Finished Mr Greenjeans and New Stuff!

Mr Greenjeans in Red
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I am happier that Mr. Greenjeans in Red is finished than I look in this photo. I promise to go outdoors and get a photo where you can actually SEE the sweater, too. It looks rather bulky in the photo (and I look sleepy, which I am), but actually fits well. I did block it out a bit, but I'd rather it fit like it does now than so tight I can't button it. Speaking of buttons, I sewed on the only one I own that is the right size, which is brown. I will be purchasing a different button!

Gotta say I am extra happy with this project. It fits, it has no glaring errors, it is pretty and it is warm. Since it has been rather cool the last couple of days, I am appreciating the warmth. The yarn is gorgeous in person--with it showed up better, but the light this morning was not good (photo taken before sunrise). [Edit: At left is a photo taken later in the day, where you can actually see the sweater, but I am a big glare.]

Now all I have to do is finish untangling that yarn and I can start the scarf! (I was out sitting at a football stadium where it was very windy and cold last night, so no unraveling for me--and little sock progress because my hands got numb and I had to put on gloves--gloves in sock yarn that I realized have not been photographed for Ravelry yet!).

Mail Call!

Yes, the letter carrier had left some things for me to find when I got home last night. First was an order from my old favorite online yarn shop, Woodland Wool Works. It is the place I ordered many dozens of balls of Plymouth Eros from in my scarf-selling days and where I got the yarn for my weird Annie Modesitt Vogue Knitting circular shrug.

This time I got Maizy sock yarn (it's made from maize!), because my neither LYS nor The Loopy Ewe has it, and I wanted to touch it. What a pleasant surprise that was! It feels a lot like Panda Cotton, which you know I like a lot and is mostly bamboo. Same manufacturer, Crystal Palace. It has a bit of elastic in it, but is mostly very soft and with a nice matte effect. I got rose colored yarn to make lace socks in, and a variegated one for some more plain socks.

In addition I got the roses color of Panda Cotton, because I liked it so much when my friend at Chicks with Sticks showed me hers. It matches my bathroom so well I wonder if I should make washcloths from it instead of socks! Ehh, no. Plus, I got some Opal, as if I do not already own enough of that...but I really wanted to get at least one skein of the Hundertwasser colorways, which were "inspired by the works of the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser" before they stopped selling them. I got the yellow one depicted here in someone else's stash.

I do want to try the Maizy soon, so that may be my next "me" one after the one I designed and the final holiday ones.

One more item came in the mail and I am SSSSOOOOO excited! The Cat Bordhi New Pathways book arrived! And Amazon had said it would not get here until March! Woo! They must have rushed out that second printing after all. Of course, I want to try one of THOSE patterns--guess I will make one of those baby socks Cat insists that you make first, then consider gracing my sister with a much cooler sock than she was originally going to get, hee hee.

But really, I am just as happy as can be to get a chance to learn about these interesting new sock-making methods--nothing's more fun than trying a new technique or learning a new skill.

Soooooo Close to Completion

Mr. Greenjeans in Red, blocking
Originally uploaded by sunasak

The weather has turned cool here in Texas, which makes me extra happy to have finished knitting Mr. Greenjeans in Red, pictured here in a very damp state lying brazenly on the guest room bed. I worked on it every chance I got over the weekend, which means it got grassy debris on it from sitting at the band hall waiting for errant buses to take us to band competition, and it got as bored as me, no doubt, at the annual pledge drive sermon at the UU church (I hope it enjoyed my quartet's lovely renditions of "Teach Your Children" and "You've Got a Friend (In Live Oak UU)" as much as I enjoyed belting them out). It did need a bit of blocking, to smooth out the ribbing at the bottom a bit, and to de-curl the edges of the sleeves and the neck band. The neckband did come out very nice, though, due to me actually picking up the correct number of stitches and knitting the correct number of rows. Once Mr. Greenjeans is dry, I will find and sew on a button, then wear and wear and wear! Finally I knitted something to wear that I like a whole bunch and of which I am not irritated by any parts.

Not only did I block this monster (and interestingly enough, it did not bleed out any color at all), but I finally blocked the surplice top, so perhaps nice photos of both apparel items will be available this week. The little irregularities in the neckband on this one seem much better now, and the lace panels look flatter. You may recall that the surplice top was made in naturally dyed cotton (Nashua Ecologie Cotton). It's fairly off-white, but it lost a lot of dye when I soaked it. If you make something with this yarn, be sure to wash it separately!

