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I’m making good progress on Cherry . Here are the sleeves:
The color came out a bit too muted and brown–the lavender color is more candyish in person.
I’m a few inches into the body, almost to the point where you do the eyelet row for the waist tie. I decided to knit it all in one piece, so I cast on for the fronts and back all together, subtracting one stitch from each front and two stitches from the back to account for the stitches that would have been eaten up in seaming. I placed the decreases right at the side markers (paired ssk/k2tog) but in retrospect, I wish I’d left a one-stitch divider in the middle, because the decreases right next to one another look sort of messy.
One thing I’ve messed up because of doing this is the rate of decrease–since the designer doesn’t tell you to decrease X number of times, but rather to decrease at a certain rate till you reach X number of stitches, then at another rate till you reach X number of stitches, I forgot about how I’d subtracted the seam stitches from the stitch count and started the second rate of decrease a little too early. I remembered in time for the rest of the decreases, so at least the overall waist width and length to the waist should be OK.
However, knitting everything in one piece does eliminate seaming and make it easier to keep the little birds pattern lined up across all the pieces.
Do you have any suggestions for the buttons for this cardigan? It needs little, delicate buttons. I was considering robin’s egg blue, bright red, gray, or a gray or white mother-of-pearl. I’ve also been hoarding some adorable ivory-colored buttons shaped like tiny owls, and I was considering using those, but they might be a little too bohemian or twee for this sweater. It seems like when I use them, I should make them the focal design point of a sweater.
I met up with a fellow Raveler, turtleknitter, at Lakeside Fibers on Sunday for some knitting. She’s a fellow Pacific Coast child transplanted to the Midwest, and we had a really wonderful time chatting about all sorts of things… knitting, of course, but also eating locally, bikes, and the terror of snowy Midwestern winters. (Her advice for staying warm: a good EZ Ribwarmer.) We’re planning a trip to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be heading to the local Stitch ‘n’ Bitch tomorrow night to meet some more Madison knitters.
In closing, here are some more photos from the zoo:
And we watched this giant tortoise:
slowly walk up to the other tortoise in its pen and touch noses (beaks? snouts?) with it in greeting.
Awwww.
Impatient with the various WIPs I had lying around, I cast on for a new project a couple of days ago–an adorable little cardigan called Cherry, from My Fashionable Life/Needle and Hook. I’m knitting it in a lavender shade of one of my favorite yarns, Rowan Calmer in 484 Lucky, which I got from some steep sale at Jannette’s Rare Yarns. (She shut down her eBay shop recently and opened up this new storefront instead–she sent a message saying you could get a 10% discount using the code JRY1, but I’m not sure when that code expires.)
I’m working the smallest size. I started with the sleeves, working them two at a time, and desperately hope they will fit… I erred on the side of negative ease. Looking through the examples of this sweater on Ravelry, it seems like it’s more flattering to go a little too small with this pattern than a little too big.
It’s such a pleasure working with Calmer–so stretchy and bouncy and soft!–but the pattern is kind of fiddly to follow. I’m only at the second repeat of “little birds” and already seem to have messed up the alignment of the birds on one sleeve–will have to go back and fix that. And it took about five minutes of staring at “dec 2 sts each side on these 2 and every following alt 7 rows and then every 4,” or however it was worded, to figure out exactly when, where, and how often I was supposed to decrease. It’s pretty standard verbiage, I guess, but that doesn’t mean it’s not confusing… I hope I don’t misread it and end up with very long, cone-shaped sleeves at the end of the weekend.
The pattern notes suggest styling it like Katharine Hepburn, “with Oxford bags.” I had no idea what this meant and just looked it up–they are voluminous trousers, apparently. I don’t have any, but perhaps I can borrow a pair of Rahul’s Dockers and wade around in becardiganed yet mannish style.
Some of our new neighbors at the Vilas Zoo, which is in a beautiful public park a few blocks from our house and has free admission to all ages:
And in case you’re curious, here are some photos of the best features of our new place–please excuse the mess, we’re moving! There’s also an office, balcony, and bedroom that I didn’t show in these photos because the pictures didn’t come out well.
Bike rack on the porch:
Storage room with color-coded yarn in the little fabric ladder thing on the left, and some very awesome folding shelves we got at Staples yesterday:
Kitchen, with gas stove! Hurray for BTU’s.
Living room
Urinal
The dorkiest sign in the world:
This PSA is on the back of some buses in Bloomington. Rahul came home one day and told me he’d seen a bus that said “Don’t be wack, turn down your track! Your ‘B’ is too loud!” This sounded so unbelievably stupid, I thought he was making it up. But it was true. He misremembered the wording, and the “B” actually spells part of “boom”–or rather, “boooom”–not that that’s much better. Note how they wrote “whack” with an “h” in an effort to be hip and with it.
I wonder if this has encouraged any young hoodlums driving by to pause and think, “Golly, I never realized my Boooom was too loud! I’d better Turn Down My Track so people don’t think I’m ‘Whack.’”
We moved into our new place in Madison on Saturday!
