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This is a clever pattern. One way, it is a long jacket with a shawl collar. The other way, it is a bolero with a hoodie.

Still slogging through summer heat and a general organization maliase. Still working on soothing stockenette. Finally reasonably pleased with the project choice for this awful yarn.

Third try is the charm, I suppose. It is, if you are interested, the Bulky Gauge Pinwheel Sweater for Children, free from Elann.com. Apparently, my gauge is not quite bulky enough, as this sweater will measure about 16" around when done and folded instead of 22". Nice for a newborn, but I need a sweater for a 1YO at this point. No worries. I will fold it away, for a future newborn, and try again, this time making adjustments.

Well another blogging gap.
We will call it summer vacation.
More like summer knitting blues.

I had the Fasset working, and ran into a glitch that I didn't feel the strength to address.
I had the big Russian Prime that I tried to fix with duplicate stitch, and ended up cutting the offending part off, to reknit.

I found that the only knitting I could tolerate was stockenette stitch.

I made a nice baby sweater with a hood but didn't photograph it before giving it away.

I made this bolero for my daughter from the Debbie Bliss "Simply Soft" book. The CashMerino was delicious. Very very soft, and very red. The pattern was nice; I had to adjust it because I could not make the gauge. Usually, I have to go to a way smaller needle because I knit too loose. This time, I could not get loose enough. So, I picked a needle size, and made adjustments. It worked out well, as you can see. I was miffed that there were not diagrams or measurements in the book. Why would you not include such basic information. I doubt I will buy a Debbie Bliss book again without checking to see if there are diagrams.

Well, it's been a while. Seems that blogger is having issues today, so the update is taking longer than I expected.

Last entry I had a graphic disaster with the big B&L Regal sweater. I've worked on the duplicate stitch solution a little bit, and it looks ok from the front. It's nasty on the back. I'm not sure that matters, and I think with some concentration, and a sharp needle, I can make that better as well.

Here is a picture; notice that the left hand column of pattern is correct, and the center and right hand ones are wrong. Don't see it? Squint a little, and you will sense a curve rather than strong straight lines.

I also realized this weekend that I'm going on a business trip in two weeks. One of my team members just delivered a baby girl. Another team member works with a friend who also just delivered a baby girl. I have one baby sweater with no buttons. What to do? Yank some yarn and get busy. This is a relief because I chose a novelty yarn and a very simple pattern. Something to forget my big project "issues". Garter stich all the way. The arms are done, and the body is on it's way. More later.

On the personal front, daughter went to camp Sunday, and husband to Europe on business. So, I'm in the company of Shiloh and GingGong. There is the very real possibility that I will spend too much time working, and never leave the house for the whole week. I can be that way.

Knitting has stopped for a week.

I chained up the steeks for Regal, cut them, did the three needle bind off. Very pretty. Put on the collar. It seemed a little tight so I put it on to check that it would go over my head. While looking in the mirror, my eyes played games with me. Those strong diagonals weren't quite straight. What was going on?

OH NO - about mid way up the top section, there are mistakes!!! I offset the pattern a row, and the pattern lines are off. If you look really hard at last weeks picture, you can see.

I kicked myself for noticing this AFTER I cut the sweater.

I thought about throwing the whole thing out.
I thought about duplicate stitching the mistakes.
I thought about finishing it as is, and giving it to a shelter, because all I would ever see would be the mistake.
I let Shiloh sleep on it for four days, and thought about making it into a dog bed.
I thought more about duplicate stitching the mistakes.

urg.

Like many, I've been really disappointed by the knitting magazines recently. I'm planning on letting all of my subscriptions lapse. I certainly have plenty of books and magazines already. Maybe my past excesses are leading the to feeling that what has been published recently has already been done before.

Today, I shout out to the editors of Vogue Knit.1 - you guys have nailed your target market.

On Saturday, my daughter and I went to the park to see some dancing demonstrations, and to score free ballet tickets. I wanted some double points, so I took her out to the LYS after. I try to use these trips, once or twice a year to interest her in knitting, and to get insight on what she may like me to make for her. We found some fun hats, and picked up a pattern and some yarn, Then she picked up a Vogue Knitting 1.0. Imagine my surprise to find her excited by the magazine. She loved the format, the articles, and thought that many of the projects were really cool. She sat down in the store and just bubbled to the knitting ladies who happened to be there just how great it was to find a book with projects and formats targetedfor her age group. ((instead of for fat old ladies like us ??)) Apparently the magazine is not my demographic, since I can barely stand it. We came home with two issues.

