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Amy’s hat and mittens

Looooooooove the mittens! (Even though one thumb starts a row earlier than the other one.)

The hat, not so much. I love the ribbed cable cast on, and the corrugated ribbing, and the overall shape — covers the ears without falling into the eyes. But I think the shaping would be better done with diagonal lines of decreases and increases, so that the stripes would be more concentric and less stacked. This one I shaped with short rows in the back. Do I care enough to do it over? I don’t know yet…

Made with KnitPicks Swish in Wisteria, Dublin, and Lawn — Amy’s choices.

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I have found the pattern I want to try. Ordinarily I would enjoy the challenge of designing exactly what I want, but this one is potentially exactly what I want, or can be tweaked. I love Ravelry for showing what people do with patterns — some of the examples of this pattern are way too pointy in front and on top, but some are just right.

Is it done?

Is it long enough?

The sweater — body almost done

So, we’re almost at the hem. But I think I am going to rip back and even out the increases in the lower shaping.

What do you think?

I want it to be flattering, shapely, AND modest — is it too form-fitting?

How about the placement of the lower darts — are they spaced too wide or are they fine?

More to life than music

One of the first groups I played with was a sometimes duo, sometimes trio with another dulcimer player, Tom. Once when I was lamenting the end of a gig or rehearsal or jam session or something, he mentioned that there’s more to life than music, and I said, how could you say such a thing?

He explained: If all you do is music, all the time, it will lose its flavor and richness. Life feeds music — so there has to be room in between the music moments for the rest of life.

It’s true with other hobbies, jobs, pastimes, whatever, too.

I have a tendency to burn through on one project until I get it done, but I find that I enjoy that project — and others — if I just work a little on each one here and there, as I feel like it, and not out of any compulsion.

My top project lately has been a sweater. Several years ago I unraveled the commercial sweater it started as — which I’m pretty sure I bought in 8th grade, and which had gotten all stretched out and had some holes. Then sometime this spring I started knitting a new one. Got as far as half the sleeves before I realized it wasn’t going to work, and unraveled it, too. Started yet again, and now I’m nearing the hem (the sleeves come after the hem), and it’s the project I turn to just about whenever I have spare time, because I really want to get it done.

But it’s been more fun to do a few rows here and there, or work on it while listening to a book or watching TV, and take time for other things like making a blanket and a Boppy cover for a baby shower and practicing percussion rudiments on dulcimer or scales and tunes on whistle or flatpicking on the top three strings on guitar. And a little computer time, or lying down time, or reading, or petting the kitty.

I’ve just been talking about the use of spare time — but of course there’s all the rest of life, too, like spending time with Amy and Mark and friends.

Sweater shaping

One of the things I’m wanting to learn with this sweater is how to make it modestly shapely. I’m tired of wearing things that are either baggy everywhere, or that pull too tight across the chest.

So far I’ve used vertical and horizontal bust darts — first a stack of increases near each armpit above the bust, then a set of short rows in the middle, then I’m working on a stack of decreases under. The increases and decreases add width, and the short rows add length.

My chair gets a new home

Tonight was the Chairs for Charity gala and auction.

(I wore my fancy dress. It was payment for playing for a boutique fashion show back in Ithaca, pre-baby. I had to remove the existing side panels and replace them with wider ones. I didn’t want to mess with the bottom piece, because it doesn’t have side seams, so I tapered the side panels to meet it — but if I want to wear the dress again I’ll have to take off the bottom piece and add velvet pieces to the ends (back slit) to make its circumference wider — it’s hard to get on, very hard to sit in (even worse getting in or out of the car). I don’t even know if it’s that flattering on me — the neck is too wide. Just that it’s such pretty fabrics and I love the fringe.)

The many many chairs were displayed in the foyer, along the hall, and all around the ballroom where the auction would be held. Here I am with mine.

Friend Andrea, co-chair of the whole event, making some announcements and getting the auction started.

Good sized crowd.

The auctioneer — “Sold!”

My chair with its two main bidders. The lady in green won, but the floral lady regretted not continuing to bid, and they talked it over and the floral lady took it home. The winning bid was $100 or $110.

A few chairs went for over $200 — two were about $500 each. Most went between $50 and $100, and several were under $50.

Miscellany

Amy picked some flowers and asked for a vase to put them in.

Two neighborhood kitties paid a visit. There was much hissing — from our kitty. The outside ones were cautious of her but seemed to want our attention — perhaps they smelled her food.

Sweater progress. I tried spacing the front increases evenly across each increase row, but they still ended up rather stacked — I’m going to rip back that much and stack them on the sides just in front of the armhole instead.

I got a $0.75 bag of largish checkers at the thrift store the other day. They came with what I thought at first glance was a cloth mat, but it was thin cheapie plastic. I happened to have black and red/white striped fabric lying around, so I made my own cloth mat. In my research into quilting (I’m going to attempt to make a quilt for Amy) I learned about strip piecing, and that made this project go so quickly. Now I just need two more red checkers and three more black ones.

Good and bad

The good news: the back of the sweater pretty much looks great.

The bad news: the sleeves aren’t full enough and the front is way too wide and the neckline is too high.

I’m not sure how far I will rip back. I think to just before I started the third strand in the neckline — I think instead of having it twist around from the neck edge, I’ll have it just smoothly branch out from the body edge. That will help lower the neckline and I think I’ll like how it blends into the center cable better.

Repeat after me, o my soul: ripping back does not mean time was wasted; there was learning and practice and the result will be better.

Green sweater, take two

Here’s a potential collar. Used short rows to curve it. It’s okay, but I’m thinking it might not blend into the sweater’s center celtic cable as well as something else might.

So back to my sketch — erased the cabled collar, and tried one that takes two strands from the celtic cable and just runs them around the neck. Then as I wondered what to do with the other two strands, it occurred to me to have them branch off from the collar.

Here’s a first swatch. It bends before the branch because I was playing with some short rows to keep the collar at a nice v-neck angle but have the last row nicely horizontal to continue into the sweater. I think I will still need to do that, but perhaps after the branch instead of before. I might also prefer to have the branch begin a little more gradually — increasing every fourth row instead of every other. I’ll try that next.