Projects

Not much to report really. I've made progress on the Traveling Shells vest and Dressing gown, but it's not really interesting enough to photograph. In the meantime, I've also started some other projects.

Since the dressing gown could miss the Mom's day shipping deadline, I have a back-up plan—Vogue 7883. I found some lime linen at Fashion Fabrics Club which I'll pair with a stash white cotton.

Inspired by Fiberly Friends who have started exercise programs and incented by a planned trip to Hawai'i, I'm on day four of a non-fiberly project—walking. There's no plan; I'm just wandering around the neighborhood listening to audiobooks on my trusty little iPod. It's been an uphill struggle, both literally (this is a very hilly neighborhood) and figuratively. Near freezing weather and the April fool's joke by a clock that sprung forward making sunrise look particularly dark made it real tempting to forego the walk yesterday. But I didn't. I was going to surprise Tom with the paper and coffee in bed, but I was surprised as I sat on the porch listening to the last of a chapter, and Mandy barked at me from the front door (I was sure I'd blocked the dogs upstairs.)

Tom had gotten up early and had cocoa and breakfast waiting for me!

Starting to finish

It started with a post on a knitting list that Cozy Ewe was having a sale: 25% off all yarn. And Tom was going to Home Depot anyway...

Traveling Shells
While there I found the Spring/Summer VK. I used to have a copy which, along with several other items, I hope to someday find in the garage. But, just in case, I bought it. (Doesn't that assure that I'll find the other copy?) In it is Shirley Paden's Traveling Shells cardigan. It was calling to me again, so I swatched a couple of yarns and got the feel of the pattern again, but neither really was close enough to gauge, so I decided to pull out the UFO I'd started in San Jose.

In April, I pulled it out thinking I'd be clever and finish it as a vest, since the sleeve is one of the items MIA. If I'd looked closely I'd have seen the problem.

Later I thought I did.

But upon closer inspection, I realized the reason one shoulder was wider than the other was that I'd divided the fronts and backs wrong in the beginning. So here's my progress now.


Dressing Gown
So now that I'm on a jag to finish things, I've also pulled out my mom's dressing gown. I'm not counting on it being a Mom's Day present after all (there's always Christmas), but I'm going to plug away at it anyway.


Yarn
Oh, and I did succumb to some yarn. Luscious Artyarns Silk/Mohair. You can't quite see it, but the top hank has glitter in it. But it will have to wait.

Books

It's all Tom's fault. When we got married he had a large library (mostly Sci Fi and humor) and I had just a few. Now, after 25+ years of marriage, my knitting, sewing and craft library (even pared down pre-move) is quite substantial. Ironically, though, as I write this from my office, the books 6'x10' of books behind me are still Tom's.


My books are in the sewing room. The newest addition is Men Who Knit & The Dogs Who Love Them: 30 Great-Looking Designs for Man & His Best Friend by Annie Modesitt. I just figure that I might find the perfect yarn to knit Tom a sweater and I want to be prepared...plus there are cute dog pictures. The book starts with a lot of good tips and techniques. There's always more we can learn.






Though the pictures shown in the KnitPicks book "view inside" were intriguing, I resisting buying Romantic Style: Knit and Crochet to Wear or Display because it was hard to tell what was knit and what was crochet. But I saw the book in Barnes & Noble and I had to have it. When my mom was here for Christmas, she liked the Dressing Gown and Crochet Collar. I've ordered KnitPicks Shine Sport to make the Dressing Gown—maybe for Mom's day—or maybe Christmas.






It occurs to me as I decide what to do about the shrug from VK, that I probably liked the pattern so much because I liked Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature .









I've mentioned Victorian Lace Today, which seems to have become my bible for lace knitting, though I've yet to actually start a project from it (so many projects...so little time). About the same time, I also received Arctic Lace. There are some lovely and interesting projects, but just as interesting are the stories and the history around the knitting of the Alaskan natives.







Helen Hamann's designs are among the most intriguing I've seen. I ordered the yarn to get her twinset and circular cardigan patterns which are exclusive to Elann.com. Then I ordered her book Andean Inspired Knits. Not only are the shapes interesting, but the colors are wonderful.

Focused on Finishing

I have to admit some frustration with the Mom capecho and with the body finished, and the collar to go, so I decided to set the project aside for awhile. I needed something that I could finish so I pulled out the Gold Nugget Shawl and finished it. I am always amazed at the transformation lace makes after it's been washed and blocked. As I knit the shawl and looked at the pattern, I thought, "This isn't going to be anything like Shui's beautiful shawl." But lo and behold through the magic of blocking it became something entirely different and lovely. It took exactly one ball, with a yard to spare, and it measures 48" wide and 24" long.

