if at first you don't succeed...er...swatch...

...knit, knit again!

I've noticed that most of what I knit lately comes out with a tighter gauge than expected. There are two possible explanations for this: 1) Yarn companies consistently label their yarns with looser gauge to give knitters the false impression that you can finish a project in a shorter time than is realistic. Because they are wrong and I am right, OR 2) I knit more tightly than I used to. Yes, it's probably the latter, and that might have something to do with the needles I'm using. About a year ago I bought some Harmony needles from Knitpicks - both fixed circulars and some of the interchangeable tips and cables - and they are both slicker than bamboo needles and pointier than any other needles I've tried except for Addi lace (which are great, actually, but so expensive I only have a couple).

I've mentioned before that I'm sloppy with swatching. I often skip the gauge swatch, with certain exceptions. What are those exceptions, you may ask? Well, if I'm knitting a whole sweater for a grown man, like my dad's Christmas sweater from a few years ago, I don't dare skip the gauge swatch because that's a whole lotta knitting. Or if I'm using a non-wool yarn like the 80% bamboo/20% wool blend for my Millefiori cardigan last spring, I want to know how the yarn will behave after washing and blocking so I don't end up wearing a tent. For the record, those sweaters turned out beautifully. But for socks or little-people clothes or accessories I usually don't bother and - don't hate me for this - more often than not, things work out.

I also often skip swatching for sweaters I knit for myself. Sometimes I'll start with the sleeve and get a few inches in, then check to see if I'm on gauge or not. If so, then I've saved myself the trouble of a swatch. If not, the beginning of a sleeve isn't so bad to re-knit. I know there are people out there who would disagree with me and say "But you have to wash and block all your swatches!" Well, yes, yarn does funny things once it hits the water, but usually I work with wool and that tends to keep its shape pretty well. And a swatch only tells you what will happen with a few inches of knitted fabric, which can completely change with a whole sweater. Might as well just dive in and see what happens, right?

All this has little to do with the project I've re-started, actually. Last spring I started Jared Flood/Patons urban aran cardigan with some Cascade Ecowool. For this one, I actually did a swatch! Even so, I was unsure about sizing and began with the sleeve. I'm glad I did, because I could just tell it wasn't right. The knitted fabric was too dense and it was going to be more close-fitting than I wanted; the wool is a little scratchy and the cardigan is big and thick enough it should wear more like a jacket. I got frustrated and put it down, but a couple days ago, with cooler weather coming our way and Anya's yellow sweater finished, I decided to bump it up a needle size and give it another go:



So far, so good. I'm hoping this one goes quick.

finished: sweet peasy

Anya has a new yellow sweater.



The color is really more accurate in this picture. It's nice and bright without being too golden in color.



It fits her just right, without any real room to spare, even though I made the 3-4y size. I suspect this is not a problem at all with the pattern, but with my gauge. I checked it after the sweater was finished and discovered I was knitting a little tight by one or two stitches per 4" (the pattern calls for 22st=4" and I measured between 23 and 24). Curious. In any case, I don't mind so much because even though Anya will grow out of this in a matter of weeks, by then it will be cold outside - not just chilly - and she'll need a sweater more substantial than this one.



I think she likes it!



Pattern: Sweet Peasy
Yarn: Valley Yarns Superwash DK in the color "soft yellow"; I think I used a little under 4 skeins.
Mods: The pattern calls for some slight increases in the body section, then a little gathering on the bottom before you do the garter stitch edge. I was several inches into the body before I realized I'd misread the instructions, which said to increase after knitting 6 centimeters, and I was thinking 6 inches, so rather than rip it out, I just did the body straight with no increases or gathering at the bottom. I think I prefer it that way anyhow. I don't like things to be really blousy.

cuppa coffee

Do you ever have days when you feel frustrated and impatient? Where everything from the rotten economy to the unwashed dishes, from Republican obstructionist politics to your family's inability to put their dirty socks in the hamper makes you want to find a punching bag and hit it really really hard? I'm having one of those days.

This afternoon I finally made myself a cup of coffee and let the kids watch a little TV so we can have a little space from each other. Right now I should be getting a head start making dinner since I have to teach piano this evening, but the paneer cheese I want to fry for pilaf is still thawing and I just need a little time to myself before I get (back) to work.

Here's a glimpse of the sweater I've started for Anya:



The pattern is Sweet Peasy (that's a ravelry link) and it's a fairly simple top-down number with a little bit of lace down the front. You have to follow the increases pretty carefully (not all of them are every other row), but otherwise the design is quite straightforward and charming.



I hope this fits Anya. I hope she wears it. The fact that it's yellow is a definite plus.

finished: socks for Daniel

I finished Daniel's socks last evening.



We were due to be at a birthday party for a friend's daughter who turns 7 this week. The party was a campfire and everything was outside, so twenty minutes before we wanted to leave I decided that it was chilly enough I should finish Daniel's socks beforehand so his feet wouldn't be cold. So there I was, frantically knitting and promising "Only about five minutes and then I can graft the toe, just bear with me!" while my husband got his jacket and fidgeted by the door. (Stuart really hates being late and when I do stuff like this I know it must drive him totally bananas, but he's a good man and rarely complains.)

