Nearly There

I actually finished the sleeves last night and pinned them to block this evening. This sweater seemed to go by pretty quickly considering all the trouble I had early on. The collar will be easy. I just need to pick up stitches and knit up some rib. I don't think I can wear it anytime soon though as the weather here is amazingly warm!

Tank You

I decided to use my lunch hour on Friday to check out the new knitting store, which is near my office. Mabel's Café & Knittery is very cute and comfy and has a nice collection of yarns for sale. There is a small selection of novelty yarns and they also carry a lot of the more inexpensive yarns, like TLC, Red Heart, and some others. I'll have to spend a weekend afternoon there with a project and some chai. Then I headed to the other LYS, the Yarn Garden, to check out some ribbon yarns because I had an itch to make the Front Slit Tank I mentioned in my earlier post. I wanted something in tangerine to go with the kiwi green mini I made at the beginning of the month. I found this Crystal Palace Deco-Ribbon in tangerine stripe. It exactly matches the mini. I don't know that it's clear in the photo, but there are some kiwi green stripes running through the ribbon. After I had made that skirt I had also bought these jelly thongs from the Gap in melon orange color as well. I don't normally coordinate and match an outfit together like this and I think it could be a little ridiculous. We'll see.

Armed, Not Dangerous

Just started the sleeves a couple of days ago. I think I can finish them up sometime this weekend. I was just browsing through the summer issue of Interweave Knits and found a few patterns that I really liked: Cabaret Raglan, Stripes Go Round, and the front slit Yarn Girl Tank. The Cabaret Raglan has this nice eyelet detail in front and three-quarter length sleeves. Stripes Go Round, as you may have guessed, is worked in the round and has circular yoke shaping. The Front Slit Tank armholes and hem are finished with a cute crochet detail. I might go for the tank as my next project since I have yet to do any summer knitting!

Front and Center

The front of the cabley sweater is now blocking. I shall try to start both sleeves some time today.

Back to Where I Started

I was so happy that I was able to finish the back of the sweater on Friday night. It's just about done blocking. I eagerly started the front and when I was about 40 rows into it, I realized that I had done something completely wrong. The ribbing in between the cables was only showing three knit columns instead of four. At first I just kept going, but then I realized the placket would get screwed up. So I had no other choice but to rip everything out and start all over again from the beginning. Yesterday I caught up to where I had been before I started frogging. The directions said to continue the front as for the back and so, I had started my row with a P1, when it should have been a K1, which was printed. I just didn't see it!

What the?

Yesterday afternoon and evening I was working the cables on the back of the sweater and figured out that even the correction, posted online and included with the magazine, was incorrect.

Here's what the correction says...
Cable 3rd row: p1, twice (slip 3 onto a CN and leave at back of work, k3, then k3 from CN), p3. After rows 5 and 9 work row 7 (and not row 3) as follows: Row 7: p3, k3k slip 3 onto CN and leave at front of work, k3, then k3 from CN, k3, p3. See also chart.

What it should be...
Cable 3rd row: p3, twice (slip 3 onto a CN and leave at back of work, k3, then k3 from CN), p3. Row 7 should be worked as stated, in a normal chronological order. It should not be worked after row 9 because that would be a wrong side row and would be worked evenly. Then you start the cable pattern again with the corrected row 3.

I tried knitting according to the correction and it was completely wrong. I was constantly checking my cables with those in the picture to see if they looked right, and at first, the cables appeared completely different though they really weren't. In the main picture the cables look elongated because the model is pulling down on the sweater, plus it was a little late and I've been known to read directions in the wrong context before. The cables do look correct don't they?

Locals Only

Portland's only full-service knitting café has opened...
Mabel's Café
3041 SE Division
503.231.4107
Mondays-Saturdays 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. & Sundays 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

Finally, I can satisfy my early morning yarn fixes.

Ribbed

I was able to start a bit of the ribbing last night while I watched In America (not nearly as depressing as people were saying). The pattern calls for size 10 and 10.5 needles. I started swatching on the 10.5s and was slightly over gauge. Surprisingly, the 10s were spot on. At first glance, this yarn looked much thinner than Goa, but it knits up just about the same.

New Yarn

I received my yarn from Elann on Saturday! The tomato color is perhaps a bit brighter than I thought it would be, but I think it will look nice when the sweater is all knit up. I haven't had a chance to swatch yet, but I am anticipating using a slightly larger needle than called for because the Winter Cotton is definitely not as thick as the GGH Goa. I have read through the directions for the sweater several times and it seems pretty straightforward. There was an error in the cable pattern, but the correction was included with the magazine and it is also online. I thought it was weird that there is no cable chart with the pattern. I guess I don't need the chart, or can make my own, but you'd think it would have been included.

Couldn't Help Myself

I had been debating about whether or not to start this cabley sweater from Rebecca. Well, I bought the Schoeller+Stahl Winter Cotton from Elann yesterday, so I guess I'll start it once I the yarn arrives. I have no control whatsoever. While I wait for my purchase, I have yet another sewing project to work on. A friend at work asked me to make a box seat cushion with a cover. It's fairly large, about three feet by six feet. I don't have a formal pattern, but it shouldn't be that hard. I'll have to make my own piping too. I've cut out all the pieces and will try to start the sewing tonight.

State of In-Between

Since I've finished my last two sewing projects rather quickly, I am now projectless. Of course, I am still working on kerchiefs and crocheted flowers, but nothing new yet. Last night I finished up another kerchief and sewed pins to all of my smaller crocheted flowers. I hope to have at least 10 to 15 small and big kerchiefs (total 20 to 30) to sell at this summer bazaar, in addition to 15 small and big crocheted flowers (total 30). I still need to affix labels to everything too. The weather here has turned rainy again, so I am even more tempted to buy yarn for the cabley Rebecca sweater with the open neck and collar from the latest issue.

In the Red

I absolutely love this dress! Aside from my seam mishaps, this was an extremely easy pattern and I can't wait to make another few variations of it for summer. Included is a close up of the frayed hem, which made the length of the dress a bit longer than it should have been, but it still only came above my knee.

Facing Out

This dress is practically done. I just have the zipper, belt, and the hem to work on. The hem should be fairly cinchy, especially if I just want to fray it. I had major seam ripping going on last night though as I was sewing the facings to the front and back. Since the facings are sewn on the outside, there are some pieces that needed to be sewn together the way they aren't usually sewn. For instance, I had sewn the right sides of the facings to the right sides of the front and backs when it should have been the wrong sides. I also had sewn the shoulders of the front and backs with the rights sides together when it should have been the wrong sides together. I must not have been reading the directions very clearly because, of course, I didn't realize my mistakes until I was pulling the backs through the facings to turn it right side out. Ack! At least it all got straightened out and I was still in bed by 11.

Skirting the Issue

I finished this skirt early yesterday afternoon. It was a quick and satisfying project that only took two days. My favorite details are the askew pockets and contrasting orange stitching. I had to read the zipper directions a few times before I understood what I was supposed to do to properly form the placket, but it wasn't too hard. The linen blend fabric also drapes nicely, though it wrinkles very easily. I had to iron it lots of times throughout its construction. This was McCall's pattern 5066.