Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash and I’m delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever.*

You know that scene from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen where they’re coming back from the moon, and they’ve run out of rope at the bottom, so the Baron ties on a new length, and Berthold (I think it’s Berthold) asks where he got it, and the Baron explains, rather huffily, that he cut it off the top, of course? (Insert a similar scene from a Warner Brothers cartoon if you haven’t seen Munchausen, and then go rent the movie.)

I kind of feel like I’ve been doing that.

I was almost finished with the last panel on the Super Secret project, and I ran out of the Bare yarn. So . . . I fished some cut off ends out of my scrap yarn bag, and did spit splices. (My good spouse was in the shower, so he didn’t have to be witness to me “doing something gross.”) Then I ran out of yarn. I cut off the long tails left from casting on and did some more spit splices. I’m finally finished, and I have two little pieces left I could have spliced on if I’d become terribly desperate. They’re about two inches and two and a half inches long. And it was a near thing, too.

I’m going to use the Wool of the Andes I have to join the panels and do whatever else I decide I need to do with wool. It’s a prototype. It doesn’t have to look pretty. Although I think it still will look nice, just not quite how I picture the actual finished project.

I’m pretty sure that a single hank of the Bare will be enough to do the whole project. I have four gauge-type swatches that were necessary for designing, but someone doing the project by itself will probably only need one. We’ll see. I like the idea that it could be a single-ball project. Even though it won’t quite, because it’ll need a ball of non-feltable yarn, too, but it’ll be close.

*From The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Still working

I don’t think I’ve ever knit anything before that made me doubt my abilities as much as these legwarmers.

Not that this will stop me from making another pair. I’ve had a subtle request (“I still say those would look better in this color,” “this color” being her favorite, not mine) for one and the yarn called for in the pattern (Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport) is relatively inexpensive (as is the KnitPicks Gloss, but I want to make it in the yarn used in the original, see if I can get my measurements to come out like theirs) and Brown Sheep is one of the brands The Yarn Exchange (which vaguely resembles a local yarn store, in that it’s only about thirty miles away) has carried since opening. So, I’ll probably be making another pair in the not-too-distant future, and I’ll be able to put all I’ve learned from this pair to the test.

I was almost done with the lozenge pattern and I counted my stitches to make sure everything was going as planned. Somehow I’d come up with an extra stitch. I followed it down, and it was ten rows back. So I dropped two stitches — the extra one and the one next to it that looked like the parent stitch — and followed them down. Of course, the one that I thought was the parent, wasn’t. In the course of finding that out, I figured out what happened, though. I’m pretty sure I wrapped the yarn around the needle to make a stitch, and then didn’t actually pull it through like I should have, so essentially, I slipped a stitch and did a yarn over. Then the next row I knit (well, purled) each of them. So, I dropped the parent stitch, picked up the yarn where I’d just slipped it, and worked it back up.

At some point in there, I started figuratively smacking my forehead because I really could have just purled two of those stitches together and left it at that. Now, I have a bit of a ladder problem there. Me, the person with the ladder paranoia, just gave myself ladders. Grr.

I have a quibble with the pattern. I don’t know if it’s just the way I read it, but it says:

The 8 sts rem from the Lozenge chart will look very similar to Rnd 3 of the Hauser Model chart, which is the rnd you are about to work on the front of the leg. Move the rnd marker exactly halfway around (31 sts each side of marker) and count the beg of the rnd from that point. . . . Work 6 rnds even in patt cont Hauser Model as established on front leg and Hauser Model above Lozenge on back of leg.

It goes on from there to explain the increases, which, after all is said and done, should leave you at rnd 10 of the Hauser Model chart.

I read the part quoted above as saying you move the marker halfway around and finish that round. Then you do 6 rnds in patt. That didn’t seem like it would leave you at rnd 10 after doing all the increasing, so I checked, and it wouldn’t. If you take the rnd where you move the marker as being the first of the 6 rnds in patt, that has you finishing the increases at rnd 10.

It’s not a big deal, but it just seems like it could have been better written (read, “how I would have written it”). And I still don’t understand why you have to move the rnd marker. I really think they could have added a row between the Open Twist chart and the Lozenge, or changed the Open Twist chart . . . something so that the front and back would have coincided at the end of the Lozenge chart, without the rigamarole of moving the marker. Not that I had a marker to move, as I’ve mentioned before.

