And She Knits Too!

Humbled

Wow! Thanks for all the kind words about Rogue. I blush.

No knitting content today. I developed a wicked headache yesterday afternoon, so once Craig got home I put the hood up on my Rogue and laid in the quiet dark until all the pain pills kicked in. I love this sweater. It's soooooo soft against my achy head.

I'm feeling better today. And I get to go out with my mom-friends for beers (we used to meet with our kids, but we now prefer to leave them home!) and show off my sweater.

Finished!

Hooray! I'm finished Rogue. The last bit was a struggle, but I'm happy with the result:

I really wasn't happy with the hem so I decided to rip it out and start again. No small feat when it's knit into the body of the sweater. So I boldly snipped and unravelled it from the sweater, and then picked up and knit back the hem to the right length, bound it all off and sewed it in. It worked perfectly, no biasing, no wonky cable sides, nothing.

Hemmed edges was just one of the many things I learned by knitting this sweater. I also learned about closed celtic cables and their structure, the perils of over-steam blocking, how to do a fab kangaroo pocket without sewing, and that I can be totally taken in by a sweater pattern--this was one of the most fun knits I've ever done. Here's some more photos from the side and back:

And some silly shots here and here (it really is hard to photograph yourself and get the lighting right).

This close...

I grafted the hood. It was an interesting process of trial and error as I've never grafted knit and purl stitches before. The pattern indicated that I could graft or 3-needle bind off; I didn't want the seam so I opted for grafting. What I did was graft the RS just like normal, but when I came to purl stitches I flip it over, pulled the needles through and grafted on the WS, then I flipped and did the right side, continuing this way until I was done. Here's some pictures--I was alone so I did the best I could to show how I did it:
Grafting on the right side:

Grafting on the wrong side:

I also made sure that I grafted continuously so there would be no holes. This means that if the next stitch was a purl I still threaded the yarn through that stitch and then turned it over to graft. So half a stitch was done on the wrong side at each knit stitch/purl stitch change. I don't think I'm explaining it well, but it did work for me. Look ma no visible seams (I used a dpn to show the grafted part):

And here's the finished hood:

I was so psyched after this victory. I would be finishing this baby today. Then I tried it on. It seems I was a bit overzealous with the steam blocking and it was too big and not to gauge. So I had to wet it all down and reblock it. Now its sitting to measurements, wet, on my blocking board. I would rather this, than have it all seamed up and ready to go and have it too big. I'll put the fan on it and maybe I can sew on the sleeves tonight...well more likely tomorrow.

Hoodie

I'm done knitting the hood, let the finishing begin. The problem right now is time--or the lack thereof. Turns out the hood is a challenge--lots of grafting. And kinds I have never done before--purl stitches, live stitches to edge stitches. This is going to take some quiet time--that is, when kids are in bed.

But here's some pictures of the hood cables so you can see them. This one shows the left and right pieces together:

And this one shows the hood from a side view:

Pretty eh? When's bedtime?

I managed to resist

I worked on my thesis like a good girl yesterday. I even wrote 4 pages. Like many things, it's the starting to do it that's hard. Once I'm into it, it's actually difficult to stop. In my pre-kid days I would just write and work until I wanted to stop, however long that would be. Now I have external constraints which mean I have to be productive in the time that I have. In lots of ways that's a good thing, it keeps me from writing lots of junk, and there's nothing like those happy little faces when I pick the kids up at daycare.

And, hell, I'm knitting more. I worked 30ish rows on the hood last night while watching my favourite tv night. The cables are evolving beautifully:

So, another day of writing and another evening of knitting ahead. Sounds like a good routine to me. And thanks everyone for the support. I know I'm bitching a lot about it (comes with the grad school territory), but I really appreciate the cheerleading!

Bad student! Get to work!

I finished the second Rogue sleeve last night. I set myself a bedtime, but when it came along I realized I only had 5 rows to go, so I finished it. This morning it was calling to me and I took 30 minutes to pick up and start the neck/hood. I swear I only did two rows and then I ran up here to blog and then get to work. It's pretty eh?

These are the days when working at home is tough. I would so rather finish this sweater than write my thesis. Hell I would rather do the laundry and clean my stove than write my thesis. I'm not at the point where I would rather get surgery without anesthetic than write, but I could see that day coming along.

