Hello and goodbye

Well I am moving right along on my Rhinebeck Sweater (RS). I now have most of two sleeves and am half way down my bosom. I tried it on and it seems to be ok so far. This is of course the really awkward portion of a top down raglan sweater. It looks like a super short football practice shirt but it is wool and has almost full length arms. Have you ever seen a baby fuzzy yellow chicken during its change to a sleek white adult chicken? It goes through one of the most unattractive transition phases, not fuzzy and not sleek either just a bit of both fighting it out. My sweater is in that stage now, a crop sweater this short is just...not good.

But I have now knit enough of this type of sweater to know it will eventually grow out of this phase. It just needs to get past the what-is-that phase. The good news is that it is moving along nicely. Yay.

Now I have new confession, I am no longer going to fight (even only in my mind) with my Central Park Hoodie sweater. I talked a friend of mine into taking a class, she finished hers last year, mine is still in hiding. I am officially calling it quits on that sweater and I am looking for a pattern to repurpose the yarn. I still like the sweater but it is just not for me.

I think I am a seamless sweater knitter. Well at least for now I am. I really had a feeling that the sweater would not fit when I finished it. I could not shake that feeling and I love the yarn way too much to have to give it away. I am also a person that does not knit something that does not fit. I like the process of knitting but I am in my heart of hearts a product knitter. If I don't have the thing I want at the end of the process I have failed.

So we can say farewell to the Central Park Hoodie and long live to the sweater that will replace it.

Round One

It is that time of year again the the blog suffers for its pictures. I will have to talk my professional...something guy into taking a couple more since I have a new hat but I think the photos are doomed to be a weekend only activity again this winter.

So what does Round One have to do with anything? I am fighting myself again. Sometimes knitting will make us do strange things. I want to knit a sweater since it is turning cold here. The problem? I've been "knitting" a sweater since early this year. In this case "knitting" means it has had parts that have been done for a bit while the rest of the sweater is still yarn. I have not touched it in months. Bad knitter.

Remember what it looked like? Yeah me neither. Well that is not true since I've been walking around with a mental image of it since I started it. And I have been continually taunted by Kisknit's various progress posts, including one that roughly said "I can't wait for the weather to cool down so I can wear my new perfectly fitting, beautiful, gorgeous, awesome sweater."

OK she really did not say that but it sounded a lot like that through my guilt ridden ears. Self applied guilt is so much more stupid. Somewhere along the line I convinced myself it is hard to make a sweater in pieces. It may be harder for me since I am a project knitter that only sees the pieces not the finished sweater. I still even have the back blocked and put away in the closet so I can not mess it up.

Now that looks like it could be part of a sweater at least. The worst thing is once I finish it (yes that really is going to happen) I know I will love it and never want to take it off. If that is true why am I dreaming about this yarn?

It keeps telling me that I could have a new, no problems, no guilt sweater, in a month. It has read my blog, it knows I am capable. If only I wound it up and put aside the socks for a bit. If only.

But I am a good girl, I already pulled out the guilt, I mean green sweater and am planning my attack. I think instead of working on something I've been knitting on, I should just start a new area like one of the front sides. You know something fresh that I have not already dwelt on a few times.

So all you knitters out there give your yarn a bit of a pat for me to have some good luck, this sweater may just need a bit of it.

Two socks and a sleeve

Well let's see what have I been working on so far this summer? Yesterday I had three different socks on the needles but today I only have two. I finished a pair for D and will show them to you on Friday, for Finished Object (FO) Friday. That is assuming I get a picture of them before they go down to the laundry and stay there till next weekend. I think I am worse than a kid  in the candy shop, I can not wait for someone to wear the new item including me. I switched my socks at knitting group and wore the wavy cable socks home when I finished them. I guess I just can't wait to get started wearing them out.

I'm knitting Spring Forward socks from Knitty in yarn I bought at Rhinebeck two years ago. Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm, a merino wool, bamboo and nylon blend in a lovely jaunty pink. 

This is another one of those patterns I see on all the blogs and tell myself "I need to knit that." I love that Knitty has such beautiful varied patterns and all for free. I do admit that I've looked at patterns there and decided they were not for me, until I rediscover them on a blog, knit with different yarn and fall in love with them. Isn't it amazing that changing the color or sheen in a yarn can make such a difference in how a patten is perceived? No wonder that designers get upset when someone messes with their vision. However, if you put a pattern out into the world you must accept that knitters are incapable of doing it your way all the time. I choose to believe that most designers are happy with that. Still it must be somewhat like having a baby and giving it away to the world.

