purlsandmurmers

Merry Christmas Mermaid

Mermaid is finished! and even before my self-imposed deadline of Christmas eve, but long after I had originally hoped.

I can't get a single picture of me with the sweater hanging straight.  Am I really that crooked?  If so, I need to start seriously altering my sweaters so that they are more straight on the model (me) and less straight on the table.  I shall see how it works over the next few days.  It is possible that I am just a little more off-kilter than usual today.

Aside from the photographic asymmetericality I love the sweater, could hardly take it off last night when I finished, although I was not about to take a picture of me wearing it over my sweatpants.  G even noticed before I asked him what he thought, and kept raving about how wonderful it looked.  By all measures, a success.  It was even an enjoyable knit, and I will be making another, but as previously stated, not right away.  I really would like it to be longer, with a bit more flare.  Remember I shortened the godets and make it longer waisted.  The original pattern was far too short waisted for me, and although this looks nice, it would look even nicer if it were longer with more flare and shaping over the hips.

Still, I consider it quite a success.

Half

The last sleeve is half done!  Adequate cause for a mini-celebration! 

The weekend, and indeed much of the week was over-filled with holiday festivities so I am, in fact, quite thrilled that I have gotten this far.   It was a cold weekend for party-going and that was the extent of my venturing out.  When not tra-la-laing around the county I curled up in my comfy chair with my mermaid, visions of Christmas Eve dinner and a new sweater dancing in my head.

There is much knitting to do, and although the simple garter stitch is great for an occasional destressing, it can be deadly when one is falling over from holiday exhaustion.  The party fever has wound down to a little tinkle of bells however, with only a few events left, the gift-buying is all done, and that leaves only a little wrapping and the marathon cooking baking session to interrupt my progress.

It does look like I will be pretty in pink and gray for Christmas.

Cuffed

My darling husband, seeing that I was frustrated and wandering aimlessly about the house trying to settle on some new project, took pity on my and took me out to my favorite little Mexican hole-in-the-wall for chicken mole enchiladas.  The break definitely revived my spirits and cleared my thoughts.

I have decided to go with the cuffs and not just out of laziness.  I actually do prefer the sleeve with the cuff, I always have had a thing about cuffed sleeves anyway, and hate wide floppy sleeves.  Mermaid is not wide, but I have made a note that in the future, when I make another (longer) version with more flare over the hips, I will make the sleeves about 1 1/2 inches shorter than in this version, and I will narrow the cuff down a bit more, so it fits more closely at the wrist.

And yes, there will be another mermaid, although not right away.  When I stopped in the Yarn Barn during our trip to Kansas I was eying some Harrisville Shetland  for another version.

Frustration

I am disappointed, and more than a tad annoyed with myself.

But I digress.  Let's go back to the beginning.

I sewed up the first Mermaid sleeve, and it was lovely.  I love the shape of the sleeve, the way the short rows create drape and a bit of a curve in the underarm shaping of the sleeve cap.  I love the bit of curve at the top of the sleeve.  This is not part of the pattern, I needed a bit more fullness across the shoulder lines so I added three short-row ridges across the top of the sleeve cap on either side of the dark gray stripe.  I really like the shape it gives the sleeve.

The sleeve went into the body of the sweater beautifully and hangs really nicely when worn. 

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, darkness has fallen and the light is a little thin.  The flat photo is much more clear.

But the sleeve is too long! 



Where did I go wrong?

Well, it is obvious that I mis-measured, even after going through sewing up the body, trying it on and checking the sleeve length.  I was right about the extra width at the sleeve cap and that is fine.  But something went terribly wrong with the sleeve length and I can't help thinking I should have known better.

Perhaps I should have just drawn out a paper pattern from the diagram and measured that.  I know pretty well how patterns work and how long to make my sleeves.  But I checked the figures, and checked, or thought I thought I checked, how the measurements were being taken.  I had help from G because it is very hard to measure a sleeve length on oneself, but I can't completely blame him.  In fact the length we measured still seemed short according to my sewing notes and the sleeve length I usually use when sewing garments. 


So what happened?  does the sleeve stretch that much when it is hanging (remember that the sleeve is knit side to side so the stretch of the knitting will be down the length of the sleeve).  That might explain why the sleeve seemed unusually short in the diagram, the stretch was planned in to the garment. 

But what do I do now?  Do I reknit the sleeve?  I really had wanted to avoid that.  Do I just turn it up and make a cuff?



