lolajl: October 2005 Archives

Here is the sweater that my sister has asked me to reproduce. She's had it for years, and you can see how worn out it's become. She just loves it to death because it is 100% cashmere. She's asked me a big favor - make one that is close to this as possible. So I said I'd take a look at this and see what I could come up with. I've asked Knitgenia to help me out with this. Today she came over and bought a nice plate of brownies, and we had lunch, then got down to business.

As you can see, the color is charcoal, and it's been felted due to heavy wear, so it's kind of hard to see what the stitch pattern is. From what I can tell, on the back you can see that it is comprised of 2 knit, 1 purl, or 3 knit, 1 purl. On the front, it looks like there's this yarn-over or wrap around thing going on, and you get sort of a diamond-like appearance. At the sleeve edge, which flares out a little bit, and at the bottom, there's a plain garter stitch pattern, measuring 3 inches. Also, the collar is garter stitch and folds in half. It was difficult to make out this collar because it is almost detached from the sweater. However, I was able to unravel a hanging piece of yarn away so I could see how thick the yarn is.

Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern. Upon closer examination, Knitgenia determined that this seems to be a brioche pattern and was able to find one in “A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns” by Barbara G. Walker - Diagonal Brioche on page 220. As for the yarn, upon closer look it seems to be fingering weight, which sounds about right as this was obviously machine knit. However, I will not be using fingering weight to knit this as it would take me forever. Rather, I'll move a step up to DK, which should give a similar look but not be too much of a royal pain. Also, I am thinking of knitting it in the round so that I don't have to deal with 3 long pieces. Also, it's going to be shorter.

While reading through the blogs on my list, I came across Kimberly Chapman's gallery. The toys look really intriguing, especially the DNA model. This would be a great way to use up some of my handspun yarns.

Wendy, who's a local blogger and whose blog I read faithfully everyday, has a new book coming out, simply titled “Wendy Knits : Adventures with Two Needles and an Attitude”. No picture of the book cover, but it mattes not. Now this will be a good excuse, if I don't get there before then, to go over to Knit Happens if they do have the book signing.

Here's a very good reason why you shouldn't just stop right when you're ready to do the sleeves. Yes, the sleeve ix going up, despite decreasing at the bottom. And yes, there's that demarcation right were I'd left off when I stopped working on the project and where I started knitting again. I'm pretty sure that I'm using the same needle size that is called for.

I think it's going to be rip-out time. Sigh . . . just as I was hoping to have a sweater completed in time for cold weather, even it was meant to be done in time for cold weather two years ago.

Yes, I'm up early this morning. I woke up at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep as I had too many stuff going through my mind. When my thinking wheels are churning full steam ahead, I can't sleep. So, out comes my laptop, since it's still dark and Hubby is sleeping, and I don't want to disturb his sleep.

I am getting all caught up on my favorite blogs, and thinking about when I can pick up my sweater again. I took another look at the pattern and I think it actually is mark-on. But it's a bit poorly written when it comes to the sleeves, perhaps because of the unusual construction of the garment. So I'll just muddle along and see how it comes out.

Now, I've made several garments and a shawl for mother, a cap for father, a cute blanket for my nephew, but I've never made anything for my sister. I'd offered to make something for her, but we could never come to an agreement on a pattern. Well, now that's about to come to a change.

Sister has a cashmere sweater that she loves, but which is dying. She loves it so much that she wants me to recreate it, as closely as possible, but a bit shorter and with more room in the chest area. An opportunity to work with luxury fiber like cashmere for which one doesn't have to buy . . . how could one turn it down, especially when it's your sibling (even if butting heads occurs once in a while)?

Later today we'll be going over to visit, and I need to remember to pack my measuring tape and notebook with me, and hopefully take the sweater with me. I've come up with a few possibilities in terms of yarn - KnitPick cashmere blends, and Hunt Valley Cashmere yarn (I wish they would set up a website). Then I'll confer with Knitgenia on the reverse-engineering aspect. Should be an interesting project to blog about.

Now that I've finished my socks, it's time to get back to my projects that I haven't finished. I've been looking though, trying to decide which ones I want to finish. Since cold weather is just about on us now, I think I should finish one of my sweaters. So, with that decided, I pulled out this project. I had to go hunting for the pattern, and found it in my folder with the xeroxes of the patterns that I've been wanting to work with. This is called The Ridgeway-Lite, from Cabin Fever. Now, if you'll go to the link, and click on “view larger image”, you'll see how the sleeves decreases almost from the beginning.

Not so in the sweater above. I don't remember why I didn't start the decrease where I was supposed to do so; I think I may have misread the directions at the time and that's why I set it aside because the sleeves looked a bit strange to me. So, I've got that resolved now and hopefully my gauge will still be the same as when I knit this; this should just take about 2 or 3 days to finish, depending on how busy I am.

