The Fish Knits

Okay, so here are the pictures which *should* have been in yesterday’s post. Wheee!

The official This-Sweater-is-Now-Complete photo. It was still unblocked, and I was hoping that the blocking would even out both the pouching on the pront panels (product of the knitted on ribbing being a little too tight around the curves. I did follow the pattern for number of stitches to pick up, so I figured it was supposed to work itself out in blocking) and the, er, colour… Here it is blocking away nicely. Notice the smooth curves!

Ahhh… Anyway, once there was a body in the sweater the pouching came back. As I said yesterday, I’ve decided not to worry about it. I could rip and re-knit the band, but I don’t think I’ll bother.

As for the Swing Coat Cardi, here is where I was in the debut photo from yesterday:

This is where I found out that applied i-cord is Really Cool:

And this is what the sweater looked like as I started the i-cord edging.

Cute, eh? (Oops, showing my Canadian roots there…) Hopefully I will have all the knitting and end weaving done today, and if I’m lucky the blocking too. Proper picture of it once all is complete!

Caio!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, in her un-official debut as a finished object, the Olympic Blackberry! (The crowd roars, flags wave, everyone’s a little teary…)

There. Olympic Knitting challenge, the Blackberry sweater, is complete. This was taken yesterday morning at the local Starbucks, where my family and I are perhaps a little too well known. No one bats an eyelash to see me there with my knitting. In fact, a few people walking by asked “didn’t I see you knitting that sweater just last week?”. Yes, yes you did. *blush*

So this is the un-official debut photo since I actually debuted the sweater on Tuesday morning, when I wore it to drop The Boy off at school. I know. So glamorous. There are a few of us mums who knit, and in fact until a couple of babies were born we had a sit’n'knit on Tuesday (or was it Thursday?) mornings at the above mentioned Starbucks. It was great while our kids were in school. Way to go on the “having babies” thing there, guys…;)

Since the Blackberry was done early, I thought I would round out the Olympics with a sweater for a friend’s little girl. That’s what I was working on in the debut photo (you might also notice in that photo that I am using my arms in their knitting pose to conceal part of the Blackberry sweater. I was seriously considering a rip-and-re-knit session on the ribbing around the body of the sweater since there is a funny pouching on the front panels. I naturally assumed that it was all my fault. That was, until I looked at the photo with the pattern. It pouches too. There. It’s not my fault! Since this is not exactly a classic sweater destined to be a wardrobe staple for years to come I have decided to leave it be. Besides, the kids I coach who all said it was “cool” didn’t notice, so why should I? But I digress…).

Back to the little sweater. It’s the Girlfriend Swing Coat Sweater from the lovely and talented Wendy Bernard of Knit ‘n’ Tonic. Great blog. I’m using Bernat Cotton Tots which from what I can tell is similar in construction to the Blue Sky Alpacas cotton that the pattern calls for- which I can neither buy here in Ottawa nor afford, even if it was available here. It has been a fun little project. It’s knit all in one piece from the neck down, and in true Olympic fashion, I challenged myself to learn a new technique. Applied i-cord. Very cool! At least, it was when I started playing with it this morning and all was playing well. Now that it’s almost 11:30pm and I still have the front left edge to work and it has teased and toyed with me all the way along I’m not so sure I want to be its friend. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we? I’ll re-visit the applied i-cord internal debate after the last edge is done and the sweater has had a light blocking. Then I’ll make a decision on wether or not to do it again! ( I think the “cool” factor will likely triumph, I think I just need to do it some more and figure out the ideal technique. I think I should perhaps go down a needle size to do it…? Wish I could find those knitting reference books!)

Sorry for the lack of pictures, the computer decided to be niggly this evening. I got the one up and then… nada. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some proof of Swing Coat! It’s very cute…

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for another Olympic Update!

When we last checked our athlete was doing well in the Semi Finals of the Blackberry Sweater event. Indeed, perhaps she was even getting cocky. The sweater back and both fronts were complete, and the first of the two sleeves was just about done. There were a couple of missteps, but all in all a reasonably solid performance. We’ll resume coverage now, starting with the “Read the pattern, sister” portion of the event.

