My Hobbies are Getting in the Way of My Hobbies

I made a fair amount of progress in knitting this weekend, despite the discovery of some pattern transcription mistakes, the resultant ripping, and finally further progress. But my other hobbies are getting in the way of my knitting!

Square dancing last weekend was a lot of fun, but it meant very little knitting -- just a few rows between tips. I decided to weave in the ends of the fair isle section in the baby dress, since I could do that in little bits. I'm proud to say that I did them all! When I finish I'll really be almost done, and that will feel great. Over the past few days I ripped and reknit the entire top section and last night stayed up just a litle bit late to sew the shoulders together.

Now that it's done and big, the hemline doesn't look so bad, but now that I started the sleeve, I prefer the look of the crisper edge. I'm sort of considering cutting off the bottom and redoing it, but then I think more about how much work that will be and think again. I think I'll wait to see how it looks when it's all finished and then make a decision.

I did get enough time to work on some other projects, though. I sewed the side seams on the purple baby sweater, so now I just need to block one more sleeve and sew them both on. I don't know why this part is always so difficult. It somehow seems very tedious. I'm hoping to find some time to sit down and do it soon, though, since the baby will come any day now and it would be nice to send it. (Don't worry, it's the 18-24 month size, but I shouldn't let it languish that long!)

I also made a little more progress on Mist. The left front is about up to the neck shaping. But because my row gauge is tight by about 20%, so I need to carefully read the instructions and decide whether 40 rows from the top of the back is really 40 rows or needs to be to 48 so that the neck isn't too high. I'll get back to that when I have a little more time to pay attention.

Last weekend was busy with square dancing and this week is busy with singing. Two orchestra rehearsals this week and four concerts between Thursday and Tuesday will keep me very busy. I need to do a little extra work to make up for missing two half-days of work, so that will cut into the knitting a little bit. Nonetheless, I'm hoping I might be able to show off a finished dress before the concert on Saturday, and then maybe I'll be super-diligent at Knitsmiths on Sunday and put those sleeves on that baby sweater.

I've decided it's about time to talk about my new venture: grad school. I'll be leaving Boston this summer to start a Ph.D. program out West in the fall. Boulder and San Diego are my prime candidates at this point, though I'm still considering Riverside and might be accepted to Stanford. And what I've been thinking about this week is... weather. Here's this week's weather forecast:*

Oh yeah, time to get outta here!

* I tried to make the table font small, but I couldn't manage. It just means the weather is trying to taunt us.

Mama wants picutres, Mama gets pictures

Spring may come after all. There's a little tiny bit of green in the dirt in front of my house. I think it will turn into tulips. It was still a grey, Boston day, though. You can see what I see from my office, and a close-up of the airport. I spy... the airport Hyatt. Oh good, you got that one. I spy... a FedEx tail. I spy... Boston's waste water treatment plant. I spy... a crane working where they demolishe the old ugly highway. (The photo isn't out of focus, by the way. It was hazy because of moisture and air pollution.)

Here's my office, and a closeup of a daffodil. I put the "flowers" on the purple baby sweater, and I finished a pair of socks for my aunt Roswitha in Germany.

And finally, the view from the couch. Sundae has taken to sitting or sleeping right next to my legs. Warm, cozy, and if she's asleep, she doesn't try to eat the knitting. It doesn't get much better than that!

I'll be square dancing all weekend, so my next entry will be Sunday or Monday. Happy weekend, everyone!

Good Weekend Knitting

Well, except for having to rip out all of the weekend's fair isle work this morning, I had a great weekend of knitting. I made a lot of progress and even fixed up the fair isle again, so it was still forward progress.

First, Nancy's comment came while I was writing the previous entry, so I didn't mean not to respond, I just hadn't seen it yet. About putting a row of purl stitches at the hemline to make a nice border for the hem. Well, yeah, the pattern does say that, actually. The pattern is written for flat knitting, despite the fair isle, and I'm working it around. It says to knit two rows... so I did...
I'll do it "right" on the cuffs and neck. I'm hoping that a little bit of steaming in the end will help that, too.

My color palette for the fair isle is a little different than what's in the pattern.

Clockwise from back row, left: blue, cream, darker purple, lighter purple, oatmeal, pink

The original pattern had red and pink for the tips of the fair isle, but I used the purples instead. I therefore had an extra color (the pink) and decided to use that for the contrasting hem. The original used the main color in the middle of the fair isle pattern, but I decided to use the pink again instead, partly because I figured I might as well use it if I had it and that it would blend better with the other colors than in the pattern. If you don't mind scrolling back down to the previous entry (bandwidth conservation!), you can see the result. I think it's adorable. (And thank you very much to my mom, Judy at theknitter.com, for pulling out all of her colors and making a great choice choice for me!)

