Here's a first progress shot of the back of Colchique.
We'll be in the Adirondacks this weekend, so no Internet for a few days. I'm in a foul mood right now, mostly frustration about girl-health-type-things. It's nothing serious. I'm just having a really, really shitty time with a new birth control pill I really didn't want to switch to and frustrated with NYU's medical care and insurance and the doctor I have who doesn't listen or care. There's nothing better than heading off on vacation when you're angry, depressed, frustrated, stressed out about something (your body) that is impossible to leave behind when you go. Not to mention when the thing that you are depressed about is the thing that is, in part, causing the depression in the first place by taking you on some wild hormonal psychological and physical joyride you didn't volunteer for. I could just spit.
Catch you next week, everybody.
Hey, I totally forgot to tell you I went to the Rubber Duck Race to benefit Special Olympics last week. 25,000 rubber duckies in the East River = big, big fun!
Here's the duck dump:
I went with Dena, who would like to make it her business to know about and attend all silly New York City events. She's perfect for a job at NY1, don't you think?
So I'm thinking, so many of us are interested in translating this pattern and creating our own Colchiques... perhaps an English version of the knitalong is in order for people who can't or prefer not to do the French knitalong.
Consequently, I give you the Colchique-Along (en Anglais!):
You can download the pattern there, courtesy of nos amies francaises!
Bush said the "c" word! Can you believe it? I guess I thought that was one of the words you weren't allowed to say on TV anymore.
It's official! The cashmere yarn that has graced my stash cubby for almost two years is being put to use. I've joined a knitalong, en français, (called a "tricotons ensemble" or "let's knit together") for the Phildar sweater. Valette, who started the knitalong, has dubbed the sweater "Colchique," which is a flower that blooms in autumn.
Voici, le bouton!
Pattern: Ballet Pullover by Teva Durham, from Summer '04 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Recycled Bulky Cotton
Needles: US 11, 24" circulars
Notes:
I'm reserving judgment about this sweater. Sometimes I like it, sometimes it seems kind of unflattering (the center shaping adds interest; it can also add the illusion of more belly than may actually exist). It's an absurdly quick knit, though, so nothing's really lost in the process.
The only major modification is the 3/4 inch sleeves since (a) so many of you liked them and (b) laziness interfered with my ability to knit full long sleeves.
A note about the yarn: it drove me absolutely nuts, and may continue to do so throughout the life of the sweater. I don't know what this is called, but it's the kind of yarn that's just a bunch of untwisted strands, and many of the individual strands broke in the recycling process. Now they are rearing their scraggly little heads in several places on the sweater. It's easy to stuff them back between stitches, but, well, argh.
UPDATE: Ah! Commenter Sky has reminded me of one more modification to the original pattern. The Interweave version of this top (unlike the version in Teva's book) has a crochet finished collar. Being no good at crochet and predisposed to wide necklines, I left it off. Flashdance forever!
Also, if you'd like to get this issue of Interweave, you can purchase it from The Knitting Garden or a number of other shops that stock back issues.
Related Posts:
Ballet Pullover: Half and Half
In-the-Meantime Project
A Useful Penguin
Oh Lord, the NY Times is at it again.*
Oh, and incidentally, potato chips and french fries cause cancer. Just to brighten your day a little more.
* The problems I have with this story are not necessarily its substance (women with elite educations who will drop out of the workforce to have children). The reason it's annoying is (a) that the Times runs this same story literally once every four months and (b) that the articles never make more than a passing reference to the millions of women, even some with elite educations, who don't have the resources to leave work or who, as perhaps the first in their families to go to college, are determined to put that opportunity to good use for a long time.
And finally, if this phenomenon truly means anything (which it does), then why keep writing the same article about its existence? What the Times should be looking at, in my opinion, is what's behind it. Why don't women in other countries seem to face the Hobson's choice we do in the U.S. when we decide to have children? And why, to borrow the words of Peter Salovey, dean of Yale College do "so few students seem to be able to think outside the box"? Why do "so few students seem to be able to imagine a life for themselves that isn't constructed along traditional gender roles"?
I won't pretend this is not a debate I have with myself. I'll save my reflections on it for another post. All I'm saying is that the Times should start looking critically at this trend among privileged women instead of just reporting, over and over and over, that it's out there.
Two Flickr finds:
How sweet are these leaf earrings knitted with wire?
Cutest big-headed bear ever. (See more of Jess Hutch's little guys and gals here)
It's stash inventory time again. Click the thumbnails to see details on each yarn and the projects they're destined for. You'll noticed how many odd balls of yarn are not destined for any project. Yes. Very sad.
For trade (in exchange for books):
Also, I'm seeking three things to cross some batches of yarn off the list of "Project: Unknown":
(1) One ball of Noro Kureyon color 88 in dyelot J (Found, amazingly! Thanks, Delia!)
