Last 3 Day Weekend of the Winter

Yeah. I know. It's also only the second of 2012 - so it's really a matter of perspective - but when it comes to TheQueen's 3-Day Weekends, the year begins in September with Labor Day, filling the months with delightful days off and it slows to a thin trickle of them just as your circadian rhythms have adjusted to at least one 4-day work week each month. The sufferingly long time between February the 20th and Memorial Day stretches through Lent, Easter, gardening, ThePrince's birthday, our anniversary - the legal one - and LD's birthday - all good reasons for kicking up a lark and playing hooky. It's just that .... I must use annual leave to do it. Greedy puss, aren't I?

The important prep for a 3-Day Weekend includes:

• Leaving a note on your desk at work reminding you of what you have to cram into 4 days next week. In my case that actually must be compressed into 3 days, one of which includes Story Hour and one of which will be shared in close proximity with the auditors.
• Picking up a good bottle of wine
• Making sure you have adequate reading material
• Ditto a knitting project and something from Netflix (yes. I still await the red envelope - remember, TheCastle is in TheSticks)

For this last 3-day weekend of the winter, I am well stocked. Not only do I have a pile of movies, books and even some techno-reading from the library and a delicious Malbec from the local wine shop, but look what came in the mail, at last! Yes! Principles of Knitting - I finally got around to ordering it and while I was at it I picked up that Dover edition of Alice Starmore's color charts. One weekend with the library copy was enough to convince me I needed to own the latter as for POK - I always intended to own that one. Ever since I did the Knitting Guild of America's Master Class - lo 10 years ago! - I have lusted for my own copy. I'm SO glad it's finally arrived.

So yes. I'm ready for three days of bliss - and knitting - and reading - and watching Evil Roy Slade - which carries with it a joyous February memory from TheQueen's long ago and far away youth. A memory that includes her bestest friend from those ages ago days. Yes Robyn. You know it. 

What was I thinking?!?

This top-down Happy Chanel Jacket doesn't need to be knit in the round and steeked. duh. It's plain stockinette stitches - no stranded colorwork or even fancy cabling that is easier to knit when you're always looking at the outside. duh. So glad I slept on this.

The plan now is to finish up the back shoulder area (have about 8 more rows to do) then do the front shoulder area in 2 separate sections down to the underarm joins - which is about where the short row bust darts have to be. Then it's just one big flat sweater body.

I've also been thinking about how many stitches to pick up for the sleeves. When I'm knitting flat I like to slip the first stitch. Makes a nice neat even edge that lies flat. But when I made the dress I was dissatisfied with picking up one stitch per edge stitch - which comes to one stitch for every other row. That's fine on vertical parts, but along the top of the sleeve cap you really need more stitches. I had intended to NOT slip the first stitch of the first couple of rows on my next top-down project - and of course, completely forgot. So here's my solution. I'll pick up one stitch for every edge stitch and then on the next round I will double the stitches across the top of the sleeve cap. Ought to be no more than 6 stitches - maybe only 4 since this is such bulky yarn. Final decision will come later. I plan to knit the whole body before I add the sleeves since this is just a wee little sweater, not a great mound of dress.

No photos since all I have is a blob of curling, lumpy purple and orange stockinette right now. I'll photograph it when there's some sort of shape to it all.

In Other Knitterly Thoughts ... for Christmas I gave myself  Sweater Quest, by Adrienne Martini.  I love a Christmas Book and this year I was in the mood for a knitting themed read. This one is a blog-into-book book, a la Julie/Julia.  Since I hadn't ever read her blog I couldn't tell if there was any of that editorial micromanagement that can ruin a fine blogger's style by its strict adherence to the publisher's policies.

It's a quick read about the author's desire to knit an Alice Starmore sweater. I don't suppose there's a knitter out there who hasn't both heard of AS and admired the magnificently elaborate stranded colorwork garments she designs. But we all also know that she's got attitude and it permeates everything about her. Still and all, she certainly is an artist worthy of note in the fiber world. Sadly, much of her early design work is just not avaiable - though happily I see she's reissued her basic work on Fair Isle Knitting - which I popped $78 for on the used book market a few years back.

Anyway - the thing about Martini's book that I found ... well, exceedingly weird, but also interesting, in a turn the rock over and see what's underneath it kind of way ... was her constant question "If I make any changes as I knit this sweater, is it still an Alice Starmore sweater?"

I think if I knit for a quatrillion years that is a question that would never ever occur to me. Ever. At All. This is so entirely alien to me that every time she'd ask someone "Is it still an AS?" I would have to put the book down and go take several deep breaths. And at the point where she stated right out that the sweater looked terrible on her I almost quit reading the book. I just felt so awful for her. And yet she didn't feel awful. She didn't care. I can't imagine finishing something that didn't look good on me. For that matter, I can't imagine even starting a project I knew up front was going to look bad on me. And, honestly, only the flattest, squarest straightest people look good in a drop shoulder sweater - and that group doesn't include many women.

For Martini, though, the whole project was an attempt to absolutely obey somebody else's instructions - even though it was impossible to do that because even on E-bay there just isn't enough of the old Rowan yarn AS designed that sweater for. So the effort was both expensive and futile and yet she was so pleased with herself.

Which just goes to show you that there really are all kinds of knitters out there. Aren't you glad you get to be the kind you are and don't have to be the kind Someone Else is?