FO: Kaleidoscope

I have an FO!  A real FO!  Excuse me while I do a little FO dance here

*dance break*

Ok, I'm back.  You've actually already seen this sweater as I finished the knitting back in May, but now it is finally blocked, has its ends woven in, and has had actual pictures.  I'm talking, of course, about my Kaleidoscope, knit out of Three Irish Girls Adorn sock in the You Are My Sunshine colorway for the Stockinette Zombies' Two Ball KAL.

I love this sweater.  It is a flattering color, a flattering cut, and just edgy enough that I would not wear it to work (which seems to be the theme of my garment knitting this season).  I love the fact that it was all stockinette but that I was intrigued enough that I did not get bored.  If I say this is the sweater that made me want to knit sweaters again, would that sound weird?  For a free pattern with surprisingly few directions, it was a wonderful experience.

At the same time, this sweater was a learning experience.  You may notice that the sweater is pulling a bit at the button band.  This is, shockingly, not because I have gained weight from all the stress-eating I have done lately.  It is actually due to the fact that I knit the yarn too loosely.  Let me explain.  I am a tight knitter.  Usually when I knit a sweater I automatically swatch with a size larger.  The Kaleidoscope pattern calls for a US 7, so I ended up using a US 8.  But because I used such a large needle, the fabric seems to have lost more of its stretch than I had anticipated.  It's a great little garment, but if I were to knit it again I'd go down to at least a US 6 and knit the larger size.

I also modified the button band for five buttons instead of six, because I had the perfect shade of purple in my stash (I know, who knew I even had a stash? I sure didn't).  This may also have contributed to the gaping issue, but they are too perfect for me to want to change them now.

The other thing I love about this sweater?  My brother helped me take pictures.  Yes, I got my seventeen year old brother to help take pictures of my knitwear.  He even ran up to his room and put on a scarf and a hat so he'd be more "authentic".  We had a lot of fun in the back yard with me asking "does this look ok?  Are you making me look fat?"  And him saying things like "No, no, you look lovely darling.  Now give me more!  Pretend there is an apple.  No wait, that's too much Megan Fox."

And you know what?  He is the best knitting photographer I've had yet.  There may be a future for him in this.

If you would like to see more FOs, check out Tami's Amis!

The Not-Quite-Lucky Sweater

We had so much fun at Wicked on Wednesday that Sunday we decided to go lotto for tickets before it left the next day.  So Sunday morning arrived and I found myself, as I often do on my day off, wide awake before 7 am.  This is a serious condition with which I seem to have been cursed -- the inability to sleep in.  I blame my parents, as it seems I should for all problems of such gravity.  When I finally admitted to myself that there was no way I'd be able to fall back to sleep (sometimes I can trick my brain into thinking I have to go to work, then I drift right off), I brewed a pot of coffee and settled in with my knitting.  The night before I had knit the left front button band on my Kaleidoscope, so all I had left was to finish the right front button band, sew on buttons, block, and weave in ends.

By ten, when we were to leave, I was sewing in one of the final ends and was determined to wear the sweater to the theater.  I had joked on Wednesday night that I could have it done in time to wear for the lotto, and by golly, if it was within reach I was totally going to do it.  As I struggled to brush my teeth and apply eye liner at the same time I realized something truly upsetting.  The buttons would not stay closed.  Not because the sweater was too small, but because the button holes were too large!  Somehow, despite my careful gauge swatch and needle choice, despite all the math I did to rework the button band for five rather than six buttons, I managed to forget that I had gone up a needle size, which made the buttons I had carefully selected from my meager stash just shy of large enough to fit.  Not to be deterred I found my shawl pin and used it to secure the second button in place, leaving the top to flop over in a manner I hurriedly deemed flirtatious.

On the way to the theater Andrea and I joked about the fact that we never win anything and how the bright spot of our day would realistically be cleaning out the refrigerator.  I knit on the sock I had started just in case we actually got to see the show and we strategized about where to pick up more coffee to sooth our disappointment.  As we pulled into the parking garage I noticed a sign that featured the dates of the show run.  May 2 - 27.  And then it hit me.  I knew from looking at my project page that I had started this sweater on May 2.  And I knew that I was wearing the sweater I had "finished" that morning on May 27.  It was fate.  We needed some luck and we grabbed on to that for all we were worth.  When we met up with the cast outside the stage door we'd tell them of the unintentional creation.  It was the sweater of destiny.

