Drive-by Post

Just a quick post to note a few things:

Eve is looking for some people to take part in a fun li’l comic-readin’ study. Pop on over, sign up, read a few comics, get a few laughs, and answer a few questions. Simple, eh?

I signed up for the Blue Moon sock club last year. You didn't hear anything about it here because, well, frankly, I found all the selections to be ugl not to my tastes. I was lucky enough to be able to trade some of it away, and I haven't even been tempted to knit with the rest of it. Naturally, I didn't join the second round because I didn't want to make the same mistake again, and naturally, the first one out this time around is freaking gorgeous. Figures, eh?

Seems that something is getting close to completion. Time to put down the knitting needles and pick up a needle of another sort. Wish me luck, eh?

Matchy-matchy

I finished the front of my Noro sweater.



It's Jakobsberg from Noro Revisited by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton in Silk Garden No. 203.

Noro being what Noro is, and me being who I am, I don't really want the front to match the back, or the sleeves to match either themselves or the front or back, but I do know that if the stripes on the front didn't match themselves, it would give me a constant twist in my knickers. I played with it a bit and got them to match up as best I could.




Totally acceptable, at least in my books. Or, in other words, close enough that I don't care that it's off a bit, and I'll just stand, and sit, crooked whenever I wear it. :-)

So I layed out the front beside the back to make sure they were reasonably close in length, and ...

... do you see it? Right where it divides for the armhole, there's pale blue, green, dark blue, brown -- and then it's off again. I guess I'm actually a little thankful for all those knots they put in the yarn.

Next? Sleeves or clogs? Hmmm.

Something old, something new

I went digging through the cupboard, looking for something to do, and look what I found.

A pair of mitts, started when? Last year? The year before? I can't remember. All they needed was one top finished and a couple of thumbs. Knit with two strands of Patons Decor held together, colour Tapesty, at a thick, warm and hopefully windproof gauge of 5 stitches per inch, based on the generic mitten pattern in Ann Budd's generic book of patterns. I finished them.



What looked like brown and beige as I was knitting them inside turns out to be brown and purple in the brighter outdoor light. Never mind, they'll be good this winter when I'm shovelling, sweeping and scraping my way through the snow and ice.

I also found this.


It's Noro Silk Garden, colour No. 203. I bought it a while ago as a bribe to myself. In an effort to overcome my sweater phobia, I said, "Dave, dude, you have two sweaters on the go. Finish them. One is a year old, and the other probably two years. Finish them. Then you can knit the Noro."


I don't always listen to myself. I really want a cardigan. I have two underway. Somehow, I find myself knitting a pullover.

Doesn't matter. I'm happy.

Starsky's Back ....

I am pleased to report that my Starsky back is finished. At first, it looked like ka-ka. The stitch pattern really needs a good blocking. Using yarn that was frogged from another sweater and not washed before re-knitting added some additional bumps and lumps. He was definitely looking a little .... stressed. After a nice, long, warm bath and a little bit of yoga, he's feeling much better.

I've started on the front. Note: If you're knitting this pattern, check to ensure that you've got the most recent version, as there is a correction on the website. Once again, I have taken liberties with Starsky's ribs.

In other breaking news, the neighbours are getting used to seeing me out on the front step in my bathrobe with a camera at 6 a.m. I don't know whether this is good or bad.

Starsky - It begins ...

You might wonder what this is:

If you guessed that it was a sweater back, done up to the shoulder shaping, you might have been right, except that it is that no longer and instead became the largest swatch I have ever made. The boring twisted rib has been ripped apart, to become a Starsky.

Back when I was in college, I has a Starsky-esque sweater. Not this one, of course, but one similar. Kind of a wrap thingy, with a belt. It was in a patchwork design in all sorts of shades of brown. It was probably hideous by today's fashions, but back then it was tres chic. I remember that it had wide sleeves that dragged in just about everything they could and a belt that I was continually cinching. But I liked it, and I do believe the time has come for another Starsky.