Frustration with Yarn

My happiness at soon having not one, but two wearable items made by me was dampened when I decided to get started on my next project. I plan to make the beautifully named "Scarf with the open and solid diamond lace edging from Weldon's, 1904" from Victorian Lace Today, out of Schaeffer Anne for my stepmother's Christmas gift. So, I hauled out my book, my needles and the yarn. I cheerfully placed the hank of yarn on my swift and started to ball it up. After trying both ends of the yarn it became very, very clear that the yarn had not been skeined skillfully. It doubled back on itself, twisted around itself, and generally did not act "nice."

But, the colorway is such a beautiful collection of shades of turquoise. I really want to use it. So, I listened to football on television for three hours and slowly but surely wound the yarn into a ball. I wish I could report that I have rewound it and am ready to swatch, but, alas. There is still 1/4 to 1/3 of the yarn left to wind. AAACK! This evening, I will see how far I get once I return home from the exciting "Festival of the Bands," which features performances by all our District's high schools and middle schools. It would be way more exciting if I hadn't already seen each of the other high schools' show at least once, and a couple of them twice. My Redwood Pagoda Lace socks will accompany me--who knows, I might get darned close to finishing them tonight!

You Don't Know the Answer to This, Do You?

Linen Stitch Silk Poncho
Originally uploaded by sunasak

You see, yesterday I found these pictures of me in July 2005, wearing a silk/wool poncho I had made and was quite proud of. I should have been--that's Alchemy Yarns of Transformation Silk/Wool expensiveness you see there, and lots of it. I don't have any really good photos of that item, so I cropped some conference photos and used them (in this picture I am actually teaching Tuba Boy, my son, how to knit, and Edie Eckman, who wrote the Crochet Answer Book is right behind him!).

The deal is that the poncho is slipping off my shoulder. That irritates me. One side stays up, because it has a jaunty attached scarf on it, but the other side falls down. Practically every garment I knit falls off my shoulders. The Juliet sweater, the Cindy sweater, Althea (my Hempathy top), my ribbon shrug...the list goes on. So my question is: am I just knitting the wrong things or do I have defective, overly sloping shoulders? Am I ... gasp ... deformed??

No, I don't think I am deformed, perhaps just poor of posture. But I do hope that the lone button on Mr. Greenjeans will keep the darned thing ON me. And in case you were wondering, I did get to work on him some last night, and got at least halfway through arm #2. I may well have me a cardigan by Monday! I sure hope so.

I may get to start new socks, too. I am turning the heel on Redwood Pagoda Lace socks and they are looking good. It's interesting that no one has said anything about my pictures of the first sock (perhaps because it is on a scuzzy tour bus in glaring light), but everyone who sees the socks in person gets all excited about them. Expert knitters, people who want to learn to make socks, and even non-knitters comment on both the yarn and the pattern. So, while not the Sock of My Dreams with respect to pattern/yarn compatibility, I know it will be a good one that people will enjoy seeing me wear--and the yarn feels great. (There is more interesting new sock yarn in candy corn and neopolitan ice cream colors over at Knitivity if you want to take a look, by the way.)

Jody and I are having a big debate as to whether I should wear a fitted top, a shrug or a shawl for the wedding item. She loves shawls and thinks a shawl pin will save me from the dreaded dropping of the shawl on the ground while hugging a zillion people event, which I foresee if I wore one of those. Opinions welcome. And I am posting more and more options on my wedding project blog entry.

Knitting Ups and Downs

Pagoda Lace and Bus Dashboard
Originally uploaded by sunasak

It was a very long weekend. And much knitting was done, though not all that much to show for it. Sigh. Took a major dip in the scummy old frog pond...

But, in good news, here is the Redwood Pagoda Lace sock #1 in Knitivity Redwood colored sock yarn, fresh off the needles in a rather scuzzy tour bus. I spent over 24 hours with the high school band on a trip to Arlington, Texas for a competition. I would have gotten a lot more knitting done if both the trip up and the trip back hadn't been during normal sleeping hours. I finished the sock while the rest of the folks were out procuring dinner in a locale full of preferred vendors: fast food, pizza and Starbucks. I stayed in and breathed diesel fumes and finished the sock.

