Red Alert! Error in Morrigan!

Okay, so it's probably not a major red alert seeing as I'm probably one of about 10 knitters worldwide who are knitting Morrigan. (I found 3 others started on the web, I'm not the only crazy one.) BUT it is a major error.

I emailed Jenna and her entire response is below. The error is in the number of times that rows 69–76 of the Side Chart are worked.

Crap! you're right! That should have been 4 times. I checked back
through all my drafts, and I had written it as 6, (6, 8, 8, 8, 8)
throughout, but obviously the math doesn't work that way!

Because I used AppleWorks (since uninstalled and I don't know what we
did with the install disks), I can't check the spreadsheet notes to
figure out where the mistake originated... all my text notes show
that I miscounted, and evidently thought that rows 77-84 of the side
chart were only 6 rows, not 8. The tech editor must have done the
same thing, too!

So, the Side chart should indicate that the repeats of rows 69-76 are
4 (4, 5, 5, 6, 6). Here's the logic:

Total rows before bind-offs according to Chart A count: 140 (140,
156, 156, 164, 164)

Side:
4 rows of foundation pattern (chart rows 1-2)
8 rows of patt (chart rows 3-10 x 1)
32 (32, 40, 40, 40, 40) rows of rep (chart rows 11-18)
50 rows of patt (chart rows 19-68 x 1)
--at this point, we've worked 94 (94, 102, 102, 102, 102) rows; 46
(46, 54, 54, 62, 62) to go before bind-off--
32 (32, 40, 40, 48, 48) rows of rep (chart rows 69-76 x 4 (4, 5, 5,
6, 6))
8 rows of patt (chart rows 77-84 x 1)
--this adds 40 (40, 48, 48, 56, 56) rows; another 6 rows to work
following rows 85-92 as necessary--

Thinking about it, I'm positive I kept counting rows 77 to 84 as 6
rows, because I recall I thought that it would end neatly with row 84
for the smallest size, and then I must have incorporated that set of
rows into the repeat count by accident. You could, if you wished,
treat this as a 5x repeat, which means that instead of working rows
77-84 before the bind-off, you'd only work rows 77-82; on the bind-
off row, you'd integrate three double decreases. This would make the
cable pattern fill the underarm all the way up to the bind-off,
rather than leaving a 6-row gap of reverse stockinette across those 9
rows. [edit: she means "those 9 stitches"]

Well. Considering the complexity of the pattern, I'm grateful that
you found only this and that symbol in row 1 in Chart B...

Thanks for forging on ahead!
Jenna

Finished Object: Flower Basket Shawl

Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits
Yarn: El Coyote Ranch 100% Mohair, one hank
Needles: 4.0 mm, US Size 6
Finished Size: about 50” wide and 27” tall
Comments:
1) Yet another little shawl. Apparently, I am incapable of making an average-sized shawl. Either I make enormous shawls or I make small shawls. I thought about making this shawl larger, but I didn’t want to start the second ball of yarn.

2) The reason why I didn’t want to start the second ball of yarn was because I wasn’t very trilled about the yarn when I was knitting it. The yarn was rather scratchy and I didn’t care to keep going with it. But, after washing and blocking, the fabric softened up nicely. It’s still a bit scratchy, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

3) I think the shawl will make a nice scarf. It seems sort of “rustic” to me, so I wouldn’t wear it to anything dressy, but I could see myself wearing it with jeans.

4) I really wish I had used a centered doubled decrease instead of s1, k2tog, psso, but I didn’t think to do that until after I and knit a couple of repeats. The yarn is just sticky enough to make annoying to frog easily. So I just lived with it. If I make it again, I would change the decrease.

And a Thank You

Thank you everyone for your compliments on my new hair. Believe it or not, I’m still getting used to it. Similar to people who have had limbs amputated, I’m suffering “phantom hair.” I still try to flip my nonexistent hair and I’m always moving invisible hair out of my way when I put my head on a pillow.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.

“Your hair! Your beautiful hair!” “O Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.” “My dear girl, there was no need of this.” “She doesn’t look like my Jo anymore, but I love her dearly for it!”

As everyone exclaimed, and Beth hugged the cropped head tenderly, Jo assumed an indifferent air, which did not deceive anyone a particle, . . . rumpling up the brown bush and trying to look as if she liked it.

--Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Ever since I first read that passage as a young girl with waist-length hair, I’ve wanted to sell or donate my hair for wig making. The last time that I went from very long hair to very short hair, I inquired about donating my hair, but could not find information about it. (That was before everything-you-need-to-know-and-some-things-you-don’t was on the Internet.)

BEFORE



AFTER



I did not cry, though my heart was racing and I was trembling when I felt that first cut of scissors. My agony was prolonged because the hair was cut in three fat ponytails which each took the hairdresser a long time to hack through. It did not help when the hairdresser in the next station looked over and yelled, “OH MY GOD!!!”

And the hair? It’s on its way to Locks of Love.

Finished Object: Birthday Socks

Pattern: Started as Alison’s ankle socks, changed to Laura’s intuitive socks, and finally morphed into variations on a heel by Joanna
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM in unknown colorway, 1 hank
Needles: 3.25 mm (US Size 3) DPNs
Comments: I had 10 g of yarn left over, I suppose I could have made taller ankle socks instead of these little footie-style socks, but I didn’t know that until I finished and by then I wasn’t about to rip the socks (again).

Who wears wool footies? I guess these seem terribly impractical, but I’ll probably just use them as bed socks.

You can see the pretty short row heels and toes here.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

It all started when Valerie showed me Cookie A’s socks. Now, as you know, I don’t get excited about socks, but I do always appreciate a beautiful knitting pattern—even if it’s a pattern that I’m not likely to knit. So was the case with the Cookie A patterns—I loved them.

A few weeks later, Tania mentioned that she could get printed versions of the Cookie A patterns at a discount through a co-op. “Hmm,” I thought, “printed patterns.” I don’t have a color printer, so I don’t like to purchase patterns that are primarily available as downloadable PDFs. So, I asked Tania to buy the Millicent and Twisted Flower patterns for me—just so I could have them and admire them. Certainly NOT so I could knit them.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. A package arrived bearing enough RED sock yarn to knit Millicent. Apparently, Valerie and Sarah have decided that I must start knitting socks. They are ignoring my constant “ho-hum” attitude toward socks. They are obviously conspiring against me. I’m sure they hate me. Okay, maybe they don’t hate me. If they hated me they wouldn’t have sent such luscious yarn in the most perfect shade of red. I love the yarn. Thank you Val and Sarah!

Don’t worry Debby, despite all this sock and sock-yarn action, I’m not going to abandon the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club! Knit on! er… Apathy on!

Look Ma, No Needles!

For a few years now, I’ve been coveting Sal—the lace cap in Rowan 31. (However, I hate that name. It needs a prettier name like Katherine or Amanda.) But Sal, henceforth to be known as Katherine, is crocheted and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to read a crochet pattern. Enter Drew aka The Crochet Dude.

Drew, S t a c i , Jeanne, and I have a slacker breakfast SnB. Slacker because we meet during “work hours” and breakfast because we eat breakfast (obviously). This week at slacker breakfast SnB, I asked Drew to teach me to crochet. Drew is an awesome teacher. Within the first few minutes of our lesson, I learned the following gems of wisdom:

• “Blue” is not a proper designation of crochet hook size.
• You can’t pick a crochet hook because it is cute. You have to pick a hook based on gauge.

I wonder if those tips are generally included in crochet books or if they are special techniques that Drew has developed. Anyway, I’m now making a hat. I’m not very far along because I haven’t had much time to work on it (and because I keep ripping the dang thing out), but I hope you can imagine this stringy thing turning into a hat.

Meanwhile—I’m sure there is a large portion of the viewing audience who has been impatient for a Morrigan update. I know, I’ve been such a tease. First I had a big build-up leading to me casting on for the sweater then one measly photo of progress. But there’s a reason for it. Let’s review the facts.

1. There are 300-or-so stitches on my needle.
2. I’m working on 3.25 mm (US size 3) needles.
3. Every round of the pattern includes cable crossings.
4. On the odd numbered rounds, the longest I ever go without a cable crossing is about 4 stitches.
5. Each round takes me approximately 20 minutes to complete. (And I’m supposedly a fast knitter!)
6. After about 2 hours of knitting, my hands HURT.

So you see, progress is not so swift. However, I finally do have something interesting to show. One of the most nifty-keen things about this sweater is that all the shaping is done in a cable pattern. The photo shows the side cable with all the decreases for the waist shaping completed. A couple more rows and I’ll start increasing. Are you as impressed as I am? Jenna Wilson is just brilliant.

