CPH for the Last Time

It’s Done. CPH. Finally. I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago. Just never got around to taking pics. I even wore it to an inaugural event, a LA Galaxy soccer game, last weekend. So it will henceforth forever be called The Soccer Sweater because that’s what its intended purpose is… Sweetie Boy’s and Girl’s early morning Fall and Winter soccer games.

Side view so you could see the cable up the arms.

Back view so you could see what a linebacker I look like. At least the hood sits nicely after TC Marie and blogless Linda fussed with it for me.

Project: Central Park Hoodie from Fall 2006 KnitScene by Heather Lodinsky
Yarn: Black Water Abbey in Pink Heathers, less than seven skeins
Needles: KnitPicks Options US size 6 for ribbing and size 8 for the body
Start: mid March
Finish: mid June

Thoughts: This was one big monster project for me, and I’m glad that it’s done. Just the right amount of challenge for me, especially the seaming, but I was able to overcome my fear and actually seam up the garment. I made the 40″ version and used less than 7 skeins of the yarn. The mods I made were grafting the hood, knitting the button band in one piece, and picking up about 50+ less stitches on the button band.

The yarn was rustic and perfect for an outdoor jacket type of sweater, which is what this is for me. I wouldn’t recommend using this yarn for this project though, because it’s very grippy (if that’s the right term) and stitches look quite uneven. I’d actually recommend Cascade 220 to those who want to make this, even though that might seem like the boring, obvious choice. I’ve seen some beautiful CPHs out there in blogland done in Cascade 220. Go with the workhorse yarn that slips nicely through your fingers. This Black Water Abbey yarn definitely filled my need to commune with “classic” workhorse wool yarns.

I had an extra skein of the Pink Heathers, and Marilyn, the owner of Black Water Abbey, was kind enough to exchange it for another skein of the Butters colorway, so I could make a felted bag with it. It is destined, at this time at least, to become the Noni Adventurer bag. Keep your fingers crossed for when that might happen.

The pattern was quite easy to follow, only one panic hiccupy part for me, but I figured it out and got a lightning speed answer to my question from Seattle Marie, the first place finisher of the intrastate CPH race. Other than feeling like it took forever to knit this sweater, I think the pattern was well-written. Would I recommend this to others to knit? Definitely. Would I knit this again? Not on your life. Now, on to greener pastures and cheering on Madgik, TC Marie and Jolly Ewe to the finishing line. Special thanks to Madgik for snapping the photos.

P.S. I decided on and signed up for Cookie’s designing socks from the top down class. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have aspirations to become a sock designer, but I would like to get to know socks better. Besides, how can I pass up a class with the world famous Cookie? Now, back to the socks.

Wednesday WIP Report

Welcome Back to the All Socks All the Time channel. Well, at least that’s what it feels like. Here’s how Mini Monkey #1 is coming along.

Drop Stitch Lace Tank is sitting patiently on the sidelines, waiting for the coach to put her in. The first clue for MS3 comes out on Friday, so it’ll be a challenge for me not to cast on right away. Must stay sock focused.

I’ll leave you with one last picture before I sign off. Our knitting group went to The Huntington Library and Gardens this weekend to celebrate our anniversary, and this is the only picture I took. You can see another beautiful picture of the Japanese Garden, one of my favorites, at Mehitabel’s.

Have a great rest of the week!

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Melanie is hosting a contest for free yarn, of course, and even better, it’s her own hand-dyed beauts! All you have to do is post either your first knitted item or what you plan to knit next.

I don’t have the very first or second items I knit, scarves of course, because they live with my nieces in Virginia. But I can show you the third and fourth items and hope they’re good enough. They’re caps, still one of my favorite things for a quick fix. I made caps for the Sweeties for Christmas in 2002, and here they are.

The first picture is of the cap I made for Sweetie Boy. It was a Christmas gift, and this is the pic I took that Christmas morning. He was only 5 at the time.

The second picture is the one I made for Sweetie Girl who was 2 at the time. Her cap was also for Christmas, but this picture was taken New Year’s Day at California Adventure. She’s riding with the Sweetie Nieces of first-and-second-knitted-item fame. I love seeing all of their chubby, happy faces from five years ago.

Thanks for strolling down memory lane with me. If you want to play along in Melanie’s contest, be sure to mention that Dim Sum Mary sent you!

