Surprise!

Here's a nearly-finished picture of the Baby Surprise Jacket I'm knitting in Koigu KPPPM (easter grass and jelly bean colors) and KPM (bright lavendar)

In this photo, I've worked an I-cord bind-off around the bottom edge and front bands (on the Baby Surprise Jacket, this is where the last row ends up). Since this photo was taken, I've added I-cord to the cuffies and I've been figuring out just how to get an attached I-cord around the neck.

The challenges were a) running out of multicolored yarn and b) attractively attaching the end of the I-cord to the beginning of the bind off . That part hasn't gone quite as smooothly. I can't get those last 6 stitches to be friends & look nice together. But it remains only to beat that join into submission, attach buttons and wash this one. Very nearly an FO... but not quite.

Shawl-a-palooza: Wednesday progress report

Here's my Love Prism shawl in progress as of Wednesday morning:

For scale.. the shawl is aobut 21" wide and I've done about 15 inches on the straight section (everything past the corner on the upper edge). I'm headed for at least 60 inches total, more if we can make it.

I was worried about the consumption of Love, the luscious mohair blend that makes up the background for the stripes. I'm a little less worried now. I made it through the point and about 13" into the straight section before adding my second ball of Love. I think there just might be enough Love to go around.

I'm not totally happy with the first triangle of this shawl. I didn't know I hated it until Sunday when I saw what the bride had done. Have a look:

Mine is on the left, hers is much larger than mine & on the right. Her edges are so lovely and straight. Mine are pants. I can only hope that a little bit of blocking and possibly a border will make this work. Otherswise, I'm screwed, because the Love looks like crap if you re-knit it. You can't reuse Love. :-)

The Cutting Report

Last week at Stitches I took Nancy Bush's class "Overcome the Fear of Cutting". I was the only student in class who brought a finished, uncut garment with me. One other student had 2 sweaters at home which she knit in approximately 1979 but was never able to cut. Faced with this warning from the Ghost of Christmas Future, I resolved to CUT my sweater within a week after Stitches. On Sunday the 20th, just 9 days after Nancy's class, I enisted the help of a friend and actually did it.

The pieces

Here's our start state, as photographed in September 2003:

NB: That's 18 months this sweater has been languishing under the Fear of Cutting! The garment is #6003B from Dale Baby Collection Nr. 60, knit in Dale Baby Ull. It was supposed to be for a baby born in March 2003. *sigh* Note to self.. always read the pattern all the way through before starting to knit! [Ed. - these pieces are all ready to sew up, except for one thing.. there are no openings for the sleeves to be sewn to. That's why I have to learn to cut!]

Steam

On Saturday night, I finished sewing up the hem, hating the way the picot edge insisted on standing up at right angles to the rest of the garment. In a fit of pique, I got out my iron and steamed the crap out of the hems. While I was at it, I steamed the rest of the sweater. First time I've steam-blocked anything. The steam did a great job of evening out the stitches and helped the fractious hem at the bottom edge relax a bit. It hasn't stopped curling up entirely, but it's much better. I also used the steam to counteract the tendency of the pattern motifs to skew to the left as you move up the sweater.

Remember to breathe!

The biggest worry for me about cutting a sweater was the sewing. Before you cut open an armhole on a Norwegian sweater, you need to stitch with a sewing machine 2 lines of stitches around the area to be cut. I don't sew much at all. I have a machine but I never know if it is properly tuned when I go to get it out. And I don't believe I have good control over it, since I use it so rarely. I decided I would never cut this sweater if the project depended on my own sewing ability.

So I asked my friend W. to do the sewing. She's a very accomplished seamstress and knows her machine inside and out. When we talked about it over the phone, she sounded pretty cheerful about doing the sewing. When I arrived at her house and showed her the sweater, I think she got a bit nervous looking at the fabric. But she set up the machine and tested the stitch length and actually did the sewing.

W. used a long rectangular Post-It Note as a guide to mark which stitch she needed to sew on and she highly recommends this for anyone else sewing a sweater before cutting. The straight-edge that easily slips under the presser foot and can be repositioned helped keep the stitches on track. 2 sleeves, 2 lines of stitching each = four delicate operations. In between each section of the sewing, we had to take breaks to breathe and look out the window to refocus our eyes. The red and white of the sweater is very hard to look at close up for that long. W. was very careful in her stitching and it came out beautifully....[click for larger image toan see the marked cutting line]

Cut, cut, cut, cut!

Then came my turn. With W's nice sharp cloth scissors, I snipped through the cast off edge...

... right down to the thread showing the bottom of the sleeve.