Science Geeks Unite!

We have a winner!

Joanna is the winner of the Oh! Science! contest. She was one of only eight people who got the first question right. The reason why the bottle was crushed was because of differences in atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure decreases as altitude increases. I drank almost all of the water in the bottle during our hike up a mountain and then I closed the bottle thereby trapping low-pressure air inside the bottle. We then hiked down the mountain, got into our rent-a-car and drove to an even lower altitude. (I think we lost about 3,000 feet in altitude.) At the lower altitude, the atmospheric pressure outside the bottle was much greater and it squished the bottle.

The other people who got question one right were Janelle, Beth, Tania, Paula, Aimee, Laurie (Etherknitter), and Terby. (Forgive me for not linking to all of your blogs.)

The answer to the second question is that I got excited about the bottle because I am a complete and total science geek. I accepted any variation on that theme as correct. Pretty much everyone who got the first question right also got the second question right. (Is that because only science geeks answered that question and can relate to my geekiness?) Joanna's name was pulled by a random number generator, but as you will read, her winning sock yarn from me is eerily appropriate.

And finally, the caption “I didn’t hear any oboes playing” on the photo of Peter and the Duck is a reference to the piece of orchestral program music by Prokofiev called Peter and the Wolf. In that composition, different instruments represent different characters in the story. The Duck is played by an oboe.

Meanwhile—there has been knitting. I just haven’t been writing about it.

Last year, Jennifer sent me some beautiful Koigu for my birthday because her husband and I share the same birthday. When I left for my Colorado trip, I didn’t want to drag Morrigan along. So I decided to make Birthday Socks using the birthday yarn. I figured that I would easily finish a pair of socks by my birthday (yesterday). No such luck.

I started the socks using this pattern and short-row heel tutorial. I finished the first heel before I got on the plane to Colorado. Just minutes before the plane was to board, I decided that my short rows were ugly and ripped out the heel. (Imagine me trying frantically to get the yarn and needles in order before they called my row.) Then, on the plane, I had to start the heel again—without any instructions on how to do a different short-row heel. Oh sure, you expert sock knitters are probably scoffing at me now, “What do you need directions for? It’s just a short-row heel.” Okay, how many of you made your first short-row heel without directions, hmm?

I inferred how to do a wrap-and-turn short-row heel on the plane. It worked okay. At least it looked better than my first short-row heel attempt. I finished the sock the next day and was not exactly impressed with my handiwork. Although one side of my heel was passable, the other side had rather large gapes—not holes—just gapes. At this point, I could have started the other sock and finished it by the time I got home, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to cut the yarn. So, there was no more knitting for the rest of the trip.

After I got home, I read about Joanna’s magical garter-stitch short-row heels: no purling, no picking up wraps. I emailed Joanna and asked her for instructions. (Now that I had regained Internet access, I figured that I should use it to my advantage.) Armed with the new instructions, I produced ONE birthday sock yesterday. I’m not sure when the other sock will be produced. Maybe it will be a week-after-birthday sock. But look! Pretty heel!

There’s iron pyrite in them thar hills!

This past weekend Peter and I went to Colorado to attend the wedding of one of my oldest and dearest friends. “Oh, did you know Jeanine in college?” I was asked by other guests at the wedding. No. I went to high school with her. When I think about that, I’m amazed—it’s been 19 years since Jeanine and I were in school together.

Thankfully for Peter, we did more than just wedding stuff over the weekend. On two days, we went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was brilliant and we had a great time even though my heart and lungs—spoiled by oxygen-rich sea-level air—had a hard time when we went up some of the steeper, rockier trails.

We found gold iron pyrite in a stream.


We fed some aggressive animals. (Seriously, they were aggressive! A chipmunk climbed on my lap because I wasn’t feeding him fast enough. [If you click on the duck photo you read see a description that I added. Raise your hand if you understand the reference.])


We hiked to a waterfall


and a snowbound lake.


And Science happened!


The Science that happened inspired me to run a contest. It’s a two-part quiz, whoever gets both questions right will be entered in a drawing for this sock yarn.
1) What happened to the bottle above? (Explain in detail—no partial credit if your answer is iffy, I’m not counting it correct.)
2) Why did I get excited enough about the bottle to take a photo of it?

