Today: I am outside, knitting sleeves on our partially rebuilt back deck. Right now, it is just the bare floor boards with no rails. I can’t imagine anything as nice as knitting on a cool day with a gentle breeze and looking up into the trees, some of which are beginning to turn red and gold. I think I could sit here forever and knit 1000 sleeves.
While the back of my Arlo Sweater was blocking, I decided to get on with it. I cast on for two sleeves and both the left front and the left back. Doing the tubular cast on four times, in rapid succession, made me feel like something of a savant. In addition to appreciating the thick, squishy edge, it's fun to knit. Michele's directions are so good that it's worth grabbing one of her patterns just to have them.
Now I'm ready to knit! I've got the two sleeves on one needle (lots of people seem to do this succesfully, so why do I sense disaster in the making?) The right front is cast on with red waste yarn and the left front is with the blue. I thought this might help me keep them straight down the road.
My motto: Never fail to block. Never.
I got gauge for the Arlo Sweater on the first go round. It was totally amazing. This NEVER happens for me. And so I set off on my merry way, knitting, knitting, knitting. I was a little bit worried because the back looked a little bit shrunken and sketchy. And then the miracle happened.
With a gentle block, the back measures just a bit bigger than my gauge swatch suggested it would be after blocking. This makes sense as the piece will ease back in a bit after the pins are out. Aren't the cables pretty after blocking?
Had I knit this one, using an unblocked gauge swatch, it would have been a disaster. Midway through my Godzilla sized sweater I would have run out of yarn. If you want to worship at the feet of the yarn goddess, you must swatch. And you must block.
The moral of the story? Swatch. Block. And knit happily every after.
Arlo continues to grow. It is sad to be knitting something for your youngest child and realize you are knitting a size that is too big for you personally. Where does the time go?
Speaking of time, today is my 27th wedding anniversary. I still really like this guy.
In addition to being fun to hang out with, he has been kind enough to leave unacknowledged the fact that I am putting him to a lot of trouble and expense to build a little tree house room I can knit in, with a nearby grill and fridge so I can eat without walking the 20 extra feet into the house. [He's probably going to fuss a bit when he realizes I'm planning some moth-proof cedar storage out here to go along with those beautiful cedar beams.]
Because I warned you up front that this was a rambling kind of post, I'm sharing this bad selfie. I was so happy to be in a part of the country this week where it was cold enough to wear the Antarktis I knit earlier this year. I adore Janina Kallio's well-written patterns and plan to knit a few more this fall.
It's really fun to come home from a business trip and, in addition to my adoring family who missed me so much that they cleaned the house and cooked me a fabulous meal, come home to a box of Plucky Yarn. Of course, the whole family/clean house part is a fantasy, but I did come home to some pretty yarn this week.
It is Plucky Bello Worsted. I love these skeins together and need to come up with a shawl or scarf pattern they can all play in. Bello Worsted knits up closer to a DK weight for me. If anyone has pattern suggestions, I would love it if you would email me or leave them in the comments. This yarn is to die for!
Our cats like Plucktober. All that sitting around and knitting all day long. Balls of yarn everywhere. What's a cat to do but laze around and enjoy the fun until it's too tiring and, ummmm, must nap with Mom's knitting.
Although I only managed to snap photos of Dingus in full nap mode, all five of our monster-cats either sat on my lap to "help" me knit, or snuggled down on top of my knitting for a nap as soon as I got up to attend to something else for a few minutes.
The cats gave me really good knitting karma. By the time I stopped to cook dinner this evening, I was two and one-half repeats in on Ollie's Arlo sweater. Although I doubt I'll finish it in just one month, I'm hoping to finish the back and sleeves, and make a start on the fronts. Thanks for the good mojo, cats!
One great fringe benefit of Plucktober is seeing everyone else's projects and finding half a dozen new patterns you've absolutely got to drop everything and start knitting at least every other day. Today was no exception for me, and I stumbled across Lynne's Lake Effect in Lolipop Guild Oxford, Ania's Lindenroot Hat, Christine's Mailin, and, oh my gosh!, Sarah's Baa-ble Hat. I've simply got to find a way to clone myself so I can knit more!
I really do know, at least on some level, how completely nerdy it is to sit in my car and knit. But, and especially on a rainy day like today, it’s incredibly alluring.
I’ve got car seat warmers. My speakers are incredible, whether it’s my favorite playlist or the Haruki Murakami books I’m addicted to listening to while knitting. Starbucks. And, I recently discovered my steering wheel is the perfect place to hang my iPad.
Did I mention that there are no kids or husbands in here? There are no cats wanting to run off with the skeins of yarn I’m alternating with.
It’s nice in here.
I think I’ll knit a few more rows before I get out of the car. Or maybe, I’ll just stay here for awhile.
I started off the Plucktober KAL month by casting on for Michele Wang's Arlo sweater.
If you have struggled with tubular cast ons, it is worth buying Michele's pattern for the ease and clarity of her directions. Tubular cast on gives you a cleaner edge for ribbing on sweaters, cuffs, etc, and is well worth the trouble. I'll get a better picture when I'm a bit further along, but I'm delighted with the start.
My family tolerates my knitting with a lot of patient, if fond glances my direction. Sometimes, there is outright admiration, as there was during our trip to Iceland when I provided everyone with warm hats and cowls. But mostly, it's just tolerance. I'm wondering how this month is going to go for them. When dinner last night consisted of open faced tomato and goat cheese sandwiches and some chicken soup I had made last weekend, there was a little bit of consternation. I mumbled something about Plucktober and they all looked confused. They don't yet realize it's going to get a lot worse. A whole lot worse.
