wip it

Steam Roller

Oh, man, I'm just a finishing machine these days!

Quick update:

1. Rowan Felted Tweed Sweater: Done, washed, ready to wear!

2. Colinette Jacket: All seams sewn, all ends worked in, just have to get some yarn and a crochet hook to try to do the edging. This means a trip to the yarn shop, when I have a moment.

So, back to the abandoned objects box I went:

3. Colinette AbFab afghan

This is kind of a symbolic project for me. I bought the kit as a kind of reward just before we moved over here. I wound the yarn, and put it, the pattern, and the needle in my suitcase.

It was my jet-lag and get adapted knitting in the early days that we were here.

Why did I abandon it? I don't know. It doesn't fit the general rules I discovered when I sorted through things. I do know I ended up quite sick for close to a year, and a bunch of stuff got set aside then, so I'm assuming this was part of that.

I took it out, realized there wasn't much left to do, and finished knitting it Sunday night.

It just needs the trim. I need a crochet hook for that. I don't have one big enough, the only crochet hooks I have are finer. I can use the same one I get for the Colinette jacket to finish this.

I've also decided I only want it fringed in mohair, so I'm going to buy some plain mohair in colours to coordinate with the variegated mohairs I have leftover from the kit, to make them go a little farther.

I really love this afghan. The colourway is "Versace" -- I'd always been a fan of the late Gianni Versace, and I continue to admire what his sister Donatella does. The colours in this are so perfect, and it seems quite appropriate to be finishing it now, just before we move back to Canada.

The Other wants it put in our air shipment. He likes.

4. Colinette Isis Swing Coat

I bought the yarn for this back in Canada, too (remember, I used to work in a shop, and got a discount!).

It was a bit of a splurge. We'd had a customer order 10 hanks of Isis in the colourway Venezia to make this same coat -- we had it on display in the shop, and she decided she wanted Exactly the Same Thing.

Except, if you're familiar with Colinette, you know that the colours can differ dramatically from dyelot to dyelot. This lot came in, but the customer found it too turquoise.

To me, it looked EXACTLY like venetian glass. Rather than send it back for an exchange, I took this lot, and she ordered again to try to get what she wanted.

The slight challenge with this is that even within this dyelot, there's a variation. Several of the hanks were more red/dark blue. I tried working two slightly different hanks together, but found it just looked blah.

So what I did, and I think you can see this in the picture, is I started with the darker skeins near the bottom, and gradually worked upwards to the more turquoise skeins.

It's more subtle in person than in the photo, but you can still see that happening.

Why did I abandon? I discovered another reason -- I get started on something too close to a major change or happening. I think I was zooming along on this, then made a trip back to Canada, which meant that things were in a bit of upheaval for close to a month. I never seem to get back to things when that happens.

I finished the sleeve last night, so it just needs seaming. Again, a trip to the yarn shop, because I'm NOT going to seem it with the Isis. I'm wavering between cotton and wool. Cotton for stability, wool because the Isis is very drapey, and might need a seem that's more giving.

I can't decide...

Out With The Old

1. Rowan Felted Tweed sweater

Over on my wabisabi blog, I wrote about curbing startitis, and how moving has had me look seriously at the projects I abandoned.

I also mentioned that although I'd ripped most of them out, I did keep a few aside to finish. Because I've been dead sick with bronchitis for close to two weeks (well, the bronchitis just this week, but it all started last week), and because I'm still caught up in moving details, I've had very little energy to even knit at all.

But some of these Previously Abandoned Objects (The Other will note that this acronym is PAO :-) were actually perfect for this situation.

The first of these is the "Mandarin Blues" sweater from Knitter's Fall 2002 (K68). I'd knit the front, back, and part of one sleeve. I abandoned it because I couldn't find the rest of the yarn I knew I had, and it didn't turn up until just recently. But I actually kind of liked it, so thought it worth finishing.

I'll declare my bias up front: I'm not a big fan of this magazine, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is I don't find the patterns well written. There are lots of mistakes in this one (actual bits of pattern missing, so if you're not a reasonably confident knitter you might have some problems with it). And I always find that they either recommend either too much yarn or not enough. I made a vest a couple of years ago, and scrambled around to find 3 more balls of the yarn called for -- I had all but 3 balls, and really wanted to make it.

Not only did I not need the three balls, but I had three leftover from what I already had.

In this case, I had 8 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed, as called for in the pattern. I'd bought it for something else, which no longer appealed to me, so it seemed fate was throwing this pattern my way.

Except, I used absolutely every bit of those 8 balls. There are a few scraps left, but other than that, it seemed for a while to be a near thing.

And the problem with that is that the next size up also calls for 8 balls. If I'd made *that* size, I would have run out of yarn. And my gauge is on, the measurements are perfect.

The other thing is, Felted Tweed is a soft, drapey, limp yarn. There isn't enough garter stitch on the edges to stop it from curling, both at the bottoms, and at the back of the neck. I would definitely add a few more rows if I had the yarn to do it.

I'm hoping that blocking the hem severly will help with this, but I'm resigned to the fact that it will probably still roll.

