Distraction by recycling

Despite big horse pills and a wrist brace, knitting is not really on my agenda at the moment. However, I have been un-knitting at a furious rate. Behold:

This is a sweater I knit when we lived in Tucson/Houston, back around 2002, when I really got back into knitting in a obsessive-compulsive serious way. It was the first sweater I'd made for myself in a long time.

I had great fun knitting it, with all those cables, but there were some issues. Number 1: the drop shoulder look is not a good one for anyone with shoulders wider then about 18 inches.

Number 2: nary a whiff of shaping in sight. Nada. Which was great when I was pregnant, but now that I'm past that stage of life, it is not such a flattering look.

Number 3: a finished chest measurement that resulted in about 5 inches of positive ease. I've learned a lot about what type of sweaters look good on me, and it's simplest to say that zero or negative ease is definitely my friend.

Finally number 4: this was clearly before my discovery of the greatest finishing technique ever, aka mattress stitch. Oy...

So, I took some scissors, and after a little while I had this.

And then I took the spinning wheel and ended up with this,

and this.

So now I have a large pile of 75% acrylic/25% wool (that will actually felt!), and no definite plans for it. Some of it will probably become a baby sweater or twelve. And maybe Angostura for me. Not that I can knit at the moment. Not that I'm bitter about that. In the meantime, I can think of two more sweaters hiding in the warddrobe upstairs that could use a trip to the frog pond. Ahhhh, recycling!

Oh crap!

Last night, the Viper Pilots and I had a come to Jesus meeting.

Actually, it was just one pilot. And not even a whole one at that. I have finally made it to halfway down the foot, and it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to try the damn thing on.

So those pretty twisted stitches and cables and such like? Not so elastic...who knew? (OK, I knew, but Denial is not just some big river in Africa somewheres.) The leg of the sock would go over my foot ok, but the heel? No dice.

The Viper Pilot(s) are now in time out. I wound up this yarn to start Installment #2 of the Cookie A Project. Here's hoping I can get them finished by the end of October...They were going to be for me, but I suspect that fit is going to be an issue once again. Mom, I know you got Glynis for your birthday, but maybe you need a pair of green socks for Christmas?

Sad Day

So last night, I finally finished dropping down and picking up all the stitches on the back of Aleita, knit the last inch and a half, and sewed up the shoulders so I could try it on.

Umm...well...no. Just...no.

Where do I begin? I guess the good news is that the length overall is ok (I was worried I would need to add length below the waist decreases). But the bad news is that neckline. Dude. That sucker needs to come up at least three inches. At least.

And while I'm at it? A couple inches longer before the waist decreases is probably a good call. Survey says frog pond.

So I guess that week I spent slaving with a crochet hook was worth it, hunh? Grrrr....

Oh bugger

This is what my current pair of socks looked like while I was waiting for the bus this morning:

This is what they looked like when I got to work.

I had the sad duty of coming to terms with the fact that, although I was almost done with Chart 3 (of 4) on the leg, the sock was too big. Just too long. And if I kept going, I might not have enough yarn for sock #2. So I spent my bus ride imitating a froggie. My socks for this month might have to be some quickies for the girls instead of these bad boys.

Speaking of the girls, I did manage to get some modeled shots of Boo in her Tomten.

Last night watching TV.

I think she likes it, because she wouldn't take it off until bath time, resulting in a lovely ketchup splotch across the front from dinner.

She wore it again this morning, so I think this one is a keeper!

Please note the pink Dora Crocs, three Dora books clutched in one hand, and 'Raf under the other arm. She is prepared for the day.

Recycling

The yarn I'm using for the Endpaper Mitts is reclaimed from two sweaters I picked up for cheap at Goodwill. I've now found another source for recycled yarn: previously knit sweaters.

This is my Mountain Mohair sweater - Moriah's Wildflower Cardigan. It's a beautiful sweater, and I wear it whenever it's cold enough (which is not as often as I would like). The yarn is beautiful soft and slightly fuzzy, and it's held up pretty well over the last 5 years or so. But on my way home yesterday, I looked down and noticed this:

Since the yarn is basically a softly spun single, not a plied yarn, it's not terribly strong. I must have caught the edging on something and it broke the yarn. Now, in and of itself, this is not enough of a reason to frog the sweater. But I've been thinking about knitting something else from this for a while. First of all, there's no shaping to the sweater. It's straight up and down and basically just hangs there when I'm wearing it. And it doesn't do a lot for my body honestly - I'm not exactly svelte, and I think that it would look better on me with a bit more shaping.

I also am not a fan of the seed stitch bands - they are a bit loose and floppy, and don't feel substantial enough. I've decided to frog the sweater and use the yarn for something else. Initially, I was thinking about a top down V neck with set in slightly belled sleeves. But after last night's Mr. Redjeans fiasco (finished ribbing, bound off, tried on and realized that A) clearly the designer did not have my figure in mind when she had us switch to size 7 needles for the ribbing*, but I really don't need to display that much of my tummy, B) it was going to be too short in any event, and C) clearly in my mind I am still in my pre-pregnancy, half-Ironman body, not my post-two kids-still-lactating body - I'm going to have to go up a size), I'm thinking that I may soon be working on Mr. Bluejeans, while Mr. Redjeans gets to wear a set of concrete galoshes.

* this is nicer then saying she was smoking crack because really, the ribbing was going to pull in anyway with the cables. Why have it pull in more with smaller needles?

It's not spring, but I think I hear the peepers calling

Yesterday on the bus I finished the body of the Basalt tank, with a great sigh of relief. Knitting all those hexagons and the construction kept it interesting, but I was getting awfully tired of hauling the thing in and out of my bag every time I wanted to work on it (big, sprawling thing that it was) (this should have been a clue methinks). And my fellow commuters are probably glad that I will no longer be taking up more then my fair share of the available seats on the bus with yarn and needles.

I decided to actually try the thing on last night before I sat down to pick up the umpteen million stitches I needed to do the straps and edging on the bottom. A very good decision, since it is way too big.

Damn. I had actually thought that I'd picked right this time - I checked my gauge ahead of time, and chose the size 39 which should fit with slight negative ease, given my lactation enhanced boobage. However, it is easy 3-4 inches too big around. ARGH! I don't believe that I've actually lost that much baby weight in the two months or so it took to get to this point, so something else is off. I'll have to go back and check my gauge in the actual sweater and see how that compares to my swatch. But hell. This hardly ever happens to me, not because I'm such a careful swatcher (hah!), but because I usually can work around any issues and muddle through. But the construction of this tank is such that the only way to fix it is to rip out the whole thing. All 5+ hexagons. And I will definitely add in Kelp's waist shaping trick in the Basalt Reincarnation (TM). And maybe leave off the half hexagon on the back. The only good thing is that I wasn't going to be able to wear it until the spring anyway, so I can put it away to be frogged in a few months with out guilt.

And...now I can start on something else for myself, conveniently ignoring all the C!#$%)^ knitting lurking in the background. This is calling my name, and seems to be a really quick knit. And since we're going up north for the holidays, I'll need something warm, right?

Edited to add: my disappointment about the new froggy nature of the Basalt tank was, however, mitigated by the Red Sox. Or rather, by the absolute implosion of the Rockies' pitching staff. I was folding laundry and kept looking up at the TV, thinking "Did he really just walk in another run? No, he couldn't have...ohmigod he did!" Thank you Josh, thank you entire BoSox batting order, and thank you Mr. Hurdle for keeping Franklin Morales and Ryan Speier in there pitching as long as you did. I guess maybe the 8 days off wasn't very helpful. On to Game 2!