ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

and expression are so culturally dependent.

“Would ‘cha like a brew while we are waiting?”

It was just after two in the afternoon. I had hauled my visiting resident over to Keogh Barracks. After spending time in the AMS Medical Museum, we had done bar snacks for lunch at the Officer’s Mess.

Now there we were, sitting in one of the Environmental Science Labs and discussing the roles and responsibilities of rapidly deployable teams. Waiting because there was someone else who was supposed to join our small group for play time with toys.

US military just don’t drink on duty. For that matter neither does the UK. A brew to US service members normally refers to tipping back a pint of something.

UK brews tea.

Progressing apace, I am on the last full row of miters for the skirt area of the jacket. I am now going to have to figure out a right facing half miter.  Once that is done, the whole piece is rotated 180º in order to start the bodice portion. Sleeves are last.

I am even being such a good kid and weaving in ends as I go.

Books

Since you can see that I have made less progress than any one may expect I will confess to reading a few books this weekend:
Cockatiels at Seven and Swan for the Money – Donna Andrews, both books of which are fine if you like comedic mysteries, but some of the characters in this series are getting pretty dull. Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon was probably the best.
The Enchantment Emporium – Tanya Huff. Lovely book, similar to her Keeper series (1998-2003) in attitude, characters and fluid description. Good urban fiction completely without vampires or werewolves. Perhaps you have to be from the northern tier to manage? (Charles de Lint and Emma Bull come to mind. Great writers – Canada and Minnesota. Proof that it is completely possible to write interesting stories without pandering….

Some days it sees that everyone is in favor of newer, brighter, shinier. With the assumption that all of the above are better.

It is what leads to stash accumulation, both patterns and yarn.

But sometimes the older and well worn is better.

A hand knit sweater knit from handspun the year the first Lavold book was published. Old, comfortable jeans. And handknit socks knit 15 years ago that still are just the right slouchy fit and color combination for a Saturday spent relaxing.

There was a rainbow arch to cheer me on the long, slow drive home.

You are familiar with Bookcrossing.com – right?

It is not the same thing at all as Library Thing. Admittedly, you can catalogue all of your books if you have enough energy but that is not the purpose of the site.

Passing along books to others – now that it something to support.

All of us have our shelf of books that will stay with us for the duration of our existence: those books which we love/hate and read over and over. Then there are all the other books which are bought or received. All books are too good to throw away, but finding a home for books that do not fall in the “keeper” category can be a challenge.

Enter Bookcrossing.  Started in 2001, there are more than 800,000 individuals participating world wide with supporting websites now in multiple languages. You can post books as available for anyone who is seeking them or tag books and release them in the wild. There are various assorted get togethers in different communities (I have met some really neat people in both Germany and the UK this way).

Go, take a look. Register. Participate. Share the wealth of books.

Tell them I sent you!

(Proseknitic)

(Why am I thinking about this? I looked at my joining date – three years ago today!)

Mitres – it is amazing how long it really takes to knit one. and then there is the temptation to knit

making up for an unproductive day at work with a quiet evening of miters and music.

which is a whole lot more fun than cleaning. Or stripping and changing beds or doing laundry.

And a bit more on the mitered jacket

Coming late to the party, I am taking the plunge into modular knitting.

It was the arrival of that lovely book by Jane Slicer-Smith that pushed me over the edge. After having been a student in the 60s and 70s, I absolutely loathe granny-square type patterns. Kind of the following refrain – if you were old enough to wear it in the 70s you should know better than to wear it this time around.

End result is that I have just flipped by most of the mitered patterns as being either too like those times of 40 years ago or just too full of ends to weave it. Loose ends are even worse than granny squares.

Then over the last couple of years I have been seduced by garter garments designed by Hanne Falkenberg, Vivian Hoxbrø and Garn Studio. Mitered just seemed like the next thing to try. After all, if I can manage fairisle on 2.5 -3.0 mm needles I should be ale to manage garter with dk yarn.

(Shall I mention that I have all this lovely dk weight merino in my stash from Army-Navy closeout this past fall. Purchased at 50-70% off meaning I can manage a whole jacket completely out of stash?)

I am going for the Mitered Jacket in my favorite colors (red, grey, burgundy) which should not be a surprise to anyone.  Hold on, I knit a gauge swatch!

before moving on to carefully read instructions.

(Yes I know, totally shocking and out of character, but who wants all those strange lengths of yarn that are going to happen if I have to do much frogging).

As it turns out, it really gets kind of addicting…

and it is back to more squares to go with Criminal Minds… or Kay Hoopers “Fear“  series in audio. Humm – too much FBI?

