Seaming party at my house!

I wish I was excited to seam this sweater. Not that seaming is so bad--in fact, I think I dislike it considerably less than most other knitters. No, it's not the act of seaming that's got me down, it's the sweater itself.

The thing is, this sweater isn't bad. It does fit a little more snugly than I had intended, but it's not so tight that it's unattractive. It's a little shorter than I had intended, but again... not too bad there either. The thing is this sweater is just missing something. Pizazz, maybe, because boy oh boy is this sweater boring looking (and boring to knit, to boot).

On the upside, it feels like clouds. My roommate stood there hugging me, repeating, "You feel like snow" (whatever that means). I did love the way it felt while I was wearing it, and perhaps once it gets some sleeves I'll like it better. I still don't

know what kind of sleeves it needs. Short? 3/4? Long? Belle? Fitted? I'd be happy to have some suggestions.

So even though I want to work on any number of other projects, I'm going to TRY to force myself to seam this baby up tonight. That way I can start on the sleeves and just be DONE WITH IT.

I. Must. Finish. This. Sweater.

So the other day, after drooling over the idea of a chunky, do-it-in-a-day sweater, I couldn't shake the little nagging voice in my head reminding me of that damn can't-even-do-in-six-months Grecian Plait.

It's not the sweater's fault that it's been nearly finished--but nothing more--for so many months. Yeah, the pattern was boring/easy (which should be good right?), and yes it is a kind of drab grey color... but I shouldn't have let that keep me from finishing it. So, in the spirit of wanting to just be DONE with the sucker I decided that I WILL finish this sweater. Knit the second sleeve, seam it, wear it; we're talking finish line in sight, people.

Or so I thought. Unfortunately, when I was about 5 inches in to the second sleeve I realized that it was nearly two inches too wide. The wacky thing is, even though I knit the first sleeve in February, I cast on for the second sleeve with the exact same number of stitches, needle, and yarn as I did for the first sleeve. Did my gauge seriously change that much in a few months?

I decided that knitting myself silly trying to match my gauge to sleeve numero uno didn't sound like much fun. Instead, I think I'll block and seam the body, rip out the sleeve I already knit, and just knit the sleeves by picking up stitches around the armholes. That way they'll be seamless and I can tailor them to fit better.

Just another silly obstacle in me finishing this sweater. I will do it, though. Watch, I bet it won't even fit... (maybe a little insight into the real reason behind my laggy finishing on this one)

Lying to ourselves.

Today as I was walking home from the library, clutching two new knitting books, I realized that I sure do lie to myself a lot. The stack of jeans that no longer fit, the numerous books on my shelf that I tell myself I'll read when I get a chance--even though I know I'll never use any of them, I keep telling myself that I will. Keep these things, they will come in handy. What delusions.

As I was leafing through the knitting books, Big City Knits and Knitting Nature, and planning out my next projects I realized that I have a serious problem with lying to myself about my knitting capacity. I want to knitknitknit, but can't seem to find the oomph to get projects done quickly. I see some other knitters churning out sweaters and socks every two weeks and somehow translate that kind of knitting mojo onto myself. Yet, the reality is I've had this damn Grecian Plait sweater on the needles since February, and I just can't seem to finish it (Seriously, I'm half a short sleeve from being done--and have been at this point since July. This is just embarassing).

I do need to take into account, though, that while that sweater has been sitting there, shooting evil glares at me from the work-in-progress pile, I have knitted several other things. Even so, I find myself wanting to knit MORE. Everything, to be honest. I suppose this is the curse of being a knitter; at a certain point we become so blindly enamored with the craft that we loose all sight of our knitting realities.

Perhaps that's why my initial glance at Wenlan Chia's book made my heart skip a beat. I've read all the warnings that the patterns seem... to put it nicely.. to have been written by a non-knitter. I'm fully aware that if I weigh more than 90 lbs (and I do) these designs may make me look like a polish sausage. But still, the designs are damn cute and the prospect of knitting a sweater in a week or two is too good to turn down.

