Time Out

You know the cardigan I'm knitting?  I'm working on the first sleeve?

Well, now I'm not.  I'm going to frog the first sleeve because I'm not happy with my short rows.  I think I did them the way I always did but I don't like the way they look.  I've never had a problem with them before, so I might not be doing them the way I always did.  I can't remember.  Once I frog the sleeve, I'm going to put the whole project in Time Out.  Not only do I need to read up on short rows, but I am just not motivated to work on the cardigan right now.  So I'm not.  It might be in Time Out for a week, or it could be for longer.  I will finish the cardigan because I like it and I'm happy with the way it looks in my handspun, and I'm still liking the little apple blossom button.  I just don't want to knit on it right now.

This means I'm going to stop the Sweaters 2013 project too, since this cardigan is supposed to be finished by the end of the month.  I love knitting sweaters, but I think I need a few smaller projects between them.  I'll keep the stash yarns matched up with patterns - that will make things easier when I'm ready to knit sweaters again, but I'll do them when I'm ready to do them.  Since I made the rules, I can change them, right?

More Sleeve

 

I made it past the sleeve cap this weekend and now I'm going round and round and round!  I'm using my little 9 inch long circular for the sleeve because it's faster than double points.  I know that not everyone likes this size for a circular needle (the actual needle parts of the needle are only a couple of inches long), but it works just fine for my hands and the way I knit.

I don't like to purl with this size of needle.  At all.  When I get the sleeve knitted and it's time to do the lower ribbing, I'll switch to double points.  I need more needle to grip or something when I purl and these little circulars just don't work.  This means that I will have used three different needle types/sets on this sleeve when I get it done:  the long circular I used for the short row section, the 9 inch circular, and the double point set.

I remember when I first started knitting and I thought one type of needle (in all the sizes) would work.  Now I know that not only do I need lots of different types of needles, I need them in several different materials too because different yarns work better on different needles.  Of course I also need lots of different needles so I can work on several different projects at once.  Is there ever a point where you have all the needles you need?

Sleeve

 

I started the first sleeve to my cardigan yesterday.  These are knit in, from the top down.  I love not having to finish anything when I'm done on these kinds of designs, but I don't really love the short rows part to get the sleeve cap knitted.  I should have been twice as far as I am, but I didn't read the directions right and had to start over (so. much. fun.)  I'm now back to where I was though, so hopefully everything will move forward now.

I also got my button for this sweater.  It looks tiny to me, but this is the size the pattern calls for, and since I chose the little apple blossom flower, I think tiny will be nice.  I don't want it to look like a kid's sweater, but I think since there's only one button, I should be OK.  Also, it's pewter, not plastic, so that makes in a little more grown up too.  Alright, clearly while I love this button, if it looks too cutsie, it will be replaced, but I won't know until the sweater's done and I can try it on.  My initial gut reaction was that this was the right button for the sweater, and my gut's usually right.  I have no idea why I'm waffling about it this morning when I haven't had any caffeine yet, and I haven't sewn it to the finished sweater.  I'll go drink some tea now, you have a lovely day doing whatever you do, and we'll pick up this button discussion later.

Interesting Weekend

We all had a four day weekend around here (Friday was a Snow Day Makeup for Caleb's school, but we didn't use any this year, so we didn't have to make it up) and over all it was really good.  There was lots of hanging around, and watching movies together, some nice, lazy mornings, and then yesterday there was a trip with Max to the Emergency Vet.  I won't go into details because it was kind of gross (it was an eye thing), but they got him sorted out pretty quickly, he's now happy as a clam, and except for the joy of giving him eye drops three times a day (I love medicating cats, don't you?), and a recheck with our regular vet later this week, he's good.  Not really what we had planned, but I know we had a better weekend than the parents of the dog who came in right after us - we heard the words "Anti-Venom" used.  The dog got treated first of course, but that gave Max a chance to really investigate the exam room.  When the vet got to him, Max hid behind some of the medical supplies in the room.  It didn't work - the vet moved the jars of cotton balls and stuff.

In addition to all the lazy and the drama though, there was knitting!  I finished the back and the right front of my cardi and I'm almost done with the left front.  Once it's all finished and I do a 3 needle bind off of the shoulders, I can start sleeves!  I've also found a button, and it should be here soon, so I'll show you when it gets here.

