Beach Sweater is Done!

Yes, yes, at long last, this beautiful sweater full of bright turquoise-y green and deep blue, colors I saw and loved and bought on an impulse, is DONE! And now I can show a picture and blog about it:

Lovely front of lovely Beach Sweater

Two of the details on this simple sweater are right there on the photo - the slight V-neck with the foldover collar (I guess in fashion circles it's called a "Bistro collar") and the slight flaring of the sleeves so that it covers things like bra straps and is not a true tank top. Which is good from my older POV.

The sleeves are easy to expand - you simply Sl1, M1, K2, Sl1 to increase at the start of the sleeve shaping, and the slipping of a stitch (Sl1) from the left-hand needle to the right-hand needle gives it that little bit of raised look. Which is an effective design technique when you are using a combination of yarns or when using a yarn that has a nub or a slight pattern to it, because it is subtle enough to attract the eye but does not overwhelm the yarn you are using. And the M1 increase happens every 4 rows, just as you're getting bored with knitting stockinette stitch.

The collar option is also quite easy - it calls for picking up and knitting as you usually do when doing a collar (after the sleeve seams are sewn, you then create a collar on those two otherwise plain pieces of knitted fabric). But again, the designer has you do the Sl1, M1, K2, Sl1 to create flaps on the front of the sweater while you make a collar that folds over the back of the sweater like a traditional collar does.

Here is the back of the Beach sweater. The roll at the top
center of the back is the collar that rolls down like a
traditional collar.

Another design change I made on this sweater was to increase the length. Partly because of my bust size and partly because I'm not young enough to want to have my belly button showing when I raise my arms up, I increased the length to 16" rather than the recommended 14 1/2". And that extra inch and a half really, really made all the difference. It also meant that I had to spend a whole lotta time with the measuring tape, measuring the back on the floor, then the top on the floor, then the top on top of the back, then the back . . . you get the picture! But the extra effort was worth it and this sweater is quite wearable.

And really, sewing the side seams was not that difficult. Just a basic mattress stitch that you can do in front of an old movie (yes, it can be a Bette Davis murder mystery - there's no counting, just sewing). I'm not one of those knitting purists who has to knit every single sweater in the round, modifying any sweater pattern that says differently. The way I look at it, sewing side seams is the easy, fun portion of the knitting - it lets you see how the sweater looks from all the knitting you've done. On the other hand, I hate knitting in yarn ends. THAT's the part where I pour myself a glass of wine and grumble my way through that onerous task. I don't know why I hate the yarn ends and ease into the side seams of knitting, but there you have it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had knit this sweater when I saw some Rasta yarn by Berroco (now discontinued. Of course. They were notorious for that.) in another local yarn shop. I had gone shopping with friends K&A near their hometown knit shop, and we brought the boys into shop with us. The boys got a whole new eye-opening experience, and we girls got to shop. Rasta is considered a heavy cotton, knit on size 10, and what was especially lovely about it was it was not a twisted cotton yarn with nubblies on it: it looked like the kind of cotton strips you use for a woven rug, with the nubbly bits all twisted onto it.

This first sweater I knit fairly quickly, as it required less stitches to cast on and I was lazy and went with the pattern directions. It looks great, and it's the perfect cotton sweater to wear with, say, khaki pants or even light colored jeans. The color of the nubbly bits just jumps out at you, and the background is neutral enough for just staying in the background. It's just a little short for my long-torsoed figure, but the pattern is easy enough to increase prior to the sleeve increases.

Here is the almost-completed sweater (the ends need to be woven in, and the bow on the top RH side of the collar is holding the live stitches).

Bistro shirt made of Rasta cotton yarn

Just so you can get an idea of how the Rasta yarn looked when it was in production, and why I jumped on it when I found it at a yarn shop and bought up all they had of the dye lot, here is a close-up of the yarn and its texture:

Rasta yarn in all its glory, with old-fashioned
plastic needles that made this cotton yarn
really fly, with just enough give for my hands

I really, really enjoyed knitting this sweater the second time through, and have already worn it out to friends' house. I think it will be one that is classy enough I can wear it to work. Both sweaters, really. Not that I'm a fashion plate, but it definitely has classic lines that fit with a "business casual" environment.

