Crochet Cardigan saga...

I finished my crochet cardigan last night and used almost EVERY bit of every skein of Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple in Jade that I had... After sewing in the ends, I *may* have had 2 meters left over. I had originally planned to write up the pattern for this cardigan, but honestly.... I ripped the damn thing out so many times and *intuitively* (or so I'd like to think) continued on, that I'm not sure I *could* write up a pattern. I did reverse engineer parts of it and wrote notes and I suppose if there is enough interest on Ravelry, I'll give it a shot, but only if....... The front is a lot more flattering than the photo shows... I promise.



Here ye be...

I'm still working on my Entangled stitches (now fingerless) gloves. The cables on them hurt my hands like hell and I needed a bit of a break, but I'm determined to get them done. I'm absolutely convinced that finished gloves will encourage the weather to change..... This is what my backyard looks like this morning....




it's April the 27th for Cryin' out loud! And it's supposed to stay that way (or get worse) for the next couple of days. I'll bet that the day after my gloves are finished, it'll be +20C...... and I'll embrace it! This is one glove that I finished a week or so ago...... I LOVE it!!!!! The cables are so pretty.... It's a great pattern, although sized for bigger hands than mine. I did go down a needle size, but it's a bit stiff, which I'm hoping will change when washed.




I'm also determined to get back to spinning. I haven't spun much in the past month or so (I'm overwhelmed by my knitting queue), but plan to finish a 3 ply (according to my handy dandy spinners control card this will make it between a sport and DK) this week sometime... One bobbin to go.

One for you... one for me.

Happy Easter! I hope that your Easter was fantastic! Mine was good, but once again, I bit off WAY more than I could chew. I didn't start Easter with Eli until he was 3 1/2 years old and at that time we lived in Calgary. Calgary is not a city where an outside Easter egg hunt is a guarantee and so I had to think of a fun way (that didn't leave forgotten chocolate laying around for the dogs to eat) for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs in the house and the annual photo Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt was born..... I went through the house taking pictures of locations and then did a scavenger hunt with each photo attached to a plastic egg (I buy the pre-stuffed with candy ones) and at the end of the trail... the holy grail.. also known as the Easter BASKET.....

This year I decided to make Eli's a little more difficult. I sat down and wrote 14 mini-poems with clues to the locations of his eggs. I then coordinated Chey's photo scavenger hunt so that they were looking for their clues in approximately the same locations. Sounds fun, right? Not.so.much. (at least not for me).

In my brilliance, I hid all the "stuff" in my closet upstairs (you see the problem, right? Excited kids, upstairs bedrooms, late sleeping, really late night for the Easter Bunny). Secondly, my poems, for some reason, were also centered around the upstairs. Thirdly, I thought it would be fun if the baskets ended up hidden in the kids' rooms...... the CELLOPHANE wrapped baskets...... I was able to smuggle the eggs that I needed for downstairs in a shoebox and get those done before the kids fell asleep, but I was stressed out wondering if I would get caught. I also decided to scatter foil wrapped chocolate eggs around for the kids this year.

Once the kids were FINALLY asleep (10pm, which isn't that late for normal people, but it is VERY late for my people) I hid the upstairs clues and then "operation cellophane" could begin. Chey's basket wasn't a problem. Her room was tidy and I had pre-prepped her closet for the basket. I snuck into her room and hid the basket and felt pretty good about the whole thing. Eli's was another story. I had planned to hide his behind his open door, his closet was a disaster as was the floor space in front of his closet, but the basket turned out to be too large for behind the door. Plan B. I had to clean up his closet and the floor in front so that I could get it in the closet. Eli's a light sleeper and every noise I made made him start and half wake up. After what seemed like an hour, the closet was ready.... I crept into his room with the cellophane bundle and stuffed it in his closet... it wouldn't fit without crushing the top of the cellophane and possibly making to much noise... I crept out and reorganized the closet... I tried again, same result..... finally the third time, I tried to stuff it in.. the crinkle woke Eli and he sat straight up.... I grabbed the basket and turned and ran... half giggling hysterically and half upset that I had just ruined Easter for Eli. I waited... nothing... I checked again... Eli had just flopped into a different position... I gathered up the basket and gave up quiet caution... I walked boldly into his room, stuffed the damn thing in his closet, slid the door closed and walked out..... He didn't even flinch..... but by this time I was all worked up and stressed out and didn't sleep much (I know, it's silly, but that's me). The morning finally arrived (6am, I nearly killed Eli) and the hunt started.... except I had scattered all of those damn chocolate eggs, some of which were hidden near the scavenger hunt clues... so I spent most of the scavenger hunt saying things like "Eli! get over here and find your next clue! Eli! Leave those eggs for your sister! Chey! Chey! Over here! Your clue is over here!!!! How fun for the kids eh? (note the sarcasm)..... I filmed it, but I will be erasing that, let me tell ya...... The kids did enjoy it and my Drill Sergeant version of a Easter Egg Hunt didn't seem to phase them, but next year will be different.. half the clues and really, really hidden so that I can just let them run wild through the house........


