Graft and Seduction!

I've now grafted TWICE on the Circumnavigated Cardigan! On purpose! At one point I was using three circular needles.

The second grafting was at the bottom edge of the sweater.... so that the pocket would actually have a bottom rather than be a two sided hole. It is deep enough for my fingers and a kleenex or ID or housekeys.



First was at the top of the pocket... from which I am knitting onward and upward toward the arm hole.





I think the bottom "edging" will be 4 or 5 ridges of garter stitch... so I'll have more of a jacket than sweater. I certainly don't need ribbing or snuggness anywhere in the middle!


I am really liking how the offset-eyelet pattern, pocket, grafting, faux side seam and pocket edging are coming together. You can click on the images to see them bigger.






I apologize for the variety of colors in the pictures. Invariably I do my finishing up and photography in the wee hours of the morning... I debate whether I should use the flash... which washes everything out, or not, which requires vigorous use of photoshop tools. It would probably help if yarns came with Pantone numbers! Even with just brightening or lightening the images, the colors vary a lot. On my monitor this one is truest.

Knitting Content!!

Progress (if not perfection)! I got past a significant transition in the Circumnavigated Cardigan tonight. I fused the front pouch pockets. The outcome isn't perfect, but then, I've fiddled with this pattern so much, I didn't expect it. I know I'll make this sweater another time... and I have some ideas about how I would cope with the challenge of the pattern's assumptions of stockinette stitch, when in fact, I was doing a 4 row repeated pattern. Nevertheless i find the results quite adequate.

Starting. Finishing. Middling.

So you've set up a goal.
And it is SMART.

specific

measurable

achievable

reasonable

time-limited

Do you know where you stumble?

I committed to the Circumnavigated Cardigan. I even committed to what yarn to use (with the urgent and optimistic comments from DD: "Just buy it, Mooms." )
And I swatched.
And swatched and swatched. Because, of course, I'm not doing my sweater in plain stockinette. O No! I'm going to add staggered eyelets. A ventilated sweater is a good thing when you are prone to having hot flashes.

In my swatch I even figured out how to knit the pattern backwards from the wrong side.

Then I figured out how to stagger the pattern depending on whether I was knitting on the right or wrong side within the same row. (Trust me, the pattern is just as weird and magical as it sounds.)
So I measured my circumference (Equatorial in measurements), multiplied by gauge, multiplied by inches, and cast on.

PROVISIONALLY. (Which I hadn't done before.) Cool. I learned three ways to do it, too.





And it's coming along. Slowly. But that's to be expected with projects do that have a couple of hundred stitches per row.

In the meantime a new knitter that I coach brought a bag full of not-quite-finished projects to me "for advice."
She'd done the knitting. Her kittens had tried to make holes in a couple of scarves, but I showed her how you could rearrange the yarn and get back to the original tension. (Rather like blocking, but without water!)

She mused that she seemed to have a fear of finishing. I told her she's not the only one!

What keeps you from finishing?

There are two things (among others) that slow me down in the completion phase:

1. Fear that I don't know how to do the finish work. (The kitchener stitch is "new" every time I run into it.... still.)
2. Realization that how to finish the piece is totally up to me. Fringe? Tassels? Buttons? Hooks? Frogs? Zipper? And sometimes how I'd like to finish it involves another case of not knowing how to do it.
   

This kind of fear is just not helpful. There is nothing life-threatening about finishing a scarf, pot holder or sweater. Like DD says, "Just do it." And if you don't like it, you can frog it and do something else. Or you can do a different one and jettison the first one. It's not life or death! It's life! It's knitting!

Oh, and it doesn't hurt to have a few cheerleaders nearby, no matter what.

On the road again

I am embarrassed to realize that I wrote TWO entries about quitting. Isn't it odd that in our world, it is OK to start things, but less OK to stop them. How do you suppose we learned that it was OK to start a war, but not stop one, or OK to roll out a new flavor of COKE, but less OK to recall it.

