What Day Is It?

What a weekend it was! Weekends away always mess with my internal schedule, but this weekend was exceptional. It was great fun but also greatly exhausting, so I expect I will be playing catch-up all week.

I think it's fair to say that we all had a great time at Rhinebeck. With the exception of some light showers on Sunday afternoon, the weather was spectacularly autumnal and perfect for sweaters. But the two days at the festival were also incredibly busy, even with an extra person in the booth to help out this year. I did not get out of the booth all weekend except to go to the bathroom once or twice each day, so I did not have a chance to visit any other buildings or see any other vendors at the fairgrounds. Not that that was a problem -- I certainly didn't have a need for any more yarn! But I also didn't come back from Rhinebeck empty-handed.

Aside from the festival t-shirt (that's the thing wrapped in plastic that looks like a postcard), which technically was purchased by Scooter Pie, I bought everything you see here at Indie Untangled or Needles Up, both of which occurred the day before the festival and were really my only chances to shop. As I said, I really didn't need anything, but I did decide to treat myself. The yarn at the top is, from left to right, self-striping from Must Stash Yarn, a purple variegated (to make something for Rainbow) from LolaBean Yarn Co., the MDSW colorway from Fibernymph Dye Works (because I never made it to Needles Up Maryland this year to get a skein), and four skeins of fingering weight singles from Lambstrings Yarn that I plan to use for the Stephen West mystery shawl that's currently in progress. I purchased a bar of wool soap to try and a lotion stick (in the Cider Donut scent, yummy!) from Tuft Woolens as well as two enamel pins from Nerd Bird Makery, a sloth in a tree for Rainbow and a "Nevertheless She Knitted" one for me.

New acquisitions aside, the best part of going to Rhinebeck was seeing people -- friends from near and far, podcasters, members of the "knitterati," and so forth. Here are a few photos I got (though I missed taking photos with some other people because I was a little awestruck, like Bristol Ivy, Kirsten Kapur, and Jenny and Nicole from the Stash and Burn podcast).

Top left: with Beth Smith and Amy King (aka Spunky Eclectic)
Top right: with Lisa Ross of Paper Daisy Creations
Bottom left: with Boston Jen (center) of the Down Cellar Studio podcast and her mom
Bottom right: with Caroline aka Dunderknit of the Knitting Vicariously podcast

As you can see, I did wear my new sweater all weekend, and one of the highlights of the weekend was when Kirsten Kapur stopped by the booth to say hi and told me that she thought the pattern was beautiful. She may have just been trying to be nice, but I was over the moon regardless!

Now it is back to reality for me. The Mister is away at another conference this week, so Rainbow and I are managing on our own and trying to get the house back in order. I've got lots of blog reading and e-mail to catch up on and laundry and house cleaning to do. And I will be back to my normal blogging routine later in the week!

An Easy Finish

I hope no one has been anxiously waiting since last week to see if I finished my sweater, but just in case, I'm here to set your mind at ease. It's done!

I made it a real priority on Thursday evening, so that meant I not only finished the second sleeve, I also wove in all the remaining ends and was able to block it. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate this past weekend for a photo shoot (in fact, it is still quite warm here and is predicted to get close to our record high temperature today), but more seasonal temps are supposed to come later this week and I'm hoping to take it out for an official shoot this weekend. In the meantime, would you settle for a really bad selfie? We were too rushed this morning for Rainbow to take a photo for me, so this is the best I could do.

The fit is perfect -- which I suppose it should be considering that I designed it to be that way, but I'm always a little worried that something crazy will happen. Blocking settled the colorwork tension a bit and allowed the yarn to bloom, so the fabric is less lumpy bumpy now. I've got a few more finishing touches to put on the pattern and then it will be off to my tech editor by tomorrow, if not sooner.

My other project that I was determined to finish before the end of the month was Rainbow's new pair of socks, and those were finished up Saturday night. She kindly modeled them for me on Sunday just before we were off to Rosh Hashanah dinner.

I knit these toe up using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel template (we measured a new one recently because her feet have grown since last December). There's a bit of room in them, per her request, so that she won't outgrow them too soon.

Now that these projects have been completed, I'm moving on to some gift knitting. On Sunday I cast on a Little Worsted Sock Arms for my nephew for this fall and winter. There's not much to look at just yet, so no photo, I'm afraid. I'm also going to be starting a new pair of socks at lunch today for my father, as he'll be turning 70 in two weeks. I'm hoping that will be enough time to crank out a pair of socks! I also may be casting on another sweater for me soon. I may not finish it in time for Rhinebeck, but at least I can get started and then take it with me for the car and the evenings!

Is Tonight the Night?

