I’m spinning my wheels on what to do.  I might be able to scrounge up replacement yarn from my stash but… probably not.  I have a top’s worth of Dalegarn Svale to rip and reuse but that gauge is also probably too small.  The gauge of Classic Elite Flash is a bit too large but I also don’t think I have enough of that (and it’s discontinued).  And around and around my unhappy brain goes!

I’ve also spent an unreasonable amount of time searching for a tank pattern to replace this one and no go.  It’s just not a very popular gauge for patterns despite how nice and lightweight sport/DK yarns are.

Really, what I need to do is take the lovely simplicity of Chickami and rewrite it to fit this yarn.  But I am too mad at my failed project to take this step right now.  So I am going back to work on the Equinox Yoke Pullover and Chickami will have a time out.

Sadly, this means that there will be no new green cotton/hemp tank top for my birthday without a Christmas-in-July miracle.  I’ll survive somehow.  It will probably involve Woodchuck 802 and Season 3 of the Tudors.

Looking on the brighter side, omg, I love the Ultra Alpaca I’m using in the Equinox Pullover.  The color!  The softness!  The strength!  Berroco, you are genius.

Has anyone else been bitch slapped by the technical details lately?

Last weekend, I woke a bit earlier than my family, which is normal.  I’ve been reading classics online so I grabbed my laptop and my sock knitting, put them in bed, went to the bathroom, came back to bed and–crunch!  Knelt on my sock in progress.  I broke two of five needles and even though I have a spare (thanks, Knit Picks), I am not fond of knitting a circle on three needles. Honestly, I was still so groggy, I just tossed it off the bed and went on with reading.

It took me a day and a half to find another set of US 1 needles.  Hm.  I should have more but where are they?

This makes me feel justified for just a few seconds that I should go order some stuff from Knit Picks.  Then I remind myself that I only have one pair of hands and I can actually only knit one thing at a time, no matter what I dream of at night, so carry on, old girl.  When you’ve run out of sweaters to knit, you can get that Northern Lights Cape kit and throw in some of those stabby Harmony DPNs you love so much.

Or when your Brittany birch DPNs bite it, then really you will have no choice.  The other 284 needles will not do because they are not US 1/2.25 mm.  He won’t understand but he’s learned not to argue in certain arenas.  In fact, I think it was a US 1 DPN that punctured his arm a few years ago when he didn’t look where he was sitting.  Back when I still used aluminum 7 inchers.

Yet, even this gorgeousness could not hold my attention. For starters, I was stalled in my attempts to acquire the pattern.  But even more damaging perhaps was the failure in correctly sizing E.B.’s sweater.  I believe I started thinking that I should wait a month or two (or four) to be more sure of the size.  Even if it does put me dangerously close to the siren call of holiday knits.

I spent an evening trying to get started on my Spiral Yoke Pullover (famously immortalized in by Jared Flood; see link) but got stuck on tubular v. hem and never made it past the cast on.  I will do that sweater–oh yes, my stash of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed is promised–but apparently I will not right now.

As I prepared to not knit the Spiral Yoke Pullover, I dug out some old projects to reclaim the needles and was thus reacquainted with my beleaguered Equinox Yoke Pullover.

Now that some YEARS have passed since the beginning and the stalling of this project, I may have gained some knowledge and experience to see my way out of this dark forest.  All fired up with visions of myself swathed in fig-colored wool/alpaca, I sat down to solve the problem.  I had to do considerable pattern revision (comparative to what I usually do) because I am knitting the body and sleeves (especially the sleeves, with all that colorwork!) in the round.  Largely, I have used Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system (EPS) to help me with the math and proportions.  I also consulted my Lopi Aftur pullover, which uses the same in the round, bottom up construction.  The answer to whether or not my revisions are going to work are not far from being answered since the sleeves and the body are all half-knit.  Nonetheless, a fickle desire has briefly turned my eye.

See, my birthday is coming up in a few weeks.  Three years ago, I took to the idea of buying myself yarn for a birthday project.  Whatever the yarn and project, it tends to be an impulsive decision and it’s something I try to cast on for right away–indulgent indeed.  Last week, I casually looked at Elann’s sale flyer and noticed they had a cotton/hemp yarn for sale, by the bag.  Hemp fabric is sooooo nice.  One thing led to another and I realized the gauge would work for a Chickami, which I got the pattern for last year.  Lo, the yarn arrived Saturday (so fast!) and now I’ve knit a gauge swatch!  And washed it!  And altered the pattern a bit to account for my slightly smaller gauge!  And started to cast on!

I hope I can wip this up in the next ten days.  No pun intended.  (Wip?  Get it?)

It is finished–not counting the fact that it needs the zipper installed and some grosgrain ribbon facing to tidy up the inside.  Sadly the zippers I ordered did not match at all and, given the hot weather, I’ve just chucked the whole thing into a basket.  I’ll be motivated to do the finishing work as soon as it gets cool.

