Stacyverb

Buh-bye, Cloudette

Hey, does anybody remember this cardigan?

Ringing a vague bell? I started it in May of last year, then it went into the closet and hibernated for a while, then I pulled it back out in October and worked on it for a while, and then it hibernated again for a few months. I pulled it back out last week and got back to work on it, at which point it looked like this:

 

Nothing left to do but finish one sleeve make the other! Woo-hoo! The home stretch! FINALLY.

Today that cardigan looks like this:

Oh no I DIDN'T.

Yup, I sure did. I was almost done, and I tore the whole thing apart. I tried it on at the one-sleeve-finished stage and I hated it. HATED it. The belt, which I thought was such a cute, waist-emphasizing feature, was just getting tangled up. Worse, somehow I must have mis-measured something, because the belt sat waaaay below my waist. It didn't look cute and tailored, it looked sloppy and stupid.

I realized I would never wear this thing. Or rather, I might wear it once and feel uncomfortable in it all day, and then avoid wearing it ever again. Why force myself to finish a project if my heart wasn't in it? Life's too short, folks.

As I always tell my students, one of the great things about knitting is that it's one of the few things in life where you can actually get a do-over. Mistakes can be unraveled and corrected, and in extreme cases like this, whole garments can be undone and the yarn re-used to make something else.

Some friends who saw me right after I unraveled Cloudette asked me how I felt, after putting all that work into it and having nothing to show. Honestly? I felt great. Sometimes, what's even better than a project that's finished is one that's just DONE.

Finished: Not Chuck

Just in time! Local temperatures are on the rise, but yesterday was still cool enough to be considered sweater weather.

 

Please ignore the windblown hair and squinting-into-the-sun face.

 

Before any compliments me on the beautiful camelia bush behind me, rest assured it's not mine. These photos were taken outside a bar. So there you go.

I'm really pleased with this! The pattern was fun to knit, and I love the color and softness of this yarn. This sweater will be a staple of my fall and winter wardrobe, I'm sure.

PROJECT DETAILS

Pattern: Chuck by Andi Satterlund

Modifications: One extra pattern repeat for added length. Followed instructions for size 33 for the body and size 37 for sleeves to accomodate "wheeling" room.

Yarn: Classic Elite Liberty Wool, color 7880 Golden Poppy. Used six balls and a tiny bit of a seventh.

Needles: Size US 9 (pattern called for an 8, but I got gauge on a 9).

In progress: Not Chuck

Sometimes, by this point in the year, spring has clearly sprung here in Atlanta. This year, things aren't so clear. One day it's 65 degrees, the next it's 35. Since cold weather seems to be reluctant to leave, I'm trying to get one more winter project finished before turning my attention to swishy skirts and tank tops.

 

The name of this pattern is Chuck, but I'm not calling mine Chuck because I actually knit Anthony a sweater several years ago that I named Chuck.  Confused yet? EXACTLY.

Anyway, this pattern immediately went into my queue when I saw it on Lauren a while back, and I fell even more in love with it when I discovered Kristin's longer version. Curvy fit! Cabley goodness! Top-down, seamless construction! This sweater had to be mine.

 

It's been a while since I've knit anything this cabley. I've definitely had to pay closer attention to what I'm doing. Having said that, it's actually going pretty fast. It's on a US 9 needle, which feels HUGE to me, and the whole back is plain stockinette, so that part of the round flies.

At press time, all I have left is one sleeve and the neckband. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get at least one more cold day in time for me to wear it!

Finished: Verdigris mitts

October was all about projects, projects, projects.  I finished so many things!  Oh, the endorphin rush of completion!

 

These fingerless mitts were a birthday gift for my friend Kerri.  Well, truth be told, I had a few setbacks with this project and only finished one of them in time for her birthday.  (But she really, really liked that one.)  Then I made the second one a week later.

 

The yarn was leftover from some socks I made a few years ago.  It's called Kona Sock from Crafty in a Good Way, and I bought it in Kansas City while on a road trip in 2007.  I think it might have been a local dyer, as I've never seen or heard of it anywhere else.  The colorway is called Forest Floor.

The pattern is Verdigris by Rosemary Hill.  I liked this pattern, but it runs quite large, as I discovered several inches into the first one (argh!).  My friend has small hands, so I started over by casting on 54 sts instead of 72 and did three pattern repeats instead of four, centering the thumb gussett in the middle of the second repeat. 