Later, Saturday night, waiting for the ballet to start, you would have seen us both knitting. She was working on an ear flap hat in chartreuse and black. I was working on my big Regal sweater. She is now 4 1/2 inches from cast on, and ready for the decrease rounds. I'm done with the body, and doing the fiddly work to prepare steeks for cutting.

Giselle was lovely by the way.

I've been enjoying how quickly this Regal/Candide project is working up. Shilo appears to enjoy when I set it down. This annoys me, because he's shedding, and the sweater ends up full of dog hair. I'm 2/3 of the way up the armhole section, quickly approaching the neck opening.

I started up on the second sleeve for the Fasset circle square. Not much there yet; I've made a few increases, and stopped because I need to go pull yarns for the next row of colors. As noted before there are three places where half the colors change, and one place, every 24 rows where they all change. Getting set up for that big one seems to stall me out.

Speaking of stalled, I'm not sure that the Kaffe Fasset knit along I tried to join is active. I'd really like to see some support around my project in particular and the multicolor style that Fasset represents in general. So, I thought about hosting one of those group blogs. I thought about it so hard, I even named it, and roughed it out on blogger. It's open for review, but pretty lame without members. Check it out, and see what you think. Fans of Kaffe Fasset Knitting, or http://fokafak.blogspot.com/

I'll mention this a few times, and leave it up for a few months. If it catches on, great. If not, my husband will still have his sweater by the time it cools down in Houston.

How could I forget again?

Blog birthday came and went last week. Happy Happy.

Worked some on the Regal project; didn't work on the Fasset. No pictures because I'm feeling cranky.

Did I mention that I decided what to do with the Briggs and Little that I had the desire to "use up"?

I looked up Briggs and Little, and I think the color that I have and don't really care for is called copper. I also inspected the green skeins a bit better, and found that some was B&L and some was labeled Candide. Reynolds Candide, I guess; it's a bit bulkier, but not so much that it can't peacefully fair isle together with the B&L Regal.

The green Candide and green Regal must have been same mill, same dye lot because, I have switched between the two types, and can't for the life of me find any lines, even in bright daylight. They also have the same feel; the wool feels a bit rough, and has bits in it. I know from my swatch that it softens up nicely after a bath. There is also a bit of an oily feel, that makes me think there is a bit of lanolin still in there. In any event, both types of green feel the same way.

The chevrons are running down the side, and will extend down the sleeve. This will be one of those Meg Swanson constructs, where I will pick up the sleeves in pattern and extend it down, and the chevrons will follow. I didn't realize how they appear to "float" when you get away from the pattern. Nice.

I'm about an inch from the armhole steek, and I'm freaking out. I'm still on the first skein of the copper color. Not only do I have PLENTY of this color, I think I may have over a skein left over.

Well, we have a sleeve. I'm pleased with the entire look, and the measurements seemed to come out about right. I'll probably start the second one this week. A shot of the back side for those who need to see such things. Probably the most aggressive bit of intarsia I've ever done.



The wrist edge is curly, because I've not yet decided on the edge treatment. Probably some sort of striped ribbing, but for now, its sitting on an crocheted provisional cast on.

Cheers

I thought I had a solution to the B&L Regal. I did some ribbing, and started up a slip stitch pattern. It felt like I was copping out. I decided I didn't like it. No, not that I didn't like it, but that it wasn't special or worthy. It was just ok. I couldn't see myself as proud to give it away as a gift. I took a picture, but still haven't ripped it out. I'm not sure.

Then I started thinking about my need to "use up" or "get rid of" certain parts of my stash. I have boxes of beautiful colors, merino, alpaca, shetland. What am I saving it for? Why spend time on a project that is just so so, when I have so many choices of wonderful?

So, into the closet I went, and this is why the Circle Square sleeve did not get finished this weekend. I flipped through my books and magazines again, and pulled out sport weight. Lovely lovely sport weight, wool from e-bay, alpaca from Peru, some Nature Spun Sport, some merino from Elann. It worked up this. 6.5 stitches per inch, using Donnegal from Starmore's Celtic Collection as a pattern and color guide.

