Where is My Brain?

As impossible as it seems to be, I seem to have made yet another mistake in the armhole decreases for my Shapely Tank. I was so fixated, I'm guessing, last night on not making the same mistake that I made a new one. So now I will spend my night ripping back to where I ripped back to last night. Or maybe I'll work on something else for a while since Shapely and I seem to be having communication issues. I think part of the problem is that the shaping is so simple I don't give it much attention and do other things while I'm knitting like watch tv and read blogs. What I should be doing is watching my knitting and counting stitches to make sure I'm not screwing up.

50°

Like some sort of atmospheric practical joke, the temperature dropped down 30° since yesterday and it's raining. Yesterday feels like some strange distant dream.

I was making good progress on the Shapely Tank when I just realized I had misread the pattern. There are so many sizes on there. I did the armhole shaping for the one size smaller than mine. I need to rip out eight rows. A loss of an hour of knitting vs. a week of knitting like last time. I can live with it.

Check out Chris's Shapely Tank progress to see one that moving along without any major mishaps.

I got a package from Ram Wools today. It's my Mission Falls wool that I ordered for Rogue. I don't know when I'll start working on it. It's a very complex pattern (for me) and you all can see how much trouble I seem to be having lately following even a very simple pattern. It's a beautiful color--Thyme.


The Goods


The Close-up

80°

Holy cow was it hot today! I heard it was going to be "nice" today. I was not expecting 80+°, clear, sunny and gorgeous! I took my younger son to the beach with some preschool friends. We were completely unprepared, wearing jeans and long sleeves. It was roasting. I got a slight burn. My son had a wonderful time and asked to go again before we got back in the car (by which point he was wearing only Blue's Clues underpants...ah to be 3 again).

I met the Purlygirls tonight and we had 25 (that's twenty-five) knitters tonight. It was wonderful. I worked on my can-knit-without-looking-or-thinking GE Cardi. I'm on one of the front sides now. There were scarves, socks, felted bags, Rowan sweaters, Manos, Baby Cashmerino and ribbon yarn as far as the eye could see.

Now that I'm back home I'm working on my Shapely Tank. I've just started the bust short rows. This means I've almost caught up to where I was before I had to frog the whole flippin' thing. Here's a progress picture.


Here's the cardigan front too.


Word to the wise: Don't order yarn after midnight. I ordered some lovely Noro Lily around 1 am from Patternworks. It arrived today. I ordered less than half of what I needed and the yarn is now gone since it was a sale item. What was I thinking? My only thought was that I saw grams in the pattern suggested yarn and thought it said yards? Ah, who the hell knows. Now I have to come up with a new project for approximately 300 yards of lovely burgundy-red silk/cotton yarn. Any ideas?


The horse is also puzzled.

How the horses ended up living on my desk. They were mine when I was little and I've been letting my boys play with them. My oldest decided he didn't want to play with them anymore and kept handing them to me while I was online. I put them down and they've been here ever since. At least they don't shed or yak on the floor like some of the animals I share my office with

There Shouldn't Be News

I should have been home cooking and cleaning all day to get ready for a house-warming party we're having tomorrow. Instead I went out with some s and went yarn shopping. We went to The Yarn Gallery in West Seattle. It was my first visit. They had a very interesting selection. They offer a lot of yarns that the other Seattle stores don't carry. They have some Plassard, Noro yarns I've never seen or heard of, loads of Colinette and tons of other great stuff. Unfortunately the place is terribly organized. In fact, it's not organized at all. There's no rhyme or reason so the only way to find something is to ask someone to show you where it is. And they kept telling me they didn't have the yarns I was looking for. Then twice I found them while looking for other things. I didn't get anything since I have yarn on the way to me from Ram Wools, Patternworks (two orders!) and an eBay seller.

After shopping we stopped for lunch then headed to Acorn Street for more yarn shopping! I picked up three balls of plain cotton yarn from the clearance shelf for afghan squares. They were only $.99 each.