When finished, my former tube looked like this:

Elizabeth Zimmerman said that after you cut your first sweater, you should go lie down in a darkened room, but I found the experience very exhilerating! I was all hyped up on the way to Stitch-n-Bitch and I still get excited every time I take the pieces out to show them off.

And of course, I had to put these lovely bits aside to work on the wedding shawl, so I haven't actually Finished this Object.. but dammit, I will! I'm dedicating all my hours of basketball viewing in March to finishing UFO's and this sweater is #2 on the list. (#1 is Bill's Rowan Denim OXO Gansey. Just imagine if I could finish that sweater up just in time for Illinois to win the tournament! There's a fun fantasy.)

Shawl-a-palooza: "pattern" + progress

i'm getting all sentimental over the crazy things we do for weddings. My very good friends R & S from the midwest just wrote tonight to say they would be coming to my brother's wedding in March. It's a big trip for them and they really haven't got the vacation, but they are coming anyway. *sniff* I love weddings.

So my crazy undertaking is the knitting of shawls for women whose taste I know little about. The idea is to keep the 3 women of the wedding party warm in strappy dresses in early March. As of my last post, I had an idea for how it would go, but no actual pattern and a bit of panic about Time Remaining Before Wedding (imagine if I were the bride!).

Much progress has been made since Wednesday -- I'm beginning to think we might make it! I wrote a "pattern" for knuknitter on Wednesday evening. After a lovely evening of ripping and ball-winding, she left Knitting Meetup with something like 1/3 of the ribbon and 2 balls of Love.

Also on Wednesday came Janice's very kind offer to help with the knitting. Hurray, my hero(ine)! I am so grateful for her help!

Saturday as I was watching Illinois beat Iowa in men's college hoops (go Illini!), I came to the nasty realization that there was not a chance in hell that 3 balls of Love would cover 3 shawls. So I started trawling around yarn web sites and local yarn shps for more. Guess who saved the day? Imagiknit had plenty of Love in color #5 and knuknitter had the time to go get them. Huzzah!

Sunday I fetched the additional Love from San Francisco (isn't that a great sentence??) just in time to help carry the last of knuknitter's possessions out to the van for Final Moving Day. I checked out knuknitter's progress and some of the ribbon variations she used. She's knitting a bit more tightly than I am and may use more yarn to cover the same distance. Also Sunday afternoon I packed up a Shawl-a-palooza kit with half the remaining yarn and handed it off to Janice for rescue knitting. Here's hoping the mohair doesn't make her too itchy!

As of this evening, I have completed about 23" of my Love Prism shawl, Janice has about 18", and knuknitter at last check had about 27". I'm trying to keep track of my ribbon yarn usage for the point part so I can estimate when I should stop knitting straight. My goal is to get to 60" in length. I think I'm going to make it, but I think Janice & knuknitter might run out of Love faster than I will, so we may have to "share the love"... or even go back to Imagiknit for more Love. (See how that joke is funny every time?)

Think speedy thoughts for all of us Love Prism shawl knitters! I'm going to try to get mine done this week, because I think we're going to need next week to add garter stitch borders to increase the snuggle factor.

Things knit during Stitches

Here are a few items I was working on during/between classes at Stitches West. The first is a Swirl Ball, which was nearly done before Stitches. It turns out to be a baby gift, but I mostly knit it to see how the shortrows work to provide the shaping in each section. I added the last two sections Thursday - making my swirl ball 8 sections instead of 6 and requiring the addition of beach ball ends.

If the Birthday A Step Above socks are FO #1 for 2005 (January 6th), I think the swirl ball might be #2 (February 10).

Next we have the sampler I knit in a class with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Latvian Wristers. The photo shows the half braids, scalloped edges, herringbone braid and 3 color patterning we practiced in class. The wrister is a bit snug, but I'm thinking of making the second one anyway. If I could just knit the accent color looser in the color pattern section.

And an in-progress shot of my first Baby Suprise Jacket, which I am totally mad for. I love the colors, the feel of the fabric, and the wackiness of the instructions.

Tonight at Knitting Meetup, I managed to leave the body of the BSJ in the car, while the wool was in my knitting bag. At the bottom of the stairs, someone tried to grab my trailing string & hand it to me.. but the string kept going, and going... I retraced my yarn back up the steps from the downstairs room, out the door an between the cars RIGHT acorss the street. Cars were driving over the long string of yarn before we rescued it. I can't believe I nearly destroyed this project on my way into a knitting group!