So instead of putting an end to the knitting delusions, I'll just find a way to make the delusions less ridiculous. Cast on for a new sweater with six other things on the needles? Don't mind if I do!

Tha Prince.

Jeanette is a difficult name to spell. Not for me, mind you, but for most other people. Hostesses at restaurants, receptionists at doctor's offices, hell, sometimes even my own [extended]family members misspell my name. It's either that my name has too many letters (especially those silent, pesky vowels) or too few(I'm talking 'n's here). Most of the time my name ends up being Janet, Janette, Jeannette, or on a rare occasion Jennifer.

The problem with my name is that it does have a bunch of silent letters, and the phonetic spelling is nowhere near how I actually spell my name. Solution? My little cousin Hailey's version of my name. One year, when she was about 3 years old, she made me a birthday/Christmas/holiday card. She had taken it upon herself to write my name, and came up with the brilliant contraction "J'net".

Since then I've used this little abbreviation when too lazy to sign my full name, or when feeling silly. And BOY, how silly did I feel when I wandered into my local record shop (yup, we've still got local record shops in these parts!) and found that I'm not the only J'net. Perhaps I should take on the title of "Ya Royal Freshness"...

In other news, I have Malabrigo Fever. I'd heard so much about this yarn, about how squishy and luxe and buttery it is, but I didn't understand it until I got my little cookie grabbers on some of my own. In the ball and knitted up, this stuff is amazing. Bouncy and soft, and with the subtle color variations that tug at my inner-knitting-soul. Even though I went into the LYS looking for a totally different color, I fell in love with this fantastic rose/burgandy color. As always, photos don't do this stuff justice. And it knits up so fast, on size 8s! (Apparently I've been spending too much time knitting with sock yarn on size 3s).

I bought enough (or just one ball shy of enough, only time will tell) for the perfect sweater I've decided to knit myself. I'm toying around with the idea of making it my first published sweater design... but that's dependent on my comprehension of size-grading. I've already got the design all mapped out in my head, and a name is even on the tip of my tounge. Now to start knitting.

"You mean I can't wear flip flops in the rain?"

For someone who's unemployed I find myself surprisingly busy. I have no shortage of things slated for the needles--a vest for my dad, a neck warmer for my mom, a cowl type thing for me, a Montego Bay-ish scarf I've been meaning to knit for about a year. . . Oh, and let's not forget about my terminally WIP Grecian Plait and the Springtime in Philadelphia beret I'm half way done with. Yet, even with all that stuff close to being/currently on the needles I find myself coming up with new projects for myself.

I've lived in the Bay Area for over two years now and consider myself a happy (though unlikely) convert. As a kid I sang the praises of my beachy, deserty homeplace, even going so far as to claim that I would never move away. Yet, years later, I find that I've happily adjusted to the absence of L.A. traffic (let's be real, all of Southern California is now plagued by the traffic that used to exist only in Los Angeles), the amazingly tolerant people, and the pedestrian culture up here. One thing I seem to have been ignoring, though, is the weather.

This fact became apparent to me when I was looking through my wardrobe on a cold day earlier this week. Different colored tank tops for every day of the month? Check. Absurd number of lightweight cotton cardigans and jackets? Checkity check check. Luscious warm sweaters? Che--wait a minute... where are all my sweaters?

How embarrassing for a knitter not to own any sweaters. I suppose my brain never snapped out of perma-warm weather mode, and somehow I managed to avoid buying or knitting a single sweater (for what it's worth, I also never got the hang of wearing shoes. Only after slipping on wet concrete did it occur to me that my Rainbow Sandals were perhaps not the most rain-appropriate footwear). Which leads me back to my point about how I can't seem to stop casting on for new stuff. My sweater crisis the other night and the increasingly crisp weather make it clear that I must I must knit myself a sweater for winter pronto. And out of Malabrigo, no less.

