Wow — what a gift. Everyone is off doing their thing and I am alone, knitting and watching movies. It does not get any better than this! I don’t hate my family — no, really, I don’t! I just crave my alone time, and it is a rare and precious thing. Merci!!
February 23, 2007
From Susan — Sorry, Kim
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.Â
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.
February 20, 2007
From Susan — Now I Feel Totally Guilty
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.Â
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.Â
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.
From Sally — Already Behind
Well, I’m already behind in our knitalong since I a) haven’t started and b) find the mere task of printing out the 8000 pages of directions and figuring out which ones to follow exhausting. I shall do so, though, before she gets any farther ahead.
I still must finish sewing the pearls onto the hem of the Berry Cluster Pullover. I have a few ends to weave in as well. Why does that last little bit of finishing seem so boring (and therefore unappealing)? And then there is the Feather & Fan shawl. Sixteen rows. Ack. I feel like Commander Scott heading back from the South Pole and realizing he may not make it.
The good news: I just spent the weekend with two friends. It was Red Cashmere Glovelets girl’s 50th birthday and her husband flew me and another friend, Jody, down to surprise her. Jody has wanted to learn to knit and so this weekend I taught her. She’s a natural! She’s well on her way to knitting her first scarf using a nice variegated yarn. She has mastered knitting and purling. She can already tell when she should knit and purl if she is doing stockinette stitch, can count her rows of garter, and knows almost immediately when she has made a mistake. Her gauge is amazingly even for a newbie and she has even thrown in a few rows of (deliberate) drop stitches here and there. Getting stuck in the airport for five hours yesterday helped her have more time to practice.
She’s already chomping at the bit to buy more yarn and needles.
February 19, 2007
From Susan — New Mini-Knitalong
Hello, everyone. The weekend is winding down and so am I.Â
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.”Â
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!Â
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!!
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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.Â
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 😉 ! Â
A new week starts tomorrow: Happy Monday! If you have it off for Pres’ Day, I am very jealous!
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February 17, 2007
From Susan — Thanks for the Comments…
…on my Oregon Sleeve excitement. Some of you may have wondered why I needed to figure any of this out — doesn’t the pattern lay it all out for you? It should and Alice does. She will instruct you to start the armhole steek on Round #x and pick up the sleeve with a certain color to do the patterning.
The problem is if you need to adjust the pattern OR if you are even fussier than AS herself and have a particular way you want it to lay out. I needed to add 3.5″ to the sleeve length (which I hope is enough, but will also rely on blocking). Also, AS did not line up the sleeve stripes. If you don’t start the sleeve at the same round as the body ended, the stripes will not line up. This may not matter to everyone, but I thought, if I can do it the “right” way, why not?Â
I did not get anything done last night — I went to bed before 10 pm and got up after 8 am. I was so frickin’ tired! Today I may do a bit more or start something new. Sometimes the sheer effort of starting a new project will keep me plugging away at the old, boring and familiar.
February 16, 2007
From Susan — Stripes
This is the part of knitting that I find exciting when it works (“What a gripping life you must lead.”) and extremely frustrating when it doesn’t. All the planets need to align when knitting fair isle stripes:
1) body length = 25-1/2 inches (determines where the armhole steek starts because the armhole depth must be reasonable)
2) sleeve length = 21-1/2 inches (AS has unnaturally short arms and mine are unnaturally long)
3) the start of the sleeve pattern is 100% determined by the armhole placement (last body round before armhole opening = first round of sleeve)
4) the END of the sleeve MUST match the pattern at the bottom of the sweater = the large leaf border plus ribbing.
In other words, the sleeve had to be one exact length AND start on one particular row AND end on one particular row — no substitutions and FEW opportunities for fudging. And I wanted the sleeve to start at a good spot (the bold red/navy stripe). About the only fudging I could do would be on the ribbing. With a pattern repeat of 48 rounds, there is very little wiggle room — any change would add or subtract ~4″ to the sleeve length (though I could maybe stop in the middle of a main pattern repeat — still 2″).
Anyway, all the planets DID align — perfectly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, the sleeve matches up perfectly. It is the exact length I wanted (21.5″). All the stripes match, even though there is an additional repeat in the sleeve to attain length.Â
I did adjust the placement of my steek to guarantee that the planets would align. Thank goodness the shoulder placement did not matter or that could have screwed up the whole thing.Â
This background planning is the kind of thing that people don’t “see” when they look at your knitting. They don’t realize how much time is spent poring over row gauge and stripe placement and sleeve planning. But it sure bugs ME when I don’t get it right.
Thanks for letting me share the back story. Non-knitters (and probably 99% of you!) glaze over when I talk about this stuff!! 😉
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February 15, 2007
From Sally — You Are All Too Kind
I appreciate your supportive posts on the fix to my shawl, but don’t forget an important fact. The simplest solution would have been to pay attention in the first place so that I didn’t make the mistake.
From Sally — A Stitch in Time Saves Eight (Not Nine)
First, I’d like to say thank you for the birthday wishes and for all of the advice and encouragement on the Pearl Crisis. I went ahead with the large pearls I have. Having no invisible thread, which was a good suggestion, I chose not to care. I’ll post some pictures of the finished product eventually.
Today, however, I’ll tell you a story about the hazards of not paying attention. No, it’s not the starting-my-hair-on-fire story – it’s something far more horrible: making a really big mistake in your lace knitting a number of rows back when you have 1300+ stitches per row. Yeah. That.
There I was, knitting happily along on my Feather and Fan shawl. I was doing the pattern row, where you place yarnovers and decreases to get the feather and fan shaping. I did a series of 8 k2togs, and then I was supposed to do 8 yarnovers separated from each other by a single knit stitch. There was a problem, though: I didn’t have 8 stitches left in my pattern repeat. I only had three or four. Looking at my knitting I realized that four rows earlier — the last time I was supposed to do a pattern row — I had forgotten to do the yarnovers on one half of this particular repeat. I’m not sure how I did something so stunningly careless, but I did.
Now, if I had forgotten or dropped one yarnover, it would be no big deal. I would simply use a crochet hook to create a yarnover between the appropriate two stitches by stretching the running thread between them and then “laddering” my way up to the current row using the running thread on the intervening rows. That after-the-fact yarnover would be a bit smaller than the rest of them because it would be created using less yarn than truly necessary. Moreover, the stitches on either side might get pulled a bit tight. It’s not a perfect solution but after blocking, it would be pretty imperceptible. That solution would certainly be far preferable to ripping back.
That trick wasn’t going to work to replace 8 missing yarnovers. There simply would not be enough yarn to do it in such a concentrated place. Let me just remind you that I have 1300+ stitches per row right now; it takes me almost an hour to knit one row. So ripping back was not an option, either.
So here’s what I did. I undid the k2togs that overlapped where my yarnovers were supposed to have been. Then I ripped back the 8 stitches that were supposed to have yarnovers in between them. (Four rows total.) That left me with four long strands of yarn. I broke each of them in half. For each row, I wrapped new yarn around my needle 8 times to roughly calculate how much yarn I needed for each new stitch I was going to create and then added a bit extra. I then felt spliced that new length of yarn into the middle of what was already there. (Is this making sense?) I then had enough yarn to add in the yarnovers on the first row and then ladder up the stitches created by them on the subsequent rows.
It was a pain in my birthday ass, but a lot easier and faster than reknitting four rows.
From Susan — Happy Birthday, Surly!!
My blogging partner, best friend, knitting buddy and favorite sister has a birthday today! It’s her mumble-mumble-th birthday!
Just don’t let her near the (sh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h) candles!
PS — Sally had an “incident” with birthday candles earlier this week.
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