A Swatch of ill repute

So I have finished blocking out my swatch and it's measuring about 19 stitches over 4 inches on size 7 needles. Sadly this yarn is STILL harsh! So I am leaning toward mittens (with a liner) and bags. If I had a loom I would make this into wool rugs in a heartbeat as I think this would be excellent rug yarn. It's REALLY scratchy. So I guess that's good to know.

I have been making progress on my Well Named Vest over the last week. I am a quarter of the way through the color work on the bust area. I love how it's turning out and I love that it's looking like an actual vest! I am still praying it fits when I am done. I have discovered that I can only work a chart when I am focused. That ripping back color work is poopy. And that as big of a pain as it is - I don't like the look of long floats on the back of a project. My first row of this has long floats and I almost ripped it back and re-did it. But lazy won and I just kept going with floats only carrying over 2 or 3 stitches for the rest of the color work. You can see some of this peeking out from the inside of the vest. I am not sure what proper carrying technique is for carrying floats in color work - I am not very experienced with Fair Isle or Intarsia. I just know what works for me.

In other news - it got into the 60's here today. That is INSANELY warm for us. After my workout today I went outside to fill our bird feeders in my t-shirt and Capri's (work out gear) and felt really comfortable! It's just so crazy! LOVE IT! I think I am destined for a warmer climate when I get older. I love Minnesota - but man the winters here really get me down!

Swatch it!

When I was new to the knitting world I purchased a fairly large quantity of yarn on eBay. Almost all of what I purchased came from the same vendor and was 100% New Zealand Wool in various weights and colors. I purchased A LOT of this yarn. I mean a HUGE quantity. I decided recently that I should really use some of this yarn. So I grabbed out a ball in Bright Orange and started making a swatch.

I decided to use this as an opportunity to really try and understand gauge and swatching, and found a few useful links online I thought I would share. The first is on Knitty.com and is an article called "Swatch it!" Really good article on how to swatch and how to read your swatch. After I read this article I decided I would cast on 50 stitches and pretty much knit a washcloth in the wool yarn to get an idea of how it works up. I am knitting this on size 7 needles because the notes I have on this yarn tell me it's a DK/Worsted weight. My notes also tell me I have 2lbs 6 oz of this yarn, that it's 2 ply and that it comes in at about 1100 yards per pound. I decided that I wanted to understand a little more about what yarn weights really mean and found a page by Spinderella on yarn weight. Really interesting! This told me that a worsted weight is 900 - 1100 yards per pound and that DK is 1000 - 1400 yards per lb. Neat. So I can see why this comes in at DK/Worsted Weight.

I am knitting it up and I am feeling like it's close to Cascade 220 or perhaps Lion Brand Fisherman's wool in weight. I will be curious to see if this yarn blooms at all in the wash and block stage of this yarn. I will also be curious to see if it gets any softer as this is the scratchiest wool yarn ever created. Seriously rough! If it comes out of the wash and block process and still feels like it could remove a callous from my foot I will have to think about how I want to use this yarn. (Probably slippers, handbags and rugs rather than sweaters you wear against your skin.)

It's feeling good to pull some of this yarn out and think about what it could be used for. Also, if I can work it with some cascade 220 or fisherman's wool in various projects that could be really fun. I am anxious to see what the stitch per inch count comes up as when I am done swatching.

Leap Day, Bad Weather and a Vest

It's Leap Day and I have to say it got off to a pretty rocky start. Our dog Emma freaks out about high wind, thunderstorms, rain, snow, sleet.... and is VERY reluctant to go out and do her business in the morning if any of these conditions are happening. This morning we happened to have most of these conditions all rolled into one. So I (still in my pajamas with garden gnomes, glasses on, and hair flying in 17 directions) throw on my husbands giant boots, tuck my gnome pajamas into the boots, put on a wool coat and cap and start the "Come On Em! Let's GO OUTSIDE! WEEEE" Game. This resulted in me standing out in a couple inches of slush, at 4:45 in the morning, with sleet/rain/snow pelting me and soaking my gnomes, while Emma circled the yard looking for some magic spot to go potty. This is how my day started.

Next I got to drive my car in this crap to work. This also sucked donkey balls. Seriously. Every time one of those trucks would drive by me on the freeway it was like someone opened a dump truck up on top of my car of slush. It was terrible. My hands and shoulders just ached from the tension of holding the car on the road with my mighty knitter hands by the time I got to work. My 30 minute commute took just over an hour. YUCK. AWFUL!

I really feel like I shouldn't complain either. We have had one of the mildest winters I can remember. Still. YUCK! Blessedly the drive home was MUCH better. YAY!

I have made a little progress on my vest. I am into the color work portion now and am anxious to keep going. I am still finding the pattern REALLY annoying. When I got to the point where I was able to join in the round I was finally given a stitch count. I was supposed to have 162 but I actually had 186. I reread the pattern to see if I could see where I picked up so many extra stitches - but I am at a loss. So I decided that I would knit a few stitches together to bring my count down to 180 which would put me one size up from where I wanted to be. Since this is the chest area and I am pretty busty, I think this will work out. Also, I know if I rip this thing out and start over I will not start over - so I am now in the "Winging it" portion of the vest.

In the back of my head a little voice tells me it's ok if it ends up too big because it's all knit in wool and if it's too fugly I can always felt it a little to shrink it up a bit. I have not yet decided if this little internal voice is a white hat or a black hat. We shall see!

Izzi snoozing the afternoon away.

Does anyone have any Leap Day Traditions? It didn't occur to me to do this until the day was pretty underway, but I thought I would see if anyone had any that they did on this "Extra Day" every year. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have it be a "me" day where you slept in, gave yourself (or went and got) a pedicure/manicure, maybe a massage if you like that thing.... I see possibilities here!

Let's Get it Started!

I have begun my George Sand Vest! I had been avoiding it a little bit and once I realized that I was a bit afraid to start I kind of had to jump in and go! I re-read the pattern cover to cover twice, gathered all my supplies and started. For the record, this is knit with Cascade 220 and the color work will be with Noro Silk Garden.

I find that I am having a hard time understanding what the writer of the pattern wants me to do rather than the actual execution of the pattern. (The stitching is the easy part  - the reading the pattern is the hard part!) The Vest is a top-down construction and it is knit flat and then joined to work the body. The pattern does not give a stitch count through any of this top part. It also has you do increases by saying things like 'Do 2 (4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18) neck increases.' (numbers were made up by me for example purposes) and then of course - no stitch count to verify you are on track.  So I feel like I am on track with the pattern - but I have no way of knowing if I really am or not. I REALLY get frustrated with patterns that you pay for that you have to spend all your time trying to figure out what the author wants you to do. The stitch execution on this has been really easy - but the pattern itself could be better written in my opinion. All that being said - this is really the first complex item I have knit so some struggle is expected.

As you can see I just got the arm holes created. That was kind of exciting. :) I could finally hold it up to my hubby and say "See! Vest!" and have him not look at me like "Crazy lady waving yarn! Crazy lady waving yarn! Back away slowly!" So that was nice too. :)

I have spent about 6-8 hours knitting on this so far. Would LOVE to stay home all week and just knock this guy out. I have to say it's pretty exciting to knit something that is NOT a hat or scarf! :) I can see how people might get kind of hooked on knitting sweaters and vests!