Almost a Piece of (Red Velvet) Cake

Despite the nice compliments from tapmouse & others when I wore this to work today, I'm conflicted on the size I chose.

When I knitted my first Wendy Bernard pattern, the Marilyn Not So Shrunken Cardigan, I went up 1 size which was 2 sizes too large. I frogged that sweater with the intention of some day re-knitting it in a more appropriate size. Then, when I started my Simple Knitted Bodice by Stephanie Japel (Glampyre), I started 1 size smaller (recommended by other SKB knitters) but ended up going back up to my size for the top portion and back down for the rest of the sweater. This lead me to start the Something Red in my size instead of 1 size smaller with the intention of probably going down a size for the rest.

But then I made a tactical error and decided that since the ribbing for the rest of the sweater will pull in a bit, I would take the chance & not reduce the size. If I had swatched a piece transitioning from the St st to the ribbed portion, I would've known better, but did not. Now I'm thinking I should've started the whole thing one size smaller especially since the sleeves are on the loose side and I can't tell if the body in the ribbing section is just right or not.

On the plus side, the pattern in and of itself is elegant in its simplicity. I would definitely knit the pattern again, but maybe in Cotton Ease or Rowan All Seasons Cotton. The Knitpicks Main Line does feel a bit heavy despite it's 25% wool content. It's still cozy feeling and would be a good weekend sweater, but perhaps a lighter cotton blend would make for a better work cardigan. On the negative side, I didn' t realize the yarn sheds like the dickens. Perhaps the black cotton/lycra shirt I wore today wasn't the best choice under the cardigan, but it's still a bit annoying.

This is the second time I've knit with Main Line, but the first time for myself. I hope the Dusty Lavendar Otis I knitted for my friend last year didn't shed all over her. I'll belatedly apologize now for that in case she has a chance to actually read my blog while unpacking at her new home halfway across the country.

In the future I'll just have to remember that Wendy Bernard designs have a bit more ease than Stephanie Japel for my upper body. From now on all my Wendy Bernard patterns will be made 1 size down (especially since I plan to knit the Tomato & Sahara tops at some point) and Stephanie Japel right at my size.

Of course, I have no idea how this personal rule of mine will have to be adjusted when I get to the decision point on my Ribby Pulli. Since it starts from the bottom, I have until 2" before the undearm to decide if I need to increase up a size. I'll need to quiz the Purlescence crew about this sweater since their mini-KAL for it is what got tapmouse & I started on this. (Also, most of the sweater will be in purple so it'll qualify as my second sweater in the Project Spectrum category.

And a quick belated thank you to Carrie for my blog contest prize. Her Lunasea is on the right, the one I bought at Stitches West on the left. I'll either make a shawl out of one (Forest Canopy?) and socks out of the other or make some whack knee highs with both. But it'll wait 'til I'm inspired.

Semi-FO's

Horcrux sock #1 done!
Yarn: Yarn Botanika super merino tencel "DK" weight from One Planet in Pine Forest
needles: size 1 (2.25 mm) Susan Bates dpns
mods: extra 15 rows after the lightening bolt section, longer heel section converted in Sl st insted of St st, ended toe decrease a row early as I'm not so pointy-toed.

And the knitting is done on my Something Red!

Yarn: Knitpicks (KP) Main Line in Red Velvet Cake from their sale last year - 12 skeins
size: 39
needles: size 8 KP Options
mods: extra 1" in the bodice section, 3/4 length sleeves

I reinforced the buttonhole and it's now washed & drying. I may to need to find a button as all my spare buttons in my sewing basket are 1" and the pattern recommends 1.5" button. I'll probably sew on the 1" button as an interim measure.

If the collar edges on the bottom still roll, I'll probably cheat and add a row of crocheted slip stitches to stabilize it. Don't want to add more in case it adds to much length in comparison to the rest of the cardigan bottom, but as it is, the rolling makes the collar edge look too short.

I have more thoughts on this cardie, but I think I'll voice them when it's dry and I can post some kind of modelled shot.

Next up (besides socks): Ribby Pulli - doing a mini-KAL w/tapmouse. More ribbing :p, but at least it's in wool. It'll be in purple too, so it'll count as my next Project Spectrum.

