purlsandmurmers

Nineteen

I hadn't planned on watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night, but I did, and because I did I also got the rice stitch cardigan back knitted up to the armhole shaping,  19 inches or rice stitch, since this sweater has been lengthened for my extra height.  This gave me an opportunity to take the sweater off the needles, take some measurements, and make some calculations about yarn requirements before proceeding.

The news is not good. 

In order to make the pattern in the length and size I wish, with sleeves, I need at least 4 more skeins and probably 6 because I am pretty confident that the sleeves as written are going to be too short.  Before I continue with this sweater (shown off the needles), some decisions need to be made.

First of all, can I procure 6 more skeins of the same dye lot?  Does it matter?  Well that depends on how much the dye lots vary, with some yarns it matters more than others.

Do I want to buy 6 more skeins of a rather expensive yarn, or should I just knit something else?

I do have enough yarn to knit this sweater as shown in the Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting magazine, as a vest, and a vest is not such a bad thing.  I just had my heart set on a jacket.

Or do I just knit something else.  I certainly have enough yarn to knit a perfectly nice turtleneck or other pullover in stockinette, perhaps even with a cable or pretty shaping.  The rice stitch called for in this pattern eats through the yardage.

Still, I wonder, how did I end up so short of yarn.  The sweater I am knitting was a kit.  I am not altering the size of the sweater that much, lengthening it a little, but my gauge is only a little bit tighter than the pattern calls for, 5 stitches per inch instead of 4.9 stitches per inch.  When I calculate how much yarn I would need as the pattern is written I still come out 2 skeins short.  So why did they only send me 17 skeins when I needed 19 or even 21? I am sure that I would have told the girl that took the order that I was lengthening the cardigan, but I guess I can't expect them to calculate the extra yardage needed for that; if she had told me the dimensions of the sweater, I could have calculated the difference in the square inches and told her how much extra yarn to order. 

In the end however, even if they had sent me 19 skeins, I would still have been short, and I would still be facing this dilemna.

If I go for the vest at least I can continue knitting, without ripping out, washing the yarn, and starting over.

Vest?
Cardigan?
or completely different sweater?

 

Conspiracy Theory

Although it has basically been a short winter, and the cold wintry weather didn't truly begin until well into January, I have a complaint.   

It has come to my attention that in the 4 or 5 weeks that have encompassed our season of cold, nasty, wintry weather, the weather has interfered with my Thursday knitting circle three times.  This strikes me as completely unfair.

Worse, none of those nasty wintry storms actually turned into anything -- there was just enough slick, icy, sleet/snow mix in the early evening to make the roads treacherous for my 40 minute drive down to Yarn Central but then, just after I got settled in and reconciled myself to the thought of not going, the evil weather stopped.  I think that if I have to miss knitting, Mother Nature should at least leave something on the ground to compensate my for my pain.

Yesterday morning I dutifully salted the driveway with the requisite 15 gallons of calcium chloride:

And all I got for the hour of my time and very tired sore arms was a little rain and sleet which has now disappeared. 

G is trying to console me by telling me that I had I not salted the driveway it would not be bone dry now.  It was a sheet of ice this morning and the steepest parts of the driveway are "blessed" with an almost complete lack of winter sun.

Although it has been a short winter, I hope this slow torture ends soon.

Back Home Again

Our long weekend in Tucson was lovely.  We soaked up the warmth and sunshine and were lucky enough to come home to a mini heat-wave hear as today was quite warm and sunny as well.  A little breather before the next snow I suppose.

Very little was accomplished on the knitting front however.  Usually I get a lot of knitting done on the plane, and although I did not anticipate knitting on the flight home (we took the red-eye, leaving Tucson at midnight and arriving at Newark at 6 AM), as I have no trouble sleeping on planes, and I knew I would be driving home when we landed, I fully expected several hours of uninterrupted knitting time on the flight to Arizona.

