Clean Dogs and Wicked Sweaters

Yesterday it was 45 degrees F here, which seemed downright tropical when you compare it to the way it has been. Since it was so warm I decided it was finally time to do something that has desperately needed doing for several weeks now - wash the dog. Poor little Finn has been a bit aromatic lately but it's been too cold to give him a bath because it takes pretty much all day for him to dry out. (Finn does NOT do blow dryers.) So yesterday I tossed him into the shower with me - he's not a crotch sniffer, so there is no gross doggy rudeness - and soon we had a giant, blond, lavender and vanilla scented, wet doggy. Of course I realized that apres bath pictures of Finn would make good blog fodder, so here he is, in all his dampness! Its important to shake yourself out really well after a bath. (For any non doggy people out there - the shakes start at the nose end and work their way back to the tail. Finn is displaying the shoulder section of the shake here.)
Make sure you get all the water out of your ears - even if your mommy has already wrung them out several times and dried them with a towel. (Retriever ears are like sponges and you can literally wring them out-kinda weird, but fun too.)
Then you should run around in circles, attack the towels (it was probably their idea that you get a bath in the first place), roll on the carpet, and then start over again with the shaking off.

After about 20 minutes of the shaking and water removal, you're probably feeling pretty tired. Go ahead and have a lie down. Then you can show off your lovely bathtime curls! Finn spent most of yesterday sleeping, curled up in a little dog ball. By dinner time he was all dried out and so soft and fluffy! I think he was even glad to be clean.

OK, now that you've had your puppy fix, here is Wicked in all its finished glory! This is the kind of picture you get when you ask a 6 year old who's at least 2 feet shorter than you are to take your picture. I love the way it fits and the pattern was really easy to make.

Here's a bathroom mirror shot just for another view.
Details: Wicked pattern, for worsted weight yarn. I adjusted the shaping to fit my body and added the twisted rib pattern at the bottom edge. I used 10 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in Opal. I made the 34 inch size and it called for 800 yards of yarn - 10 balls of yarn is 930 yards - I'm wondering if the yardage requirements are for the short sleeved version. The only other thing I'd watch for on this pattern is something I've already mentioned: the twisted rib pattern is an 8 stitch repeat, not a 4 stitch repeat and you might need to adjust numbers for cast on and then at the sleeves and lower edge of the sweater if you add it there.

In the comments yesterday, there was a question about where I like to get fiber to spin. If you look in the sidebar, under "Got Fiber?" there is a list of places that has fiber, yarn or both. Also there was a question about when the pattern for Mindy's stole would be available - I still haven't written it up, but I haven't forgotten it either.

UPDATE: If I can get good pictures this week of Mindy's Stole, I hope to have the pattern available on Friday for sale! Cross your knitting needles for me! (Yes Mindy, this means you might get your stole soon, seeing as it was your Christmas present for 2006.)

Almost done being Wicked

As you can see, Wicked is about 1/3 of a sleeve short of being finished (and a few thousand yarn ends). Yesterday I finished the first sleeve which gave me the number of rounds to knit for the second sleeve. Its amazing how just having a number in my head I'm able to knit faster. This hasn't been a slow sweater to knit, although you'd never believe it from reading my blog. The biggest thing to slow me down has been finding a time when I can try it on to figure out what to do next. I tend to work on it in little spots during the day and changing clothes, measuring where I am and where I'm going, and then getting dressed again doesn't work in those little bits of time. On the other hand, since I was able to double check the fit as I went, I know this will fit the way I want it to - no surprises when I finish. I should be able to finish the knitting today and I hope to get the ends woven in and get it blocking - it desperately needs blocking.

I've enjoyed knitting this pattern and I think I'll probably wear the finished sweater quite a bit. The only things I would note about the pattern are to double check the number you cast on for the neck - the twisted rib is an 8 stitch repeat, not a 4 stitch repeat (you might have to change your cast on number depending on your size to have a number divisible by 8), and definitely try the sweater on as you go like they recommend. That way you can make sure its fitting the way you want it to. Otherwise, its a nicely written pattern, easy to follow and understand and I think the finished sweater is pretty cute. Next time you see it, it will be finished and not a moment too soon - I'm getting tired of coming up with post titles for this thing! Have a great weekend!

Please try to contain your excitement...

