I know I haven't posted about knitting in awhile. Why do so many of my posts start out this way? Sooz took some nice pictures at last knitting group, and I'll post those soon -- promise. Leisl turned out beautifully.
So if not about knitting, what am I writing? It's a shameless rant about a silly thing that has me momentarily riled up.
I met a neighbor today who I've wondered about for some time. Other neighbors have mentioned run-ins with this couple, but this was my first encounter. Let's call her "Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV".
Returning my parents' minivan after dropping my dad at the airport, I turned onto the street where I usually park. How convenient, it seemed, that my neighbor was just walking out of her house and climbing in her car to vacate an ideal pull-in spot. I turned on my blinker and waited patiently, giving her plenty of room to maneuver. And I waited, patiently, waiting.... After several minutes I'd waited enough and pulled up along side to parallel park behind her. She sat in her Lexus SUV watching me.
Back up a moment, set the scene:
These neighbors have converted their garage into, it looks like to me, a home office. It is definitely not a garage, and the driveway is obviously not in use. Also, you should know that Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV had helped herself to two parking spots with her one big car. There was about 3/4 of a spot in front of her and about 3/4 of a spot behind her where the last 1/4 of your car would block part of their unused driveway.
After Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV watched me carefully park my old minivan behind her, she got out of her car to inform me that I couldn't block her driveway. I, of course, apologized, as I did not realize that driveway was in use. RHNBLexusSUV let me know that though they did not use the driveway it was still Theirs. She had checked with the city. I requested -- as politely as possible while staring incredulously -- that she might kindly pull ahead a few feet so that I could avoid impinging on the not-in-use-driveway. She, standing right beside her car with keys in hand, said that wasn't convenient because she wasn't sure she was leaving right now and walked into her house.
Right. So I got back in my car, realized with certainty that she hadn't left enough room to park in front of her SUV, and circled the block to turn around and park facing the other way across the street. As soon as I'd parked, RHNBLexusSUV came out of her house, hopped in her fancy gas guzzler, and drove off.
I'll write a nice entry about knitting tomorrow.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Liesl
I knit a Liesl yesterday.
Ok, you're right -- I didn't really knit an entire sweater in one day. I did knit the entire body in one day. I used some really lovely bulky weight Venezia that I'd bought on sale at Bad Woman Yarn. It's a beautiful deep, dark purple. I haven't taken a picture yet, but it's #128 if you follow the Venezia link.
I knit the size 30" with the low neckline, knowing that my gauge loosens when I knit and that the lace would block out a bit wider. Have I mentioned my new technique for sizing fitted sweaters? I just knit to fit my under-bust measurement and then add huge bust darts right under the arm holes. In this case, after putting my shoulder stitches on waste yarn, I added two YO's in place of one K2tog in the underarm. In the next lace row I again made only 3 k2tog's in the underarm and made YO's for all stitches in front of them. I began decreasing in the next lace row by still only doing 3 k2tog's in the underarm but, after my usual 4 YO's, making k3tog's across the extra stitches. I did the same in the next lace row, too, and regained my original stitch count.
This sounds like gibberish, I realize, but just get in touch if you want more details.
I knit 16 lace repeats total below the underarm, 5 rows garter stitch, and bound off knitwise on the wrong side.
Then I blocked it.
It grew.
It got longer. Donned wet, Liesl reached my knees.
I'm being a little melodramatic. I just pulled the lace width-wise and achieved more or less the sweater shape I'd intended. But know this! A Liesl in this yarn can be as loooooong as you want her to be. Save some yarn and knitting time by just blocking it to length. She could have stretched by almost double.
Now.
Now Liesl fits perfectly across my back...
But.
There are some other problems. The arm holes are HUGE. I can easily fit my head through the arm holes with room to spare. I remember this problem from the Cloud Bolero I made ages ago, which was the free version of this same pattern.
Related to this, the bust shaping below the saggy armpits now hits at my belly button. Shoot.
What to do?
To hike up the armpits and place the bust shaping back at my bust I'm going to cut off the top of the cardi 4 lace repeats above the shoulder opening. Then I'll knit on a garter stitch trim to finish the collar, probably with some decreases to draw in the neckline.
