Kim Hargreaves - My New Best Friend

These two came yesterday. So many things I want to knit from them!
Do I dare to swatch before the Long Collared Coat is done?

Put To Good Use

I'm motoring along on my Long Collared Coat from Knit One Knit All and lovin it. The recent cool spell we've had has just drove home that this would be a great coat to wear in just a few weeks.

There is miles of garter stitch yet to go on it, but the coolest part is that I think this navy that I dyed by mistake last year is going to be perfect for the trim of the coat.



This is some great knitting that requires absolutely no looking at.

Great Plans


A week ago I thought that I would whip this baby sweater up for a baby shower we are having at work in a couple of weeks. The intended baby is a boy. The more I knitted on it, the less it looked like a boy sweater.

So I chucked the idea but not the knitting of it. The yarn is so soft and cuddly. But, alas, I don't have enough for the hat that I want to do. I'll have to pick up some more yarn later this week at the shop to do the hat.


When I get the hat finished, I'll put it aside for a future baby present. This cute little button from the project below will be perfect to add to the sweater.


Knit 4 Together has these one ball yarn kits that you can either knit a pullover or cardigan from. The ball yarn kits includes three ducky buttons for whichever pattern that is included that you decide to knit.

Which is great for me. I can knit the pullover and use two of the buttons and save the third for the very first baby sweater I knitted above.

The pattern has you knit back and forth, but because I have a real adversion to sewing up, I am doing what I usually do, cast on in the round and then separate when I get to the armhole.

Today again in Central IL, it's rainy and cold which drives home that I need to be knitting on sweaters and shawls for me along with the twoper scarves. I made the decision this evening that I'll buy something for the baby shower rather than spend try knitting something.

My rationale is that this is for someone I really don't know that well and I'd rather save the knitting for special little ones.


Then there is this great bag of Encore that I have that would be a great afghan to go with this sweater for that special little baby boy.

Best of all of these yarns were purchased at Knit 4 Together, so I have projects that I can actually knit at the shop when I am there, a pet peeve of mine.

Revelations

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about knitting. What to knit with yarn I have. What new yarn to buy at my lys. What to knit with it if I bought it. So much time has been going into thinking about knitting that there has not been a lot of real knitting going on.

Knitting is suppose to be fun. Knitting is not suppose to keep you up late at night.

You should knit on what you want to knit on not what the rest of the crowd is knitting on unless you really want to.

What you knit should flatter you and make you feel good. It is okay to give away sweaters that you have knitted that no longer fit or just plain don't look good on you!

It's okay to knit the same sweater twice, especially if the first version doesn't fit any longer.

I feel so much better about these revelations tonight. I don't think I'll be tossing and turning so much tonight thinking about knitting.

There's Going To Be Trouble Tomorrow

My fave lys - Knit 4 Together has been getting new yarns in. I'm going to knit tomorrow and I just feel the need to support my local yarn shop.

To be continued...

I Did It!

I successfully spit spliced.

For some that is no big deal. But I cannot tell you how many years I have been trying to do it and it just never quite sunk in. Kind of like the jogless join. Meg's been trying to teach that to me for years and I never quite got it, until I was forced into it along with Susanna's great instructions.

Now while joining an end into my Bloomsbury Jacket, I tried spit splicing again. The first time it didn't work, but the second join worked absolutely fantastically. The key, unravel both ends a bit and then spit splice.

Voila! Pretty darn proud am I.

I Get The Fit Idea

For many years now, I have been very much a gauge person. Ever since my second camp when the lightbulb when off that no matter what the pattern says, I can make it to fit me my utilizing gauge and some measurements. The measurement piece came after a summer and most of a Fall of traveling to Des Plaines for a Knit to Fit Class with Judy Chan at Mosaic Yarn Studio. I learned so much that year about fit.

Now comes the tough part. What about flatter? As I blogged about yesterday, I think my sweaters fit, but do they really flatter my body? I have come to the conclusion that no, they don't always. And it is time for them to fit and flatter.

I went into the yarn room late last night and pulled some books that deal with fit and perhaps a little flatter. It seems that I have a lot of resources when it comes to this issue.


Cheryl Brunette's Sweater 101 is probably one of the first tools that I bought. My first one was in the form of a folder that had the info and I think I bought it at my very first Meg's Knitting Camp.


