Serenity Now! A finished object report

As I knit this sweater, I couldn't help thinking about George and Frank from Seinfeld screaming, "Serenity now!" So this is my Serenity Now sweater:


Pattern: Serenity from the RYC Classic Style book, second size
Yarn: RYC Silk Wool DK in color #307 Velvet, exactly 15 balls
Needles: US sizes 3 and 6
Comments:
1. I love this sweater. The yarn is soft and cozy and the pattern is attractive.

2. You're not going to see an outdoor photo of this sweater any time soon. It's still in the 80s in Houston. A wooly turtleneck is not my idea of summer-wear. (Yes, I'm wearing shorts in this photo!)

3. I'm not certain that I'm going to keep the turtleneck part. I doubt that it will ever be practical in Houston--it's even a bit much in overactive air conditioning. But because this sweater is going on display at Yarntopia, I knit the collar as written in the pattern. But I also left the collar ends long so that I could pick them out and frog the collar at a later time.

4. I have a 36 inch bust so I knit the size "to fit 36-38 inch bust." Then, I discovered (after all the knitting was done of course) that the finished size is 41 inches. Eep! I probably would have been better off with the smallest size that has a finished size of 37 inches. Next time, I'd better study the schematics BEFORE knitting.

Also note that the sleeves are way too long. Though they are the correct length according to the pattern.

5. According to the pattern, the size I knit requires 17 balls of Silk Wool DK. I stopped knitting the collar when I had used up the 15th ball of yarn. The total length of the collar is about 2 cm shorter than the pattern specifies, but because the collar is doubled over, the collar height is about 1 cm shorter. Not a huge difference and I saved a ball of yarn. Considering that this yarn retails for about $10 a ball, it was a wise decision.

I can't say for sure that the pattern completely overestimated the yarn needed--my row gauge was slightly off so that could have affected my yarn usage. However, if you're going to knit this sweater I suggest knitting quickly so that you still have time to return unused balls of yarn if needed.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

Rachel has chastized me for not having a full blog entry with photo up within 48 hours of moving. While I always aspire to reach Rachel's level of dedication and rabidness to blogging, I have to admit that unpacking, organizing, and sleeping were higher priorities for me. Sorry if I have disappointed all of you.

This past week has been another adventure in exhaustion for us. (Mostly me. Peter seems to have an incredible amount of energy and drive to “get things done” even when the clock says that hours past our bedtime.)

Barbie called this move “The Fastest Move Ever” and that is not an understatement:

• On Tuesday, the packers had our entire house packed in under 3 hours. (And within minutes of their departure we began to unpack because we discovered that we had forgotten to set some necessary things aside.)
• On Thursday, closing on the new house took about 2 hours. Thankfully, all the people involved were kind enough to send copies of all of the papers to Peter a few days before the closing. If they hadn’t we would have been sitting there for 5 hours or more as Peter read every word and asked 10 billion questions.
• On Friday, the movers had everything out of hour old house in 2 hours and everything into the new house in 2 hours.

However, all was not peaches and cream during the move. Our refrigerator delivery guy completely screwed us over. The fridge was to be delivered on Saturday. Delivery guy calls in the morning and says that he can’t deliver it because his helper didn’t show up and he can carry the fridge to the second floor by himself. Delivery is rescheduled for Monday. Delivery guy calls up again and says that there was some mix-up with the dispatcher and delivery has to be rescheduled for Tuesday. On Monday, Peter calls to find out what time the fridge is going to be delivered. Turns out that our delivery guy LIED and told the dispatcher that he attempted delivery but we weren’t home AND the guy either quit or was fired over the weekend. He also lied to us about when the fridge would be delivered because he never did call the dispatcher. The real dispatcher told Peter that the soonest we could get our fridge is Wednesday.

But we’re well on our way to being settled in. The cats are getting used to their new palace though they seem to think that standing on the top floor and yelling is the way to get us to go upstairs. Only once did Scout think that the best way to get downstairs is to go through the railings (Peter caught her while she was desperately trying to get back onto the stairs.)

Photos of our new house (complete with captions!) can be found here. Don’t miss the series of photos of the microwave oven that’s smarter than I am.

Be Back Soon

Serenity sleeves finished.
Moved.
Mostly unpacked (books and decorative stuff remain).
Cats moved in.
Exhausted.

Photos soon.

