Goodbye, Molly

Molly

September 29, 1996-February 20, 2008

Goodbye, Molly. You'll always be Real.

Incommunicado

I will be incommunicado for the next week, playing in the snow with the kids, hiking with the dogs, and trying not to break my neck learning to snowboard. I hope everyone has a lovely week!

Shock and Awe

First, I want to thank everyone for the great suggestions. I've looked at all the patterns and I love many of them. But with the CPH all but done and winter on the wane (and rapidly around here--it's been in the mid-70s all week), I've made a radical decision. I will not cast on a new project for my Tahoe trip. I know, it's shocking. Instead, I will finish this:

Yes, it's good old Death By Cables, otherwise known as the Dickinson Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman. This juggernaut has been on the needles since October (and is my only UFO), and I believe I have finished at least four other sweaters and one afghan in the meantime. It's not that I don't love it--I do--but just look at the thing! There's a lot going on there, and I rarely have the sort of uninterrupted knitting time I need for this degree of complexity. (I'd appreciate it if you could not point out that this may not be the ideal project for working in the car with two large dogs and two small children bouncing around and demanding snacks and stops and attention. I have high hopes and I do not want them dashed. Besides, if I take no other projects with me, I will be forced to work on this--or find a yarn shop.)

I've finished the back and most of the front, and then there are the sleeves left to do, and the collar, and the finishing. There should be enough to keep me busy for the week we're gone, especially considering the frogging factor. For every twenty rows I work, I invariably have to rip back five to correct some error in one of the three charts used for each row. And if I do finish early, what better reward than a little side trip to a local yarn shop?

As for the CPH, it is all sewn together and I am knitting on the hood. Then it just needs button bands and buttons, and it will be done. And speaking of buttons:

I made these this morning. I really enjoy making buttons like this. It only took a few minutes and maybe a dollar's worth of polymer clay. Since I like a rustic, handmade look, I don't have to be too precise or drive myself crazy trying to get them perfect. It's simple, inexpensive, and fun. If you need buttons for a project, I highly recommend trying it for yourself.

I can't for the life of me get a decent picture of the buttons against the sweater. My camera keeps trying to compensate for the reflective quality of the buttons against the matte fabric. You'll have to take my word it that the buttons do look very nice with the gorgeous Malabrigo. I made them to blend in, because I don't want anything to call attention away from the beautiful colors in the yarn.

Missing

Missing: six skeins of Noro Silver Thaw. Purple, turquoise, and green. Very soft and slightly fuzzy. Has never been out of its bag, and is probably frightened. Was picked up by UPS on January 21 and hasn't been seen since. If found, please contact me. I miss it!

Yes, sadly the sweater's worth of Silver Thaw that I ordered weeks ago is missing in action.

Good news: Sue at Little Knits is wonderful. She's saved me more than once when I've failed to plan ahead (most notably with Icarus), and she's always willing to go the extra mile for a customer. She has determined that UPS picked up the package (she has a receipt), so she can file a claim.

Bad news: That was the last six skeins of the color I want.

Good news: There is more coming in soon and she will send it right out.

Bad news: This was to be my Lake Tahoe project, but will not arrive in time.

Good news: I get to pick a new project.

Bad news: I have two projects in the immediate queue, but neither one is the sort I want for a long car trip. Too complex.

Good news: I know lots of knitters!

I need something fairly simple, but not boring. I want a sweater, of course. I don't want to design it. I'd prefer a pullover. I have lots of dk and worsted weight yarn in sweater quantities. I'm in the middle of a couple of house projects that need to be finished before we leave, so I'm short on time for hunting for patterns. But I know you all have lists of great sweater patterns just waiting to be made, so I've decided to put myself in your most capable hands. Recommendations, anyone?

Sometimes I Knit

Yes, sometimes I do knit. Despite testing and karate and music lessons and birthday parties and painting and volunteering and shopping and cooking and cleaning and laundry and pets and plants and "Moooommmmm! He took my (fill in the blank) and won't give it back!", I have been working on my CPH.

My love affair with Malabrigo shows no signs of cooling anytime soon, and I continue to get perfect gauge, much to my surprise. After some fiddling, the picture above shows the color pretty accurately. The back and the fronts are done, and I've almost finished the first sleeve. I've made the body about two inches longer than the pattern calls for (and now I'm thinking I should have made it longer still), but I am resisting the urge to lengthen the sleeves. I always, always make sleeves too long, no matter who the garment is for, but especially when it is for me. I have unusually long arms, and every shirt, sweater, or jacket I have ever bought has had sleeves that are too short. It drives me crazy. I hate pulling and tugging at my sleeves all day, trying hopelessly to make them cover my bony wrists. I am so determined not to make the sleeves on my sweaters too short that I invariably make them too long. And since I usually knit them from the cuff upward, it's not easy to change them once they're made. Even when I knit from the top down, they usually end up too long after blocking, since knits tend to grow in length. And because I'm never sure how much they'll grow, I err on the side of too long.

I generally add an inch to the sleeve length when I use a commercial pattern. But in this case, all the FO pictures I've seen of this show sleeves that are waaaay too long for the wearer. So I'm thinking I might do well to use the measurements given--which are the same as I usually use for my own designs.

I'm debating whether I want buttons or a zipper to close this one. I had decided on a zipper, until I remembered that I already have a dark green zippered cardi that I made last spring. So maybe I'll use buttons for this one. Maybe I'll make buttons for this one. I can picture something in swirly green and black.

I'm hoping to have this one finished before next weekend, when we will be driving to Lake Tahoe for "ski week." I don't know if the rest of the country shares this tradition, but around here, most schools close for the week of the Presidents' Day holiday, and everyone who can seems to hop in a car or on a plane and seek out snow. I suppose most of you don't have to travel to see it, but around here, it takes a little effort to find winter. Not only would I like to have this to wear, but I'd also like to start a new project for the car trip. I have my husband convinced that he really likes driving for 11 hours straight.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Guess who's eight today? My baby! He's the one in the hat. Happy Birthday, Goober!

Now I'm off to bake a cake (carrot, as requested).

FO: Dorothea

At last. This has been done for about two weeks, but I only just got pictures.

Pattern: Dorothea by Elsebeth Lavold, from Designer's Choice, book ten ("The Kashmiri Love Collection"--but let's not go there).

Size: Medium (38.5")

Yarn: Believe it or not, Elsebeth Lavold Chunky Al, the exact yarn called for in the pattern, in color 006. 13 balls, which is what I had in the stash. I ordered two more, thinking I would run out, but the Knitting Goddess loves practical jokes, so I had plenty--and two more balls still en route. Anybody know what to do with two balls of chunky alpaca?

Modifications: Not too many. I lengthened the body by three inches and the sleeves by one inch (a mistake, by the way. They grew a lot after wet blocking. At least my hands won't be cold.) I added waist shaping. And the observant may notice that the collar on my sweater is not the same as the collar in the picture I showed you here (scroll down for a link to the picture on the designer's website). This was not really a modification. It was more an accident. But it works for me, so we'll call it a design choice, 'kay?

Thoughts: The pattern was perfect (despite my not believing this and the resulting "design change" to the collar), and the yarn was just lovely to work with. Very soft and surprisingly drapey, but a little prone to snag, since it's a softly twisted single ply. I don't imagine it will be terribly durable, but it is a pleasure to wear. The only weird thing--and I'm not crazy, several other people have confirmed this--is that the FO picture in the book clearly shows the stitch pattern as a diamond lattice. In reality, it is a square honeycomb pattern. See?

I triple-checked my reading of the instructions, and the designer even calls it a honeycomb pattern. But the picture shows something very different. Odd.