Needles & hooks

Getting into a rhythm

I spent the last few nights working on my sister’s sweater and I have between 2 and 3 inches done. And I realized that I’m getting sick of rotating through all my projects.

When I keep changing each day, I stave off boredom with any one project. But it also takes some time to get back into the groove of the project. So my new goal is to finish up some of the ones that are almost done. Tonight I’ll work on the Star Bunting. Finishing the principal fabric should be in reach and maybe I can join it all together. This weekend I’ll get that needle I need and finish the B&B sweater. The Romper and Corn Bunting are also pretty small so maybe they’re next.

It’s going to be so nice to actually finish one of these.

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A little of everything

I took a little road trip down to NYC this weekend, so not a lot of time for projects. But in random moments I did finish the front of the B&B Sweater, add a couple of rows to Marcel, and start the Mouse Baby Blanket. I’ve totally tossed my rotation out of the window!

I have to decide whether to block the pieces for the B&B sweater before assembling it and adding the collar. Anyone have any advice on blocking when you still have some stitches on holders? I also have to buy the needle to finish the collar.

In other “stuff with hands” work, I got and assembled a new side-table while I was at Ikea over the weekend. It’s got 3 drawers and will allow me to keep all my projects-in-progress nearby without having bags all over the place. It makes my husband very happy. Now I just have to put some shelves up in another closet so I can store the bags of support yarn for those projects.

Today the TiVo I ordered arrived, so I think all my evening time may go toward setting that up, but if I have some craft time, I might start my sister’s sweater.

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End in sight!

The B&B Sweater was up in the rotation last night. I got to the row where I have to divide for the collar. I’m having some people over tonight for a knitting party, so I think I’ll keep working on it, as I can do it without too much concentration. If I bind it off, I’ll just have the joining and the collar. But I’ll have freed up the needle for Mouse Baby blanket. So I think that’s what I’ll do.

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Ahhhh, progress

Yesterday was a holiday, so I got a lot of work done on the Rugby Romper. I finished all of one side and got several inches into the other side. It’s coming along nicely. Sometimes simple patterns are so satisfying.

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Too many projects or not enough supplies?

Saturday I got more work done on the Star Bunting. I’m done with the right side of the front. I have to repeat this for the left and join them to finish off the top. The end of this project is within my grasp.

Yesterday I made progress on the Mouse Baby Set. I finished one of the sleeves (I’d finished the back during the Super Bowl). Then I took a good look at the project and decided that the best thing would be to start on the blanket next, because it uses several different balls of identical yarn simultaneously. That way, I could use the partial balls that remain to finish the sweater and make the hat and, hopefully, not have more than one partial ball at the end. So I tried to start on the blanket but realized that the needle I need is in the B&B Sweater. That project is nearly done, so I’m putting Mouse Baby on hold until then (or until I break down and buy more needles).

I got a lot of work done on the Corn Bunting instead. The back is now 18 inches long and it’s sprouting sleeves.

And because it was the weekend, I got to do some shopping. I found the yarn I want for my sister’s sweater (Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Peacock). During a trip to Michael’s, I lucked into enough of it in the same dye lot that I don’t have to order it. They also had several balls of the yarn I’m using for the Mouse Baby set in one of the two dye lots I had bought before (I couldn’t find 6 in one dye lot before, so I was going to do the blanket in a different lot from the sweater).

I also found another source for Clover Needlecraft supplies. Most stores carry Susan Bates stitch holders and other tools. While she makes fine crochet hooks and the wonderful Knit-Chek gauge tool, I find most of her other items leave something to be desired. On the other hand, every new item I buy from Clover impresses me all the more. You may be familiar with Clover’s Pendant Cutter — the tool that cuts that you can bring on airplanes. That’s only the beginning. They make my favorite split ring stitch markers — 1/2 inch molded rings that slip on to stitches and stay or slide along needles. Recently I discovered their point protectors. They are rubber and they won’t fall or get bumped off. Today I bought some more of their stitch holders. These have a rubbery cord that holds both ends of a plastic double-pointed needle. I got some a couple of weeks ago and love them. Unlike the safety-pin-style stitch holders, there are no extra shanks of metal to get caught in your fabric and pull it out of shape. They are neat and unobtrusive, and they really hold. Make the effort to find some Clover products — you’ll be glad you did!

