Bridget Is a Bridget!

After a lot of whining, here is the finished Bridget cardigan.


I am relieved that she came out fitting so well. I'm not sure if I really like how the bottom bells out, but that's what the pattern told it to do! I do like how the shawl collar looks (after reattaching it three times, I am especially glad it came out good), and I like the sleeve length.



I love how the yarn is interesting but not distracting. That is what I wanted. I think this will go with almost anything I want to wear it with! Quite the contrast from that Kauni cardigan, huh?



Everyone who sees it gets all excited about the buttons. Invariably they ask how I got them to match so well, so I get to gleefully recount how Georgia made them to match exactly, and I get to brag about how talented she is, a thing I have been doing for nearly 30 years. Wow, I'm old. It is amazing what polymer clay can do in the hands of someone with some training. These do NOT look like the clunky beads I have made!



And one more parting shot so you can see the back. And my extremely red nails. I am really looking forward to wearing this cardigan often in the fall. Actually, a cool front has come through (yay, 'cause our upstairs air conditioning unit went out), so I think I will wear it to dinner at friends' house tonight! It will get down into the 50s, I think (sorry Trine/Yvonne/Umme and any other Europeans/Asians, I am a crummy temperature converter).

I actually finished the Flit 'n Float scarf today at the LYS while I helped Sue Ellyn on her first sock (with interesting bumps in that process!). I will get to blocking on that one as soon as I don't have a headache. So, soon there will be another pretty thing to decorate the blog with! By the way, Sue Ellyn makes wonderful soap and gave me some minty/rosemary stuff that I can't stop sniffing!

I keep wanting to wear my Converse sneakers but not wear wool socks. This means I need to make more summer socks. I have some Panda Cotton staring at me, so I may be alternating working on socks with that and continuing on my Hopscotch socks (photo to come on that).

What pattern will I use? I may try this one that Emily just posted, called Air Raid Socks. They are short and airy, so would be good for summer. I had thought of using the left-over yarn from Flit 'n Float to make them, but I weighed what I have left, and there is 4 ounces on the main skein, plus quite a bit on the second skein (remember, the yarn came with over 800 yards), so I think I can make a big pair with the sumptuous green Nyoni.

Sigh, so much to knit. But that is not a bad problem to have!

Progress Is Progressing

Here you go, proof that I finished the On Hold socks. They sure feel good. The second one wasn't quite as big as the first, which means maybe I was overly relaxed with the first one, or something.


I really like the colors, which aren't my usual. They look awesome with my pink Birkenstocks, though, and a new pink shirt I got. I know I will wear them a lot. One thing about the wool, though, is wherever it rubbed my shoe, it's already fuzzing up. So I will be careful with them.

And what you see below is a big relief: Bridget blocking. Thank goodness. I managed to sew the sleeves in fairly successfully and I think the buttons look great. Now I am waiting the three days it will take for the darn thing to dry. I turned it over last night so it can dry on the other side.



I'm really glad to be finished with this project. It went through so many ups and downs, from having to totally re-do the back to running out of yarn...just a lot of challenges. I believe it is blocking a bit bigger than it was unblocked, which means it should be a good fit. Fingers are crossed. Maybe tomorrow I will have a photo of it on me to share!

So, I am moving on. I did start the Hopscotch socks yesterday and love the yarn, Gone Fishin', the September 2008 Lorna's Laces limited edition. I think the slip stitch pattern is doing a pretty good job of mottling the colors--I got far enough to see it start to look like a textured ribbing, which is good. But then I got a giant urge to work on my Flit 'n Float scarf again. I zoomed through a couple of charts, and now am almost to my favorite section, the holey part before the ruffle. Since I STILL don't have any work to do, I predict I will get a bit more done on that today.

I officially gave up on using the extremely thin JoJoland yarn for the Diann shawl. I think I'm going to switch to my other JoJoland sock weight yarn on it. That will be pretty--it is reds and blues, as I recall. I can make the shawl really big with it. But, that will NOT get started until I finish Flit 'n Float. I feel very virtuous using stash, even for new projects I come up with. But, I WILL have to finish that darned Maelstrom shawl...I am running out of other works in progress to finish!