Weaving in Loose Ends

Serenity Sleeves
I have abandoned all hopes of finishing Serenity before I move. I’m nearing the sleeve caps, but see at least two more days of knitting ahead of me. Then, there’s the time I need for blocking, seaming, and collar knitting. I think this could have been another 2-week sweater if life hadn’t gotten in the way. The photo is rather boring. Scout was sleeping and Elly only felt the need to walk across the sleeves, not pose with them.

Bobbles!
After tallying up the pro-bobble and anti-bobble votes, pro-bobbles won by 4 votes. However, some of the pro-bobble votes were not so much “yay bobbles!” but more along the lines of “those bobbles aren’t bad.” I’m starting to like the bobbles but mostly because the more bobbles I knit, the less enthused I was about cutting them off.

However, the simple idea of a bobble-ectomy is very intriguing to me. (Thanks to Elizabeth for coining the new word) Oh yes I have to try a bobble-ectomy. Yes, I’ll test the surgery on a scrap, not the sweater. And yes I know that the bobble has to be replaced by a purl stitch (not by a knit stitch as some of you suggested). I just want to see if it will work!

Short-Row Shoulder Shaping
Some time ago, I promise Rachel and Laura that I would write an article about short-row shoulder shaping. It’s a technique that I use on all the sweaters I knit because I think it produces a much neater looking shoulder seam. Short-row shoulder shaping gets rid of the ugly stair-step effect and it sets up for a convenient 3-needle bind-off shoulder seam.

I started writing that article and planned to submit it for the Winter issue of Knitty. I had photos planned and everything. But when I set out to find a good tutorial for the 3-needle bind-off, I found that Knitty already HAS an article on short-row shoulder shaping. Bummer. I debated whether to finish my article and simply “publish” it on this blog, but eventually decided against it. The instructions in the existing Knitty article are clear, so I directly my loyal and curious readers to that article.

Good-bye Little House in the Suburbs
This is going to be another crazy week for me and I’m not looking forward to it.
Tuesday: Packers (from the moving company, not Green Bay) are coming to pack up our house--mostly packing the kitchen, the remaining books, and clothes. We also have the final walk-through of our new house.
Wednesday: The closing for our current house.
Thursday: Cats go to the cat kennel and we have the closing for the new house.
Friday: The movers move our stuff from the current house to the new house.
Saturday: New fridge is delivered, the appliance guy comes to hook up our washer and dryer, the lady who sells blinds comes to measure our windows, and the cable guy comes to hook up our internet service.
Sunday: Pick up the cats and hope that they don’t Scout doesn’t freak out in the new house.

I’m moving a mere 21 miles from the suburbs into Houston, but I’m a bit scared about this move into the “big city.” I don’t like cities. I was never thrilled about living in the suburbs of a big city but cities are where the jobs are. Perhaps some day Peter and I will be able to move to a small university town (our dream) or to a goat farm (my dream) but for now, I’ll make the best of the current situation. Being less than a mile from the largest yarn store in Houston won’t hurt either.

Yarn Review: RYC Silk Wool DK

Judging by the number of comments on the last post, the results of my personality test apparently did scare some people away. I will try to be more agreeable and less neurotic from now on.

But this is a yarn review! Here it is, without further ado.

Silk Wool DK is a new fall yarn from RYC. It is 50% spun silk, 50% merino wool, and 100% luxury. From the moment that Amy showed me the little bits of yarn on the color card, I knew that I wanted to knit with this yarn.

What first attracted me to the yarn was the sheen of the silk. This sheen is so intense that the yarn appears to be glowing from a light within, a quality that is difficult to photograph. The appeal of the yarn is furthered by the extreme softness of the yarn. I can easily imagine this yarn being used in a slinky, skin-tight sweater for a special evening out.

The yarn is a tightly-spun, 4-ply yarn that has a springy, bouncy feel that initially reminded me of Karabella Aurora 8. In fact, Silk Wool knits up into a fabric that behaves and feels similar to the fabric knit from Aurora 8. Thanks to the wool content, ribbing is very grabby and cables pop nicely. However, the yarn also has a nice crunch to it due to the high percentage of silk. RYC has done a masterful job blending these two fibers such that the superior qualities of each are well represented.

The yarn texture is generally smooth, though the yarn does bloom a little with washing and friction. Thankfully, the sheen of the silk is not muted by the slight surface fuzz. Silk Wool is easy to work with and is not prone to splitting, but I have snagged a few stitches as I knit. When snagged, the silk fibers tend to pull out and create a fuzzy poof in the fabric that cannot be easily worked back into the fabric. So if you have rough skin on your hands like I do, be sure to keep your hands well moisturized when working with this yarn!

