an intarsia sweater, gone wild!



Native, by Kim Hargreaves, from Rowan #29 in Rowan's Handknit DK cotton

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Happy birthday today to my mother! A card. Okay, I got you a little something else besides the card.

Your sweater! I hope you enjoy it so much that you eventually wear holes into it. That would make me very happy.

I finished the sweater over the weekend in time for mom to take it home with her after her visit. It fits exactly the way she likes (action shot!) and the colors look great on her, so I guess I did good. Well, except for the minor issue of it being a year later than promised. Heh, heh. You see, I wrapped up the yarn for this project and gave it to my mother for Christmas 2001. I promised her a finished sweater for her birthday in 2002. Whoops! I'll try to do better with the fandango vest, ma.

Isn't it nice to have a knitter in the family?

Side seams sewn...

and it looks like I've made mom a Mexican poncho sin fringes. Guess I should get those sleeves on.

What a wild night! I hope you all had fun at Kerrie's slumber party. I have to thank my husband for putting together the so-called automatic slumber party update system, which took over for a couple of hours there when I nodded off. Still, I'm beat! It is definitely a hat and sunglasses kind of day for me today.

In addition to partying, I got some wild knitting done. I finished the front of native and even spent some of the party last night weaving in the ends.

Now to sleep off this headache and then sew the wild beast together!

And my reward for being so good: the back of the ribby cardie! You didn't think I'd forget about the ribby cardie, now did you? It goes so fast, it's the perfect break from all that crazy chart-reading and color-changing going on with native.

Ribby reckoning:
completed: one sleeve, one front panel, and the back (all to armhole begin)
skeins used: 5 1/2
skeins remaining: 7 1/2

This week the knitalong begins and the other ribby girls will be joining in I hope. Watch out, girls - as soon as native is finished, I'm all over that cardie!

Speaking of native:

I call this, self portrait in knitty tee weaving in ends.

I'm making progress on your native sweater. I'm up to the armholes on the front. Getting excited?!

(For those of you who are not my mother, check out the latest finished knit-along projects: Maggi's Smooch, Jackie's Chickami, and Inga's Smooch. Way to go, girls!)

Last week I decided to cast on for the first of my phildar projects. I wanted to start the short-sleeved sweater for the next knitalong - so far poor Clémence is knitting along all by herself. I cast on according to my gauge, knit "happily" off and on for a few days (quotes are due to the decrease in happiness effected by the teeny tiny gauge), and it looks like it should fit my boys just perfectly. Unfortunately, it's for me. So what I have now is the world's largest swatch. Uggggh! I've put it aside and will be ripping out the first (apparently useless) swatch so I can start again from that ball. I just can't bring myself to rip out all those teeny tiny stitches yet.

But since I'm ripping and starting over.... what do you think of the idea of carrying along some sort of complementary sparkly yarn, like Rowan's Lurex Shimmer or Phildar Sunset? For some reason, I feel the need to make the lilac more interesting (like this pattern here).

Regardless of what I decide, there will be no knitting on the Phildar top this week, because I am now in full-on deadline mode with native. I'm knitting the native sweater for my mom and she's coming up this weekend (just a few days before her birthday) and I'm trying to get it done by then. Ha, ha! Plan B is to at least get the knitting done (weaving in ends later) and sew up the front and back pieces so it finally starts looking like a sweater and mom can try it on. The race against the calendar is on!

The Phildar filly is going to have to hold her horses.

I think I've figured out what is keeping me from jumping into my sewing like I do with my knitting. It's the ironing. I absolutely love cutting out the pattern pieces, pinning them on the fabric and then cutting everything out - I really enjoy the pieces with their neat cutting lines and the pins all in a row (could you tell by the number of pattern piece photos I've posted?). And I like the actual sewing - a side seam, a hem, even a casing for elastic. But I hate all the "press down 1/4 in. here and then fold over and press again" sort of stuff. How annoying is that? Sew a little seam, stand up and do some tedious, intricate foldy-pressy thing, then sew another little seam. Just makes me want to get my knitting needles and do stockinette in front of the tv for an hour or two!