I also thumbed through the most recent Knit 'N Style magazine. Can just ask, "What the hell are they thinking?"

This is "Artful Off Shoulder Elegance." What? And the design from the cover?
What the hell are they thinking?

I was looking at the Grammar Avengers' ring and found Knitting Goddess #9 with a link to this button maker. As Christina said, now I can have buttons just like every other blog out there. What the heck. It was fun.



Oh, go check out the sale at Patternworks. Hello, Koigu at 45% off! Manos at 40% off!

More Tank Clarifications

Lisa, a member of the Shapely Tank Knitalong, posted a question in the comments yesterday. She also fired off an email to Joan M-M, the very gracious designer. Once again, Joan came through like a bolt with assistance and clarifications.

Has anyone doing the shapley tank come to the part just after you bind off 4 rows for the armholes? I feel like a moron, but I just do not get the directions "bind off one stitch every other row on both sides"

Every other row? I am confused! If anyone has done this and can explain it to me I would be so grateful!! Just email me, thanks Lisa in Oregon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joan very kindly answered my question. I understood it when she wrote:

"Perhaps it should read,

" Dec 1 st at each end of needle every other row X times.."

What you're doing is with the right side of the work facing you, decrease a stitch at the beginning of the row and then again at the end of the row. Now do your purl row with no decreases. The next right side row, you'll decrease at the beginning and end as before, and so on."

Thank you to Joan and Lisa.

There are some Shapelys shaping up out there. Caryn has made some progress in pink. Kristi has conquered short rows. Chris has cast on. There's more progress out there I'm sure. Let me know how you're doing.

And check me out! A mention on the Interweave site.

Shapely, Take Two

I'm back in the swing of things. The bottom short rows look good. The bottom still wants to fold over where the stockinette begins. I'm hoping that will improve. I'm moving along at a good clip and following the pattern. I'm still enjoying this yarn (Classic Elite Premiere). It creates a wonderfully drapey and silky soft fabric. It is letting off lots of little tufts of fuzz as I knit though what with the frogging and all. They come off easily but are easily inhaled. Ick.

I signed up for a class with Nancy Bush at a local yarn shop. I may also sign up for a spinning class! Baby steps...baby steps.

The Silver Lining

The Shapely Tank is underway again. It looks so much better now. I was not doing my short rows entirely correctly the first time. I had a better hang of it the second time but the third time I had it down cold. My new tank has a lovely curved front as promised in the pattern.

What went wrong the last time? Well, it almost too embarrassing to say because pretty much everything went wrong. 1) My short rows were kind of sucky. 2) I didn't do enough short rows on the bottom which made it curl. 3) I miss read "work evenly for 11/2 inches" as work evenly for 11 1/2 inches instead of 1 1/2 inches. 4) I jumped forward in the pattern and didn't notice. All in all, the tank was a disaster. It looked okay but it was just wrong on every front. I now think I've read it all correctly and will be making great progress. I had a friend over (she brought me my Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora pattern book!) for a little while this afternoon and we had some tea and did some knitting. It's moving very quickly this time. If I'm feeling frisky I'll post a picture of the tank later tonight.

If you haven't seen it yet go check out Alison's adorable fluffy tank. Not only did she create a great little top but she took the time to write out the pattern and share it with us.

Worse Than I Thought

The Tank was worse than I thought so I ended up frogging the whole damn thing. I stayed up past one casting on again and working up to the end of the second short row. Sigh. That's a whole week of work gone.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

I was feeling so good, so proud of myself. I completed the bust shaping on the Shapely Tank and kicked short-row butt! That is until I realized that I had accidentally skipped about half the freakin' pattern. What the?? How did I do that? I think I was so worked up and scared about the short rows I just jumped the gun. Damn! Now I have to rip out everything I did today. Grrrrr...