Speaking of Knitty I found another patten there for this yarn, Malabrigo sock yarn in the Candombe colorway, Nemesis. Clearly I went on a pattern hunt on Knitty and found some pretty ones.

I needed something to knit while we watched a movie and all my current projects required charts so I started a basic 2x2 rib and figured I would find a pattern after. I got this far...

Then I remembered my first pair of Malabrigo socks are a bit loose and I meant to knit them with less than 80 stitches in a round, guess how many are on the needles in that cuff above. Yep 80 of those little suckers, so I frogged back and started again with less stitches as the pattern I'd found required and found the cuff should be shorter than what I have there also. Now I am ready to start the leg portion. With all my mistakes/'I'll figure that out later' things this sock may truly be my Nemesis.

Yeah, I know it is lame but I had to do it, I don't know why but I had to.

I pulled my Central Park Hoodie sweater out of the 'time out' pile and decided to start the other sleeve. I had misunderstood the pattern on the first sleeve and was debating making the second sleeve the same as the first just recreating the error in it or starting over and doing it the right way. I knit four pattern repeats and decided I really wanted to do it the right way. Maybe I just decided not to mess with the designer's baby in this case.

That is the offending sleeve of which we speak. I was going to rip it back this weekend so would not be tempted to use it, but I would like to compare the sleeves to see how they differ. Now I'm moving right along with it and have eight repeats done on it. Shortly I will be starting the sleeve cap and then it will be off to the blocking pile.

So, two socks and a sleeve, that is what I'm working on now. I felt so lost yesterday because I finished that sock for D and now my purse has no knitting in it. It felt so empty and without a higher calling. "What? All I'm carrying is your keys, wallet and cell phone? No Yarn? Where is the wool, woman, the wool?"

Working on a sweater

I think my CPH sweater may be trying to do me in. I've never knit a sweater in pieces before and honestly it feels all wrong. I feel like the pieces will never work out right. Don't worry I'm resisting the feelings but they are there.

We started seeming the sleeve in class the other night and it looks like it will work out. I can now mattress stitch. Yay me.

I've ripped back the back twice now and reknit. Somehow I am not keeping track of my rows very well. I had a couple of short cables. Sort of drove me a bit batty. I made the first attempt at waist shaping last night. We shall see how it works out. It should be a wee tuck.

I think I will take out what little seeming I did in class the other night and give the sleeve a good blocking. I seemed to have a harder time stitching because it was not properly blocked. I started the other sleeve but quickly realized I would need the larger needle and that was what I was using on the back still.

So now I have a sleeve, a sleeve cuff and a third of a back. Well at least I'm working on it.

Lessons learned in sweater class

So I had my first CPH class (Central Park Hoodie, a sweater) and wow am I in for a learning experience! Since I think of myself as a sock knitter that knits a few other items I will be getting my money's worth out of this class.

First lesson, and I did it right, was knit a swatch, a good sized swatch. As I am a very tight knitter, although not quite as tight as when I first started, I went up a needle size above the size recommended in the pattern. I did a couple of rows in garter stitch so my knitting would not curl on itself as much. I did about 5 inches widthwise and 4 inches height wise. Then I switched to the recommended needle size and knit a bit, and without thinking I bond off without knitting matching garter. At least I could tell where I started and where I ended. As a weierdo 'sockie' I instantly preferred the tighter knitting that was not gauge. Hey, what can I say tight to me means my socks will last longer, too bad it does not mean the same in sweaters. In sweaters it means something like wool body armor. Which is something I am not opposed to, but it may not be fashionable.

For the record my friend Kisknit made perfect swatches. So perfect they were held up as examples in class. I would hate her more if I did not know how much she stressed over getting the swatches just right. Perfection takes practice, and she did.

Second lesson, those diagram thingies at the end of some patterns are quite useful. I did not know that you could knit different size sleeves (to fit your arms) than the size sweater you're planning to knit. I thought if you made size X sweater the sleeves had to be size X too. Nope, it turns out if you have size X body and Size Z arms you can make your sweater the same way. Who knew? I am feeling a bit like this could be a weird FrankenSweater, with all mismatched parts.