So this week, I tried to make friends with the iron. My first project wasn't sewing at all, but a bit of crafty, iron-on fun. Remember when I was dreaming of knitting Joe sweaters for the boys? Well, I still want to do that. I've got two more sweaters planned for the boys before I get to those, but I figure they'll still be watching Blue's Clues in two years! Anyway, the character they really love is Dora the Explorer and you cannot find any Dora clothes or accessories that are for boys. I'm not a huge stickler about boy colors and such, but everything Dora is pink AND ruffly AND covered in flowers. That's a little much for even the most open-minded mom. So I made up some little iron-ons and bought some cheap shirts at Old Navy, and voila: boys like Dora too!

And here's the back. The boys love them!

After doing the Dora shirts and making some headway on the native sweater (check it out!), I managed to almost finish sewing my stripey skirt. Step one on the skirt was iron on interfacing over buttonholes (now you can see why I waited so long!). I picked up the iron, since it was out, and got to work. Then sewed up the side seams, the hem and even added a bit of lace to the bottom. All that's left are the fiddly little drawstrings. I should have finished pics for next week's update. I really like how it came out and I'll probably start wearing it even though I still have to deal with the ties. Good thing the rest is finished, cause I'm done ironing for this week!

Seriously, look ma! It's your native sweater back on the needles. That's right, folks, all the ends have been woven in on the back and sleeves and I've cast on for the final piece, the front. Won't be long now. Until I put it aside again. (Ha, ha. It's a joke, ma!)

I finally began the lettering on the little star sweater. I'd put this off for a while because my evening tv has consisted lately of foreign language films that require a bit more attention than two-color work will allow.

This is how far I was during last night's less demanding tv schedule. I decided to do stranding again. Not sure why I'm so nervous about duplicate stitch. I guess I'm just worried that if it doesn't work out I'd have to reknit the whole piece. With the writing done, it's on to the actual star now. That'll require some real focus with all the ends needed for the intarsia.

And speaking of ends.

I've now woven in ALL the ends on the back of the native sweater. I celebrated by eating the rest of the boys' birthday cake (including a couple more fire dogs). Oh, I earned cake alright: before, after. I feel good about getting the sleeve ends woven in this week. And then I have to knit the front and sew it all up. This time, I'll be weaving in the ends periodically as I go!

Knitting group was lots of fun this week with visits from Sandy and her Smooch and Claudia with her tiny tank. Boston knitbloggers rule (make hang ten gesture here)! Since I don't have much of anything on my needles nowadays, I brought.... (drumroll, please) native for a little session of weaving in ends. I've still got a ways to go, but at least I've made another start on it.

So here comes the deal. While I continue plugging away at these ends on native, I get to start the ribby cardie. You see, Deborah wrote to join the knitalong and mentioned that she's already got the ribby on her needles. After some "why can't I" whimpering, I cooked up this plan. Now that I've got the yarn for the boys' pipsqueak sweaters, I'll focus most of my knitting on that, but I'm going to allow myself to knit one piece of the ribby cardie each week (a sleeve, one front panel, etc.) up to the point where the yoke should begin. So when the rest of the ribby cardie gals can join in in August, I'll still have the yoke and neck and front bands and zipper and other finishing to do. Still knitting along, just doing a little homework over the summer.

So for those of you wagering at home, that's #2, #3 and #7 from the to-do list moving to the active pile.

...as far as you're concerned ready-to-wear means yarn ends are no longer visibly hanging out of the garment.

I spent the boys' naptime yesterday weaving in ends on native and am only about 1/5 of the way through them. Sheesh, this is going to take forever! I actually wore my old crazy socks for months before I got around to weaving in the ends. Then out of sheer boredom, I just took them off my feet one day, wove in the four little ends and slipped 'em back on. Pathetic, I know.

...you long to start a new project.

I am dying to start greensleeves! I saw a pattern in the new Rowan mag that is perfect, perfect, perfect and I try every day to figure out an excuse for breaking my moratorium on new projects during February finishing month. Alas, I have failed to come up with anything that even I would find convincing.

...you can't knit anymore.

