Cozy Cable!

I'm teaching again!  And again...
I can't believe it... after "feeling" like I'm retired, I got hooked/called/snagged/whatever into teaching a brand new class (to me: unknown content) which meets for 8 weeks, 4 days a week, 3 credits.  However, you may point out, who said yes?  All I have to do is look in the mirror.
In addition to that class, I've been running a few sessions of "Knit Doctor" which was intended to teach tricks about fixing and avoiding mistakes. (Maybe that's something I should take to the personal level, but I digress.)  I had a great group of 6 women who were quite accomplished, and we shared many stories of knitting tragedies, while grumbling about picking up stitches.
In addition to fixing things, we explored cables one week.  Off the top of my head I created a little cable project that went like this:  (Green= cable to right/front, Purple= cable to left/back)

Cable practice:  Cast on 18 sts.
Row 1:  k2, p2, k4, p2, k4, p2, k2
Row 2 (and ALL even numbered rows):  k4, p4, k2, p4, k4
Rows 3 & 4:  (as Rows 1 & 2)
Row 5:  k2, p2, sl2, k2, grab (use left hand) last 4 stitches from right needle, remove right needle, with right needle pick up stitches 3 & 4 from your hand (skipping over 1 & 2), with left needle pick up stitches 1 & 2, k these 2, p2, yarn forward, sl2, yarn back, k2, yarn forward,  grab last 4 stitches from right needle, remove right needle, with right needle pick up stitches 3 & 4 from your hand (skipping over 1 & 2), with left needle pick up stitches 1 & 2, k these 2, p2, k2.
Row 6:  (as Row 2)

 No cable needle necessary.  And clear as day to me!  Maybe it needs the visual demonstration, too.
While searching for one that matched my style, I realized how many variations there are!   Here's one that is closest to what I do:

Perfection, I guess...

In February, my daughter presented me with a pattern and yarn, we shopped for beads, I bought extra yarn, just in case, and I cast on:  Mademoiselle.
I stalled, I put it away, I knit numerous other things, and then as September approached I realized that winter weather and sweaters are inseparable, and I got out the whip sleeves and started again in earnest.  The impending season AND a visit by my daughter looming was enough to get me focused, but little did I know that it would take me up to the final day that I could put it in her hands.
It was a good thing I had her body with me, because there's no better way to get a fit and a "look" than to see it modeled.

 I did the sleeves first.  It was earlier agreed upon that they would be 3/4 length.  Then the body turned out to be overly "hour glass" shaped.  C thought that was great;  she likes a close fit.  Then came the collar in contrasting color, pattern, and with beads.

 It traveled from New Mexico, to Canada, visiting Niagara Falls, drove to South Carolina where I was watched by dogs, and it grew, grudgingly it seemed!

 Finally it was "sew the sleeves in" time, and when modeled...  it definitely needed more at the neckline.  I picked up stitches and made a raglan decrease to keep it from falling off the shoulders. (The weight of the beaded collar would surely drag it down.)  This extra neckline I knitted and ripped four times until I finally had it right.  With a stockinette finish, the collar would still pull it outward... so

 In the end I finally had a reverse-stockinette, and not too tight, not too loose bind-off.  Whew!  (I imagined that it was going to be a Christmas present after all!)

Nice hems on the cuffs, and the same for the bottom edge of the body, but at the (almost) last modeling, it definitely needed a few more inches of overall length!

 I unraveled the hem and added 3 inches, a new hem, and voilá!  Finé!
Never blocked.  North Carolina humidity would mean that C would have to take it wet, and NC weather ... Well, there's NO excuse that I didn't snap a picture when it was finished and modeled... Shame on me.  Someday, I'll surprise you!

 By the way, the sweater can be worn backwards or forwards.  C prefers the split of the collar to the back.  It is the YUMMIEST of yarn.  I loved the feel in my hands.

 Lucky me!  I WAY over-estimated the amount and have plenty left for another project.  (Not exactly stash-busting, is it! LOL)

Land Ho! A marathon sock project

Why? Why do we knitters insist on torturing ourselves, and as soon as we see the end in sight, we start lining up more... lovely objects to knit?
Yes, I truly believe that my daughter will donate my stashes, and I will do my best to knit and sew the rest of my life.  Such is my burden... lol... however, what I am referring to as torture are my recent Busy Bee Socks.   Torture no longer, I've worn them every day since binding off at Knit nite.
The torture part is the length of time it took to get them on my feet!  And, well, there was a 'little' bit of teeth gnashing with rows and rows of crossing one stitch over another.  The toes were easy:

And the foot, being stockinette on the under-side was interesting, but by the time I had completed the second 'big' honeycomb I realized I better knit these two-at-a-time.  If I hadn't, I bet this one sock would be languishing in a drawer.  But look at that wool!  I have quite a stash of sock yarn, yet when I saw this in the LYS, hand-dyed by Color Fest Fiber Arts, Ignacio, CO, it didn't take that long to find it on my needles... 65% superwash merino, 10% donegal, 25% nylon.  It has these crazy bits of blue and red barely sticking to it.  I hope they don't just fall off...
Back to the knitting.  Toes, foot, heel, all good!

