last catch up post

It's getting really hot in the city. We went into town today--I have been having this issue with my eyes, and have been off the contacts for a month. During that time, I realized that if something happened to my current glasses, I'd be kind of screwed. So today, I decided the time had come to get another pair so that I have a backup, just in case. Turns out my eyes are ok now--I'd scratched them pretty badly and they needed that month to heal--so I'm back on the contacts, but with more limitations than before, which means more time wearing glasses. No big deal--Spanky took me to the place she always goes for glasses, where everything is Japanese, and a bit cheaper (yet more exclusive, which combination you don't find all the time), and I found a great pair of frames. They're different, and a bit edgier than my current pair, which I love (Paul Smith!), but... Well, you'll see...

Anyway, afterward, we were traipsing about the Village, and ended up sitting in Washington Square Park, and the sun was just beating down. I am pretty sure the back of my neck is bright red now. Also, two things have become apparent to me. First, I need a pedicure. Perhaps I'll try to get one tomorrow, assuming anything is open here in the JC. Consider it my gift to the troops. There's no wearing sandals otherwise--no one wants to see someone's gargantuan, unkempt toes hanging out of their shoes... Secondly, I need to go back to the gym. I'm pretty sure I've inherited some sort of genetically inferior abs, because this gut cannot possibly have anything to do with the amount of ice cream and pie that passes my lips. Nope, no connection that I can see. So the only thing for it is to try again at the gym. I'm almost ready to cancel my membership, so we'll see which side wins out. My money's on the abs though.

What were we talking about again? Oh, yes...

FO #8



Pattern: Hip in Hemp by Gudrun Johnston

I really love her designs, and this is the first one I've knit. It was really straightforward, and I liked the complicated chart she worked out for all the different sizes. And I have to admit, the model for that pattern is super cute. She looks a bit like my niece did at her age, so maybe that's why I was drawn to the skirt.

Yarn: The pattern called for Elsebeth Lavold's Hempathy, which I'm sure is a very nice yarn. I wasn't going to spring for that though, and ended up using Knit Picks' Comfy Sport, which is 75% pima cotton, and 25% acrylic. It's really soft yarn, and best of all, machine washable, which is important for my sister, since she doesn't have time to really worry about special care for Isabella's clothes. My niece's favorite color is blue, so I picked every blue that Knit Picks carried in that yarn, even though I was doubtful about how they'd go together. Also, there were only three blues, so I added the white stripe to break it up a bit. Luckily, I think it turned out really well! The colors I used were Planetarium, Ivory, Marlin, and Sea Foam.

Needles: US 4 for the elastic band and US 5 for the skirt itself. I think these were random circs from my supplies for once, not my Boye set. Most of the time I look to see if there is one in the bunch I can use before fiddling with the Boyes, and this time there was!

Notes: My niece has this thing about wearing things around her gut (much like her aunt), so all her pants and skirts and stuff she wears really low on her hips. I have no idea how this happened, but the child has a refined sense of her own style when it comes to her clothes. Anyway, I made the 12 year old size, even though my niece just turned 9. I felt like the 10 yr old size would be outgrown too quickly, and since the skirt had an elastic waistband, we (meaning my mom, really) overlapped the elastic by about two inches, so that as she grew, we could take out the elastic a bit and it would fit for a while.

I made sure to buy the non-curling elastic, which is different than the regular. Make sure you look for that, because the other stuff can bunch up in the waistband. I can't remember how wide the stuff was we bought, but I went with my mom to Joann's and brought the skirt, and just tried different ones until one fit comfortably into the channel made by the waistband stitches. I waited to seam up the waistband after I was done knitting and blocking the skirt rather than doing the elastic the way it was written in the pattern, although the pattern gives my method as an alternate.



For the stripes, at first I was cutting the yarn after each round. Then I thought, brilliantly, that I would use this project as an opportunity to try carrying the yarn down the stripes, which worked as long as the skirt was solid, but once the eyelets started, the yarn I was carrying would show too easily behind the eyelets, so I had to go back to cutting the yarn for each stripe, meaning that I ended up weaving in all those freaking ends. But my mom has cable, so many long episodes of NCIS later, it was done!



The skirt, since it is a size too big, is predictably a bit long, and I had to leave before my mom sewed the elastic, so I'm not sure how it looks when she's got a whole outfit going, but I made her put it on to model anyway so I would get a sense of how it would look. She's a good sport--I told her she had to act like a supermodel and take direction for the pictures, and she did it with flying colors. You can barely see my sister behind her holding up the skirt. Heh heh.



All in all, I consider this a success. The colors worked out together, the skirt fits, basically, Isabella's happy with it, and it looks really cute. I also really like the yarn, and I think this might be the baby yarn I've been looking for. It's mostly cotton, can be machine washed, is probably a bit tougher than 100% cotton, and comes in some pretty good colors that are NOT pastels. Thanks, Knit Picks!