The back of giranimals II has been giving me such problems! I knit the back of giranimals I in what seemed like 15 minutes, but this one I had to rip out three times. Ugh! First, I messed up the armhole shaping and only noticed it when the sleeve ended up being too short. So I ripped back to the armhole decreases, fixed them and continued on until it came up short again. Measure, measure. That's when I realized that I had been measuring from the cast on edge and not the end of the ribbing. Rip back to armhole decreases, knit more, do decreases, c h e c k l e n g t h, and see that it is now way too long. Rip.... Finally, I finished the little bugger.

...you suspect yourself of subconsciously messing up a project just so it won't reach the finishing stage!

If the rest of giranimals II goes as quickly as the sleeve went, I'm in trouble!

...you start to actually like finishing.

Impossible.

February finishing month isn't over yet! I've still got native to finish. The first step is weaving in all the ends on the back and sleeves. Then I have to knit the front. And this thing is huge! One reason I stopped knitting it was because I thought it was becoming way too big. It's supposed to be an oversized sweater, but I wasn't spot on with gauge and started to worry that I might have to rip out everything I'd knitted so far. Mom reassured me however that oversized was what she liked, so now I only (ha ha!) have to knit a gigantic front to match the other pieces!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

My new year's goal was to finish up all my recent projects so that I can now get back to the older projects I've still got on the needles. And the results...

Newly completed:

• my blue hat: Finished the quick little hat for myself in a jiffy and I love it. Lookie! The yarn is so soft and it feels so warm and snuggly on. I've named this project 'my blue hat' in honor of Becky (my blue house), who managed to find me what were practically the last skeins in all of France of this now discontinued color! Yea for Becky!
  
• mutssjaals: I finished weaving in the ends over the last few days. Obligatory cute pictures:

 

Old, but not forgotten:

• native, now in progress since Spring 2002. My mother is getting anxious to wear this and I'm excited to see what leftovers I might have of the Rowan Handknit DK Cotton.
  
• elizabeth III, in progress since Fall 2001. I have reknit the front and back (again!) and still need to rip out the sleeves, reknit them, sew it all up again, and pray!
  
• dale bug sweaters, in progress since Fall 2002. I was doing well on the first of these when Christmas knitting interrupted me. I'm looking forward to getting back to these and to try out the steeking with my new sewing machine.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with many successful projects!

First, a big cheer for antibiotics. I am finally feeling genuinely better (not 100%, but better). That was two and a half weeks of sick, which was of course just enough time to make absolutely sure that everyone else got sick, including my little boys, my husband, my mother who came for Thanksgiving, and who knows how many acquaintances and passersby. (Sorry everyone!)

Next, a cheer for a finished project. In the last few days I managed to finish the Kureyon hat, my easy knitting project for my convalescence. I'm not sure who this is for yet, but it does fit my own head very nicely. I'm positive that the recipient will want a matching pair of mittens. (Wink, wink.)

Finally, a little cheer for native, which I think I am finally ready to pick up again. I had been worried about the size, but after her visit, my mother assured me that she wanted oversized, so I am determined now to rescue this project from UFO-dom.

Here's Elizabeth III now, thanks to a little (OK, a lot) of reality tv. My husband taped "the Amazing Race" and "Junkyard Wars" for me yesterday and I watched them this evening after "Survivor". Great tv to knit by - entertaining, but not compelling enough to be distracting. Unlike "Blue's Clues", which you would think would actually provide me with some knitting time during the day, since my boys just freeze in front of the tv entranced by Joe the whole time it's on. But, oddly enough, Joe seems to have the same effect on me.

The only problem I have with tv knitting is that sometimes what I was watching gets associated with the project somehow, so that the next time I pick it up I think about the stupid show that was on when I was working on the decreases or whatever. For example, I really started to get the hang of the intarsia knitting required in my much neglected Native sweater while watching "the Osbournes" for the first time. Now every time I even think about picking up that sweater again to complete it, not only do I remember the whole episode (the one where they are Christmas shopping in NYC) but I feel like I need the Osbournes in order to get back into my intarsia rhythm! Luckily, the sweater isn't for me, so once I finish the thing, I can break it off with Ozzy.