I worked and worked on Mr. Greenjeans in red during the many hours we spent in a church rec hall between the preliminaries and finals of the competition. I made almost an entire sleeve but then realized that, sigh, I was making the size XL sleeve, not the L, and I would never hit 60 stitches before my arm length was reached at the rate I was decreasing. So, yesterday in my sleep deprived fog, I frogged the entire sleeve and redid it. Perhaps this time I decreased too briskly but it looks OK and I got down to where I want to start the ribbed border for the cuff. But it sure felt bad to re-do the same knitting twice. I did enjoy crafting with other band mothers, though, so I had good camaraderie with the crocheters and beaders who were also chaperoning.

I have nifty new yarn to post, perhaps tomorrow, thanks to the latest Loopy Ewe sneak-up. A couple of very interesting ones! And KnitPicks sent me a replacement #4 pair of tips for my Harmony set (you may recall, one original didn't screw in properly), so I now have one bonus 4. Good, I like that size. So, all is not lost--I just feel like I lost some productivity (yes, knitting is a process, and I should REJOICE that I get to knit twice with that nice Cascade 220, yup). But I have new things I want to knit!

Not much knitting time today, but tomorrow I hope to get on to sleeve #2 and more done on sock #2.

I hope you all had better knitting weekends than I did!

I Had Blog Ennui

I haven't written anything in a couple of days, because nothing knitting-wise has really gotten me all excited. And I recently read about this very useful concept of blogging without obligation. The fellow who thought it up has a great point--it's a good idea to leave my blog right NOW and click that link. His main point is that you should blog because you have something to say, not just to make sure you get hits, inspire new subscribers or whatnot. I agree with that, so even though my hits have taken a tumble, I didn't write for a couple of days when I didn't get much knitting done and what I did was on the same old projects.


My projects are just fine, thank you. None of them are moving along very briskly, due to that pesky old "real life" getting in the way, but Mr. Greenjeans is over halfway through the cable section, and Pagoda Lace Sock #1 has at least grown a bit. The Knitivity sock yarn is coming out very soft--feels great--but it's a bit "splitty" and that makes it hard to re-do when I make a mistake in the lace. I ordered some ShibuiKnits semi-solid yarn from the good ole Loopy Ewe that I may try this pattern on again.


Speaking of yarn, I will have to photograph my two newest preciouses. One's a skein of 700 yards of fingering weight yarn from Knitivity in a collection of denim shades. I was going to make my stepmom her holiday gift from it, but then I saw this Schaeffer Anne in shades of turquoise that will look better in the pattern I chose (one of the rectangular shawls in Victorian Lace Today). I am going to make that really simple triangle shawl from VLT out of the denim for my own use.


I also got my first knittable sample from Color My Yarn Crazy, my friend Jody's soon-to-launch yarn biz (no, there's nothing much about it on the blog). It is an almost-indescribable color in sock yarn of my favorite highly twisted type. Both Lee and Beccano declared the color looks like a chocolate cherry cake, so I hope that helps. It is really a very dark mottled orange. My friend Saranda labeled it Rust. Someone nameless called it "poop brown" but if that is the case, it is VERY pretty poop! I will use it to make the frogged Diamond Waffle pattern. It will look good in this semi-solid.




At the LYS yesterday I purchased some Calmer in a coral color to make the Shedir (warning, PDF link) hat (photo is from a nice site with lots of chemo caps on it) for an acquaintance with breast cancer. I'll make that on the bus for the endlessly long band trip this weekend (where I have some crazed idea that I will finish ALL my WIPs). When I got the Calmer yarn and said I was making a cabled hat, Jody said, "Oh, you're making Shedir." My-o-my that woman has an encyclopedic memory for knitting pattern names! I was sure glad she made it to the shop, because talking to her and a couple other nice and friendly knitters really made a crummy day better.

I guess I have written enough that I don't have to go on and on about the weird patterns in the Holiday Vogue Knitting. At least there were 2-3 a person could wear in public without being laughed at or looking like a sausage. I must be too, too, old.