It actually looks nice with a cuff.   I think if I had made mermaid longer through the body (which would look very good on me) and not shortened the godets so they have less flare (because the sweater was too short) it would have a more feminine flare and the cuffs would seem incongruous.  But on this version, on me, they seem to look good. I haven't put the i-cord edge on yet and I could apply that and stitch the cuff to the body of the sleeve simultaneously.  The underside of the stripe would show on the cuff, and I could re-seam the bottom edge so that the seam allowance is inside the turned up portion of the cuff instead of on the outside, as it is in the above photo.

Will having the cuff remind me that I messed up big time?  Or will it remind me of the unexpected variables in life and how I managed to save the sweater?

I need to think on this a little bit.

Then my cellphone rang

I have been worrying about when I will finish Mermaid.  I am enjoying knitting it, but it has been a l.o.n.g time and as usual near the end of a project I am getting antsy for the next project to begin.  I want it finished before Christmas and I was beginning to have doubts about my ability to do so.

But then yesterday changed all that.

The day started off quietly enough with a little shopping.  I am in that fortunate position of being between wardrobes, at least as far as tops and sweaters are concerned.  Most of my more recent tops are too big, but the older ones, from a few years ago are still just a tad too small and snug.  Shopping was required.

And so I took myself off to the mall.

I used to go to the mall a fair bit when the "new" mall first opened.  I suppose I am more jaded now; there is not all that much I am interested in, the interesting stores closed, and generally I think the local merchandise selection is often less than inspiring.  I do better going down to Westchester, suburban New Jersey (preferably Short Hills) or NYC  -- do I see an inclination toward upscale taste here? -- yes, it is true.  Although often just say I'll just make it myself, and then I never get around to it, or it takes months, (like mermaid) and I might have been better off just buying something. 

I do occasionally shop at Chico's, which is not at the mall, where I can sometimes find some nice country/suburban clothes.  I don't like their travel wear and slinky collections, but that is because, unlike most people apparently, slinky looks awful on me in any size shape or color.  Of the local Chico's, I like the Kingston store more than the Wappingers Falls store, even though Wappingers is bigger. 

As I also tend to be fond of Banana Republic I thought it was time to head to the mall and check out the new store. Although I did make a few purchases, I am not convinced that Banana Repbulic alone will be enough to lure me to the local mall, although a shortage of beauty supplies might push me over the edge and even get me into the new Macy's, which so far has been a big dissapointment. It is more likely that my Banana Republic ventures will occur when I am traveling or trekking to the above mentioned shopping meccas.

I finished my shopping by noon and thought I had the afternoon to work on a few things.  Then my cellphone rang...

It was a friend, all upset because her mom had been taken to the hospital and was being airlifted to Albany, where she was going to need some emergency surgery.

And so off to Albany I went.  Luckily I had mermaid in the car.  All that sitting around hospitals drinking bad coffee led to a fair amount of knitting and talking and I finished the first sleeve:

I have decided to sew it together rather than knit it together.  I should seam it and set it in this weekend.  If all goes well, I can start the next sleeve by Monday and I should have the sweater finished in time to wear it by Christmas Eve.

Oh yes; friend and mom are doing well.  It was nice to be able to just sit and talk for a while, even under less than auspicious circumstances.  Both of our lives had been too hectic the last few months and we had not put enough effort into trying to get together.  By the time we had drunk too much coffee, eaten too much junk food, and talked for hours, her family and other friends arrived.  This was about 7 or 8 at night and I headed home and promptly to bed, early for me, but I was just exhausted. My punishment was to be up and ready to face the day by 5 AM, much earlier than usual.

The shopping bags from Chico's and Banana Republic were tossed on the floor of my closet where they have remained. Will  I unpack and play with clothes first? or work on mermaid? Probably mermaid.  I know the clothes fit me and fit in my wardrobe, but I want to finish some ongoing projects.  I want to wear some things that I have made myself.  Anyone can go to the mall and plonk down a credit card. Wearing something you made yourself; now that has value.

Kansas: the pause that refreshes

As we were preparing to leave for the airport last week, G reminded me to take my camera.  I was not inclined.  I am not, by nature, a picture-taker, but I thought he had a point and it is small so I tossed it into my purse.  I suppose it was a good thing I did because I was able to take the above picture at the Lied Center at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.  Note this is the only photo I took during the entire trip:  no pictures of rolling Kansas hills, no charming farm scenes, no cows grazing on the plains, no pictures of a happy toddler bouncing up and down on my brother's leg as he cooked Thanksgiving dinner or of same child being lifted up to the ceiling by my other brother.  One picture.  I love the play of the light and shadow, the angles and the color.  I am happy.

The lack of pictures makes no commentary on the quality of the trip, except perhaps that I was enjoying myself so fully that I did not have to occupy myself running around snapping pictures of everything in sight.  It was a great trip and we had a great time.

