Knitting at soccer

So, it's been 20 or so years since the last time I knit Kim Hargreaves' Tumbleweed pattern (Rowan#4). Here I'm doing it in Ivy Dishie from KnitPicks. I really like Dishie for clothes, not too soft (read pilly here, soft cotton pills too easily and looks ratty to me after a couple washes) and the color is nice. Im also making another Hazel hat - this one deeper based on feedback from the original. And I'm still making hexes for the vest, but that's slow right now. My big excitement is getting a commission to do another Stained Glass pullover - in Regency on Regency. So of course whenever this sort of thing happens, the "client" wants the exact same thing they saw you do before. I was all excited to sneak in a rose edging or something.
I've never seen Regency in person, so I'm excited to get it - probably early next week.

Meatsheep continues . . .

Maybe a little less than halfway up the back. The colors are really lovely. It has decent hand, too, though it will never be soft and cosy. The Mad Crocheter told me she's heard that people have some problems with Noro being hard and scratchy, maybe I'll write up this pattern and it can adapted to this.

Once the V splits, I have to use two balls of each color to work the pattern and that means 6-10 balls at once. So I carry the whole thing around in the 3'x3' box it was sent in. Not what you would call portable. :)

Finally, here's a snap of the Annabel Fox sweater on.

Finishing things

Well, here's the cable monstrosity. Here it is lying on the floor, which gives you an idea of the overall look. I really like the Encore, it's really soft and nice (I've made another set of Irish Hiking Wristwarmers, with it - Steph has an interesting point that she thinks that using an all acrylic yarn for wristwarmers isn't as enjoyable to do, or nor does it result in as nice a garment - wool has better memory and feel. I think Encore hits the right compromise, I hope these will be hardwearing as acrylic and soft and have memory like wool).

Here's the sweater on me (in a mirror). Really horrible picture, but gives you an idea how it fits. It's supposed to be cold again Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to wearing it.

The world's most complicated Dickie

Well, I've moved on to the sleeves, which are slow because they're done at the same time, but then, they're also completely done when they're done and they match, so it's worth it. I really hate going back and trying to make sleeves match, I can never do it, and non-matching sleeves are really stupid looking.
I also like to put fronts and backs together when they're complete and do the neck, I don't know why, maybe once the sleeves are on the whole things gets unwieldy to put the neck on easily (harder to pick up those neck stitches if the whole piece is being pulled around by it's own weight?). Anyway, the result?
The world's most complicated Dickie.
Another color idea for spinning - sandalwood?

Happy New Year

Well, we're kind of hemmed in today since we're waiting on the GE dude to come fix our fridge, which has died. Which is pretty annoying. But otherwise, it's been a great holiday.
I'm almost done with the back of that sweater - picture added later in the morning, still no GE dude, what is it with this 8am to noon window nonsense? - and I hope the Mad Crocheter has a good visit with the family. (Hey, MC, like the Pats or what???? How nuts is that?)
All my presents seemed to go over well this year, so that was nice. Go ahead, be the crazy relation that makes your presents. One day perhaps I'll be famous for my knitting and then all our nieces and nephews can sell that crap for big bucks.
Keep on dreaming, chickie.

Anyhoo, everyone take it easy and have a happy and safe New Years.

That Annabell Fox scribbling cat project

So, here's the start of the back of that big cable. As I started, well, call it 1.5 skeins in, I realized I'd made some major boo boos on my graph and had to rip out about 9 inches of work down to the ribbing. But I love it so much, it's worth it.
I've also taken a snap of the amended graph and have replaced it in that earlier post.
For some reason, I like the yarn in this color better than in the nephew's sweater - it's softer, I think. The color doesn't show well here, it's a sea green with flecks of red, green and cobalt in it. Very pretty and this knits up very evenly.
I've cut the size of the sweater down - the original pattern had a large and a medium size, this will be a small.

Two nights of hunched over scribbling

Here it is - one side anyway.
It took a couple of tries to get the main cable done, because there are some stitches that are completely added in process - i.e., the panel begins with 49, but increases up to 53 at it's widest point.
Steph says she's never done a cable piece before and has started working on swatches.
First of all, good for you! I've been knitting since I was 4 and it really, no joke, took me into my 36th year on the planet to learn that "no, it's not different because I'm me, you can't be a free spirit when it comes to gauge, haste makes waste and if you don't like it RIP IT OUT". And I am such a happier person and better knitter for finally getting that through my dumb head.
When it comes to working with cables, I love Charted Knitting Designs: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker. I like visualizing things like this, so I'll get some 10 sq./in. graph paper, pick cables and lay out the front/back/sleeves. Of course, you can buy software that does this nowadays, but I think it helps me to troubleshoot my cables doing it by hand.

Some charting to do for the next project

Though I'm officially cut off until I finish something from starting anything else that's new.

That quilt on the couch that's been keeping us company, for instance. Yeah, finishing that bad boy would be a good idea.

(Gales of laughter . . .)

So anyway, here's my latest redo. More Encore Worsted, this is number 670, blue teal. I want to do the sweater on the left in the picture (yes, it's for a man, but I'll do the medium and make the sleeves shorter and the body longer). It's an old Annabel Fox patterm - the Rowan issue it comes from is from 1988 (actual title is Rowan Knitting Book Number Four: Rowan Rural Traditions, it's listed as OOP in Amazon, but perhaps you could find it somewhere -- this is a very cool issue, some early works by Kaffe Fassett, Erika Knight and Kim Hargraves) written for Rowan Magpie. I made it once a long time ago, but the pattern is not charted - although the sweater on the right side is (which is also quite lovely and I've made that one as well). Anyway, this was before charting things was the standard it's become, so rather than curse a written pattern, I'm going to invest a couple of nights and chart this one out.

That center cable is wicked complicated, as I recall. Should be fun.

Dang, when I checked this post and opened that snap of the pattern up large, it nearly breaks copyright law. Double dang, once I get the bad boy charted, I'd love to post it, but I'd need to do a ton of research with Rowan in order to do that.

(Hi cat who just jumped on me.)

Perhaps Annabel Fox has it in another publication, or charted elsewhere? Sheesh, you'd think I'd do more research, being a librarian and all . . .