In one evening, the twisted rib metamorphed into: I've altered the rib pattern a bit. I wanted the three-stitch rib dividing the banana plants to flow into the bottom ribbing. As it turned out, I was also able to have the stems flow upwards from a two-stitch rib. I'm happy. For those to whom such things matter, the yarn is Naturally Chunky 14 ply, Shade 557, otherwise known as grey. I've also decided to go with only four inches of ease instead of eight, as this will mostly be an indoor sweater.

Thanks to my FLAK experience, I learned how to cable without a cable needle. These all being two-stitch cables, they flow very nicely sans needle. I'm not 100 per cent sure that I have enough yarn, and if need be I will forgo the belt. I will hold my breath while I do all that ribbing on the fronts. It was a little strange at first doing cable crossings on the wrong side, without the visual clue one gets from the front, but they actually go fairly easily.

I hope to get the "fancy" part done soon, so I can have some plain stockinette to work on while I do my April SMAKs, which involve a bit of patterning. It's rather strange -- now that spring is around the corner, I have two GREY projects on the go. Hmmmm ....

FLAK - the saddles and ......

Yup, I got my saddles done:

Five inches each, ten inches in total, and the yarn was protesting all the way. My hands actually hurt when I was done. I looked at them. And then I looked at them again. And I started to think.......

Since I always seem to think best with needles in hand, while I was thinking, I did this:

Yes, it's another Multi-Directional Diagonal Scarf. It's a fun little knit, and I used Noro Silk Garden, Col. No. 234 -- two and one-third balls (sigh). This yarn is heavenly to work with. This yarn also gets knots in the most annoying places. When the ends are joined up, they don't seem to care where they are in the colourway. Instead of a nice gradual transition, boom, there you are, somewhere else. But still, it's heavenly. And because it's heavenly, it's worth another shot: Goes nicely with my brown leather jacket, doesn't it :-) And since you may have noticed in the photo above that we still have some snow, I'll still get some use out of it this year.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Saddles. I realized this yarn does not want to FLAK. The cables don't really show the pattern to true advantage, and it will not be an enjoyable knit. I do still want a brown Aran, but I think this stuff needs something with a bolder pattern. I don't have the energy or inclination to start all over from scratch right now, soI'll lurk and learn on the list. It will be back later, but for now, say goodbye to FLAK:

Do not fret lest you think I might be without cabley goodness. I can, and should, ressurect this:

My Garter Stitch Aran Cardigan has been patiently waiting ... for a little less than two years ... for my return. The pattern from Tara Jon Manning's Men in Knits, and the yarn is Briggs & Little Regal in Col. No. 48, Turquoise. The sides and back are knit in one piece, and it sits at the point where I had just bound off the underarms and was about to work up from there. I just have to figure out where I was in the pattern.It is yummy, and it has replaced the FLAK on my active WIP list.

FLAK - le Swatch

This is the swatch I ended up with for the FLAK, after a fair bit of experimentation. I wanted to simplify it a bit, perhaps make it appear a bit more solid.

Besides re-arranging the cables just a little bit:

1. The filler stitch is now Seed Stitch. The two-row pattern will be easier on my brain, especially when we switch from back and forth to in the round.
2. The wave cable is gone. In previous swatch incarnations, I had tried various subsitutions but I finally decided to just use another horseshoe instead.
3. The rope cable is now a left crossing instead of right. I knit continental, and left crosses, particularly without a cable needle, seem to be easier.

The yarn is Briggs & Little Regal, colcour 23, Forest Brown. And it's really hard to get a picture of it. I tried about 20 times, and this is the best I could get. I apologize -- I know it's a crappy pic.

The centre panel is the same three horseshoes, but I've surrounded each of them with a rope. On each side of the centre panel, there will be a rope, honeycomb, braid, honeycomb, rope. On the outer edges will be another horseshoe.

One major benefit so far is that I finally learned how to cable without a cable needle!! It is great for the rope and the honeycomb, especially since each of them is just one stitch crossing. It goes much faster without the cable needle, and I seem to make fewer mistakes without it. I'm still using a cable needle for the braid and the honeycomb, but I can live with that.

All righty then, I guess that's it for today. February socks are started and well on their way. Time to knit some saddles, I guess :-) .