But for the yarn-overs...

A while back (November , I believe) I told you about a cardigan that I have been working on. The Lady Marple sweater or as I call it my Early Evening Cardigan. When it is complete it should look like this:

Lady Marple Sweater, by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne 
Picture © Nadia Crétin-Léchenne

 

Mine currently looks like this:

Maybe a blocking will help...

 

The body of this sweater went together quite quickly. I actually knit all of this in less than 2 weeks.  I was starting to think that I could be one of those knitters that slams out a whole adult sized sweater in less than a month. (Provided I use worsted weight wool, larger needles and have a lot of time to sit and knit.) I looked at this body and thought to myself that I had only 2 sleeves and a button band and collar left to go! Oh baby, home stretch! Right?

Right? So why didn't I continue on my hot streak and just finish? Because something wasn't right. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it right away.

I started looking at my sweater and comparing it to those  Ravelry completed by other knitters. I liked theirs better but could not figure out why mine seemed... lacking.

Was it the colour or yarn? No, I still liked both. Although I was a little nervous now about this yarn pilling under the arms after having read some reviews.  I was concerned but it wasn't a deal breaker.

Was it the waist shaping? No, I don't think so.  I ultimately decide to put in waist shaping despite the knowledge that my own shape has none. I figured that it really was slight shaping and maybe it would help me look like I have a shape. No big deal.

It was the cables. Specifically the yarn overs. Look at the pictures at the very top of this blog. Her sweater has beautiful cables with big open peeky holes. Mine have to be stretched to be seen. EXCEPT over a couple of rows, notably the left breast, where I must have forgotten what I was doing and completed a proper yarn over, completely by accident. Crap.

 I have put a white sheet of paper under the cables as contrast
so that you can see how open my yarn over are NOT!

So, what do I do now? Well, I am blocking it now but shy of physically opening  and stretching each yarn over individually they are going to stay as they are right now. The cables still look nice but just not as I had wanted them to look.

As I have discussed time and time again I am a process knitter and, as such,  I really do not see myself ripping this whole sweater to start again. And if I am not prepared to rip it back then I have to be happy with it as it is now. But in my mind it isn't the same sweater.  ARGG!

Please leave me a comment to tell me what YOU would do?

In the mean time, I think I may take this an oppotunity to start a new sweater... while the jury is out.

The Birthday Mitten

Gather'round y'all. It's time for another story. This is the story of ...The Birthday Mitten. 



RH: top of hand

RH: palm side

Behold Heather's birthday mitten. This is a Snowfling Mitts, designed by Tanis Lavallee. I love this pattern!

It is a family joke that I have an odd way of  routinely forgetting my sister's birthday. Well, not the birth-DAY, per se, that I almost always remember. What I forget is whether I have sent a gift or card to congratulate or celebrate the occasion. That I often forget. And it is for this reason that Heather may get one or as many as three birthday cards and/or gifts from me anytime during the year. 

My process is that I buy gifts throughout the year.  If I am out shopping in August and see a perfect gift for my sister's March birthday I typically buy it right away. My problem is sometimes I tuck the item away in my box of future gifts to be pulled out in time for her special day and sometimes I am too excited and send the item in the mail right away. My challenge is to remembering what I did with the item or remembering that I bought it in the first place. A smart person would write this stuff down but alas...

My sister has benefited greatly from my forgetfulness on this front for several years now. Having an early March birthday I have often bought her an extra special Christmas gift and called it a joint Christmas-Birthday gift. I gently remind her that she will not get another gift from me in March. (At this she smiles knowingly.) And then I'll send her a card with a cheque in March. And another one in June; for this one I'll be panicking and full of  apology that I had forgot the whole thing in March. 

My sister always reminds me, after the second or third gift or card, that I had sent the other items. She calls me a dumbass, I agree, I say that I am going to write this stuff down better next year, she scoffs and we laugh about it all.  Typical sister stuff.