Memorial Day weekend

Well, May was a bit of a wash, eh? I've finally hired a new assistant, but she doesn't even start until June 7, so right now, I'm on my own. This whole month I've felt a bit like a little boat bobbing along in a turbulent ocean, just trying to stay afloat but not really in control of the situation. I'm starting to come out of that a bit--some long days and nights of work saw to that, but I'm really grateful to still be here, and looking forward to this summer, when hopefully things will slow down a bit and even out.

I have been knitting, but not much, and not anything great. I call these projects "palate cleansers". They are just enough to keep you going, but don't really taste like much and are soon digested, leaving you ready to take on something bigger.

FO #6:

Pattern: Bertoo's cowl by Ariane Caron-Lacoste



I really love how Ravelry hooks people up with designers and designs they might never run across otherwise. Just look at her cute designs! I hope this won't be the last project of hers that I make. The pattern was really easy, and I had just enough of the Cascade Eco Wool left over from my Hemlock Ring blanket to make a generous cowl. I can't even tell you how much I've worn this since I made it. I love my red cowl and some of the other ones, but this one is neutral, and matches everything, and is really warm and snuggly! I love it. Also, I like how you can put the ribbing at the top or the bottom. I think I prefer it at the bottom, but either way, the cowl is one of my favorite things I've made for myself.



Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool, about 190 yards or so. Each skein is about 400 yards, so it was almost half a ball.
Needles: Size US 10.5 Boye circulars. I really love those Boye circs, but they do tend to untwist quite a bit. I never use the key though, so it's my fault, really. I think I need to get a few more cables for the set though, as I seem to have lost a couple...
Notes: I made this a bit longer than the pattern stated, just because I had the yarn left over and wanted to use it all. I basically did, too. The knit/purl pattern was really fun, and shows up wonderfully in the eco wool. I finished this back in March on a business trip to Washington DC.

FO #7:

Pattern: Simple Sweater by Claire Montgomerie, from her book Easy Baby Knits



Yarn: Leftover Sirdar Snuggly DK from the Daisy Swing Cardi and some random acrylic from my stash for the bottom. I basically divided the cream ball I found into two equal sized smaller balls and just knit the back until that ball ran out, and then matched the front to that as I went along. So that random stash ball is gone, as is 1.5 balls of the Snuggly. I still have one ball of Snuggly left though, but I think I may use it for a toy for yet another pregnant co-worker. I'm really sick of looking at the color though. Also, I think I'll stick to cotton for baby stuff going forward. The ease of having a project in acrylic doesn't make up for the shitty experience knitting with it. Even though the Snuggly was pretty soft, it still wasn't a great experience.

Needles: US 5 straight bamboo needles. This may the first time I've used those needles. I don't even know when I got them or why anymore.

Notes: Well, the biggest mistake I made was in pairing the DK weight yarn with a worsted for the band at the bottom. The band should have been knitted on a bigger needle, because the US5 made it really stiff, so instead of seaming it up like in the pattern, I just left that part open, so it would be easier for the recipient to deal with. I also cast on half the sleeve stitches that the pattern called for to make the arms a bit shorter, since the baby lives in Atlanta, and I thought a short-sleeved sweater would be more practical.



The buttons are vintage, and I just added the patches to keep the whole thing from being too basic or weird. It came out very boxy and wide. I can't tell if that was because of the artificially large band at the bottom or because of the pattern. I am never really satisfied with these patterns. They're so basic, but every time I've tried one, I've had mixed results. Oh well. Maybe I just need to use better yarn! I hope that the sweater fits, too. It's for our friend Robin's fourth child, who is a ten pound boy. Yikes! :)



Next entry: Isabella's skirt, which will be FO #8. It's been done for a while, but I'd forgotten to talk about it here, and it's not so much of a palate cleanser. It was a lot of work!

Right now, I'm focused on finishing a pair of socks for my mom's birthday at the end of June. I'm in the gusset decreases for the second sock now, so I'm sure I'll make it--I might even be close to done by the end of this weekend, but I've been working on them for a while now, and again, I'm getting really sick of the yarn. After that, I want to finish my sorely neglected Clementine Shawlette, and start a new shawl and a sweater for Ian's dog Francis. I'm waiting on his measurements though before I can start that one. It's in some really cool yarn though, and I can't wait to see how it knits up!

Finally, I've resisted buying anything from the Webs anniversary sale. I'm cold-sheeping, and I really, really want to cut down on some of my stash before I start buying yarn again. It's sooo hard though when things are on sale and possibly discontinued. But I just don't have room for any more yarn, and I want to knit some of the awesome stuff I already have, so I'm taking it one day at a time, trying to get through the summer without any major purchases. It's not the money, just the storage space that I don't have that is the motivating factor. I want to use up some of this stuff and reclaim my house!

Anyway, more tomorrow. It's easy to blog when you have time. Not so easy when every minute you're moving from one thing to the next.

