End of Year

Well,

Apparently I'm feeling grumpy.

Here we are. Probably the last post of the year. I'm leaving Saturday to go visiting for the holidays. I have resented that in my entire family, I am the one that travels. I have been resisting recently, but this year there is a memorial service to attend, so off I go.

In preparing for the trip, I found myself between two tasks that I did not want to begin. Ugg. Then I remembered it was Tuesday and I knitblog on Tuesday. Yay. I can procrastinate a bit longer. Then, maybe I'll take a walk.

I've been tolerating a cold the last week. Wednesday was the worst - so stuffed up and not enough decongestants on the planet. It has been a bit better every day since, and I have become weirdly obsessed with sinus wash. So satisfying to feel that slippery yellow goo slide away down the sink. 

In the mean time, the multi-color seed stitch project is past the armholes. I know I did the math last week, but I continue to be anxious about making it to the end of the project.

Oh, and did I mention that I hate Freestyle by Dale of Norway?

Happy holidays and wishes for a successful new year.

Oddball Anxiety

This smooshy picture shows the current project about half way to the arm holes. It is going to be nice and large - 50". I have a friend in mind and he is about that size.

Working with oddballs is strangely exciting. Will I have enough? What to do if the green runs out? Or the pink?

I was worried about the smallest ball when I began the body ribbing. This is a larger size sweater and the colors seemed to be decreasing faster that I expected. So, I came up with a plan to deal wiht that anxiety. I weight the yarn before and after the first stripe. I did this a few times. Each stripe takes 3 grams of yarn. Each ball is at least 33 grams. Five repeats to the armhole, another three for the body.

No problem.

Sleeves

Yes, two of them complete now. I am casting on for the body while working through an Outlander binge.

I still need to get that TKGA package together. That would require concentration. Hmmmm.

In the mean time, I made a strange ball with some of the smaller oddballs. So it's an oddball ball.

First Look at Oddball Project.

I'm liking this new project.

The idea came from a Rowan pattern called ribbed check. Looking in the Barbara Walker books, the pattern is found in Volume 2 and called the color seeded pattern. In any event, it is effectively seed stitch but slip every fourth stitch when working the color bands.

Another great idea for an oddball project that does not look like an oddball at all.

Only downside is all the ends. I'm trying to work them in on the current sleeve as I go. This should reduce the weaving in process by about half.

So, this sleeve was done before I left on holiday. The other is about the half way mark.

Enjoy Thanksgiving. More progress next week. 

Felting Felted

I'm happy with the cat cave.

Now, I need a cat or cat person to send it to. I may donate it to the local shelter. If I were to make one of these again, I would adjust the pattern. It calls for increases/decreases every three rows. I think every other row may be better. I also would decrease the distance between the top/bottom and the entrance hole. The cylinder shape works OK, but some people find that it is a bit floppy.








Not so happy with the slippers.

They may take another few rides in the washing machine.




Oh, Swatchy is going on vacation for two weeks, so no updates until mid-month.

See ya.

Felting in the Future

The Snow Slipper V2 are completed. There is even a left and a right and they mostly match. I expect they will match better once felted. I prepared this time by preparing my oddballs in advance. This means I selected the yarns and used my kitchen scale and ball winder to divide them into approximately equal portions. Then, using the yarn doubled I worked the pattern until one ran out, spliced the next yarn in and continued on. I am quite pleased with this method of using up the oddballs.

I decided to put off felting until I finished this next felted project - the cat cave.

For the cat cave, I am using the Drops 0- 1381 pattern. I'm a bit anxious that it will work out as other knitters have had to add internal support. My previous experience with the snow slippers is that the extra hot cycle on the double strand worsted creates quite a firm, sturdy fabric.  

I just worked until the ball ran out. Earlier in the month, I did some cleaning and found an intarsia project that had been abandoned. Many colors on bobbins. I had wondered where all my bobbins had gone. They were hiding in a plastic bag with a project that I was no longer interested in completing. I cut them off and tossed them into the felted project box and used them on this cat cave for some random color pops.

