Chillin' Out

For someone who hates the heat and humidity of summer, I have to concede that this year’s August has been a dream month. There have been only a couple of days where the AC was needed, and most of the time I didn’t even turn on an ordinary fan. Yesterday was so unseasonably cool that our heat came on in the morning (and I rushed over to the thermostat to turn it off!). And the prospect for the rest of this week looks fantastic. So combined with this taste of fall and my less hectic work schedule, my mind has wandered to heavier wool projects. Yes, I could take out the Devonshire jacket and finish the sleeves, but what fun is that? Daydreaming about projects as yet unknit is much more suited to my mood.

Also contributing to my gut feeling that I need a simpler project are the silly little errors I’m making on Bee Fields. I do very well at the start of my evening knitting, but after 9:30 my confidence exceeds my abilities. Here is another error:

I probably knitted on the private side instead of purling. This is my third error of this sort, and I’m losing patience with myself. I know that someone would have to stand next to me with a magnifying glass to see this, but this lack of perfection is becoming bothersome. Unlike other projects, I’m not ripping this back to fix it. Actually, I did drop down on the stitch immediately to the right to correct it, but I know I can’t do that on this stitch column, with all the decreases. Well, I could do it, but the mess it would create would require ripping everything to the row below.

So what to do? Without the precision that Susan (just look at her 8/14 post!) brings to the mathematical analysis of her projects, I did a quick-and-dirty calculation to estimate how long it will take to finish Bee Fields. If I do the larger size, and I’m thinking of that so the shawl is large and flowing, I have 78 rows left. At 2 rows a night, that will take me about 40 days to finish, and I’ll miss the KAL completion date. At 4 rows a night, I can finish in around 20 days, and have the satisfaction of a FO. My Type A genes tell me to “go for it”. My sensible genes (completely overwhelmed by the Type A genes for most decisions), remind me that I am only averaging about 3 rows a night and the rows are getting longer. In addition, those knit later in the evening aren’t terribly accurate and the next evening is spent fixing the errors. So a compromise seems to be in order. I should probably knit Bee Fields only until about 9 PM and then move on to something else.

In addition to a plain ribbed watch cap in brown Heilo for Ed, that I’ve promised but never delivered, here are the candidates.

When I finished the feather-and-fan scarves from Scarf Style, I had one ball left of each color. This is Debbie Bliss’ Alpaca Silk DK. I bought another ball of black with the intention of knitting a horizontal scarf only in garter stitch:

Pros: Easy Scarf
Cons: (1) I really don’t need another scarf like this right away. (2) I haven’t decided if I want fringes. Regular fringes will probably fray, and I want to try looped fringes that twine around each other. This will require swatching.

Several Rhinebecks ago, I got this beautiful handspun yarn from Buckwheat Bridge Angoras (goats not rabbits). It is mohair, wool, and llama. I’ve already swatched for it, trying a basket-weave pattern, but plain garter stitch would be better.

Pros: Easy Scarf
Cons: (1) The fringe issue again. If Ed ends up with this, he doesn’t want fringes. I suppose I could add them once the scarf is done, if I want to. (2) If it gets warm in September, I don’t want to knit with this yarn.

It occurred to me that an uncomplicated sweater would be as good as a scarf for a simple project, and I’d use up stash yarn and have something useful to wear when I work. I had bought yarn from Snow Star Farm and buttons from Tender Buttons to make this sweater from an old Jo Sharp book.

Pros: I’d like to use up the yarn before Rhinebeck so I can buy another color and design my own gansey pullover with it.
Cons: (1) I’m not sure I like this sweater well enough, and I don’t need a pattern to make a sweater like this. (2) The sweater looks a bit shapeless, and even if all I do to improve it is add fitted sleeves, it will still require modification that I don’t want to spend time doing now.

I’ve always liked this sweater from Jamieson’s Knitting Book 2, and despite the cables, it isn’t really hard. I have Bluefaced Leicester yarn from a small farm, purchased at Maryland that would be heavenly to knit with.

Pros: I can use a pullover. It would give me a chance to do a gusset
Cons: (1) I’m not sure this is the best yarn choice for this sweater. (2) It is only “borderline” easy, and might require some occasional thought when I get to the gusset.

Although I have described ad nauseam about the dearth of good yarns in the 1970s, it was possible to find occasional pearls among the swine. This yarn was a French import, and I have a lot of it. I had bought it to make a three-piece outfit that consisted of a coat, a skirt, and a sweater. Half the sweater is knit (and should be frogged). But I would like to use this blue yarn, and this sweater from Knitter’s Fall 1999 (also in Arans and Celtics) would be fine. I’ve swatched for it and bought buttons.

Pros: I can use up stash yarn and have a nice work sweater.
Cons: I may want to change the sleeves so they’re set in, so the pattern would require modification.

And so now it is decision time.

Comments

[robin]

I like the last one best!

[WoolEnough]

It must be the weather indeed. I've been going thru the same thing -- bored with everything I'm knitting now, making silly mistakes on my lace shawl (which is infinitely simpler than Bee Fields), and thinking endlessly of what new item I might launch.

[Dorothy]

I have so many projects started and can't seem to get up interest in any of them! Must be the time of year. I vote for the last one as well. I really like dropped shoulders, but that may be because I have very wide shoulders and they seem to fit me better than set in sleeves.

[Helena]

I hear you! I'm in the same position. I am satisfying my type A side by getting in 2 rows of the Heartland Lace Shawl or the Pine Tree Palatine in the morning while my husband is in the shower and a row at lunchtime. In the evening my brain is finished.

[Luni]

Lovely post. I shall have to look up those sweaters on Ravelry to see if anyone there has knit them. I enjoyed looking through all your options, but it strikes me that what you consider a simpler project would be a very complex one for me to knit.

[Linda M]

Hi Marjorie,
the Jamieson gansey has been on my dream-about-it list for years and years, I have to move it to my "someday" list soon, or maybe even queue it in Ravelry so I don't forget I want to make it someday.

Lucky you with the nice weather. It is the Florida Pan-handle's turn for the never-ending nuisance that is Tropical Whatever Fay. It has been raining most of the day and is supposed to continue for the weekend, but we won't get it as bad as the people further south did.

Oh, and I love the shot of Addi in the previous post. She is looking like one lucky bird!

[tiennie]

How frustrating to make mistakes in your lace like that. I like the men's sweaters that you're thinking of knitting.

[Lorette]

That Jamieson sweater is one of my favorites. I think I bought that book just for that sweater pattern. There are actually several in that one that I'd like to make.