February Goal Check

February's goals:

• finish FLAK (sleeves need to be knit/reknit)
• felted box for Dad in his school colors (felt bag at the same time)
• Argosy from Winter '06 knitty for Mom
• Undecided sweater - either Equestrian Blazer, Celtic Cabled sweater (UFO), Cascade 128 Tweed sweater, or cabled sweater in Araucania Naturewool Chunky.

February's accomplishments:

• FLAK - sleeve 1 reknit, sleeve 2 about 2/3 done
• Felted box - DONE!
• Argosy - DONE!
• Cascade 128 sweater - DONE!
• Triple Mohair Triange UFO - FINISHED!
• Felted clogs - DONE!
• ZigZagBag - felted

Some pictures -

Argosy (top) pattern in knitty.com. Peruvian Collection Highland Silk, 2 balls of Celadon.

Triple Mohair Triangle - pattern from Fiddlesticks knitting. Called for 3 strands of lightweight mohair held together, I used a single strand of Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair in Swamp.

The plan for March:

• FINISH FLAK!!!!!!
• Veste Everest from Interweave Knits in Cascade 220.
• Probably something else, but not sure what at this point

Felting Day

Yesterday the box, clogs, and bag got felted.

I find felting a little scary. If things come out weird, you can't rip and redo (my favorite pastime, apparently.)

Here's a picture of the scarf and calorimetry I made for my friend in NYC. (I don't know what's up with the pictures - they are being put in weird places.)

With only a few days left in the month, I am on target except for the FLAK sleeve redo which may spill over into March. I did get the 128 sweater done though, so I am ahead of schedule on that. I wore it yesterday, which may be the last cold day and it has now been blocked and is drying. A couple of other extras also got done this month. It's almost time to firm up the plan for March! (It does seem to help to post my monthly goals, and it's fun when I get to check things off at the end of the month! I love checking things off of to-do lists.)

I delivered the baby sweaters last Monday and found out the babies were born the day before. Good timing, yes?

Crawling along

Some progress to report, but not much. First sleeve of 2nd attempt at the 3XChic (sorta) is done and I'm pretty happy with it. I really like Maggie Righetti's method of picking up stitches for the sleeves and knitting them down to the cuff, with short-row sleeve caps. Solves the annoying problem of sleeves not fitting into their spots smoothly when seaming, and the gaping holes you get when seamless knitting ala EZ. Once that sleeve was completed, I made myself finish the FLAK sleeve that was nearly done. Now I have 2 sweaters that are complete except for 1 sleeve. I expect to finish the 3XChic this month, the FLAK is doubtful. I have to rip out the first sleeve attempt and redo it to match the new one. I don't want to put it off because I want to be able to remember what I did this time, but I really am tired of working on that sweater! I guess I should get a picture of it with the 2 different sleeves - I'll put that on the to-do list for the weekend.

I started on the 2nd ball of yarn on Mom's Argosy, so that is halfway done. Haven't started Dad's felted box yet, but it should be a quick knit.

At least it has been cold enough here to wear some of my handknits!

I'm such an idiot

Seems like lately I do a lot of reknitting. Sometimes just part of the item, this past time, the entire sweater.

I knew I had gauge issues, but since I was making the 40" size and wanted a smaller sweater, I thought it would be okay. I kept checking as I knit, and it seemed okay, but once I got the front and back knit and used the 3-needle bind off to join them, it became obvious things were not going to work out. Unfortunately, I had already knit both sleeves, so they were wasted effort too. Since I had to reknit anyway, I decided to make the changes I had been thinking about as I knit. First, I added an inch of contrasting color to the hem of the body (and will do the same for the sleeves when I get there.) Second, I went up a needle size. Third, I knit the body in the round to the armholes, and then divided it. I shaped the top of the front and back as before, but kept the 2 extra stitches I had on each side on safety pins. Fourth, I kept the back of the neck stitches live instead of binding them off. Fifth, I'm knitting the sleeves from the top down after picking up the stitches. I'm working on the first sleeve now - using Maggie Righetti's method of making a sleeve cap swith short rows. It's looking pretty good so far. The good news is that I think I have enough yarn!

I've made a bit of progress on Argosy, and fringed about 1/3 of the Mohair shawl, but have been consumed by this latest sweater this week.

Warning...

...knitting from the stash may cause lusting after more of a particular yarn. I cast on 3XChic from knitty last night using Cascade 128 Tweed. Sleeve 1 is done and I'm about to cast on for sleeve 2. I LOVE THIS YARN! I went searching online this morning in case I need anther skein, but almost no one carries it and of course no one seems to have the color I'm using. I have some plain Cascade 128 which feels nice too, but I haven't knit with it yet. It is more widely available at least.

This is partially why my stash has gotten too big - when I fall in love with a yarn, it seems like it's usually one that is either discontinued or not widely available so I feel like I have to stock up on it. This happened with Araucania Nature Wool last fall, I have enough to knit 2 more sweaters in the Chunky and 5 more in the Worsted. And I'm still trolling eBay for more. It's a sickness, I tell you.

Anyway, I'll probably finish this sweater by next weekend. I need a break from obligatory knitting.

Weekend Update

Well, I needed a break from the FLAK sleeve, so I pulled out the Triple Mohair Triangle. Turns out I only had about 6 rows left to knit - I don't remember why I put it in time out. It's soaking at the moment. Once it's dry I have to add fringe, then it will be a FO. I have about 3 more inches on FLAK sleeve #1, then I have to rip out the other sleeve and totally reknit it. Ugh. I don't know if I will be able to tough it out and finish FLAK up this month. I want to, while I remember exactly what I did on the sleeve, but I am really tired of it. I'm making good progress on Argosy, I may bring that in from the car to work on tonight. (Usually it's my sitting-and-waiting-for-the-kid(s) project.)