Apparently I have no sense of humor

according to the Resident Non-Knitter. I finished his sweater and the first thing he told me was, “I think the collar is really nice.” This, he said, as he was fondling, touching and admiring said sweater.

“That’s not what you said before,” I retorted.

“When? I’ve always told you it was beautiful and I really liked it.”

“Don’t you remember a few Sunday’s ago when you made a number of disparaging comments?”

“Oh that. Can’t you take a joke?”

Apparently not.

Then he proceeded to explain to me that he loves the sweater, he has always loved the sweater and he will continue to love the sweater all the while continuing with the fondling, touching and admiring of said sweater. However, he did not try it on.

I laid the “measurement shirt” (a machine-knit pullover) on the bed and the sweater over it. Everything matched up perfectly except for the circumference which we had intentionally made slightly smaller. The “measurement shirt” has a very boxy cut. The RNK looked at the shirt with the sweater over it and figured everything looked good enough for him to see that it would fit. “Perfect,” he said as he walked out of the room.

“Aren’t you going to try it on?”

“No, I can see that it’ll fit perfect.”

That was it. The end of the three months of sweater knitting. It does leave a question in my mind — does he know how to put a sweater on? I did witness him put the cashmere sweater on once. It came off again a few minutes later; but, he did put it on. I retain a small shred of hope that the sweater will actually be worn once, maybe twice (let’s not get greedy here).

I asked if he would consider allowing me to take a photo of him modeling the sweater for the blog. NOT!

So here, without further ado:

I also finished my first fair isle project, a project I have christened as “The Dork Mitts.”

And finally, just to prove that they are actually “hand-sized”

Been to any slumber parties lately?

I have. This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a slumber party arranged by one of my friend’s husbands for her birthday. It really was sweet. He invited several of her girlfriends, then he arranged to stay with one of the lady’s husbands, leaving the house to the “girls.” What a guy!

It’s a whole different animal, a slumber party among 50 year olds. The most obvious difference was that everyone went to bed by 11:30. When I was a young pup, anyone at a slumber party who went to bed before 3:30 a.m. would have been considered a light-weight and would have likely suffered the consequences via a frozen bra or some other prank.

Next up, no one thought it was unusual or exceptional to have a few bottles of wine on hand. Most of us brought one and consequently, only a few bottles were opened. Most went home unopened the following day.

No one wanted to know who had started having periods; but, rather, who had stopped. “How do you deal with hot flashes” seemed to be an evening theme.

There was plenty of “girly” activity. Nail painting, tarot cards, a ojiua board was even available — although no one expressed a keen desire to obtain information from the other side regarding their latest crush. In fact, the oracle and divination questions had a lot less to do with the opposite sex than they did with life in general.

We ate “stinky” cheese and gourmet crackers. One ambitious soul — the youngest of the group at a mere 45 — cooked a delicious shrimp pasta based upon a recipe she has made her own after regular travels in Italy. She goes there a few times a year for work. Another served a delightful raw kale salad based upon an Esalen Institute recipe. She lived in California for many years and got the recipe from a friend who frequented Esalen.

Who would have ever thought this group of formerly gangly long-legged, brace-toothed young girls could have become such worldly creatures? Certainly, I’m sure none of us could have envisioned this slumber party 35 years ago.

My friend’s house sits in a spectacular location. While most of the girls took off on a short walk the following morning, I stayed behind to chat with the oldest of the group. At nearly 60, Kim Lacy is an extremely talented fiber artist. Even her house is a work of art. Kim and I talked fibers, knitting, and quilting while I shopped. I came home with one of her designs in a perfect size to serve as a sock knitting bag:

Kim works with several world-class wildlife photographers who allow her to use their images. This particular image, a whooping crane, was taken in Minnesota, I believe. She uses Photoshop to posterize and adjust the contrast, then tackles a rather involved printing process to print the adjusted images on muslin.

Next, her artistry kicks in. Using multicolored rayon thread, she “draws” with her sewing machine on the image, and quilts the bags using shapes inspired by those of the image itself. Each bag is a work of art. Unique. Interesting. Many incorporate exquisite details.

The coordinating lining really attracted me to this particular bag. A shimmery copper number was also in the running. But I just loved this interior:

My photography does not do Kim’s work justice. I tried to find a web page showing her work. I believe she sells through some galleries near Loveland, Colorado. However, I couldn’t find any. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll find out if she sells on line. This woman “needs” an Etsy shop!

