Annie Knits

Baby oh Baby!

One baby sweater down, one to go.

The King Cole Aran baby jacket, pattern 2557, size 2.  It's kind of an old pattern, I think.  The pockets are so cute and the buttons (from Knitorious) are perfect.  I did have a customer tell me that while she likes the sweater just fine, she'd never give anything done in that ugly color to a baby.  To which I smiled and said thanks...  More pics here on Ravelry.

I know it's outside of the norm, but I still think it'll be darling on a 2 yr old boy digging in the rocks at a playground.  So there.

I bought more Dream in Color Classy to do a girly sweater for the next baby.  And I do have to say I'm glad none of these much awaited wonders belongs to me.  Thank goodness!  Not that I don't just love babies 'cause I do.  (Read the Harlot today?)  And I absolutely don't mind all but the most strident baby noises in most places.  I'm usually just glad I'm not the one at whom the baby is fussing.  I always think that baby fussing bothers the parents more than the rest of us, but apparently I'm mistaken on that count.   

Ahem. Where Were We?

Oh.  Right.  Rabelry... which I shall now un-renounce.  Due primarily to a lovely forum for spinners which has redeemed the place for me entirely. 

I went on and asked about my Louet S90, which came to me as you will remember used and without documention.  And for a song, come to find out.  No complaining here.  One gal even sent me a PDF of the original documentation for the thing.  I can now fold her up, (in theory, 'cause she gets too much use to be folded up, but if I were to want to take her somewheres, I could now with ease) oil her and manipulate the tension better... you know.  All the tricks.  And I can do this.

That there is some plyed up yarn.  Yee haw!  Oh.  Ahem.  Sorry.  I know it's early in the morning -- well, actually, it shouldn't be that early.  Except we mess with the time and it takes the dogs and I and the kids like a week to get back on schedule and someone has to get sick in the process and we all are crabby for a week. 

The swift measures 4 feet per revolution -- that's about a  150 yards there and more on the bobbin.  And I have this cake of 180 yards.

Yep.  It even knits up kinda nice.  I'm thinking of using it for the yoke of a sweater (it's very soft) with the body of the sweater being this (5th color down on the right -- a deep, bright orange).  I'm getting like 5 1/2 stitches to the inch on US5s.  And while this first plying attempt isn't particularly perfect looking in the cake, it is perfectly lovely and smooth knit up.  And I guess that's what matters, right?

Did I ever show you the roving?  It's a mohair/wool blend from Buckwheat Bridge Angoras and it's carded (or combed?) into layers:  green, chocolate, barn red, and bright orange.  The green and the orange are duller and stickier (must be the wool) and the brown and red are shiney and can really be pulled out as you spin.  I've been trying to get stretches of just green and just orange separated by sections that mix in the brown and red barber-pole style.   It's kind of working.  And it keeps me endlessly amused, and isn't that the whole point of the thing, anyway?

Yes -- it's An Unoriginal Hat.  She's right -- took one evening.  This one's out of some "The New Periwinkle" colored yarn, and how I came about having this yarn only Rabbitch knows for sure...  I've got to blog about that tomorrow.  Daughter walked by the screen as I was looking at the pattern, newly posted, and she said, "Oh, that's cute.  Can it be in blue?"  Well, you all know what happens when progeny actually wants hand-knitted items.  A stash-diving we went and everything else was dropped.  She's worn it and gotten compliments already...

There is another one on the needles -- Malabrigo chunky.  Oh yeah.  And next to that we have "Mistress of Dance" sock yarn.  The story goes that Rachel was dying this yarn in a colorway inspired by me and one of my trek sock bags, when she noticed that it was a perfect Mardi Gras color combination and then she remembered that Deborah had lamented that dyers always added one extra color and mucked up the gold purple green Mardi Gras colorways in yarn.  So Rachel stopped.  And my yarn was Deborah's.  At least I got a skein before they were all snapped up... ***grin***

Are you wondering about the polar bear book and the Moon Sand in the background of many of these pictures?  Dear Son's been down with a fluish snotty thing for 3 days -- we've pulled out all the toys and activities.  Because Cheetos and Mythbusters can only get you so far when you're stuck in the house for 3 days. 

So... Do You Want the Good News First, or the Bad?

Yes, well, when it rains, it pours.  Good news?

Kauni Cardigan is complete.  Except for weaving in just a few ends and tacking down the steek facing thingys.  She is absolutely lovely!  On the board. 

The bad news?  Even with all the measuring and futzing and general sleeve anxiety, the sleeves are still about a repeat too long.  Grrr.  And rolling up a colorwork sleeve?  Not so attractive.  I'll have to rip them and re-knit the cuffs.  After Rhinebeck.  Because a note to all those Bingo players -- I'll wear this on Saturday if weather permits!  I bet there will be several, if not more than several, Kaunis at the blogger meet-up.

Details: Kauni Cardigan, by Ruth Sorenson.  I knit the largest size. 