Well, friends, we are on the precipice. If this evening goes smoothly (meaning I can get Rainbow to bed at a reasonable hour), it looks like I just might be able to finish my Rhinebeck sweater! Last night I finished all the decreases on the second sleeve, so all that remains is a handful of plain rounds, the colorwork band, and the ribbed cuff -- about 35 rounds of knitting in all. I managed to do that much last night in about an hour and a half, so it seems like a realistic goal.

The timing couldn't be better because I intend to start writing up the pattern this weekend. Ideally I'd like to get the complete pattern to my tech editor sometime next week to ensure that she has enough time to review it and that I have enough time to make any needed adjustments before Rhinebeck weekend. I'm hoping to recruit some test knitters, but I won't expect anyone to actually finish a sweater before the pattern is released. If you're interested, let me know.

I am already plotting for a new sweater, in part because this arrived in the mail yesterday:

Color is way off -- it's very overcast this morning!

This is a very poor representation of four skeins of Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles that Bonny sent me (I got lucky and won them in a giveaway she had on her blog). The colorway is Potluck, which is definitely in my wheelhouse with these gorgeous deep blues and greens. I have 1,600 yards total -- plenty to make myself a light, flowy sweater or a positively enormous shawl. Pattern suggestions are welcome!

I am still trying to finish up Rainbow's socks by the end of the month, which I think shouldn't be too hard as I'm almost finished with the foot of the second sock.

Not much reading has been happening this week, but I did manage to finish up The Testaments on Monday. I won't give away too much, as I know many of you are reading it or plan to, but suffice it to say that I loved it and found it a very satisfying follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale. 5 stars from me! I'm now looking forward to reading the first selection in the new book club/discussion group that Bonny, Carole, and Kym are leading. Normally I'd borrow the book from the library, but for this one, I know I'm going to want to underline/highlight passages and make notes, so I ordered a (very affordable) paperback from Amazon. It should arrive today and I'm excited to start reading it tonight!

In the Red Zone

If my Rhinebeck sweater were a football game, you could say I'm on the final drive toward the end zone. My first sleeve is complete, and my second sleeve is well under way. Here is your regularly scheduled update photo taken by a 9-year-old (hence the strange distortion of my head):

And here's a closer look at the finished bottom of the sleeve with the lower part of the body so that you can see the colorwork:

The sweater is clearly in need of a good blocking, so the colorwork will settle down a bit once it gets a good soak and be more prominent and not quite so wrinkly.

I managed to finish the first of Rainbow's socks over the weekend and start the second, so I allowed myself to cast on a new project Sunday night, a baby hat for charity. Unsurprisingly, it was done by yesterday.

Pattern: Greenleaf Baby Hat by Evelyn Uyemura
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Green Apple/color 802, 0.48 skeins
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Started/Completed: September 22/September 23
Mods: increased stitch count, adapted leaf to be double sided (see below)

This hat pattern is written for Aran weight yarn and worked at a gauge of 4 stitches per inch. 220 Superwash is more of DK, so I worked it at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch and increased the stitch count to compensate. I worked the body of the hat a little longer than specified and did additional decrease rounds to get to the number needed for the leaf. When it came to leaf, though, I went quite a bit off book. As written, the leaf is worked in stockinette, so there's a clear right side and wrong side. I decided I wanted my leaf to look the same on both sides, so I continued to work it in the round. I also made it a little longer (I added a couple of rounds in the middle, between the increases and decreases) and changed the decreases to centered double decreases. I really like how it came out.

Rainbow has suggested that this would be extra adorable if the main part of the hat was worked in red to look like an apple, and I think I might just do that the next time I make this hat, if I can find some apple-appropriate yarn in my stash. I've still got plenty of green and could certainly make another one of these if I wanted to as well! It was a quick and satisfying knit and a nice break from sleeve knitting. Now, though, it's back to the sweater -- I'm determined to finish it this week!

A Tale of Three Projects

Technically I only have two active WIPs right now, but there's a third project in the mix that isn't fully finished just yet, so I'm counting it as a project on my radar at the moment.

The first WIP, you will likely guess, is my Rhinebeck sweater, which now has a little more than half a sleeve and is moving right along. I should be able to finish up this first sleeve by the end of the weekend; if all goes well, I'll also make some decent progress on the second sleeve.

Yesterday I started a new pair of socks for Rainbow. Several weeks ago I received a skein from Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works to use to knit her a small sample to display in her booth when she does shows. In return for doing the sample, I got to keep what was left of the skein. I had 92 g of yarn left (the full skein was a bit overweight), and while that'd likely be enough for a pair for me, I thought it would be better not to play yarn chicken and use it for Rainbow instead. I divided the skein into two smaller cakes and am knitting toe up so I can just knit until I'm out of yarn.

Finally, off the needles but not yet blocked is my brioche sock yarn hat. I don't expect it to change much with blocking, but at least it'll settle all the stitches into place. I'm pleased with it, especially the crown. Now I just have to write up the pattern!

