RIP

Let us take a moment of silence for those knits which are no longer with us....

Butterfly, you seemed like such a good idea at the time. Silky, green, with what seemed to be a forgiving fit, and in a gauge that wasn't going to take half of forever. As I knit you, it became obvious that you were a bit of a tease, eating up more yarn in a shorter period of time than it seemed like you should, creating pieces that didn't look proportional, and generally talking a good game and not delivering. Sadly, though I finished you, I am not pleased, and after you have sat for an appropriate amount of time in the back of my closet, I will reclaim your (horribly expensive) yarn for another purpose.

Ms. Marigold, I tried. I really did. I knit you twice, and still the sizing didn't work out. I think, ultimately, the fault is mine. I always want the cute, fun clothes - the kind that are meant for teenagers without boobs - and in the end my obvious cleavage, long torso, and squishy belly were not the match for your fun and sassy design. Fantastic yarn, though.

Ballet Camisole, last night I sent you to a good home. As I pulled you out of my drawer, your soft silkiness caressed my hands, seeming to say, "No, don't let me go!" But then I remembered how I hated the way you fit - how you bagged and gapped (although the shaping made is a surprisingly attractive baggy, gappy pink top) - and I handed you over to Caitlin. I hope she appreciates you more than I did.
From these failures I have learned that I must lengthen all tops by at least 2 inches, and that if it doesn't look right, it probably isn't.

Onward. Webs is having their summer sale. I caved. Yarn for the Dollar and a Half Cardigan and for the Deep V Sweater is on its way to my new apartment!

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.

Whoops

Um, yeah. So I mistook the pattern for Butterfly, which was mentioned in the last post. Instead of Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo, I need Classic Elite Bam Boo, and let me tell you, it's not easy to find. So off went the lovely Wool Bam Boo back to Webs (it's way too expensive to keep in the stash without a plan for it). I managed to locate some Bam Boo at Let's Knit (http://www.letsknit.com (gonna going to have to remember how to use html sometime soon)) so it should be coming this week. In the mean time, I'm still knitting in green.

Knit Picks Shamrock in Dougherty left over from my brother's and dad's Christmas socks. I ordered once again based on a suggestions in the Knit Picks catalog, which resulted in them saying I was going to need twice as much yarn as I actually was going to need. I've got about 5 3/4 skeins left, so I'm making the same socks, slightly modified for a girl, that I made for the guys. The pattern is "Woodsman's Thick Socks" from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around. I used US8 for the boys, and I'm hoping that a simple switch to US6 will sufficiently size down the circumfrence for me.

In other news, Rambling... Leaf is off the needles for good. Finished it during the Oscars, and now it's blocking (and smelling like a wet sheep). The inital try-on showed promise, but the yoke was all messed up from hanging off the needles. I'm hoping that blocking will even out all the lumps. The buttons (which I once again forgot to take a picture of) are really cool. They're a kind of mottled brown-green and khaki with leaves stamped on them. The leaves are very sketchy and look almost like fossils, so they're not cutesy.

The weather here is nasty, so I'm looking forward to finally wearing this in a few days!

Green

I like green. A lot. Which is as good thing, because there's a whole lot of green in my future. Rambling Rose is off the needles! At least initially. There's still the neckband and the buttonbands. And the buttons. Crap. Meant to take a picture of the buttons. Next time. Well, Rambling Rose in this case is more of a rambling.... leaf. Which since the lace panels are a leaf motif, I think is more appropriate. The pattern is by Laura Zukaite from Interweave Winter 2006 (Arwen is too. Sorry for the typo). A lot of people on the blogsphere were seriously bashing this sweater. Mostly they were complaining because it only comes in two sizes - 30" and 43". "My chest isn't 30" but it's certainly not 43"" one person was bitching. Frankly, I don't care because my chest is 43". Well, 42 technically. What I didn't like was the color scheme. Red and pink are not my colors. Hence, green and green.

I have one sleeve seamed and the ends tied in. Let's face facts, tying in all those ends is going to be a big project. And knitting up that edging was no fun either. Knitting with 15 balls of yarn only results in a gigantic mess. I've seen this sweater knit without the two colors, but I really think that a large part of the charm of this sweater is in the color changes. The picture below is also a fairly accurate representation of the colors, too.

And here's a close up the the center back lace panel. Pretty, no?

More work to come tonight, and I'm hoping to get it finished during the Oscars tomorrow. And then blocking. Because it really needs it.

And look what I got in the mail today:

11 balls of Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo to make this:

Butterfly from KnitScene Spring 2007. I'm making it for my adventure in Chicago, and then for Easter. I just love the drape of the fabric, and it's a cut that should flatter me. But not being a bustless Asian model, I'm going to need to find an appropriate cami to wear underneath... Suggestions?