I'm a puff piece

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Since all my WIP pics are boring, I decided to see what house I'd be sorted into. I knew I wouldn't be a Gryffindor or Slytherin, but I kinda wanted to be a Ravenclaw. Heh.

I finally saw the Order of the Phoenix Monday night. I had finished book 7 the night before, so it gave some scenes a bittersweet flavor for me. I'm glad I didn't re-read OotP before I saw the movie since I'm sure I enjoyed it more that way, especially with the downplaying of all that whining Harry does at the beginning of the book. It was one HP book I wanted to throw at the wall since Harry's teenage angst was driving me crazy.

The Horcrux progresses.

But not at Stitch 'n Pitch. Not much lighting up in the nosebleed seats, so it was a bit dark to work on it.

Not a great birthday game for Barry Bonds and an okay SnP goodie bag. Monkey1 did enjoy starting the needlepoint set that was in the goodie bag when she finished her food and got bored. She caught on quick that baseball is boring. I was thinking about going to the Oakland A's SnP (they at least have a better record this year) in September, but now I'm not so sure.

Caught up to where I was before I ripped to re-do the increases on my Something Red. Still not happy with it, but before I stab my eyes out w/my knitting needles over the ribbing, I decided to just plug on and hope they're not so obvious after a wash & block.

But what seemed truly endless was the gusset section on my Menehune socks. Apparently my rows are short so I had a lot of stitches to decrease to get to the foot section. My gauge is also off so I will run out of yarn before the sock is done. I won't rip & re-do since the sock does fit now. If I re-knit to the pattern gauge, I'll have to go to the large size, but I won't. The yarn is rather loosely plied and I'm not sure how the yarn will be if I frogged and started over. Besides, I can be too cavalier about my frogging.


And last but not least, happy birthday tapmouse! She'll have to post her b-day swag since I neglected to take a picture of it before I gave it to her.

She called it!

Tapmouse knew I was in Project Manager mode when she called that I would finish this pair by the end of the week. What she probably didn't realize was that due to Monkey2's love of the Wiggles, I had that darn song "Do the Monkey. Ooh, ooh. Ah, ah. Ooh, ooh. Ah, ah. Monkey, monkey..." running through my brain the entire time.

Quick recap:

Socks that Rock Algae lightweight
Monkey by Cookie A
size 1 (2.50 mm) Knitpicks dpns
no mods


I'll have to re-take the picture for my Scout's Indie Swag June package, but you can see better ones in Scout's flickr group. In addition to Cookie A providing the pattern for this month's swag, she also chose the color for Scout to dye. When I told Tapmouse this, she asked if it was in the green color family, but I couldn't tell her 'til I got the package. Scout hides the actual color when she previews it in her blog. And what do you know, Tapmouse was right! It's green. A teal green, but still...green!

You can get a better looks at the pattern photo here since the hard copy printed out too dark to see the details of the sock.

So now that I'm done with my Monkeys I have no excuse for not working on my second Twisted Flower sock. I initially entertained the thought of leaving sock 1 as is with the leg knitted on size 2 (2.75 mm) dpns for a "large" and the heel & foot on size 1 (2.50 mm) circs for the medium, but the more I get into the second sock, the more I realize I need to re-knit the entire first sock. Aside from the nightmare option of cutting the sock in half and then knitting the leg as a medium then grafting it to the other half, I realized I should've reduced the number of stitches for the foot to 72 sts (the "large" again), not the 68 sts for the medium. Then there's the realization that I also should've done one more repeat on the foot before decreasing for the toes. I'm not fond of toe jams in shoes or socks, especially when I can fix the sock.


In between all this I'm still managing to get a couple rows on my Something Red here and there though I've slowed down since I got to the ribbing section. My poor April Y4S club second sock is being sadly neglected.

Oh, by the way, I got in Ravelry this week. My name there is Nartian. It'll be slow going loading my projects and stash into my notebook since I can't cheat and do it at work, especially since flickr.com is blocked from our network. I'll be sticking the Ravelry button on my side bar at some point.