Back At It

 

I'm still working on the back of my cardigan.  I'm almost to the back neck and shoulder shaping though, so soon you should be seeing some fronts!  I think I've found a button for this sweater - I'll show it to you when it gets here.

This morning is beautiful, sunny, and cool, and it will probably be the last cool morning until October.  It seems important for some reason to notice this.  I'm definitely enjoying it!

Moving Forward With The Back

 

I've made it to the division between the fronts and back, and the pattern has you knit the back first, so that's what I'm doing.  The back is bigger than the fronts (although if you added the two fronts together, it would be the same size as the back, but that's not how my mind works), so (in my mind), I'm finishing the biggest part first.  The sleeves are knit top down with short row sleeve caps, so I have to finish the body of the cardigan before I can start those.

At some point (and it's looking like sooner rather than later), I need to find a button for this.  There's a single button at the neck, so it needs to be the perfect button.  It's the only decoration on a sea of stockinette, and while I don't want it to be too flashy, big, or just take over, I don't want it to get lost either.  I'm looking for the Goldilocks of buttons - just right.

Stockinette

 

Stockinette is perfect for picking up and putting down.  It's perfect in it's simplicity, when life is crazy.  It's perfect for right now.

Caleb has been doing scales in band.  For anyone who has never done band or music, scales are the DO-RE-ME-FA-SO-LA-TE-DO things, like in Sound of Music.  You can play a scale in any key, and learning scales helps you learn the notes in that key (which helps when you play music in that key).  It's not the most interesting thing to do, but scales are important building blocks for learning music.  As I explained to Caleb, scales are dead easy to play, but because they're so simple, any missteps, timing issues or other problems stick out like a sore thumb.  So while they're easy to play, they are hard to play perfectly.  Learning to play scales perfectly, while not very exciting, will translate into other parts of playing music and will pay off for the music student in many other ways.

I realized that stockinette stitch is kind of like playing scales in knitting.  It's an easy stitch to do - one of the first we learn, but if it's not knit perfectly, our mistakes are very obvious.  Other, more complicated stitch patterns can camouflage tension issues, whether they're overall tension issues, or just tension differences between the knit and purl sides.  With ribbing, cables, or lace you notice the pattern, not the fine details of the knitted fabric.  Even garter stitch brings a texture to knitting.  Stockinette, as it should be, is smooth, unbroken, and perfect.  If it's not, it really sticks out.

Of course using handspun yarn, I'm really noticing all the inconsistencies there too.  No pressure!

Card-Again

 

I'm moving right along on my Bluebelle Cardigan (that isn't blue at all).  This is a wonderful project - perfect for TV knitting.  I'm also really enjoying knitting with my handspun.  I should really knit with it more often - of course, I also need to spin more.  Max is showing a bit more maturity lately (and sleeping more during the day), maybe I can safely spin now!

We're getting into the End Of Year Crazies around here.  Field trips, final concerts, all those last minute things Caleb has at school, and all those last minute things I try to get done before he's home for the Summer.  I love this time of year because it's so much fun for everyone, but it's also so busy.  I feel like we need that first week of Summer just to BE.  I can't believe we're almost through with Sixth Grade either - how did that happen?  It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was dropping him off for preschool.  He adored preschool!  Sixth Grade, not so much, but he's had a good year academically and socially (he thinks school wastes important gaming time).  He's decided to drop band next year and take some computer classes for his electives.  The computer classes are definitely more his thing, but we're really proud of him for learning as much as he did in band.  He's enjoyed his year of band, but I think he'll be happier in the computer classes.

Wow, this was a rambly post this morning.  Hope you're all enjoying the End of Year Crazies at your house if you've got them!

Beginnings

I started my new sweater yesterday.  There was a little time yesterday afternoon and I got it all cast on, then I started knitting last night while I watched TV.  I've just got a tiny bit done, but I think this cardigan will knit up quickly.

There was a question in the comments about pictures of the sewing machine.  I'm still cleaning the head.  I've gotten everything cleaned that I could take off, and cleaned as much of the inside as I can get to.  I'm now cleaning the outside, which has to happen very carefully and very slowly because I don't want to damage the decals any more than they already are.  That makes it fun to get the layer of nicotine and old sewing machine oil off of it.  I am getting there, it's just slow going, and every time I think I'm just about done, I find more to clean.  I realize this could get a bit obsessive compulsive, but I do need to get it clean enough to sew light colored fabrics, and it's just not there yet.  I am still hoping to show it to you Friday, but I might not have it sewing yet.  My original goal was to get it all cleaned and put back together and adjusted and sewing by Friday morning's blog post.  That isn't going to happen.  I have actually uncovered some decals that I didn't even know were there, so that gives you an idea of the amount of crud covering her!