We have a slightly calmer weekend ahead, at least compared to last weekend. On Saturday, Rainbow and I have an appointment at the post office to submit our passport applications. Then my mother and I might go see the Downton Abbey movie, and then we have reservations for dinner to celebrate the Mister's birthday (which actually on Sunday). Sunday should be a relaxing day, and that's when I plan to get a lot of knitting done. Here's hoping all goes according to plan!

Welcome to Sleeve Island

Even with all the activity of the crazy weekend, I did manage to get some knitting done (the nice thing about being around family is that they expect you to be knitting constantly while you sit around and talk). If you saw my Instagram post yesterday, then you already know this, but the body of my Rhinebeck sweater is done!

Last night I just got started on the first sleeve; I only got about 10 rounds done because I spent a good chunk of time crunching numbers for all the sizes and making adjustments so that there can be a round of colorwork just above the sleeve ribbing. Now I am on my way, and I'm hoping that the sleeves will fly. I know some people find sleeves to be boring and kind of a slog, but I actually don't mind them and find them to be relatively fast to knit. The total number of stitches is a lot less than what I had for the body, and obviously the rounds get smaller the farther along I get. Finishing up both sleeves this week might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm fairly confident that the entire sweater will be done by the end of the month. Very soon I need to find some time to focus and start writing up the pattern from all my notes and scraps of paper. There are only 32 days until Rhinebeck and I don't want to be rushing at the last minute!

My brioche hat is moving along as well and I should be ready to start the crown decreases at lunch today. I ended up working on it at the Lion King on Sunday, which perhaps wasn't the smartest of moves (I did make a couple of mistakes -- knitting brioche in the dark isn't for the faint of heart!), but it seems to have ended up okay.

My reading over the last week has been all about The Testaments. I'm generally only able to read a handful of pages a night before bed, and I am savoring it -- it is so good. As luck would have it, I also just finished up the second season of The Handmaid's Tale TV series, and I see enough similarities between the new book and some some elements of the series that I'm fairly certain Margaret Atwood let a few details of the new book slip to the writers. I won't give anything away, but I will say that I've enjoyed both iterations of the fictional world of Gilead.

It Averages Out

My knitting this week has been, well, interesting. On the one hand, sweater progress is good. I tried it on last night before putting it down before bed and it's just about time to start the fun at the bottom -- I figure another half inch/four rounds should do it.

I realize what I'm wearing here isn't the best for showing where the sweater is hitting, so let me tell you that it's just above my hip bones. My ideal length for sweaters is about five inches longer than that, so that the bottom of the sweater covers my hips and the top of my rear (basically so that if I squat or crouch down, that part of my back just above the top of my pants stays covered). I'm going to knit those four additional rounds in the main color and then reintroduce the contrast color for one more band of stranded colorwork. That should measure roughly an inch and a half, then I'll knit a few more rounds of main color, and finally I'll finish the body with two inches of ribbing. Then it's on to the sleeves!

While the amount of knitting on the sweater has been going in the right direction, I'm unfortunately doing a bit of unraveling and tinking on my brioche hat. I've been working on it mainly during my lunch breaks at work, and sometimes during those breaks I get into a bit of a postprandial stupor (that's a fancy way of saying I start to nod off). It seems that I did that on Tuesday while somehow continuing to knit, though not completely successfully. When I pulled out the hat yesterday, I discovered that I had dropped a couple of stitches and they had unraveled several rounds. I tried fixing that section twice, but even after those attempts, I still wasn't happy.

I don't think I worked the strands quite in the right order when I reknit up the problem areas, so even though the tension issues would have worked out eventually, you'd still be able to see the mistakes. And for a pattern sample, that won't do. So in my bit of knitting time this morning, I started undoing everything from the mistakes up. I probably should have done that from the get go yesterday when I found the dropped stitches, as by now I'd probably have reknit everything I frogged, but I suppose if I'd been able to fix it without ripping that would've saved me some time. What's done is done, though, and I'd rather it be right that close enough.

The weekend ahead is going to be a busy but fun one. Saturday is the bridal shower for my brother's fiancee, and several family members are coming in from out of town -- my aunt and uncle from Michigan and my other aunt and one of my cousins from Chicago. The shower is a brunch on Saturday morning, and then we'll have dinner with all the family Saturday night. On Sunday, the Mister and Rainbow and I are headed to see the Lion King (the stage show) with a bunch of friends. I'm excited for Rainbow to see it and to see it again myself -- the first time I saw it was in New York City when I was in college and my parents and brother met me there to celebrate my 21st birthday. (I should also add that I'm looking forward to seeing it again because the first time I was a bit hungover from having my first legal drink on an empty stomach earlier in the day!) I hope your weekend has some fun in store for you!

