Look out Chicago!

I'm leaving for Chicago at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow, and I'm so excited. A little CSO, a little shopping, a little museum-going, and a whole lot of spoiling myself. Here's a preview of my plans for the train ride:

That's mom's Trellis, Knit Picks Shine Sport for the ballet camisole, my iPod (on which I have 2 new CDs and 2 new audiobooks), and Meg Cabot's Size 14 is not Fat Either. I have been very good about this book. I bought it last week, and I've been saving it. It has not been easy. Add the fact that it's a sequel (to Size 12 is not Fat) to the fact that I love Meg Cabot and have since before the Princess Diaries was a movie, and you have one very, very good girl. Well all that goodness is about to be rewarded.

I think I'll make Meg Cabot an honorary Double G Knitster. Not only is she awesome, but our names both have 2 G's in them! Which just ups her coolness quotient.

All I have to say about the next pic is "addictive."

Ms. Marigold has been incredibly addictive for the past week. It's flying off my needles and I'm not even trying that hard! Plus I love the yarn. I love the color, I love the feel of it in my fingers, and I hope I'll love the feel of it when I wear it. I'm slightly concerned about size, but I think that once I finish up the ribbing at the neck and arms (I've elected against the ruffle. I have rather manly shoulders to begin with, so adding a ruffle on top is like icing a 2x4) and block it, it won't look so small. Once I get an idea of how the yarn will wear, I'd really like to knit something else out of it. A cardi, perhaps?

Adding greatly to the speediness of this project were two excellent movies - Proof and Casino Royale. Go rent them now.

Dilemmas

I started swatching last night for Ms. Marigold, and I discovered that I had ordered 5 balls of Knit Picks Elegance, but the pattern said I needed 7.

"What the hell?" I said to myself. "How did I do that?"

I always double check about yarn and sizes and stuff because, since I'm invariably making the fourth or fifth size, following along with the pattern can be a little bit confusing. I know I double checked the amount of yarn I needed to buy.

So, what the hell?

Well, if you take a look at kpixie, you'll notice that for the 40" size, they say 5 balls. The pattern says 7. I ordered the yarn before I had the pattern in my hot little hands, which is how I ended up two balls short. So which is right? What do I do? I have 2 options.

1. Order more yarn, hope they have the same dye lot, wait for it to arrive, and stew a little inside.

2. Play the "am I going to make it" game, and pretend like 5 balls is going to work. Then stew if it doesn't work out and feel smug if it does.

Still undecided....

Teary

Yeah, I'm crying. I chopped up some onions for dinner later tonight, and I'm still crying an hour later. Damn onions....

I'm also crying (inside) because I had to frog the bottom to Butterfly. After casting off, it became painfully obvious that although I was making gauge, the thing was about 10 inches bigger around than it was supposed to be. Why? I have no idea. Actually I do have a theory, and it's based on the problems that I have had both on Butterfly and on Rambling Rose. I'm guessing that no one bothers to check whether or not the directions for the larger sizes work. They work in theory, but the ones made for the photo shoots are invariably the smallest size. Who check to make sure that the larger sizes work? Um, that would be me, the person who is the larger size.

Anyway, I have cast on again for the bottom of Butterfly using the second smallest size, and I am consciously knitting tighter than I was before. Hopefully, this will work out in the end. It will be a couple more days before I can tell for sure.

In other news, mom's Trellis is coming along nicely. Still probably won't finish it by her b-day. But I am going to Chicago next weekend on the train, so it's very possible I'll get some intense quality knitting time. The thing about this scarf is that I tend to burn out after one repeat. Each repeat takes about forty-five minutes to an hour. So we'll just have to wait and see.

Here's a pic of mom's unfinished and un-blocked Trellis next to mine:


And a close up of the lovely lace pattern after blocking:

I like this pattern because neither my mom nor I are "flowery" kind of people, which lace tends to cater to. We like flowers when they're in the ground, or maybe a vase, but for the most part the angularity of the diamonds suits us. Plus it's such a lovely, light yarn. Perfect for accenting an outfit, or wearing with a denim jacket in the fall or spring. Oh, Trellis, I heart thee....