So now really. How many of you looked at the picture of the sleeve which I had declared done except for the crossing of the cables and thought Hmmm. Doesn’t look so done to me… That many? wow. Took me till the next morning when I looked at it and thought there’s no way there is enough depth in that sleeve cap. I re read the pattern and hey! What do you know! The designer really *did* know what she was doing, and it was (unfortunately) the fault of the knitter. Don’t you hate that? I ripped it back and reknit the cables and the rest of the sleeve cap and set off to the other side of sleeve island. Sleeve #2.

I have had a lot of fun knitting this project (although if I didn’t have to make another bobble for a few years I don’t think I would miss them), and watching how quickly the thing materialized off the needles was über cool. Last night I set about the seaming and border. Here’s what I learned.

1) I need to dye more wool. The bobbles are yarn hogs! Good thing I still have some left over.

2) Even though things seemed to go wonderfully in the sewing up department things aren’t always as they seem…

Here’s where things get a little Twilight Zone-ish. You may notice that there is a different amount of cable left over at the top of each sleeve. Count the cable crosses. There are 13 on each sleeve. There are more rows at the top of right sleeve than the left. No biggie, I’ll just knit a little more at the top of the left sleeve. But wait. The left sleeve is, if anything, 2 rows too long to meet up properly with the armhole of the back and front. The thing is though, that I didn’t really notice the problem until after I had picked up the stitches all around the lower left side of the back to the lower right, up the front, over the top of the right shoulder, across the neck and got to the left shoulder (that’s why the sweater looks all bunched up- 3/4 of it has had stitches picked up so it’s sitting on a cable). Please no one mention the fact that I took so long to notice this little error. I was watching the Games. Has your knitting been perfect? Eh? That’s what I thought….

So I checked my seams.

They look fine. I don’t get it. I guess now what I’ll have to do is dye that yarn so that I can finish the border ribbing (if it ever comes to that…) then undo my left sleeve seams and start over. I imagine that should do it. If not, well… send more wine. If I have enough of it I won’t mind.

In other news, there’s this:

I am stoked! I just realized that I have the ideal yarn in stash. De stashing! Great!! But I have a question for all those of you with some modicum of math skills (unlike me, with none whatsoever). The pattern calls for two 50g balls of laceweight yarn, each with 437 yds. The yarn is held doubled throughout. Now this is what I have:

One 100g skein, with 450 yds. Will this work?? I am thinking yes, but I’m willing to bet that I’ll have my arse kicked if I just jump right in with both feet. So mathematicians out there, help me out, wouldja?

And lastly but not least(ly), I offer this sad sight.

*No, I don’t store it all twisted up. Call it Art Direction.

I broke the tip off of one of my Denise cables. A long one. Sure could use that cable right about now for picking up and knitting all those hundreds of stitches around the Blackberry…

[ed] I almost forgot! This has been making me laugh myself silly for days, and since it is hard to email a link to everyone you can think of to let them share in the fun I thought I’d stick the link up on the blog. It’s a performance of Make you Happy Tonight by Tripod, a comedy troupe out of Australia. Enjoy!

Let the games begin!

I have been remiss lately in posting my progress in the Games of the I Knitting Olympiad, and let me tell you, there has been the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat going on here in Ottawa (anyone else remember watching the Olympics on ABC Sports?).

Two nights before the opening ceremonies I was warming up with a little swatching and all was going well. The fingers were cooperating, as was the yarn. Things were looking good. After Evan was in bed I was more or less able to ignore the nagging headache I had had for a little over a week, so I was in game shape.

Day before opening ceremonies. Headache refuses to be ignored any longer. (er, excuse me, Sarah? Yeah, you. This is your headache talking. I know you’ve done everything you can think of to get rid of me in the past week or so- short of tossing your son out in the snow to get some peace and quiet- but I have to tell you, I’ve had enough. I will not be ignored any longer. Here. Have some back pain. You feel me now??) Trip to doctor provides prescription for Tramadol. I’m told this stuff works wonders, has the power of Tylenol 3s and doesn’t have any of the nasty side-effects. Great. I can still knit. Victory!