While working through the yarns, I picked up one that seemed a bit off in texture. I did a burn test and found that it was acrylic.  I tossed it back in the general odd ball bin and tried to figure out where that was from. It later occurred to me that this was the last bit of yarn from my first adult knitting project way back in the 1980s. That vest is long gone, but it's oddball remains. 

I am on the last set of decreases and expect that both projects will go into the washer with some towels before the end of the week.

Then, I must pull out all the rework and notes for my TKGA submission and complete that and check the work again. 

Or, put it off and make some other oddball project. Maybe another toddler sweater. 

In-between Projects

My daughter does not knit, but apparently she was in a knitting shop of some sort. She sent me a photo of the Soldotna crop, so I figure that she admired it and wanted one. I have seen the pattern on Ravelry and liked it a lot.

I kicked through my worsted stash and found some skeins that seemed to work. I had set them aside for a second attempt at the snow slippers that were so disappointing.

It has been a while since I worked a yoke, and I don't think I have ever made one top down. I found it a bit disorienting, but the pattern was lovely and I found myself wanting to see it finished. So, the whole thing was made in less than a week.

I'll be taking it to her by way of South America in a few weeks.

So, about those snow slippers. I thought I had finished a second pair and found that I worked two booties for the same foot. I threw them in the oddball pile and thought about whether to pick one apart and re-work it, felt them like they were, or move on to a new project and reconsider later. This morning, I did the adult thing and picked apart one and I am currently reworking that second slipper. After that, I plan to make a cat cave out of oddball scraps.

I do have to consider what to bring on my vacation.
Oh, and finish the TKGA resubmissions.

On Schedule Again

Not that it matters, as hardly anyone follows this on and off again knitting blog. Since restarting, I'm trying to post regularly on Tuesdays. Tuesday is garbage day. Tuesday is recycling day. Tuesday is upload photos and write about knitting day. 

As you see, I finished another sweater. It is, as normal, sort of a Frankenstein assembly of parts from other patterns and ideas. Today, I present some notes on my method.

I've really been liking the Norwegian style graphics this year. While cruising on Ravelry, I discovered a load of Sandness patterns that are available for free. This one was shown as a two-color design, but another Raveler, ruthiris,  used three colors and I thought it was really great. So, I did that too.

I have a spreadsheet where I estimate how much yarn I need. I use stitch fiddle to find out the stitch count for a graphic pattern. I weigh completed sweaters so I know about how much a 36" sweater in worsted weighs versus a 40" sweater.

I had three 4 oz balls of this medium blue in stash. It was the largest quantity of my vintage worsted stash left. Naturally, I was searching for the right pattern. I had already decided on some companion colors. I had about 7 ounces of Bernat Sesame in white and some Wool of the Andes that I purchased from KnitPicks. I really liked the hyacinth color and it worked well as a helper yarn with some of my other stash. You can see it in the Inverness sweater from earlier this year.

So, I worked this pattern into my spreadsheet and figured that I did not have quite enough for a 40" sweater, but just enough for 38".  I ended up with less than an ounce so the calculation was really close.

I don't like drop sleeves, so the set in sleeves are courtesy of the Ann Budd grand plan pattern. I knit the sleeves and body in the round to the beginning of the arm holes, then back and forth after that. I do that a lot and it works well. The only seams are the shoulder and the sleeve-to-body.

I just googled the name and found a load of images. Ravelry only has three projects. I didn't think it was such a popular pattern, but I suppose that everyone is not posting on Ravelry after all.

Finishing

I started this a while ago. Then daughter asked for some baby sweaters for gifts for her friends. She has a little pile now, so I went back to this. The Sandness pattern is a single color but I saw a Raveler had used three colors and really lied the way it turned out.

I finished the knitting today and started working in some ends. It is looking pretty nice, I think.

It's neighbors night out in Texas, so I'm going to go make some jalapeno poppers now.

Back from Rhinovirusland

Been off schedule if anyone cares. Spent three weeks on a holiday to the norther US and a short trip to the canyons of Utah on the way back. Then  DH brought a cold home from a business trip. Lots of coughing  and low energy, but I think I'm mostly through it. Enough about me.

