Comment Lingers on and another baby blanket

Comment by Norah Gaughin

Comment refuses to be done.  I am sick of it.  If I didn't want to wear it so badly (next summer, of course by now), I would toss it.  (It was frogged out of the uber-expensive Berroco Bonsai because that yarn sucks and is way too heavy for a summer top.)  I reknit using Caron Spa (hey, I was broke after the damn Bonsai) in taupe color.  After a shitload of assembling various smaller pieces, and edging miles of surfaces, I washed it and lightly blocked it (too much acrylic to apply heat to it) and hung it up to finish drying hoping that gravity would make the stupid garter stitch border lay down and play nice.  (It still flips up at the front point despite frogging it and picking up the stitches around the point with a larger needle.)  But a more aggregious problem has reared its head:  the armholes are too long -- the entire side of my bra is showing, you can practically read the label.

Theory:  cheap yarn is stretching from the weight of the long heavy front apron and pulling the whole thing down, or cheap yarn row gauge has bit me in the ass.  Checked the pattern, it is knit by the vertical inch, so I should have gotten my 8" armhole, instead of my 11" armhole.  Also, the armhole was showing a little too much of my armpit roll, so the armhole shaping needed tweaking.

What to do?  This thing took several evenings in front of the television to assemble together and add edging.  I carefully pulled out the neck and armhole edging, then undid the side seams just enough to be able to get to the armhole bindoffs.  Unravelled from the top the front and back separately, and am presently reknitting, adding 3" before binding off for the armhole, and doing the armhole shaping decreases every other row instead of every row in the hopes that it will better hide the aforementioned armpit rolls.  Time will tell.  I'll probably end up with armholes sized to fit a 5-year old.  Sigh.



Diagonal Baby Blanket

While I was cooling off from hating Comment, I dashed off another Diagonal baby blanket for fertile friends.

Laced Leaves

 Finally finished Laced Leaves using the Berroco Bonsai that I originally invested in bought for Comment. It took forever to sew on 8 buttons with backers (clear plastic on the wrong side). It's a little snug, but that also stretches out the lace and it's really pretty. Only drawback is the buttons. I upsized them to 1/2", but that's still not enough, they're popping out. Sigh.  Maybe I'll pretend I want to wear it unbuttoned at the bottom.  Or pin the darn thing closed, lol.

 

Catching Up

Whew, I thought I'd get back in the groove of posting once my boys were back in school, but no such luck! Here are some finished projects that I never got around to blogging about.

Princess Squares Blanket (for a Prince!)

Princess Squares Blanket was knit for a neighbor with a new baby boy, using ALL STASH yarn!   Yay!  And that is why the color pattern is not, um, uniform, because I ran out of the old discontinued cotton-ease baby blue color.  It's a design feature.  All the latest babys are rocking it.  Lol.  The pattern was published in Vogue Knitting Fall 2010.

Another Summerbelle

Another hockey mom who works for a bank in Dallas as their PR director asked if I would knit something for a charity auction they were holding.  So, I did some stash-diving and came up with enough of this yellow Plymouth Jeannee cotton yarn to make a Summerbelle in the 1-2 year old size range.  This is an absolutely lousy picture, it was a cloudy day and I had to drop it in the mail that day so I rushed.

Penguin Hat

In that same envelope went this penguin hat for her son.  The short version of the story is, the dad was transferred to OKC with his company, but their Dallas house hadn't sold, so the son and Dad moved to OKC while the mom stayed in Dallas waiting for the house to sell.  Then, the Dad gets offered an even better job in Dallas, and now the family is all under the same roof again.  The son is now playing for the Dallas Penguins, so I made this for him out of stash yarns in the Dallas Penguin team colors.  Those are iron-on letters from Hancock's.

