When Knitting Hurts

Well, here it is:

A nearly finished, nearly perfect, seamless hybrid sweater.

All it’s waiting for is a collar to be ripped back to here:

You may be wondering why.

It is, after, all, a pretty good looking sweater.  The fit is nearly perfect.  It’s just the slightest bit too short.  I try to share more successes than failures here, but this one is so epic…  the tale must be told.

And that is the ruthless quality of knitting.  Make one little mistake in measuring an armscye, and it’s all over.  You might ask: do I REALLY have to rip it out?  Well, what would be better: to do all this work for a sweater that would be finished and would look just lovely folded in my husband’s dresser, or to spend an extra day or two fixing it so that it will become a sweater that he will wear until he wears it out?  The second one, of course.  All that will not be worth it if he can’t wear the thing.  That’s the whole point.

I took a brief break to knit this little bunny friend (who is about to relocate to an overseas locale…  more on that later.)

Now, on to the ripping.  Now, what did I do with that Weezer CD?

A Holiday in the Traditional Sense.

I’ve been away.  Not away from home, just away from here.  There were a lot of factors, but mostly I was just sad…  and I didn’t want to put that out here.  And that’s all I’d like to say on the subject. 

Moving right along. 

Noro Chimeron

Last weekend I really was away from home.  I went on a knitting retreat in Delaware.  It was simply one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.  I wish I had taken more photos to share with you, but I was too darn busy learning stuff.  So this post will be beefed up with photos of all the yarn I scored on the trip. 

Mystery destash yarn. Any ideas?

 

I learned (finally) how to do a provisional crochet cast-on.  It’s actually really easy.  If you use waste yarn you can rip out the cast-on to expose live stitches.  If you don’t use waste yarn, you can start knitting on a right side row.  This is different from, say, the long-tail cast-on.  In that case your first row of knitting is the wrong side. 

Cascade Alpaca Laceweight

I learned the twisted moss stitch, linen stitch, a really interesting herringbone pattern, the coral knot, the twisted purl, the rose stitch, and the pebble stitch.  I also learned a lot about my body (one shoulder is higher than the other–who knew?) and how to knit garments to fit and flatter.  Hopefully I’ll document some of that wisdom here over the next few days.

Mirasol Miski--100% Baby Llama

I snagged an easy crock pot chicken recipe and a show-stopping creme brulee french toast bake (Christmas morning, anyone?)

Zauberball

I met the coolest ladies ever: Nan, Lydia, Edie, Marie, Jeanette, and Carolyn.  I reconnected with my good friend Lynda, who always seems to give me a fresh perspective on life.

Oh, and I lost four pounds.  Part of that may have been hormonal, but I still say that it only proves I really should be living a life of leisure.  Or maybe I’ve finally proven that you can count knitting as exercise??

Humility, thy name is pre-blocked Hemlock Ring.

Yesterday around 9pm I foolishly uttered the words, “I’m going to finish this project today” in reference to my Hemlock Ring Blanket. 

Around midnight (well past my proper bedtime) I told Husband to go ahead and start one more DVR-ed episode of The Closer, because “all I had left” was one round of straight knitting and the bind off. 

At exactly 2:38am, I ran out of yarn, with only about half the stitches bound off.  It was at that point that I realized I had grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes to bind off 568 stitches in a picot edging.  So, I conceded defeat and went to bed.  At that point, it was technically today anyway. 

I finished it this morning.  Truth be told, it looks like a wrinkly, blobby mess.  If I hadn’t looked at other project pages for before and after photos of blocking, I would probably be freaking out right now. 

Speaking of blocking, anyone have a spare room I can commandeer for 3-4 days?  I am belatedly realizing that I have no free space large enough to block this thing.  Eep!

In related crafting news, be forewarned:  I have a hook, and I’m slowly remembering how to use it!

I am such a hack.

Warning: I am about to go all fangirl up in here. 

Friends, have you SEEN this?  It’s the preview for Made in Brooklyn, the new pattern booklet from Jared Flood.  I might be stalking him.  A little. 

Exhibit A: The Hemlock Ring I started tuesday.  Yesterday when I left my office it was a steamy 97 degrees outside.  So I sat in the car waiting for Husband to get off work, knitting this woolen blanket.  Did I mention it was 97 degrees?  I seriously cannot stop myself from knitting this thing. 

Exhibit B:  The yarn for a Seamless Hybrid for Husband.  The pattern may be from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s book Knitting Without Tears, but I am totally ripping off all of Jared’s mods. 

I am shameless.  Shameless!

Yarn in the Yard

I did some knitting out of doors today, which is really something I should do more of.  I’m working on yet another baby item, and I see no end in sight. 

