perfect pockets

You can call me anal (not really); you can call me a perfectionist… (ha! ha! I’ve already fessed up to too many screw-ups for that to apply!)

As you can see, I got the back done as planned – got the bands done too – I’m loving this!

Now, the pockets. I decided that I’d like the pockets to be the same pattern (white background) as the back – that way, from the front you can see all three patterns – makes sense to me anyway so that’s what I’m doing.

Now, I have to say, I’m so glad there’s this blog to look back at because my memory is not what it used to be. Remember (you probably don't) those great patch pockets I did way back when (March 4, 2011) where I used a chained cast-on to make a perfect edge – I’m thinking that’s going to work here too and I know where to find it almost immediately!

So, yes it did work, but darn, I don’t like those 2 extra rows at the top (the one on the top right) that don’t give a complete pattern repeat. Answer, just stop 2 rows earlier! And, there must be some way to get rid of those little pokey white stitches at the edges… I tried just wrapping the second colour on the end needle instead of bringing it out which causes the end needle to knit in the second (black) colour…wrong answer - that was just too much extra work and same thing happened! Third try, nailed it!

Sonofagun, all I did was ‘edit’ my swatch for the stitch pattern and make sure every end stitch was black – two reasons: first when you’re hanging the chain, it’s black, so the end stitch that you’re putting in behind should be black, right? and when knitting fairisle on the Silver Reed we are used to pulling out the end needle at the beginning of the row so both colours go right to the edge, so by making the edge stitch black, it will knit back in black anyway and eliminate those little white half stitches!!!

You could just call me dumb…after all, it took me three try’s – I prefer to think of it as persistent but, you know, this is my boondoggle – what else do I have to do?

XO, MAO

P.S. If you don’t have DAK, just pull both end needles out every row which will have the same effect! And, one last thing, I’ll wash and dry the garment and the pockets and then block everything and then stitch the pockets in place…

fingers crossed...

I know the suspense is killing you - 2 fronts done! 3.7 oz white remaining - I think I might just make it and even get the pockets done - but my new backup plan if necessary - make back yoke from self coloured 1X1 black fairisle - that way the thickness will be the same throughout...

boondoggle...

I just love that word, but what does it mean? As a noun: work of little or no value merely to appear busy. As a verb, do work for the purpose of appearing busy…
oh my! how long has it been since I knit fairisle? talk about jumping in at the deep end…I decided to start with a sleeve – no big surprise – that has been my modus operandi for quite some time for lots of reasons – I know I am going to suffer running-out-of-yarn anxiety. I have 7.5 oz of the off-white WCD and tons of black, no problem there. I’ve checked back on other WCD fairisles (No 52, ‘Herringbone’ and No 46, ‘Print It’) They were both similar in length and size to what I’m attempting to make now and according to my notes, I can expect to need a minimum of 8 oz of the second colour but, going with the 3/4 sleeve, I hope, will save me. And making the sleeve first tests out a lot of stuff and will give me a better idea of how far the yarn will go. The sleeve stitch pattern has a background of black and uses slightly more black. The design I am going to use  for the front is a variation of the herringbone tweed, which is a more balanced pattern with equal stitches of black and white. The back, as shown in the stolen design is more white so I’ll leave the back to last and my ‘back-up’ plan - change to the ‘coffin’ version – the back in plain black – I’ll just stand against the wall a lot and make sure I’m the last to leave the room!
Confession, I didn’t waste any on the swatch – used an ivory mini dina for that which is close in colour and weight/thickness, just to get the right idea and test out the stitch pattern. The gauge from the other two projects – one was 36 sts and 43 rows and the other, 36 sts and 40 rows so I can use that as a guideline for the sleeve – I’m going with 36 sts and 42 rows, so I need to make a ‘cheat swatch’ as I’m knitting the sleeve.
Of course, one of my favourite features of this design is the little slits in the bottom of the sleeve – nice detail, so I can’t leave that out – it means knitting the small section at one side to say row 24 and then casting on the other portion of the sleeve and knitting it to row 24 and then putting everything back in work and getting it to all match up…so here’s something I don’t believe that I’ve really wrote about before – I am using Designaknit knit-from-screen for the stitch pattern on the SilverReed/Studio standard gauge electronic machine and the KR11 knit contour for my shape.
One of the quirks of the SilverReed electronic (any gauge) is mis-patterning on the initial rows. When I first got my SK580 way back in the early ‘90s, as part of dealer training, we were told to ‘read the pattern’ with 2 to 4 free passes of the carriage and doing this virtually eliminated any mis-patterning at the beginning or when any time you were re-setting the pattern. So, how to do this with DAK and KFS? I set my stitch pattern to begin 2 rows before I really want it to, to give me 2 free passes before the actual row 1 that I want (if you want more info on this, email me privately so we don’t bore the others).
So, anyway, as you might imagine, there are a lot of things to remember to get this little sleeve going, but I do love a challenge – thank heaven I’m not writing a pattern for this! That would take all the fun out of it! maybe I’m just boondoggling…or, is this my boondoggle?...
There’s something so satisfying about pressing out a sleeve and the gauge - nailed it!
I’ve had these buttons since 1995…
2 sleeves done - 6.1 oz remaining...
oh, one more reason to make the sleeves first - I'm still mulling over the bottom band and I can do a few practises on the sleeves and still change my mind for the other pieces!

