Car Baby!

So we had a great trip - totally got myself all worked up for nothing!  We split the 11-ish hours of driving over 2 days (in both directions) and baby did great ... which means I had a *ton* of knitting time :)

The first is my new me sweater:  it's Viridis by Robin Melanson and is being knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky wool in an orange colour numbered 36 and I'm pleased to say that I got a fair amount accomplished!!  

Next up was a fall sweater for the gingersnap - Gramps by TinCan knits out of madelintosh vintage in Thunderstorm, and Tanis Fibre Arts Green Label in Royal blush.  We're off to find buttons for this one today so I can call it finished!

And what kind of trip would it be if there wasn't a little stash acquisition?!?

The first is Knitted Wit, DK superwash merino in the Moody blues colour, and the second is Spud and Cloe fine in the sidewalk colour (there's a few more of these off camera ... I may have bought a sweater's worth ...)

So it wasn't really a holiday as I normally define it, but between the disposable diapers and only being responsible for gingersnap food, it was pretty good!

New Sweater!

So we crawled under a rock last week to wait out the storm that was the stomach flu.  Nothing was done.  We are going to forget that week ever existed and move on.

I have a new sweater!!  It had a rocky start but came out more wearable then I could have hoped for ...

First:  the yarn is MarigoldJen BFL sock yarn in Amy's Punky Plum - I bought it for the knit-a-long that the Stockinette Zombies hosted over the last 2 months.  I have high hopes for this sweater as the swatch has been through the washer and dryer at least 5 times (I lost it in the pocket of a pair of jeans for a while) and come out soft, drapey, and not a pill on it :)

 I did on the other hand have a moment when I openend the package - the skeins were not very well matched.  Two matched perfectly and one looked like a different colour all together (can you spot it?)  But with some artful alternating which I would have done either way, I was getting a fabric I was happy with.

Next: the pattern is the Serina Cardigan, a $6 download from Ravelry.  The yardage requirements on the pattern page state the following

Yardage Requirements:    850 - 1600 yards (777 - 1463 m)
Sizes Available:            32"-50" bust

I wanted to make around a 44" size and had around 1450 yards of yarn.  Wonderful .... or not.  Bought the pattern only to find that size needs 1600 yards.  What?!?  Grrrrrrrrrr ....

I took a deep breath and read the pattern.  Conveniently the bottom of the sweater had a lot more fabric than I originally thought so I got rid of some of it to get back some of that yarn and crossed my fingers. I left the arms to the end, intending to split whatever was left from the body in half and getting as far as I could but I needent have planned so much.

The bottom of the sweater for my size was intended to be about 50" around and mine is only about 42" so I actually have yarn left over:

And I'm happy.  I definitely needed a closure of some sort and since I thought buttons might be too heavy, opted for a really light weight shawl stick from Black Sheep Yarns.

(And I'm still on track for my 13 sweaters of the year ;) )

Sweaters!

This for me, like many other people, has become the year of the sweater.  I've finished 3 me sized sweaters already this year with another in progress and also a birthday sweater for my nephew!

This is the Serina Cardigan by Gretchen Ronnevik ($6 on Ravelry) in Marigoldjen's BFL sock base. After a few initial problems this sweater is flying!  I only have the sleeves to go ... but man was it a rough start ... but I'll chat more about that when it's finished ;)

Next: Diplodocus by Kate Oates

My nephew is turning 4 this year and if it has anything to do with dinosaurs or the movie Cars, that kid is *all* over it.  I can oblige that pretty easily!  He said the sweetest thing to me recently - it's important to know that one of his shower presents (long before he was born and I knew he was going to be *huge*) was a sweater that never fit him, so now it belongs to one of his babies.  He got 2 new babies for Christmas and a few weeks ago told me

"This baby is nice and warm, but these 2 are so cold.  We need to make them sweaters.  This one likes red and this one like orange.  We should make them in those colours.  Can we make them tomorrow?"

Melt my heart you are so freaking cute.  His babies will also get sweaters for his birthday.  Obviously.

Gauge Woes

I've been knitting a while now ... long enough to know that I can't beat gauge.  I've tried and failed epically on many occasions.  Still do.  But usually it's my fault for not checking first.  When I do check - then I feel slighted.  My most recent sweater is what brings on this rant.  I swatched; I got gauge (or at least close enough that I was happy); I cast on and ran, trusting the pattern to not lead me astray.

My concern first appeared was when I finished the sleeves.  They looked more like elephant trunks (or something slightly more obscene ...) than sleeves because the seed stitch on the underside of the arm had significantly different row gauge than the pattern.

Whatever.  Totally blockable, right?

I continued onto the body, trusting my swatch and did the number of rows it said I needed to achieve a body length of 17".

See that wave in the bottom?  That's not an illusion - that's the sweater.  Never mind.  By this point I had washed the sleeves and had decided that it wasn't as big a problem as the pictures were leading me to believe.

Fast forward a week.  I'm finished.  I blocked it to the appropriate measurements no problem.  When I took out the blocking wires, it stayed put.  These were all very good signs.  I wore it out for the first time yesterday and by lunch the back was well above my pant line.  It started out below the tops of the pockets of my jeans :(

I took it off, bathed it again, and this time hung it to dry, hoping that the weight of the wet sweater would help.  We shall see.  Right now, it looks like the ribbon I sewed onto the underside of the button band is too short, but that is in fact where I would like the sweater to be, so hopefully with shrinkage it will sit there?

I have hope that I can yet love this sweater.  But for now, I'm a little disappointed.