With all the background above you can perhaps understand why I was so amused that my sister had occasion to forget MY birthday last year. (Ahem, I'm a December birthday, in case you care.) It was a benchmark birthday for me too.  But we had a busy Christmas season where we did not get to see each other throughout the holidays and, in fact, my family had gone away for 2 weeks. So it was deep into January before I had even noticed that she hadn't wished me happy birthday. 

No way was I going to remind her! This was too good of an opportunity. I was going to wait for her to remember and have this as ammunition to tease her- forever- that she had forgotten my birthday. At least I forget by sending too many gifts!

I called her in late January to ask her what her eldest son would like for his birthday when it suddenly pops into her brain that she had forgotten MY birthday. Our conversation went something like this:

Heather: ... You could probably send Q some cash, if you wanted, he is saving up for a...OMG! I forgot to send you A BIRTHDAY CARD!  I FORGOT YOUR 40TH BIRTHDAY!
Me: So cash for Q? Yeah, I can do that. And I know.
Heather: Did you hear me? I forgot to send you a birthday card. I'm so sorry!
Me:  That's okay. Your birthday is coming up soon. As payback I'll forget your birthday on purpose this year.
Heather: Don't you do that every year?
Me: Funny. I do NOT do that on purpose. Just for that you are getting a bag of rocks for your birthday this year!  I'm going to write it down too. Better yet, I'll send you a bag of rocks and only ONE of the mittens that I made for you!
Heather: (laughing)  Sure, send the rocks, I'll use them in my garden. And I'm not worried about the mitten. You'll just forget and send me the second one in June anyways.

Touche. But with that simple silly conversation it was settled. This year she was getting one mitten- and one mitten only.  I sensed a birthday tradition in the making here!

I quickly found a pattern that looked fun, ordered the kit and away I went. The knitting part was easy. It is easy to only knit one mitten- the tough part is making a pair of anything! So it was ready in time for her birthday but I carried it around for a few extra days just to tease her a while longer.

I had her card, with a cheque which was the real gift, and her mitten all ready to go. (I left the rocks out.)  I went to the post office and bought an Express Post envelope for $11. We, unfortunately, live in different cities but I wanted her to get the package quickly. I bought the envelope and was filling out the address portion when I got distracted by a conversation beside me. I double checked that the addresses were written correct and popped it in the mail. Satisfied that Heather would not be so smug this year!

I giddily sent my sister a taunting text about watching her mail the next day. That I hoped it would be cold that week as she would soon have something to keep her warm.

I should have just kept my big mouth closed.

The next day I went to pick up my mail. I was absently wondering if Heather had gotten her package yet. I giggled to myself imagining her reaction to her one mitten. I was chuckling when I opened my post office box and saw an Express post envelope. I got excited for a moment. MAIL! I love getting mail! But that looks just like... the envelope I sent my sister yesterday! FFS!

And, of course, it was. CRAP! I had accidentally put my own address in the TO spot (thankyouverymuch Canada Post for putting that conveniently in the spot where the rest of the world puts their FROM addresses) and Heather's in the FROM. I was cussing as I spend another $11 to buy another Express Post envelope to resend the package. This time I paid very close attention to the addresses. Lesson learned.

I texted my sister to tell her to not to bother checking her mail that day. I told her that I had accidentally sent the package to myself. She howled laughing. I could hear her crying through her snorts of laughter.

I guess I had the last laugh because she didn't laugh so hard the next day when she got only one beautiful right handed mitten in the mail the next day! She called right away to thank me and to exclaim over her one beautiful mitten.

Heather: I love it! But I thought you were joking about only sending one.
Me: Nope. Enjoy that one. It is too expensive to send them in the mail.
Heather: They are a lot less expensive to send if you don't send them to yourself first!
Me: Be nice.  See if I send you 2 or 3 more birthday presents this year!
Heather: (howling again) They'll certainly be easier to keep track of if you send them to yourself every time first!
Me: Fuck off.


