smooch tanks: mmmwahhh!

  

knit-along of Smooch from Rowan's All Season Cotton Collection
first Smooch knit in all seasons cotton; second in Cotton-Ease

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In addition to Gina and Shannon's newly finished ChicKamis, there's been a lot of other action going on in the summer knitalongs of late. Both Bonne Marie and Steph just presented their finished Smooches today! Deb finally finished her Pagan tank after having so much trouble with it (hooray!) and Marrije finished hers (impeccable, like all of her knitting!). And there's more: Sandy has started her wannabe sweater and Clémence is kicking off the other Phildar knitalong. Woo hoo!

Can I just stop and say how much fun it has been this summer hosting these knitalongs and following everyone's progress. I've gotten to know so many new knitbloggers and blogs and it's been fascinating to see how so many people can work on the same project but have it turn out so differently each time. Thanks everyone for making it such a great time and keep on knittin' along!

Thanks to all those who sent birthday wishes. Sharing a birthday with the Declaration of Independence is a good cure for self-importance. But, with the help of hubby, I managed to treat myself to a relaxing and special day. I even received a few nifty, knitty gifties.

Hubby got me the tiny knitty tee, which I totally love. What fun! And I finished up my simply smooch tee, as a gift to myself. Nice and plain. Perfect for a hot day, watching the boys play by the fountain in the park.

And perhaps best of all, our landlord installed the air conditioner, making knitting during the hottest days possible again!

Thanks to the long drive out to Webs on Saturday and some successful knitting at Knitsmiths on Sunday, tank girl 6, or smooch 2 depending how you're counting at home, is taking shape. I'm just below the start of the armholes and neck on the front and am thinking that this tank had better become interesting real fast otherwise it'll be a real dud. I've gotta find something else to punch it up. Don't know what yet, but I'll let you know when I've figured it out. I guess I could have planned this tank more before I started it. Oops.

In addition to not really knowing what to do next on this project, I'm also beginning to sense a sort of general knitting ennui coming over me. Too much of the same thing, I fear. It may soon be time for a big change. Tank girl may be getting restless, but she is always excited to see finished tanks from her knitalong buddies! And yesterday brought two new finished smooches. Hooray!

We've survived the heat wave (without air conditioning). I'm hoping next week to be able to get back to both my knitting and sewing projects (and of course to get our honking, monster air conditioner finally installed!). The sewing machine and all the sewing stuff is upstairs where it was a good 90 degrees during the day and about 86 at night, so clearly I wasn't about to do any sewing. Knitting in the heat was also annoying, but with a fan blowing directly on me, I did finally successfully cast on for tank girl six. I've decided that it's going to be another Smooch, but without the lace and frills - just a comfy, white t-shirt sort of version of it. I actually completed quite a bit more of the Smooch-tee while on a knitting adventure yesterday. Tell you all about it tomorrow!

With the heat and all, I've only been knitting small amounts in stops and starts. I stopped work midway through the front of the sweet heart sweater, but did manage to sew together the other pieces. I tried starting tank girl six about six times, but couldn't get the gauge right. I can't help wanting to knit the Cotton-Ease at a tighter gauge than the all seasons cotton. Now that the temperature will be getting back to normal, I hope to make some real progress on it. Although I still haven't decided exactly what it will look like. Since I have yet to make it past row three, it hasn't really come up yet!

More smooches: Wendy presented her finished Smooch yesterday - knit in record time, I'm sure! And it would seem that just as Wendy was finishing, Bonne Marie was casting on for her Smooch. Finally, all the way from Hamburg, comes a picture from Inga of her own Smooch in progress. We're everywhere, baby!

Less smooches: I relaxed yesterday by ripping out my old Smooch. Here it was looking more smoochy before and a bit less smoochy after. I'm so tempted to cast on for another one, but I do recall that I said I would try to rededicate the summer to the baby knits piling up in my to-do basket. I think this old Smooch yarn will find a much better home in one of the pipsqueak sweaters for the boys.

I give you Smooch, tank girl's sexiest tank yet.

A great success, despite the pattern being a bit annoying. For those still working, or waiting to begin, here's a quick summary (with links to the archives) of all the details of my Smooch. The picot edging was done as called for (following Johanna's helpful clarifications), but I reversed the decreases on the lace pattern for a smoother look. I used my new half-twisted decrease for all the left-slanting decreases, including lace, waist shaping, and eyelets at the neck. I started the neck on the same row as the beginning of the armhole and knit just as far as necessary to complete all the neck decreases before starting the short rows for shoulder shaping. The decreases for the neck were all done on eyelet rows (to make the eyelets nice and round) except for the second and third decreases which are more frequent and make the neck more scooped than a perfect V would be. Not sure that any inquiring minds really wanted to know all that, but there it is.