The house needs to be cleaned. That is, if I want to nag the Mole about cleaning up his room perhaps I should be setting a better example.

Managed to get the car through MOT yesterday and did the renewal on-line so I should be legal before the current tax disc expires.

I have a ton of paperwork still to finish on my desk at work, the same for some other projects.  I know that procrastination does not pay, but still – there are some forms (22 pages) which are just too painful to contemplate.

To finish off the day, I did another PT test. It seems that the new general in the Army Surgeon General’s Office wants to go exactly by the letter of the regulation. Ok, his right. Bigger elephant and all of that.  Walking rapidly in the mist (hey, this is England, of course there is mist, rain and grey skies…) I managed to do my 2.5 miles in under 30 minutes proving who knows what.

On a much more cheerful note – the obligate mirror pictures!

And if I would block this cardigan it might look even better!

Found here on the Garn Studio site. Haven’t gotten around to entering this one on Ravelry yet.

Knit on 3.00 mm needles from 10 -50 gm balls of Fortissima Colori – 6 fach in color 4006 and about 1 1/2 balls of Knit Picks palate as a supplement and I-cord

The front and back are not exactly the same, but then I can’t see both sides at the same time.

now, to choose another project with a thought about blocking shawls this weekend.

But first -

I am definitely making progress on the cardigan. Around the neck, down the front, across the bottom – I am heading into the home stretch of the second front. That is not to say that I don’t need to do the sleeve ends followed by sewing the under sleeve seams, but the end might even be in sight.

Which is great because these two books arrived in the mail.

I really enjoy Mary Scott Huff’s knitting (the stranded book) and have been meaning to pick up her book since knitting the Faery Ring last summer. The other book I bought on a whim, simply because I have been enjoying knitting garter stitch. She has some interesting miter projects (there is this vest, you see…..

When you forget your extra needle and want a three needle bind off, you sometimes have to make do. A crochet hook (yes, I actually own a few) can easily be inserted through both the front and back stitch

and be used to pull a loop of the working yarn through both stitches

which is then pulled through the working loop. End result is that lovely, simple and not terribly bulky seam you see starting to form on the right.

Or, if you wanted to be fancy, there are obviously more ways to bind off. For example, you could pull a loop through both the joining loop and the working loop to create a new loop. This uses a bit more yarn.

Did I mention that I finished up the front and the back

with only five meters of sock yarn left and am now facing endless I-cord. It is going to have to be in the solid color supplemental yarn that I used in the back.

seems to take forever. Back and forth across 262 stitches once I finished the endless fun of the sleeve increases. Making sure, of course, that everything matches up with the front in terms of stitches if not exactly in terms of color or pattern.

Otherwise, it was a day at work punctuated by phone calls and email messages concerning a rather short notice VIP visit that I just might not be able to avoid.

The Mole continues to grind through history and government texts, coming up for air and a run a couple of times a day.

Audio & Video

Sort of between on books for the moment. I have a lovely double stack which came in from Bookcloseouts just waiting to be read. Five novels came home from the library, all of which were finished over the weekend.

I am caught up with all the old seasons of CSI and NCIS. I checked out Criminal Minds from the library and now have evenings of knitting fun in front of me while I work my way through the back seasons.

back to the Drops Cardigan.

I managed to finish the lower back

and have started on the upper portion that includes the sleeves. After all those shorter rows of under 100 stitches, it seems to take forever to get across more than 260…

Originally the plan was to stop in Rochester, rescue some of the Mole’s goods from his school and proceed on with a field trip.

The Mole, feeling ill, bagged the trip. Left me and a friend on our own. A regular Brit, somehow she had never managed to get to Canterbury.

You have heard of Canterbury? Dating from Roman times, rebuilt multiple times,  Tomas Becket was murdered there in 1170, home to the Cathedral and other wise a pretty interesting city.

We wandered around, visited a museum, lots of streets and shops, and lunched at the Hobgoblin Pub.

150gm ball of Regia 6 ply. knit on 4.5 mm needles.

(ed. In answer to the questions – one unblocked shawl……)

after spending the day in Upavon (Trenchard Lines) I was completely brain dead by the time I returned home.

I couldn’t face anything complicated.

Straight stockinette with some increases – possible.

and only a couple of dozen to go….

(150 gm ball of Regia in color Irland. 6 fach on 4.5 mm Nadels)

Using the reddish – adding it as 40% of the total ridges – it does change the balance from light to dark, but if I do the whole back this way ……

So I have these four colour options none of which are really what I want, but hey, I want this sweater done. It is either 75% complete (and I knit a solid upper back) or 50% complete and I reknit the side extensions and upper back throwing in a supplemental yarn.