Instead I slept.   I will probably never know what happened on the NJ Turnpike Friday afternoon, but this was one of the worst drives to Newark I can remember.  We left early, as G was a little worried about rush hour traffic, leaving at 3:00 for a 7:40 flight.  In normal conditions it takes 2 hours to get to Newark from my house, maybe 2 1/2 in heavy traffic.  Not so Friday.  We got to the NJ Turnpike exit off of I80 in good time but then the world stopped.  It took us over two hours to go the five or six miles from the I80 exit to the toll gates on the Jersey Turnpike.  We were stopped in traffic as we received several phone calls confirming our flight and later informing us that the flight was delayed.  We were grateful for the delays, but our airline, Continental told us we still had to check in by the original final check in time of 7:10 or we would not be allowed on the flight.  At 6:50 we were just barreling toward the Newark Airport exit off the turnpike.  Then the parking lot was backed up, with people lined up blocking the street and no one moving.  Another half hour later our car is finally at the front of the queue and we wait for the shuttle bus, and waited, and waited, with a bus load of people all worrying about whether they will make their flights.  Our flight was delayed until 9:30, but we had no idea if Continental would let us on and in fact, when we finally got to check in, at 8:10 we were refused.  Insistence and friendly staff got us around that obstacle and we were very glad to be on that packed airplane to Tucson.  We finally took off by 10, and I, tired and stressed, having been the anxious driver on this trip, fell promptly asleep. 

Luckily the rest of the trip more than made up for the inauspicious beginning. While we were there we saw butterflies:

These were in a special exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Garden and I did not manage pictures of most of the butterflies, but apparently several other people got photos of a lovely specimen that decided to ride around on my backside.  Too bad I missed it.

And I love the texture of this cactus:

Now that I am home, and caught up on sleep, knitting resumes.  Hopefully I will have some progress to show soon.

Spring Anny Blatt

Although I was less than thrilled with the spring Interweave Knits, the spring Anny Blatt and Bouton D'or books have proven to be far more exciting and I am actually thinking about spring sweaters.

Both of these sweaters caught my eye immediately.  The green one is from the Bouton D'or book and uses one of their new spring yarns, Selene, and the white one on the right is from Anny Blatt.  I absolutely ADORE this sweater and must knit it.

Here are two more favorite temptations.  I haven't yet decided which ones I am going to knit.  The two white sweaters are both knit from a combination of Anny Blatt and Bouton D'or yarns and might be best completed with the suggested yarns.  The other two -- well I don't know yet.  Both the yellow and green sweaters use the same yarn, and there is only one color that appeals to me so either I will make a choice or I will knit one out of something else, always a possibility anyway.  I will probably pick a yarn, swatch it, and decide which swatch I like best before making any firm commitment.

In the meantime I am progressing nicely on the rice stitch cardigan given that I haven't spent a great deal of time knitting.  I am nearly up to the waist on the back and I must now make a decision as to weather I am making the sweater 28 inches or 26 inches long.  I have been agonizing about this since I started: since I didn't do the alterations to the pattern, or figure out the yardage, and I can't remember the conversation when I ordered the yarn I am not completely certain that I have enough.  I only have the idea that I usually order extra for lengthening most patterns, and assume that it will work.

I shall go for the longer length and hope for the best.

We are flying off to Tucson this afternoon for a long weekend.  Hopefully there will be adequate knitting so that I at least finish the back of the sweater, and armed with that data, I will be able to calculate yarn used and yarn remaining and figure out exactly how much yarn I need and whether I will have enough, or whether I will be restarting at the beginning, or almost at the beginning by the time I rip back.

Weekend follow-up

I know that you noticed the photo of the new Interweave Knits in my last post.  And yet I said nothing about it.

There was a reason for that omission -- the primary reason being that I had nothing much to say.  I went slowly through the magazine several times and although there was a bit of interesting reading, there was nothing that really jumped out at me and begged to be knitted.

I am rather intrigued by Eunny Jang's Entrelac Socks, but otherwise there is little that thrills, and the socks, as much as I am intrigued by them, are not particularly high on my list at the moment. 

I like some of the changes to the format of the magazine and it is not that the patterns are bad, just that they don't inspire me this time around.  There are several very nice, very wearable sweaters and it is possible that someday I will see one of them posted on someone's blog and wonder why I missed that fabulous sweater.  If that happens, I will certainly let you know.  In the meantime, every magazine is allowed to have a disappointing issue now and then.

On the non-knitting front, Gina asked about pumpkin pancakes and so here is the recipe (gluten free of course but those of you who eat wheat can make the requisite substitution).

PUMPKIN PANCAKES
serves 2

1 egg
1 cup mashed pumpkin (I use canned, not the pre-sweetened variety)
1/2 cup gluten-free flour mix
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon milk

Beat the egg and add it to the pumpkin, stirring well to combine.

