Introducing #5:

This is Prettier in Purple, a variation of Pretty in Pink on Ravelry. It’s actually not prettier in purple, but I like the alliteration.  What I loved about this pattern was the back:

The seam up the back is soooo cool.  The project’s knit side to side (thus the seam in the middle of the back).  The collar’s made by increasing needle sizes gradually for 8 rows each–i love the drape!  A nice project, and something I may do again in a wool or mohair for winter.  For this project, I used five skeins of Cascade’s ultra pima–a lovely mercerized cotton that dresses up the piece a bit.  The ultra pima has 220 yds per hank, so for $9 or so, you can get a lot of knitting done.  I barely broke into the 5th skein.

Now onwards to adult garment #6.  I’ve got a few projects on the needles that need attention.  Time to dust them off!

Here’s my progress so far:

This is the right side.  It’s now done, and I’m cruising on the left.  But there’s tons of stockinette, which can be a bit mind-numbing.  But I’m thinking Mr. James’ hour long press conference may be just as, well, numbing.  Talking for an hour about where he plans on playing ball?  He’s good and all, but that’s about maybe a 3 minute speech at the most.

And to be filed in the “how’s your summer vacation going?” category: we started the summer of 2010 off with a bang.  First Thing 3 bit a classmate on move-up day.  Nice first impression on the new teacher Thing 3!

This is before the bite!  We didn’t look so pleased leaving the school. (note: this whole bite thing has me flummoxed.  Thing 3 was never a biting kid–she must have been sooooo frustrated to lash out like that, but no excuses!  Biting isn’t tolerated at Linden Ave. School I was told by the nurse–and I’m thinking to myself, like we tolerate it at home, either!)

We then moved on up to Maine.  But without leaving New Jersey, we saw some crazy sites, like this rock/lawn ornament.  Who does this stuff?

Up in Maine we were at a nice lodge, Jamaica Point Lodge, on Great Pond.  Remember, ponds are lakes in Maine lingo.  JPL was roomy enough for the extended clan of 19!  Here are Things 1 & 2 paddle-boating in the cove the first evening.

Great Pond has a little hill, Blueberry Hill, renown for its, um, blueberries.  Thing 1 accompanied DH & I on our trek, and promptly chose a spot, plunked himself down, and started noshing, ala Blueberries for Sal.

At the end of August, we’re headed up to Atlantic Canada–can’t wait!

I had forgotten to highlight the fun Things 1 & 2 have been having with random sharpies.  I can remember reading all about Through the Loops wicked creative teens, wondering if mine would ever get to that point.  Well, although nowhere as talented as the trio from TTL, mine are spreading their wings.

Voila:

Thing 2’s creation.

And for Thing 1:

Here’s the difference between Thing 1 and 2.  Thing 1 is still working on his shirt.  He outlined in black and then waited a few days for the ink to really set.  He adds one or two images a day.  Thing 2 finished her shirt in about 2 hours.  No waiting, she wore it right away.

Thing 2 also has a spreadshirt store.  right now, there’s only one design up, but she’s working on some more.  If you’re interested, please visit.  She’s trying to raise some dollars to offset her extremely spendy art & music summer camp.

I have been knitting. I finished up a long-lost project last week.  The project actually wasn’t lost, just the pattern.  My mother found it in her house.  Odd spot for my pattern, especially since I hadn’t actually taken this project to CT, but, oh well, at least it was found.

However, since it’s a year later, it will no longer fit Thing 3.  It will most likely fit Cousin 3, who’s not yet 3.  I think one reason I wasn’t so sad that the pattern had disappeared was that I realized it would not fit Thing 3 even last year.

Here’s the dress:

It’s from a BSA pattern, and I’ve raveled the deets.   I’m not the hugest fan of the dyed cotton, but I like how it knit up here.  I think the dress will suit Cousin 3, especially as she (along with my sister, BIL and their other two Things) move off to Hong Kong later this summer for an extended assignment.  It’s hot in Hong Kong.  All year long.

Christina at the store has been busy as well.  With this:

can you tell which one is actually supposed to be on the beach?  Well, neither can I, except the one on the left is wicked heavy.  Because it’s filled with more than air. It looks adorable though!

Truth be told, I’m not a big fan of shawls.  They just seem slightly, well, um, dowdy.  But Ishbel looked appealing–especially the way the photo was styled: more like a triangular scarf.  And, given my previous death at the hands of a vampire (or the guillotine during the French Revolution, i’m not sure which), I’m all about protecting my neck.