Progress Report A: Mr. Greenjeans in Red

Mr. Greenjeans in Red, progress
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Today will mostly be progress reports on what I got done, or didn't get done, over the weekend. Most of the weekend was spent on Mr. Greenjeans in Red, pictured here. My insistence on knitting things at a finer gauge than some people would means that there is a lot of yarn in my knitting. Whew. I feel like I have been knitting on this forever, and was really relieved when I got to the cable rib border, because it is less mind-numbing than row after row of back-and-forth stockinette.

I got 1/3 the way through with the border. It needs to be 12 inches long, and I have 4 inches (60 cm/20cm to metric people). I sure like the way it looks, and it should be nice and warm. The Cascade 220 hand painted does seem to attract hair like a magnet. Both dog hair and people hair.

My guess is that by the end of next weekend this will be done, since I have very long bus rides and lots of sitting around to do for a lengthy band trip on Saturday. I'll keep plugging away whenever I am home this week, and get another skein of yarn, just in case I need it.

Knitters' Long-Term Effects

Mr. Greenjeans in Red Progress
Originally uploaded by sunasak

As you can see, I am moving along on Mr. Greenjeans in Red. What appears to be a big blob there is actually the top of the cardigan, heading to the armholes. It's got a very wide top, and that's because a) it has a wider neck than a lot of cardigans and b) there is a pretty wide band of ribbing that goes along the front edge--12 rows.

I just love this Cascade 220 handpaint yarn. It's normal Cascade 220, so it's nice worsted weight wool, but the colors are so pretty. They are more subtle in person than in the photo, I think. It will go so well with much of what I wear!

The title to this post is "Knitters' Long-Term Effects," and I came to that last night while sitting on the couch with Lee, knitting calmly and watching Monday Night Football after my community chorus rehearsal, winding the day down. I was thinking, "This is what I always looked forward to doing when I grew up." Then I remembered how that vision of the future came to be!

It's the influence of someone I don't think about often, but who really had an impact on me as a "slightly troubled teen." Lila Brunell was the lady across the street from us when I was young and lived in Gainesville, Florida. She was a nurse and her husband was the head dietitian at the local VA hospital. They had met in the Navy and had a pretty interesting life--my favorite part was when the lived in Iceland--I loved those stories (which included yarn!). They settled down in Gainesville with their incredibly hyper Basenji dogs at the end of their working careers.

They were really nice to me, and I spent a lot of time over at their house the last couple of years I lived in Gainesville. She was a knitter and helped me with knitting, though mostly at that time I crocheted endless granny squares and embroidering on my jeans (I mean, I was 11-13, OK?). We moved away to horrible (to me) south Florida when I started 8th grade. I was totally miserable. My parents took pity on me and let me go back "home" for two weeks the next summer. They were especially kind to let me visit the Brunells and NOT my grandmother (one mean ole woman). So, I stayed at their house, visited old friends, rode a borrowed bike through all my old haunts, and reveled in being "home" for a while. During the days they were at work, and I read their books (including The Joy of Sex--how convenient it was that they left that out in plain sight). In the evenings, we'd eat, then sit around while Lila knitted and Ralph watched TV. I crocheted along. I remember asking if she ever finished a sweater--she was about at the point I am now with Mr. Greenjeans, and going back and forth on very long rows. She laughed and said she would, but the idea was more to enjoy the making of the sweater.

They were so happy together. Comfortable with who they were and what they were doing. It seemed so warm and pleasant to sit and knit and have nice conversation about current events (with no pesky little brother to bother me). That is when I put it into my mind that when I was grown up, I wanted a nice, warm room where I could sit and knit with someone I loved, feeling relaxed, safe and comfortable--and enjoying the process of my craft.

And now I get to do that! No matter what is happening, I have my warm cozy room, my wonderful yarn and my supportive man at my side. I have arrived at last.

Ralph died when I was a senior in high school. My dad and I drove up to Gainesville for the funeral. It was important to me to be there. I wanted to show Lila that I was going to turn out well, and to thank her for being there for me. She moved away before I went to college, so I didn't get to see her when I returned. That's too bad--she'd have loved all the things I was knitting by then! And I hope her spirit is somewhere appreciating that she had a positive effect on a young girl.

(I had accidentally posted this to my personal blog, then realized it would work there, too, so I have two of the same post--if you read both, don't think you have started seeing double! And if you want to read the other one, ask me and I will give you the URL.)

