WOW!

In the last three weeks since school started I've had the attitude that if I don't have time to knit, I don't have time (or fodder) to blog and If I don't have time to blog I don't have time to read anyone else's either.

With a couple of posts under my belt by yesterday I finally felt I could do a bit of "visiting" and after starting to catch up with my list of favourites I was struck by how much impressive stuff has been going on while I've been away. (And I've only been able to catch up on a few so far!)

For example...

• Brenda launched a sock book she co-authored with Deb Gemmel
• Cheryl has been knitting and felting and weaving and decorating and travelling and taking photos of it all!
• Les launched 4 more adorable children's hat patterns into the world
• The ladies at Passionknit cranked out more knitted skirts than I knew patterns existed for. 
• Girl Who Knits finished a sweater that she just loves in every detail and every way (how often to you read about an FO like that?) Unconditional satisfaction can be a rare knitting commodity!
• Sandra has had an unbelievable output of knits and sewing and jewelery.
• Stephanie has been the University student equivalent of Sandra - output galore but with studies.
• Laurie became a telecommuter and started spinning.
• Elizabeth is changing the way she eats and adding regular exercise to her life!
• Glenna ran her first half marathon
• Rea passed the Bar Exam!!!!

Its a pretty diverse and impressive list isn't it?

Congratulations all around (especially on that Bar Exam Rae!)!

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Summer Highlight

One of the knit blogs I follow and most enjoy is Shades of Grey. Knitblogger Lyn is one of my Ravelry "neighbours" as we have several projects in common. We also share a similar hair cut and colour but Lyn lives in sunny Australia while I shiver away here in Canada.

Its fun to note when checking my blog roll before going to bed that Lyn's pre-workday post has just gone up as she is already into the morning of the next day. Its also motivating to follow along as Lyn and a few other Aussi bloggers get back into autumn-induced knitting enthusiasm as I come into the summer knitting doldrums here in the northern hemisphere.

In the year or so I've been following Lyn she has of course shown many lovely knitting projects both in progress and finished. She has also posted a wonderful travelogue from her trip to France and documented her moving house complete with details of renovating her new apartment.  As part of the renovation project she had a little contest asking readers to contribute storage and organization ideas. After putting in my two cent's worth she sent me an email telling me I would be receiving something for my participation.

Then sometime mid summer I received this!...
All the way from Australia - a lovely lavender cake of fingering weight Australian wool! With the yarn was a lovely note written in a graceful hand on creamy, heavy hand made paper. It was of course from Lyn!

I can't tell you what a thrill it was to receive that package. In our little cabin in the Canadian woods in the midst of my knitting drought I was suddenly holding an unexpected knitting treasure from the other side of the world! It was just a delightful treat. I set that lavender cake on a shelf in the kitchen for a while then moved it to a book shelf in the living room for the next couple of weeks so I could look at it and of course give it the occasional pat as I walked by.

As for what I'll do with it, I'm leaning towards mittens...something with some lacy detail at the cuff. I like the idea of that lavender to wear in early spring!

Many thanks to Lyn for giving my knit-less summer its only knitting highlight and many thanks to you for dropping by today!

Actual Knitting Content!

At last some knitting to post about!

This project , from the IK Spring issue this year, was started at the end of June.

The yarn is a DK Mirasol cotton/linen blend. and yields a very beautiful fabric. (Not surprisingly, as the weather turns cooler the fabric becomes less and less engaging.) I am determined to get this project done before I indulge in anything deliciously woolly though so onward I am pressing!

My plan with this (other than to have it finished and ready to wear a couple of months ago!) was to focus on shaping for a better fit. Anne Hanson (in the workshop I took with her at Purple Purl last spring) suggested I might generally try moving shapings in from the edge to create kind of darts both above and below the bust line to better address my shape and measurements.

Before I tried that approach with this pattern, I did a trial run with knitting the back as written.  It didn't take long before I decided it was worth trying something different because with the shaping out at the edge the knitting seemed stiff, the shaping a bit awkward.

So I ripped it back, restarted and this time placed increases and decreases just as the pattern recommended except that below the bust I placed them 4" in from the sides and above the bust, 3.5" in.

So despite its appearance, the right side edge of the piece above is actually dead straight!  The shape of the piece, driven by the increases and decreases about 4" in from that straight edge. When I hold it up to myself it hugs me all the way across the front rather than just being necessarily narrow at the sides. 'Just what I was hoping for!

If you look closely at the larger photo you might notice that the shaping below the bust (close up photo directly above) looks a bit like a plant stalk with little buds on alternating sides.  They are "paired" on alternate sides of a mark to yield that slightly wiggly line. I figured that since the cotton/linen yarn in a stockinette background was bound to make the decreases and increases visible I decided to play them up to go with the viney leaves on the saddle shoulders.  By contrast, above the bust I left them in a simple line placed inside the markers...

...I didn't want too much of a good thing!

At the arm holes I wanted to keep the arm scythe narrow so I went down one size in terms of the height of the arm hole. I did this both because it seems to be an adjustment I need to undertake with most patterns but in particular, the photo in the magazine and on the website shows quite a bit of bunching under the arm on the model so I'm assuming there is unnecessary extra room there to begin with. I'm playing with fire on this count but since the saddle shoulders are made right on the sweater I should be able to tell by the end of the first sleeve if any changes need to be made to things work well together.

I worked on sleeve number one yesterday for quite a while and made good progress. Hopefully by the end of this evening I will have that one done and know whether I've dug myself into a hole by reducing the arm scythe as I have.

Wow. a bona fide knit blog post about knitting! I'm sure my new "knitting supervisor" is much more impressed than his expression indicates!

Thanks so much for dropping by!