Knitting while Traveling

A big family Thanksgiving isn't the only way to go, but every few years I like to get together with all of my cousins, or at least as many as will get together at the old farm place, and Thanksgiving is a fine time to do it. So I'm in Tennessee right now.

I brought an early Christmas present to my mom. This was started back in 2006, and put in time out for some mistakes I couldn't fix then. Denise suggested that I neither fix them, nor even find them, but bind the piece off and call it good. After I knit that edging, then pinned it out for blocking, I found the mistakes. . . but it's okay. After three years, my memory sort of softens.


She said she'd put on a nice blouse and model it for me tomorrow.

A stop at Bliss Yarns in Brentwood to meet up with some absolutely lovely Ravelers led to these two skeins of local alpaca coming home with me. I love that the name of the animal is on the label. These come from Teardrop. Teardrop has a nice gray coat.


These are going to become either Brünnhilde or Ceangaltas Mittens from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. Is it only coincidence that they almost perfectly match the Araucania Nature Wool in this sweater?


Yes, this sweater now has only a start to a sleeve. . . I took the plunge and ripped it out after discovering (through the magic of counting) that I had cast on approximately half the stitches of the entire body for the sleeve. No wonder it got too big. My arm isn't half of the circumference of my waist; it's nearly a third. I hope this one works well. It's going to be my "flight home knitting," but I'm going to switch to a longer cable for easier magic looping.

I also discovered that the lovely orange/yellow raglan cable sweater I made for a little one has a tiny mistake in it -- right in the front. I was gazing at my littlest daughter wearing it and thinking how nice it is to see my kids wearing sweaters I make, and saw a miscounted stitch right on the front of the sweater.

Sigh.

Saddle Up/Feeling Edgy

Two saddles, done and stitched into place. One sleeve, done. Cuff edge, unstretched, matches the waist measurement, unstretched. My waist and wrists are not the same diameter.

I'm going to have to strike model poses to show off these sleeves. Either that, or rip them back and do a less-extravagant increase. Denise pointed out that they weren't going to be warm in the arm area. Maybe I'll knit a ribbed and cabled set of long fingerless gauntlet/gloves to wear with it. I don't know if sleeves like this will look high-fashion, or silly knitter. She also pointed out the effect of adding a new ball of yarn. Yes, I know. It's darker. Semi-solid yarn does that sort of trick occasionally.

I have an urge to set aside the second sleeve in order to work on a design for the collar. Maybe finishing that will allow a sane decision on the sleeve width. Saner, that is, than swanning around striking model-y poses.


In 2006, I started a lace rectangle for my mom. This year, I bound off the edge and decided to see if I could get it done before a Significant Gift Giving Occasion. Nothing like a three-year hiatus, eh? A simple pointy edge, sewn on because picking up and knitting made a wonky join, and turning a large item to knit back and forth made no sense. It's altered so it's a stockinette design, and it will do. At this point, "done" is a terrific thing.


Many delightful things already this month; many delightful things to come. One child has become so mature, with double digits and all, that she didn't even mind that I dorked her birthday cake pretty badly. I didn't have enough red icing to spell out "Happy Birthday," so I told her I was abbreviating it. She didn't seem to mind.


And today, I decided off the cuff to gather the three youngest and head out to Marine World for the homeschooler's day. Turned out it was probably the right decision. We got to see Sarafina (who had already made plans to go separately) and her friends -- who were cool enough to take an almost-8 year old Tor on big coasters with them, and I discovered that all four of my children have their mother's affinity for roller coasters.

This bodes really well for the future.

Jumping for joy

Not because anything is done on the knitting front, but just because, well, you know. . .





Halloween is just so exciting. We had dinner at a friend's house (well, some of us did). The older one has her own tribe thing going every year.


Eric worked hard and made a useful pumpkin guillotine. Many evil winter squash were dispatched.


And Sarafina was fierce as Trinity.


The little ones got tired early enough so that I was able to hang out with our neighbors while they played with light sabers. A good night all around!

Making it up as I wait in line

One reason I try to make up my own sweater ideas is that I can't always find exactly what I have in mind in a pattern. Not that they don't exist out there, but even with the power of Ravelry, I can't always find them, and I'm certainly too impatient to keep hunting until I find The One. Besides, I generally alter patterns in some way anyhow. And this way, I can go, "yarn first, then pattern," and since I buy faster than I knit, well, there you go.

Ha. It sounds as though I know what I'm doing. I don't; it's just that this is the way my person leans. Doing otherwise would be like doing bonsai: possible, but a lot of work.

