Hello Harriet

I had some technical difficulties during the photo session. Namely, one fuzzy, shedding, toe-licker, named Stash. She insisted upon licking the camera, which moved it, while I was trying to take pictures. So I’m trying out a new venue. The pictures are sort of gray, sadly.

This is Harriet from A Fine Fleece. I knit a larger size, because my spi was less than called for in the pattern. I also put in some very slight waist shaping, but after viewing the pictures, I think more aggressive waist shaping would have been fine.

I also reduced the width of the sleeves because the sweaters all have huge sleeves (at least for me).

Overall, I like the sweater. The buttons are adorable (from Artbeads) and have a lovely brass color. I wish that I would have made the sweater slimmer or added more waist shaping, but I can live with the way it is.

The edging is very simple and perfectly pretty.  I like it well enough that I may just use the edging for another project.

Sock Hunter Episode 55: Tweeners

Day 2: Stalking a pair of adolescent socks. Continue to see a flash of blue through the branches. Extremely frustrated at my inability to capture this pair of socks. . .

Day 5:  Still trying to capture that pair of *Twisted Stitch Socks. My attempts at attracting them with yarn bits and fiber bobs has gone unnoticed. I think they might be mocking me. . .

Day 9: Yes! Yes! I know it. They are mocking me. Every time I get close to the little buggers, they take off. They must know that I’m after them. I’ll have to don a disguise. . .

Day 23: Success. Finally, Success! Though I may have crawled through muck and slime, dressed like Marilyn Monroe in the Seven Year Itch, pretending to whistle “Some Like it Hot,” I finally got my shot!

Now, having posted my shots to you, my faithful readers, I am off to watch a Marilyn Monroe marathon. It seems only fitting. This is your Sock Hunter, crazy as always, signing off.

*Twited Stitch socks, my own pattern, leftover Dream in Color Smooshy in Nightwatch, US 1 Hiya Hiya Steel DPNs

Baby Chalice Blanket

So, while I was  ignoring Vivian I decided to knit a cute baby blanket.  This pattern was fast, easy, and fun to knit.  It wasn’t a pattern that I was able to memorize in it’s entirety, but “across the row” memorization was possible and the even rows were all purled.  It took me three nights to knit, and I blocked it on Thursday.

I used Joseph Galler Prime Alpaca, 665 yards, in a lovely Fawn color.  It is supple and deceptively soft.  I know it’s a little impractical as a baby blanket, but I couldn’t resist the idea of this blanket in this yarn.

For the record, I used a US 7 circular needle (smaller than called for), and knit two extra repeats width-wise.  I also knit until I “ran out” of yarn.  Unfortunately with such a large repeat, I knew that I was going to have yarn leftover.  I did attempt to minimize the leftovers, and it sort of worked, but 10 grams is still a lot.

Happily, this knit fulfills two needs for me: 1) State Fair object, 2) Baby gift.  Yay!

Do Not Deceive

Your eyes, they do not deceive you.  You are seeing square cherry wood knitting needles with walnut end caps.  They are knitting bulky weight wool (Burly Spun) from Brown Sheep.  They are not knitting: a sweater, a sock, or lace.

At first I was uncomfortable knitting with the square needles. I’m not sure if it was psychological or real physical discomfort.

The tips are pointy enough. The shafts are fairly smooth. I did find two small spots that were a bit rough. A little beeswax fixed them right up. I do love beeswax. It just smells so good.

The needles are very intriguing.  Right now the maker is sizing them by an “arbitrary” system.  These are “small” needles.  They likely approach a US 13 in size.  The Burly Spun is knitting into a nice fabric that is neither too stiff nor too drapey.

I included this one just because I liked the angle.

After a time, I found them to be just as easy to knit with as round needles.  Of course, I dislike straight needles, and knitting with them is very cumbersome to me after my months of circular and double point needles.

If you’re interested in them, want more information, want to buy a pair, or just think they’re really cool and want to tell Joe, you can reach him through his website.

P.S.   Even though I’ve moved away from bulky yarns, it was fun to knit such a fast project.

Cutting the Cuffs

After much consideration, and two other (started and completed) knitting projects, I finally came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do with the cuffs would be to cut the sleeve and then knit the cuff down.  Not the best solution, because there will be a distinct difference in the seed stitch on one row, but in the long run it will work just fine.

I started by laying my sweater out on the floor and examining the sleeves. (Please note that I did sweep my floor prior to doing this, and, yes, I did suck up a lot of dog hair.)

You can clearly see where I’ve folded one sleeve up as I tried to approximate how much fabric I needed to remove. Now, I could have simply picked a spot and bound off the sleeve, but I would have lost the bell shaped cuffs. So, I went another route and decided to knit the cuff down from where I cut the fabric off.

Here you can see where I’ve measured to my wrist. I actually tried the sweater on at this point and picked a spot where it hit my wrist.

Then I decided to actually measure how much “extra” fabric I had. It was not, by-the-way, 5 inches, as I originally stated. It was more like 10 inches. (Also, the tape measure, from the Loopy Ewe. I sort of killed the retractable mechanism. Yes, yes, I did wear out a tape measure. sigh)

After gaping at this picture for a while, I picked up the sweater and snipped. I’ll spare you a picture of me cutting into the sleeve. I wouldn’t want any of you to have a heart attack.

