The Tilsons

Wow.  I am pretty pissed at this point.  Knitted the back of the sweater - too big.  Ripped and knitted it again - soooooo small. Added side pieces (ack!) - fits better. KNITTING UNEVEN??  Look at this.  Just LOOK!

See my finger there in the left hand corner?  See how the front is coming up over the back?  Then see the other side - upper right hand corner, how there is a bit of ripped knitting there?  See how the ripped knitting doesn’t meet up with the back?  Those two sides of the front, they are supposed to be even with the back two sides.  Neither one of them are! ARGH!

Justin suggested that I not worry about it, and give the sweater to him.  He would wear it even if it is a bit crooked.  Sweet of him.  But I said no.

He then suggested knitting a triangle and sewing it in there (he is clearly less of a perfectionist than I am)  I said no.

He asked if I was going to frog it.  I said yes.

And I did. Then I washed it, and put little hooks in the wall so that I can look at it.

And think about how much I am dreading trying again.  I think I have depressed knitters syndrom (DKS).  I think I need to knit something very easy to bring my confidence back up.

Handspun.  Who would have thought.

Wow. Its been a crazy week.  I can’t believe it is already Saturday, All Hallows Eve has passed, and November is here.  What the heck have we been doing?

1. We got back home from Linnaea Farm two days late (Monday) because the install of our veggie oil kit took a little longer than expected.  Our poor veggie guy (Bjorn) fell of some scaffolding and seriously hurt his back.  The silver lining in the clouds for us was an extra day at OUR Ecovillage and then just the right amount of time at Linnaea. (where we submitted our applications for the Ecological Farm Program!  Weeee!!!)
   



2. I didn’t get as much knitting done as I thought.  Justin didn’t get as much homework done as he had hoped. I truly thought I would be done the socks, and maybe even more, but no, boarding the Quadra Island Ferry, they looked like this.  You see, I had to rip them back, because I didnt’ put in the sole increases.  For some reason, I don’t know why, I thought that the socks would stretch.  No.  They did not stretch.  Rip back, put in increases.  Even now, I’m not sure that I did enough.
   



3. I finished the socks on the ferry, and then sewed the top when I went to dinner with Beth on Wednesday night.  Meanwhile, Justin worked furiously on his case studies for school.Then I started the toe of the other side (A great way to prevent second sock phobia is to make them for someone else, then you will have to finish them).  Here is the progress so far.



4. After we got back, I spent some time doing actual work, and then Justin and I applied for Bullocks Homestead.  That’s right, we have applied to two places.  Bullocks was lucky, because I found the application online THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE.  Holy cow.  Luck they didn’t need written references like Linnaea.  The difference between the programs is that at Bullocks it is almost completely self directed.  Either program will benefit us greatly, I can’t wait to know whether we have been accepted.
5. Justin left for school the morning after the application scramble, and I finished the back of my brothers Retrofit Sweater.  You remember I frogged it, well after much debate (because it is handspun and not entirely consistent)  I have decided to knit the front and back, fit him with them and if it doesn’t fit, then add side pannels in ribbing.  After that, I will gracefully knit up to the collar, make the sleeves to fit the boy and then WHAM, I will have a slightly customized Retrofit ready for christmas.  I have drafted more fleece, which I will spin today.
   





6. THEN, as if that is not enough to make my fingers numb, last night I started the ribbing on MY sweater, the Nubby Cardigan by Deborah Newton (Knitscene Fall 2008).  The Small size length is 16″ from armpit to hem, and I plan to make it 2-3 inches longer.  Therefore, I have increased the ribbing by 2 inches.  I also plan to put cables in the sleeves… I think all women’s cable sweaters should have cables in the sleeves. Have you checked out Ravelry yet?  Lots of great info and photos there.
   

Well. Here it is, the back of the sweater…

Remember how I said that I was going to take the sides of the sweater in, and do real tapering for the waist on the front of the sweater?  Well, I had my brother come by for a fitting (I know, a luxury we don’t all have for christmas presents) and realized that the sweater was 36 STITCHES too big at the waist.  18!  That would be a lot of bulk to have dangling off of the inside of your sweater.  That would be a visible representation of my laziness that would be forever glaring me in the face - not laziness in making my own yarn, or knitting my own fabric, but laziness of pretending that after all that work, 36 stitches of fabric dongling around inside of a sweater is no big deal. Then deciding that no one would notice, even myself.  Its not even a complicated pattern for crying in the mud.

So, last night, I frogged it.  Justin’s opinion “You can’t hide that much fabric, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself!” pushed me over the edge.  So, I frogged not just the back, but the little bit of front too, because I had already gone past the point of tapering.  Frogging the whole thing took about 10 minutes.  That is roughly 1/10th of the time it took to knit it. Remarkable. Read the complete Post.

Wow. I love knitting my own handspun yarn. If you don’t have a wheel, and you are a knitter, I highly recommend learning so that you can knit with something you made! First off, it is so fulfilling to see yarn hanging and drying that is becoming plump and soft. Then, when you touch it, and roll it between your fingers, it is neat to say “I made this”, then when you knit the whole back of a sweater and hold it up poking your finger at the centre of it to check and see that it really is a solid piece of fabric, it is a little like giving birth (minus the pain). You say “I can’t believe you came from me!”

So the sweater. Retrofit is really simple, being stockinette stitch. It has given me a chance to listen to some great audiobooks, and speed up my knitting and thus has moved along quite quickly.
A couple of other recommendations: Read the complete Post.

A couple of weeks ago I started spinning the yarn for my first “real” project.  Yes, I did some handspun that is still sitting in my chest waiting to be made into a felted roving ball holder, and I spun the yarn for Seva’s Lace Shawl… but those were simple.  There was no particular guage to maintain, in fact the lumpier it was, the better.

I chose the pattern from the Fall Knitty 2008 - Retrofit by Jesse Loesberg.  I like it more than his other pattern (Avast) and the Hero Pullover, both of which I was considering until I noticed some things.  Avast has cables.  Justin notified me that cables are bad for men. (too bad… I love knitting cables)  And the Hero Pullover, well… it has DROP SHOULDERS.  I don’t know about you, but I think that drop shoulders make men look slumpy.  Unless they are standing like the guy in the picture in the magazine all the time, drop shoulders drop.  Further more, men rarely stand like the guy in the picture.

Back to spinning.  I began slowly, drafting fiber… Read the complete Post.