Metering the WIPs

In a supposedly rational effort (hah!) to keep my wrists and hands from wearing out, I've been rotating the WIP's cause:

1) I've got cotton. Well, technically my Something Red is in a cotton/wool blend, but still:

The pic shows I'm on the 4th skein of Knitpicks Main Line since it comes in 82 yd skeins as Monkey2 is showing her ire on my handknits. I haven't cast on anything for her in quite awhile. Just kidding on the kiddie ire. That's just mommy guilt kicking in a little since Monkey1 is more likely to ask for specific crocheted & handknit items.

2) (Left) The stiff Yarn4Sock club camel/blend yarn combined with a left twist consisting of a ktbl in the 2nd stitch on the second (left) Balance sock makes for slow going. That and the softener smell on the second skein hasn't dissipated as much as I thought it would - my one and only pet peeve about this yarn. I can live with the stiffness 'cause the knitted fabric has an interesting sorta velvety feel, almost (not quite, but almost) like a silk tweed - the caveat being I still need to wash these socks after I'm done with the second. But it's amazing to me how much this smell bothers me so much. (I've googled and haven't found a knit blogger in the club that's posted anything about this unless my google-fu is not working.) I know I should've washed the skeins first, but I definitely will the next time I get yarn that bugs me in this way.

3) (Right) And I hit a mental block on the 2nd Twisted Flower sock and not just 'cause I started on the medium size instead of the large for the first sock. I've realized I've been thinking my feet are larger than they are. I've started 3 first socks (maybe 4?) in the large size and had to rip back since they all came out too big. 'Cept the Twisted Flower, of course, which only came out comfortably loose.

So I cast on again for the Monkeys, this time in STR lightweight Algae. I figured doing an easier Cookie A pattern would get me back in the groove for the Twisted Flower and the squishy STR yarn would give my hands the break from the stiffer yarns. I also love the speed of doing the pattern size ("medium") on size 1 (2.50 mm) KP dpns.

It's not Friday yet, but I did finish the second test sock so Monkey1 now has another pair of socks. (The other reason to motivating me to get the Monkey off my back - I had an FO!) Have oodles of Hill Country Yarns Superfine Superwash sock yarn left (I'll need to weight it), but definitely enough for another small second pair of socks:

Yarn: Hill Country Superfine Superwash sock yarn in Raspberry Sorbet
needle size: KP size 0 circs
gauge: 10 spi St st
pattern: a test one for Tyler

And continuing the sock yarn lemming mode, my Knittery yarns came in. I had ordered directly from them before I discovered Woolgirl carries them.

left to right: Passionfruit merino, Cherries merino cashmere, Lakeside Flora merino cashmere

Scrumptious stuff, especially the Lakeside Flora! Tapmouse can testify since I flashed this stash to her today.

WIP Wednesday

In a very Project Spectrum-y mood:

Red Riding Hood from Crochet a Day calendar February 21, 2006 (haven't found it online)
size G hook
No gauge or dimensions stated in pattern - so flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Also, got sloppy w/all those hdc's for the hood & too lazy to frog back to fix
KP Merino Style Hollyberry - 3 skeins so far. Should have enough to seam the back of the hood & the hood to the collar, but won't have any left for the ties. Debating on buying one more skein since this color is currently not on sale. Ptthhthh.

And I finally figured out why I don't think seaming in knitting is such a big PITA. It's cause seaming crocheted pieces is really a PITA. Well, single crocheting afghan squares is easy, but bulky. But for clothing...ugh.

Something Red by Wendy Bernard
KP Main Line in Red Velvet Cake (progress shot of 1 skein - photo not true to color in real life)
size 8 KP circs to get finished (washed & blocked) gauge

Learned how to fix a shifted YO due to a slipping marker after noticing it 4 rows later. However, I did have to re-start at one point when I totally didn't see I missed a YO increase way at the beginning 'til I was 15 rows in.


The second test sock so Monkey1 can have a pair (pic also not color correct) 'cause her Lorna's Laces Uptown went into the frog pond after a comedy of errors on my part since the Dublin Bay pattern isn't that difficult. I'll return to these when I think my karma w/this pattern & yarn gets better. Tapmouse can't believe I frogged, especially since I finished the 5" leg portion. But I didn't want to continue knowing I totally forgot about rows 3 & 4 of the lace pattern. Doh!


Still debating the wisdom of doing Twisted Flower sock 2 entirely on size 1 (2.50 mm) circs.