inspiration or stealing?

it’s always interesting to find new inspiration – I have gone to retail shops and looked at ready-to-wear, saw what's happening there and come away usually filled with what I thought were good ideas to work on. There were the catalogues, like Chico’s and Coldwater Creek that would never fail to inspire something.  Now, the internet is full of shops and ideas – I used to look regularly at J Jill and Net-a-Porter but my new go-to is Anthropologie.com – I love those clothes! Why? I guess they appeal to who I wish I was – much taller, much slimmer and younger! There you go, it’s all about fantasy, obviously, because I am never going to be any of those things, but it’s nice to look and wish.
The website is kind of fun because people who have bought, log in and give reviews and comments on the garment after they get it which tells you much more than the actual description. I find it really interesting to see what they have to say and I often am thinking, where did they get that idea? (if they were unhappy) What where they looking at when they saw the photo and how did it translate to what they are saying?
Now, some of the people are shopping in their local store and are giving an opinion which is great for those who would be shopping on-line and it’s kind of cool that they give their height, weight, bust size and usually age…but I digress…
Anyway, the other day I found one cardigan that I just seem to have become obsessed with – it’s called ‘Tralee Cardigan’ (I don’t know how to put a link to it from here, so you’ll have go look for yourself and type that into the search bar).  It is originally shown in a bright yellow and white with black trim – the description says ‘we love the subtle mixed pattern pockets on this super- soft cotton intarsia (this really kills me when they get the description wrong, it’s very obviously a double jacquard or fairisle) - and it’s f-ugly – but click on the next colour button and it comes up on a real person in black and white and OMG, I love it! Of course, I’m not going to pay $148 even if it did come in my size. I found myself revisiting the page a few times last week and then over the weekend I sort of forgot about it. On Monday I couldn’t find it – almost panicked and then somehow I managed to stumble across it – I don’t know how to add or save something to my favourites – so I figured I’d better do something to save the ideas – can you believe it? I first grabbed some graph paper and started to block in squares of the stitch pattern and then – whack/coulda had a V-8 - there I am with a DesignAKnit window open and the website photo in the background – OMG! this is too easy – got the stitch pattern done and then realized there would be too many long floats for the fairisle, because in my head, I’m already knitting this in WCD (wool crepe deluxe in fairisle,  and I don’t want any float longer that 3 stitches – here, proof – I’ve already redesigned and knocked off a temporary swatch…I can use a portion of  my ‘Herringbone’ stitch pattern from No 52 for the front – I’m so excited! I’ll keep you posted, I promise!
(next thing you know, I’ll be learning how to use Pinterest – please don’t tell me!)

frozen watermelon?