In the end, post-football game traffic held us up so badly that I could have just finished the sock in the car with plenty of time to spare, but the party was fun, and it didn't really matter that we showed up 20 minutes late. As you can see, Daniel is happy with his new socks.



However, he refuses to let me take a picture with them actually on his feet, so you'll just have to believe me that they fit!

Pattern: just plain vanilla socks, though with 3x1 rib down the cuff and the top of the foot, a la Glenna's Ribbed Sock pattern
Yarn: Knitpicks stroll tonal in the Kindling colorway, leftover from Joe's birthday socks.
Made for: my boy Daniel. I need to make him more because none of his socks from last year fit anymore. I can't believe how fast those feet grow!

I could probably squeeze a pair for Anya out of what's left, but after two pairs of socks from the same yarn, I'm ready to knit with something new first. Like this:



My latest purchase from the new Lakeside Fibers (not a shop I recommend for anyone on a yarn diet...). These lovelies will be striped socks for my kids for Halloween. I've convinced Anya to dress up as a little witch, and I want to make red and white socks to go with a black dress and pointy hat (though after I bought the yarn I thought an orange/yellow/white combo to look like candy corn would be equally charming), and since I was picking out yarn for Anya, Daniel wanted some too, and of course he chose his favorite colors: black and brown.

Of course I have several sweaters I'd like to make while I'm at it, and I could use a decent pair of mittens, and Christmas is but three months away and I haven't even thought of what, if anything, I'm going to knit for the holidays...so much knitting, and so little time to do it!

the new lakeside

I stopped by Lakeside Fibers with my kids this morning. The store had some staff/manager/owner changes in the last 6 months or so and was closed pretty much all summer. I think many in the local knitting community were afraid the store was done for good, me included. Happily, an owner of another LYS in town bought the business and will now be running both. After some remodeling of the shop and restocking the yarn, she opened up yesterday.

Now, I've had my issues with Lakeside in the past. Not in terms of yarn selection, which was almost always fabulous, but with general attitude and friendliness of the staff. I am happy to say that when I walked in there today, for the first time I felt genuinely welcome, and so did my kids, who, by the way, were extremely well-behaved. The only yarn they touched was what I handed them because I intended to buy it (which I did! yarn diets be damned!), they didn't run around and make a nuisance of themselves, and of course if they had, we would have left.

Anyway, the delicate issues of etiquette of small children in yarn shops aside (that's a whole shit storm discussion I'll save for another day), the brand new Lakeside Fibers is not to be missed. The yarn is beautiful, the layout is beautiful, the staff is friendly and helpful, and the owner, Jackie, is nice as can be.

anya accessorizing

Anya dug into the basket full of hats and mittens and other accessories and pranced around outside in her yellow hat (from my friend Pat) and mismatched mittens. We're not into mitten weather yet; she just likes to wear them. I think soon we're going to have to find some fun things to put into a dress-up box!

ho hum

OMG I am so boring! I am knitting another sock. Not an a new pattern, or even a new yarn. This is another 3x1 ribbed sock out of the leftover Knitpicks Stroll Tonal I used for Joe's socks earlier in the summer. The only difference is that it's a lot smaller, because I'm making it for a 4yo boy (Daniel) instead of a very tall grown man. Lord help us, you might be saying to yourself, why does she even bother to have a knitting blog?

In my defense, I have hit a wall with Keelin and need a little time off to think about it. Remember how I mentioned in the middle of some rambling post that I wasn't crossing the cables correctly? Remember how I said something like "Oh well it doesn't really bother me because it's at least consistent and I'll soon have another sweater for myself?" No sooner were those words out of my mouth (in a manner of speaking, seeing as this is cyber-space) I kept looking at my partial sweater and wondering if maybe I should start over after all to do those cables correctly because the original really is better than my accidental pattern alteration. The longer I thought about it, the longer it bugged me. So I put it down and hemmed and hawed and I have come to the conclusion that I am enough of a perfectionist that I'd rather go to the extra trouble of re-knitting the whole thing and have it just right. A sweater is a lot of hours of work and it would be a waste of good wool and good money not to correct a mistake like that. It's killing me, though, because otherwise it was going so well - no gauge issues, no ripping back for other errors...I can't bring myself to start over yet, and that's why I started that little sock. So easy, so mindless, so little room for error. My little boy needs warm socks for his growing feet and he's still young enough that he really likes when I make him stuff, so here we are.

Maybe my next sweater will be out of fat, chunky yarn. Yeah, that's the ticket.

instead of knitting i've been...

...picking apples:




(and trying to get the attention of the Black Welsh Mountain Sheep at the orchard)



...tasting honey at the farmers market:



...and building canals at the beach at a nearby state park:





In fact, we had so much fun playing in the sand, we're going back today. This time we're bringing proper clothing for water play, towels, and dry clothes. Yesterday the kids had to ride home in the buff!

(Actual knitting content next post.)