Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Perfect Weather for Knitting

The Sea Urchin sweater is done. With the temps in the single digits there is nothing else to do but hunker down, cover up with a blanket and knit yourself silly. And I did. I finished the Sea Urchin, blocked. Ella Rae Classic
-100% wool
-219 yards per ball on 8's. I love it. It was a find in the back room at Webs. $2.99 per ball. Soft, not scratchy. No splitting and not a knot in the 6 balls consumed. I'm going back for more. I started and almost finished a vest (different yarn, Cascade Bollacine, dark navy) with grand plans of doing a two color rib with a lighter gauge yarn(Rowan Matchmaker), smaller needle. I won't show you the result. The ribbing will be ripped out and tried again. To ease the pain I swatched some Cascade 220 (yummy!) in charcoal for design to be disclosed as soon as I come up with it.
Beau is knitted out. Total exhaustion, can you tell? Either that or he's been into the catnip and crashed. It happens.

(see that hideous blanket? It's actually the largest dishcloth ever made (5feet square)The cats love it. Wherever it goes, they go.)

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

The Snow People are Sweating

January thaw. Temps reaching 63 degrees in Western Massachusetts is causing all sorts of problems for the lovely snowmen. I heard on a police scanner one had fallen across the road. (Apparently it was a large snowman. I can't imagine being the idiot that called that 911 in. ) I don't know what the police did that responded."Dispatch: you have a snow person of uncertain gender down in the road causing a situation. " Police: "Copy that, I'll need back up!" Such a loss. I hope a new crop appears soon.

I took a picture of my wip last night!

It looks like a giant sea urchin. Maybe I should do "scallop" edging? Sorry. I did go with the garter stitch after the armhole so the part that folds back is the same on both sides. When I run out of the current ball in process I'll put the body on hold and do the sleeves. This project goes so quick. I'm thinking another in cotton for this spring for my sleeveless dresses. January 8 and I'm thinkin' about spring!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Phew, It's Over

As predicted, the boys hid in the cellar for 3 days. I missed them. The house is back to pre Christmas decorated mode.

Andrew said, "I finally get my chair back, who were those people?!

Over the holiday I stuck mainly to socks as we were in and out of the house and didn't have time to snuggle in for a good knitting spell. Since then I have reviewed my stash and found an aran weight off white yarn with yardage that doesn't meet the quantity I need for a full blown aran. So, since I've been itching to make another Shellie Mackie pinwheel sweater I am cooking up a version with aran-ness. Here would be a good place to insert the photo of the work in process but-hah, well, we know how I am about that. (dork). I'll describe- the back pinwheel design has bobbles every six rows in the center of each eight sections. I have reached the sleeve opening and left the stitches live on the backside and did provisional cast on the front side so all stitches will be live, no seam. I wanted to use seed stitch from this point forward but my increases were messed up by the second round because the pattern wouldn't cooperate-seemed to work in my head but actual knitting didn't. So I'm pondering a pattern that will look the same on both sides, keep my increases looking neat and tidy and NOT be ribbing. Nothing wrong with ribbing, just get tired of it. I may go with garter. Soft and doesn't curl. Knitting in the round makes that k 1 row, p 1 row. I've also toyed with the idea of short-rowing the fronts for a button closure. I will also change my mind 50 times before I get to that point. Hopefully I'll post the finished product.