KnitMe

Well, after having publicly and

Well, after having publicly and tragically announced that I was frogging Ljod, I spent the past week torturing it and I can provisionally say that I may not need to frog it. Here it is after being tortured:

I hung it sideways from a hanger for several days, binder-clipped to the hanger all along the button band, and let the weight of the thing stretch it width-wise. This resulted in a much less lush-feeling fabric of course, but it grew quite satisfactorily. Then of course the part below the bottom button didn't get stretched so it looked crummy.

Angela suggested steam, so I stretched the #&@^# out of it with pins and steamed it, and it's now wearable. Elka also brilliantly suggested that I knit up 2 of these, and insert them at the bottom of the side seams:

So I've knitted them, and I'll keep them in my hip pocket (pun intended....) to be added someday down the road if it doesn't hold its stretch.

Next time it gets washed it'll be blocked with my Zonta blocking wires, inserted up the inner edge of the two button bands and along the side seams.

It needs to be worn over a skirt rather than pants, I think.

I still wonder if I've destroyed the natural fabric of the yarn and if the right thing to do would be to take it apart and start over...

By the way, the winner of the button poll was... me, actually, in that I got such a great collection of folks to offer me their opinions. I ended up going for elegance and choosing the silver, as you can see.

I did find one actual error in the pattern instructions (which I sent to Elsebeth Lavold and she's included in her latest book errata), and I think the pattern could have been clearer about the best way to decrease at the sides of the cable gussets (I chose to move the edge knit stitch over the first purl stitch in the background by doing a decrease slanting toward the gusset - the chart implied something else, but this is what looked right to me when knitted).

I also raised the neckline about an inch. The V was supposed to start at the same time that the underarm bindoffs happen, but I wanted it to feel comfortable for work so I waited 8 rows to start the V and changed the number of rows between neckline decreases so it came out right.

I love, love, love the yarn, which is why I'm sort of worried that I've denatured it with all my torture. I"ve seen complaints on a knitting list that the yarn was uneven in thickness and full of little twiggy things - personally I found that the yarn was extremely regular, and tightly plyed (I really had to do something goofy to split it while knitting). And I've read that the presence of lots of twiggy things is a sign that the yarn was not over-processed in the production. I'll take that!

This was started on December 2nd, sewn together on January 19th, and tortured with blocking and stretching and steam from then until today. It was a great quick knit for mindless times like hanging out while Emily took a bath, or sitting at stoplights.

Prudence

Finally, my Poetry In Stitches

Finally, my Poetry In Stitches p124 sweater is done! This got started on September 10th and got laid aside a few times when another project called for a finishing frenzy. But it's done just in time to wear on one of our coldest days here yet.

Here it is on the wooly board. Can you see the big fat mistake in the right sleeve (that is, the sleeve on the left of the photo)??

This sweater has lots of interesting details. Here is the bottom border:

Here is the same border pattern repeated on the cuff:

In case you haven't seen enough picot edges, here is the neckband:

And, here is the triceratops sleeve/shoulder finishing - Hisdal must have gotten up with picot on the brain the day she designed this!

In case you're wondering, yes, it's rather large on. But not as much so as I thought it was going to be, it's a nice tunic length and the fabric actually has quite a lovely drape.

The thing about it that I should have prevented is that the sleeves are so long - down over my knuckles. This seems to be a fashionable look in Norway or something - Wendy had to shorten the sleeves of her Dale cardigan she did a year or two ago - can't remember the name of it offhand but it was cream and blue and brown. And I can't turn back the cuffs since that would ruin the effect of the flower border and picot edge. So I'll just spend the day pushing up my sleeves. But, NOTE: 19 inches is too long for a sleeve on a drop-shoulder sweater!

I bought my kit at Sommerfuglen in Denmark - for myself for Christmas 2002. Back then the dollar was stronger and I was paying in Danish marks, but I'm sure they still offer good prices and service on these kits. The yarn amounts were extremely generous in the contrast colors - there was enough of the 6 contrast colors to do 3 of this sweater, and one hank of the dark blue left over as well. I've arranged a lovely swap with Louise for the leftovers.