The Panic is Over

Thanks to everybody for their great suggestions. I really appreciate the support and reminding me to breathe into the bag. I decided to set aside the feather and fan socks for now, thereby giving up on my June SAM3 socks. I’m a little disappointed at myself for boxing myself into a corner. This would have been the eleventh month in a row I completed a pair of socks. But I’m okay with the decision. Life goes on. I’m kind of crazy when it comes to keeping my end of the bargain and meeting my commitments, but I know this is the right action plan. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to make my Mini Monkeys fly and be done by June 30th.

Rachele turned me on to the Red Dwarf socks on Turtlegirl’s blog as a possibility for quick Sockapalooza socks. They are knit out of worsted weight yarn and have beautiful yarn detailing. I will definitely add these to my queue in fall. I have some Artyarns Supermerino that I need to use up and would look gorgeous in these.

Annie also sent me links to Monkeys that are all knits and no purls, and even toe-up Monkeys. Those are my kinda patterns, since I am the one and only lazy ass knitter. They’re gorgeous!

Oh yeah, I went to the sale at A Stitch in Time yesterday and got some yarn on sale. If you buy the bag or all of a color, you get 50%. I picked up some Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in a medium denim blue, and Elsebeth Lavold Cable Cotton in eggplant. They’re slated for some lightweight shrug-y or bolero-y things. I also got two skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in the red/orange colorway. This is the same yarn and color that Silvia used to make her Wicked. Doesn’t it look great on her?

Have a great weekend and thanks again to everybody for your help!

I Am So…

Screwed. As I was ecstatically signing up for MS3, I forgot about another little commitment. Sockapalooza, which I obviously have not even started. I didn’t connect that the two would overlap on the knitting calendar. The Sockapalooza socks should arrive on my Sock Pal’s doorstep at the beginning of August, and MS3 starts next week. Duh. Maybe I can juggle it if I don’t knit socks on tiny size 1 needles. Maybe this is my way of telling myself I don’t like knitting on toothpick sized needles.

So now, I have to find some nice sport weight sock yarn, preferably in purples, that I could knit up with size 2 needles. I was thinking of making Mini Monkeys. Any ideas?

Wednesday WIP Report

Today’s WIP Report is late because I have not had a free moment, since the kids have started summer vacation. The life of playdates, matinees, swimming and swim lessons doesn’t leave me much free time. I know; feel bad for me.

Just a little bit of progress on the feather and fan sock. I did another needle dance… again. I think that’ll make it four different types of needle techniques I have tried on this one sock.

I started with two circs to cast on the toe, and after all the increases, I switched to the 12″ addi circular. The 64 stitches were too stretched out and it was hard to move those stitches along the cable and needle. Out came the dpns for the rest of the foot, turning the heel and starting up the leg. That was fine for a bit but then the feather and fan pattern calls for 5 dpns, and I only had 4. Frankly, it wasn’t too bad but I kept dropping a stitch here and there. I got my KnitPicks order with my 32″ size 1 cir, and put the sock on for some magic loop action. That’s where we are right now. Maybe I’m just not cut out for socks on small needles. Or socks at all. I’m gonna have to think this one through.

Progress, regress and more progress has been made on the drop stitch lace tank. I’m still loving this yarn a whole lot, and it’s quickly climbing its way to the top of my favorite yarns list. Not #1 (not that I even know what my all-time #1 favorite yarn is right now), but it’s high up there.

I was zipping along swimmingly on the tank, working on the ribbing portion, when I realized that I was supposed to be doing 2×2 rib on the entire thing, not just on the back as I was. Doh! So I had to frog about two to three inches, and start the 2×2 rib. I’m past the four inches of ribbing now, and back to doing the pattern on the front only.

In my KnitPicks order, I got my new chart keeper, so I’m basically ready for MS3. Are you? I also got my 3 hanks of light pink alpaca cloud for further adventures in lacing at a later point.

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Swatching for Mystery Stole 3

I received my Jaggerspun Zephyr Vanilla yarn from Sarah’s Yarns in the mail late last week. This is the yarn Melanie suggests for the Mystery Stole 3. I ordered it last Sunday and amazingly, I received the email that said she shipped it that afternoon. Great service!

After obsessing over which yarn to use for this project, I decided I really wanted some silk in it, thus I decided on Zephyr. Melanie also suggested either white, black or shades thereof for the stole and Vanilla is what I went with. The first picture is during blocking, and the second is post-blocking. You can see my lace amateur skills at work on the first repeat and a bit on the second repeat, but I’m happy with how the third repeat looks. I’m a lace beginner, so this hopefully this kal will help me improve my lace skills.