Now, I'm still thinking about my BIL, as I show the swatch to Husband. He announces that it is really nice, and that he would be unhappy if the sweater was not for him. What's a girl to do, but recalculate, and cast on?

Well, no updates for the past week, due to a hard drive crash. I'm still playing software scavenger hunt, and getting little tweaks installed. Stupid stuff, like the noise that is made when the IM goes off, and cleaning up the Java errors for various business applications. Yuck.

In the mean time, the knitting is done on the Ingeborg hat. I've cleaned up the ends, and just need to sew the hem down. It's a little big. I'm not going to add the trim, as I think it looks a bit humptey-dumptey.

Now, for someone we've not seen for a while. Isn't he pretty? Well, except for the spaghetti monster look that happens with intarsia. Most of the ends are already woven in, and just need to be clipped. I'm doing a fully fashioned sleeve cap, and just started the decreases. I expect to have this sleeve done by the end of the weekend.

A view of the new sweater, in the mirror from the back. Not so very clear, but we can see that me and Ms Poetry fit each other. We have an unexpected cold spell running through Houston, so I've been wearing her around. The shetland/wool mix does not itch. I'm happy.

I will be hunkering down to finish my Elann Design Challenge Shawl, and, of course, that little hat.

Then, back to the Kaffe, and maybe some more ditzing around on the BIL/SIL sweater combination.

Back from holiday and very tired. What is it about some people, who like to drive? Husband got it in his head to take the whole trip from Colorado to Houston in one 18 hour marathon. Couldn't stop him. So 3:00 a.m. we're home. I dragged myself up at 8:00 just to re-acclimate to a regular time schedule, but I'm dragging now, and will probably ruin my good intentions with a little nap.

In the mean time, the results of holiday driving and knitting.

My Poetry sweater is done, and here she is relaxing after a wash. She had a bit of an accident, as I spilled a cup of coffee on her, while doing the finishing. A soak in soapy water left her clean, thank you. I have a cable sweater that seems to attract coffee every time I wear it. It has also cleaned up, so I didn't panic too much over the ordeal.

I feel like a bit of a dork, as we skied so hard most days, all I wanted to do was drink beer and stare off in space in the evenings. Thus, this girl was finished Thursday night, but did not have to opportunity to bathe, or be worn on the trip. Now, in Houston, it's summer weather, and the poor girl will have to go into a box in the closet until next November.


I started a hat to match my Ingeborg sweater. That had been on my list for a while. It seemed less taxing than working on the design for BIL/SIL sweaters , or finishing Poetry.


And I'm almost finished with my elann contest shawl. I'll not show her until after March 31.

Greetings from snowy Colorado. The resort has free wireless Internet. I took my laptop for the purpose of uploading vacations pictures from my camera. The camera is an older digital, and the chip does not take too many pictures before it gets full. Of course, I am "cheating, and checking my office e-mail out of some sense of self defense.

In the mean time, the results of our escape from Houston. The arm still needs to be properly attached, and cleaned up.

We stopped for groceries, and then to a Wallmart, as I think I forgot to bring tapestry needles. We found this awful fun fur, and silly me, I offered to make daughter a hat out of some of it.

Oops; does altitude cause me to forget that I hate novelty yarn?

Well, here it is, started; I'm doing a garter stitch short row wedge hat. Very silly, and oh yeah - yellow and red do make orange.

Well, this is looking better. I paged through the "Fair Isle Simplified" book from the Philosophers Wool people. I think the designs look nice and they often use the same gauge yarns that I want to use. I noticed that the "Tradition" pattern only uses four colors, so I've swatched that out.

More what I was looking for. I like the diamond band, but I'm not so keen on the stripey peerie patterns that are set in between.

I'm could just do stripes of that larger pattern and vary the colors. I'm also thinking that a Nordic pattern with some seeding in the body and a bunch of business on the edges may be what I end up with.

I mentioned that I wanted to do BIL/SIL sweaters, and they like to wear stuff that matches. So the idea was to use the same graphic, but vary the colors and size for a "his" and "hers" effect.

Going backpacking this weekend. Looks like good weather too.

Swatching for the Holiday

We are going to Colorado on spring break to ski. We are going to drive. That's eighteen hours in the car each way. My husband prefers to drive, and I "help". That's probably twelve hours that I could be knitting. Each way.