I am thoroughly enjoying my experience with Silk Wool. It has already gained a place in my “favorite yarns” list. If money were no object, I could think of many sweaters that I would want to knit with it.

Silk Wool comes in 50 g balls (100 m or 109 yds) and has a recommended gauge of 22 stitches and 30 rows in 4 inches. It is currently available in ten muted colors, which include pastels and rich, dark colors. I am working with “Velvet” color #307. The RYC Classic Style book contains 16 patterns using Silk Wool. The patterns include several pullovers and cardigans, two vest, three bags, and a scarf.

Don't let this scare you away

I didn't really need a survey to tell me that I'm neurotic and introverted...



My Personality

Neuroticism	82
Extraversion	7
Openness To Experience	49
Agreeableness	15
Conscientiousness	45

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Bobbles!

I have been happily working on Serenity for several days now. I finished the extremely ribby back in a few days and started working on the front. However, before I could knit the front, I had to chart out the cable pattern. I can’t bear to read written out cable directions. Are cable charts frowned upon in England? Neither Rowan nor Debbie Bliss ever have cable charts for their beautifully cabled sweaters. Phooey!


As I was charting away I read this: MB. MB? What’s that? Turns out that it means “make bobble.” Ugh. I didn’t know that this sweater had bobbles when I picked it. I’m not a big fan of making bobbles or looking at bobbles. Even as I study the photos of the sweater online I can’t see the bobbles very well and I know where they are!

Now, if I were making this sweater for myself alone, I would certainly leave out the bobbles that seem to interfere with the lovely cable pattern. But because I am knitting this as a yarn AND pattern sample for Yarntopia, I can’t really modify the pattern.

So here’s the first repeat of the cable pattern with the bobbles and with the bobbles pushed in. Which do you prefer?


I’m seriously considering performing bobble-removal surgery on the sweater after I get it back from Yarntopia. I think that if I make a judicious snip in the bobble yarn and unravel the bobble, I will have two long tails to weave in. But I’m not sure how it will look after doing that and I’m not sure how annoying it will be. I would have to operate on a lot of bobbles...

Now with 100% more blog material!

Whew! It’s been another crazy week in my life. So much to say. But because this is a knitting blog, I’ll start with the knitting first and then move on to the drivel about my life that may interest about five of you.

Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Amazing Lace challenge. I appreciate all your support. Sundaes all around!

Knitting!
Progress! Now that I’m working on the edging, the Shaped Triangle shawl is starting to look more shawl-like and less blob-like. According to my handy-dandy anal-retentive spreadsheet, I am now exactly 83.06% finished with the shawl. I’m a little nervous because when I was 75% finished, I had used more than 75% of the yarn. I’m not allowing myself to panic yet as I think I can do a little fudging at the end to save yarn if needed.

More Knitting!
Peter and I happened to be near Yarntopia on Tuesday (see below for the reason), and he suggested that we stop by. (Yes, his idea, not mine. Isn’t he great?) As soon as I walked into the store, Amy said, “You didn’t waste any time!” Huh? What?

As it turned out, Amy had sent me an email earlier that day to tell me that the yarn and pattern for my fall Yarntopia sample knitting had just come in. For reasons described below, I hadn’t seen that email. So it was all a surprise for me! I’ll be knitting Serenity from the new RYC Style booklet using RYC Silk Wool in a luscious purple color. That’s 50% silk 50% merino. Yum. I’ve swatched and will cast on this weekend. Expect a yarn review soon.

Puzzle solved!
Monkee has been hounding me about whether or not I’ve solved the crazy clues that were sent to me over my trip. It was hard, but I did manage to decode the clues. Instead of making anagrams of the FIRST letters of the words, I had to make anagrams of the LAST letters of the words. As soon as I did, the answer was obvious:
Sherry Floyd.

Yes, Sherry Floyd. Who is she? She’s no one right now, but I happen to know for a fact Monkee plans to change her name to Sherry Floyd as soon as possible. Why does she want to use that name? Well, it’s because Sherry Floyd is an anagram itself for “fleshy or dry.” Monkee, being the die-hard Texan that she is, loves Texas barbeque. And like all good Texans, she’s picky about her barbeque. She likes her barbeque to be either fleshy or dry, but not both at the same time.

Ingenious isn’t it? That Monkee sure is a clever one. If that’s not the answer to the clues, the only other possible answer is that the words are completely random and designed to drive me out of my mind. But I’m sure that can’t be the case. Monkee wouldn’t do anything like that to me.