That's okay. It's not a beautiful sweater on me, but it doesn't look bad, and, most importantly, it's *very* warm and cozy. It's too warm for the climate here in Lyon, but it'll be perfect once we move back to Canada. (In a month. Gulp.)

This picture will give you a better idea of the colour -- it's a pretty grey flannel with nubs of white and blue:

2. Colinette Jacket

The reason this is only 90% finished is that I've still got one side to sew up. I'd sewed the armholes to the body bits, then left it.

Why? Because it's heavy. It's supposed to have a collar and a button band, but it's too heavy to wear as a Real Cardigan. It's one strand of Point Five and one strand of Fandango held together.

It's actually really pretty, very dramatic, the picture is close on the colour, but in person, it's quite stunning.

But I was discouraged. It was too chunky as a cardigan. I didn't rip it out though, because I really loved the fabric and the colours.

I finally came up with a solution last week. Instead of a cardigan, it's going to be a little jacket. No bands, no buttons. They only thing I think I'm going to do is to crochet around all the edges to stop them from curling (front bands) and drooping (neck). I hope this doesn't give it a homespun kind of look, but that's the best solution I have at the moment.

The Other also suggested a couple of I-cord ties. I'm not sure I want ties, but I also think he may have an idea there. I'm going to look in Nicky Epstein's book of embellishments to see if there might be a more appropriate solution.

Slow but steady.

The knitting is done on the Long Abandoned But Now Resurrected Rowan Felted Tweed Sweater.

It's funny, I got thinking today that this was the first yarn I bought when we moved over here -- I got it at the Bon Marché department store in Paris. I'd gone on my own just around my birthday, we'd been here only a few months, and it was a splurge. But it was soft and comforting, cozy.

It breaks a bit in the knitting. I'm wondering if that's not how the hole came about.

But the knitting is done, and one of the sleeves is sewn in. It's slow work, the sleeve is kind of a funny set-in dropped shoulder thingee, and the front has two layers where the yoke crosses over, so I've been taking care to try to get it all to sit right.

Hopefully I'll get the other sleeve in tomorrow...

This feels really good, you know. Now, if only the sweater is as cosy and comfortable as the yarn feels.

An actual WIP!

After the Great Pre-Move Clean-Up, I still can't find a lot of things. I have a little notebook with patterns I've engineered or re-engineered, and it's disappeared into the void. I'd like to find it, because I reworked EZ's Maltese fisherman's hat to, among other things, include a buttonhole, and although I could figure it out again, I don't really want to.

And I still can't find the needles I'd need to make this either. Where in the world could 8mm dpns disappear to?

But in the midst of organizing, I set aside a number of abandoned projects that I thought were worth finishing. One of these was a sweater from Knitters magazine, which I'd set aside because I couldn't find the last two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed I *knew* I had.

I found them in the clean-up, and it's turned out to be a good project. Most of the challenging stuff (and there wasn't much) is already done. I did find a HOLE in one of the pieces. No idea where it came from. This has got me a bit nervous, because I have had an invasion, which I thought I'd dealt with. I'm hoping I just cut it accidently.

Really.

But I decided that since it was in the right front shoulder, and in pattern, that a repair job just wouldn't do. I ripped back, and reknit. It wasn't bad, only fourteen rows, and it was fairly easy to figure out the pattern to finish it off.

I did the neck border yesterday -- I was still a bit concerned about the amount of yarn (this is one of my peeves with Knitters, the patterns either call for far too much or far too little yarn. I had exactly the amount called for, and it's going to be a very near thing in the end...), so figured I could live with 3/4 sleeves if I had to. Fashion Statement and all that.

One sleeve was partway knit -- I started the second one, and as I worked on it, managed to figure out where I was with the first one (yes, of course, all notes have disappeared). I'm back to working on the first sleeve, and when I get them both to the same point, I'll see if I have enough yarn to make the sleeves longer.

I've been Very Ill with a cold and laryngitis this past week, so no pictures until I finish. Hopefully in the next couple of days, and, fingers crossed, after this cold disappears. Please? I don't have time to be sick right now...

completely overwhelmed

and have no time to knit.

can't find the knitting.

no, can't find the pattern.

moving. not my favourite experience.

Maybe the name of the blog should be...

...works not in progress.

This is not *quite* true. But with all the preparations for moving, I have very little time to knit these days. This creates an interesting situation -- for the first time I can remember, I have to work on only one thing, because I have neither the time nor the brain energy to switch my projects around.

So most of the ones in progress have been boxed for the move. They're still easily available, and the boxes are labelled, so I know what's what. And once I've finished organizing (and throwing out a lot of stuff), I can get back to juggling my WIPs again.

For now, I'm approaching the neckline steek on Reef. I haven't bothered to post about it or take pictures, because I rarely manage more than a round or two in an evening. Once I get the body done, I'll post a picture.

I have to say, the more I do fair-isle, the more I enjoy it, and the better my tension gets. A case where practice makes...well...if not perfect, then improvement.

Which is good enough for me right now.