Then I came to the leg.  Just as I was growing weary of the honeycomb, it doubled to cover the front and back of the leg, of course.

The one drawback to knitting two-at-a-time socks:  The stitches stretch between the needle crossover.  I pull and pull to make them as tight as I can, yet there's always that little gap.  I honestly don't see it in the above picture, so the honeycomb must absorb it, but in the cuff...

Rounds of purl for the "beehive"-- I discretely turned the gap-iness so it's not in the picture.  The honeycomb went on forever!  And I was so glad to get to the "beehive" part, but totally beaten with a board when I saw there was yet another buzzing (yet, interesting) "busy bee" design, and then the interminable "beehive was back...  I bound off with a picot bind off for fear they wouldn't go around my calf.  It tucks (or rolls) behind the 'beehive' and ... gosh... I love 'em!
Sorry, everyone, they fit me perfectly!

I must be pretty content.  I haven't started another pair of socks, where I normally do within hours.  (Finished Thursday night.)

Busy Bees - August by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence from Knit Picks Website: I used the pattern from "Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders".  

Repeat after me...

I 'heart' knitting - repeat... I'm trying to remain positive, but these socks are eating my mojo. I love a challenge when it comes to socks. I like the idea of socks with intricate designs but maybe I don't need such minutiae. I'm SO close to finishing yet every round seems like an eternity. Correction: every other row is an eternity alternated with a row that has no twisted stitches or cabling. Will it ever end?
Good:  Two at a time!  I KNOW I wouldn't get a pair if I had done one at a time...

 Tedious: Teeny Tiny cables at both sides.  Criss-crossing 1 by 1 over 8 stitches, the Busy Bee pattern down the middle with "honey comb" on the sides.

 Crazy:  32 stitches of single cable...Quite tolerable until I rounded the heel and it turned into double the pattern on the leg...

Luckily I have four other projects to turn to.

Pattern:  Busy Bees - August, by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence from Knit Picks Website, however I found this pattern in Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders.

Hmmm.  They look rather nice in the pictures... maybe I'm just tired and grumpy.

Saving the World

Isn't that what "Eco" friendly is all about?  I did my part... I finished the Eco Vest.  Somehow, I don't think that's what the designer had in mind, but it's my story and...
It's lovely:

Totally re-cycled yarn!  The light lavender is the infamous Mongolian Cashmere that has crossed the Atlantic 4 times, and will make one more crossing to arrive "home".  It's doubled in this pattern, and super cuddly! (I, ahem, wore it last night to an outdoor concert - toasty!)  The darker color is Angora, and very cuddly, except when it's right-next-to-cashmere.  This yarn used to be the sleeve of a sweater.  Now a vest, because the sweater was too warm.

It wasn't a problem... nothing to tell, moving along...
Started a "mystery shawl"!  First two rows look great!  I mean, who knows?  I like the yarn and the beads.

Pattern:  Eco Vest by Katie Himmelberg from Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects

Yarn:  Angora by Elsebeth Lavold

Aran / 10 ply, 60% Angora, 20% Wool, 20% Nylon  91 yards 

AND Mongolian Cashmere 4-ply by Jade Sapphire

Fingering / 4 ply, 100% Cashmere  200 yards  

 

Much Ado!

The Pink Powell Pullover, which is a pattern that no Ravelry member has confessed to knitting, has been quite the challenge for me.  Of course, anyone who knows me, assumes that I didn't use the prescribed yarn weight and had to adjust all the numbers...  but even so!
There was the cable down the front that was 're-cabled' and the endless seed stitch, which led me to believe that a 2T size is enormous!  (Those little ones keep growing!)
Here's a few more trials that have been laid to rest:
The collar:
The original calls for seed stitch continued along with the cable, but when the collar folds over you see the back of the cable.  I found this fixable, errr, so I fixed it ....a few times.
First: Used stockinette and a reverse-side cable.  The reverse stockinette shows.

What I didn't like:  The stockinette rolled too tightly.  Rip...  Try again.
A combination of garter and stockinette.  Enough garter to straighten it just a tad.  (Sorry about the color.... It truly is a hot pink!

OK.   I'm happy with the collar.  Next:  Sleeves.
The sleeve opening didn't look proportionally large enough for the size.  I thought that the sleeves were wide enough at the top, but I changed my mind when I saw the body finished.
Fix:  Open up the sides a bit more,

and add a diamond (gusset) patch underarm.

Turned out rather well, I think.

The posing of the above picture pointed out that I might have another problem.  Might-- meaning, until the pullover is pulled over a little head, I won't know if the bind-off at the neck/collar is too tight. I noticed it when I put it on the hanger. I thought I was done, but I'm going to trouble-shoot and do a looser bind-off, so I won't have to fret!
May your projects be problem-free!