Get the Memo

I know that technically fall doesn't start for another couple of weeks, but mentally I am already there. We've had some chilly mornings (which have been very welcome) and leaves are starting to change, so I've definitely been in the mood for sweater knitting. That has meant some good progress on my Rhinebeck sweater.

I did not have a chance to take a modeled shot this morning (I had an early orthodontist appointment before work), but the body is now hitting just above my belly button and the fit continues to be good. You may be able to guess from the yarn butterfly near the bottom that I've just joined in a new skein, the third one. While I don't think I'll avoid yarn chicken anxiety altogether, I'm feeling a little better about having enough yarn. Even if I use up all of this skein and need to break into a fourth to finish the body, I figure that a skein and a half should be plenty to do the sleeves.

I've been working on the sweater this week while rewatching Downton Abbey episodes in anticipation of the movie coming out later this month. Stockinette in the round is perfect for binge watching!

Meanwhile, my lunchtime knitting has been my brioche hat in winter precipitation forecast-inspired colors. That, combined with the sweater knitting, has been making me laugh this week because starting today we're in for a bit of of a heatwave -- the heat index is supposed to hit something like 91F tomorrow!

I'm not quite ready for the winter, but I would like Mother Nature to get the memo that it's supposed to be cooler, at least cool enough for a sweater in the morning!

I haven't been reading a ton since I finished Mr. Rochester last week, but I did start How to Be Less Stupid About Race over the weekend. I am reading a hard copy, which means a handful of pages a night, so this is likely be a longer-term read -- and that's good, because this is a book I want to read slowly and thoughtfully. Yesterday I started an e-version of Once More We Saw Stars; I got lucky with a "jump the line" copy from the library. If today isn't too busy, I expect I'll be able to read the rest of it, and that would be perfect timing because I'm expecting my preordered copy of The Testaments to arrive today. I've been watching the second season of The Handmaid's Tale series via Netflix the past couple of weeks, and I'm really interested to see where Margaret Atwood takes the story.

Autumn Ready

Labor Day weekend is over. Bring on fall! I'm all ready for it with a brand-new pair of bright and cheerful socks.

Pattern: Non-Euclidian, modified (see below)
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce (80% superwash merino/20% nylon) in Summer Fruit Tarte with unnamed contrasting mini skein
Needles: US 0 (2.0 mm) Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: August 11/August 30
Mods: added twisted ribbing on either side of the heel increases; changed up the decreases after the heel turn

This yarn was the first shipment for Lisa's Just Desserts club, in which all the colorways will be inspired by a dessert recipe. This one, as you can probably tell from the name, was inspired by those yummy tarts made up of creme patisserie topped with most colorful summer fruits -- and even came with a recipe for such a tart! I haven't made the tart yet, but I couldn't resist casting on these socks right away.

Given the inspiration and the fact that the accompanying mini skein was crust colored, I just had to make my cuffs look like pie crust. I did a hemmed picot edging followed by one purled round and then about half an inch of 2x2 ribbing. That used a good amount of the contrast skein, so I used it again for the heel turn on both socks and striped it with the self-striping yarn for the toe. I did have some leftover when I finished the socks, but I think I still might have run out had I tried to do both toes in only the contrast.

As with my last pair of Non-Euclidians, I did the 1x1 twisted rib modification on either side of the heel increase section, but this time I also decided to try something a little different with the decreases after the heel turn. This photo (though it's a little blurry, having been taken by a 9-year-old with unsteady hands) shows the outcome.

When I'd finished all the increased, I dropped my working yarn and let it dangle. Then I slipped the ribbed stitches until I got to the increase area (though I didn't use markers because the ribbing visually marked the area for me, if I had I would have slipped stitches until I got to the first marker). I then attached the contrast yarn and worked my usual heel turn, which is less pointy than the Non-Euclidian turn. I cut the yarn at the conclusion of the turn and slipped those stitches to the right of it back to the left needle, so I was back to where my working yarn was waiting. Then I decreased the remainder of the stitches while working again in the round, and they were done using mirrored decreases toward the middle of the heel (ssk and k2tog) starting at each edge of the heel stitches/heel turn area. It's a bit hard to describe but easy to achieve. I was a bit worried about fit because the decreases in the pattern add additional length to the sole that's not added to the instep and thus I worried that the two areas wouldn't match up with this modification, but it seems to be okay. I will have to wear these for a while to see if I get any bunching up on the instep to know if the mod is good for sure.

After meeting my goal of finishing these socks by the end of the month, I was left with one main knitting WIP, and it's one that saw a lot of attention this weekend: my Rhinebeck sweater.

As you can see, I made significant progress. I spent several hours working on it yesterday afternoon while catching up on some podcasts, and I was able to complete the remaining rounds for the yoke, the short row shaping to raise the back a bit, the split of the arm and body stitches and about an inch of the body by the time I put it away. I have tried it on and am happy to report that it fits and seems to have the right amount of positive ease for the comfy sweatshirt-like fit I wanted. Now comes what some people would call the boring part, but I'm happy to have reached the stage where I don't have to think or count. I'll be knitting straight in the main color for a while, but there's more colorwork to come!