The fair isle is now correct, or whatever I knit is now defined as correct. On the first pass I also noticed that I made a small but consistent error in one row near the bottom of the fair isle and decided that I'd do it again and make it a design element. The blue squares between the stars should be closer to diamonds, but I like it just fine this way, and I sure don't want to rip out even more, so it's staying.

So when I wasn't ripping and reknitting my fair isle, I made progress on some other projects. On my aunt's socks I turned the heel and started working the gusset. I picked up the baby sweater and knit the other button band, so now I need to do the embroidery and then seam it. I got out Mist and made it to the arm hole on the left front. I love the fabric I'm getting and I'm looking forward to having this sweater. Long sleeves mean there's still plenty of work to do, but I like the rhythm of the seed stitch so it's all good. This afternoon I got a crochet lesson at Knitsmiths, and spent the entire three hours finishing up the straps for the lingerie. I just have to sew them onto the back and get the buttons in the right place, and then it will be done!

I'm looking forward to finishing up a few things. I've been felling a little spread, like I have too much going and I'm not making progress on anything. It's a comin'...

And here's Sundae, still not telling about that ball of yarn, but looking pretty sly, don't you think?

Well, *&^%

Yesterday I planned out this great entry about making progress on the fair isle dress and then losing one of the colors, and whether the cat had stolen it. And when I found it, that Sundae wasn't telling about how the ball got lost. But I didn't write it up because I really wanted to finish the fair isle border and show it off. So here it is:

But while setting up the shot, I noticed this:

Do you see it? Center row. The mistake is only in the last 4 repeats of the pattern, but I don't think I can leave it that way now. Goodbye, one day of progress.

At least now I don't have to carry around 6 balls of yarn -- I have all the lengths cut perfectly for my purposes. Reminds me of the Monty Python "String" sketch...

No attention span

Thanks for the compliments on my glasses! I'm still really excited about them. Almost no one notices, but that's ok. Where's the sun? I want to wear the shades!

Hello to the other Ingrid. I am homesick for the Colorado Rockies where I grew up, and where it's in the 70s and I could wear my Flashy Lace, which I think about every day when I'm getting dressed.

Speaking of which, Nancy Walsh, the designer of Flashy Lace, has just started a new blog. Go say hi and see her cute daughter in a cute sweater.

Alison asked about whether the Lopi has softened with wear. I think that sweater (which is several years old now) is softer than the Lopi Lite Pullover I finished just before Christmas, so I suppose the answer is yes. However, a little Lopi scratchiness doesn't bother me, so I may not be the best one to judge.

I'm almost halfway through the fair isle on the dress, but now I'm to the 3-color row and I lost the pink that I'd used at the hem. (I could do what the pattern says and use the main color, but I thought this would be cuter.) Maybe Sundae (the cat) took it. Maybe she'll bring it back. There would be a picture of my progress and all the balls of yarn I do have, but I was already 10 minutes late leaving the house and decided it wasn't a good idea.

I got the new flash memory card for my camera. I can't believe that 1 GB fits on that little tiny card. Now I can take at least 1000 pictures at lowest quality, or 686 pictures at my standard quality, or over 100 at best quality, which I'll probably only use for landscapes. I wanted to bring the camera with me today, but it wouldn't fit in my backpack with my lunch. (Knitting, of course, gets first backpack priority.)

I'm ready to turn the heel on the second of the pair of socks for my aunt, but I forgot to measure the heel flap from the first sock, so I'll have to wait to work on that this weekend. Good thing I brought Mist with me today.

On Wedensday I made goulash and red cabbage. Both were very tasty, but there were still leftovers. People at work wonder what that strange purple stuff is. They look at me funny when I want to use the juice as an acid-base indicator. Oh right, I'm weird.

(And amazed that I can say this much when I have nothing at all to say.)

New Glasses!

Yesterday I got new glasses. I'm so excited! I'd finally decided that I didn't like the old frames, and a friend pointed out that they were too wide for my face. I decided he was right and made him responsible for helping me find new ones. The old lenses were 48mm across and oval, the new ones are 39mm and almost round. I think it's hard to see too much difference in the pictures, but the new ones look much better to me. You can try and see.

Old and New:

The new glasses also have shades. (The sweater in these photos is a beautiful one, made for me by my mother in Lopi Lite, and perfect for wearling on this snowy day.)

And the knitting...

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions about the hem. I decided to try both smaller needles and the provisional cast-on for three-needle hem "seam", but didn't have smaller needles in the right length, so I decided to stick with the uniform size. It might still leave a touch of flair, but that will be cute in a little girl dress. It also meant that it was easy to tell where I should sew the hem in -- the same number of rows from the hemline. The only problem I had happened because I've never worked with a provisional cast-on before and unraveled and picked up all the stitches at once. Fighting with stitches only 14 rows apart on two circular needles made it hard to manipulate the stitches so that I could do the three-needle technique, so I ended up using yet another needle to hold 10-15 stitches at a time, and this was a great success.