Don't get me wrong, I Know I'm not a quitter by nature and I stand by what I wrote as paraphrased:

When things aren't going the way you want, and nothing helps, STOP. Do "nothing" and let the nothingness be helpful.

Apparently, I did nothing (at least as far as knitting goes) for long enough, because yesterday I investigated yarn, PURCHASED yarn, and have begun SWATCHING for the Dallas Handknitters Guild year long project: The Circumnavigated Cardigan. You can see several versions on the Ample Knitter's page. There's a diagram, too.

This version on the Joslyn's Fiber Farm site
is gorgeous in blue! The pattern itself allows for a Jacket collar, a V-neck and several shoulder/sleeve combinations.

I figured out what I needed in order to start up again from that "Nothing helps" place. Guess what the missing pieces were?
Yeah... The same ones as always. Preparation and Support.





With most any action (and definitely with any change) there are 7 steps:

1. Precontemplation -- What, It's summer still, why would I even think about making a sweater?
2. Contemplation -- Hmm. The guild's doing a neat sweater. I might enjoy that.
3. Preparation -- What are my measurements? (gasp) What kind of sweater do I want? What color? What's the budget? Does it have to be washable? Who will be supportive? The darling visiting daughter!!
4. Action --START KNITTING. The DVD is investigating double knitting in Encore, So I have companionship while I knit. Wheeeeeeee!!!.
5. Maintenance -- KEEP KNITTING
6. Relapse -- Maybe take a break for making gifts..... Or not!
7. Completion or Normalizing. FINISH THE SWEATER.

I'm making it out of Superwash Nashua. (Thanks to the Romanian sheep) It is a lovely aqua color. I may get another needle a size up to see if I want the fabric to be looser with more drape. The DK on 7's is rather form in texture.

Oh... and I didn't win the haiku sock yarn contest. But be sure to go here to read the winners!! It'll improve your health because I don't think you can read them without LAUGHING!

Do you start with Love or Reason?

I had the pleasure of attending the local opening meeting of the Dallas Hand Knitter's Guild last week. It was great to see so many new knitters, and get re-acquainted with knitters I came to know last year. Some I know by name (fewer than I'd like), some I know by project (the ones who embark upon huge projects that take a long time, and some I know by the kinds of colors they use.Most of us are the ordinary/extraordinary types you'd expect to meet at a craft or art meeting. Women. But not just "women of a certain age;" women of ALL ages. I am impressed by one knitter who comes with her guide dog. She made a beautiful baby blue cardigan last spring... even though she said she'd forgotten what color it was when she held it up for show and tell. I admired the courage of the solitary male knitter who was in attendance with needles clicking.

The beginning of the year announcements included a thrilling idea. An all-guild knit-along of something called (I think...) a Circumnavigated Sweater. NO SEAMS!!!! And we'll learn how to use a VERY generic (but pretty famous) pattern and measure and swatch and count and add/divide/multiply so it FITS.

But first Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer or E-S (as she refers to herself) spoke about yarn.

How do you choose your yarn? Are you a lover or a planner?

If I am "only" in the budget range for a couple of skeins, I tend to be a lover.
How does it feel? What color is it? Pretty superficial, actually!!

But Jackie made a great case for being a planner when it comes to investing the money, time and EFFORT in making something substantial. If you ever get a chance to take her full workshop on yarn selection, it's a good investment.

Until then, here are some highlights from my notes.

Figure out what the numbers on the ball band or cone mean so you know how many yards/meters you'll need.

Learn about ply and stranding. It will let you know how likely your yarn is to pull apart (think cotton candy).

Yarns can have Z twists or S twists. They will look different when knit up.

And there are tests!

Does your yarn bleed when soaked?

Does your yarn kink when wet?

Does your yarn shrink after being wet?

Does your yarn burn, self-extinguish or melt?

It might be of value to consider being more of a planner than a lover in other areas of life and work, don't you think? Here are some that came to mind. What would you add?

• Hiring employees
• Buying anything that needs to last: car, house, winter coat
• Coaching someone's college choice
• Coaching someone's career change

And the best news? I truly believe that when the planning is well done, loving the outcome comes naturally.