Cram Session

I can hardly believe that August is almost over and that September starts this weekend. This summer has flown by! I know it always does (and that winter always seems to pass at a crawl), but this month seems to have passed at warp speed. And I am running out of days to finish things before the month is over!

Originally, I'd planned to be done with my Rhinebeck sweater design by now, but I've accepted that it will get done when it gets done. It's more important for me to get it right than to get it done by an arbitrary deadline. I'll have the sample finished in plenty of time to wear it to the festival, so that's not a concern, and I'm sure my tech editor can edit it in time to publish by then. There may not be a ton of time for preview (test) knitting, but I can be flexible with that. The good news is that it continues to grow and I continue to be happy with it. I am getting much closer to splitting the body from the sleeves.

Photo disclaimer: taken by 9-year-old before my coffee had kicked in

I know it looks a little small here, but that's just because it's crammed onto a circular needle that's smaller than the circumference of my arms and torso combined. When it's time for the split, I'll be running another circular through about half the stitches so I can try it on properly.

The sweater is being put off for the time being, however, while I work to try to finish up my socks before the end of the month in order to count them for the Fibernymph Dye Works Monthly Makes program. I'm determined to knit up at least 100 g of FDW yarn per month this year, and I need to finish this pair of socks to get that this month, so I'm buckling down and focusing on my knitting time on them until they're finished. I'm nearly done with the heel on the second sock, so I'd say that's doable, especially considering the Mister is going to be out of town again this weekend and Rainbow and I have no real plans while he's gone (I'd hardly call watching several episodes of the Great British Baking Show "real plans").

I am also cramming when it comes to reading. When I last posted, I'd resigned myself to an incomplete Summer Book Bingo card, but thanks to a slow day at work yesterday and reading last night instead of watching TV while I knit, I might just get a cover-all.

I can say with confidence that before the day is out, I will have finished Middlemarch and filled the Classic you "should've read" square on my card. I have about 30 pages left to read, and that should not take me very long. I've also got about 6 hours left in my listen to Emma, which will actually take less time than that considering I'm listening to it at a slightly faster speed, and I've queued up a book from the library to fill in the Written in the second person square. Summer Book Bingo goes through Labor Day, so I actually have a bit more time than for the socks, and I think with a holiday weekend ahead of me, I can get in a fair bit of reading time. I'm really glad I decided to participate in bingo this year -- I can't get over how many books I read because of it!

Feels Like Fall

The calendar might say that it's still summer, but all the signs that fall is coming are there. Sign number one: Today is Rainbow's first day of school.

After four straight days of sunshine, cooler temperatures, and low humidity, today it is dark and rainy, so we had to settle for an indoor photo in bad lighting. I think she was a little nervous to start but also excited; thankfully it's a half day to start off the year, so I'll be picking her up in a little more than three hours and she'll have the afternoon to play.

Because of this odd start to the school year, I took yesterday and today off from work, giving me an extra-long weekend. I had hoped that would mean lots of extra knitting time, but as the Mister left early Saturday morning to go to a trade show for work, I've actually been rather busy with Rainbow. Still, it's been enough to make a decent dent in my Rhinebeck sweater knitting, and I'm very happy with how it's progressing.

I'm also happy to report that the fit seems to be good. I spent most of my knitting time last night after putting Rainbow to bed knitting and tinking one round of colorwork; I was planning a third band of motifs after this one, but it looks like the individual motifs won't end up centered under the previous two even though they work with the stitch count, and various things I tried last night didn't make the situation any better. Luckily, because I ran out of time before I got too far along, my brain had some time to sit with the problem, and I've come up with a solution that I think will work perfectly. I'll still have to tink back a round, but that's no big deal. With the beginning of September coming and the weather getting better for sweaters, I'm anxious to get this off the needles!

Sock weather will be here soon, too, and I'm trying to get my current pair finished before the end of the month. I did manage to finish up the first sock on Saturday before the end of Stash Dash, and it got me over the 10K finish line.

I'm pretty happy with the gusset changes, though I'll have to judge the fit after I've had a chance to wear the socks for a while. I didn't do the toe entirely in the contrast color because the mini skein was getting a bit light and I wanted to be sure I had enough for the second sock, so I worked two-round stripes. To be honest, I think I actually like it more!