Shawlapalooza: the raw materials

Today is February 16th. In just 25 days, my brother will be married. The ladies of the wedding party are meant to have shawls. Knuknitter found some fabulous Prism yarn that matches our Vera Wang dresses like it was made for us - but only about 690 yards. She also made a large-ish swatch, demonstrating that this yarn needs to be knit on size 13 needles. We met to talk about the project 2 weeks ago (eee, time passing!) and then I went to Knitting Arts for complimentary yarns to stretch our supply of Prism. Here are two ideas of ways to set off the groovy yarn in a complementary background - both plans are for rectangular "wraps" more than traditional triangular shawls:

Multicolor mess of yarn    2 color: Prism plus Love
            

I knit one swatch for the Love Prism shawl last week, decided on a pattern, ripped out the swatch (mistake?) and am ready to start knitting shawls.. but , um, no shawls have been knitted so far! I'm sort of glad I wrote this post, because it makes clear the need for speed! Guess what I'll be knitting at Meetup tonight??

If worst comes to worst.. I end up with a capelet instead of an entire shawl/wrap.

Summary of my weekend at Stitches

Um, yes. This is all mine.

You can't quite see the blocking wires running horizontaly along the top of the sofa, but the rest of this photo tells a pretty clear story. (Click for bigger image to see details)

I took 7 classes. I was in the market 7 times, including sneaking in to talk to White Lies Designs on Sunday before the market opened. (I had bought 3 skeins of red/burgundy/french blue wool to make the garden vest just right of center, but left the shop with 2. She let me take one more even though I didn't have a receipt or anything.)

My very first purchase was Koigu to make the Baby Surprise Jacket (top left in purple and yellow/pink/purple). My first class with take-away items was Intarsia without fear... it's a star, not Matisse's Icarus.

My last class was Norwegian Purl - we learned to handle 2 colors in the left hand after getting the basics of Norwegian purl down. See the corrugated ribbing sample on the left, just above the finished Latvian Wrister. My last (impulse! probably stupid!) purchase was enough Koigu to knit the "Tiny Top" at the far right. Despite the ironic name, I *love* tops shaped like Tiny Top on me, looks like a top I got at Chico's recently. I'm worried about the sizing... width looks good, but I'm a little uncertain whether I can get sufficient length with 8 skeins. But I figger Koigu holds it's value. If I don't end up making that top, I'm sure I can sell the wool to someone.

The only hard part is.. I don't get to work on any of this now for the next month, until my bridal party duties as wedding knitress are done. See next post for more info on the upcoming Shawlapalooza.

Coming to Stitches? Wear comfortable shoes.

The excitement started yesterday when I met Jeni for lunch about 4 blocks from the convention center. We dined at Amarin Thai (closest Thai food to my office and damned good, in my humble.) I think the colorful nature of Thai food was a good intro to the sensory overload we were about to experience. We talked about our knittng bags, shopping plans, classes. Then, all tasted up for the conference, we trotted down to the convention center and plunged in .

I started with Sally Melville's "First Choices" class. Sally is a genius. We covered two basic topics: what looks good on you? Colors, of course, but matte or shiny? Stiff construction or drapey? Small patterns or big? Densely packed or scattered? And what about shapes? V-neck? Boat neck? What looks good with different body types?

In the second half of class, we drafted a pattern for a drop shoulder crew neck sweater starting from gauge, a desired circumference and a desired length. We did a bunch of simple math to come up with a stitch count to accommodate a pattern repeat and place the neck correctly. We learned to design simple sleeves (whre do the increases go, how to accommodate the pattern and match it at the shoulders). We then planned out modifications if this were a V-neck sweater, a modified drop shoulder, or even *gasp* set in sleeves. I took notes throughout the class as if my hand was on fire. Sally just tosses out useful knowledge with every sentence. It's very obvious she has planned her class out so she covers everything in a logical way with enough humor and student partipation to keep us alert through the math bits.

What can I say? Take her classes. She's an inspiration, both in her work and in her personal sense of style. She was wearing a linen blend sweater knit from a pattern in A Gathering of Lace, which of course fit her perfectly and showed off everything she was teaching: she looks good in matte, drapey fabrics, in a V neck, with a fairly short length. The cute black leather not-so-mini skirt and matching tiny heeled boots don't hurt either. Add in her Noro Kureyon leggings (see the Knit Stitch) and and the huge piece of tulle she uses as a scarf for a totally individual look that suits her exactly perfectly. Maybe we should convince her to teach "how to know when you look good" classes?

Jeni and & I reconevened for dinner and then on to the marketplace. This is where my advice comes in. If you are coming to shop at Stitches, wear comfortable shoes. 200 vendor/information booths! The distance you have to travel to look at even 30% is amazing.

