hi, Trudy!) She was not with us for very long when her husband retired and they moved south.

Before she left she gave each of us a little gift of yummy chocolates and one of her favorite books, "Everyday Sacred" by Sue Bender.

It's one of those quiet, meditative books. Not really a self-help book, but still about looking at the world around you and shifting your perspective on what you see.

This was actually my second attempt at reading it. I had started at one point, but guess I wasn't ready for the message. This time I stuck with it and enjoyed it. I might even troop over to the library to find her first book.

What does this have to do with yarn?
The main image and central theme of the book is a bowl and accepting what is placed in that bowl. Which is all explained quickly in the first few pages, so I haven't spoiled anything for you there.

Turns out I'm fairly suggestible, which is something I already knew about myself, because after spending all that time reading about bowls and looking at bowl drawings I had a sudden desire to make a bowl.

Here, fishy fishy
This is not the first time a book has caused me to create something with yarn, and I'm not talking about patterns or stitch dictionaries.

After college I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of the characters was obsessed with goldfish and spent a considerable amount of time making little metal ones.

That was a much longer book than Everyday Sacred so it might have been more understandable that after finishing it (or maybe while I was still reading it?) I designed a crocheted goldfish. I still have him. I'll have to take a picture for you. He's adorable.

Back to the Bowl
Of course, I've seen patterns for felted bowls. And I made those felted wine cozies a few years ago. So I had the concept.

It made sense to make a bowl out of yarn, since it's my medium of choice.

I cast through my mental stash for feltable yarn. I just wanted to whip out a little bowl to satisfy the urge, so I didn't want anything complicated like making a striped bowl from scraps or something. I also didn't want it to be massive or take forever to make.

The single skein of green Naturgarn by Viking of Norway fit the bill. It even says "for knitting and felting" right there on the label.

[Ah-ha. I see on the website it is labeled "new." This is one of the yarns I received for my freelance project. You should check with your LYS, but it might not be in stock in the USA until the fall. I should check on that.]

Pattern Recap
Naturgarn is 100% wool. 50 meter/55 yard skein. At a suggested gauge of 12 sts to 4 inches. The recommended knitting needle is a 8mm/US 11. It has just a wee halo and is what I believe is called "singles" as the structure is just one fluffy, loosely twisted strand. My color, Lime #632.

I was planning to crochet my bowl, since it is faster and more structural than knitting.

Although I'm not a big felter, I understand that working at a looser gauge is desirable. I guess so the water can really get it between the stitches.

My crochet hooks jumped from a 6.5mm/K to big, plastic, mystery ones aren't imprinted with a size.

I went with one of the mystery ones. Perhaps a P. I'm really not sure.

I started the bowl with six single crochet in the starting loop. After working the bottom in single crochet I suddenly got bored and switched to double crochet.

I fiddled around a bit with working a back-post dc to turn the corner, but the sides were curving up naturally, so I ended up ripping that out and just working plain dc.

Really, this bowl took just over 2 hours to crochet. Let's see, we watched an episode of Dr. Who on-demand, two episodes of Jeopardy! off the DVR, and an episode of Justified off the DVR. So, taking out commercials, but I did fold a load of laundry...so call it 2 hours.

How is that for a fast project?

After I finished it I thought it looked a little more open than I anticipated.

This was not an issue because we were all getting together at Pam's house for a knit night, so I dragged it along.

She figured it would be fine with a few runs through the washer. I said I was going to hand felt it. Margaret and Laura both cried, "Are you insane?!" or something to that effect with the point being that's why washing machines were invented.

Machine felting it seemed like a waste of resources to me, since it was just one little bowl, but by the time I got home I had come around.

Two quick trips through the agitation cycle and viola! A bowl.

I stretched it over the bottom of a big canister of Quaker Oatmeal to shape it.

I forgot to measure the dimensions of the pre-felted bowl, but the finished one is about 3.25" tall, 5" across, and 17.5" around.

The light does shine through in places, which I think is a combination of the overly big hook and the double crochet stitch. The bottom, in single crochet, is much less, um, translucent?

Still, I think that adds to the charm of the bowl. I mean, it's not like I'm going to eat soup out of it. Of course, part of my attitude might be in the spirit of Everyday Sacred's message of accepting things as they are.

More bowls! More Bowls!
This bowl was so quick and satisfying that I have a desire to make a second one. This urge can be satisfied because I have a second skein of Naturgarn in color 670, which is a blue/purple multi.

This time I think I'll go with the K hook. Still might stick with the dc though. If I switch to a smaller hook AND a shorter stitch the second bowl might end up too small.

Can't wait to see how the variegate looks felted.

Celtic Critter Cardigan: Swatch!

For all my whining about not having time to knit lately I sure am starting projects like a fiend.

But, again, I have a perfectly legitimate excuse.

Shirley Paden was teaching her design class at Westport Yarns last night.

Now, we all just lived through me designing the Schleppy Sweater and the Bias Striped V-Neck so you might wonder that I would be interested in taking a design class. Well, I'm no fool.

Actually, I think it's been well established that I am a fool, but I'm a clever fool who knows her limitations.

I figured there would be tips and explanations and easier ways to do things.

You know what I've learned so far?

The scary math is still scary.

That was a bit of a relief. It wasn't just me. One of our teachers who has designed plenty of lovely patterns was sitting next to me and we were both like, "Wow, the math still sucks."

Granted, Shirely did it much quicker than I've been doing it, which gives me hope that it will get easier as I go along, but the steps are still the same.

