I’m sitting in my car at lunchtime, listening to Tana French’s In the Woods and working on my hat for Afghans for Afghans. I want to finish this up tonight because there’s something else I’m eager to get knitting on, plus I have a desperate yearning to sew. What do you have planned for the weekend?
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I love this post at Mason-Dixon Knitting:
“… Knitting is a land of solvable problems. Unlike real life, knitting can be fixed. You can redo it as often as you like.”
I’ve been thinking of tampering with that Applewood garter triangle, maybe putting a different edge treatment on the long side. Fringe keeps catching my eye lately, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of that until gazing upon this charming ($296!) Jess Brown shawl. But that could happen.
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OK, y’all, here it is: A neck, a body and two sleeves. I realize the way I’m standing in some of these pics, it looks like one sleeve is shorter than the other. I swear it’s not — I’m just too lazy to reshoot. I actually wanted the sleeves to be a hair longer than they are, and hedged my bets thinking they’d get longer when I blocked it, but I’m super happy with this. See: I’m even smiling in a picture!
I’m pretty proud of how well I did customizing the fit, even though it’s really not hard (and not quite perfect). When I took that class from Barry Klein back in January, the most memorable thing he said was, “If your top-down sweater doesn’t fit you, you have only yourself to blame. Because it means you didn’t try it on enough.” I could have knit this strictly to the pattern, or even left out the hip shaping entirely, and it would have been great, albeit a different shape. But I challenged myself to make a truly custom-tailored sweater. So each time I was working on it, when I was ready to knit my last round for the night, I instead knit half a round onto a second needle of the same size, allowing me to pull all four needle ends loose and ease the sweater over my head. And that way I knew exactly what i needed to do next, session by session. That was the key to my success. Thanks, Barry!
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The yarn is Malabrigo Rios in Aguas, about 645 yards. Pattern is the HIGHLY recommended Classic Raglan Pullover by Jane Richmond. I’ll detail my minor mods at Ravelry. Thanks for all the cheerleading!
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So how was your holiday weekend? Mine was kinda yarny. On Saturday night, I knitted the second sleeve of my sweater, and Sunday morning I finished the ribbing and wove in the ends. Finito! (Pictures to come.) Sunday evening, as a quick palate cleanser, I did in fact crochet a little bowl, according to the new Purl Bee pattern, starching it on Monday. And the same evening, I also cast on for a hat to donate to Afghans for Afghans via Cephalopod.
The bowl was super quick, less than two hours of stitching, even factoring in time spent studying a tutorial to remind myself how to crochet. (I’m sure a seasoned crocheter could have done it in 20 minutes.) I used some red-and-white kitchen twine that’s been waiting around for an assignment, and a size J hook, so it’s a little bit lacier than the original. And I made it fairly shallow — I think I did 12 or 13 rows of the pattern. The starch-and-block business is pure genius.
I just love the instant gratification of a little project like this. And, hey, I have a lot of diluted cornstarch left over for more. How long do you think that will keep?
I’m going to finish my sweater this weekend and then I’m in the mood to do something small and completely different. Maybe some funky macramé jewelry à la Siamic, a crocheted bowl or bag, or maybe I’ll finally make that Jaime Rugh-inspired Weavette of my own.
What will you be up to?
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I have a little thing for pine cones and wanted to share these handmade versions that have wandered in front of my eyeballs in the past few days. The pretty little crocheted version comes from Etsy. The leather version is from the brand new shop by the charming ladies of 3191 Miles Apart. Everything there sold out instantly, so we’ll have to work out how to make our own leather pine-cone key fobs. The tassel is really what makes it sing.
I’m back in the saddle, as they say. After nearly a week in which I knitted not a single stitch of anything, I finally picked my sweater back up. I’d been avoiding it because I knew I had to work out the rate of decrease for my sleeves — specifically, how to go quickly from broad-shouldered to skinny-armed without creating a puff sleeve — but more than that, there was a mechanical issue holding me back. I don’t much enjoy knitting with larger double-points (I like ’em small) and dreaded having the weight of an entire sweater pulling against them as I worked. I haven’t gotten the hang of magic loop or even the two-circulars method, so I decided to give 9-inch circulars a try. So far so good. I mean, holy moly, this thing is tiny — hard on the wrist — but it’s making quick work of the first sleeve.
LEFT: Lokken kerchief, designed by Megi Burcl, no colorwork required
RIGHT: Lucky No. 7 cowl, designed by “SweaterFreak,” currently in testing
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