On the knitting front, I finished a cardigan for Chey. I really liked knitting Helena for baby Aubry and decided to knit it for Chey out of some pretty purple Malabrigo Silky Wool that I had purchased for some kind of cardigan for Chey. I should say that I decided to knit it with modifications.... It resembles the original only in the style. It's still a top-down raglan cardigan with eyelet increases, but instead of a garter band and a wave lace, I decided to do a piped band and a lace pattern from one of Barbara Walker's books called Ostrich (I think) Lace. I also did a band of lace on the 3/4 length sleeves. It's beautiful, see....





I'll post pictures of it on her tomorrow...


And now.. another sweater for me.... I'm very much into knitting Cardigans right now. I think cardigans are the perfect knitted garment. They can be worn year round and the look is easily changed by the outfit worn. I plan to knit mainly cardigans (this week) from now on. This will be a short sleeve (only because I don't think I have enough yarn for longer sleeves) crochet cardigan..... It's based on another crochet cardigan (Ravelry link) I did a couple of years ago (and modified last year from a crop cardigan to a full cardigan), but with a different stitch pattern, a heavier, silk yarn (I found the alpaca lace yarn to be to itchy) and a different edging... mainly the construction will be similar (although not the same), it's mainly the look of the back that I'm going for.... I've already pulled it out three times (due to the lack of yarn thing)... hopefully I can make it work with the yarn I have (Tilli Thomas Pure & Simple 100% silk in the colour Jade).



I'm also working on a pair of very lovely gloves (this pattern) in Handmaiden yarn "Casbah". Although, I've gone down a needle size to make smaller gloves and they still might not be small enough... so I might have to try an even lighter weight yarn and small needles and see how it goes....

Diminishing Ribs....

I finished another sweater. The Diminishing Rib cardigan from the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Knits (it's the cover sweater). I'm undecided as to whether I like the sweater or not. I'm just not thrilled with the collar and lack of closures on the front. I think the neckline would look better and fall in a more flattering way if the collar was a v-neck or a crew, but the tubular cast on straight collar (I don't know what it's called) is floppy and not very attractive (on me). I did not go with the pattern recommendation of knitting the pattern with positive ease. I knit the smallest size which would be zero ease or slightly negative ease and when I move and the cardigan shifts and falls to the sides. When this happens (which is every three seconds), the cardigan looks huge on me. Others who have knit this sweater before me have solved the problem with various closures, but I'm not sure I want to go that route. Overall, I love the idea of the sweater, the diminishing rib pattern is flattering and easy to knit, but if I were to knit this sweater again, I would knit it with a different collar and some kind of closure in mind. I was also concerned about the attached i-cord edge rolling, but a good steam block seems to have solved that problem.

My only modification to the pattern was to lengthen the whole cardigan by 3 inches. About 1/2 inch per 1x1 rib section and another 2 inches in the modified 3x1 rib section.





On a more positive knitting post, Chey finally fits a sweater I knit in 2006 before she came along. I just really loved the pattern and hoped I would have a daughter for it....... and I did..... so here are some pictures.