FO: Prosperous

I know I posted this morning, but I was able to get a decent picture to show, so this is a bonus post.


Pattern: Prosperous Plum

Size: 32" finished bust

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece; 2.5 skeins "Dusty Sage"

Modifications: very few. I made it two inches longer (1 inch below the waist shaping; 1 inch above) to accommodate my height. I worked two rows of single crochet for the edging instead of two rows of crab stitch (since I don't know what that is).

Thoughts: I love this pattern. It is worked in the round with only two short seams for the shoulders. The pattern is made up of two simple charts. The only slightly tricky part is the picot edging, which requires a provisional cast on and seam. The designer recommends four inches of negative ease, which seems to be about right. As I already mentioned, mine ended up with only two inches of negative ease, and it is a little looser than I would have liked. Still, it fits pretty well and is comfortable and very wearable.

Greek Style

I finished Prosperous last night. Here's a blocking shot.

Note to self: overhead kitchen lighting at night + digital camera = crappy photo.

I haven't had a chance to get one of it on. That may take a day or two. I'm not thrilled with the crocheted edging at the front of the neckline. It's not visible in this photo, but it seems to be pulling to one side a bit. I may pull it back and redo that part. The pattern calls for two rows of "crab stitch" around the edges. Since I don't know what that is, I did two rows of single crochet. I'm happy with it, except for that little uneven area.

And, since there is no way I could have slept without having a sweater on the needles, I cast on for Grecian Plaits:


If you look at the bottom edge, you will see that it uses a provisional cast on. This is one I've never seen before. The designer calls it an "invisible cast on." I don't know whether that is her name for it or a common name that I've just never heard. It is a bit fiddly--it took me about six tries to figure out how to do it--but I think it may be the easiest one yet, once you get the hang of it. I'll let you know when I try to pull out the waste yarn and pick up the stitches, in another 46 (!) inches.

I have now collected several different provisional cast ons, most with links showing how to do them. I will put them all together into one post, with a link to it in on my sidebar, so that anyone faced with the need for one can look up the options and pick the one that appeals the most. If that interests you, look for it in the next couple of days. Now I'm off to take the kids bike riding on Coronado Island.

Busted...and Not Busted

My husband came downstairs this morning while I was paying bills. He looked a bit miffed. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"I just figured out how you played me."
"Huh?" I responded, looking perfectly innocent, because, naturally, I never play him.
"I'm talking about the attic. I just figured out why you really wanted that door," he elaborated. He doesn't usually read my blog, so I continued to look innocent. "I looked in that closet where you keep your yarn. It's completely full." I just stared at him blankly. "There is no more room for yarn in the closet. That's why you wanted to get into the attic." He looked triumphant. I just grinned foolishly.
Busted.

In other news, here's Prosperous.


Isn't it lovely? I continue to love the yarn and the pattern. Last night, I finished the front shaping and, following the directions, tried it on to determine how long to make the straps. I made this with a 32 inch chest, because the designer recommended 4 inches of negative ease, and I have a 36 inch chest. I was a little surprised, then, that it was so loose around the chest. I was expecting clingy. I got drapey. I took it off and checked the measurements. 32 inches. I checked my gauge. 19 stitches to four inches, exactly as it should be. I checked the pattern. Yep--four inches of negative ease recommended. I looked at the work in progress expectantly for a little while, waiting for it to tell me why it was so loose. Finally, out of ideas, I decided to measure my bust. Not that I thought that would tell me anything. I am a 36. I've been a 36 for twenty years. My bras are all 36's. I always knit for a 36 inch bust. I got out my tape measure and wrapped it around my chest. Over my shirt. Over my (lightly padded) bra. Just as I thought...34 inches. Wait. I must have measured wrong. Re-wrap, checking the position of the tape. 34 inches. Get my glasses, because I must be reading this wrong. 34 inches.

34 inches. I am 5'11". 34 inches? That's ridiculous! Where did the other two inches go? Did they disappear while I was sleeping? Are they on vacation in Mexico? I looked in the mirror. I wrapped the tape measure around my hips. Nope. They haven't left. They've just moved south. Damn.

Out of the Closet

We didn't have an attic when I was growing up. Our house had a flat roof, hence, no space for an attic. We also didn't have a basement. No one does in Southern California. Earthquakes, you know. So "storage space" to me has always meant "the garage." So much so that, when we bought our house eight years ago, I never even thought about using the attic for storage. In eight years, I have never once looked in the attic. I know it's there; there is a tiny trapdoor in my yarn closet that leads up there. But the trapdoor is so small, a person can barely squeeze through, and that's only if you first drag a ladder upstairs, make space in the closet, and then climb the ladder, remove the trapdoor, and wiggle through into the unfinished attic above, being very careful to step only on the joists, since there is no floor.