Send your answers to ScoutP(at)gmail(dot)com
Scout will be judging the correctness of the second question.
Answers accepted until noon Central time on my birthday (that's Sunday for those of you who don't stalk me).

Many Words on Many Things

I’m taking a cue from S t a c i and doing a fast-changing topic Thursday. (She does Fast-Changing Topic Fridays, but I suspect that that’s a trademarked phrase.)

Groveling, Travel, and Email
First of all, I’ve been lame again and haven’t been answering my blog comments. Very bad me. And now I’m about to go on a four-day vacation and I’m not taking my computer (gasp!)—on purpose (double gasp!). So, don’t hate me if I haven’t responded to your comments. I also having problems finding the email address of people who leave comments so even when I do try to answer them, I can’t. :(

Monochrome
Debby once asked me to take a photo of all my pink yarn. I finally got around to photographing my stash and realized that I didn’t have as much pink yarn stashed as I had imagined. I guess I knit up pink yarn so fast that it doesn’t really hang out in the stash for long. So for you Debby, my pink and red stash. Because you had to wait so long for it, my pink and red finished object gallery is shown below, too. Click on the mosaics to get details about each photo.

Graceful Self-Striping Laceweight
Darling Thomasina and Sweet Rachel both think that I should make the Forest Path Stole with my Graceful yarn. Amy, on the other hand, expressed doubts about whether that pattern would be appropriate. I have doubts about the stole, too—but only because I worry about the fiddliness of the pattern. But really, FPS is one of the patterns that I considered—self-striping yarns and entrelac are a magical combination.

Terby suggested the lovely Hamani Stole—which I LOVE—and that is a contender, too.

The last contender is one that goes against one of the pattern qualifications that I set down because it has a knit-on border. However, I like the pattern because the body of the shawl is a simple repeating lace pattern that I think will show off the self-striping yarn to a great advantage. It’s the Myrtle Leaf Shawl for Victorian Lace Today. Amanda is working on this pattern right now.

Oh and for those curious: Kristie has some photos of a different colorway of Graceful knit up.

I’m a swinger! part 2
Yes, I did get search engine hits from people looking for swingers.

Super-Secret Knitting
The knitting for Kristen is done and has been sent off. The second project involved cables.


Seven Random Things
Apparently, most people were only interested in two of my seven things. Either that or they just read the first thing and then were immediately distracted by the photos on the last thing and skipped all the stuff in the middle. Except for Rachel. Rachel loves me and reads everything that I write. (Cordelia read the stuff in the middle, too, but I have to set Rachel apart because Rachel may turn on me if I don’t.)

Oh and I don’t play my pretty cello anymore. I’m considering taking lessons again—you’ll know when I do because I’ll suddenly stop knitting. Can you find me in the photo? Click the photo for a biggie view and the answer.

And delayed tagging for the meme: I tag S t a c i (okay, I tagged her last week and she's already done the meme) and Drew.

Seven Random Things

Debby and Amanda both tagged me with the "seven random things" meme. I'd better answer the meme before I get more tags!

1. I'm irrationally afraid of bees*. And I do mean irrationally. I know that bees won't bother me if I don't bother them but that knowledge is not enough for me to cease freaking out when a bee is near me. I don't get spastic or anything--I just completely freeze up. I won't move because if I don't move, the bee can't possibly think that I'm bothering it and it won't bother me, right? If the bee doesn't move along quickly enough, I'll start to cry. Luckily, most times that a bee is near me, Peter is also near me and he knows to shoo the bee away or to stand between me and the bee and drag me away. Every time Peter does this, he gets exasperated with me and lectures me on the lack of bee danger. Hello Peter?! You've known me for nearly 15 years, you know that I'm never going to get over it. What part of "irrational" don't you understand?

2. I've never been stung by a bee. (Did I tell you that my fear is irrational?)

3. I got married in Disney World. I'm not a Disney fanatic--in fact, neither Peter nor I had ever been to Disney World before we went there to get married. I picked Disney World because it was easy and cheap and the honeymoon was included.

4. My brother is 1 year, 1 day, 20 hours, and 5 minutes older than I am. However, when we were growing up, many people thought we were twins. I hated that because if we WERE twins that would mean that either he was smarter than I was and got put ahead a grade or I was really stupid and got held back. It was a no-win situation for me.

