I learned a valuable lesson these past couple of days:
1- if you want comments on your blog, offer prizes
2- if you need an ego boost, bribery really does work!
Thanks to everyone who commented! It was really fun to read your comments and very gratifying. I feel quite inspired!
Sally and Nora will be figuring out the official winners — all of our readers are winners, of course — and making the announcement later. Merci!!
Yes, it has been four years already! Hard to believe! We have enjoyed sharing our knitting lives with you…and a small bit of our personal lives as well.
Here is an excerpt from our very first post:
Sally and I share many interests, but knitting is our passion. We decided to share a blog because, as I said to her, it’s like having a garage sale — I don’t have enough to do one of my own.
If you check in now and then, you will find that Sally and I knit about 75% of the same projects. Fortunately for Sally, she has to knit a lot less than me because she is 5’5″ and I am 5’11”. It is unfair, but cannot be helped.
Still true and still unfair!!
In honor of this very special occasion, we are going to have a contest…the prizes are YARN (surprise!). There are three fabulous prizes and all you need to do is leave a comment. Nora, Sally’s lovely daughter, is visiting her at the moment and will draw the winning names as an impartial observer.
How to Win:
1- leave a comment by Tuesday, March 23rd, 10 pm EST
2- have name randomly drawn by Nora
3- be contacted via email for mailing information
It’s as simple as that!
Fabulous Prizes:
Six skeins of Dancing Leaf Farm’s Bling Bling. Each skein weighs approximately 80 grams and contains 100 yards. (No fiber content listed on skein.)
Six skeins of Noro’s Cash Irona in color number 42. Fiber is 40% silk, 30% lambswool, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon. 40 grams and 91 meters per skein.
Nine skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery’s Mountain Mohair in Elderberry. 70% wool and 30% mohair. Each skein weighs two ounces and contains 140 yards.
Let the contest begin!!
I am still a) waiting for my camera and, b) slaving away on my boring Tea Leaves Cardigan…but, of course anticipating my next project. I am thinking about a design from this book:
The pattern that called my name from the beginning is The Fan:
Sally and I both love this design. Its size is deceiving: it takes a LOT of yarn!! It involves acres of garter stitch. But, it is beautiful. In Ravelry, all of the finished projects are gorgeous. The yarn called for is Isager’s own line of very expensive and slightly hard to come by yarns. We are looking at Kidlin from Louet:
Kidlin by Louet, Color Woodland
The gauge is dead on and it mimics the original, where two very lightweight yarns are held together. I have loved this color (Woodland, color 41) — for years and finally pulled the trigger and bought it (at The Yarnery). I am inspired to start it but I think I must finish Tea Leaves first, or never will. I hope my inspiration does not wane before then! That has been known to happen on far too many occasions!
Last evening I was reunited with my knitting peeps at our weekly Thursdays at Four knitting group, which I had missed the last two times. Great to see the gang!! They inspire and re-energize me!
The Olympics are wrapping up today and I feel like I have experienced them first hand. My hubby is a cross country skier and participated in the Birkebeiner Ski Race yesterday, and he rocked it…for an old man, that is!
The Birkie is not about winning, but about doing your best. John came in ~one minute over his best time ever (and this was his 27th Birkie!). John will be 60 next year. So, he beat all but one of his times since he started in his thirties. Wow.
OK, enough about him 😉 . I had decided NOT to participate in the Ravelympics this year, for reasons already described. Well, I went to knitting on Thursday and two, count them TWO, of my knitting peeps had knitted up the Olympic Reindeer Hat.
The hat was patterned after the ones worn by the US Olympians when they entered the Opening Ceremonies. I had originally started it right after the Olympics started and decided it was the most annoying pattern on earth and dumped it straight away. But after seeing the cute hats at knitting group, I thought, “Hmmm. Could I get this done by Saturday morning so John could wear it after the Birkie?” All I had finished so far was the lining of the foldover band. I got home at 8 pm, had to pack, etc., etc., but stayed up knitting the ^&&***^%% thing instead. I worked on it in the car all the way up to Hayward, WI, and did indeed get it done. He wore it to pick up his bib on Friday night.
