sitting in church...

Li'l Mikey and I got on just fine - yes, I named the tool Mikey... He's cool, listens real well, doesn't talk back and feels good in my hand! I live alone, what can I say?
I did half the front band first because I knew where I was going with that and it went so well, I jumped right into doing the back without too much thought - this is only a prototype so who cares if there's a boo-boo or two - it'll give the knitter behind me in church something to think about - like that's gonna happen! LOL!
I started off with a 24-st version of feather and fan - that was good and fun - I could have done the whole back like that but I was itching to try different things. The next one was another 24-st repeat where I centred the 'fans' going outward from the same point as the one below...I knew I was going to be doing some decreasing at the sides and wanted those side seams to look good and have a finished pattern so my decreases are actually  about 7 sts in from the edges. I put some faggoted lace between to take up the slack. The third pattern is my very favourite 'leaf' design (a 12-st repeat), where you are actually filling in the holes as the top of the leaf swings back in. I followed it with 'battenburg', another very favourite 12-st repeat. I like the way the mix of patterns alternate between hole-y and not so hole-y (tieing in with the church theme ;-)!) and even holier but you still see the vertical lines.
The sleeves are a little snug - I forgot and used my standard gauge shape without thinking that the mid gauge is a thicker fabric, so I'll have to redraft and reknit those...no big deal, they are mostly stockinette and I have plenty of yarn left!
This was supposed to be my mid gauge version of the RTR cardi, but I'm renaming it the 'church cardi'!

deadline met...

Do you know where the term 'deadline' came from? Basically, it originated in prison camps during war and referred to a physical boundary - guards would shoot any prisoner who crossed the line...
Well, gosh, so glad I'm done! It's ready!
The pattern for the RTR cardi, DONE! The last two weeks, I was pattern writing,  knitting some, pattern writing some…and then I figured I can kill two birds with one stone – to really check over the pattern and make sure it’s good, I’ll make one for Jan and that way I can have another piece of her wardrobe done and I’ll feel really good knowing the pattern has all the proper information. So, for hers, I did have 3 cones of Yeoman Yarns Cannele (which is what the pattern calls for) in a pale green – it’s called ‘sage’ – really nice and I’m sure she’ll like it – hers is the second size, but shorter (maybe I mentioned this before, tee hee, she’s under 5’ short) so I shortened the pattern by  about 2 inches and I had to use the third cone for the last 28 rows of the last front band!!!

The pattern – you can purchase it right here on the right side of the screen, there is a Paypal button  - it’s $8 and I will email the pdf to you when I get your payment (thanks!) –
Standard gauge RTR Lace Cardi: High-hip length, open front cardigan, long, set-in sleeve. Shawl collar, knit in hand transferred lace with purl stitch ridges. Back lace inset is sideways knit and A-line shaped with shortrows, softly gathered into the stockinette back yoke with reverse seaming for added detail. The front is combined with side panel, wider at hem and shaped at back side to add to the A-line. Back is slightly longer than front. Six sizes from finished bust 38 to 54”.
The midnight tweed ‘Granville’ turned out perfect – I just need to darn in ends and add the buttons – will show you some pics later in the week. Now, I have one more piece to do for Jan – I think I’ve decided to go my standard gauge version of the ‘Rib’nShrug’ in the thistle 4 ply wool – stay tuned!

 

the RTR lace cardi...

I love it and so did my girlfriends! In fact, they both called dibs on it when I don’t want it anymore – funny, they have noticed that I’ve been making longer sleeves on things lately so I can give them away!