Of course I packed far too much knitting.  There was no progress on the socks; they could have stayed home, but had I been bored things might have been different.  Only one sleeve of Mermaid was partially finished:

It was nice to relax in the mornings and evenings at the hotel, sometimes reading, sometimes knitting, with no thought of what had to be done, no schedule, just pure indolence.  I apparently needed this little period of refreshment and things look so much more positive now than they had before, less harried and pressured, although nothing has really changed.  Only I have changed, in little ways perhaps, but a calmer Mardel seems to have returned, calmer at least than the one who left.  We will see how long she lasts.

Blocking Mermaid

The body of mermaid went up on the blocking board yesterday.

Although it is a lightweight sweater and should dry quickly the weather has been very cool and damp with steady rain.  Even in the house, the air seems damp, so Mermaid was not yet dry this morning, although I do think she will be dry tonight.  Whether I have the energy to seam her shoulders after going out knitting with Alexine this evening followed by a late dinner remains to be seen.  Luckily not much seaming is required.

The sleeves will be knit side to side, so I need to try the sweater on and check the length needed for the sleeves before I start knitting.  I am not going to knit the sleeves more than once. 

I was planning on working on Twisty Turns tonight anyway as I always manage to mess up my seaming in company.  I had truly hoped that I would be further along with Twisty Turns, but the lack of rain over the weekend meant that I as finally able to catch up with the yard work and am now pretty much set for the winter.  Well, I still have to wrap a few of the more tender shrubs with burlap and layer some mulch around them, but that can't be done until the ground freezes, usually mid December, although it wasn't until January last year. The stakes are all up and ready though, waiting for the cold and their burlap coat.

So Close ...

As the end of the body of Mermaid has approached I have become increasinly obsessed with finishing.  Even so I did not spend enough time on the weekend; progress was still painfully slow.  Two movies-worth of knitting time was not adequate (Match Point and Good Night and Good Luck).  When no further progress was made on Monday I declared Tuesday a knitting day.

I worked most of the day, but by about 4 I was ready to declare myself absent from work, turn off the computer, and turn the ringer off the phones.  And so I knit.

I knit to the entire audiobook version of Memoirs of a Geisha and still I wasn't finished.  The book was enjoyable and I always have a soft spot for a happy ending.  I always mean to listen to more books than I do, and I carry on internal arguments about whether listening is as good as reading.  But I did enjoy listening to this and although I enjoyed it, it is not a book I would probably have saved.  So this worked well:  nice story, nice knitting, sweater still not done.

I turned on the election results and knitted some more, knitted pretty constantly except for a few excited moments which required jumping up and down, a few moments of disappointment, and the pouring of a drink.  I knitted until my knuckles hurt and I was falling asleep. 

There remain 4 rows and the i-cord edge.  I do hope to finish this today, although the demands on my time are far heavier.

Prism Scarf

Thursday night I finished the second underarm section of Mermaid and was ready to begin the right front when I discovered that I had left the instructions next to the chair in my sewing room and had neglected to take them with me to knitting group.

Although I had planned to start a quick, large gauge project as a mini-reward after finishing the body of Mermaid, I had also neglected to take that with me, not assuming that I could finish the entire front of mermaid in a few hours of congenial company.  So there I was, knitless and not yet ready to go home. 

So of course I did what all desperate knitters in a yarn shop do, I bought yarn.  I had been fondling some prism yarns the previous week, yarns I assume were purchased with the thoughts of scarves in mind as there were only a few skeins in each colorway/yarn. I ended up with two skeins of Prism Frost in color Ginger:

The only size 11 needles I could find were bamboo, not my favorite, but I cast on anyway and knitted away. 

When I got home I noticed that I had dropped a couple of stitches somewhere along the way, and as I was still annoyed at the way the yarn persisted in sticking to the needles I decided to try something else.

I ripped the scarf and started over with Addi Turbos.  I didn't get very far though, even though usually I prefer Addis for all things.  They were much to slippery, the yarn slid around like wet fish, and the points were far too blunt to slide under the stitches, despite the slipperiness.  The whole project was a tension nightmare, the stitches would stick when I tried to put the needle in to make a stitch but were otherwise slithering around like eels in a pot of water.  Once again the project was ripped.

The third and final attempt was made on a lovely pair of lantern moon needles -- perfect fit:  smooth enough but not sticky, just pointy enough to slip between stitches, but not so pointy as to pull the chenille.    I just started the second skein, so the scarf is a little more than half done and a joy to knit.  I already have the perfect coat.   Don't laugh, I wouldn't put it past me to make a coat to match a scarf someday.

Mermaid Progresses

The back is finished and I am have reached the second armhole opening: