Knitting in the Big City

and a UFO has re-appeared

The Katy sweater from Debbie Bliss’s Cotton Angora pattern book:

I started this sweater about 3 years ago and I made a bucket load of progress because I was fascinated by cabling. However when I was ready to decrease the armholes I knitted stockinette – because I was not much beyond a “new” knitter I didn’t know to continue cabling and the pattern didn’t explicitly say so. Mortified, I put Katy away in order to work on other knitting.

With some more knitting experience under my belt, about a year ago I took her out again and frogged back to where I *thought* the decrease row started. And then I put Katy away again.

Now up until recently I would have put myself in the “startitis” knitting category. I loved starting projects. But a couple of weeks ago I noticed that from May 2006 onward, whatever projects I started I managed to finish. Big or small, the items would never have “UFO” associated it with. So I pulled out Katy, threaded an orange lifeline through the stitches on the needle and I started to decrease for arm holes and cable.

Although I’m a little nervous about the remaining pieces: the front is ready for the v-neck, the arms haven’t been started, and I truly hope I have enough yarn since the color is discontinued, I’m plugging forward.

Mama sleeve and baby…

It took several tries but I managed to get the chevron pattern correct on the second Butterfly sleeve. Apparently I was slipping a stitch, knitting 2 together and then doing a separate pass-slipped-stitch-over (psso) when I should have pssoed the two stitches I just work with. Whew! One big plus for working on and completing your projects in the same century!

I got half of the sleeve done while I was waiting for the UPS man to deliver our post season tickets. Wouldn’t you know it, I’m home all day and the tickets are delivered at 5:10pm.

It’s October! That means I’ve got to get started on socks! They are the gift du jour for this Christmas – everyone on the list (save one or two people) is getting a pair of socks. I have been sneakily finding out everyone’s shoe size. However one person at work is getting a knit hat and the other is getting a Debbie Bliss silk scarf.

Frustration

I picked up a long dormant WIP, the Jane Ellison Butterfly cardigan. Seeing Theresa’s Butterfly inspired me to make one of my own. About 2 years ago I went through a chevron period and I made several projects. But I went on vacation and when I came back I had lost interest in the cardigan. I had completed the back and one sleeve.

Over the weekend I went to start the other sleeve. For some reason I can’t get the chevron pattern down pat!!!! What the heck did I understand 2 years ago that I do not understand now? How do I know I’m messing up? The last repeat of the row is not ending properly; it seems to be ending in the middle of the repeat. I over by 3 or 4 stitches, a sure fire hint that the pattern was done incorrectly. I examine the finished sleeve and for the life of me I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I’ve started it and frogged about 5 times so far.

Sweater Weather at The Point

I thoroughly enjoyed the first session of my two part sweater class at The Point . The instructor, John Brinegar, managed to be funny and informative at the ungodly hour of 10am on a Saturday. Yes I know, New York City is the city that never sleeps but for those of us who do sleep we prefer to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings! (Ok, usually I’m up reading the paper, not showered, dressed and getting off a subway.)

The class teaches the concepts behind making a sweater. We learned the proper way of measuring and stating gauge and we took a gazillion measurements to make sure out sweater would fit properly. The seven of us are all making something different and using an eclectic range of yarn, from Noro Transitions to Reynolds Lopi. I’m looking forward to this Saturday’s classes where finishing will be discussed.

If you’d liked to see some of the instructor’s handiwork check out the Knitty’s men’s issue and check out the new issue of Knit1’s Travel issue. That black and white sweater on the cover is his creation.

I was a knitting machine after the class was done. I used up two balls of yarn for the bottom front of my sweater:

Details:
- Pattern - Sweater of my own design
- Yarn - Jo Sharp Silkroad (wool, silk, cashmere) – Quartz (medium violet)
- Yarn Source – my stash! Seaport Yarn and the Point currently carry the yarn.
- Needles –switching off between Addi Turbos and Bryspun 14” straights – both size 8

I’ve also started the back. I’ve been like that with all my projects, if there’s a complementary piece I like to knit it at the same time. I’m pretty sure this prevents the orphan sock syndrome. The quartz color goes great with the mistake rib scarf I’m making in Colinette Gaugin and the Maxx New York bag I bought during tax free week at Century 21. During my second spin in the handbag department I turned around and saw this bag was hanging out on the floor. It’s close to the Marc Jacobs Venetia bag I’ve been hankering after and it was half off Century’s already discounted price. I paid a whopping $40 and no tax!