Next!

My next project for Sweaters 2013 is another cardigan!  (Actually, I think they're all cardigans, but I can't remember.)  I'll be using some handspun yarn that I spun ages ago.  It's been sitting in the stash, just waiting for me to find the perfect project for it and I think I've found it.  The pattern is Bluebelle and I think it will be perfect for this yarn.  I haven't found a button for it yet, but I won't need it until the end.  This is another bottom up cardigan, but the sleeves are picked up and knit down from the armscyes so I won't be doing the sleeves first.  There's no seaming up at the end, so finishing shouldn't take long.  I've already knit a swatch, and it's the right gauge for the pattern, but I have no idea what needles I used.  I'm hoping I blogged the swatch and the needles, otherwise I'll be knitting another swatch before I start this project!

I'm off to go dig around in the depths of the blog to try and find the swatch information.  (If I was nice and organized, I would have pinned a note to the swatch with needle size information, but no, that didn't happen.)  OK, that was easier than I thought - I used US 4's.  Now I don't have to re-swatch.  Onward!

Cardigan Number Two - Finished!

 

I'm all finished on my second cardigan of my Sweaters 2013 project!  This is the Olive Basket Cardigan, knit in Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK in the glorious colorway, Cove.  It still needs a bit of blocking to smooth things out, but it's all sewn together and the ends are woven in.  I also discovered that when you put a sweater on Fifi (the mannequin) , Logan pays a lot more attention to her.

I'm not over my Cove obsession quite yet, but after knitting a sweater out of it, it's at least manageable at a socially acceptable level.  I want to do a shawl with it and I probably need a pair of socks (and maybe some fingerless mitts), and then I'll be pretty set with Cove.  Unless I need a blanket or something.  It does look really great with the sofa in the family room...

Fronts, Check!

I've finished the fronts of my cardigan!  Now I've just got to do the back, finish the collar, and put the sleeves in.  Clearly, from the picture, you can see that some of the skeins have more blue than the others, but overall, I'm really pleased with the way the different skeins blended with each other on this project.  I actually had to change skeins halfway through the right front, but I don't think you'd know that from looking.  There's enough going on in the dyeing that starts and stops of new skeins just aren't obvious.  If the yarn was more of a solid color, I think I'd have needed to blend skeins (knit two rows with one skein and two with the new skein a few times so the switch isn't so abrupt).  I'll be finishing up the cardigan this weekend so I can start the next one in May!

Have a great weekend!

Knitting Progress!

 

I'm only a few rows away from dividing the fronts and back!  Those usually knit up pretty quickly.  (Amazing how much faster the rows stack up when they aren't as long.  OK, maybe not really amazing, but math was never my strongest subject.  And it's probably not really any faster, it just seems faster, speed=distance/time and all that.  Yes, Caleb has been doing physics this year in science and I got drug along for the ride kicking and screaming.  But the point is, it feels faster and it's way too early to be thinking of math and physics.)

Just in case there are those of you out there with kids who need help with homework that you can't remember how to do (since I mentioned the joy of 6th grade science), Google is your friend.  Seriously.  Google.  This weekend I Googled for a fingering position for high B on the Euphonium because it wasn't in his book (and yet the note is kind of necessary, thanks, book).  Google didn't fail me.  We found it, he played it, and scales sound so much better with the right notes, don't they?

Rainy Morning Knitting

It's raining this morning, and cool outside.  The house is quiet and I'm taking a little time for myself with my tea to enjoy the quiet.  I've got a list of things that need doing today and I'll get started on it soon, but for now, just now, the time is mine.

Knitting this sweater is a little like that.  The stitches are easy.  As long as I pay attention at the first of each row, I can knit on autopilot and just enjoy the feel of the yarn through my fingers and the play of colors as each row slowly stacks up.  It's peaceful, quiet knitting, but still easy enough to set down when I need to do other things.  For a few moments though, the time is mine.

