Moving Right Along

I told you I was already into the Yoke Vest, so here's a little more than a night's work on it:



and in case you were wondering who really does all this knitting, it's Nathan Jr:



He's an especially big help with blocking.

As promised -

Here's the photo of the finished Pink Fuzzy Sweater. It's cute but it's not going to win any awards.



Blocking does seem to have made the whole shoulder seam issue go away, for which I am grateful.

I've moved on to a new project - the vest thing from that Loop d Loop book. Another one on size 13s, so it should be done in a couple of days.

Pics and such as they are made possible.

Now Getting It Ready....

I finally finished what I mistakenly thought would be a quick and dirty fuzzy pink sweater for - are you ready? - Baby Maya Ackenhausen (due in January 2006).

Turns out the fuzzy yarn is hard for me to work with because I can't see the damned stitches to sew seams and such. I thought I would get around this by doing the back and fronts as one piece (cast on the stitches for the back and both fronts, then work even until you reach the arm separations).

This worked great and I was cool with the 3-needle shoulder bind-off. Unfortunately, that left me in a quandary: If I wanted to pick up the stitches for the sleeves, I would have to knit them in the round.

"Wait," you say - "don't you prefer working in the round?" Why yes I do, now that you mention it. What kills it for me on this sweater is that the sleeve is so small I would have to use the dreaded Double Pointed Needles, which can bite me.

OK then, separate sleeves, fitted in. Done it several times - no biggie.

So I did it and when it came time to fit the second one in the damned fuzzy thing is so impossible to tell this from that that I ended up doing it so that no matter how you turn the sweater, one sleeve is inside out and the other is right side out!

Now at this point any dedicated, SERIOUS knitter would grit some teeth, rip out one of the seams, and re-do it correctly. Not me! This stuff is Awful, and I just want to be done with this thing.

Besides, it's for 0-3 months - she'll wear it once and grow out of it. And I bet you any amount of money she will have No Idea about the sleeve situation.

Pics to come - it's blocking right now (in hopes that will at least help hide said sleeve situation).

Pooch is Screwed

Okay I couldn't resist taking a picture or two of my grand folly.

How badly did I screw the pooch on this one? You be the judge.





I SWEAR I counted correctly when placing the markers, but since I have the correct number of total stitches I can only conclude that I was high on the crack when I placed those markers. How else would I get this kind of horrible mess?

Let's remind ourselves that this would have been I think the fifth garment to employ this technology, and that all the others came out perfectly fine.

LSD in the water supply? Or me just not know how to count?

But look at the lovely raglan increases - and get a good look, because it's all getting ripped out tonight.

Don't get cocky -

Riding high on the giddy success of not one but TWO Ballet Tops, I had been toying with the idea of doubling the Loop d Loop pattern (and halving the gauge) when MJ turned me on to a link to essentially the same top but in a finer gauge. It's the Magknits Picovoli Top.

Hooray, right?

I did a gauge swatch with a #7 needle and got the correct 5.5 stitches to the inch (using this super-fine Suss cotton I got on sale for TWO BUCKS for 256 yards) and considered myself ready to make what promised to be a lovely fine-gauge top.

I've done two of the Ballet Tops and two no-pattern top-down raglans, so I was feeling pretty confident (looking back I'd have to say cocky).

Well, I've totally screwed up on this simple top-down raglan - I have to rip the whole thing out, which is a first for me. I have NEVER ripped anything all the way out.

I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong - I cast on the right number of stitches, placed the markers in the right spots (or did I?), increased properly - but after 9 increase rounds my stitch count is right but the distribution of stitches between the markers is WAY off.

Gleeps. No photo - you couldn't tell anyway at this point.

Crap!

Seedling Sweater Complete

All right I finally got off my ass and picked up the stitches to do the backbreaking Three Whole Rows for the collar on this sweater, and now it's done. I think I will block, but here's the photo now:





I totally pussed out on making the buttonholes - not that I don't know how to make them (because I do) - but just because I didn't feel like it. These buttons are small and can be jammed through the sweater any old where, and besides, this sweater is for 3-6 months. Do you really think anyone is going to bother with buttons on a baby that small? I didn't think so either.

This sweater was from the MINNIES book, and I have to say the pattern was good. When it said "Pick up 50 stitches for the collar" there really were only 50 stitches there, and the same thing happened with the sleeves. All in all a very simple project - took about 4 days of casual front-of-the-tv knitting. After all those "wing it" sweaters with no pattern it's been kind of fun to follow one.

The only bad thing I can say about this project is that it's boring (to make and to look at) if you use all one color yarn. At very least I would recommend a variegated yarn that will bring out the seed stitch but also create a more visually interesting garment. This one is a little dull.

Now all I have to do is figure if I should bring it as a gift to our dentist (baby girl born first week of August) or save it for Nameless Baby Ackenhausen (not showing up until January).

I'm so impatient - I gave the Creamsicle sweater away last night - I have no self control!

No Lost Causes!

I saved my top by crocheting an open lacy deal (my lame-ass concoction of half double and double crochet) with the nubby yarn across the top bound-off seam, decreasing like crazy at either end. I found that worked a little TOO well, making the thing REALLY pull in from side to side, so now that's the back.

For the front I picked up all the bound-off stitches and knit (no crochet) using the nubby yarn. First I did a row of the pattern stitch - K1, wrap to the end, then the next row K1, drop wrapped stitch. Then I did one row of plain all-knit, then I started the K1, YO, K2tog deal to make the open lacy stitch. I decreased at either end a few times but not so much as with the crochet side. When I'd done about 2 or 3 inches I bound off and sewed the lace into the straps (instead of picking up strap stitches like I did with the crochet side), and voila!

I will have to get someone else to take pictures of it so you can see the back, but I have already worn it two times. It's very see-through so I wear a nude colored bra with it. Really you think you're seeing a lot more than you're really seeing though.

Oh What Now....

Okay so what am I up to now?

Still waiting to hear the gender of Baby Ackenhausen - yes, that's right, ACKENHAUSEN - so I'm kind of putting off the knitting onslaught until we know.

Gender dictates so much more than just what colors to use; the whole design is up for grabs.

In the meantime I've whipped up this seed stitch cardigan from the MINNIES book. Don't tell Lisa but I got this yarn for a buck a skein at Yarnapalooza (aka Firberfest) and it's working out great.

All seed stitch, all one color - pretty boring, but I think it should be cute anyway.

Here it is blocked.



I've completed one whole sleeve too but didn't take a photo yet.