Right as Rain

I'm a Weeble, People, a Weeble. You can knock me over, but you can't keep me down. This sick thing took its toll; bleary eyed and hacking away for over a week, nary a stitch was stitched. But now I'm back and ready to rock. Except for the hacking. And a wee dip in stamina. So where were we...

First of all, I missed my anniversary. My first year blog anniversary. Was it only last January that this adventure began? And less than a year earlier that I took up knitting as a Serious past time? There have been a lot of hits and misses since then, I have decidedly grown as a knitter during that time. So while I hold on to the new stuff just a little bit longer, lets take a brief walk down memory lane... (And, as always, you can click on any picture to view it in full size.)

January brought my first FO of 2007:

childHood by Natalie Wilson

Like most of my beginning projects, this one came from Knitty. And like many of my first offerings, this was made up in acrylic. Hard, icky acrylic. I made this up in both the hooded and hood less version (I much prefer the hooded one.) Given the right circumstances, a do-over may be in order. I still think it is rather a cute cardi and for the right little girl and the right yarn I'd give it another go.

February's cold was a natural inspiration for scarves and Scarf Style was the first pattern book I bought. Having it shipped to me in Israel made the anticipation that much greater.

Of course, Knitty was still a major force on my life and I was already a true Argosy addict. In February I completed my 4th. (I've picked up my snoozing 6th again, BTW, and I fully intend to knit a minimum pattern repeat per day so I can finish this up.) I also knit up my Funky Chunky Zigzag scarf (by Debbie Bliss,) Midwest Moonlight (by Ivy Bigelow) and started a few more.

Still in the scarf groove, March brought Lacy Ocean (much of which was done in Eilat, on a surprise mini-break UM & AB sponsored,) Elbac (by Laura,) and Backyard Leaves (by Annie Modesitt.)

I would venture to say that it was Backyard Leaves that turned me from a knitter to a Knitter. My first chart and first true lace pattern, where each row, RS and WS, was different. It inspired the book purchase as well as the first on-line yarn purchase. Yes, it was Knit Picks, in Andean Silk Lettuce colorway. And though more exotic yarns would come, this scarf is still a treasured favorite.

April was the month of the ughs. Endless hours were spent in pure joy working on Nora Gaughan's Capecho.

Imagine the bitter disappointment when I, like so many others, learned that VK's cover shots were a wee bit misleading. Although I toiled into the next month, I never finished it and am still sad every time I see the pictures or the miles of frogged yarn; a lovely, not inexpensive, dusty rose yarn from Gedifra (Airmix, a merino, cotton mix.) April also saw the failed Entrelac experiments. The technique I got down cold, but never completed a project using it. The desire is still there. Next try will be Eunny Jang's Entrelac Socks (IK Spring '07.) Shapely legs I've always had, but the calves run to the large size so I'll not be making the knee high version, nor will I be using the tassel!

May, the month of my birth, brought all the joy that is Arietta. Though she remains a UFO I love her no less.

Why, you may ask, if I love her so much does she remain unfinished. Two reasons. First, all that cotton was drying out my fingers and as the weather turned colder I needed some squishy wool goodness. Second, try as I might, I have yet to lose the girth that stands between me and my love. So, though this is not a forum for resolutions, (goal will be addressed in a couple of days,) I hope this year to lose the necessary bulkage to fit into my Arietta when the time comes. Other UFOs remaining from May are the Windchime scarves and some TBD skinny version of Clapotis, just to say I did.

June saw no photo shoots as my mind was mostly on the, finally public, impending departure from Israel.

Tomorrow should see us through the balance of the year, followed by goals for 2008, including a virtual UFO Hall of Shame to get me back on track with some forgotten friends.

Sweaters, Vests and Time Management

My first sweater was the Hooded Knitted Sweaters from Lion Brand's collection of free on-line patterns. This pattern is for the whole family but I've stuck to the children's section. Blue for the boys and pink for T. How traditional of me! The yarn is Madame Tricote: Festival which I found at the souk. It was quite soft and pretty easy to work with, but being 3 (loose) ply of three shades of the base color, the needles did sometimes split through and I had to be careful. I made these this summer so they, and a lot of other projects, would be ready to take to California in August. Although this is a pretty simple project I learned a few things. I learned the 3 needle bind off for the shoulders and hood. I also learned about picking up stitches and that straight or even circular needles don't work when you need to go around a small neck! Nope, didn't know about DPNs and didn't acquire any until much later! Don't ask how I got those hoods attached. I still don't know how I did it! Here's T's pink sweater and N's blue one.