...at the 28 new rounds of sleeve you see here compared to yesterday. Yep, 28 rounds knitted yesterday. (I'm counting rounds as I knit this sleeve so I can get the second sleeve to match. It seemed like a good idea - matching sleeves.) I think I've got about 2 or 3 more inches before I start the cable edging (that takes up 2 inches), but I've got to try on the sweater again to double check. I have pretty long arms and almost always end up adding a bit to sleeve lengths as patterns are written, but that's the great thing about knitting, you can make your projects fit your body the way you want them to fit.

Yesterday wasn't a total loss, I'd just like to say. Those of you who read Wendy Knits know that she is currently working on Cromarty from Alice Starmore's The Celtic Collection. I have that book (its not hard to find or crazy expensive like some of her other books) but in my opinion, it hadn't really grabbed me with any one project. I think now, its more a function of limited color palettes available than any bad design choices on Ms. Starmore's part - I mean, have you seen what she can do with the full color range of her own yarns? I think, but I'm not sure, that the book was done by Rowan Yarns or for Rowan yarns because that's all she uses in the book. Now I do love Rowan yarns (at least the classic, traditional yarns they make - we will not discuss their designs lately), but the color range is not as complete as some of the yarns more traditionally used for stranded color work*. Because of this, Ms. Starmore makes some "unconventional" choices for yarns in some of her projects, I'm assuming, to get specific colors. (Cotton chenille for stranded color work, really?) Even with the additional color palettes offered by these more non traditional yarn choices there are some designs that just don't seem to work well to my eye. So, after seeing Wendy's Cromarty, I decided that maybe I needed to take another look at this book. After really taking some time looking at the designs, I came to my above conclusions about the possible design constraints imposed on Ms. Starmore when she was designing for this book and have realized that while there are some yarn choices that I would not personally make, I am not under contract by Rowan and can choose any yarns of any colors that I please. Looked at in this new light, I have realized that some of the designs are not shown to their fullest due to color restrictions -several of the designs just get lost due to background and foregrounds being too close in value. I have found a number of designs that I would like to knit, but in my own color and yarn choices. The three that really popped out at me are Rosemarkie, Dalmore (scroll down to Oct 11 to see one in progress), and in the category of Epic Knitting Adventures, Erin (click the third picture at the top - the lady standing beside the tree). I've pretty much decided that I will do Rosemarkie sometime this year, but in colors that I can wear and that work with my wardrobe.

*By "stranded color work" I'm referring to the technique used where two or more yarn colors are used in each row and the colors not in use are stranded behind the knitting until its time to use them again. This technique is used in the traditional Fair Isle style of knitting (with no more than 2 colors per round) and is sometimes referred to as Fair Isle knitting, but not all designs that use this technique can be called Fair Isle. The yarns used are typically a two ply jumper weight (fingering weight) Shetland wool yarn. Jamieson's and Jamieson and Smith are two brands that manufacture this kind of yarn, both of them have extensive color ranges.

A one sleeve wonder

Well, as you can see from the picture above I finished the body of Wicked and am partway down one sleeve. I have 271 yarn ends to weave in at some point which you can see hanging out of the sweater. I tried working the sleeve on two circular needles as the pattern says, but my dislike of circulars changed my mind after two rounds and I got out my DPN's. I figure if it's good enough for socks, it's good enough for sleeves. I've got to double check, but I don't think there's any shaping on the sleeves which will make them look slightly belled, but hopefully not be so big as to get in the way. I love the way bell sleeves look, but for practical use they are sometimes more trouble than they are worth. You can't cook in them (Holy Flaming Sweater, Batman), they don't always feel good in a coat, but they do look dramatic when you stand in a forest with elves. I'm hoping that Wicked will be wearable for the more day to day activities of my life, but also be ready to fill in for those impromptu elf social events that always throw us for a loop. A woman's wardrobe has to be ready for anything these days!

A Wicked Case of A Needle Malfunction

So remember how the other day I showed you Wicked and said I only had 20 rounds until I cast off for the body? Last night I sat down with it and got to work, hoping that I would be able to finish the body before bedtime. Well, as I was knitting along, I noticed that the needle in my right hand was feeling a bit funny. The yarn kept feeling like it was catching on it, so I took a look and sure enough, the needle was coming out of the metal sleeve that covers the needle/cord joint. Fortunately I caught it before I lost any stitches, but it had to be glued before I could knit anymore.I don't know if this problem is a needle problem or just because these needles are several years old. These are size 7's US and with the weight of a worsted weight sweater hanging off of them, there is probably quite a bit of stress at the joint, and this is far from the first sweater I've knit on them. I have learned the hard way that I need to let the super glue dry before I try to knit again or I'll glue my fingers to the needles.* I put the clip on the cable to keep the sweater from getting glued to the needles also. At this point I have about 5 and a half rounds left before casting off for the body and I WILL get those last few rounds done today - maybe I'll even be able to start sleeves!

