Free from the pattern

In the past couple weeks I've felt freed from patterns. As much as I generally use them, I'm getting more excited about just working with general shapes and then makin' the rest up. I'll probably extend (ok, pretty much steal) J. Strizzy's adaption to the Shapley Tank by inserting an occasional motif on it. Some of the yarn from Webs is destined to be a self-designed cardigan with some sort of fair isle design. Sure, I'm no Ms. Starmore, but I can do some stuff on my own.

The Armwarmers

Look everybody, no pattern! I started with Kim Salazar's doodle cable, went with a simple 3-across-2 cable for a while, then consulted Interweave Knits for the gusset and Barbara Walker for a fantastic back-of the-hand pattern. I tried it on a lot and wrote down what I did as I went along so that I could do it twice, and it seemed to work fine. No pattern, no problem.

The Dale top...

This isn't really about no pattern, but rather generally ignoring it. I used it -- to the letter -- up through the first two pattern sections. I tried it on occasionally to decide where the armholes should go, then followed the armhole shaping from the pattern. I decided where the necklines should go by putting it on or holding it up, and when it's time to pick up for the neck edging, I'll just make sure I have a multiple of the stitch pattern. Eh, it's all close enough, and it fits me. No need to stress about exactly how long until the neckline, the shoulders, and whether I really have as much torso as the tall, skiny Norwegian girls in the photo.

And some new stuff

I bought this fabulous ribbon yarn from Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Gauge: 2 sts/inch, on size US 15 needles.

I bought a pattern for a shell in the yarn. Right, like I haven't made a half-dozen shells and tanks (Um, is there a difference?) and couldn't just do it again. The pattern is in a traveling slip stitch that I'm not excited about, so I'm going to do stockinette instead. The pattern comes in the following sizes: 32", 35", 38", 41", and 44". I want 36" -- not an included option. Look, I'm an engineer. Am I going to make a 38" shell? No way! I can do the math to adjust to 36". I didn't have needles as big as 15's and I knit a little loosely, so I bought a pair of 13's. The next thing I have is 10 1/2. So if I don't achieve gauge with the 13's, what am I going to do? Adjust the pattern.

So now I'm changing the stitch, the gauge, and the size. Why did I spend $4.50 on a pattern? Because I wasn't thinking. I don't need this! Maybe I needed to know how many stitches to bind off for the armholes, that I should decrease one stitch each side about three times, lest I expose everything at 2 sts/inch, and how to to shape the neck. Heck, since I'm disregarding the rest of the pattern, maybe I'll change it from a high scoop neck, same front and back, to a lower v-neck in the front and higher neck on the back. I can throw out the three rows of garter stitch neck finishing and come up with something else. Perhaps the $4.50 was for humor value. I'll be sure to bind off "in full fashion," as it says in the pattern, and stick to the final and brilliant finishing instructions:

Sew seams. Put on shell and look at armhole and decide if length is ok. Crochet 1 row of Slip St. if necessary.

Even more photos

I'm gonna learn how to do galleries, darn it. The Adobe software that came with my camera will do it for me, so I might start working on that soon. Today, however, I have some fine non-knitting photos!

The seagull chick hatched on Monday and I took a lot of pictures. Here are three good ones, and cute, too. Baby and one parent, baby at the edge of the nest (look at his little feet!), and the baby eating.

Last night I stood out on the roofdeck (well away from the seagull family!) and took some pictures of "Boston at night." (Warning, these are a little bit large.) The Massachusetts State House, a nearby intersection and the walkway of the courthouse, and the intersection near a hotel still under construction. Love that tripod. I'd like to take some more, but I don't have a lot of roofdeck access time left. Most of the others needed better focus which I'll need to do manually, but maybe I can spend another evening giving it another go.

So with all that photography, where's the knitting? I finished the second armwarmer today and I might take them over tomorrow, after some more documentation. I'm really happy with how they came out. I've been working on the Dale sweater and finished the front, so it really ought to be all done soon. I started swatching with a new yarn from the store in Rhode Island, but I haven't had a chance to photograph it in the light yet. Maybe... Friday? It's become that kind of week. I'm looking forward to days of sunshine that I don't have to spend at work! Just... inside... packing my apartment. Well, still work, but at least I can pause any time for photographing knitting.