Drivel!
Last week, I informed you that Peter and I were planning on selling our house and moving. I even complained loudly about the stager who invaded our house. Just LOOK what she made me do to my bookshelf! Peter and I have six large bookshelves and four of them look like this now. (The other two have books that I use for my work and I refused to pack them up.) I wonder if people who come into the house think we’re crazy for having so many bookshelves and but so few books.

But that day with the stager was only the beginning of an eventful six days. Here’s the play-by-play:

Friday afternoon: Peter goes to our buyer’s agent’s office to sign an offer for the place that we want to buy. At the same time the stager is in our house driving me batty.

Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday: Peter and I work furiously to do the things the stager asked. Lots of packing and stashing boxes in the attic. The last half of Sunday is used to completely clean our house from floor to ceiling. Scrub, dust, vacuum, mop, touch-up paint, repeat.

Sunday night: We get a counter-offer from the seller of the house that we want. We discuss and decide it’s good.

Monday: Call buying agent tell him to find out a couple more details from the seller, but that we were happy with the rest of the terms. Meanwhile, our house officially goes on the market--property is listed on the MLS computer, sign goes up, keybox goes on door, photographer comes to take photos of our now perfectly staged house.

Tuesday: As we’re preparing to go to our buyer’s agent’s office to sign the official offer papers, we get a call telling us that the first showing of our house will be that afternoon. We tidy up (hide the cat toys and cat beds) and leave. We finish signing papers but there’s still more time to kill before the showing at our house is scheduled to be over. Peter suggests going to Yarntopia. We do. Yarny surprise! As we’re driving home Peter says, “Wow! This day has been perfect. We’ll get home and there will be an offer on the counter.” We both laugh.

As soon as we get home, Peter calls our seller’s agent to ask her a question. Before he can ask, she tells us that we have an offer on our house. For our asking price. Offer is sent to our house. Peter reviews it. It looks good.

Wednesday: Peter calls seller’s agent to tell her that we accept the general terms of the offer but want the timing of the closing adjusted. Our buyer’s agent calls and says that our offer on the new place as been accepted and signed and we are now under contract for our new home. CELEBRATE! Seller’s agent calls to say that our requests for the adjustment of closing were accepted. We sign those papers and now our house is under contract, too. CELEBRATE! And then fall down from complete exhaustion.

Thursday on: Now it’s time for me to worry about the actual moving process…

Amazing Lace! Please vote for me!

Please vote for my Alaska photos here!

Pretty Please? With sugar on top? And a cherry? And hot fudge?

We Interrupt this Blog for an Important Stress Fit

Knitting is happening, but not very swiftly. I am now working on the border of the Shaped Triangle Shawl and am 75.87% finished with the entire shawl. (Note to self: crochet edgings are much faster than knitted-on edgings.)

Craziness is happening at home that's making me stressed and scatterbrained. It’s also sucking up a lot of my time. So I haven’t been answering my emails or responding to comments or leaving many comments on blogs--it’s not because I don’t love you.

In fact, we are getting ready to move. We are looking for a new house and putting our house on the market. We had a "professional stager" come in yesterday. She’s someone who comes in and tells you how to arrange all your stuff so that it looks like a place that no one lives in that a person would want to live in.

Before she came, I made an effort to tidy up our many bookshelves and managed to get almost all of our books on bookshelves. Remember what it looked like before? We have since bought another bookshelf and a cleared off the few "trinket shelves." So I was proud of myself to have every book off the floor. What's the first thing that the stager says? "Too many books." She instructed us to pack away 3/4 of the books. Apparently, full bookshelves make people think that we don't have enough storage space.

She also changed everything in my kitchen so that it looks like no one ever cooks there. She was quite disappointed that I didn't have any "decorative food" to place around the kitchen. Sorry lady, I eat my food, not decorate with it. I also have an unacceptably low number of "pretty perfume bottles and pretty toiletry items."

The worst part was that she wanted to get rid of all traces of the cats.
Stager: Can you get rid of the cat tree?
Me: No. The cats are stressed enough as it is, I will not take away their "safe spot."
Stager: Can you move the cat tree to the garage during viewings?
Me: It weighs more than 200 pounds! It can’t be moved easily.
Stager: Do you really need 3 litter boxes? Do you really have to have a litter box in the master bathroom?
Me: If I got rid of any of the litter boxes, the youngest cat will use the rest of the house as her litter box. I assume that’s worse than 3 litter boxes.
Stager: Pick up all the cat toys. Put away the cat beds.
Me (through teeth): Right.
Stager: You have to put away all these cat photos. But the dog photos can stay there. They’re cute and everyone likes dogs.
Me (out loud): Uh, okay.
Me (to myself): What the *beep*?!