So here it is! I did get a little bit of a line in spots, as Allana warned, but I'm hoping I can pull that out a little during blocking, and I think it's pretty subtle.

Click to flip it over and see the wrong side.

I'm now ready to start the fair isle section and I'm itching to do it. Hopefully I can make some headway on that tonight. I hadn't noticed before Alison's comment that the band does pucker a little. I'm not sure what I want to do about that. I think I may just try to keep it loose as I work. You don't see that as much in the picture from the book with the dress on the hanger, but I'll try to be concious of that.

Oh, and as you can see, I'm not going with the original color scheme, partly because of yarn availability, and partly because I wasn't that excited about the red/pink combo in the original. I have a great blue and some lovely purples to use with the recommended cream and oatmeal background and the pink I have for the hemlines, and I think it will be darling. If I make enough progress tonight, I'll show you tomorrow.

Just two more things. First, my mom asked to see the unfinished lingerie, so here's a little peek. I promise, this is the only time I've ever stuffed! (Click for a bigger version.)

And finally, a somewhat artsy camera "oops" from the glasses this morning, showing what my couch really looks like!

Back and Knitting!

I had a fantastic week with my visitor, and I don't mind that I didn't get much knitting done. I knit on my commute, but only half an hour a day doesn't get you too far. I finished the baby sweater sleeve, but haven't picked up the rest of the project (need to do one button band, block this sleeve, and assemble). I didn't get to the lingerie, so that will just be a treat for a later visit (just need to crochet the straps). I made a little progress on my second sock, and am about half a repeat from starting the heel flap. There was no real progress on Mist. Since I'm close to finishing the baby sweater, I decided I could start the next baby project and swatched for the Debbie Bliss baby dress I'll be making. I guessed wrong on the needles and am trying again, and hopefully I'll get moving on that soon. Just 18 rows to the fair isle band, and I'm excited.

I actually have a little question about this dress. It's the dress with fair isle band from Debbie Bliss' Easy Knits. There's a hem on this dress, and I've never knit anything with a hem. I got out my trusty knitting reference books and saw that I have some choices about how to do this. Does anyone have experience in this area? Although the instructions just say to cast on the stitches and sew the hem up later, I could, instead:

• use a provisional cast-on, fold at the hem, and knit these CO stitches together with the body stitches in the row where they meet, and/or
  
• knit to the hemline in smaller needles (probably 1 size smaller) so that the dress will hang straight (this may or may not be desirable; I can't decide whether I like the slight flare at the bottom of the dress in the picture).

Any suggestions? I probably won't really get to this point for a couple days, so I welcome your opinions.

Glad to be back! Progress and pictures soon, I promise.

A Little Hiatus

I'll be taking a little hiatus from the blog this week. A friend is in town and I won't be getting much knitting done in the evenings. I still get my commuting time, but progress there is... nothing to write home about.

Although I tried really hard, I didn't manage to finish the baby sweater last week. It was all I knit for three days, but I couldn't manage it. I knit one of the button bands and I tried to do the embroidery/double stitching on the front, but the stitches kept getting pulled to the back. I'm not sure what the problem was. In the end, I couldn't finish enough to feel like I could really give a partially-assembled sweater, so I just passed and will send it when I'm finished (hopefully late next week). The second sleeve is almost finished, and then I'll just have a touch of blocking, one button band, and seaming to do. Still very close!

Have a good week! Knit a little extra to make up for my lack.

Buddy, can you spare a sleeve?

Front, back, sleeve, slee--- Wait a second...

Well, I've made good progress on the baby sweater, but maybe not enough progress. I have most of it finished. I just have the other sleeve and the button bands (an inch across the neck and shoulders) to do and to sew it all together. (The last 40 rows of the sleeve took a good three hours, though.)

Is it hopeless yet? Yes. I mean, no, of course not! I can still finish by Thursday if I skip work tomorrow to make that sleeve.... Ok, I don't think I can really do that. Maybe I'll go with the traditional knitter's gift package -- 3/4 of a sweater, fully assembled, and a sleeve, hopefully bound off instead of on the needles. Could be worse. At least I have cute buttons to look forward to. (Buttons from Windsor Button on Temple Street near Downtown Crossing.)

(It's even cuter when it's big.)

In response to comments, I did in fact forget to put in my cat's picture. Here she is, patiently waiting for me to feed her so we can go to bed.

And to Markio, I have to admit that I didn't buy any mushed red beans. I was so stuffed from dim sum that I couldn't fathom eating anything else. I have a friend who's made red bean buns on occasion and I love them. I did, however, buy the gelatinous mutant coconut candy (45 cents) and am sad to report that it is neither gelatinous nor much like coconut, so I guess that makes the mutant part true.