What's a Knitter to Do...

...after two solid days of trolling Ravelry and looking through old knitting magazines and polling the blog and still not finding a cardigan pattern that jumps out and grabs her interest?

If you're this knitter, you become utterly disgusted with knitting, knitters, yarn, patterns, the internet, and life in general. Then you open your closet and look at previous sweaters for inspiration.

And if you're this knitter, you remember that sweater you knitted four years ago and loved knitting so much you promised yourself you'd do it again. And you realize it is one of the most frequently-worn sweaters in your wardrobe, and you would really, really like another one. And then you toss the stash, find some yarn, and cast that sucker on without a backward glance.

This is Ariann (from Chic Knits), which I knitted back in 2007. I had some issues with the knitting of it, exacerbated by the yarn (100% raw silk, which is a b*tch to knit), and the fact that I knitted most of it in the car on the way to and from Lake Tahoe, with two young boys and two large dogs mixing it up in the back seat the whole way. It initially did not turn out well, but after a rework a few months later, it became a favorite in my spring/summer rotation. Super easy to toss on when I'm trying to disguise the fact that I am wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt for the third straight day. I blogged it here (much better pictures).

I always wanted a second version in wool to wear in the cooler seasons. There is no way the Berroco Peruvia I've been dying to cast on was going to work, so I bit the bullet and set it aside. But I did find just the right amount of a nice, dark brown worsted weight wool in the stash, and quickly cast on the first sleeve.

I dearly love the stitch pattern for this sweater. It's quite simple and easily memorized and I can knit it almost as fast as stockinette, even while watching tv, but it's much more interesting to work.

I can hear several of you exclaiming, "But it's lace! Yarnhog hates knitting lace! Lace is the bane of her knitting existence! How is this possible?" My friends, I have no idea. Ariann seems to be the one exception to the Lace Curse. I don't know why it doesn't cause me to break out in boils and spew pea soup while my head spins 360 degrees, but it doesn't. Let's just keep this quiet, shall we? I'd rather the Knitting Goddess not get wind of it.

The second sleeve is on the needles now, and then I'll get to work on the body. One of the great things about this pattern is that, while it is bottom up rather than my preferred top-down, the body is knitted in one piece, the sleeves are then attached to the body, and the yoke is worked all in one piece from there, meaning there are only two tiny seams to sew under the arms when it's done. Love that!

I'm still on the lookout for my Perfect Cardigan for this year, and the opportunity to use my Peruvia, but for the time being Ariann is taking the edge off.

And the Winner Is...

...little rolled collar! Wait. That's a cowl. Well, yeah. See, even though the vote was clearly on the side of the little rolled hem, I decided, I'm the knitter, I'm the wearer, so I'm going to make what I want!


And I love it. :)


Not that it wouldn't have looked great with the little rolled collar--it would have been adorable. But I planned it as a cowl and I really wanted a cowl, so...


Right now it is blocking on Bertha (my typical blocking method, because it gives the fabric a realistic stretch). It seems to have grown about 3 inches in length, which is what I had planned, so it should fit perfectly, but I'll have to wait until it is dry to be sure. (That's why there are still yarn ends hanging loose. Experience has taught me it is much easier to pick out the bind off if you haven't already woven in the ends prior to blocking. Once I'm sure the length is right, I'll weave in the ends.)

Modeled shots to follow.

Escape From Sleeve Island

In all the years I've been knitting sweaters--and I've knitted a lot of sweaters--I've only found one way off Sleeve Island, and that's full speed ahead.

The first sleeve of Francis Again took me three weeks to finish. Now, I'll admit I was distracted by other things, like Mosaic Madness, but still, three weeks is an unreasonable length of time for a single sleeve. So yesterday, when I finally bound off the first sleeve, I immediately cast on the second and decided to knit until it was done.

As you can see, it's done! (I know the sleeves look really short--it's deliberate. This yarn is going to grow like a teenager in the summertime when it hits water, so I knitted everything short in anticipation of wet blocking.)

I've been looking forward to casting on the lovely, large cowl neck, but when I tried this on, my husband took one look and insisted I not put on a collar at all, or if I had to have one, just a minimal little rolling edge collar. Now, I really want the cowl, but he made me agree to ask the blog for its opinion first.

So what say you, Blog?

Large, floppy cowl?

Or little, rolled edge?

We await your decision.

FO: Spicy Tweed

It's been a while since I put up an FO post for an actual knitted object, so I'm happy to present Spicy Tweed!

