The Sahara Dessert

Dessert because it is just so yummy.

I am exceedingly proud of my finished "Sahara" which I think you can tell by the angle of my crossed arms. I finished it Tuesday night, but waited all the way to today (Thursday) to wear it. No one at work noticed. When I finally mentioned it, they said, "You. Did. Not. Make. That." (In a good way.)

It is continually interesting to me that people can see me working on something week after week, but then when I have it assembled and finished, they can not at all see that it is that same thing. I guess that comes from not really knowing how these things go together. I can only assume. Because otherwise when they constantly harass1 me with questions about what I'm making, they really aren't listening to the response at all. And then, I ask, why bother asking? Ok, now I will turn off Rant Christina. (I really don't mind you asking about what I'm making, but please make sure if you do, you're actually interested.)

Enough with that.

Here is the back of Sahara:
The fit turned out great. I could have knit it maybe an inch longer, and I think the "shirt tail" hem could have been a little longer. (Yes, that is sort of the same thing.)
And were I ever to do this again, I would eliminate the hip increases across the front because although my hips are large enough, they are not in front of my belly. My front is rather flat (ok, from the waist down anyway) and those increases do not help the shape at all. Otherwise the shaping looks very natural and works for me. Now I'll know for other shirts I may knit with similar shaping.
Project Stats
Started: 7 Jan 09
Finished: 3 Mar 09
Pattern cost: $3 (1/2 price!)
Materials cost:
Mano Silk 4@11.50=$46
Tilli Tomas Diva: 1@39=$39
The fabric wears very well. The main body is knit with a silk wool blend and is warm and soft without being stifling. The trim is 100% silk with sequins. I had someone warn me that she could not stand the sequins in the neckline and ended up having to line it (I believe), but they did not bother me at all. (Yay!)

I was hoping to avoid blocking, but will have to face the fact that blocking would improve the shirt. The "collar" bunches up and the area to the right and left of the neckline pulls in when it should lie flat. It would probably also help keep the trim at the bottom of the sleeves from flipping up like it wants to do. And if I really wanted, I could probably block the extra inch in length too.

Wish me luck!

[ETA: The Sahara won a blue ribbon in the 2009 County Fair (knitted blouse).]

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1 I only use the word harass in this context because at work I only knit on my lunch break. And then I tend to need a little "alone time."

Sahara Update

Remember the "Sahara" that I was working on? I got as far as joining the front and back below the underarm (recall that I am working from top down), and started to do some of the waist shaping decreases so it was time to try it on and see how it is fitting. That's supposed to be one of the advantages of working top down.

I didn't really feel like doing this because for one, I had a good rhythm and momentum going and didn't want to stop. For two, I  knew it would be cold and I don't like to be cold.

As a way to force myself to do it anyway, I transfered all the stitches to waste yarn (because you can't try it on with the needle still in it). So now I couldn't knit on it until I had tried it on. The plan sort of worked because I sure didn't knit on it. But I didn't try it on either...for about two weeks. Poor Sahara.

In addition to the cold, I also had an issue of where to take the picture because all of my mirrors have unsightly things in the background. Then a day or two ago, I had a zinger of an idea, and that was enough to make me brave the cold, try it on, and even take some pictures.

There's not much to fitting the front yet since it's still open. But it looked and felt like it was right. You can see the bright yellow waste yarn I used to put the stitches on. (No mistaking that for the real yarn when I'm putting the stitches back on the needles!) And you can see my little yellow stitch marker (the half circle thing) which marks where I need to do the decreases. Stitch markers are one of those things I caught onto late in life because you can do without them, but it sure is easier with them. They sell fancy beautiful ones, but simple plastics rings are very cheap and there is no reason not have some if you're doing any kind of knitting more than a dishcloth. (And even then they might come in handy.)

I think the back looks a little more like the final product. It's hanging right, and fits over the shoulders. You'll see more waste yarn holding the stitches for the collar. (I think the pattern says to cast them off, but I always prefer to just put them on yarn and then knit them up in the collar. No rigid seam then--I prefer some stretch.) You can also see a couple more stitch markers, again for the decreases.

The knitted fabric felt really nice, and I'm glad I still really liked the colour after not having seen it in a while. (Sometimes you can fall in love at the store, but it's not lasting.)

Now that I am reassured about the fit and feel that I have "done the right thing" I can put those stitches back on the needle and get going again. Yeah! Also in the spirit of "doing things right" I am working from two different balls. Hand-dyed yarns can vary from ball to ball quite a bit even when they're marked as coming from the same dye lot. These look pretty close, but just in case, I am knitting 2 rows with one ball and the next 2 with another. Then if the balls vary, it still makes an overall pattern and colour impression and your sweater isn't splotchy.

All for now,

christina

Getcher butt in gear

I was knitting at home on Saturday after getting home from work and a visit to Red Purl to get set up for Amy's afghan knit-along [KAL] (more on that later...). I was happily knitting on my Sahara as it was going along nicely. The Manos silk blend knits up very evenly.