So, what to do?

Well, first, the Poetry gets finished, so I can wear it.
Second, the contest shawl gets finished.
The Kaffe is not going

Now what after that? I have two weeks to figure it out, and since I'm backpacking this weekend, no weekend to mess around. I have set my mind on some more "stash busting". Gifts for BIL and SIL, as we are planning to get together with them again this Christmas. BIL likes brown and green. SIL is a purple/teal type. Probably a two+ color item. Probably a Nordic sort of approach. May try a "knit your own" out of the Philosopher's Wool book.

For the first round I have set some goals - deal the huge amounts of worsted I collected from e-bay. On first analysis, I find that I have way more pink, minty green and yellow than anyone really needs. I also have a crate of chocolate brown, that is heavier than the rest, but not so much that it won't work with the other yarn. So, let's figure out what to do with some of this stuff.

Swatch 1 - Graphic from Agave, a Dale of Norway design. Minty Green/creme. The minty is too light. Maybe with something other than creme? About 5 stitches/inch


Second try - I see pink and brown a lot these days. How about it? Yes, the thicker brown does work ok with the worsted. Not sure I like the pattern; too chunky. Would probably do better in something simpler like the Agave, but don't want to go there for some reason. 4 stitches/inch. I have some magazines with Fair Isle pieces that use this gauge that don't make me puke. Have to look for them.

Backup plan again towards BIL/SIL, but their cute boys. One likes red and the other yellow. I'll make sweaters for them with that Castle design from the Barbara Walker #2 book. Maybe hand knit the fronts, and use the knitting machine for the sleeves and back.

Wow, a week without knitting.
How did that happen?

Well, I took two girl scout troops camping, mine and the other Cadette group. We did the "Program Aide" training, so now eleven early teen girls can work with younger Girl Scouts, once they have their application and recommendation forms turned in. It was really cold, but I did put some rows on that secret shawl. I was really tired when I came home.

Then I went to a trade show, and spent two days standing in a booth watching people walk by. I remembered my previous trade show promise to myself - only go as a speaker - which I apparently had forgotten. Speaker positions are better, because you get a name tag with a ribbon, and don't have to stand in front of the booth unless you want to.

Now, I'm home, and it is a mess. The washing machine has quit. I have two days of work piled up because I've been traveling. Shiloh thinks I should play.

Progress has lurched to a stop.

I knit hard on the weekend on this new shawl project. My goal was to consume two skeins a week, then move onto either Poetry or the Kaffe. So, what happens on Monday, but I pick up the second skein, and find I have forgotten my simple sequences, and am lost inside the pattern. I inspected it like a puzzle, put it down, picked it up, tried the next morning. No better. Ripped a few rows, and re-knit, got stuck. Repeated this Wednesday and Thursday. Finally I pulled out a whole pattern repeat, inspecting all the while and not only found my way, but also an error. So, now I'm still working on that first skein.

Poor Poetry is on the side line, one arm attached. The I cord, and stitch pick ups for her second sleeve waiting patiently. And Kaffe is sitting in the basket, waiting a new row of yarn pieces to be pulled.

A cold front, the coldest this year they say, and the last for the year as well is descending on the Houston area. I have Girl Scout camping planned. Some mommies are worried; my daughter is amused. She camped in the snow last spring. Just hope the other girls are as solid as she is. If the weather is really bad, I'll let them know they could qualify for a "bad weather" patch. One can only hope.

Again, not a lot of progress on established projects.

So, we will take a moment to look at the button I have for the Poetry in Stitches sweater. After my mother died, my sister, who was much better at sewing, went through the button box, and gave me a few sets of special buttons. This is from that group. I have six, and Poetry seems to be perfect for this little silver windmill.

I ordered received yarn from Elann, and am one skein into an entry to their Design Contest. Since it is a contest, I won't mention much more until I'm finished, and the deadline is passed. Well I'll say a little. I ordered their Highland Silk, and it is lovely, smooth and soft. Putting a bit of silk into wool just makes them both better.

On another front, I've been working hard on my guitar, and started lessons. I showed my new teacher a piece from the MelBay Modern Guitar Method called "Sor's Waltz" that I had worked on. It's a pretty piece. She helped me with some of the fingering where I was rough. My assignment was to memorize the piece, which I have spent most of the week doing.

