Live and Let Knit

Pattern: Salina, size L, US 3 and 5 Needles

Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Autumn/Summer Spun – 3.5 Hanks

Date: June 20008

This is probably the first time in ages that I’ve had gauge all the way through a project and been very satisfied with the end product.  This baby fits!  The only adjustment I made was to block the sleeves out to be longer than in the diagram and I left out the seed stitch cuffs until I see how it hangs/drapes after a few times wearing.  It will be quite a while before I can actually wear this, but I’m glad it’s done and ready for the Fall.

So.. I’m a few days over the one month deadline I had set for myself.  Hubby and I both got colds that knocked us off our feet for almost a week so I didn’t get the seaming done in time.  I didn’t think it was possible to sleep for 3 days straight but now I know!  I had to make a run to JoAnns to get the buttons and picked up an Ott-Lite for my b-day present.  I have enough yarn left over that I may try to unvent a toddler sized sweater to match.

My next project is the infamous Clapotis.   A long time ago I had read in blogland that Knit Picks Shimmer held double stranded was a good choice for Clapotis so I ordered some (probably to round out an order to qualify for the free shipping LOL).  It sat in may stash for 2 years so I decided to wind it up and give it a go.   I don’t know how other people have faired, but I had to rip and restart the first ~20 rows about 10 times.  I always seemed to have one extra or one short on the count and since I can’t see if it will effect the pattern I decided to just start over each time.    I’ve made it to the second drop stitch and to be honest I’m not enjoyoing this pattern.   It’s probably due more to the fact that this yarn should have been used to make a thin lace scarf rather than this double stranded mess.   I’m going to keep working on it – some Ravelry posts say they didn’t like it until they blocked it so I’m going to give it a chance. 

Today is Spa Day for Salina.

 The podcast over at knitpicks painted a really neat image of how blocking is a spa treat that we can give our yarn after all of the mangling, twisting, chemical processing, and “knotting” that we do to it.  It really made me feel different about the whole process – more of a doing something special than a boring old chore.

 My hope is to do the seaming and finishing tomorrow and make it the first time I’ve ever knit a whole sweater in under a month!  I have enough yarn left over that I might try to scale down the size and make a matching sweater sized for a 3 year old.

 My other project was a little backpack for the toddler.  I’ll post pictures once I can get the embroidering part finished.   I just need to go get the scrap yarns out of storage first.

 My Louet euroflax worsted arrived so next in line is another surprise project for the long-range-planning bin.

Last weekend my friend Peggy made a comment about me being a fast knitter. I’ve never really thought of myself as a fast knitter – just strong out of the starting gate… but then a bad case of finish-itis.

Case in point, in one week I’ve managed to knit both sleeves and about half of the back on Salina. It’s been flowing quickly, but I’m already dreading the seed stitch at the beginning of the front and for finishing the neck. I just really hope that it fits when I’m finished. I’ve had gauge the whole way so far – after that it comes down to design and body type.

I spent a lot of time on Ravelry these past 2 weeks tagging projects for the future. It’s amazing to me what all is out there. When I went to update my Salina project I double checked the weight of the yarn that I’m using and hit a moment of panic. I *know* the first skein said Autumn Spun, but when I pulled out the second skein for winding it was tagged as Summer Spun. On Ravelry they are listed as different weights and the content is not specified on the Autumn so I can’t tell. When I pulled out the rest of the skeins I found I had 2 Autumn and 3 Summer – ugh. After a few moments of panic and then a few Google searches I found a review that states they are the same content and weight, just different colorways.  So, I’m shrugging it off and marching on ’cause that’s either the truth or some of my skeins are mislabeled since all 5 look and feel exactly the same. The two yarns are both discontinued and replaced by Silk Blend.