Live and Let Knit

The first yarn shop I ever went to here in Connecticut is going out of business. They lost their lease and the rumor mill indicates that the owner and staff are on to bigger and better things. We will certainly miss them – it was a great store and a lot of customers are in shock.

I went by to check out the sale and was very much prepared to buy every single skein of superwash Cascade 220 they had, but luckily for my budget they don’t carry the superwash. I did get some yarn for scarves, and a pair of socks, but no huge purchases.

A few days later I went back with my friend Gina who is a new knitter. She got a bunch of goodies for her stash and this time I perused the book section. I picked up a Dale of Norway Baby book and got some yarn to make a sweater to be passed around the gaggle of toddlers we have in our circle of friends. Gina picked out some adorable buttons for me to use.

I was smart enough this time to read through the patterns before starting and realized that every single pattern in the book has steeks for the sleeves. (For the non-knitters, a steek involves knitting a tube and then !cutting! it to make a flat piece) I smugly decided, if I have a potential for disaster in two places, then three won’t kill me so I’ll go for a cardigan. Seems to me like parents have an easier time with a cardigan than with a pullover. Plus I already had the buttons.

I decided to make this one first- out of white and lavender:

The Dale book is for experienced knitters and has no specific instructions for the steeks other than where they go. So, being the information junkie that I am, I started the internet search. I came across many many web sites and blogs with tips on steeking – and after reading Eunny’s steeking chronicles decided to give the crochet steek a try.

So I made my sample – huge and with acrylic.

For some silly reason I felt like I was making a banner for a jousting tournament… or a subconscious desire to take a trip to Chicago.

Then I did the crochet method on the center stitch. I’m not very good at crochet so it’s uneven.

And then it was time to cut….

Half of it immediately unraveled and the other half held on tight.

Disappointing but not discouraging. I can see that the part that unraveled is where my crochet was loose. One of the websites mentioned to make sure you use the correct size crochet hook. Mine might have been too big. I also tugged on it a lot which I guess you don’t normally do and that a lot of the ends get stabilized when you attach a button band or sleeve.

I’m thinking I’ll do both the sewing machine and the crochet method on the real pieces. I have a wonderful new sewing machine, but at the time of the test piece it was too hot to drag it out to the big table in the kitchen and the test piece is rather small. (next place I move must have central air) There’s also mention on many of the sites that wool behaves better than acrylic since it’s more ’sticky’.

So I’ve started the little cardigan. It’s been slow going since I only had 12 and 16inch circulars which are way too small for this piece. It prevents me from spreading out the stitches on the needle to keep the Fair Isle part from getting too tight. So I guess this will truly be an experiment piece. I used some of my birthday money to purchase longer circulars from KnitPicks which should arrive today. I’ve been having so much fun with the knitting and those needles will make it even better!

This is a pair of socks I made for my Dad. I made them with the new Cascade 220 superwash on US5 needles. The 220 makes *exactly* a pair. I had about a yard left over!

This is one of the pieces I started on the plane flights to China. The body of the sock seems to be the right size, but the original heel flap was definitely too big. What you see in the photo is the Sherman Heel which I love. The Sherman Heel is the only short-row styled heel I can get to work without the holes along the side. The first time I had done the SH was in the Stashbuster Spirals, (my pic) from the Six_Soxs_KnitALong. I’m not sure how far I will get with this one – second sock syndrome has already set in and I haven’t even finished the first one!

I had also started another hat on the trip, but the two color patterns proved be too much since I need to look at my knitting all the time.

My MIL has been untangling the mess that is our back yard. I don’t do well with plants so we definitely appreciate all her work – especially since this is a side project for her. I need to read up on how to take better close-ups with the digital camera when I head over to take pictures of the garden at her house.

More pics of the Ribby Cardi –

The Ribby Cardi is almost finished.

Here are the pieces hot off the needles:

I don’t know if this is cheating or not, but whenever I have two pieces that are the same shape I block them on top of each other. Sure it takes longer to dry, but it makes it easier to get matching pieces. In the case of the ribby it showed me that I had forgotten to bind off the 10 stitches at the beginning of the arm hole on one of the front quarter panels. That translated into 10 extra rows at the neckline. I had to rip back and redo that section but it was a fast redo.

I’m not sure how they yardage calculations were made for this pattern, but in the end I had two balls of the light orange and a ball of the dark orange left over. That’s after adding 1.5 inches to the body and making the collar longer. Oh well. Audrey suggested a nice hat or head band to go with it. The next time I make this cardi (and I know I will!) I’ll continue to make the body longer and also make the arm hole opening longer/deeper. Even after blocking out the sleeve it’s too tight for my preference.

I have successfully mastered the mattress stitich. It’s much smoother than what I had been doing before. I was really confused at first since I started with a purl-to-purl join.

Now all I need to do is work in the zipper. I’ve pinned and basted it in so I know I have the right size and placement. Now I need to head over and get some light orange thread. (Thanks Audrey! I was going to use white – duh!)

I know I haven’t been keeping up with the blog all to well these past few months. I’ve actually done quite a bit of knitting in the last few weeks so I have plenty to show.

This is what kept us busy in the first weeks of the summer.

That’s how the pool looked when we first took off the cover from the winter. Ready to dive right in?

It’s not so bad after dumping in the right chemicals and then letting the filter run for 24 hours:

Too much algaecide – oops!

All in all it took about a week to get the pool to be fully blue and vacuumed. After that it was a long string of sunny days and BBQs.