sequinK

actual knitting content!

Thank god for long flights with nothing to do but nap, watch movies and knit.

The v-neck decreases are still not exactly how I'd like them, but they'll be FINE. 

And this little bit of superwash merino love was waiting for me when I got home:

It's a little darker than I expected, but whatever, it's still gorgeous.  I need some #7 dpns to cast on for the pinwheel baby blanket (tried half-heartedly last night with two circs and the outcome was wonky) so I can have a mindless knitting project ready to go at any time. 

I also played a little hooky with my man yesterday afternoon and attempted to get some man aran yarn shopping done -- Na Craga here I come!  We hit the Rug and Yarn Hut in Campbell -- a funny little shop needing some serious Feng Shui intervention ASAP -- which was having a 20% off sale on all Cascade yarns.  I found the perfect colorway for the man aran (olive heather, #9448), but they only had nine skeins (I need 12 -- grrrrr!) in the same dye lot.  Looks like I'll have to make a few calls around,...

CommunKNITy -- where Nathania is the manager -- had their grand opening yesterday, but unfortunately we couldn't make it over there.  However, there's ANOTHER yarn store grand opening today in Los Gatos -- Yarndogs.  I may go check it out, but given that my stash needs absolutely no enhancing whatsoever, maybe not.  Oh, and a new LYS opened here in Santa Cruz as well -- The Swift Stitch -- it's on the West side off Mission St. in the same complex as Kelly's Bakery, and I still haven't checked that out either.  Slackin',...

Happy weekend to everyone!

 

chilly in chi-town

I just got back from Chicago last night (client meeting) and boy howdy was it cold!  It's amazing to me how it can be in the sixties one day, then the next drop down into the twenties AND snow -- bbbrrrr!  That's some crazy-ass weather action right there, that's for sure,...

So I'm glad to be back, and thankful not to have any major travel happenings over the next few weeks.  Now maybe we can actually GET THE NEW STOVE IN and GET OUR WEDDING PLANS FINALIZED already.  And do our taxes, of course, but that's a total other frustrating, pisser of a story I won't bore you with here.  I did have some happy mail waiting for me when I got in, though.  My Secret Pal struck not once, but twice!

Like this:

And like this:

How cute are all these goodies?  Thanks SP, you're so thoughtful!  And when I got to work today, I realized that I have the perfect place for the sheepies to live:

I think they'll be happy there, don't you?

So moving on into actual knitting news, I finished the left front of the Must Have cardi over the weekend, and cast on for the other front right before leaving for Chicago.  I went back and forth for a while, trying to decide at what point in the diamond cable pattern to start the v-neck decreases, and settled on starting them half of a pattern repeat after casting off for the armhole.  The V-neck might be a little high, but it's not like I'll ever button it up all the way (hopefully).  I also did short rows for the shoulder shaping rather than casting off stitches -- I'm going to try using the three needle bind off to join the back and fronts and see how that works.

So happy Wednesday to everyone!  Rock and roll and all that good stuff, will you?

rip and redo

Our house has been slammed with the ickies.  The guy was totally down for the count all weekend, and I haven't been feeling so hot either.   **Hopefully** (knock on wood) I won't get hit as hard as he did -- we'll see how well the power of postive thinking ( and TONS of Emergen-C) works for me this time around.

So yesterday, as a preventative measure, I camped out in my favorite armchair, surrounded myself with bottled water, juice, chocolate soy milk and Girl Scout cookies (!!), rested, and ripped and reknit the left front of the Must Have.

Oh,... much better!!  I found that even though I got gauge with size 5 needles in stockinette, my tension tightens up considerably when working the actual cabling pattern.  I checked my gauge on the reverse stockinette portion of the largest cable and it was something like 23 stitches per 4 inches!  All the blocking in the world wasn't going to help me with that discrepancy,... 

And although keeping track of cable crossovers isn't so complicated with this pattern, I though I'd share my very low tech row tracking method:

Yep, that would be a string!  A string tied with four knotted loops.  Every time I reach this particular marker when working a row, I slip my needle into the next loop, always working towards the loose ends.  For this particular cable pattern, cable crossovers happen every fourth row, so when I reach the last loop closest to the loose ends, that's my signal to work the cable crossovers.  This method is particularly genius when working a sweater that has cables that need to be crossed at totally different times, as you can use a different marker for each cable.  And tracking sleeve increases?  Easy as pie!!  I learned this little trick when making my Philosopher's Wool cardigan -- I believe it's outlined in the Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified book.

So happy Monday to everyone!  And still no decision on the wedding dress -- I have two more appointments on Thursday and hope to have the whole deal wrapped up over the weekend / early next week -- fingers crossed!

another step closer,...

to getting the freakin' stove in!!  The electrician came this morning to laugh at inspect the wiring in our crap shack and give us a quote on running a new line to the kitchen.  We picked a range with a gas cooktop / electric oven, which is why we need a bit of a modification to the existing configuration.  I love it!  So pretty,... but anything would be prettier than our current frankenstove setup.

My knitting has been suffering a bit this week, but I managed to cast on for one of the fronts of the Must Have cardi.  I used a twisted German cast-on for the first time.  It's more time consuming than the basic long-tailed cast on I usually use, but totally worth the extra effort -- it makes such a pretty and stretchy edge!!

I also cast on for the Ribby Cardi on the knitting machine -- Monday night, I think.  I hate to leave pieces half done on the machine, but hand manipulating the ribbing is taking longer than anticipated, even with using the handy dandy multi-latch tool, so I'm only about halfway up the back.  If I have some time tonight, AFTER my Stitches W. homework is done, I'll try and get that finished up.  Pics later!

pattern futz-o-rama

I usually end up altering most knitted sweater patterns I make.  I've got some burly ass arms (thanks Ma!) and linebacker shoulders (thanks Pops!) so futzing with the armhole depth, sleeve width, etc., is a requirement.  I usually do all these calculations in my hot pink knitting notebook (which I, ahem, haven't been able to find since we moved), making my stick figures and sketches with scribbles, arrows and numbers all over the place.  But when I saw Nathania's color coded Excel pattern, a lightbulb went off!  And here's what happened:

Obviously, my pattern remodel cheat sheet looks absolutely NOTHING like Nathania's, but it so works for me!!  Isn't it cool how that happens?  And I bet that Jewel, who also is futzing with this pattern, will come up with a totally different approach. 

And if anyone is considering making this sweater and needs slightly upsized mods (you can see all my mods listed on the upper left if you click on the screen shot pic above), just let me know -- I'd be happy to pass on what I have -- it'll likely be done in the next day or so.

Oh, and I managed to swatch a bit last night at the Meetup as well:

I know the dark color will hide all my hard work with the cables, but I'm not sure that's enough of a downside for me.  I LOVE this yarn (it's the araucania nature wool) and its subtle verigated goodness!