Not sure what the real appeal of this design is, because they loved it before I even put it on. Is it the colour? or a combination of the colour and the lace pattern? I guess I’ll have to make it again in another shade just to see. What I really like – the way the back looks, although on the next one, I’m going to make the yoke a little deeper. The slight flare below the waist is very nice. I also like the side view where the back looks slightly longer than the front – I didn’t really plan that, it just happened - it’s because I did the angle shaping on the back side of the front/side panel. I’ll make the front a little narrower, so the front lace panels just meet at the centre front instead of the overlap thing although that’s quite okay… and I’ll fix the front edge cast-on – it worked okay for the bottom edge of the front and sleeve, but went a bit wavy on the vertical drop…

I make a deal…

with myself – let me explain. When there is something to do that needs doing but I don’t really want to do it, I try to combine it with something I do like. So I do some of the bad stuff and then some of the fun stuff…I have to finish writing my KS pattern for #194, the December/holiday issue - already mailed off the garment and I’m engrossed in this ‘RTR Lace Cardi’ I’ve been playing around with – it’s turning out awesome and so much more interesting than pattern writing but the deal is, I’ve got to finish the pattern today no matter what.
I have all the pieces of the cardi made, except the last half of the shawl collar and I’m dying to see how it all goes together. So the deal is, I get to join one more piece then I have to finish another segment of the pattern – I know I’m cheating a bit – I did one shoulder and one back/side seam before getting back to the pattern, but it’s only noon…and I just have to finish up the sleeve details, add the stitch chart and finalize the schematic, air-knit one size…
Got the pattern done! and most of the cardi finished up! I’m loving it and already planning a re-knit! You might notice I added a yoke in the back - I thought it would stabilize the shoulders better and I changed my stitch pattern a bit in the shawl collar from the back - I think I'll add pockets and maybe for the next one, add a vertical dart in the front to shape it in a bit more...
Last night, I took my box of Knitwords #1-24 down with me to watch TV  - I know that doesn’t read right – the magazines are not going to watch TV -  I’m going to look through them while I’m watching TV.  I was searching for a particular technique that I’ve used forever and wanted proof that I have told it over and over – couldn’t find it but what a fun time I had reading the ‘reasons to knit’ pages, looking at the models, seeing if I could remember all the names and who was who and oh, gosh, I forgot all about that…

moving on...

I have put the good wife cardi aside temporarily – I was having running-out-of-yarn anxiety before even starting and decided to move on to another project that’s been on my mind.
I had an RFD (request for design) from KnitStyle for the Feb ’15 issue and they didn’t like my submission – yeah, I know, what’s up with that? – well, actually maybe I’m being too sensitive – it wouldn’t be the first time! In response to my lace cardigan knit in cotton, they replied 
‘did you mean this for 195?  That's the Feb/Winter issue, so projects tend to be warm & cozy.  Perhaps this would be better for spring/196.’  
Okay, so I was caught up in the moment and wasn’t really considering winter – I re-submitted an alpaca pullover with an aran/cabley  look and they said that was okay.
But I really wanted to work on this one (foot stomp, pout, pout!)!
So what’s stopping me from making it anyway, just changing it up a bit and doing it on the standard gauge and keeping it for myself! heh, heh, heh! I feel better already! and I do have a lot of std gauge yarn, just here and waiting! Bonita(from Knitcraft), it is – mercerized cotton in a 500g/1850 yds cone that is like the machine knitting deal of the century – one cone that retailed for less than $25 with great yardage that will make an entire lace garment! Not bragging or anything, but I’ve got 4 cones of the natural colour – I figured it was good to stockpile because I can make something and then dye it the colour I want…uh, back to the task at hand….

2nd try...

I liked this but turned sideways, it goes in one direction...

My plan is to make a longish A-line cardigan with a hand-transferred lace panel on the back, shoulder width and then make a front/side panel in one piece (stockinette), so any size of the cardigan body could be made in 3 pieces – lots of times, for larger sizes, the back needs to be made in 2 pieces and seamed in the centre. And then there will be a shawl collar of the lace, knit horizontally with no facing because the lace would look okay from either side...


better because the 'circle'
of lace is same either way

tried out the shortrowing - doesn't
work in the purl stitch...

 So, why hand-transferred, you ask? Well, it did start from the mid gauge design and that would be hand transferred because there is no lace carriage. And I did, at first, contemplate doing something with the lace carriage, but when I factored in the purl stitch rows (RTRs) and the shortrows to make the A-line shape I decided that hand transfers would be easier than trying to re-program the lace carriage every time and worrying about turning off the electronics each time as well…