stash, knit, repeat

I wonder if you realize you fascinate me so…

Excuse the bright purple–it really was laying there alseep in a sunbeam. But! The Eleanora sock is finished, and packed away in a box with some goodies to send to a super-nice friend. Jacob may have helped with some of the goodies, but he’s not telling what they are.

Speaking of super-nice friends, Stacey is the very best one. Seriously, people.

Have you ever seen something so beautiful?

It warms my heart and my feet. Thanks so much, Stacey.

And folks, I totally needed the warming. Tangled Yoke is driving me crazy. There’s (sadly) zero chance that I will be done with this thing by November 1, although I might get it done for the weekend. The cable rows are taking for-freaking-EVER, and I had to do some cable repair surgery twice today. I feel completely stupid, because the cables are honestly pretty easy and nobody else seems to be having trouble, but those long rows and all of the counting is killing me.

Woof. Guess I just had to get that off my chest. At least I’ll be done with the cable section tonight. Off I go, to knit rows 17 and 18!

Although you’ll have to forgive me for the poor focus in a few of these shots (I still haven’t worked out the kinks of self-portraits here at the new place), the Waterlily Top is now officially an FO:

Pattern: Waterlily Top by Katy Ryan, from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave

Yarn: Colinette Giotto, 2.5-ish hanks, color “Sahara”

Time Elapsed: The knitting took about a week

Modifications/Notes: Since I’ve been wishing lately that Interweave would publish this particular fact, I will start by saying that I knit the 38.25″ size for .75″ of negative ease in the bust. I really think that with a yarn as light and insubstantial as a ribbon yarn, negative ease (in the bust, anyway) is crucial for a nice fit.

I made some big modifications to this pattern, and I think they resulted in a fairly flattering knit. First, I shortened the whole thing by about 3″: my finished version is around 15″ from hem to bust. (I’m fairly long-waisted.) Second, while I kept the ruffle at the bottom of the tank I entirely changed the shape of the piece. The original was empire waisted and had at least 4″ of positive ease to the waist and hips (for me) in the size I knit. I just knew I’d hate so much fabric floating unattractively around my middle, so I made the shape more conventional and gave myself around 1.5 inches of positive ease in the waist. I’m really glad I did this, and if I were to make the tank again I’d give myself even less room in the waist.

I alternated from the 3 balls of Giotto through the whole piece, and I’m also really glad I did that. There was some minor pooling around the hem, but surprisingly it doesn’t bother me so much.

If I were to knit this again, I’d make more changes. After all is said and done, I think the tank looks pretty good, but would look lots better if I had changed the bias direction on the top halves to bias out rather than in. They still seem a bit at cross-roads with the v-neck, to me.

(Whoops! Edited to add that the usual FO round-up is available, as well.)

All in all, though, I’m marking this one down as a successful knit. I don’t typically wear tanks but if we happen to get a warm day, I’ll definitely reach for this one.

Thank you all so very, very much for your wonderful support. After such a needed break, coming home to hubby and Jacob has been incredibly helpful, and I’m feeling lots better than I was a week ago. Of course, the Sox doing so well in the world series and all of that yarn don’t hurt, either.

My excitement for my knitting returned today. I was looking at the Waterlily top on my dressform this morning, and realizing that I can now take some proper FO shoots (the boob fairy had brought her unwelcome bounty by the time I finished it, and thankfully she has now taken it away again). So that’ll be happening some time soon. I finished my swatch for the Tangled Yoke cables, as well. It looks good, so now on to the 300+ stitches/row cabley goodness.

Oh, and I’ve been working on a sock.

It’s Eleanora, by Miriam Felton, and I just wasn’t satisfied with the slip-stitch heel called for in the pattern. I like the heel pictured above better, but it’s going to be ripped out again because of the mistake on the left side pictured. And since I’m going to rip it out, I’m wondering: Should I make the widening of the double moss stitch more gradual? Like, instead of shifting 2 stitches every row, do them every other row, maybe? Thoughts? Critiques? Is the sock totally and completely hideous and I’m just not seeing it? (It’s for someone else, so I’m going through much more self-doubt than usual with this project. Damn perfectionism.)

I’m really hoping to finish both the sock and the sweater by the end of October, and head into November with a totally clean slate. Think I can do it?

It’s not usually a struggle for me, deciding what to talk about here. It’s a knitting blog, and I’m always (always) knitting, so… there ya go.

But there’s something in the room, now. Or rather, not in the room, and it’s getting in the way of my Rhinebeck post. I went. I had fun with new friends and old.

I bought yarn. A lot of yarn. Did I need a lot of yarn? Well, no, not really. Had I budgeted for a lot of yarn? You bet. And it was all lovely, every last yard.

