I Can Do The Hard Stuff

Here is proof that TheQueen really can do what has to be done. As you can see in this photo - the decreases in the sleeve did not a sleeve cap make - a sleeve peak, maybe, but not a cap. The unfortunate thing is that I really knew this within oh - a few inches of sleeve decreases - but thought it might not be so bad if I continued on making decreases into the sleeve every other round. 

wrong

I will know better next time. My excuse is ... no excuse. Just laziness. 

Of course - this is always a disappointment to a knitter and TheQueen is no exception. I just pushed the whole sweater into a corner on the couch and told myself I would get to it later. And of course, I went back to work the next day, and the gym afterwards, and then I was sleepy and went to bed early - after a nice hot bath. And then it was Wednesday and there was no knitting that night because I will not cast on another thing until Brica is finished - but who could finish a sweater that needed 8 inches of shoulder knitting frogged? 

The dilemma then was - if I wanted to knit - I would have to frog first - and so yesterday morning the ordeal began. 

To prevent creating a vast nest of tangled yarn I tied the loose end onto my swift and twirled away at that, simultaneously unraveling my knitting and making a tidy skein - there were 2 skeins worth of yarn to pull out of my poor sweater. 

I'm happy to report: Nasty Task completed (even that length of yarn is nicely wound into a center-pull ball now) and knitting can resume this weekend. 

And Then There Is Knitting

 After all - TheCastle is a knitting house. It's just that - there's not much to see yet - most of the first sleeve, perhaps 4 inches more. I did switch to stockinette on the body after 5 repeats of the entire pattern but it was a difficult decision to make. If I am not entirely happy with the switch ... and I have tried the body on and I'm still undecided - I can always rip it back and knit the whole body in the arcade design. There is enough yarn. But I need to see it hanging from shoulders first and the only way to do that is to knit away.

Here's a closeup of the cuff - which I think is pretty upside down, though, it no longer looks like cathedral arches. Nothing for it now except for More Knitting. Hmmm. There's a little time - I believe I can get in a few stitches right now.

TA

Three Quarters of the Way Done

At this point I'm actually knitting to a timetable goal. I have always claimed it took 3 months for me to knit a sweater whether it was spread out over a whole year or compressed into 3 consecutive months. Mostly that's because I always want to make up my own pattern and whenever I get to the bust/shoulder area I start to worry about fit and, you know, just in case there's a problem, maybe I should put the project down and let it cook a while. And while I'm waiting maybe I ought to start some other new thing - or knit an always needed pair of socks. And then it gets put in a box or zipped into a bag or slipped inside a drawer and ... forgotten. It's pure cowardice, of course, but hey - it's a hobby. I'm only supposed to knit what I want ... when I want to.

Last year, though - something changed. Something in my confidence level, something in my skill level. And then there is this whole top down thing. As I said, fitting the neckline/shoulder/bust area - especially if you are not average sized or shaped, is soooo tricky. And if it doesn't fit it looks so bad. And if it looks so bad - one becomes so depressed. See where this is going? Knitting the hardest part first is just so efficient. I believe I can finish this sweater in 4 weeks instead of 3 months. And that only stimulates me to think about More Sweaters (and More  Yarn)

I did a much better job grafting the leaf border this time. That's because this time I was more careful about the provisional cast-on. Last time I really only had 7 stitches on the cast-on row and had to fake it,  matching those 7 to the 8 on the last row of the other end.

I've also kept much better records on this project than I am wont to do. Usually I have brief disjointed paragraphs, sprinkled with margin notes, a la Elizabeth Zimmermann. This time I actually wrote down how many stitches I picked up on sleeve #1 so I could do the same with sleeve #2. Ditto the decrease rate. I know these sleeves will match.

(I'm also putting notes up on Ravelry  - in case you need More Information)

And I am SO LOVING this cuff treatment. I just think it's the prettiest thing.

So. It's motoring down the second sleeve time. And when I am taking a break from that I'm perusing my 6 linear feet of knitting books to get inspiration for the Next Project. I've always been a huge fan of Nicky Epstein. What she does with color is magical. Unfortunately, her marvelous stranded colorwork designs are all knitted flat!!! Now - I would rather slit my wrists than try to do stranded colorwork on flat knitting - but I can convert and/or adapt her stranded designs to circular knitting and she has the cutest jacket in her book Knitting On Top Of The World. She calls it the Ottoman Empire Jacket. If you click on this link you get a page of images and on the second row, second from the right is a photo of it. (at least, here's hoping you will)

Another of her designs I really like is the Londonderry Rose Coat. Or rather - I love the idea of a bulky tweed cabled coat with that particular shawl collar. I don't like the hemline she designed, which is stepped and odd looking and definitely doesn't look like it would keep me warm where I want it to. But the idea ... and that collar. Yum. Again - here is a Raverly Link  - onnacounta I don't want to dig through the copywrite process.

So. All that's left to ask is "Will TheQueen finish this sweater by 9/21 - which happens to be her birthday?" We shall just have to see. There's at least one more weekend ahead - but let us all hope and pray there are No More Hurricanes.

Ta.