Gold Mohair                                                            

Fronts and backs done to armhole start; I want to convert to set-in sleeves.

Serape Sweater

Left half complete, right half just started              

Wonderful Wallaby                                                   

Debbie Bliss pullover    

One sleeve done, 1 half done.  The body will be the easy part.

Angelina    

I love the yarn,  I love the pattern, but it seems like miles of ribbing to knit before  the interesting lace parts!                                                        

There are also 4 sweaters that are in various stages of finishing:

Sensational Shirttail

Pieces all complete and accounted for (since cleaning the closet this week).   Now  to block and assemble, and learn to crochet in order to complete! 

Kenobi

Completely knitted, already blocked, shoulder seams and 1 side seam mattress stitched.  What am I waiting for? 

Cable Eights

This has been completed and blocked for 2 summers now.   See above.  I need to learn to crochet to complete assembly. 

Shapely  T

I'm not happy with the sleeves, but the tank portion is great.  Modify the sleeves and get on with it already! 

Whew!  Documenting this is exhausting!  While I'm thinking of it, this weekend I'm going to add these to my Ravelry WIPs list.  Might as well track them somewhere. 

It's been a good and productive week.  Of course I didn't do everything on my list, and I did do things that weren't on the original list.  I also realized that I need to sssssssllllllllooooooooowwwwwwww ddddddddoooooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnn.  The world will not come to an end if I write a letter instead of an email or if we sit outside and do nothing except listen to quiet music and crickets until it's too cold and the mosquitos start buzzing around.   More on this as I think it through.

But I am knitting when I can.  Here's proof:

This is the left sleeve and back of the Serape sweater of Noro Kureyon, colorway88.  The design is based on the Garter Side to Side Solid Jacket from Saturday Sweaters.  I love the colors, the design is working well so far, but isn't this just the funniest looking thing ever?  It reminds me of whatever Audrey Hepburn is knitting in Breakfast At Tiffany's!

I've changed the pattern somewhat to fit my gauge and my preferences on the striping, and the fact that the garter stitch was eating yarn at an alarming rate.  I have 20 skeins which were bought on eBay eons ago, and have already used 7!  The back section in stockinette took 2+, so I wouldn't have had enough if I did everything but the sleeves in garter stitch.

The yarn is, um, interesting.  Thick and thin, lots of straw and stuff, not really soft (although I understand it softens nicely when washed) and every skein so far has had a least one knot.  The colors are out of this world fabulous, at least as far as I'm concerned. 

When we bought this house 8 years ago the sellers told us the lemon tree had died after a winter cold spell.  I believe one of the reasons to own a house is so you can plant a Meyer Lemon tree, so I planted 2.  Hey, they're true dwarf trees, and you really can't have too many lemons, can you?  These little trees are supposed to be around 6 feet tall, max, and it has been at least 3 or 4 years since they'd been pruned.

(Meyer lemons are a cross between an orange and a lemon, and the resulting fruit is sweeter and more fragrant than other lemons, the skin is brighter in color and smooth, and the fruits are often round or oval.)

Citrus gets non-productive branches called watershoots, rather like suckers on roses. The water shoots on these little lemon trees were about 10 feet high.

The water shoots are the big branches that seem to be spouting from the top of the trees.  Some of the water shoots were 10 feet tall! They also have ugly thorns, often 2" long!

That's a thorn on a water shoot.  For size comparison, those are normal size Meyer lemons, about 3" in diameter.  (Thorns are the reason I don't wear my hand-knit socks what doing yard work like this.)

Three hours later, the green bin was full to overflowing, there were branches piled up waiting for an empty bin, and I had a laundry basket full of wonderful Meyer lemons. 

Both trees are about 6 feet tall now, and are still covered with ripe fruit, small green fruit and blossoms.

My knitting is boring, even to me, at the moment.  Progress is being made on the Serape sweater and he crushed raspberries wonderful wallaby.  Six inches of either doesn't look much different than 5 inches did, so no photos! 

Speaking of Knitting From Stash in 2007, this is the most fun ever for me with knitting.  It's oddly freeing to find a new pattern and know that I probably have yarn in stash with which to knit, and trusting myself and my knitting ability to make changes to the pattern, when necessary, to accomodate stash yarn.