I finished this little vest last week. I thought I could do a whole sweater but the green did not that the yardage I expected. This should fit a toddler, perhaps 18 months or so. I have admired a slip stitch pattern called French Weave and used it here. Nice pattern, like a lot of slip stitches it looks more complicated than it really is.

Back to adult sweaters. More on that next week.

I am having too much fun with the slip stitch patterns out of the Barbara Walker books. Not feeling too wordy today but here are some photos.

Playing with Texture

So, I continue to be sidetracked with baby sweaters and using stash odd balls. I remembered that I first started making baby sweaters because I was aspiring to be a designer. I felt I could learn some mysterious intrinsic lessons with a smaller format. Of course, I did not really document what I learned well, so some of that was knowledge was lost years ago. 

I did learn that I preferred working in lighter weight yarns, thus launching me on my current run through all the worsted stash that I have acquired. 

But, designing is fun. I've been doing it with the worsted, modifying patterns, or pasting elements together for a Frankenstein like faux original. 

This one, I went totally rogue. I'm pretty pleased, and the all original design bug has struck. 

As mentioned last time, I went for a basket weave pattern from Barbara Walker V1 to begin. Since I ran out of the plain orange, I felt that I needed a break before working another pattern. I used a row of knots on a reverse garter background and a row of purl on either side. 

Then I went for the Ripple Stripe pattern from Barbara Walker V2, but read the pattern incorrectly. Well, actually, I didn't read the row 5 at all. So, instead of a vertical knit row which is part of the pattern I ended up with a softer ripple pattern. I considered pulling it out but decided that the ripple was just fine and continued on. 

The sleeves are the Swedish Block pattern from Barbara Walker, V1. This is a very simple knit purl that produces a lot of interest. 

I'm pleased with the finished project. 

Next design, I'm planning to document better, and possibly produce a pattern that can be published. I also plan on starting the neck decreases sooner.

Seed Stitch Baby Sweater

So, here is another contribution to the baby sweater box.

I'm kind of designing on the fly. Seems to work OK since the sweaters are so small, mistakes don't take too much time to pull back and re-do.

I designed this one, but sort of didn't . I started with a seed stitch border, and thought I would move to some sort of slip stitch pattern. I tried a few, and didn't like how the variegated yarn looked in the patterns. So, I just went with the seed stitch flow. When I got to the yoke I went with stripes with a garter stripe. I liked the way it looked on the last project.  I'm pretty happy with the final product.

Now, I'm not designing a gansey the same way.

I've been thinking a lot about how I like basket weave patterns. I had some cotton/acrylic from before 2000; enough for a baby sweater, but not enough for much else. So I started off with some basket weave.

Then I needed a new skein and remembered that the orange cotton/acrylic had come in two types, one plain and the other with chunks of otherness.

Since I didn't do the calculations, I reworked the neck twice and the button bands three times. Finally got it where I wanted.

I could have stayed with basket weave, but thought that the change in yarn type would look unintentional.  So, I made a little border and changed to a different knit purl pattern. I picked another for the sleeves.

When I started the second, I noticed the first had a mistake, so it has to be pulled back and worked again.

Oops.

Baby Time

A long time ago I did technical support for a group of sales people. My team had many young adults busy not only selling, but getting married and having babies. Since I could not tell that the men were expecting, I simply made a box of baby sweaters and when congratulation were in order the fellows had a choice of gift.

My daughter just asked if the box still existed. She is not expecting, but apparently she finds herself in a similar situation, and would like a box of baby sweaters to give to friends and co-workers herself. 

What fabulous timing, as I am towards the end of my worsted weight saga and left with some substantial odd balls. Just perfect for baby things. 

So, the slipper replacement project is on the back burner and the yarns that won't make an adult garment are out. 

