Killing the Blues

Sometimes I get in the mood to start things (see blue lace above). Sometimes I get in the mood to finish things (see Cables, Baby! sweater). Sometimes, this all happens in the space of a few days--the scarf made a trip to the Mariner's game last Friday, and I finally finished the weaving in and button sewing on the sweater (which I started, no joke, last August).

Overall, I'm pleased with how the baby sweater came out. It was a giant pain to sew up, and the color of the yarn wasn't quite what I expected when I ordered it, but I really like the cable pattern and the off-centered buttons. Assuming that it fits the baby I'm giving it to (who is obviously not the baby I started this for a year ago), it will look really cute. The pattern is Baby Yours (Rav Link) by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and the yarn is Socks That Rock mediumweight in the Nyame colorway. I knit the 6-month size, and have a little bit of yarn leftover from a single skein. Not so much that I feel like I've wasted anything, but not so little that I panicked while knitting.

On to the next blue item, one which may not be long for this world. It's the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery, in blue Handmaiden Seasilk. I've had the Seasilk in my stash for a really long time (at least 3 years), and I really like some of the scarves I've seen knit from this pattern (there are 3,600 on Ravelry), so I thought it would be a good match. After knitting about five inches, I'm not so sure. In the original version, the diagonal zig zag lines are very strong. I think that the key is the double yarnovers, which are flanked by single yarnovers on the outside edge of the lines. In the original, the single yarnovers are not very noticable, but in seasilk the drape of the yarn makes the singles look almost as big as the doubles. This assumes, of course, that I'm knitting things right. Here's a close-up version that may show better what the problem is:

See? You can't really tell which YOs are wrapped once, and which are wrapped twice, and the zig zags are all jagged-y as a result. I'm taking this to knit night this week for further opinions / dissections. I may be making a mountain out of a molehill, but I'd hate to waste such beautiful yarn on a pattern that I'm not loving. And I'd love to knit this pattern out of something that will really show it off--it's super easy to memorize, but not so easy as to be totally dull (in the first five inches).

I Just Got Lost

It's amazing what kind of forgotten works-in-progress I've stumbled across while cleaning up and looking for bag ingredients in the sewing room. There are a couple of cardigans that are so old that I never logged them in Ravelry. One needs to be ripped out (there's only a few inches knit, with a couple of full-row pattern errors). The other is so old that the yarn was discontinued in 2004. If you're like me, and that sounds like it wasn't so long ago, it was FIVE years ago, and since I bought the yarn in Cambridge, it's likely much older. If only I could find the pattern or my notes, I could think about working on this again. I think that the Rowan book that the pattern is from may be in Somerville, and there's a high likelihood that I also have misplaced a skein of yarn. Yikes.

Anyway, among the really old stuff, I found a project that needs so little work to finish that I'm embarassed that I haven't really worked on it since the fall. It's the Cables Baby sweater, using Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Nyame & Stephanie Pearl McPhee's lovely Baby Yours pattern. Here's how it looks:

Somehow, when I even remembered that I was making this sweater, I thought that there was more left to knit. I thought that it needed another button band, or i-cord edging (which would involve learning), or something other than just seams. But seams and a light pressing is really all that's left. So maybe I should get on that, instead of just blogging about it?

Also, solved is the mystery of the missing darning needles--I've been looking for the Chibi in the photo for quite awhile. It was with the sweater that needed sewing up. Makes perfect sense!

I'm going to try and wrap this up this weekend (if I say it here, it must be true, right?). I've been feeling some burst of "finishitis" lately. Spring Cleaning, and all.

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I Just Got Lost: "Lost" by Coldplay. Oh, Coldplay, why did your G/A seats at the Gorge have to sell out so quickly?

Knitting Productivity Up, Seaming Productivity Down

Note that I tried to crop out my weirdly bulgy arm, but couldn't do it without cutting Frieda.