And that, right there folks, is why my sister is going to get only one birthday mitten per year for the rest of her life.  Only right handed ones too.

It's a process, Knitter.

Knitting Infinity

I've actually finished quite a few projects so far this year. Yeah, me!  My focus in Q1 has been small projects- they make me feel like a super fast and productive knitter.  I have finished  my Guernsey Wrap, 2 baby sweaters, 3 hats and 1.5 colourwork mittens*.

FO 2013, 1Q

I have several friends or family members who are having babies this year and I wanted to make them something special. I enjoy sending a handmade gift, when I can. I also don't mind knitting a few baby sweaters to tuck away for a later date. Rather than having to knit under a deadline because in my limited experience that doesn't end well.

In addition to the ones above I also started a lovely baby sweater for  the new baby of a past co-worker.  I chose to knit  Baby's Hooded Sweater, by Debbie Bliss, from the Fall Winter 2012 Debbie Bliss Magazine. The sweater looked to be an easy enough knit but looked fancy because of the cables. I also thought that a cabled sweater would fit longer than a regular sweater seeing that the cables would give the sweater some significant stretch.  I planned to make this sweater without the hood to save time and yardage.



Picture copyright and courtesy of Debbie Bliss Magazine



In early March I finally got around to selecting yarn and had fussed around a long time trying to pick a fairly gender neutral colour from my stash.  I ended up selecting a  colourway called Cove, in Madeline Tosh Sport. This is a lovely neutral colour that reminds me of  rocky shoreline along a clear water lake. Think shades of brown with hints of blue and green.  It isn't a classic baby sweater colour but I've always enjoyed non-classic choices, especially for babies.  I thought that it would work well for either gender with a cute little pair of jeans.



Madeline Tosh Sport, in Cove



Speaking of deadlines... I thought the baby was due in late March, early April and figured that I was doing well to have cast on by March 8th. Well, of course their beautiful baby girl was born on March 9th. (Of course she was!) I hadn't even finished the cuff of the first sleeve and had lost my cable needle twice so far. Crap.

I have knit what seems like 100 hours on this little sweater and have completed one sleeve, started the second and the full back. This is one of those infinity knitting projects that can drive a girl to drink caffeinated beverages so that she can stay up later for JUST ONE MORE REPEAT. You know the type: you knit for 2 hours, measure and have 3" of knitting complete. Ok, Good. You knit for another 2 hours, measure and find that you still  have 3" of knitting complete. WHAT?! ARGGG! You can stretch and pull but the cables shrink right back up to 3" no matter how you tug.  (You just wait... this little shrinky dink 6-9 month sweater is going to be a size 4T once I have it wet blocked!)

I am the first to admit that I am process knitter but there must be a small amount of product knitter tucked inside me I needed to feel like I was making progress at something!

Oh well, back to my infinity knitting. This project is not going to make no progress without me... or, wait a minute, maybe it will. :)  It's a process, Knitter!

Yarn details: Q1 2013

FO: 7

WIP: 6

Yardage: 58,049

Yardage traded, sold or given away (to date): 17,676**

FOOTNOTE:

* I'll tell this story soon.

** I have recently given away a large bit of stash (7,658 Yards) of Bernat Satin Solids and Red Heart Soft Touch yarns. This is deep stash stuff and yarn that I am, clearly, never going to use.  I donated all of  this yarn to one of the Seniors home in my town. I hope many grandchildren or great-grandchild benefit from this gift.

Um, I slipped? So much for destashing.

Back off and get your own sandwich!

In my own defence, it is not MY fault that Knit Picks had a sale. (Eeeeeeeeeee!) And who am I to turn down such a delicious selection of affordable yarn? And all of the above yarn cost only $100, including shipping!  So back off and get your own sandwich!

I'll be back soon to tell you what I plan to make with this haul and to show you the stack of knits I have made this winter.

Until then, you can enjoy the above pre-recorded picture of my new yarn.