I also made an Owlet for E.B.  What a wonderfully quick knit and the wool I got for it was more marvelous than I realized at the check out counter: Shepherd’s Wool by Stonehenge Fiber Mill (local for me, to boot!).  It is squishy, non-splitty, has good stitch definition, and feels great in the hand.  One word sums it up: delicious.  At $10 for a 250 yard skein of aran-weight deliciousness–well, I am looking forward to making a sweater for me!

Sadly, E.B.’s Owlet is in time out next to the Ribby Cardi.  I made the 18-24 month size with additional body length of 1 to 1.5 inches because this is normally what would fit my daughter this winter given the size she’s wearing now.  But no.  This pattern either runs small or my gauge is off (or both!) because the pullover fits her perfectly NOW.  Le sigh.  Thus I have not sewn up the underarms or put eyes on owls. We’ll see how it fits in September at which point I can rip and reknit this in a week.  For now, I need some emotional distance from this disappointing result.

The silver lining: the size I did knit, which was at the larger end of the baby sizing, took just over one skein of Shepherd’s Wool - and remember, I added length to the body.  You could totally make a delicious baby sweater for $10, just sayin’.  No acrylic trees will be harmed in the knitting of that sweater, either.

The needle blocking experiment was successful!

Successful in that the scarf laid flat and the lace was open.  It was not a tight lace blocking but I didn’t think that was necessary for this little ditty.  My only concern is that the blocking will wear out over time and need to be redone.  Hopefully its new owner will not be shy about asking me.  If she notices.  If she cares.  About blocked lace, that is.  I’m not wallowing here.

Well, life continues it complicated, convoluted, not to be anticipated route.  Entangled indeed.  I am all astonishment that it has been two and a half months since my last post because I compose posts in my head nearly every day.  Blogging in general seems to be falling out of vogue in favor of other social media but I find that doesn’t make me want to do it less.  I am a writer and therefore journal by nature.  The public journal thing weirded me out at first (as a writer not a reader; I love reading them) but I find I am warming up to it quite nicely.  Not that one would know from my infrequent posts.  But I feel the shift.

So block it we must.  But what’s a gal to do with a big lace rectangle and no blocking wires?

Luckily I have a jar full of 14″ knitting needles in all sizes.  I stuck to US 3 and under. I think this would have been easier to pin out if it had points to pin but no, it’s just a rectangle with lace inside.

No, it’s not a perfect solution but this is a scarf, not a state fair entry.  And I figure if it comes out really wonky then I can just reblock it.  With wires.  There’s a welding supply store just down the street from my house and the talk out in the ether is that stainless steel welding wires work and are cheaper.  For me, perhaps easier to acquire as well.

In the past two months I have knit myself a pair of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s mitered mittens, finished my Jaywalkers, finished the entrelac scarf (today!), and ripped out the green socks for Elinor, who is growing faster than I can knit.  And walking, so she needs non-skid socks.

(I’ve screwed up my camera card and so pics of the scarf will have to wait.)

I also took part in the Knitting Olympics (Yarn Harlot and Ravlery).  I wanted to make my Ribby Cardi finally.  I cruised along for the first 14 days or so. I wasn’t going to earn the gold because work was jerk again and a project overran (and is still overrunning) its schedule, eating up a lot of my personal time.  But I was having loads of fun watching winter sports, rooting for various people, kvetching about NBC’s broadcast, and knitting when possible.  I knit the back of my sweater and half of one of the front pieces.

Then disaster struck.  And I do mean disaster.  As in airlifted off the ski-run.

Two of my adult sweaters - the Must Have Cardi (my first adult sweater) and the Urban Aran Cardi (Matt’s birthday sweater) - were felted in a tragic dryer accident.  I discovered what happened right before I went to bed and so cried myself to sleep, I am not ashamed to say.  There was a lot of work and love in those sweaters.  For three-quarters of the next day, I was just flattened, numb, mourning.  It felt weird to hurt so much because ultimately these things are replaceable; they’re not living creatures.  As deeply as I sank in sadness, I did bounce back quickly.  The kids got me laughing late in the day and we played a silly game (omigod, watching Elinor try to do the same things her brother was doing so that she could play too!  Priceless!) and after that it wasn’t so bad anymore.

Unfortunately, I could not find solace in my Ribby Cardi in progress because I had some doubts about the fit but kept telling myself, “It’s not your only handknit cardigan so it’s okay.”  Oops.  I went for a smaller size so that all of my sweaters would not be huge and swimmy on me.  But the gauge swatch lied to me and the sweater came out even smaller.  I am going to rip it all out and restart.  It’s a relaxing knit so I don’t mind redoing but I always need some distance before a big frogging.  I spent the remainder of the Olympics tinkering away on the scarf and a (another!) birthday gift.

I did get a beautiful Smartwool henley sweater from Matt in condolence for my loss.  And the weather is warming. The bulbs are beginning to peek out of the mud.  There is so much to look forward to.

