Lettuce Coat Behaving So Far

The (Ravelry link) Lettuce Coat is coming along nicely, although I really should rename it since I'm using reds instead of the lettuce green yarn. It's top-down construction, so you provisionally cast on for the back, knit down to the armholes, put those stitches on a holder, unpick the provisional cast on and knit the two fronts down to the armholes, then join the whole mess. The fabric no longer feels quite so floppy and the color changes in this yarn are just beautiful (although I'm partial to reds and browns anyway). The brioche rib has slowed me down quite a bit, not because it's a hard stitch. The YO next to a slipped stitch tend to trade places on the cord, and it's a lot of tugging to get them back up on the needle to knit them. Secondly, I discovered after a few rows of brioche rib that one ball of yarn has more of the lighter colors in it and it was really obvious, so I dropped it after a few rows and am now blending two balls of yarn. There's more light streaks on the ribbing than anywhere else in the sweater, but I had already knit the fronts, back, joined them all together and done the waist shaping before I discovered it, so of course I won't go back, ha. Just another reason to not favor top-down construction. I know I am going to be really aggravated when I'm knitting on the sleeves, but I've never done a pattern where you knit the sleeves by picking up stitches, so I was interested in trying the technique. Six inches of brioche rib done, 9 more to go! lol

Lettuce Coat angst

I have cast on for the (Ravelry Link) Lettuce Coat from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I scored the Malabrigo for it in the Red Java colorway (that I have admired for two years but could never afford) at a reasonable price at Webbs. I have only done about six rows, because I am uneasy. The gauge for this coat is 14 st / 4 in on #9 needles. Ball band says 16-20 st / 4 in on size 7-9 needles. I had to go up to a size 13 needle to get close to gauge. The holes are pretty big and I'm not sure that the fabric isn't too floppy for a coat. I swatched over and over, and I've stopped and measured gauge in several places and gone round and round. The problem is, I don't own a size 12 needle. Size 11 gives me 15st/in and size 13 gives me 13 st/in. Problem #2 is, there's a big jump in sizing, I'm a 39" bust, and the sizing is 40" or 43-1/2", which would be too big and bulky in this loose-spun yarn. So I'd rather fall short on gauge and get my size slightly larger than 40", rather than go down to an 11 and have to block the heck out of it. All I can hope for, I guess, is that this yarn will bloom after washing and fill in those big loop holes a bit. It is loosely spun, so should bloom. I know, I know, I should have washed the swatch.

Checked on Ravelry, everyone else used size 9 needles for their coats, and only one person mentioned having to block the heck out of it. So either they used the #9 and knit a larger size, or they have a very tight coat.

Checked on wiseneedle.com, they are saying it's 18 st / 4" on a #9, which makes me feel better using a #13 to get 14 st/ in.

Guess I'll blunder ahead and see what happens.

Zigzag Cowl

Here's a little (Ravelry link) Zigzag Cowl that I whipped out while sitting at the rink. I really meant for it to last longer so that I'd have something to do, but ending up enjoying the pattern and was anxious to see how it would look. It has a picot cast on, then at the end you bindoff and turn the picot over and sew in place. I tried to think of a way to bind it off and sew it in place at the same time, but eventually realized it would leave a harder seam than binding off loosely and then using the bindoff chain to stitch it in place. Yarn used is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which is soft and warm but will felt in the blink of an eye. If I gift this I'll have to enclose care instructions.

I passed!

Woo hoo! Just received an e-mail confirmation that I passed Level 1 of TKGA's Master Hand Knitting course! Yeeeeeha!!

Second Time's a Charm

Just dropped my TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level I resubmission in the mail. I dropped it in quickly before I could second-guess myself, like ripping off a band-aid. I didn't even watch the door close.

Hopefully, this is what they are looking for and I'll be done! I purposely haven't marked it as a finished project in Ravelry because I don't want to jinx it.

When I was at the Gourmet Yarn Company the other day, Margaret asked me if I had finished it yet, and I told her it was going to have to wait until after the holidays. She asked if I had signed up for Level II yet, and I told her no, our group had decided that this course had pretty much sucked all of the fun out of knitting. But now I find myself wondering about the second level. I know I could do it, but I don't think I would have ever finished the first level had it not been for our Thursday group that worked on it all together. Looking back now, our agonizing over the seed stitch swatch is pretty funny, but it was all serious business at the time. Level II on my own would be a lonely business, but I'm curious about it...

Christmas thoughts of my mother

Christmas is over, I finished most of my Christmas knitting, and for the things I simply ran out of time to do, I substituted another gift, so the stress is over. This Christmas was a bummer for me, not because I didn't enjoy watching my boys enjoy all the wonder of Christmas or because it's a lot of work, which I don't mind doing to make the holidays special. I really missed my mother this year.

I miss the anxiety and hard work and worrying and wondering involved in getting or making her a gift. I could have given her a stick of gum with a bow on it, and she would have exclaimed and fussed over it and admired it from all angles. She sewed and crafted, so she appreciated the time involved in making a homemade gift, but appreciated anything you gave her. She enjoyed a well-set 'fancy' table, and I make it a point to use her 'special' plates, silverware, crystal and linens for Christmas and Thanksgiving, even though it all has to washed by hand aferwards and the boys ask why don't we just eat at the kitchen table like always and why is the dining room only used twice a year.

Any new or unusual dish was first admired, then sampled, then discussed at length. A creative table centerpiece was a must, even though you eventually had to move it out of the way to make room for the food. She would cut the boy's ham into such small pieces that her own food was almost cold by the time she was finished. Yet, if the boys dropped food on the tablecloth or spilled their milk, she didn't bat an eye, she thought everything they did was wonderful.

My mom believed that anything worth doing was worth doing right, and a curtain fold that was misbehaving or a flower arrangement that had been whacked too many times with a whiffleball were very carefully set to right, even if it took hours and would be back in disarray on her next visit.

My mother absolutely hated the cold, yet she would have been sitting shivering right next to me at the boys' hockey games or any sport they chose to play.

My mother died from cancer when she was 64. She never got to retire, or see her grandchildren grow up. I never got to ask her a lot of things, because we never made it to the quiet time of life where you are no longer defined by jobs and children and home renovations and all the things you spend your early adult years chasing after. We never got to set down and talk about things, from her childhood, growing up, her parents, or anything. Towards the end she asked me if there was anything that I wanted to ask her, and I was so paralyzed from fear and exhausted from working full time, taking care of two small boys and driving back and forth to Norman to doctors and hospitals, that I just couldn't form a coherent thought. I should have asked her so many things, but I didn't.

Two days after she died, I was lying in bed about to drift off to sleep when I smelled her perfume. She was letting me know that she was alright. Sometimes I walk into my dining room and smell her perfume. I joke that she's just making sure that I'm taking care of her pretty things. I have a running list in my head of Things That I Should Have Done Differently while she was still alive. I know that if I were to show it to her, she would tell me that I did everything right and that I did the best that I could. As usual, I wouldn't believe her, but I'd feel better that she said it. I'll just have to ask her later.