Ongoing Projects

First, my intricately cabled sweater made from Blackwater Abbey Yarns using the pattern Brambleberry to make a nice, pretty, long-sleeved, warm sweater. I've knitted it for the past 3 Mountain trips, and I'd like to bring a new sweater along in February. Which means I need to finish it and sew the seams together (not necessarily an easy task, as the cables will need to match up, but it will be worth the work), and I'll probably sew the seams while listening to a book on tape to keep my mind focused.

In the meantime, I just have to say . . . I am so tired of these darn sleeves! I mean really! I'm at the point in the pattern, the sleeves, which seem to be the longest part of any project. They just keep going . . . and going . . . and going. And I'm bored with the pattern, and I just have to keep knitting and remembering to decrease on every even row, and I'm so bored!

To give you an idea, here's my previous blog picture of the sleeves from earlier this year:

Brambleberry Sleeves, about half-way finished

And as I said before, I'm knitting the sleeves at the same time so that all the increases are the same, decreases are the same, possible mistakes are the same . . . and that basically the sleeves match. All well and good. And it's not exactly mindless knitting, even though I'm only cabling on R2 since I've decided not to do the cable pattern underneath my arms because really, what would be the point? I know that the pattern has this lovely cable that floats along around the arm, but there's also a lot of bulk that way and this sweater is going to be bulky enough with the yarn being what it is. Plus there's the lack of being able to see the cables when wearing the sweater, and the yarn will be rubbing as I move my arms which will make the cables less pristine.

So, with a spring of knitting and knitting, and seemingly endless more knitting, and working on two socks for a knit-along on Ravelry, I've procrastinated these sleeves till now. They're almost done - I'm on the last decrease row before I bind off. And then my wish will be fulfilled: my sleeves will be done!!

Here they are as of last night (picture taken this morning):

One more row . . . that's all they need . . .

Which I think I can accomplish tonight while I catch up on Season 6 of "Lost" (I watched most of it but not all, and I was driving back from New Orleans during the final episode) tonight. And then there will be much rejoicing!! Hurrah!

Another piece that I'm working on is a companion to my completed Wren in the Furze and the Blue Tit, both Eva Rosenstand kits. I think I started this little bird last year, and it proved to be a great piece to bring while I was relaxing in Asheville a month ago. In fact, I stitched most of the green that is the setting for the wild rose that will be the floral portion of this design.

I haven't quite figured out what kind of bird this is. There's a lot of pink on it, but then again, it may be that the designer wanted to highlight the pink of the wild rose and so invented a bird with pink in it. If anyone knows northern European birds . . .

You know what I find interesting about this design is the amount of yellowish green that the foliage calls for. I'm not a huge fan of yellowish green - I can't wear the color, it makes me look like I'm about to become violently ill.
Regardless, it adds the shading to the foliage that a lighter green just won't capture quite as well. And you can tell the amount of the yellowish green from the colors of thread that come with the design. You can also see the several shades of pink that will become the wild rose. For this piece, I chose to stitch the bird first (cuz he's so much fun and I like to complete one motif before going on to the next), then I'll do some greenery, then finally on to the rose. Kind of brings order to the chaos.

It really was nice this summer to sit in a comfy chair, talk with friends and husband, and just sit and stitch during daylight hours (I somehow didn't need my reading glasses!). We were in the shade, I won't lie about that, but there was no pressure to finish anything, and I was able to listen to the conversation and stitch something just because it was beautiful.

OK, well, have to upload some pictures of some patterns that I forgot to upload when I entered these patterns onto my website last week. *sigh* At least that gives me time to procrastinate my sleeves!

So, How's the Website Coming?

I'm hearing this question a lot, especially as I've taken some time off this summer to work on my website. My website exclusively, maybe some part-time work for my bank account's sake, but my website that I initially saw as a representation as my retail shop. For the most part, that has been the case, until I've walked into my storage unit (a 10 x 30, climate controlled space) and seen a box of kits . . . and some cases of fabric . . . and two huge boxes filled with stuff . . . and all those things that we grabbed and packed and marked with names like "top shelf in the cross stitch room."