At any rate, the sweater that's fun to wear but a bear to knit now has one shoulder:


I tried, I really really tried, to make this a seamless saddle-shoulder. I did two or three iterations of picking up the stitches along the fronts and backs, only to find that I had picked up different numbers on each side; that preloading the stitches to be picked up on needles felt like wrestling a catatonic octopus ; that finally what I wanted wasn't a purist "no seams allowed here!" sweater, but one with a saddle I liked.

Bowing to the inevitable, I knit a saddle, seamed it in, then proceeded to do some sort of knit back and forth cap for a few rows, then joined in the round, discovered I had picked up enough stitches for a nice sleeve cap but too many for an arm, and while standing in line to see Mortified in the city with my sister and some friends, figured that I could create a little reverse-gusset by placing markers on each side of some underarm stitches and decreasing them as I went down the sleeve.

And it worked! Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, as they say. Click for a sort of gussety close-up.


So now I'm just chugging along, enjoying myself. That is, until I get either to the end of this sleeve and have to try out my stylish idea and see if it makes me look like a dork, or love it and then just have to knit a. whole. other. sleeve. Not to mention something around the neck, I guess. Also, not to mention that "counting to three" is still a skill I'm struggling with. I just noticed two purl stitches lurking down in some knit ribs. Thank goodness for crochet hooks!

Either way, I want to get it done and out of the way, to make mental room for the gloves I just swatched for. Yessiree Bob, 14 stitches to the inch and I just can't wait.

Finally done

So, four weeks after the baby, the sweater is done and gifted:

Back:


Lazy Daisy detail:

The yarn, Mission Falls Superwash, seemed splitty and a little fussy to work with. That reminds me -- I had better tell the (understandably sleepy) new mom that it can be washed. I hope it still fits -- it seems quite wee when I look at it. I'll start the Christmas knitting now, after the camping trip this weekend when I intend to make great strides on my gray sweater. Inspired by Denise, I'm contemplating bell sleeves. . .

MIssion Creep

That baby sweater really is almost done. Good thing, too, because I'm not sure it's going to fit the wee lass who is now already three weeks old. Sheesh. Some day I'm going to need to crank this knitting speed thing up a bit.

So. Did I spend my free afternoon finishing the sweater with adorable embroidered flowers and clever ties? No! I spent it bringing to conclusion my first foray into Japanese sewing books. I tend to try to keep my book acquisitiveness in some kind of control --mostly it just pops out in something like garden seeds -- but these books really got to me. I love sewing, and I'm not great at it, but my kids will sometimes wear what I make, and these just look so -- well, like things I'd love to see my kids in.

The books are all in Japanese, but they're pretty clear if you've done any sewing. My big challenge is recognizing which pattern pieces go with which pattern, as they're all on one paper and you're to trace your own cutting copy. Not reading Japanese means that I did my best. I didn't actually use a pattern for the trim, though! (And I just realized that I omitted the pocket. Must add that. . .)

So here is the little beauty resting on a bed of kale I went on to thin drastically:

And from the back, on the child it's meant for. It's been warm here -- good for the skirt, bad for a baby sweater -- so she'll be able to wear it this week to school.


After a hard day's play, her hair is less sleek than it was when Bridget braided it this morning:


I'm looking forward to doing more sewing soon. I noticed some really yummy flannel and couldn't help thinking of matching Christmas pajamas. Ha! Maybe I should finish some matching Christmas gloves for Sarafina before I get completely nuts.

Sweet Stages

Spinning and knitting continue apace. I now have a 3x3 rib halter sweater in charcoal. That's what I'd have if I stopped and added straps to the saddle shoulder hate to knit/love to wear sweater. There has to be a name in that somewhere. Baby sweater for neighbor #1 (I've heard tell there is going to be a crop of the baby kind here soon, so I'm planning more) is coming along nicely. Lately, I've put evening knitting aside for paid work, and daytime knitting aside for yard work. Whew! Someday, I'll sit and knit in my yard, and won't that be the bees' knees?

I don't want to embarrass anyone or cause family friction, but right now I'm finding my eldest child easy to enjoy. Thoroughly. A wise friend told me to enjoy it but not assume it will stay. Said child also reminded me that five years ago I thought frequently and longingly of boarding school for her, so there is hope for the younger set at home. She's right.

But she just emerged from her bedroom and said, "Gleaves go over your boots, right?"
I must have looked owlishly at her, because she said, "Leg armor?" hopefully. I said yes, I assumed that over made sense.
"Right," she said, and disappeared back into her room.