I secretly love baby knits because, well they are quick and simple.  Also, people are braver with color when it comes to baby clothes.    This little baby kimono looks like a hot mess at the present, but I promise you that it will fold, origami-style, into something sweet and baby-shaped eventually. 

The glads are blooming, which means they are also falling over. 

They came late this year, and are looking a bit reedy through the stems.  I think I’ll have to break down and dig them up this fall.

Amelia’s Sweater

At the end of May, the only projects I had on the needles were voluminous.  So on a whim I went to Walmart (I know, I know) and bought the yarn for this project.  The pattern was on the ball band, but it can also be found online for free. 

The Pattern: Hooded Baby Jacket by Bernat Design Studio, in the 6 month size

The Yarn: Bernat Softee Baby in #30185, Soft Lilac. 

I like the shape of this sweater, and the yarn is nice and soft.  It’s machine washable, which is an advantage for a baby garment.  I don’t really think it’s fair to give new parents a gift that must be hand washed. 

The only major complaint that I have is about actually knitting with the yarn.  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m very American in my approach to knitting: charge full steam ahead, and achieve the desired result through trial and error.  Frogging is a stage of nearly every one of my projects, and this yarn does NOT respond well to frogging.  It goes all splitty and frizzy, but it still looks fine if you can actually suffer through knitting it. 

So I pressed on, and I must say I’m happy with the finished project.  One of the cleverest things about this project is that two balls of yarn (one white, one lilac) was the perfect amount for me to make two sweaters in the 6 month size–one lilac with white trim, and one white with lilac trim. 

One word of advice:  If you make this sweater, remember that THE HOOD COMES TO A POINT.  It has to be seamed up the back, and if someone would have been around to tell me that I would have saved myself a lot of frustration trying to figure out how to attach the darn hood. 

I also greedily crave this sweater in a different yarn–Rowan Felted Tweed? 

I hope Amelia likes it!

Run Amuck

It was muddy, crazy, sweaty fun! 

Just over 4 miles of low crawls, wall climbs, insane hills and one rapel down a particularly bad ass hill. 

Oh, and a fire hose.  Did you know that running through the spray of a fire hose can knock the wind out of you?  Now you do. 

I wish I could do that every weekend!

Might Be a Quarter-Life Crisis…

…Just a-stirrin’ in my soul.

My birthday just happened.  One week and one day ago.  Thanks for all emails, cards, texts, and calls–I was a little overwhelmed by all the kindness. 

Husband got me a bike.  A bike!  It’s a boy bike (how liberated of me!).  Husband has promised me a basket and a trip.  We’d like to do the C&O Canal Path in the fall.  New Year’s Resolution success–here I come! 

(Photos will be mini today in the hope that it will disguise the poor quality.  My battery is on its way out!)

Since I got The Bike, I’ve learned an important lesson about myself: I’m a complete wimp.  I get really scared if I’m, say, riding downhill on pavement that suddenly turns to gravel.  I don’t like going very fast.  It’s really embarrassing. 

In related birthday news–I spent all my birthday money on yarn.  It’s a sickness.  I can’t stop buying yarn online.  These came yesterday:

They remind me of the sunrise, which I have been seeing most mornings.

Oh, and for the record, I need these.

Puppy Love–And Loss.

I see this pretty much all day.  If I am home, and she is in this house, she is giving me this look. 

It helps a little with the pain of not seeing this daily.

Or this.

Or this.

It’s not a fix, but it is a help.

Friday Fill-In

(Friday Fill-Ins can be found here.)

1. I grew up thinking that pepper made food hotter, temperature-wise, and salt cooled it down.  I can’t have been the only one.

2. Ravelry was the last website I was at before coming here.

3. Why don’t you ever hear about war protests any more?  Aren’t we still at war?  Aren’t people dying?  Are war protests still happening, but the media isn’t covering them?  Yoo Hooooo, Cindy Sheehan–where are you?  Marco!  (Oh.  she’s protesting at GWB’s new digs.  I’m confused.)

4. It’s no secret that knitting helps me relax.

5. Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone!.

6. I find craft drama very off-putting.  I’m glad that I taught myself how to do most of what I do, because if I’m stitching or blocking or seaming “wrong” I usually don’t know it until some experienced crafter says something to the effect of “Twisted stitches??  Scandal!  Gasp!  Your work will never pass inspection!”  And I think that’s just silly, because there should never, ever be any knitting inspections.  Never.  Well, unless you’ve entered your work in some kind of competition, in which case you’re asking for it!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a backyard bash with some buds (Hello, Margarita!), tomorrow my plans include Body Pump and church and Sunday, I want to finish finishing Baby Amelia’s sweater!