Knit a Sweater in November

Or “KnSWInNO” or whatever, I was never very good with things like that.  Numbers, I can remember numbers instantly and forever, but not so good with names.  As I’m very keen to use up my sweater yarn, and get the sweaters to wear before, say March, like normal, I’ve got some high goals for the coming month.  I’d like to finish the Snowflake sweater of course, but I’d also like to knit an entire sweater!  We’ll see how I do!  I’ve swatched, cast on, frogged back, and started again a Garter Yoke Cardigan from Fall ‘08 Knit 1.  I’m currently on row 20, or halfway through the garter stitch yoke!  (I know highly  exciting). This is a pattern that in my opinion looks good on almost all the people who have made it.  Some other great variations I’ve admired are using handspun at the yoke in any bright colour, then something nice and neutral for the body. 

This is using the Selkirk I bought at Ramswool in Winnipeg in September.  So far I’m very impressed with this stuff, it feels almost exactly like when you stick your fingers into a sheeps fleece on a live sheep, it has that sproingy, crimped hair feel to it.  I guess if you’ve ever done that you will kinda know what I mean.  My swatch using the recommended needles came out perfectly on gauge, and I’m roaring away.  I really love the look of striped garter stitch, therefore the plan is to have the green/black stripes on the yoke, then at the hem and the bottom of the sleeves.  This is knit top down in an almost seamless construction, even the button band is knit as you go.  I was worried about how the two sets of short rows at the back of the neck would look in the striping, but so far its not bad.  I don’t think anyone would notice it unless they are looking for it, and its not like I’m always staring at the back of my neck.  This should turn out to be a lovely warm, hopefully go with most of my weekend outfits (jeans, cords, pj’s).  Cardigans are key for me to wear around the house as Piper does insist on “softening” my gut by kneading on it every time she sits down.  I can move the hand knit out of the way for her, then move it back once she is “done” and its okay to settle down for a nap.  I’ve got high plans to start a Tempest if I get this done before the end of the month, but well, we’ll see how it goes.  I’m still in the initial “wow, this is going so fast, and I’m doing so well”, and haven’t hit the doldrums yet.

WIP Wednesday: Slogging Along

SnowFlake Sweater:

 This is getting very, very close!  I finished the sleeves and have 3 more cable repeats on the right front before I get to the highly exciting snowflake portion.  I should probably get this finished up this week as the snowflake seems to zip along, then I need to start the sewing in and blocking portion of sweater making.  Then seaming, collar and front band knitting….

Ene’s Shawl:

 It may not look like its any bigger than the last photo, but I’m now under 265 stitches!  I’m on my second repeat of Chart #3, and I’ll probably have that done this week, onto another repeat!  Mr. J is getting good at saying “Wow, you’ve made so much progress” when really its only grown by 1-2 mm.  Then I hold it against his face and make him acknowledge how soft the alpaca lace is!  I’m hoping this is done before our first serious temperature drop!  Any day now….

Bettie Stockings:

The first sock is almost cast off!  I need to get this finished, and the second toe cast on before Saturday.  The provisional toe cast on is new to me, and I need to do it again with peace and quiet, not in public. 

Out the window:

The sun trying to break through the Chinook arch.

Charting out the Process

This week I have made a graphical representation of my works in progress, which also depicts how quickly or slowly I feel the particular project is going.  I spent a good amount of time this weekend on Ene’s shawl, which is worked from the bottom to the top, or from 375 stitches down to around 20 stitches. 

On the x axis I have “Progress from 0-100%” and on the y axis I have “Time Required” which is rather relative scale.  At the bottom would be 0, and at the top would be a perceived or real time required.  At the beginning of this shawl, it seems to take forever to make a tiny bit of progress.  Cast on 375 stitches, knit one pattern row.  Purl back.  Elapsed time, 3 hours!  Or so it seems.  It took a long time to get through the edging chart (Chart 1).  However once I got onto Chart 2, progress seemed to speed up, and the time required was less.  Now I’m on Chart 3, and the decreases have really started!!  Woohoo for decrease rows!  That means that knit 1 pattern row, purl back, takes less and less time as I keep going.  Its all downhill, nothing can stop me now.  I’ve marked my where location with a red star, definitely going downhill! 

