Couch-scapades

My husband and I have been couch warming for the past couple of days.


We thought that we had dodged our son's cold. Actually, we did dodge it for a day. We took our usual combination of homeopathic remedies and felt great. The following day I was feeling so good that I celebrated with a coffee eclair followed by a half a bar of chocolate. This is a stupid thing to do if you're trying to avoid a cold. My husband did roughly the same thing, and we both started feeling bad about an hour after the last piece of chocolate had finished melting in our mouths.
The positive side of this is that the cold has given me a chance/excuse to do some knitting. In an effort to avoid another failed sweater I have changed my strategy. I spent my first day on the couch making these.


These are swatches with nice blue note cards attached. I had entirely too much fun filling out the cards. Organization is such a turn on. Don't you think?


I know people usually swatch for a specific project, but I think this may be where I've been going wrong. One days worth of swatching has taught me a lot about myself. The first thing that it has taught me is that I am a way looser knitter than your average bear. I knew this, but I didn't know exactly how much looser I was. For a project that calls for bulky yarn and size 9 needles, I may need to pick a worsted weight yarn and size 6 needles. Shocking, I know. Before I discovered this fact, I would automatically drop a needle and a pattern size. I (wrongly) figured that this was enough to ensure a good fit. Now that I see that in writing, it seems delusional. So the key here is that I've discovered that not only do I have to change needle sizes, but I may have to change the weight of the yarn as well. Instead of picking out a pattern and then picking out a yarn, I'm going to swatch every yarn I own until I get a fabric I like, take notes, and pick a pattern accordingly.
The other thing I learned is that yarn labels lie. Worsted is not always worsted. I can not rely on the label, or Ravelry or even a well intentioned fellow knitter. I'm going to use classifications like worsted, dk, aran, sport, fingering, and bulky as guides, not absolutes. You can't look at a yarn and tell how it's going to knit up. I've got pretty good eyes, and I can pick out two yarns that look for all the world like they're exactly the same weight, but when I knit them up on the same size needles and I get two completely different fabrics. Fiber content is a factor, but even with two "aran" wool yarns you can get massive differences in gauge depending on the spin, the crimp of the wool, your mood, whether your watching an action adventure or a romance (this has actually happened to me), the weather, the sheep's diet...you get my point.
The hours on the couch spent wiping my nose, popping Tylenol, knitting little squares and watching the first season of "Mad Men" were bliss. I've decided that "Mad Men" is the "Dallas" of this decade. There are a lot of rich white folks, some sexism, cheating, fist fights, shocking amounts of booze, and a good measure of corporate hooha, but I digress. At some point, I paused the drama and crawled up to the yarn hole to raid a bin for more swatching material.
Up until this point I had thought of these stash yarns as specific sweaters. Each yarn had been purchased with a pattern in mind. Now, things are different. Every yarn is looking for it's soulmate. There are no more arranged marriages between a yarn and a pattern.
While looking at my finished stack of swatches I had another thought. I'm going to try to knit my way from one bin to another, starting with these yarns. Why not? I like all of them. I've got enough of each yarn for a sweater, or at least a vest. It's a stash busting/sweater knitting two fer. It also means I won't have to pull my whole closet apart looking for a specific yarn. In an attempt to avoid another sweater knitastrophy, I've made myself a few rules.

1. The sweater I choose must have been knit by at least 5 people on Ravelry, so that I'm not the (sucker, Guinea pig, lab rat) person who has to spend hours sorting out pattern errata.

2. The sweater must look good on most of the people who've knit it. I've noticed that some sweaters are much more figure friendly than others. I need to knit something that looks good on everyone, that way if I flub up the size I can pass it on.

3. I'm going to error on the small side. I thought that it was, when in doubt, better to knit a larger size. Maybe that's true for some people, but most of my friends are medium to small. If I have to give a sweater away it will give me a lot more options if it isn't an XXL. Add to that, knitwear stretches out over time. It almost never gets smaller, unless your husband felts it in the washing machine. The final argument is that finishing a huge hunk of knitting only to find that it's way too big is more demoralizing than knitting a smaller bit of knitting, only to find that it's too small.

4. I must achieve gauge before beginning. This is not optional.

5. I must check for errata every time. This is also not optional

6. I must read (most) peoples' Ravelry notes before I begin. There's plenty of good info in other people's notes, especially when it comes to sizing.

7. I must read and re-read the pattern all the way through before beginning.

Following these criteria, and using my new swatch system, I've chosen to knit this. This is "Rosamund's Cardigan" by Andrea Pomerantz. It can be found in the Fall 2009 issue of "Interweave Knits".