On a more positive note, I finished the back to the GE Cardi. I won't show you a picture because...zzzz.... I started the first front side.

I'm off to start ripping. Stupid!!!

Knitting Roundup

I didn't get a lot accomplished today. I was in bed for most of the day with a terrible headache. But before I fell ill I went to two local yarn shops to turn over ideas about patterns and yarn again and again and again. I've been searching for a few yarns to use with the patterns from the new Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora book. I will make Mia in the actual yarn. But for the others that I really want to make (Lottie, Rosy) I wanted to branch out. While visiting Churchmouse I became totally smitten with Mountain Colors. I just want to have all the colorways in all the yarns they make. The 4/8s in Redtail Hawk looks like a good candidate for Lottie. But honestly, I could put on a blindfold and pick one of their colors and would be guaranteed to be happy. They are all so gorgeous. I don't know about Rosy yet. I need to spend less time planning and more time knitting!

I pinned down my Shapely Tank front and GE Cardi back to measure them so I snapped a few pictures.

Just more and more stockinette. Maybe that's why my mind is wondering to new projects. The Classic Elite Premiere I'm using for the tank is just so soft. I really love it.

This makes me want to learn how to spin. I don't know if I actually like these yarns but they are certainly interesting to look at. They would be an adventure to knit with.

I've been watching the first season of The Office the last few nights while knitting. This show is excruciatingly funny. It's so deadpan. It makes me very happy that I don't have a job.

Field Trip!

The Purlygirls went to Churchmouse Yarns & Teas today. We got to spend the time on the ferry to Bainbridge Island knitting and catching up. Then we walked over to the shop. They even had "Welcome Purlygirls" on the sign out front. We oohed and ahhed and touched everything and wiped out the sale shelf. We bought lots of yarn. I maintained self-control and just picked up a cable needle and some oddballs of All Season Cotton at 40% off. (I will use it on some more afghan squares for myself. I have one made already so I should have a completed afghan by 2010 at the earliest.) Some of the nicest discoveries were the Mountain Colors (love these colors!) Merino Ribbon. This is the softest and prettiest ribbon yarn I have ever seen. It is just lovely. And the yardage is great too. Just 4 skeins to make a woman's raglan sweater. One of the Purlygirls got some. I looked longingly into her shopping bag for the rest of the afternoon. Another lovely find is Nature Cotton. It's very similar to Manos Del Urguay Stria except with more texture. And it comes in great colors. With our purchases the lovely folks at Churchmouse let us each select a gift. We could choose from point protectors, Earl Gray candies, cedar balls or a Churchmouse tea bag caddy. I picked a caddy.



We grabbed lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and then went back to Churchmouse to sit around and knit. They have one large worktable in the front of the shop. We all settled in to work and they brought us little cups of tea and cookies! We took the ferry home. Sadly I had to go right home because we were babysitting for friends tonight. Some Purlygirls got to go out to my favorite tea house and knit and talk some more.

My Shapely Tank is progressing nicely. I have about a foot done of the front. Unfortunately I realized that in my whole short row/wrap/frog angst I only did three short row wraps on each side instead of six. Oh well, I'm not frogging this whole thing for a little more shaping along the bottom.

More Great Help on the Shapely Tank

We are so lucky. The designer of the Shapely Tank, Joan McGowan-Michael, has graciously answered yet another question from one of our knitters. Caryn asked about adding extra length to the tank. Here is Joan's response.

Divide the extra length you need into three.
Add some in the lower area after the short row shaping but before the side seam decreases. Then add some in the waist, and lastly, some in the area after the side seam increases but before the bust short rows.
I hope this helps,
Joan M-M

I completed about three inches on my tank last night. I need to start another afghan square for the Mason-Dixon Knitting Afghanalong for Afghans. The two projects I'm working on right now--the GE cardi and the Shapely Tank--are both pretty small gauge for me. I need to pull out some big needles! I was thinking about trying some cables.

And in other news...

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
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