Looks like there's a meme going around, according to Wendy. Being curious, I googled my name (which is an uncommon one) and here's what I found:

1. Lola needs a good home!
2. Lola needs someone to write a user manual for the database.
3. Lola needs a friend . . .
4. Lola needs to go sit down somewhere!!
5. Lola needs a bath!
6. Lola needs to get her hair cut.
7. Lola needs to be sold NOW as owner has already purchased a new pony and horse.
8. Lola needs to get some capital behind her and sort out her next step.
9. Lola needs her fun and fun means restricting Cucciolo's breathing.
10. Lola needs to renavigate the treacherous waters of high school.

Now . . . number nine makes it sound like I'm into kinky, freaky stuff. Umm . . . not. And number 10 is really hilarious . . . been there, done that, and don't particularly want to repeat it again.

It should be noticed that a majority of these sentences had to do with a particular pet named “Lola”, so . . .

I've finally finished my clog socks, just in time for the festival. Bruce and I are up here for the festival and we're looking forward to a great day, especially as it's finally stopped raining. Got the camera with us, money to spend . . .

I'm going through my favorite blogs to see what the authors are up to. It seems that Cat had a disaster with the out-of-stock jacket and had to beg the folks at Woolrich.com for info about if there were any other of this model that would still be available. Fortunately, there were two still available in overstock. Being a fan of no-nonsense clothing, I went to check out the website. And I found these socks: Women's Alpine Socks: Hmm . . . This could make for a very good project using some of my yarn, with help from AS's Fair Isle Knitting. The heel shaping is interesting - short rows, perhaps?

Still slogging away with the sock. For some reason this 2nd pair is taking forever to get done. I've been a bit distracted by the birth of my nephew, and other things. Right now I'm working the heel flap and now it's time to turn the heel. From there it should go pretty quickly, just in time for our trip to NY Sheep and Wool Festval.

Since we didn't go visit Kai as planned (the parents are all visitored out and need some peace and quite at the moment), we went over to Annaplolis Mall So that I could get my baby fix, and do some shopping. I need to add some professional clothes to my wardrobe, so I was looking for a nice pair of mid-calf boots - check. Got it at Easy Spirit. Was disappointed that they didn't have Brown in 6; it only starts at 7 and upwards (what's up with that???). So, I got a black instead, but I'll see if I can get a similar pair in brown as that is the color I prefer for my cold season shoes.

Now to find a nice long skirt that is cut straight on the horizontal and not made of thin, flammable materials (such as polyester). Well . . . this kind of skirt is as rare as a dodo bird. It seems that manufacturers think that professional women want to wear skimpy, frou-frouey clothes in 60 degree weathers at the office where they've got an important client meeting to attend. This put me in a bit of a foul mood, as always. I was able to find something decent, though, even though it'll need to be hemmed up. Whew. Now it's off to prowl the net for modest wear websites to find tasteful attire.

I'd like to welcome Kai Edward to the world. Yesterday, October 6th, was his first birthday. Many, many, many years to him! He sure took his time making his debut . . . first, he was due the last day of September. Well, that didn't happen. Next due date was October 2. No, he didn't get the message. So, off to the hospital Patti goes for have the labor induced. At least 12 hours after it finally started, Kai Edward was still comfy just right where he was. In the end, a cut is what it took to get him out. He was mighty displeased at having to change locations. It does show that he has a mighty fine set of lungs, though.

Last night Bruce and I went over to the hospital so that I could get my baby fix. Here he is, all 8 lb and 1 oz and sleeping most of the time. He wouldn't open his eyes long enough for me to get a good look at him, but I've been told that his eyes started out blue and and is now changing to brown. And he has quite a bit of dark brown hair. And boy, is he heavy! I'm going to have to start lifting weights so that I can strengthen my arms since I expect to be pressed into babysitting duties.

He seems to look more like his father, but he does have Patti's nose. It will be interesting to watch him grow up and to see what kind of personality he forms. I'm looking forward to seeing how he pronounces my name; the sound “l” is one of the last sounds that children learn to pronounce correctly when they start talking. And now I really should get the car blanket finished today so that it will be ready for them to use when they get out of the hospital.

And expect to see more pictures of my nephew Kai Edward on my blog as the time passes. Oh, and he's got his own website at Two Geeks and a Baby!

I've been busy getting everything organized, that I haven't had the time to really work on my knitting. I do plan to get back to it real soon now.

My sister still hasn't had the baby, so we're all waiting and praying. If she doesn't have the baby before Tuesday, they're going to induce her. Hopefully the boy will get the message that it's time to make the debut . . .