So simple, yet so easily confused

I've been knitting away at the sleeve cap on my Henley Perfected, a few rows a day over the past week, and getting progressively concerned over the size of the cap. Self, I say, there is absolutely something wrong. This sleeve cap is nearly the length of the damn sleeve. I must have read and re-read those pattern instructions 14 or 15 times, and it was only on the last read-through that I actually got it right. I'm too irritated with myself to post what I read versus what is actually written; suffice it to say, I ripped back SIXTY ROWS tonight and reknit the sleeve cap.



I'm glad I've gotten all of this practice on the sleeve, because even though it's a very simple leaf lace pattern, I've still managed to royally screw it up in at least two places.

Cast on: Henley Perfected

I've been looking for a relatively loose pullover to wear over a camisole with jeans, and I think I've found it: Henley Perfected from the Winter 2007 edition of Interweave Knits.



I was reasonably sure that I would get gauge with the yarn and the needle, so I started with a sleeve. That way, I could measure after 3 or 4 inches of knitting, ensure that I was on the right track, and not spend any precious knitting time on a gauge swatch. Luckily my very small gamble has paid off; my unwashed gauge is spot on, and this is a superwash wool that shouldn't shrink or grow significantly.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in a semi-solid cranberry. I'm knitting the 39" size, which should give me about 2" of positive ease at the bust, and I'll have to make adjustments for a smaller waist and hip measurement.

Hopefully I can get it done before summer hits. I think this will be a good three-season garment, and it would be nice to be able to wear it a few times before the fall.

Cast on: Hedera

Aha, now here's a pattern that I can drop onto an index card and have no problem knitting on the train!



Hedera from the Spring 06 issue of Knitty is a simple 4-row repeat and produces a lovely lace sock that will excel in a semi-solid colourway, such as this Dream in Color Smooshy.

Instead of the twisted rib called for in the pattern, I started with 10 rows of the regular 1x1 rib.

Cast on: Kaylee Blue

What a fun pattern! I cast on for Kaylee last night and finished the second pattern repeat at lunch today. I pretty much have to have the pattern printout in front of me when I knit it, though, so this one doesn't make for a very good commute knitting project.



I'm using a sport weight, 6-ply Opal yarn on a US size 1 needle. It's giving me a nice, sturdy fabric, and 56 stitches appears to be the perfect number.

I have officially gone over to the dark side

I woke up this morning just before 5 AM, and because I couldn't shut my mind off and go back to sleep right away, I got up and bound off the waistband ribbing on Ms Marigold:



I LOVE my sleep. I stay in bed until the last possible moment and rush about every morning because I had to spend just another 9 more minutes curled up in the comfy warmth of my down quilt. And yet somehow I have turned into a person who will get up an hour earlier than the alarm just to finish a few more rows on a project. Insanity.

Anyway, now I've hit a slight problem. I own two sets of Denise interchangeable needles, a bunch of bamboo straights and variously sized sock circulars and DPNs. I haven't actually lacked lacked for a needle size in ages, but the pattern calls for size 3 circulars to knit the neckband, and it turns out that's the only size I don't own!

Damn. I put in an Elann order as a birthday present for myself YESTERDAY, and if I'd bothered to check my needle sizes before this, I could have easily dropped a 36" circular into my order. What to do, what to do...I could catch a bus up to Three Bags Full on my lunch hour and pick one up...I could drop in at Michael's this evening and see if they've got the right size...I could hit Knitopia tomorrow and run the risk of falling into another pile of yarn...

Gah

I should have gone one step further when thinking about waist increases on Ms Marigold. I had 142 stitches on the needle after doing one increase row, realized that I had enough body length, and started the 2x2 ribbing. Except I forgot that for 2x2 ribbing to work, I needed a multiple of 4 on the needles, not a multiple of 2. Oops.

It took less than 5 minutes to knit that 2x2 rib, and I know that I'm going to tink it back, add another increase row, and restart the rib. Still.

Just a couple more minutes...

You get to this point, and even though you need to get dressed and put the laundry on and get more coffee and really, really THIS TIME put the knitting down and review that last bit about calculating the cost of capital...

February roundup

What a month.

First, of course, I knit and then frogged the Foliage hat. That hurt. I've got some Rio de la Plata that will probably work a lot better, but I'm still stinging from the initial defeat.

In the midst of the crazy, I rediscovered my knitting mojo, in large part thanks to Ravelry and two swaps that I completed with fellow Rav members. Hurrah for worldwide knitting power! I received two skeins of Lorna's Laces, a yarn I've never used before, and started on a pair of simple stockinette ankle socks for train knitting. The first is complete!



This week, I received this awesome, gigantic skein of Zen Yarn Garden:



It's seriously huge. And in addition, my swapper sent me an adorable ball of Rowan Kidsilk Night in a pale pink called Ballerina:



Crazy, right? People are too kind.

The Secret Project was in fact a French Market bag, and has been gifted to M for her birthday. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the finished object. It felted super quickly in my front-load washer, and is a bit bigger than I had intended for it to be. I hope she likes it!

