Dried berries

So we put the blocked sweater on DF last night and he had it on long enough for him to determine that it fits, but not long enough for me to get a picture. Sorry, y'all. You're just going to have to wait for DF to strut his stuff for the camera until it's not 10000 degrees in here. I'm hoping also to install the zipper and get a REAL FO picture out of it since DF doesn't much like wearing sweaters in the summer. I'll have to agree though, the sweater is freaking warm! Now I want one.

But, I'm not above a little bit of overheating for my readers. So remember the incredible growing sweater phenomenon with Blackberry? Well, it took me almost two months to get up the guts (and get off my butt to soak the sucker... the wet dog smell just isn't pleasant) to try and resize the sucker. After a little soak and pat dry, I threw Blackberry in the dryer with a load of whites. DF insists that he needs socks and underwear to wear to his parents for the Fourth, but is his family really checking to see if he's going commando?

Sorry, getting my mind out of the gutter to get back to the story. Like Jillian suggested, I stood by the dryer and checked every minute to see if things were progressing too quickly. Did I mention it was hot? That didn't last very long, so I had to step outside the laundry room and keep going back. During this whole process, I had these nightmarish visions of locking myself out of the laundry room with my sweater held prisoner in the dryer shrinking down into nothingness. Thankfully, this didn't come to pass. Twenty minutes and no noticeable difference later, I gave up. I wondered if Rowan had somehow mislabeled the yarn as it was clearly not falling apart or shrinking like mad so it must be superwash.

But I think it must have shrunk slightly because it seems to be a whole lot cuter on now. The sleeves are at least 2 inches shorter, so that makes it infinitely more wearable. Or at least it looks like it fits better through the shoulders in looking at this picture and the last one. What do you think?

Also, I was just noticing... a post every day this week! When was the last time that happened? Never as far as I can remember. I must be glad to have not gone anywhere this week. Anyway, we're off for the Fourth, so happy grilling, happy birthday America, and I'll see you on the other side.

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!

Before we move on to the best quickie ever, I'd like to give a shoutout to Lisa over at PurlThis. She was kind enough to send along a nice like RAK from the Knittyboard this week in response to my desperate plea for more sock yarn. Go check out her blog and the very cute pictures of her cats in their new kitty bed.

So remember how I needed something quick and painless after my seaming disaster? Well, Blackberry turned into just that. Well, quick at least, maybe not quite painless...


Blackberry
Pattern: Blackberry by Jennifer Thurston
Yarn: Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky (100% wool, 109 yds). Just under 5 skeins in color Stout. Size 11 Denise Interchangeables.
Gauge: 11 sts/4in in stockinette
Finished size: 40" (includes overlap) at bust, 19" from collar to hem, 20" from underarm to cuff

Started: April 23, 2006
Finished: May 3, 2006

Notes:
Followed pattern almost exactly except that body was worked in one piece and arms were worked in the round. Body and sleeves were joined and worked in one piece to collar. Did not break yarn but instead continued picking up sts down right front, across bottom, and up left front to work ribbed edging. Total # of ends to weave in: 6. Priceless.

Discussion:
I was worried that this pattern would look ridiculous on me since I'm a small person and generally think that chunky yarn would overwhelm my petite frame. But looking at the pictures closer, I realized that the designer is about my size and she didn't look ridiculous, so I'd give it a go.

Converting the pattern from flat pieces to seamless wasn't that bad. I just had to keep a closer eye on where I was in the shaping of each piece and how that related to the shaping on the other pieces. Thankfully, everything pretty much lined up on the same rows, so that was a relief.

The only problems I ran into were the bobbles, which I mentioned before and my idiotic displacement. Dropping down those two columns of stitches and reworking the bobbles again worked pretty well, and I can't really tell that I moved my bobbles over except that the sts around the bobbles are a bit loose now. I'm okay with that. Did you hear me? I'm okay with the slight imperfection. I know. Go get some smelling salts.

What I'm less pleased with is the apparent growth of my sweater during blocking. I swear that I blocked my swatch and took my gauge after blocking. Still, my sweater turned out to be a whopping 2" larger around and 2" longer afterwards. Before I blocked it, it was this cute, cropped, fitted top with sleeves that just covered the backs of my hands. Now, they pretty much cover all of my fingers and even with a DPN to secure drastically overlapped fronts, it's still baggy under the arms. See this throwaway picture (DF said, "look constipated!" right before snapping the picture) for an idea of the actual sleeve length.

I'm okay with folding up the sleeve, but the width of the body just bugs me. I'm considering spraying the sweater down with a bit of water to get it sort of damp and throwing it in the dryer to see if it'll shrink a bit. Anybody have any suggestions? I know I don't want it felted...

