theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Thanks for all of your fabulous comments about the Kauni.  It did dry, and I did finish the inside edges.  I tried it on and the neck isn’t as tight as it was before blocking, so it will be fine.  It will be a wearable sweater with jeans and turtleneck (gee, that’s a new look for me!).

Here is Lettie doing the modelling.  I know, I know — maybe I’ll add a picture of me in it later with buttons ;). 

And the back:

Marina asked me about why I grafted the sleeves and how — here is the response I sent her:

Warning: Esoteric knitting blather ahead

The mattress stitch I tried using to sew the sleeves in just did not look right.  So I decided to try grafting the sleeves in instead.

Looking at the right sleeve as the example, I ripped back to one row after the red squares (a yellow row).  I picked up around the sleeve opening with red, and then used yellow for my grafting yarn.  This created the second row of yellow after the red squares.  When I picked up around the armhole, I used a size 5 needle instead of the 4’s I would have used for the straight knitting portion (I switched between 2 needle sizes throughout my Kauni: 4’s for the single color rounds and 5’s for the stranded rounds).  I did this because the stitch was going through the fabric and I wanted the red line to be visible.

The button quest will now begin…dum de dum dum DUM!!

I am so amazed: I finished my Kauni Cardigan.  I’m not amazed by the finished Kauni — what amazed me was that I allowed myself to BE FINISHED with it! 

As I described to my knitting peeps on Thursday evening (at a wonderful Christmas soiree hosted by Mary!!), I had major Kauni concerns:

1) The sleeves were not going in as planned.  The seaming looked like crapola.  So I decided to pick up around the armholes and graft in the sleeves.  This step was completed this morning.  They did turn out looking better than the seams did.  I should have picked up and knitted down after all :(. 

Note: I chose to knit the sleeves from the cuff up so I could control the color of the cuffs.  It didn’t even work out that way!  I ended up with strange-colored cuffs anyway!  Here’s a pic to prove it:

2) I did not like the front bands AT ALL!!  I had spent 12-15 hours knitting the front and neck bands in one piece on 60″ needles (seriously!).  I did not like the band for several reasons: band too wide, neck opening too small, top buttonhole not centered, blah, blah, blah; yada, yada, yada.  My plan was to redo the band completely, even though many, many hours of knitting would be involved.  I wanted the sweater to turn out, of course. I spent most of Saturday evening pouring over my new, improved approach to the band to “fix” all the stuff I did not like about it, but could not come up with a plan. 

Drum roll, please.  I decided to do nothing.  I bound it off and it is blocking at this moment.  I tossed in the towel.  I gave up.  I caved.  I decided that enough was enough.  AND IT FEELS FANTASTIC!!!!  I did not want to spend umpteen hours re-knitting the bands when I wasn’t even sure they would look better.  I decided that it was GOOD ENOUGH!  I did not strive for perfection or to be the best that I could be — I didn’t care!!  Woo Hoo!  Susan made a breakthrough :).  And, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that I ever get to perfection, but at least I do try to do my best — except for today!!  [Susan is now doing her ‘happy dance’ around the room]

Here is the Good-Enough Kauni:

So I am 95% done with this bad boy!  I need to do some inside finishing and find buttons (always a Ruh Roh! ;)), BUT the main part of the Kauni is behind me.  I’ll post more pictures when it is off the ground!

It feels so good to be bad! 😉

Has THAT blog title gotten mileage?  I bet it’s been used often!  We all love knitting sleeves so much, don’t we?

I finally got back to Kauni, finishing Sleeve #1 and starting Sleeve #2:

You can see that my sleeves are totally fraternal in their twin-ocity.  I “planned” it that way 😉 – at least that’s my story.  I’ll tell people that the randomness of the colors is part of the Kauni charm and mystique (and hope they buy it!).

Anyway, I have set a deadline of January 1, 2008 to be wearing my Kauni Cardigan — not too tough a deadline to meet if I stay focused…but, we know that it is easy to get tempted!  And, it is a very busy time of year.

Especially today: I spent 7 hours in my car.  SEVEN HOURS.  I did not drive to Chicago either.  I drove to and from work (1.5 hours EACH WAY) and then drove my darling daughter to the dentist: 2 hours EACH WAY (usually a 30-40 minute drive).  SEVEN HOURS!!!!  People wonder why I hate cars.  The reason it took so long is that it snowed today.  I love snow but this is just plain torture. 🙁

And to prove I’m not a total Grinch, here is the best part of the trip –  I love it when someone has the lights on when I get home.

PS — I enjoyed reading all of your comments and stories re: knitting at social gatherings.  Natalie made me do a spit take when she compared the hobby of knitting to scrapbooking, whittling and collecting dryer lint in public — picturing people dragging these hobbies along made my day.  Thanks, all!