They’ve all been finished. The ends are woven in, the details added, and the blooms assembled to the leaves.
Can’t wait to get back to the regular stuff. Tonight I’m back to the star bunting.
I also got the new Vogue Knitting the other day because there were a couple of patterns my sister liked in it. I’m very close to nailing down what I’m going to make for her. But of course, I picked out a couple of more things for me….
I finished the principal stitching on the crochet flowers and spent last night weaving in the ends. Then I started adding some detail stitching and assembling them. I still have about half to go, but here’s one:
Hopefully I’ll get them done tonight and I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled projects.
This webspace gives me more flexibility. I’ll be adding images of projects I’m working on as well as other support materials that suggest themselves.
Over the past few days I’ve been talking with Vanessa about Marcel’s Sweater. Together we’ve ironed out some issues with the pattern. Look for some project notes for this pattern in the near future.
This weekend I’ve been working on some crocheted pansies. I’m making 35 for a secret project. The pattern is the adornment for an afghan project I found online. All my pansies are purple. So far, I’ve got about 15 more of the leaves to make, then I have to add the yellow accents, assemble them all and attach them to the final project.
I also talked with my sister about what sweater she’d like. She picked out a couple in the current Vogue Knitting. I’ll pick that issue up in the next few days and see what’s involved with each project.
Last night I worked on Marcel’s Sweater. I’ve finished all the increases on the sleeves and found myself right where I needed to be to start shaping the shoulder cap. So I started the decreases. Forgot to write down the 1-stitch cables sans cable needle instructions. I thought about it, but I was making so much progress that I didn’t want to stop to write.
And something came up and I need to make a small pile of crocheted flowers to adorn some cards on Sunday. I downloaded a bunch of patterns and I think I’ll be making pansies. Guess that takes care of my weekend.
Last night I worked on the B&B sweater again. But last time I worked it, I forgot to move my progress post-it to the last row of the chart I’d worked. So after several rows, I noticed that I did that row twice. Oops! I had to rip it out. So despite working on it for more than an hour, I didn’t make more than one row of progress.
D’oh!
I started on this sweater almost as soon as I got the Winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits. Right away I noticed that there were some missing symbols in the key for the pattern chart. And after working on a gauge swatch, I had some serious questions about the cast-on instructions, too. I e-mailed them in late Nov. and got some very helpful responses, but I’m disappointed to see that the missing symbols haven’t made it to their “oops” page. I got a question in my comments from Vanessa about it, so I’m posting the updates here in case someone else does a search and finds this.
Note, I’m still working on the sleeves for this sweater and haven’t attempted the body panels yet, so I’m posting what I got in e-mail and I haven’t tested them yet.
The missing symbols:
/ (grey): p2tog
b (white): k yo tbl (not sure how this will work, yet; perhaps it’s really “k tbl yo”)
Error symbol:
/ (white): (needs an extra twist) slip k-wise, slip k-wise, slip both stitches back to left needle, k2tog through front loops.
Also, I had a question about when to transfer from the tubular cast-on instructions in the back to the “next row” in the pattern instructions. According to them, you do 5 rows of tubular cast-on from the back and then “next row” in the pattern instructions is row 6. I think this means that your foundation rib won’t have twisted stitches to match the rest of the body. I haven’t worked it yet, so I’m going to be making a couple of gauge swatches to compare. However, in the sleeves, if you work 5 rows of tubular cast-on, and start the pattern instructions at row 6, you don’t get the nice points at the end of the sleeves, so for the sleeves, work the first main color row of tubular cast-on and then row 2 of the sweater is “next row” in the sleeve instructions.
Next time I sit down with the sweater, I’ll transcribe my technique for the 1-stitch cabling with twisted stitches without a cable needle.
I was sick for a week. I had varying amounts of lucidity. When I felt alive, I worked on the B&B Sweater. I finished the back and the sleeves. I’m half-way through the front and I’m hoping I’ll have enough yarn to finish.
Then I was sick of being sick and sick of working on the sweater, so I didn’t stitch at all for a week. But over the weekend I’ve picked up needles once again.
First, I got the new issue of Knit It! There is a nice sweater in there that might be good for my sister. I’m going to photocopy it and the other sweater I’d picked as a possibility and see if she likes either of them. And like last year’s issue, I fell in love with most of the baby and toddler projects.
