pepperknit

I’ve been thinking more about the Sunrise Circle Jacket and this strangeness from the designer regarding the sizing and the way it will hang. I wonder if the whole problem is that the model is sitting with her arms kind of akimbo. I know that most anything will hang differently in that position–the designer’s photo of her friend in the jacket had her arms hanging dead and limply on her sides.

I’m confused by more of her comments: she says something about if you want more “give” to increase stitches across the back (thus making the back wider, right) but she also says that if you do that, then the front circles won’t overlap as much. This makes no sense to me at all–if the back is wider, then the front pieces should overlap more. Am I wrong?

Edited to say: YES, You are wrong, Minty. A wider back pulls the two pieces apart. You’re not knitting this in the round, stupid.

She was only trying to help and be supportive. But she’s really made me very doubtful of this sweater. I finished the left last night (that’s a sleeve and the left front) and started on the right. I feel as though I’ll be finished in no time, and I’m going to continue mostly to see how the heck this comes out.

The Sunrise Circle Jacket—I’m also participating in the knitalong. I saw this jacket online (it’s the free one from Interweave Knits this issue) and immediately thought of my mom. The interesting construction has yielded positive comments from my boyfriend as well as the coworkers I’ve shown it to. I went with Knit Picks’s Wool of the Andes in Fern. The yarn arrived last week.

I didn’t think I had the right size needles for it, but turns out I did, so I started it yesterday. Here’s my current progress:

Damn if size 7 needles and worsted weight yarn doesn’t knit up crazy, crazy fast! Instead of leaving the cuff to be sewn on later, I knit it up as I was going, becuase as we know, I hate sewing. I’m currently at an impasse, in that my stitch count is off by 1 stitch, but I swear I did everything right. I think the screwup was just a row ago or so, but I’m not in the mood to figure it out, I don’t think. Not right now.

I’m just a little concerned about the jacket as a whole—the pattern designer came to the KAL to, I don’t know, warn us, I guess, that the model for the picture was super skinny and the coat wouldn’t hang the way it looks in the picture. That’s a HUGE bummer; the photo she included of a friend wearing it looks not nearly so elegant. But she does say that the friend should have been wearing a size smaller. I don’t know how this helps, actually–if the model was super skinny and wearing the same exact sweater, how does it look awesome on her but look way way way too big on someone who is supposedly normal sized? Confused. But my mom is very petite, and I’m making the smallest size anyway. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, and I’ll chalk it up to a photograph inaccurately capturing the look of a piece, and since it’s Wool of the Andes, I only spent $18 dollars on it. But this will most definitely be a needling worry as I work on it.

Have you all seen the knitting grafitti artists? Bunch o’ crazy knitters. But fun!

Click to make bigger!

I kind of can’t believe it. I finished a pair of socks. First time ever! An Olympic-sized challenge that, when push came to shove, proved much easier to complete than I’d thought. With the strict deadline, however, it wasn’t hard to continue on with the second sock. (Ok, I had a little bit ofsecond sock syndrome , but all in all it was fairly minor.) We’ll see how I fare with no gold medal* hanging out in front of me like a carrot for future socks, though. (What? did I just say “future socks”? Why yes, I believe I did. I don’t think I’ll ever be as devoted to socks as some, but there’s no reason to avoid them any longer.)

My love for these socks only grows. I adore the bluefish-like pattern. I love the twisted knits, which raise and give the whole thing an added depth. I love them!

Pattern: Pomatomus, from Knitty.com
Needles: US size 1 dpns
Yarn: Schaefer Yarn’s Anne. 60% Merino Wool Superwash, 25% Mohair, and 15% Nylon
Started: Friday February 10; opening ceremonies night (though I didn’t watch)
Completed: Sunday, February 19, as Bode Miller failed to medal again
Notes: I didn’t decrease until there were 12 stitches left for grafting, as the pattern dictated; I went til there were 16 left. I thought a wider toe would look nicer. I’m happy with this change, though it is quite minor. Kitchenering came pretty easily, though I notice that the first and last stitches that have been grafted together kind of pooch out a bit. I assume with wear they’ll even out. Other note: I obviously tried the first sock on a bunch more times, as I figured it all out, so it feels much looser than the one I just completed. I’ll have to take that one off and put it back on a few times, until they feel the same!

Edited to add: Many, many thanks for all the kind words and comments! And a special thanks to Tania for suggesting the pattern in the first place. Not very hard, but definitely interesting. Thanks, everyone!

I chose a pair of socks as my Olympic challenge because socks have notoriously been impossible for me to finish. “Second sock syndrome,” as it is called, is a huge, huuuuge problem for me.

And even though I finished my first sock on Sunday night, and I adore it, [oh, the love! I am infatuated with it] I lost momentum. I started thinking of ways to fiddle with the pattern. To make it different, somehow, from the first sock.