Olympic Reindeer Hat, Cascade 220, US Size 6 Needles
So, here are the details:
I worked the hat using intarsia-in-the-round (suggested by Jimmy in knitting group). Annoying. Annoying Squared. No. Make that ‘Annoying Raised to the Tenth Power.’ After I knitted the hat, I went back and used duplicate stitch for the antlers…remember, time was a huge factor!…though I did knit the legs intarsia style as I went along.
John loved the hat and asked if I was going to put a flag decal on it. I said sure, I can put it right…uh oh. Why isn’t the knitted band centered to the reindeer motif????? Yep. Rookie mistake! I noticed that the band was 4 sts off. If I added a decal, it would be even more noticeable. It completely bugged me.
Had to cut it up:
The top photo does indeed show that it is now centered…after cutting, reknitting some rows, and grafting. This project was annoying in so many ways! But it is done, and I consider it at least worthy of a spot on the Olympic roster, if not the podium 😉 .
In general, my projects of late have been pretty small scale. I have not made a sweater since my Lacy Cardigan last summer. I used to be all about the sweater, and now I can’t get past mini-projects. Surly has been cranking out FOs like hotcakes, so I feel the need to play catch up!
Here is the latest of my mini-projects: the Damson Shawlette by Ysolda Teague. It is made with one skein of sock yarn (Malabrigo Sock is called for in the pattern). Surly generously shared the remains of the yarn she used for her Swallowtail. It is beautiful yarn — a rich mix of all the best of the fall colors. BUT, the skein starts off with slightly less yardage than Malabrigo Sock, and Sally had to dip into the skein she sent me, so I worried a bit about yardage. I shortened my Damson 6 rows and then did a crocheted chain bind off instead of the multi-row bind off shown in the pattern in hopes of having enough yarn. I also added openwork as discovered in this Ravelry project by Linda Butkus. I don’t know if this variation requires more or less yarn, but I DO know that I ended up with only one gram of yarn when I was done. One. Uno.
I like it. It’s pretty. I’m not sure when I’ll wear it, but it is a beautiful way to use up one skein of gorgeous sock yarn without having to knit socks 😉 !
PS: Barb asked, “Looked on Ravelry but no sign of how Linda did the insert, just lovely pics–did you contact her for instructions or figure it out yourself?”
I figured it out myself by looking at Linda’s version and then revising the chart.
…and into an oasis! I have been off the grid for over a week now, experiencing pervasive and ongoing computer issues. I am now back on line and LOVING IT! New high speed internet (that finally works as promised), new computer with 4 times the memory of the old one, and new printer (because the old was not compatible with Windows 7). I feel free as a bird, light as a feather, etc. etc. It is great to have joined the 21st century at long last!
It’s true. I have given up. Thrown it in. Divested myself. Moved on. Cut the thing loose.
Of what do I speak? The EZ Green Sweater! But why? One word: fit (or, more accurately, the lack thereof). I got to the neck and tried it on and it was abysmal. So, I will put it aside rather permanently I’m afraid.
The rating scale:
Pattern: high — scored high for style and historical significance
Motivation: high — I really wanted to make this sweater!!!
Yarn: low — the yarn quality was just not there for me
Fit: low — too narrow, too wide, too weird, too everything but right!
Sadness: low — I do not feel bad about this at all. It was a small moment in time that is over.
Edited to add:
Please do NOT be discouraged! If you have started this project or plan to…go ahead! The sweater did not fit ME, and believe me, that is nothing rare in my world! Many others are having success, so please do not write off the whole affair based on my experience!!
In memoriam
There is a chance I will try it again at a later date with different yarn. I’ll keep the original start (“What NOT to do!”) just in case.
