News From the Department of Poor Planning

Yesterday morning I was racing to get my steeks sewn up so I could bring them to work. I didn't get it done the night before because I fell asleep, fully clothed, only half-way on my bed at around 7 and woke up at midnight disoriented in a puddle of drool. Do I know how to rock out on a Friday night or what? Anyway, I was stitching up my steek. As I reached the yoke a funny thing happened. The steek veered off in one direction due to the decreases. I ran out of bobbin thread and couldn't finish sewing and ran off to work. While eating lunch I shot off a quick post to the Zimmermania blog about my yoke/steek issue. As soon as I sent it off I realized what I had done. The bottom of my sweater was borrowed from the Retro Prep pattern which, although steeked, does not have a designated set of steek stitches. The top is the Fair Isle Yoke Sweater from The Opinionated Knitter which is a pullover. What I should have done is add a steek from the very start and I'd have a clean path through my colorwork to stitch and cut.

But I didn't. My choice was to reknit the entire sweater (except part of the sleeves which I could reuse) or to barrel through and fudge the steek. Guess which route I took?



I figure this is a sweater, not the space shuttle. No one will die if I cut corners.

Then I went to finish the hem of my son's sweater so I could steek that too. Vanessa pointed out in the comments that one needs to remember to knit the chart upside down when knitting the hem. Amazingly, despite my fatigue on Thursday, I did remember to do that. What I didn't remember to do was center the pattern on the steek. So I had to rip that all out and reknit it. It's done now and ready to stitch. I'll start my cardigan button bands tonight after work. I'll try not to do anything too stupid.

No time for links today! Got to get to work!

Fuzzy

I can't wake up today. The kids don't have school today and I deluded myself into thinking that I could sleep in a bit this morning. So I stayed up until 2 watching Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and ER on the ReplayTV. Dear God. So very tired. I did finish the sleeves on my son's screaming red sweater. I picked up along the inside of my cast on edge and am now knitting the hem. I'm doing a true EZ deal on the hem. I'm knitting a little message in there. XXX (son's initials) '06 LOVE MOM then a few dots to fill in the extra space. It was late and I was tired of trying to make the chart work out. My Fair Isle Cardigan is all knit. I need to machine stitch the steeks today. I was thinking of bringing it (and my son's sweater if I finish the hem in time) to work tomorrow and cutting the steeks there. For educational purposes.

Nah, just to freak everyone out.

I'm going to have some more coffee and try to shake off this fuzzy-headed feeling.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

News Flash!

Crisis on the European knitting front!

There has been a drastic escalation in the bobble wars.



Cables are running amok!



Wild animals attack knitwear at will!



Yetis are free to inter-marry!



And amid this chaos the European lingerie crisis has reached catastrophic proportions.

Sticker Shock

I just found out that Kaffe Fassett will be giving a lecture near Seattle next week. When I looked up the ticket information I was a little stunned by the price. I know I'm a cheapskate but isn't $17 for a 45 minute talk and book signing a little steep?

Native New Yorker

Clearly I have lived in Seattle for too long--a city where the smallest scuffle makes it on to the evening news. This map of current "incidents" in NYC provided by Gothamist is a little alarming. Although I was a bit tickled by the "stolen ambulance" item.

Me and Mrs. Zimmermann, We've Got A Thing...

Elizabeth and I have been spending loads of time together lately. Last month at the Knitters Guild meeting I borrowed Meg Swansen's Cardigan Details video and a one of the Knitting Around videos. I've been sitting and knitting my Fair Isle Yoke cardigan while watching Meg and Elizabeth knit and chat. I also got the Knitting Workshop video from the library, in which Elizabeth demonstrates all the techniques used in my sweater. It's due back tomorrow so I'm just finishing up the segment on lace knitting. It all makes me so sorry I chose to skip camp this summer.

The sweater is moving along pretty well. The yoke is slow going because I'm not a very fast two-color knitter and because I'm working on 300 stitches. But here's where I was earlier this morning.