5. My first pet was a dog whose official name was Winston Churchill III. I always assumed that Winston Churchill "the first" was THAT guy, but I could never figure out who Winston Churchill "the second" was.

6. I told my Modern Physics professor that I didn't believe in quarks. I can't remember what prompted me to say that, but I do remember his reaction. I expected him to blow off the comment or to laugh at me (as did the other students who were in the room), but instead be was very fascinated by my claim. The professor and I then proceeded to have a conversation about why I couldn't accept quarks as real but I "knew" that protons, neutrons, and electrons were real. I earned an A– in his class even though I did not buy into one of the fundamental theories of the class.

7. I have a pretty cello.

I don't know who to tag. Let me think about it :)

* For me, the word "bees" means wasps, hornets, yellow-jackets, honeybees, bumblebees, and all other bee-like insects. Don't click that link if you are squeamish about seeing close-up photos of bugs.

I’m a swinger!

(I wonder what kind of search engine hits I’ll get with that title?)

When I began Morrigan, I had every intention to be monogamous to her. For better, for worse, until finished object do us part. Just before I started Morrigan I had begun a Flower Basket Shawl. FBS has joined Lotus in the “who? what?” pile in the yarn room because of my undying love for Morrigan.

But then something happened to cause me to be unfaithful to Morrigan. It’s nothing bad—Morrigan understands and is being patient. She’s not angry with me for doing a little wife- project-swapping.

Months before I met Morrigan, I had promised the delightful Kristen that I would do some knitting for her. The knitting is somewhat time-sensitive and well, it’s a job of sorts, so work before play for me. I’ve finished one of my projects for Kristen—both are super-secret so I can’t show you very much. But I will say this much about the first project: It involved pompoms.

I have started the second project and hopefully it will go as fast as the first. And then it’s back to blissful harmony and cable crossings on every row. I miss you Morrigan!

Meanwhile:

Yarn happened.

I won—or rather Scout won—a contest over at This Kitten Knits and Jacque sent me the most delicious prizes. RED yarn and PINK stitch markers. How in the world did she know that those were my favorite colors? Is it obvious? Do I use those colors a lot? The yarn is from HandpaintedYarn.com and is wonderfully soft. It should make a good hat for someone who likes red. Hmmm...I wonder who that could be? Thanks Jacque! I love the yarn and the pretty markers.

I bought some interesting laceweight when I was in Austin last month. It's Yarn Palace Graceful. Check it out! Self-striping laceweight! I was quite excited when I bought the yarn. But now I'm having conniptions over what to make. My feeling is that the self-striping nature of the yarn will be a feature of a shawl but could possibly be distracting as well. Triangular, circular, and square shawls are all out because the number of stitches increases, which would make the stripes irregular (more narrow as you go along). A long, rectangular sampler shawl (such as the Song of Hiawatha shawl) wouldn't work because the stripes will interrupt the beauty of the differing horizontal lace patterns. A rectangular shawl with a knitted-on border will be problematic because the stripes in the border will not match up with the stripes in the center. *sigh* I do have one candidate, but am still looking for other options.

Then Kristen sent me three hanks of Fleece Artist Bluefaced Leciester yarn in Raspberry. It’s my payment for the super-secret knitting. Each hank is as big as Scout. Yes it’s extremely pink. I didn’t think it would be so…well…bright. But hey, I still love it and will still revel in its softness. (Note to self: Laptop monitor makes colors appear less bright. Always check colors on desktop monitor.)

And finally, because blog entries sometimes need a good animal photo: I always thought that opossums were some of the ugliest creatures known to man. But OMG! CUTE! Baby opossums are pretty adorable. Even Scout thinks so.

Ravelry!

The secret is out! Ravelry is here and open-ish for business. What is Ravelry? It's a knit and crochet community that's amazing. Thanks to S t a c i , I was privileged enough to be one of the early beta testers. I could go on an on about how wonderful the site is, but well, Rachel beat me to it. I told her about it, she joined (of course, she's copying me again), and now she's telling the world so that she looks way more cool than I am (perhaps because she is, but for now I can complain a little). Anyway, you can read Rachel's wonderful description of the site on her blog.

As for me, the only coolness that I can share is this:

Yup. that's me. For now, the #2 Raveler.

To join this great community go to this page to sign up!