I swatched and cast on for Ms Marigold this week, and finished Part A in my first session. This is seriously addictive knitting. I even got up early one morning and knit for an hour so that I could make some progress before exam prep hits, um, now. I love this tweedy yarn; it feels wonderful, and it makes my stitches look nice and neat. I got to row 16 on the back section before I had to put it down:



I sort of fell down on my last two goals. I didn't cast on for Elfine because I'm waiting for another sock circular to show up in the mail. And I must admit that I got sucked in by Elann's Sneak Peek page for their 4-ply sock yarn, and ordered a couple of balls for myself along with the samplers that I got for M's birthday package. Does it mitigate my crime if I say I only spent $6 on myself? :)

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February stash knitdown totals: 200 metres on the French Market Bag, 100 metres on the Daffodil socks, 100 metres on the Foliage hat, 60 metres on Ms Marigold, 30 metres on a plain garter stitch dishcloth. 490 metres!

I have conveniently decided to ignore stash enhancements for the purposes of the knitdown. Heh.

There's a surprising amount of random knitting time even in my day

Last week I rediscovered the therapeutic value of knitting. In the midst of an insane week that involved a midterm assignment, a quiz and some work wackiness, I still managed to stick to my running schedule, keep up with my readings, and eat some halfway decent meals. I'm finding that as long as I stick to a defined daily task list, I don't feel too overwhelmed and I can justify some knitting relaxation time dispersed throughout the day.

I have pretty small feet, so it only took about an hour and a half of train time to get through the majority of the foot of my Daffodil sock:



I took the majority of the weekend off to give my eyes a rest from the computer, so quite a bit of work was done on the Secret Project:



There are about ten metres left in the third skein, and a tiny bit of the fourth will probably be needed to get this project off the needles.

And my little helper demanded an action shot for his portfolio:



That's an unfelted Kitty Pi bed that was intended for Molly, but it was claimed by Fox and I haven't had the heart to take it away from him.

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February's stash reduction progress: 200 metres. The frogging of the Foliage hat technically hits me with a net addition to the stash, since the 100 metres I had knitted on the project in January is thrown back into the stash. I find that idea way too depressing, however, so I'm counting frogged projects as a net zero--no credit for additional knitting, no penalty for frogging.

So pretty

I love getting packages in the mail. Looky!



I swapped some Kureyon for two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in this bright, happy-making variegated colourway. CM has helpfully commented that it looks like a mashup of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. He has also agreed that "Daffodil" is probably a more marketable name than "Sesame Street Vomit."

This is a basic 24-stitch magic cast on, 4 stitch increase every second row to 64 stitches. I think I'm just going to knit a straight stockinette with a short-row heel and maybe a picot edging. With the Monkey socks I learned that I prefer anklets to longer socks, so I can probably eke a pair of socks out of a single skein.

January knitting roundup and February knitting goals

It's funny how much more laconic I've become, blog-wise, since I started school. Something about the overwhelming focus on numbers and logic, as opposed to Twinkies and free association, I guess. Let's rectify that, shall we?

So, January! We hardly knew ya. I managed to get one project done: my lovely toe-up Monkeying Around socks. I did also cast on and get some significant progress going on two more items:

The Secret Project is, well, a secret, but here's a progress peek:



That's some Patons Soy Wool Stripes in Natural Geranium. See how pretty and even my stockinette stitches have become? And the shine on this yarn, man, it's just gorgeous.

I also started a Foliage hat in the same Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran from which I made my wrist warmers:

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I'm going to make more of an effort this year to coordinate my knitwear. Even my fashion-challenged self balks at wearing my Sesame Street-themed beanie with plum-coloured wrist warmers.

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As far as knitting down the stash goes, the socks took up less than 300 metres of fingering weight yarn, the secret project is at about 100 metres, and the Foliage hat is at 100 metres. At this rate I'm on track to finish knitting up my existing stash in....January 2012. Hrm.

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February's goals are:

1. Finish the Foliage hat.
2. Finish the Secret Project.
3. Swatch and cast on for Ms Marigold.
4. Cast on for Elfine's Socks.
5. Continue to resist the lure of Elann's Sneak Peek page!

Procrastination, stress relief, whatever

Looky, I have cast on and am up to round 4 of the lace pattern for the Monkey socks!



As evidenced by the textbook crowding into the shot, I should be studying. Alas, I have nearly given up on this course and anticipate having to repeat the exam in March. The irony is that the work I'm doing at the job is actually at a much more advanced level than my course. Ugh. I hate irony.

WIP: Tempting

I had to rip it back twice, but I finally managed to knit the sleeves on properly. I was rejoicing that I had a full ball and a half of yarn left over, and, um, then I remembered that there is a six-inch yoke to knit. Heh. Colour me brainless.

KAL: Clean slate for 2008!

Barely any knitting, and no blogging in 2007! Wow, am I lame. So, I joined a knitalong on Ravelry to get some closure on a few projects.

Look! I have progress!



That's a whole three-inch sleeve and a one inch of the second sleeve, all since last night. I would have had them both done, except that I had to rip the first attempt, as the called-for number of stitches was way excessive for even my beefy bicep. This project might actually be done by the end of the week...(ack! jinx!)