Socky Weekend

Hi there. No blogging over the weekend, but that means I was away from the computer, so there was more time for knitting!



Here's how much of the second On Hold sock I got done! That was done between noon on Saturday and about 4 pm on Sunday, so not too bad. We went to see Lee's dad, so there was a lot of knitting on the way there and back, and plenty of knitting time listening to him talk, and plenty of time to knit driving him to Victoria to eat in a real restaurant. The photo is rather washed out, but there are slightly better ones below.



Here's the first sock, all finished. I had to bind it off twice, so I seem to have gotten into some bad bind-off habit. I am now just hoping I have enough yarn for the second sock. I didn't realize this fancy yarn had fewer yards than most sock yarns, and I made this sock pretty long. Well, I usually have a LOT left over in normal yarn, so I am keeping my hopes up. I'll know soon!


This side view shows how the side patterning goes through the ribbing, and has a little glimpse of the heel. I love it, but I think I missed picking up a wrap, so there is a little hole. Well, no one looks at the bottoms of my feet, so I think I will be OK. I did the pattern on the backs of the socks, even though Wendy doesn't have you do that in the pattern. I just like doing the lace.

I already know what sock I want to make next. I saw it on Emily's blog last week. They are called Hopscotch Socks, and they really do good things to regularly patterned hand-dyed socks, like Lorna's Laces. However, it looks like I'll have to order the pattern, and I don't have the urge to spend as much on shipping something as it costs to buy the item. Guess I'll wait until I need some yarn. Boo hoo. I'll find something fun in the Cookie A. book or something, instead.

Now that I have the yarn (same dye lot, woo) I am going to finish Bridget tonight, I hope, then get cracking on finishing that vest and the Flit and Float! Plenty to do that isn't socks.

Let's hope I have something REALLY interesting to share next time!

Good News for Bridget

Yeah, I posted last night, but I just wanted to let you know that I got an email this morning from the Plain & Fancy Wool people and they found a skein of the same dye lot for Bridget, so I will be able to finish my cardigan! Just in time for sweltering weather, but that is fine. At least it was not a waste of time! Woo!

Fun with Young-Uns and More Trouble for Bridget

In the midst of some rather trying knitting times, there was a nice highlight or two this week.

On Friday my work ended early so I spent some time at the yarn shop. One of the women who works there and I spent about an hour watching little Miss T., of whom I have written before. She is 4 now, and pretty much talks incessantly. She decided to build a bird house, and nothing was going to stop her, certainly not lack of proper materials. She busily cut and taped pieces of paper and some sort of plastic stuff together until she was satisfied, all the while maintaining either a constant monologue about her progress or a stream of questions for Andrea and me. We found ourselves trying to explain to her how sound waves worked, and I realized even my undergraduate and graduate work in phonology, phonetics, and audiology didn't help prepare me for the mightiness of Miss T.'s questions. But. as much as I complained, I think we enjoyed it.



What you see above are two of the slightly older crowd of young people we had at the shop on Saturday. These are members of the Vista Ridge High School (in Cedar Park, Texas) knitting and crochet club, who took over the shop for the day in a Knit-a-Thon. Mr. President here is also a member of the football team, and was hard at work on a pink gerter-stitch blanket square. Magic Fingers is one of the many members with clever nicknames on their shirts. The fronts had a big VR on them, with knitting needles jauntily piercing the initials.

Mr. President's big accomplishment of the day was spraying cheese in a can down his throat, and learning that it isn't as fun as you might think. But, at least they captured it digitally to treasure forever.


Here you see the giant inflatable boom box they blew up. It also actually works as an MP3 player. Nice touch, isn't it? The young man in black spent about a half hour blowing it up. He's sitting with the Knotty Knitter. All the kids were knitting or crocheting with one degree of success or another. Most were doing garter stitch or double crochet squares from the least expensive possible acrylic yarn, on really big aluminum needles, which looked like torture to me, but seemed fun enough to them.