I chose this sweater for a couple of reasons. It's a cardigan. People liked knitting it. Most people who started it finished it. It's knit from the top down, which means I can try it on as I go. It can be made to be reversible. Yeah, I know, reversible stuff is cool. The other people who have knit it had relatively few problems with the pattern, and it looks good on almost everybody. Looking at the photo in the magazine I would not have guessed that it would look good on most body types, but I swear it does. It's been in my queue for awhile, but not at the top of my list of things to knit.


The yarn was really the deciding factor. It's called "Ecolana", and it's made by Aslan Trends. It's a blend of alpaca and merino, which gives it a slight drape and soft shine. There are some white guard hairs which give it a fuzzy look. It's not unlike the yarn that this pattern calls for. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be "the one", but even if it's not, at least I'll be able to give it to someone who will love it.

Something Old, Something New

I've frogged the Turbulence U-Neck. It's much less painful to frog something if you wait a day or two. I've moved on. Before I tell you about the new knits in my life let me show you something I finished a while ago. This is the "Sunflower Tam" by Norah Gaughan, from her book "Knitting Nature". I've mentioned "Knitting Nature" before, and I'm sure I will mention it again. It is one of the finest and most interesting knitting pattern books on the market. Just be sure and check the errata before you begin a project from that book. I believe complicated patterns and a wide range of sizes are to blame for the amount of errata.


I had to knit this hat twice, because one inch short of the finish line I ran out of yarn. It's knit in The Fiber Company's "Road to China". This yarn isn't cheap, but yarn and cheap booze are alike in that, you get what you pay for. I love knitting with this yarn. It has a glow about it that makes me look like I've got a halo. That could come in handy in a crisis.


My first version of this tam was knit for Jeanette (my 91 year old neighbor). It was knit in exactly the same yarn, but in a soft blue. I rarely knit things twice. This pattern is an exceptionally good one.
Next up, the Missoni-like socks, fronts.....


and backs.


Now I've got to poach some size 1 needles from a different pair of unfinished socks. Don't laugh. That's the gritty reality of sock knitting. Some socks make it, some socks don't.
Last on my list of show and tell is the lace knitting.


I love it despite the fact that it will look like a big pile of nothing until it's blocked.


I'm beginning to see the appeal of lace knitting. It's like Christmas. It seems like a silly hassle, and then you start to get into the spirit of things, and when you can't stand the wait any longer you get a big beautiful surprise.

I Can't Make Change

This is two days worth of knitting.


My little boy had a cold and that gave me more time to knit than usual. He goes into a trance when he's sick. We spent a whole day on the couch in a puffy eyed, snot nosed Pixar daze. When I began this sweater I swatched for gauge and got 18 sts over 4 inches. Because I couldn't go down a needle size without being in danger of the finished project being closer to knitted armor than a sweater, I chose to knit the petite size. What you are looking at here is an XL sweater. I got about halfway through the back before I measured the width. It measures 25 inches. I was aiming for something in the range of 20 to 22 inches. 25 inches is way too big. There is something very confusing about knitting a petite size and ending up with an XL size. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how this had happened. Then I remembered something. I'm dyslexic with numbers.
You can see how this might be a problem. 8,9,3,6 and sometimes 0 are often exchanged, rearranged or transposed in my head. I went back to my swatch and measured. I had been getting 16 sts over 4 inches, not 18. This sucks. This sucks big time. There is pretty much no way I can knit this sweater with this wool. In fact, I'm wondering if I can ever make it through a sweater without some critical error. The first sweater that I ever knit was a very simple drop sleeve cardigan. I actually knit the same sleeve 4 times because I kept reading the numbers incorrectly.
Having dyscalculia and knitting is like having dyslexia and wanting to be a copy editor. It's a nasty combination of inability and desire. I've tried all sorts of things to help me avoid making number mistakes while knitting, but the sad truth of it is that knitting is all about numbers. One extra stitch in the wrong place has the potential to cause hours of angst. I've got no clue how to reconcile my love of knitting with my learning disability.
Fortunately, the blow of finding out that I had wasted two days of my life was softened by a package arriving.


This is Blue Sky Alpacas, alpaca silk. It's for a new lace project. It has a beautiful sheen and halo.


After suffering several brutal sweater failures I don't have it in me to take on 40 pages of lace charts. I've chosen instead a lace project with only 2 charts. So far, I've spent a good 2 hours ripping back and fixing mistakes, so it's already proven to be a wise decision. The gauge is also a lot more friendly. This is the beginnings of a swatch for the 40 page "Swan Lake" project.


I really disliked working with yarn that fine. It makes me queasy just thinking about the hump I'd develop on my back from trying to see each stitch as I slowly undid 400 or so stitches after missing a yarn over.
I'm really hoping that I have the patience to make myself a sweater. It's hard going into something knowing that you'll probably fail, but I guess that's something I'm going to have to learn to live with.