And because I know someone will ask, the nail polish I'm wearing in the top photo is OPI's Magnifico Mexico (one of my favorites and, sadly, discontinued.)

Focus

Nope, there hasn't been much blog action lately.  I've been busy with a lot of things, and had to make the choice between writing about them or actually doing them.  I went with doing them.

I've been trying to get better about prioritizing, trying not to spread myself so thin.  Instead of putting a little bit of energy into a lot of things, I'm trying to put of lot of concentrated energy toward a few projects at a time.  It's not easy for me!  I have a lot of interests, and am easily distracted!  But while I love to multi-task, sometimes I need to face the fact that focusing on one thing (well, maybe two or three) at a time is better.  It creates less frenzy, and I can enjoy the feeling of actually finishing stuff.

Case in point: a couple of gifts I made for important events this month.  This is a little sweater I knit as a baby shower gift for my friend Melissa.

The yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed from my stash, and this is the pattern. 

Then I knit these socks as a present for my grandmother's 90th birthday:

The color was pretty much unphotographable and the stitch pattern wasn't showing up at all until I fiddled around A LOT with the exposure.  But trust that these are a nice basic brown color called Coffee Bean, in Elann Sock It To Me yarn (also from stash!).  The pattern is called open twisted ribbing--pretty simple, but enough to add interest to an otherwise plain pair of socks.

These gifts have been gifted, and I'm pleased to report they were well received by the giftees. :)

In progress: Cloudette Cardigan

This week I've been trying to get back into a sweater project I started in May and then put aside for the summer.  It's Claudia Geiger's Cloudette Cardigan from the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits.  (Irony: I can't stand Jane Austen!)

I've been wanting a lightweight wrap sweater for a while, and I really like the shape of this one.  Of course, a lot of things about it are all wrong for me.  That picot edging is fussy, the white-on-pink color combo manages to look both juvenile and elderly at the same time, and combined with the gathered sleeves, the overall effect of this sample is just way too precious for my taste.  I do like the gathered sleeves, actually, but with all the other stuff, it's just too much.

But mine won't have all that other stuff.  I'm ditching the picot edge in favor of something cleaner, like ribbing or garter stitch (haven't gotten that far--I'll decide when I get there).  The whole thing will be all one color.  And the color will be this rich, grown-up jewel tone called "bottle green."  The yarn is 50% silk, 50% merino, and I love the sheen and depth of color the silk provides.

I've had a hell of time trying to figure out where I left off on this thing back in May.  It's taken me a while even to figure out what size I'd been making.  I hadn't gotten very far on it when it went into hibernation, and the few notes I took make no sense to me now.  But I think I'm back on track now.  (Well, my armholes were way too deep and I had to rip out several inches of knitting, but that's a whole other thang....)

Fall? Is that you?

Just a quickie post--this day is too beautiful to be spent staring at a computer screen.  We woke up to low humidity and a chill in the air. 

Good timing for football season, and I just finished knitting these socks yesterday.

These are my new Steelers socks, which I wanted to finish in time to wear while watching the season opener on tv tonight, even though I figured the weather would be too hot for wool socks.  But maybe I'll get to wear these after all!

I hope the day is beautiful wherever you are, too.

UFO sightings

Recently, while digging around in the closet to select some yarn for my Summer Games Challenge project, I found myself face to face with several lonely UFOs.

For anyone not up on your artsy-craftsy lingo, that stands for UnFinished Objects.  UFOs are not to be confused with WIPs (Works In Progress).  WIPS are projects that are actively being worked on, actually progressing.  UFOs...well, they're languishing in a state of abandonment, confusion, disinterest, and/or rage.

 

Exhibit A: Autumn Rose

Date started: December 2009

Status: About 20% completed, then shoved into a cardboard box because of two problems I didn't know how to deal with.   1) The corrugated ribbing at the bottom is not supposed to roll.  And yet it does.  I don't know why, and I haven't figured out how to fix it. 2) I'm at the point where I need to calculate where the armholes (actually steeks-- eek!) will go, but since the length is all wonky due to the rolling bottom edge, I can't tell how long this thing really is so far.  Is it time to make armholes yet?  It's anyone's guess!

 

Exhibit B: Viper Pilot socks

Date started: August 2010

Status: I got about halfway through the first sock, then realized it was way too tight.  Traumatized by how much pointless work I'd done on this--one of the most complicated things I've ever knit--I stuffed the project into a bag until I could face unraveling it so I could start over.

