I’m so glad Fall is finally here, hopefully I’ll get back into my routine now that summer is finally over and done. I plan to actually knit stuff, and not just plan either, I mean actually produce a garment or at least an accessory or two.
Currently, I’m working on a Alice Starmore fisherman’s sweater for my son, or possibly my (younger) daughter, depending on how long it takes because I am a slow knitter even when I’m not using 3 mm needles like this pattern calls for.
Another sweater for my baby! I love the way Sigil turned out. Like every other Starmore sweater I’ve knit, this one will be loved and worn until I can’t fit over her head anymore.
The only trouble I had was with reverse st st pieces having to be sewn together. I can’t do it beautifully, so I try to make the ugly seam a design element of the sweater. Or I that’s what I tell myself. The collar is not rolling over the way I had hoped, despite my tinking back to add to extra rows when I saw it wasn’t quite perfect. I have just barely enough kureyon left to tack down the collar if necessary, but it would change the look and I want it to roll properly.
Now I have to finish the hat I’m working on, though I did cast on for an icelandic cardie in my post-FO excitement yesterday. And start my first shawl. Which is for a bride. At her wedding. Not nervous at all. I’ll be fine as long as my avoidance knitting stays simple. Everything. Will. Be. Just. Fine.
I’m back from my trip to China. It was amazing. Except for the internet. The internet does not work there anymore, at least if you want to access sites that are not based in China. Since I don’t read Chinese, I was stuck in 1995. I travel to China regularly, and this was the most aggravating internet experience yet. In 2009, I was able to access Facebook no problem. This time, no Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads (?!) nor any site that had blogspot or wordpress in the url. My last post, saying I was in China, was written in mid-January when I tried to post via my iphone app. It only worked once I arrived back in Canada. At least my google reader worked, but I couldn’t click-through to an actual blog post.
I gave my father-in-law the St. Enda sweater and he wore it everyday. My non-existent photographer skills didn’t allow me to get a great shot of it. The cables came out really well, but it’s hard to see in the photo because, well, me, and I have it on good authority that the flash on the iphone 4/4s is no good.
I didn’t get much knitting done, but I did discover JKnit and it is incredible. There is a website, knitpoint.com, that sells patterns that are formatted for the app. I used the Pro version of the app to completely re-write the pattern for the Sutton-Hoo Hat I started before I left. I frogged the whole thing because it wasn’t turning out the way I saw it in my head. JKnit really helped me to organise my thoughts into a pattern and now it’s turning out the way I expected. I’m using this baby hat as a rough template:
Jet-lag is no good for getting knitting done. I’ve been spending my days in an awake yet not-awake haze since I got back last week. It’ll take me another week or so to be completely back to normal. Next week cannot get here soon enough.
I haven’t posted in forever, but I’ve been knitting. Steadily working on St. Enda. I should actually be done on time as long as no-one gets sick. Considering the amount of sickness this family had during December, I feel kinda confident that we’ve caught pretty much everything there is to catch this season.
This a progress shot on the sweater. I’ve finished the sleeve and I’m half-way through the back now. Once I finish the back, I just have the other sleeve, collar, sewing up, and I’m done! We are going to China for the Lunar New Year in 2 weeks, so I’ll be able to give this to my father-in-law in person. I haven’t been to China since 2009, I’m very excited about going back.
Okay, so I have one thing to admit about my St. Enda. Something blasphemous. I am knitting this sweater in acrylic yarn. A Starmore in acrylic. I feel guilty about it, but it’s not for me and I know the washing machine it will be washed in regardless of actual garment instructions. It destroyed 3 of my under-wire bras. So acrylic it is. But I feel ashamed to be using it because I really hate working with it. It is stiff, inflexible, and plasticky and I miss working with a nice yarn made of non-plastic fibres. My only way out is to finish this, I guess. The pattern is quite simple, but there are some mistakes, as in stop at row 28 for neck shaping, then the next line instructs you to continue from row 19, etc… It’s pretty easy to figure out that I should stop at row 18. As long as you read through the pattern thoroughly before knitting it should all work out. (I hope!!).
I finally got a half-way decent shot! I have to step up my progress rate, I should be twice as far along on this by now, so back to knitting it is.
I’m almost finished my Tomten, and making slow progress on my Sutton Hoo Hat, Unicorn Sleeper, and St. Enda. I have to get cracking on the St. Enda — it must be completed before Jan 10 2012 because it’s for my father-in-law.
The Tomten is a wonderful pattern to knit, I barely had to look at it since it was so easy to memorise.
I feel kinda unsettled today because yesterday I had my first ever car accident. It was a fender bender and it was my fault. I don’t have a lot of experience, I’ve only been driving for a year. I hit the other car from behind, and since I was trying to merge out of my lane when someone in front (not the car I hit) short stopped, only the left front of my car and the back right of the other driver has any damage. The other driver doesn’t have much damage, but I managed it so that the headlight’s glass broke, the bumper cracked, and the hood dented. So all three will have to replaced. I feel so stupid, though no one is angry at me, not even the driver I hit (seriously, I could not have hit a nicer person), I kinda feel like they should be. I guess that means I’m angry at myself, which is true. My inability to pay attention or focus very well is probably what I hate most about myself and at least partially responsible for me having the accident in the first place.
I finished the Ryuu-ko sweater for 海丰 last week. I briefly looked over the pattern before starting. Too briefly. It’s missing some details like sleeve length. This should serve as a lesson to carefully read a pattern before starting it. Had I done so, I would have made it top-down, with short-row shaping. He wore it and is happy with it, but I’m not so I cast-on for Fife, from Alice Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters. My craving for perfectly designed sweaters was not over – I also started St. Enda, from Aran Knitting for my father-in-law. I’m knitting St. Enda in a black yarn, which photographs very badly (at least by me) so no pics for now.