While I hunker down with the knitting this week, I am also trying to finish up some books. At this point, with less than a week left in Summer Book Bingo, I'd say my chances of completing a cover-all are slim to none. But I'm hoping to at least complete two to three more squares. I'm more than halfway through Middlemarch, and I've been listening to Emma for my Classic square (it's been a number of years since I read it last, and I've found that listening to the audiobook at 1.25x speed is perfectly fine and makes it go a lot faster). I'm planning to head to the library this morning to try to read a hard copy of Fox 8 for my Non-human protagonist square; I've had a hold on the ebook from the library for more than a month, I think, and it's estimating I still have at least a two-week wait, which is ridiculous for a book that's so short. I think if I can be at the library when it opens this morning and can find the book easily, I can probably read it in one sitting before it's time to pick Rainbow up from school at noon. And if I can round out the summer with only one or two empty spots on my bingo card, I'll be very satisfied!

I Did It, and It Was Spectacular

When you read this, I'll be on my way to Rhinebeck, N.Y., with Amy and Scooter Pie of the Ross Farm with my new (and very much finished) sweater, which I finished in the nick of time on Tuesday evening.

This is the best photo I can take at 5 a.m.

Pattern: Copperplate by Elizabeth Doherty
Yarn: Yarn Hollow Tango (85% Polwarth, 15% silk) in Garnet, approximately 3.5 skeins
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 2.5 (3.0 mm)
Started/Completed: September 4/October 17

I started this sweater right after I found out I was making the pilgrimage to the New York Sheep and Wool festival, and I think I knit it rather quickly considering I took an entire week off in the middle to focus on Spinzilla. I'd been meaning to make the pattern for quite some time and had actually swatched for it way back when I bought the yarn, which my Ravelry stash page tells me was last May. My past self was very smart and made a note of my pre- and post-blocked gauge (as well as the needle size I used) on the pattern, so all I had to do to cast on was wind up a few more skeins.

The pattern itself was great. There are a lot of things to pay attention to, such as separate charts for the faux-cabled front bands and shaping, but I was able to knit on this while watching all sorts of TV and movies without making any serious errors, so I'd rate it somewhere in the middle of the difficulty scale. The construction is really genius, though, and it looks like it will fit really well.

Because I was using a hand-dyed yarn, I did alternate skeins for most of the sweater (the exceptions are the beginnings of the faux-cabled bands and the sleeve caps). That meant quite a few ends to weave it, but I decided at the outset to weave them in as I went along knowing that I'd probably be rushed to finish this in time for the trip and I didn't want to have a couple dozen ends to deal with at the last minute. I did use significant less yarn than the pattern estimates, and while I did make the sleeves a bit shorter than called for, I don't think that alone accounts for it. I have an entire skein untouched as well as remains of the last two skeins I was using, but that's not a bad thing, as I loved working with the yarn and will be happy to have some leftovers to play with.

The weather forecast for Rhinebeck is not entirely suitable for sweater wearing (it's supposed to get to the mid-70s on Saturday and Sunday), but knowing how I tend to run cold and that mornings and evenings are likely to get chilly, I'm sure I'll get some time to wear my new cardi.

I won't be doing a spinning post this weekend, as I haven't been at the wheel since the end of Spinzilla, but I do promise a full recap post (or maybe two!) of my Rhinebeck experience when I'm back. If you'll be at the festival this weekend, do come and say hi if you see me! Be forewarned, however, that if I'm wearing my new sweater, I may make you pet it.

On a Mission

Now that Spinzilla is over, I have one primary mission for the next week and a half or so: finish my Rhinebeck sweater. I think it may be a nail-biter, but I'm going to do my best to make it happen. Last night I picked up the stitches for the first sleeve and worked a good bit of the short-row sleeve cap shaping. I'm hoping to get through the rest of that tonight so I can start working the whole sleeve in the round -- I have a feeling that part is going to fly.

Short-row shaping means that there's really no good place to stop, hence the disheveled look of this sleeve. Once it gets going, it's fairly fast, but of course getting to this point is always a challenge. Any time I have to pick up a very specific number of stitches I invariably end up ripping and redoing at least once (I think it took me three or four tries with this sleeve). I actually have an extra stitch somewhere in there that I'll need to hide because I had a slight gap when I finished picking up the last section and had to pick up one more stitch to fix it.

The sweater is a bit too big to bring to work for my lunch break knitting, so I've been working on my new sock design again -- and I finished the first one today! I'm very pleased with how this knit up.

I've already got a draft of the pattern mostly written, which means that I can likely take a couple of photos of the completed sock and get the pattern off to my tech editor this weekend (given that sock yarn usage is so variable, I don't need to finish the pair to determine yarn requirements). I'll still knit the second sock, of course, but I have some yarn support on its way to me for a new pattern that I'm hoping to debut early next month, so it may have to wait.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a sleeve to knit!

At the Halfway Point

We're more than halfway through Spinzilla now, and I'm feeling it. As much as I envy those who get more spinning time because they don't work full time like I do, I'm not sure my body could handle it. I definitely overdid it on Tuesday, so I spent the evening working on my Rhinebeck sweater instead of spinning more. It turned out to be a doubly good thing, as it gave some of my joints a bit of a rest and enabled me to finish the body of the sweater!