A woman on the knitty boards was working to reverse the scales on her second Pomatomus in order to create mirror image socks. The idea is darn appealing. But in order to twist the stitches back the other way, you have to basically twist the stitch twice, and I can’t even imagine how slow that would make one’s progress. Plus, sometimes getting all fancy and thinking new methods up leaves me more likely to quit—I start to doubt the plan of attack. I need to just do the pattern, get it done, and savor a finished pair.

But here’s my thought: If I do it toe-up, then the scales will go the other way!

First, I must just finish the pair. That’s my challenge. Playing around with the other sock leads only to unfinished pairs. I will resist the urge to slack! I will get it done!

This being my first very cool sock, I proudly showed it off to the boy. His reaction actually surprised me. Instead of the normal “That’s nice, hon” reaction—never super enthused—he said “Wow, that’s really cool,” and when I put it on, he commented on how the stitch pattern looks really neat and how the socks fit me so very perfectly. I got excited at the thought of making him a pair (though he’d require a much more simple sock pattern—where’s the fun in that). So I’m not entirely anti-socks, I’m just anti-second-sock.

I managed to cast on for the second one last night and got a bit of the ribbing done. I can’t help feeling a little like I’m wasting my time, though, for some reason. I think in the future I will have to do both at once.

Ok, I might be starting to feel the inkling of sock love. Because I Love These Socks. They rock! And—phew!—they fit.

Click to see it in closer detail!

I’m just a few short inches away from the toe shaping. I’m feeling all sorts of confidence about the impending Kitchener, but I may be foolish on that count. We’ll see.

On my walk to the gym tonight, I passed the funniest snowman:

Click the photo to see a close-up of his ingenious eyes! Brussels sprouts! (Yum!) Also note the black eyelash scarf! How stylish.

No offense to the friend who made the ones on the table, but they are not mine. I made the cupid in my hand tho!

In the end, 8 happy folks braved the snow to sit and smear sugar all over all of the cookies. Amazingly, they went through all the cookies by about 5 pm; usually I have to finish them off after people leave. I think I decorated about 10 cookies, all told! I was busy making frosting and eating loads of the fabulous blue cheese I had as part of my food spread. We ran out of confectioners’ sugar, unexpectedly, and I made the boy go out to buy more (good sport that he is, he did not grumble or even sigh, just went). Jaax, we missed you—two years in a row missed is no good at all.

Needless to say, I am exhausted! But really happy. Everyone but me and the boy was new to the experience, and there was a lot of skepticism, but I think everyone enjoyed it a lot. How could they not? The power of frosting is great; it converts all nonbelievers.

(Perhaps it goes without saying that both of these are mine.)

In knitting news, because of the snow last night, I made a TON of progress on my Pomatomus. It’s challenging on various levels, I’m discovering:

1. I am knitting it on dpns.
2. I am knitting it on size 1 dpns (damn are they sharp).
3. Sometimes my yos are coming out too big or too small, and I’m frogging in order to fix.
4. I’m learning how to easily fix a messed up ktbl (not as easy as a plain k).

Basically, I’ve taken out various lengths (never the whole thing) about 5 times, perfectionist that I am. I’m really really happy with the way it’s turning out, though. I’m already to the heel!

Check out all the snow stuck to our window screen!

I haven’t even started my pomatomus yet, and I may be too pooped to try tonight.

I spent the afternoon baking cookies for my Valentine Cookie Decorating party. Here are some photos! I know it’s not knitting, and this is a knitting blog, but . . . they’re crafty, right?

My back hurts. I have made something like 300 or more cookies. I think I’m done. Half are “plain” sugar cookies (the most delicate-tasting cookies) and half are chocolate (with cocoa for some of the flour). I used to only do different sizes of hearts, but last year I introduced the cupid. He went over well. The more tired I get, the more I play around with the cutouts—sometimes I do an inset of plain inside a chocolate, and vice versa. I pile them up on each other. Etc. No one ever knows how to decorate those, but whatever, they keep me entertained for the baking!

Pics of the decorated cookies will, of course, be posted Sunday night after the party!

peter piper picked a peck of pomatomus . . .

I decided on a sock pattern. Tania’s helpful suggestion, plus a brief swatch of the Jaywalker pattern, has convinced me that I need to do something more challenging. She mentioned Pomatomus, which I’d never really looked at before (I never have been into socks). I looked at it more last night and today, and I’m convinced that it’s the way to go. Just the right amount of complicated, looks really cool, and I think will be interesting with the yarn I’ve bought.

The pattern talks about how it reminded the designer of the scales of a fish, and she named it for some bluefish. But the name makes me think (hippo)”potamus” and, well, I think I’m going to forever think of it that way.

This weekend is going to be a little nuts. Sunday’s my 6th annual Valentine Cookie Decorating Party, and tomorrow I will be taking the entire day to bake the cookies. Saturday is my family’s (late) Chinese New Year’s lunch. But, if I make good progress on the baking, I should be able to cast on tomorrow night, at the very least. (Still, I have a ton of shopping to do, I left my phone on my desk at the office, and various other things are certainly going to conspire against me.) So we’ll see how this whole endeavor goes!