knit*therapy

The sweater surgery was pretty successful. The patient did not expire, nor did the doc, though I had a very faint moment at the end of 120 (on each side) stitches grafted when I realized I was off by two stitches on one side. Yeah. Two stitches. No way was I going to pull the whole thing out and redo it. So I cleverly hid the problem in the seam.

Hemming (and hawing) the Sunrise Circle Jacket

I’m now onto sewing up the hem. Last night during Obama’s speech, I was so inspired I got both of the sleeves hemmed and started on the neckline, which you see here. I have got a lot of sewing left to do here, but it’s really not bad. It’s not making ugly marks on the front of the sweater so far, so that’s a huge relief. I had worked myself into a tizzy worrying about that little “what if.”

Aside from the Sunrise Circle progress, I washed and blocked the pieces of my Pretzel Logic Cabled Vest yesterday. Just peeked at it — blocking works wonders for cables – so here is a rather dim picture of the back. My basement blocking area is not a sunny delight — bear with me. I have fallen in love with cabling this winter — I love the variety it affords. I’m a little worried this vest may end up being just a smidgen small — I did some funky math with my yarn sub and am afraid I goofed it up. We’ll know tomorrow when it’s dry enough to baste together and slip on.

Carol Burnett as Winifred in "Once Upon a Mattress"

This is for those of us who grew up on wonderful television broadcasts of Broadway classics like “Peter Pan” with Mary Martin (OK, now that I look back on that one, she is rather grotesque as young Peter), “Cinderella” with Lesley Anne Warren, Celeste Holm, and Walter Pigeon, and this classic — “Once Upon a Mattress” with Carol Burnett as Winifred.

Having just completed quite a lot of mattress stitch, I felt it was a fitting tribute to my now better-honed skills in that area. It’s a funny thing with knitting (or any other skill one is learning, come to think of it) — the things that used to strike fear in my heart as a new knitter have, after three years of obsessive knitting, become… well, much easier. And not only are those things easier for me to do, they actually look pretty good, too. I’m sure you can recite the litany of scary knitting things with me, knitties: Kitchener stitch, seaming, lace, knitting with tiny needles… (And I must say, I had a proud knitting in public moment about a year ago when working on a sock on two circ’s – size 1 Addi’s with regular fingering weight sock yarn – and a woman came up and asked me if I was knitting with wire and thread!)

I know this is probably a real non-brainer for most of you. You do something more, practice, you get better. Our moms and dads told us that all the time. But get this — they were right.

I know it’s a holiday, but the doctor is in and busy at work. I had a major surgery scheduled for this morning: my Sunrise Circle Jacket’s back is suffering from a moderate to severe case of shortness.

I diagnosed this problem only when actually suturing the fronts to the back yesterday (yes, this doctor even works Sundays). Of course, in my usual fashion, I insisted on completing the side sutures on both sides, easing the extra frontage into the backage, and creating what I’ll kindly call a gently undulating effect along the front — not unlike a bad lipo job. So I modelled it, looked, thought… “hmmmm, I really don’t want to knit a new back, even though I have plenty of yarn.” Then I thought — surgery! Snip a stitch, unravel, knit in a couple of inches, and graft it shut again. I had performed this procedure successfully over the summer on a baby sweater sleeve that needed an additional inch. The scale of the SCJ is much larger – oh, say 4 times more stitches to be dealt with – but I know I can do it.

The offending uneveness.

Surgery in progress.

At this point I have ravelled (unravelled?) the back just above the hem-turn line, and have managed to get all the stitches on both sides of the incision on needles. I’m sure some of them are twisted, but I’ll deal with that as I knit them or graft them. When I get the knitting done, I’m going to try the brilliant TECHknitter’s method of grafting with knitting needles.

And now, my big confession. It is utterly ridiculous that I’m having to do this in the first place. You see, I looked up everything ever written by anyone who’s done this pattern before I cast on. Did anyone mention a problem with back length? Oh yes, many times. Did I follow the designer’s recommendation and knit the back first, then match the fronts to it? Well, I knit the back first, but I didn’t understand how to adjust the size of the fronts, as they’re knitted in a semi-circle, so I just trusted the knitting goddesses. And here I am… having what I will choose to call “a learning
experience.” I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

I can’t even bear to start off with an apology for not writing in ages yet again. So I’ll just jump in…

The summer’s huge kitchen renovation project is now officially FINISHED. Hooray! Though we didn’t do the work ourselves, it was more stress-inducing than I could have ever imagined. The end result is just lovely, though, and I enjoy it more ever single day.

So on to the knitting news. I’ve had a rather severe bout of startitis this fall, thinking about cold weather and wanting all sorts of fab new knitted garments for myself and others to sport. In September, I started a project that’s been on my list and in my stash for well over a year, Sasha Kagan’s Floral Lace Shawl (VK Fall ’06). It looks so beautiful in the mag and I thought I just had to have it. Except knitting it was a royal pain, for several reasons. First and worst, the little flowers that look Fair Isle-ish in the pictures are actually accomplished by the evil INTARSIA. This involved about a dozen bobbins across the back of the piece and a lot of twisting of yarn and, well… cursing. I had vowed never to do intarsia again after the Weekend Getaway Satchel (still awaiting final finishing/sewing in the basement), so this was a rude awakening. Secondly, I realized after about one full pattern repeat that the shawl would only be beautiful on one side – the wrong side would be very wrong and not at all suitable for public viewing, no matter how tidily I wove in the ends. This was very disappointing indeed. Thirdly, the charming leaf lace pattern that goes between the little flower motifs is almost completely lost on the dark colored yarn. It’s Rowan Felted Tweed in treacle, which is a gorgeous dark raisin-y color, yummy stuff, but the lace pattern was lost. Finally, it just wasn’t any fun — and at the smallish gauge, would have taken me the rest of my adult life to finish. Please bow your heads for a moment of silence for the Floral Lace Shawl. It is no more.

Abandoning a project still pains me, but I must say it is liberating to just say no to projects that I do not enjoy once I get going. I knit for pleasure and for peace of mind. Irritating or annoying projects do not meet these criteria, so buh-bye.

Also in the startitis pile: a Branching Out scarf for my pal Eileen on her birthday (late now), I’m about halfway through on it. I love the yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, my first time using it. I’m finding the lace pattern kinda boring, though it looks nice and will look really fine when blocked.

Whipped up a pair of Maine Morning Mitts for another friend’s birthday right before the scarf started. Those go so quickly, they hardly count as startitis. (And now you know why I don’t work as a hand model.)

I did finish a pair of socks for my brother for Christmas — one knitted gift down, ? to go! They’re simple garter rib in Moutain Colors Bearfoot — what nice yarn to work with! The colorway is Sapphire Trail, I think. I had the yarn in my stash and chose it for him because it has all the colors of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon in it — that’s where we took a big family vacation at the end of the summer. Here’s a pic of one unblocked one:

I’m all set to join in the NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater in a Month) festivities in November. I’ll finally pry out all the Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed out of my stash and make the Sunrise Circle Jacket. I hope. If that starts making me crazy, I’ll switch to the February Lady Sweater that’s so popular these days.

Oh yes — almost forgot the felting part of our show. I am possibly the last knitter in North America to make a pair of Bev Galeska’s felted clogs, but I did it! I see why they’re so wildly popular — it’s like magic to make this giant floppy sock-like thing that becomes a real shoe in the wash. Here’s a before-and-after pic of the clogs:

More soon as swatching begins for NaKniSweMo!