Photos, as promised

Not much of an entry, but at least some photos of the finished armwarmer.

I like that you can shrink down big, blurry pictures and get almost-decent small pictures, like this one. Makes my at-dusk, using-the-wrong-hand-and-wrong-lens photo shoot feel like it yielded some marginal success. (Now it just looks artsy instead of out-of-focus. ;)

The party at work was good and I got a gift certificate to the yarn store of my choice. I decided that since I want to buy some yarn at Circles anyway, I should get the gift certificate there and buy the Spaceboard on my own. And that way I don't have to figure out how to spend a few more dollars at one of the online stores when I'd rather support my LYS. Seems like a good deal to me!

The seagull chick hatched this morning and I took a ton of photos, and I'm going to look for some good shots over the next couple days. Maybe I should look into whether the new version of MovableType has more support for photo galleries. It would be easy to put baby seagull fluffballs there and maybe even a FO gallery. (What a concept!)

8 days and counting

June 30 is my last day of work, and I'm looking forward to it! Today at our staff meeting we'll have a little going-away pizza party for me, where people will say nice things about me (aww), they'll give me a nice card (aww), and a PRESENT (ooh!)! I did a little behind-the-scenes requesting, and what did I ask for?

A SpaceBoard! (Also available here.) I asked for a gift certificate to either shop, and it's all I can do to sit and work (and, uh, blog) instead of rubbing my greedy little hands together with anticipation.

I'm not leaving just to get a Spaceboard. Trust me, grad school's not worth that. :)

(I know I promised pictures, but I had a little camera "incident" (Note: delete and delete all are different functions.) and the retakes aren't that good. I'll post them tonight, with a little tale of a drive to Rhode Island, the discovery of a new store, and therefore, new and yummy yarn.)

Movin' Right Along!

I'm amazed at how much progress I've made in the last few days on these armwarmers. Oh yeah, that's what happens if you just work on one project! I made it up to the top of the second arm by Wednesday, I guess, and the pressure was on to find a motif for the back of the hand. I went down to Circles to look at more Barbara Walker books and decided that I might as well just have the whole set, so I bought volumes 2, 3, and 4. They're just so cool, and I know I'll use them for years to come. (Sure, I could have just used my mom's starting in a month, but it's nice to have my own to dogear, stick scraps of paper into, and spill on.)

I met Dava and Colleen there and went went up to J.P. Licks to knit. I did spill on one of the books, but it was a minor incident, it breaks the spell of the new, pristine book, and it got the day's mishap out of the way early on. And when a man and his son came over to ask what we were working on and note that we were brave for bringing this stuff so close to ice cream, I could tell him that we'd already had our accident and were now save. (And thankfully, after that blasphemous statement, we actually were.)

I chose the Exploded Rib pattern from Vol. 4, pg. 196 and combined it with the asymetric gusset from the winter IK issue on gussets. I'm halfway up the chart and making good progress. I won't be done for tomorrow, but giving them to Ellie next week shouldn't be a problem.

I really like working on charted motifs. It's addictive, hurrying to get to the next row, the crossing, the midpoint, moving along to see the rib compress again. I hope I'll still want to do it the second time. So far, so good...

(The camera is at the office today so that I can take more seagull photos tomorrow. The poor thing pants when it gets above about 74 degrees. We estimate that chicks could hatch at any time. Well, one chick. One of the eggs has disappeared. We didn't see it happen, but we suspect that the nest was robbed. So now we're putting all of our hope into seeing one little baby gull. I'll bring it home for the weekend and post more photos then.)

I finally updated the sidebar, moving projects to their rightful places. Tonight I cast on for Lisa's socks, since I finally had a chance to measure her on Tuesday. Since she only wants ankle socks, they should go really fast -- yay! I'm doing 2x2 ribbing on the leg, which is very similar to the 3x3 ribbing on the armwarmers, but it hasn't bugged me yet. I think I prefer 3x3, though; something about the rhythm is nicer, like maybe 2 stitches isn't enough before transitioning. (Moss stitch for all of Mist was fine, though... Maybe I just like odd repeats.) Hopefully I can finish these in the two weeks before I see her again.