I think I’m going to turn this into a food blog or maybe a drink blog…not that our summer has been so great but I do like making these watermelon cocktails – get yourself a nice ‘seedless’ (not) watermelon – I say ‘not’ because they aren’t really seedless, just not full of the regular black seeds. What can I say? it’s one of those oxymorons that I love! So, back to the drink -  cut up the watermelon – make about 1 inch cubes and throw them in a flat pan and into the freezer – you can leave them indefinitely (after they are fully frozen and I’m not going to use them right away, I shovel them into a ziplock bag for better storage) or at least several hours. Then at drink-time, haul out the blender, grab a few fresh mint leaves off the plant out on the deck and get the vodka.
After a few weeks of experimenting, I do believe I have the perfect recipe. Put about 2 drinks (maybe 2 cups) worth of the frozen watermelon cubes into the blender. Add 4 to 5 mint leaves. Then, .5 oz fresh lime juice, 1 oz limoncello and 3 oz of your favourite plain vodka. Pulse until smooth. Pour into 2 glasses. Grind a half a turn of sea salt on top of each and enjoy with lucky company! The drink can be made with unfrozen watermelon, just add ice cubes but then, that waters down the drink – just sayin’…
So, about my knitting, you say? well, I did finish that unraveled denim – didn’t get a hood out of it and changed my mind about the zipper and went with neckband, button band and buttons like ‘Simple-icity’ from Serial Stuff 1 – I’ll be honest with you and reveal the real reason there is no zipper. I lengthened it just slightly from the original without really thinking it through and ended up with the smaller waistline of the original design actually just above my hip line – you know, that muffin-top area and it would have been okay if I could have used a two-way zipper but didn’t have the time to search the ‘net or wait for it to arrive so opted for buttons because I can leave the bottom button undone…
Then, on a roll with cardigans and still thinking summer, I whipped up a WCD pale grey ‘Peachy Keen’ from No 53, without the ruffle.  Made the sleeves, made the back and, again, without thinking it through, I started the front and forgot to leave the few stitches off at the centre front and didn’t realize it until  I was casting off the underarm shaping. Figured well, okay, I actually need that extra bit across my bust so I’ll leave it in and another few rows later thought, oh no! the neckline is going to be too big – Ah-h, my brain at work – sidebar here - I hardly ever make round neck cardigans and again the truth (I’m going to have to stop drinking!) on a vee neck, MAO, you never notice this because you’re just decreasing down to the shoulder – so what would happen if I just decrease the 4 to 5 stitches that should not be there to allow room for the band from just above the bust in the next 3 to 4 inches? Long story short, it works for me!

And, you may not believe this, but I just realized that I do not own a white cardigan – I’ll get on that soon but tomorrow my yarn for my next KnS project is arriving, so I thought I better get this update to you before I get involved in that! Don’t worry; I’m out of frozen watermelon…

unravel?