(2) The Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Collection for Noro, Book 2 (or just a photocopy of a pattern from there) (Sarah to the rescue - encore un fois!)
(3) One ball of Phildar Steppe in Ecru
So here we have the hybrid beast: the Ballet Pullover in progress, with one partially completed long sleeve and one short. (As for the body, I actually had enough yarn to make a second one in the smaller size, and it fits much better)
I think short sleeves suit the pattern slightly better, which is probably why Teva put the short sleeve version in her book. But winter's coming and I don't see getting much use out of the short sleeve version until spring. Here's the comparison:
(yes, I still must take mirror shots, even when my boyfriend is in the room)
I suppose I'll finish the first sleeve then make a final decision.
So there's over 1 lb. of navy worsted weight cashmere sitting in my stash at the moment. It's beginning to make me feel guilty: I bought it almost two years ago. A wee bit went to Chris' Boyfriend Scarf, but there's more than enough there for a sweater for me.
Now that the USMP only needs arms (no progress there, though), I'm committing to use the cashmere in my next project. I want a design that will show off the lushness of the cashmere, something you couldn't buy in a store without dropping several hundred bucks. My first thought was some kind of lush button-up cardigan, maybe with a turtleneck collar, maybe even asymmetrical. But after searching for just the right pattern I just couldn't find what I was looking for. So I settled on some non-cardigan options. This one goes all the way back to Rowan 32, Winter 2002:
Braid. Two things: First, the collar is actually a t-neck (why on earth does this model look so weepy? is the widdle modew having a bad day?), and as a rule I prefer crewneck pullovers. But I don't think it should be hard to turn it into a crewneck if I wanted to. Second, it's designed for chunky yarn. Maybe if I knit a size or two up with smaller needles? Think that could work? If not, I suppose I could design my own pattern with a similar motif, but I prefer to have someone else to swear at if it goes horribly wrong.
Of course, there's also this sweater from Phildar Irlandais, which I've been drooling over since March:
This pattern is created for worsted-weight yarn, which would eliminate the transposition problem, but has another difficulty in that it is quite a complicated pattern written in French. Also, the navy might not show off these more delicate cables to their best advantage. Still, it would be completely unique, something you could never find in a store. (Oh, and I'd ditch the thumb holes, bien sur).
UPDATE: For those who are interested, I'm pretty sure copies of that issue of Irlandais can be purchased here, from Knit 'n' Tyme. Mine was obtained via the good graces of the lovely Sarah in France.
I'd get tons of wear out of either of these girls, but it's a difficult choice between them ... ah well, I'm sure USMP will be giving me plenty of time to stew about the matter.
UPDATE: Er, well, also Sesame from the new Magknits is along the lines of what I was thinking about cardigan-wise, so that's in the running as well! (Although it is somewhat plainer than the other choices)
So after much reflection I confirmed that the USMP was beginning to stress me out, and that the main thing troubling me was having gone so long without actually finishing anything. So I set out to find (1) a fast, bulky project (2) using yarn from my stash and (3) needles I already owned. Probably this penchant for instant gratification is a sign of too much television as a child or something. But I digress.
Perhaps I also, secretly, wanted something to wear to the Loop-d-Loop book signing at Stitch Therapy, my LYS, later this month.
I revisited Teva Durham's Ballet Pullover from the Summer '04 issue of Interweave Knits, which I had made a doomed attempt to start once with some bizarre yarn shaped like shoelaces. This time I tried some bulky cotton yarn recycled from a thrift-store top. The gauge was too small (12st = 3.5" instead of 12st=4"), so I chose two sizes up from my normal size and got going.
The body is now complete. I think I will go ahead and add long sleeves - the sweater actually demanded very little yarn and oodles of said recycled yarn remains. Surprisingly, the finished product is actually pretty roomy. Wearable, but roomy... probably my regular size would have served just fine, especially considering all the stretch in the pattern. It's especially surprising considering I'd heard others who made this pattern complain that it turned out more snugly than they'd expected. Ah, the mysteries of yarn substitution.
Also, the neck is supposed to be finished with a crocheted border. I have little faith in my ability to crochet, though it may be worth a try, it's nice unfinished as well.
Anyhoo, the sweater should be finished in a day or so, after which I'll throw it in a warm wash (it's washable... hurrah!) and dry in an effort to tighten it up a bit. If it's still too big, I might just frog and start over again, since it was such a quick knit.
Progress on USMP continues. I completed the body today (after another finishing-triggered swearing spell similar to that provoked by the Hourglass Sweater). It's a bit loose on me although my gauge seems roughly correct, but not so loose as to look schlubby. I actually dig the shape of it so far. My other potential beef is that the yarn seems a bit itchy. I'm not sensitive to itch, particularly, so I'll probably get used to it, but it's still annoying.
I also continue to be concerned about the rolling of the top and bottom hems. It's unclear whether blocking will eliminate it entirely.