So now what am I up to? It will be revealed in a few weeks when it is finished and ready to unveil!
I don’t know which is worse — the fact that I thought this magnet was so perfect, or that I forgot I bought it!!
When this article appeared in Twist Collective, I was thunderstruck. I knew I had to make this wonderful sweater: a tribute to one of the greatest knitting legends of all time, Elizabeth Zimmermann. So, I was thrilled to learn that the pattern was being deconstructed by Sunday Holm, AND that there was a stash of the original yarn still left in the Briggs and Little vault. The sweater could be recreated as originally intended. My own little piece of history!
Wrong, Optimistic One! The original stash sold out faster than you can say computer meltdown!
The original yarn sold out within a couple of hours, leaving some of us desperately sad 
. But then, because of the high demand, B&L decided to dye another batch. Yay! 
And happiness ensued.
So, many of us received a shipment of the new batch, which actually seems better to me than knitting with 60-year old yarn.
I started the sweater last week and it is kind of going slower than I anticipated, considering that it is straight stockinette. The yarn itself is very thin (430 yds/113 gms!) though the pattern gauge is 5 sts to the inch. I am knitting mine at ~5.5 sts/inch.
The construction of the sweater is really the interesting thing about it: mitered front facings, deep armhole with gusset, squarish neckline, mitered sleeves. The folded facings and mitered corners are a little unusual and gave some knitters pause. I had to draw it out to figure it out:
In the original pattern, Sunday accidentally included the width of the facings in her overall finished measurements, so they are shown as 2 inches bigger than they really are. There is errata available that describes this and other minor corrections.
The sleeves are described as dolmans, but I think a more accurate description is a modified drop shoulder with an underarm gusset. The appearance is that of a dolman, but it really isn’t. EZ was brilliant. As you knit the sweater, you “cut out” a huge chunk at the armholes, but then add it back in (gray section in illustration below):
Once the gray area is added back in, the armhole is fairly standard, but the look is dramatic. The drama continues with the mitered sleeves and flared gauntlet at the wrist.
The sweater is very cropped. I do not wear cropped. I am too fat tall to wear cropped well. I am adding about 6.5 – 7 inches to the overall length and doing some gentle waist shaping.
Here is a picture of my EZ in progress, though I am farther along than this:
I am enjoying this immensely!!
Back a few weeks ago, I shared a free hat pattern: the One Day Hat. I knit one up for my DH and he LOVES it. I mean he really loves it! It fits his huge head perfectly and is very soft and rich looking:
More accurate color here:
The yarn is Geologee from Knit One Crochet Two Yarns (120 yards per 50 gms). Because the yarn is smaller than the weight of the original pattern, I used the Size XL numbers, a US 7 needle and it ended up perfect. In fact, the XL size was actually included for this purpose.
Now I am going to go knit on my EZ Green Sweater!!
PS: Jody writes, “I have several skeins of Briggs and Little that I picked up in New Brunswick 5 years ago and I can’t imagine ever using it. It’s just too scratchy.”
In response — the yarn IS scratchy, but softens when washed. I happen to love wooly wool. It wears like iron, hence the fact that the original sweater got so many years of active use. I don’t know that I would have chosen this yarn if it was on a shelf, but I am really happy to be able to use it to recreate this particular sweater.
Mme Defarge suffered a few production delays in her knitting workshop this holiday season, but in the end things worked out reasonably well considering everything else that was going on.
1. Daughter’s sweater. Finished. On time!
2. Husband’s sweater. Finished. On the 26th!
3. Son’s blanket. Not finished. Oops, alors.
Just as Dickens liked to do, I’ll post these finished gifts as a serial. In our first installment, here are a few quick shots of my daughter in her Vivian.
As a bonus, I knit her a Calorimetry headband while sitting in the hospital with my son.
As for the Vivian cardigan, she says she likes it but the proof will be whether she wears it. Don’t you love a cliffhanger?
Next installment: Open Cable Cardigan.
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