I helped a couple of them improve their technique, such as the girl on the far left who had some interesting ideas. The one labeled "Jade" had found some rather pretty thick-and-thin stuff with a slight sparkle that someone donated and was making an attractive scarf from it--another girl found some fuzzy ribbon and was doing well on that. The star pupil was the boy next to Jade's head. He was "Head Knitter," and one of the founders. He was at that stage where he was a total sponge for knitting knowledge. I showed him how to do cables and he asked all sorts of really good questions about that. Then he wanted to know where to get yarn and needles of good quality like mine, so I wrote down all the resources he would need. I really liked how the club had boys and girls, a nice mix of "types," and tons of enthusiasm. A bunch of them had to leave for an overnight vigil in support of the poor little child soldiers in Africa--that was touching to me. The advisor (next to Head Knitter) was a very nice art teacher and she told me how much she has enjoyed working with such a really good group of kids.

I enjoyed it too, and hope to do a sock class for the more advanced ones, after Head Knitter teaches them to purl. I've been a bit down on teenagers and how they treat each other lately, so this positive experience perked me up a lot. I'm glad Pat could open up the shop to these kids.

Yesterday was made even more fun by a visit from Store Baby #1, Abigail. We all got to hold and coo over her, and enjoyed that at almost 6 weeks, she is more alert now.

Poor Bridget

I worked very hard on my Bridget cardigan Friday and Saturday. I worked hard on her today, too. Until something became very obvious. I do not have enough freakin' YARN!!! Gosh darn it! I am now 9 rows before the bind off on the sleeve caps, and have only enough yarn left to sew the sleeves in. After working so hard on this, even knitting an entire back and frogging it, this is so disappointing!

I looked on Ravelry and found a woman who had one skein of the right colorway. I wrote to see if she is interested in selling it. If that doesn't work, I'll call the people who make the yarn, who are here in Texas, after all. But now I have to set it aside until I can get just a few more yards! I guess I will do fingerless gloves or a headband in what I have left. That yarn is just too lovely to have sit around and not be made into something.

So, I will pout and work on finishing Fit and Float. I also hauled out my skeins of Poems yarn and will get going on the vest I have picked out for it. At least this will be a quick project, and I am fairly certain I have MORE than enough yarn for this project.

Oh, I wore that grass green pullover I made out of the slimy yarn last year or year before last. You know what? With the right black top underneath it, that piece of knitting looks mighty fine. I no longer will consider it one of my less successful efforts!

Overly Quick Update

Just so you will know I am still alive--here I am!

I started my new job with a bang and have been editing pretty much nonstop this week. When I stop, I have been knitting, but haven't felt like looking at a screen long enough to blog!

I've actually made some good progress on my Charybdis socks over the weekend, since I spent a lot of time at parent activities at the college my son plans to go to. I'm moving on up the leg of sock #2 and will probably finish at some point this week or weekend.

I am also moving up the sleeves on Bridget. They look really nice and I am confident I will have enough yarn to finish. Whew. The increases look very nice in the round. I am doing lifted increases which always look neat and subtle.

I did get the new Wendy Johnson book on toe up socks (yay) and am sure my next socks will be from there. Then I'll make something from the Cookie A. book perhaps. Yes, I am too lazy to go link to them. My eyes are just killing me from looking at small print on PowerPoint slides--I will enjoy my bigger screen when it arrives! I promise to link to Wendy's book next time so you can go buy it if you already haven't or can't locate it yourself. I would say it's my go-to book for teaching about socks from now on!

I hope someone's there. No one has commented on my blogs recently--perhaps you are all busy too!

Plugging Along with Bridget

I am knitting and knitting, honestly. Bridget's sport-weight yarn just takes a while. I did manage to finally finish the body. Wow, even making the largest size and using bigger needles it will be quite the form fitting little cardigan. I know it will block a bit bigger, so I am not too worried. My next task is sewing the collar on, then I am starting on the sleeves. I hope they go quickly. And I am pretty sure I have enough yarn. Luckily I have short arms!!

I just want to own this sweater so I am knitting as hard as I can (when not blogging and Facebooking and hoping work calls).

Today it is all rainy so I am not going to go out anywhere like I did yesterday, when I tried to work at the tea shop. Bad wireless, sigh.

Today's picture is one of some of the scarves that people made based on that pattern, which Michelle at the yarn shop actually found a Ravelry link to. It has been so much fun seeing all the variations on this same pattern.