Sometimes I feel sorry for this teacher, as she seems to mostly have young students who want to learn "pop" styles and songs. This woman really prefers classical music and techniques.

My teacher told me that Fernando Sor was quite a famous composer for guitar. I had no idea. He a series of studies for the guitar, that are as standard for that instrument as the Brahms work is for piano. In fact, many guitar schools require students study and become proficient in this group of pieces. Teacher is supposed to bring me another Sor piece to work on this week. In the mean time, my case of "acquisition syndrome" has migrated from the collection of yarn to the collection of guitar music. The Segovia edited Fernando Sor 20 studies for the Guitar, with companion CD should be on their way to my home via Sheet Music Plus.com

Well, we have one sleeve, finished and attached. This picture shows the shoulder detail nicely as well. I may have a new sweater next weekend.

Not without issues. I got most of the way done, and panicked that the every fourth row increase was not making the sleeve grow fast enough to set into the armhole. I think that the wrist started smaller than normal, as there is no ribbing, and I wanted it to be a neat fit, and not sloppy. So, I switched to every third row and that seemed to work out. I think wrist sizing is perfect.

I also had some issues with figuring out how long the sleeve ought to be. The steek edges sort of stuck out, making a measurement tricky. I ended up sewing it together, and finding that it was bulky around the armhole. A bit of tugging and folding the wrist back led me to the conclusion that the sleeve was too long by about five rows. So I ripped, and tried again. I was pleased.

I used a different method to attached the sleeves than my normal mattress stitch. I counted the stitches I ended up with on the sleeve and picked up that number evenly around the arm hole. Then I did a two needle bind off with the picked up stitches and the live sleeve stitches. This is not original; I've seen it specified on knitting patterns before, I just have never done it that way. I considered k2tog with the sleeve and picked up stitches, then knitting a facing. I discarded that because I think it would be too bulky. This yarn is light worsted; not skinny shetland spindrift. The result was very nice, and easy. It is equivalent to picking up stitches to knit from the body out. I knit from the cuff in this time so the big motifs would match.

I had a blinding flash of the obvious regarding stabilizing the cut stitches. I usually crochet them because I don't have a sewing machine I trust, and I don't trust my knitting to stay put. I just realized that the process of picking up for the arms, as well as for the bands also serves that function. Now, with that, can I consider cutting with out crocheting next time?

Naaaaa....

Nothing worth taking a picture of this morning.

I've been toying with entering the Elann shawl contest. I've been doing swatches on old acrylic yarn to better understand how the shape will work, as I've not made too many shawls. I'm thinking about reversible cables, and some lace ladders to lighten it up.

However, a comment on my wonderful husband, and how he likes what I make for him. He has always worn his hand knit sweaters. Here, in Texas, there is not so much opportunity, but this winter, if you can call it that, whenever the temperature has moved towards 60 degrees, he's put on his new cable sweater. Last week, he put it on inside out, and thought it looked good. I think that's a complement. This weekend he wore it with his Hawaiian shorts. Nice look. Henry8 has been out to dinner, and to the theater as well.

Another sleeve grows. In case anyone is interested, I made some I-cord, picked up for the sleeve, then grafted the edges of the I-cord together. I may add another row of I-cord later. Haven't decided.

Now I face a time management issue.

Concentrate on one piece, so that there is significant progress week to week?

or

Rotate back and forth between the Circle Square and Ms Poetry?

Does it really matter? I think not. They are both fun to work on.

Circle Square update.

I rip out and did start again, and the guage and measurements are what I wanted. We are at 3.5 repeats, and I've figureed out how to deal with all the ends when the squares all come together.

This is how, in case anyone is wondering...

I like to weave in over two rows, so the tail goes back and forth.

Row 0 = purl row before the big change, weave in "old" ends. This is tricky, as the circle colors are only on three stitches.
Row 1 Add new colors, and weave in their new tails. Same problem with 0. Flip up tails from Old colors. This is a slow row, and I can't do it when tired, drinking, or watching TV.
Row 2 Weave new colors back. Flip up tails from old colors
Row 3 Finish old colors.

I'm also remembering how thrilling those sweaters can be. They are a real mess, but watching the patterns and colors develop is fun fun fun.

Poetry sleeves haven't been started. Poor girl. I should get back to her this week. She thanks you for the kind comments.