Sift together dry ingredients.  Add pumpkin mixture.  Add butter and milk.  Stir to combine.  The batter will be quite thick, not at all like a traditional pancake batter.  It should be used immediately.  The batter will thicken if it sits but this can be corrected simply by adding more milk or water or liquid of choice.  Do not add so much liquid that the batter is thin and runny, it should have the consistency of a thick cake batter or a homemade mayonnaise.

Spoon pancake batter onto a hot griddle or skillet.  You will have to spread it around with a spatula.  Do not worry about making it really thin, it will thin out as it cooks and the pancakes will be light, not thick and chewy.

Turn pancakes when brown.

Serve with butter and syrup or accompaniment of choice.

I used Gluten Free Pantry's French Bread and Pizza Mix for this batch of pancakes and I needed a little more milk.  I have also made them with Pamela's all purpose baking mix, and other gluten free mixes.  It is likely that each blend might require a slightly different amount of liquid. 

If you are not making these with gluten-free flour, you may have to play around with the proportions a little bit.  The pancakes are really made from pumpkin with just enough flour to hold the squash together so you probably don't want the batter to be too runny.   Experiment.  How bad can it be?

Scenes from a Weekend

Sometimes a weekend is best spent just puttering about, engaged in a variety of activities.  How can such a weekend be a bad thing?

We had pancakes, pumpkin pancakes with bacon on the side.  I am not a big pancake breakfast person, they don't seem to last till lunch, all that filling up on simple carbohydrates and sugar.  But they are a nice occasional treat:

I knitted while we listened to a couple of new CDs.

And there was a little more knitting while watched a couple of movies over the weekend.  We watched the original 1977 version of "Fun with Dick and Jane" and "Pride and Prejudice"  The brown cashmere rice stitch cardigan is progressing nicely.  This project will take a little longer than the past couple but it is pure pleasure to knit. And who can resist a late afternoon movie on a dreary day with a cup of espresso?  Not I, and I can't get that at my local movie house either.

There was still time for some reading:

And a little time to play with scissors and glue as I cut up magazines and started collecting pictures for my Spring 2007 inspiration collage notebook pages:

I haven't found all that much knitting inspiration yet, mostly sewing inspiration, and there is no telling if I will make any of it or just dream.  But I love cutting and pasting, and I love looking back at the things I have saved over the years, they provide a constant source of inspiration and joy. 

And last, but far from least, G came home from the florists with a beautiful big cymbidium orchid.  He had been struggling with the idea of what to get for Valentine's Day, as we are going away on Friday for the weekend, and it seemed a shame to send me a dozen yellow roses (the usual choice) when they would just wilt.  He decided to stop by the florist's anyway and while he was there he saw this huge cymbidium, and, although it is near the end of its bloom, I love it and know I will get lots of future flowerings of it.  Besides it makes up for the one which was allowed to die while I was in Knoxville in September.

Bombolo Done!

We had a nice sunny weekend and I finally got the pictures taken of Bombolo.  Since it continues cold, I also wore the sweater on Saturday and it was indeed warm and snugly and fun:  a success:

Yarn:  Austermann Bombolo
Pattern:  Austermann STrickTrends Fall/Winter 2004/2005 sweater # 6
Alterations:  I lengthened the sweater by 2 inches above the waist.  As you can tell, it was necessary.

Final Opinion:  This sweater was lots of fun to knit.  I bought the pattern because I saw it at Elann with the yarn.  It was a whim but I am happy to have purchased it because there are several other things in the book I would like to knit.  The yarn was easy to work with  and it was inexpensive, which I felt was a good idea with  a sweater that seemed more trendy than classic.  I love the pattern but I wasn't sure how long the attraction would last.    Having finished the sweater and worn it, I still love it, so it is a success.  The overall sweater is not of the quality as some of my more recent past projects, and that is due to the yarn.  It is an interesting yarn, it is not a quality yarn. 

That is OK.  Sweater's don't last forever, styles change, and sometimes a quick fun project is the perfect thing.  This sweater will get lots of wear.

