knit1frog2

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I've been working away on the TTJ and I'm almost done.  I have to say, the knit of the sweater is so thick that for me, a single thickness buttonband would just not do.  Especially since I knit the sweater a little more form-fitting than the pattern called for and if I want to be able to button the thing, I'm gonna need a bit of reinforcement.

I like crochet bind-off instead of whip stitch.

There you have it.  Oh and a note, there's no way that a single YO would accommodate a 3/4" button with my tension so I went back and did two YOs instead.  Now to move on to the sleeve buttonbands...wheeeee.

two things

One, when you're tired due to lack of sleep things start to get a little weird.  Case in point:  awhile ago the new Bon Appetit magazine came, but I hadn't had a chance to look at it yet.  It was on the sofa next to me and I figured I'd get to it sooner or later.  Until then, I'd knit and work on the Texturized Tweed Jacket (TTJ).  Good.  But um, every time I'd turn the knitting to return the next row, I'd think, "OMG!!  Did I get it in the spaghetti?!!!"  WHAT?  Now why in the world would I place a plate of spaghetti on the sofa next to me, right next to my knitting?  Yeah, I wouldn't.  No one in their right mind would.  But for some reason that's what MY tired mind kept thinking.  Over and over.  Row after row.  I finally had to turn the magazine over.  Like I said, I was getting like 3 hrs of sleep a night and was very stressed.

practice makes perfect...

Two, the collar of this sweater is um...challenging...extremely challenging.  After the 6th time of flubbing it I decided to do some more research and found that Stefanie had put together a tutorial for those of us out there who just aren't as clever as she is.  What I would recommend is to get some practice yarn.  Trust me on this.  No really, do this please.  It's much easier and is less wearing on your good yarn if you practice with the other yarn.  I did this another oh, SIX times, and then went back to my actual sweater.  I'm happy to report that I have a good 2" of the collar completed.  YAY!  I also put padlock stitch markers on my wraps so I could see them more easily and could use the marker to help pull the stitch onto the needle to prepare to knit it!  Hang in there if you're working on this...it WILL come together.

ramen

frick.

Blurg. As I've been saying all along, the sleeves are way too long.  I kept hoping that it would work out, trying it on along the way, but um, no way.  I finished the entire sleeve, but the cuff slit was also about 3" shorter than the pattern thinks it should be. The length overall is WAY off.  To decrease where the pattern called for left the weirdest bulky bit for me right above my elbow.

Ribbit.

funny, that.

Well, I've been knitting along quietly over here...and...a couple of things happened.  Initially splitting off the sleeves from the rest of the sweater went okay, but I cannot tell you how many times I knit and frogged that next row over...and over...and over...and over.  After finally passing that point the realization came that when you haven't knit for a very long time, you often forget how tightly you knit.  Um.  right.  So after splitting off the sleeves and knitting for awhile, it was clear that this sweater was in no way going to fit my chest.  Sigh.

Frogging and some swearing commenced and thoughts of lighting the pile o yarn on fire began, so I put everything aside for a day.  Things went much better the next time except even after counting every stitch after every other row, I somehow was TWO stitches short well into the body.  TWO.  I wanted to die.  I sat there staring at it thinking about frogging again...but put it down and went to get a snack.  Sure enough, I was missing the 2 stitches b/c well, I hadn't done the return row yet and those 2 stitches happened then.  PHEW.

Since then, things have been going pretty well.  One other thing that has been on my mind is the amount of yarn that I bought for the sweater.  I always like to have an extra hank...b/c my name is Murphy.  The problem with that is I bought the yarn at Madrona and they only had the amount that the pattern called for in my size.  I've since called my LYS+ and um, they don't have the same dye lot.  Getting nervous about this, I decided to stop working on the body of the sweater for a bit and move over to the sleeves.  I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn to get through both sleeves and the collar and most of the body to the ending checker pattern.  I figured that the ending checker pattern could be a different dye lot if necessary.

go go sleeve!

It really is a nice relaxing knit...but I really want to know whether people's arms are as long as the pattern thinks they are?!  If I would have knit the amount of rows that it called for, I think the sleeves would be dragging to the ground.

bleary eyed

So I remember now...how I used to get so into knitting that I'd be up until all hours of the AM, then being utterly exhausted the next day.  It's 23:30 and eek I finally had to put the knitting down b/c it's well past my regular bedtime, but I wanted to write a post...