My sweater, or any other large project, time line seems to always go like this:

On the x axis I have “Time Spent” from beginning to when the project is completely done.  On the y axis I have “Progress”.  When I first cast on, and am really excited about the new project I spent a lot of my time on it, and get tons done.  Then the shiny newness wears off a bit, and I may cast on for another small project just for “interest”.  I spend less time on the sweater, and don’t make as much progress.  But slowly the light at the end of the tunnel comes, and I get excited to finish it.  I’m all about goals, and finishing something means marking it off my list with a shiny red pen, and having a new sweater to wear.  Or is it the other way around?  Probably not, I do love my shiny red pen.  I start to spend more time on the sweater, and hurry to get it done.  Again, I’ve marked my current estimated position on the chart with a red star (red!!).  The end is in sight!  Almost at the decreases of the 2nd sleeve, and the front to finish.  (Then a collar, putting it together, sewing in a zipper etc. etc.)

And in case you were wondering, I am a big geek nerd engineer, and I love to graph things AND make spreadsheets!  Woohoo, life can be so much fun!

WIP Wednesday: Ruinous Blues

Once again, all my works in progress are blue!  The ruinous blues title comes from a Cousteau song I was listening to, great little band from England that I still enjoy, they are a fall band to me, and go well with cool air and colourful leaves. 

WIP #1: Snowflake Sweater: 1 sleeve down, 3/4 of a sleeve to go, and the front

Only having this in South Dakota meant that I slogged through one sleeve, and have about 1/4 of the second one done.  If I can manage to finish this sleeve off, the last front should go very quickly as I have the snowflake section to look forward to.  I hope to finish the sleeve this week.

WIP#2: Purse Knitting: Bettie Stockings

This has been resurrected, and extra stitches added to the purl section to make it wider around the calf.  I’m going to take it off the needles and try it on again tonight, I believe I’m at the top of the lace pattern, ready to do the finishing.  I need to finish that, and do the provisional cast on for the next toe before next Tuesday so that I can work on it at the Knit Night.  The second sock should go well as I don’t have to continuously try the durn thing on.  This time of year I’m either wearing knee stockings or tights, therefore I’m eager to finish these up so that I can wear them before deep winter cold sets in.  (Then I wear BOTH tights and knee highs!)

WIP #3: A more complicated project, Ene’s Scarf

I’ve been eager to cast this on for a year and I finally did which gave me no end of joy.  The 375 stitches got cast on, and now that the first set-up row is done this is going well, if you consider 2 rows an evening well.  I can’t wait to start decreasing (only 16 more rows!  Or 8 nights!)

The Drops Alpaca is so soft, this is going to be such a nice scarf/shawl when it is done.  My cold neck can’t wait to meet it!

Making Wedding Mittens

A really, really, good friend of mine is getting married in October, and for their present I’m making the couple a pair of almost matching mittens.  Hers will be blue and cream, his will be green and cream.  I’m borrowing the Scandinavian custom of giving mittens for wedding presents, and since these two aren’t the type to get registered anywhere, I think this type of present is perfect.  The wedding is going to be on the French River, near Sudbury, in October, which is high autumn in Ontario, a fact which I’m very excited about.  Its been too long since I’ve been in a real Ontario fall, with the smells, the sights, it’s so beautiful!! 

My friend, who I love dearly, just became a surgeon, she passed her exams in June, she was already a Doctor for 5 years.  How cool is that, my lovely friend, who loves cutting people up, wants to do lung transplants, who once declared spine surgery “kinda boring”.  Her fiance is another wonderful Doctor who is a leading kidney and liver transplant surgeon, who also makes my friend dinner, and tidies the house when she spent the last five years basically living at the hospital.  When someone steps up and looks after your friend when she needs it, even though he has a demanding schedule, that guy is a good guy. 

I’m using a pattern from Estonian Folk Knitting from Nancy Bush, mostly because the pattern in the book has a band around the bottom that I’ve changed up.  The left mitten has “Dr. A +I”, and the right mitten will have the date of the wedding.  I was going to put their full names, but it turned out a bit too long, so I hit upon the shorter idea.  I think its kinda cute. 