Sweater Dating

After some consideration, I've decided not to try and knit another "Owls" sweater right away. Instead, I'm going to try and knit myself a different sweater with a different yarn. Note I said "try". I'm also going to "try" not to get my hopes up about this one. If learned anything from dating it was that the right guy will show up just about the time you've stopped looking. I'm hoping this also applies to sweaters. I'm going to play it cool and keep my options open.
I've chosen the "Turbulence U-Neck Sweater" by Norah Gaughan.


It's a good versatile piece, with a lot of stockinette and enough people have knit it that the errata for the pattern has been worked out. Translation, it's the nice guy of sweaters. To make things a little more exciting I'm using a yarn I bought while on vacation. There's something so seductive about new yarn. Don't get me wrong, stash yarn is great, but it's familiar. Recently purchased yarn still has that yarn store smell.
The yarn is a good sturdy wool called "Imperial Stock Ranch 2 ply" in a heathered shade of raspberry (my color name, not theirs).


This combination of reliable wool with a steady eddie pattern should help to avoid any unpleasant surprises.


I swatched last night, and my gauge was way off, but the fabric was already on the verge of being stiff, so I'm knitting myself an extra small. This has the advantages of making me feel extra small and of being fewer stitches to knit, excellent. I even took the time to make sure that my math for the finished bust size was real math, not my usual "Alice in Wonderland" math.
In the spirit of not getting too committed I'm going to find another sweater to work on at the same time. Maybe this other sweater will be the dangerous type. I'm sure I'll settle down and commit to a sweater in the future, but I'm on the rebound after a rough break up, and I need a little time to sort things out.

Death Row Owls

I've been knitting for 10 years. I do not own a wearable hand knit sweater. This is a big sore point with me. My first two sweaters ended up not fitting me the way I had hoped they would, and so they were gifted to a good friend. There was one sweater that fit well, and looked good, but it was washed on the delicate cycle, and it felted. There are four other sweaters that I started and haven't finished yet.
I need a sweater. I mean, I don't actually need one to stay warm, but I need one to feel like I'm not some sort of failure as a knitter. I've successfully knit things for other people, so I should be able to knit something for myself. Clearly, this is a working theory. I thought that "Owls" would be a walk in the park.


This was going to be the sweater that I finished without problems, and wore regularly. It is not that sweater. That doesn't sound nearly as dramatic as it sounded last night, after I threw my knitting to the floor and started crying. Before you decide that I'm an overly dramatic individual, let me give you the back story.
My father gave me 6 balls of Rowan "Cocoon" for my birthday last year. He said that the yarn store owner had knit a sweater with owls on it, and that it was a lovely pattern. I, being familiar with all lovely owl patterns, recognized his description of the sweater immediately as "Owls" by Kate Davies. I had a few other things I was working on at the time, and thought I'd wait to cast on until fall. Fall arrived, and I was eager to get started. I was so eager that I didn't bother to check the yardage. I assumed that the yarn store owner had sold my father the correct number of balls. Wrong. So, after swatching, casting on, and knitting a significant portion of the body, my knitters sense kicked in, and I went to check the yardage. I was 200 yards short. For you non knitters out there, that's not even close. I was frustrated, but I soldiered on. This was my first mistake. I should have ripped back, and picked a different yarn for the sweater. That would have been the mature thing to do. I had reservations about using Cocoon for this project, and now I had reservations about the sleeve length.


Instead of listening to my inner knitter, I decided to knit elbow length sleeves. I convinced myself that I could live with that, that I would be happy with elbow length sleeves. This was a lie, but I am not above lying to myself to avoid frogging a days worth of knitting. I made some changes to the pattern, knit the body, knit the sleeves and took a break.
When I got back from our Christmas trip to the states, I picked it back up, ready to start on the owl cabling. I've knit several seamless sweaters and so I just kind of glanced in the direction of the pattern. From this point on, every single stitch count was off. Every time I corrected for one problem, I ended up with another problem. Logic packed her bags and kissed me goodbye somewhere near the second row of yoke decreases. Nothing made sense anymore. In a desperate attempt to steer things back on course I asked my husband to tell me how I should decrease 9 sts. "evenly" over 85 sts. He told me what he thought was the right answer. I misinterpreted what he had said and the following count was off. I withered like the wicked witches of Oz. I was an inch short of finishing, and from the armpits up it had been a fudge festival. I had a heaping pile of poop in my lap staring at me, daring me to put it on. So, I tried it on.
It didn't fit right. To be fair, it wasn't a total disaster. It was too tight in the armpits and there was a little too much negative ease (stretch) across the owls. The thing that put me over the edge, the thing that made me hate every single stinking stitch of that sweater was the fact that I had an entire ball of Rowan Cocoon sitting next to me on the couch (for you non knitters, that's a pair of long sleeves). It was insulting. I have put this sweater on the knitter's equivalent of death row and unless there's a call from the Governor this thing is going to be terminated.
In an effort to get back on that horse, um owl, I'm trying to decided whether to use the yarn to start a project I know I like, because I've knit it before, or to try another "Owls" sweater with a different yarn.
In happier news, we have some fish.