 





Next, I decided to try my hand at crocheting something. Since it was my first crochet project, instead of diving into one of the lovely patterns in the Japanese knitting books, I thought it would be good to start in English, and probably something not-too-complicated. To that end, I found the Off the Grid scarf on Knitting Daily, chose stash Crystal Palace Romance yarn in a mustardy color and crocheted away.




Since the Mom capecho is a bust for now, the Dressing Gown needed to be finished. I have contacted two knitters who finished the shorter Bed Jacket version to get a handle on interpreting the very poorly written collar instructions, since the publisher/author never responded. Both admitted to having a problem with the instructions, which tell you to start the collar before sewing up the shoulders, but they did manage to finish and told me the process; in theory it was straightforward. I started the collar as written. I can read and I understand knitting instructions, but as I read the collar instructions, the short rows would make a half collar. So in frustration, I gave up and decided to knit a lace collar, but I couldn't find a pattern.

Then I remembered the cover of the Fall 2006 Interweave Crochet I'd bought because it had combination knitting and crochet patterns. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and wing it with the Pineapple Lace. It took three tries to get the foundation pattern done right, but I did and even though I didn't count the stitches (it's a long way around the gown), it all worked out. I decided to stop at the eighth row in the pattern for fear of running out of yarn and the robe is pretty heavy as it is. For the cuffs I just did the first four pattern rows.

Next on the agenda involves much pointier needles—Christmas sewing.

Sewing for Mom (and Tom)

Since the Dressing Gown is now relegated to a Christmas gift, I went to plan B. When I saw Vogue 7883, I immediately thought of my mom. I shopped online for fabrics and ordered several fabrics from Fashion Fabrics Club that I thought would coordinate. In the end I decided on a lime linen/rayon for the cropped pants. White seemed so boring for the top, so off to Mill End I went and found two very "Mom" prints. The top is the Vogue pattern. The jacket and tank are from OOP Butterick 3141.
  

In the midst of it all on Sunday, my Pfaff serger just croaked—big noise, then bent needle, then nothing. I'd been sure to remove all pins, so I was clueless as to the problem and totally bummed. Now I could just use my sewing machine to complete the projects, but I've grown used to the clean seam finishing of my serger. So off to Montavilla Sewing Center, which has the good graces of being open on a Sunday. It would cost $99 minimum for the repair and, by the way, there are no parts to be gotten for the 15-year-old model. Hmmmm. I've been looking at the Babylock Imagine for a while and the desire to forge ahead without interruption prompted the decision to replace over repair. At least I got a reasonable trade-in for the defunct Pfaff.




When we got home I continued on what I'd been working on: Tom's May shirt. The doggy fabric is Howard Robinson's Canine Couture.

Even more yarn

Shine Sport
My mom loves clothes and there was a day when I knew exactly what she'd like. In fact, at Christmas she reminded me that the houndstooth sweater she'd brought was something I'd given her when we lived in Denver. (It's been 30 years since I lived in Denver, so I obviously did well on that choice.) It was actually a surprise when she picked out the dressing gown in Romantic Style. I liked it, but wouldn't have expected her to pick it out. It took a while to find a yarn that would work without spending the bank, but that's half the fun. The yarn order arrived on Saturday, and I got started.

Alpaca Fino
When Joanna, one of the Fiberly Friends, asked me to see if I could repair a hole in a purchased lace sweater, I said, "Sure, send it on." The yarn was gossamer, very soft, and fortunately also mohair-like because there wasn't enough yarn attached to make the repair, so I'd need to incorporate another yarn. This must be why I keep a stash—so I would have a yarn that might work—and I did. It was a mohair blend that wasn't as fine as the sweater yarn, but the variegated nature of the yarn helped it to blend. I sorted out the pattern and after a few "go's" at it, finally closed the hole so that it's barely noticable. Yesterday, I received this lovely hank of lace alpaca/silk yarn from Joanna.


Peruvian Highland Wool
I don't have enough Tivoli Bainin Tweed to complete the multidirectional cable shrug and my calls for folks to check their stashes for this discontinued yarn have gone unanswered. But I must make the Norah Gaughan's multidirectional cable shrug. Knowing that the odds were low on finding that one person in the world with the extra yarn I needed, I went ahead and found another yarn, since my stash failed me on this endeavor. Elann.com's Peruvian Highland Wool fit the gauge and bill, and it arrived yesterday. I ended up ordering two more balls than my calculations said I needed so I could get the Helen Hamann Asymetrical Pullover pattern for "free."

