Thursday

Everything is moving slowly. The Spring, the workweek, the knitting. I moved the Hemlock Ring to a longer needle and have slogged up to row 112. There are now 536 stitches on the needle. There are 36 more rows at the end of which there will be 792 stitches. Worsted weight. Pain in the neck. Literally. I've put it aside and returned to the cardigan. 

I'm stilling proceeding slowly towards the underarms on the fronts and the back. You may remember that I'm working it in a small lace stitch. I've been a little worried that if I make a regular set in sleeve that somehow the lace stitch will conspire against me and it will end up not fitting. I had in fact chickened out of doing a set in sleeve and was ready to do a drop shoulder style and avoid the whole question of fit. 

Setting the project aside for a few days was a good idea. I have come to my senses. My plan now is to get the fronts the same as the back, blocking them to be sure of it and put in a life line. Then I can safely try out a set in sleeve and if doesn't work out, frog back and go for the drop shoulder. Why rush?

We've been having one hell of a slow moving Spring here. It has been spectacular. Anyone with allergies will tell you it's been too spectacular. Waxy yellow forsythia lurking like triffids outside the dining room window. Hosts of purple lilacs looking like lollypops crowding in at the second storey. Blooming dogwoods hovering around like flying saucers. The Lilac Festival lies between home and work and a lot of streets are closed off. Alright already. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Karabella Lace fir cone shawl center, blocked

Image
I just love blocking lace! And whatever others may say, I do enjoy knitting lace with this yarn. While it has shrunk back a bit, I think it is no more than I would expect. I used a 3.5 mm (3 US) needle. Before blocking, the piece measured about 16x16 inches. Here it is in a field of Veronica... Pinned out, it measured about 29x29 inches. I left it to try overnight, unpinned it in the morning and it immediately shrunk 1 inch to 28x28. I left it undisturbed for another 8 hours. It shrunk back one more inch in that time, to 27x27. When I returned from work, I could resist no longer and took it for another whirl in the garden. I just measured again and it is now 26x26 inches. The bumps that you can see in the first picture show no signs of re-appearing. For now, I have a 60% increase in size from the unblocked state. Quite respectable, but I will check again in the morning. Now, I'll get back to the pink blanket. PS. No one has guessed the answer to yesterday's question correctly
Read more

Swatch

Image
Thanks for your consoling remarks. I really should have swatched before I started this. I was ready to press on and finish until I read Halla's comment about the needle size that her friends use with Einband - 4.5 or 5 mm which is considerably larger than the 2.5 mm needle I am using. I ran my knitting upstairs, plunged it into a sink of water and Eucalan and left it there to soak for 20 minutes, needles and all. Then I remembered that I am not knitting with the regular Einband that is sold by Alafoss, which is probably what Halla's friends are using, but with a the much finer mystery Einband from the Handkntters Association sale bin. Remember that I was getting 50 wpi with it. Compare that with 37 wpi from the Alafoss Einband. Maybe the green yarn isn't Einband at all. Anyway, the 2.5 mm seems to be just fine. I blocked it and while it isn't wide enough for a curtain, check it out....beauty, eh? Did you click to embiggen? At any rate, I am now in love with this yarn. T
Read more

In the Vortex: yes we can!

Image
It's almost a month since I wrote here last, that long dark month between November and December. I've been humming and hah-ing, writing and re-writing and finally conclude that if knitters near the Arctic Circle Lene and Harpa can present a good face during the short days, then so can I. Love is an old pair of black gloves; at least it has been for me this past week. I knit them a year or 2 ago for my husband and he only recently complained in his mild way that the fit on the baby finger wasn't right. Don't worry, I won't torture you with photos except for this one which shows the fingers after I cut them off. There's an article about gloves in the most recent issue of Cast On . It has now finally sunk into my brain that after you have knit the cuff and thumb and built up the hand, it's best to knit the baby finger first before building up the hand with a few more rounds and completing the other fingers. I don't like the way they tell you to close th
Read more