Sometimes when you're knitting along and you have a lot of KFBs with markers slipping and more KFBs you just knit and knit along w/o issue.  This time though I wanted to make sure that I was on track, so after every row, I'd count my stitches.  There's nothing worse than knitting along to find that you've forgotten to increase ONE stitch TWELVE rows back even if you must count over 200 sts.  Anyway, I was doing well, knitting away, counting, on track, good.  Then I got confident enough to just keep knitting, I stopped, then counted...and was horrified.  I was 2 stitches short.  TWO.  TWOOOOOO!!

can you find them?  yeah, me neither.

I tried to look to see if I could find the missing area...nope, everything looked good...I kept looking...nothing.  I dreaded frogging.  Then I realized that I would just go back and calculate each row after each set of increases in the pattern.  (see that pad of paper up there?)  Long story long...I figured out where they were.  I hadn't yet KNIT them.  OMG.  In this particular part of the pattern, on the RS, you add 10 sts, but on the WS you still add 2 more.  I hadn't returned yet.  RELIEF!!  I quickly knit the return row and put it down.  HOORAY!  I can sleep tonight...phew.

ready, set, knit

Madrona has inspired me.  I cast on today for none other than the Texturized Tweed Jacket by Stefanie Japel with the yarn that I picked up from the afore mentioned MarketPlace!

so far...so good...

There was a sticky patch when I had only knitted thru part of the yarn of ONE stitch. Of course it was one of the pairs from a KFB and it went unnoticed for rows upon rows and for some reason my brain wasn't working to fix it simply.   I ended up completely frogging a bunch of rows to get back to it.  And yes, it was at the beginning of the RS b/c my name is Murphy.

It is a relaxing pattern...ommmmmmmm.

knitting zombie

Well it's Saturday and thank g0d I could sleep in instead of waking up much tooo early to drive to KnittingInMind's house so that we could carpool to Madrona 09 in um, Tacoma.  (on Friday, she even had scones and coffee waiting for me when I got to her house!!  I did a little dance.)

As mentioned before, I somehow got into JW's Tailored Knitting the Japanese Way and while sitting on the sofa this morning, my head is still kind of swirling...case in point--this is what we learned, talked and lamented about...

crazy calculations happening here.

Yes, how to completely draft a pattern that would fit our bodies from numerous measurements taken.  Luckily my hips were the same size as my chest b/c I saw that some women had to rework and rework their numbers--eek!  I had always wondered the dynamics behind the dreaded armscye...and now I know...I think.  It was a lot of info for a 2-day class and only a few hours sleep.  I felt like a zombie.  But, I was super happy when the measurement of my armhole above completely matched the curve of the armscye below!!  What an awesome feeling!

Edit:  As KnittingInMind pointed out in the comment section, all of the grids were hand drawn after calculating how many stitches and rows per measured area using a gauge ruler and our measurements.  For me, I had a 0.5 measurement which meant I had to switch between TWO different gauge rulers to mark the rows.  Triangles were my friend and I am going to get my own set.  KnittingInMind let me borrow her set as well as some French Curves.  It really saved me. 

ja doch klar.

The MarketPlace was kind of dangerous.  I wasn't exactly budgeted for enhancing my stash especially since I didn't think I was actually going to Madrona in the first place, but look what happened...

First with my 20% coupon, I bought this:

Cascade 220 Heathered

Then of course I had to stop at the super crowded Blue Moon Fiber Arts corner...

And I don't really like knitting socks...eep.

And who could leave this behind..

I've always wanted to get some of this yarn!

what's up yo?

Yes.  I have something to show you...

Cascade 200, US7, 5sts/in

This can only mean one thing.  I am knitting again.  Or at least a swatch.  It was homework for an upcoming class at Madrona so I did what I was told.  It kind of flares out on the bottom there b/c below that I had swatched with a US8 to see what gauge I'd get (4.5sts/in). 

I have enrolled in Jean Wong's Tailored Knitting the Japanese Way.  Hai, soooo desu.  I still can't quite believe that I got in...but if the snow hangs around I fear I won't be going at all.  Warmer weather, I am praying for warmer, thawing weather!!

Some things change, some things don't.  I didn't really mind the swatching for once (this is normally something I would run from screaming), but man, I still do NOT enjoy the smell of wet wool.  gack.

Fun times ahead!!

done

It...is...done.

All curled up.

And...

The texture is nice.

like buttah

Sooooooo...this yarn...and the pattern...what a joy!!

wheeeee!

The scarf is turning out probably an inch or so less wide than using the more thick, regular Manos using the original CO 30sts, but I kind of like it this way...it's a bit more feminine, no?