How to drive someone crazy from 1100 miles away

29 December 2007

Well, that didn't suck

So, despite all my dread and woe, Christmas didn't suck. The food came out deliciously (crock-pot pot roast and a chocolaty upside down cake, made by me), everyone seemed pleased with their gifts, no one lost an eye. Good times. So, let's move on past Christmas and get to the good stuff.

Knitting content!

Despite my best efforts, I cannot bring myself to do the finishing work on the Eyelet Cardigan. The pattern instructions advise seaming the sleeves and body, then setting in the sleeves, and I thought it was possible they knew more about their own pattern than me, so I did what they told me. Any other cardi in the world wants the sleeves set in first, and now I know why. It is much easier to seam along a curve if you can get the piece to lie flat, rather than standing there like an idiot with a darning needle and trying to wrangle the pieces into some sort of seamable shape. It is not going well, and it pains me that I didn't listen to my instincts, because now most of my ends are woven in and there are only those two stupid setting-in seams to go, and I want to throw the thing across the room at every opportunity. This is not a hobby for the faint of heart. I've picked the first seam out three times, and I fully intend to finish this today. I think the shoulders have some sort of vendetta against me.

I picked up Yoshi's Skully sweater again, since the extra yarn arrived and I can finally finish the sleeves. I way, way over bought this time, and am going to have at least a full skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky in charcoal to get rid of. There's about six inches of straight stockinette to be done, then four rows of garter, two quick seams, and then it's wearable. Oh, and weighs about twelve pounds. I think it will be worn for one picture, then folded lovingly and put away forever. Unless, of course, Yoshi and I decide to go see Cygknit while there is still snow on the ground. Let's hope global warming doesn't ruin it for us.

Oh, and I knit this little tri-cornered roll-brim hat.



It's for my handsome and amazing nephew, shown blocking on a little balloon. Super easy pattern; I just cast on seventeen inches of stitches and made sure the number was divisible by 6, then worked an inch in the round. Threw in a purl ridge to stop the roll, then kept going until I felt like stopping. Threw in three rows that decreased 6 stitches each (spaced by even rows), and then came the bind-off, which is the detail that makes this hat. Put 1/6 of the stitches on a DPN, put the next 1/6 on another DPN. Work a three-needle bind off on these (unless you don't care for the defined edges, in which case a graft will produce a softer edge), and put the last stitch on a safety pin. Do this three times, and the corners pop out nice and sharp. Take those three stitches and weave the end through the first, then pick up a stitch between the first and second to weave (this closes up the little stretched-out holes n the top). Work that all the way around until you're sick of it, duplicate stitching any loose spots. Weave in the ends. Mail to Connecticut and hope to see a picture of the baby in it on his mama's blog. Feel clever.


1 Comments:

Blogger CygKnit said...

Your handsome and amazing nephew is going to adore it :)

9:45 AM

 

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