Well, 3 years have passed, and many of those items are still in their boxes, and I kind of remember what was on the top shelf of the cross stitch room, but not completely. So what occurred to me while I was there last week was, why not re-pack? There's no great rush now, those office packing boxes have worked just fine, and one of them fits nicely into my car and next to my chair in my office, and if I had all of them labeled "Stitcher's Aides" and "Pillows and Band Fabric" and "Baby Items," it would make all the difference between being able to find the item a customer has ordered on-line, pack it neatly, and go onto the next project, than having to go through 4 different boxes to find which box item X lived and where it might be found. Quite the difference between a quick and pleasant packing experience and one that is quite frustrating.

So I did that - I dressed in T-shirt and shorts last Friday and spent a good 3 hours just making up those boxes (you know the ones I mean, the boxes that are all-in-one with the sides you fold up and pull the bottom up, and put all of your office's papers into) and pulling and packing and organizing. And you know what? It's worked. I can now take the box of baby things home, upload all of the baby things in that box onto the web, at one time, and take pictures of what I need while the box is in my possession. It makes the knowledge of "On the Web" so much cleaner both mentally and visually, and gives me the impetus to continue with this good work. And on the flip side, in a few months, when a baby item sells on the web, I know exactly which box to go into, pull the item, and pack it for my on-line customer.

Another thing that has made my uploading so much easier is the realization that I can add an item to my website, then make a corresponding list of what needs a picture, and taking a series of pictures all at once. Strangely enough, writing down an item that needs a picture and then taking a picture is such a huge time-saver, compared to sitting for huge amounts of time in front of the World Wide Web and trying to find one picture among thousands. This new way of doing things means that I upload everything in a box or folder all at once, then take all the pictures all at once, then work on the pictures, all at once.

So, that's where I am with my website - hope it's not too geeky for everyone out there!

Beach Sweater in Asheville

I call it my Beach sweater because its colors are, well, beach-like. Bright blue and green, and it's not often that I can find a shade of green that a) I like and b) does not make me look like I'm sickly and ready to fall over in a dead faint. I found two shades last year when I went to help with the tiny house on Mt. Matt (see "Life in 120 Square Feet" blog next door for additional information about my friends' adventures). Since I'm their friend I get to indulge in their hospitality over July 4th weekend and help with whatever odd jobs are on the docket for that weekend.

Two years ago we were only there for a night and one full day due to work schedules (or maybe it was two full nights, one full and two partial days - all I remember was the incredible amount of RAIN that weekend and how dry our new tent kept us). Last year we drove up after work on Friday and took a road we had taken in years past when going to Hickory for furniture shopping, a road called White Horse Road. We hadn't remembered it being as industrial in 1996 as it was in 2010, but then we got past all the "development" and WOW! There was a sunset between two mountain peaks and we realized we had taken the most beautiful scenic route we could have hoped for.

On the morrow last year we spent some time in downtown Asheville. I had heard about this wonderful shop from customers who had been there (*grumble*) while I had to stay in Atlanta and mind my shop while they went galivanting around the country. The shop is called Earth Guild, and it was supposed to be fantastic and full of great yarn and creativity, so I asked directions while in Asheville to it. We walked uphill and down, saw the marvelous fountain park in the downtown area, and finally went into Earth Guild. Oh my.

Really. Seriously. Oh my.

They had everything there - basketweaving, leatherworking, clay, and knitting. Their colors were inspirational and of course I just had to buy. I had been working for almost a year, after all, and wasn't part of vacationing visiting the yarn and needlework shops??

So I found this blue Ironstone yarn. It was a thick-thin cotton construction that called for a size 6 needle. Size 6? Were they kidding? I would have had to wear a shirt under my knitted sweater, and what's the point in that? So I discovered some green, and twisted the two yarns together. WOW. Just wow.

The texture, on size 6's, getting 5 sts to the inch.
Which is why you always knit a gauge swatch.
Yarn is doubled; mfg. gauge for single ply is 5 sts/inch. Who knew??