*I tend to be adhesive challenged. 9 times out of 10 I'll super glue myself to what ever I'm trying to fix or even just glue myself to myself. Mickael has rescued me with nail polish remover more times than I care to remember. Back when we were first married and had to do our own moving (we refer to them as the UHaul days), we had a tape gun to close up the boxes and more often than not, I would tape myself to the box in the process of closing it. He always rescued me from the boxes too. Now that our moves are taken care of by his job, my biggest adhesive concerns are super glue related. Its good to have movers.

The Wicked-ness continues...

...I got quite a bit done on Wicked this weekend. I tried it on, figured out what I wanted to do for decreases, where I wanted to put them and how many I should use. Then I decreased down to the waist. I tried it on again and figured out increases for my hips the same way. At this point, I am about 20 rounds from casting off on the body of this sweater! I'm still making changes to the original pattern though. They call for a seed stitch lower border on the body. The neckline and the cuffs both have the little cable rib though and seed stitch doesn't make an appearance anywhere else in the design so I've decided to work a few more increases and then put the little cable rib at the bottom of the sweater. To me that just makes more sense, especially since I'm not doing the pocket (which does have the little cable ribs on it, I think.) I'm loving the way its fitting on me. The neckline is definitely not too wide (i.e. - no bra straps peeking out), and with the changes I've made to the pattern I think its really going to be great. The reasons I'm changing the shaping of the sweater are not because of any shortcomings of the design and pattern itself. I'm making changes to fit my own body. If you look at the pattern, the model is (I believe) one of the designers and she's very slim and willowy. I am definitely more on the curvy end of the scale. If I made the shaping exactly as the pattern was written, I don't think the sweater would be very flattering for me. I just wanted to mention that because I don't want to put anyone off this pattern who is thinking about making it. The pattern does suggest in several places that you try on the sweater in progress to double check fit and make adjustments for your own personal body type.

I'm also far enough along to know that I will have enough yarn to make the sweater. I started with 930 yards, the pattern calls for 800 yards to make the second size which is what I'm doing, but that just sounds like its not going to be enough. I tend to buy 1200 yards of worsted or aran weight yarn when I buy for my stash with no particular project in mind. I know I'm not the only one who gets part way through a project and freaks out that there won't be enough yarn, but its always nice to get to the point where you KNOW you'll be OK.

More Wicked Than Before!

That sounds like an ad campaign - 25% more wicked than before! So, ahem, as to the sweater, there's more of it, too. I'm about an inch and a half below the underarm. The directions say to begin decreases 3 inches after the underarm, but when I tried it on, it seemed like maybe I should be starting the decreases sooner. I will probably be tweaking the decreases from the way they are written in the pattern to fit my own body a little better, but that's part of the fun of knitting. Later today I'll try this on again and really get a good look at where everything is falling and where I want to begin (and end) things like decreases.

On a completely different note, yesterday I went to the library to pick up a couple of things and since I had a bit of extra time, I decided to play around in the catalog. (Its not a card catalog if its in a computer, is it?) I was looking up historical textiles since I seem to have floral stripes on the brain lately and I was kind of wondering when they first made their debut. (If you care, it seems that woven stripe fabrics were first embroidered with flowers, long before fabric printing capabilities could create the type of thing I had in mind. If I had thought about it for 10 minutes I probably could have figured this out myself, but then I wouldn't have all this to babble about on the blog either.) So, I wrote down a number or two and went wandering, because half the fun of the library is the wandering. Anyway, when I got to the area of the first number I realized that either I had miswritten the number (probably) or the number was wrong in the computer (possible, but probably not). I found myself staring at books on hairstyles. Having way more time on my hands than is probably a good idea for a curious Pink Lemon, and my next appointment actually being a haircut, I began scanning titles. There were a number of books on matching your hairstyle to your face shape/lifestyle/attention span/ or doorway size. There were a couple of books on historical hair. The one that caught my attentions though was Big Date Hair. So my question is, is this book how to get hair for a big date, how to get big hair for any date, how to do your hair if your date is big? And why should an entire book be devoted to big hair/big dates with hair? Have I been missing out on some big hair possibilities? Does my husband feel like I haven't been putting forth the effort anymore because he never sees big hair? I mean, we've been married for 13-1/2 years and dated for 2 -1/2 years before that so for the last 16 years I haven't really been "out there." Apparently there are some hair rules that I missed out on.