The mitten pattern is incredible, and requires a stiff cuppa a tea and a few hours of quiet to get started.  In the first three rows I had to learn 3 new techniques.  A different cast on, a different join, then the yarn over braids with two colours.  The afterthougtht thumb was new to me, and took some pondering before the light dawned, the decreases at the top are new to me.  Whew, no wonder it took awhile to finish the first one.  Already the second one is going a big quicker!  It is fun to learn new things, even if it can be daunting, and takes a few times to practice. 

Another challenge is the sizing, with the motif on the top of the mitten which is 16 stitches wide, repeated 4 times, its extremely challenging to upsize the ladies mitts to mens sizes.  What I plan on doing is going up a needle size for the mens pair, which may also help the ease of knitting.  The needle I’m currently using is a bit small for this yarn, on the flipside I’ve got an extremely tight knit, wind proof mitten to give!  The women’s pair may also be felted down slightly to make them a slimmer fit. 

A word on this style of mitten.  I think I prefer a mitten with a tight cuff, however this open mitten could work well with my parka as it has a tight cuff which will fit inside this mitten design.  Another idea is to knit a separate cuff in ribbing, and sew that on the inside of the mitten to block wind from going up your wrist and making your hand cold.

WIP: Snowflake Sweater

This is the main project at the moment, even though I’ll need to put it down on the weekend to finish a baby and wedding present.  This sweater was a perfect thing to take camping, as the yarn is not so precious that you couldn’t just put in on the ground next to your chair as you jumped up to tend the fire, run to the outhouse, or look for Zombies.  Oh, and this one time when four (4) young brothers were riding their bikes around, one went over the handle bars, another fell over and started screaming, and the eldest was riding around trying to find his parents who had disappeared, and all the campers were coming out trying to a)find the parents (probably off looking for some peace and quiet (four (4) boys) b) pick the endo dude up c) soothe the other one that fell over and was screaming.  Pretty soon everyone was found, the kids were okay, and were back to tearing around.

The sweater, from a Vogue Knitting Fall 1998 that I’ve apparantly wanted to make for 11 years now, also has some change ups to make it exciting.  After 10.5 inches of cabling, you get to make garter ridges in other colours, then snowflakes!  With a bobble in the middle!  It was highly exciting, as Mr. J. can attest, since he had to admire my snowflakes over and over and over again.  The yarn is Patons Classic Merino bought on sale, so no big deal if it gets a bit dirty or smells like the campfire.  The knitting is also very tight which should help with the pilling, and make for a warm sweater. 

The back is done, and one front up to starting the garter ridges, in different colours!!  Once I got back home and saw the photo in the magazine again I realized I had made a mistake, the main body pattern should be k4, P1, Cable 4, P1, K4.  It seems I cabled merrily all the way across.  Now this looks nice, and should make for a warmer sweater, but there is the outside chance that it will make the sweater too narrow, and perhaps mess up the junction between the cabled section, garter ridge etc.  As you progress from each section you are casting on and casting off multiple stitches as cables take up soo many more stitches than garter or stocking stitch.  At this point however I’m crossing my fingers that it will all turn out okay, as I’m not about to rip the whole thing out.  Also, the smallest size in the magazine is a size 40 bust, and I’m way down at 34, so I should be good with a more form fitting garmet.

Wednesday WIP – Starting New Projects

It must be the change in seasons about to happen that has me getting ancy to start about a million projects.  I do realize we should have another few weeks of summer, but this morning as I put on my sweater, coat, and scarf to leave the house and lamented that I didn’t go back for my thin gloves its hard to tell.  Yesterday I dug up all my leftover yarn that can be used for little colourwork projects and loaded them into shoe boxes for easy viewing.  This was useful as I was able to figure out that I probably don’t need to buy more yarn to make the wedding mittens, I have plenty of Custom Woolen Mills in some nice colours.  Once washed and slightly felted it makes warm and soft mittens.

New Projects!  First up is the Baktus Scarf in the Twist of Fate BFL:

I really like the way the colours are working out, and the crispness of the BFL yarn.  I’m hoping to have enough to make a scarf that is long enough to be wearable, and let me crochet a bit of a border on the bottom edge for some extra pretty! 