So, it will be sleeves, sleeves sleeves here in Swatchyland.

Ms. Poetry feels much better now that she has two rows of I-cord around her edges, and her ends tucked in. She has given me permission to begin on her sleeves.

Kaffe adventure installment.

Last time we checked, some 30 to 40 skeins of worsted stash yarn were resting in a basket. The next benchmark was to make what I call a "sleeve swatch". I guess at the gauge, cast on what I think will be the number of stitches for the cuff, and start knitting, increasing one stitch each side every four rows. I have found that is just about right for sleeve increases regardless of gauge. If I guess correctly, I have four or five inches of sleeve when I stop to check. Then, I calculate the rest of the sweater. If not, well, a swatch is needed in any event, and I get to learn about the pattern and yarns, and how the colors work together.

So, here it is, somewhat fuzzy, but one gets the idea. I guessed wrong enough to need to take it out. This is disappointing, but also sort of good news. The true gauge is 4 st/inch, which is gigantic compared to what I have been working the last few years. I was pleased to see how fast this swatch grew, and when I cast on with fewer stitches, it will be even better.

I have also re-learned some things about weaving in those ends. If I hold two strands together, they really show through. Thus, a plan is required to deal with them. Not a problem for three of the four places where the colors all change. Notice that working from the bottom, the small "corner" segments end, then a new "quarter" starts four rows later, and four rows after that two new "corners". This is managable. However, every time we come to the beginning/end of the circles there will be intersections where two new and two old ends need to be dealt with.

Yikes!

All done with Branching out.

In the mean time, Miss Poetry was quite distressed to be photographed in such disarray. I am making it up to her by spending some quality time adding her edging, cleaning up ends and trimming her steeks a bit better. She will not be photographed again until she is more presentable.

Many colorful pictures today

First, a Poetry in stitches update. The body is off the needles, steeks cut and shoulders knitted together. I put a little shaping in the shoulders and back neck, so I have some ends to clean up. She looks sort of messy and sad with no arms, and all the curly edges.


I added a detail on the shoulder for the seam. The large motif was difficult to center over the arm holes, and I wanted my seam to have matching motifs.



And the oh so popular shot of the inside showing the floats.

I think I'll work I cord edges and clean up the body before starting on the sleeves. Right now, I'm thinking double three stitch I cord edge in light blue, but I may pick up in avocado, and then do blue.

In the mean time....

I joined another Knit Along. This would be the Kaffe Fasset KAL sponsored by Sam at Blythe Dance

This is perfect for me, because I have been rationalizing my yarn acquisition habit by claiming "I'm collecting for a Kaffe". Now, if you look at my Gallery, you will see no Kaffes. I've done a "Tumbling Blocks", and several baby and child sized "Box Stripes", but those were years ago. Well, the time is now.

So here is my process for putting this together.

First, narrow down something. I decided on a few patterns. I've been comming back to the "Circle Square" and "Split Diamond" patterns.

Second, I pulled out all my worsted stash yarn and threw it all around. Then I sort of sorted it into color groups. Did I mention I had an acquisition problem? This is not nearly all of it, and a lot of those skeins have "friends" still in the bin.

Third, I decided for sure on Circle Square, and really liked the Zoe Hunt red/green colorway. So, I needed two color groups. I sorted out red/magenta for one group, and green/blue for the other. I added some "pop" colors, and here is where I ended up.

Reds to red purple. No true purple or bluish purples. Some pinks and coral for "pop". Over 20 colors to choose from.


Greens to blues, with turquoise and mints to "pop". Maybe 20+ again; didn't count. I may pull out the mints towards the bottom, as I think they will read too light.

Then I put them into baskets, and took a rest.
By the way, I only spent an hour including clean up.

Shilo models the "Branching Out" scarf project. Nice project for TV, school pickup waiting and so on.

More vacation. Non knit content.

Probably the highlight of the trip was taking daughter snorkeling. She's not a great swimmer, or comfy in the water. I was hesitant to purchase fins and mask/snorkel for her before we left, but the dive shop was having a super sale, so we did, and also a nice skin suit so she could float with reduced risk of burn.