Recently, a friend camp indicated that Ysolda's new book had some great info in it. I bought it as an e-book and also got the hard copy which came almost as fast as a sandwich from Jimmy John's. I've yet to really look at it, but soon.


I've had Sally's book for awhile and I have to admit, there is just a few pages that interest me as far as fit and flatter. However, there are a couple of patterns that are on my list for the future.


Right behind Cheryl Brunette's book is Maggie Righetti. I love the first book from her that has some great knitting events and again, I remember getting it when I really became serious about knitting again.


Jean Frost book is a recent acquisition. I probably won't use it for it's intended purpose (getting jackets that fit) but rather for the pattern style's themselves. I love Jean Frost jacket books. They for me are so wearable for my work.


The final tool which is not a book but rather a printoff from Amy Herzog's blog last year. She has 10 installments on knitting for fit and flatter. I whole heartedly recommend you jumping over there and taking a gander. I went through it this morning and came up with some really good hints for making sweaters be flattering for this bottom heavy body.

It was an interesting read, and drove home some things I already knew but was trying to ignore. I made some notes to remember in my next sweater among other thoughts.
I may just get the hang of this fit and flatter thing.

I've Been Thinkin

Maybe it is the change of the seasons, maybe it's that I've lost a little weight, maybe it's because I'm going to be a year older than I thought I was, who knows. But, I've been thinkin way too much lately about my knitting.

Which is a good thing.

Yesterday, I pulled out of my drawers one of my sweaters from Knitted Jackets and wore it because it was chilly here in Central IL and was just what I needed to have on. I love it. It is comfy and cozy. But several things happened.

I seemed to be pulling on it at the shoulders quite a bit. Makes me think that the shoulders don't fit as well as they should. It my mind, it felt a little boxy through the waist and was sort of okay around the hip. (read that as the hips are the last to go when I lose weight) It was a comfy sweater, but in my mind just not real flattering.

I got several compliments on it. But today, a person that I know and who kids around with me about a couple of outfits that I wear to work that look good on me (read that as compliments me when I wear them and also read that I am not in any way offended by it), mentioned that yesterday's outfit was not one of them.

Again, I took this as not a dig at all but constructive criticism. And not something that I had not been thinkin about myself. I'm a watcher. And quite a few times I have wished that I could pull a look off that someone else has, but lets face it, sometimes no matter how much you wish you could, it is better just to not to.

And quite a few times, I am so guilty of putting something on for either work or not, just because it is there, when really what it should be is given to the goodwill.

As Fall sets in, it is time for me to take a critical look at the wardrobe and that may include the sweaters. It's time to weed out the closet, and only keep those things that look good and that I feel good in.

It may be time to start shopping and for me I think it is definitely time to find a shop that can help me find just the right style/size/look for me. I'm open to favorites? Coldwater Creek? Anyone want to weigh in?

And finally, it's time to knit sweaters that are flattering that fit well and feel good on and are worthy of compliments. I am very much on the soapbox when it comes to knitting to fit and have several books that address that issue. On my quest to make my sweaters fit even better, I think there may be some blog posts coming our way to deal with this for me very important issue.

Hang on!

Wednesday Website Kind Of


I love this pattern and my yarn! Yarn is Dolce by Cascade. Cheryl helped me figure out how to keep track of the rows in between cables so I don't have to constantly look at a chart. You can see it on the Knitted Jackets group page on Ravelry.

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/knitted-jackets/1778745/1-25

Debbie helped me figure out once again on how to do the cables without the needle.

I love Bloomsbury from Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle

Just A Couple of Finds

There is actually quite a few things in the new Debbie Bliss magazine that I like. From the start her magazine has had some appeal for me. It's too bad it doesn't come out a little more often, because I think she could give the other knitting magazines a run for their money.


Last Saturday at Knit 4 Tog, one of the ladies was knitting from this book. It has some really cute things in it. So after, I popped over to Ewenique Yarns and they had it. Debbie, the owner, gave me the sale on my purchases. Sale starts today for their Pumpkin Festival.

I bought yarn for a shawl on Saturday too. Would show you it, but the colors in indoor light just don't do it justice. And for those of you who think you know me, its purple. A nice dusty purple. Knit 4 Together has had the sample that I throw on when I get cold out there and I really like it, so now I'll have my own. Okay, now I'm done buying yarn.

