knitabit

Iris Virus

We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming today to take a walk through the yard. Here in Weld County, Colorado, the climate is a bit harsh. We had a fairly late freeze this year that killed off the lilac and spirea buds. Other gardening hazards include drought, hail, and wind. In fact, we had some big winds this spring that wiped out fields of sugar beets that had just sprouted - the wind literally pulled the sprouts out, roots and all. (Another example of why farming in this area is a bad career choice.)

But the one really spectacular plant that can withstand the rigors is the lovely iris. Some of ours were gifts from friends and relatives (well, I use the word 'gift' rather loosely - it's pretty common around here to divide up your iris rhizomes once they get too thick and distribute them to anyone who will take them.) Others were dug up on a farm about 60 miles east of here, where a doctor and well-known iris collector from Denver cultivated his own varieties. Shortly after we were allowed to take what we'd dug, the entire collection was purchased by Long's Gardens in Boulder, a well-known local iris supplier.

But I digress. I present to you, the Irises.

An uncharacterically heavy dew this morning has a couple of them looking sort of droopy. A few have yet to bloom - I'll post more pictures later in the week.

Run with the lemmings!

A very cute knitting page. (I'm a lemming, too.)

Lovin' those blogs

You know, people, what is there not to like about all the fabulous knit blogs out there? I had such a happy morning, learning about okonomiyaki, recalling one of my all-time fav movies, "Breaking Away" (in the comments), remembering what fractals are, and pondering a jump onto the Charlotte's Web bandwagon.

All you bloggers out there are so happy and enthusiastic and full of good ideas, and it's just what I need before I go out and face the day. It almost makes me forget about all the troubles in the world.

Off to a good start

I've started the left front panel of Ljod and it is fun and challenging:

That photo really sucks. I sure wish my camera had better macro capability.

I've done regular ol' cables before, but not these celtic or viking types. They're not too terribly hard, once you get the hang of the how the chart works. I've had to rip back a row more than once because I wasn't paying close enough attention to the chart. But now I think I understand what I need to look for at the beginning of each row - and the wrong side rows never have any action in them, so that cuts the requirement for concentration in half right there.

I do like her Silky Wool yarn, too. This will make a great all-season garment!

A New Week, A New Project

Although I was sorely tempted by the Cascade 200 yarn in my stash, set aside for Rogue, I decided to go with something a little lighter for a summer knitting project:

It's Ljod, from Lavold's "Viking Collection." I'll be doing it with the Silky Wool yarn in the purpley-eggplant color (inexplicably called "Lava," officially.) I had intended to do "Tordis" from the same book, but I decided last night to take my own advice and do something a bit more fitted, a bit more curved - and this one seemed to fit the bill. I can picture this sweater paired with some black slacks or even a long black skirt. Anyway, it will proabably take most of the summer to complete it.

I decided to start with a front piece, rather than the back, so that if there are any mishaps or gauge problems I won't have to rip out so much. (The celtic/viking cables will be new to me.) The directions are a bit cryptic though - "decrease as for back." I hate that.

I'm also working on a pair of socks while at soccer games - I'm trying the afterthought heel. The big holes at the corners of the heel are very disturbing, but apparently this is what it's supposed to look like, and you fix it at the end with a 'circular suture stitch.'

Since I have an extra pair of size 1 circulars, I decided to do the heel not so much as an afterthought but as a detour. That's the heel forming off to the right, and the foot of the sock going off to the left (and a big tangle of needles and cables!) I thought by doing the heel now, I could get better placement of the toe.

The last pair of socks I knit, I did a garter stitch short-row heel; and now I'm trying the afterthought heel. For some reason, neither of the methods provide the sheer knitting joy of a heel flap and a gusset. I wonder why that is?

EC: Up Close and Personal

Here's a close-up of the neckline, including the fun little tag they included with the kit (although I haven't sewn it in yet):

This photo is so washed out. It's in natural light, but the sun had already set. Trust me, the color is much more pleasing in person.

