This is after I frogged and reknit 60 rows.
That's right. Sixty. Please, make it stop.


The cotton raglan sweater I'm knitting for my husband is turning into a nice lazy project; I've only been knitting a few rows every evening but it seems to progress relatively quickly thanks to the larger gauge. And guess what! Knitting with cotton can be a surefire way to show how shot your knitting tension can look sometimes. Early yesterday morning I looked at this sweater and in a fit of caffeinated giddiness ripped out a whopping 60 rows. Just because I didn't like my tension. Send decaf.

What's that? My Rowan Pagan tank? Oh yes. I finished knitting the armhole and neckline bands on the tank late last night, and then decided to just go ahead and seam it even though I was practically falling asleep because I was on a roll and wanted to try it on to see how it looked. Like suspense? Good. 'Cause all I'm gonna say is that I'm soooo glad I reworked the pattern. I love how this tank fits! It's early in the morning right now and I've got the tank carefully spread out on a towel in a final session of wet blocking. I've put the tank next to an open window in the hopes it'll dry quickly; today might hit the 80s and I'd really love to wear it.

P.S. My new digital camera (and battery recharger [!]) will be delivered in a few weeks. For now, I'm still using my faithful little spycam.

Remember how the zombies in the movie Night of the Living Dead looked? Yes? Well, that is just how I felt (and probably looked!) for the last few days thanks to a major bout of the stomach flu. I lived in Mexico (and no, you really shouldn't drink the water there) for a number of years, so I can pretty much take any virus - especially the ghastly stomach ones - like a tough little soldier. But this one hit me like a ton of bricks and last thing I wanted to do was hold up a pair of needles and knit. Thankfully, I'm better now. So it's back to knitting and other fun!



My edges could use a little blocking.

...which means I finished the back of my husband's sweater and boy, oh boy is this sweater knitting quickly. It's a larger gauge knit on 4.5mm's, and is mostly stockinette stitch with a ribbed center panel. I've discovered that I tend to get bored when I knit straight stockinette stitch at larger gauges, but I'm really enjoying this one. The raglan decreases were really fun to do and I was almost sorry when it came time to bind off for the neckline. This pattern (14 from Les Essentiels Mode, Phildar) utilizes visible double decreases that require a combination of crossing stitches and k2tog or ssk (depending on which side you're doing them). I had never seen or read about double decreases made by crossing stitches before, but it looks really neat! And that is yet another reason for me to continue to learn about the variety of decreases and increases there are as they can be used effectively to create different textures, especially if the pattern utilizes only one or two stitches. No need for cables or lace to make something interesting in the fabric.

On a somewhat related note, while halfway through the back of my husband's sweater, I decided to move the piece from a 4.5mm Addi Turbo circ 24" in length to a 4.5mm Susan Bates Silverado circ 32" in length because my work was getting scrunched on the shorter needle, and I don't have any Addi's longer than 24". I got the Susan Bates for cheapo dollars at a craft store in the States a few years ago, and the Addi's for, well, a lot more. I won't lie; one is nicer to knit with than the other, but my knitting doesn't show a change. If you can't afford metal Addi's, use Susan Bates Silverado. You may not knit as quickly but chances are the result will be the same. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

P.S. Re my flu: I have one child. Only one. A 33-month old toddler. And he doesn't start school until September, so he is with me all day. People, I cannot begin to describe how hellish it is to have a toddler shove crayons, books and puzzles in your face while screeching, "Mommy SICK!" when you are sick as a dog and all you want to do is dive into a hole and not get out until you feel human again. To every parent who has had to take care of children while suffering from a nasty stomach flu: I salute you.

Looks like someone could use a little blocking.

The last days of August are all about the unfinished projects. Namely, my husband's cotton raglan sweater. A few days ago I cast on stitches to do the front piece and before I knew it, I was binding off for the neckline. Worsted cotton on addi circs, how I love thee.

I'm also busy sewing swatches together. Here are a couple of sneak peeks for you. And why lie? I could just scream from the tediousness of all the w-e-a-v-i-n-g. Send earplugs.

Meanwhile, I'm getting the itch to start one of my (way too many) planned projects, but I want to remain focused so I won't until I've finished up the last of the incompleted projects. In order to keep myself going on these projects, I tell myself [think Pippi and how she'd order herself around]: "Now listen here, missy! Don't you dare pull any of your stash yarns out of those ziplocs. No swatching. No gazing at the yarn lovingly, either. You're not allowed to pull those ziplocs out from their hiding places all over the apartment until you finish up your unfinished projects, and I'm not kidding. First you finish your husband's raglan sweater. Then you finish that pretty cotton jacket. And in the interim, finish sewing up those swatches! There will be no new projects until all that's done. Got it? Good. Now to go your room and I don't want you to come out until I've heard a decent amount of needle clicking."