(It will all be up on Ravelry over the next few days, if you’re curious.) And I made immense progress on the Tangled Yoke, and I finished Waterlily, and I have a gorgeous sock on the needles. But I can’t just post a chipper “oh my god it was so fun and I can’t wait for next year and I saw these 8 million people and here are some links to their blogs” post. I just can’t. It would be false. So instead, here’s an actual honest-to-goodness update on my life.

The day I left for Rhinebeck, I had a miscarriage. I was somewhere between 9 and 11 weeks pregnant, the dates are unclear. The week before, I’d seen a happy wiggling little proto-kid, steady heartbeat and all.

I’m really glad I went to Rhinebeck. It was really fun, I can’t wait for next year, and I did meet and spend time with some fabulous people. I’m excited about the knitting I’m doing right now, and excited about what I’m going to knit next, but I would feel like an ass if I just launched into all of that without a word. I have to be honest in this space, even if I’m usually pretty narrow in scope. So. There you have it. If I was oblivious to you at the festival, if I seemed sad or unfriendly, it wasn’t anything you did. It’s just where I was, this weekend.

Quite aside from me needing some time away from Monterey and the problems associated with it, Rhinebeck was the perfect place for me to go. There was something very healing and satisfying about spending an entire weekend devoted to a very creative endeavor that I also fully and completely control. If a sweater is not perfect, I can rip it out and re-do. I can very carefully choose exactly the right yarn, exactly the right buttons, exactly the right pattern. I can obsess over every stitch, fix mistakes as often as necessary, and wind up with a perfect object that will last a hundred years. So very, very unlike parenting. I craved the predictability, the control.

I’m absolutely going back, and I hope to see you there (and here) lots more in the future.

Can I even express in words how FRUSTRATING it is that I’m writing this post over dial-up? I don’t think so. The DSL folks say that it might be another 3-4 business days before we get real network connectivity, here. No blog reading over morning coffee for me, and I’m totally going through withdrawal.

Sigh.

I don’t know what others do when stressed, but I seem to buy yarn. So, in lieu of another picture of an un-blocked Waterlily or a half-completed Tangled Yoke sleeve, here’s some luscious stash enhancement instead!

(The Plucky Knitter’s “Pumpkin Latte” sock yarn. YUM.)

(Long-overdue solid sock yarn purchase–I’m really way too finicky about variegated colors for my own good.)

Aren’t they gorgeous? Just the thing to make a girl feel better about not being able to properly blog-surf.

And, I also have Rhinebeck to console myself. I doubt I’ll be wearing Tangled Yoke, though–I vastly over-estimated the amount of knitting time I’d have during our move. I’m still only about halfway through the second sleeve, and then there’s the yoke and button band and ribbon finishing to consider. I’ll probably still be working on it there! I signed up to be a square in the blogger bingo, along with Marlena. I think it’ll be lots of fun, and for reference I’ll probably look something like this:

I have no idea what hand-knit I’ll be wearing, and my hair may be curlier. (Who has time to blow-dry when there’s YARN to be fondled?!) But I’m really looking forward to meeting some of you virtual folks in real life!

Thanks so much for your opinions on the yarn, everyone. It was really interesting to see what the word “deep” meant to all of you. My instinct was that a deep color would be both dark in tone and very saturated. But if I take the majority opinion, it seems like I’m wrong and that saturation is the really important part of it. The outcome? Well, I ordered some Louet and tomorrow or Saturday when it arrives (holy fast shipping batman!) I’ll line them all up and choose.

Meanwhile, before my blogging hiatus, I’ve finished the knitting on the tank.

Weaving in ends, here I come! And because I’m lacking in pictures of the Tangled Yoke recently, here’s a snap of the really pathetic progress I’ve made on the first sleeve.

On the plus side, I’ve got a week’s worth of Daily Shows and an entire dvd of Lost episodes (season one, I’m behind the times) to get through. You know, when I’m not moving. :)

See you next week!

Quick, would you call either of these a deep color?

Thanks for your opinions in advance!

*****

The Tangled Yoke is moving along, but slowly since the sleeves are knit on dpns. Before casting on for the first one, I decided to take two days (!!) and mostly finish the Waterlily Top:

It needs a serious blocking/pressing. The bottom needs to be bound off. The back doesn’t exist above the armholes… but seriously. There’s at most an evening’s worth of work to finish the thing. I’ve never knit a top so quickly.

The jury is still out on it. I think my mods are flattering enough, but I’m starting to get nervous that it just doesn’t mesh with my personality very well. Like it’s something I would have worn at 25, on a flirty spring or fall day, but is maybe not something I want to wear at 32 while taking the kiddo to the playground. We’ll see when it’s finished, I guess.

*****

(Note these clever segues! However do I think of them?)

We’re moving on Monday, and I got the terrible (horrible, no-good, very bad) news today that we’ll be without internet access for UP TO A WEEK. How am I supposed to function?! So look for an update on Friday, and then probably a couple of FO shoots around a week later. Wish me luck!