Something Knitty

*Edited to fix the time-travel, date error.

Buttercup

I finished my Knitting Olympics project on Friday February 26, 2010.  I worked on this sweater a little bit every day from the Opening Ceremonies until it was finished, except for one sick day.  That's a sweater in fourteen days for anyone keeping track.  I still can't quite believe I finished it.  I'm not happy with the bottom hem.  The picture demonstrates that hem's lack of cooperation in staying-flat.  I am going to pull out the hem, and about an inch of overall length, and knit a smooth hem instead.  The top fits great otherwise, and the pattern was clear and easy to follow.  

Buttercup by Heidi Kirrmaier.  Yarn: Spa by Caron, Ocean Spray colorway (3 skeins).

My 2012 Knitting Olympics project: a Buttercup Sweater made from Caron Spa yarn in Ocean SprayTempest

As a bonus, I also finished my Tempest Cardigan during the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on Sunday February 28.  I didn't work on this one for much of the Olympics.  When I was sure I'd be able to finish the Buttercup in time, I started working on this one a bit more.  The hem of the button band gave me trouble, and I pulled it out one-and-a-half times.  I had to use a size 8 needle and a very relaxed hand in the bind-off, but after steaming generously, that finally worked.  The bottom band was a piece of cake in comparison.  I had been operating on the notion that I needed ten buttons for this sweater, and managed to squeeze out ten matching buttons from my button stash.  When I looked back at the pattern (always a good idea), I noticed the number "14" sitting there plain as day.  Fourteen.  After briefly considering MIS-matched buttons, I dashed out after the USA-Canada hockey match (a match for the ages folks) and found fourteen lovely green buttons.  

I love this sweater.  It is soft, it fits well, it is so decadent.  Between the two yarns there is wool, silk, and alpaca in this one.  The pattern was well-written (you know, when I remembered to READ it) and easy-to-follow.  

Tempest Cardigan by Weaverknits, Knitty Spring 2008.  Main color is two strands of KnitPicks Gloss Lace (a wool/silk blend), Celery colorway.  Contrasting color is a strand of the Celery and a strand of AlpacaWare fingering weight in Pale Pink.  I used almost every bit of three-and-a-half hanks of celery and three (or was it four?) skeins of the pink alpaca.  A very gracious knitter in Ohio sent me her half skein so that I could finish the second sleeve and button-band.  I will think of this lovely Kelly in Ohio whenever I wear the sweater.  Knitters are awesome.  

A finished Tempest Cardigan in green and pink with green buttonsSonar X9 tried it on and really liked it.  The stripes suit his build.  I may make it for him, with a black and grey-heather blend.  Oh, and much shorter sleeves.  Much shorter.  

Books are coming.  I promise. 

A pile of several dozen banana peels atop a silver bowl, balancing on the edge of the kitchen sink.

Sonar X5 has an infamous obsession with American football.  Surprising for such a young kid, I know.  I wondered what he would do when the NFL season was over.  I wonder no more.  He has seamlessly transferred his football obsession to the Winter Olympics.  We've watched Luge and a lot of Skiing.  He's not crazy about Figure Skating, but he's fascinated by Curling.  I don't completely understand Curling, but we are figuring it out.  

While he watches sports he never knew existed, I am working on a Knitting Olympics project.  For background on the Knitting Olympics, please refer to the inimitable Harlot herself.  For my project I am knitting a Buttercup Top by Heidi Kirrmeier (Ravelry link requires login) using a bamboo blend yarn called Spa by Caron.  The colorway is called Ocean Spray.  The Sonars gave this yarn to me for Christmas.  

This is a raglan sweater, knit from the top down in the round.  On the fourth day of knitting, I separated the sleeves and body.  Today, the fifth day of knitting, I'm chugging away at the acres of stockinette stitch ahead of me.  