The Mole likes black. He figures it is always great as an accent color.

up close, it was a possible. When I looked at it from across the room, it overwhelmed everything else. There just is not that much black in the basic yarn.

So there is this grey -

but it just looks wrong, too dark, and a bit too blue for the fabric. I also have to admit that both the black and the grey are never present as solids which might contribute to their being a bit suspect.

Looking at the orange, I could not make myself try it. I really, really don’t wear orange. A bit in a pattern is one thing, but adding 40% orange to the mix is just beyond me.

With an hour knitting time each way on the party bus to Andover (don’t ask – it is another military reorganization and relocation for no one’s pleasure or convenience) for the day’s briefings – I went ahead and jumped in with the red.

It is lighter than the rust red and obviously a whole lot darker than the orange. I think it  gives the impression of the pattern being spread out a bit more. I am going to have to think about it.

The pattern on the back extension is 4 rows of garter followed by a short row. I elected to add the reddish on either side of the short row in order limit the addition to 40% of the yarn and make sure that the grey and black would not completely disappear.

Now if I can just keep plugging away and resist starting something new…..

I have pulled my mind back in from screaming over the edge and am now looking for solutions:

1) frog the whole thing and move on to a different yarn

2) try a new gauge

(and find that I don’t like either the way that the pattern comes out or the drape of the fabric. Doesn’t matter, even at the new gauge the yarn amount that I have is still a few grams short of supplying the needed square area).

3) work in a couple of balls of a solid color yarn on the back where I will not see it. Going through my stash – these are the options:

None of them are a perfect match to any of the colors. The reddish and grey are Knit Picks Palette, the orange is Patton’s baby wool and the black is Rowan 4 ply.  Not going to buy any more yarn. No, not going to do it.

I thought looking for more of the sock yarn but have hung that as not prompt or efficient. And, it would involved spending money. Yarn from stash…..

Once again, it is the month of March.

For a select few of us there is March Sweater Madness. Started by Michelle of the SweetSheep Shop, this is my third year. Barbara is also playing (you need to see the sweater she started during the Olympics).

I started out with a bang on Drops 120-45, a lovely garter stitch cardigan calling for Fabel. According to the instructions, I would need 400 gm of yarn. Since I had a bag (10 balls=500gm) of sock yarn bought on sale I figured I was all set.

Never mind that I had a bit of problems with reading the instructions so that my first attempt got me here -

Somehow I can’t figure out why it took me a full ball of yarn to realize why my knitting did not look like the Garn Studio picture. Perhaps I was out to lunch or engaging in wishful thinking.

Starting again,

I finished the left front – including the lower back extension.

Forging ahead, I knit the right front and started on the lower back extension. Grabbing for a new ball of yarn…

Hummmm, why do I only have two balls of yarn left?

I counted ball bands. Yes, I had eight in the bag, proving that I had lost neither my mind nor yarn.

Admittedly, I have only six or so rows of garter left on the lower back so that should not take all that much. But that still leaves the complete upper back to knit. There is no way that two balls of yarn are going to be enough. The pattern said 400gm, which I have already used. I need another 100gm?

It is at this point I figure that something is not exactly straight up. I am using 3.00 needles and getting gauge just like I am supposed to. The fabric feels a bit dense, but I like the drape.

Just in case wastage is more than I thought, digging through the bottom of the yarn bag I can account for about another 10 grams of yarn. You know – that yarn cut from the beginning of the ball so that the pattern matches up? Doesn’t come anywhere near solving my problem.

What else? Reviewing the bidding
1) needles – 3.00 – check
2) yarn – 400 gm, I have 500 gm – check.
3) gauge – check

Drops patterns call for Fabel, I have substituted Fortisima Colori, also a sock yarn. Looking at the ball bands – it mentions gauge of 22/10 cm on 3-4mm needles.

Huh? That does not sound right. That would make it 6 ply, not 4 ply. I would not have done something that stupid, would I? Substituted yarn of 125m/50 gm for yarn of 210m/50gm in a pattern then expected 1250 meters to cover the same amount of area as 1640?

Yes. That is exactly what has happened. Close out yarn – no way am I going to be able to get more of the same dyelot, especially since I would need 4-5 more balls.

Now what?

It was a Saturday, 17 years ago, when Ms Maus agreed to come into the world. A bit of attitude then which has altered over the years to her own bit of humor and fun. Contributing to the challenges of all (including the bother who is 2 years and one day older).

For someone of his age and generation

Even better, I got him out and about for dinner tonight for his birthday.

I think he might just be still awake but reading Terry Pratchett