I am very glad this is finished! I think after a suitable pause to savor only having one real WIP (Legends of the Shetland Seas), I will start my Rosarie vest. I am not sure I can knit on LoTSS at night so I may knit madly on socks from my handspun merino from late December, which have a deadline in 3 weeks - I'm on the heel flap of sock #1 and it's knitting up really nicely. Oh, that and frog Ljod.....

Prudence

Ljod-less

No picture today because I think Ljod is going to have to be frogged. It's just too tight, it's supposed to drape elegantly, not cling. Before I can frog, I have lots of sewing to undo - 7 buttons, 7 buttonholes snugged up with a stitch of sewing thread, grafted and sewn-on neckband, sleeves, seams, 3-needle-BO shoulders... it's going to be painful. I will probably skein up and wash the yarn and leave it lie in the stash till summer when I can bring myself to knit the same thing over again. I will, because I really want this sweater, but not right away.

On the bright side, Poetry p124 is drying on the wooly board and I'll post pictures of it tomorrow.

Which Buttons

I need aesthetic advice. My Ljod sits finished except for the buttons and I can't decide which buttons to put on. Here are my choices:

The blue ones are very plain but an uncanny color match and would be very unobtrusive. The silver ones are more interesting and I think fit with the flavor of the design but might be too much contrast.

Please vote in the comments! I'll check back in about 2 hours because I have to sew the buttons on while Emily takes a nap. Thanks for your help!

Here is a 110-yard hank

Here is a 110-yard hank of a camel/silk blend spun from fiber that Denise sent me at the same time that she sent me the superwash merino I spun last month. This is about 16 wraps per inch and I'm going to try to make some kind of little lacey neckwarmer out of it. (The color is a little lighter and rustier than the photo shows.)

I decided my next spinning would be the wool/mohair roving (11 oz) that I bought from the Barefoot Spinner at Maryland Sheep and Wool last spring.

I'd like this to end up sport weight, for a vest or something of similar size. So far, it seems to almost spin itself - so easy after the merino and the funny fuzzy camel.

Meanwhile, my attempts to finish my Poetry in Stitches project continue - today I sneaked out of work a little early, intending to dash home and machine stitch my neck and armhole steeks in preparation for sleeve attachment next week. However, no such mundane fate was mine, for waiting on my doorstep was this:

At first, I didn't know what it was, but when I looked at the return address I recalled seeing the name on Wendy's blog and I realized it was the Great Stash Redistribution Project mid-Atlantic Box! This is a great idea spearheaded by Amy the Cyborgoddess, but I wasn't sure I'd made it into round one. The idea was so well received that there are many regional boxes going around.

Of course I abandoned all thoughts of steeks and opened it right away.

It was stuffed with interesting yarn and a well-organized folder with sheets for recording what you took out and put in, and an address list indicating where to send it next.

I tried to be good, and this is what I took out:

Two hanks of Rowan Summer Tweed (silk and cotton) in an interesting vivid salmon that is really far afield from what I usually like. But, it's 200 yards altogether and I'm a silk junkie so it'll be fun to play with.

And this is what I put in. It was like the standard humor piece about packing the suitcase by sitting on it - I almost had to graduate the whole thing to a bigger box.

Seven skeins of 'vintage' Red Heart cotton that I just don't think I'll ever get to use, two skeins of a green wool that is left from my 'Tara' (Celtic Collection), 1 1/2 balls of Brunswick Baby left from my Victorian T Shirt made for Emily 2 years ago, and one skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece leftover from Emily's Classic Aran.

Oh, and also a hank of Reynolds Tipperary Tweed that was camera-shy.

Elka, was I good? Are there LINT brownie points??

This was great fun and I look forward to getting to do it again some day.

Prudence