Short on words, long on photos

I went to Austin at the end of April. I had a class with the fabulous Jillian Moreno.


I watched Amy Singer knit with silk and steel.


I schmoozed with Amy. (Yes I stuck my name tag to my chest. I wasn't going to stick it on my silk top!)


I met Ana for lunch and got more stitch markers.


I played with my in-law's dogs Max


and Sophie.


I knit on Morrigan.


I also owe a lot of people emails. You will be hearing from me soon!

Finished Object: "Gray" Cabled Vest

Pattern: Gray Blue Cabled Vest from Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them, size 46-inch chest + added stitches to make a size 48-inch chest
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, double stranded, 65% wool, 35% silk, color 10, 9+ hanks (I think I could have finished it with 9 hanks if I had ripped out my rather large swatch)
Needles: US size 8 (5 mm) and 10 (6 mm)
Recipient: Peter
Cat: Elly
Errata: Okay, there are a lot of errors in this pattern. I emailed my corrections to Annie Modesitt but she has not yet placed all of them on her website. So, I’ll detail the mistakes that I found here.

Chart Errors
1. Charts A and C have several rows outlined in red to indicate that those rows are worked twice. The corresponding rows on Chart B are not outlined in red but they should also be repeated.

2. Charts A and C have two sets of rows marked 1–2. The first of these rows are set-up rows for the cable pattern. Chart B does not have similar set-up rows. If you work the set-up rows in Charts A and C, be sure to add set-up rows for Chart B. Or you can omit the set-up rows in Charts A and C. However, if you do work the set-up rows remember that you do NOT repeat the set-up rows when you repeat the rest of the cable pattern.

3. There are empty boxes in Chart A, set-up row 2. The stitches are the same as the stitches below them.

4. In Chart C, Row 56 there are four stitches that are marked as purl stitches that should be marked as knit stitches. They are in the 7th, 8th, 11th, and 12th boxes from the left.

Pattern Errors
5. Front Neck Shaping: The second instruction says to “BO (#) sts at neck edge every row 3 times.” You can’t do that. You’re working back and forth. So you can only BO stitches at the beginning of every other row. (The next instructions says to “BO (#) sts at neck edge every other row,” so the first instruction is not just a typo.) To correct this, I took the total number of stitches to be bound off on the three rows, divided that number by 2 and bound off the resulting number of stitches on the next two alternate rows.

6. Front Shoulder Shaping: Instructions say to begin shoulder shaping when the fronts measure “X inches” from the start of the armhole shaping. Unfortunately, “X inches” is not equal to the measurement where the back shoulder shaping started. The value for X is wrong. I used the measurement value from the back.

7. Buttonhole Row: The number of stitches don’t add up for the two sizes that I checked. I simply made evenly spaced buttonholes.

Comments: Despite the errors, I really liked knitting this pattern. The cables are great—each cable “repeat” is 96 rows tall. Yes, you read that correctly: ninety-six rows. Here’s a photo of the back after I finished the first “repeat.” I put repeat in quotes because the repeat is never fully repeated.

I would say more about the vest, but this post is already insanely long thanks to the errata.

But hey, designers could you avoid put colors in the names of your patterns? We all like using different colors. It’s annoying to hold up a blue vest and say, “This is the Gray Cabled Vest” and have people look at you funny.

Scout eventually needed to get into the photo action. I love the expression on Peter’s face.

In defense

In the comments of the last post, a couple of you expressed shock and displeasure over the Jenna Wilson's quote. In defense of Jenna, I want to set a couple of things straight.

First, in my email to Jenna, I asked her advice on the impossible. I am between two sizes in the Morrigan pattern. After reading the pattern, I realized that there was pretty much NO HOPE of ever resizing the pattern. If you read the pattern you will understand why. The sweater is entirely cabled. There are no stockinette panels to play around with. All the shaping in the sweater is done by changes in the cable patterns. Jenna created the different sizes for the sweater by playing around with the number and arrangement of cable patterns.

Second, the quote was only the first sentence in very lengthy email from Jenna. Although Jenna did not have a super secret way to easily resize the sweater, she gave me a lot of information about the fit (ease) of the sweater and instructions on how to lengthen the sweater. She was extremely helpful and kind.