• Needles:  Sizes 3US and 4US.
• Yarn:  Kauni Effektgarn, color EQ, ordered here.  Just email Uta; she is lovely, and her English is way better than my Danish...
• Time:  August 6, 2007 to October 9, 2007.
• Modifications:  I knit a garter box rather than corrugated ribbing at the sleeves, hem, and neck.  Let me just say, PITA!  Buttonholes were a particular challenge.  I found a great buttonhole tutorial for corrugated ribbing in my Art of Fair Isle Knitting book -- now you tell me!  Absolutely no help at all.  After ripping 4 times (because you have to get a row or two past the button hole to see if it's at all attractive...)  I settled on the following:  Cast off 4 in the alternating color; cable cast on 4 from the left needle in the same color; knit over the 4 in the other color.  While not exactly in pattern, it gives the impression of colorwork and alternating colors and if you're looking too closely at my buttonholes, then you're looking too closely at my chest and you need to step back a few!  We'll see if that gets any weird Google hits.
• How do I feel about this knit?  Loved knitting it.  With a passion.  To the exclusion of many other things.  Do I love the fit?  No.  As is the nature of the drop shoulder, it is a little saggy.  Perhaps when it gets more winterish outside, the fit will seem more like what I'm supposed to be wearing...  In fairness, my fit issues might be that I tried it on dampish with a tank top and no buttons.  Because it was like 90° here.  With the right turtle neck and with winter fitting clothes in mind, it might be perfect.  When it cools off appreciably here, I'll let you know.  It's down to 53° now... any idea about the weather next weekend in upstate New York?!

Speaking of Rhinebeck... I'm so excited to go.  I'm going with Bridgett and we'll be staying in Saugerties -- much shorter drive Monday morning to the Albany Airport.  Have fun in Poughkeepsie though -- maybe we can drive up there on Saturday night and party with you all.  I'll be looking for (in this order):  Roving, Roving, the yarn for 1 sweater for me, Roving, and ... oh, some roving.  Maybe some more yarn.  I don't know...

The bad news?  Well it's kind of a story... get a cup of coffee.  Two weekends ago, we got several prank/hang-up phone calls.  It was Friday night, I was working (we're open Friday nights now folks!  Partayy!) and Daughter called me -- she doesn't answer the phone unless she's sure of the identity of the caller.  The CallerID showed the name of a pretty good kid from 8th grade, but he kept hanging up.  It was freaking her out.  I told her to let it go to the answering machine.  The next call  was a different voice telling her to call this kid... well, she wasn't gonna do that!   

Next morning, I had to be somewhere with Dear Son, and soon  Dad was on my cell phone saying that he had gotten two more calls from this same number, both hang-ups!  He was honked off.  I told him to let it go to the machine... to stop picking up the phone and the calls would stop.  When I got home the message on the machine was as follows:  " (whispered by what sounds like Mom) just tell her it's you and for her to call you!"  and then, "Hithisis(boy's name)couldyouhave (Daughter)callme"click.  Just like that, all run together and fast and ... Oh my gosh! 

So she called him back, and ... you guessed it, she's going to his all-boys-school homecoming.  Turns out that the voice we didn't recognize the night before was his mom... ***grin***.  And of course all the hang-ups with Daughter  and with Dad were this poor guy chickening out.  And really, before you worry, he is a really nice kid, one of the few from that class.   And he is already an Eagle Scout (at 14!).  And he and Daughter had been buddies in 5th, 6th, and 7th, but the other kids had teased them for being friends, so there hadn't been much contact in 8th grade.  So.  How is this bad news?  The dance is the 21st of October.  Ahem.  Heavy Sigh. So, we've got dress, hair and make-up appointment, and accessories all set up -- it's up to Dad to execute.  Heavy sigh again.  You control freaks out there will commiserate with the knot in my stomach.

More Good and Bad in no particular order:

• Good for me to be on the board of our neighborhood association.  We should all participate in local governance.  Bad for me is that, while I am Treasurer and accomplish a number of neighborhood related tasks each month, the 60-ish men CEOs on the board keep asking me to "run things to ground" for them -- you know, niggling little tasks like ordering plaques for them to present to neighbors who win their committee awards and newsletter snafus. And they call me "Annie".  Which I choose on my blog, but I do not choose in this milieu -- it's a little pet-nameish...  Which is of course how they use it.  I politely replied that I'd let him run this little task to ground himself, thankyouverymuch, and that when he needed a check for the order, he could call me...
• Good that Dear Son can accomplish multiplication when there are two numbers in the top row and two numbers in the bottom with relative ease -- in his head, actually.  Bad that he doesn't read the directions which call for him to estimate these answers.  Which gets him an F on his Math test... for getting all of the problems correct.  Estimating would take several more steps than just writing down the exact answer and he can't be bothered.   Neither can his Math teacher be bothered to get her head out of her a@@ and see that his answers are correct and that he doesn't NEED to estimate that kind of problem and if she wants him to have to estimate which is actually a good skill to have that she'll have to present him with more difficult problems!  Holy crap!  No really, I get it... he needs to estimate.  Just not at this level, and he'll learn to estimate, but I think it's lazy of her not to notice that he's just gotten all of the problems mathematically correct ... she could talk to him about it, or give half credit or something!  The test just came home with giant red slashes all over it and a big F at the top.  Nice.
• Good that I'm learning all this new music for my Gaelic concert.  It is lovely, really lovely music.  Haunting in that Irish music kind of way and I love the harmonies.  Bad that I'm learning all this new music for this Gaelic concert.  Really.  'Cause Irish Gaelic has lots of sounds that I don't make in normal American speech, and I'm spitting all over my music, and For God's Sake there are way more syllables than notes in here, aren't there?!  It's stressing me out.