My newest project on the needles is my take on Kenobi, from Knit1.  Not having the right alpaca yarn, nor enough of the alpaca yarn I do have, I was inspired to use a well-aged wool which really showcases (I think) the wide variety of knit and purl patterns used.

The yarn is Crystal Palace Carnival, which I love.  (That's good because I have more of it in other colors, and a Ribbing Is No Yoke sweater already knit of it.)  The color, at least on my monitor, is pretty true - a lovely pastel peach which really makes the patterns visible.  I've modified the length - 14.5 inches before the armhole decreases rather than 19 - because I'm short, because I know what length is most flattering on me, and because I have 10 skeins of yarn - 1110 yards.  I'm just getting ready to start the 3rd on the back, so I think I'm doing fine.  The sleeves will also be several inches shorter.  I've ripped this project once, when I had about 4" knit, because it was going to be too big.  It's been reknit in the 2nd size.

Multicolore has been steeked!  I was convinced by Nancy and others at the Tuesday knitters that I'd never be able to wear Multicolore in this climate as a pullover, so it's becoming a cardigan.  I've started the buttonhole band, but will need to rip and redo the button band, picking up fewer stitches.

This is my first steek, and I'm rather marveling at the fact that it works.

Finally, progress is being made (really) on the Waving Lace socks from Interweave Knits, Spring 2004 issue.  I've been working on them since the issue came out, and have had to rip the 2nd sock at least 3 times.  That pile of yarn is what remains of the last great rip out.  I did manage 4 rows without an error on Sunday, so there's hope!

And I have F'd some O's!

These are some of the fingerless mitts I've made.  The red ones are Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in New England Fall, with a strand of some fingering-ish weight unidentified stash red wool.  The greenish ones (actually yellow) are a strand of yellow fingering Frog Tree alpaca and a strand of  Horstia Tweed. Both pair (and a couple more pair that I gave away) are from Wendy's free pattern.  The camel-y ones are, of course, a variation of Fetching from Knitty .  I didn't like the length or the way the cute edging curled, so I ripped it out and added ribbing.  The yarn is KnitPicks baby alpaca in Harvest Peach.  What a dream to knit - so soft and lush!  All mitt yarn is from stash, and there's more where these came from!

Just a note about our strange and wonderful weather.  Last week it was warm and beautiful - like Spring. It rained buckets yesterday, today it's cloudy and the wind is blowing!  We have gusts up to 40 mph, and that's always a worry: we have an old and large Eucalypus tree that loves to shed branches when the wind blows.  The last branch it shed was almost 10" in diameter; thank goodness it's at the back of the yard and not close to any houses. 

Promised photos of newly acquired buttons:

Ckockwise from left:

• triangular buttons with a square-texture pattern (Britex Fabrics)
• oval matte black buttons with a gray thread-like swirl (Hancock Fabrics)
• oblong shiny buttons with a swirl (JoAnn's Fabrics)
• faceted oblong curved shiny buttons (Britex Fabrics)

The triangular buttons were bought to replace the wooden buttons that I used on my first Best Friend Jacket.  I like the statement these make better, except for the snide whisper that I'd have to unpick the cast-off edge and reknit the buttonhole row to make larger buttonholes.  We're thinking about that.  Hard. Don't expect a decision too soon.

The faceted oblong yadda yadda buttons were bought with Multicolore in mind.  They are great, but so are the oval buttons, except that they're flat with no shank, and my shank-making skills were never good even when I tailored suits.  I expect it will really come down to how many buttons Multicolore needs - if it's 5, then tough choices must be made.  If it's 6, then the choices are a little easier.  At any rate, I must decide before knitting the buttonhole row, which is the next one to be knit!

Spring has definitely sprung around here!  Last weekend I noticed these daffodils peering through the star jasmine by the front porch. 

I'd forgotten about them, but they made me smile.  Today, the flowers are done, and the roses are blooming!

Have a lovely weekend! 

I found the camera, put in fresh batteries and took lots of meaningful photos.

Lovely posts were composed in my head, illustrated by the meaningful photos.  Unfortunately, they stayed in my head, so no one else can "read" the absolutely breath-taking prose.