This was my WIP Cup project, and I finished with five days to spare, even though it took me two days to get around to sewing on the buttons.

Details:

Pattern: Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan. Great pattern, as usual with Norah, but be aware there are thousands and thousands of twisted stitches, so if ptbl drives you bonkers, you might want to think twice.

Yarn: Harrisville Wool and Flax. This is an odd yarn. I'm still not sure whether I like it. It is composed of two softly twisted, woolen spun plies. It splits easily, which is a pain when working so many cables and twisted stitches. There is also a remarkable amount of scratchy vegetable matter in this yarn--more than Noro by quite a bit. The only yarn I've ever seen so much vm in is the "barn yarn" I used for the KH's On The Road sweater, and that was half price due to the amount of vm. The yarn is light and lofty, but not particularly soft, even after washing. And it grew like crazy with washing. It doesn't seem inclined to pill, though, which is a big plus in my book, and it's very warm. Time will tell whether this one gets a thumbs up.

Needles: Knit Picks Options circs, sizes 6 and 7. I very carefully swatched, measured, washed, and measured again, settling on sizes 5 and 6 to give me just the right size. And after I had finished the back and began the cast on for the first front, I realized I had mistakenly used size 6 and 7 needles. Ripping was out of the question, so I accepted that I would have an oversized cardigan. Which it is. Very oversized. I think it's about 40" in the bust, where I am about 35" in the bust. Not my best fitting sweater, but comfy, nonetheless.

Thoughts: I didn't really enjoy knitting this. I am at a loss to explain why. I was really looking forward to it; I was excited about both the yarn and the pattern, which were well matched; it was interesting without being too difficult--but still, every time I picked it up, I lost interest within a few minutes. That's why I decided to do it for the WIP Cup. Even now, with it done, I'm only lukewarm about it.

At least the weather cooperated for my FOto shoot. It's about 65 degrees here and overcast; It looks and feels a whole lot more like fall than summer!

Wipping Things Into Shape

Unlike the U.S. team, my WIP Cup project is still in the running.

I finished the sleeves last night and sewed all the seams while watching a couple episodes of "Medium". It hasn't been blocked yet, so it looks pretty lumpy, but I love these cables.


I'm going to get to work on the collar today and then block it while I choose some buttons from my little button stash.

But Spicy is only a small part of the wipping we've been up to around here. My other project yesterday was this:

See that massive pile of vines? Nine or ten years ago I planted two one-gallon vines, one on each side of the arbor over the dining room window, not visible in this picture. In the interim, those vines have all but taken over the back of my house. Initially I was really pleased with the way they grew and spread and completely covered the 30 year old patio cover that has seen better days. But they are amazingly messy, necessitating daily sweeping of the patio, and the patio cover itself is in desperate need of repair and paining.


So yesterday, with the aid of the KH, I tackled the removal of the vines. It was horrible. Hot, sweaty, and absolutely filthy. We live across from a nature preserve, which mostly seems to preserve millions of rats. They love our yard. There is food galore from my fruit trees and vegetables, a constant source of fresh water from the pool, and lots of vegetation they can hide in. Like piles of vines. When the KH fired up the hedge trimmer and made the first cut, half a dozen of them flew out of the vines like...well...rats.

In yanking and pulling and chopping down the vines, I came across at least half a dozen separate rats' nests. And the poop...oh, God, the poop! I'm sure I have hanta virus.

It took about four hours to yank down and chop up all the vines. I filled every trash can and yard waste can we own, and finally resorted to stuffing the cuttings in large trash bags for future pick up (the city will only take trash in city cans).

But here's the result.

Of course the sad state of the patio cover is now all the more obvious, but that will soon be remedied. We're going to repair it, beef up the posts, and paint the whole thing. I figure I can get at least a few more years out of it.

I can't believe how much more light there is in the house now! I had forgotten how bright the kitchen and family room were before the vines grew in. I love all the light.

Best of all, without the vines on the patio cover, I won't have to sweep the patio every day, and the kids and dogs won't be continually tracking leaves and debris into the house from the back yard.

The kids lost no time in taking advantage of the newly-cleaned patio with a nighttime pool party and S'mores roast:

All in all, a successful day.

Next week, after the trash cans are emptied, I have to tackle this:

That's my son's bedroom window in danger of being swallowed up by the same vines.

But as Scarlett said, I'll think about that tomorrow.