I also cast on last week or so for "Puppy Love" from Sharon Turner's Monkey Suits for a pregnant friend's baby. I just haven't been able to bring myself to be interested in it. Could it be because it's Merino in June? Because my purls get loose and I can't get gauge for anything? Maybe I'm just not ready to knit for babies yet? Maybe I'll just let that marinate a while longer.

You might also note that I removed the lacy baby blanket I was working on. I was granted permission to rip a UFO as a possible cathartic measure, and the release of accepting that permission was fabulous. I even felt like I didn't actually need to do the ripping, but I decided that I wasn't really happy with how the blanket was going, so I might as well take it out anyway. Maybe I'll come up with another idea for that super-soft, German microfiber.

I feel like I"m not really making progress on things. High Tide is beached. I think I need to add a new ball, but I haven't picked it up in at least two weeks. The Svale top is moving slowly, but it's in that phase where you keep knitting and knitting but it doesn't get any longer when you measure it. The random lace socks went back into the UFO pile. But the armwarmers are moving along, and when I finish them, maybe I'll be ready to hunker down with one of those other projects and finish it off. Besides, I'm going home for the weekend soon, so I'll have a lot of knitting time then.

Thank you all for the continuing reassuring comments. It's getting better, I think.

The Gretchen thing amuses me. When I took German in high school, everyone had to choose a German name. I had to, too, even though I already had one! I chose Greta, and Gretchen is the diminutive form, so I guess they even have a reason. Ingrid, you have a much greater collection of incorrect names than I do! I just hope I can convince people not to spell it Ingred (just makes me twitch to look at it). On the other hand, I'm so bad at learning people's names that I find it hard to criticize!

I'm excited to give the armwarmers away. I'll definitely take the camera and show you how they look on her. And if I'm fast, I can catch the "wow" look that I bet she'll have. :)

And Rossana, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me!"

New project

Thank you for the supportive comments. "Breaking up is hard to do," but maybe it's for the better. That doesn't seem to make it any easier. For better or for worse, he's still my best friend, and sometimes that makes it a little easier. At least I know we're both going through this, and somehow sharing the pain makes it hurt a little less.

I didn't really want to put the knitting down, but I did have an idea of something new to start, and Brenda was right that it needed the right yarn. I already had it though - one of the wool-tencel yarns I bought at Minds Eye Yarns a while back.

I often get breakfast or a sandwich at a place called Mulligans, across the street from the Fleet Center. The woman who makes me french toast some mornings and usually works the register at lunchtime thinks my name is Gretchen. (If someone forgets my name, this is a common one for them to come up with.) I could have tried to correct her, but at some point I decided to just let it go. The hardest part is remembering to answer to Gretchen when she wants to know whether I want one syrup or two. She's very nice and when I'm knitting while waiting, she often wants to know what I'm making for her.

This place is tiny. There are no tables, there's no room to sit at all, and the staff barely fits behind the counter. In the winter, the door opens all the time and she's cold at the register next to the door, so I decided that she needs armwarmers.

I did a little swatching on Friday and finally chose the right size needles and cast on on Saturday evening. I'd been inspired by Kim Salazar's doodle cable from last week and decided to try it out. I also decided to turn it upside down. It doesn't show up very well normally, but if you stretch it out, it's quite nice. I think in a good, plain wool, it would stand out well. But since it's hard to see in this project, I decided to just use it as an accent near the base and then use a simple cable up the rest. By the end of Sunday night I'd made it up to the wrist.

Now I need a motif to put on the back of the hand. I have a couple ideas from cables in Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I got out the Winter issue of Interweave Knits for the article on gussets and I'm excited to get started. However, I wasn't ready to move along when it was time for the staff meeting at work today, so I put the first one on a scrap of Svale and cast on for the second one so that I'd be able to knit something (and I made reasonable progress, too). I hung out with a knitting friend this evening and made it a little past the midpoint of the arm. So by the end of tomorrow I'll have to get moving on the strategy for finishing the hands. Maybe I can take them over sometime this week and offer them after requesting a late breakfast or lunch when the shop is slow.

It's felt good to have a new thing, something for someone else. But I'm also glad that it was something quick because my own projects are starting to call back to me.