So maybe it's not so surprising that it never occurred to me, in my never-ending quest for storage space, that we could actually use the enormous open area above our ceiling. A few weeks ago, it occurred to me, as I was climbing over the file boxes piled in our "storage room" in the garage and clambering up the elliptical trainer to reach the suitcases, that, if we just put in an actual access door to the attic and laid some plywood, we could have a HUGE storage space without adding onto the house.

This is an enormous realization, no matter how stupid I am for not considering it for eight years. We run a law practice and have boxes and boxes of files that we are required to keep for years and years. Our office does not have storage space, so they stay at our house. It doesn't take long for these files to overrun any available space in the house or garage. We have cleared space, installed shelving, and stacked boxes in several places, several times, to accommodate these files. Lately, we concluded that we needed to move the files to a rental space, just to reclaim our garage for our own things. But that was before I remembered the attic.

Today, we got a handyman out. And in just a few hours, we went from this:


To this:

And another lightbulb went off. All together now: STASH STORAGE!

General Audiences

Bummer.

Can't...Stop...Knitting...

This Cotton Fleece is absurdly addictive. I've knitted some nice yarns in my time, but the speed, ease, and comfort of this stuff is amazing. Here's Prosperous:

My buddy Rod is there for scale. Prosperous is knitted in the round, so this is almost half of the complete project. And may I just point out, this is ONE skein of Cotton Fleece! This pattern is delightful, too. Two simple charts, all in the round, almost no finishing, and written clearly and correctly. I did have to rip back once--my own error: s2 k1 p2sso is not the same as s1 k1 psso. Who'd have thought? But I caught it early, and as you can see, it didn't slow me down much.

I've already found two more patterns I want to do in Cotton Fleece, and I have plans for a couple of my own as well. Whatever am I going to do with all that wool in the stash?

Prosperous

The best thing about finishing a project is getting to start another one.

This is Prosperous (pdf link). The designer named it Prosperous Plum, which made sense for her, since she used purple. I'm going with the more succinct "Prosperous". And I love it. Of course, I always love a project when I cast it on. It's only later, when the road starts getting rocky, that the passion fades and I have second thoughts and wonder if I might have been better off with Grecian Plaits. Or Swallowtail. Or that cute cardigan I saw that one time at that yarn store the next town over. I really should have gotten its name. But I digress.

Look at that adorable (yes, I'm really going to refer to it as "adorable") picot hem! Ignoring for the moment that it was an enormous pain in the butt--provisional cast on, worsted weight on size 5 needles, fold over and knit one stitch off each needle together until you reach the end or your hand falls off--it is a beautiful detail. The hemming gives the edge a nice weight and body that should really help the finished sweater to drape well. And look at that great little eyelet detail!

I'm doing this one in Cotton Fleece, which Green Apples has recommended very highly. I can see why. This is a lovely yarn, 80% cotton, 20% wool. It is very soft, and has the nice dry hand of cotton with the springiness of wool. Unlike many cottons I've worked with (see the baby dress and blanket), it is not heavy or stiff, and the stitches are smooth and even. At about $8 for a 100 gram skein with 215 yards, it's more expensive than the yarns I usually buy, but not outrageous. (I am the queen of internet yarn sales, so I generally get my yarns at about half the retail price. I actually had to go to the not-so-local yarn store for this and pay full price.) This tank should take three skeins, which is well within bounds of what I consider a reasonable price.

And now a question. If you use or have used a provisional cast on, which one do you/did you use? There seem to be at least three variations, and I dislike all of them. I know of two versions that use a crocheted chain, meaning you first crochet a chain, then pick up and knit stitches in the crochet loops. When you are ready to take out the cast on edge, the crochet chain just unzips, and you can pick up the live stitches. The disadvantage to this one is the extra step of crocheting a chain, and then the tedium of picking up stitches in a narrow crocheted chain.

The other version I know uses a long tail cast on with one of the tails being a piece of scrap yarn. This is quicker to cast on--it works exactly like a regular long tail cast on. The disadvantage is that the scrap yarn does not unzip. You have to carefully cut and pick it out one stitch at a time when you are ready to expose the live stitches. I used this method for Prosperous, and I was not a happy camper.

Does anyone have another provisional cast on, maybe one that combines the ease of a long-tail with the simplicity of unzipping the crocheted chain? Or am I way too optimistic that such a thing is possible?