pepperknit

Take a look at this sad, sad sweater.

I made it for the boy 5 years ago. It was a surprise that I whipped up in a month-long frenzy. I didn’t know his measurements very well, and we didn’t live together at the time so I couldn’t just measure off a sweater. I figured a ribbed sweater would work no matter what.

Well, it’s way too long and doesn’t fit very well at all. He was a trooper though, and wore it a few times that winter.

Recently I asked him if he still had it (if his answer had been “no,” we probably would have had to break up–wear it or don’t wear it, fine, but don’t get rid of it) and suggested he give it to me to take it out and make him something new. He was game.

I’ve not gotten very far with this project. But check out the “before.” I’ll have an “after” in just a bit . . .

Is that a quote from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? I think it every time I think of buttons. When they’re getting the full meal chewing gum made? Hm…

Anyway, in thinking about the Beatrix Potter buttons, I found a site with many options. I’ve decided to go with:

I decided to pick one of the simple, understated sweaters from Quick Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss and go with it. I also decided that Rowan Cotton Glace, which I used for two other baby sweaters, was going to be the perfect yarn—a little bit of shine, delicate stitches, and (typically) hypoallergenic cotton. I looked at yarnmarket.com, but skeins are $7.15 each there, and I felt that if I tried, I could find it cheaper.

And thus I ventured onto eBay, and made my very first eBay purchase ever. The pricing was cheaper ($5.50/skein) and shipping comparable; what pushed me into hitting “buy now” was the color. Just a quick glance told me that I liked “Bud” the best.

Only 5 skeins were left, and in searching elsewhere, I determined that Bud isn’t readily available. So I snatched them up.

I decided to go with this sweater (I found this picture of the page in the book on the web, and grabbed it—I am way too lazy to open my copy and take the picture myself, apparently):

Except, I’m not going to do stripes. Mine will be a simple, straightforward little sweater. There are buttons along the upper left shoulder, and I have visions of those Beatrix Potter buttons, with Peter Rabbit or someone on them. I think the Bud color will bring out the little tufts of grass that are on those buttons.

Now I just need to get the yarn! I’m ready to start.

I’m liking this 4 things meme, plus sometimes I think that readers aren’t getting a full sense of “me,” since I mostly talk knitting.

Jobs You Have Had in Your Life
1. Summer undergraduate research fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology, in the nuclear reactor building.
2. Tour guide for my college.
3. Pick-up chick and salad girl for outdoor offshoot of a restaurant (Clyde’s of Columbia; it used to have an outdoor kitchen, but after several years it was nixed. I worked one summer.)
4. Proofreader for a national running magazine.

Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. The Sound of Music
2. The Princess Bride
3. The Great Muppet Caper
4. Charlie’s Angels

Places You Have Lived
1. Columbia, MD
2. Taipei, Taiwan
3. Bryn Mawr, PA
4. Philadelphia, PA

TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Project Runway
2. The Amazing Race
3. America’s Next Top Model
4. The Daily Show

Places You Have Been on Vacation
Picking only the most “exotic”
1. Bali, Indonesia
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Phuket, Thailand

Web Sites You Visit Daily
1. Gmail
2. Blogger
3. Stat Counter
4. Bloglines

Favorite Foods
1. French fries
2. Potato chips
3. Bananas Foster with homemade vanilla ice cream
4. Homemade peppermint ice cream
(In truth, I could have filled the list solely with fried foods.)

This has me tempted to sit down and try one of those “100 Things” lists. But I risk boring you all!

But it’s a no-go.

I wasn’t fully prepared for just how BRIGHT the Crayon yarn is. And when you put the red, orange, yellow, green, and blue together. . . . Well, if it isn’t baby gay pride. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But then I started thinking about my boss.

My boss, a woman in her 40s, having her first child. She has been trying for years without success. She wears black every single day and has impeccable taste in jewelry and accessories, without being fussy. This woman should not swaddle her child in a baby blanket that looks as if a rainbow threw up on it.

What was I thinking!!??

When she opens the gift, I don’t want her to say, “Oh . . . You made it? Thanks!” I want her to say, “Oh, Minty! Oh! I love it! It’s fabulous!”

And to get that, I am going to have to go more sophisticated. More refined. A bright but not outrageous color. A sweater.

So now it’s back to square one for her. The yarn will get used, of course. Maybe smaller items—baby bootees or something. Not this rainbow explosion. I just can’t do it!

Part of my New Year’s resolution to dress more nicely means that I need to get my nice clothing into shape. For example, the hem on a simple black skirt that I really like has fallen, and I really need to fix it.