Katy

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora #12 Fuschia
Pattern: Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora book
Started: April 2004 - 50% Complete
First cabling project. Stuck on V-neck and armholes for the front and back pieces.

I'll have to spend some time on Katy this weekend. I've let one year go by without getting it completed!

Soleil

In addition to working on Katy I am currently swatching for Soleil . I am using Tahki mercerised Cotton Classic in a denim blue (3876). It looks like I'll need to use a #7 needle. Using the label's suggested #6 produces a 20x28 row swatch where as I need a 22x33 row.

Gotten some of my music back on my iPod.

More Butterfly

Notice how there some red in this second skein - the first skein didn't have any! One of the reasons I was attracted to this shade of Silk Garden was the interplay of the purple, green and red. The back is at about 13 inches. There's another 7 inches of chevron and then 10 inches of stockinette.

Friday night was upbeat since the new Entertainment Weekly in the mailbox - "Lost Boys" - a cover story on the men fron the show LOST. The rest of the weekend kind of dragged - there's infrastructure work being done on the subway system on the weekends and that led to some e-x-t-r-a long rides to and from Yankee stadium this weekend. It was good to have about 30 minutes of sun in our seats, barely any wind and cheer for the Yankees. After Saturday's game I treated myself to 2 new pairs of shoes from Marmi which has a new location on Madison Avenue. The only thing I have in common with Uma Thurman is the size of our feet. I was thrilled to find two pairs of shoes for work - pair of navy fabric shoes and a pair of dark green suede heels.

As the weekend wound down I watched a recording of the PBS show Needle Arts Studio with Shay Pendray , show 911. Her knitting segment had Debbie Bliss showing how do entrelac knitting with Noro yarn. Apparently the industry term for the Noro colorways is "space/random" dyed yarns. They tell you right off the bat that the more stitches you have the thinner the striping will be. This week's segment will deal with short rows.

Jane Ellison's Butterfly cardigan

I'm making the the largest size and its about 21" by 5" after knitting one skein of Noro Silk Garden colorway 206. The pattern calls for 14 skeins! Spend the time up front to get the pattern downpat - now its a breeze to knit.

Katy

Here's a 2004 WIP:

She's called KATY and I started her in April 2004. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora in fuschia and the pattern is from the Cotton Angora book.

Here's a close up of the cabling:

This was the first time I did cabling. I learned by reading the instructions in "Knitting for Dummies"! Once I did a couple I was "Duh - that was easy".

KATY's been patient, waiting on the sidelines while I got seduced by socks and holiday knitting . She's also had to live through the embarassment of having Klaralund grab the honor of being "My First Sweater". The least I can do is finish her before summer! She'll look something like this:

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Details:
Katy Sweater (First sweater)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora #12 Fuschia
Started: April 2004 - 50% Complete
First cabling project. Stuck on V-neck and armholes for the front and back piec

My First Sweater!

I finished my first sweater - Klaralund!

FRONT

BACK

I wore the sweater to work and last night's knitting circle. I got loads of great comments from everyone. One of the knitters said that the it was neat how the colors around the neckline match up - I didn't even do that on purpose! I seamed up the back a bit 'cause it felt drafty.

It took 9 skeins of Silk Garden #8 and I made the next largest size in the revised sizing that Wendy got for everyone in the Klaralund Knit Along. I wore a tank top underneath it and I was super warm all day! Now I'm really motivated to finish the Cotton Angora Katy sweater that I started last April.

I spending my first week with my new building, project, and colleagues. As I told my new boss, "I'm tired all the time. Everything is new so I'm thinking about my next move constantly." Not only am I sitting in on all day meetings but items that should be second nature are constantly popping up in my head: Don't forget to get off the subway at the right stop... Where's my desk again... What to have for lunch, where to go for lunch... Which way to the bathroom... Who the heck are you - did I met you already?.

And I miss my old boss! He's a great listener and I'm going through withdrawal without my daily chats with him. I don't feel lonely - I've known my new boss for a couple of years and everyone on my new team is friendly. The pluses of working for the old boss were only recently outweighed by the minuses of the old project. I've never missed my boss before, it certainly feels odd.

Sorry about babbling - I am tired but I wanted to post about my first sweater - I feel like an experienced knitter!