I took a few close-up photos on Matilda:

Side view:

and a front view.  I couldn't get an even half-way clean picture of this so I attempted cutting the sweater out of the background and posting it on a solid background.  Obviously I need practice, but I also need to find a good photo-taking spot, which is not easy at my place, and to work on improving the quality of my pictures:

My only complaint concerning this sweater is that the v-neckline is not as low as it seems to be on the model in the magazine.  Now I admit to some culpability here, as I altered the pattern, but I did not check the length of the neckline to see if the way it was written was actually a flattering length on me.  Ends up it is not.  I need a deeper v, one that goes further down the chest. and therefore, as I was already covered up more than enough, finding a flattering way to place the little neckline drape piece was awkward and took some time.    This might yet change.

Thursday Swatch Day

Thursday is usually the busiest day in my week and I tend to feel rather hassled by the end and eager to collapse in the creative social wonder that is Thursday night knitting group. 

Now I do realize that part of what makes Thursday crazy is just my own impetus to get everything done so that I can get to knitting night and my own obsessive personality that makes me think I need to leave a full dinner at the ready for my spouse before I go -- a meal that I am not going to eat because I am never hungry at 5:30 or 6, the time I would have to eat before leaving for knitting.  Goodness, the "day" is rarely done before 7 and dinner is usually around 8 except on those days when G comes in late when he tends to eat around 10:30. 

When I think about this I realize that this is why I sometimes feel harried, and why I wonder how other people get so many creative things accomplished.  Goodness I am just starting to cook when most of my friends are done with their dishes and are settling down for the evening.  If I am in front of the TV by 10 (or the computer for that matter) I figure it is a good day.

But back to knitting.

Yesterday I took a personal day.  I was supposed to be in Tucson, where it is warm and in the 70's during the day, but we canceled our trip and although the rest of the week has been fully rescheduled Thursday was not.  I thought I would spend the day at home, knitting, sewing, and generally relaxing and then I would head out to knitting group.

It did not work out that way.  I did knit.  I finished Bombolo and pictures will hopefully come soon.  And I worked on my swatch for the cashmere cardigan.  And I worked on my swatch for the cashmere cardigan.......

I do wonder how people manage to knit garments without gauge swatches.  I know people like that.  I could never do it.  I have been lucky lately, have knitted several sweaters in a row where I got gauge in one or two tries.  Not so the Karabella super cashmere.

First swatch with the needle size recommended for the pattern adaptation using this yarn.  The results were way to big -- 5x5 instead of 4x4.  Hmm.

Down two needle sizes, from US 9 to US 7.   A slight improvement 4.75 x 4.75.

At this point I am really having trouble believing that I need to go down two more sizes, that is unusual even for me.  But I do.

Another bad result on size 5 Addi turbos:  3.5 x 3.5 and it looks and feels tight.  I decide the difference is not entirely in the needles but in the fact that I am probably tense.  I must be tense because my hands hurt and my fingers are clenched up like little bird claws. 

Time to go to the gym followed by a trip to the office and to the mall to check out the lingerie department at the new Macy's.  I am hoping that Macy's sells better quality bras than Feline's did (they do) and that I will find something that fits because my size has changed and I am currently desperate to get out of my chest-binding device long before I get home most days.   Success.  Home

I make a lovely soup for dinner combining some carrot tops, and a bunch of celery and parsley that have frozen in my crisper tray with chicken stock and a few other odd vegetables.

While the soup is cooking I work on the swatch.  I really want to finish this before I go to knitting group because I don't want to carry my entire needle collection and I am beginning to feel that the case is hopeless.  I try size US 6.  The results are 4.25 x 4.25.

Bah!

I consider rewriting the pattern for this gauge, but there is some part of me that refuses to give in so easily.  It is time to go to knitting but I am feeling really pissed at knitting right then, and frazzled because there is still a bunch of stuff that was left piled up the day before when G was home that I haven't gotten to yet, and it is cold outside.

I am good at making excuses.  And I know that when I am feeling particularly frazzled I tend to want the world to go away so I can just deal. This isn't always a good plan, as I can isolate myself which makes me feel more frazzled, but last night it worked.  So I curled up with a cup of tea and finished my novel -- Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad.  And then I did laundry and cleaned out the freezer and then I picked up those pesky size 5 needles and knitted my swatch, again. 

Perfect.

Now that the knitting is in balance, life is balance and we can move forward. Which is good, because given how the day has started, it's going to be a long one.

