it's better to give...

I feel like such a spoiled little kid - you know, the one who doesn’t want to share...I’ve finished making this ‘Let’s Swing Again’ (KW#44) for my daughter. I always say I’m not a ‘navy’ person and this is French navy wool crepe deluxe and I don’t want to give it to her!! I want to keep it and it’s not like I need it or anything - I’ve already remade it for myself 3 times, so I have the original and the black (see blog, Sep 6/09) and sand dune (see blog June 15/11) - I changed this one up a bit, made the sleeves full-length, added the cuff from ‘Rich Raglan’ and lengthened it by 3 inches and it looks totally different again! I’m going to call her and warn her it’s a limited time offer - she’d better come over and pick it up right away. (what a hard garment to photograph!!)

Stuff...

I did get my ‘LSA’ finished and the button on - the one I thought was going to be the perfect one wasn’t - it was a bit too light in colour but I did have the perfect one, just didn’t remember it until I went to my button basket!

The original pattern was in KNITWORDS No 44, but I shortened the sleeve and didn’t add the cuff. The yoke is knit sideways and one sleeve is knit up and the other down so to get the same edge on the cast-on side as the cast-off side, I began the first one with waste yarn and then the end one had waste yarn also. To finish it, I used the main yarn doubled and e-wrapped the same number needles; hung the open stitches wrong side facing; pulled the open sts through; knit a loose row and chained off. Beautiful!

My daughter, Laura, was home for a few days and I can only say the reason I still have this cardi is because beige is not her colour, but she did place her order for one in black, along with a plain straight dress to match - good choice, girl! She’s looking for a new job and thought a dress with the long sleeve version would make a great interview outfit instead of the stuffy ‘old-lady’ suit she bought in desperation a couple of weeks ago which she said she’d never wear, but paid $1200 for - yikes!! I’ll do it in bits and bites and have it done in no time, once I get the yarn!

I have a friend’s birthday this weekend and it was a toss up what to make for a gift - a shopping bag or maybe a pair of socks?...I may have given her a shopping bag already, so I rooted through my sock yarn stash and found a ball of Fortissima Socka Mexiko Cotton Stretch - a 100g/460m ball in the right colours for her - it’s superwash wool, cotton, nylon and polyester and oh, they knit up nicely - using my circular sock pattern (it was in the handout packet at PPP) - I made the cuff only half the depth I usually do for winter socks and I’ll probably have a hard time giving these away - they are so nice - good thing she’s a good friend!

What’s Happening?

I’m having one of those days, I call it puttering around - you know, at the end of the day you don’t really know what you did, but you were busy all day doing something...it’s Sunday, not that it makes a difference, but it’s Labour Day long weekend and not that that makes a diff either, but...
I’m doing odds and ends with a little multi-tasking at the same time - you know, teeth-whitening, breaking in my newest pair of shoes, writing, sewing on buttons, getting ready to go out to my next workshop... Westchester, NY , next weekend.
I’ll be staying with Grace. Actually that’s not her real name - I met her a while back - usually I’m quite good with names and faces - people are amazed at my good memory, usually. Well, one day, I was doing a workshop somewhere in CT - it was in a lady’s house, the room was packed, like about 35 knitters seated closely, in the livingroom. This gal came in a bit late and the only room left was up at the front, beside me. I recognized her, welcomed her and called her Grace all day. At the end, we’re saying goodbys and I told her it was really nice to see her again and she said yes, me too, but my name isn’t Grace! OMG! I was mortified, but it really was funny. Anyway, the story spread and Grace has remained Grace to me and her knitting friends to this day. It’s funny, I have never even ever known anyone named Grace - I’ve always thought it was a lovely name and she looked like a Grace to me - that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
So, back to the puttering, I have a couple of new workshops I’m doing for this fall season and I get to try them out on this NY gang, so I want to look my best, of course. I have most of my knitting done for No 51, which isn’t due out till November 1 - it seems like a long way off, but it’ll be like, tomorrow... anyway, one of the new workshops is on facing techniques so I’ll be taking garments from the past few issues that I’ve used facings for collars, and front edges - I have a new cardigan that might get into No 51, that has a whole lot of things happening - in fact that might be a good name for it... 4 colours of yarn, different stripes on body and sleeve, different ribs on hem and yoke, raglan top with great shaping detail, hidden sewn snap closing (I might fake it with buttons sewn on top just for show - there’s another good name - Faked or Fake Out) and front facings that I did in intarsia because of the black/white top/bottom...
I very rarely use black for knitting something for the magazine, because it’s so hard to see and photograph and show good detail, but I really love black clothing - it goes with everything...I’ve been meaning to tell you about a re-make. It’s called ‘Let’s Swing Again’ - in black - I’m wearing it in the photo with Nathan on our welcome page this time - the original was in No 44 and shown in a variegated rayon from BT Yarns - although I’m not a big fan of variegated, I did like the autumn colourway so I made that cardi - I really wore it a lot, but unfortunately the yarn did not stand up very well, it got a bit fuzzy with wearing and washing and it stretched some - what can you expect from a $19 cone? - so I reknit it using black Wool Crepe Deluxe, one size smaller because the first one seemed a bit long - I used the exact pattern, got the same gauge from my swatch - the WCD is not as soft and drapey as the original yarn, but that's one of the great things about WCD and it’s become my go-to standby for where ever, whenever...