New Toys

While perusing the Barbara Walker book at the LYS this afternoon, I decided I should also peruse the Anne. I bought one skein a while ago during my time of Koigu fixation and bought one off a friend a while ago, and today I picked up two more - almost opposites.

Don't know what I'm going to do with it (it still seems way too nice for socks), but I'll come up with something. They both made me happy, so it was good.

And finally, on Friday a friend from work went with me to a new store in Boston that makes custom purses. It's shockingly girly, but I bought two. One (see my fabrics) was specifically chosen to fit one smallish knitting project and the other (its fabrics) is to be more of a regular purse. I'll certainly get them back before I leave Boston, and it would be fun to get them before I go home the first few days in July. Sew like the wind, Lill bag makers!

A Little Empty Space

The strappy tank was a complete success, and he says the photo form the last entry doesn't do it justice at all. But the end of the weekend brought the unavoidable resolution of the relationship, and there's no knitting I want to work on now.

Last night during my knitting class I worked on each project for a little bit, eventually deciding I didn't want to be working on this one and dropping it to the ground. After two hours I had a pile of in-progress pieces next to my chair. I didn't even knit on the T home -- just played mindless games on my pilot.

I picked up something new this morning and we'll see how it goes. I think I'll be ripping out the blue and white baby blanket this week, following a suggestion that I rip a UFO, and clearly I haven't liked it anyway.

It will probably be a few days before I want to write a much more. Hopefully some sunny days this weekend and perhaps beginning to pack to move and start over will turn my spirits.

I succomb to the pull of the camera

Ok, here are some update pictures. I decided to phtograph the strappy tank anyway - if he sees it, maybe it will just intensify the anticipation! Dale is next; this shows the completion of the first chart. And finally, High Tide, though I'm not quite to the shading part yet.

I don't have anything new to say about these, so I'll just give you even more pictures! Boston has been rather rainy lately, and we had some lovely thunderstorms today. The view from my window when the sun came out was lovely. There are seagulls nesting on our roofdeck at work. The pair has two eggs. Maybe I spent a little too much time photographing them this afternoon. We're hoping for hatchlings soon, and that there isn't a whole colony next year. And finally, Davis Square after another burst of rain.

Thank you for all the compliments on Gyrid. I promise she looks much better with a skirt, as I wore her on Sunday. Brenda, I'm glad you liked your lobster. I'm sorry I couldn't send a fresher one! Good that everyone found some part of the gift useful!

Strappy Tank finished!

... but no picture. It really needs to be blocked (maybe tomorrow; I don't have the concentration to do it tonight) and I'm hoping to wear it this weekend as a little bit of a surprise, and since he reads this occasionally, I dokn't want to spoil my big entrance. :) I'll try to take some photos before I go and write up an entry to be posted while I'm gone for the weekend.

I'm plugging away on my Dale top. I'm almost at the top of Chart A, and then it's on to chart B, of which two rows are just knitting around. The progress its pretty good, but I discovered last night that I shouldn't try to work the chart while watching Alias. Had to tink back a row and pick up some lost YOs. And that's a long row at 214 sts! I've made a lot of forward progress since then, and my progress should increase rapidly.

And finally, High Tide. I've gotten a few inches further, but I'm not quite to the color change yet. I've had to wind extra balls of all of the teal and now I need to do a blue. It slows me down to run out of a color, especially since it's usually a surprise. I discovered that if I put each of the balls in a small ziplock, leading the strand through a clipped corner, and put the six ziplock bags in a small sack, nothing gets tangled. Of course, when I suddenly pull the end of a ball out of the bag, I'm a little bit shocked. I suppose if I were smart, I'd wind a little extra in advance, but I keep thinking I won't need it. Of course, when I do the back and sleeves I will need more. Perhaps I'll need to wind bigger balls next time...

I'm sorry there are no pictures. I wasted all the sunshine this weekend by knitting. I know, it's terrible. I also cooked and baked - banana pudding, scones, goulash, banana bread, and coconut macaroons. So now I can stay inside and knit comfortably without fear of starving. But there are no photos. Perhaps tomorrow I can take a few before I go to work and post them in the evening. And if I get back to work on the Dale top, there will be something to look at!