It was as I was carefully unpicking the sleeve row that I realized I had cut too high. I picked a spot that I intended to cut into, about 3 inches above the spot where the sleeve should have hit my wrist (the marker).   Unfortunately, I cut about 4 inches above the wrist.  So, I changed tactics, found my “new” spot in the chart, and inserted my DPNS.

Then I knit the cuff back down, trying on the sweater as I went. I did have to add six rows to the bell cuff (another cable twist, basically) to get the length I wanted.

In this picture you can see the finished sleeve (left in the picture, but it would be the sweater’s right sleeve) and the sleeve that still needs to be altered. The fixed sleeve is much wider and less pretty than the original sleeve, but it will also fit my arm.

And, a close-up of the sleeve with the new cuff. I left the ends unwoven for this picture so you could see where the odd “break” occurs in the sleeve pattern. Blocking helps this “break”, but it doesn’t eliminate it completely.

Finally, here we have the sweater, both sleeves fixed. The sun also decided to make a brief appearance right when I went to take this picture. The sweater is still unblocked, but it was promptly tossed into hot water after this picture and is drying nicely on the deck.

In the end, I even wound up with a pair of cuffs leftover. Now I just have to decide what to do with them. I’m tempted to make fingerless mitts out of them. lol

ps, see? It does look better after a nice soak.

I’m Distracting You

My days are filled with worries right now.  So, to distract you, I’m going to give you flowers.

These are all currently blooming at my house.

Orange Pekoe (I really need a job)

Vampire’s Kiss (prescriptions cost WAY too much)

Omaha Thunder (I have too many rabbits and no customers)

Too Much Pizzazz (I really need a job) ps, these are HUGE flowers, it’s hard to show you how big they are

Ness’ Crinkle Blue ( Why is the dog shedding so much? Why can’t I keep the house clean? I feel like I’m constantly cleaning something. Why is there dog hair EVERYWHERE?)

Little Cheyenne Girl ( I really really need a job)

Did I distract you? No? It didn’t help me much either.

Ignoring Vivian

Yes, that’s right.  I’m ignoring the sleeve problems on Vivian for the time being.  Instead I’m focusing on another project that is coming along nicely.

I started Harriet from A Fine Fleece on Wed. and I’m already done with the back and fronts.  I’m hoping to have this done by July 1.  At which point, I will once again contemplate Vivian and what is to be done with the sleeves.

Until then, it is all Harriet knitting, all the time.  We like each other so much better.  Even with the alterations that I’ve made to the pattern. (:P to Vivian).

PS, To anyone that has the book, the pictures for Harriet are terrible.  They don’t show any of the details.  I didn’t know that it had a pretty lacy edge until I checked the Ravelry pictures.

Things That Make Me Go, Hmmmm

“We can not be afraid of the future and we can not be prisoners of the past.” ~Pres. Obama today on Clean Energy

Sometimes Karma Sucks

I must have been tempting the knitting fates. I was excited about finishing another sweater. They had all turned out marvelously well. The fit was lovely. I decided to take a chance and try the lovely Vivian sweater by Ysolda Teague. I knit and knit and knit then put it away to work on other projects.

When I picked it back up I was nearly done with one sleeve and well on track to finish the sweater. So I knit and knit and knit. Today I panicked a bit when I realized that I wouldn’t have enough yarn for the hood, but I cut out 6 rows and it looked just fine. I popped the completed hood (which was kitchenered together in pattern and nearly did me in) onto my head and proceeded to pour the wool around my frame.

*Cue ominous music*

The sleeves were too long.

Not just a little bit too long, but about 4.5 inches too long. Gah!

Now what do I do? I’m not about to rip back the entire sweater to the sleeves and start that yoke over. It’s just not going to happen. I’ve already woven in my ends.

I could cut off the offending extra inches and bind off somewhere in the pattern that makes sense, but I lose the lovely bell shaped sleeve cuffs.

Of course, folding them up is akin to losing them too. sigh

I really wanted to take this to State Fair too.

Wait, It’s June, Right?

Um, yes.  It’s June.  Not December.  We have not skipped ahead six months.  We do not have frantic Christmas shopping to do.

I do have a knitted, felted, Christmas decoration ready to go.  I used Cascade 220 because I think it felts well and is a nice workhorse yarn.  The pattern is a Pick Up Sticks pattern, and it was very easy to follow. Of course, I’ve also knit a few of their patterns before which might have made it easier to understand.

You can’t see them, but each flower has a long green stem that is wound around the wire wreath frame. It took me quite a while to move the flowers into position. Even with knitting two more flowers than called for in the pattern, I think it could have used one more. Ten total flowers would have made then bunch together more and fill in the gaps. I like a nice dense wreath.

Ah, well, it’s a decoration done in a pattern that I’ve had in my mental queue for several years AND it fits one of the categories at State Fair. Whoo! One more done, lots to go. sigh