Procrastination

Ravelry is fantastic for a lot of things, one of which is procrastination. In order to avoid doing work and writing my bridesmaid speech (which I'll be delivering next week at about this time, god help me), I thought I'd better photograph and catalog all of my stash yarn. This took the better part of yesterday afternoon, and I discovered I have (a) a bunch of sock yarn I will likely never use, (b) one very small sweater's worth of Cotton Glace, and (c) a gojillion oddballs (sometimes two balls-worth) of every conceivable yarn weight, none of which match each other. So I organized my yarn drawers and put oddballs in plastic bags by gauge and now it's all tidy, although no more useful. Yippee! Does this mean I can buy more yarn?

Now then, is there anything else I can do around here to avoid writing my speech? Oh right, block a half-finished baby sweater and commence obsessing over the new Interweave Knits.

I finally finished the second front of the Dolly baby sweater which I've been working on for months, despite the fact it's only big enough for a baby. As I've said, the yarn is Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply and it's being scratchy and splitty and generally not so much fun. Plus the pattern is one of those "reverse shaping for other side" jobs which drives me bananas, especially when the first side's pattern includes a lot of "do as set for the last 10 rows 8 more times but decreasing every 2 rows 4 times and then every 6 rows 8 times," etc. etc. Do what?! I can read a pattern, but this makes my head hurt. When I finished both fronts they were little shrively pink bits and I had no idea how big the sweater was going to be, so I was eager to stretch it out for a blocking. Of course, now that I see how big the sweater is I still have no big the average baby is, so it was not much help, although it does look pretty all flattened out.

As for Interweave, I'm loving these two designs:

I'm already envisioning Beaverslide for the first one... Yes Arwen, I see you lurking on the shelf, giving me the evil-unfinished-sweater eye, and quit it! If you were more fun to knit we'd play more, but for the meantime you are staying put.

Rut

I've been in a bit of a knitting rut recently. I have a few projects on the needles that aren't making me excited and no thoughts on what I want to knit next. Of course, I have a variety of patterns on the shelves, but a lot of them are sweaters and with spring coming I don't feel inspired to start a heavy sweater. My usual go-to is lace, but I already have two lace shawls going so I should really focus on those. This morning I picked up Arwen again to keep plowing through the sleeve, but I tire of the loooooong rows making up the front and sleeve. In the meantime I've been keeping my hands busy with cross-stitch.

The other morning while brushing my teeth I was consumed with excitement over a potential use for the linen I bought a few weeks ago. I've been seeing links to this zakka pouch tutorial all over the place. What better for the base than lovely linen? So I wound the yarn before going to work, despite the fact that my morning schedule does not allow for such diversions and I was left running through the neighborhood for the train.

I swatched all week on the train and am currently working on this swatch in linen stitch (well-matched for linen, no?). It's creating almost a woven fabric, which I love. Unfortunately, though, it is hard work on the old hands - there's no give in the linen and it is rough and twiney and I can only bear a few rows at a time. Making an entire bag base like this will be time consuming. Maybe I'll just make some swatches and sew them into things. Or maybe I'll weave some on my handy Weavette and see where that goes...

In other news, I saw adorable Baby B yesterday and the not-so adorable state of his earflap hat! It got tossed in the washer and dryer accidentally and wound up a little felted and shrunken. It also had a little run-in with some velcro. Ouch. I think it could have been worse - the yarn is Karabella 8, which is purportedly washable, but I would not recommend putting it in warm wash and dry.

Problem solved - he'll just wear the hat inside out now. I almost like it better like this. However, now he'll need a new hat for next year because all that growing room has been shrunken right out.

Arwen's got back

One Arwen back: Done. Although the instructions tell me to bind it off, I left it on a stitch holder because I am sure I can find some way to join the fronts and hood without sewing the whole mess together. I wove in the ends as I went along and gave the piece a steam blocking to prevent loss of momentum when sweater-finishing malaise sets in.

There is still much to go, and I'm a little bored, although the cables on the front help a bit.