I estimate I saw about 1/3 of the vendors last night, including Webs, Imagiknit, WEBS, Yarn Barn, Afghans for Afghans, Philosopher's Wool, and Foxy Fibers, source of nothing but Koigu! The local Lace Knitters group have a both in the way back (turn right as you enter the door & keep walking til you hit the last aisle, they are on the right, across from Webs) I dropped about $270 on books and koigu (almost all books. I am a librarian, after all!) and I have plans to purchase a *gasp* $125 t-shirt kit in hand-dyed rayon from Interlacements as well as A Gathering of Lace, if I can find it, as well as yarn for my classes on Sunday.

The intensity of the colors is a little emotionally affecting, as Jeni notes in her blog. I really find that color can sometimes access emotional energy you were ignoring (man is that a northern california thing to say... just go with it for a sec). There must be 15 or more booths just bursting with their own hand-dyed yarns in amazing profusion. The color I noticed overwhelming last night was red - on Jeni and her fabulous Klaralund, of course, but so many other knitters were wearing red and so many booths led with red. RED! GET IT! Another popular color is cool sky blues. I thinks somehow the two of them together, representing such different spectra, such different ideas associated with them, set up a giant moire pattern that just opens up the heart.

So come to the show.. stay a long time. See the fabulous vendor booths and information spaces. Be prepared for very tired legs and feet by the end of the day, and if you react to color anything like I do.. be prepared for a strangely emotional response. When I came home, I felt creatively inviggorated, emotionally lifted and somehow calmer than normal.

Can't wait to see you there!

Stitches tomorrow - homework not done!

Wow, what a busy week. It started last weekend with plus lots of good excitement around my brother's upcoming wedding (tea party wedding shower, spa day choices, bachelorette party ideas, planning wraps for the ladies of the wedding party...) Since Monday, it's been an absolutely killer work week. I'm running bug reporting meetings every morning at 7 am (YUCK!). The prep and data tracking for this is keeping me up late and getting me started early every day this week. And of course I have a short week because it's STITCHES! Tomorrow!

By which I mean Stitches West 2005, annual knitter's conference in it's west coast version. Just 4.5 miles from my house. So yes, I will be there the entire weekend. I'm rather a knitting class junky and so I'm signed up for oodles of classes. I'm lightly embarrassed by how much I love taking classes. I mean, give me a good topic or a good instructor and I'll pay whatever the asking price to go to class. In case you will be at the conference, here's where you'll find me:

Thursday

• PM: First Choices with Sally Melville

Friday (theme of the day: Fear)

• AM: Intarsia without Fear with Edie Eckman
• PM: Overcoming the Fear of Cutting with Nancy Bush

Saturday

• AM: Design Your Dream Sweater with Leslye Solomon
• PM: Good Grafting with Sally Melville

Sunday (theme of the day: ethnic knitting)

• Lativian Wristers with Beth Brown-Reinsel
• The Norwegian Purl.. also with BBR

I only have homework for two of these.. but.. I haven't started yet. Guess what I'm doing tonight for Hobby Night? Agh! Back to busy....

Shoe election results: Serge by a landslide

Wow, ask a bunch of gals for shoe advice and ye shall receive! Thanks for all the comments on my shoe choices, everyone. (Especially members of the bridal party and Mom. Hi Mom!) Fix is in: Serge wins by a landslide. Even Abigail converted her vote in the end!

I wore the Munro Heart shoes to work today (open toed shoes on Feburary 2nd! Isn't California great?). After work, I went for my dress fitting today and wore the Serge shoes to check dress length- they looked great in the 3-D surround mirror from all sides.

Double knitting Wednesday

I'm really coming to like Wednesdays. First, it's knit-at-work day - with a small but lively group of knitters at the office, mostly beginners but all enthusiastic and creative. I worked on the Diamond Seed Baby Jacket, getting the first pattern repeat finished. I also dropped off at work today the re-shaped Fuzzy Stripey baby cardigan for Baby Jake. I made expansion panels for both side seams to accommodate Jake's extra belly. Looks like:

His mom was totally pleased and promised a report on the revised fit.

OK, but after work.. it's also Knitting Meetup night. We had about 15 knitters at Blue Rock Shoot tonight and lots of good conversational topics: yarn stock at Knitting Arts, the characters of some local yarn shops, cultural attitudes towards nudity in the home, grafting, and general show-and-tell.

Works in progress: DSBJ, Cindy (started the crochet on one sleeve), and a Swirl Ball which I'm totally in love with in china blue and lime green.