The new Mason-Dixon book arrived on my doorstep earlier this week, and it was hard waiting until the weekend to start a new project from it. Fortunately, the project I started was the Monteagle Bag and not the Liberty Throw (rav links, both), so it's already finished. This is a good, basic shopping bag pattern with some very interesting stitches that I haven't used before. It won't hold a million things, but I did fill it with a half gallon of cranberry juice, two quarts of tomato sauce, and three beers when I was stretching out the stitches, and it held everything just fine. I do have my doubts about how "green" is a bag made of $20 yarn that travelled here from Belgium, but I do think that it's a great idea to use as few plastic bags as possible. I'm planning to knit more--there's less than half a skein left of the original skein (Louet Euroflax Sport weight), but I have another black hank so I should easily have enough yarn for two more. Still pretty pricey for a string bag, but a less expensive cotton or linen would work fine as long as it's strong. My hands are bone dry tonight, so I probably won't start another bag right away. And on the next one, I will probably start with sock-toe cast on so that I don't have to seam the bottom of the bag (see below).

As for the rest of the book, I love it--there are several patterns that I am sure to make, and a few others that I'd love to make if mohair didn't rip the skin right off my hands when I knit with it (Cardi Cozy, I'm looking at you). Maybe a laceweight alpaca or silk would work? It could be worth looking into. I bought some yarn to swatch for the Liberty Throw this weekend, I'm having trouble thinking of alternate colors. I do like the original blue and red, so that's an option, but I have a few other combos that I'll test out first.

I did work on the Cables, Baby! cardigan today for about 10 minutes before I had to stop seaming because I hate seaming so much. It's ridiculous that it's taking me so long to seam this, it's a small sweater and it will be so cute when it's done. Here's how it looked today when I stopped:

Just one more sleeve to attach! Then sewing on buttons (after I've picked out some), and weaving in ends, and that's it. Why does it feel so far off?

Baby, Baby, Please Let Me Hold Him

It's been a really busy week--so busy, that I've be pretty much paralyzed by inaction this weekend. It's 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, and I have a long list of things that I didn't get done this weekend. Some of which really HAVE to be done, ugh.

I have been working on the Cables, Baby! sweater, and although I still think that the color is a little weak (and once it's in full sunlight, maybe a little splotchy), I like the way it's coming along. The cable pattern isn't as tricky at it looks at first glance, and I've only veered seriously off course once or twice (and realized it immediately). My "artistic" photo above doesn't quite show what's done--here are some better views:

L to R: Completed back, closeup of cable, back and partial right front

I need to check my list of recent birth announcements to figure out which recently born baby will get this once it's finished, as there are several possible choices. I've got one in mind in particular, but I can't quite remember when that baby was born and if he's already 6 months old this sweater may not fit all winter. Fortunately, there is a seemingly endless supply of babies--it's a little like my weekend to-do list!

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"Baby, Baby, Please Let Me Hold Him": Stay Up Late by Talking Heads.

Slowly Twisting in the Wind

I was out of town on a work trip for a few days this week, and although I should have my whole 3 day Bumbershoot weekend mapped out, I'm a little too wiped out to be in full rock festival mode. There are a few loose ends from the week to wrap up, and all of my clothes are dirty, and the weather is more like October than August today. Instead of handling the laundry or powering through the work last night, I started a Baby Yours sweater. The yarn and pattern arrived while I was out of town, and although I wish that I hadn't switched colors at the last minute (I had originally decided to make a red sweater), I like the way this is coming together. The blue of the Nyame is a little yellower and paler than I expected, but it's certainly baby-appropriate. It doesn't really look like the color that the sample is knitted in (although it is), but that could be light related. I'm knitting the 6 month size, which should only take up one skein. I probably won't carry this project with me, but it should still be a fairly quick knit.

Time to start on my list of things to get done before I go into the city--I'm sure that once I'm eating meat on a stick at Seattle Center, I'll be much less lethargic.

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Slowly Twisting in the Wind: "Twisting" by They Might Be Giants. Whole quote: "She wants to see you again, she wants to see you again . . . slowly twisting, in the wind". Other fav lyrics from that song: "She doesn't have to have her Young Fresh Fellows tape back now. There's not a lot of things that she'll take back".