Project 2: Flower Child by Norah Gaughon (maybe by my fifth project by her I’ll get her name spelled right!) I’m apparently communing with my inner mythic flower hippie child by knitting this sweater if the pattern description is to be believed.  I realize its a bit daft to start a summer sweater when its pretty much over, but I feel like I committed to it when I bought the yarn, and should follow through.  Which is very anti-mythic flower hippie child I guess, a bit too far on the engineer side.  So far so good, I’m working on piece #1 of 10.  They are all then seamed together neatly (good luck to me on that one).

I’m starting on the back that has no pattern, then when I’m thoroughly bored with that I get to make the pretty front flowers.  I do love that I took a photo of my toes through the bench at the same time without realizing it.  Jack was kind enough to bite through the BFL yarn in a nanosecond before I noticed him doing it, to help with tangling I guess.  He’s so helpful that varmit.  Nice colour eh?

Pseudo Sock Summit in Calgary

For the many of us who couldn’t get into any classes at the Sock Summit this weekend in Portland, or who couldn’t go for whatever other reason, we’re having a pseudo one here in Calgary in beautiful Riley Park on Saturday at noon.  There will be food brought, nice weather (cross fingers), sock knitting, and modeled socks.  At least I hope I’m not the only one wearing my hand knit socks, it won’t be that hot, it is Calgary after all.  There will even be a yarn swap, to which my first thought was “No way, you can’t have any, its mine all mine”.  But on further reflection there are two skeins of sock yarn that I may have fallen out of love with, that could find a new home. 

I’ll be bringing my new undulating rib sock (from Favorite Socks), which is being knit in Wooly Wonkas BFL Red Rock colourway.  This clever dyer knows a very good secret after living in Utah awhile: the key to the Red Rocks is the pink in them. 

Not a great translation of the colour, I’ll have to work harder to capture the colour better.  I may even bring my Bettie Stockings along to try and get those going again!

Have a good weekend everyone, especially if you are at the Sock Summit in Portland!

Knitting along with the TDF

Althougth I realize I don’t need to start a new project at the moment, I’ve starting doing a Tour de France knit along.  I’m making a pink flower shawl from last summers Knit 1. magazine, in Misti Alpaca.  It has really pretty flower petal border that you knit on later, and a very simple lace pattern.

My adventures at the Stampede continue, I had a great visit the other day.  I fell madly in love with an artists paintings;  you can see them at www.yessy.com, do a search for Jean Taylor.  Then under her locked area, use the password “imagination”.  I’d really love to get a print of the paintings of feet and snowshoes, I think they are so beautiful and unique. 

I also fell madly in love with some of the dancers at the Indian Village (a politically incorrect name now perhaps, but what it is still called).  I have put some more photos, and movies up on Flickr, but here are my three faves.

 

The Great Escape from Saskatchewan!

Will hopefully commence at 1 pm today, after a meeting with the client.  I’m currently waiting for a blower quote (for air silly, nothing else) to finish up at the hotel here.  Tis a beautiful day here once again, big sunny sky, and a lovely breeze caressing the landscape. 

The last two weeks I’ve taken advantage of traveling to focus my projects down, with much success.  In San Diego I finished my Raha scarf, which is waiting for me to block it at home.  Here in Saskatchewan I’ve been working on my February Lady’s Sweater which is being made in Silky Wool:

Since that photo was taken I’ve done a bunch more, and in another two inches of Gull Lace I’ll start the garter stitch edging, then go back for the sleeves.  The silky wool isn’t too hot to work with in the summer, but the summer hasn’t been exactly warm here yet.  This is going to be a really good three season sweater, as I can see wearing it on cool summer evenings as well.  It won’t be warm enough for full winter however!

My purse/travel project has been the Bettie Stockings, I’m up to the upper leg now on Sock #1.  This pattern is beautiful, wait until you see it stretched out.  Its coming out beautifully in the Smoochy sock yarn:

Remember my fishnet stockings?  They wouldn’t fit over my foot, so they need to be frogged and restarted on larger needles.  Hence the last minute replacement of the Bettie Stockings!