Crochet Fun, and My New Favorite

I had a fun experience today at the yarn shoppe. When I got there, it was mostly just me and the owner, and we were looking at some old patterns and she spotted a crocheted scarf with ribbon wound through the rows of crochet. We decided to each make one, and had a lot of fun looking through all the Cotton Twist and Zen ribbon in the store. That's what the pattern called for. Then, I picked some other ribbon to make my brick red scarf, and she decided to use a different base yarn in black, but a nice pinky purple Zen ribbon as the weaving yarn.

I sat there and worked on mine all day, as I helped a lady with her knitting and talked to folks, while Pat went more slowly, since there were plenty of customers after noon. The fun part was that practically everyone who came in the store ended up buying yarn to make this scarf. We got a lot of yarn sold--enough for two white ones, a blue one and a green one that I can remember! It really shows how seeing a pattern being made can inspire sales. I finished mine this evening and will take it back to the shop for a sample, once I wear it tomorrow (it will be chilly enough to wear a scarf).

It was a lot of fun picking colors, and fun to make such a simple, yet effective project!

I've been working hard on Bridget, of course, and I am past the armhole shaping and last buttonhole, and moving toward the beginning of the collar! I am now hoping I have enough yarn to do the sleeves. At least the top of the front and back uses less yarn. As you can see, it most definitely is looking more and more like a cardigan.

The New Favorite

This picture shows a new pattern that popped up on Ravelry yesterday. It's called Dianna, and is by Jane Araujo, who has a blog in Portuguese. I even showed it to my old boss as the last thing I did on my work computer before I left! I think this is such a fun looking pattern--it's still not posted yet, but I am just dying to try this. It's like entrelac or mitered squares, but with lace. It looks perfect for a Jojoland, Noro or other yarn with slow color changes. I crack myself up when I fall in love with a pattern. It's such a fixation!

I'd type more, but I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so I am going to sleep. Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate. If you just got to enjoy Passover, I hope it was good, and if you are celebrating Ostara or something else, I hope it is a holiday with good food!

Babies and Buttons

I have to admit that I spent most of the weekend running errands and working on my slightly knitting-related project, but I did get some knitting done, as well. On Saturday, despite mis-reading the chart and having to rip out 12 rows, I got through Chart B on Flit ‘n Float. Now, I realize if I just worked on that, and didn’t do all these pesky errands and typing tasks, I’d be done already. But, really, kids, let’s remember that knitting isn’t a race! I have to remind myself of that occasionally, too. I am really enjoying the Nyoni yarn, so there’s no harm in taking it slowly as long as I do keep going. I’m in the thicker section, and I like how this is going to be a more sturdy version than many of the others I’ve seen. That’s why I am going to make it a bit longer, so I’ll have a warm and wearable scarf.

As if helping my students, chatting with friends and meeting nice new folks isn’t enough of a reward for going to the yarn shop on a Saturday, we also got to enjoy the new Yarn Shop Baby for quite a while. Little Abigail is very beautiful and has so many nice, hand-knitted things! Pat and I both got to hold her for a while and were trusted to watch her while her mom made daring runs to the grocery store and pizza place in the shopping complex. Even 5 minutes away seems long to the mother of an 11-day-old baby!


During my brief knitting time on Sunday, I worked on the late, lamented Bridget’s phoenix-like reincarnation. It’s coming along splendidly, and I am enjoying doing the body all in one piece. I got up to the first buttonhole, so that’s some progress in a garment with very long rows!

Speaking of those buttonholes, here are the Bridget buttons that I’ve been meaning to show you. Aren’t they beautiful? Each is hand-made by Georgia Morgan, my former knitting mentor. What a nice thing to have for your sweater—buttons with sentimental value! Since the yarn is from Texas sheep and hand-dyed in small quantities, and I am, at least so far, the only person on Ravelry to knit this pattern, it’s going to be quite the original. I hope it resembles the original—I am thinking of doing the sleeves in the round, too. That way the only seams will be at the arms. Woo hoo, I hate seams. Of course, arm seams are my least favorites!

