Thursday, July 26, 2007

What's Next

First of all, thanks so much for all the kind comments I’ve received. It’s wonderful to know that someone is actually out there reading my scratchings and feeling compelled to add their thoughts and cheers. I appreciate each and every one, even if I don’t always reply to you directly. You are precious, m’dears!

Now that I’ve cleared a spot in The Queue, I decided to look over the stockpiles…er, list of items I would like to make. I generally have to Revue The Queue every so often just to roust out the rejects, bad ideas, changes of mind and other no-goes and see what’s left. For some reason there’s always lots left. However, this time I re-routed one of the projects that’s been waiting awhile into something different. I’d already swatched for the Serrano Sweater by Laura Chau that was in Knitty but hadn’t yet started it. I realized one of the reasons I hadn’t started it is because I’m not really a fan of turned-up hems in knitting. They always look a little stretched out — at least when I do them. Laura’s are pretty nice. Plus I just wasn’t feeling the love for the hook & eye fastening. I’m not even sure where to find this stuff (though good old Dressew downtown should have it) or whether or not I could match my brown wool well enough to make me happy.

So I decided to go for the Katherine Hepburn cardigan from Lace Style instead.


Kathy Zimmerman’s sweater jumped out at me right away with its sweet combination of lace and cables and for its retro fit. I have a weakness for cardigans because you can wear them buttoned, partly-buttoned or unbuttoned all the way to adjust for various temperature fluctuations. Also they seem to flatter my pear-shaped body better than some other garment silhouettes, especially when partially unbuttoned from the bottom. And I love 3/4 length sleeves because I don’t have to turn them up several inches on my short arms or recalculate the pattern for a sleeve length that will fit me. So yesterday I started swatching my vintage brown wool (100% New Zealand wool, around 1500 ypp, cable-plied, on a cone, made for machine knitting, and maybe 20 years old!). As usual, I had to go down 2 needle sizes to get gauge. Do I really knit that loosely or does everyone else knit with intense stress? It looked much better anyway on the finer needles (Addi Lace circs, 3.25mm):


It was well worth knitting a sample to get used to the pattern. It consists of narrow 2/2 cables (twisting in opposite directions on opposing sides of the sweater) alternating with a simple little ribbed arrowhead lace. The 4-row cable and the 6-row lace patterns take 12 rows to meet up again, so the chart looks a bit more complex than it really is. The ribbing is worked on smaller needles and is the same cables but without the lace so it transitions nicely into the body pattern. However, I’ve already seen where I will modify the pattern. The selvedge stitches are supposed to be knit on both sides. Uh-uh. Nope. That just makes a bumpy garter edge that is hard to seam or pick up stitches on. I’m going to knit plain old stockinette on the selvedge stitches. The other change is the lovely sharp points on my Addi circs mean that I can do the 2/2 cable without using a cable needle. Velly Nice. And somewhat faster. I tend to misplace cable needles like crazy anyway. However, toothpicks do make an acceptable substitute.

I’ve got to finish posting this so I can GET AWAY from my study. I’m being driven slowly mad by the drilling, hammering and other nasty noises coming from next door. Don’t get me wrong — I want them to finish. Soon. But not at the cost of my sanity. At least I managed to nab William the Contractor this morning and got him to order the workmen to clear the lumber and other junk off my garden. It was damaging more of my plants. Sigh. I think I’ve been extremely patient but when he complained about all the thefts and the water leak and all, I told him that I’d actually seen some of it happening but was unsure if it was legitimate or not. He suggested that I ask them if they know the contractor’s name! Pulleeeeze!!! An older woman confronting thieves to ask them who they work for? What does he think, I’m Arnold S. in drag? I’m all for being a good neighbour and if I think it’s worth their time I’ll call the police, but I’m not putting myself in possible harm’s way for his building materials. That he doesn’t lock up well enough. Or at all, mostly. This is a high theft area. We’ve lost enough stuff that we put it away or expect it to walk. As I’ve described before, I’ve gotten rid of all kinds of things by just putting them out in the alley behind my house. He needs to get a clue.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What an elegant looking sweater. I, too, prefer 3/4 sleeves. I'm sure it will be lovely!