Ok, did it. There are 113 stitches on my needle after The Cut. I'll k2tog every stitch in the first row of garter. I'll let you know how it ends up!
Oh, and here's a picture to make this post more interesting (thanks to Sooz!). My finished "Favorite Cardigan":
Ok, you're right -- I didn't really knit an entire sweater in one day. I did knit the entire body in one day. I used some really lovely bulky weight Venezia that I'd bought on sale at Bad Woman Yarn. It's a beautiful deep, dark purple. I haven't taken a picture yet, but it's #128 if you follow the Venezia link.
I knit the size 30" with the low neckline, knowing that my gauge loosens when I knit and that the lace would block out a bit wider. Have I mentioned my new technique for sizing fitted sweaters? I just knit to fit my under-bust measurement and then add huge bust darts right under the arm holes. In this case, after putting my shoulder stitches on waste yarn, I added two YO's in place of one K2tog in the underarm. In the next lace row I again made only 3 k2tog's in the underarm and made YO's for all stitches in front of them. I began decreasing in the next lace row by still only doing 3 k2tog's in the underarm but, after my usual 4 YO's, making k3tog's across the extra stitches. I did the same in the next lace row, too, and regained my original stitch count.
This sounds like gibberish, I realize, but just get in touch if you want more details.
I knit 16 lace repeats total below the underarm, 5 rows garter stitch, and bound off knitwise on the wrong side.
Then I blocked it.
It grew.
It got longer. Donned wet, Liesl reached my knees.
I'm being a little melodramatic. I just pulled the lace width-wise and achieved more or less the sweater shape I'd intended. But know this! A Liesl in this yarn can be as loooooong as you want her to be. Save some yarn and knitting time by just blocking it to length. She could have stretched by almost double.
Now.
Now Liesl fits perfectly across my back...
But.
There are some other problems. The arm holes are HUGE. I can easily fit my head through the arm holes with room to spare. I remember this problem from the Cloud Bolero I made ages ago, which was the free version of this same pattern.
Related to this, the bust shaping below the saggy armpits now hits at my belly button. Shoot.
What to do?
To hike up the armpits and place the bust shaping back at my bust I'm going to cut off the top of the cardi 4 lace repeats above the shoulder opening. Then I'll knit on a garter stitch trim to finish the collar, probably with some decreases to draw in the neckline.
Ok, did it. There are 113 stitches on my needle after The Cut. I'll k2tog every stitch in the first row of garter. I'll let you know how it ends up!
Oh, and here's a picture to make this post more interesting (thanks to Sooz!). My finished "Favorite Cardigan":
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Confessions
OK, I have to confess some things here. Firstly, I made a resolution to post weekly, and in that I have clearly been remiss. I have not been posting weekly. Not even close. And that last post about my finished Koolhaas has no meat at all. I know, sorry. I'll edit it.
I have another thing to confess. It's included here as a sort of excuse for not writing about knitting. It's kind of juicy and personal... but I know that whatever I post here is practically private anyway because no one really reads it. ;)
Even though I've been knitting and knitting and knitting, the only thing on my mind is my friend Nelson. We kissed on New Years, and I'm so in love with him now. Shhhh! Don't tell him I said that.
I promise more knitting talk soon.
I have another thing to confess. It's included here as a sort of excuse for not writing about knitting. It's kind of juicy and personal... but I know that whatever I post here is practically private anyway because no one really reads it. ;)
Even though I've been knitting and knitting and knitting, the only thing on my mind is my friend Nelson. We kissed on New Years, and I'm so in love with him now. Shhhh! Don't tell him I said that.
I promise more knitting talk soon.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Knitting Rockstar!
Jared Flood came to Seattle! He's from this area originally, which was fun to find out. I went with Sooz to see him speak at the Knitters' Guild.
The setting was a Wedgewood neighborhood church. Here we are, all worshipping our knitting while Jared showed slides of his inspirations and his work.
I cast on a Koolhaas hat on the drive there and worked on it during Jared's talk.