Plans

Butterfly is coming along nicely, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be short on yarn. Each of those front sections in the pic took 3 balls, leaving exactly 5 left for the bottom and all the crocheted edgings. Even shortening the two fronts by 2 1/2 inches and the bottom by 1, it's going to be close. The bottom part that you see is about 1 1/2 balls, just to give you some indication of the amount of yarn flying through my fingers.

The fit should still be ok. I "tried on" the fronts, and I probably would have shortened the bottom anyway. We'll see in a couple more days if my gamble paid off.

I got a shipment last week of yarn fromKnit Picks , and also of patterns from kpixie.

All of the patterns are by Zephyr Style. They have serious style, those girls. The yellow is for "Ms. Marigold," which is next on my list after I finish Butterfly.
Rusted Root and Glee I'm going to save for fall. Gabriella is doing Glee right now. The coral yarn is for Ballet Camisole, and the teal is for Thermal, which I'm also going to leave for the fall.

C'est fini

And it fits, thank God. Because if it didn't, I'm not sure what I'd do. It would probably involve a lot of screaming and stomping and general temper tantruming. It's actually getting bigger and more stretched out as I wear it, which isn't cool, strictly speaking, but it's not unexpected. I find that if I make clothes to fit my acutal measurements (i.e. making the 43 inch sweater for a 42 inch bust) they are too big. Maybe I just like my clothes too tight. But whatever the case, I have found that to be true whether I'm knitting or sewing (or more accurately, having my mom sew for me.)

Rambling Rose Cardigan by Laura Zukaite

IK Winter 06

Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Asparagus and Moss

Needles: US 6

Modifications:

- Added waist shaping, which, considering the way it's getting bigger as I wear it, was probably a stroke of genius.

- Shortened the sleeves by 1/2 inch, which I shouldn't have done. They actually fit, which is not how I'm used to wearing my sweaters.

- Completely made up the yoke pattern.

Things that were not fun:

1. Frogging the yoke and re-knitting it, obviously, although the re-knit went much faster than I anticipated - probably because it was 4 inches less to knit.

2. Knitting the edgings. Yeah. That was a giant mess. Not to mention the pattern wasn't exactly over-explicated.

3. Knitting the yoke with all of those balls of yarn. Another giant mess.

This is the actual Classic Elite Bam Boo for Butterfly. It came yesterday, thank goodness. I was getting kind of worried. This is the same color as in the pattern. I do that a lot. I guess I'm kind of unimaginative. But, hey, if I like the color, why change it? I finished swatching last night, and I just started the right front.

I'm also knitting a scarf - the Trellis Scarf from IK Spring 06 - for my mom's birthday. I made one for myself last year and I love it. I made mine in Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Tidepool. I'm making mom's in the same yarn but in Midnight. Chances are it will not be finished by her birthday. I have to do it on the sly, since I'm currently living at home, plus the last Trellis took me, oh, 9 months to complete. Let's just say there was no knitting over the summer.

Progress

Well, Rambling Leaf is off the needles... again. After I got over my temper earlier this week about it not working out, I spent a day frogging, and then another part of a day rolling the yarn ends into balls before I started knitting again. This time, I'm fairly confident that it will fit. I severely altered the yoke pattern - p3tog every other row at the beginning for 2 more rows than the pattern said before going into the short rows, which were also fewer than the pattern. But by virtue of that miraculous thing called "trying it on" I think I have made a workable pattern, which I probably can't recreate. That's ok. I won't be knitting this pattern again.

I still have to do the neckband (which I think I'm going to pick up a few more stitches than the pattern called for. It seemed a little bit strained last time) and the button bands. But that will be finished tonight, and then it will be smelling like a wet sheep for another couple of days before I can wear it.

Pictures to come when I actually put it on.