theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Sorry about Meredith, Kim — she lived!  I told you they would never kill off the show’s namesake.  My daughter and I were both disappointed with the writing the last few shows.  Shondra must be paying too much attention to a possible spin off with Addison.  I’ll give them another chance, though….

I’ve been working on Eris.  Here is the back.  The picture is from my scanner so the color is more accurate.

I am 2″ past the point where you divide the body from the sleeves — woo hoo!  AND, with the beauty of top down knitting, I tried on the little puppy and it appears to fit. 

Sally and I are making a few alterations to the pattern.  One of these can be seen here.  Jenna had a built-in stockinette edge along BOTH edges of the collar.  I left the one on the inner collar off so I could pick up later and do an applied i-cord edge.  The advantage is that you can guarantee that the edge will be the exact size you need, and after trying it on, I will need to tighten up that edge quite a bit*.  I did this in the Rogue Hoodie as well, because I had seen too many of them (on blogs) that had a floppy edge along the hood.  Doing the collar this way would interfere with the cabled detail at the center fronts — I opted to finish the hem like the pullover so as not to accentuate my tummy.  Let’s face it.  I do not need a big arrow pointing out the fact that I have a too-big tummy.  I prefer camo, thank you very much.  Sally does not have this problem, but does prefer the look of the pullover anyway.

I went to knitting last night and had a blast.  What a crew!  After a week of computer torture training, I needed a break.  We have a “celebrity” that joins our group on occasion and has been there the last couple of Thursdays: it’s author Monica Ferris.  She has written a number of books, but several are knitting-related murder mysteries that take place in a fictional knitting shop in Excelsior, Minnesota.  She has mentioned some of our knitting peeps in her books, so it’s kind of fun.

*Jenna does include short rows to make the inner edge smaller.

PS — to Connie: Sally is planning to start hers today.

Honest, she said I could start!!  I needed a stockinette project and I had to get past the collar to get to the stockinette portion!  I really wasn’t trying to leave Sally in my wake.   This has happened before (in both directions) so I should have known better…

I have made some progress on my Eris: I did rip out the body once and started over, but it is progressing okay now.  I did not like the way my short rows OR my increases were looking, so that’s why I started over.  I think I’m now doing Japanese short rows (or at least what I call Japanese short rows!).  And I am doing the “yarnover make ones” that I developed for Sunrise Circle.  I think it works better because the increased sts are only 2 sts apart — they pulled up the other sts too much and did not look very nice.  I’ll show a picture when I have a bit more progress.

I have been enduring “special computer training” the past two days.  We start promptly at 7 am for four days straight.  My friend, Susan, and I are taking it at the same time.  One day I’m face down and the next day she is.  Tomorrow we’ll probably BOTH be comatose.  It is really a grind.  I have not been able to knit much because I am so exhausted when I get home. 

RE: Eris — In response to Wendy: I would call this sweater advanced, because of the elaborate cabling, short rows and unusual construction.  I have read several blogs where they said they started this project, but not so many that finished!  That could be said of a lot of projects, but I do consider it a red flag.  Sally and I have decided not to be deterred by the success or lack thereof of others — we’re not scared off by extreme knitting, baby!!  Let ‘er roll! 😉

PS to Wendy O — I think Rogue seemed easier because its construction is more straight forward — at least until you get to the hood itself.  There are some interesting things going on there!  It was easier to get started so that’s why I ended up doing the Rogue for my Knitting Olympics Challenge last year (I finished it in 12 days — no cleaning, cooking or housework of any kind was goin’ on during the “Olympics,” let me tell you).  The hood has some fantastic cabling and if you are intimidated by grafting, you could do a 3-needle bind off. 

The instructions for Eris are 40 pages — though that includes both a pullover and cardigan version — and her charts are done in large print.  I am doing the short row shaping where the cable section attaches to the body and the directions are 5 pages long!  She is VERY detailed, to the point that it seems excessive.  To her credit, she says she is detailed to help avoid confusion.

Hello, everyone.  The weekend is winding down and so am I. 

Sally and I have been toying with the idea of starting a new project together.  The timing has been tough because we are already hammering away at other things, BUT Sally said I could go ahead and start.  We are doing an Eris Cardigan Mini-Knitalong.  We are calling it a Knitalong because we are starting it together, but it’s “mini” because it’s just the two of us.  If you want to knit along with us and would like us to post pictures and you want to write updates in the comments, that’s fantastic!  However, we just don’t want to manage a true “knitalong.” 

About the Project:
Eris is the fraternal twin of the Rogue Hoodie.  I made Rogue as my Winter Olympics project.  At that time I thought I would do Eris, but got stopped in my tracks when I tried to get started.  I had yarn issues and “getting started” issues, so I switched to Rogue.  Now that I am committed to Eris, I see why I got stuck! 

You start by knitting the collar and then pick up around the outside edge and knit the rest of the raglan sweater from the top down.  I figured that once I got the collar done, the rest would be fairly mindless stockinette — you guessed it: my mindless take-along knitting!!

 

Of course the color is not very true — it is a very soft pale green in Cascade 220.  The gauge is 5.5 sts and 8 rows per inch on the collar and 5 sts/7 rows per inch on the body.  You start by casting on at the center back and work the right half first.  Then you are supposed to pick up sts at the back and work the left half.  Sally and I could not figure out why she did not use a provisional cast on, so i did.  I think it looks pretty invisible in this close up:

Yes, the sts are a half stitch off where there is a transition from knit to purl, but I think that is less noticeable than picking up into a cast on edge. 

It is very organic, asymmetrical cabling — quite attractive I think.  Once this dries, I’ll pick up the sts around the collar and hope for the best as far as the rest of the sweater goes.  It could be one of those strange, impossible projects.  Only time will tell.

I spent most of my day at the Mall of America hobnobbing with crafters of the Red Heart Yarn variety.  The Craft Yarn Council of America hosted their own Knit Out event this weekend.  It is designed to get people interested in knitting, crocheting, and buying Red Heart and Lion Brand Yarn.  That said, it was fun and I got some freebies: bamboo knitting needles, a nice crochet hook, a knitting needle gauge and many free patterns — some of which were kind of cute.  Lily Chin was there and other known authors.  She was hawking a crocheting book, so I passed that right by.  I also ran into a few knitting peeps.  My older daughter saw it as an excellent excuse to do some shopping and she made the most of it 😉 !  

A new week starts tomorrow: Happy Monday! If you have it off for Pres’ Day, I am very jealous!