Third lesson, I have no flippin' clue how to knit a sweater other than a top down raglan. Since I am the only one in the class not to have made a sweater that must be seamed up, I am feeling way out of my comfort zone. I am worried that I am going to spend a lot of time and money and not have a wearable item. I know I will not let this happen but I worry about it nonetheless.

Fourth lesson, I still have a lot to learn and I have 3 weeks till our next meeting and a sleeve and half of a back to complete in that time. Do you think avoidance therapy will help. I don't think knitting on other items will get me a sleeve and half back. Dang if only it could.

Working on it

Recently I finished some plain socks, one set for me and one set for D. I have been eying my sock yarn pile lately with much anticipation. I want to knit it all right now. But when I finish things I hit the pile hard and finishing 2 pairs within a couple of days compounds the cast on urge.

I bought Socks that Rock in 'Spy say Guacamolay', last summer at Twisted in Portland OR. D saw these the other night and asked what the colorway name is. He did not believe me when I told him. Our conclusion is that you must get bored naming colorways and you start to throw out random ones. 

While I love the way this yarn wears I am not the biggest fan of how the colors can pool together. It seems to me that the colors are meant to be knit in plain stockinette. So I calculated my gauge and cast on for a plain sock. Then I remembered a sock from Knitter's Book of Wool that I had been meaning to try out. Wavy socks.

The problem was I had started the cuff for a gauge of 7 stitches/inch, or in my case 64 stitches around. The pattern called for 72 stitches. I finished my ribbing and made 8 stitches. Volia, exactly what Cookie A told me not to do for the German Stocking. Well my friends this is not the German Stocking and I am cruising right along.

I know cables pull in and are less stretchy than stockinette. Now I feel like I should really try them on before I get too much farther. Does anyone else have a sense of foreboding now? It certainly makes for a pretty sock.

Once I finished D's socks and I changed the Guac sock to a patterned sock I cast on the above crazy yarn colors. Now this one will definitely be a plain sock. I think there are 4 or 5 colors partying in that yarn. I like working plain socks with interesting colors. We shall see how wacky they will turn out.

I am still ignoring the Rhombus socks for some unknown reason. I do know that eventually I will be consumed with knitting these up if my future holds up to what I have done in my past.

Oh and my Central Park Hoodie class starts tonight. So you will see my progress on that soon. I need to get my knitting bag in order before I go to class and make sure that I have all that I need.

On Knitting

My friend Kisknit (my knitting soulmate) were talking last year and I was astonished to find out that she had never taken a knitting class. I find this amazing because I just assumed that once people found a level of obsession with their knitting that was the next step in the process, you use every available source to expand your knowledge, classes, podcasts, blogs, the internet and now Ravelry. I assumed everyone else went after knitting knowledge like it was the Holy Grail too.

So since she made a bold declaration to knit her stash down this year I antagonized her by inviting her to take a knitting class with me. Wait before you all start sending me hate mail, it is within the original rules. She did say that yarn could be bought if it was for a specific project. What is more specific than a knitting class?

So what will we be making, you ask? The Central Park Hoodie (CPH)

We merrily went to the yarn store on Sunday and each bought yarn. She got a bright beautiful green and I wimped out and went with my original choice after contemplating many colors. I will be knitting it in the same British Racing Green as D's current in progress sweater. I think it will look OK as it is a different style sweater than D's and it is very unlikely that we will wear them at the same time. I tried to look at other colors, I tried to tell myself that a lighter color would show the cables better, I really wanted that color! They did not have enough for my sweater but I think I will have 2 skeins left over from D's sweater. I took the plunge and bought what they had hoping that it would be the same dyelot. The amazing thing is that it was the same dyelot. See it was meant to be mine.

Oh, D's sweater is going along fine. I have most of it done now, I'm working on the collar, and just need to go back to the body bottom and knit some ribbing. I am not cutting yarn or weaving in ends till I have it all knit up and he tries it on. I want to be sure so I don't have to pick back any woven yarns to make changes.

So Kisknit and I are just counting down the time to class in February. Our homework is to knit a swatch, do you think I can just use D's sweater as an acceptable swatch?