Ishbel’s made using 400 yds of lace or fingering weight yarn.  Not wanting something so sweaty around my neck in the late spring/summer, I decided to use our new Safari yarn from GGH.  Safari is a linen/poly blend that has a slight suede-y feel.  Knitting it up, I wasn’t so sure about my choice–it felt much stiffer as a strand than it did in a ball.  However, after binding off, I gave ole Ishbel a bath in warm water, and boy, did the Safari soften up so nicely, and with great drape!  I used two balls of Safari, and had a few yards left over.

Here’s the back.  It hangs nicely, doesn’t it!?

And the front, when worn as a shawl, not a scarf:

Ishbel turned out so nicely, she’ll be leaving the shop and heading up to Massachusetts where Slow Speaking Grandma now lives.  (No, “slow-speaking” is not a criticism–SSG is from South Bend, Indiana, and when DH first arrived from Japan, she was the only person he could understand, because she spoke with such a mid-westy cadence.  Thus the nickname.)  Anyways, SSG is now is Massachusetts, and this past weekend we celebrated her 90th birthday!  Woo-hoo for SSG! I’m pleased to be giving SSG a knitted gift, because SSG’s mother (my great grandmother) was an avid knitter, and although she did not teach me to knit, I know I was enthralled watching her.

BTW, you’ll notice that Ishbel is sitting atop yet another lovely knitted FO.  That, dear friends, is Ginger, a free pattern from Rowan.  I knit that baby up in just over 10 days, using another great GGH yarn-Tara.  5 skeins.  It’s conservative enough from the front.  The treat is the back:

Ooo-la-la!

I finished this in late August, so I decided to let it marinate for the winter.  Saturday I got the hankering to finish it up, so I dragged it out of its hiding place (which it really was–it took me a good hour to find it, and then another 90 minutes to find the damn book and the correct needles).  I quickly cast on, and away I went.

This morning, I held up the new knitting to compare:

Huh?  The lessons here?  Plenty.  1.  don’t let projects sit for so long.  you no longer have a good enough memory to retain the details.  2.  you’re a loose knitter.  you always go down a size.  take notes on the needles used.  3.   who do you think you’re fooling by knitting a back that small????  You’re freaking 5′10″ for crying out loud.  That back WILL. NOT. FIT.

The back fits gauge (7 st to the inch).  The front is 6 to the inch.  I have a couple of options.

1.  I figured out that I can make the front on the current needles in the XS to get a 37″ finished bust size, which is my size.  And I can do so without ripping out the seed stitch hem which, because i’m a thrower, I absolutely hate.  The down side?  I will have to re-knit the back, seed stitch and all.

2.  I can take out the entire front, reknit the seed stitch hem and everything else in the correct needles to give me the gauge (which is correct).  The downside–will it fit?  I think I was overly optimistic when I started this thing.  So it will need some aggressive blocking.

3.  Frog the entire thing.  Because when it comes down to it, I think the most appealing aspect of this project was the gun metal gray skinny belt on the model.

4.  move on.  Start Raindance instead.

I’ve been knitting!  Lots of starts.  Not so many finishes.  Except for Raspberry.

This is a topdown garter stitch yoke pattern adapted from Naganasu on Ravelry.   I liked the aesthetic, but I didn’t like how deep the raglans were, so I shortened them for Thing 3.  Although it’s hard to see here–the pajamas don’t really complete the look.  The unmatching buttons, though, are to die for.  Thing 3 did not want the buttons to match.  In her estimation, this project is a complete success.

The yarn?  It’s the new Blue Sky dyed cotton multis.  The colorways are fabulous.  This one’s the pink/orange combo.  I’m also loving the vibrant blue, so I think I may snag that for my new-to-the-world nephew Kosuke (koh-su-kay).  He was born to my sister-in-law in Japan on April 12.   Yeah for me!  After 6 neices, I finally got a nephew.  Figures he lives a kajillion miles away.  Oh well.

Thing 3’s sweater was a partial birthday gift.  She turned 6 on 4/15.  Here she is with Thing 1 on our way to Holsten’s for a quick and easy dinner.

Thing 2 did not make it into the photo.  She found Thing 3’s bow to be completely embarrassing.  And it was.  It’s a stuffed felt bow glued to a hair comb.  Who, you may be asking, made this lovely accessory?  Why DH of course.  Anyway, the bow was a hit at Holsten’s.  And Broad St.  And Barney’s.