In SUPPORT of Winter v.2.0

We get a whole lot of winter around these parts and typically that means snow, cold, short days, and a whole lot of layers to stay warm. Last year we had a very mild winter with very little snow. That’s why, with the return to normal seasonal weather, so many people are complaining. We turned into wussies very quickly. For shame!

Help, my eyes are frozen open!

So what is a girl and her good Canadian family to do when the nights are long and cold? Go outside anyways? Yes, of course, but what else? Knit? Great idea! And what should I be knitting.... things to keep us warm when we go outside. The problem is that I have 5 people to knit winter woollies for (including myself) and I cannot possibly knit fast enough to keep everyone warm on the same year or before items get discarded, out grown or lost. This is a serious problem.

I get an idea to knit my kids simple mittens. But after knitting 3 full pairs someone mentions that “they are awfully thin, Mom. And cold.  And make your hands all sore and chapped when they get wet. And maybe I lost one at school or in the van butitsnotmyfault.” The last part was said as a mumble under the breath hoping that I wouldn’t hear.  So no one wears the mittens. 

So I get a brainwave and buy polar fleece to line the newly knit gloves. I test my tiny brain on making my own fabric mitten as a liner in reverse and sew it together.  Really, how hard this can be, I say to myself. Pretty darn hard, as it turns out, for the girl who doesn't sew!  Mitts are now lined, albeit a little lumpy, but the kids won't wear them now because they are too small. Crap.

Repeat this process with hats. To pretty much the same success. (The hats in the picture below are admittedly decorative hats and not really one ones for really keeping warm but you get the idea.) 

Left to Right: Rustling Leaves Beret, Cowled by Thy Mane, Propello Hat for Hannah

I give up! I will have children wrapped in warm non-knitted items! I only care that they are warm and dry. Really what I have come to realize is that sometimes knitting for kids is like shoveling the driveway while it is still snowing... usually a lot of work for nothing.

I'll save the good stuff for me.

UPDATED: It's all about the math

 Have you ever had one of those projects where you start off with pure excitement and by two thirds through you are counting the rows or repeats until you can be done with this project FOREVER? As a process knitter I don’t typically suffer with this. But my current project, a Guernsey Wrap, designed by Jared Flood, is challenging even my patience to knit for knitting’s sake.

Knit with Brooklyn Tweed Shelter

I am really excited about this project. In no small part because it is nearly impossible* for me to screw up the sizing of a long rectangular wrap. This one's mine, bitches!

But in the mean time I am nearly 3 feet into a future 5+ foot wrap. I’m going to say it out loud: two feet of knitting can be a lot.   So because I am the sort to do math for fun and I'm a glass-half-full kinda gal I start trying to find ways to make it feel like I am nearly done while staying positive about the project.

Here we go...

I have 10,266 stitches left. How, exactly, is that supposed to make me feel like I am making progress? It kinda makes me want to cry and hide this UFO under my bed.

Stay positive. I have finished 267 rows of a 444 row project. No! No! No!

Breathe. (insert forced smile.) I have another 177 rows to go. Ug. Not helping.

I have 9.5 repeats to go.  Getting better... 9.5 is less than 177 but I still know it takes 18 rows per repeat. Keep trying.

I am 60% complete. We have a winner!

I'm not lying to myself. These are all the exact same amount of truth. Isn't it human nature to make a daunting task seem a little more achievable by breaking it down into pieces that your brain can comprehend.

Ravelry certainly got it right when they allowed project  process to be tracked in percentage complete instead of repeats, rows or even, God forbid, stitches.  I think that there were would be far fewer people willing to start an afghan or a pair of fine gauge socks if you were told right off the bat that you had somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 stitches ahead of you. 

I offer the following motivational poster...

 

Well, I have a winter storm heading my way. Which will give me a perfect opportunity to snuggle down and knit for as much of the weekend as I will be allowed. (*Beam*) Don’t worry about me...I only have another 177 rows to go  9.5 repeats am 60% complete and raring to get finished!