Just the perfect combination, and surely I could create something out of them. I selected an amount of yarn that I thought would be suitable for a sweater, and then the owner said the magic words and I knew I was succumbing: "Those yarns have been discontinued." *Sigh*

What that means is "the manufacturer decided/sales weren't enough to/they had a disagreement with the mill" and there is no more of that yarn. It means "you better buy more yarn than you think because I can't get any more in for you." It means "get out your checkbook, and you might as well stay for a spell cuz you're gonna be spending money, girl."

I saw two sides of this when I was a shopowner. The first was the reaction I had, above, the "get out your checkbook, honey" where you know, you just know, you're going to sell that very last skein of discontinued yarn and not have to worry about telling the next person that you can't get any more of THAT yarn for them. Ever.

The second reaction, which almost always ended in bad feelings all around, was the "Well, I really don't need that much yarn, I'll leave with what I want to/intended to leave with" that came back to haunt them a few months later when, guess what? they didn't have enough yarn to finish their project and were just out of luck. I learned early on that it was my responsibility to advise them of a yarn's discontinued status; it was not my job to feel responsible for their inadequate purchase when they came back and were upset at me, my shop, my suppliers, etc., etc. A very good learning experience for this shopowner, that was.

So anyway. I went back to the Ironstone cubicles, grabbed more yarn, and decided that since they had some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece yarn in colors I had not yet seen at Sheepish, by golly I'd have to buy sufficient quantity to make that 3/4 sleeve summer cardigan that I had always envisioned as a use for Cotton Fleece, the one you wear in an office in the summer in Atlanta because the air conditioning is just too darn high. And again, there was one color they didn't have quite enough of . . . so another, darker color became the trim. But that's another posting for another day.

So with Cotton Fleece and Ironstone Solo in hand (both arms, really), I went to the cash register. Where I was told that I was close to point A on their discount level, and didn't I need some needles with that? Of course I did! I needed to knit a gauge swatch, now didn't I? And being a North Carolina yarn shop, lo and behold they had Twin Birch needles in stock! I had always loved Twin Birch needles - they were a local company, they put other people to work in the community making needles and other knitting accessories, they used mill ends of wood, etc., etc. Their points were very, very sharp, and while they didn't make circular needles, their straights were just smooth, wooden, warm, and one of my all-time favorite products. So I bought needles in the appropriate sizes for both products (I worked with the owner to determine what size to use for this doubled yarn; size 6 was the answer) and again, went proudly back to my growing pile on the counter.

Where I was gladly told that I was almost at the point on their customer discount level that if I bought $X more, I could get a nice Earth Guild bag. Into said pile went two different skeins of sock yarn (including this, shown on the post about sock knitting at The Mountain, and shown here) and I received a nice blue bag in which to place my larger-than-expected purchase. Oh, and Webmaster Bill decided some woodworking tools would be just the thing, so we got an even larger discount for our even larger purchase. *Sigh*

I decided to use a pattern I had used before called the Bistro Shirt by Oat Couture, a fantastic summer sweater with a nice open collar. I had knit a bulky cotton yarn called Rasta into said summer sweater pattern a few years ago, and realized that this yarn with its thick-thin texture and twisted together would be perfect. The pattern is strictly stockinette, so fancier yarns help bring more jazz to it.

(Sorry - forgot to rotate it!)

But, here it is, the day after our annual weekend at Mt. Matt, and said sweater is almost finished. The back I finished before The Mountain venture, and for some reason (maybe after two very complicated socks for the Ravelry Cookies KAL??) I just wanted some easy, mindless, in-front-of-the-TV-to-watch-movies knitting. So the front is done, and all it needs is the 3-needle bind-off to sew together the shoulder seams, and then knit up the side seams. Here are pictures of the finished back and almost finished front:

Back, with yarn instead of metal stitch holders,
to allow the live stitches to "relax" better

Front, with Twin Birch needles quite visible,
and the front RH and LH sides yet to be knit

Oh, and I have tons more yarn left over. Guess I was the other end of the purchasing spectrum, eh? Will post extra yarn on Ravelry - someone is probably looking for it so they can finish their sweater!!

Happy after 4th week!