Blue Socks

Well I finished the pink and blue bombolo sweater last Thursday and I STILL haven't gotten it sewn together.  As a result I will not allow myself to start on the lovely dark brown cashmere, because once that luscious yarn starts to run through my fingers I am a gonner I'll tell you, a gonner. 

Actually knitting has only been done in snippets or on trains.  Seaming is not an appropriate train activity. Large volumes of cashmere might not be an appropriate train activity either as the Metro North Hudson Line trains leave much to be desired; they are a trial to be endured rather than a welcome sanctuary at the end of a long day.  There are times when I can definitely understand why the majority of my friends would rather drive to NYC than take the train, and there have been times when I would agree with them.

So I have been working on the socks, the ultimately portable project, and I have been enjoying the knitting, except for one tense period when I discovered I had dropped a stitch I could barely see 5 rows back and had to attempt to pick it up.  Mission accomplished and progress continues, albeit slowly.  AT 9 stitches and 15 rows per inch, this is not my fastest project.  But it is calming even in snippets.

I just love it when the sock finally is done beyond the heel and it looks like a sock:

I tried a different technique with the wraps on the short row heels and I am not sure I like the look of the line they created.  But then I couldn't see to do my normal method so that wasn't going to happen.  Remember "perfect is the enemy of good" and all in all I am happy with the sock so far.  I love the way the self striping yarn worked so perfectly in the heel, almost as if I had planned it.

Meanwhile, I am hoping for a quiet evening at home and a chance to sew up the sweater and start something new.

What's Next?

Let's see, the first sleeve took about 3 hours to knit.  I have barely started the second but it is possible that I will finish it tonight at knitting group.  Even if I don't quite manage, I sometimes tend to get distracted after all, it will be terribly close to being finished and will not be adequate a project to accompany me down to NYC tomorrow night.  I guess the poor languishing blue socks will be called into train duty, which is fine, I do enjoy knitting them, I have just been completely smitten with the pink stuff.

But this brings us back to that looming question of What's Next?  As I mentioned I did have a plan, and I have managed to pretty much reconstruct it.    Since temptation calls right now I had best commit, as best I can at any rate.

Next up on the schedule is this luscious deep brown Super Cashmere from Karabella.  It was purchased with the intention of knitting the vest pictured from the Autumn 2006 Vogue Knitting, except that the plan is to add sleeves and make it into a jacket.  The
yarn was purchased with that intention in mind, and I thought that the nice people at L'Atelier , from whom I purchased said yarn had also written a modification to the pattern which accommodate the sleeves.  I am not finding that at the moment, but it is probably around somewhere.  I also purchased buttons, but they are not in the bag with the yarn, a most unusual occurrence, so I must assume that the pattern and the buttons have run off together and will be found lurking in some dark and quiet corner.  There is probably not enough time to search tonight before knitting so I will have to look tomorrow before we head in to the city, if only so I can call L'Atelier and see if they can fax me the pattern.    I could, of course, draft my own sleeve, pattern, but in the immortal words of Bartleby the Scrivner, "I would prefer not to".

The second project on my list involves this truly scrumptious teal-green yarn from Colinette.  I do know which pattern I have planned to make with the yarn (it is a Gedifra pattern) but I am having second thoughts about the substitution.  This yarn might be a tad finer than the recommended yarn and it may or may not work out.  Given my current state of uncertainty, I have decided to leave the pattern a surprise, since there are several patterns for which this yarn is a likely candidate,  and will wait and let the yarn tell me what to do.    This is a bit of an adventure for me as I tend to be one who is more inclined to try and force the yarn to my will before I so gracefully yield to its preferences.   Nonetheless, the green mohair is definitely on the horizon.

Finally, the third upcoming project is the VK winter cover sweater:

I have not yet decided on yarn but Aurora 8 is one of the possibilities floating around my head.  At the moment I am also toying with a color decision.  Originally I envisioned it in a light color as it reminds me of snowflakes on the model, but later in discussing it with Liana I also started thinking about making it in a dark color for a more tailored look over a fitted dress or suit.  The current mental images waver between lilac and another deep brown, but this is still very much up to debate and likely to change as soon as I start looking at my stash and available yarns.

Of course there may be socks, scarves, or other simple mindless projects thrown in to the mix as circumstances require.  But at least I  have a plan.