tangled up

Knitting Withdrawal

Amid a couple of months of very busy weeks, this week feels like the mother of them all.  Still in San Francisco a day after my intended departure; the current plan is to leave on the red-eye tonight.    In the meantime, I've had almost no time to knit.  And on top of that, my Apricot Jacket project is a bit of a disaster.  I've been knitting both sides at the same time and got to the point of creating the diagonal pattern.  Somehow, though, I did the edge stitch on the wrong side or something because the knits and purls aren't working out correctly.  If that sounds confusing, it has totally confused me and I just totally put it aside so I can refocus on it when I get home.

I've done a little better on the  Perkins edging.  This morning I got up 1/2 hour early just to do a little knitting -- it's my own personal yoga or meditation. The edging is now about 30" long (the totalwill be 41") and if I'm not totally spent by the time I get on the plane, I will be able to work as long as the remaining yarn lasts.  Flying back on JetBlue on what seems like a very crowded plane so I'm not exactly confident.  I so want to finish that sweater this weekend.

Gotta get back to my conference call....

stretch-y stretch-y

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends who are really my DC family. With kids as helpers, baked pies and rolls. Not having to do everything left more time for...knitting!

I didn't attain my goal of finishing Perkins. I got about 11" of the lace edging finished after ripping pieces of it out several times. For some reason, I keep making mistakes. I will take it on my flight to San Francisco tomorrow and hopefully between the flight out and the flight back get it done. I dragged the sweater with me to size the edging that way (for SF, I'll have to measure) and used the occasion to get one of the girls to try it on. It really looked nice. If it were anywhere near my size, I think I would just pay for the yarn and keep it. As it is, I really look forward to giving it to Jacqui and seeing it hang in Woolwinders (if you don't notice links here, it's because I've gone on strike making them on the Mac when Movable Type makes it so easy to do on Windows -- I just have to call this up on a Windows machine and add them later).

I also made progress on the Apricot Jacket. The stretch merino gives it a very funny shape that I imagine will change when the wearer is wearing it. The ribbing pulls in much tighter than the stockinette. It's moving pretty quickly. I've started both sides of the front, working them together like sleeves. See how far I get on those this trip.

I'm not going to have much spare time while in SF, but I did notice that ArtFibers, which isn't far from where I'm stayiing, is open until 6 on Saturday. I should be able to get in from the airport, check in and have some time for shopping before they close. Seems like a waste to travel without checking out a local yarn store, especially one so storied as ArtFibers.

For the last couple of years, I've coached my friends daughter and her two friends on their history fair project. They're really serious about it, work hard on it and last year ranked 7th nationally in the documentary category and won the overall African American History prize. We've been working on this year's project for the past month or so and knitting has become a regular topic -- all three want to learn to knit. One of them turns 15 this weekend and I got her a copy of the Teen Knitting Club book -- it's perfect for kids their age, filled with projects they're all really interested in. I'd definitely recommend it.

Unlikely that I'll get to post again until December 2 when I'm back in DC. Hopefully I'll have lots to write about then.

stretch apricot

This my second attempt at this post -- Safari froze up on me the first time, incentive to download and use Firefox. Our office had the first day of a two day retreat today and I needed a knitting project that I could work on while keeping my eyes on my co-workers. I took the opportunity to start the Apricot Jacket, a design in Rebecca #27 that I've been eyeing for quite a while. A number of other bloggers have done beatuiful versions -- it seems like it's about the most commonly knitted sweater lately that doesn't have its own knitalong. I've seen a number of them in Rowan All Seasons Cotton (Froggy's is particularly great) and I like using All Seasons Cotton but I was looking for something that would have a slightly more wintry feel.

I settled on Schoeller Stahl's Merino Stretch in a color of blue that you'd probably call Marine blue. I ordered it a couple of weeks ago from elann.com, my very first purchase there. The sweater style seemed appropriate for the stretchiness of the yarn, but now that I've started I'm not quite sure. The sweater is for a friend who is very small, probably 30/32 instead of the 34/36 that's the small size in the pattern. My gauge is somewhat higher than called for, which should make the sizing work out right, but the stretchiness is making it appear absolutely tiny. If it works, it will be great, but right now, it's not obvious that it will work. It is moving pretty quickly, though. You can't tell from this picture, but I got about 9 inches of the back finished today:

I'd love to have taken the Perkins lace edging to work on, but that requires entirely too much concentration. I have a flight to San Francisco on Saturday, and this looks to be the take along project. Hopefully, Perkins will be finished and in the hands of her rightful owner by then. Just occurred to me, but I need to look into whether there are any SF yarn stores open on Sundays...