(The cat photos are snapshots that I took of my pound kitties. The dog photos are professionally taken studio photos of the purebred dogs that Peter’s family has.)

Regularly scheduled blogging, complete with photos of pretty knitting and cute cats, will return as soon as possible.

You Got to Have Friends!

Although my trip to Alaska was my biggest adventure of the year (or of many years), returning home was not a let down.

First, I went to the grocery store and found Dark Chocolate M&Ms stocked on the shelves. I promptly celebrated and patted myself on the back because I’m certain that the appearance of this product is a direct result of my constant whining about the absence of it ever since the Sith/Jedi M&Ms disappeared a couple of years ago. Of course, my whines were obviously not specific enough because I really wanted Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms.

Then, I went to my mailbox and discovered that many Knittyheads were scheming during my absence from the chat room. Cards! Many cards! Even Christmas cards and a birthday card (though my birthday was in June). Some of the cards were for the cats and Sarah of Morg’s card even contained a cat toy for my kitties. I am quite certain that Monkee instigated this scheme and devised a way to drive me batty.

Each card contains a "clue" or "hint" and the hints don't seem to be related in any way (other than being odd). I'm been trying to figure out these clues, but my attempts are not yielding anything worthwhile. I've tried anagrams and other silly things. So let's see if you can do any better:
From etcgirl: Asteroid
From Barbie*: Armadillo
From Sarah: Hamustar (not Hamster!)
From Karen: Peach and Equal (2 hints)
From Valerie: Hamburger and Fluff Puppy (2 hints)
From Monkee: Bends, Before, and Any (3 hints)

The mailbox contained even more goodies the next day: Cotton Ease!** Yes, that's the Lion Brand discontinued Cotton Ease! Ten balls in pink from my beloved, newly blog-enabled Barbie*. She must have heard me sighing over the softness of Cotton Ease and wishing that I could lay my grubby paws on some. (I couldn't find any in the stores around here before it was discontinued.) I was giddy with happiness when I opened the box. I also knew immediately what the yarn will be used for--the sweater that Meredith is making from Inspired Cable Knits. (Peter says, "Won't it look just like that other pink sweater that you made?" I responded, "That was a cardigan! This is a pullover!" Peter: "I must have said something stupid.")

*not her real name

** I am highly embarrassed to be posting this today because Rachel just accused me of receiving yarn from other people "all the time" when in fact and rarely receive yarn from other people and when I do get yarn I'm very happy about it because getting yarn from others is such a special treat and I always wish that I had the correct send-me-yarn aura that Monkee seems to have because people send her really nice yarn out of the blue all the time and it's just not fair that the people who send out yarn to other people aren't sharing the wealth with people other than Monkee but never mind about Monkee for the moment the real issue here is that Rachel is spreading lies about me again and she still claims to be my friend even though she supposedly took away part of my soul.

Amazing Lace Challenge #6: Unlikely Model

I took the Shaped Triangle Shawl with me to Alaska thinking that I would get a lot of knitting done. As it turned out, I knit more in the airports than I did during the actual vacation. But, the shawl accompanied me almost everywhere I went during the vacation. The shawl went on boat rides, bike rides, and on many hikes, popping out for photo ops whenever possible. Lucky for me, unlikely models were easy to find.

Some models were inanimate objects:

A giant ship's wheel and compass

A tower of flowers

A totem pole

A stump on the beach overlooking Kachemak Bay

The deck of the Kenai Princess Wilderness lodge. (Do you see the teepee?)

The top of a 3,400-foot mountain overlooking the Harding Icefield. (This icefield is larger than Rhode Island!)

Some models were animals that indigenous to Alaska:

The skull of a fin whale (yes, it's a real skull)

A fearsome bear

A giant salmon

A former Iditarod winner and veteran racer.

(Lest you think that this dog is a pet and is therefore disqualified, take a look at where he lives. These dogs are working dogs, not pets. They live outside and are not spoiled. They are well cared for and are not mistreated. You can see that I wasn't about to let go of the knitting or the dog when having the photo taken.)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

I’m home and slowly settling back into regular life. The trip was excellent and far exceeded my expectations. Alaska is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.

During the first part of our trip, we traveled with Backroads on their Alaska Multisport Trip. It was our first tour-group type trip and it was extremely well organized and well run. Our trip leaders were knowledgeable and were able to handle problems with ease and speed.