They don't have names yet, but they are keeping the tank warm, while we wait for the others. The black fish was being a little shy during our photo shoot. They like to spend a lot of time together, and we're having a hard time telling whether it's because they really like each other, or because the are fighting. Fish psychology is complex.

Stripe-ed

I'm not big on new years resolutions. In fact, I'm not a big fan of new years. It just seems like a big fuss over a date that most of the world can't agree on. However, I'm not immune to social norms, and I always think about the new year, in terms of what I'd like to accomplish. This year, I'd like to blog more, knit more sweaters and less hats, put a huge amount of compost into my garden, take more long weekends instead of a long vacation, go for walks somewhere other than my driveway, count orchids in the woods and learn how to roll out pasta with a rolling pin. We'll see how many of these things I get done and next year I'll make, or not make, resolutions accordingly.
In the interest of ego boosting, I'm going to count this striped sweater as the first sweater of the new year. It was finished on new years eve, so it's a close call. Maybe it's not a close call for the tax man, but I'm going to call it for 2010.


This was knit in Mission Falls 1824 merino superwash. I haven't had the chance to buy some elastic tread for the collar, but the recipient doesn't seem to mind too much.


He's got a mouth full of milk in this photo. It's like having a human water balloon running around the house.
I didn't use a pattern for this. I was getting 4 sts to the inch on size 7s. After measuring another sweater of his I decided to cast on 96 sts, and just went from there. I didn't bother to worry about the jog in the stripes. It runs up to the armpit and then hides in one of the decrease points of the raglan shaping. I made the body of the sweater a little longer, because I wanted it to be extra warm. I can always lengthen the sleeves as he grows.
While we were in D.C. I had a chance to visit Stitch DC. I found a couple of really great yarns there, and while I was perusing the needles selection I found a special Addi Turbo circular sock needle. I couldn't resist trying it. I don't like it. Let me be more specific. I really don't like it. It makes my hands hurt, and I feel like I'm some sort of giant handed freak. Plus, the stitches keep slipping off of it. Yikes. Here's a picture of the sock and the mean needle.


The needle may have left me cold, but the yarn is great (Farmhouse Yarns Fannie's Fingering Weight in Wildflowers). The pooling is a little crazy, but I kind of like it. I'm going to place those wide lightening bolt like stripes on opposing sides of the socks. Here's a closer shot.


The stripes remind me of Missoni. Mmmmmm Missoni.

Deep Knit

I don't know what happened to me. I'm knitting all the time. I'm knitting like I need to knit in order to keep my house from falling down. Actually, it would probably help my house if I stopped knitting and paid a little bit more attention to that water damage next to the dormer. I have officially overcome my knitters block and am completely in love with wool again. I'm so crazy for the sheepy stuff that I managed to churn out a sweater for my son only days after receiving the yarn for Christmas. I finished a sunflower tam with only minimal complaining due to a bad reading of the instructions. I finished a hat for my brother in two days, and promptly cast on for a sock. I knit so much, and so hard, that I ran out of materials for my vacation knitting.
Now that I've settled in at home, I'm attempting the knitters equivalent of walking the high wire. I'm knitting this. This, for those of you who are not on Ravelry, is what looks like a very, very complicated lace stole named "Swan Lake". There are 45 pages of charts and instructions.....Fourty five. Spelling it out seems more impressive. I'm swatching with a lace weight superwash merino that I bought while in Italy, but I might just take an hour to dig out a paleozoic era ball of cream colored lace weight alpaca. I know it's in the stash somewhere, but it's pre-Ravelry, so I've got no idea what it is, or how many yards there are. All I can remember about it is that the lady at the yarn store said I'd never run out. She better be right about that.
I've knit lace before, but never something on this scale. I'm more than a little intimidated by the charts, but I'm ignorant enough to have enough confidence to go ahead with it.
I'm also more than half way through knitting "Owls". I've gotten all the way to the yoke, and am in need of 10 minutes of relative calm for connecting the sleeves to the body. I haven't got enough yarn for a full length version, so I chopped the sleeves off. I moved the shaping to the sides, as there have been some complaints about the original shaping. The yarn I'm using is Cocoon from Rowan. It's wonderfully soft, and I think it has enough mohair in it to keep it from pilling like mad.
Thankfully, the weather has been cooperating with my knitting obsession. We've had lots of fluffy snow. I don't have any photos of all of this frantic knitting. Maybe that's because I'm spending all of my time knitting. I'll leave you with a few parting shots of our snowy wonderland.