Wow! Four years!

My move to another state really disrupted my whole knitting life. I had to close down websites, say goodbye to a design job I loved at Hobby Lobby, and dive into a new state, new friends and new adventures. Finally, I am organized and re-energized to knit.

I have a new knitting design but it needs test knit and the yarn for the three sizes will be a little pricey. So I'm waiting for a good sale and/or the right time. It's a men's chunky cabled pullover with a shawl collar. It was a special request from my husband, who with me spends a lot of time in freezing cold ice rinks watching our boys play hockey.

I have also completely revamped Summerbelle and will be publishing it as soon as a sunny day for pictures appears.

Also simmering are some quick holiday gift designs.

And, gulp, I finally bought yarn for Siobhan in Jean Frost Jackets by Jean Frost. I couldn't swing the Euroflax sportweight, so I am hopeful that my substitute yarn, Fibra Natura Flax in Blue Spruce (close to emerald green, but a little more blue) will be just as gorgeous as the picture in the book.

OTN: contract knitting job, a Michael Kors Cabled Tunic in luscious, I-could-never-afford, Louise Harding Grace Silk & Wool.

Crop Circles Coat not happening

Meet Crop Circles, a double-knit coat by M'Lou Baber. I had been corresponding on Ravelry with another member who was knitting this coat who had run into some problems with the sleeves, but had solved the problem and shared her solution with me. My sleeve problem was very different, however, and unfortunately will result in my having to remove the sleeve and rip back 2/3 of the coat. Is this the fault of the pattern or the designer? No. The fault is all mine.

This is a coat, not a cardigan, and I was afraid after seeing other pictures that I'd look like a big fat penguin in it. So, I added waist shaping. However, having never done double knitting before much less decreasing in double knit, I did not understand that the thickness of the fabric would cause it to bubble if the decreases were not spaced very far apart. Mine were not. Thus, the camel hump right at the waist. So, I'm either going to have to rip back to where the decreases started, or rip back to the beginning and decrease very slowly.

The second problem caused by my waist shaping, was that it removed stitches from the chest and shoulder area, which changed the drop shoulder to a fitted shoulder, making the sleeves too short. (They were going to be too short anyway, I have freakishly long arms.) I will have to add several inches to the sleeves, which means redoing the sleeve decreases as well. I also noticed after examining the book's photos more closely, that there were originally TWO DIFFERENT sleeve patterns, but only one was included with the pattern. Will have to think about that later.

So, now, I am faced with ripping out 50+ hours of work which will probably take several hours due to the twisting of the two yarns, and recharting the sleeves. Or, I could just throw it back in the closet and pretend it doesn't exist for awhile or forever. Is it Happy Hour anywhere?

How to knit a circle

At first glance, knitting a circle would seem fairly straightforward. You could either start at the middle and increase slowly around until your circle was the right size. This works well in lace knitting, because the yarnover (YO) holes help take out the bulk, allowing what is essentially a cone (you're knitting a spiral, not a series of rings that start and end at the exact same place) to lay flat as a circle. What if there are no YOs in your design?

Being an engineer, I went to the trusty graph paper, thinking just start with a few stitches, increase one on each until you reach the right circumference for your circle. Nope, that makes a diamond. And to add to the complexity, what if your gauge is 3 sts / 4 rows to one inch? Not square (or rectilinear, to be more precise).

Enter knitter's graph paper! You can chart anything no matter how wacky your stitch/row gauge. Here's some I use a lot:

www.tata-tatao.to/knit/matrix/e-index.html

Now on to chart my 36 stitch by 48 row circle (you'd think that would make an oval, wouldn't you?!?)...

Mark the diameter points both horizontally and vertically, and mark the center of the circle. Using a compass (come on, you know you still have your old metal one from 6th grade in a drawer somewhere), trace out your circle:



Now just repeat that evenly in each direction, and you have your circle chart!

I'm Published! (sorta)

Was just in Hobby Lobby and saw my very first project for them, Cabled Tunic. I received this pattern from them and was asked to rewrite it, so it's technically not my design, but I changed about 60% of it and feel like it's "my baby." The pattern was originally written in Chinese and had been translated by someone, but was lacking the customary knitting information and directions, and it had been written in one size for a different yarn. So, I rewrote the pattern to use Hobby Lobby's Yarn Bee Snowflake yarn, and to add sizing for small, medium and large. I was so excited to finally see the pattern in print that I came straight home and added it to Ravelry's pattern database, created a project for it, and uploaded my own pictures. I've also discovered the pattern online (since it's free, anyway). It's on Hobby Lobby's Project Inspiration tab of their website.

A Visit From the Stupidity Fairy

I received a set of interchangeable knitting needles for Christmas from The Gourmet Yarn Company and have really enjoyed them. (Okay, the truth is: I told my husband what I wanted, he got a glazed look in his eyes, I received a gift card. Whatever works. ;)

I am working on a contract project for Hobby Lobby that I've mentioned before. (It's drying on the blocking board right now, and I'm squeaking with pride, I LOVE it!). But, a tragedy occured during the washing process. I left the shoulder stitches of the sweater's back side on one of the interchangeable cables with stops on the end. The picture above shows my woe -- the cable ends snapped off inside the stops. Waaah!

When I wash a sweater by hand, I gently wring the water out of it, then spread it out flat on a dry towel, roll the sweater up in the towel like a sausage, and then place it on the floor and walk up and down it to wring out more water. Then, I unroll it and repeat with another dry towel. Sweaters dry in record time without fear of mildew in my humid climate. However, little plastic discs are no match for a zealous knitter stomping the water out of her creation. I used a couple of spare Addi's for the fronts. ;)

Catching Up, Hobby Lobby and Bobbles

I have discovered an interesting thing about bobbles while knitting a project for Hobby Lobby (more on that later). You can push them through to the back side of your knitting if you want to. They (the bobbles) don't like it much, but, as Elizabeth Zimmermann says, "you are the boss of your knitting." Now, why would anyone go to the trouble of knitting a bobble only to push it to the wrong side? Why, button placement, of course. Some of the bobbles on this project are to be omitted for a button. So, if I screw up and make a bobble where a button should be, I have recourse. Always good to have options.

I began a contract relationship with Hobby Lobby last fall and have really enjoyed it. They tell me what yarn to use and what object they want knitted and some guidelines, and let me do the rest. So far I haven't seen anything in print that I've done. As soon as I see it in print, I'll post pictures here and on Ravelry and (hopefully) drum up some interest. So far, I've done a woman's tunic, baby/toddler tunics with matching headbands and coordinating blankets, and am now working on a hooded duster. The downside is, once I turn in the article and pattern to them, I never see it again. I don't have copyrights or even any final editing review. Since this is my first "gig", I didn't want to blow it by making a bunch of demands up front.

We'll see what happens when these first few items are published. If there are editing errors, I will ask for final review. I'm not at all meaning to imply that they're a bunch of screwups, they are in fact a great group of creative, non-ego, truly nice people. My concern is that a non-knitter will make pattern changes for the sake of print brevity and not realize the implications. Hopefully my fears are unfounded.

What have I been doing since November of 2010? I dunno, it's all a blur. See Ravelry for a list of my knitted items, good and bad. ha.

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.