The very first day was a complementary snorkel boat trip sponsored by the resort. The resort owner was great, stating that lost luggage was no reason to lose a day of vacation. We borrowed their equipment, bathing suits from SIL and off we went. It was a bit windy where we stopped with some current running. Daughter got her gear on, flopped into the water, and immediately popped up and yelled "WOW". She had a bit of trouble clearing her snorkel and needed some coaching on how to use her fins effectively, but after that, she was on her way. Later in the trip, we visited a "blue hole". Again, she was the first in the water, and took a peek, and popped up with a "Wow, that's a big hole", which at 660 feet, it certainly was.

We snorkeled of did SCUBA almost every day of the trip.

Happy New Year.

We are back from a fabulous vacation. This was finished before we left. So, this little hat would be the last FO for 2005


Note to self. Don't fly Air Bahama. Unless, of course, you like to miss connections, arrive in the wrong place without your luggage, and sit in transit lounges on your vacation. If you like that, then Air Bahama is your kind of airline. Harsh, but our experience, and what seems to be typical. Of course it all makes sense when you hear the story. Our flight was late out of Nassau. Of course, it was the first flight of the day; the one that ought to go out on time. By the time our flight arrived in Nassau, the flight to Long Island had left, but the agent rushed us, without our luggage, through the airport and planted us on a flight that was being held for us, and another group. That was sweet, and very appreciated. So off we go to Long Island, but we landed on the other side of the island than our intended destination, and without our luggage. I suppose it beats being stuck on Nassau without luggage. It was all straight by the next day, though I'm still not clear as to how our luggage got through customs without us. Some things are best not understood. We noticed that most of the people at our resort that arrived via Air Bahama, also managed to make it before their luggage arrived. We noticed that in the transit lounge on the way out, all flights ran about two hours late, and the day was clear. Contental flights left on time. We also noticed that the Nassau/Miami flight was over booked and many Miami passengers ended up on our flight to Lauderdale. I guess their idea is to get the passengers close to where they thought they would end up, and deal with the luggage later. Makes me wonder how any luggage arrives on time, since the flight you are on is probably carrying luggage for the previous flight passengers, so yours would have to wait.

Other than that, the resort was splendid and the holiday was wonderful.

On the flight to Florida I worked on the Rose Trellis shawl. I remember finishing a half repeat during the flight, and figuring out how many hours it would take to finish the shawl. I don't remember the calculation, as that was many snorkel dives and rum punches ago. I do remember thinking that it would probably take just about the entire vacation to finish. I was right. Even with two hours waiting at the Long Island airport, and another three in the Nassau transit lounge on our return, the thing was not quite done. I finished it just as we pushed back from the gate in Lauderdale on our way to Houston. How about that?

So, presenting the first Swatchy FO of 2006.



and because it looks cool, some detail...


That's not all, but it's all for now. Check back later for more vacation notes, and what I knit between Ft. Lauderdale and Houston.

Big beginning here at Swatchy. Mostly to get ready for a much anticipated Bahamas Christmas. We will have two days of travel out and back as we will be spending a night in Florida. I wanted some things that would fit in a zip lock, not take up too much space, but provide ample knitting activity while on vacation for ten days. The "Rose Trellis" will probably go on the plane with me outbound, and I hope to finish that project while gone.

I've joined some Knit Alongs. I'm not much of a joiner, but I was planning on a few smaller projects, and thought it would be fun to be part of a group. I felt kind of dorky when I thought about it; one post, then probably two weeks gone.

First up - Branching Out using "Barrington Mohair" purchased from WEBS ages ago. So, I joined the Branching Out KAL, and added the button to my side bar.

The color is really more purple. This represents two pattern repeats. I have been knitting while my daughter gets her hair cut. They stylist really admires the work, and has asked for something. She said purple was her favorite color, so this will be her "tip" next time we go.

Next, I'm making a hat to match the top down aran recently finished. ( check the archives if you are interested) My husband seems to be enjoying the sweater, and has worn it many times since the temperature dropped here. The hat will have a braid around the edge, which will get grafted together. Then I'll pick up all around and stockenette the rest of the hat. Like this one on Knitty This would be a "Fall Cables KAL" project

I got it started so it was on a needle, ready for his trip. I'll need to dig up some double points so I can do the brim. This will probably go quite quickly. Love love love the Jo Sharp Silk Road that this is made from. The alarming yellow is the provisional cast on. Crummy picture, but go look at the sweater instead.

Last, I had my daughter and her friend wind yarn for an Ingeborg hat. I made an Ingeborg last year, and have always wanted the hat to go with her.