 

Exhibit C: Handspun sweater

Date started: 2008??

Status: Oh, who the hell knows?  I haven't been able to go to a PHG meeting in almost two years, and that was where I used to get most of my spinning done.  I probably have about half the yarn spun.  Well, maybe.  Since I don't actually know what pattern I'm using, I don't know how much yardage I need.  Also, I don't know how much yardage I currently have.  Wow, this sounds like a totally half-assed project, doesn't it?

 

Exhibit D: The Project That Cannot Be Named

Date started: Sometime in 2007

Status: No photo available, due to this project being top secret.  It was supposed to be a Christmas (2007) present for someone who reads this blog, and then I realized that I was delusional and there was no way I could finish it in time for Christmas (2007), so I lost my motivation, not to mention my mojo. So this poor thing has been in the closet for years, with more and more stuff getting piled on top of it.

 

Now, these are only the UFOs that were in the closet.  My sewing stuff is in another room, and believe me, that's a whollllle other can of worms. 

I know, a lot of people have waaaaay more UFOs than this.  But I really hate having these things lying around, taking up space, reminding me of the time, effort, and money I've already put into them, with nothing to show for it.  It's not just physical clutter, it's mental clutter, too.  Argh!

Okay, folks, you all are my witnesses: BY THE END OF 2012, I VOW TO FINISH TWO OF THESE PROJECTS.  Two--that's totally do-able, right?  Feel free (please!) to nag me about this periodically.

How about you?  Any UFOs you'd like to finish once and for all, artsy-craftsy or otherwise?

Finished: Log cabin knitting experiment

Several years ago, I saw the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket and the Moderne Baby Blanket in the book Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I loved that the designs featured clean blocks of color, without being a simple checkerboard or something (boring) like that. 

 

Knitting this type of blanket would be like making a quilt, but without having to, well, quilt. And unlike many blankets made up of knitted blocks, there was no sewing involved (YES--I like sewing and I like knitting, but I hate sewing knitted pieces together, remember?). 

The blocks build upon each other by the use of picked up stitches.  That sounded simple, yet not too tedious.

Making a blanket, though--that did sound tedious.  It sounded huge, expensive, and time-consuming. 

Hmmm, I thought, what could I make that would be like a blanket without being a gigantic project?  Some kind of small rectangular thing, something like...

...placemats!  So that's how this project came to be.  I knit these mostly while working at the yarn shop.  One by one, each completed mat became part of our window display at work until I finished all of them, and now they're living at my house.  I picked the colors to go with the kitchen here at Boogaloo Acres. 

While I was knitting these at the shop, a lot of people complimented them as being a great idea for a nice "practical" project.  It's adorable that anyone would think that!  But we're a household that loves coffee, red wine, chocolate, and tomato-based sauces--these poor mats will probably be stained by the end of this photo shoot.  Any kind of placemat seems pretty pointless, actually, when we have an easily-wipeable formica table.  Whatever.  These are still cute and colorful, and I finally got that "urge to log cabin" out of my system and can get on with my life.

"Bye Bye Brooke" shawl

For the past 6+ years, I've had the pleasure of working with, and being friends with, a great woman named Brooke.  My workplace is like a second home to me, and my co-workers are like a family, so we're all very sad right now because Brooke is leaving us to live near her actual family on the west coast.  (Pout.)

Last week we had a going-away party for Brooke, and knowing that her departure is a big deal for all of us, I decided I needed to make her a gift and give it to her at the party.  This is the "special project" I mentioned in yesterday's post.

 

The pattern is called Omelet, and this shawl is by far the most complicated lace knitting project I've ever undertaken.  There were definitely some moments when I thought I might be in over my head with this.

 

I pressed onward, though, and really, it was a pleasure to knit.  The yarn is a hand-dyed silk--luscious, slinky, gorgeous. 

This took me eleven days to knit, which is insanely fast for me to make anything this...involved.  At times I wondered aloud, hands frantically knitting away, why I hadn't started Brooke's gift sooner, since we'd all known for a long time that her departure was approaching.  Our mutual friend Carrie answered that question without pause: "Because we've all been in denial about Brooke leaving."  Too true, too true.

 

Well, we can't deny it any longer (but we don't have to like it, either!).  And so I gave my dear friend Brooke this parting gift, and I hope that whenever she looks at it, she'll remember all the great times we had working together at the yarn shop.  Things just won't be the same without her.  (Pout.)