So here I am with piles of job applications to fill out and a half-dozen knitting projects to work on, and all I can think about is when I can bike over to the LYS and buy some Malabrigo for my simple, classy, perfect sweater. Something with bell sleeves, and maybe some tiny cables; something the color of the foam on a latte. (Do Lattes even have foam? I'm not a coffee drinker).

Free Pattern: Seeing Double

It seems like knitting law: every knitter, at some point, must busy themselves with knitting little gifts for friends and family. But just how many hats, scarves, and gloves can you make? Knitted in the round and all in one peice, this quirky little number is the perfect alternative to traditional knitted gifts. It's a quick knit--just one or two hours total--and is the perfect project to use up scraps of aran/worsted and DK yarns. It is sized to fit a 22 oz bottle, but the pattern could easily be adjusted to fit a traditional 12 oz bottle.

Oh, and did I mention it actually keeps beer cold? That's right, it kept my beer cold for 2 hours!So round up some scrap yarn, buy some beer, and suprise someone special with a silly yet useful gift.
(To download, just click on "Seeing Double" at the bottom of the image. From there you should be directed to a full-page view of the document, where you can choose to download it.)

Seeing Double - Upload a Document to Scribd

High Hopes

Why is it that after several years of knitting (and several successful knits, thankyouverymuch) I am still surprised when something I hand crafted turns out to be a dud? Maybe it's the thought that if you put enough time and good intentions into something, it can't help but turn out fantastic. Or the little voice in your head that says "No, don't swatch! This yarn is fantastic, how bad can it be?"

Don't get me wrong-- 'how bad can it be' is a motto I often live by. Only thing is, it works better when applied to cooking and not so great when applied to knitting. How bad can it be? This failed scarf illustrates this point perfectly: really bad.

My brain was apparently on vacation when I conceived and knit this Noro Iro scarf. Admittedly the scarf doesn't look half bad in this photo, all prettily pinned and blocking. If only the scarf had held that shape-- instead, the moment my mom draped this beauty around her neck it rolled up into a snake. Ugh.

So, after months of procrastinating, that scarf has been frogged. I found a new pattern for the yarn, and I think this one will be a winner. Here's hoping.

In the midst of frogging and rethinking projects gone awry I have found comfort in simple little projects. Best part about these little projects? Hard to screw up. I have a particular favorite WIP that I can't show you all of just yet. . . but here's a teaser. Stay tuned, free pattern available by Wednesday!

Finished, Side-to-Side Garter Stitch Vest!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Cotton Classic Side-to-Side Garter Stitch Vest, by Irina Poludnenko
Size: 34 (small)
Yarn: Classic Elite Bam Boo, Color Plum. 13 skeins, held doubled.
Needle: US 10 (6 mm), KnitPicks Harmony adjustable circulars.
Made for: my mamma, Margie
Started: July 15 2008
Finished: September 24 2008

Thoughts? I really like how it turned out, and even better, my mom really likes how it turned out. We saw a sample of this garment at ImagiKnit in San Francisco a few months ago, and my mom instantly fell in love with it. I had a bunch of Classic Elite Bam Boo in my stash, and used it held doubled for this project. The yarn itself is gorgeous, it's got fantastic drape and is soft against the hand.

Bamboo is not a lightweight fiber, though, and the garment is pretty heavy-- 1.4 pounds, to be exact. Though it sounds like it weighs a lot, the weight of the garment actually makes it feel really nice on the body. Kind of cozy and comforting, like being hugged by. . . a bamboo tree.

This garment was my no-brainer knit; I knit it mostly in between complicated projects or on the bus or subway. This type of knitting, unfortunately, does not lend itself to speedy project completion. In all actuality, the garment probably took a week and a half of casual knitting--I just managed to spread it out over a few months.

There were a couple of errors in the pattern, which I have posted to the pattern's Ravelry page in the comments section. Also, the pattern didn't really specify what increases/decreases to use. . . so I had to do a little ad-libbing on the second sleeve to make it match the first. It still doesn't match perfectly, but it's close enough.

Overall, pretty good pattern and cute result!

