simplicity

Last night, after about five false starts, I finally cast on for the final version of Anya's yellow scarf. I looked through stitch dictionaries and contemplated patterns with bumps, bobbles, cables, reversible textures, ribbing, short rows, picture motifs, you name it. I started with moss stitch and decided the back-and-forth of knits and purls would be too tedious for a whole scarf. Then I started over with trinity stitch and decided that all the purl 3tog would drive me mad. Then I thought about cables, but couldn't find my cable needle and we were watching TV and I didn't want to get up and besides, cables only look good on one side of the fabric unless you do a fancy reversible stitch, but I didn't want to get that elaborate. Then I cast on for a textured pattern and decided it was turning out too wide.

I ripped it out once again and just looked at the yarn. What does this want to be? I thought to myself. It wants to be a yellow scarf, sure, but how can I make it right? Then I thought about Elizabeth Zimmerman and her love for garter stitch. Aha.



There is nothing clever or innovative about this scarf. I just cast on 20 stitches and am knitting every row, slipping the first stitch to make a neat edge. It will be a plain and simple scarf, nice and narrow to comfortably fit a little girl's neck and keep it warm through the winter. The yarn is lovely Rambouillet wool in a perfect, bright yellow. If I knit neatly and consistently enough, garter stitch is all that's necessary to make this scarf. Not everything hast to be a challenge. Garter stitch in knitting is like scales and arpeggios to a musician: it requires nothing more than good, clean technique and lots and lots of repetition.

Sometimes simplicity is best. I think this will be just right. (Though I may end up making rainbow pompoms and sewing them on later. We'll see.)

progress and plans

With Anya's sweater finally off the needles, I didn't wait long to start something new. I have a drawer full of sweaters for myself already, but that didn't stop me from beginning another. I've wanted to make Irish Coffee from Baby Cocktails since I first saw the design a few months ago. A couple of nights ago, I dug up some yarn and got started! It's a top-down design, and you can see what I've got so far posing by Daniel's hilariously creepy jack-o-lantern. (We seem to get an early start on jack-o-lanterns chez Madtown Mama.)



The yarn is Peace Fleece worsted that I bought a few years ago for something else. The gauge is right, and the yarn is not too dense, though very warm, so I think it will work nicely for this design. Since Irish Coffee is a long sweater, I wouldn't want anything heavy and stretchy.

Next, I finally got my sock mojo back! It's the chill in the air, I think, that did it this time. I'm not sure who needs socks more badly, me or my kids. I have all these smart wool socks I bought over a decade ago from a camping outlet, and they are finally wearing holes in the bottom, so I need warm replacements. My kids' feet grow so fast they can't wear any socks from last year, but they don't need absolutely everything to be hand knit by me, do they? I'll probably just buy my kids all their socks this year.



You see, I'm trying to be more judicious about what I commit myself to making. I'd love to make everyone baby gifts and Christmas presents and winter socks, but there simply isn't time. I'll do what I can, but I have to be smart about it. Same with buying yarn. I have reached saturation point and don't want any more until I can use some up. It's not even so hard.

Weeeell, almost. There's one exception: A very sweet woman at the farmers' market sells yarn and fleece from the wool of her own sheep. She has the wool spun in a Wisconsin mill and then dyes it herself. I bought a few skeins of Romney wool from her earlier in the summer with good intentions to do some colorwork mittens. Romney is a bit scratchy, but hard-wearing and should be good for mittens. Those have yet to materialize, I'm afraid, but they are still on my radar. Last week, I noticed she has started selling 100% Rambouillet yarn, which is reportedly as soft as merino. She didn't have any colors I wanted, but she offered to dye some for me. I let Anya pick out a color to make her a scarf, and of course she chose yellow - bright, sunny, beautiful yellow.

This is what I brought home today, specially dyed just for me!



It's soft and bright and beautiful. Not a color I could wear in a million years, but Anya loves it. I think I'll do something extremely simple, like moss stitch. If I think too hard about choosing stitch patterns and making it extra-special, I will get mired so deep in indecision, the scarf will never get made. Anya's been asking for a yellow scarf for quite some time (since last year, believe it or not - this girl is nothing if not tenacious), so I need to get on the ball. For adornment I could always make a knitted flower and attach it later. I can't wait to get started.

liesl

Liesl: I finished this weeks ago. I've worn it at least twice, even got a couple compliments on it from people who are reasonably fashionable. Why it took me until today to hand my husband the camera and ask him to pretty please take a few photos, I don't know. I guess it's because I feel a little dorky posing in the back yard. Since I'm a giant dork already, I'm not sure why it matters.

Anyway, here it is!



I really like this sweater.



It's really comfortable and, as far as I know about these things, stylish.



Mostly, it's flattering, though the shape and loose knit quality means I have to wear a cami underneath, and this accentuates the flatness of my bust-line.



The only other drawback to this design is that the heaviness of the fabric, especially with the fullness at the bottom, pulls the sweater down, down. It's already rather oversized, so the loose fit doesn't matter, but those armholes didn't start out that deep, I promise. Hopefully a trip through the washer and dryer will pull it back into shape. I'm still contemplating a crochet edging around the neck and arms, and I wonder if that will help keep it in the right shape a little better. Thoughts, anyone?