Here’s my latest symptom:

Mitered mittens; pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman; yarn is Malabrigo.  What can I say?  My hands were cold Friday and Saturday.  By Sunday all arguments that I at least finish my scarf first–because I could use the leftover yarn and have matching accessories, a thing unheard of in this house–were broken down by my stronger self and I even took the DPNs away from the entrelac (they are happy on straights so there’s no project abuse going on here).

The project I was going to write about next that was trumped by mittens:

An entrelac scarf for moi using yarn my brother gave me for my birthday.  As Matt said, “It looks like that yarn was made to do that.”  By “that” he means “entrelac,” I’m pretty sure.

But since this is a post about my Castonitis, we’ll move on to the next symptom:

Yes, in fact, that is the same photo from last post.  Because that was probably the last time I touched these. Uh… Out of sight, out of mind?  I have no excuse.  I am weak.

Then there’s this beauty of an excuse to buy yarn for a project that was begun to bust stash:

I do actually pull this out and work on it a bit here and there because, turns out, the only thing more mindless than stockinette is shell stitch.

It breaks down from here because I cannot find all these pictures again….they’re too old…hah… So I direct you to pictures on my Flickr page.  I’m sure I could embed them somehow.  (Resolution #491: learn how to do technical stuff on your blog.)

An overdue gift and socks I started one year ago to this day:

Lace Ribbon and Jaywalkers

And this, my birthday gift:

Hourglass Stole

So that is … seven unfinished projects I am copping to.  And I am dying to start my Ribby Cardi.  Gulp.

It’s hard to catch these socks between feet and laundry and in fact I had to fish them from the top of the basket for this pic.  Zander loves them and immediately requested a new sweater.  I gladly put in the call to grandma who in fact has a wack of the same yarn, Plymouth Jelli Beenz, to make a child’s sweater or two.  Ball’s in your court, G-Terry.

I started some little green socks for Elinor, knit one almost to completion, crammed it on her foot and thought, Self, this sock is running small.  My daughter has big feet.

Riiiiiiiiiiip.  Cast on for the Size 2.  Immediately set aside because recipient has no long term memory and other things seemed more pressing…

Like this!

Elinor’s Christmas stocking, knit in Rauma Strikkegarn, a rough, sticky yarn that was perfect for colorwork.  The color is deliciously saturated without being a distracting eyesore.  I think the Strikkegarn natural is a little brighter than the Heilo used for the other three.  These stockings make me happy.

As for beginnings, I started a project for myself on Christmas Day:

Now for the randomness:

*It’s so windy!  And wet!  I should make myself a cup of tea.  But I forget to before I make it to the kitchen.  Or I don’t hear the electric kettle.  I’ve heated it twice.

*Finished a small Thorpe for Zander last week.  It took me only three days–what a thrill to finish something so quickly.  I knit the small size using Cascade 220 doubled, and this is a good size for a child.  It’s a little loose on my preschooler but not so it will fall off his head.  I skipped the braided ties because I thought that would be safer on the playground–and they’re easy enough to add later if I change my mind.

*Elinor makes kissy noises with her lips.  And gives open-mouth, wet, baby kisses.  You know it’s love when you don’t care!

*Hanukkah starts on Friday.  We are ready with the gifts but not the food.  Someone needs to go to a grocery store with a real produce section so we can get a heaping mound of onions and potatoes for latkes.  And it’s windy, rainy, cold, and gross outside.  So far…I can live without latkes on the first night.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings (I hear it’s going to be very cold).

*I have had a crisis of coat buying for the children.  It has nothing to do with the holidays but has worn me out on shopping.  It involved going to the mall, in December, which I never do.  The best part, though, is that I found a coat for Elinor in her closet this morning, a coat her cousin passed down.  Hallelujah.  Crisis over.

*I/Zander inherited a UFO from Charlotte–a pair of half-finished socks–which her children outgrew before they ever got to wear.  I finished the first this afternoon.  Here it is yesterday.  The yarn is Plymouth Jelli Beenz, a fun and colorful acyrlic/wool blend.  Zander, my biggest fan when it comes to knitting, is very excited.  We’ve already had one serious discussion about his socks and the dog.  Ahem.

*My freelance work is ramping up again.  I have two projects right now, although one is in three pieces so it’s really more like four projects.  I must pace myself to avoid stressing out because I can only do one piece at a time and if I get behind it will be a vicious domino effect complete with loss of sleep.

*I am knitting Elinor a stocking to go with our other three.  The pattern is Christmas in Tallinn by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road.  I’ve made several patterns from this book.  I had to substitute the yarn because no one locally now carries the Dalegarn Heilo I used for the first three, but I am happy with the substitute, Rauma Strikkegarn.  It comes in lots of colors and is sticky, which is great for colorwork.  I may actually like this yarn better than the Heilo.

*The seed catalogs are starting to arrive.  I am thinking of planting more quantity of fewer types of plants next year in the vegetable garden.  Partly to get better at growing the things we love the most and partly because we really need to focus on the flower beds, get them organized.  They were empty when we moved in.  Now they’re kinda weedy.

Good night!