Wait a minute now… what’s this? One doesn’t do it? Ok, I can take two. Let’s go with that next time.
That evening I took two and was promptly knocked flat… I called a friend of mine who I was to go climbing with (hey- it was still before the ceremonies, I wasn’t wasting knitting time!) and his reaction to my message was “I wasn’t sure if you were kinda spacey or just really sad you weren’t coming climbing with me…” Love ya Gump. Our neighbour called and asked “Dude… what’re you on??” Ok, so it’s pretty clear. No knitting tonight. Defeat.

Friday? Sleep. I got up in the evening to cast on and was so proud of myself for doing this:

**Just a note about the photos of this project- my camera hates the colour of this yarn. I don’t think I have been able to take a single decent shot of it. So, please bear that in mind when looking at these. I am not, in fact, knitting a crazy technicolour almost-fluorescent pink… thing. It’s pretty muted, and I fully expect to be dyeing it again once it is finished. Back to the post…

Looks great! I got to the armhole shaping and went to bed. Victory! In the morning I measured it to see how well I was doing. What’s this? Too wide? But my swatch was perfect!

Swatches lie.

Somehow my knitting had grown from 11 sts/4″ to 10 sts/4″. This gained me an extra 2″ in width under the arms. I think I probably would have left it under normal circumstances, but this is the Olympics, and I am trying to be a Better Knitter. Off to the frogpond it goes. Defeat.

So this is now Day 2, and I have Fallen Behind. I am bound and determined to catch up. This is where I have to say that a certain little thought had begun to weedle its way into my brain. I re-knit the back. I knit the right front. Then I knit the left. Oh. Um… Victory….? I have a sneaking suspicion that I chose a pattern that is slightly, well, easy. Hmmm. Let’s think a little more on that one.

Enter Day 3. It’s now Monday and I’ve had a weekend of rest and not much recovery. I am still in a whole lotta pain from the headache, and the super-whammy pain killers haven’t done their job. I’ve also got pain running all down my neck and back if I look down and whenever I move there’s pain in my lower back spreading over my hips and into my legs (I got all that knitting done by not moving much at all). I head back into the doc’s office, totally stump him as to what’s up with me, get a new scrip for Celebrex (which seems to be doing some good…) learn that I’m in something like only 7% of patients who experience negative side effects from the last stuff, and head off to get blood tests done. The upside to all this? Knitting time!

About 2/3 of this was done in various waiting rooms today (thanks for watching Evan, Mum!). The last third was done (and, er, re-done) while watching Olympic coverage tonight. See if you can spot the re-do… No? Ok, here it is:

I noticed as I was about to make a bobble that the one 4 rows before was offset by 2 stitches. I tried to be clever and just unhook the stitches involved and re make it, but somehow I had managed the first time to make an extra stitch! So, the 4 rows got ripped back and re-knit. I forged on ahead to finish the sleeve before bed and Voila! Done! Victory!

Oh wait…

Crap.

Guess I had better pay more attention to those cable crosses… Now I am thinking, if indeed the pattern I have chosen gets done way faster than expected, there are a few things I can do to fill up the rest of the games. 1)Knit a hat or more for Dulaan. 2)Knit the hat I promised Chris (as well as #1? maybe…) 3) Finish knitting Rogue (sleeves left) and put it together or 4) Finish knitting Joshua’s Durrow sweater (Sleeves) and finally give him something lovingly handknit by me, his cherished wife.

Any voters out there?

Well. I never thought I’d be getting political on the Blog. Just a quick little post for now, back to the knitting shortly.

The cartoons again. I know. I have been so dissapointed in the craziness that’s been going on over The Cartoons over the last week or so, that I have to admit, I have been largely shutting out the news (well, because of that and the new Conservative government, but let’s not go there…).

Stephanie over at And She Knits Too wrote a great post about this very thing. I’ll wait here if you’d like to go read it now…

So, as for me, the things that are really getting up my nose are these:

1) Freedom of the press should not, in my opinion, be a liscence to disseminate hatred, bigotry, racism, misogyny, anti-semetism, name-your-intolerance-here. As far as I’m concerned nothing could be gained from printing the cartoons in question.

2) The prophet Muhammed taught forgiveness. As Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”

That’s how I see it from where I sit.
Knitting content will resume shortly.