As I was driving back and forth from the soccer game today, I dedicated some thought time to a better use for this wonderful yarn. I think I would like to tackle something from "Knitting in the Old Way" by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, especially her "Plan 10: Sweater with Shaped Saddle Shoulder." According to the author, "The saddle shoulder can be shaped, to reduce some of the boxiness of the style. This can be especially effective when using heavy or bulky yarns."

Being as how our arms typically hang straight down from our shoulders and do not at all times stick out perpindicular to our bodies, it only makes sense that a sweater should be better shaped to accommodate that as well.

Well, maybe not every day

Okay, I'm not liking the finished Everyday Cardigan too much.

Too boxy. Sleeves are too long. Body is too short. I checked the instructions and the measurements - it's pretty much on target per the pattern. I guess I'm just not a short-waisted gorilla.

I do like the yarn a lot. It was fun to knit up. This sweater will be useful on camping trips. But definitely not as a fashion statement.

I'm proud of my knitting technique, espeically: the 2x2 ribbing, which has very even tension; the seaming - especially the shoulder seams - turned out well; the buttonholes are great (thank you Nancy Wiseman); and the picked-up stitches on the front bands and neckline look very nice, too.

Next time I make a cardigan, I'm going to look for set-in sleeves and a pattern with more attention to curves and fit.

What shall I pull from the stash next? That's the best thing about finishing up a project - deciding what to do next!

My knitting time may be consumed somewhat over the next few weeks with migrating this blog over to a new domain (www.road13.com) and installing the blog on the new Movable Type 3.0. Stay tuned for the new look!

Handwringing

I was merrily seaming along on the EC last night, and after completing the first side seam, I decided to try on the garment to check for sleeve length, etc. My first impulse was, gosh - this thing is too short! It was late anyway, so I put it down and went to bed.

This morning, I woke up half an hour before the alarm was supposed to go off, thinking about the dumb sweater. Should I lengthen it? And how would I do that this late in the game? I laid there thinking about separating the ribbing from the main body of the sweater, adding a couple of inches, and then grafting the ribbing back on.

After the kids got on the bus this morning, I laid the sweater out with a favorite Eddie Bauer cardigan on top of it, and the EC is actually a bit longer. Adding the collar around the neckline will make it longer yet.

So I think I'll stay the course. Once it's done, I'm going to wash it and then block it on the wooly board and maybe force another inch out of it. And besides, it will stretch somewhat over time. Right? Right?

Okay. I've decided. Quit worrying. Settle down. Peace. Fleece.

Piecemeal

I finished knitting all of the components of the Everyday Cardigan yesterday afternoon. I am determined to do a good job on the finish work this time around.

First, blocking:

This is the nifty blocking board my mom made me several years ago. It's got a 1" x 1" gingham base on it, which makes it real handy for getting a rough estimate on measurements. I ran out of pins, so only the top piece (actually, it's the back) is completely pinned. I used my little fabric steamer to block the pieces into shape.

Here I am getting ready to seam the right shoulder:

I "basted" the two pieces together to make sure my stitches were lined up. Then I used a weaving technique, described in Wiseman's finishing book (I also saw it in Vogue's Ultimate Knitting book.) It's almost like a kitchener stitch, and made what I think are the best shoulder seams I've ever done!!

I've got one sleeve attached, today I'll get the other one on and maybe tackle the side seams.

My mental approach has been to take my time and to try and be as meticulous about the seaming as I am about my knitting. In the past, I've rushed through the finish work because I don't like the part of the project and besides, I'm usually in a hurry to wear it. NOT THIS TIME!

Knirvana

Putting "k's" in front of "n" words is really dorky. What can I say.

Anyway, I am in knitting nirvana because I've got a fun sock and a fun sweater going simultaneously.

I'm doing a knit-in hem on the sock. The yarn is very denim-y. I'm going to make a very smooth and non-fussy sock - besides the knit-in hem, I'll do an afterthought heel.

I made good progress on the first EC sleeve last night during the NBC Miniseries "10.5" which was so bad, it was good. The low point (or highlight, depending on your point of view) was the slo-mo sequence of people running in panic with Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" as the background music.

