stash, knit, repeat

Well! That took awhile. I don’t know how it’s possible that one sweater could live up to all of your expectations, but here it is!

Pattern: The Shawl-collared Cardigan from Jo Sharp Knit 1, 39.5″ size

Yarn: Zara Merino DK, charcoal gray

, 12 balls (with approximately 3 yards to spare)

Time Elapsed: Overall, 2 months. But I’d say this has only taken between 3 and 4 weeks, actually–the shawl has been much greedier of my time.

Modifications and Notes: I knit the entire sweater without a single modification, aside from the yarn swap. When I cast on for the project, I’d never seen the Alpaca Kid Lustre in person, and I was pretty afraid of another alpaca sweater being way too warm. So I went with a good workhorse merino, and I’m not sorry I did. But having seen the Alpaca at Ellen’s the last time I was in Maine, I may just have to knit it again. The stuff is luscious.

The Zara grows enough when it’s wet that I need to remember to shape the sleeves a little short–this time through the wash/dry cycle, they hung off the edge of the table and are about 1/2″ too long. But it’s easy enough to avoid that, and when I’m not a total dork they are the perfect length. If you’re knitting with this yarn, though, do be sure to wash your swatch before checking gauge.

The sweater is the perfect length, too, and I love how simple it looks from behind.

The tiny little row of purl at the bottom is enough that the sweater doesn’t look sloppy, but minimal enough to keep it modern.

And that’s how I feel about the sweater, too–modern, simple, basic enough to do whatever I need to do while wearing it.

Stylishly, to boot.

The sweater is simple and pretty fun to knit, actually. Yes, there’s lots of stockinette. But the construction is somewhat lively (you knit the plain pieces first, block and seam them together, and then knit and seam on the ribbed collar), and the details are so classic, and after all when would we get to watch television if not for stockinette? The waist shaping is extremely flattering, as are the sleeves (no tapering to the hands). I may reposition my little clasp to be an inch lower–we’ll see how I like it over time.

It goes with literally everything in my wardrobe, which is great. A cardigan is a year-round must here, and my closet has been sorely lacking in them.

Finally, lots more pictures (especially of the seams, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who enjoys seaming!) can be found at the FO page. Which is a testament to the greatness of this sweater, in itself–I’m usually hard-pressed to find 3 or 4 FO pictures I like. Today, they all seemed to turn out well.

I guess there’s not much else to say but hip, hip, hooray!

So what have I been up to?

A pretty good (long) weekend, I’d say. And even if it took me until tonight to finish that silly cardigan, I forgive it everything. It is the bestest thing ever. Wait ’till you see it, I’m so excited.

(insert clever segue here)

Ashley and Ms. Octopus are the bestest people ever, because (sweeties that they are), they both paid me the nicest compliment!

I’m extremely flattered, especially since I’ve been feeling so lackluster about these projects dragging on forever. But things like this award always make me a little nervous, too, because how do I choose just five (or ten, or twenty…) other knitbloggers? When I read and enjoy dozens and dozens? The thought makes me run around in little neurotic circles.

But! One of the things they teach you as a manager is to make decisions even under impossible conditions with imperfect information, so I’ll pass the award on to

• Marlena, my oldest real-life friend, with whom I’m thrilled to share this obsession,
• Becky, the very first knitblogger I read,
• Wendy, who taught me to love the socks and the lace,
• Diana, because she is the best kind of knitblogger to hang out with in real life,
• and Ellen, because nobody rocks as hard as the woman who keeps me in great yarn.

You ladies rock!

Really, though, there’s no such thing as a complete list of all of the knitbloggers I think deserve this award. I’ve learned so much from everyone I read. And especially over this last year, having moved to a new place in relative isolation, feeling connected to so many people has been tremendously important to me. Thanks a ton, y’all.

Okay, enough of the mushy stuff. I’m off to attach a border to a shawl! Wish me luck and a few good margaritas.

I suppose that most knitters, when they get as bored of their projects as I’ve been, just cast on something new. I’m not sure why I don’t–it’s just not me, I guess. Part guilt, part obsessive-compulsive behavior, who knows. I just can’t make myself do it. Which winds up being okay, because no matter how much a project slogs in the middle, I get more and more excited about it the closer it is to completion.

The main body of the shawl is done, and the top edge is all picot-ed and sweet. Now I need to figure out how to knit and attach the border, which should be lots of fun since I’ve never done it before.

But it’s taking a back seat at the moment–because as much as I love learning new things, I love seaming more.

I realize that some would hold this up as proof of my insanity, and here’s a little more fuel for that fire: Seaming set-in sleeves is my favorite kind of seaming. It’s always the step that brings separate pieces of knitting into a sweater, for me. I love laying all of the pieces out, getting my little pile of safety-pin stitch markers, and easing it all together. I love seeing my yarn bring two pieces of knitting together harmoniously, but not identically. I absolutely adore the mix of straight lines and sloped edges.

And the structure of a finished sleeve totally makes me giggle. Look, ma! I made a sweater!