My jeans are now pink

I stood over the sink for about an hour and hand felted the armhole facing of Craig's vest. That red yarn runs like crazy--I'm hoping the colour will come out of my jeans. I'm rather happy with the results:

I also come to a realization of what I should have done with the vest. Instead of the abandoned knit on facings, I should have done attached i-cords over all the edges and then felted. Sigh. I'm paying for my folly with a lot of work over the sink. And it is a bit wide still so I'm going to hand felt the back a bit more and if that doesn't work we'll cut it down the back and make a seam. Craig still likes it so I'm happy enough. There will be no more work on it until it dries--then I'll do all the rest of the knitting and felt it in one long go.

I even had time to work on Rogue. I finished the cable chart for the sleeve.

I like that I am starting to understand the charts and cable formations, I could almost anticipate what would come next. Texture knitting is my favourite both in process and product so I'm always happy when I progress in my knitting confidence. Maybe I'll get another good night in and finish this sleeve. I could be wearing Rogue really soon! (Warning: this is an addictive sweater to knit).

Will it work?

Last night I worked on fixing Craig's vest. I borrowed Felted Knits from Kathy and got some ideas. Craig wants a completely felted vest so I got creative. Following an excellent tip from Kate, I sewed a border around the armhole (and overcast stitch?) using the red yarn. That served as a row of stitches to pick up for the attached i-cord I then knit on. I used a 6.5mm needle and made it much larger than the armhole so that when I felt it, it should be the right size. Here's what the armhole looks like pre-felting:

And here it is close up--I hand felted a test piece early on, and had the forethought to make the i-cord a bit longer to compensate for shrinkage:

Now I just have to get up the energy to hand felt this--it takes a bunch of time and is hard on the hands. I wear rubber gloves to save my skin, but it's fiddly work.

I also worked like crazy on Rogue (as I mentioned yesterday). Here's me modeling my sleeveless, hoodless body piece:

I decided to work on the second sleeve next and tackle the hood later. And did you see the size of the knit-along? Wow! I will keep it up for several months. When you finish let me know and I'll change the colour of your name. That way, if you blog, everyone can see your lovely sweater.

Finally:

You are Woodstock!


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Switch Hitting

So I couldn't decide what to knit last night--Rogue or Craig's Vest--so I did both. Here's Rogue up to the armhole division--with that lovely side cable:

I really wanted to knit more of this, but knew I should finish Craig's vest as I'm closer to the end of that one. So I finished the back piece and tonight I'll pick up the armhole and zipper facings. I'm a wee bit worried about the sizing on this though. The length (33 inches) works with my "felting factor", that is, how much longer I had to make the piece to deal with the length lost due to felting. But the width is much more than I expected (about 65" total chest measurement) and I'm not sure if it will felt down enough. Craig's a big guy and I was going for about a 50-52" chest (he's a 46 and I want some ease)--but that means a whole lot of felting.

I guess if it doesn't work I can cut and seam the fabric to fit better. I'll know on the weekend!
It's a good thing the washer repairman came today (well in every way but the bill) because I really want to get felting.

Gotta love TVO

That's TV Ontario, the world's only provincial level public broadcaster. Not only do they have wonderful commercial free children's programming, great documentaries, and tons of British dramas, they play fab movies. Saturday Night at the Movies has been on forever playing new and old films with excellent interviews with the people who make the movies. This Saturday they were featuring the films of Lawrence Kasdan; Grand Canyon and Body Heat. So I parked my butt on the couch and watched them both, and the interviews (all commercial free). I had forgotten what a great movie Grand Canyon is. A fabulous commentary on urban decay, the growing gap between have's and have not's and how small acts of kindness can change lives. It is wonderfully acted (Steve Martin is great) and finely directed. Body Heat was fun too. It was Kassdan's first film. A nice film noir. Unfortunately, what may have been original in 1981 has been done so many times since that I had it figured out, but it was good to watch nonetheless.

That, and a lazy Sunday lead to lots of knitting. Behold my wonderful Rogue:

You thought I had it done for a minute didn't you? The movies weren't that long. I'm almost at the point where I divide for the armholes. It is a lovely pattern with excellent instructions and a nice shape. I was worried for a bit about the hem (which I knit in)--I thought it was biasing a bit, but I think some blocking will take care of that, and I'm being overly picky. I need to practice restraint today, because I would love to make a pot of tea and work on this baby!