What we learned that day is that a sweater really needs to be finished before it can be lucky.  I still need to reinforce the button holes, weave in the final ends, and give the bottom edge a good blocking before I can call the Kaleidoscope done.  But I did wear it on Sunday.  And while it  eventually got too hot for even fingering weight wool, my little sweater can be considered not-quite lucky.

Maybe lucky-adjacent, if you will.

Soccer Time

Time passes in weird ways.  I'm aware of how long it has been since I graduated from high school, since I finished college, and since I defended my thesis.  I am aware of how long I have knit and just how much I have progressed in the many facets of my now adult life.  But sometimes time just stands up and slaps you in the face.

On Friday my high school played in the women's soccer state championship game.  The only time any team has made it to the state championship is when my brother's cross country team competed his freshman year.  Needless to say, this is a huge deal and as an alumni who was working only a few miles away, I of course had to go.  I am, after all, a Lady Gryphon myself (just not in soccer).  So I dug out an old basketball tshirt and met up with my family at the game.

It was a most surreal experience.  I try to go to things at the high school in which my brother is involved.  When my sister was still in attendance I went to things they did together, but attending living no less than four hours away for the past six years has made it difficult to go to much.  So it had been quite some time since I had seen the students of our small school en mass.  And it was like time had suddenly jumped.  The five year old I used to babysit is now taller than me.  The sixth grader I tutored in math is now a senior and I'm pretty sure has no idea who I was.  A girl who was the youngest on our rec swim team was the star of the game.  And my own little brother was somewhere in the student section -- tall and yelling with his ever deepening voice.

We lost horrendously, but it was a great time.  I got to see my family, if only for a few hours.  And I even worked on the longest sleeve ever.

A Real Knitter

If you had asked me a few weeks ago if I would become completely addicted to knitting a stockinette sweater, I would have said that you were crazy.  No, my brain is too active to knit plain stockinette, even when I'm reading.  I'm just too much of a multi-tasker.

And I would have been wrong.  In the past two weeks I have not been able to get the Kaleidoscope out of my head.  Since I took the above picture Monday night I have finished the body and knit seven inches on the first sleeve.  I just can't stop!  I tried it on last night with a tank top and found it to be completely charming.  I am glad I decided not to try the modifications for a higher neck but rather stuck with the original almost off the shoulder design.  This might be the beginning of a new aesthetic for me.

The best part is that all the guys at work have been completely fascinated by it.  They've watched the garment come together from when I cast on for the opening weekend of The Avengers.  Last night one asked me just how many sweaters I had knit for myself.  I had to stop and really think about it, but I could not give him a definitive answer.  I guess I really can call myself a Knitter.

My Knitting -- A Greek Tragedy

There is a common wisdom in knitting that when you travel you will always overpack.  You will always bring one more project than you can manage.  You will always imagine more time than is available.  And you will always, always, be busier than you think.  For some reason this weekend I tried my hardest to prove to be the exception to the collective experience of knitters everywhere.

When I packed for my four days at home I decided that I would need something basic.  Something to keep my interest during two graduation ceremonies, but also something that I could drop at an instant to snap a picture or stand and cheer.  At the same time I needed something very portable because I knew I would spend at least two days running around getting things set up for the wedding.  So I settled on my Kaleidoscope, a simple stockinette body knit in fingering weight yarn.  I only had about five inches on the needles and almost an entire skein of Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock, which has a put up of 430 yards.  Because I did my packing at 11 o'clock at night this seemed like the perfect plan.  It was not until I got to graduation number one and knit for two straight hours that I realized I may have a problem.

I didn't have enough yarn.  Think about it.  Four days, stockinette, 5.0mm needles.  That is not enough knitting. Fortunately at the last second I had thrown in a hat I'm knitting, but that only lasted the drive home.  Then I was stuck.  Me, the sweater, and a race against time to see if my quickly dwindling ball of yarn would last.

When I left home last night I had this much left.

An hour after we got on the road I hit 16 inches on the body and realized it was time to break off for the sleeves.  Only I didn't have any waste yarn or stitch holders.  I spent the entire drive back alternating between napping and driving Chris nuts because I was stuck sitting with no knitting.

And there you have it.  All the collective wisdom of the knitting universe proved right again.  Just as the gods foil the mortals at the last second in Greek myth,  I did not run out of yarn.  I ran out of pattern.