I swatched using the Bryspun size 4s I recently purchased at the BSK sale for $2. In keeping with my reputation as the needle dancer, I was not happy with them. The plastic was too grippy, so for the actual stole, I’ll be using my KnitPicks Options in size 4. Hopefully, that will make it easier for me to run a lifeline. Now, all I need to do is decide whether to bead or not and for the kal to actually start!

BTW, CPH is done, done, and done. Really. Truly. Buttons are sewn on. And I’m excited and relieved. I’m going to wait for a slight dip in the weather before attempting a photo shoot. Stay tuned!

An Unexpected Find

The Sweeties are officially out of school for the summer, and we spent the weekend at Santa Monica at a beach soccer tournament for Sweetie Boy. They had a great first day, and Sweetie Boy even scored a 10 year old boy’s dream goal… a header goal. However, today… not so good. I tried to take pictures, but just got a lot of feet in the sand.

After yesterday’s games, we went in search of lunch on the way home. When I flipped a u-turn to get to the restaurant, I saw a yarn store out of the corner of my eye. It was Yarns Unlimited! I had never been to it before, knew it was in Santa Monica somewhere but didn’t make plans to go because we were in soccer mode. After lunching, Sweetie Boy was in such a good mood that he agreed to half an hour for me at the LYS. That’s why I call him Sweetie Boy. He perused the yarns with me, because he said he wanted to learn how to knit. He’s planning to make Sweetie Girl a cap in her favorite color, purple. Ahhh, what a sweetie. We didn’t get him any yarn because I had some great chunky lavender alpaca at home for him to learn on. Of course, in the name of supporting LYSs and souvenir yarn, this is what came home with me. They were having a sale of 10% after all.

Misti Alpaca lace weight in springy green, pink and lavender, and eggplant. Because you all know that I’m *such* a lace expert, right? 😉 Oh, BTW I also received my Jaggerspun Zephyr in vanilla for the Mystery Stole 3. Gotta start swatching soon.

Happy Father’s Day to you and your loved ones. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Wednesday WIP Report

I’m distracted by the new kid on the needles, the Drop Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits, so much so that I joined the Fitted Knits Along. Because I need new places to post my pictures? I dunno; just call me crazy.

I’m using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in lime light and knitting it in the round. Someone on the Fitted Knits kal posted the instructions on how to knit it in the round, with Stefanie’s approval, so that gave me very little reason NOT to start it up. Getting 3 skeins of this yarn for $6 at the BSK sale also helped a lot too. I cast on yesterday and here’s where I was this morning, just about ready to start the ribbing on the back. After a bit of knitting on it today, I’m about 2 inches further along. Here’s a close up picture so you can see how beautifully the Cotton Fleece shows the stitch definition. I’m also surprised at how wonderfully soft and squooshy the yarn is.

I’m also progressing on my Wendy’s Feather and Fan sock. I just started the feather and fan pattern on the leg but this is my second go at it. After doing about 5 rounds on it, I realized why my stitch count was off. I forgot to increase the number of stitches from 64 to 72 before starting the feather and fan, so I had to frog back. It’s fine now that I have the correct number of stitches. Here’s a pic that unfortunately does show the pattern well yet.

No progress on CPH; she is waiting for her sleeves to be seamed up, and then set in. I told you I was a seam-tard. Maybe I’ll start seaming them tonight.

Hey, exciting news! Cookie A is teaching three sock classes at Unwind next month. She was so unbelievably cool at Stitches (and I’m sure all the time). Now I just have to figure out which class to take.

Toe-up? Even though I already do toe-up socks, I’m sure I could still learn lots of things in the class.

Top-down design your own socks? Maybe, but I’m not a big fan of the top-down.

Trouble-shooting your feet? Could be the one but it’s called Sock Design Overview and Trouble-Shooting Your Own Feet. The overview part talks about percentages and stitch count and honestly, that part doesn’t excite me too much. I’ll have to mull this over a bit.

Fluffification

I liked fluffify but Michelle liked fluffity better. Either way, I finished Sweetie Girl’s pink fluff last Thursday. It was very quick knitting and not much finishing… just my kind of pattern.

Project: Ballet Shrug pattern from Knitter’s Haven in Visalia
Yarn: Katia Ingenua, 1 skein almost all of the 220 yds.
Needles: Denises US size 8 and later needle danced to Susan Bates Silverado circular size 8
Start: May 22
Finish: May 31

Thoughts: The pink fluff stayed on my night stand for easy knitting while tv watching and it went quickly. I haven’t knit much before with mohair so this was a new experience, one I would do again. Easy quick knit with luscious results. I recommend this pattern because it can be made with mohair and also looks great in Noro Kureyon with the color striping.

Definitely Fluffilicious.