Good news: it's just gone warm here, so I may get a chance to wear Smooch (and my other tanks) yet!

I couldn't help myself. I started the cute candy cane striped sweet heart sweater that I mentioned last week. What fun! It's so cheery. I'm having a heck of a time readjusting everything from sport to aran weight though. Especially since I'm also simultaneously reducing the pattern down from 2-3 year to 1 year size. Oh yeah, it's also a raglan! But with a little help from other patterns here and there, I think I can manage it. By the way, Rebecca recently posted that the color from her all seasons cotton tank bled quite a bit when she washed it in Woolite. When I heard that I got pretty nervous about my candy cane stripes. So I made one sleeve and immediately washed it to be sure that this sweater would work. I used Eucalan and thankfully had no problems whatsoever. Whew. New project on!

I picked up the yarn for this sweater and started fiddling with it because I finished the knitting on Smooch and was having a typical how-to-avoid seaming-and-darning moment. But with the help of my Knitsmith buddies yesterday, I made it through all the finishing. Smooch pictures tomorrow. Watch this space!

I did no sewing last week, as the boys were having trouble sleeping and I didn't want noise from the sewing machine in the next room to add to the problem. Actual sewing content will have to be limited to this cute pic of B lounging in his fast pants. He's telling me to move out of the way so he can see Blue's Clues.

I spent my sewing time knitting, of course, and am almost done with my Smooch tank. I redid the shoulder shaping on the back. And I've even finished one shoulder on the front. One more shoulder and three needle bind off, here I come! Look at that, I'm even avoiding sewing in my knitting projects!

Even I can't believe it, but it's true: Smooch will be my fifth tank this summer. The deal is, I know I've got at least one more in me and in the stash - I've got a few balls of Cotton Ease in white white (yes, that's two whites!). Uh huh, tank girl six is in the planning stages. I really like the finished look of both Pagan and Smooch, so I'm thinking of crossing them somehow. Maybe Pagan with the cap sleeves, but the plunging neckline from Smooch. Maybe the v-neck Pagan with some frilly edging a la Smooch. I like the thought of kind of mixing things up a bit on this tank, after strictly following patterns for the first five. I'm imagining a sort of pretty, white, franken-tank, assembled out of design elements from its five predecessors. Fun!

I'm sailing along with Smooch, in too much of a hurry, I suspect, to get to that crazy neckline. Here's the finished back (I am so loving the color!). I tried to do short rows on the shoulders in preparation for three needle bind off, but I'm not sure how to do that when the shoulder shaping doesn't form a perfect angle in one direction. This pattern calls for the middle stitches to be bound off last, not those closest to the neck (which is what I ended up doing for the time being). After studying the directions for the front, I think the strange shoulder shaping is necessary because the front and the back actually have different numbers of shoulder stitches. Those extra stitches on the back really belong to the back of the neck, that is, the back neck is not all bound off at once straight across. Make any sense? Am I reading this pattern correctly? Maybe I'm just being dense and only imagining that this is a problem. I've only done the three needle bind off twice before: once with a straight shoulder on the Dale baby sweater and then with the perfectly sloped shoulders on the wannabe sweater. Anyone have some insight for me?

Looking at the back now, I'm thinking that the armholes, which I already shortened by one inch, still look a tad long. I'll most likely knit the front to what seems like the proper length and then change the back accordingly. Perhaps by then, I will have figured out the neck and shoulder bind off thing.

Can we just pause for a moment to look at that list of knitters who have joined the Smooch-along! Wow!

Let's take a minute to check in on everyone's progress. Those in pink have started (remember, there's no set time here, just let me know if you want to join in on the fun and jump in whenever you're ready) and those in red are done (links are to finished pictures, where available)!

Kerstin
alison
Johanna
Morgan
Becky
Maggi
Nora
Jen
Gina
Linda
Brenda
Anne
Beverly
Carissa
Kimmer
MKaye
Sandy
Anna
Inga
Wendy
Jessica

Yes, I'm pink again. Woo hoo! I started over with the new yarn and have made it through the lace part on the back.