After saying goodbye to my knitting friends in Bloomington, we packed up our apartment… here are some photos of the goodbye knit night, at our regular venue (the Pour House) and a nearby bar called the Root Cellar:
Elli + Korknisse:
Kalani + Korknisse:
The gang at the Pour House… from left to right, back to front: Sara, Kalani, Norma, Katie, me, Nicole, Elli
Knitting with raspberry beer at the Root Cellar, which is located in the basement of a fancy restaurant named FARM:
Elli and the wall of bedpans at FARM. Apparently these bedpans really freaked out her husband, who didn’t realize that they were meant to designate the area where the bathrooms were located and were not just there on a wall in a restaurant for the hell of it. So I had to take a picture of her with the scary decor:
In the first half of the move (from Bloomington to Rahul’s aunt and uncle’s house in Illinois), our car was packed to the brim:
I had to huddle cross-legged on the blanket nest in the passenger seat, clutching a bag on my lap, for the entire 4-hour drive–and this was already after getting rid of a ton of stuff that we just had to buy again as soon as we got here (like paper towels, a microwave, a coffee pot, etc.) sending a van-and-U-Haul trailer load with Rahul’s parents, and leaving a van-load of stuff with a friend in Bloomington for later pickup. We made kind of a strategy error by packing the less important stuff with Rahul’s parents in their van and leaving just the most important stuff to take with us in our car. They left, and we were wrapping up and packing when we realized we wouldn’t have enough room–but we really needed to keep everything else we had with us. Hence the clown car full of blankets, clothing, computers, and guitars.
We stayed in rural Illinois for a week and had some long and pleasant bike rides through cornfields and tiny towns–the longest ride we did was about 30 miles and I had a great time because we rode on a nice, flat dedicated bike path instead of along the side of the road with cars. Here are a few of the sights along the way…
The two stores in downtown Owaneco, Illinois (a meat store and a wine shop):
A log cabin in Pana:
A pause along the bike path:
The second half of the move went smoothly. We were able to redistribute our stuff into the van when we met up with his parents in Illinois, so we could actually see out of the back when we drove the next 5 hours of the trip. We were able to get our stuff moved in within a few hours on Saturday morning, and had some nice Thai food and unpacked for the rest of the day. We only put things together backwards a few times while assembling furniture. A success overall.
So the new place is cute, though we have no driveway or garage–something we didn’t realize would be a problem initially, since we knew we could get a residential parking permit, but we found out today that Madison requires you to change your residential street parking spot every other day, or every single day in the winter, between November and March (park on the even-numbered sides on even-numbered days, and vice versa). Since neither of us is going to be driving on a regular basis, this is a colossal pain in the butt. Also, I won’t have internet access at home until Friday, which feels odd and crippling in a place where we don’t know our way around yet–all this calling 411 and consulting paper maps feels very strange and archaic now.
But these things aside, our new place is cozy and cute (read: kind of small!), and in a great neighborhood, quiet and residential, full of huge old trees, close to Trader Joe’s and a record store and a branch of the public library. After a hellish afternoon shopping at big box stores yesterday, we took a nice long bike ride in the evening around the park (we spotted bison at the zoo through the fence), along the shores of Lake Wingra, and through the beautiful Arboretum. Today I’ve been sucking down lattes at a local cafe and working, and I stopped in at the record store at lunchtime and bought this album
In the meantime, I’ll continue slowly working through my backlog of blog fodder. Next up, my most recent finished object (I have been less than prolific in the past month or so).
Pattern: Branching Out, by Susan Lawrence, from Knitty’s Spring 2005 issue
Size made: n/a
Finished dimensions: long and scarfy? I thought I’d written this down, but I can’t seem to find it. I’d guess about 60 inches long by 7 inches wide.
Yarn used: Farmhouse Fibers/Yellowwood Llamas Super Silky 100% Llama in Lily, 1 skein (200 yards, sport weight yarn)
Needles used: US size 6/4.0 Addi Turbos
Date started: July 10, 2008
Date finished: July 16, 2008
Mods: None
Notes: As I explained in my post about the visit to the llama farm, my friend Molly and I have a deep affection for llamas dating back to junior high school days or thereabouts. We wrote a parody of a romance novel called The Mark of the Llama… I remember very little about the plot except that it featured a protagonist named Coriander who floated about misty manor lawns in a diaphanous white gown, and a villain who, at one point, threateningly pulled a shotgun from his sock and waved it around.
Anyway, Molly has a wool allergy and always complains about being unable to find nice coats or dress pants for a reasonable price–they’re either cheap polyester or incredibly expensive cashmere. I’ve been encouraging her to learn to knit, and have been telling her all about No Sheep for You
More so, I think, after I gave her this scarf. I originally went to the llama farm with the intention of getting some 100% llama yarn to make a woolly, llama-y present for Molly. I could have gone with alpaca or cashmere or silk, but llama just seemed like the perfect fiber for a present for her. So I made this while I was in California, and presented it to her.
She was pleased and said it didn’t feel like burning. Her mom laughed and explained that this was what wool felt like to the rest of the world.
Anyway, now that we’ve moved, I hope I’ll be able to settle in quickly, find some new friends here, and get some more mittens made before the bitter Wisconsin winter comes. The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival is coming up soon and I’m hoping I can make it… Lord knows I don’t need any more yarn or fiber right now, but Briar Rose and Handspun by Stefania will both be there for the ogling, and of course lots of cute sheep and other critters. Maybe even llamas.
Our house is empty, our car is stuffed to the brim, and people from Craigslist keep emailing me about my ad for “free stuff.” OH BOY, HALF A BOTTLE OF FANTASTIK! FREEEEEE! What all this means is that we’re moving today! Well, between today and the following Friday–we’ll be homeless and in limbo all next week.
Hopefully I’ll get a lot done next week while we’re staying with Rahul’s relatives–I haven’t done any address changes except with the PO, haven’t signed up for Internet service yet… in short, haven’t done any of various fairly important things that really need doing. However, I did see How is babby formed? (warning, direct link to Flash animation) for the first time and laughed my ass off. That’s productive, right? Anyway, if I can find my camera cable from wherever it’s been packed, and if I can get internet access from my laptop next week, perhaps I’ll be also able to put up some photos soon of more of my vacation knitting, and our farewell knit-n-drink night at the Pour House and the Root Cellar.
Goodbye, Bloomington! I’ve had a great time here. I am especially going to miss my knitting friends here. I hope I can find as great a group of people to knit with in our new hometown.
