theknittyvritti

whose sweater is it anyway?

The drop stitch cardigan is finished--and not a drop stitch in sight. I decided that the  sweater was busy enough given the almost garishly variegated yarn, and opted for a plain knit three purl one rib for the collar and sleeves.

The sweater fits well and is finished nicely--the set in sleeves really work, and the edging is neat.

This was my first zipper. It installed easily, and seems to work fine. Luckily, I found a color that worked with the sweater at the local sewing store. I have read about  websites where you can order zippers in a wide variety of colors, even custom zippers. Two of them are Zipper stop.com and Zipper source.com. I haven't used either of these sources, but I would be interested in people's experiences if they have.

I did like the sleeve width that was created by the drop stitch on the cuff, so I tried to make a bell sleeve by increasing the number of stitches that I cast on for the cuff by eight, then decreasing 2 stitches every inch and a half four times. It seems to have worked well enough. Next time, I might figure out a more elegant way to do the decreases, so that the seam in not quite so obvious.

But I wasn't really up for ripping out and redoing, especially since I see this is such a casual sweater, and since I suspect that it will be a giveaway. I don't think it looks bad on me, it just seems like it's not-me, and I can already think of a few people who might use it more than I would. High Test, for one, who has never had a job where she has had to dress like a grown up, and who would look very cute in it. And who might make me some pillows in trade? I've gone ahead and cast on for the gathered pullover from Interweave, which is more my style, softening the blow of the not-me sweater.

not so quick and dirty

I realize that I don't like the drop stitch. It looks OK here......

And it looks better here, in the original picture. But in real life, it looks kind of silly and overly busy on an already busy sweater. The pattern of the yarn is enough for me. Not to mention that it also looks like a snag magnet. So I'm going to redesign it as a simple bell sleeve, which is what it read as to me from the beginning. So much for the quick and dirty project---I'll have to figure out how to get a good bell sleeve by trial and error. It's times like this that I wish I owned a good basic kntting technique book.

When I decided to make this one, there were no FO's yet on ravelry, but I see now that several of those who made this sweater felt similarly about the drop stitch, and left it off.

In other news, Operations Man did not say anything about my not knitting in the car last Thursday. This gave me license to make some good progress on the Myrtle Leaf shawl coming home. Lace is getting to be a bit of a problem. More to come.

the beast with two backs

No, I mean, literally, for those of you who get the allusion....

This is the Yarn Eater, flanked by two versions of the back of the drop stitch cardigan, the sweater that was supposed to be my quick and dirty project while I'm concentrating on the alpine lace scarf. This time, I have no one to blame but myself. I decided that I could ignore gauge issues and plunge into knitting a different gauge without carefully calculating the result. Not.

I got a laugh out of some recent posting on Lye's blog. She's a new blogger with a great voice and she's also new to sweater knitting, and is bemoaning her first sweater mistake. I say, get used to it. I've been knitting sweaters for twice as long as she's been alive, and pretty near every one of them, even my beloved thermal, which I had to knit and then knit again (most of the body, anyway) in a smaller size, a correction I'm glad I made, has involved some tinking. It's wisest to approach sweater knitting with hubris, although that can be difficult to remember. The surer I am that something is going to be a snap, the surer I am to do something extra stupid. And forget that fantasy of the "yoga knitter" who churns out one sweater after another without effort. We do yoga to undo the stress of making mistakes in knitting.

The consolation on the drop stitch sweater is that it knits up so fast, and the colors are so much fun to watch. Still, I'd hate for it to turn Sisyphean on me, so now that I've got the correct gauge, I'm going to try to be alert for new possibilities for avoidable mistakes, and maybe, just maybe, the fronts, sleeves and finishing will go smoothly. It's a lot to hope for.

station break

I don't know about you, but I need a little break from Station All Ruffles, All the Time.

So here is a picture of the start of a future project, the Drop-Stitch Cardigan by Amy King, Interweave mag, Fall 2005. I've decided to use exactly the same yarn that is pictured in the magazine because it looks so great in these colors.                                                      

The truth is, I'm not so good at thinking about color. Apparently it's an occupational hazard. I recently read an article in which an analyst was talking about how female analysts in the U.S. tend to dress--in muted colors, grays, blacks, browns, with maybe a hint of rust. We are taught to subdue ourselves, and we concretize the lesson in our clothing. It's the worst if you are both an analyst and a New Yorker--then there's absolutely no hope for a colorful wardrobe. In fact, I remember a bunch of us being amused and mildly appalled a few years ago when one of the speakers at a conference in Miami showed up tricked out in a powder blue suit. Powder blue, Miami, what's the big deal?

My first few projects, including the never-ending ruffled sweater, have conformed to the standards of my industry uniform. Soon however, the acid greens of my Takhi Bunny print yarn, and some variegated bright orange Koigu will be showing up in my wardrobe....wanna bet that no one gonna get so distracted that they forget what they wanna talk about?