The PIS sweater will NOT be going to the Bahamas. She has been moving right along. Here is an update. Shilo of course is inspecting the arm hole steek. Please, someone, tell me why knit bloggers like to show off their steeks? I figure about two more inches, or 20 rows before I cast of for the neck. I will work back and forth from there, and plan to try some short row shaping for the shoulder.

Lace happens.
This shawl is effectively three sections. The beginning pointy part, then nine pattern repeats in the center, then an ending pointy part. Here we have about three center repeats complete.

I pinned it onto the wall for a photograph, and that's a bit of counter over on the side. The original image is nicer. When I smooshed it to fit into the blog it seems the center "rose" pattern was affected.

It took longer than I expected for my hands and brain to wrap around this pattern. However, I now "see" what is happeining, and while I still refer to the pattern, it's just to remind me of which manuvers are next, and how to treat the first and last pattern on the row. So, I can't put it down for fear I'll forget what's what, and go back to ripping three rows for every five knit.

Anniversary!
Last week's post was the 200th post to the Swatchy Blog.

Gotta love a good value statement. Apologies for the tear. Does Sears even sell yarn under it's own brand anymore?


FWIW, this is the white in the PIS sweater.

Notes on yarn; all of the yarn used is vintage wool from E-bay. You know about the white now. The rest is Bear Brand, or Fleishers 95% virgin wool and 5% Shetland wool purchased in odd lots. I fusted before starting this piece because I had a total of four 2 ounce skeins of the darker blue. I didn't have a clue if it would be enough. The sleeves don't give a yardage. I have been very impressed with the yardage of the older wools. I really liked how the colors worked on, so I decided what the heck, I've made bigger messes before this. My plan was to evaluate my progress when the first skein of dark blue pooped out.

Well, I made it to the armhole steek on my first skein and I feel better now. Somewhere, I learned that 1/3 of the material went into the sleeves, and 1/3 each for the front and back was a reasonable estimate of usage. Understanding that the sleeves are the same amount of work as a front or back significantly reduced my "sleeve angst". Those things get big. But I digress. From my measurements, I should be able to finish the body with the second skein, or just a little from the third. That gives me just less than half of my available dark blue for the sleeves, which should be plenty. I wanted full length sleeves, and now I can have them. I may even have enough for dark blue I cord edging instead of the light blue. But I'll decide that later.

For what its worth, I love this stuff. It knits into a light fabric with a spongy springy feel. It makes great cables too. It feel more elastic than the "basic" yarns on the market today such as Lambs Pride or Cascade 220. I've not tried the Elann Highland Wool, so no comment there. I find that when knitting becomes "popular" a lot of effort goes into "novelty" type yarns, and it's actually harder to find the basic wool. This went on in the 80's when I first got "into" knitting and seems to be going on again now.

I bought quite a lot of "vintage" wool when it was available on e-bay a few years ago. When my entire guest room closet was full, I recognized that I had a real problem, and put a stop to that activity. Since I'm making an effort to use it now, I'm interested again. I've notice that it's just not as available, and what does come up goes for more than I'm willing to pay. This could be a good thing, preventing me from filling up the attic as well.

Oh well, the current project is rocking, and I'm happy.

It's been a while since I've done colorful. Feels good.

Do not concern yourself with the curly edge. Rather than do the picot hem as described in the book, I'm planning I Cord and buttons. So what you see is normal stockenette curl coupled with a crochet cast on, that will pull out when I make my final edging decision. It's alarming yellow wallmart acrylic yarn that I bought for Girl Scout crafty stuff. Can you say "buddy braid"?

This will be a regular cardigan, but not the asymmetrical kimono thing shown in the book. I like the neck treatment on the pullover with the green stripe, and the little diagonal motif repeated on the neck edge, and will probably use it. It probably will be shortish, but not cropped, and I'm looking to do full length sleeves rather than the "bracelet" length. While we are discussing pattern divergence, the gauge is 21 stitches per 4inchs rather than the 25 or 26 stitches per inch, and I'm working on 256 stitches and nine big flower repeats rather than 303 stitches and 10 repeats.

Phew. I think there was a notion that doing this indicated the notion that one was a "bad assed knitter". I simply consider myself a knitter. Why do it if you can't make it the way you want?