Knit It...Loved It...Wore It Out.

This was my first cable project EVER. And I loved everything about it. The pattern (an Adrianne Vittadini pattern), the yarn (alpaca from Patternworks, bought in person when they were in Poughkeepsie) and of course…the color.



This sweater got worn A LOT. At least once a week for the past 4 or 5 years (when the tempeture promitted, of course.) So why was I surprised when I put it on the other day and saw this:



I have never worn a sweater so thin, whether it was something I made or bought. The only good thing…I have an alpaca sweater in the same color on the needles. I already get teased about my obsession with pink; imagine if I had 2 sweaters in that mauve/plum color.

I think that it is time for a nice hot bath for the cable sweater. Maybe it can be reincarnated it into a bag, so I don't ever have to give up my favorite sweater.

Hello Again

I apologize for the long pauses between posts. Life has been a little crazy lately. Something had to give, and unfortunately it was the blog. But I am here now.

So what have I been knitting you ask? Does anyone remember when I was a monogamous knitter? That seems to be in the past my friends. I currently have 4, yes 4, projects on the needles.

First I have my "work/commute" project. A basic toe up sock in Great Adirondacks Super Sox yarn. I wanted something easy for while I am at Annie's. That way if I have to put it down to help a customer, I don' t won't have a difficult time figuring out where I am. I started this about 4 weeks ago, I am half way up the foot on the first sock. Needless to say I don't have a lot of time to knit while I am at Annie's. But isn't the color way gorgeous?



Next up is a bag that I am designing myself from yarn ripped from a sweater a friend was going to throw away. I loved the color and grabbed it quick. The wool is very course and will be perfect for felting. Because you KNOW how much luck I have had with felting. I have faith that this time I am going to get it right. I am also going to use some of my partial balls up and make some nice felted flowers to adorn the bag. I hope to have a picture soon.

Thirdly is the Aune skirt from Berroco. I love this skirt. I hate knitting it. It is made up of 24 lacy hexagons. The instructions tell you to knit them flat, and then sew them up. But you know me…"patterns are just inspiration." So I decided that I should knit the hexagons in the round (less finishing :-), which isn't so bad, except you kinda need to knit the hexagon all at once. It's difficult (since there is lace on every round) to find your place if you put it down. Each hexagon takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to make. But it will be beautiful once it is done!



And last but not least, I have always wanted to make Rogue, but thought I wouldn't wear a hoodie pullover. But while playing on Ravelry, I found this. A cardigan version of Rogue. How smart! So I set myself out to pick up some Cascade 220 to make it in. I was thinking, since it's a hoodie, it should be red (you know little red riding hood.) So I picked a lovely burgundy. I got a skein and a half into it before I realized that I didn't have anything to go with it. So I exchanged the yarn for some nice green. I know Ravi, I always knit with green, but what can I say, I like green. Here's a progress shot:



I better finish something soon as I have a very special project or two to knit for a special friend. I don't think I could handle five or six projects at once. Good thing I have till November before the shower.

Cursed Yarn

Have you ever had cursed yarn?

I bought some mint wool/cotton yarn last summer to make this:



I got about ¾ of the way up the back and realized how bad this would look on me. So I started a basic cardigan, then decided I didn’t like that either. So then I thought I would make a tank I made once before. Can’t go wrong with that right? WRONG. The tank had some seed stitch at the hem and at the neckline. The seed stitch was great at the hem but somehow grew at the neckline. Now I know what you are thinking…a) was the stitch count off at the neckline? No, I double and triple checked it; b) Did you remember to switch to smaller needles? Not only did I remember, but after I saw that all three pieces (it buttons up the back) were larger at the neckline, I ripped and redid and they were still too big. Why at this point I didn’t just decrease the number of stitches, I don’t know. Instead, in a fit of frustration, I stuffed it into the back of my knitting drawer. Until I saw this:



It was time to ripe the tank and cast on for Julia. How could I not fall in love? As I approached the end of the garter stitch I realized that the yoke as pictured would only look good on a few people, and I was not one of them. Thinking I was so smart I decided to drop the line so it would look like a empire line. Sounds good right? That meant I would have to start the diagonal rib earlier, but that shouldn't be a biggie, right? So I charted out the rib and made sure to have it change directions, not only at the center back, but at the “side seams” as well. Finally, I arrived at the point where to split the body for the fronts and back. So, being the lazy finished that I am, I thought to myself, why not knit this as a yoke sweater so you don’t have to sew up the raglan seams? Genius...or so I thought. And, even though this is where my problem started I am glad I did this way. I would have hated to have knit the whole sweater, sew together and then see my issue. (I wish I had a picture to show you, but the camera is at work.) Anyway, I HATE what the diagonal rib is doing at the raglan sleeves. They are meeting at a weird angle. UGH! Plus as I laid it out I noticed that the proportion of the rib to the garter stitch was going to be opposite of how Debbie Bliss had designed it. There would be more rib than garter.

So here are my questions. Should I a) keep knitting, hope the angle works itself out and also hope I have enough yarn to rip out the cast on edge and knit it down farther, b) rip to the empire line, switch to something simpler (like seed stitch) and go from there again hoping I have yarn left over to knit down c) rip the whole thing and start as a top down raglan (duh, why make it easy) using a seed stitch and then I can knit till I run out of yarn or d) rip the whole thing and burn the yarn. Really I don’t think I would want to take the yarn to a swap. What if the curse is beyond me? Why would I want to do that to another knitter?

In the meantime, I cast on for some socks. Can’t go wrong with socks. I even thought this could be a good chance to do some cables again. I thought Eunny’s Bayerische socks would be nice.



Of course the yarn I had in my stash splits like crazy. Have you ever tried to cable a sock without a cable needle on size 0 needles that splits? Let me warn you, don’t. Make sure your yarn is nice and smooth and doesn’t split. So I guess that goes back into the stash for the time being anyway.

So much for getting lots of knitting done this week. What should I try next?

The Queen Returns...

...the cable queen that is.

Here is my open cardigan with cable details.



And a detail shot



Ok, so there isn't a whole lot of cabling going on. I still need to block it, but I wanted to wear it at least once this season. Nothing like finishing an alpaca sweater right before the temperture reachs 50 degrees.

So what do you do when you finish an alpaca sweater right before the start of spring? You start a new one of course!



I have knitting that would be more appropriate right now, but I have had this idea for awhile and thought I could quick whip this up. It's going to be a top down raglan cardigan with lots feather and fan and 3/4 sleeves. Let's see how fast I can knit this.

I also decided to give my lunch time knitting to charity. I have lots of yarn that would be great for Cancer Care hats or squares for Warm Up America, so I took quite a bit of it to work and am leaving it there. This way I always have knitting at work for those stressful days when I just need to take a lunch break. Now I just need to convince my boss to knit during meeting, it is for charity after all!