Impressive Sleevage

One of the coolest things about sweater knitting is when you hit the point that it actually looks like a sweater, not just a giant piece of fabric.  The Gramps Cardigan is a bottom-up raglan, which is a construction that I really should use more.  Most of the stuff I knit is top-down, seamless, and if it has buttons they are worked in as you go.  This one is bottom-up AND has a picked up  button band and shawl collar.  I know this construction is also technically seamless, but it has a lot more structure than a lot of top-down stuff.

Even though I already have most of my sweaters for the year picked out based on my stash, I think this is something I need to try more often -- knitting a construction that makes me uneasy.  Who knows, maybe it will lead to even more brave attempts.  Like, say, colorwork?

I am glad that I decided to knit the sleeves before the rest of the sweater.  Made the giant swaths of pattern repeat a lot more interesting because I knew when I reached a certain point I could jump ahead in the pattern.  It was like this little secret in the back of my mind.   Even though I did do all the work of knitting the sleeves, it was like I got to cheat.  At this point everyone else has to go dig up more needles and knit the sleeves, but not me!  No, I got to just pull them out of the bottom of the bucket I keep my sweater knitting in and slide them right on.  The increase in wow factor in going from sweater body to sweater with sleeves is pretty significant.  Andrea was out of town for a few days when I attached the sleeves, so when I pulled it out last night to work on during Once Upon a Time she was aptly impressed.

Now to make as much progress as possible before the Great Cowl KAL begins today.

Week of Fun

It's been a crazy week of fun.  I just dropped my dear friend Taryn (she of the My Little Pony cocktail recipes) off at the airport for her flight home and am just beginning to process the amount of fun we had this week.

Here are some of the highlights:

Knitting at the North Carolina Museum of History

And spinning!

Evidently hanks of yarn in the 1800s were much larger than modern skeins.  Unless maybe you are buying Miss Babs' Yowza.

Brownies!

And crafting.  I did a lot of cabling . . .

. . . and Taryn cross-stitched a masterpiece.  I have to say, I'm a little jealous.

It was a ton of fun.  Taryn and I haven't hung out this much since school, and I wish she could have stayed longer.  Hopefully I'll be able to hike down to Atlanta some time.  I miss having friends outside of my apartment.

Knitting ADD

The other day I described myself to a coworker as having knitting ADD.  She was asking what had happened with some socks she had seen me work on on a previous day and when I told her they were at home waiting to be knit on again she just shook her head and laughed.  It seems that having multiple works in progress is something that is frowned upon by your average non-knitter.  Just like having extra yarn is seen as obsession rather than preparation.

But here's the thing.  If you're privileged enough to be in a first world country, then you probably have more of a lot of things than you can use at one time.  You have extra food that you don't plan to eat all at once (and probably several things of leftovers that are arguably meals in progress).  You might own movies, which you really can't watch all at one time.  You even own more clothes than you can reasonably wear at one time.  So why should I not have more projects than I can knit at one time.  After all, this is a leisure activity, so I should do what I want if I have the resources.  It's not ADD, it's getting the maximum enjoyment out of my sticks and string.

At least this is what I tell myself as I cast on another sweater.

Friday Wedding Update: Week 28

I'm sorry I have been so low on posts this week.  It's just that after working my third holiday weekend in two months I was in danger of writing posts about bad customer behavior or how I almost got run over by a car and a Christmas tree in the same hour.  My happy just was not at the forefront of my creative mojo, so I retreated into work and my knitting and lots and lots of Charmed episodes.

But it's time for this week's progress report on operation Rutabaga 2012, and I have actually done some work (most of it today).  It is hard to work on the planning when I feel like I am operating in a vacuum.  Chris is still in school and so has not really been available for strategic planning sessions and plus, as the bride, it really is up to me to do most of the heavy lifting.  Overall I have felt very supported in this process by everyone involved, but at the end of the day the real decision making is up to me, and that's a little scary.

It's no secret that we are trying to do this as cheap as possible.  The area that is making this difficult currently is the reception.  What do you serve for food?  Is there anyone who could help out?  How many people are we having to feed and what are the expectations?  Since the wedding is on a Friday night the timing has worked out that we really do need to serve some sort of dinner.  I am not really into big elaborate meals, and I have no intention of hiring a caterer.  I just don't have that kind of funding.  So today I sat down with a notebook and did some free association and word mapping exercises that I used to do when I got stuck working on research.

I started with the main concept.  No, not "cheap", but rather the feel of the wedding.  It's a small country church and based on my dress and current flower ideas (more on that later), I'm aiming for "storybook".  So, what food seems like it would be at a small country wedding in a fairy tale.  For some reason the first word that popped into my head was "chutney", which really makes no sense.  But from there I moved to cheese and once I got on the idea of cheese plates it all sort of spiraled from there.  When I was a kid my parents would do family movie nights that involved picnicking on the living room floor munching on nice cheese, crackers, grapes, and apple slices.  Those have always been some of my favorite meals, and in my mind they are tied to stories like Pirates of Penzance (my original pirate loves -- go watch the video, I'll be here when you come back) or The Jungle Book.  It just makes sense to take that memory and build a menu around it, because in the end that's really what this is going to be -- a reflection of the past 23 years of my life, honoring that, and celebrating the beginning of a new chapter.

And, as has become my mantra when I'm stuck making decisions, it's my wedding.  Even if I don't get to eat the food myself I still have to pay for it.  If people don't like it they can do something different when they get married (that sounds really mean, but sometimes you just have to stop considering everyone else or nothing will get done).

Down the Rabbit Hole

So... have you seen the new Whimsical Little Knits?  I know, right?!  It's, like, so awesome and pretty and it has that whole whimsical thing going for it... It's pretty much the cat's meow of accessory collections.