I fiddled with a lot of different decreases to get it to look the way I had imagined it in my head and am pleased with the result. I used K2tog after the yarnovers, K2tog tbl before the yarnovers, and for the double decrease I slipped the first two stitches together knitwise, knit the next and passed the two slipped stitches over the last one. I'm so glad that I decided to start over again and went ahead and splurged to buy the new yarn. It really doesn't do to keep something that you know you'll be disappointed with.

Now a call to all you Smoochers out there who are a ways into the project. I know many people are getting annoyed with the pattern. I posted a clarification for the first rows of the picot edging a while back. Do you all have any further tips to clarify things that might be tricky or confusing like the slip stitch edging? Any suggestions for shortening the neckline and/or armholes? I'm sure any ideas you've got would be much appreciated. Thanks!

My yarn for Smooch has arrived! I got all seasons cotton in one of the beautiful new melange colors, cookie. It's a really lovely and sophisticated looking sort of taupey color. The other melage colors are also gorgeous and I was so tempted to get the peachy color, but I decided that tank girl can be subtly sexy this time. The yarn came pretty fast, but now I feel like I've fallen behind having waited a couple of weeks to decide to rip and get the new yarn. So I'm anxious to be able to start again.

But I'm soooo close to finishing the wannabe sweater that I'm not sure I can put it down to start Smooch. I'll be starting the neck any minute now and then there's only the seaming left to do. This thing wants to be done! I feel like wearing the sleeves already, even as I finish knitting the front!

And then there's Becky's cool swatch project, which I'm really excited about. Can't quite say why, since it's making swatches, something I'm usually loath to do. But I think since these swatches are finished products and not preliminary exercises to knitting a sweater or something, I'm feeling differently about them. I've already pulled out several of my all seasons cotton leftovers and have a few planned. Be sure to check it out and then join in on the swatchy fun!

Now to decide which project gets my attention this weekend. Decisions, decisions.

Spent most of my free time yesterday making some little buttons for the current knit-alongs. Becky did such a good job on the Tank Girl button, I was a little intimidated to give it a try. But we can't have Becky making the Becky-wannabe button, now can we?!

In actual knitting news, I've cast on for the front of the wannabe sweater. Looks just like the cast on for the back (by George, I think she's got it!), so no new pictures today. Maybe when I separate for the neck!

Stopped by Knitsmiths yesterday and got to see Johanna's finished Smooch. She looks great! Johanna managed to shorten the neck a bit so that it isn't too plunging. I think many of us will be asking her for the details on that so we can do the same. Still, I think there must be something about this top that gets you in the mood to make sexy poses. And have you seen Jen's? You MUST check it out! I've ordered new yarn for mine and will restart it as soon as it arrives.

I spent Saturday at the Granite State Knit in and in addition to learning a few things here and there, I got a lot of knitting done. In fact, I finished a whole sleeve of the Becky sweater!

Um, sort of. It turns out that the color I'm using for Smooch has been discontinued and my LYS can't get anymore (wish I'd known that two weeks ago when I ordered the yarn there). I may not have any other choice but to rip it out and start again with other yarn. Well, I'll get to try doing the lace part differently.

Unless of course someone out there has three skeins of All Seasons Cotton in color #187. I'm not doing any stripes or anything on this one. If I can't find more yarn to match what I've already knit, I'll be ripping it out this weekend. I have a few ideas what I could do with the skeins I have.....

the project: smooch

the problem: the decrease lines under the lace v's

those to blame: fellow smooch-alonger Anne, for pointing out that they can be improved, and Becky, 'cause I'm a Becky-wannabe dont'cha know and if she didn't like it, she would redo it

the details: Here are the v's done as written and here are some I tried out yesterday with different decreases. The second looks exactly like the picture in the book. Anne, is this how you did yours? I like them both. I think I prefer the look of the lace part in the catalog picture with less visible decreases (why would they tell us to do it differently?). I did notice, however, that several designs in Rowan's Calmer book have the same lace pattern and all those photos have the visible decrease lines under the yarnovers.

the questions: Do I stew or redo?

Thanks to all your help yesterday, I now have a plan about how to tackle the borders on Pagan. First, I hadn't realized that the bind off was supposed to be on the wrong side (thanks to Kerstin for mentioning it). Now that I think about it, Rowan seems to always have you knitting edgings and stuff flat and I always just ignore that and do it in the round. Usually it doesn't make a difference, but here it would. And upon further examination of the pattern picture, the edgings do look like the purl side of stockinette, which would match what you see at the bottom where the tank rolls up (Becky mentioned this last week, but I hadn't gotten that far on the tank and missed that detail). I think I can live with a standard bind off if the loops curl to the inside. But if I don't like it I'll give Zimmerman's sewn cast off another try with the same picked up stitches. And when I'm still unsatisfied, I'll break out, um, buy, a crochet hook and try the crab stitch. I have yet to be initiated into the whole world of crochet, but it may be time to change that.