And look, I have more buttons! Lee and I went to the JoAnn Fabrics store and found these big, sparkly buttons to put on Itchy Shalom. As a bonus, we ran into Cloth Lady Suzanne there and got to catch up with what’s going on with her since she left her church job and because head of cashiers at that store. She has been spinning a lot, so I hope to see some of her work when she gets a chance to visit the yarn shop!

I have noticed that my shoulders hurt less when I don’t spend 3-4 hours a day, every day, knitting. I guess this is telling me I was going a bit too strong the last few months, trying to churn out all those gifts and such. That’s another reason to slow down and enjoy my projects a bit more. I hope I can take my own advice, but I must confidentially say that I look forward to a LOT of knitting tonight.

Yarn, I Love Yarn

Knitting is back to making me happy again, where it had been feeling a bit like an obligation for a while (I must finish this project or else no fun, I must do this because I am obligated to, I like what I am making even though this yarn feels unpleasant so the knitting isn’t fun…).

Yes, much as I love that Kauni Jacket and am happy with how the Itchy Shalom came out, I am quite ready to knit with pleasant, soft and sumptuous yarn. So, I am!

As the photo shows, I have started the Flit ‘n Float scarf from the current Knitty, designed by my email list and blogging companion, Birdy. I took the photo Sunday afternoon, so I am a ways farther on it now. I am ready to start Chart B as of lunchtime knitting today. I chose the pattern because I liked the big ole ruffle at the bottom and also how there is a very lacy part at the end, but also more solid parts in the center. I have chosen to knit it on fairly small needles, US size 4, to make it perhaps more solid than the original, to bring out the yarn.

The yarn is Fleece Artist Nyoni, which is wool, silk and mohair sock yarn that they forgot to make superwash, or something, so they didn’t want to sell it as sock yarn. Instead, they sold it in 800 yard hanks for use in scarves, shawls or garments. It sold out very quickly. (I went over all this last month in this post). I just love the way this yarn feels in my hands, which is good, since I’ll be working with it a while on the scarf! And I also love the way it looks—there is a bit of sheen and a tiny bit of shine on top of that. I have a feeling there will be leftover yarn when I am finished, which just might become a beret to go with the scarf. That would be pretty.

That’s not the end of my fun with yarn that feels good! Last night I re-started Bridget, as I promised I would. I had completely forgotten why I whipped out the entire back in such a short time last go-around! It’s because that single-ply merino yarn from Plain and Fancy Wool, Co., is just heavenly to touch. It practically knits itself. And I get to use nice, wooden needles on it, too. After using the honking big metal needles on that slippery wool for Itchy Shalom, that’s a relief (I am using my trusty Addi Turbo Lace needles on Flit ‘n Float, because my wooden size 4s are occupied on something—probably it’s the other lace scarf I need to finish, Juno Regina from November 2007 (sigh, I will get to THAT one, too—it’s on the WIP list, though I moved it to “hibernating” on Ravelry).

So, on Bridget, which you may recall is a simple cardigan with seed stitch borders, I decided to do the body all in one piece this time. That way I will KNOW if it fits or not. Now, of course, I am worried that it will be too big. I went from US 4 to US 6 needles and am making the largest size. In my gauge swatch from yesterday I still wasn’t getting 5 stitches per inch—more like 5.25, so I figured I would go up a size more than I originally intended. I think I will end up with the right size, and in any case, it won’t be WAY too big, just not snug, if it’s slightly large. I’ve only done the cast on and three rows, and it is looking about right. I just enjoy knitting on this—there’s just the minimal shaping on the waist, and otherwise, acres and acres of stockinet. It’s a nice project to work on when you can’t concentrate! I will show the buttons I have for Bridget next time—I keep forgetting to take a picture of them.

So, I am all happy with knitting at the moment, which helps distract from job hunting and such. That’s why there haven’t been many hints or technique discussions—my mind is full of decisions, financial thoughts and that kind of thing. That will pass!

This Makes Me Inordinately Happy

Kauni Multicolor
Originally uploaded by sunasak

What just happened makes me so happy that I am posting twice in one day. I think I got an inkling of what must constitute my happiest knitting moments.