Starting with Socks

So when I arrive at the Mountain, check in, unpack my one meager bag full of all my winter sweaters, and prepare my many, many project bags for the weekend, I always start knitting on a sock.

Why a sock?

Well, for one thing, they're small. They knit up quickly. After the cast on and joining rounds, there's a lot of "mindless knitting" followed by "thinking knitting" followed by more "mindless knitting" followed by "thinking knitting." Then you finish with scrambling to find directions for the Kitchener stitch, and before you know it, you're done with your sock.

I started knitting a sock as my first project at the Mountain several years ago, when I was learning Intarsia in the round for a sock (from the "Socks for Sandals and Clogs" book) and I wanted the peace and serenity of the Mountain to be present while I started on this seemingly impossible adventure.

It wasn't impossible - it was fun, very very fun. Basically what you do is you knit with the background yarn to the pattern, slip the pattern stitches, knit the ground stitches, and then turn the whole thing around, purling across the pattern stitches while slipping the ground stitches. It can be done with small patterns (about 5 stitches, ground stitch or two, and 5 more stitches) but not with 12 stitch beer hat patterns. Those have to be knit flat, then sew up the seam in the back.

But I digress.

So with the wonderful lightbulbs going off above my head as I sat on the porch outside with other knitters around me to ooooh and aaaah at this cool new technique, I found that I was all jazzed from my new learning experience AND sufficiently calmed down from the exciting drive up to the Mountain to begin to knit on something a little more complicated that night after dinner.

And I do mean exciting - I drive a Neon, and there's a reason for it: it is the best handling car, most fleet and easily manuever-able car I've ever driven since I inherited my Dad's Camero in the 80's. There are twisty windy mountain roads all the way up to the Mountain, and yes, I do drive them as fast as my car can handle them. There is nothing like the feel of a great car hugging the road while it is put through its paces and it, too, revels in the feel of doing what it was designed to do.

But I digress. Again.

Anyway, the next year, I brought some socks to knit on, just regular sock knitting ("mindless knitting") in the round to slow down from the drive and mesh with the energy of the Mountain that year. I used yarn I had bought in Dahlonega while touring that yarn shop with some friends, just some simple yarn, and found that this sort of settling in to be just the thing. I could concentrate better, have more mental energy later that evening, and have something to just knit on in between thinking projects.

This year, I continued the tradition with some yarn I bought in Asheville. Asheville is truly a wonderful city for the arts and many people had told me while I was a shopowner (can you say "jealous about weekend getaways??") about Earth Guild as a wonderful shop to visit. While I was on one of my many weekend getaways post-shopowner life, I helped friends with building their Tiny House and stopped for a few hours in Asheville on the way to their Mountain. All of the customers who raved about Earth Guild - they weren't kidding - no matter what sort of handcraft you like, whether it be spinning or basketweaving or knitting, they have the tools and the expertise to help you with your project and get you started on your next. So much creative inspiration, and I'm so glad I was able to spend some time there at long last, visiting a legend.

To help bring my purchase up to the correct dollar amount to qualify for a 20% discount for my entire purchase, I bought some Trekking yarn for a sock. Liked the color, wasn't sure how the patterning would happen, but I needed a sock for, well, for take along knitting. I started it in time for DragonCon last year (now that the costumers are coming full circle with kimonos and steam punk, there is a room set aside for doing one's fiber arts every morning as costume add-ins or just to sit and knit or tat with friends), then brought its companion to the Mountain to revel in the energy there:


It's got very pretty shades of blues with lots of dark purples for contrast. I've worn it once to work - I buy sandles these days especially so that I can wear my socks with them. I'm discovering, though, that I need to knit socks with gussets in the front to compensate for the difference in size between my ankles and my calves. I do like the length and the marbling of the color.




Here's the companion (not quite completed) with the yarn info. I think you can get a better look at the quality of the coloring with this shot.

The needles are, yes, aluminum, but they are my grandmother's. While I've given away her other aluminum knitting needles to a good cause, I've knit most of my socks with these.



And that, dear readers, is why I knit socks at the Mountain. I'm concentrating pretty hard on very complicated projects and on wonderful conversations, and sock knitting brings just enough *brain sigh* energy to the weekend that I can relax while I'm there.