Endings and Beginnings

I'm making some good progress in my cabled yoke pullover. Of course, I would be making a lot more progress if I didn't try it on after every inch or so of knitting. I'm loving the top down construction though - no ill-fitting surprises around here! I seem to only try it on at night when no nice photos can be taken due to poor lighting and the fact that I don't want the general public to see me in my schleppy before-bed state. Instead, you get the on-the-couch shot:

Despite the fact that the exciting part is over (the cables and the math/figuring things out), I'm still very much in love with this project. It's perfect mindless DVD knitting, which is exactly what I've been in the mood for at the end of the day lately. Knitting off of a cone is great too because it only adds to the mindless factor. No winding center-pull balls or splicing ends! I just keep pulling yarn of the cone and knitting and knitting and knitting..........

Sorry, I think I just slipped off to my happy place there.

In addition to my love affair with a cone of Shetland wool, I've been churning out some little projects, the latest of which is a new dishcloth. Months ago, I made a nice little ball band dishcloth to replace our dish sponge, which was consistently grossing me out. (Does anyone else wonder what's living inside of those things?) I'm a total convert to the dishcloth because it gets thrown in the wash once a week, and I never feel like I'm washing my dishes with soap + mysterious organisms who are now immune to the cleansing power of dish soap. Our last dishcloth really took a beating though, due in large part to our recent acquisition of a sharp chef's knife.

I think it's safe to say that we got enough use out of this thing. Just this morning, I pulled out some Sugar'n Cream cotton and my trusty size 6 needles and whipped off a brand new dishcloth to take its place. Don't tell the old dishcloth, but I like the new one better.

(Dirty coffee cup included for scale.) The new one is smaller, simpler, and as yet unfrayed. What's not to love?! The pattern couldn't be simpler too - cast on 4 stitches, knit a row, k2, yo, knit to end, and then when it's wide enough, k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k to end, cast off when you're back to 4 stitiches, voila! Elegantly simple - just what I look for in a good dishcloth. Now that I finished this up, it means I need to stop putting off doing the dishes.

Also in the vein of new beginnings around here, I was thrilled to see these a couple days ago:


I've got some beefsteak tomatoes, some mystery heirloom tomatoes that I saved the seeds from last summer, and some mixed herbs. I still have to plant my sage, spinach, beets, and peppers. It's going to be a tasty summer at the cottage.

This and that

• Everyone should go check out Sarah's finished Lacy Hug Me Tight! Her's is true to the actual pattern (unlike my heavily modified take) and it's beautiful!
• If you're like me and you love craftiness and green living, you'll love the Sew Green blog.
• The temperature is supposed to be in the 70's today - I'm going outside to knit!
  

Interweave Knits is spying on me

I checked out the summer preview for Interweave Knits today, and what do I find on the cover - a cabled yoke pullover! Um, hello Interweave? I've been working on one for 2 weeks now! (Nevermind that they begin putting these issues together months and months in advance!) It's hard to tell from the tiny preview picture, but mine actually looks quite different from Pam Allen's version. Mine has fewer, larger cables, a higher neckline, and the pattern on the yoke ends at the top of my shoulders rather than running down on the arm a bit. That said, I absolutely love Pam Allen's version as well! I'm really looking forward to this upcoming issue of Interweave. I wasn't overly impressed with the Spring issue. For starters, the new layout is blah. I preferred the old method of pairing the patterns with the photos. Besides, there wasn't too much called out to me from that issue. Summer, however, looks like it's going to be a different story. Veronik Avery's Notre Dame de Grace pullover, Mari Lynn Patrick's 1824 Blouson, Theresa Schabes's Sleevless Tuxedo Shirt, and Shirley Paden's Oriel Lace Blouse all look very promising to me.

New sweater time

I almost titled this post "Has it been over a week already?", but my computer has an auto fill feature on that told me that I've already used this title before! I guess this feeling of time passing too quickly and not keeping up with my blogging is nothing new. Rest assured though, I have been knitting! In fact, I started an exciting new project thanks to the big anniversary sale over at Webs. Last week I received this 2.2 lb. cone of Shetland goodness:

That's a sweater's worth of 2/8 Shetland wool in Terracotta for a mere $20! *swoon* In person, the yarn is a much deeper rust color. It still has the spinning oil on it, so it's not so soft when I'm working with it, but after washing my swatch, it really softened up a lot. I bought this yarn with a top down, cabled yoke sweater in mind, and here's what I have so far:

It doesn't look like much, but I think it's going to turn out just the way I want it to. (Which is good, because I'm kind of winging it here folks!) Inspiration for this sweater came from Jenna's Phildar-inspired cabled yoke sweater and a Banana Republic fair isle yoke sweater that I really like. Support has come mostly from EZ's seamless yoke sweater formula, though her instructions are for a bottom up construction. I want to be able to easily control the length of this sweater, as that seems to be the most elusive element of fit for my store-bought sweaters, so I knew I wanted to make this one a top down project. Hopefully this sweater will turn into a classic, all-purpose pullover. (Just in time for spring/summer!)

Here are some other things that have caught my eye lately:

• An adorable version of Anouk and Bubby (both Knitty patterns) on Prettyknit.
• Olgajazzy's awe-inspiring Habu jacket.
• Finding local produce with Local Harvest.
  

Mystery Knit Revealed! (plus more bug talk)

Not surprisingly, I overestimated my ability to finish a project when I think I'm going to finish it, so alas, I don't have a triumphant, polished FO to show you. You see, in order to do that I would have had to found the perfect buttons, been able to knit faster, and to not have been sick with a cold all weekend. None of those things have magically happened. Therefore, I give you an unfinished Double Breasted Seed Stitch Jacket!

(Poor photo quality is becoming a trademark around here.) This sad little photo does not capture how cute this jacket actually is. I'm test knitting the pattern for Elinor, who has much better photos of her original versions on her blog. Once she puts the pattern up, I highly recommend it for all the babies in your life! Her pattern calls for a hood too, which is utterly adorable, but since I have terminal gauge issues, I don't think I'm going to put the hood on mine. I knit the hood. I attached the hood. I removed the hood. Let's just say, I didn't think it was good for babies to only have a 1/2 inch window to the world. The way I had put the hood on left about that much room in the front for the baby's head to peek out. I don't know what I did. There are no pictures. We're just going to pretend that never happened. Moving on.


Now I just need to find some perfect buttons (you can kind of see the four buttonholes in the pictures above), and block it to try to even the stitches out a bit. I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Lemon Drop, which is pleasantly soft and fuzzy, but a little uneven in thickness. I didn't have any of the extreme shedding problems with this yarn that it seems that others have had. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that the baby won't have any wool or mohair sensitivities.

In bug news, Lisa commented that she "knows about that bug," and well, she knew about that bug. According to her research, it's likely that my little enemy is a carpet beetle. Ewww. Carpet beetles are no friend to fiber. I looked all through the bag with the wool for the deceased aran, and didn't see any evidence of more beetles, so I'm hoping that that little guy is the last one I'll see. Again, more crossed fingers. Once the weather turns back into Spring around here, I think I'm going to give the stash a good ol' fashioned shaking out.