think spring



Crinkle cropped cardigan from Rowan 39 in Rowan cotton glace

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I couldn't resist the pink/orange ribbon! Although the pink in the pink/green one matched perfectly, and I absolutely loved the little red picots on the edge of the ribbon, too much of all that was lost when I wove the ribbon through the eyelets. Plus, it gave the cardi a more sedated look and made it, dare I say, even a little boring. Once I strung the pink/orange ribbon through the eyelets, crinkle really became a cardi I wanted to wear. It makes it so fun and bright, which is good since it's another overcast, soon to be wet day here in Boston.

You may recall that I started this sweater back in April (which I've renamed "March Two: The Wrath of March") in the hopes that it would finally bring on the spring. It didn't work (note: May will now be called "March Enough for You Yet?"). All we got was rain. And now we've got rain with an intermittent chance of summer. Conclusion: my knitting either has no effect on the weather or a very, very bad one. But I can't worry about that, not when I've got my super fun scrunchie cardi to play with: up, down, up, down....

I have to say it's been a little strange knitting this cardi here on the blog, since I feel like so many folks out there are following along, waiting to see how it all turns out before starting one themselves. It's sort of like how I feel about being a mom. I don't have any friends with children older than mine and so I feel like my friends with younger kids or no kids are taking the opportunity to watch to see how things go first. It's hard going first, but I try my best. In this case, I think the results are pretty good. I'm ready to give most of the credit for that to the pattern, the yarn, the ribbon, the fates, all of which worked with me this time. I'm sure there are several things that others will want to do differently, but I like the way it came out. (And for the record, I think the boys have come out okay so far too!)

For those of you thinking about making this one, I'll even toss in some specs for ya:

Crinkle
Rowan 39
size small
cotton glace #822 Peony
US2 (edging) and US3 (body) needles
24 sts and 34 rows-ish per 4"/10cm over pattern

(Programming note: As of tomorrow, the blog will be going on vaca for a few days. I'll be here, but my techguy is moving, so the blue blog will be offline while the server is driven to another part of the country and set up in its new home. Be back soon!)

It was a beautiful day yesterday in Boston, so the boys and I went out to the Public Garden for a ride on the swan boats and a quick trip to the Paper Source across the street.

We spotted a great ribbon for crinkle right away and then the boys granted me a whole four more minutes to see if there were any others that were better. I did find a second one I liked and since I didn't think I could decide between the two before boy meltdown occurred, we dashed over to the counter to get both.

The boys earned an ice cream cone for coming with me to the store and we rode on the swan boats one more time before heading home, where I could decide on that ribbon and finish up a still slightly curly crinkle. Yes, the blocking had only moderate results.

Most of the edging now lies sort of perpendicular to the garment, instead of lying down flat. It's not completely flipped up anymore, so that's actually a huge improvement. It looks pretty much like in the image in the book, with plenty of natural curl left in but still just enough picot showing to add that frilly element to the sweater.

So, what ribbon did I pick? How's it look? You'll have to wait until I shower and steal my photographers away from their legos to see....

co2, bo4, co2, bo4... - only 186 stitches to go!

With the support of my best knitbuds, I sat down this weekend to tackle all that picot edging on crinkle. Although the picot part didn't take quite as long as I had imagined in my nightmares of the last few nights, the picking up stitches part took longer. Five hours over two days, and I'd finally picoted the whole thing. But now all my cute little picots are flipping up along the curled edges of the sweater. Grrrrr.

and I already blocked this sweater!

So I'm blocking the bejeesus out of it again with the aid of a few phone books.

the official blocking tool of the Boston Red Sox

It's the first time I've touched those phone books in years. I knew they'd be good for something someday.

I was at least going to go shopping for the ribbon yesterday, but torrential downpours and flash flooding convinced me to stay inside. Luckily, knitbuddy Lisa had a few ribbons to help me get an idea of what kind of look I want.

so, what kind of a look do I want?

I kind of like the plain pink one, but then again, I'm boring like that. I'd love to find a wide ribbon like in the original. In fact, exactly the ribbon in the original would be great. Oh jeez, this is going to be just as hard as picking out buttons!

After a lengthy blocking (and the pieces are still biasing!), I was able to seam up crinkle.

Just a few dozen miles of picot edgings left to do on this little thing. And it's one of those cast on 3, bind off 4 kinds of picot edgings, so it's going to involve like a million stitches. Someone tell me this sort of thing goes more quickly than it sounds.

You may recall that I started knitting this cardi in the hopes that if I knit something springy, spring would come. Instead of spring, we got floods. And it's still raining. Knitting crinkle would appear to be some sort of powerful rain dance. Luckily, I'm almost done dancing.

Crinkle fronts: pink, lacy, and done.

This cardi is starting to look small to me. I tried on a sample at the store a while back that fit me great. Unfortunately, it wasn't labeled. We measured it and guessed that it was a small or a medium. So, given the propensity of cotton to stretch as you wear it, I decided to knit the small size for myself. Well, it certainly is small. I just keep reminding myself that it's not meant to close in the front.

Just the back left to knit! And I'm already starting to dread all that picot edging.

The stresses of twelve days of rain, a cold/stomach bug working it's way through the family, and hubby away on a business trip sent me running to my crinkle cardigan for comfort many times in the last two weeks. Now hubby's back, it's finally stopped raining, there's only one runny nose left to suffer through and I've got two finished sleeves and the beginnings of a front panel. Just a few more crazy weeks like that and I should be all done with this cardi!

I'm sick. S has been sick. We've been stuck in the house for days with all this rain. So last night I indulged myself by curling up on the sofa with the tv, some banana pudding, my second crinkle sleeve, and the telephone. I knitted and called in votes for American Idol for hours.

I fell asleep with only the sleeve cap left to go.

A big thank you to my friend Lisa who insisted that I knit some more of my crinkle cardi. I love knitting this project. It just makes me so happy. It's the pretty color and the pretty eyelets and there's also the fact that I'm not substituting yarn or adjusting the numbers for once. Even with the 8 row pattern repeat and the 12th row increases and forgetting how it all fits together after not having worked on it for so long, I am thoroughly enjoying every stitch.

It's still pouring down rain here, but I'm positively delighted to stay inside today and work on sleeve number two. Good times.

starting with a sleeve

This pattern is such a pleasure to knit. It's not what I would call easy - an eight row repeat, with increases every 12, then 14 rows that have to be worked into the pattern - but I am loving it. After an evening of duty knitting (sockapaloooza socks or my design projects), I try to give myself a half hour or so with this delightful little piece. Good times.

If spring won't come to you, you have to make your own. Another cold, gray weekend in Boston inspired me to buy 9 balls of Rowan cotton glace in pink to make this from the latest Rowan book. I tried on a sample of this sweater in the store and it looked so good on that I couldn't leave without the yarn. I've already knit a swatch and it's gotten me so excited for spring!

If I knit it, it will come. Well, it's just a theory.