Before I could really sink into the depths of Not Big Hair Despair, my eyes moved on to the titles a couple of shelves below. (You notice that I was never really quite curious enough to pull out Big Date Hair from the shelf and really take a good look at it. Somethings are best left to the imagination.) My eyes began scanning titles, and right after The Idiots Guide to Buying and Running Your Own Restaurant, (I think I should say right here and now, that if you use the idiot's guide to buy and run your own restaurant, maybe you shouldn't be in the restaurant business. I'm just saying) there it was: Solving Your Squirrel Problems. An entire book, 3/4 of an inch thick, devoted solely to squirrels. Not just a general treatise on smallish rodents - this was squirrels only, people. I've always felt that this kind of information could easily be covered in a brochure or informative postcard, perhaps free from your County Extension office. I had no idea that people had the kind of squirrel problems that required 3/4 of an inch of bound, printed matter. Maybe you're supposed to throw the book at them. (Side note to any Squirrel Rights Advocates out there: I am not condoning throwing books at squirrels, I am merely saying that maybe that is the author's/publisher's intention, however I did not take the time to really explore all of the techniques for solving one's squirrel problem so this might not be their intention either. We wouldn't want to give the little darlings psychological problems now, would we?) At that point, I had to get to my hair appointment, so the mysteries of Solving Squirrel Problems (maybe its a key part of restaurant management) were left for someone else to investigate. My stylist and I ended up discussing crazy neighbors we've had so I'm left to figure out my Not Big Hair issues by myself. I think I've got some hot rollers somewhere - that sounds like a good start...

Something Wicked This Way Comes

No, Macbeth isn't going to be blogging today, I started Wicked! If you haven't seen this sweater yet, go take a look at it. Isn't it cute? I'm doing the worsted weight version with the long sleeves (it IS, after all, wicked cold around here right now!). I haven't decided if I'll do the pocket yet or not. It doesn't look too bulky, but I just haven't decided if I'll use it or not. The best part of this? I didn't have to buy more yarn to knit it - I went stash diving and came up with this*! Its Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in the Opal colorway. (By the way, the link I gave for the yarn is for an Australian yarn company - you can save a bunch of money ordering Jo Sharp directly from Australia if you order enough for a sweater or two depending on the strength of the dollar- even with shipping.) I realize that right now it looks like I'm knitting some kind of Mobius nightmare, but once I get enough weight on the silly circular needle, hopefully it will be easier to see. I've already started making changes to the pattern - the original cast on number didn't allow you to end on a full repeat of this pattern. I don't think it would be glaringly obvious, but since you knit this from the top down and it would have been up at the top, I decided to tweak the numbers a bit.
I also got the hat felted, shaped and dried yesterday. I'm still running around in pajamas and Caleb was busy and Finn would only model the hat if I kept my finger on his beak which makes it really hard to take a picture (it looks great on him by the way), so you get to see it sitting on the floor. I really like the way it came out and I'll try to get Mickael to get a picture of me wearing it later. After my shower.

Finally, I wanted to give a little update on my brother in law, John. If you'll remember, right after Christmas he was hospitalized for Guillain Barre Syndrome which is a rare virus that can essentially shut down your body systems in its most severe cases. John couldn't support his weight on his legs and was loosing the ability to use his hands when he went to the hospital. He was released from the hospital after 6 days and is slowly but surely getting better. He can walk with a cane and his hands are much better and Wednesday night he was able to wiggle his toes. I just wanted to say thanks for all the prayers and well wishes you have sent his way. He's still got a long way to go before he's back at 100% and relapses of this virus are very common, but I thought I'd update you all on how he's doing.

*I'm not doing the Knit From Your Stash 2007 Challenge. I know if I try to limit myself like that, I'll probably end up buying way more stuff than I otherwise would. I'm going to try to use up stash yarn, but I'll be much better behaved if I don't have to adhere to any hard and fast rules. That's just me.