NaKniSweMo

Did you know I am doing NaKniSweMo? You might have seen the button on the right side of the page, but unless you are on Ravelry, you haven't seen my project yet! Well here it is:


Great, so what is it? For my sweater challenge, I have decided to knit my first Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern, the Classic 'Brooks' Sweater. And because I recently got married, this sweater is for my new husband--his first handknit sweater. I'm using Knitpicks Swish, which is a superwash Merino (the DH has to prove that he's not going to throw the sweater in the washer before he gets non-superwash). The yarn is fabulous to work with and I'm really liking how the sweater is shaping up! I hope the DH likes it too!

Besides the sweater, I have a few smaller projects that I am working on, mainly because I don't have the attention span to work on a sweater full-time. One side project is a pair of Jaywalkers, which have been traveling everywhere with me (including the volleyball game pictured below). I would really like to get them done, so I can move onto some holiday knitting. I'm on the foot of the second sock, so there is not much more to do!


I also knit up a fun little whimsy last week--a pear cozy. There is an apple cozy pattern floating around the internets and, as I only had pears, I adapted it to fit. The cozy has already made several appearances and gotten a few laughs and smiles. I think that it is super cute (and quick useful to protect my pears from bruising)!


I'm really looking forward to some time off at Thanksgiving, which will certainly be used for knitting. With the extra time, I will hopefully be able to finish this sweater in time!

The Tale of Two Needles

What an adventure! Between all of the sight-seeing, eating, and sleeping I did on my honeymoon, I had surprisingly little time to knit my Jaywalkers. Of course, for most of the trip, I did not have anything to knit with! Let's just say that I'm lucky to have returned from Europe with half of a sock.

I was doing really well at the beginning; I completed most of the cuff during the bus ride to Chicago O'Hare and even managed to start the heel before falling asleep on our overnight plane to London. But then, Heathrow happened. Apparently, airport security in Europe is more strict, especially about knitting needles. And Knitpicks Options DPNs don't exactly look harmless. So there went TWO sets of Options and all my stitches were left to wander free in my bag.

Progress on the specimen before leaving O'Hare

Luckily, I spotted 2 yarn shops in Siena, and the proprietress of one (who was definitely smoking inside her shop) spoke enough English to sell me size 2.5mm needles. Of course, they were straight needles. Great. Still, I was able to pick up all of my stitches and save my knitting. I even managed to turn the heal on our train ride from Siena.

The specimen on one straight needle

But trying to work in the round on straights, after turning the heel, proved to be my downfall. I think that I finished 3 rounds, and I will be lucky if I haven't connected the two sides. Sigh. And when my straights bend and poked a hole in my travel bag, I called it quits. So I packed the knitting in my checked luggage, and am now on the hunt for some new DPNs now that I am stateside again.

But then again, I have a few other things that I can work (that I actually have needles for) now that I am home.

We Interupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blog

The Puffy has been put on hold. The Anemois must wait. The Snickets are taking a Rip van Winkle. It is time for... vacation knitting!

Sunday is the big day, the day I get married. We leave for Italy on Tuesday evening for a quiet week with just the three of us: me, my new hubbie, and some soon-to-be Jaywalkers. I cannot wait for the sights, the smells, and the socks. Squee, definite squee.

I will see you all when I get back in early October!

The Puffy Makes Progress

The Puff-Sleeved Cardigan is proceeding much more smoothly since the last post. I ripped out 6" to above the sleeve divide and started reknitting in 2 sizes down (was the 40", now the 36"). With my gauge, the 36" is the perfect size for the snug fit I want. At the time of this post, I only have 6 more rows left to knit for the body and then I can move onto the sleeves and button band. Gosh, do I love knitting on road trips!

Because of the change in pattern size and the size of my torso, I have also made some mods to the pattern. I added one more set of decreases during the waist shaping to eliminate the 8 extra stitches between the 40" and 36" sizes. After the waist shaping, I added a few more rows of stockinette to make sure that the ridge motif hits my natural waist. I should have added another 2 rows of stockinette after the ridges, because the YO's in the peplum pattern look odd right after the ridges. I don't feel like ripping out 20 more rows, so I think I can live with this.

Things are going well, and I am really hoping to finish knitting and seaming this sweater before the wedding!

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!