In-Between.

Feeling a bit empty-handed after finishing Tropical Fish (new name for Lukie's sweater courtesy of Jimm) I went to the Needle this afternoon and did some stash therapy. Got a new colourway in Iro - I loved working in it and I am considering making the Ekeby vest in it; got two skeins in Vintage - I love the washed out colors, but I am not sure what to make out of it; and replaced one Noro Silk Garden with a colorway that I liked a lot more.

On the Mama front - she does not want the jacket to be made in anything in wool because she is "allergic" to it and she had to "rip off" the scarf I made for her when we went out on Monday. The colors of the Donegal are also not to her liking. I think that the only way to go is to use Rowan Summer Tweed - colors are great and not a smidgeon of wool in sight. I must swatch it out and see if it will work.

May be I will start Tropical Fishes - the socks in the yarn that Lukie picked out last Friday at Spun. I will make them from the toes up - I seem to always make his socks too small.

On the work front, however, things are really great. Only a week left in on-service (I needed to extend my January coverage so that I could take March break off with the boys), papers are coming along nicely, one got accepted (yey! the blemmy will finally make an appearance in the genetic literature!), submitted another one and have two on the go. Love doing it again - I guess my writing should be in medicine and that's the end of that!

Friday Night.

I frogged the Noro sweater and have redone it to the point where I was before.

On Friday Lukie and I went to Spun for the S'nB. I have only been there once when only two women were present so I was quite stunned to see about 10 sitting around the little table. There was one chair left which I took and Lukie went around exploring.

I explained what had happened to the sweater and received a nice round of moans of sympathy.

Lukie found a sock yarn that he wanted and one must admit that he has quite the eye for color - it will match the Noro sweater just right.

Too Big....

What was your first clue?

Hint: this is meant for an 8 year old boy, who is on the small side.

Currently frogging the wonderful tubular cast off....

Troubles with Gauge.

My Mother finally agreed to let me make something for her.

It is a Alex, a dressy jacket from Debbie Bliss's Winter Magazine in Donegal Luxury Tweed.

I got the yarn from Julie on Tuesday, but when I use the recommended needles I end up with 3/4 inches missing from my swatch! Ugh! I knew I knit tightly, but so much???

I also got some yarn for Kelly's winter skirt. She is the only skinny-minny who can wear a chunky, cabled miniskirt and still look - well, skinny. I need to swatch it, design it and measure her. That will be traumatic - measuring her!

Done!

We Work the Black Seam.

[with apologies to Sting]

Yes, making a top-down raglan sweater is way easier than making it down-up in pieces. Yes, I am a perfectionist and when I bind off this sweater at the waist I have to use a tubular 1:1 rib cast off. And yes, doing it on over 200 stitches borders on insanity. But doing it with one long, long, long bit of Noro Iro? Totally wrecks all the time and seaming that I have saved on doing the top-down raglan sweater.
Loony bin, here I come.

Three Little Brilliances.

Three little epiphanies while making Noro Raglan for Lukie (Noralu):

1. The edge of slipped garter stitch looks massively better and neater if the garter is all PURLS. I would not recommend doing an entire sweater or blanket with purled garter stitch, but it is just brilliant as a little neck edging or buttonhole band.

2. My M1 look a lot worse than a simple twisted "add a stitch". By M1 I mean the "knit into the front and back of a stitch" method of increase, also known as the bar increase. The raglan for Sarah's baby is much more raggedy than the one I am making right now.

3. From the crochet world: working the first row into the bumps of the chain rather than across! It makes the end look like a bound off version or the top of a single or double crochet. And I have been crocheting for almost forty years and did not figure this one out. Sad. Really sad. This idea is from the most recent Inside Crochet out of the UK.

Happy New Yarn.

So much has happened. I started to work very hard at some writing for work, so I have had a lot less time for the blog. Knitting continued, but at a slower pace.
We had a really good Chrismas - my sister and her husband Yeng came from Cambodia (she is liontamer on Ravelry and the engine of Cambodia Knits). They brought lots of puppets and monsters for show, sale and delivery. My sons had a great time with their aunt and uncle, occasionally modelling for Cambodia Knits. Last Tuesday she made a presentation at our knitting guild (The Around the Bay Knitting Guild) guild and that went very well. It was good to have her here for a while, but it had to end.
On Thursday I felt quite blue and I went to the Needle for some yarn therapy. I had been there recently to restash a few yarns, but it was not therapeutic enough. This time I bought some Noro Iro, in spunky blue that I really do not know what I will make from it. Another scarf, may be? But getting it, petting it and sniffing it helped a bit.
Today I got the new Interweave Crochet and the new Inside Crochet came sometime before Christmas. I so seldom crochet, but I love reading about it and looking at different projects. The difference betweeen the UK and the American project types is illuminating - a lot more non-clothing doodads on the European side of the Atlantic.