This one is Beribboned Eyelets by Rowena Hill. I've made this one several times before and it is a great pattern. It is made from oddballs of a cotton/rayon yarn called Brilla. It is an OK yarn, but I have not liked how the multi-color balls have worked. Using it for the garter stripes and edging seems to be pretty good. 

I'm working on another with the same yarns using seed stitch. I'm planning a garter stripe yoke. Maybe it will be ready to see next week. 

Funky Bootie Slippers

As considered last week, August looks to be a month of small projects.

First, some slippers for me. We we moved back into our home I notices that the new porcelain floors were pretty hard and cold. I find now in the summer I'm wearing my sandals inside more that before for the cushion. So, I felt that some felted woolies for my feet would be a good idea.

I decided to try the Drops snow slippers pattern. The pattern looked easy. I could get the gauge with two strands of worsted. I gathered some oddballs and dug in. I used my kitchen scale to decide where the half way point of each skein so that I would have about the same amount for the second bootie. That worked well. The slippers worked up quickly with the double stranding. I was surprised how much yarn they consumed - about 260 grams.

Two cycles in the washer and they shrunk down to size. I really like the thickness and bulk of the finished fabric. What I don't like is the shape of the toe. The shape creates a bump on the top and bottom of the toe that won't felt out. Not good.

Still, not a bust. I think I'll sew on the button and then eventually donate this pair. I've selected some more yarn to work another set but when we get to the decrease 1 each side I'll work in the round and then finish the toe like a sock. I'll also cast on with a provisional method so that I can graft the back together instead of sewing and lose the bulk of that seam as well.

But that project is now on hold. My daughter asked for some baby sweaters. Not for her, but for her friends. She went to several weddings last year and now there are babies on the way. Funny how that works.

In between all of that, I'm about finished with the reknits for the TKGA project. Later this week I'll print out the pages I had to rewrite and check them all again. Then next week, maybe I'll do it again as I did such a poor job the first time.

Fast Finish

After a bit of a funk because of the mistake, I bounced back on this project. More Tour de France viewing and all of a sudden I was binding off for shoulders. Most of the ends were worked in on the ride to Paris. What a tour!

So, if anyone wishes to leave a comment, let me know if this looks like an oddball project. 

I also knit and not watch F1 racing with my husband. The race this weekend in the rain was also a lot of fun. There have been too many boring parades led by Mercedes this season.

This project puts me over 10K yards of stash yarn worked for the year. Perhaps a bit of a lame milestone, but meaningful to this blog and my closet.

So, what next? I have three more sweaters and the substantial bits of the worsted stash will be declared done. I will end with some oddballs that will probably be used for felting and swatching and what not.

I need to rework the wristlet for the TKGA re-submission, so I should get on that. I'm just about done with the rework and have probably learned more doing that than the first time through the project.

Oh oh oh....
I was looking at my blog statistics and I'm almost to 7000 views. That's another lame milestone for a 16 year old blog, but whatever.

Slow Going

Well, it's been a few weeks. Normally, I should be well past the armholes of my current project by now, but I made a mistake and had to pull back a lot of knitting. How much? About three Tour de France stages worth.

I'm almost up to where I was, but not quite. Just started the last color band before separating for the armhole. Still, I should be finished by the end of the month, not that I have a deadline or anything.

I also have been spending some time working on the re-submissions for my TKGA Level 2. In my haste to get that package out the door, I really dorked up a lot of parts.

Oddballs

So, what is an oddball project? Does this one qualify? Did the last three qualify?

This one is easy. I have enough of the light blue for about a half of an adult sweater. I collected the other colors and chose a graphic that while not stripey is essentially stripes.

The previous grey required a few more choices. I did not have enough of any of the colors to make a whole sweater. I did not quite have enough background grey for the sweater and the edgings. I've learned that just that bit is 70-80 grams. Thus, the cuff, neck and waist edges are yarns other than the body yarns selected so that there is enough of the main color to work the body sections.

The brown and read sweater was the victim of Hurricane Harvey. I was messing with the skeins and some of them were drowned in the flood. I probably could have made a full length sweater if I had chosen a more balanced graphic. My intention was to flip the background colors, but I did not like how that looked. Rather than frog and redesign, I forged ahead and then cropped the body.