Sorry the photo's so dark -- it's a gloomy day here.

I'm getting a bit nervous that there won't be quite enough time to finish the sweater, especially given how much knitting time I'm giving up to spinning this weekend, but I'm going to do my best. The nice thing about this pattern is that after the sleeves are done, I'm done -- there is no finishing to be done other than weaving in ends (which I've been doing along the way so I don't have to do them all at the end) and blocking. If I have to, I'll have a bit of a knitting marathon next weekend, when all we have planned is a family dinner on Saturday night.

But let's get back to the Spinzilla recap. As of last night, I have finished up the third fiber blend in my unicorn sampler and moved on to the fourth. This one, Unicorn Seeks Soulmate, is probably the easiest to spin because it's just merino with a bit of sparkle.

I'm also continuing to work on the BFL I've been spindling, but I think a wheel intervention might be in order to get the entire 4 oz. spun and plied before the end of Spinzilla. I split the braid up into 16 little bundles of predrafted fiber, and I'm managing to get two into a cop. Considering the first cop took me two days to spin (well, two lunch breaks), it's unlikely I can manage it all on a spindle alone.

I think I will have to play things by ear and see how far I get by the weekend. I'll be heading up to the HipStrings studio on Saturday afternoon for a spin-in with the team, and if I've gotten all the stuff done on the wheel by then, I'll just take my spindle. If the worst that happens is I don't find the stuff on the spindle this week, I can live with that.

A Beginning, a Middle, and an End

I probably should have put the things in the title in the reverse order, because I'm going to start with the end -- I have finished my socks.

Pattern: a variation on my vanilla sock recipe (using a simultaneous heel flap and gusset) worked over 70 stitches
Yarn: ONline Supersocke Cotton Beach Color (45% cotton, 40% wool, 15% nylon) in color 945, one skein
Needles: US 0 (2.0 mm) Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: September 5/September 19

I'm glad to have these off the needles. They aren't anything special, and I'm sure they'll be perfectly serviceable socks. As you can probably see on the sock on the bottom in the photo, the spot where I cut out the knot is rather obvious because it not only disrupted the striping sequence, it actually reversed it. So the foot of that sock looks like a reflection of itself. Normally something like that would bother me, but I was so ready to be done with these socks that I really didn't care.

Meanwhile, my Rhinebeck sweater has grown a bit, and as soon as I post this, I'll be pulling it out to finish up the underbust decreases.

Before I put the sweater away last night, I measured the length from the back of the neck -- just to get an idea of how much more there was to do. It looks like I have less than 10 inches left of the body to knit, which really isn't all that much. I know the sleeves are bound to go much faster, given that they're worked in stockinette in the round and don't require me to check two charts every row. I plan to put in some serious time on this sweater this weekend, so I predict that there will be much more of the body the next time you see it.

As to the beginning, I have cast on a new project for my lunchtime knitting. I decided that the design project should probably wait a bit so I can do some proper swatching, so instead I pulled out one of the skeins of yarn that Rainbow bought earlier this year at Indie Knit and Spin that I said I would use to knit her an ear flap hat. I never got around to doing it when it was still winter, so I figured I'd get a head start on it for this coming winter. I haven't gotten very far (this is just one day's worth of knitting), but I think this should come together rather quickly.

This is a worsted weight from Youghiogheny Yarns in a colorway called Submerged that's very much a colorway I would have chosen for myself. I'm knitting the 1898 Hat, which I knit once before this year and very much liked. It has a clever but easy construction, so it's good for some knitting that's relatively mindless.

The weekend ahead looks fairly restful. Rainbow's got a birthday party on Saturday (which I'm hoping I can get the Mister to take her to so I can get some extra sweater knitting time) and then the Mister and I are running the 5K in the Great Race on Sunday. I expect there will be some naps taken on Sunday afternoon!

It Might Actually Happen

I know that, relatively speaking, I'm a pretty fast knitter. But my knitting time is usually limited, what with a full-time job and a small child and all the demands of life. When I decided to knit a Rhinebeck sweater, I knew it was a big proposition and there was a very large chance I wouldn't finish it in time. But, lo and behold, my sweater is actually starting to look like a sweater!

I'd added quite a bit of fabric since joining the fronts and backs at the underarms and am now halfway through the underbust decreases. Once those are done and the knitting reaches just above the narrowest part of my waist, I do a series of waist/hip increases and then work even until the body is the right length.

Now that I've done a good amount of rows involving both front bands, I've gotten into a good rhythm. I won't say that I've memorized those stitch patterns, but I'm beginning to get a rough feel for where the increases and decreases lie, and I'm also less confused about which chart to refer to (they're side by side on the page, so which one you refer to first in a row depends on whether you're working on the right side or wrong side).

