DONE DONE DONE

I actually finished on the 18th, but life has been getting in the way. And this week I have some commitments on my time.

I love this so much. I cannot wait until fall comes around. I also finished my Odessa, but the camera is dead at the moment. Now I have to be off. I have homework.

Almost there

No pictures, sorry. The husband had to steal the camera.

I reached the unfortunate "I'm done with this, but it isn't done with me" stage on the Tangled yoke about half a week ago. The cables are what done it to me. I now realize why I can't pick up the Cable Net sock. They take so long, and are so fiddly. I love the way they look, but between these two projects, I am DONE with cables for a while.

I finished the collar, and was extremely happy with it. I had never done a three needle bind off, but I really like the results. I tried to do the button band, but I started on the right side instead of the wrong. (Ironic...) I then decided to re pick up the stitches as I had not done it too evenly. I was worried that since I couldn't pick the stitches up in the same way on the other side, the ribbing wouldn't match. I now no longer really care... but I still ripped it out. The stitches were stretched out, so I decided to "block it". It's more like soak it then lay it out. But I can see why swatches lie. I picked up the sopping thing and it just stretched. With all that weight from the water and the rest of the cardigan, I'm now worried it will be huge, hah! and I was worried the fronts would be too small. I squished it around a bit, so I think it will be ok. With the heat here, it's almost dry. In the meantime I'm working the cabled heel flap of the Cable Net.

The trials and tribuations of cardi construction

I finished the second sleeve Wednesday night and decided to go ahead and try to connect them at 10:30 at night. Quite harrowing.

The instructions are a little vague, but I understood how the yoke was supposed to work. Knit the right side of the body, add the sleeve and knit the top part of the sleeve, knit the back, then add the other sleeve. Stitches on the bottom of the sleeves would be grafted to the body. The problem was that the instructions said to "return held stitches for right sleeve to needle with RS facing". This made no sense to me, as if I added them to the needle I was using for the body they wouldn't be knit. I took this to actually mean to return them to the dpns and knit the stitches from there. This worked out, and the sleeves were attached.

The problem was that there was a hole where the sleeve stitches were stretched apart. It reminded me of the hole made when you're picking up the stitches for the gusset of a sock. The problem was that I wasn't knitting these and I couldn't reknit anything I picked up. I decided to kitchener the underarm seams right away, rather than waiting until the end. Problem was that the yarn left from the sleeve was in the middle of what I was supposed to graft. I just ran the yarn through the stitches and grafted.

Two notes. One: the yarn that I threaded though showed on the RS. I accepted it since it would be under my arm. Two: I had to spit join more yarn to finish the graft. That was a PITA. The join wouldn't hold, and because I was threading rather than knitting, the small ends kept catching and pulling back. I am a bit worried that some parts of my grafting is only with one ply. I wish it was noted in the pattern to make it a long tail.

I didn't like the way the yarn showed thought when I threaded it, so with the second underarm I decided to knit the stitches so the tail was at the end for grafting. I still had to join more yarn to finish, but I did it sooner so I didn't have to deal with trying to join with a too small tail. Now I am knitting the yoke. Knitting the yoke over the sleeves was a but difficult at first. It was too tight and I had to hold my needles in a very stilted way.

I'm hoping to get the plain part of the yoke done today, as the husband will be gone and finally has some work. I love him, but I never seem to get much knitting done when he's home.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan, but no tangles, and no yokes

When we last left our hero, hints were made as to projects begun.... So, yeah, I cast on for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. This is in fact the only large fitted project I have yarn for. Deciding to do this was part desire, and part stash busting. I have a bit of history with this pattern.