This sweater pattern instructs the knitter to seam most of the pieces before knitting the wide ribbed collar, to match the length most accurately. It’s a nice detail that I’m a little nervous about, here. I’m not using the recommended yarn and the Zara is stretching a fair amount. I’m going to try to stretch my ribbing slightly when comparing it to the (already blocked) main body of the sweater and pray that it works out. I’m pretty sure it will.

See you this weekend with at least one, and maybe two, FOs!

I’m finally getting there.

The cardigan just requires seaming and a large ribbed collar. The shawl requires just 24 more rows and a border:

It will be so very, very good to have these projects finished and out the door. I hadn’t realized how much I take my typical speedy progress for granted. I’m sure it’s just because I’m usually monogamous to a project–it’ll be somewhere around 2 months to finish 2 projects, which isn’t that much slower than usual for me. But usually, I have a nice little feeling of accomplishment halfway through. And this time, halfway through I was doing lace surgery.

Oh, well. The cardigan is making me fidget in my seat, I’m so excited to wear it, and the shawl is going to be knockout. It’ll be worth the work. Just the same, though, the next project is a tiny little lace sweater for a 2-year-old friend of mine. :)

Jacob would like you to know:

My current knitting is the opposite of good blog-fodder. The lace? Pretty much still the definition of ‘blob’. And eye-searingly red, to boot. The cardigan?

I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the most frequently-worn thing I’ve ever knit, but let’s face it: Miles of charcoal stockinette aren’t that much fun to look at. And they definitely require some kind of distraction for the knitter, too.

Maybe it’s because of my project ennui, maybe it’s because I got a very special gift myself recently…

(My grandmother’s sewing machine. My prom dress and many of my favorite childhood toys, clothes, and quilts were created with this machine.)

…but I find myself spending way too much time thinking about the knits I want to make for others. The ones I want to cast on for right now.

Generally speaking, I don’t knit for charity. I’m lucky enough to be able to donate money to my favorite causes, and I’m also pretty selfish with my knits—I want to see them being loved. But I’m also a huge process knitter, and my own taste for knitwear often runs in the tiny-gauge-charcoal-gray-stockinette direction. So I knit a lot of gifts. I’ve tried to knit more for myself this year, and I am beginning to become very impatient with it. Jacob needs another sweater, I have some crimson Hempathy for a lace tank for a toddler friend, I have at least 3 sweaters planned for the holiday season, I’m waiting for some Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran to make its way across the pond for a birthday gift… The gift knits list includes cables, lace, color work, fabulous yarn, patterns by my very favorite designers.

You see the dilemma? So please, please, distract me! What project are you most looking forward to knitting right now?

That’s more like it!

More sleeve, more shawl, and a couple of kick-ass early birthday presents. Tonight: More knitting.

Hooray!

I finished all of these gorgeous projects and won a huge shopping spree at my LYS and got invited to teach the Queen of England to knit and…

…oh wait, no. Those were all dreams. Damn.

But I may as well tell you about them, because the actual knitting going on around here is sparse and boring. I think I’ve knit all of 1 row on the shawl, and a few puny inches of sleeve, since the last time I posted. I have high hopes, though, for the coming week. We finally got a replacement dishwasher installed today after waiting for almost 2 weeks, so I should be doing more stitches and fewer dishes. And in a week, I’ll be on a plane to Boston and Maine, where there will be babysitting and FOs.

I sincerely hope so, anyway, because I’m itching to cast on for some Sidewinders. Have you seen Nona’s and Grumperina’s? That Nona is a genius! And this sock pattern is just the thing for my misbehaving StR.

It is so impossible that an entire week has passed. Completely unbelievable. Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on Tulip, they kept me smiling all week long!

Of course, I cast on for something else right away. Two things, actually, which is really rare for me. It’s been a busy week, but I’m almost done with the first sleeve for the Shawl-collared cardigan out of Jo Sharp Knit issue one.

I didn’t want another alpaca cardigan, so I’m knitting this up in a lovely merino–Zara from Filatura Di Crosa. I really like how the yarn is knitting up for me so far, though I should warn others: It grew a lot once it got wet. I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, so I’m knitting it up on US5s. I’m trying out the “start with a sleeve, end with a sleeve” strategy to keep myself from going too crazy at the end of this sweater. We’ll see how it goes!

I’m knitting two projects right now because there’s no way I can do the other one while toddler-wrangling or chatting with my knitting group ladies:

“A curved shawl with diamond edging” from Victorian Lace Today, in Lacey Lamb. In the color pictured in the book, even! I’ve only gotten a dozen rows done this week, sadly. The pattern is pretty easy, the yarn is like a day at the spa, and I LOVE ME my new lace Addis… but let’s face it. Lace with yarn that thin just isn’t as easy to manage as a good sturdy merino stockinette. Who knows how long it will take me to complete the shawl, but I’m not in a rush. The longer it takes, the longer I’ll be feeling that amazing LL running through my fingers!

(It just occurred to me, writing this post, that I got both yarns from Ellen. The yarn I buy from her always seems to get knit up quickly, and turn into my favorite things. I think that bodes well for these projects!)