I'm using the lifted increases on the sleeve edges, which is keeping the stockinette from rolling so much. I learned that technique from the TKGA master knitting program, which I seem to have pretty much abandoned. I'm ambivalent about renewing efforts in that area, which is a shame since I did learn some new techniques as a result of my work so far.

I Learn Something New Every Day

Clever ways to count stitches.

The New Knitting Shop

I promised last week to blog about the new knitting shop in town, Knit One Purl Too.

This is a momentous occasion for me - I've had a minimum 45-minute drive to the nearest knitting store. Now I've got one about 15 minutes away - zero minutes away if I happen to be running errands in that part of town.

A knit-shop owner in another small town mentioned to me that you need a minimum population of about 70,000 in order to be successful with a knitting shop venture. Well, Longmont's population is edging toward 80,000 so we're certainly overdue to get our shop. I had even toyed with a bit of my own entreprenurial spirit, wondering what it would be like to own and operate a knitting store. Well, the truth is I would really suck at it so it's a good thing someone else has taken this on.

The shop is in a strip-mall type of location (coincidentally, it's owned by my husband's father's second cousin or something like that.) She's got a nice selection of yarn suppliers (Rowan and Brown Sheep, to name a couple) and some good supplies. She's also catering to the spinning and weaving crowds.

When I popped in last week, I scoped out the joint and bought a couple of balls of sock yarn. She had her grand opening a week ago Saturday, but I missed it because I was tied up with soccer games that day.

I'll be anxious to see what kind of knitting community might spring up around this venture.

Freaky Thing

OK, here's something kinda freaky:

I saw over at Kristin's a link to PANTONEcolorstrology™.

Here's my color for the month of March:

And here's my color for my birthdate:

Note how well they match my blog design! Freaky!

Springy little FO

I finished my daughter's Sockotta socks last night. This fiber is a cotton and wool blend with some nylon thrown in - for strength, I suppose. The cotton content and the fun colors lead me to believe that this was an excellent choice for spring knitting:

The socks are just a touch big - which was deliberate, since she's growing so fast. I doubt that these socks will see much wear until school starts again in the fall. She tends to go barefoot or sandalfoot most of the summer.

I incorporated a change into my "standard sock recipe" (adapted shamelessly from Michelle's Basic Sock Pattern) which I will include in all future socks. On the toe decreases, rather than decreasing every other row, I used a decrease formula from Lucy Neatby's book that gives more of a rounded shape to the toe. It goes something like this:

do this three times: do the decrease row, then knit three rows without decreasing
do this two times: do the decrease row, then knit one row without decreasing
then decreases on every row until 16 stitches are left on each of 2 needles.

Well, it's back to the Everyday Cardigan now, which is definitely NOT a spring knitting project. But if I can get it done within the next three weeks, it will make an excellent garment choice for our upcoming camping trip to Devil's Tower (WY) and the Black Hills (SD) the first week in June. I watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" last night in anticipation of our trip to Devil's Tower.

A fresh start

My daily blogging experience had really started declining in recent weeks with the quantity of comment spam that has been coming in. I thought MT would have their new version out by now; I kept waiting and postponing efforts in this area thinking the new version of MT would solve all my problems.

Well, I got sick of waiting so I downloaded and installed MT-Blacklist. Let's hope it works, and maybe I can start feeling more positive about the whole blog thing again.

Enough of that.

I turned the heel and finished the gusset on the second Sockotta sock last night. I've got two soccer games today, which means I'll be able to finish it. I've got just the shoulder shaping left to do on the second front piece of the Everyday Cardigan; I should be able to move on to the sleeves tomorrow.

The month of May is typically a disaster around here. A sampling of this year's obligations: graduations (2), Mother's Day, end-of-year concert, talent show, track meets (4), field trips (lost count), continuation ceremony, confirmation, orthodontic appointments (2), tickets to a dinner theater - oh, and of course the regular slate of practices, lessons and committee meetings.

And I consider myself to be a Mom who limits her kids' extracurricular activities to keep us all sane.

Knitting is my refuge.