The Interweave Knits that this pattern came in was the second one I purchased and I fell in love with many of the things inside. But at this point in time, I had only knit scarves, a few toys, a hat, and a pair of socks. I thought jumping to a cardigan might be too much. I discussed this a bit with some ladies at a LYS and they said it would be ok. They recommended a yarn, but since they didn't have enough in the only color I liked, an order was put in. (My mother, btw, purchased the yarn, as I could not bring myself to pay 40+ for a sweater I had to make and that might not fit. I have many hurtles to get over in my yarn purchasing. :) ) The yarn, however, was very late in coming. I called, and waited; family members closer to the LYS than me dropped in. It took over a month. By that time the urge to knit it was over, I was over my head in work and I knew I could never finish before winter was over. So the yarn "cured". It actually never made it into my normal stash. For some reason it was exiled in the "sewing room" with the novelty acrylics bought on sale at the big chain, before I learned of "wool" and it's mystical properties. It was found about a month later, at Christmas. Time + yarn should have equaled WIP, but no. The cardigan had attained epic status. I would never get gauge. I would never be able to follow that pattern. I was sure to end up with a huge bag of frogged yarn. Besides, I had signed up for a KAL in November; my first, and it was set to start in a few weeks. There was no way I could deal with two big projects.

Months past, KALs were signed up for and completed. Patterns were saved and stored for later. Lace weights were horded. Summer began to appear on the horizon. The pattern still intimidated me. I tried to read though it, but everything past the first page looked like gobbledy-gook. (This in itself was actual progress, back in October, I couldn't get past the first paragraph.) But, I thought, I have tackled lace, which many say is difficult, and they included cables, which some say are tedious, and I could read a chart, which many worried over. Maybe, just maybe I could do this.

And so, last Monday evening, I cast on. And now, One week and one day later I have this:I am completely impressed and proud of myself.

My progress so far

First can I say, woah! I took a look at my site counter and it had jumped like 60 in a few days. I am happily shocked. And on to the knitting!

I finished the Manly Man socks that day.
Pattern: Baby Rib Cable from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Borroco Comfort Sock in Steward Island 1812
Size: About a man's 9~9 1/2
Modifications: I made a shorter leg than the book recommended for that size, as suggested by the husband.

I really liked this yarn at first. It is very soft, as it is a super fin nylon and acrylic. It is also machine washable. I am giving these away at Christmas, and I don't want to give burdens of hand-washing. The color repeat is fairly long, but not so much as I could not make matching socks. However as I compare the two socks, the first one seems a bit duller. I suspect it is from some pilling due to the fact I carried it around as I knit the second so I could compare stripes. I named these Manly Man socks because they will be gifted to a man, but I am not sure who. I was shocked to find most of the men in my life have size 9 feet, or there abouts. Odd, and extremely convenient.

I worked on the dreaded Cable Net sock.
This pattern just takes soooooo looonnng. I had one repeat done in January, and I have now completed another one and a half. It is not diagonally striping like the other sock, but I am attampting to keep it going somewhat. I am resigned that they must be fraternal twins. There is NO WAY, I'm going to frog these things! This was actually my first Yarn Store purchase. Before it was all Red Heart and Micheal's. It sat in my stash for months, as I had to find the perfect pattern, since I was "never going to spend that much on yarn" again. Ahh, how the mighty have fallen. Truth be known, my mom bought the yarn for me, saying that since they were for me I should splurge. My mother buys me too many things, but that is a different post.

This is not all I have done, but I think I will save the rest of my progress for later. This post might get too long, if I continue. Until later.




Ok, one little hint.

As blog is my witness

It is official. Summer has begun, and boy do I have plans. I AM going to make this summer productive. And so I have SOME accountability...

My goals (Ravelry links abound):
1. Finish Manly Man sock. (not a real goal, as I have about 20 rows left on the second sock.)
2. Finish Cable Net socks. (The second one has been languishing since January.)
3. Finish Dem Fisher Sin Fru.
4. Finish the last handle on the Everlasting Bag Stopper.
5. Cast on and finish Tangled Yoke Cardigan.
6. Cast on and finish Brea Bag.
7. Cast on and finish Black Sea Hat.
8. Cast on and finish Odessa.
9. Cast on and finish Shedir.
10. Cast on and finish Sophie.

Not to mention I plan on finishing a few books:
1. An Assembly such as this
2. Fool Moon
3. Sense and Sensibility

I'll see how much I actually get done.