The Amazing 10 Day Sweater

When someone in my SnB suggested a sweater knit-a-long, my first reaction was something like "Oh yay! I'll say I'll do it, or think about doing it, but never get around to doing it, b/c Anticommitment-Chickenshit is my hyphenated middle name! I probably won't even be able to decide on a yarn! Phew! I'll be safe from exerting myself."

Well, I surprised even myself, along w/ the other KAL'ers. After way too many hours of surfing WEBS anniversary sale, I picked out some Malabrigo yarn, basically on Melissa's recommendation and love of MMMMalabrigo. I really had no idea that it really COULD be that soft and cuddly. I snuggled with it for a long time before even winding it. Winding it was a bit of a pain, it was kind of sticking to each other, and I was a bit worried about the froggability of it.

The next surprise on the list was that I actually managed to more or less follow the directions. I kinda half-assed swatched, and it looked like it'd be close enough for government work. I cast on and knit like a fiend, making it to the armpit section in record time. I tried it on, and unfortunately it was way too big for my liking, slipping down off of my shoulders. Not my idea of a snuggy sweater. Doh. I left it on the cable, and started a new version. I wanted to have that one for reference for a bit. I ended up casting on only 88 stitches, which was a much better choice. I learned to do the cable/twist on the needles as instructed, instead of doing my own thing. I tried it on along the way, adding waist shaping as needed. I'm getting some mad skillz! I think I'm addicted to sweater knitting....I'm imagining ditching all of my store-bought sweaters and wearing only handknit sweaters... The fantasy continues on, carrying me into another WEBS order.

I finish the sweater, despite the sleeves nearly driving me mad. Next time I'll try to do better at writing down what I did, or knitting them simultaneously, or just conjuring sleeves out of nowhere.

I love it! I can't wait to wear it. Too bad it's May, and 80 degrees.

The sweater timeline:

5/6
I’m flying through the pattern, even knitting under the desk a bit at work, because I just can’t stop. I don’t think I brought enough yarn to get me through the day… at the rate I’m going, I’ll be done in no time, and will be a sweater-knitting addict. Which is great, b/c it’s sooo tedious to find sweaters that fit me right anymore…

5/7
I got to the point just below the armholes, and excitedly tried it on. Shit. Too big. Now I’m debating whether to frog it, leave it on, but start another, or just keep going, and have a big sweater…

5/7/09
I started a new one, but haven’t frogged the big one yet, so I can use it for reference. Almost to the point below the armholes now, and I can’t wait to see how this one turned out! I cast on 88 instead of 124. I did a round of P2 K2 to set up the pattern before doing the cables, and knit 8 rounds of the cable pattern. I separated the stitches into 13-20-26-20-13 to do the increases. So far, it looks good.

5/8

I’m almost to the bottom now! I added in 3 sets of decreases, and then a 4-5 or so rows of straight knitting, then 4 (so far) sets of increases for the waist shaping.

decrease- sl1 k1 psso, slip marker, k2tog, knit the next row.

increase-same as above in the pattern. k, ktbl, in the same stitch, slm, k, ktbl

The bottom is going to be finished w/ the crossover pattern used at the collar.


5/15/2009
The sleeves were a PITA! I frogged them many a time. The KP needle split while I was working on them . Had to find a new size 6 needles while the others epoxied and dried. I’d have finished it a lot sooner, had I paid more attention on the sleeves.

I wish I’d made it just a half inch longer in the body and the sleeves. It’s ‘just’ at the right length, but no extra. Wondering if it will relax more once blocked.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

The shawl is FINISHED! I finished binding off this morning on the train. wuhoo! I was waiting to unfurl it in it's full glory to show my coworker Jackie, who's been admiring it's progress all along, but she's not in today. I spread it out, admire it on a cubicle wall background, and wrap myself up in it, as the a/c is on full-blast as usual.

And just as I'm about to hit 'publish....'

DUCK! DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCKITY DUCK!!! Change the D to an F, and that's me yelling as I'm happily wearing the new shawl, and I see a bit of yarn along the bind-off that's loose. "Hm, I say. That shouldn't be there." CRAP. The new-fangled bind off I did (K1, k2 TBL, chain 1, pass K stitch over) came out for about two inches. There's no
fixing that while at work, so I tried to stabilize it and chuck it back into my bag.