you’re really not going to believe this…I am unraveling a sweater and going to reknit the yarn! Did you hear me? MAO is unraveling…yes, it’s the truth! Why, you ask? Well, it’s not because there is a shortage of yarn at my house, trust me – sure there are the odd Lego starship and princess castle pieces on the yarn shelves, but really, I still have plenty of good, quality yarns. And, I just finished up my KnS project for #187, which is a zippered jacket and wrote an article on zipper installations in knits and it got me wanting to do another zippered project for me – I don’t get to keep the KnS one.  ;-(
Here’s the thing. I’ve been wearing my casual hoodies to death lately and my totally favourite one of all time, ‘Hoods Up’ (photo of KJ wearing) from No 22, Autumn ’02 – that’s 11 years ago and I have really worn that thing – is still okay, made with beautiful red Honiburd Cotton 4 ply, but getting on the shabby side. It has some totally cool techniques, with the seaming on the outside which gives nice detail on the shoulder and top of sleeve and the zipper method is really neat – you actually sew the zipper on a band with the sewing machine and then attach the band to the garment on the knitting machine which makes the machine sewing invisible – I didn’t do that for the KnS one because it doesn’t work well for the heavier gauges.
Then, I have this other sweater in one of my all-time favourite yarns, Yeoman’s Indigo Denim cotton 4 ply in the dark wash – I had remade the man’s vee neck, ‘Faded Favour’ from No 39 ( Winter ’06), rashly thinking I needed one of those for myself (when the yarn was still available and I had a couple of extra cones), but it was a pullover and I had briefly forgotten how very seldom I wear a pullover. I did wear it a few times initially and washed it a couple of times, but it has been languishing in my closet for some time. Boy, I really am going on and on – it’s like I haven’t talked to you in weeks!
Now, unraveling it is one thing - I’m secretly hoping for a distressed look – the original was tuck stitch which simulates a seed stitch, using the knit side as right side and you can see a bit of fading on the top outside part of the stitch. I’m going to knit the new ‘Hood’s Up’ in stockinette, but I can’t really cheat like I have been doing lately on my swatches – sure, I’ve used this same yarn in stockinette – Nate and I had matching ‘In Da Hood’ hoodies back in No 37 and 38, but those swatches were knit in the raw cotton, knit slightly looser to allow for the inevitable shrinkage, washed and then gauged (then the garment is too big when finished, but works out after the laundering to do the shrink – hope you’re getting all that!). This yarn is already preshrunk, so I should make a new swatch but I won’t have to worry about laundering it ahead of measuring. Yeah, you caught that ‘should’! Now I’m really cheating – when I unraveled the sleeve, I left the hem and rehung that. Now, based on my expertise, gathered over years of knitting , instead of knitting at T8 which is my usual stitch size for this yarn, I’m dialing down two dots and using T7. for this which I figure will compensate for the pre-shrunk factor, and again using my vast experience, I figure I can plug 30 sts and 42 rows in as a semi-close gauge.  Now, doing my little ‘cheating at swatches’ thing from back in (see  April 2008)  where I just hang markers on the first 60 rows for a swatch check-up, I get going on the sleeve. After I get so far, I can measure the pretend swatch and re-adjust if necessary!
Heh, heh, haven’t lost my touch!

snow days...

really? snow in May?

I thought April was bizarre enough – we had a snowstorm on the 19th of April that shut down the entire city and that was the 4th storm of the month! I’m sure we had more snow here in Thunder Bay in April than we had in the entire winter…and then to wake up on the 4th of MAY to this??? Oh well, it has to stop sometime and what do you do in the mean time? Knit, of course! Anyway on the 19th, I figured I may as well make myself a spring jacket – nothing else to do, so I pulled a cone of red Bonita (100% mercerised cotton, 4 ply weight) off the shelf and proceeded to knit, using my new technique of no swatch needed because I’ve used this before…plugged in my stockinette swatch numbers from an old stockinette Bonita pattern and used my ‘Side Steps’ mylar pattern – I have worn the khaki wool one many, many times and always get compliments on it – I think it’s because the button/button loops catch people’s attention. It’s easy wear, throws on with jeans or a skirt and just goes, casual or dressed up. It is a sideways knit cardigan,  made A-line by adding gores or darts from the bottom edge to just under the bust and it is a quick, easy knit - you can do the body/sleeves easily in a couple of hours and finish up the bands the next day. I figured doing it up in the red would work well for spring, if it ever comes, but I knew I’d have problems matching the red for buttons, so I used black for the chains in the front and neck bands so black buttons should work and it does! While I was sewing on the buttons and loops, I thought, hummm-m-m, maybe here’s something I should say or tell you – if you already know, okay fine, but – I sew on the top button first and then do the bottom one, making sure the top and bottom of the garment line up properly with the other side. Button up both and stretch out the garment between – then do the next one from the top, the next one from the bottom, alternating, buttoning and smoothing out in between. This way, you’re making sure it all lines up and will lay flat and even in the end. I find this works better that starting at the top and working down or worse, just measuring the distance between…

 Happy spring!