Plodding Along

 

I got a little more done on my cardigan body over the weekend - little being the operative word.  I also worked on washing the cabinet of the treadle machine and read two books.  It wasn't a completely wasted weekend, just not really all that blog-worthy.  I got the underbelly washed and started on the main cabinet.  I've got to finish washing the main cabinet and then I'll start oiling everything.

First, I've got to get groceries and vacuum up some golden tumbleweeds - its starting to look like we've got more than one dog around here!

Getting There

 

It kind of feels like I'm not getting anything done on this cardigan project, but when I check measurements against the pattern, I really am getting somewhere.  I am to the part where the majority of each row is stockinette, which moves quickly, but I've also made some stupid mistakes in the border stitch pattern, which slows me down.  Fortunately, I'm enjoying knitting this, I love the yarn (I think we've covered that) and it's at a place where it's great TV watching knitting.  I don't really know why I feel like I'm getting nowhere - I'm almost halfway to the underarm where the fronts and back split from each other.  Then it's just the home stretch!

Edgings

I've gotten a couple more inches done on my sweater edging.  This is essentially a seed stitch variation, and while seed stitch isn't hard to knit, I always have to think about it when I'm knitting it - unlike stockinette or ribbing.  I've only got a bit more to go though before I switch to stockinette for the majority of the knitting (the seed stitch variation will continue up the front bands), so things should start moving faster soon.  The other thing I have working in my favor is that this is an A-line sweater - it's bigger at the lower edge and decreases towards the top, so I'm working the longest rows now.  

No blogging tomorrow - crazy day!  I will be back Friday though, and Max and Logan can't wait to show you what we've done on the treadle machine.  (Yes, it's been a group effort.)

Something to Attach the Sleeves To

 

Yes, I've started the body of my cardigan.  It's worked bottom up, in one piece and then the fronts and back will split at the underarm and be worked separately.  I tend to have a problem with my momentum once I hit that split for some reason.  That's why I started with the sleeves.  I'm hoping that having the sleeves all finished and waiting, will help push me over the hump when the bodice divides into it's separate parts.  I don't know why this is an issue for me, but I've noticed that on bottom up sweaters, I lose interest and become easily distracted when I split the back from the fronts.  I don't have this problem on top down sweaters and I think it's because I get past the longest rows (on a raglan, the lower yoke has fronts, sleeve tops and back all going at once) at the first of the project - when I'm coasting along on the excitement of a new sweater.  In a bottom up cardigan, the fronts and back don't take long to work at all, in fact they move pretty quickly since you work on one at a time, but mentally I lose interest.  Maybe it's the fiddliness of having three separate parts, that all have yarn ends and shaping going on, I don't know, I just know that this has been a problem in the past and I'm trying to make it less of one.  I'll let you know how it goes when I get there.  I've got a ways to go before I get to the underarm split though!

Sleeves, Check!

 

I finished the sleeves to my Tide Pool Cardigan last night!  (The pattern is Olive Basket, but mine is neither olive, nor basket-y.)  I will definitely be blocking these (along with the finished cardi body) before I sew them up.  They are very roly poly at the seams!

When I first started knitting, I read the directions and they said to block before seaming up a sweater.  I didn't know what blocking was and I really didn't want to waste the time, so I'd just sew it up and be done.  Of course, my seams didn't lie flat, and I needed five hands to sew them up, but hey, I was done!  Yee Haw!

Then one day (I can't remember why) I blocked my pieces, then I sewed them up.  It was amazing!  The seams didn't fight me when I was sewing them, they just lay perfectly flat and cooperative.  The finished seams also were flat.  I couldn't believe what a difference it made.  Maybe the directions are there for a reason.  Who knew?

Sleeves

 

I'm still working on my sleeves for my cardigan.  It's always interesting how hand dyed yarns knit up, and as you can see, the sleeves are different.  I don't think it bothers me though, and I'm not sure why it's not bothering me, normally this kind of thing bothers me.  There's going to be a body between the sleeves, so it's not like they're really going to be together a lot, and also, I knew going into this yarn (Cove!  Oh how I love thee!), that there would be weirdness.  Maybe I need more caffeine, but sleeves that don't quite match aren't disturbing me at the moment.

I do plan to alternate skeins on the body.  I mean, I'm not just letting everything fall apart here.

Still being good, haven't started anything new yet!