Someone remind me. Also, kick me in the ass.

I've gotten so into knitting these past few years-- into the process, the theory of pattern design, fiber lust-- that I forgot why I took it back up again. Only lately, shoulders heavy with the terrifying burden of entering the real world, have I been reminded that knitting calms me down.

I think a lot of knitters fall prey to a trap similar to the one I found myself in. I got into the groove of life for a while, got much more knitting skill, and left those mindless, therapeutic beanie projects in the dust in favor of anything with a complicated motif or skill. Those intricate projects are a nice bit of work, but I forgot how soothing it is to just sit down and knit. No shaping, no cables, no row counter.

I've been keeping my brain so occupied lately that I haven't had any time to just sit and think. I've had plenty of time to sit and think about jobs or my life, but no time to just let my brain wander. Unfortunately I'm smart enough to realize I've intentionally kept my brain busy-- even down to the projects I choose to knit. Last night, after I spent a solid couple of hours unraveling a skein that has been tangled up for more than 5 years, I swatched with the all-but-forgotten yarn. As I got into the rhytym of automatic, shapeless, plain knitting I realized how much I missed plain knitting.

When I came to college I had known how to knit for quite some time, but my skills were beginner at best and I didn't have much interest in it. Berkeley changed my attitude toward knitting. I picked it up again because I needed something to do that didn't sap anymore energy from my already fried brain. My knitting skill increased rapidly, and so did my fascination with the craft. One thing led to another and I ended up designing things in my head while on the bus, wondering which lace motif will work best to stretch my fiber yardage.

I wouldn't trade my new attitude toward knitting for anything, but it is nice to occasionally remind myself that a little methodical knitting mellows me out. Now all I want to do is knit beanies--truckloads of plain, mindless beanies. And hell, if I knit a beanie every time I feel weird about jobs or my future I could coif all the cold little kids in Russia.

Knitting progress. There's a lot of it. Unfortunately I'm not near my camera right now, but I'll post photos tomorrow. For now here's the run down:

-Garter Stitch Vest is NEARLY complete. So close to being done it hurts. Stitch count is slightly off on the right sleeve portion, so I have to rip back a bit and fix that. Mere hours 'til this one is complete
-Grecian Plait... I'm still working on that!? Almost done, too! I've got about an inch of the back and one (short) sleeve left to do. Then seam it and see if it fits.
-Springtime in Philly beret is an absolute JOY to knit. For any knitters out there who want an easy, beautiful lace pattern knit this hat. The pattern is so well written, easy to follow, easy to memorize, yet it's just challenging enough. Perfect to bring with me when I'm out, so this one is getting a fair amount of public transit knitting time. I'm almost done with the first chart, so that's about halfway!

Photos of progress tomorrow. Off to bash my head into a wall/look for more jobs. :)

Oh, I've got plans for you.

Somehow I found a way to make a cheapcheapcheap sweater into a not- so- cheapcheapcheap sweater.

I had plans for that maroon Columbia Minerva-- plans to turn the 3 hanks I got for $1 into a little cropped sweater. Today I realized trying to squeeze a cropped sweater out of 450 yards of fingering/sport weight yarn was nuts. So I did what all self respecting knitters do in times of fiber stress. . . I bought more yarn.

I biked to K2Tog and Stash today in hopes of finding some Susan Bates size 3 circulars (so I can start my Springtime in Philadelphia!). Stash was a bust for the needles, but I found this lovely Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, color Envy. It's approximately the same gauge as the Minerva (the Minerva is so old it's got neither gauge nor yardage on it) and similar ply/fiber content. I love the colors together, the different colors of green combined with the deep maroon feels so organic and flowery. So my $1 sweater is now a $21 dollar sweater. . . but I think the finished product will be worth it. Now all I've got to do is get an idea about how I want to combine these colors and work on a sweater design.

Garter Vest is nearing completion, and I think I'll cast on for the Springtime in Philadelphia Beret today. . . finally! Just in time for the Olympics, too.