FO: BSJ

I finished one! Well, if you count it as finished before the buttons are on. But it could be years before the buttons are on.



Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter (though I think it's in one of her other books too). In Araucania hand-dyed 100% wool. One skein of each color and I have a significant amount of each leftover, probably plenty for booties. I love how it has a kind of samurai look to it - which is much more pronounced if you look at it from the back. [Kate slaps herself on the forehead for forgetting to take that picture, too]. Will try to show you the back view next time.



And of course I started another WIP. Actually, I started a Marilyn sweater but decided that even though I had matched the gauge perfectly, the color was all wrong for me, so I started again on an EPS hybrid sweater for Hubbster using the same yarn (Canadian White Buffalo 3-ply that I got from Elann dirt cheap a year or so ago). I mis-calculated the gauge outrageously (i.e., I used the number of sts in 2" as if it was the sts in 1") and somehow didn't notice that this couldn't be right until I'd knit a couple inches, pulled it off the needles, and realized I had a hem for a house cozy. I can only blame the fact that my head is still all stuffed up with my endlessly lingering cold. So I frogged that, started again, and now I have two inches of an EZ EPS sweater for hubbster. It goes really fast on US10 needles, but I'm worried about the yoke/neck shaping being alright in this huge gauge. I'm thinking maybe I should just rip it all out and make it into a blanket instead. EZ has a nice garter-st blanket design in Opinionated Knitter that called for fluffy, bulky, wooly yarn just like this. Plus, I really don't like the color. Not only did I not get a very good sense of it on the computer monitor when I bought it, but I also bought it in one of those yarn-lust frenzies where all reason goes out the window in the fact of such a low price for 100% wool. I also like the idea that it's just three strands of pencil roving that get slightly twisted as you knit, not really a proper yarn at all. It's delicate to work with but very, very fluffy. So I told myself it was a pure forest green and that even if I didn't like it or look good in it, Hubbster would. Actually, it's a yellowy-gold forest green and doesn't really look good on either of us, I think. But Hubbster says he likes it, and now that I've told him I'm making him a sweater he'd be very disappointed to hear it's going to be a blanket instead. Even if he'd like the blanket more (after all, it'd be deliciously fluffy and warm and who cares if it makes you look a bit sallow when you're cuddling on the couch?), he so much enjoys knowing that I'm knitting something for him that I'd hate to tell him I'm frogging it now.

So it looks like I'll throw it in the basket and start something else instead. Argh. Feel free, all of you, to use me as an excuse for your own startitis (as some of you already have). Insanity loves company.

You can also vote on what I should do with the chunky 3-ply:

The blogpoll thingy doesn't seem to work, so we'll do it the old fashioned way: put your vote in the comments:

What should I do with my dark green White Buffalo unspun 3-ply?

1. Make EZ's seamless hybrid, plain
2. Make EZ's seamless hybrid with a big cable going up the front
3. Frog it and make EZ's chunky garter-st blanket, also from Opinionated Knitter
4. Frog what I have and put the yarn away again, until it tells me what it wants to be
5. Leave the 2 inches of ribbing I have now in the WIP basket until it calls to me again
6. Something else, which you'll explain in the comments

Meanwhile, I'm revising. And revising, and revising. And temping, because we gotta pay the rent. This makes revising rather more difficult, but so far not disastrously impossible. Luckily, I was able to swing a temporary, flexible job at my regional institute thingy here at my university, so not only are people fairly tolerant of my bringing a draft printout with me everywhere I go, but I'm working for all the same sort of people who can help me get jobs and postdocs and that sort of thing. Not a bad idea to spend a little time helping them organize their brown-bag talks and Lacanian conferences, no?

Confused and Not Confused

Okay, I've been neglectful for too long, and now, once again, I've got about a million things I want to say. One of the most important - an addendum to the last post - and an exciting change will both have to wait until next time. But in the meantime, there are some small bits of news to report:

1. A very sad thing happened to some nice mohair

Sigh. I saw it coming for a while. It seems that my gauge on the Kidsilk Haze tank and cowl loosened up after I got the hang of the pattern, and the thing was coming out way too big. I started thinking this pretty early on, but kept telling myself it would be okay. The real problem was that neither the smallest nor the next size up was anywhere near right for me - it goes from 38 to 42.5, and I really wanted a 39 or 39.5. I know, I should have gone for the smaller size to begin with, especially since it's a lace stitch pattern and can be blocked fairly violently if necessary. But I, like many other knitters, have a pathological fear of ending up with something too small. Well, when I realized that it was starting to look crazy-big, I put it on two needles and confirmed that…in fact, it was crazy-big. But the good news is (1) at this gauge, I should get right around 39.5 inches by knitting to the smaller size instructions and (2) the smaller size only requires two balls of yarn, so I won't have to try and fail to rip this out (I still have half of this first ball, so I should be okay even if it goes over the recommended yarn requirements). I was hoping for a moment that what I have already could actually be turned into the cowl.



But not unless you like a cowl that goes down to your navel.

Hubbster suggests that I bind off what I have, cut it and cover the ends with sewn-on ribbon or something to keep them from unraveling, and make it a scarf. The idea has potential, I think. Hubbster, as you can tell, is well on his way to becoming totally indoctrinated.