Also, I checked the length of this one against the first, when I was finished with the Lozenge chart (which is where I left off with the first one), and they seem to be just about even, so that’s good. I am not going to rip out the first one. Even with the ladders, and the cables that go the wrong way (by the way, I did it with the second one, too, but I caught it after only a couple repeats this time), I think it will be fine. Besides, if I don’t rip it out and start over, I have a better chance of being able to wear these before it gets too warm.

Speaking of which, if I weren’t sitting at the computer, I could be knitting, and they’d be done that much faster.

Double the fun.

Or half? I did a panel of the super secret project with the motifs. I used the intarsia in the round method from Moth Heaven, which at first was awful because I thought my charts were simple enough I didn’t need to keep track. Ha! I know better now. I also knit it way too loose. So I ripped it all out and started over, keeping track of my charts, and it was lovely. I’m not exactly ready to do anything major in intarsia in the round, but for my purposes, this was perfect.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t come up with something to change before I’d finished the panel. What if I made the motifs half the size? As I was finishing them, I started thinking they might be too big. They’d probably work, but they were kind of a pain to fit in with the shaping.

Thankfully, I did not cast on for a whole new panel. I’ve got brains hidden away somewhere, and occasionally I actually dust them off and use them. I did a a test swatch, which I will felt tonight, and see what I think. If they look okay width-wise, but too stumpy, I can easily lengthen them. If they don’t look good at all, I’ll stick with the originals. If I don’t stick with the originals, I’ll rip out the panel I’ve already done so I can knit it with the new motifs and then rip it out so I can measure it. At least I thought of making the motifs smaller before I ripped out the old one and measured. Not that measuring would take that long, but I need to feel good about something.

In other news, I’ve decided not to do the feathered arrow vest redux with the Wool of the Andes. It was just too heavy. I have to find a different yarn, and I have to find something to do with all the yarn I’ve got.

Also, work continues on the legwarmers. I’m almost done with the increases on the lozenge. I think two more rows, and then I’ll try them on. Changing around the stitches to get them evenly divided again has done wonders, although I really wish I had longer dpns. I think I’ll have to put the stitches on a spare cable before trying them on.

Finished! And started.

I finished the Shetland Shorty last night, and I am pleased as punch with it. It’s just about perfect. I want another one. Now. With long sleeves. In purple.

I started swatching for the re-do of my feathered arrow vest. The original design used up some of my Rio, but it had problems. It was the first thing I ever designed for myself, so I’m not complaining. This time I thought I’d do it with wool, because I want it to keep its shape nicely, so I tried KnitPicks’s Wool of the Andes. I don’t know if it’s working.

The original plan with the vest was that it would be a tank top that could also serve as a layering piece. I think the wool might be too heavy for it to be really comfortable as a tank. It looks like the gauge would be okay, so I don’t know that I really want to go down to a DK or sportweight. Maybe a wool-cotton blend, if I could find one I like . . . I don’t know.

So, right now my choices seem to be, do it with the wool and see what I think or find a cotton or cotton-blend I like and use that instead. Then I’ll have eight skeins of Wool of the Andes to play with for something else. I’m going to finish my gauge swatch, then think about seeing what it’s like with size 5 needles instead (maybe), and then I’ll try to decide what I’m going to do.

I’ve started on the lozenge pattern for the second legwarmer! I don’t know what happened, but when I was working on it last night, I kept dropping stitches again, and I couldn’t get the needles to behave. Hopefully it was just a temporary thing.

Lastly, I have a super secret project (have I mentioned that I’m so old school I still spell it correctly?) I need to start working on. I’m designing something that’s going to be felted and dyed (first dyeing project!), and will be totally cool. Really. Everyone will want one. Of course, after I got the yarn, I decided to see if I could find anything similar already out there, and there is something, but it’s only similar. I looked at pictures of it, but not the pattern, so I won’t be influenced by it. And of course, I think my idea is much better.;-)

Great. Sensational. That’s your plan, is it?*

I have a plan for the legwarmers.