This is the conversation I imagined having with my knitting bff.  The one who keeps up with Ravelry and indie designers.  The one I essentially do not have in my corner of the world.  One day that will change, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, back to Whimsical Little Knits 3.  It dropped like an atomic bomb on the knitting community the other night.  I was just sitting there on the couch, knitting on my sweater, when suddenly Ysolda tweeted a link leading to the preorder of WLK3.  A link I immediately jumped on with much flailing and enthusiasm.  And then I found out that not only was it a preorder, but that the digital copy was immediately available for download.

I don't remember much after that, just a blur of flailing and yelling and casting on.  All I know is that I barely slept that night and somehow the rest of the yarn needed for that second Kristi sock I still need to knit is now becoming this:

Roisin was released last year in Interweave Accessories, but I somehow managed to resist and wait for WLK3 instead.  I'm so glad I did.  I'm trying to track down the yarn I need to knit Hendreary.  A hat with a giant button motif?  How can I refuse?

The Joy of a Well-Tended Arch

As a sock knitter, it could be implied that I like my feet.  But if you actually spent time with me you would assume that I don't.  I don't moisturize, paint my nails, or do any pedi-spa type stuff.  And I certainly don't buy myself nice shoes.  My mother raised me on the principle that our feet are important.  They are what connect our bodies to the ground and carry all of our weight.  This was especially important for me to learn as a kid because I inherited my father's flat feet.  And when I say flat I mean it.  If I go barefoot or wear shoes with little to no support my arch completely disappears.  Luckily for me, my mom recognized this and made sure to send me to school or outside to play in well-made shoes.  The added benefit of this is that well-made shoes last a long time.

Exhibit A:

You may recognize these shoes from previous FO posts.  They were the first shoes I bought for myself back in high school when our lovely uniform committee decided that navy blue shoes were no longer allowed and we could only wear black or white.  I can remember going to the shoe store and trying on everything that was solid black (solid white with khakis and my crazy socks would just look stupid) and finally deciding on these, buying them with a good chunk my summer savings because I knew I would wear them every day for at least the next year.

Fast forward six years and I am still wearing them consistently.  My current job requires me to wear closed toed shoes and to frequently stand most of the day, which eliminates most of my other shoe preferences.  Mom came to visit a few weeks ago and realized that the shoes were probably passing their wearability point and so bought me a new pair as a graduation gift.

Five years on the market and Keen has only improved their offerings.  I love these shoes (Harvest MJ).  Seriously, I can't stop talking about them.  They are completely different from what I had originally wanted, but they are so much more fun.  The bright colors go well with the environment I work in and the arches only took one day to break in.  I've worn them for several days straight with no problems.  I'm not a big shoe purchaser (which is why Mom thought to buy me these as a gift, because they are not something I would splurge on myself when I have other shoes in the closet), but these are so nice I may save up for another pair to have in the rotation.

And they go well with hand knitted socks!  My size US 8.5 feet fit comfortably with enough wiggle room that I can wear the socks I make, which just adds to the color fun.  Everyone has been commenting on them.  Though that might just be a side effect of wearing the same shoes every day for six months.  In any case, I highly recommend them if anyone is looking to invest in a good wearable shoe.  There are a lot of varieties to choose from, including many more practical hues if you're not as colorful as I tend to be.

Friday Wedding Update: Week 29

This post is not about the release of Whimsical Little Knits 3 that went live last night.  It is not about the fact that I flailed about frantically and immediately cast on with yarn that was already half a pair of socks, meaning I'll have to buy more.  It is most certainly not about the fact I stayed up till almost midnight knitting on said item, though I was mostly ripping out.  No, this post is about a little even I like to call Rutabaga 2012.

In exactly 29 weeks (yes, I counted) I will be getting married.  It's a scary thought that has often sparked a whirwind of panic when I think about the fact that I have done nothing about the food, the order of ceremony, purchasing rings, etc.  I have this really long check list that really doesn't fully apply to me because, frankly, I'm not spending a lot of money on this.  Both Chris and I are extremely broke and though my parents are helping with much of the financial expense, I am too budget conscious to let them spend much.

What most people probably find amusing about this is that I have been engaged for almost 13 months, but until a few weeks ago I had absolutely no interest in working on my wedding.  I was too focused on school and trying to find a job that would cover my rent to really care about the finer points of florists, photographers, and my adamant stand against djs.  But then it hit.  About 12 hours after graduation I suddenly cared.  A lot. Which is good because I now have less than six months to plan and execute this sucker.

But fear not.  I have thrown myself into wedding planning with more than a little gusto.  My mom and sister came up for two days before new years and within about 30 hours we had tried on and purchased my dress as well as both bridesmaid dresses.  Having the bridesmaid dresses gave me a color scheme.  Having the wedding dress has given me theme influencing ideas.  I have no pictures to offer because Chris often reads the blog and the one thing I have been very particular about is that he know nothing about my dress.  I took no pictures of my own and my mom took it home so that he won't stumble upon it when for some unknown reason I send him to my closet to find a pair of shoes because I'm stranded somewhere and have a gala to get to (hey, a girl can dream).

In the past week I have also confirmed a photographer (so far the most expensive part of the wedding, but I know it'll be worth it), figured out what to do about flowers (more on that later... I hope), and gone with Chris to create a registry at Target (fun, but not nearly as fun as everyone leads you to believe).  Next on the list is to create a wedding website and figure out a headcount for the guest list.  Are you not just dying to know more?  Yeah, me neither.  Who knew there was absolutely so much to do.  I'm sure you'll hear more about the stuff I've decided to cut out in the days to come as the crazy truly starts to sink in.