purlsandmurmers

At Last, Progress on Mermaid

I did start Mermaid on the car to Pittsfield, and knitted diligently in the car and on the flights to California and home again to New York a week ago.  Unfortunately there was precious little knitting in San Francisco -- sewing, eating, drinking, and sleeping pretty much filled my time in that fair city.  There was not much knitting time in Knoxville either, and as mentioned earlier, what was knitted was reknitted on the flight home.  Oh well.

Progress is being made:

The wavy line at the bottom contains my circular needle, a mere one inch shorter than the sweater itself at this point, and therefore rebelling at being stretched out to the max without being allowed to disgorge its stitches.  As you can see I have worked from the left front, around the underarm area and am now on the back. 

I have been holding the sweater up to me as I go and it appears like it is going to fit fairly well.  The knitting is going pretty much as written.  The instructions are clear and it is a fun sweater to knit, despite being dreaded garter stitch, the color changes and the well laid out gussets make provide entertainment just before boredom starts to set in.

I have made minor alterations to the pattern.  The sweater as written is 25 inches long in a size medium.  Now I am tall and I usually lengthen sweaters.  On Hanne Falkenberg's site the sweater appears to be what I would guess to be long jacket length, and I imagine it at about low hem or butt length, just covering the crotch area on a pair of pants.  This might not be the intended length exactly, but it appears pretty close from photographs.  Looking at these photos plus those of other bloggers, some of whom may be short as the sweater is definitely longer than that imagined length on some of them, I think this would be an attractive length on this sweater -- longer rather than shorter.

Now usually, if I want a long sweater, let's say just below butt length, I would knit it to 28 - 29 inches, assuming that most knits stretch about an inch in the hanging as you wear them (I usually sew my jackets at 29 - 31 inches depending on specific cut)

So it appears that 25 inches would be too short.  My favorite sweaters are all 21 - 23 inches or 28 - 30 inches, and a few are longer yet.  But Kingfisher, finished in April 2005, has godets at the bottom and comes in at 25 - 26 inches.  This sweater looks quite nice, although I need to wear it with different bottom styles than I do a longer 28 inch sweater.  So I decided to go with the 25 inch sweater.

I believe that this is quite fortunate because, looking at the length of the hip gussets, I would guess that I would need to lengthen this sweater by about an inch above the waist and 2 inches below the waist.  In order for the hip gussets to look proportional they would have to be widened as well as lengthened, and I am not at all convinced there would be enough yarn to allow for the increased yardage requirements of bigger hip gussets, as the sizing of the gussets does not change significantly between the sizes as written in the pattern, leading me to believe there is not a lot of extra yarn in the gusset coloor.

If I want to make Mermaid longer, it will have to do it using different yarn.  This is a possibility as the sweater is a pleasure to knit and the style appears to be one that I would wear frequently, assuming that the actual sweater turns out as nicely as the "mental image".

So what alterations did I make?  I actually shortened the gussets by about one inch at the hem so that they begin more in proportion to my torso.  The pattern as written would have started enough above my waistline so as not to be flattering; it would be fine if I looked good in a modified Empire line, which I do not.  So I started the gussets an inch closer to the bottom of the sweater and adjusted the short-row shaping accordingly.  Despite shortening the hip gussets, I did not lenthen the underarm gussets because  I tend to be short for my height between shoulder and bust, with a good long stretch between bust and waist.  So I do not really need extra room, or width in those gussets.  When I hold the sweater up against my body it looks very promising, and I think this is going to work out quite well.

It looks like all the math work has been done; the results look promising, and only time and lots of knitting will tell.

Wherefore art thou Rowan?

Before leaving for San Francisco I bemoaned the fact that my new Rowan knitting magazine had not arrived.  While at sewing camp Diane took pity on me and lent me hers.  At first I declined, wanting to save myself for my own private copy, but eventually I broke down.  It was filled with wonderful designs that I would love, absolutely love to knit.

Then I got detoured to Knoxville.

When I got home last night one of the first things I did was sort through the huge stack of magazines and catalogues that had arrived during my absense.  I did not realize that there was anything amiss.  And then it hit me!  Still no Rowan mag!

Oh the horror!  Oh crisis!  Oh dear, what shall I do?

A distress horn has sounded.  A message has been cast upon the waves.  Perhaps the missing Rowan shall be found. 

But then, it is not like I have nothing else to knit, now is it?

When the knitting slows, Shop.

Given the opportunity to run some errands in the more westerly portion of Knoxville, I thought I would also stop in at Knit 'n Purl, the only yarn store (of which I am aware) in town.   The intention was to pick up a darning needle (perfectly possible at Hobby Lobby of course, but not nearly as interesting) and perhaps some sock yarn or some other small project for the flight home as I was afraid that Mermaid might be growing a little unwieldy for the plane.  This was, of course before I rippd out all of the Knoxville progress on said project, having failed to notice four very important little words.  You know the words of which I speak, the deadly "at the same time".

