theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Marina, I never thought I would say this: the body of my Oregon Cardigan is done!!  I have been slaving on Oregon all weekend so I could get to this point.  I kept thinking, “Gee, I’m so close.  If I just knit a little bit longer….”   The minutes became hours, and the hours days.  But, I am at the shoulder grafting stage and almost ready for Sleeve Island.  I’m okay with that — it indicates progress!  Woo Hoo.  I wish this picture showed the true colors.

Now, I don’t have a sour grapes attitude, but really!  How fair is it that Marina does three blue stripes to the armhole, while I had to do four.  And how fair is it that Marina did six blue stripes to the shoulder and I had to knit past seven?  I’m not complaining, just saying.  It should be noted that one “stripe” represents a mere 24 rounds!

Marina’s Oregon before Sleeves

Marina is a fabulous knitter and I hope a good sport — just jealous, M!!! 😉

I did watch a number of movies in front of a roaring fire, but did not get out much.  It was extremely cold today and I’m not that used to it.  Our winter has been pretty mild, so I am wimpy about the cold.

I may take a break from knitting tonight after grafting the shoulders.  Whew!

PS — the grafting is done and looks “okay.”

Grafting “head to head” will always be a half stitch off — there’s no getting around it.  I like how the partial trees form a spider’s web!

PSS — picked up the sleeve.  I am officially ensconced on Sleeve Island!  Thanks for the words of encouragement, Surly! 🙂

As Sally said in March 2006:

From now on, I will read directions. Really. I will.

I made a mistake on Oregon — not a deal breaker, but a bummer nonetheless.  I was supposed to do several more decreases on the armhole shaping to the tune of 4 sts each side of the armhole.  I didn’t notice this because I am changing the neckline and it was embedded in the instructions for the v-neck shaping.  Not a big deal, but I still need to deal with it.

Options:

1) ignore it and add 4 sts to the shoulders

2) cast off the extra sts now, re-create the steek, and continue with an odd shaped steek that I will trim before I pick up the sleeves

3) rip it back 

Obviously, #3 is NOT AN OPTION — do you think I’m effin nuts?  “2” was the option I was leaning toward last night (or should I say , this morning at 1 am), but I am now leaning toward “1.”  I don’t think it would be that big of a deal to have an extra half inch of width at the shoulder — I am a large person with square shoulders and a need for extra sleeve length (which derives partially from the shoulder drop, as we know).  The other benefit to Option 1 is that the trees would be perfect little half trees along the armhole.  Does that sound like rationalization??  Mayhaps.

As long as I am coming clean about my knitting boo boos:

I screwed up on the Moebius Lace Scarf.  It has the simplest lace pattern known to mankind — out of an 8-row repeat, there are really only 2 lace rows and they are EASILY memorized.  As I was knitting on each and every lace repeat, I would check the rows before to make sure the pattern was lining up. 

There must have been a rift in the space-time continuum (or I spaced out for a few minutes) because I added TWO extra yarnovers in the previous lace row (!#$%@@&).   Now, I could probably fudge one extra yarnover, but two is an awful lot of extra yarn to deal with.  Add this to the fact that it is very tough to SEE, given the tiny (Kidsilk Haze) yarn and scrunchy texture of the knitting.  I don’t want to “k2tog” a bunch to get rid of the excess because the fabric is so sheer, you might see a “clump” of thicker knitting.  

In short, I need to rip out a couple of rows — 378 sts worth.  THIS might be a deal breaker: if the class does not go, I may not be inspired enough to continue. 

I am off today, so if I plan on knitting I will need to make decisions about the above — like I said, it’s a bit of a bummer!!

PS — thanks to all who purchased the Lace Tam and Scarf Set!!

I have been knitting my way into the New Year!  I hope all of you had a fabulous holiday.  Mine is still in progress as we are having my side of the family over on Wednesday — including Sally et. al.  It should be very fun.

I started the Lace Mobius and have made a bit of progress:

As you can see, the long circular knitting needle winds its way in a coil.  One full row adds length to both sides — it grows outward from the center.  The lace stitch is tres simple.  Even though there are 8 rows in the pattern repeat, you only do 2 different lace rows, which can be easily memorized.  However, I do not consider it mindless because I really have to look closely as I knit to see the sts.

Because the Moebius is not mindless, I took Oregon to knitting group on Thursday evening.  I know fair isle does not seem like a “mindless” choice, but it was the best I could muster, given the status of my currents WIPs.  It is a dismal state of affairs.  But, here is a picture of Oregon:

I am about an inch from the underarm shaping/steek.  Oregon has a shaped armhole, which AS did on a small number of sweaters and all (?) of her fair isle vests.  I am interested in seeing what difference it makes to the fit.  Even though the armhole is shaped, the sleeve is still worked without a cap.  This of course means that I will have to knit even more sleeve than normal to account for the length that is lost to the armhole shaping.  I’ve been knitting on it the last couple of nights and a little progress has been made — I have such a long way to go!!

Thank you for all the comments about the Santa stockings and my Santa mantel :).  I love your support and encouragement.