After speaking Jared signed books for all of us and was very charming. He was in town for the whole weekend teaching classes over at Churchmouse, but I couldn't make it to any of them. I would have loved to have taken a class from Jared. I think he'd be a very good teacher.
Alright, and here are some nuggets for the scrapbook. Kids, this is a picture of the time Auntie Turbo met Jared Flood.
And look, could I be anymore flustered? Could I gush more profusely? Note, the hand upon my breast -- I'm sooo taken. Do you see? Jared Flood is knitting some stitches on my Koolhaas. Isn't he nice?
My face is so red, I can't think of another time I've blushed like that. I swear, I thought I wasn't the blushing type.
For comparison, I've met an actual rock star. Yes, I have. Dave Matthews actually lives in my neighborhood, and I've met him on several occasions. I did not blush. No! I did not! I really think I was totally cool. No blushing.
Apparently it takes a really good knitter to color my cheeks.
Here is my Koolhaas pattern -- signed by knitting rock star Jared Flood.
The setting was a Wedgewood neighborhood church. Here we are, all worshipping our knitting while Jared showed slides of his inspirations and his work.
I cast on a Koolhaas hat on the drive there and worked on it during Jared's talk.
After speaking Jared signed books for all of us and was very charming. He was in town for the whole weekend teaching classes over at Churchmouse, but I couldn't make it to any of them. I would have loved to have taken a class from Jared. I think he'd be a very good teacher.
Alright, and here are some nuggets for the scrapbook. Kids, this is a picture of the time Auntie Turbo met Jared Flood.
And look, could I be anymore flustered? Could I gush more profusely? Note, the hand upon my breast -- I'm sooo taken. Do you see? Jared Flood is knitting some stitches on my Koolhaas. Isn't he nice?
My face is so red, I can't think of another time I've blushed like that. I swear, I thought I wasn't the blushing type.
For comparison, I've met an actual rock star. Yes, I have. Dave Matthews actually lives in my neighborhood, and I've met him on several occasions. I did not blush. No! I did not! I really think I was totally cool. No blushing.
Apparently it takes a really good knitter to color my cheeks.
Here is my Koolhaas pattern -- signed by knitting rock star Jared Flood.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Burning sweaters
What can you do with yarn at Burning Man?
You can wear fantastical yarn dreads, thanks to the work of your wonderful and patient little sister. Thanks, Bree! Yarn-head was actually a very popular style out there.
I also got as far as you see on Wendy Bernard's "Favorite Cardigan", which I've lengthened in the body and sleeves. I've since finished the knitting and am looking for toggle buttons for it.
Sadly you only get to see aftermath pictures because the dust destroyed my camera in the desert.
And yeah, I know that Burning Man happened a month and a half ago. Ahh, well... no, I have no excuses. But here, I've written this tiny blurb about it now, so there we go.
(Finished pics of the sweater here)
You can wear fantastical yarn dreads, thanks to the work of your wonderful and patient little sister. Thanks, Bree! Yarn-head was actually a very popular style out there.
I also got as far as you see on Wendy Bernard's "Favorite Cardigan", which I've lengthened in the body and sleeves. I've since finished the knitting and am looking for toggle buttons for it.
Sadly you only get to see aftermath pictures because the dust destroyed my camera in the desert.
And yeah, I know that Burning Man happened a month and a half ago. Ahh, well... no, I have no excuses. But here, I've written this tiny blurb about it now, so there we go.
(Finished pics of the sweater here)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Arghh... :S
I'm struggling, struggling right now. Why could I not do math last night at knitting group? Could it have been the two seasonal ginger beers? Could it be that I was, ahem, impatient? Perhaps I should build better habits around my measuring and calculations before taking important steps in my projects.
No pictures, so sorry.
In the case of knitting disaster number one, I excuse the lack of pictures with my ambition to submit it for publication once I work out the kinks. As for the crochet disaster in very expensive alpaca, well, sorry. I ruined my camera at Burning Man.
No pictures, so sorry.
In the case of knitting disaster number one, I excuse the lack of pictures with my ambition to submit it for publication once I work out the kinks. As for the crochet disaster in very expensive alpaca, well, sorry. I ruined my camera at Burning Man.
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