I've just had one thick spot in the yarn and it knit into an edge so nothing to worry about... I got the back done as far as the armhole shaping, and then started the front when I thought that if I'm going to start yet another project then I have got to get that hat ready to send to Iraq. And circumstances were lining up so that I didn't have much time to knit at lunch breaks or times when I'm waiting. So the hat was kind of languishing. Saturday evening I decided that was going to end. I had the Sahara to a point that I could knit it away from home, and so concentrated on the hat.

Before church on Sunday morning, I had the hat done; including the finishing since I had the right tools packed with me. (Now that's getting your butt in gear!) This hat has turned out as well as the other ones like this I've done and I hope it gets much good use.

With the hat done, I could work a little on the Sahara again, and got the front also knit down to the armhole shaping. You see, the Sahara is worked from the shoulders down. The back is cast on with the crochet cast on I've discussed before. And then when it's done to the armhole, you pick up the caston edge and work the front down from that point. When the front is at the same point as the back under the arm, then you start knitting them all together.

That's about as far as I am. I have to knit another two inches straight before the waist shaping will begin. At that point I'll try is on; that's one of the advantages to knitting a sweater top down. [More pics to come...] I've adjusted the colour on this picture so it matches pretty closely to the real sweater. The colour is so rich. It's hand-dyed so the colour varies a little which gives the sweater a real depth. Lovely.

Keep the needles clacking,

christina

Catching Up

Let's catch up on a few projects I've started or finished lately:

1. I started a red better plastic bag yesterday.

I am just loving the solid red colour; it's surprisingly rich and looks like it's just been soaked in dye. It looks like I'll have plenty to make at least one large tote. (Phew!) This bag has a rectangle bottom (about 4" x 12") and I'm not sure yet how tall it will get. I think I will do short "in line" handles (like the black and white book bag) instead of the longer handles I did on the other large totes.

2. I cast on for another Hat Fit for a Boyfriend. This one is for a co-worker's son who was recently deployed to Iraq. It's cold at night so I thought a soft, light-weight, Malabrigo hat would be just the thing. I should have enough of the same brown left over from the two hats I made previously.

3. I finished my Birthday Cowl. I had a few false starts but really like how it turned out. First of all, the Malabrigo colour "Snow Bird" couldn't look better! Second, it fits well and is so warm; it seems to keep a cushion of warm air around my neck--so nice!

I did modify the pattern slightly. It's a biased rib, written to slant from right to left. But doing decreases right to left means you have to do a slip stitch decrease (aka ssk) which is a) time consuming because you have to pause in your forward momentum and "back up" to slip and pass the slip stitch over; and b) not as attractive. No matter how you do it, the ssk is never as smooth or nice as a simple K2tog. But the K2tog leans left to right so you can't use it in this pattern...right?

Nope, you simply need to accept a left to right slanting bias and reverse the instructions. So sl1, k1, psso, k6, yo, k3 becomes k3, yo, K6, K2tog. Simple, right? It was, and is. And then I made one more small change: I didn't like the hole left by the YO so I just picked up the yarn from the previous row. (This is exactly equivalent except the YO makes the yarn a little longer and that's what I didn't want.) So my final pattern was k3, M1, K6, K2tog.

3. This session's Caps for a Cure:

I did the yellow in November and got the red one done during my travels and time off over Christmas. I like the Foliage pattern a lot. They will be sent to a cancer center in LA, CA. (Why do they need hats in such a warm climate?? Mostly because of A/C being set too cold! :pet peeve alert:)

You may notice I tried a little modification on the second cap at the crown. I didn't really like the heavy look of the four two-stitch "ribs" going down from the top so I tried the second cap with a one-stitch rib. Besides not really liking the look, this was also suggested by the pattern which has you decrease the extra rib stitch where they end in the pattern: if you have to take it out later anyway, why put it in in the first place?? So I took it out. I'm not sure it's a big improvement, but it was fun to try and turn my irritation into action! I also fiddled with the decreases: the pattern had a left leaning double decrease which really should have been a center double decrease. That was definitely an improvement, but I'm quite sure you won't be able to see the difference in these pictures.

4. And finally: what happened to my Candle Flame Scarf?

I got it finished in early December and it came out great. The Kitchener stitch to connect the two halves worked great and the seam is nearly invisible. Despite being made from the delectable Malabrigo, it turned out a little itchy on my neck. I have been advised to wash it in vinegar and then treat it with hair conditioner (wool being animal hair after all). I haven't yet tried this, partly because I'm quite enamoured with my cowl.

[ETA: the Candleflame scarf won a 2nd place ribbon at the 2009 County Fair (knitted hat, scarf or mittens set).]

Up next, I bought supplies today for the lovely "Sahara" designed by Wendy Bernard.

I'll be doing it with cap sleeves out of a silk/merino mix and the trim is a silk with sequins. Oh...it's so exciting! I haven't cast on yet because I need to take a breath and some time to get ready to do the necessary swatching and gauge-checking. (So tedious; so essential.)

And I also bought a unbelievably lovely Malabrigo lace weight in "Jewel Blue." At 470 yds I thought it might be enough for a shawl, but now I'm not so sure. Looking through lace shawl patterns has got me all fired up, but first things first. (And first, the Sahara!)

All this makes me wonder, how can I convince my hubby that I really should leave my job and be a stay-at-home wife?

Let me know if you have any great ideas on that!

-christina