Third, the fact that Jenna has not knit the sweater is not as unusual as you might think. Many knitwear designers, particularly big-name full-time designers, simply do not have the time to knit every single garment that they design. Most of these designers employ sample knitters—skilled knitters who make the garments that you see in books and magazines.* If you lose respect for a designer simply because he or she has not knit one of his or her garments, then I suspect that you will be losing respect for designers such as Fiona Ellis, Norah Gaughan, Annie Modesitt, and many others.

I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Jenna Wilson. She created a beautiful and amazingly complex sweater by swatching and using math. The fact that she was able to do this without ever handling the garment is a tribute to her skill and ability as a designer.

Coming up soon:
Peter’s vest—finished and modeled!
What I did this weekend. Hint: It involved math and two people named Amy and Jillian.

* Also note that sample knitters are different from “test knitters.” Test knitters are knitters of any ability who are given the pattern to test. Sample knitters are experienced knitters who are paid to produce a perfect garment.

Declaration of War

The objective: Morrigan

The weapons: 80 cm Addis in sizes 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm, and 3.25 mm, row counters galore, and Entrelac no-dangle stitch markers.*


The ammunition: Calmer


The battle plans: Colored pencils to color code the cable charts as necessary.


The enemy: None. This is knitting. Nothing can be evil.

Expert commentary on the war:

“If only the sizing has you worried, then you are braver than I... after all, I never actually completed this sweater!” –Jenna Wilson, the designer of Morrigan, in an email response to my question about sizing

“This [pattern] makes experienced knitters cry.” —Amy Singer during a television interview for a Canadian morning news program

Outcome of the first skirmish: Victory! I got gauge with 3.0 mm needles, though the swatch with the 3.25 mm needles was only 0.2 cm wider. I may consider using the larger needle in hopes of “upsizing” the sweater slightly.


* Apparently Ana’s stitch markers are all the rage now, with all the cool kids blogging about them. I will now smugly inform you that I have owned these stitch markers for nearly a year—since before they were sold on Etsy. Ana gave these markers to me after I expressed extreme jealously of the markers that she gave to Monkee.

Love, Love Changes Everything! *

I am overwhelmed! I can’t believe how many comments Scout’s sweater received. I tried to thank each of you personally for your comment, but I couldn’t find blogs or email addresses for all of you. So, if I haven’t thanked you yet, THANK YOU! Scout thanks you, too.

I’ll now confess that part of the reason why I knit a sweater for Scout was that I had lost almost all desire to knit. It was all Lotus’s fault. I felt like I needed to finish it, but I couldn’t bear to knit it either. So I didn’t knit anything and I was sad. Scout’s sweater was intended to be something to lift my knitting spirits. I think it helped me on the road to recovery. Lotus is hereby banished to the “deal with it later” corner of the yarn room.

But still, I needed something to get me really excited about knitting again. And then it happened. I saw THIS:

I first saw it on Wannietta's blog and nearly swooned. How could I not love that sweater? Cables, cables, and more cables. And it looks so HARD. Seriously, my heart started racing when I saw that photo for the first time. Moments later, I ordered the book (No Sheep for You) and began shopping for yarn. Happily, I found some pinky lavender Calmer on sale at Janette’s Rare Yarns. But hmm…that’s still a lot of money for one sweater.

So I did what I always do before I spend a lot of money: I called Peter for “permission.” (I’m not really asking for permission, because I’ll still spend the money if I really want to, but I feel better if Peter knows about my big purchases before I make them. So don’t think I’m some sort of oppressed woman who isn’t allowed to do anything without her husband’s stamp of approval. In fact, Peter has told me that I don’t have to check in with him all the time. I do it more for my peace of mind than for his.)

Anyway, as usual, Peter laughed at me and told me to go ahead and get the yarn even though it was for another pink cabled sweater. (At least he’s learned that one can never have too many pink cabled sweaters.) However, he said, I had to make HIS vest first. Oops. Forgot about that. Some time ago, Peter had picked out the Gray Cabled Vest from Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them and I had recently purchased the yarn to make said vest.

So what does a knitter who is obsessed with pink cabled sweaters do while she’s waiting for her pattern and her yarn to arrive? She knits a vest for the man she loves:

Well, it’s not done yet, but it’s getting there. You’re seeing about a week’s worth of knitting. I’d say that I got my knitting mojo back, wouldn’t you?

* Bonus points if you know where those words are from.