More Lace

I'm still working on my mom's dressing gown, but stockinette is just so darn boring, so I had to spell the project with some lace. I chose the Möbius scarf from Arctic Lace because it's a 20st/4row repeat and I thought it would be easy to memorize. Rows 1 and 3 memorized, but I haven't quite put 2 and 4 set to memory. After a few false starts (I really hate the foundation rows...) here's what I have. The yarn is Crystal Palace Kid Merino and the project is so light it will be good to carry around...if I could just get 2 and 4 memorized.



I saw Lace Style in Elisabetta in Los Gatos and checked Amazon (where I'd preordered it in December) but it was still "preorder." A couple of days later, it was "in stock," but still no ship notice. After an email to Customer Service, the "in stock" was removed from the description page and my shipping had been upgraded to 1-day and it finally arrived on Saturday. I'm not as enamored with all the patterns as I was with the Scarf and Wrap Style books, but there are a few "must knit" (geez...how long is my list?).



  

"Romantic Style" frustration

What is it with book and magazine editors? Are they so concerned with the page layout that the pattern completeness and accuracy isn't import?

I've finished the body of the Dressing Gown from Romantic Style and am frustrated with the inadequate intructions regarding the collar and edging. "Start collar at left shoulder edge" is the only placement instruction. Then the pattern launches into the collar itself with no mention of how it is attached. The starting sentence would imply it's knit on, but the instructions don't bear that out.

Same goes for the edging. Is it sewn on or knit on? Since the edging instructions only provide the pattern, I'm guessing it's sewn on, and I'm guessing the starting point is the back of the collar once it's attached, but you wouldn't know that from the instructions.

I'm not a novice knitter and I can usually figure things out, but with one lousy diagram with just the shape and dimensions, and two stylized photos, the hope of having this done for Mom's day is fading fast.

I've emailed Martingale and Co. We'll see how quickly and thoroughly they respond.

Variety

In my trusty little camera, there were quite a variety of different pictures from this past week.

Mom projects
The reknit of the bodice and sleeves for my mom's peasant top (aka her Christmas present) is complete.








And here's the progress on the dressing gown. I haven't heard back from Martingale press and haven't had the gumption to figure out the collar on my own. It's now the first 2007 Christmas present, so I'll wait to see if the publisher responds before I put the extra brainpower into the collar and edgings.







Walks
On one of the sunny days, I set off with my iPod and camera and marveled at the neighborhood colors.
      
      


The Safeway in Lake Oswego gives a 50% discount on prescriptions for pets, so that's where we go to get Cody's meds. When we had to pick up some puppy pills, we decided to park out and walk through downtown Lake Oswego, something we really haven't done. On our way we met up with some very confident ducks, sharing the pond with some concrete birds.
  

WIPs
In two weeks we are heading across the pond to Scotland. Because American has canceled their Chicago-Glasgow flight, our 10 hour travel time out is now 16 thanks to two layovers instead of one. Coming back will be worse, since we will layover at O'Hare for 4 hours. That's a lot of knitting time. So I've been trying to figure out what to take. (The most important part of trip planning, in my book, is the "activity bag.")

I've decided to resurrect the Sasha skirt. I started it last May, made some progress, then pulled it out because it was just going to be too small. Today, I'm about where I was before I restarted, which is here. Coincidentally, the page also has the original version of the peasant blouse.

My carry around project is another long-term (though not quite as old) project. When I received Victorian Lace Today, I was enamored with all the lovely lace, but overwhelmed with the choices. In January, I decided to try the Spider Net shawl. Try being the optimum word. In my two or three previous attempts, I kept running afoul of the pattern and had to restart. Finally, on the trip to San Francisco, I got the pattern in my head and here's where it stands. The yarn is stash Artisan NZ Merino lace yarn (300m to 20g - really lacy).

And through the power of suggestion, I have started an Elann lace shawl as part of the Elann Shawl Knit-a-long. When Lisa W invited me to join, I thought about all the lovely yarns in my stash and decided to do join. Then I had to decide on a pattern and shop my stash. In the end I settled on the Luna Moth Shawl and some Just Our Yarn Zen, a silk/cashmere yarn I found at Stitches West 2006. Very soft. Here's my progress.