I also picked up the latest issues of Cast-On and Interweave Knits. But I gushed enough about Clover, so I’ll talk about them some other time.

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Am I ever going to be happy with a pattern?

I decided that I wanted to get started on my sister’s sweater. Her birthday is in March and while I don’t think I’ll finish it in time, I might still finish it before the summer if I get started now. So I had to find the balls of candidate yarn I had stashed around the house. That took some time remember where I’d stashed them so my husband wouldn’t get too annoyed by all the yarn sitting out (he doesn’t mind my yarn habit, just the mess). Because I wanted to watch Friends, I worked on the B&B sweater some more and looked for the yarn during the commercials.

Then I tried to make the gauge swatch according to the chart. And I quickly decided not to use the mohair blend candidate. The wisps kept getting caught on each other and I figured that the chart was complicated enough without having to fight the yarn as well. So I settled on a nice wool acrylic blend that is slightly fuzzy but very easy to work with. I still have to pick a color. My sister likes the teal in the magazine photo, but I’m not sure how close I can get with the yarn I’ve selected. I expect I’ll have to order the yarn, but hopefully I can find a ball of it in a store this weekend to check the color.

Now I just have to work out issues with the pattern. Some symbols aren’t listed, some directions are missing completely. And the directions that are provided don’t always give in elegant results — I can see that in the photo of the finished sweater! For example, for pattern simplicity, they use the same symbols for all purl decreases. This looks fine on the RS, but on the WS, half of the decreases point the wrong way! Is a little more care too much to ask? I’m a stickler for attention to this kind of detail and it’s clear that I’m going to be re-writing this chart. Stay tuned for project notes.

The pattern is rated “experienced” and despite my scant year and a half of knitting experience, I decided to press on through because I didn’t see anything more complicated than that the number of stitches changes with each row. I’m starting to think that the “experienced” rating just means that there are more mistakes in it than average and you’ll have to figure it out on your own.

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What to do next?

Last night I put a few more inches on the B&B sweater. I’m almost at the point where I have to shape for the sleeves. I have the urge to just keep trucking on it and finish it off, even though I should move on to the next entry in my rotation.

And if I do move to the next one, what should it be? By strict rotation it should be the Star-shaped baby bunting. But I also need to work up some gauge swatches to pick out the yarn for my sister’s sweater so I can buy it (or order it, if I have to). Should I insert it into the rotation after the baby projects or just get it done so I can get the yarn?

If you want to weigh in, leave me a comment. I’m working on figuring out how my ISP’s polling feature works so you can vote in the future.

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What goes around comes around

I got a tiny bit of work on the B&B sweater last night. But not enough to satisfy. So I think I’ll work on it again in my next sitting. But I’ll show you what it looks like. This is the front, it’s about 2/5 done:

While I had the camera out, I also took a picture of Marcel’s Sweater. This is the front:

Note: I limited the size of the images so they’d fit nicely in these posts. Choose “view image” to see them full-sized for stitch detail.

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More Marcel

I got about a foot of the front done over the weekend. It’s shaping up nicely and I’m liking the project again. But I’m still glad that I’m rotating to something new tonight.

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Marcel’s an alright guy

I got the back re-cast on and I’m steadily making progress on it. I got 10 or 12 rows going, I’m well into the twisted cables, and it’s not so bad. Perhaps after all the travelling this weekend I’ll have so much done on it that it won’t feel like such a burden anymore.

Now if I can just make it through all the snow to the airport…

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