In case you're worried that I sat around all day yesterday obsessing about Pagan, it will reassure you to know that I did knit a bit of smooch to keep my spirits up: the lace pattern. The directions for this part are very clear and it comes out looking like a dream. I love when that happens. You just follow the instructions unquestioningly and it works. It's like being a beginner all over again.

I'm trying to make Monday evening my sewing night, since there's nothing on tv to knit by. Yesterday I was working on the huge stack of curtains I have to hem before we can hang them, but you know I had to start Smooch. I made it through the pretty little edging. Again thanks to Johanna for working that part of the directions out. Looking ahead at the pattern, I have a feeling that we'll be running across a couple more confusing parts. If we do I'll make a little page with tips/solutions that those of you starting later can refer to. And remember, this is NOT a race. The official date for Smooch is "whenever" and I mean it. No feeling pressured to start right away or finish fast. Just let me know when you start so I can send everyone your way for progress details.

Becky wannabe's: are you swatching? I am positively dreading giving up my 5mm needles to work on Becky's stripey sweater. I'm substituting Rowan cotton glace (from my stash - I'm being so good) for the Falaise. And you know what kind of needle that means - 3.5mm. If I'm lucky! I have been completely spoiled by the all seasons cotton. Pretty much everything else I have planned until deepest darkest winter is in a considerably smaller gauge. Perhaps I'll have to cast on for something big like this, so I can still have something on the needles to go back to for a little reprieve. They say it's good for your hands if you have different projects going at different gauges. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Yes, the smooch-along is officially underway. Both Johanna and Kerstin were at Knitsmiths with the beginnings of their Smooches. Johanna is using Cotton Ease in a lovely pink and is almost up to the armhole shaping on the back. Aren't those lace v's sweet?! Kerstin was just casting on and working her way through the lace pattern. By the way Kerstin was a blast - I recommend that you all have Kerstin come to your knitting groups!

A note for those of you planning to work on Smooch: the instructions for the loopy, picot-y edging may be a bit unclear (thanks to Johanna for clarifying this). The pattern says to knit 3 then cast off 3. To do this you must actually knit the next 2 stitches and then pull the second of those over the first. So it's sort of like knit 4 and then start casting off immediately with the next stitch. Then the pattern says to knit 2 and cast off 3, repeated to the end of the row. Again, the cast off begins with knit two then pull second over the first. So you're kind of knitting 3 and beginning the cast off group with the next stitch. What you're going for is groups of three: three knit stitches, three cast off stitches. However it helps to think of it to get you there, go with that!

Anywho, I'll be starting Smooch tonight. Why am I allowed to start Smooch when Pagan still has ends hanging all over the place? Because I finished my purple tank!

The purple tank has been scolded for tempting me away from my knitalong and was put on hold so I could make some significant progress on Pagan. But just because I've rededicated myself to finishing Pagan, doesn't mean that I can't think (or blog) about the purple tank. Here's the pattern I'm using, from Rebecca magazine #23. I really like the pattern since it looks like I might be able to wear it as a tank or a vest. I had been thinking of using it for the leftovers vest that I started planning a while ago. We'll see how the pattern works out. So far I'm enjoying it very much. I like the half fisherman's rib at the bottom. It's so soft and fluffy. I hadn't ever done that stitch before and was pleasantly surprised at the fabric it produced.

In Pagan news, I am amazed at how fast everyone has been knitting away. Of course Linda and Kerrie are all done, and now Kerstin says she should be done this weekend and both Nora and Deb have finished all the knitting already! I'm not quite so far along, having only knit the back completely. I still have the front top half left to do (and please don't say the words weaving or ends, thanks). Since I knit it in the round, what I've finished kinda looks like a halter top. Makes me think about squeezing in this pattern in the summer of tanks.

And yet I am determined to start my next knitalong (Smooch) next week, once I finish Pagan or the purple tank. I know that Johanna has already begun hers. I hope to be able to post a progress picture of hers for you on Monday. For those of you joining in on the knitalong, feel free to start now, later, whenever. I'd love to know when you begin though, so I can note it in the sidebar and people know to look for your progress. And don't worry about me rushing through Smooch like the crazy tank girls did with Pagan, I'll have to stop halfway through so I can order enough yarn to complete it. But I can't help starting now - can't you hear the yarn calling to me?