Comedy of Errors (of sorts)

I don't see how people cannot have a sense of humor when it comes to knitting. Case in point: my best friend cardigan. I was so excited last night to be finished with knitting the sleeves and I commenced with the finishing, namely, seaming the shoulders, attaching the sleeves, and picking up stitches around the neck.

I had previously bound-off the front sides of the cardigan. I decided instead to do a three-needle bind off with the stitches from the back that were put on hold. You may recall that I had to do all new calculations of the stitches because of my differing gauge. As I had continued knitting, I had gotten lax about calculating all the stitches and rows. I would knit an extra row here, decrease an extra stitch there. Well, as I finished joining the left shoulder I realized something horrible had gone wrong. From the stitches that I had put on hold for the back, I needed enough stitches for both shoulders and enough stitches for the neck. I finished the left side by joining the 11 stitches from the front to 11 stitches from the back and I only had 5 stitches left over with which to join the 11 stitches from right front and 10 stitches that were to comprise the back of the neck. Ooops!

Let's look at that math again. Of the 16 stitches on hold, I needed 11 for each shoulder and 10 for the neck. I needed 32 stitches on hold not 16.

Yeah, I have some ripping back to do.

Packages and Shawl Indecision

Classes started this week. I'm only two days into the semester, and I'm already having knit or read conflicts. I know that I should just get my reading done but I really want to knit. It also doesn't help that I have had two knitpicks orders inching their way to me. Could they have gotten here any slower? I spent my last week off obsessively tracking them and they start arriving once I don't have time to go down to the post office to pick them up.

I got one of my boxes today (as well as the slip to pick the other one up tomorrow). In this box I had ordered three books from the massive 40% off sale: The Best of Interweave Knits, EZ's Knitting without Tears, and The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman. This last book is what I'm really excited about. After my crash and burn with Sizzle I'm looking for more tips to have a successful and not embarrassing finished piece.

My big dilemma right now is what to do with the other thing that was in the box: two skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool.



I want to knit a shawl for my grandmother with this but I'm having difficulty narrowing down the field.

My first inclination was the Swallowtail Shawl.



But it looks too teeny.

Then I thought that the Print O' the Wave Stole would be beautiful in this colorway.



But then I saw the Luna Moth Shawl.



So I'm completely undecided. I only have 880 yards of the yarn so I can't go crazy and make something huge or too elaborate.

Sizzled All the Way Through

Here it is! Sizzle Modeled!



Note well, that Sizzle as fashioned by yours truly would make a fine mid-thigh-length, deep-v vest. However, that is not what Sizzle is. Sizzle is a shell, a sassy tank-top. The hem would need to be raised about 3 inches, the v by about 5 inches for it to accomplish this feat. The sides of the v-neck should cover the boobs not transverse them. In order for this shirt to cover what should be covered, I would need to knit about 4 inches of moss stitch around the neckline.

Also, the amount of fabric over my hips would make Twiggy resemble Marilyn Monroe.

Sigh, I'm just working up the strength to attach the ball winder and make this a bad memory. Then I need to buy new yarn.

As Summer draws to a close...

So my first foray into a shaped and fitted knit has come to a disastrous end. I started knitting Sizzle on the train on my way to work.

To recap: I chose Ella Rae's bamboo/silk blend yarn thinking that the soft and silky yarn would be sizzly enough for the pattern. I had purchased enough yarn to make the XS but had forgotten that when I casted on the first time for the small size. I knit about half of the back and then had to frog it. While knitting I modified the body by working the decreasing every eight rows instead of every six rows. I figured that I could use an extra inch in the waste so that I wouldn't end up with a belly shirt.

Well, to cut to the chase, I seamed up the sides and tried my sizzle on, and well, the sizzle sizzled in a very unintentional way. The very deep v-neck went down to my navel. The hem was more tunic-like than just a little longer.



Modeled pictures to come later.

I just kept thinking, "I can fix it. All is not lost. I can save all that hard work." Even though I still have to do the moss stitching around the neck and armholes, I don't think that'll be enough to save it.

All in all, this is a good lesson in yarn substitution and gauge. When I started working with the Ella Rae, I swatched and got the right gauge. However, with the drapeyness of the fabric the gauge became too stretched out as I knitted.

Maybe I was too ambitious to substitute a yarn given my little experience with making fitted garments. I think that I'll stick to not-so-fitted items.

Like the Lace Ribbon Scarf:

I've started knitting on the Lace Ribbon Scarf again. Yesterday, I finished the first repeat and so far, I'm liking the results. I cast on 62 stitches so that I could have a wider scarf and am working on No. 5 needles to give the piece enough openness to counter the thicker yarn (Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk which is DK weight instead of fingering).

The Yarn:



The Progess:



The Stitches:




And also so Hanami:

Some progress (where did I leave off?):



Close-up of the beaded cast-on:



Some of the stitches:



Also, I have a new roommate. Meet Face (or Catface Meowmers, as I like to call him). He approves of my knitting.