Another Project Completed

 The vintage graphic sweater made with vintage yarn is finished and blocked. In general I am pleased with the result.

I do need to watch out for gauge differences when I use a slip stitch though. I make increases on the sleeve cuffs as a matter of procedure, but not normally on the hem. Here, you see a bit of flare, but when it is being worn it is not noticeable.

Then again, there are so many details I should be more careful about in my knitting. I received my TKGA Level 2 box back, and well, I will be doing a lot of the work again. It is a well timed and deserved bash on the head. On the bright side, I'm learning about issues I either did not know I had or had decided to overlook. Like seed stitch. Even better, I am learning how to fix those issues.

Level 2 is mostly about seaming and finishing skills. I'm a whole lot better than I was, and I actually understand the differences in seaming stockinette and reverse stockinette. Honestly, I did not realize there was a difference. Now, I am much wiser, but still sloppy.

Here is a peek at the next sweater. Please tell me if it looks like an odd-ball sweater to you. It will be going on semi-hold as I work through TKGA Level 2 again.

I suppose that would mean that I think people are reading this and they actually consider hitting the comment button. 

Sigh.

Evolution of Stash Management

All the knitting is done except for the collar. I have several hours of working ends first.

While I was defiantly confident about having enough grey yarn, I became anxious just before the armhole decreases. As it turned out, I was right the first time. I finished with about 25 grams left. It was a good idea to not use the main color for the cuffs and welts as I would have surely run short.

Two of the color bands represent one-skein (four ounce)  members of the stash. I had eight ounces of the light yellow and used six. Would you consider this to be an odd-ball project?

I'm getting close to the bottom of the worsted stash. It is causing me to ruminate on what an odd ball actually is, and how to identify that I am finished with this self-imposed quest.

One could say that the last eight or so projects were odd ball projects. I did not have enough yarn for any single project and I did not collect the yarn with projects in mind. Instead, I trolled eBay accumulating the discards of others. I figured then that at about 50 cents/ounce it was a good deal. I suppose it was until I realized that I had a lot of wonderful lots but no real plan and no real projects.

After trying to organize what I had again and again I finally came to a strategy that I have been following the past few years. I found that I resisted using yarns where I had twelve or more ounces. I felt that that was enough for part of a sweater. Once I figured that out, I focused only on one weight and grouped the yarns into sweater sized projects. For some I bought a color to blend them together. The challenge was to use only stash.

I learned that sixteen ounces of vintage worsted was enough for half a 40" adult sweater. This is important as many multi-color sweaters depend upon a background color to provide continuity and a harmonious look. The sweater above used 13 ounces. I figure about 1.5 ounces for the welts (cuff, collar, waist), so an easy modification is to substitute something for the edges if I find myself a few ounces short of half.

The next two projects are true odd-ball projects, and represent the easiest approach to oddballs: Enough of one color for background and bands of coordinating color. The goal is to make them look intentional, like the one above.

Circles and Squares

Two sleeves - just like that. The slightly larger gauge sure speeds the progress. Woe to me when I beat through all the worsted and tackle the lighter gauges.

As far as quantities, I was a bit worried about the background color. I began the body with 9 ounces, or 4 1/2 two ounce balls. Paper and head trip calculations drove me to knit like a mad person through the first ball. After measuring and recalculating, I am now confidant that I WILL HAVE ENOUGH!

Whew.

That also means that I am past the first pattern repeat on the body. Photo of that next week.

Seems like I have had quantity issues the last few projects, and it is nice to not have to go there this time.

I'm finding this pattern more difficult than many. The shapes are mostly different, and different by just a little bit. I must pay attention on each row all the way to the middle. Sometimes I get distracted, and have to pull a row or two out. I filled in a circle that should be open or made a solid shape instead of a hollow space, or that one is a stitch off.

I also learned from the sleeves that the pattern is not symmetrical, so I decided to mirror the back and the front. That way the patterns will match at the shoulders. This means I read the pattern front to back, then back to front. Another source of confusion and mistakes.

