awayuq

yellow sweater: the visuals

The reason there weren't pictures on the last post is that when I wrote it, there were no pictures of me inside the sweater. I got someone at work today to snap a few

my expression was invariably bizarre or hideous, so I am not showing my face. I've never been one to spend much time on facial appearance, but seriously, these photos make me think I should start. Also in self defense I would like to state that it is *cold* here, and under that sweater I am wearing not only a turtleneck but another sweater and a bulky pair of corduroy pants. So in case the "dumpling" thought crossed your mind, give me the benefit of the doubt until you have some real evidence, as you might well get if we ever have some shorts weather, for example.

But the sweater is ok. If it looks like there are two buttons missing at the bottom, it's because there are. I only had 7. Since I never button those two, I am not going to worry about it.

Some details:

The sweater is the St. Andrew's Cardigan from Cottage Craft Woollens. It is knit using their two-ply yarn in Goldenrod Yellow, #6 needles (US). The kit comes with 8 skeins and I have part of one skein and about 1/3 of the first attempt at the left front, so I'd probably have at least one complete skein left if I hadn't redone the front. I changed the pattern in a few places. I substituted a single-layer band of ribbing for the front closure bands. I knit the sleeves about 1 1/2 inches longer than called for in the pattern.

The pattern is ok, but not great. There is no continuity between the bottom ribbing and the pattern. There is no chart, a big negative for me. The instructions are easy to follow, but it's a very basic sweater--no designer details. The fit is a little closer than I expected; I knit the 39" size and next time I might try the next size up. The yarn is nice but definitely rustic. If you shiver in disgust at the sight of bits of vegetation, if you think merino is scratchy and yarn should have the heft of a marshmallow, this is not the yarn for you. I appreciate it for the heathered color, the crispness which gives good definition to the cables, and the warmth. It is very well priced and I'd definitely buy more sweater lots. Who am I kidding, I already have. Eight skeins of "Quoddy Blue" and eight of "Sage", both beautiful. I have found the company good to deal with, friendly and prompt.

Now what? the fun part, choosing a new project...

nothing to do with any kind of olympics whatsoever.

Because I didn't sign up for the knitting festitivite and I don't have one of those tv things so I don't know anything about anything. However, I did finish a sweater this weekend. Yes, the yellow beastie is done! I sewed the buttons on this morning. My sleeve calculations turned out to be better than the pattern as writ. If I had to do the whole thing over, I might consider using a needle one size larger, or making the next bigger size. But I wasn't shooting for glamorous perfection, so it's all ok... when I first put the finished thing on last night I thought I might not like it. Twenty-four hours later, the only time it hasn't been on me are the hours when I was in bed asleep, so I think it really is ok. At the very least, it's warm.

great news!

The best scholastic news I've found in a long time: it turns out that one of the books assigned for one of my classes is on Audible. That means I can knit and read at the same time--and be doing schoolwork! Yippee! That means this sweater will, I hope, be done in a couple of weeks. I finished the fronts

and I must say, though it is lovely knitting, the whole thing looks a little small. When I put the fronts on top of the back, the back is definitely wider than the two fronts together. For a while I wondered if I had accidentally knit the things with different sized needles, but I figure if I had the size difference would have been much more obvious. All I can guess is that my tension varies, depending on whether I am on vacation or not. It's not all that noticable, and the larger part of the knitting occurs at the bottom of the back, which works out perfectly to cover the posterior of the body. As soon as the right front was done, with all those buttonholes, I started the sleeves.

Have I ever mentioned that I am short? When I buy things off the rack, sleeves are too long by several inches; radically cropped pant hems are full length on me. When I sew something from a pattern, I have to take every "petite-able" shortening trick available, and remember to stay alert to length measurements when knitting unless I want cowls around my wrists. You can imagine my surprise as I was knitting the sleeves and read that the length to starting cap decreases is supposed to be 14.5 inches. When I got to that point, I looked at my sleeve, and compared it to my arm. It came about halfway up the upper arm--nowhere near the armpit. Puzzlement. Well, this would be ok if the body of the sweater were wide; I do have sweaters where the underarm is about this length, and the body is quite loose. But I realize that the sleeve cap has to go all the way to the neck, and has to match the yoke of the body parts, and looking at the length of the body decreases, I didn't see any way that a sleeve cap starting at the middle of my upper arm was going to make it all the way to my neck. Just to check, I pinned the body side seams together and laced the front and back together at the neck at about the distance apart they will be once the sleeve cap is in there. I tried on the resulting contraption and held the sleeve up to it, and I still couldn't see any way 14.5 inches was going to make anything longer than a 3/4 length sleeve. So I kept knitting.

I started the cap decreases around 16 inches and am now maybe almost halfway through the sleeve caps. It will be a dismal chore if I have to rip them all out and do them over, but I truly can't see any surprise elements lurking in the pattern that would make the shorter sleeves work. Still have I have this uncomfortable, niggling feeling that I'm missing something... me? *Lengthen* a pattern? Very, very odd....

reentry. left front x 3. catching up.

I was in Tortola last week. It was warm there. I wore bare feet for days in a row.

Before I left, I finished the left front of the yellow cably sweater. That's it there on the left. The ribbed button band is a definite improvement over the seed stitch. I hope I can remember what I did and duplicate it on the right front. Soon.

It's warmer in Tortola, as I mentioned before, so I brought cotton knitting with me and made a sweater back (or front) up to the armholes.

The yarn is an Elann special I bought a year or so ago; it's 100% cotton and feels like string but I washed my swatch and it turns out a nice fabric. The sweater pattern is from Vintage Knits; I've always liked the ribbed lace and wanted to try it, just needed a week's vacation to get around to it. Also on the needles in the past few days a long sock has been taking shape

I am dreaming up all kinds of stripe combinations to amuse me on socks. These will be up to my boot tops, if not up to my knees.

The final bit of current knitting news is receipt of the "New Style of Heirloom Knitting" book which has the pattern for the Crossed in Translation KAL sweater. I love the book. I love it almost enough to want to know some Japanese characters. I would not recommend it for the faint of heart, as the instructions for the sweater are a maze of charts, schematics, and unfamiliar characters. But love is blind, and I am nosing around for yarn in a suitable weight and color to start swatching.

Hope all the omnivores and carnivores out there will go eat some pork sausage in honor of the day.