I was taking a break and looking through the new patterns on Ravelry, because I just like to do that. I'm always on the lookout for that perfect shawl, mitten or cardigan (the obsessions of the moment). I'd been looking at some DROPS designs, from the most prolific Scandinavian pattern makers out there. I'd seen a crazy little pullover from sock yarn that I liked, but as Dawn the Wednesday Wonder had pointed out, it was not a design for "fluffy" people. I was reluctantly coming to the conclusion that perhaps even I am a bit too fluffy for all the stripes in that pattern (I'm linking to a picture of it here , since they own the photo).

Then today, lo and behold, they'd posted another sock yarn sweater, this one a very simple cardigan, half of which was knit vertically and half horizontally. The stripes were busy, but less so than in the other pattern. (Click here to see what I mean.) I debated whether I should purchase 5 balls of their sock yarn to make it. I actually DO want to buy some of their yarn, to thank them for all the nice patterns. But right now, I have that New Year's vow to use my stash nagging away at me.

So, I wandered off to my quite hefty Ravelry stash page to see if there were anything in there that was a) self striping and b) over the 1220 yards I needed for the pattern. I looked at my red and blue Jojoland Melody, which I have way more than enough of. But really, I want that to be a shawl, which I already have one of yer wonderful patterns picked out for and everything. Then...there it was. The yarn I had bought from the place in the Netherlands, because I loved it, but that I didn't want to use to make that same sweater the Yarn Harlot had made. The rainbow-colored Kauni. The beautiful, wool, fingering weight, rainbow Kauni.

What you see in the photo is just SOME of the coloring in this yarn. It's a whole rainbow of nice, long repeats. Perfect for...A CARDIGAN.

And that was my happy, happy moment. The moment pattern and yarn came together in my mind and made something as-yet unrealized, but beautiful. I had a match!

And I think that magical moment of matching yarn to pattern is better than buying yarn, better than choosing a pattern, better than getting gauge, better than the actual knitting of the project, and a long sight better than sewing pieces or blocking!!

Ahh. I will go home and print my pattern and touch my yarn. Maybe I'll even swatch this one AND the revision for Bridget tonight!

I forgot to say this little tidbit about Bridget: I have ordered some hand-made buttons for it. I sent Wednesday Wonder Georgia Morgan a sample of the yarn, and she's going to make me buttons! Won't that be nice?

I Am Suna, Hear Me Groan

Wow, my knitting luck is not good lately. What you see pictured it my first try at doing something fun with this pair of socks. I decided to do the gusset in the center rather than on the edges.

It looks OK here, but when I put it on, there was an absolutely atrocious ladder in the center. I'd done SSK, K2tog in the center, and the transitions didn't look nice.

So, I frogged the sock back to the heel and tried again. This time, I did a slip two together as if to knit, knit one, pass two slipped stitches over center decrease. That made a really cool looking vortex of converging ribs (in fact, I named the socks Converging Rib Socks) that didn't quite meet. I hope they look like arrows pointing inward or something. The curve on the edge was very pretty. I felt good. That is, I felt good until I tried the socks on. They were, um, more of tourniquets than socks. Tight as a blood pressure cuff. I was confused. How come socks are just fine when you decrease two stitches every other row (sorta) when making a heel gusset, but doing the same amount of decreasing in the center didn't work? What gives, I wondered.

Then a little voice played a tape in my head, which is what happens when I remember something I read. It told me, "Cat Bordhi says to decrease every third row on all her cool socks." Oh, um, yes, she does, doesn't she? I am thinking that perhaps she has a reason for that. Like trial and error showed her it gets too tight otherwise.


So, sighing deeply , perhaps even groaning, I ripped the socks back AGAIN (which also caused Pat at the LYS to gasp). This time I did the centered double decreases every third row. The curve was more gradual but you could see it happening. And when I got to 32 stitches, I tried on the socks. Yay, they went on my foot! They are still a bit on the snug side, but not bad. Whew. Now, by the time that I hit 32 stitches, I had not gotten rid of all the ribs, so I continued to decrease, but at the edge of the last P2 on each side, I'd do a lifted increase, to keep the same number of stitches on the needles. It looked pretty. I'd already experimented on which stitch to do the increase on (doing it on the purl made a hole), so I knew this would look OK.