Imagine my shock when I arrived at Knit 'n Purl and found the front windows covered in paper proclaiming "Going out of Business" and "50% off all yarn".  I entered the store in a state of stunned confusion, my purpose temporarily vanished from my mind, a new resolve forming,  a determination that I should help with inventory reduction (purely for altrruistic purposes of course).

I had not purchased any yarn of fabric in San Francisco remember. Perhaps I was just setting mself up for a fall.

And what, pray tell, made it into my bag?

This lovely blue and white cotton yarn caught my attention.  I know nothing about it, but the color and the softness caught my eye.

This beautiful red Softtwist by Berrocco was purchased simply because I fell in love with the color.  There is enough for a sleeveless shell of some sort:

The red is actually a litle more blue than it appears in this photo. I couldn't get the color to come out quite right in the late afternoon light.

The red theme continues (remember the fall stash) with these lovely skeins of Tiur  by Dale of Norway:

Devoid of actuall creative inspiration, I am planning on making a variation on "Roros" from Dale book 121 which is shown in these same colors (not the cover sweater), also picked up on sale.

For the most part the other solid colored wools and cottons in the store were more picked over and I had trouble finding enough yarn for a sweater in any color that drew my attention.  However several other multi-colored or hand-dyed yarns fell into the basket.

The combination of colors in this cotton caught my eye:

I knew I wanted to come up with some sort of shell pattern and when I saw the new Knit1 I was intrigued by the cover sweater.  It just might work.  Different gauge, but then I like the idea of the sweater more than the way it was actually made.  I think I would knit the front with a little more shaping, to give a bit more of a snug fit while giving the illusion of a wrap.  Who knows what will develop?

I have been eyeing the colors of Schaeffer's Laurel for some time at various stores but have managed to avoid actual purchase.  The temptation had not quite overcome the practicalities of designing a sweater using multi-colored yarn.  But when I saw these skeins my doubts were cast aside.  I am sure they will return when the time comes to actually knit something, but I am equally convinced the results will be worth whatever effort is involved.

And finally, I did not forget my original purpose.  Presenting some sock yarn:

Hey Granny!

This knitter has just learned she is a grandma! 

I am heading from San Francisco to Knoxville tomorrow. 

Updates will continue sporadically.  Anticipated return to normal scheduling September 26.

Project Update

"Heart-breakingly beautiful baby sweater"?  Oh yeah.

I sewed this up and sewed on the ribbons on the plane Monday morning but had to wait until I was in San Franciso for sunshine and a photograph.

I enjoyed the first day of sewing camp; but this is not really a time for knitting.  Sewing and eating tend to be my San Francisco focuses and so I am warning you not to expect a lot of progress here; besides, Mermaid, the only project I brought with me, is not a speedy girl.

Otto will now be thought of in my mind as the "Tabasco sweater".  I mean that in a nice way; a sweater filled with happy memories. I have written before about how a sweater sometimes takes on an association with a place or event at or during which it was knitted.  Tabasco was ill and we had to say goodbye to her on Friday. During the first few weeks when we learned she had pancreatic cancer she decided that Otto which was on the blocking board, and remained there at her request, was the perfect place to spend the days sleeping.  As usual mom's projects were always the best place to be. Even though it has been a couple of weeks she slept on Otto, it has taken me a little time to prepare myself for finishing this particular project.  I realize now that I couldn't put the sweater together until I knew that Tabasco wouldn't be sleeping on it anymore, even though she left the sweater as the cancer got worse.  The sweater and I both needed to wait for the time for closure.     Spending time with Tabasco was a higher priority than knitting and she did not think she needed to share my lap with other activities.  For once, I agreed with her. 

Perhaps when I return from camp, and after our trip to see the impending new grand baby, I will feel like putting Otto together.

Mermaid

A small effort has begun at starting Mermaid by Hanne Falkenberg.  I am making colorway #6: light gray, slate gray and dusty rose:

The opening attempts have gotten me as far as the gauge swatch and beginning i-cord edge, but no further.

I went up one needle size, to 3.25 in order to get gauge.  Once upon a time I would have said this was quite unusual, and it certainly would be were I knitting with cotton or silk, but my knitting tensions have changed in the past year or two, so nothing really surprises me anymore.  Once I get gauge, I tend to be pretty consistent though, except for minor annoyances like that silly event with the blue baby kimono last week.

The i-cord is not perfectly neat but steaming might help, and I think I can straighten up any idiosyncracies while i pick up the stitches to begin the garment. I-cord is extremely tedious, and although it would probably come much more naturally with time and practice, it is not the kind of thing that I am certain that I want to force myself to practice.

It suddenly dawned on me, just this evening, that I have nothing to knit in the car tomorrow on the drive up to Pittsfield.  I do not trust myself to pick up stitches in a straight line along the i-cord in the car, which means of course that I will have to do it tonight when we return from dinner at our local Mexican hole-in-the-wall.

Oh the price we have to pay to practice our art.