It could have been a disaster. But thankfully, it wasn't. And they are just so stinkin' cute.
Usually, I'm meticulously good about putting up my things before I go to bed, but I wanted to knit a last row before I turned off the lights last night, and left everything on the floor, thinking it would be okay.
Our new kittens, Wingus and Dingus, are masterminds of chaos, so I should have known better. And really, for them, this was quite restrained. Fortunately, they were far more interested in a piece of kleenex and a pile of the Judge's dirty clothes (or at least they found them first), so the carnage was far worse there.
No more good yarnz for kittens in our house. But I will leave a few scraps strategically place around the house for them to discover, so they can enjoy the sensation of being naughty kittens. They are extremely pleased with themselves right now!
Here is Vodka Lemonade, starting to look like a real sweater.
Apparently, all of the math-fu I did to get the gauge and the fit right is working, because so far, it seems to be spot on. I'm very excited!
It's slow going. There never seems to be enough time! I knit a few rows at night, but I've been burning the candle at both ends, so you're going to be seeing this one in progress for a long time, I'm afraid. I'll probably cast on a couple of projects so I have enough to carry around on several trips later this month and in July. Like always, I'm doomed to be an attention-deficit knitter, working on several projects at once, instead of finishing the one on the needles.
If I had any spare time at the moment, I would lavish it on dyeing yarn in colors inspired by my garden. It's gorgeous out there, and I'm drinking it all in, because we've got to redo our back deck later this summer, which is going to cause lots of dislocation, if not outright carnage. I've taken a few pictures to remind me of the colors when I do find some time to dye. In addition to the lovely flowers above, I'm amazed by this Borage.
And by the bee drinking up nectar from my Asclepias.
Have you ever seen anything prettier? Nature is putting on an amazing show for us this year.
No, it's not an alien mutant or a sweater for a small elf in Santa's workshop. It's the adolescent phase of my Vodka Lemonade. It looks a bit wonky, with the collar unblocked, the sleeves partially done for later pick up, and only a couple of inches worked on the body. But it's P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S and I'm really happy with it. I'm hoping that it will blossom as I get a bit more work done and become the sweater of my dreams.
On the plus side, this color, The Plucky Knitter's Fiona on Crew, is everything I could have hoped for!
My decision to alternate two skeins was a good one. The yarn has just enough variation that not alternating would have been an issue. I think it might have been even better with three skeins in the rotation. It has been relatively easy to get a nice, clean, edge, carefully bringing the alternating skeins up the side of the project. And the color looks lovely knit up like this!
Knitting with linen is always tricky. Swatching isn't as exact, because your fabric with ease up significantly with repeat washings and lengthen if the garment has any weight at all to it. And, because I have a very loose gauge from the get go, swatching is even riskier business for me on linen.
My first swatch for Aster was on size 8 needles. The pattern recommends 9. And it was huge. Very pretty but huge. I would have knit a monster size garment.
I went down to size 6 needles and after washing, blocking and stretching the swatch (to imitate normal wear), I had gauge. Or at least, I had stitch gauge. My row gauge is off for the garter stitch piece. Interestingly, the pattern suggests going down a size when you hit the garter stitch block at the top, and that gives me row gauge. But not stitch gauge. So I'll do some math-fu on that part.
After swatching, I was distracted by two sweet little stray kittens who came to live with us this week. Aren't they cute? They ADORE knitting. This is not a good thing.
This pattern calls for negative ease, and I'm knitting it for my daughter, so I chose the 31.5" size. The next size up, at 34" would have been far too large. The start is stockinette stitch, and you can see that it rolls. The roll up at the bottom concerned me, but looking at the pattern photos I saw a slight roll. I'm hopeful that as the garment grows in size, its weight will work on that.
I'm not sure that hope is going to work out, because I'm past the first set of decreases, but I still have a roll of linen. And on the gauge front, as I thought might happen, even with my best efforts to knit tightly, I'm still getting enough fewer stitches over time that I'm please with the choice of the 31.5" size. It's too early to tell if that will hold up, but as of right now, even with the stretching that is inevitable as the garment grows, I think I should get a good fit.