The big event of the Backroads trip was the hike up to the Harding Icefield in the Kenai Fjords National Park. This was the hike that I was most looking forward to and most dreading. Even the National Park Service calls the trail strenuous (in bold letters with an exclamation mark). Yes, I hiked up that 3,400 foot mountain! It was hard but completely worth it. The views were incredible and it was an experience that I will never forget.

Another great day with Backroads was the kayaking trip around Yukon Island. It was a wet and rainy day so I didn’t take very many photos. But we saw bald eagles, a seal, peregrine flacons, jellyfish, and otters--including several mama and baby otters. We got to use an extra-long fancy fiberglass kayak because Peter is extra-tall. (You have to click on that photo to make it huge. That otter is just too cute!)

The big bike riding day was not quite as much fun for me, but Peter really loved it. He was the only one of the group that completed the entire 33-mile trip. The day was very rainy and cold and I opted to be shuttled to the top of the mountain instead of attempting to climb it with the bike. I met Peter at the top and we rode down the slippery, steep, and scary mountain together. I ended up riding about 15 miles that day.

The day after our Backroads trip ended, we went on an amazing whale-watching trip. During the morning of the trip, we followed a pod of orcas around and during the afternoon we watched a small group of humpback whales. The boat that we were on got very close to the whales and I took a ton of photos. We also saw the one thing that I really wanted to see in Alaska--puffins! We saw both tufted and horned puffins. We also saw five volcanoes including one that was steaming. Then, to make our whale-watching day even more whale-filled, we saw another group of orcas swimming behind our hotel later that evening!

The trip was not without some fiberly goodness. Although I was unsuccessful at finding some qiviut yarn, I did find some qiviut fiber at a tiny store on the Homer Spit called Local Showcase. I bought 3 oz. figuring that I could find someone to spin it for me. It’s so amazingly soft. If you’re interested, the store owner has more and I’m sure you could contact her to purchase some. (However, one has to wonder how 1 oz. could NOT be measured "by weight.")

More photos from my trip are here including two photos just for Monkee.

I thought I said that I was busy!

Three posts in three days? How did I ever find the time? I have a lot to cover today so grab a beverage of your choice and get comfortable. Or simply skip reading this altogether if I’m boring you.

Topic 1: Thanks
Thank you all for your support and words of encouragement on my “help me!” post. I managed to finish all my expected work by Thursday afternoon and put out a small fire on Friday morning. So, I’m almost completely ready for our trip. I even have my knitting on my TSA approved knitting needles and a print out of the TSA rules just in case I have to convince a TSA employee that my needles are not weapons.

Peter also thanks you for all the good wishes that you sent. The bar exam is over and Peter feels confident in his performance on the test. Of course, I was not worried--this is the guy who got the second highest score in the nation on the CPA exam a few years ago.

And to those of you who got to my blog by googling “bar exam Alaska,” no one here took the Alaska bar exam. And even if I had, I wouldn’t be blogging about it.

Topic 2: More Thanks
Thank you also for your kind words about my Go With the Flow tank. I’ve worn it a lot and it’s very comfortable. I know that I knit it quickly, but I wasn’t knitting anything else during that time. And I realized that I wouldn’t be able to knit the tank while I was in Alaska because it was knit on non-TSA-approved needles. So, I wanted to finish it before we left. And heck, it’s mostly stockinette.

For those of you who asked about the shoulder seams, I’m planning to prepare something about it just for you!

Tara, cabling with this cotton did not hurt my hands. The yarn is so fine and the cables are so small that the cabling process did not seem much different from cabling with wool. However, Cotton Fine is very splitty and cabling with out a cable needle required extra care.

Topic 3: Flower
Here’s a flower for Helen. She’s getting married and wants to have a knitted flower bouquet--isn’t that a nifty idea? Helen has recruited fellow Knittyheads to help her with the flowers. She picked the Lilies pattern from Knitty for her flowers.

The flower is cute, but I found knitting it a bit fiddly. The pattern is clever, but the short rows were not fun for me. At least it knits up quickly. I have enough yarn for at least one more flower.

Topic 4: Bye!
We’re leaving for Alaska tomorrow! We will be gone for a week and a half. I’m not sure how much email access I will have during that time because I refuse to take my laptop on the trip. I want to be blissfully unconnected during my vacation. So, instead I’m looking forward to being buried under emails and unread blog entries when I come back!

While I’m gone, Monkee will be leaving the Houston area to begin her higher education in Dallas. I leave it to all of you to tease her mercilessly keep an eye on her for me. Make sure that she packs a toothbrush.