The pockets are simply too much fun...though the first time I wore it, my son Daniel pointed to them and said, "Mom, are those cup holders in your sweater?" Ha! No, I replied, but wouldn't that be handy?



I think I need a better necklace to wear with this, something with bigger, chunkier beads. Maybe something long. I'm not really a jewelry collector at all, so this red one is the best I've got.



Pattern: Liesl (from cocoknits.com)
Yarn: sportweight linen yarn by Louet, 3 skeins. I thought the yarn would be annoying and stiff, but it wasn't, happily. It really and truly softens up with washing, too, just like they say.




This photo is just self-indulgent. Humor me.

just in time

Last night I finally finished sewing the zipper into Anya's new sweater. Just in time, too - this morning the walk to school was chilly!



Fall arrives so abruptly here. Monday we were still wearing shorts, and today you could see little puffs of breath as children and parents made their way up the hill to the elementary school.



This sweater was barely adequate to keep her warm (it was about 40 degrees), but she kept moving and only complained a couple of times.





Pattern: Liv's Coat by Megan Grewal
Yarn: Valley Yarns Superwash DK, plus a little bit of something else in cream for the i-cord edging (Rowan DK wool, I think)
Sticks: size 6 circulars and DPNs for most of the sweater, plus size 3 for the garter edging on the sleeves and bottom of the sweater body



The sweater features an asymmetrical cable pattern. One line of stitches in the cable is knit 2, the other is a single knit stitch. I'm still not completely sold on this design feature; had I the energy I might have swapped out a different cable pattern with more symmetry and thickness, but this did stretch me a little, and I'm generally pleased with the result. The instructions were at times a little bit unclear, but there was nothing I couldn't figure out by just looking at the work and doing what seemed the most logical. The biggest problem I had with the sweater was the i-cord edging around the front and hood. I think it pulls in too much, as though I should have picked up more stitches for it. I certainly don't feel like taking it out, especially now that I have the zipper sewn in. Anya has already worn her new sweater and is quite fond of it, as you can see.



As you can also see, there's not really a whole lot of extra room there. My girl is growing fast. I need to figure out what to make her next.

current projects

School has been in session less than a week, and it's going well for the kids. Daniel is enjoying kindergarten very much, and Anya is adjusting to preschool just fine. As I predicted, having two kids in two different schools, one only part time, doesn't give me a whole lot of free time, but it's definitely more than I've ever had. I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of all the volunteer hours, but now that I've figured out I really can't do much work for pay until two years from now when Anya's in school, I've embraced it. Yesterday I spent an hour in Daniel's class helping with math activities, and tomorrow I will participate in a rather more unusual activity: chopping kohlrabi!



One of the parent volunteers is spearheading a healthy snacks initiative, and she got a local organic farm to donate 90 lbs of kohlrabi to the school, and they need volunteers to chop it up and distribute it to the classrooms, so after school tomorrow I plan to set my kids loose on the playground and head to the teachers' lounge to join the kohlrabi chopping party. Kohlrabi, if you've never had it before, is a funny-looking vegetable, but it's delicious. It was one of my Grandpa's favorite things to grow in the garden and eat with his dinner. To eat it, just peel off the tough skin and slice into sticks, much like you would a carrot or a turnip.

Anyway, today in between dropping off one kid and picking up the other, I had a full three hours by myself, which felt amazing. I spent part of that time eating lunch and running errands, but I also squeezed in a couple crafty activities. First, I took a picture of Anya's sweater in progress:



I've got about half the hood left to knit, plus the i-cord edging (which, if you look carefully, you can see I've already done on the sleeves in a cream color). I didn't have time to do any actual knitting on the sweater, alas, but at least I got the picture taken. I spread the sweater out in the front yard and quick snapped a photo before running back inside. For some reason, I felt less self-conscious about doing that than taking the picture in the back yard while the next door neighbor mowed the narrow strip of grass in her driveway wearing only a swimsuit and yelling at her dogs...

But I digress. The other thing I accomplished was cutting out a jacket for Anya:



I don't know if you can tell in the grainy natural light, but I did all this on the floor of our newly finished basement. I have all my supplies down here now, where it is spacious and well-lit, especially in the afternoons, and I'm just tickled pink to have a workspace.

When I was a lass in 4-H sewing (the coolest extra-curricular activity in town, of course), we learned to cut out our patterns by first checking the grain line, then painstakingly pinning the paper to the fabric and cutting out the pattern slowly and meticulously, being extra careful not to let anything slip. In the last year or so, I've discovered what I think is a better way: weighting the paper pattern pieces down and marking the pattern directly on the fabric with a tracing wheel and wax-free transfer paper. It's a brilliant method. You preserve your pattern pieces, which comes in handy especially if you have growing children and want to preserve multiple sizes, and with the line traced directly on the fabric, you don't have to worry about anything slipping out of place and screwing up the project. I mean, there are so many ways I can screw up a sewing project, it's nice to have this one crucial step go a little more smoothly.

You know, it's possible everyone already does this and I'm the last one to the party, but I don't care. I'm having fun anyhow. My favorite pattern weights are coffee mugs:



Sewing takes a lot of patience for me. Once I get going, I can make fast progress on a project, but finding time to work uninterrupted can be an elusive process. I should have a couple hours Friday afternoon while my kids are in school (it still feels a little weird to say that - or blog it - out loud!). We'll see what the rest of the week brings!