She discussed the steps we should take as we approach our design. Really thinking about and writing down what we want the sweater to look like and the qualities it should have. She said these steps are our foundation and we shouldn't skimp on them. Also, we should make ourselves very familiar with our pattern stitch since it is the fabric of our garment.

Then we paired up and took all our measurements. She had a nice chart for us to follow and clarified some of the tricky bits.

Then she did all the scary math with a sample sweater and made up numbers.

I was very surprised I didn't dream about gauge last night.

We didn't touch the swatches.

I got an e-mail last week saying we should have a sketch and swatches done to bring to class.

Turns out she usually does this class as one marathon six hour day (with a break for lunch). However, ours was broken up into two three-hour sessions. Aaah. The swatches and that part of the process will come into play during the next session. I never got the second e-mail pointing it out.

No matter, I was going to have to swatch eventually.

Celtic Critter Cardigan: The Vision
This is a sweater I've been thinking of since before Rhinebeck. I can pin it to that time frame because I went to Rhinebeck with the mission of buying the Brooks Farm Solo to make this sweater.

It's a chicken/egg situation. After making my cropped poncho I wanted to make a sweater out of the Solo, so I started dreaming one up.

I've mentioned in the past that I'm slightly obsessed with Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold. Well, all the cables are being pulled from that book.

Toward the end of the book she has a section on the intertwined animals and directions for making the dragon heads. I knew I had to use them on something.

My idea is to have a big, braided cable go around the bottom hem, continue up the front opening, and around the hood opening.

To make the dragon heads you don't close off some of the cables, you continue them for a little neck, then make the head. I haven't decided how many little critter heads I'll have along the hem. I suppose it depends on how many pattern repeats I'll have.

Then I'll have a smaller version of the cable along the sleeve cuff. The center will continue up the arm and end in critter head near my elbow. I'd like to have a cable that starts with critter heads on the other side of the elbow, goes up the upper arm, and ends at the shoulder.

But I have to figure out if I can work the critter head upside down. You know how you loose have a stitch when you flip knitting. I don't know how much that will effect it. Which is what swatching is for.

I'd also like to have the cables on the hood extend into dragon heads, but at that point it will be the side of the cable. No points for the dragons to grow from. I'll have to think on that.

Then I was thinking a "happiness symbol" cable on the back. She also calls it the St. John's cross. It's neat and would break up the expanse of plain knitting. Of course, I could make critters come off that as well.

I should have been writing these ideas down as I came up with them. I know I've changed and tweaked things. When I finally sat down to start swatching I seemed all the ideas flew out of my head and I was like "What was I going to do on the sleeves?"

It didn't help that I have other pattern ideas floating around up there and things were getting kind of jumbled.

Everyone who saw my swatch last night thought it was very cool.

More measuring
After I got home last night, which was at like 10 pm! I was looking at the class materials and considering ease for the sweater.

All the measurements we took were actual body measurments, so I had to tack on ease.

I'd been figuring 4 inches, which lands it in the "roomy" category, because I want it to be an outdoor cardigan. One I can wear over other shirts and such when the weather gets cooler.

I ended up measuring a short leather jacket that I have. I like the fit and length of it and think it would be good dimensions for the cardigan.

It's a good thing I did because that jacket is 23 inches long and the length I had written down on my chart was only 19. Also, we didn't measure the "bottom of garment" point consistently, so my armhole to bottom of garment measurement was all out of whack. I wrote down all new measurements based on the jacket dimensions.

Now all I have to do is the scary math.

I think I swatch some more first.

Slipping Away

Everything I learned while designing the Schleppy Sweater.

I suppose on one level that makes it good that I wrote such exhaustive posts about the process.

But do we really want to live through that again?

The plan had been to design the Schleppy Sweater, then plunge right into the Bias Striped V-Neck Shell, and then launch right into one of the complicated cabled ones I want to make.

Then life got busy.

As I couldn't risk loosing all that knowledge, and despite the fact that I already had socks and fingerless mitts on the go, I went ahead and cast on for the BSVNS.

phew!

And it's a good thing I did, too.

The first step was typing up my notes into a comprehensible format. Boy howdy, was that trickier than expected. My notes were probably logical at the time, but a few weeks later I was like, "huh?"

I was able to sort them out quickly. I was also able to edit them a little as I typed them up and finally figured out the armhole length issue. Turned out I had to start the V-neck shaping on the same row I finished the initial armhole shaping.

Hopefully the whole thing won't be a train wreck in the end.

You would think that after doing it once you'd know how to do it again, but turns out that isn't the case. I guess that practice stuff is still necessary. sigh.

Four Project Rotation
Now the BSVNS is part of a four project rotation.

The Trellis Mitts, The Blue Static Socks, and the cropped cardigan I'm supposed to be designing for Westport Yarns are the other three.

I can pull this stunt because I was able to acquire Pam's discarded Denise set. hehehe. This was an important step because the BSVNS and the cropped cardigan are both being worked on US5 needles. Much to much of a pain to keep swapping the tips back and forth. Now I'm unstoppable!

Of course, I talk big, but it's not much of a rotation. I keep stalling either on the socks or the shell since they are both fairly mindless.

The cardigan needs swatching and the mitts have that lace pattern. Both require me to pay attention and that has been incompatible with our recent TV watching. A girl has to make choices.

More Slipping
The other thing that's going to be slipping away is my audience if I don't start blogging regularly again!

I'll try to do better. It's just that there aren't enough hours in the day, blah blah.

However the first hurdle, actually getting knitting done about which I can talk, has been jumped, so I should have some fodder for a few days.

Oh dear. Look at the time. I must go bake cookies now!

See? Busy, busy.