Amazing Lace Challenge #5: Where's Waldo

For the Amazing Lace Challenge #5: Two lace projects are hiding in this photo. Can you find them?

Look Valerie! It's Finished!

Just last week I was showing you a cone of yarn. This week I show you a finished tank top. Oh, I had planned on blogging in between of these two posts. I had the entry planned, photos taken, rough outline in my head…then I got busy and that particular blog topic never happened. And it probably won’t happen until I get back from my trip. It will be an odd post in which I talk about the yarn and the knitting of a tank that’s already finished. (That’s assuming that I still think it’s a good entry.)

Please excuse crappy indoor photo. My photographer is taking the bar exam and the sun refuses to come out.
Pattern: Go With the Flow tank from Inspired Cable Knits, second size
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in Pink-a-boo (part of 1 cone) 80% pima cotton 20% merino wool
Needles: 2.5 mm (labeled US 1 by Addi, which is incorrect. US 1 is 2.25 mm)
Cat: Scout taking a bath
Modifications and Notes:

1) Knit in mini knit along with Valerie. She’s making a pretty red one--go look! This also counts as an Amazing Lace project because of the lace at the bottom.

2) After following the Salt Peanuts pattern to a T, I needed a bit of a challenge. I decided, contrary to my normal beliefs, to convert the pattern to be knit in the round. This really is a big step for me because (a) I love seaming and (b) I believe that seams give sweaters structure. I decided to deviate from my hard-headed beliefs because this tank is knit out of such fine yarn that I didn’t think the sweater would need the seams to give it structure.

3) But of course, I couldn’t simply knit the thing in the round—oh no! I decided to try a new trick. I put in phony seams ala Elizabeth Zimmermann. Yes, I am “the absolute boss” of my knitting! I was going to take photos of me actually making the phony seam as part of the planned entry, but when seam time came, I didn’t want to stop. I’m quite pleased with the seam--it's subtle but it makes me feel so much better about not doing a real seam (since I am still quite hard-headed about seams)

4) And of course, short row shoulder shaping and 3-needle bind-off. I think everyone should do short-row shoulder shaping even if they don’t do a 3-needle bind-off. It just looks so much better: no stair steps, no odd looking rows--just perfect!

5) I made the tank with even ease because it’s mostly cotton and I expect it to get a bit baggy with wear. I’m happy with the way it fits around me but…

6) I feel kinda chesty in it. The problem (for me) is a result of the way the armholes are shaped. The armholes cut fairly far to the center. I think 20 sts were decreased on each side--that's a lot even in fingering weight yarn. Having the “straps” set-in and narrow make my shoulders look broader, which makes me look wider. I guess I’ll have to remember that I prefer my tanks to have wider-set straps.

7) Interesting construction note: the larger sizes add length in the bottom border rather than in the cabled part.

Random close ups

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

No wait! They aren't pack and I'm not ready.

Peter and I are leaving for Alaska this weekend.

I have a mile long list of things to do for the trip, including getting the house and the cats ready for the house/cat sitter.

I have to finish all the work that is due in the next two and a half weeks.

Peter is taking the Bar Exam this week. (That's the test used to make sure people are competent enough to be a lawyer.)

Help!

The Best Laid Plans

The day after the Yarn Focus Challenge came to an end I gave in to my yarn buying needs. I rolled out of bed on July 1st, went to the computer, and ordered a cone of Brown Sheep Cotton Fine with which I intended to make the Go With the Flow Tank from Inspired Cable Knits. Then, I sat back and started dreaming of its arrival.

While waiting, I was struck with a great idea for a blog entry about my lovely cone of yarn-to-be. I would compare my mountain of yarn with the mountain of ice cream that was in my freezer. I even had puns ready about ice cream cones and yarn cones. (By the way, I don't normally have that much ice cream around. There was a sale. Then, there was a coupon and the sale was still on. Then, another coupon and sale. Ben and Jerry's for $1.50 and $1.13 per pint is not something to pass up! I somehow managed to buy 12 pints of ice cream in a week and a half. Yes, I know that there are only 10 pints in the photos. You know where the other two went.)

My yarn finally arrived on Friday. I had seen cones of laceweight yarn before and they looked mighty huge to me, so I imagined that a cone of fingering weight yarn (oh so much heavier than laceweight!) would be ENORMOUS. Hence, the planned comparison to the mountain of ice cream. I ripped open the package and . . . huh? . . . what's this? . . . is this enough yarn? It's puny! Even runty Scout towers over the cone!