Anyway, this sweater did turn out to be a very quick knit, which is quite satisfying. If I can get the size a bit better, I'll probably live in this sweater during the evenings (believe it or not, I do actually get cold during the summers at night!) I even have an untouched ball of yarn left over. I see a hat or mittens in its future if I have enough to go around. Do patterns always build in an extra ball of yarn just in case?

Previous posts about this project:
Quick, somebody toss me some nail polish!!! on May 03, 2006
a WIP or Two on April 26, 2006

Quick, somebody toss me some nail polish!!!

After all of the excitement with getting my sockapaloooza socks yesterday, I don't know what to do with myself. Knit some more, I guess.

When we last left off, I was frustrated with the tiny sweaters from the twinset and had to go do something still quick, but without seams this time. Blackberry in a traditional Elizabeth Zimmerman style. Well, my back and tiny sleeves have managed to grow significantly since their humble beginnings. Not quite the quick one week knit that I was hoping for, but anyway... the sleeves are just about ready to attach to the body. See?

Wait, what's that? Do those bobbles seem a bit wrong? Like maybe the ones on the right look just a little too far from the cable compared to the left? Um, yeah. They're a measly one stitch further to the right. With 17 inches of sleeve done on both sleeves that are identically WRONG, what would you do?

Now that you know what a normal person would do, what would you do if you were the Spaz? Clearly, the obsessive compulsive side would overrule any sort of rational thinking here that says no one's ever going to notice a one stitch displacement. Knit spazzing, of course, ensued.

The long and the short of it is shown below. The bobbles look a little bit wonky now, but I think blocking will fix most of that.

The sleeves are now attached and I'm just decreasing away. I'm still holding my breath to see if I managed to successfully translate a flat pattern done in pieces to a seamless pattern. I think I'm now purple, so what color comes after that?

Also, because I know some of you can share in my glee... I wrote to the publisher's general information address when I came across a perplexing issue with one of the charts in the Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns hoping that they might have a book corrections page or something available. I got a response from a real person, and at the end it's signed simply "Meg". I'm sitting there wondering, wait a minute, did I just get an email from Meg Swansen? Holy Crap!

a WIP or Two

Wow, such an overwhelming response on the last post, maybe I'll try including pictures in this one...

So DF called me the other day and asked me why I hadn't posted in a while. I said, well, probably because I didn't have anything to show. He says, what do you mean, you've got two sweaters finished and started another!?! As if to say, if that doesn't count for much, exactly how much knitting do you need, woman?

I gently reminded him that while I finished the knitting and seaming, they were waiting for the ends to be woven in. Guess who had volunteered to do it during one of my seaming fits? Yep, gotta love DF! Of course, he figures that at least this way he can say that he helped out when we send it along to his cousin who just had her babies yesterday.

So in an effort to keep you guys interested and admit to all of the ugliness that goes into my knitting, I hereby present to you the twinset 99% complete except for a few errant ends to weave in. Okay, maybe it's more than just a few...

And DF was correct in saying that I started another sweater. I did. The decision came during a fit on Sunday night during my FOURTH night of seaming these !$%^* sweaters. My mistake was assuming that since a dropped shoulder sweater is probably the easiest sweater possible to seam, it shouldn't be a big deal. Except if you're an idiot like me. I was just fine until the final seam on my final sweater. Somehow it was about 2 inches shorter in the front than on the back. In horror I thought that the one side of the front was shorter than the other and I'd have to rip out the collar that I had already attached, rip out the shoulder seam and add a few more rows, and then put the collar and shoulder seam back in to get back to where I was. I decided gifts should not be abused prior to giving and calmly put it down.

I needed something instant gratification for myself. Something without seams to mess up. Something like Blackberry. I even happened to pick up some Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Bulky that day. (c'mon... it was on sale for 40%, it's okay to stash enhance when it's a discontinued yarn on super sale, right?)

Eek. It's raglan, but it's still knit in 5 pieces. Why oh why do the finishing gods test me?

Screw that, it's a raglan. It can be done in one piece, darn it. And so I began. Here's what I have so far... the fronts and back done in one piece up to the armholes and two sleeves done two at a time in the round. We'll find out soon enough if this was a good idea. Here's hoping it doesn't turn into a saga like some other raglan cardigans I know...

Sorry for the weird color in the pictures. It's been pretty gray out lately and we all know my skillz at photography. I still wanted to show the detail on the cable and bobble despite the awful color. Anybody know if it's normal to have a giant hole in the stitch before you make a bobble?