The shoulders and sleeve-caps of a hand-knit sweater, the day five knitting progress on my Buttercup top for the Knitting Olympics

I love the acres of stockinette.  Some knitters complain of boredom when knitting large swaths like this, but I find it very meditative.  I have to maintain a pace of 9-12 rounds of knitting per day to finish before the Olympic Closing Ceremonies.  I have been a little overzealous here at the beginning, knitting more than is perhaps healthy, and I am suffering with a sore left hand.  I plan to ice the hand and pace myself a little better.  I am confident that I will be able to finish though. 

In other knitting news, there is one, ready-to-knit-the-toe sock hanging around in the car for waiting times.  I may have mentioned this stress project in a previous post.  

I also received backup yarn from my Ravelry Hero and finished knitting all of the pieces of the Tempest Cardigan.  I tried wet-blocking the back piece, but was unhappy with the result.  The pink stitches were just not relaxing and lining up the way I had hoped.  I have used this pink alpaca yarn in a couple of projects and have always found it fiddly for both gauge and blocking.  So for the other pieces, I decided to try steam-blocking with my iron.  I spread out the pieces gently, set the iron on Maximum Steam and sort of blotted the pieces with the iron, spending extra time on the curling edges of each piece.  

The results here were stunning.  The stitches emerged in the most gorgeous rows, the delicate sheen of the green silk and wool popping out.  Three cheers for steam-blocking. 

Hours of seaming went off without a hitch.  The pattern suggested slipping a stitch at the beginning of every row to create a selvedge edge for ease of seaming, and I am so pleased with the result.  That selvedge, and the bold stripes made lining up the pieces so much simpler.  Here's a poorly lit (late night) shot of the sweater during the seaming of the second sleeve and underarm. 

A nearly complete hand-knit Tempest Cardigan in green and pink stripes, pictured during seaming.

After the seaming I picked up and knit the 210 stitches for the button band and collar.  That knitting went surprisingly quickly, but the bind-off befuddled me.  I started to bind-off loosely with the working needle, but after a few inches, it became clear that it was too tight.  I picked that out and moved up a couple of needle sizes and set off again.  This was Friday morning, the same day as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and my eyeballs were on the yarn for my Olympic sweater.  I obliviously bound-off the whole edge and held it up to find that it was obviously STILL TOO TIGHT.  Ugh.  I left it for a couple of days, then picked out that edge.  That's where it waits, while I work on Olympic knitting and contemplate bind-off options.  I'm thinking that I'll use Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off and see if I can carefully and continuously control the tension that way. Incidentally, that bind-off reminds me of kitchener stitch, which--contrary to its reputation among some knitters--I really love to do.  I'm hopeful that I will enjoy the process.  

In the meantime, I can choose buttons (I need ten small ones).  There is a bottom-facing still to be knit, but unless something very strange happens, that shouldn't be too terrible.  

The most amazing part of that sweater is that I have four of the tiniest little balls of green yarn left right now.  Two are the size of regular marbles, two the size of shooter marbles.  If I blend them with the pink for that bottom band, I should just about use them up.  Talk about a close call. 

My Recent Reads

First Light by Rebecca Stead

This is the first novel by this year's Newberry winner.  The main characters are Peter and Thea, who live in completely different worlds.  They manage to find each other and to reconnect those two worlds separated for generations by snow and ice.  A great middle-grade read.  

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales by Ying Chang Compestine

A collection of short spooky stories set in China, marked "Young Adult" by our library.  The stories are arranged as a banquet, with a menu for a table of contents, and food and death are important elements in each tale. Some of these were a bit grim, others were thoughtful and creepy.  After each story Compestine has a basic explanation of the cultural significance of some story elements as well as a relevant recipe.   This is a fun collection that might appeal to fans of Goosebumps and other creepy stories.  

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

We've read this book twice, both times out loud.  The inventive and lyrical language of the book lends itself to fun out-loud reading.  Haroun's father is a storyteller, but after a family upheaval dad has lost his gift of gab.  Haroun sets off on a wild fantasy to help restore the flow of his dad's stories as well as saving the source of that flow--the Ocean of the Sea of Stories--from the nefarious plot of a fiction-hating poisoner.  With fairytale elements, imaginative characters (genies, mechanical birds, Plentimaw fishes) emotional honesty, and outright silliness, this book would appeal to middle-grade readers, but is also easy to follow for younger kids.  The glossary includes an explanation of the names in the book, many of which are Hindustani in origin.  I cannot recommend this one enough.  

