Monthly Archives: March 2004

s4: sleeves

Since I saw you last, I’ve made two sleeves!

two sleeves on the floor

I must say, I like this yarn! It knits up sturdy but soft and my swatch had absolutely Zero color transfer while it was drying. Which makes it good for color work. What also makes it good for color work is the delicious colors (please see above)! I’ll absolutely be using Rowan Handknit DK for future projects. I’ve cast on for the back.

But cast on is all I’ve done! The last few days have been spent cleaning cleaning cleaning. Michael’s Dad is coming on Friday to spend the weekend and then his Mom, sister and maybe Mark (step-brother) are coming on Wednesday to spend a few days. So I have to get things neat! There is a lot more to get neat than when we lived in the apartment: a lot more molding, baseboards, chair rails and fancy stuff on the doors to dust than there used to be. I don’t know how folks kept their houses straight back in the day before vacuum cleaners…

Marie

She makes me with I had paid more attention to my French Professor. There’s a translator on the page, so never fear!

moving on

Here’s the MustHave as finished as it’s going to be for a while.

sweater on the table

Ya’ll just pretend that the safety pins are really Buttons. Wal-Mart didn’t have much to offer me as far as closure. Boo. But it’s not like I could wear it anyway: Spring is here! The azaleas (and pear trees and Japanese magnolias and confederate jasamine and wisteria) are blooming and last weeks highs were already brushing 80°. Monday was a little chillier, but things should be back in the upper 70s by the end of the week. Just in time for Spring Knitting! But I have been having a little bit of trouble with yarn supply.

Previously, on Yarn Miracle…

Three of the four colors for the Short-Sleeved Striped Sweater arrived from The Handworks Gallery. The fourth was on backorder. Due to a roof accident, the Lamb’s Pride from Lorien was backordered. In order to preserve Continuity of Knitting, Emily quickly ordered a backup project from The Wool Connection

That yarn arrived just as I was pinning out the band on the MustHave to dry. Seemingly just in the Nick of Time. But upon closer inspection, there was not enough yarn to make the project that I thought I was ordering the yarn to make. An email and a phone call later it turned out that the “kit” they had was not for the sweater pictured. Why they did this I don’t know. So (feeling Very Misled and cranky) I have packed up that yarn to send it back. I have ordered the yarn for that sweater from Ram Wools for an excellent price (that was why I bought a “kit” in the first place, it seemed to be a good price). The Continuity of Knitting was endangered again. In despriation, I whipped up a little lacy blanket out of MustHave leftovers for Betty’s bed. Then, yesterday afternoon, the Yarn Fairy came through and the last color for the Short-sleeved striped sweater arrived.

All of this to say that the Short-sleeved striped sweater from the book Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas, (henceforth known as S4) will be my First Spring Project of 2004.

yarn in a row

The colors, in order of appearance: nautical, zing, ice water, celery.

Ip

In case you missed it, Elizabeth (my sister) has a blog of her own. No knitting, (except for getting my black Cotton-Ease in three differet dye-lots swapped for one dye lot) but she is into caligraphy in a big way.

neckband

Remember the thing that lives in our walls? It seems to have gotten bigger. And last night it sounded like it wanted to claw through the walls and come out. Betty spent the night guarding the bathroom wall.

I’ve picked up the band all around the MustHave’s front and worked three rows! Since the band is made up of about 9 billion stitches, it takes at least fifteen minutes to do a row.

pretty picture of the MustHave's neck

So now I am up to the buttonholes. Which is great. Except I have forgotten to get buttons. I hope that Wal-Mart surprises me and has something Just Perfect – the nearest Jo-Ann’s is in Pensacola!

The Yarn Fairy hasn’t come yet. I am getting a little bit worried that I won’t have a spring project when I am finished with the MustHave. If that happens, I’ll delve into the stash and make a Sweater Vest out of the Cotton Fleece. It’s a fall color but vests are kind of Springy. They are good for In-Between-Seasons Clothing at any rate. Sigh.

Let’s try this again

I’m done with the MustHave fronts and getting ready to block. The pattern says to pin them out and the put a wet towel on top and let it dry. I’ve never blocked this way before (is this a cable thing?), but I am going to give it a try. I can always soak the pieces and block again if it doesn’t work like I want it to.