Today, in an attempt to remedy the situation, I give you "The Surgically Improved Green Sweater": 

Obviously, I haven't mastered the "photo in the mirror" shot, but this should be proof that I was indeed wearing a sweater, and I promise you it was the green sweater.

It's been a busy week and weekend.  Cars and trucks have been washed and waxed, the first seeds have been started, errands have been run, sweaters have been steeked, daylight is being saved...the list is long.  Mr. Ken has been cooking, as have I.  There's much to post about, and I'll get right on it!

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

Before, because it was complete, and I've worn it.

After, because I wasn't crazy about it until some surgery was performed.

There are, however, no pictures because I can't remember where I put the camera after I took the photos!  (That's where the Camnesia comes into play.)

The green sweater was designed with no ribbing or other treatment on the bottom edges, and I found that they flipped up rather embarrassingly after about 3 minutes of wear.  I blocked, I steamed, and I finally decided to fix the problem forever.  I picked up 1 stitch in each stitch, then knit 5 rows (3 garter ridges, to keep in the pattern of the side vents) and bound off knitwise.   Repeat on the other side, and now it looks like a sweater!

Also, apparently I can't measure worth a darn.  The sleeves were too long!  This was a little more involved, but it worked.  I determined how long the sleeves should be, and made them 1/2" shorter than that by cutting the yarn and picking up each stitch as I released it.  Then I knit 3 garter ridges and bound off.  (This was in the round, so I actually knit one round, purled one round, etc.)  Repeat for the other sleeve.

It now fits the way I wanted, and I've worn it 3 of the past 7 days! 

************************************************** 

That last post is pretty much whining at its best.  Today, things are looking much better.

Clawdette came through spaying just fine. At 6:30 she was so groggy she couldn't walk; by 10 she was jumping up to the bathroom vanity.  She's been running up and down the hall chasing other cats all day.

Maya is improving.  She's allowed out when we can watch her, and she's getting cuddles which she really wants.  She's also eating pumpkin glop, so we're all happy.

Mr. Ken's cold may really be allergies, although he'll deny that forever.  After 12 hours of sleep he felt good enough to go to work and then to open mic at the local bistro.  We did leave at the 2nd intermission, before 10.

Knitting is coming along slowly.  Multicolore is ready for steeking - I just need an uninterrupted hour or 2.  Maybe Sunday while Mr. Ken does his train docent duty.  I've also been working on the back of Goldenrod and the ribbing for Angelina.  I started serious work (1 row!) on the Creatures of the Reef shawl for MIL; I'd like to finish it by Mother's Day.  The first couple of motifs are the hardest, and my plan is to finish that part by the end of March.  

The garden is wild now.  Lots of recent rain, and it should be sunny this weekend.  The weeds are calling my name!  I never did get the roses all pruned this winter.  They'll be OK because they did get a heavy trim in September, but I still feel I'm not doing my proper job! 

While the front is not yet finished (it's about 2/3 complete), the back and sleeves are finished and blocking, although the shoulder and neck stitches of the back are still live.  The shoulders will be joined to the front using a 3 needle bind-off and the neck stitches will become part of the neckline edging.

Proof?  See the pieces as they dry on my fabulous foam-core insulation blocking boards:

The back (this is quite probably the last sweater I'm making with drop shoulders - they look fine on me, but are so boring and unsatisfying to knit).

The sleeves.

And once more, just for fun, a close-up of the fabric.

Nancy, of the Tuesday Noon Knitters, has suggested that this sweater may be too warm to wear most of the time in our temperate Bay Area climate.  She may be right.  The yarn is wool and mohair, which will be quite warm.

That got me thinking today while cruising the freeway in (surprise!) light traffic.  If it proves too warm, this may be a good opportunity for me to learn to steek!  Because I changed the pattern to reverse stockinette stitch from garter, I am actually going to have yarn left over.  It should be possible to to  machine stitch a steek in the middle of the front, then cut it and pick up stitches for a button band.  Of course, the neckline edging will need to be redone, but that's a minor modification.  

Turning this into a cardigan really makes it almost a Chanel-type jacket.  That would give it a much less casual look, although it could still be worn "dressed down".  At any rate, I'm proceeding now to make Multicolore a pullover, but reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

Have I missed any potential potholes with this train of thought?  Let me know if I have; I've never steeked before, so this would be an experiment of a major sort.