I do like how it is turning out. It is a lovely mix of organized and slightly off, modern and dated.

RetroVogue

Next up on the worsted weight work list is this number from Vogue, 1997. It was designed for DK weight and a 24 stitches/4 inches gauge, but it's looking fine in worsted at 22 stitches/4 inches. I loved the graphics since the magazine came out and I'm happy to finally be working it. Of the written pattern, again, I am simply using the graphic. I have 30 ounces of the light grey, which should be OK even though the background color is a bit more than half of the stitches. I am using  linen stitch with three odd balls of grey for the cuffs, collar and waist welt to save the background color for the graphic sections.

I like the way it is turning out.

I'm also trying this thing from Arenda Holliday's blog. She marks every increase and decrease while she is knitting. I think she does it so that she can write the pattern later off of the markers. My situation is that I am somewhat haphazard when it comes to sleeve increases. I go for every forth row, but if I forget, I just put them in when I remember. Eventually I get the the right stitch count, but the sleeves are not exactly the same. Most people do not notice, but I'm trying to up my technique and skills to the next level. That means the sleeves should match. I'm about 40 rows into the second sleeve and so far, so good.

I finished up the KidLin scarf over the weekend. It was exactly the fill in project I was hoping. Not too hard, but busy enough to keep my attention. I would have liked it a little longer, but not a whole skein longer. It is light and floaty and will make a nice accessory in the winter or a gift for someone.

Something Different

I finished the suitable fair isle jacket over the weekend. All the knitting and some of the finishing was done by Friday. There was a bit of a glitch in easing in the sleeves as I misread a pattern that I have used at least ten times. There was always 9" between the beginning of the armhole and the beginning of the shoulder bind offs. For some reason I read 7.5" which is where the neck should begin if one is making a crew neck. I ended up with 8" and figured I could ease in the extra 1/2 inch, but discovered that I really was an inch short.

By this time I had already cut open the work and attached the button bands, so no going back. I tried the sleeveless piece on and was grateful for the generous armhole that the pattern provided, so missing an inch did not cause a fit problem. It did create a sleeve cap problem as I was not going to smash that much fabric into the resulting space. So, I pulled out the sleeve cap a few inches and reworked that part. Success. A complete project that fits.

As far as new projects, my brain rejected jumping into yet another worsted sweater. Yes, that is my stated goal for now until the worsted stash is reduced to oddballs. But I've been cleaning and re-organizing and longing to work with something else.

So I did.

I acquired this KidLin years ago on a half price shelf. Two skeins of pink and five of a very light grey. I wanted something not too complicated that would be airy and light and smooshy. A free pattern on Ravelry named tumbling blocks suited those requirements and is the sort of pattern that can be worked until the yarn runs out then cast off.

 Perfect.

It was good timing to start that on Tuesday because my husband had a medical scare that took us to the emergency room for five hours on Wednesday. Working on finishing would have been too messy, so it was nice to have already established the pattern for this project. Now, a week later, I have worked through one skein and started the second. It looks like it will finish up between 48 and 50 inches.

Perfect.

Much Suitable Progress

We took a car trip this weekend so there was considerable car knitting. Yesterday, my husband had a mohs procedure, hopefully his last for a wile, so there was some doctors waiting room knitting. Now that I think about it, most of the first sleeve was made while he was getting a minor knee surgery. So, this is a car and doctor's office knit. 

Funny how projects can be associated with major events. The Drops squares sleeves were knit while visiting my FiL in the hospital. The Dale Inverness sleeves were knit on the trip to his memorial. 

Needless to say, it's been a weird year so far with all the minor medical stuff for my husband and the huge emotional slap when his dad passed.

In any event, here is a weekly progress picture. The front is done. The photo sort of shows the steek for the cardigan opening and the slant of the neck on the left. 

I may have enough yarn to make this a full length jacket after all. I started the body with 180 grams of the brown. 80 grams lasted past the half way point of the central motif. Seem is I end with over 45 grams I should be able to make it work. It would not be that hard to again, snip off the ribbing, knit up the band I left off, then graft it back together. 