My new Interweave Knits arrived today too. I like the new format - the photographs of the knits seem clearer and make it very easy to see the pieces. Unfortunately, they also make it clear there is nothing I want to knit in this issue. This often happens to me with spring/summer patterns - I don't love cotton yarn or whispy lightweight knitted things. I've only been through it once, but this issue also seems to have a lot of long tunic-y things that do not work well on my not-tall body.

I'm still powering through stockinette land. My cowl is nearing completion! Maybe then I'll have some interesting show-and-tell. Otherwise, much work and not much progress to report around here, although I'll show you my new fabric friends once they are out of the dryer and ironed.

In the Land of Stockinette

Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit.
Purl. Purl. Purl. Purl. Purl.

I do try to make only interesting things, but sometimes I strand myself in a land of stockinette. I've got nothing against stockinette. In fact, the reason I get stranded is that I love its simplicity, its smooth finish, the neat little V's... but a girl does begin to long for a cable, yarnover or twisted stitch every now and again. Alas, it's all knit for the moment. At least it goes quickly.

First up is the cashmere cowl. Here she is perched in the office window. This is my subway project and it's a perfect commuting endeavor. Heck, I don't even have to purl! I just knit around in circles while attempting not to doze off. The yarn is delightful and the cowl is growing at a respectable pace (it's actually grown since this shot). I think I'm about halfway done.

The next item is Arwen. She waits for me at home on the couch. I'm about 6" into the back and done with one ball of yarn (only 13 more to go! Gray yarn be gone!). At least Arwen includes the excitement of purling the wrong side - wahoo!

My secret white project is also stockinette. It's been occupying quite a bit of knitting time but unfortunately it's secret. Maybe it's not such a loss though - how much stockinette can a blog bear, and white stockinette is surely off the spectrum of boring!

Tomorrow: the fun little sewing projects I whipped up this weekend and a completely stockinette-free post.

Swatchy

I have a pile of gray yarn that haunts me. I think it is cursed. It occupies a twingey little spot in the back of my brain that itches every time I purchase another skein of anything. "What are you doing?!" It says. "Why don't you love me? What will become of me? Sniffle." Grah.

Oh how I loved this yarn when it first came home with me. It was destined to be the most beautiful cabled sweater from a Rebecca magazine. So what if the gauge wasn't even close - I was going to make it happen! Never mind that at that point I had never altered a sweater pattern to make it fit, or really tinkered with much of anything. Never mind that I knew going in that the English translation of the German pattern had some sort of error and the chart was wrong. Big deal, this was going to be fantastic.

Here is the yarn in its first life as the Rebecca sweater. Sorry for the dark picture, it was taken before I knew any better. It almost makes me teary to look at - the cables are so pretty! I knit the back and one sleeve. I knew deep down there was no way it would fit... it was only about 34" around and the Girls need more room than that. Not to mention that since the gauge was totally off I had monkeyed with the depth of the armscythe to deal with the cables but did not do similar monkeying for the sleeve cap, which was way too shallow.

When I finally came to terms with reality, I ripped, and washed and hung to dry, and fortunately the yarn did not seem too disturbed.

The next incarnation was another cabled sweater - Saltwater from Rowan Classic Beach. I hate the beach; I should have known this would not work out. (You can see a beautifully executed version here, though.) I don't even think I have pictures of this. I had decided to do some waist shaping and shorten the ribbed section, but was too lazy to do the real math (clearly learning nothing from the earlier experience). Back to the frog pond. This time, the yarn was a little less accommodating, although I only killed two balls or so.

When Interweave Knits arrived last fall I saw Arwen. I must admit I was not completely besotted with the sweater but I thought the reversible cables were interesting and, more importantly, I could get rid of this grim pile of gray yarn!! In the meantime this sweater has developed quite a cult following. It was not until I saw this one finished over at Juju's blog that I decided I could really get behind this sweater.

So, I have been swatching. I think I made a mistake in the cable, but I think you get the point.* I'm going to make it smaller than recommended because it will never be worn closed and the finished measurements in the instructions have the front cables overlapping. I might add waist shaping... then again I might just knit feverishly to make the gray yarn GO AWAY!

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* Note to self: Do not knit half a swatch of reversible cables, fail to mark your place, and attempt to resume on the subway while balancing your magazine, overstuffed handbag and coffee in your lap and barely having enough space to bend your arms.