Time: It's Not on My Side

I can't believe another week got away from me. Much house-related craziness has been going on, unfortunately without anything to show for it. Lest you think I've been spending all my time cleaning and browsing the real estate listings ...

Look, I finished another baby sweater!

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (the so-called February Sweater) from Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport (60% pima cotton, 40% modal), colorway Aquamarine (discontinued), approximately 2.5 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) circs
Started/Completed: February 27/March 9
Mods: cast on more stitches for a wider neck; worked sweater entirely in the round; made only three buttonholes

I like how this sweater turned out, but I think it might be even cuter in wool. This yarn is just a tad bit too drape-y for my taste. I decided to use this property of the yarn to my advantage and made only three buttonholes to turn a cardigan into a little swing jacket.

Last night, I cast on for what I hope will be the last of the baby sweaters for a while. This one is for a coworker, who loves the color yellow. Done.

This is the same sweater I've knit twice before, so it'll be an easy knit. I'm looking forward to the next adult-sized sweater, which will be a test knit for a new online knitting magazine. I swatched over the weekend and am ready to go as soon as I get the pattern.

I do have some exciting news to share with you. This past weekend was my birthday (that's not the exciting news; I'm not all that enthused about being another year older), and I got some great presents. My in-laws got me a gift card to Knit One, which means a sweater for me and The Mister. My parents and my aunts and uncles all gave me money toward my wheel fund -- enough that, as soon as the checks clear, I'll be ordering my Lendrum! Yay!

Finally, I have a photo to share with all of you who have been asking what happened with my aunt and her sweater. This should answer all your questions:

Yep, looks like I'm not getting it back!

A Small Way of Saying Thanks

Over Thanksgiving weekend of last year, when my aunt and uncle were in town and The Mister and I were showing off our new sweaters, my uncle pulled me aside and asked if I would collaborate with him to surprise my aunt with a custom-knit sweater. I agreed immediately, because what better or more fitting way is there to say thank-you to the aunt who first taught me to knit nearly two decades ago?

When they returned home, I had my uncle measure one of her sweaters on the sly to get some basic measurements with which to work, and then, with Elizabeth Zimmermann's wisdom to guide me, I got to work. A month of knitting yielded this, probably my most favorite sweater I've knit to date.

Pattern: Seamless Yoke Sweater from Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino (100% wool), color 224/Grey Mix, approximately 4.5 skeins, and color 226/Black, approximately 0.5 skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) 32" and 24" circs and dpns
Gauge: 5 sts/in
Started/Completed: January 26/February 26

Some notes on the construction of this sweater:

As with all of EZ's seamless sweaters, this begins as three tubes -- the body and two sleeves -- that are then joined at approximately the level of the underarms and united on one needle to work the yoke and neck. I cast on 192 stitches for the body (38" worth, plus a couple extra to bring the stitch count for a multiple of four) and worked two inches in 2x2 rib. After I switched to stockinette, I worked three sets of paired decreases an inch apart to the get to the final bust size of 36". I fudged the sleeves as well, starting with 44 stitches (a bit more than the 20% of the body stitches EZ recommends), working two inches of ribbing, and then increasing up to 60 stitches.

When I got to the yoke, I worked an inch plain before starting the stranded portion, for which I followed the first two motifs charted in the book (p. 70). They're basic, but I love the simple geometric look of them, and how they seem to minimize the inevitable jog (if you look closely at the picture above, you can see it at the back of my right shoulder).

I fudged the numbers yet again in the third round of decreases in order to have a slightly larger neck opening and avoid the dreaded too-tight collar that threatens to rip your ears off.

I'm very, very pleased with this sweater. By some extraordinary stroke of luck, my aunt turns out to wear pretty much the same size as I do, and as you can see the finished garment fits me perfectly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit tempted to keep it for myself, but it's an even better reward to think of what a great surprise it will be!

A Sneak Preview

I finished my aunt's sweater last night, in a mad flurry of excited knitting. It fits me perfectly; according to my uncle's measurements, we're the same size, so it should fit her as well. Right now the sweater is soaking in a tub of cool water and will soon be smoothed out on a drying rack to block. I think this garment is special enough to merit a real photo shoot (in actual daylight!), so you'll have to wait a couple days for it to dry before you get all the gorgeous shots. In the meantime, I hope you'll settle for a couple of pre-blocking shots.

The stranded portion of this sweater really worked out well; I almost wish I could keep this sweater for myself because of how warm the yoke is!

Tonight I am going to start on the next baby sweater -- Elizabeth Zimmermann's so-called February Sweater from Knitter's Almanac. Considering how quickly this latest sweater knit up, I have feeling this baby garment is going to be a breeze!

Let the Fun Part Begin

I have exciting news: The Big Gray Tube (tm) is no more! Yesterday I finally reached the point where I could join the body and the sleeves, and from there it was only a handful of rows until I could start the really exciting part.

