Thursday, October 30, 2008

Should I Keep Going?


I'm not sure I like where this is going. In fact, I know I don't like where this is going. Then again, it doesn't look too bad in the pictures. It needs 1.5 sleeves, some woven in ends, and its done - c'est fini. Almost. I just don't know if I like it enough to keep going. You can't tell in the picture, but it's HUGE in the back. There's enough fabric back there to make me a matching scarf. And yet, I made this with 3" negative ease AND got stitch and row gauge. WTF?

So, it's just sitting in a bag awaiting a verdict. Should it stay or should it go?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Venus Published in Knitty

Many thanks to Knitty, its staff, and Amy Singer for including me in this season's edition of Knitty. Thank you Thor (from Amazing Threads) for all your help editing this pattern and whipping it into shape for submission.


Looking through Ravelry, I know there are some questions out there about the pattern. I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

1. The skirt is from Anthropologie a few seasons ago.
2. I'm 5'4" and have a 47" bustline. The 7" negative ease is what makes the garment shorter on me (losing length to width, some of you might remember Poisson's ratio from your materials science classes). My guess is that a garment closer to your actual bust measurement would be proportionately longer.
3. Malabrigo Silky Merino is classified as dk, but it fluffs up a bit. At the 16sts x 20 rows gauge, it's a pretty stretchy fabric. Here's a close up of my gauge swatch.
4. Yes, the collar is just supposed to roll like that. If you don't want it to, adding a bit of ribbing should help, but I haven't tried it.

I hope this helps. Happy knitting.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Pale Pink Pimple Sweater Almost Done

The Pale Pink Pimple Sweater needs only sleeves to be complete. This ribbed and seed stitch top down raglan pattern should have been a cinch, then again it is a Vague pattern rife with errata (like missing sets of sleeve increases.) I've decided to stop following the pattern and wing it with the sleeves. I made the size 44" bust thinking it gave me about 3" of negative ease, but instead (despite getting gauge) it looks like I have about 6" of positive ease. Master Blackhead said that it would be good as a maternity sweater this winter. Yes, I love my ever practical husband. Unfortunately, every time I look at it, I think "zit factory." Maybe bulky pink yarn wasn't such a good choice for a seed stitch sweater. Can we say benzoyl peroxide and salicyclic acid five times fast?

Anyway, I'm sure I'll like it when it's done.
Anyway, I hope I like it when it's done.
Anyway, I better like it when it's done.

Ok, weird. Some guy just drove by my house and took a picture of it. This would be the second "some guy" to drive by my house and take a picture of it. The first one said it's because he thinks the brick work is really cool, which it is. Nonetheless, it's still creepy for people to come by with camera in tow. So here's a picture of the brick in case you are wondering.


I just found our recently from our HVAC guy that the mason was pretty talented and wanted to try something completely different. He finally found a builder who let him go hog wild. I wasn't that keen on it when I first saw the house, but I love it now. Mom loved it at first sight.