Now, I’m perfectly capable of sewing it back up. I can do a blind-stitch hem pretty well. But this involves clearing the desk in the guest room, setting up the sewing machine, the whole shebang. Isn’t there an easier way?? I asked. And then I realized there’s this double-sided fabric magic that will bond a hem with no seams to see or needles to thread. Just the ironing board and an iron. I can do that.

Since I live incredibly close to Fabric Row here in Philly, I went to my favorite notions and supplies store, Marmelstein’s. They told me what I want is called “Jiffy Fuse” and I should look in either of two different stores. (I probably should have been more embarrassed to ask for this product, especially ON Fabric Row.)

“Next Door” (the Philadelphia Fabric Outlet) only had large rolls for $5+ each, so they sent me to Zoll’s, which they said would have smaller rolls. (Impressive that two stores sent business elsewhere!) Zoll’s only had the same, large rolls, so I bought one there. Here it is:

Not very impressive, I know. But I’m excited to think how much easier getting my skirt into shape is going to be now that I have it!

I just got word from a high school friend that his wife is preggers, due in May. This puts my total up to 5 babies by June/July! (I might not knit something for one of the pregnant coworkers, though how hard is a pair of bootees? I do love them so, after all.)

I’m so anxious for my Crayon yarn to arrive. I can’t track the package, though, so I have no idea where it might be. Keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives today, but maybe I’ll just get started on all the bootees for the folks who won’t get bigger deal stuff. So far the list stands at:

My boss: Fibonacci blanket
Coworker 1: Fibonacci blanket, probably (I’m pretty good friends with my coworker and his wife.)
Coworker 2: Bootees
HS friend: Bootees
Close friend: Sweater, bootees, blanket, the works! This is my first close friend to have a baby, and I think it’s more socially acceptable to shower a friend’s baby with knitted gifts than the offspring of coworkers or old friends that I talk to once in a blue moon.

The Crayon from KnitPicks shipped out yesterday. I’m really hoping it arrives by the weekend, because I have the long weekend and it’d be fun to play around with the Fibonacci blanket as soon as I can. I actually went with just five colors, following the suggestion of Diana. This way I can repeat the colors on their way around, and just that one center square is done in a single color. It’ll go red, orange, yellow, green, blue, red, orange, yellow, green. This gives the center square some oomph, and I like the lack of pink and purple. I also bought enough yarn to do two blankets–the second one in a different color order.

Rachel, your idea for working it as an intarsia piece is intriguing–I’ve never actually done intarsia before. It still creates a front and a back, right, but no big ridge as it would with picking up stitches? I’ll have to play around with that. I’m certainly not afraid of intarsia, but the idea of doing one square at a time, and marking progress one by one, slowly increasing in size, seemed so appealing to me. (I’m certainly willing to toss this psychological lift out the window if it would be faster and simpler and cleaner-looking to do the intarsia!)

I mentioned earlier that my dad nicely complained that the hat I made him last year (that I do not remember at all, and which I didn’t see while I was visiting over Xmas, so I have no idea what it was or when I actually made it) had gotten too big. So I got some sedate, slate blue Jo Sharp yarn and made him a new hat, working it in k2p2 with as few stitches as seemed safe to make it both tight and big enough.

He came up to Philly today and we went to brunch followed by a St. Joe’s basketball game at the Palestra. Dad went to St. Joe’s, and our family has always been big into college hoops. Amazingly, despite some crappy play, St. Joe’s won by 2 points–scoring those last 2 points with 2.2 seconds to go! The drama!

Here’s dad in his hat:

He was thrilled with how snug it was, and he dutifully posed for me to take a picture. Yay for father-daughter bonding days.

Yarn: Jo Sharp DK Pure Wool
Color: blue-gray
Needles: Addi Turbo size 3, using Magic Loop
Time to complete: 4 hours (or so) on January 1
Specs: k2p2 rib on 112 stitches. Worked the decreases every 14 stitches (16-stitch batches) on first round so the decrease was more gradual.

Here’s a simulation using KnitPicks’s Crayon:

From Rachel and Jaax’s positive experiences with Crayon, and the fact that it’s machine washable and comes in bright colors, I’ve decided I want to use this yarn. Oh, right, and it’s also dirt cheap. Unfortunately, it only comes in 8 colors. So I did two of the light blue. I felt the red would be too jarring.

The next problem is assessing the amount of yarn. A square 34 inches by 34 inches doesn’t seem horribly large, right—34’s about the circumference of a sweater . . . I guess I’d need 5 balls of the red? I’m completely unsure of how to calculate this. Is there some kind of trick—5.5 (sts per inch) x 34 . . . can I figure that out?