I’m at thirty rows of the Hauser model on the second one. I’ve compared the two, and it looks like they’re on track with each other. Not using the stitch markers seems to have solved my ladder-after-cable problem, and backwards wrapping the last stitch on the needle seems to have solved the between-needles-ladder problem. Everything looks good.

I am going to finish the second one on the DPNs. I don’t know what I’m doing differently now, but I’m not dropping stitches and losing needles as much. Maybe I’ve just gotten the hang of DPNs again. Anyway, when I’ve finished the second one, I will finish the first, probably with the two circs, with the stitch markers removed.

I want to wait until I’m done with the second in case I have yarn left over, rather than opening up that third hank. I don’t want to rip out the first one, because the yarn — while lovely and soft and a pleasure to work — has gotten awfully fuzzy. Even on the second one, I can tell already that it’s fuzzier than when I started it. Some people say it still knits up nicely after being ripped out, but I’d rather not chance it. Plus, I think the ladders are not going to be an issue, because people will have to stoop down to look at my legs and see them, and they’ll hopefully even out after a washing or two.

Besides, I’m impatient to wear these.

I really, really need a camera soon, because when I set the legwarmer down at work, I usually put the needles down on the desk. Sometimes they’ll spread out, and the legwarmer will stand straight up from them. It’s really funny looking, and I’m sure after a few more inches (especially as I start increasing in five rows), it won’t do that anymore.

*From The Road to El Dorado. Not at all about knitting, but still a great movie.

This yarn has gone to meet its maker!

(I put this in the Ravelry notes for my Broken Down Tara sweater, but I think it’s a little long and more post-like for that. So I moved it here.)

This is the sweater that made me decide I never want to let another person make yarn substitutions for me. My friend Heather really liked this sweater, but she’s allergic to wool. And she wanted dove grey, when dove grey was not an easy color to find. No one was using dove grey yarn. I went to the yarn shop (Jefferson Stitches in Naperville, Illinois) and asked for help finding a cotton replacement.

That’s how I came to have a bunch of dove grey Brunswick Rio in my stash.

I was almost finished with the front. It was gorgeous. It was beautiful. It had been a joy to work.

I had used almost half the yarn.

In the meantime, Brunswick went out of business. I searched and searched for Rio in that dove grey, going through closeout bins, asking people I knew to ask people they knew. The sweater is knit with two strands, so I didn’t even care what the dye lot was. No such animal as extra skeins of Brunswick Rio in dove grey existed. It was not pining for the fjords. It was an ex-yarn.

By the time I gave up, Heather had moved to Indiana, so I just picked another sweater (from a Vogue Knitting magazine I’m sure I have lying around so I’ll post it later) without her input and made it for her. I wound up with quite a bit of the yarn left.

One of these days I want to rebuild Tara. Maybe for myself, maybe for Thing One. For someone. But I’ll either use the yarn called for, or I’ll make my own substitution.

I should add that I don’t really blame the woman who made the suggestion to use Rio, and figured out how much I should have needed. Substituting yarns, especially when you’re using completely different fibers and looking for a little-used color, isn’t easy. I just would prefer that if something like that should happen again, I have only myself to blame.

Of course, a few years later, my mom bought me the yarn to make this absolutely gorgeous sweater (another VK find that I’ll have to add to Ravelry eventually), and my brother (who knits) found a substitute. I do blame him for that sweater not turning out right. How much of that is sibling rivalry and how much is deserved, I don’t know, and don’t particularly care.;-)

I am mispleased.

The further along I go with my legwarmers, the less happy I am with them. I was willing to overlook all the times I crossed cables the wrong way on one side of the lozenge pattern (the four stitch wide cable that crosses to the outside, I crossed six or seven times to the inside instead). I was even thinking I could overlook the huge (for me) ladders at the ends of my needles. But the cables aren’t lying flat on the left sides, and the stitches to the left of them are stretched out, and it’s too long, and I’m just about ready to rip it out. You know, now that I’ve only got three rows left to the lozenge pattern. I don’t know if it’s me, or the yarn, or the pattern, but I’m just not happy with it.

I’m not going to do that, though. I’m going to be good, and patient, and set it aside until I can take it to my mom’s and see what she thinks of it, and maybe by then I won’t think it looks that bad. But until then, I think I’m going to start working on the Shetland Shorty I have in my Ravelry queue.