Pattern:  Powell, by Mags Kandis from Mission Falls Wee Knits 3;  Yarn: Cotton Rich DK by Cascade Yarns, DK / 8 ply 64% Cotton, 36% Nylon, 135 yards

Peer Pressure

I asked;  they spoke!
Lunch with knitting friends, show and tell;  I showed, they told...
Knowing that their keen eyes would spot my goof, I 'fessed up as I showed my Pink Powell Pullover.  Size 2T, with a gigantic cable down the front... I must have miscounted more than once and two of the cables were wonky.  They insisted I had reversed the cable (back to front crossover) and that it was going to "eat me up" until I went back and fixed it.  "No," I said.  "I'm stronger than that... it's gone too far... it's only a little pullover on an active playing child... it's not THAT noticeable (to the general public)."  And I continued to merrily knit-along. (The two obvious mistakes are marked with needles, in case there's any doubt in anyone's mind.  I must admit this morning, they don't look 'that' bad...)

Then it was later, evening, and I sat with it in my lap, smoothing it out as I often have, examining "how bad is it, really?" going through my mind for the 1,000th time, and I snapped.  Before I knew it, it looked like this:

UHGG-ly.  There's a lot of seed stitch going on... and THAT's not coming out.  I decided to bundle my rows, so I would know where every 10th row would fall (I was previously attempting to cable every 8th row having 'misread' the pattern earlier--I'm a mess, aren't I?  No comments, please.)

And an hour later (give or take an hour), I had this:

They are all the same size, except for the bottom two, and there's a little extra yarn on the left side of the cable pattern, and so it shall be!  Blocking and a little rough handling will even it out.  Peers: Thanks for a wonderful evening.  (You know who you are!)

Knit Out!

I 'heart' loading up a basket of yarn and in progress pieces, and getting in the car to GO KNIT.  (I'm a geek in many ways...)
Last night there were four of us lazily knitting in the cool comfort of Bee's geothermal induction cooled home.
All of us haven't progressed very far from a month ago, except Kee who threw up her hands in disgust as she mis-counted for the fourteenth time.  She then picked up her ICE (in case of emergency) knitting and settled into the rhythm of a garter stitch scarf.
Dee and I haven't seen each other since May because of travel on both our parts, and I was surprised that she was wearing a wrist/hand support on her right hand.  "Must make knitting a bit difficult," I say, and she replies, "A bit, but I'm NOT going to stop knitting!"  We all agreed, and then she picked up her project:  A baby blanket in the round, and proceeded to grunt, moan and tear at THEE most difficult row:  The row AFTER cabling 21 stitches over 21 stitches.
I never thought about it... but I have now!  The pull of the many stitches so far away from each other, being forced into a new order is, well, like this:

Go ahead and click on the above picture, and you'll see that the stitches are crammed together and so tight on the needle as to make moving them along almost impossible.  Dee worked on it for awhile, and I thought, "That's not doing her wrist/hand any good, and I love a good challenge..." so I said, "Would you like me to work on it for awhile?"  To my surprise, she handed it over.  I thought I'd hear something about knit gauge and no two knitters...(blah, blah, blah)  No such thing.  And, wow, was that something! I was pushing and pulling so hard I thought something was either going to break or suddenly let loose and all come off the needle, leading to the end of our friendship and possibly "knit nite" altogether.  An hour later I had managed to knit the 4 repeats to the end of the row, and lose only one marker in the process.  Good luck with THAT!  No one else, including me, thinks they'll be knitting THAT one anytime soon!!
Meanwhile, I look over and see an example of pooch-knitting! Makes me smile...

What keeps me busy these days?

I'm wrapping up my month in Norway, visiting my daughter and granddaughter.  Sometimes I wonder what I'll do today, and then the day is over!  There's some frustration living 8 time zones away from "grandpa", knowing he'd love to be sharing the experiences.  Yet, when I call him at midnight, he doesn't always seem enthusiastic.
The plan from before I packed for this trip was to bring back beautiful cashmere yarn that my daughter had purchased but was languishing in my stash.  I started a scarf, and meant for it to remain in Norway.  I revamped the scarf idea, and here it is, two weeks later...  looking like life with a toddler strikes again.  Of course, the yarn is coming home with me... I'm almost up to the armhole split, and I've purchased another yarn to complete the project because I'm quite sure I won't have enough of the cashmere. I'm using it doubled.
Here's the updated picture for today:

But wait, what's this?  The finished sweater?

 Why, yes!  It is finished... and surprisingly like the one I'm currently working on, only the one I'm making is a vest.  YET.... it's been requested I remove the sleeves of this sweater because it wishes to be a vest...  notice the lovely cabling on the sleeves. hmmm....errrrr.

 I knitted this many years ago, before I was a Ravelry member.  It's an Elsebeth Lavold design/pattern made in Elsebeth Lavold Angora.
Future blog vote, please:
A:  Title:  Third Time's A Charm.  Above vest is frogged, and revisited yet again as... something in single weight yarn.
B:  Title:  Twins!  A finished garment during toddler visit.
C:  Title:  ______;  Well, maybe there's no blog about it again.

Month of June: I have knitted and finished a hat and a mouse and sewn a cover for a clothes drying rack to convert it into a playhouse.  Under construction are some quilt blocks, and frankly, I'm not sure what else!  They just seem to crop up, and there I am-- making something I've never done before!  That's toddler progress!