Unfortunately I screwed up the hood size on S's and made it way too short. And of course I didn't think to bring any of the yarn with me so I had to bring the sweater back and finish it here. Well it too is done and is sitting in the box of Oh So Late Chanuka presents!

Next was a pair of vests. I sort of locked myself into buying the yarn and didn't know what to do with it. Inspiration flashed and I decided vests were in order. The problem? I couldn't find a pattern that spoke to me. After a lot of advice and encouragement from Menucha and Yael from my Avodat Yad list I decided on a standard V neck vest with dimensions coming from Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" and a cable from Vogue Knitting's Complete Knitting Guide. Trying to get the cable to end at the right place for the V neck was not something I had taken into consideration and while I might be able to get away with this neck opening for the S's in 6yr, I don't think N is going to be able to get his head through his! So I will be doing some frogging and figuring out a way to fix them before I send them off. I just hope by the time they arrive they aren't too small!!
Yarn is Teddy Carisma worked on 5mm needles. It's 2 ply, one is self striping the other grey.

While the vests were waiting around for seaming and arm and neck bands I started on childHood from Knitty. I found this great variegated yarn from Granada and a matching blue for the bands. I had many trials with this cardigan but I persevered! Still I'm glad I went for the no hood version! At first I wanted to do a reverse stockinette because I don't like the chevron look of the variegation. So to make the bands stand out I did them in stockinette. Next I had to knit the fronts twice because I stupidly tried blocking acrylic with heat. I know better than that! Also, if you look closely at the neck shaping I screwed up the band placement so one side rides high. Once everything was knit I realized they edges all rolled. This is how I learned that it's the garter stitch that keeps them from rolling around. So I removed the bands from the bottom of the sleeves, fronts and back and picked, flipped everything around so it was now a regular stockinette, picked up the stitches and re knit all the bands in garter. childHood actually closes with snaps, the buttons are decorative. I couldn't find any buttons I liked either. But then one night after all the seaming was done and all was missing was the buttons, as I started climbing into bed at 3 am I remembered that I had these big faceted plastic beads that might work. Then and there I went rummaging and in the bag of beads I found green and lavender which perfectly brought out those colors in the yarn. No, I wasn't in love with it but I put enough work into it and the coloring should be good for T so I decided to finish it. I also knew I had to do it again, the right way!

This time I followed the pattern completely including the strip effect. And I have to say, this one makes me VERY happy. They are both made for 6yr so they would last so it may be sometime before I know how well they fit.


While I learn more creative stitching with the scarves I am learning a lot about knitting from the sweaters too. I still need to improve my seaming technique and I want to understand sizing better so I can start doing some designing. Not being a small person, many of the patterns I see either don't come in my size or I can't imagine them looking good on me. Still I have finally started a sweater for myself. Also from Knitty, Banff is considered an easy pattern. It's raglan sleeve take care of difficult shoulder fitting and the ribbed waist and extra long ribbing at the sleeves suit me. Perhaps horizontal stripes aren't the best choice and of course the striping on the body wont match that of the sleeves, but I loved the colors in this yarn and I'm taking my chances. So far I've finished one sleeve so I could see how it would look.

I just started Kaleigh Young's Angora Wrap Cardigan for T, (picture removed) which comes from Vogue's Knitting on the Go: Kid's Knits. I am using Teddy Lady Mohair Rich in almost the same shade of pink. I've only done the 8 row repeat once so there isn't much to show yet.

Finally I did a swatch of Woven Cables in Relief from 365 Stitches a Year Perpetual Calender. I plan on making a sweater for S who is feeling a bit neglected since his brother and sister seem to be getting a lot of wear from their Hood Knit Sweater while he patiently waits for his. The pic on the left is from the calender. Either their swatch is much bigger than 4" or they used much smaller needles than I did! You do get a much better feel for the effect in their swatch but I am pretty happy with mine. Yarn is Vitalgo's Oxford. 30% wool and very soft. The color is actually lighter and brighter than the pic.


So, the box of presents is finally about to be sealed and sent off to California. I will just send the vests separately later on. Perhaps the wrap sweater will be ready sooner rather than later.

Next time... Entrelac Intricacies