Getting....closer.....

6 more rows, and the bind off, to go!

I had to frog about 6-8 rows, which gave me a BIG sad! I’d messed up the beginning of the border, and it just wasn’t right . I almost carried on with it, but decided that it’s taken me this long to get to this point, and I wasn’t going to have it all messed up at the end. So, took about 2 weeks to frog that much, and now I’m hauling along on it, only having to frog half a row here and there. Dam this short attention span.

When will it ever end?

Still going. It’s getting to be that it takes too long to do a row, and it’s not worth dragging on the train w/ me anymore. I can’t wait to finish it & be able to wear it…and to get started on the many many baby items I have to knit! Seems like it's breeding season, and everyone's knocked up. Of course, I'm having grandiose ideas of things to knit, most of which probably won't happen. I have to pick out the exact project, get the yarn, and actually get around to knitting the stuff, instead of just messing around knitting things for myself. I really need to try to use up some of my yarn stash instead of buying even more yarn. It's gotten so bad that I can't even begin to organize the stash; it's just all piled in my knitting room, so that I can't find anything. I just haven't had enough ambition to go do anything about it, and soon it will be too hot up on the third floor to spend much time up there. So it's just been easier to buy new yarn. Not exactly good for stash busting and reducing the amount of crap I have laying around.

Back from Mexico...fountain pen still isn't done.

Back from Mexico…I’d hoped to finish the shawl in time, but I didn’t. It was plane knitting instead, though I was so exhausted most of the time that I just slept, rather than risk messing up the pattern. And to think that I'd had grand plans to finish both the fountain pen shawl and the Wabenschal during the trip. I'd also wanted to do a knitting photo shoot on the beach, but the wind was so bad that we got sandblasted on the beach most of the time.

This has been the least messed up of my shawls for a while. I finally have gotten the hang of nupps…make them incredibly ridiculously loose; so loose that they look sloppy, and life will be good. Think loose, and then go looser! The last row of nupps was surprisingly easy.

Lovee my Kiri still! It's with me every day at work, and it just got it's passport stamped in Mexico. It served as a pillow, a blanket, a wrap, rain gear, a wrap for my sister in law, and a blankie for my husband. Kiri! I lurrrve you!

Nupps can suck my kiss!

F’in F’in nupps! WTF? WHO invented this ridiculous technique? SO unnecessary. So ouchy! Makes my wrists & my head hurt.

Apparently my grand plan of making the nupps loose has not worked out as planned, as I'm still having a really hard time p5tog-ing. GAH. Anger. This is where I started throwing fits on the swallowtail shawl, and promptly ruining all of my work up to that point, as, no, I do not use lifelines. Foolishly. Someday I'll remember to use a lifeline. I guess I could put one in after the fact, but...well, I'm afraid the swallowtail is a lost cause at least. I still have hope for the fountain pen shawl, as I really want to plan my mexico wardrobe around it. Don't think it's going to be done in time though, unless I make it really small. I don't want to do that though; I want it to be the same size as my Kiri.

A bit of a break for Sticks & Stitches...

I slacked off on the fountain pen shawl a bit over the weekend. It was Sticks & Stitches time, and I wasn’t about to try a complicated lacey pattern at a hockey game…let alone a huge event I was organizing! I took along the Wabenschal scarf instead. Today on the train, I made it up to 3 or 4 rows during the commute. Not bad!

I blew off knitting, and work, and eating, and went shopping at lunch instead of knitting, so that I have some hope of fitting into something summery. The past three months of dieting, taking diet pills, thinking about going to the gym, being cranky about dieting, being cranky about going to the gym, and occasionally actually GOING to the gym have not paid off in the great big weight loss that I'd hoped for. I wanted to knock off 14lbs to get back to my post-jaw surgery weight. Oh well. Plan B is to drink enough in Mexico so that I don't worry what I look like.

I’m hoping that I don’t have any issues taking my needles on the plane back from Mexico. I haven't had any trouble flying out of Philadelphia with them, especially the KnitPicks Harmony wood needles, but ya just never know.