Look how I hadn't even screwed up the pattern or anything:



2. FO: more damn socks

Finished the third pair of moccasin socks, in stripes made from the leftovers from the first two pairs. They're adorable, but there've been so many socks lately, is it even worth a picture? I thought not.

3. Fair Isle on temporary hold

I started getting seriously annoyed with the sleeves on the fair isle; I was doing it on two circs, but while one circ was the addi turbo I'd used for the body, the other was a very old steel circ I'd gotten on ebay with a flexible steel cord that…well, it's circular but calling it "flexible" is really pushing it. It drove me nuts. However, the sleeve is still too wide for DPNs (and I hate them anyway), and it so happens that the one size between 2.0 mm and 5mm that I don't have in a long magic-loop size addi turbo happens to be 3.25mm, the one I need for this sweater. I have 3.0mm, and 3.5mm. So I've been toying with the idea of just using the 3.0mm and deciding it won't make a difference (since I can use it for both sleeves). I thought for one brief shining moment that this would be a good excuse to order at least one of the new KnitPicks needles, but they don't have the 3.25mm in the longest cord length. Grrr. And it's too small for the Options set, too. So…what should I do? I really can't justify going out and buying an addi turbo right now (the others I got cheap in Moscow).

4. Confusing words unconfused:

English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test

Yeah, baby. Okay, as a college writing instructor, I'd have been really humiliated if I'd done any less well. But - it's driving me crazy - which one did I get wrong?? And, is there any way I can work these results into my CV....?

5. I have a secret

Um, so I have a secret. And it'll have to stay a secret for a while. But I'll tell you about it eventually. Promise. (And no, I'm not pregnant, or designing anything.)

Frog Pond

I have one more UFO completed, from my list:



The yarn (Regia) pooled in all kinds of funny ways, but I'm one of those people who is entertained, rather than annoyed by pooling. I swore to keep knitting these until I ran out of yarn, and I did, dammit.

And another that's not really on my list, but is cute anyway:



That's the mint choc chip handbag, of course. I said I was going to needle-felt a circle or spiral on it, but I decided it's perfect as it is. It's just the right size to take a pair of socks to the park in (hence the FO!)

But there's bad news.

For the first time in my knitting life, I've decided that a major project that is nearly done needs to be frogged. It's the black ballet sweater. It had a lot of potential. Here's the original design, which I made up by copying a commercial ballet sweater:



And this is how it looks right now:



The yarn is wonderful, too - it's a baby alpaca / silk blend that I got in Russia.

So what's wrong? Well. I didn't take good notes on what I was doing and then set it aside for over a year. The tiny yarn on big, slippery needles has been a problem throughout. Makes gauge measurements real shaky, too, and this is the first time I've ever tried to shape what is essentially lace knitting (though it's in plain stockinette, it's so loosely knit that the gauge isn't right until it's blocked, like lace), to fit my body. And I wanted this to fit well. And, it's a funky shape. Also, it's black, so -- like with the infamous Mom Sweater -- it's been difficult to see what I'm doing. So...all this combined means the thing just sucks. The shaping is all wrong, it hangs funny, and I can't possibly tell whether / when one side will match the other. But, you say - you're so close, why not just finish it, and block it, and then see what happens? Because the one sleeve that's almost done is also too narrow, and because the knitting of this has been miserable, and I just can't take the idea of frogging parts of what I've already done, much less finishing it, then frogging still more to make it work. The yarn has a delightful hand, but that's all the more reason to re-use it for some more pleasing project.

So, I haven't actually frogged it as of this moment. I'll stick it back in the closet until I actually know what I want to do with that yarn and until I've forgotten the pain I'm experiencing right now about all that wasted work. But it's off my UFO list.

The sad part is that my poor friend who I taught to knit is knitting the same sweater as her first real project, right now. Naturally, when I wrote out her pattern I did it without all the fancy shaping I added to mine, and she's using a normal yarn at a normal, appropriate gauge, and so - fingers crossed - hers should turn out just fine! Please please please....

In other news, I've been making myself feel a little better by thinking about new projects. Yes, yes, I'm still working on my UFOs, but that doesn't have to mean they're all I think about, now does it? I can't wait to start on a new pair of socks, now that the above-pictured albatross is off my neck. And I'm thinking about Fair Isle. And, while going through my stash for something or other, I came across a small selection of yarns that I think should turn into a nice set of Mrs. Beetons to go with my cherry-red winter coat. Here they are:



The colors are pretty accurate, on my monitor, at least.
A: Mohair, a slightly silvery-dark blue-green
B: Smooth, cobweb-weight wool, emerald green
C: Mohair, a grassy-ish lime green
D: Alpaca, sport weight, one strand of dark denim blue, with one strand of a lighter denim blue
E: Baby alpaca, sport or lace weight, pale blue-green
F: Alpaca, sport or DK weight, dark blue and silver
G: This is not yarn, this is a teacup

I still have to go out and buy some beads (and of course finish those UFOs), but in the mean time - which yarns should I use for which parts of the pattern? Thoughts?

Thanks for all the lovely comments, people, and I'll continue to add to the list of Knit Geeks!!