Sycamore Grove

There's nothing really new to show on the awesome cabled sweater. I mean, I've worked on the back a bit (I'm at about seven inches, excluding the ribbed hem, out of the eleven I need before doing shaping). It's actually kind of boring to look at. Just a bunch of stockinette stitch. Between you and me? It's pretty boring to knit, too. But it makes for good "sit in front of some crime show and knit" knitting.

In the mean time, I have also started a new project. I know! The self-proclaimed "one project girl" started knitting something else. In my defense, I was literally being lulled to sleep by the stockinette. So I started these. Of course, I had to do some tinkering.

If you look at the gauge for those socks, it's "22 sts/30 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch." That's 5.5 stitches per inch, yeah? Well, for the adult size, it tells you to cast on 60 stitches. 60! 60 divided by 5.5 is 10.9. That's nearly eleven inches.

I have big feet. I'll be the first to tell you that. I wear a size 10 shoe. I do not, however, have feet eleven inches in diameter. In fact, my feet are a very respectable eight and a half inches around, at the ball. Needless to say, I did a bit of futzing (it's a technical term) to get what I wanted. Actually, all I did was to go down a needle size. I hope that'll be enough.

I'll post pictures soon, when I get home.

Sorry about the downtime, my payment arrangement with my web-host went all wonky. I think it's all fixed, and actually, I'm in the process of getting another half gig of storage for myself.

Anyway, first some knitting that doesn't really have pictures, cause I'm lazy. I finished the back of Nick's yummy cable sweater yesterday. All I have to do is knit the last sleeve, sew everything up, block it all, knit the collar and add the zipper. Okay, that sounds like a lot more than I bargained for.

I'm in a bit of a quandary, though. My gauge on the back is wildly different than the gauge for the fronts. I'm not sure what I should do. I think I could block the back out, and it'd be okay, but it seems so... inelegant. I hate that my gauge changes this much between sections of a project. Oh well. If worse comes to worst, I'll reknit the fronts. The sleeve looks okay, and anyway, I don't love cables that much.

Some other knitting, though:

Those damned socks. I ripped them out. That pattern is not written very well at all. I don't think I'll be braving it again any time soon. I started a toe-up sock in a k3 p2 rib, but I knit the foot too short and so I ripped it out again. Now I'm thinking of knitting Thuja because it's my gauge and hello, what a pretty sock. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the magic loop, two at a time technique, though. I like that it's quicker (ish) and that I don't actually have to take notes for the next sock, but I was getting ladders pretty bad, and I felt like my needles were really crowded. We'll see. I'm not starting them until I'm done with the sweater. I think it was knitting on the sock that fucked up my gauge.

Some coasters I made from that Peaches and Cream (or whatever) cotton yarn I had laying around. They do okay. Sometimes condensation will wet the cotton so that I still get a ring on the table, and putting hot drinks on there makes them stick to the table. But still. For an afternoon's work and no money, they're fine.

And for the grand finale, I leave you with an awesome picture of Finn, to make up for the no Eye Candy Friday's lately.

So, I've decided to take a wee break from knitting. Only a couple of days, but still, a break. When I knit, I loop the yarn around my pinky or ring finger, and then over my pointer finger, on my left hand. Well, lately, where the wool yarn is sitting on my fingers, it's rubbing in an uncomfortable way. It's not quite a rash, or chafing, but it's prickly and not very nice. So I'm giving myself a couple of days to recover.

While my poor fingers are healing, I'm putting together a to do list of sewing.

• Skirt #4188 (You have to click on it, I'm making the greenish marbled view) In a brown cotton. I need a simple brown skirt. I have several black ones and even a cream one and a white, but no plain brown ones.


• Pajama Pants in a blackwatch plaid pattern. Very simple.


• A jumper dress similar to this but with no buttons, and a shirred back (like the waist in that picture) instead of a zipper and an a-line silhouette instead of a tiered one. So not really like like that one, except that it's a jumper.


• A petticoat to go under the jumper. Although I intend to wear it either way, it'd be nice to have the poofy option. And I have no idea where my other petticoats (all three of them!) got to.

I'm not really sure if I have anything else that I want to make, but I have a bunch more material that I don't know what to do with. I have a really pretty rose and gold brocade that's heavy. I got it to make a kimono, before I knew anything about kimono. So now I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe a dress of some kind. Hm.

I also have some left over material from Kerry's dress, and some red and black changeable taffeta of the same kind. I might make skirts of those, but I don't know what pattern I'll use.

And, and, and... I just have to much fabric. And no idea what to do with it.

Also? I woke up at 6:45 this morning. I went to bed at 1:04 this morning. Add that up and it equals not enough sleep. Ugh.