Now, I normally don't panic about whether I have enough yarn for a project as I always buy extra. But just two days before I got my yarn, Valerie, who is also knitting the same tank top, started getting nervous about whether SHE had enough yarn. True, Valerie is using a different yarn and knitting a different size, but she had planted the seed in my head that perhaps the yardage in the book was underestimated. So upon seeing the cone I immediately jumped into panic mode. Luckily Ana was there to assure me that cones of Cotton Fine weren't that big but they did have 1,000 yards. (Later I realized that the size I planned to make required only 800 yards and that I had much more yarn than I needed, so all panic went away.)

I've started knitting the tank. The yarn is great. Knitting off a cone is great. But did you know that fingering weight yarn is thin? Perhaps I am insane after all.

Lacey and Owie

Thank you for you kind words on Salt Peanuts! As promised, some close up photos of the lace ribs in the sweater.

First, the bottom ribbing plus some stockinette to show the colors of the yarn. I am thrilled with the way the yarn knit up. The subtle shifts from pink to red give the sweater an interesting look and texture. Many people commented that this color looks good on me and Christina even said that I should wear red more often. Well, I do wear red quite a bit, but I don't seem to knit with red very often. Why not? Two reasons. First, I like to knit cables, and I feel that cables pop more when knit in light colored yarn. Hence, my obvious preference for pink yarn. Second, I'm very picky about reds. I dislike reds that have an orange tone to them or reds that are dull looking. Very few yarns come in a red shade that I like, but they almost always come in a pink or a purple that I find acceptable. So, no red yarn is bought!

This is the collar on Salt Peanuts. The collar shaping is ingenious. The collar is knit at the same time as the fronts and short rows are used to give it curves. The lace rib pattern is also reversed when the collar is worked so that it will show correctly when the collar is turned out. Of course, working the collar, the neck shaping, and the armhole shaping all at the same time made knitting the fronts quite exciting. I actually used tick marks to keep track of where I was. (Normally, I just remember what I'm doing or use a row counter and mental math to keep my place, but this time I was nervous about getting lost.) If you're thinking about this sweater, make sure you aren't disturbed while working this section!

OWIE!
Last week I decided that I would start riding my bike in preparation for my hiking/biking/rafting/dog-sledding trip to Alaska next month. I've been training indoors, but the nice, wide, cushy seats of the recumbent stationary bikes in the gym don't numb ones tush like a real bike seat does. So, I felt that I needed to get my tush in shape so that it doesn't rebel in Alaska. I strapped on my GPS watch, jumped on my bike, and started riding around my neighborhood. After about 7 miles with no tush numbing and no heat exhaustion. I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then, a car passed me. I looked up at the car as it went by and then look down at the road again just in time to see my front tire hit a rut. Yes, I wiped out. So much for feeling confident. A woman walking her dog rushed up to me and said, "That was my neighbor's car that went by! I know she's a bad driver, but I hope she didn't hit you!" It seems funny now, but at the time I was too concerned about find a way to stop my knee from bleeding.

Salt Peanuts

Pattern: Salt Peanuts by Veronik Avery, Interweave Knits Spring 2004 (also available as a PDF online to IK subscribers), second size
Yarn: Malabrigo in Vermillion (100% merino wool), 5 hanks
Needles: US size 9
Comments:
1) Another 2-week sweater for me! All that stockinette made the knitting fly by. Grace was my other 2-week sweater. I love this sweater as much as I love Grace. And I predict that this sweater will pill just as much as Grace does! Such is the fate of merino wool.

2) I LOVE the shaping of this sweater. It doesn't make me look like a frumpy log. The non-batwings sleeves help, too.

3) At first I thought that I was going to have problems making the collar lie flat. Elizabeth said that she had to tack the collar of her sweater down, so I knew that was an option, but I didn't really want to do it. So once I assembled the sweater, I arranged the collar and steam-blocked the heck out of it. To do this, I cover the entire collar with a damp cloth and held a hot iron on the cloth so that the iron was barely touching the cloth. I did not press down at all. Just enough contact to cause the cloth to steam. Now the collar lies flat without any additional help.

4) I think adding more short rows in the collar would have helped the collar lie flat. But it's not something that you can predict until you put the sweater together. If I were being anal, I would have ripped the fronts to add at least two more sets of short rows to each short-row section. But I decided not to be that anal...this time.

5) Yes it's an indoor photo. I'm not so dedicated to this blog to take a photo of a 100% wool sweater in 95ºF weather.

(Sorry no close ups at this time. The batteries in my camera died. I'll add more photos later. the lace-rib pattern is quite nice!)