Spring Knitting Update
I have picked an alternate project. A little cool for this early in the year but I have wanted to make it since last summer. I am also going to try out the Svale that the pattern calls for (in oyster). I love to try new yarns if the cost isn’t ungodly, and selecting new ones to try based on patterns doesn’t seem to be a terrible idea. Ya’ll cross you fingers it’s in stock!

Speaking of ungodly pricing, does anybody know a good substitute for Gatsby?

Sick Sick Sick

The Yarn Fairy came!

pretty yarn pyramid

Doesn’t look like there is enough to make a sweater? Even a short-sleeved one? That’s because there’s not! The fourth color (ice water) is on back order. And they didn’t say until when. And the roof caved in on Brown Sheep’s shipping area so the yarn for the laptop case won’t be here for a while either. I am going to re-think my spring project choices. How about a nice tank or maybe a sweater vest?

I have been So Sick. Blech! When the whole thing started, I thought it was a sinus headache. And then the drainage and the persistant cough. Then it moved into my chest and there was more coughing. And then on Friday I lost my voice. It’s not back yet. That’s been a problem. I went to the Doc on Monday and he gave me a nice shot, and the Best Cough Syrup in All the World. I can breath out of both sides of my nose, my cough (when I do) isn’t wracking and deep and I’m not sleepy! Ahh, perscription medicine. I’ve also got antibiotics to take if I’m not better in three days. It’s day two and I’m not better so I think there make be some pills in my future.

All that to say: not a whole lot of knitting going on. I am almost to the armholes of the fronts and have noticed a mistake in the Irish Moss stitch about four inches back on one side. So I am ripping. But I am knitting with Great Gran today so I bet I can finish both fronts and block them tomorrow. And then Spring Knitting! I am so excited.

Brown Sheep Update (3:00pm)

Hello! Your comments don’t seem to be working. I just wanted to chime in about Brown Sheep. I just ordered some yarn from WorldKnits and was told the warehouse in NE had a roof collapse due to flooding or some such thing and that’s why they’re so backed up. Hope you get yours soon! That laptop case is adorable.

Gwyn

That explains that!

I am at the armholes! So I am taking a tiny break and looking around to see what I want to make next. I really would like to do something with some yarn from Ozeyarn. Their cotton is so soft. But I still need a pattern. It’s funny, I’d tell you there are a million things I want to make and now that I have to pick one, I don’t know what I want to do. Maybe it’s the cough syrup.

Fronts

Everyone is out of town! Great Gran and Mom have gone to Orlando for a Conference and M has gone to Atlanta for Business Junk. So I’ve been knitting.

Right and Left on one needle!

They are about two inches longer now.

Great Gran said she thought it would be a good idea to do both of the front pieces at the same time. I figured “why not!” The only bad part is not being able to stop until you get across both of them – I tend to forget which piece I’m working on if I have to get up to answer the phone.

In other knitting news:

I ordered some yarn! The Rowan Handknit DK Cotton for the Short-Sleeved Striped Sweater (Vintage Knits, of course) should be on the way (joy). I am very please with my color choices on that one. I want to make a bunch of short-sleeved sweaters for spring. Piles of them.

I also ordered the yarn for my felty project. I had decided that Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Bulky was the way to go (purchased at Lorien), but was really stumped about the colors. I had become almost committed to Sage and Autumn (p. 17 in the new Patternworks catalog for those of you who are reading along) but was not especially happy. I was going to get to see Mom, the Queen of Color, for about 20 minutes on her way to Orlando, so I waited to see what she thought. Mom likes BRIGHT. She said if I was going to all this trouble to make a case for Princess Arjumand (my laptop), I may as well make something fun. After a heated discussion about RPM Pink (I’m sorry, it’s Just Too Pink), we settled on Periwinkle with Lime as the accent. Bright, but not so bright it makes me want to scream: “My eyes! My eyes!” I have ordered the wool but Periwinkle may be discontinued (if it is I will switch to Brite Blue) and Lime (which is really called Limeade) has to be ordered. Which would be OK except Brown Sheep has been Crazy Busy lately. I guess that makes sense – I’ve seen their ads everywhere. Good for them but bad for me. It will be about a month until the laptop yarn gets here (unless Jean has a bulky yarn that felts nicely and is priced similarly). They’ve got such good prices, the yarn is worth waiting for.

If it takes too long, I will just have to get yarn for another project to tide me over. Wouldn’t that be terrible?