Under the Influence

Not only is that part of the category for Knit Camp's Contest next year, but that is how I have been feeling for quite some time in my knitting.

On occasion, I will have an epiphany about this subject I will vow to do better, but then like a wave of a candy bar in front of a dieter I will succomb and promptly forget everything I have told myself I would not do.

After knitting yesterday and through last evening, I really had another good talk with myself. I have been so discombulated when it comes to knitting lately. You all know from other posts that I have a lot of projects on needles. I am easily led astray to cast on another project, mainly because I can. Some because of the need for other knitter recognition, some to be the first in the circle to try it, oh there is more rational there somewhere. It's a vicious knitting cycle for me.

Yesterday at knitting, I virtually had nothing to knit on. You see, when I am at the shop, I like to knit on their yarn. I came unprepared without my big bag of tricks, so I did not have the proper extra skein of yarn or extra needle to do what I needed. So I sat there and sort of shopped (but really talked myself out of adding to the stash, which I thought was pretty good of me and there is a whole other story behind that which I will save for another day - has to do with not just buying for the sake of buying) and visited.

Short story, long. I am going to knit what I want to knit for awhile. Not what others are knitting on necessarily, or what I should be knitting on (except for the twoper scarves) and enjoy it for the sake of knitting.

I AM IN CONTROL OF MY KNITTING! It's my knitting and I'll do what I want and not (read as try not to) just follow the leader. I feel better now.

Twoper

I am on a deadline. I have to knit 2 scarves a week every week from now until the second Thursday in December. Don't feel too sorry for me though. A friend helped with the ones I have so far and I've known about it for at least two years.

They are simple garter stitch scarves. They can be quite fun and just the right thing for idiot knitting while at knit night or in the car when I am not driving. And at back ups durning the constant construction that seems to be going on everywhere in Central IL. Oh, yes and I do knit on them at stop lights. Because some times it takes the cars in front of me a few minutes to step on the gas after it turns green.

I'm just sayin.

Happy Birthday Char!

Wednesday Website

Check out Bonne Marie's post It's All in The Details. This is about the third time this week I've seen this technique. Funny, I think I have been doing this for sometime. But Bonne Marie's pics/description says it really well.

http://chicknits.com/rambles/

Also, found a You Tube video where this is shown as well.

Five Hours Later

I went into the yarn room to tidy up a bit. It was getting a little overgrown and I kept picking up and putting things down to get to something else.

Once I started, I just kept going. I purged some yarn. I got a couple of bags of donation yarns for two of my friends who will use it. I took several things off of needles and had quite a few needles to put away. I had notions all over the place so now, they have been whittled down to a couple of containers.



The yarn wall needed some revamping too. That took me a little bit of time. A couple of revelations while taking yarn out and putting it back. Schoolhouse Press has way too many bins. Cheryl now has her own bin. I have a lot of sock yarn that I needs to be knit up for socks or shoulder shawls for me. There my colors Norma, sorry! And I remember what every skein of yarn was origianlly supposed to be.

Well, sure I have too much yarn...but someday I will retire and I'll be on a fixed income, I'll knit it up then.

There is now actually a place for me to sit without having to move a bag of yarn off of the chair. I actually could get the vacuum around the chair after I was done.


The best thing of all. I used some of my ends from my harmony needles. Several harmony needles have went back into their case and now have connectors on the WIP.

I feel good about my five hours of work today. Time to enjoy some knitting and netflix.

Feeling Pretty Good

I've got the linen cardigan drying on the table. Pictures next week on a body when it's dry and I am sure that it is worth wearing. I'm still on the fence about it. I do have to admit that the linen is drying pretty quick under the ceiling fan.



I just finished the Summer Open Cardigan from Knitting Pure and Simple. I told me that it would be the last spring/summer knitting I would do this year. I'll do some blocking on it and show pics of it next week on a body as well. I have to remember that this one is meant to be worn open and not pulled tight!


Now, I just need to decide what I am going to do next. Been thinking that it has to be something on my Harmony needles. I want to work on WIPS and get some needles back where they belong.

I'm involved in a couple of KALs too that need a little attention.

Maybe I'll go to the teal notebook that has all these paperclips in it signifying WIPS.


It feels so good to have some WIPS done!

Happy Birthday Kendra! Enjoy the Big One!!!

Can You Believe It?

It's September already.

Second day in a row in the 90's.

A Three Day Weekend.

Oy!