A weekend of engineering. And re-engineering.

I've been slacking off in the knitting world lately, but decided to devote this weekend to catching up and re-organizing my knitting life. Saturday was a Stitch n' Bitch meeting, and I decided it was high time I worked on Carlotta from Rowan 36. You may remember the bead snafu that caused me to rip out 5 inches of stockinette in fingering weight yarn, late last year. Or, like me, you may have pushed this out of your mind.

In any case, it was a moot point, because I found the book, the project so far, and all the yarn, but could only find one needle, and none of the beads, nor the tiny little crochet hook I was using to put them on.

Of course, after I spent 3 hours at SNB, then came home to reorganize my room, I discovered all the missing items, in my *third* knitting bag, which I'd nearly forgotten having purchased. Who needs three knitting bags anyway???

Anyway, after tearing my room apart and not finding the project I needed, I decided the logical thing to do would be to cast one for a new project. (of course!) So I started Tubey by Cassie Rovitti from the latest knitty. I've had all that Mission Falls that I bought in my panic when they announced they were closing last year, so I decided to put it to good use. These are the colors I chose:



I might just look like a roll of lifesavers when this is done.

I got pretty far on this yesterday. Can't wait to get to the stripes, because photos of black stockinette (excuse me, charcoal stockinette) are just not going to rivetting for ye olde blog readers.



I'll try to knit fast. It's not hard on those Crystal Palace circs--my fave needles I think.

After all of that yesterday though, I declared that today would be dedicated to fixing things. See, after all that problem I had with the Crusoe sock pattern last year I had a pair of socks I loved. But, the second time I wore them, one of them decided to bust its toe seam and unravel. Exhibit A:




See, what I'd forgotten was that when I finished these socks, I grafted the toe of the first one closed with kitchener stitch, then realized by the time I got to the end of the second that the pattern just called for running the yarn through the stitches and tightening it up like you would on a hat. So that's how I closed the second sock. I figured the kitchener one was the one that had unraveled, as my grafting skills haven't had much practice. But lo and behold, once I sat down to fix the socks this afternoon, it turned out that the kitchener had held, and it was the other one that had broken.

So I now really hate that pattern more than ever. But I do so love my socks. Especially now that they are a matched set again. I love that yarn too, and have about 75% of a hank left, so I might attempt to make myself some footie socks to match.

The really big news though, is the finishing up of the Skacel circular sweater. This is the fourth attempt at finishing the thing up. The steps were as follows:

1. Attempt to sew sweater together according to incomplete pattern directions. Realize sleeves are at least 7" too long, and arm openings are woefully short.

2. Rip back sweater and sleeves, attach sleeves in the round and do raglan decreases.

3. End up with sweater that approximates the right shape, but has a giant neck. Too big for a roll neck, but not large enough for a cowl. Forget to photograph this travesty before ripping sweater back again, far enough to redo decreases to neckline.

4. Redo (single) raglan decreases, resulting in neckline of approximately the right size, but also resulting in a sweater with far too much shoulder room and armhole depth. This time, remember to photograph it for posterity:




5. Rip back all raglan decreases, and this time do double decreases at each raglan "seam." End result, a sweater that is much closer to fitting. Still not lovely, and the seaming job leaves much to be desired, but it's warm, and mostly comfy. So at the very least, it'll be worn around the house. Once I weave in the ends.



Still, I'm not certain the collar is the right size. I'd like to have it closer to my neck, but I have a hard time doing that and still leaving ample room to get the sweater over my head, so perhaps it's best I didn't attempt that. Otherwise, we might be looking at another go around.

So, after all of that, I proclaim this the first FO of 2006, even if I haven't woven in the ends yet.

For posterity:

Pattern Source: Skacel sent it free after I emailed them looking for the pattern after seeing it in all the Fall knitting mag ads.
Needles: size 15 circulars
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool Fusion in Gooseberry, 7 balls (well, probably 6, but I had to break into the 7th for the largest attempt, and my leftovers are in lots of small pieces, so it can hardly be called a full ball.)

Whew! Time to go to roller derby practice now...