Finally, a word about the yarn. This is Quince and Co's linen tape yarn, Kestrel. I love their sport weight linen, Sparrow, which is a typically spun yarn, and which I used for Lida last summer.
The verdict is still out on Kestrel. I had a knot in the first skein after knitting three rows, which did not get us off to a friendly start together. But this is a good project to test it out on and see how it performs.
A new start. The Forest Park Cowl in The Plucky Knitter's Primo Aran in Heirloom Green. With all of its bonny cables, this pattern feels like it fell right off the pages of Outlander. I've started this as an easy project to carry around, but plan on finishing a few in-the-works projects before I get serious about it.
An "almost there." Frostline is all done and just awaiting its lace edging. And I'm in love!
Just kidding Vodka Lemonade. I really do love you. The 7" of seed stitch in the collar on all 300+ stitches was sort of a bummer. And then keeping the various columns of seed stitch and ribbing straight, along with the right side increases, as I worked from the top of the shoulders shoulders down to the point where the sleeve stitches can go on a holder and the body be worked alone was a bit of a challenge for me. But I'm almost to that point, and it should be quite simple from here on out. I'm looking forward to the lace bits at the bottom.
Fit is still a challenge for me with sweaters. But I'm going to work on that. In September I'm going to a knitting retreat and taking "Knit to Flatter" with Amy Herzog. In the meantime, I'll give Vodka Lemonade my best effort, because I love the pattern, the yarn, and the color.
I'm sorry I haven't managed to blog but it got complicated and busy, while on the plus side, I did get a fair bit of knitting done while flying and driving.
Here's a quick tidbit — I'm working on the last color band in my Frostline Shawl. I'm very excited about how the colors are playing together. The yarn is Plucky Knitter Bello Worsted in (from the bottom up), Starlet, Cornucopia, Dandy Lion, Corduroy, Cassidy, and Baroque, and the accent color in between blocks is the February Classics colorway. Once I finish up with Baroque, I'll be onto the edging.
Our trip involved lots of beautiful scenery, which turned out to be wonderful inspiration for knitting as we drove from place to place.
The projects I worked on will always be linked with the places we visited on the trip and the people we shared our experience with, which is an awfully nice thing, when you think about it.
I finished Antarktis and wore it everywhere from the moment it was off my needles. It was unseasonably cold in the Middle East, and I definitely failed to pack for that weather. So Antarktis became my best friend. I finally blocked it yesterday, and it has grown a great deal. Modeled shots over the weekend, but trust me, you want to knit this one. I keep reaching for it with everything. It's a great pattern and a great finished object. Here it is again, not quite done, with a view of the Mediterranean.
I also knit two more squares for Ellie's quilt. True confessions: I'm over this one. I'm not enjoying knitting the squares at this point. But I want her to have it when she goes off to college, so I'm sticking it out. There are still more squares in my future.
I added two more colors to my Frostline, the green and the yellow bands. This is a very simple but highly addictive knit. I only stopped here because that was all the yarn I had with me, but I've moved onto the blue band since returning home and can't wait to finish this one!
I haven't snapped a picture of Vodka Lemonade recently, because it seems like all I'm doing is knitting, knitting, knitting without making progress. Yes, there are a lot of stitches on the needles right now, but that doesn't really seem to account for the big black hole of knitting I'm in. Sooner or later I'm bound to get to the point where I take the sleeve stitches off, but it is slow going right now. I don't particularly mind as I love the yarn and it's a fun knit. But I do want to finally finish a sweater and have it fit!
That's my vacation knitting progress. Now, I'm trying hard to get myself back into the right time zone so I can pick back up at work. No knitting for the rest of the week, but I'll share more pictures of Antarktis with you over the weekend, since I seem to be on a mission to convince everyone I know to knit one.
