Prime Time Knitter

Revising

I spend most of my waking hours revising.  The chapter I’m editing for work will look quite different at the end of the day than it did when I started it, and I’ve lived with such continuous change for forty years.  So it comes as no surprise to me that I’m constantly tinkering with most other things, but especially my knitting.  This is not indecisiveness, but improvement. 

There have been occasional manuscripts that were so well done I had nothing to say about them, but I can count them on the fingers of one hand.  And, I might add, they scare me.  It is easy to submit work littered with changes and ask for payment, but it seems as if I’m slacking if I send in something and say there is nothing I can do to make it better—but I’ve spent x amount of hours to come up with this opinion.  I look at the work thinking, “Surely nothing can be this perfect.  There must be something to fix.”  If my knitting seems too good to be true, I also have the same sort of second thoughts. 

This brings me back to my list of projects for the NaKniSweMoDo KAL.  My original intent was to use it as a stash-busting exercise, but as I got to thinking about the 12 sweaters, I considered the clothes I’d want and need, and my yearning to do some designs of my own.  And so, I moved a few projects that weren’t even figments of my imagination in mid-December to the head of the queue—and I’ve bought new yarn for them. 

I’ve wanted to do some sweaters of my own because Ed’s green sweater was such a satisfying project.  It was fun to develop the pattern and knit with such beautiful yarn.  I did no major designing in 2008, and that has been a disappointment.  I’ve been eager to try some heavier weight merino that has a twist like Zara.  So I succumbed to my urges and got batches of Karabella’s Aurora 8 and Berroco’s Pure Merino to try out for warm pullovers:

The Aurora 8 (color 19) came from the very accommodating people at kpixie, and the Berroco (burgundy) is from WEBS.  I’ve always wondered how the yarns compare, and now I’ll know.  They look very similar.

Both are supposed to have great stitch definition, and there are Barbara Walker patterns that I’ve loved for years that I want to try out.  These pullover sweaters are intended to replace the ratty sweatshirt that I work in at present.

While I was browsing the WEBS site, I treated myself to a few other goodies that I had my eye on for a while.  I still want some portable projects for 2009, and socks and washcloths seem about right.

Here is Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple:

 

I've seen so many beautiful socks from this yarn in blogland that I want to try it for myself.

This is Shibui Superwash Merino in a deep magenta:

This seems similar to STR in its twist, but definitely thinner than the medium weight I just used up.

And, thanks to Susan’s encouragement, I’ve indulged in some Blue Sky Organic Cotton for what will be luxurious washcloths.

For now, I've been progressing nicely on the Cable-wise Cashmere pattern, and I'll be up to the armholes tonight.  It looks as if this will be done in January--perhaps with some time to spare for swatching for Sweaters #2 and #3.

Sweating It Out in 2009

I have thrown all of my good sense out the window and ignored the pleas of DH and DS not to attempt it (because they know I become irrational under stress), but I have joined the 2009 KAL on Ravelry to knit a sweater a month, formally called National Knit a Sweater in a Month Dodecathon, that starts on January 1.  To tell the truth, I’ve been a bit disappointed by my FO output this year.  My favorite project this year was the Bee Fields shawl, but the others weren’t as captivating, even though I have enjoyed my foray into sock knitting. I should have finished the Devonshire jacket and the Calvin Klein cardigan by now, but I haven’t. 

The more I thought about the notion of knitting twelve sweaters, the more intrigued I got.  “Think of all the stash yarn you’d use up,” I told myself. This is more important in 2009 than ever before because I discovered that Rhinebeck and Stitches East are just a week apart, and Stitches East is only in Hartford (a not very distant drive, or an extremely easy train ride away).  How can I justify any major stash enhancements when there is so much unknit yarn?  I also found myself without many pullovers, and it seems to be a no-brainer to crank some out.  And I do think of myself as a sweater knitter more than anything else.

I reminded myself that I rarely knit a sweater in less than two months, and that is if everything moves along perfectly—which it almost never does.  It would also mean that I’d be knitting wool in the summer, and that I would not be able to do any shawls.  I could add some socks as portable projects, but I wouldn’t manage many pairs.  But good sense did not win this argument, and I’ve listed many, but not all, of the possible sweater projects (most links are to posts where I already photographed the yarn):

1. Blue Reynolds yarn for a sweater in Knitter’s Arans and Celtics.

2. Vintage Jaeger Gaelic Spun yarn for a traditional pullover in cables and lace.

3. Gray Zara for Elsebeth Lavold’s Thora, also in Knitter’s Arans and Celtics.

4. Red Silk & Wool for the sweater in Knitter’s Stash.

5. Cherry Tree Hill Rustic Silk for the Norah Gaughan jacket from VK.

6. Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in Raspberry for a self-designed sweater like Ed’s Sweater.

7. Alice Starmore’s Elizabeth I in Jo Sharp’s Alpaca Georgette in ecru.

8. Susan Duckworth's modified Deco sweater.

9. Philosopher’s Wool Fair Isle kit.

10. Self-designed Gansey sweater from Snow Star Farm yarn.

11. Self-designed sweater from purple Blue Faced Leicester yarn.

12. Self-designed sweater from Brooks Farm Primero

 

And if I finish the two WIPs they would count also. 

I’ve not included a second batch of Primero, and one batch each of Acero and Solo Silk from Brooks Farm; another batch of Jo Sharp’s Alpaca Georgette in pearl gray; my Morehouse Family sweater; a sweater’s worth  of Heilo in brick red; or my Tess Silk & Ivory—or any of my older Rowan kits.  But this list is certainly a start.  

I know that some of these sweaters are complicated, and there is a chance I couldn’t complete them in a month, and so I’m ok with the idea of my “personal best”.  I think that left to my own devices, I’d only manage two or three sweaters, but in the KAL I could finish about seven. 

So I'll be interleaving some serious swatching with the socks and washcloths I intend to finish in December.