How did we get to March already?

First off, I finally finished the carboy sweater for my youngest son. Ta-da!

And, he likes it and has been wearing it to school almost every day. Definitely the mark of a successful sweater. Makes the knitting worthwhile. I had some real slow-downs while knitting this sweater though. Over the summer I didn't get much knitting done just because this project is big and wool and our summers are hot and humid. Not really a good mix. Then, when I was close to finishing, I procrastinated A LOT over cutting the steek in the front. The pattern is actually written to be knitted back and forth, no cutting involved. I've made sweaters in the round with steeks before, and not had any problem with them, so I thought it would be much easier to avoid all that purling on the wrong-side rows and just knit it all in the round and cut down the front later. Now that it's done (and I'm very happy with the result), I'm not sure I'd do the same thing again. Sure, the knitting went great, but crocheting and cutting the steek (I used a crochet steek that I learned in a class at Stitches one year), tacking down the cut edge, and even determining the exact middle so I could cut in the right place, slowed me down as I worried over doing irreparable damage to the sweater by cutting in the wrong place. If I were to knit this pattern again, and I might, as it was a really straightforward knit, I think I'd stick to the instructions and knit back and forth.

Here's a nice article from the Vogue Knitting archives, written by Meg Swansen, about steeking, with instructions for the crocheted steek.

Today we are finally getting some spring weather. I could use all the snow this winter as my excuse for not blogging all these months, but really it's more like plain old laziness. It did, at least, give me plenty of time to start and finish some small projects.

First new project was a cowl for my daughter. I had been looking for some nice yarn but couldn't decide on a colorway, and she and I were having a hard time determining colors that she like via iphone pictures long-distance. One weekend in January, I had driven up to see her at school and just happened to find a nice local yarn shop. So I brought my daughter in to pick out some yarn. She found some wonderful bulky yarn, and the shop owner just happened to have a free pattern with yarn purchase. With bulky yarn, the cowl knit up in no time and she has been happily wearing this cowl every since!

While I was on a roll, I decided that I needed a cowl for myself. I had some lovely bulky Malabrigo yarn that I had won as a door prize at Stitches East several years ago. I had found a hat pattern with reversible cable on the brim, and it knitted up beautifully, but I really didn't look good in it, and haven't found anyone to give it away to. So I frogged the hat and reknitted the yarn into a cowl. I used a free pattern that I found on Ravelry called Cobbled Cowl by Annie Riley, which is a linen stitch pattern. I modified it by adding  k2p2 ribbing at the top and bottom so it wouldn't roll.

Malabrigo yarn as a hat "BEFORE"

Malabrigo yarn as a cowl "AFTER"

I have already gotten some good wear out of the cowl, and it coordinates beautifully with my blue down coat

Next snowy-day project was a new clock for the kitchen. Our old clock, which had lasted us probably 15 years or more, had faded, cracked wood, and wasn't really fixable. I decided to hunt for a new clock. No luck at the local stores, but I found some interesting clocks on Amazon. I finally decided on this "steam punk" style clock, which was a good size and a neat look, but was made in cheap plastic in all one color.

I had read a lot of the customer review on Amazon when I was shopping, and many of them talked about enhancing the look of the clock with a little metallic paint. That sounded like fun to me, so I bought a few different metallic paint tubes and started my art project.

I had to mix the metallic paints with black paint to tone them down a bit and with each other to create different colors, but was very happy with the result.

On the Wall

Well, that's probably more than enough projects for one post. I've got another one in the works that's a suprise for the recipient, but by my next post it will hopefully by finished and gifted and ready to be photographed for the blog!

Shelley in CT

Knitting weather

The temperatures are falling, along with the humidity levels around here, and because of it, I am finally getting in the mood to knit!

I had stalled out on this sweater for my younger son, and it sat in a bag all summer long, so close to done, but I just didn't feel like sitting with a pile of wool in my lap this summer. Last night, with the cool air blowing through the house, was a perfect knitting night. I put on a good murder mystery from the DVR, poured myself a glass of wine, and pulled out the knitting projects. I'd really like to finish up this sweater for my son before it gets really cold so that he'll have a chance to wear it this year. I had him try it on to check body and sleeve length. Body length is perfect, and I actually had to pull out about an inch and a half of the sleeve to get it to the right length for him. The red part at the bottom of the sleeve is actually a hem and will be hidden inside the sleeve, but I think it's a nice detail.

While I was paying attention to my son while he tried on the sweater-in-progress, the cat took advantage of the situation and wandered over to the side table where my wine glass was perched, and proceeded to knock it over, right into the knitting bag. As my daughter told me (by text), it was my own fault for not paying complete attention to the cat. The cat has been very needy since my daughter left for college. Luckily, wine can be easily blotted from the balls of wool, but my knitting bag and my circular needle holder are a little sticky and need a good washing. It's a great excuse to organize my knitting projects and tools, especially since dear husband will be out of town all week, and won't be here to complain about the mess of knitting paraphernalia. 

Even before the cat spilled the wine into my knitting bag, providing the need for a reorganization of the knitting stash and projects, I had been planning to make a concerted effort to finish up projects that have been languishing (for years, even decades!). I've already been making great efforts to knit from stash yarn and not buy anything new, but I think I need to step it up a bit. Time to log in all the unfinished projects and either finish them up or frog them and reuse the yarn for something else. When I start pulling out all the works in progress, the number is rather sobering. 

For today I'm going to focus on finishing this sweater for the younger son, and then I'll start pulling out more WIPs (works in progress) and see what I can finish up by the end of the year. Wish me luck.

Shelley in CT