Writer's bench

Temporary time-out from knitting today. Because yesterday I spent a lovely chunk of the afternoon writing on this bench at the Morton Arboretum:

Is it surprising what a lot of writing gets done when one is surrounded by waving blue hostas? The trouble with writing is that you do it, of necessity, by yourself. Not here. And the hostas never get bored watching.

After my writing session, I took a wee walk around. Here are the surreal tulips:

Click on the photo to see it enlarged and you'll see what I mean. It's as if the tulips got together yesterday and decided, "today we will be perfect." Hah -- caught them in the act.

The back of the Arb's new visitors center:
A shot at the end of our bike ride through the east side (yes, that's my sideview mirror; no, I got off the bike to take the photo):
And finally a peep at a member of the Arb's bug sculpture show:
There's an ant parade sculpture best viewed from atop Frost Hill. I managed to pedal up Frost Hill yesterday, all the way, without having to get off my bike. Next time maybe I'll remember to stop and take a picture, rather than spending the time panting and patting myself on the back for taking a huge step to get back in shape. Since the last time it snowed here west of Chicago was just two weeks ago, we're doing pretty well getting out there biking. One friend of ours bikes to work every single day, blizzard, rain, windstorm and other Chicago-type weather, doesn't matter. Don't know how he does it. But I've ordered a poncho from L.L. Bean in hopes that I can at least bike in spring/summer/fall rain. My bike doesn't have a chain, so rain not a problem except for that getting soaked issue. And sliding. Falling. Take control! Uh, sure.

Back to my knitting.

Subtract one stripe...

Five or six years ago, whenever the pattern first came out, I made the Mission Falls Kinki jacket from their In Living Colour book out of stash. My yarn came mostly from a failed sweater that my husband had frogged for me. He's the master frogger in our house. I'd never seen the original Kinki until a week ago, when an enormous box of trunk show models showed up at my LYS, String Theory Yarn Company in Glen Ellyn, IL. Then things got interesting.

See, when I'd first looked at the what I came to call my Stash Jacket pattern, I thought, nope, way too big. The pattern is for one size that's 52" around. I thought that would look hilarious on the short person that I am. Turns out I was right:

The sleeves flow about four inches longer than my hand. The sweater reaches my knees. It's a lovely jacket in person:

For my version, I removed one stripe from each of the mitred square patterns, large and small. My stashie is the one in blues. Here's what a difference one stripe makes:


And this is after years of wear and, since it's cotton, growth. I knitted the sleeves originally to 3/4 length, assuming they'd grow, and sure enough now they're wrist length. My stashie is my all-time favorite sweater, one I wear all seasons and which I've even slept under in cold hotel rooms, since it's also my fave travel sweater. I've taught stash jacket classes many times -- last time at the Baskets of Yarn winter retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains -- because it's just an excellent way to understand the difference gauge makes. A few stitches here and there and, phew, it's a different size completely.

Stashie was probably my first experience altering a pattern to fit. Lately I've been making sweaters that can be altered to fit while I knit. The first one was the Sahara, designed by Wendy Bernard for Stitch Diva. I knit it to fit Rachel, trying it on her twice in North Carolina before finishing it back home in Illinois. Now I'm making one out of Knit One Crochet Too's Ty Dy for me and display at String Theory.

You start out with a provisional cast-on at the shoulders and knit down to the back underarm before placing those stitches on a holder (Denise needles as the perfect stitch holders, anyone?). Then you pick up each shoulder from the provisional cast-on and knit down the fronts to the underarms. Then you put fronts and back together on one needle. See all the possibilities for alterations as you go? Length of armhole. Length from armhole to waist decreases. How many waist decreases. Then increases for hip. Wendy's assumption for fit was that her Sahara would have zero ease, which looks wonderful on Rachel:

who is 25 and can wear tight.

Can't show you a finished Sahara for moi yet, having begun it only four days ago, but here are progress pix. I've just begun waist decreases.

I'm liking the way the Ty Dy stripe is working. Since south of the underarms, the whole thing is knitted as one piece, there's no problem matching stripes. I'm not sure why, since I'm not a perfectionist, but I really like stripes to match at the seams. Hey, no seams, no problem.

More on this altering-as-you-knit idea in upcoming blogs, since its my current fascination.

Sideways cardigan my way

Glad to know you all love Vogue Knitting as much as I do. Here are my changes to the Sideways Cardigan pattern in the current (Spring/Summer 08) issue, as you follow through the printed pattern. No notes mean read printed pattern as is.

Knitted measurements:
Bust, a.k.a. circumference: 46"
Length, a.k.a. back length from neck bone to hem: 23"

Materials:
4 skeins Knit One Crochet Two 2nd Time Cotton -- however, I've kept another 2 skeins because
my version plans to grow sleeves come autumn
Size 7 circular needles (I favor Bryspun, which are easy on the hands)
stitch markers
buttons

Lower back/body:
I started the same way as the printed pattern, casting on 24 stitches for the right sleeve. That was my gauge swatch as well. I looked at it, thought, "Yep, looks like a little cap sleeve to me," and went on. However, I cast on 60 stitches for the body, doubling the number the pattern called for, a total of 84 stitches. Then I worked in the established pattern for a total of 5 repeats of the zigzag panel.

Left sleeve: extra cast-on stitches means binding off 60 stitches for left sleeve of back. Otherwise same as VK.

For the back yoke, I picked up 112 stitches and worked 13 rows of openwork pattern: one 8-row repeat plus 5 rows of a 2nd repeat.

Shoulder and neck shaping: Cont in pats established, bind off 5 sts at the beg of next 8 rows and AT SAME TIME, when 6 rows of shoulder shaping have been worked, shape neck as follows: work 29 sts, attach 2nd ball of yarn and bind off center 24 sts, work to end. Working both sides at once, bind off 2 stitches from each neck edge twice. Cast off when there are 15 stitches left for each shoulder. I recall making up this part as I went along, since the yoke is basically a mesh pattern and therefore easily shaped.

Lower Left Front:

Cast on 84 sts for center edge. Begin zigzag pattern at Row 13. Then work two complete repeats of pattern, ending with first 13 rows of repeat.

Left sleeve: Next WS row: bind off 60 stitches.
Left front y0ke: pick up and knit 52 stitches.

Lower Right Front:

OK, the pattern in the magazine is completely wrong here. They accidentally just repeated the left front pattern. Since there are, what, 50 versions of this sweater on Ravelry, I'm guessing that most people figured that one out, or that VK has posted a correction since I made my version. In any case, here are my notes:

C.O. 24 sts for sleeve. K 1 row. Set up for pattern goes 1 edge sts/5 sts lace panel/10 sts zigzag/5 sts lace panel/2 edge sts. Begin at row 13 of zigzag rpt. Work through to a 2nd row 13 rpt and at the end of that row c.o. 60 sts. That means that Row 14, the first row of the body, is RS.

Finishing:

Neck trim: Pick up and knit 20 sts along right front neck, 48 sts along back neck, 20 sts along left front neck -- 88 sts. 1 row, bind off.
Buttonhole band: p.u. and knit 94 sts hem to neck edge. I cast off two sts for each buttonhole -- the four sts specified by the magazine was for huge buttons. Otherwise I basically used the pattern, just doing the usual figuring of how many stitches between each buttonhole.

These instructions are from my scribbles all over the pattern -- I'm one of those knitters who photocopies the pattern so I don't deface my copy of VK, which I save forever. Would you believe I have all copies going back to the 1980s? I'm so not a saver of stuff, but VK and Interweave Knits? Got 'em. Anyway, if you've got further questions, just ask.