Bichons In Berry Sauce

This morning, I decided to try out some of the cabling from the demi sleeve on my swatch, just to make sure I could do it without messing up my sleeve. Good thing too, cause turns out, if you're a lefty knitter, when directions say to hold the cable needle to the back, you should really do the opposite.

See in the corner where I started what should be the left side of the diamond pattern? It looks like the right side should. After a minute of freaking out, D calmed me down, and pointed out that I would just need to switch up the two sides of the diamond. It doesn't really matter which way the cable twist thing goes, so that's ok.

Gauge is supposed to be 16st/23rows on size 8s... I got 17st/24rows on size 9s. Hopefully it's growing just a little bit now while drying. I can deal with the length being a little longer-- I was planning to lengthen the sleeves and body anyway.

Abby is getting a bit cold lately-- she was pottied last nite and this morning in the snow. I think she might be trying to tell me she wants a demi for herself.

Posted by Nancy at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got my yarn from the postman! I'm really happy with it-- it smells fresh, and there's lots of little bits of hay in it. Actually, it smells like a carpet store. I suppose that's what new wool is supposed to smell like. I started on a little bit of a swatch, then ripped it out in favor of some bigger needles. These new ones are size 9s. I'm a tight knitter, and I always seem to have to go up a size or two or five before I get gauge. I'm being a good girl, and this swatch will get washed and blocked before I even think about starting a sleeve. Ok, I'm thinking about it, but I'm not gonna do it.

In other news, we're working on sit. And smile.

Posted by Nancy at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few nites ago, while awaiting the arrival of my rowanspun aran for the demi, I knew that as soon as it arrived, I would abandon my almost finished ribbon edged cardigan in favor of swatching and sleevemaking. This motivated me to plow through the seaming and the dreaded weaving in of ends. Ick. I'm particularly proud of my side seams-- this is only my second finished sweater ever, so I'm getting much better at the neat seaming thing. Sorry for the dark picture-- upstate NY doesn't have much sunlight.

I also got myself to JoAnn's while my special little girl was getting her second haircut at Petsmart. They have this special holiday package with cookie scented soap, an extra little holiday tag for their collar, nail polish (which we opted out of), and a bandana. Now normally, this costs an extra 15 dollars, but since they hadn't done one yet, and since Abby is so cute and agreeable, they spiffied her up for free. Her groomers took pictures of themselves with her, as a model of 'how-nice-your-dog-could-look-with-our-holiday-package' and put them up in the window. That's nice and all, but no one is going to be prettier than Abby.

Oh, and here's a picture of my *almost* done baby cardigan with the ribbon and buttons. I'm going to need a sewing tutorial from my friend Andra before I start on the ribbon. A sewer I am not.

Posted by Nancy at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I had a long list of things I needed to be doing. Groceries, resume tweaking.. the list was long. Abby and I were hard at work, and by 4pm, all we had left to do was bake a pie and do some knitting. For the whole nite. The pie turned out ok-- I went for the quickie ready-made pie crust made by Mr. Wegman, and wasn't thrilled with it. It cracked and crumbed when touched. The pie still tastes yummy. I used Cortlands from the farmer's market.

My yarn for the demi has still not arrived. If it had, I would have started on a sleeve, abandoning the ribbed jacket and ribben-edged cardigan. Mr. Postman does know best.

I made some progress on my ribbed jacket; all that's left is the large knitted on ribbed collar and front. The pattern is cleverly written. The whole jacket, with the exception of the ribbing, is knit in one big long funny shaped piece. The only seaming that happens are two very long seams that start at the wrists, go up the arms, then down the sides. Minimal seaming, minimal weaving in of ends. My kind of sweater.

After her initial photo shoot, Abby was more interested in playing with the camera than she was in posing for me. See her fly!

Posted by Nancy at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This jacket is definitely going to need a good blocking before seaming. It wants to curl up on itself very badly. I like how this pattern is written with very little seaming and finishing, but still cute. I haven't yet decided if I want to add some sort of ribbing or seed stitch or something to the bottom.. saving that for last. I'm thinking I won't bind off the bottoms till I figure this out.

Posted by Nancy at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After needing a bunch of help with argyle's neckband, I was eager to try this one all by myself.. and I did it! It came out pretty ok. I'm getting a better understanding of how my interpretation of directions affects my knitting. I don't think I ever really understood this, but my projects definitely do come out as mirror images of what they are meant to look like. I discovered this when adding the top buttonhole to the knitted on neckband. The pattern had me putting the hole on the opposite side it should go. Very odd.

More seaming soon, then the boyfriend gets dragged to JoAnn's again.

Posted by Nancy at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pattern: Circle of Friends Garter-Stitch Blanket from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Plymouth Encore
Needles: Boye circular, size 8
Modifications: a satin binding was added by Andra's grandma

Andra and I had high hopes for our blanket project. It turned out nicely, though finding a matching gauge was hard. Also, we didn't weave in any of the ends, thinking these ends could be used to seam up the sides. This was appealing to me. I hate weaving in ends. It didn't quite work out this way-- Andra and I knit alternating strips to minimize any gauge issues. It was my fault-- I'm a lefty knitter. When we went to seam our strips together, some of the seams had no ends to work with, and some of the seams had twice as many. Doh!

The project came out well, but I don't think either of us will be making garter-stitch anything for a while.

Posted by Nancy at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pattern: Argyle Cardigan from Special Knits
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
Needles: Boye circular, sizes 5 and 6

This was my first attempt at a miniature sweater with little blocks of different colors in it. I later found out these were 'intarsia', a word I still don't know how to pronounce. I'm pretty sure I did them the wrong way, having not read the instructions, but they look alright. I had a few minor issues with this sweater, both of which D helped me with-- adding on the knitted neckband, and sewing in the sleeves.

After a trip to NYC, the rest of the construction went smoothly. The knitted material is incredibly soft, but feels durable too. The button bands even blocked out-- a successful mini-sweater.

Posted by Nancy at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This might be a big mistake and I might change my mind, rip it out, and let Abby play with the yarn.. but we'll see. Here's what I ordered tonite:

10 skeins of Rowanspun Aran in Atlantic for the Demi. eek.

Posted by Nancy at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)