April 15, 2003

Incessant knitting blab is goooooood.

Pardon me, my selvedges are showing.

Random notes from all over the place:

1) The weather hit the 70s today and all I could think of as I got my hair cut [perky, flippy, short 'do, thank you] was "Damn, this is fine weather we're having. Too bad my pretty cotton jacket isn't finished because I could be wearing it right now." But here's a shot of the back piece and just looking at it gives me good vibes. I love this jacket already. Should I buy myself a pair of pants to wear only with this jacket? I think so.

2) I may be the procrastinating kind, but I'm not the quitting kind, which means that the raglan sweater is nearly seamed. After attempting (and failing) to create a smooth join on that blasted curve of a raglan by sewing from the underarm up, I decided to - gasp! - turn my work upside down and sew it from the neck to the underarm. [Ooooh....such a little knitting rebel.] But, somehow, the change in perspective worked and the seam came out nice and smooth. Incidentally, Marrije asked what method of sewing I used for this sweater. I used mattress stitch to join the raglan sleeves to the body of the garment and to join the side seams, and I'll be using backstitch (while working on the WS) to join the sleeve seams because I'll be sewing the cast off edge to the cast on edge. Ladder stitch creates a somewhat flatter seam, but I'm not sure if it would be strong enough to join those two together. Backstitch would be, but I'm a bit concerned about the join coming out too thick using that method. Right now I'm leaning towards backstitch, but I may change my mind. I'm such a fickle lassie.

On an unrelated note, I'd like to give a whole lotta public thank you's to: Suzie Q for sending me Pop Tarts, Oreos and other goodies; to Alison for sending me bamboo circs size 8mm and some Cascade Fixation [socks, people!]; and to Carolyn for sending me some Captain Crunch cereal [!] and the latest Rebecca [I see a ribbed tank in my future]. Really, it is very hard for me to get homesick when I've got such kind and thoughtful buddies. Thank you!

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13 comments to this entry:

As usual, you knit the most fashionable clothes in town. A new 'do! How very, very tempting. Liv is getting hers trimmed today while I suffer with major hair blahs. Awesome weather here, too. Liv and I picnicked in the backyard. Glorious!

[Kerstin on 15 apr 03 @ 07:21 pm]

dude the jacket looks so great. all that TEXTURE! of course you need new pants to go with. maybe the army green vaguely cropped cargo khakis i bought at the gap last night. i was so impressed by the hubby cables already, but i think this one is even more beautiful!! is the little destructive one excited about his new raglan or do you not let him know about it until they're done? p.s. yea! you got the package! :)

[Carolyn on 15 apr 03 @ 07:59 pm]

p.s. i keep coming back to look again and again. it's just so dern pretty. and it would go quite nicely w/ this light blue very flary skirt i got on sale at Gap last night as well. over the light blue/dark blue striped tank i bought at some sample store last year and have never had anything to wear with.

[Carolyn on 15 apr 03 @ 09:47 pm]

Looks so great. I am really wanting to try cables but am a little leary. Really nice work!

[Lisa on 16 apr 03 @ 12:11 am]

The cabled jacket is stunning! I'm wondering what gauge the pattern calls for. I have some dk and aran wight cotton in my stash just waiting for something special. I saw the booklet in English online somewhere and am tempted to be a copycat and order it.

[Janet on 16 apr 03 @ 12:38 am]

Lisa, one of the first projects I knit was a sweater with cables and moss stitch for my son (see my gallery, Winter 2001). It is easy, and fun. Try it! Janet, the gauge is 17 sts = 10 cm. Be wary of those English versions, though. I've never seen them myself, but I've had some of my visitors describe them to me as "awful" and "unintelligible", and have asked me to translate them all over again. Bonne chance :-)

[Becky on 16 apr 03 @ 07:26 am]

Hi Becky, The back of your jacket is completely fabulous!! I love it! can't wait to see the finished article... I even feel inspired to do a bit more work on an old cable-y thing that is currently lurking in my stash.

[Sarah on 16 apr 03 @ 10:50 am]

That jacket looks lovely! Where can I find the pattern? In a French magazine?

[Noemie on 16 apr 03 @ 06:09 pm]

The back of the cabled jacket looks good. I've got been enthused about cabling in cotton for quite some time. Perhaps I should consider it...

[claudia on 17 apr 03 @ 03:37 pm]

Perhaps I should wait to write my comments until I've *finished* my AM cup of tea, hmmm?

[claudia on 17 apr 03 @ 03:39 pm]

And here I was thinking that you were using fancy knitting lingo, Claudia. P.S. I love cabling with cotton; I tend to knit really tightly when doing cables and/or ribs, and I noticed that the "growth" characteristics of cotton loosens my gauge.

[Becky on 17 apr 03 @ 04:59 pm]

your selvedge comment reminds me of something that's been bugging me.. is selvedge stitching just slipping the end stitches knitwise??? help!

[Kim on 21 apr 03 @ 09:50 pm]

Kim, in flat knitting, a selvedge is the stitch at either end of the needles that will be hidden in a seam. It can be done many ways; slipping the first st knitwise is one of those ways. The type of selvedge you choose should go with the join you're going to use to seam the pieces together. I usually join my pieces using ladderstitch so I prefer a stockinette stitch selvedge, which is just knitting the first and last stitch on RS rows and purling the first and last stitch on WS rows. It depends, though. For this particular jacket I'm using a reverse stockinette stitch selvedge, because I feel it'll go better with the pattern. (For learning more about selvedges and joins I highly recommend Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook!)

[Becky on 23 apr 03 @ 07:11 am]

April 15, 2003

Incessant knitting blab is goooooood.

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