The yoke is moving along nicely, partly because at this point it's so addicting that I can't put it down. You know how it is, right? You just can't wait to see how the next row will look.

I'm not doing anything ground-shattering with the pattern, I'm just using EZ's design in Knitting Without Tears. I like it a lot, though.

I have about another inch before the first of three decrease rounds. This sweater is going to see a lot of action this week, not only because I'm anxious to finish it, but also because The Mister is out of town for work again this week. That means more knitting time (because there's less dinner-cooking time, laundry-doing time, cleaning-up-after-the-husband time, etc.). I'd much rather have him around, but knitting is a reasonable substitute when necessary.

Do you mind if I take a moment to gush about said husband? This afternoon I sent him out to get some more rock salt (the lower half of our driveway has been a solid sheet of ice from the snowstorm the other day), and I decided to take advantage of having a free afternoon to make dinner for later in the week. I didn't have any white wine in the house, which I needed for the recipe, so I asked him to pick up some of that as well. This is what he came home with:

Adorable, no? I just hope it doesn't taste like wet sheep!

A (Sort of) Snow Day

You may have heard that we had a bit of a snowstorm yesterday. In spite of the fact that nearly all of the local school districts closed for the day, I still had to go to work. It was not fun getting in, and I was not looking forward to the trip home. Just in case, I'd packed an overnight bag and planned to detour to my parents' house if the roads were really bad (they live only about a mile from my office). Fortunately, the head of my office had the foresight to let us leave work early, by which time traffic wasn't too bad and the roads were passable. I made it home by about 3 p.m., leaving me plenty of time to shovel the driveway, shower (shoveling proved to be quite a workout!), do two loads of laundry, and get in plenty of knitting time!

The triplets' Baby Surprise Jackets are now all washed, blocked, and ready to go. I tried to do a little embroidery on the girl's jacket, but it looked positively horrible -- garter stitch is just not conducive to this kind of embellishment. I came up with this simple solution instead:

Those are just a couple of buttons from my collection of odds and ends, sewn to the back of the neck. The jackets now all look the same (more or less) from the front, but the buttons will provide a little extra hint to anyone dressing the kids should they miss the button placement on the front.

Since finishing my Salish Sea Socks, I've been working on what may be the brightest socks ever.

These are a pair of simple Garter Rib anklets for a friend who is a new mom. I'm planning these as well as matching pair of baby socks in time for her baby shower in March. I'm extremely glad this friend has feet that are shorter than mine, because this yarn -- Dale Baby Ull -- is incredibly thin. I'm getting about 12 rows to the inch with my standard sock needles (2.5 mm Addi Turbos). It will all be worth it, however, because I know she will be thrilled to finally get her yellow socks!

Most of my knitting time last night was on the sleeve for The Big Gray Tube (tm). I'm hoping to finish it tonight; only 4 1/2 inches to go!

(Seriously, could knitting get any more boring than gray stockinette?)

Enough Knitting to Cause a Callous

Man oh man, did I have a weekend of knitting. We left for Hidden Valley late Saturday morning. I cast on for my second Jawoll sock in the car and got a good inch of cuff done by the time we got to our friend's house. Then The Mister and the rest of the group went to hit the slopes, and I settled in with a new episode of Cast On, some figure skating, and the yarn for my aunt's sweater. Six hours of knitting later, I found myself with a lovely callous on my right middle finger and about six inches of body:

I had my uncle do some measurements for this sweater on the sly; I gave him very specific instructions to measure a sweater that fits my aunt well when she wasn't home. Based upon the numbers he sent me, it looks like we wear pretty much the same size, so I'll be able to try this sweater on and know if it's knitting up to be the right size.

I'm knitting at a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch and aiming for a 36" chest. I decided to do ribbing instead of hems this time around and to make the body a bit longer. I cast on 192 stitches to start out with (I wanted the bottom to measure 38 inches, but I had to add on two additional stitches to make the 2x2 rib work). After two inches of ribbing, I worked paired decreased at each side for some waist shaping and to get down to 180 stitches. Now I'm at the part where I just knit knit knit until the body is long enough. Boring, yes, but also good movie/TV knitting.

We left pretty early yesterday morning to come home, ran our errands, and relaxed the rest of the day. I decided it was high time I finish my Bird in Hand mittens, so that became my project for yesterday. I'm now decreasing for the hand of the left mitten and should work on the thumb tonight.

On this mitten, I kept my floats a lot shorter than on the first -- no more than four stitches. Part of my reasoning is that I wanted less to catch my ring on when I wear the mittens, but it will be interesting to see if there's any difference in the colorwork in the two mittens as a result.

I really like these mittens and the pattern, but I am so ready to be done knitting worsted weight yarn on size 2 needles. No wonder I have callouses!