So, other than browse my pattern books in vain efforts to decide what winter sweater I'll be knitting first, I'm busy finishing up unfinished projects. (This is really the way I browse my pattern books. I'm a table monopolizer. Just throw 5-10 books on the table and browse them all at the same time. Is there any other way?)

I am now rolling along on the sleeves of my husband's raglan sweater, and all I'm gonna say is that knitting 4/2 rib all the way up the sleeves on a man's sweater can have the effects of a valium for yours truly. So you bet I'm gonna knit the sleeves at the same time. As I get towards the sleeve caps things get clumsy and heavy with both sleeves on the needle, but you know what? I don't care. Better to get them both out of the way at the same time instead of having one sleeve done and then sit there, all by its lonesome, while I procrastinate to no end over getting the second one knit. Unfortunately, I bore too easily. I hate doing the same knitted piece, one after the other. But with both sleeves on my needle, I roll.

Up next: Blocking. I've already started, and blocking is rather fun for me because whenever I get my pieces ready for blocking I tend to hear the echo of Montse Stanley's voice in the back of my head sternly calling out: "Block flaws out; block texture in; be crisp." (Page 238, Knitter's Handbook). She* sounds like a sergeant at boot camp and the film Private Benjamin springs to mind. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"

*A knitblogger once wondered aloud if Montse Stanley was a woman. Helloooooooo...Montse (pronounced "Moant-say") is short for Montserrat, a woman's name in Spanish. So I'm betting our strict sergeant of a knit book author is a woman. Yes, ma'am, she is.

If I only had a neckband...

I've finally gotten off my procrastinating bee-hind and started seaming my husband's cotton raglan sweater. I always whine about having to seam, but not this time. Unbelievably enough, I'm actually enjoying seaming this one. Heck...I'm REVELING in the gloriousness of the sewing of the raglan. I love raglans - fitting them to the body of the garment is like an easy jigsaw. And this one is particularly fun to sew 'cause the stitches are so nice and chunky. Plus, the twisted decreases on the body and ribbing on the sleeves make it easy to match the pieces up. Oh raglans, how I love thee!

In other news, I haven't done very much knitting lately so I haven't got much to share despite the long list of projects I've got planned. My first and only soon to be three-year-old child has gone off and started school for the first time, so my full-time Mommy gig has become a part-time Mommy gig. I was - and am - excited that he's starting school, but it feels very strange and a bit sad to not have him here and I'm still getting adjusted to the change. I should be knitting, or reading, or visiting weblogs, or working...doing other things I was only able to do in brief pockets of time before he started school, but I can't seem to focus myself yet. Argh. Whine, whine, whine! As my father would say in a melodramatic and woeful voice, "Oh, trials and tribulations!" No whiners allowed in my family.

So! One of the things I'll probably do on my "day off" is take a look-see at the yarn store. It'll be like therapy. Tee hee.

Finally! Pictures and action shots of the cotton raglan sweater I knit for my husband. The sleeves and hem are in 3/2 rib, so a tubular cast-on (my preferred cast-on for ribbings) was out of the question. Besides, I think the yarn is too thick for the tubular, so I doubt I would have been able to use it even if the ribbing had been in 1/1 or 2/2 rib. I used one of my other favorites: the cable cast-on. (I had tried the two-tail, but the cotton was making the cast-on edge stretch out too much). What else? The neckband bind-off...I had initially tried a traditional bind-off (simply knitting the knit stitches and purling the purl stitches, then binding off), but the ribbing flared out too much and the edge looked too rustic. So I ripped back and tried a decrease bind-off, my favorite alternative* to the tubular bind-off for ribbing. Much better! It's firm and looks decorative. There are two ways to do it, but for this sweater I simply knit all stitches together, including the purl ones, from front to back and placed the loop back on the needle without twisting. [Decrease bind-offs are described in Big Book of Knitting and Knitter's Handbook.]




It's a nice design. I may do it again, maybe in a wool blend using another colorway. (Check out Melanie's; she's doing this sweater in a gorgeous blue.) My husband likes the sweater, and my reward for knitting it: He wore it on Saturday and Sunday, and again today at the office! [Awwwwwwwww.] All my knitting efforts duly compensated.

*If anyone has a favorite bind-off for ribbings other than kitchener or tubular, traditional or chain, please share :-)