I’ve enjoyed working with a fine yarn on a delicate looking pattern. It is a nice change from all the chunky yarn/large needle stuff that’s been so popular for so many years now. I just hope I decide to finish it.

Trying to keep warm.

So I’m making legwarmers. “Traveling Stitch Legwarmers” from Knit so Fine, to be specific. They are taking a really long time, compared to the socks I made for Little Cat Z, which only took two days! This is not a bad thing. I’ve had some time to knit while at work this month, because I have large stacks of forms that need to get printed, and I can’t really do anything else until they’re done.

My gauge was a little off, but not enough, I thought, to warrant going down a needle size. When I got to the 34^th row of the main body, it measured five inches, just like the pattern said it should, so I thought I was fine. Now here I am, row 82 of the lozenge pattern, and I’m already measuring at fourteen inches, which is how long it should be when I’m finished with the lozenge pattern . . . in sixteen more rows. Which is almost two inches. The repeats of the “Hauser model” cable pattern seem to be the same size at the beginning of the piece and here near the end, so I’m not sure what happened. And, to make things better, I’m really close to the end of my ball of yarn. Maybe, if I hadn’t somehow come out of this two inches to long, I’d have been able to make the whole legwarmer with one ball of yarn. Instead, I’m going to have to add in a new one at the end. I’m afraid I’m going to be something like two rows from the end and that’s when I’ll run out. I wouldn’t mind running out now, but that close to the end will feel ridiculous.

I’m using KnitPicks Gloss instead of the Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport the pattern calls for. It’s 70% wool, 30% silk. I wonder if I can do a spit-splice. Plenty of people on Ravelry complain that the yarn felts. If I can, I won’t be as upset about having to join a new ball close to the end.

Stuff and bother.

I’m almost finished with Thing Two’s socks. I didn’t have any problems with picking up the stitches along the heelflap this time. I’m glad I figured that out.

I can’t really start on my legwarmers yet. I have to make socks for Thing One, and then probably for Little Cat Z, too.

The yarn for Thing One’s socks is, I think, Plymouth Encore, but I’m not certain. I took a bunch of yarn from my mom’s stash, intending to teach Thing One how to crochet granny squares. She’s never seemed interested in doing more than chain stitch, so we haven’t done that yet. One or more of the cats found the yarn, however, and turned several of the skeins into kitty toys, AKA complete messes. It took me over half an hour to wind the yarn for Thing One’s socks into a workable ball. It was so bad, I couldn’t even tell what the original shape of the skein had been, and I have no idea what happened to the ball band. I’m pretty sure I know which cat was the main culprit, at least. Miss Orchid is the one I’ve found carrying the GCUC around — all two pounds of it. I’m not saying the other two didn’t join in the fun, but she’s the one who seems to like playing with full skeins the most.

I got it!

w00t!

Now I have to hurry up and finish Thing Two’s socks so I can start working on something else!

I wanted to bring the box up to my office so I could open it up and look at everything, but it was too big to fit in my knitting bag (dimension-wise, that is), so I opened it up in the parking garage and stuffed everything into my bag. I could have carried the box — it isn’t that big — but then I wouldn’t have been able to knit while walking up the stairs. Yes, new yarn is fun and exciting, but let’s keep our priorities straight here. I didn’t really look at it until I got it upstairs in decent lighting. It’s all lovely, and I really can’t wait.

I am going to do the Travelling Stitch Legwarmers from Knit So Fine with KnitPicks Gloss. I was going to make the legwarmers anyway, but then KnitPicks put them in one of their catalogs, suggesting Gloss as a substitute yarn, and I decided I’d try them out that way. I got nickel plated DPNs to knit them. I don’t have any problem using DPNs. That’s how I learned to do circular knitting in the first place. I do find that I really, really like using two circs, though. I think I get less of that stretched stitch problem between needles. I’ll see what I think about the DPNs. I can always switch if I decide two circs would be better.

I think the legwarmers will be the first of my three projects that I’ll make. They’re the most practical given the weather we’ve been having.

Now I have to go update Ravelry. New yarn, new needles, make my three projects use the yarn from my stash . . . and then I have to log out and do some work. No surfing around in there today! Really!

Yeah, I think I’ve gotten over my knitting ennui.