Sonar X9's List this year

As we progress through our year, I hope to have the Sonars comment on the books they've read.  Mostly I've missed them on these, but I did manage to squeeze out the most basic responses on a couple.  

Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires:  (Sonar X6) This one was very funny.  

Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reeves

Wolverine by Barry Lyga

Discover Mini Manga! by Christopher Hart: (from me) if the number of tiny manga scribbles around the house is any indication, this one is a worthwhile drawing book.  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (#1) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (#4) by Jeff Kinney:  (Sonar X6) These books are all very funny and silly.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd Ed. Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci - Second time through (from me) I'd like to read this one just to see what keeps bringing X9 back to this one.  But I think the repeat showing is enough to recommend it.  I suspect the content might be more suited to middle-grade and higher.  

Dawn (Warriors, the New Prophecy #3) by Erin Hunter - Abandoned: (from me) No straight answers on why he quit this one.  He started it very enthusiastically, devouring the first couple of chapters in one night.  Then, meh, he totally lost interest. 

Sonar X6

This one is turning into a great devourer of books as well, but not on the one per week rate.  He finished this one last night.  

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff  by Jason Lethcoe:  It was cool.  It's the second book in a series.  I would kind of like to read the first.  

What We're Reading Right Now

The Secret of Zoom by Lynne Jonell

Mossflower by Brian Jacques

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (2010 Newberry Winner)

I was trotting along handily on my Tempest Cardigan.  The pattern is well-written (thank you Weaverknits!), the yarn feels fantastic in my hands.  

A blurry image of the first three pieces of my Tempest sweater, pinned to a board all together, waiting for their sleeves

As I finished up the third piece, one of the fronts, I peeked into my knitting box at the yarn I had left.  Ack!  I weighed the yarn.  I weighed my pieces.  I looked at my pattern.  I took a deep breath.  Now, I planned this project very carefully.  I have never swatched and measured and mathed so much for a project in my life.  But apparently somewhere in that mathing I miscalculated.

There was not going to be enough of the KnitPicks Gloss Lace - Celery (the green).  No way. No how.  

No problem, I thought.  I'll go to KnitPicks and order another skein.  No dice.  Celery has been discontinued.  I even sent an email, wondering if there might be one or two skeins hanging out in the back of a drawer.  

Nope. 

So I poked around Ravelry.  For those of you who don't know Ravelry, it's a social networking site for fiber enthusiasts, (knitters, crocheters, spinners, etc).  If YOU are a fiber enthusiast, take care when you click that link.  It's entirely possible that Ravelry will swallow you up in its amazingness.  Yes, I know that 'amazingness' is not a word, but it's a good not-word for Ravelry.  It's not for nothing that someone once called Ravelry crack for fiber people. Don't say I didn't warn you.  

I searched through stashes (users can catalogue their yarn holdings online).  I found people with Celery.  I found people with my exact dye lot.  I could not have hoped for so much.  I sent a couple of tentative emails to people, offering to buy their yarn.  I posted an "ISO" (In search of) on the appropriate message boards.  

While I waited to see if I had a Ravelry Hero, I wondered if I could turn my three pieces into a vest (um, yes, but I didn't want to).  I wondered whether I could make the sleeves solid pink (I have plenty of pink, but again, didn't want to).  I set aside the pattern and cast on a pair of anxiety socks.  Those would be socks you knit when you're worried about something else.  Socks make great stress-knitting.  

And then, lo! A Ravelry Hero has come forward.  Not only is she sending me her remaining Celery, which should be just enough to finish my project, she's also sending it to me as a GIFT.  A gift!  I am so grateful for her sweet generosity.  

I hope to finish the first sleeve today or tomorrow, and start the second sleeve this weekend.  In the meantime I will watch my mailbox for my rescue yarn and thank my stars for cool knitters in Ohio.  

If you'd like to nose through my stash or see the few projects I've posted, you can find me as "Eglentyne" over on Ravelry.