The question of the hour is this: Do I possess the wherewithall to move right on to the sleeves and finish the project by next week, or should another, quicker project be interposed between body and sleeves to avoid any night sweats and anxiousness that may follow from prolonged exposure to size 2 needles?
... is exactly the same as it was four years ago. Seventies and glorious, clear sunshine. Perfect.
So I didn't go to Houston. After doing some research, calling friends and contacts and aid organizations, it seemed like last week there were more volunteers than were needed. Going down there for the week would have been more for my benefit than for the benefit of those displaced by Katrina, so I instead donated what I would have spent on plane fare. If, in a few weeks or months, the tide of volunteers ebbs, well, we'll see.
In the meantime I thought I'd show you some progress on my two current projects, neither of which is exactly a quick knit. Completing two sweaters on size 5 and size 2 needles when all one's time to knit consists of cobbled-together subway rides is, well, IMHO, wack. I don't know what got into me. But the first bulky-wool project I begin after this is gonna seem like un piece de gateau.
The first sweater...
... is to be a short-sleeved scoop neck cardigan. I'm using Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Sandstone. The pattern is my own, or rather, is inspired by the chapter on yoked sweaters in Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. The sweater is shaping up nicely, though it may end up too large not because of gauge mistakes but rather because the dumbass who's knitting it came up with the original measurements from a top that is somewhat ill-fitting. The fabric also has a lot of stretch, which I'm hoping once blocked will be amenable to being smaller, rather than just stretching out permanently.
At this point...
... she's a bit stalled. You see, I want a real scoop neck on her. Joelle from Purl suggested using short rows to accomplish this. I'm not entirely sure how to implement them though to make a scooped neck. This may all be more clear once I finish with the other project I'm working on, the Union Square Market Pullover:
It may not look like much, but I must say I'm satisfied by the steadiness of my progress, despite how slow it's been. By my calculations, this project ought to have been stashed on a shelf somewhere weeks ago. Anyhoo, at this point I've finished the back and done my first short rows and am quickly approaching the much more complex short row section to shape the v-neck of the sweater. I hope after that it will become clear how to construct the cardi's scooped neck.
As you can see, the bottom (and the top back) edges of the sweater roll just terribly. I'm nervous about this being the permanent state of the sweater, since the rolling is quite insistent I fear even blocking the poop out of it may not solve anything. Considering how much time this project will have taken in the end, that would be very very sad indeed.
I'm telling you - if this sweater doesn't work out, I may not just frog it. I may have to actually burn it just to satisfy my wasted time demon.
Eh, what else? Yesterday afternoon my dear hometown friend Jessica, who lives just blocks from me in Brooklyn, came over and we drank beer and made mini cupcakes:
Man, mini just amplifies the cuteness! We almost 'sploded from cuteness overload. It's unclear that they were mini from this photo, but trust me, o they were mini. They were sooo mini.
Boy are we lucky. Remember (if you've been reading a long time) my beef about there not being a tutorial anywhere on the web for how to hem jeans using an invisible hem? And remember how we found one in the most unlikely of places (the Z. Cavaricci website) and linked to it? A few new readers have informed me that Cavaricci has removed that tutorial from their site. (They did us wrong once by producing those horrible pleated jeans in the early '90s, and now they've done us wrong again)
I apparently had an unusual attack of wisdom that day, however, and saved the tutorial as a Word doc in the event of just such a disappearance. Download the tutorial here. [MS Word]
Please let me know if you have trouble downloading the file or viewing the photos.
A first fair isle project? (Is this fair isle?) Here's the Nordic Sweetheart Hat, a free pattern from She Ewe Knits. Saartje has started hers in a cheery red and white. [Via Saartje Knits]
Those of you in Texas and Houston: do you know of any opportunities to volunteer there? I have hardly any classes next week. As a former Houstonian and jobless student, I would like to come and make myself useful. Know of any leads?
My heart hurts so badly for those touched by this disaster on the Gulf Coast. And as the situation develops, I am more and more outraged by the racist and backward priorities of our nation's "leadership." I should not write more, because I'm angry. Just look at the pictures and you might get a hunch about why planning for this disaster was so low on Chertoff's priority list. Then go do whatever you can to help.
One more thing. I used to be a teacher, and my students could have been the children in those photos. I wonder how many teachers, especially those who see themselves as trying to change things, stayed behind with their students in New Orleans. And I wonder, as they saw who was evacuating and who was left behind, whether they were angry too.
Given my slow progress on USMP, I'm full of admiration for others who've completed rather complex projects of late, as you may have noticed. In line with that, check out meemster''s version of Teva Durham's Tartan Jacket, for which the pattern ran in the classic Fall '04 Interweave Knits.
This project always struck me as super-hard, and the kind that might only look good on Ms. Interweave, whoever that model is. But meemster proves that, with a few mods, it's lovely in person and, with a little perseverence, can be done!