I am very happy with my tension in two-colors on this project.

I was woken up very early this morning by my 8 year old. I tried to go back to sleep but Socktoberfest guilt was eating away at me. I lay in bed hoping to sleep but mentally casting on for my second Canal du Midi sock. I also wound yarn for the next pair of socks I want to work on. At this rate I'll be lucky to have knit one sock by the end of the month.

The Promiscuous Spinster

My spinning habits have always been largely monogamous. I start a project and work on it until completion then start my next project. Lately though, my spinning has gotten downright slutty.



I first started to spin the bombyx silk from Chasing Rainbows (bottom center) this summer. I found I did not have an aptitude for 100% silk which wasn't helped at all by hot and sticky weather. This got set aside.

Then I finally fixed my drum carder. I carded up a big pile of brown Romney (bottom right). Since my wheel was tied up with whatever I was spinning at the time I dragged out my old, unloved, 200 pound (slight exaggeration) Louet drop spindle to take the newly carded wool for a test drive.

Then at OFFF I found this lovely Romney/Coopworth/angora blend (top left) and started spinning the moment I got home. But I pulled myself away from it to finish spinning Dazzle.

Last weekend after my horrific dyeing experience I started to spin up the Merino superwash (bottom left). It's lovely to spin but still terribly ugly.



Then I won Julia's blog contest. She sent me this roving and a drop spindle (top right). Of course I was so excited I started to spin it right away.

And then while reading Spin Off, I saw that the Your Yarn topic for the next issue was organic fibers. "Hmmm," I thought to myself,"there must be some organic fiber around here somewhere." And there was. This organic cotton (center top) was hiding out in my stash from this spring. As you can see I didn't get very far.

Holy moley! What happened to me?

Isn't This Socktoberfest?

Okay, so I haven't cast on for the second Canal du Midi sock yet. I have no socks on the needles. I have been thinking about socks a lot though. Does that count? I have yarn picked out for my next two pairs and I can't wait to knit them except I still need to knit the CdM. And I've been really distracted by sweaters.



Here is my progress on the unphotographable, screaming red sweater. The sleeves need to be longer. See that little bit on yarn there? That's all I've got. This is an unreleased color of Lamb's Pride Bulky I got as a freebie so there's no more. If I had a reasonable child I could say, "Let's make the cuffs and collar a different color! Won't that be fun?" But I have an unreasonable child who will only accept an all-red sweater and seems to think I should be able to take some wool and make more red yarn. I'm sure by the time we hash this one out he won't fit in the flinging sweater anymore. I can always send it to Dulaan.



My cardigan is zipping along. I'm almost done with the second sleeve. I just realized when I was taking the picture that I still have another inch to knit on the body before I unite the whole thing. I had been knitting it in the car on the way home from Portland and didn't have a measuring tape. I guesstimated an inch too short.

I just finished a shop sample sweater that I need to block tonight. Pictures tomorrow.

Spinning tonight!

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

The theme for fall is big!

The biggest batwing sleeves!



The biggest cuffs!



And the biggest bobbles!



Because what's sexier than bobbles the size of goose eggs between your breasts?

Dazzle

Dazzle is all spun up.



865 yard of heavy lace-weight. It will become a shawl eventually, I suppose.

First of the Fest

The first Canal du Midi sock. Finally!

Not For the Faint of Heart

The results of my Friday night dyeing fiasco.



Slightly less vile when spun up.



Now I know some of you are all ready to send me your, "I think it looks pretty comments." Really, it's so much uglier in real life. I mean U-G-L-Y YOU-AIN'T-GOT-NO-ALIBI ugly. Spun up it's still ugly. I'm going to attempt to overdye it when I finish spinning it. I don't have high hopes for the final outcome. I am, however, spinning like a demon because I can't stand to look at it and want to get it back in the dyepot ASAP.

I also hoped to have a completed sock to show you for Socktoberfest but sadly as I prepared to kitchener last night I decided to try my sock on and discovered it was at least half an inch to short. Crud.