I still have three other projects going, the Giraffe Jacket, which is getting ready for it's separating zipper, and the Laced Leaves cardigan, which is going to get it's buttons, and the aforementioned Comment top, which is being reknit in Caron Spa, a bamboo/acrylic blend, and is now out of season.  :(

Comment Continues to Confound

Came to a skidding halt again on Comment by Nora Gaughan (Berroco Vol. 6). (The previous halt was due to the old nemesis, Gauge.) The yarn, Berroco Bonsai, actually arrived mid-July, but I was wrapped up in other stuff and couldn't get to it. Now, I'm in a hurry to finish it because it's a summer tank and it's still warm and I could get one wearing out of it before Fall and, oh yeah, I'm chomping at the bit to start Fall stuff, but I can't. I hate it. I like the pattern, it looks cool and breezy, but the yarn is anything but cool and breezy.



It's 97% bamboo and 3% nylon which you think would be nice and cool, but it's a tape yarn and it just doesn't feel like a summer yarn, it feels heavy and potentially sweat-inducing. This is a pic of the finished fabric before I rip it out (dammit). This yarn was a splurge, so tossing it back into the stash is not an option, financial guilt demands it be used and used now.



Enter Laced Leaves. I think the openwork will be beautiful in the gold Bonsai. I might be griping in a week about how heavy the Bonsai makes the ribbing. And yes, I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat. Because I'm starting on this instead of driving to the LYS for a linen/cotton blend to make Comment with. I'm bad. Very bad.

Fall is in the air!

Well, you can tell by my scarce posts that I have busy with the kids this summer. Today was the start of the school year, and I think we're all excited to get back into the routine. Some of us more than others. ;) I can see bare branches at the top of the cottonwood trees behind my house, they are always the first to lose their leaves. And, my yard is littered with leaves, but my Sycamores constantly drop leaves and bark, so that's not exactly an indicator. I have one more summer top to finish, then it may be time to move on to summer knitting!

Finally finished the #10 Lace Dress from Knit Simple Magazine:






I ended up starting on #4's, then switching to #5's on the two middle charts, to #6's on the 4th chart, and to #7's on the stockinette. I also worked two sizes because I wanted it for a tunic and it flared out huge in my size. I made the smallest size up to the stockinette, then switched to the 38" bust by increasing every RS row until I had the recommended stitches.

I really like it, I'm just scared to wear it because it's a nightmare to block now that it's assembled! Ha.

Crop Sleeve Raglan

I'm still working on the lace dress, but here is a pic of a finished sweater, it's the #9 Crop Sleeve Raglan by Gayle Bunn from Knit N' Style magazine, August 2005.

#10 Lace Dress Continues to Confound

I have been knitting and frogging and knitting and frogging #10 Lace Dress
by Sandi Prosser from Knit Simple Magazine, Spring/Summer 2010. What is the problem, you might ask? Gauge, that old gotcha. You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal on an A-line dress, but boy has it caused some serious frayed yarn. You see, my substitute yarn, Universal Yarns Summer Linen that I purchased from Herrschner's, is giving me some funky gauge problems. In stockinette, I get the 21st/4" gauge on #7s. But on Chart #1's horseshoe lace, I ended up with a tent. I figured out that the tent-edness (to coin a word) had two contributing factors: gauge and the size I chose. I had to use #4's to get the 22st/4" gauge listed for the lace pattern, but the bottom width for my usual size was still too much. So, I changed to the smallest size on #4 needles, and I was happy with the bottom hem width. No problem, I'll just figure out how to change needles or add increases after I get to the waist, which is evidently not going to be anytime soon. However, after I finished Chart #1 (2-1/2 repeats) and Chart #2 (5-3/4 repeats), I did a sanity check and held it up to make sure it was going to fit. It did not. Chart #2's gauge ended up being 24sts/4". So, I ripped back to the start of Chart #2, and changed to #5's, which is working nicely. At this rate, I shall have to change to #6's for Chart #3, and #7's for Chart #4, which would leave me just peachy for the stockinette bodice at 21st/4" on #7s. I knew this dress would take awhile, but it's killing my summer knitting and I have yarn on the way for another summer top.

Ah, the stress of incoming yarn!