Road Trip!

I'm going on a road trip this weekend to Evansville, Indiana, which is a tiny 8 hour drive from Madison, Wisconsin. Per usual, I plan on packing a simple project that I can work on in the car, in this case the Puffy Cardigan. However, I need to make a quick stop on the way to Evansville; I need to visit the frog pond.

I decided to rip out the sweater to above the sleeve division and reknit two sizes smaller. Part of my miscalculation can be blamed on a small deviation in gauge (so maybe swatching in the car is not the best idea), while the other half is due to picking the 40" bust over the 38" bust. I'm really a 39", but I think I should have rounded down for a more fitted garment. We'll see how knitting the 36" size goes with my current gauge.


And of course, while I was ignoring my Puffy this week, I cast on those beautiful Anemoi Mittens. I am using Knit Picks Palette in two shades of blue on size 2 DPNs, which should give me the large size. Unfortunately, the large is turning out to be a bit too big, and I think that my first mitten will also be making the road trip to the frog pond. What I really need is size 1.5 DPNs, but I am going to reknit with the size 1's that are in my stash.

This is me, meditating on patience and the fine art of accurately swatching.

Unpacking, Unknitting

I'm going to come right out and say it: there has been very little knitting at my house this week and there will be very little knitting discussed in the following post. But I still have a few things up my knitted sleeves to make all of you out there jealous.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I moved in with the fiance this week and am now living in a 4 room apartment on the first floor of a Victorian house built in 1895. It is such a beautiful space with tall ceilings and wood floors; I think I'd never want to leave! The apartment itself consists of the obvious rooms: the kitchen, the bedroom + bath, the living room. And one more room which has yet to be given an official name. I like to call it 'The Craft Room':


That's right! My soon-to-be DH has given me (part of) a room just for my crafting! The left-most desk will be for the computer, with the right side of the room for my overflowing pile of supplies. I have a bunch of boxes and bags piled up in the space right now and I can't wait to get unpacked and settled in! I promise there will more pictures when all of the boxes find a home.


I should sneak some actual knitting news in at the end here and tell you about the progress of my cardigan. I finished the waist-shaping this evening and tried it on for the first time since dividing the sleeves to find that it is too big! I was trying to play it safe by going up a size, but now I know I will not be happy until I frog 3" and start knitting that smaller size from the sleeve divide. I've really liked this project so far and I want to be sure that I will like wearing it, too. I'm just glad I tried it on before it was mostly finished!

4 Rows = 1 Movie

A typical conversation from my house this week:

Fiance: Are you ready to go out to dinner?
Me: Sure, let me just finish knitting this row.

20 minutes later

Fiance: What is taking so long, aren't you done yet?
Me: Almost, I only have 150 stitches left to go. Give me another 10 minutes, okay?
Fiance: 10 minutes?! You promised we'd go when you finished your row.
Me: I know! I'm not done yet.

Needless to say, I'm back at the Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan. It was a little tedious for while when I could do about 4 rows in the time it took me to watch a movie. But then I divided the sleeves, and it has been going much more quickly.

In the meantime, it has been traveling with me everywhere (the movies, ultimate frisbee games, road trips). While this is conducive to adding inches to the project, it leads to things like the Starbucks Coffee Incident, which, besides making me want to cry, turned out to be relatively fixable. I think.


Of course, since I'm working full-speed on the cardigan again, I should mention that the Endpapers are finished! I can't wait for the Fall to wear them, though I know that cold weather will come soon enough to Wisconsin. I could not be happier with how these turned out; they are one of my favorite projects to-date.


Pictures will go up soon. I'm in the middle of moving to a new apartment right now, so I have a few other things to worry about before I get to the blog pics. Thanks for your patience!

An Endpaper Mitt

I am the Michael Jackson of knitting. I finished my first Endpaper Mitt last weekend and have been wearing it around in the anticipation of finishing the other. Why, in the height of summer, do I need to be wearing mitts? Just one mitt? Yet it gives me a zealous glee to sit here and type a la MJ. Except that my glove is pink.


Needless to say, the mitts are coming along fabulously. I am surprised at how little yarn they require; I will have enough leftover to make a whole extra pair. Or maybe those Anemoi Mittens? [Insert more zealous glee here]

One thing that is definitely not provoking glee is the packing of the stash. I move in with the fiance in 10 days, and I can't bear to box up my yarn. This whole moving this is going to put a serious damper on my knitting time. But, on the other hand, the extra cuddle time will surely make up for it. Where did I put that box, again?

Ravelry Prompts Two New Challenges

I cataloged a large number of my previous projects on Ravelry over the last few weeks and, when I looked at everything next to each other, I realized how many small and (relatively) simple projects I have made. So I started taking advantage of Ravelry's amazing searches to see what others are knitting. And boy am I amazed! To see these beautiful FOs reminds me of all of the knitting techniques I have yet to learn. For example, in the five years that I have been knitting, I have never done fair isle or made a sweater that I really like to wear.

And it's time to change that.


First, I'm going to try to tackle the sweater challenge with the Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan from Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits. I happened to already have the exact yarn called for in the pattern (Knit Picks Merino Style), so I cast on after finishing the Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug. I am now really close to dividing for the sleeves, and so far I like how things are going. The yarn is fabulous to knit with, and I really love the green color. The only thing I am worried about is how the finished sleeves will look; will they be puffy enough? The model in the book looks great, but some FO pictures have been a little 'flat'. We'll see...



To tackle the color work challenge, I am making the Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang. I found this pattern via Ravelry after putting Eunny's Anemoi Mittens on my to-knit list. The Endpapers seemed like an easier place to start my fair isle, though I plan on getting to those mittens soon. I'm currently on my third pattern repeat, and I already love these! Why has it taken me so long to get around to fair isle? Once I taught my left hand to knit, it has been a breeze. The yarn for this project, Knit Picks Pallette, is great for fair isle, though nothing particularly interesting on its own. As a bonus, this project is also from stash, which I guess means I should have a third challenge: knit more from stash.


I can't wait to see how these mitts come out!

Please Excuse Me While I Ravelry

I was 'Squee!'-ing with delight this weekend at my invitation to join the new knitting site, Ravelry. After being on the waiting list for some time, and hearing all of the rave reviews from Brenda Dayne of Cast-On, I was like a kid at Christmas as I poured through Ravelry's pages. As of Sunday night, I have cataloged 8 projects, added 3 books, and have found a few new designs to add to my queue. I can see myself spending many future hours cataloging yarn, needles, and past projects, because I think that this site is going to be stellar! Squee!

Oh, and I managed to harangue the fiance to take some pictures of my finished shrug:



Squee! again.

My First Baby Surprise

The baby surprise jacket has been finished and passed on to the mom-to-be. Mom has already 'tried it on' the baby and it turned out to be a little big. Next time I should probably swatch, but I figure gauge doesn't matter as the kid will always grow into it!


The lack of swatching also led me to run out of yellow cotton yarn halfway through. So the result wasn't exactly what I planned, but sometimes you need to let the knitting dictate and enjoy the beautiful results! Overall, I am very happy with the jacket and hopefully it will get worn and loved.

Now that the BSJ is done, I can finish up the shrug and post pictures here soon!