The further I get into this pattern, the more impressed I am with it. It's not exactly a difficult pattern in terms of the knitting skill needed, but it is an involved one in the sense that there's a lot to pay attention to. There's the two charts for the front bands, for starters, which are symmetrical, plus the shaping, plus some short rows on the edges that you do every time you repeat the charts to keep the I-cord edging from pulling too much. And while I was worried that the sweater was running small while I was completing the first parts, I've tried it on and it looks like it will fit perfectly.

Aside from the sweater, which has been my main focus, I'm also trying to finish up my current socks. I'm about an inch away from starting the toe of the second sock, so a completed pair will soon be in the offing.

The second sock has gotten me a bit annoyed with this yarn, to be honest. I was already not a huge fan of all the cotton because of how hard it is on my hands, but for some reason the skein decided to start knotting up as I was pulling the yarn out on this second sock, resulting in a lot of yarn barf. As if that wasn't enough, I encountered a knot, and after cutting it out, I found that the self-patterning was completely disrupted, as you can see from the photo above. I'm not terribly concerned, as it happened on the foot of the sock and that part will be hidden in my shoe when I wear these, but it's rather irksome that it happened this close to the end of the sock.

To avoid having more ends to weave in on these socks (because I'm dealing with enough ends on my sweater), I used a clasped weft join after I cut out the knot. I think I've used this join once before, and I really like it. It's very easy to do, and although the join feels a bit bulky for the first round or two after you do it, it seems to blend in very well after that. I can feel where the join is on this sock, but I can't really see it from the outside (the bits of ends sticking out on the inside are a dead giveaway). I did do the join on the instep of the foot rather than the sole, just to be safe, because although my feet aren't as sensitive as other parts of me, I have some other socks where there was a join in the foot due to a knot (where I did a normal join and wove in the ends later) and I can feel it every time I wear them.

I may try to finish the socks up tonight, if I can, so that I can start something new at lunch tomorrow. I have yarn support for a new design on its way to me, but in the meantime I have a hat design I've been meaning to cast on for months now that I think will finally get its turn.

Join as One

I'm happy to say that I've reached a rather momentous stage on my Rhinebeck sweater: I am ready to join the fronts and the back to start the body.

(Apologies for the crappy photo -- we're dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Irma here, and any light is coming from a lightbulb at this point.)

I finished up the left front last night, just before bed, and put all of the live stitches on the needle this morning. The joining row will be the first order of business this evening when we're back from Curriculum Night at Rainbow's school. After I've gotten a few rows done, I plan to pause and weave in all the ends that I can so I can stop fighting with all those dangling bits. I shouldn't have any more ends on the body until I'm done with it or I have to introduce a new skein, whichever comes first, so it should help to speed things along a bit -- because don't you just hate it when you finish knitting a big project only to realize that you have to weave in all your ends?

I've definitely gotten the hang of the front bands by now, so those are going much quicker now that I'm not constantly stopping to double check the charts. Of course, now I will have to pay attention to two charts and remember which is which, but I think I should be okay. I just need to remember to only knit on this when I can pay attention to it -- sleepy knitting is a no-no for this project!

A Ticking Clock

When I started my Rhinebeck sweater, I knew I was likely cutting it close (not that I had much of a choice given how quickly the plans came together). But yesterday I looked at the calendar and realized that I had even less time than I thought. Although it's a bit less than six weeks until we leave, one of those weeks is Spinzilla, so I will be spending ever spare moment spinning. That means that I've got less than five weeks to finish my sweater, and I have a feeling I will need every moment.

Still, I've made some decent progress. I'm two rows away from finishing the upper part of the right front and then I'll tackle the left front. As you can see, I've started the decorative band, which is a lot of fun (though it does require some close attention, as the right and left are a bit different).

Although I was alternating skeins in the back, I've been using just one at a time for the band and fronts so far, simply because the rows are so short and involved that I thought adding a second skein would make things completely crazy. I think I will be okay -- there's enough variation within the skeins that it almost looks like I'm alternating -- but I'll resume using two skeins at once as soon as I join the underarms and start working the entire body.

I am enjoying this sweater so far and the unusual way in which it's constructed, but my one complaint is that there are tons of ends to deal with due to the fact that you knit pieces in different directions and different sections. I have been trying to weave them in as I go wherever possible, but at the moment I've got a couple dangling (along with the ends from waste yarn holding live stitches) that can't be woven in just yet and they're driving me a bit batty. I really think a lot of this annoyance will go away once the body is all joined up as one piece, but for now, I find I'm spending more time that I would like untangling and generally moving ends out of the way.

Meanwhile, my lunchtime socks are a lot bigger than they were the last time you saw them -- I'm nearly finished with the first one!

I'll be glad when these are done, as they're still not super comfortable to knit, but I think they will feel nice to wear -- and it will feel even better to have knit up a deep-stash skein of yarn.