I’m getting over it

Learning a new technique has an amazing restorative quality. I’m getting over the reaction of the resident non-knitter to the sweater. Oh well. Live and learn. I’ll finish up with the neck as it is and I might rekitchner under the arms. It depends how it looks to me after not seeing it for a few days.

This will all be on Friday. I want to retrieve my needles out of the sweater, get it blocked and call it done. But, I’ve got a hectic work week and this doesn’t seem like a good time to pick up “the” sweater. So Friday.

Meanwhile, I’m once again on the steep learning curve.

I started these:

I’m using spillyjane’s free pattern from Ravelry, Sea Mineral Mittens. I simplified it to work with three colors and I’m using Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. Looks good?

NOT!

As you might suspect, I did not check gauge. I did not even compare the Jamieson’s to the wool called for in the pattern. I just started.

And restarted.

As I said, I’m on the steep learning curve. I reduced the pattern by 20 stitches so my cast on was with 63 instead of 81. Bear with me — my math is bad — but not that bad. I figured the lace ruffle at the cuff would have a lot of stretch, and that a few rows of ribbing would pull in the mitten at the wrist area. Next, I would reduce three stitches instead of the two called for in the pattern to arrive at a working count of 60 instead of 80. I would be on track with the pattern by simply omitting two pattern repeats. So far so good.

However, I learned a very interesting lesson. Ribbing in two colors does not have stretch. It looks messy. At least the way I did it. It might be nice if I knew what I was doing. Clearly I don’t.

Other key points I learned.

1. Jamieson’s Spindrift can just pull apart if you pull too hard.
2. Following a traditional fair isle pattern requires a boatload of colors.
3. People buy fair isle kits because they are not interested in standing around a yarn shop for hours and hours on end trying to pick out said boatload.

This final item was a true revelation for me. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to stand around in a yarn shop for hours? Nirvana, I thought. Until now. Looking at the colors and trying to figure out what might work and how it might be placed makes my head hurt.

Besides, my training in graphic design has lead me to use color in one of two ways. Full blown color. Which is really only four colors. But that’s another issue.

Or spot color. More spots, more expensive. So it just goes against the grain to splash all this color in my knitting. It’s so, well, so, excessive. That’s why I picked three colors. That’s why my project doesn’t look much like fair isle. That might be why I’m an idiot to think that I could learn enough in one pair of mittens about working fair isle to go and start a KAL on this sweater: Glenesk.

I mean, what was I thinking????? Oh, and by the way. Will I get in trouble for linking to that sweater on the Virtual Yarns site? I hope not. I know that someone is pretty touchy about how her name and photos and all that get used. I hope I’m not stepping on her toes or anything. I mean, I am linking to a sweater I think is absolutely gorgeous and it is on her site and all.

Anyway, just wanted to share what I saw out our window yesterday:

My elation was short-lived

I almost finished the sweater. It’s so close. I kitchnered the armpits, wove in most of the ends, and got the neck ready to bind off. The RNK wasn’t sure I had done a good enough!!! job on the armpit kitchnering for him. He didn’t want to be embarrassed if he ever had to raise his hand over his head. HMMM. I should have taken this as a warning to set everything aside. The thought that has been in the back of my head for the last three months, “I should have never agreed to knit this sweater,” kept trying to surface. I pushed it down.

I went ahead and left the under-the-arm ends loose so he could check my work in the full light of day. It made sense. I worked on this blasted sweater for three months. I didn’t want a shoddy job of kitchnering either.

So, this morning he finally tried it on to check to see if he liked the neck before I bound it off. He started with, “I don’t think this looks like the pattern.” This even before he got it on.

I showed him the pattern. He pointed out that my raglan decreases were slightly different. “Yes,” I agreed. “This pattern was not written to be knitted in the round. I modified it a bit and yes, my decreases are slightly different than how they would have turned out had I finished each piece flat and sewn them together.”

Next, he complained that the arms were “so tight.” “Ok, I’ll block the lower part of the arm hard.” Actually, it looked pretty good for an unblocked sweater. I thought the arms had an excellent fit. The length is perfect!

Next, he got it on and didn’t try to adjust it to fit squarely on his shoulders, so I reached up to pull the back down and accidentally gave him a shock and touched him with my fingernail. “OUUCCHHH!! You hurt me.”