Here's a picture of how it looks on my foot. I hope you can see the decreases. Tomorrow or the next day I hope to show you a completed sock in my weird little new pattern. I'll have to get someone to take a "front of foot" shot. I must say, all this thinking is probably not worth it, but I felt like trying something new, and that does usually take a few tries. This is not as depressing as knitting a simple cardigan back and having it end up 2" too small. That still makes me feel pretty dim.

I'll re-start Bridget this week, though. Not to worry. I won't give up like I seem to have done on my purple crocheted cardigan. The photo below is a side view. I realize you can't see the ribs at all, but it is interesting, I hope, to see that there's no gusset, but the sock decreases to where the foot fits fine!

I Totally Messed Up, But, Here's a Hat

Oh, woe is me. I completed the back of the Bridget Cardigan. Then I measured it to be sure it was still on target. To say that it was not is an understatement. The width at the chest should have been 19" and it was 17". The bottom edge was right, but my gauge was 23 stitches per 4" not 20. I had rather completely departed from my gauge. Craptastic. I knew the yarn was a borderline DK weight in the first place, so I guess I need a larger needle. Luckily I have a lot of yarn, so I'll just start again with a larger needle. I think this time I may go ahead and make the body all in one piece, too. I'll know if it's going to fit much sooner that way. I'll then make the sleeves seamless, as well. Bummer. I just sat there yesterday afternoon and stared at the knitting for a long time. I know everyone has stuff like this happen, but, sigh. I wish I had figured it out sooner. Oh well, another fine Learning Experience for me to learn from!

Remember this--even pretty good knitters, including ones who make gauge swatches, end up with a wrong size and have to start again. it's not the end of the world. Just a tad tedious.

To make myself feel better I decided to make a cute hat, using a very simple pattern and yarn I am familiar with, so I couldn't mess up. It turns out that a student had asked me to help her get started on a hat yesterday and picked a pattern out of the booklet "Noro Revisited," by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton, which had been lounging in the LYS for quite a while. I showed her how to do it in one piece and use mattress stitch to finish it, and since I still had gift certificate money, I decided to get yarn to make myself one, and I also bought the booklet. Once I got home and saw the disaster that was Bridget (and today is her feast day, too, poor dear saint), I decided I needed to cheer myself up and make the hat. I used this very bright Kureyon colorway along with Blossom in a color that perfectly coordinates. Blososm is an odd little yarn. There's a very solid core and all sorts of fluffy surroundings. It is only used in the middle of the hat. But, it looks really nice. I got a kick out of the top of the hat, a little tube that gets bigger and looks like something a character in a Dr. Seuss book would wear. I think there should be a little flower growing out of it.

It's a nice, warm hat that fits perfectly, so I am sure I'll wear it. I have another really cute hat I want to make, too. I do not in any way need this many winter hats. I do wear them on cold days, especially if I have to de-ice the car. But, I could probably do with one hat per coat. That's about where I am now. But they cheer me up. Nothing wrong with that!

I'll re-start Bridget this week. First I think I'll finish my poor socks. I am at the toe now. I am ready to do another pair, for sure. I think I'll make something simple in a happy colorway. That seems to be the theme of the moment in my knitting!

It's Soft and Brown and Bulky

Wrenna
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Here are the nicer photos of the Wrenna cardigan I finished on Tuesday. You can see the pattern a bit better in these photos, but I have always found it hard to photograph dark lace. There’s a black sweater in the French Girl Knits book that I wish had been done up in a lighter color just so I could see the patterning a bit better, so it’s not just my poor lighting situation (we really need to get the separate flash for the good camera—that will fix things).

I’m still deciding exactly what I want to do for closures on Wrenna. I almost bought another agate button at the LYS, but hesitated. I am now thinking of doing three large-ish buttons fastened by loops on the edge of the front. I think it wants to close up a bit more, and that more buttons might give it a different look from others I’ve done recently.