Completed Surplice Top, etc.

Completed Surplice Top
Originally uploaded by sunasak

The hated and tedious sewing up is finally complete, so here is the surplice top, before blocking (hence wavy border and lace sections).

As a reminder, this pattern is from Nashua Handknits North Designer Collection #4 and was made in the yarn called for, Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton, in color logwood.

It actually fits, though is low cut enough that I will probably wear it with a cami in public.The color is a bit too close to my skin color to be very flattering, too. But, it's nice and light and for once, not too big. There is a photo of me in it on Flickr and Ravelry, but it's so unflattering that I decided to not put it on my blog. Maybe I'll get another photo once the top is blocked.

At least it is NOT too big and DOES fit. I am proud.

I think Mr. Greenjeans in Red (next project, top down cardigan) will fit fine. I somehow am getting a smaller gauge than usual by going down two sizes, so I will just make the increase section longer and make sure there are the right number of stitches when it comes time to do the cable rib bottom. On that one, I am almost through the yoke on that one, thanks to having a "sick day" yesterday and just sitting on the couch sleeping and knitting. I'll have a picture tomorrow--the black/red color is beautiful.

As for socks, I got halfway up the foot on Diamond Waffle and decided the Knitivity yarn in Redwood did not like it. Too busy a pattern and too busy a yarn. So, the yarn is staying and I am trying Pagoda Lace by the usual Wendy Johnson. I am still on the toe, because I mostly worked on the Greenjeans sweater after frogging the Diamond Waffle sock.

I have decided that the purple-ish J. KnitsNew Jersey yarn would be a better choice for Diamond Waffle. It is more of a semi solid, and I do not have many of those right now. Oh, if only I knew someone dyeing up some semi-solids that I could make socks out of. Oh wait, supposedly I do. DYE SOME YARN, Jody!

I have 34 projects up on Ravelry, and 16 stashed yarns. Lots of typing and photographing still left to do, but I already have found the site handy for looking up official names of patterns and yarns!

Another Pair Off the Needles

Walking Away Socks, Reflections
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I'm glad I took my time with these socks, because I really enjoyed knitting them, especially the Seacoast Panda yarn, which is so nice and thin, with that lovely bamboo sheen. There are a couple of other pictures on my Flickr pages, so click the link under the picture to see how they look on feet. Walking Away Socks is a really nice pattern. I'll probably make the third variant eventually, too!

I started the Diamond Waffle pattern on Knitty in my Knitivity Redwood sock yarn. That is one complex set of instructions, dude. And why is there a full page photo of the socks? The detail is nice, but it ate all my printer ink. I think I should have looked over the instructions better before printing them out. But, they will look cool, if I can figure out all the various techniques.

Sweater Issues

So, I went home last night, finished these socks, then swatched the Kauni yarn to see if it would work with the Knitting Pure and Simple cardigan I am supposed to teach. The best I can get out of it is 6 stitched per inch, and the pattern wants 5. By the time I added in the stranded pattern, I'd really be changing the pattern like crazy if I tried to use that yarn. I do think I'd rather make a cardigan of the yarn, so I will either find another pattern or make up something.

In the meantime, I realized that Mr. Greenjeans, the next thing I want to make, IS a top-down cardigan pattern, and I already have the lovely Cascade 220 hand painted stuff to make it with! I can just use it to demonstrate techniques for the class--that will be fine! And at least I now know what yarns at the shop are appropriate for the pattern, so I can steer people to them. So, all is well. I don't have to buy yarn after all and can teach the class.

I did not neglect the surplice top yesterday. Both sleeves are complete and I am almost done with the edging around the collar/fronts (just two rows left--I got too sleepy to keep going). Next, whether I like it or not, will come the dreaded sewing in of sleeves and the less dreaded side seams. Then. whoa, I will be DONE! Imagine, a completed non-sock. I'll have something I made to wear to work other than Juliet! I am thinking I won't get to the sewing up until Sunday, when I can concentrate on it (tomorrow, yarn shop then a band contest in the evening). Perhaps I can sneak it in Saturday afternoon so it can block on Sunday.

I have some knitting books coming in the mail and some yarn (bad, bad yarn-buying Suna). I'll report on them and continue the teaching information later! Have a good weekend, readers!