Footnote:
* I am aware that I am tempting fate by putting that thought into print but I am feeling pretty confident** here. Even in my early knitting years I could pull off a square-ish dishcloth or a rectangular scarf.

** Oh Crap! I'd better do an extra repeat just to be sure.

UPDATE: With all the snowing and blowing on Friday I thought I was going to have a weekend to knit until I got bored with it. It cleared up Saturday and we were back to business as usual. All weekend I only managed to finish 522 stitches/ 9 rows/ 0.5 repeat. That makes me 62% complete. Le Sigh.

Happy New Year, resolutions and other nonsense

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope every one's holiday season was merry and bright. I know that mine was, thank you for asking.

2012 was a very good year for me for Finished Objects (FO). Well, this is the first year that I have really both kept track and tried to finish more than the occasional project. So yeah me!

My favourite completed projects for 2012 was my Vergennes Sweater, my Stripes A Plenty Shawl and the Baby Owlet sweater. I had originally knit the Vergennes for myself but, as is my habit, I knit it in the wrong size. So my sister was the lucky recipient of a gorgeous sweater- just her size! I will reknit that project someday- for me next time.

For the first time I also knit a few shawls. I don't typically wear them but I really like the idea of a shawl. I'm going to keep trying and see where this goes. One of my favourite podcasts calls them "socially acceptable blankets" and that makes me smile.

So what about the stash, you ask?

My ill conceived yarn diet worked about as well as... any other diet for me. Poorly. It wasn't all bad. I still have a rockin' stash and I can honestly say that growth has slowed near the end of the year. I am trying harder to make fewer purchases and plan projects from the yarn I already have. Yarn appreciation is going to be my theme for 2013.

In 2012 I was fortunate to be part of 2 different yarn clubs and that was both fantastic and part of the yarn acquisition problem. The Rocking Sock Club sent me 2 patterns and 1 skein of yarn every second month and SweetGeorgia Yarns Sock Club sent one skein every month.  The great part of this was that I got yarny surprises in the mail all year. It was like Christmas all year round.

In January 2012 I had it figured that I would have a new FO each month and that I would knit up these new kits lickedy split. Um, right. I didn't even make one month before reality told me to smarten up and get real.  And everything after that just piled up as single skein projects that were not getting finished.

So, no clubs for me in 2013?

Well, no. I am just going to try a different club and only one this year. This year I chose a yarn club that had more shaded solids as colours (ones I am way more likely to use) and had a variety of yarn types. It won't just be socks and that might help me actually complete the projects in a more timely fashion. (Say within three years of receipt.)

I'm still kind of on the fence about yarn clubs. I loved getting the packages but there were just too many that were not to my taste over the ones that were fabulous.  Fundamentally I am too much of a control freak to get too many more years of lovely yarns that I know that I will never knit. I am not so committed to this craft that I will knit yarn that I don't love.

I did some trading, which worked out very well. I was lucky enough to have found someone within one club who loved the kits that I didn't and didn't like the ones that I loved. But now I have TWO kits to knit when I hadn't even finished the first one.

So, what's up for me in 2013?(Hmmm, could this be a sneaky resolution?)

In 2013 I would like to complete at least 5 big projects and 5 smaller ones.  I think that this is reasonable and achievable. Specific projects that I would like to knit: a Tumeric sweater for myself, to try colourwork in a pair of mittens/socks/or hat and I would like to knit at least 2 baby sweaters as gifts. Finn would also like me to knit him a sweater with skulls.

By only being in one club this year I am limiting regular in-coming yarn. I have several projects planned for 2013 and I already have the yarn on hand for many of them. I'm going to try to stay focused.

For the record let me show you my digits...

2012
FO-  23
WIP at end of year - 3
Yardage at end of 2011- 26,504
Yardage at end of 2012- 64,511*