I made this pattern up, using sweater wizard, and then modifying slightly.   I love the look of Noro with the stripes broken up, so I used two different colorways of Kureyon, and alternated every two rows for the skinny stripes.  This worked out really well on the back, and then on the front, I had to unravel balls to get the stripes to match up.  The sleeves were a mess.  I wanted the two sleeves to match each other, not necessarily the body of the sweater, except for the sleeve cap, which I did want to match the pattern on the body.

The result:

Lots of unraveled Noro.

Overall, I’m happy with the sweater.  I need to wet block it, but it’s so damn chilly, I’m postponing that for another week probably.

yup, a snowman.  Courtesy of Thing 1.  He’s been dying to take a sculpture class.  Sadly, he makes do with model magic.

Thing 3 got in on the fun:

Thing 1 is a minimalist.  Thing 3 is all about color.  Thing 2 promptly named Thing 3’s creation “prison bunny.”

The foray into sculpture has not derailed the knitting, just the photo-taking.  Suffice it to say, I knitting up a Noro storm, trying valiantly to match up the stripes.  We’ll see how long this dedication to perfection lasts.

Here’s BobKatz redux:

Just compare:

Now granted, in photo 2 he does not have delicious eye candy on his side (!), but even given the presence of the Tower of Taupe (as I like to call myself when I wear my “go to board meetings” suit), No. 1 vest is just so much better.  The mods: I unseamed the shoulders, and frogged the V-neck and arm hole ribbing.  I then frogged the front and back to the point of the V.  I knit back up about 3.5″-4″ before I started the V and the arm holes. I did some amazing math to figure out the slant of the V and about how wide I wanted the shoulder seams to be.  Then I matched the back to the front.  I did some short rows at the shoulders to give it a better fit, as well. Then I had to give it a wicked blocking to get all the kinks out of the yarn.

I’m pleased, and so is Mr. Katz.

Here’s the back:

And on me:

I’m not as buxom as womannequin, so I’m going to have to block this puppy a bit, but I’m happy!

Where’s my medal?

I thought i was well prepared for the storm, having picked up my groceries from Shoprite at Home on Wednesday evening.  Alas, when I got home though, and was putting away the provisions, I realized I had no potatoes for the beef stew I was planning on making for dinner Thursday night.

Therefore, I found myself at the Shoprite at 8:15am at the start of the blizzard.  I was there with all the senior citizen buses, and the parking lot was already full!  My goal: 3 potatoes, salt, toilet paper, and some dried fruit because of this. (thanks to Chappys mom for the heads up on that one!)

Here’s what I came away with:

see the potatoes, the salt, the other granola bar ingredients?  Yup, all there. But what, pray tell, are those jars on the left?

They are the exact reason I rarely set foot into grocery stores (and why every time Thing 3 and I go to pick up our groceries, she says, wistfully, “one day, I’ll get to go inside that store.”).

Those jars, my friends, are an impulse purchase.  And I didn’t even get them for the fruit that’s inside (though I’m sure it’s tasty).  I got them for the jars.

These are adorable, and they have little “handles” on the sides.  Perfect for summer sangria sipping.  The fruit was 10 for  $10.  I figured I couldn’t get 10 drinking jars for $10, so that made me happy.  Especially to be thinking about summer as the wet sticky stuff keeps falling!

No, Thing 2 is not getting married.  A co-worker is.  It’s a second wedding, so I thought I’d pay homage to her Indian-Trinidadian heritage and work in a colorful sari silk ribbon from Frabjous Fibers.  Only 1 1/2 skeins did the trick (at $8. per, this makes a great gift).

The crown only took about 2 hours to knit.  The embellishment took longer.  The crown closes with ribbons in the back; it looks amazing.  And I added some wedding-ish rosebud thingys from Michaels to each pointy tip. (after the photo).   Very pleased, and I hope she will be too.

That being said, the embellishment completely derailed any Lymp-along progress yesterday.  Oh well.  One day of rest will be good for my shins.

And, as a PS, it’s appropriate that Thing 2 modeled the crown; yesterday was her 12th birthday.  Wow.  Almost a teen.

Here’s where I stand Sunday am: 7.5 inches into the back:

I’m obviously off-pace.  Still have 15 or so inches to go here, plus two sleeves, and then the seaming.  hmmmm.  Good thing this is the limp-along!

I’m working on this crepe paper crown (rav link) for a co-worker’s upcoming wedding.  and I’ll be swatching for my oLymp-along project, the fireside sweater.

Have fun!  I will!