On Sunday, I went to a new yarn store nearby which greatly expanded my local yarn resources. I finally got some yarn for the star-shaped baby bunting, so I got started on that. It’s a nice wool-acrylic blend in a light orange that’s more orange than peach. I couldn’t get the chunky weight I needed so I’m doubling some worsted. I’ve decided to crochet this one and so far I’ve made my way through the entire back of it. I also taught a friend who is frustrated with crochet to knit. She’s a little frustrated because she doesn’t want to have to practice. And I haven’t taught her how to purl yet.
I ordered the kit for the corn bunting, but while I’m waiting for that, I saw a cute little striped romper in a Lion Brand ad in Knit It! Because my sister-in-law is pregnant, I’m giving in to all my urges to make cute baby things. I figure that there’s a chance that they might come back to me someday. I downloaded the pattern and discovered that I already had some of the yarn (it’s so rare that I can use something already in my stash). I got the rest of the yarn I needed and started on that yesterday. I was crusing through one side of it when I realized that there was a mistake in the directions. Ack! Unfortunately, it’s a rather important mistake, so I have to rip out several inches.
And I also picked out a pattern for the remaining baby item I had yet to choose. This is the Mouse Baby Set in Knit It! which includes a blanket, a sweater, and a hat. The sample is blue and white and I decided to buck gender stereotypes and make it in blue because it’s so cute. Who cares if the baby turns out to be a girl! The mice adorning the blanket and sweater are done in a slightly fuzzy yarn, giving them a cute furry look. As all the yarn was Lion Brand, I’d hoped to get it when I got the yarn for the romper. This was frustrating because while Michael’s carries the blue that I needed, they had 10 balls in about 6 dye lots. And they don’t carry the white at all. So I’ll have to find another source or order it.
So, if you’re keeping track, I’ve now got 4 projects underway and two on order. At least I’ll have plenty to keep me busy when I’m frustrated with Marcel’s sweater (and I did a few rows on that this weekend, too).
And tonight, I got a copy of Debby Ware’s “Too Cute!”. You may have seen her kits of wonderful baby confections. Now I have a whole book of toddler projects. My future neice/nephew is going to be one well-dressed kid.
I’ve been stricken with the latest virus, or maybe the flu (despite getting vaccinated), and I’m finding my time of illness very productive. I’m entrenched on the couch, with my cats sleeping next to me, the TV is on, and I’m knitting. I’ve made a lot of progress on the B&B Sweater (I’m a little too sick to concentrate on Marcel’s Sweater).
Over the weekend I got the beads for my x-mas ornament and finished it. I meant to put it on the tree for a day and then take the tree down. But now that I’m sick, the tree will stay up for a few more days.
My mom visited over the weekend and she rejected the sweater I’d picked out for my sister. We spent some time looking for other sweaters for my sister and didn’t nail anything down. At least not anything that would fit her. All the sweaters my mom suggested my sister might like were in publications where “large” is a 42 inch bust. My sister has a little more boob than that. I’m still not convinced that L. wouldn’t like the sweater I picked out before, so I think I’ll photocopy the magazine and send it to her. Of course, mom picked out many sweaters for herself, none of which will be easy to make or get the yarn for.
But I did pick out a project for my sister-in-law’s baby. It’s a bunting that looks like an ear of corn. She’s got a thing for serving dishes that look like items of food, so I think she’ll love this. And it will probably give her an easy Halloween costume.
I had the day off, so I spent much of it knitting.
I made a lot of progress on Marcel’s Sweater, mostly because I read about a technique for doing 1 stitch cables without a cable needle. I played around with it a bit and adapted it to work with the twisted stitches. Without having to manage a cable needle, my speed went way up. It’s still not what it could be (because the new technique still involves a lot of manipulation for 2 stitches), but it’s much faster than it was before. And less frustrating. I may actually finish this sweater before the end of the year.
I’m alternating the projects that I’m working on right now and yesterday was supposed to be strictly Marcel’s Sweater. But I finished the ball of yarn I was using for one sleeve and I decided that rather than wind a new one, I could switch to the B&B sweater. I’m still working on the back and it’s not quite as large as Marcel’s sleeves yet, but give me another day or so. And I almost finished the ball I was working on for this one too, so I think my next sitting will be to wind yarn.
Mermaid Jacket
Odessa Hat 
ZigZag Sweater
Twisty Baby Set
Miss Dashwood
Clapotis (Mixed Berries)
Tychus