FO #5 Veil

I feel like I finished Veil a million years ago. My life has been moving at warp speed lately, and I have the ailments to prove it. Friday at the eye doctor, I was told that I definitely did NOT have pink eye, like I'd thought (the good news! I'm not contagious!), but instead, by wearing my contacts on the plane down to Florida and throughout that weekend, I have somehow dried out my eyes to the point that my contacts were sanding down my corneas, and that if I didn't stop wearing them, I would soon not be able to see at all. So now, I have to wear my glasses for a month (the bad news... I hate hate HATE wearing glasses for extended periods of time. But I guess I would hate being blind more, so...). Oh, the month of May. How you're already screwing me.

Other non-knitting related things that are afflicting me:
1. My second assistant of the year is leaving to go home to Los Angeles. Her last day is May 21, so I have to recruit and train yet another one. Please, send me your recently graduated, unabashedly nerdy youth, preferably if they like history and want to turn that interest into a shitty-paying job in publishing and the chance to meet crusty professors at hotel bars across America.



2. My birthday was April 24. I celebrated with the aforementioned trip to Florida and apparently an attempt to blind myself. While down there, I attended a reunion of a dance club (does that ever actually happen?!) that I used to drive an hour to go to every Friday night in HS. It is all part of the nostalgia tour that is 2010. (My 20th HS reunion is later this fall. I'll see all you Yellow Jackets at home!) Anyway, my sister went with me (she's on the left up there), and we met Spanky and some other friends in Orlando for about three hours of dancing before I couldn't take it anymore. Did you know you can still smoke in bars down there? By midnight, I'd inhaled my share of several packs of cigarettes and sweat more than I thought I even could (some yahoo forgot to test the air conditioning--how one overlooks a tiny thing like that down in FLORIDA escapes me, but there you have it...), and we trucked it back home, stamina not being what it once was, and all.

3. I desperately need a hair cut (see picture above), and I get all kinds of cranky when it is out of control, so I've been in a funk for a few weeks now. Coupled with the glasses, this might be enough to send me around the bend. My hair dresser better have some good ideas. I go see her next Friday.

4. And one knitting related item: I'm sort-of in between projects, and that too is adding to my unease. I don't like it when I have no direction, and right now, everything is conspiring to run off the rails.

So, now that the litany of complaints is aired, let's get down to business, shall we? This little number was supposed to be something I could wear with tank tops in the summer to go out, or with a dress, as pictured. In fact, I'll wear it, but I haven't since these pictures were taken, so perhaps not often. I think I have lingering resentment because of the fit.



Project: Veil
Yarn: Berroco Seduce, 7 hanks, wine color
Needle: US 8--I think this was knit on Pony plastic straight needles, which may have been one reason I hated knitting it so much. Slick yarn, slick needles...



Notes:
This project was why I bought the Nora Gaughan volume 2 booklet to begin with, and why at last year's Super Bowl sale at Knit-a-Bit, I bought all that Seduce, when common sense told me I would hate working with it. The wine color was so pretty in the skein and the finished garment so pretty on the really really pretty model that I thought OF COURSE that I would look just like that when I was done. Famous last words, eh?



Not that it is significantly different on the surface. I'm sure you can see the similarities. It is just that in real life, I can't raise my arms past my elbows while wearing that shrug the same way the model is wearing it. It is extremely uncomfortable. I do wonder now though, if it is just the unforgiving nature of the yarn, and that if I'd made it in a wool yarn, as some of the other people who made it have done, if I would be more comfortable in the garment, as it would stretch a bit. As it is, the garment has drape, oh yes, enough drape to slide off my (admittedly narrow) shoulders and not stay put anywhere. Also, one thing you don't see, is that the garment weighs a lot too. It's heavy.



If you read Nora's notes to the pattern, she says that originally, they'd had the lace bit up top, but thought it looked better the other way. I beg to differ. When I put it on with the lace part up top, I can move my arms. It's magic!



Of course, upside down, it looks better open, but at least I don't feel like I'm wearing a straight-jacket! Oh, and in that last picture, you can see the gathers I had to make when sewing the lace piece to the stockinette piece. I did the stockinette piece long before the lace piece was finished, and I really think that the weight of the yarn made the piece stretch considerably in the interim between that piece being done and me finally finishing the interminable lace rectangle.

My overall judgment is that the piece is still really pretty, and I did end up with something resembling the photos (although beware--12" for the armholes is really small! I would make them at least 15" if I were to make this again), but the lace piece took forever to knit, and there was a lot of sewing up to do at the end, just to end up with something I wasn't really happy with. I chalk it up to a learning experience, really, especially the need to consider the yarn chosen and the qualities therein--is it going to work for the project? Why was that particular yarn chosen--what qualities does it have that the designer wanted to showcase? And most particularly, is that kind of yarn/project going to fit into your lifestyle/wardrobe? Why are you making this? These are questions I need to start asking myself about the projects I undertake. By thinking a bit more about them in the beginning, perhaps I can head off these types of experiences.



But all's well that ends well, and it does look pretty with that dress, which is what I'd originally intended. Now I wish my hair still looked like that and we'd be in business!