knit1frog2

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?

man...os

I found myself on the top of Queen Anne today seeing a friend's new condo...so I figured that I would go by Hilltop Yarn to see how it was doing...was it open?  The site says no, but the phone recording didn't say it was closed, waaah, Ricky.  They've sold the slightly damaged yarn in the fire that happened earlier this year...(boy that must've been awful and scary!  yikes.)  And I know that it will fully return itself to overabundant glory...but I was sad and a bit surprised to see the shelves still so empty :(.

I saw my ob-gyn last week and I realized that I never made the scarf that I meant to in addition to the uterus that I made...yes...I uh, have quite a history with my ob-gyn.  Two surgeries and repeated appts will do that, ya know?

Hilltop, despite the low leveled shelves had exactly what I was looking for:

these colors will be great for her even if she doesn't know it

And then of course, I had to get some for me.

mine, all mine.

koolaid

There's a girl that I work with.  She came to our team not too long ago...and before I knew it, she was OOF.  I wondered where she went...and then the mail came out.  It turned out she would be OOF for awhile--maybe even a few months.  I wondered what could keep a person out of work for so long.  With all of my surgeries, I knew it couldn't be anything like any of mine.  The longest that I was out was 6wks.  Transplant?  Cancer?  Sure enough, she had a double mastectomy a couple of weeks ago.  I don't even think she's 30.

Someone on the team asked me if I would knit her a cap...I was way ahead of them.

koolhaus on my needles

doh!

Dontcha hate it when you're knitting along...la la la...you're in the groove, but you have a sneaking feeling that something is off?  But you keep going because it feels great to be knitting something kind of mindless...and you then measure the ribbing and sure enough it's 1-1/4" long.  But, DOH!  The repeat is *k1, p2, k1* which really equals K2, P2 in the end...but you realized that you've knit *k1, p2* as the repeat.

DRAT!