Oh my god.

Next, he complained, “It’s too long. Cam you change that?” Of course, as you might already suspect, the length is pretty much spot-on for where he told me he wanted it to end. I would say I’m within a half inch.

“Only if I reknit the entire sweater,” I said.

Next, he complained, “The front has a big baggy spot here. Can you make it a little smaller around?”

“Only if I reknit the entire sweater,” I said. You might remember that I started the sweater twice, ripping out the first 220 yards I had knitted to start over with a looser ribbing so the part he calls “baggy” is far less baggy than it would have been with the original tight ribbing and looser body. I dryly suggested he look at the pattern.

Next he said, “I don’t think I like this neck. Can you replace the neck with the neck shown in this pattern?” He points to a woman’s sweater with a cabled neckband.

“Yes I could,” I said, as I wrapped the sweater up and put it away. Until I get a “thanks for spending three months of your life knitting me a sweater” or even a “it’s really nice,” this sweater will NEVER be finished.

I should have followed my intuition and never agreed to knit this sweater.

I am now working on a nice set of mittens for me in a fair isle pattern — my first fair isle pattern. Knitting is fun again. I’m pretty excited about working in color.

Note: I will post a picture of the yet-unfinished sweater one of these days.

Note to self: Always follow intuition.

Out of the blue

Last night, like many nights, I was sitting on the canine sofa (the little loveseat that Opal, Jakob and I share) and the Resident non-Knitter was sitting on the feline sofa (the giant sofa with barely room for Ida Rose and RNK — they both get this sprawl thing going). We were watching a movie. I was knitting, still working on RNK’s sweater.

Out of the blue, he said, “It really is going to be a beautiful sweater.” Not sure I really heard that correctly, I asked him to repeat. Quite clearly he said, “It really is going to be a beautiful sweater.” WoW!

If you have been following along, you know that the RNK desire for a sweater was met by this knitter with extreme skepticism. None-the-less, I gamely sallied forth, knitting away, tinking away, knitting a little less gamely, tinking a little less enthusiastically, knitting, knitting, and more knitting. I believe the phrase “ape arms” even was mentioned.

He has steadfastly refused to try the sweater on — even though now would be a good time to check the fit while I could still do something about it. I presumed he was less than enamored with his sweater-to-be. Not so. I have proof. He said it twice.

He has been making comments that he thinks I am knitting “his” sweater in my size. Just to prove a point, I put it on last night. The sleeves come past the tips of my fingers. The bottom ribbing hits me somewhere around my upper thighs and the circumference at the chest is more than adequate for me even if I gain another 100 pounds or so. Not my size. I looked up from the image of myself in the mirror to see a grinning RNK behind me. “I guess it might fit me,” he said.

The end is in sight.

In the photo above, you can just see the bottom of one of my more recent acquisitions, a painting by David Montgomery. David is a talented plein air painter who lives and works in the San Luis Valley.

Raglan decreases

I’m fairly well-pleased at this point with the transition from a sweater written for flat knitting to a sweater knitted in the round. The raglan decreases turned out OK and I think that it looks like the decreasing for the neck is going to work out just fine too. However, I will keep my fingers crossed on that point until the neck stitches have all been picked up and a few rows of the neck band completed. Which should be soon.

Like the previous sweater, I had to make the switch from knitting round and round to knitting back and forth after I put the first neck stitches on a holder. This slows me down considerably. I do not cable well from the purl side.

And, after I figured out that the problem with my camera was not camera-related (ie read: The problem with the camera was operator error.), I managed to grab a few quick shots of one of my orchids in bloom. This is the third year I’ve had this one and it’s really putting on a nice show for us with two lovely blossoms.

It’s so hard to capture the color accurately. I love the way the sun shines through the petals and makes them sparkle. So lovely!

Meanwhile, I had another little spree:

I was browsing through some photos on the computer yesterday and found that I cast on for my “first” sweater sometime last March. Now, a year later, I’ve purchased enough yarn to knit well over a dozen other sweaters, I’ve finished three two, and am closing in on the finishing for the forth third. At this rate of knitting/purchasing, I will be able to knit into eternity and back by next year. Heck. I probably can already if you take a look at my sock yarn stash, let alone the lace-weight pile. But hey, it’s good for the economy, right?