I’ve been faithfully knitting along on the back of the Bridget cardigan. It looks tiny to me at the moment, but when I look at the Land’s End cardigan I’m wearing right now, I realize it’s pretty much the same size. I made it to the armholes last night, so it won’t be long until I to the fronts, which I am pretty sure I’ll do at the same time to ensure they are mirror images. Come to think of it, I should also do the sleeves at the same time. The yarn on this cardigan is really the star—such subtle grays and browns flowing around, but not distracting. I do like the pattern, though, which is in the Fall 2008 Wild Fibers magazine. It is a simple, pieced pattern done well, with subtle waist shaping and nice short-row shoulder shaping and other touches that will make it look good when finished, I think. Right now it’s hard to tell how it looks, since it’s all stockinette-like and folding in on itself at every opportunity!

I keep looking at other patterns and thinking about making them, but nothing, even that incredibly cute Montera cardigan on the Knitty Surprise, tempts me more than the thought of knitting up some of that yarn in my stash and those patterns I already have picked out. Two ideas are fighting it out in my mind as candidates for the next project (of course, after finishing a WIP). I am deciding between making Sara (Ravelry link), a little cabled top, in pink Rialto wool that I bought the yarn for last year or maybe earlier, and the temptation of making the Raglan Rust (Ravelry link) pattern in the Knitter’s Winter 2008 issue that I liked so much using the very special Brooks Farm Duet DK weight yarn I got at Kid-n-Ewe rather than doubled sock yarn. I don’t have any sock yarn that I have two 400-yard skeins of, so I can’t make it in the right yarn until I finish up knitting with stuff I have. Well, it’s decisions like these that keep the mind occupied during lots of rows of stockinette at a small gauge!

Thanks for all the nice comments about Dawn. I know she appreciated them, too. For Wednesday Wonders, I’ll probably alternate among people no one knows but were important to me in my knitting past, “famous” knitters whom I admire, and people in my life now. But, I’d love suggestions and nominations, too!

Two New Starts!

Wrenna Start
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I am so thrilled to be finished with the orange alpaca sweater (named the "Damned Orange Sweater" by the gals at the LYS) other than the sewing up, that I started TWO new projects. As usual, I am tempted by new projects I've found, but I AM using either yarn I already had OR something free.

I admit that the yarn for this first project is new, not from stash. BUT I used the generous gift certificate that my friends on my special email list gave me to buy this sinfully soft 100% alpaca yarn (Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande). The project is Wrenna from the new French Girl Knits book.

I really love this book, because the patterns are imaginative and different, and the construction methods are new. She uses fun yarns and I like everything about the projects except for the huge amounts of grafting involved to keep them seamless. ARGH. I think I'll pay someone to graft any of the grafty ones I end up making. I like everything in the book, just about, but some is a bit young or unflattering for me.

Anyway, rather than review the book, let me tell you a bit about Wrenna. In the book it is knitted with that extremely bulky Twinkle yarn, which I don't own and they don't have at the LYS. So, I got the bulkiest thing in the store with the gift certificate. I checked on Ravelry, where Kristen Griffin-Grimes kindly gives suggestions and ideas for alternate yarns.

Though the brown yarn is a little less thick, I managed to get the gauge OK. Most of the patterns in the book are knit on larger needles than the yarn usually calls for anyway, so this will be OK, I think. I am really not used to knitting with size 15 needles, though, so it's a bit tedious. The photo shows the project up to the underarm break. When I am done here, I will see how much more I'll have done by the end of the night.

Because Wrenna takes a bit of concentration (lace pattern plus something seems to happen on every row), I also started something with great expanses of stockinette in it. And a yarn I love love love. This is Bridget, from the latest issue of Wild Fibers. In the magazine it is made from lovely natural black wool from Wales. I am making it with one of the yarns I got at Kid 'n Ewe, Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool. Co.'s sport/DK weight single ply yarn made from Texas wool. It is dip-dyed in shades of dark gray and brownish gray that really, really look wonderful (the photo hardly does it justice). I got the gauge perfectly, so I sure hope I am not making it a size too small! If it is, my friend Karen at church will probably snatch it off me--it so looks like something she would love!

I need to sew the Damn Orange Sweater together this evening (it took a while to dry), and then I will have photos for you of it.

I am pretty darned excited to have two new projects going. The Wrenna will be done soon, but I expect Bridget (named after my favorite goddess!) will be with us a while.