I'll weigh what I have left when I finish the back before making any decision. In the current configuration the ribbing lands just at my natural waist, which is fine.

Short Again, so Make it Short

So, two sleeves now, but not without a small kerfuffle. I got near the end and realized I had made a mistake in the graphic near the sleeve.

Grumble.

Ignore or fix? Ignoring would be very easy. My husband would see it, because he has eyes that work that way. I'll probably give away the sweater, so why would that matter. On the other hand, I've grafted whole sweaters before and a little sleeve is not that big a deal. The pattern has a few single color rows, so easy peasy. My original intention with this brown and tan yarn was to create a graphic that flipped dominant/background color every stripe. I have about the same amount, and that would have worked out.

Here is the mistake. Can you see it on the left?

And fixed. No worries.

Yet, this project still in trouble.  I again find myself short of yarn. Instead, I decided this already made pattern would work better. The patterns didn't flip well because part of the rhythm of the piece is the dark bands on either side. So now, with the sleeves done, I'm running long on the tan and short on the brown.

After considering some options, I've decided to make this a jacket instead of a pullover. V neck like the pattern model. That should save some yards, but not enough. So, cropped is stylish.... let's crop it.  Regular black welt, but the body will begin with the second red/black graphic. Time to cast on. 

Another Sleeve

The suitable project is on her way. Here is a picture of the sleeve on my messy desk. I wasn't sure about the color combination at first, but I'm liking it better in the picture. I should get to 17" about the end of the current pattern stripe, so it is coming along.

I mailed my TKGA L2 package yesterday. Nothing to do but wait and see.

Thunderstorms rolling through this week. Husband had minor knee surgery and is recovering well. Weird MIL is continuing to be weird. 

Done and New Project Thoughts

Gausta is done. Turned out long, but the men in my family tend to have long torsos so I should find a taker for this one.

Next up is a simplified and modified version of Suitable Fair Isle by Lori Ihnen from Knitters Magazine, Fall of 1996. 

I have had three skeins of chocolate brown and about the same amount of a light tan, called parchment, worsted for forever. They seem to like each other very much.  The problem is that they add up to about 600 grams and the worsted sweaters I've been making are 730 to 760 grams. I was looking for ideas that were mostly two colors, but with some bit of otherness. This model looks like it will work. Instead of doing the while fair isle thing, the wide bands will be just chocolate and parchment. The narrow bands will be black background and red for the pattern. Same red and black I just used for Gausta. The narrow bands are edged by a few rows of yet another contrast color, but I don't think it adds that much, so I'm skipping those.

I also think the welts will be black, just to make sure there is enough of the browns.

Other modifications will be gauge, of course and making a fully fashioned sleeve, of course, and probably making it a pullover. The model is a V neck, but I'm leaning towards my normal crew neck. That decision is weeks away.

In other knitting news, I am finished with the first draft of all the writing for TKGA Level 2, and all the knitting. I spent this morning working through formatting and flagging where I need to add or relocate references. Tomorrow I plan to take on the bibliography, which will be a pretty big job. I expect I will want to rework a few swatches. So, there is quite a bit of work to do yet. I hope to have it ready to go in a few weeks.

Time Warp

Oh look! More repeats!

Just divided front and back at the armholes.

I hear about sleeve island. I get it. The body is done, but the project is not. Starting sleeves is like starting again on the same stupid thing.

When I can, I do sleeves first. I like the spinning around and how the length grows so quickly. Such excitement at the beginning of the project.

When I start the body, I'm astonished at how long it takes to get around the pattern once. Sooooo slow.

Then, it is time to decrease for the armholes and everything speeds up again.

That is where I am today.

Oh, and I made these socks for the TKGA Level II. I still need to finish my history of knitting report, buy a binder, then check the whole package.

Nordic Sweater Body Coming Along

Four repeats done on the body; planning five and a half before starting the pattern to separate the grey from the black. Not bad progress.

I also finished knitting an argyle sock for the TKGA Level II certification. I started that project in January and hope to finish it this month. 

Quite a lot of writing for the certification, but I'm mostly done with that as well. I have the last half of a report on the history of knitting to finish, then a review of all the work to make sure it is all correct and ready to go.

Sleeves and Choices

I finished the sleeves over the weekend for the current project.

Thanks for all the advice. There were suggestions that I look for similar yarn.  I'm not really interested in trying to match that grey yarn. It was in unlabeled hanks and quite old.

Part of my game for working through the stash is to figure out how to incorporate what I have. So, in a way, this hank of bad yarn provided some pleasurable inspiration.

I played a bit on StitchFiddle with some lice but was not happy with what I came up with.

I did find some charcoal Sesame4 so I'm going with the black bottom/grey top and will use the charcoal for the little border pattern.  My goal is to finish this project in April so if I work a few inches most days I can get it done.

Nutz

One of the challenges of working with vintage yarn is that sometimes you encounter the unexpected. I find myself delighted by the spring and yardage of the old Bernat Sesame 4 and wish that product was still available.

Yesterday, I found that one of my hanks of mystery grey wool was ruined. For some reason there was a cut about 3/4 through the hank.

So, where I once had plenty of yarn to make a pullover using the pattern from the Sandness Gausta pattern, I am now short. While I have plenty of red, I will have 6 ounces of grey, and my estimate is that I need about 8 ounces to finish as planned.

I brainstormed with my husband and came up with several options. I rejected just placing the pattern on the front and also not interested in making a crop. Below are really terrible drawings describing the choices in play. Imagine the grey spots and scribbles to be the very organized Gausta pattern.

Feel free to comment on any of them or suggestion an additional option either here or on Ravelry.

For what it is worth, I have three 4 ounce skeins of worsted in black and 8 ounces of white that can be added to the mix.

Stitch Fiddle diagrams that are more comprehensive:

Choice 1

Choice 2

Stash Thinking

I joined this "Race to the Bottom" thing on Ravelry. I was in it last time, but the debacle that was the Henry VII tripped me up. I do find these things motivating, and it challenged me to reevaluate the worsted stash that I still have.

This Ravelry group has me thinking again about choices. I decided years ago that I prefer making sweaters. Socks, hats, scarves, blankets don't do it for me. The idea of hand knitted dish cloths is baffling. The other things I think end up in the back of a drawer for the most part. So far, most of the sweaters I make get worn.

There is a lot of talk about "sweater quantities". Since I decided to concentrate on sweaters that idea frames my thinking, but not in the sense that I have enough of a particular yarn to make a sweater. Instead, I have learned that for a medium adult sweater I use about 750 grams of worsted wool. I use the stitch fiddle application to figure out stitch counts when working out color schemes. Those get moved to a spread sheet where I do the calculations to figure out how many grams of each color I need to work a pattern.

Sure, there is some fudging that goes on.

So, last week I organized most of the remaining stash into sweater quantity groups. Looks like I have the makings for eight sweaters. I may re-arrange a few more times, but what that tells me is that I can see the end of this worsted weight project.

Oh, I also finished this sleeve, and started the second.

Working the Stash

2019 makes it three years, I think, of concentrating on my worsted weight stash. I've made quite a dent, and maybe will be through it this year.

I told my husband a few weeks ago that I feel somewhat responsible for my stash. I thought about just dumping a bunch of it at Goodwill or some other outlet, but that feels wrong.

Instead, I fuss over who goes with what and how I can create complete adult sized sweaters out of what I have. It is a puzzle I have created for myself that has no real reason. Sure, I can make scarves, blankets, felted bags, and other projects where size and fit do not really matter, but that is not what I want to do.

So, the red from the Henry VII that was abandoned has found a new place as part of a two color sweater. The weird reasoning is that I want some red for a mostly brown sweater that is queued up next.






After working this much I think it looks like a nice pattern for Christmas pajamas.

I finished the Inverness sweater. The sleeves lined up nicely with the body, don't you think?