Maiden Voyage

 I had my maiden voyage with the craft show tent this past weekend.

I was a vendor at Buckland Flowers and Produce's Fall Family Jam and got to use the tent for the very first time.  I was weirdly calm leading up to it.  I wasn't the least bit stressed or concerned about having enough inventory or if the weather would cooperate, or if I could fit all the stuff into the car, or if I'd make enough sales to make it worth while.....  I had none of the pre-show jitters that I normally get. It was weird.  Don't get me wrong, it was nice not going into panic mode.  Nice, but weird.

Of course I ended up forgetting to take several things with me but it all worked out in the end.  The guests were none the wiser, it was a beautiful day and sales were good.  

The event was really nice and I hope to get invited back in the future.  There was a band, well, really just a guy singing I think.  I couldn't see the stage from my booth but I could hear him singing.  It was the perfect level of background music.  Loud enough that I could whisper-sing along with him, but not so loud as to make it hard to have conversations with the shoppers.  There was a dunk tank where you could dunk the sheriff or a firefighter, there was, of course food and other vendors, and somebody must have pulled some strings because a medevac helicopter flew in and landed in the adjacent field for the kids (and grown-ups) to tour.  Pretty cool!

All in all, it was a really nice day and my tent went up and then down with no problems, my sandbag weights worked just fine (I was worried about them being heavy enough) and the tent never attempted to blow away, even with the helicopter wind.  Success!! I feel like a 'real' vendor now.  😊

I did have a little trouble the day before the show though.  The whale sweater I was knitting for Sarah for Christmas.... Well, something went horribly, horribly wrong.  And I don't even know what happened or where the problem is.  I have looked and relooked at the pattern a zillion times.  I started with the correct number of stitches.  I had the correct number of stitches before I started the yoke's colorwork.  The colorwork worked perfectly so I know I didn't have mistakes in my increases there.  But after the colorwork, when I went to put the sleeves on the holders, I discovered I'm missing more than 115 stitches.  For the life of me, I can't see where I went wrong so I plan to take it to the knitting shop and see if they can figure it out.  I don't want to frog it and start over if it's a pattern issue.  I was unbelievably mad and frustrated at first but the more I think about being 115+ stitches off, it's just sort of funny.  Frustrating, but funny.

Another frustrating thing is, I've got a nice case of poison ivy.  It's driving me INSANE.  Rather than itching, it feels more like someone is jabbing a lit cigarette into my skin.  It's mainly across the top of my foot, and on, between and under a few of my toes.  I'm not handling it well and I'm pretty dang cranky.  The good side of it is, they sent me home from work for having 'open sores' (a big no-no at the grocery store) so I've had two extra days to spend knitting and preparing for the next show this week.

It's also been raining almost constantly for the last several days.  I'm not complaining about that.  We needed the rain and it just makes me want to stay home and knit.  No complaints about that!

Happy knitting!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thank you for all the picot sympathy and support.  Day four was the magic number.  I pretty much did nothing but picot bindoff all day long and got the shawl finished.  I still haven't blocked it, but I will - soon.  And then I'll show it off.

The Winterfest sweater sleeve-fest continues.  And continues and continues. I'm still on the first half of the first sleeve. It's a bit of a slog.  My sized sleeves in fingering weight, on US 1 needles, in dark gray makes for some mighty slow knitting.  But I am making progress. I imagine my need for a wool sweater is probably over for the season so I'm not stressing over it.

When I get too bored with the Winterfest sleeve knitting, I switch to Northern Lights socks.  The yarn is Patons Kroy Socks, which, as cheap sock yarn goes, I love.  The color in the photo is fairly accurate except that the really dark stripe that looks black on my screen is actually a deep purply maroon.  I'm totally in love with it.

But what I'm in love with most is my new light-up birdfeeder.  It's solar powered and lights up in the dark.  I absolutely love it!  If you love it too and want one of your own, you can find it here on Amazon. (And no, I'm not affiliated.  Just really, really happy with mine.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As Promised

As promised, I present...

The Pumpkin Sweater.

The pattern was great.  Well written and fun to knit.

The problems came in with my knitting.  Or more like, my decision not to fix the knitting problems as they occurred.

Whoever invented the saying, "That'll block right out." should be shot.  Botched increase rows and major gauge issues rarely block out.

I ended up with a slight 'ruffle' running down the back due to the botched increase rows.  I kept being a stitch short when I got to the end of the increase rows so I'd just throw an extra one in... and it caused a ruffle effect.  My solution is to never cut my hair and always wear it down whenever I wear the sweater.  Problem solved.

The other issue is the sleeves.  They feel like I'm wearing compression sleeves.  Very, very tight compression sleeves.  

I used the same size dpn on the sleeves as the circular needle I used for the body.  Same manufacturer, needles made from the same material.  But for some reason, the sleeve gauge is WAY tighter than the body's gauge.  I noticed the gauge difference after only knitting an inch or two of the first sleeve but rather than do something about it, I decided it would block right out.

Yeah.

But that's okay because I get to try again.  This sweater was for my daughter but after this one had so many problems, I promised I'd knit her another one and keep this one for myself.  So lucky you!  You get to watch Pumpkin Sweater #2 being knit sometime in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

Winterfest

Why am I talking about Winterfest on the day we break a February heat record?  I'd planned to show off/laugh at the completed pumpkin sweater this week but I never got around to taking photos.  The weather has just been so spring-like and beautiful on my days off, I haven't been able to force myself into a worsted weight sweater.  So...

Instead of modeling the pumpkin sweater, I've been knitting on my Winterfest sweater.  If you don't remember (and why would you??,) I started the Winterfest sweater in November, 2021.  I was a vendor at Kings Dominion's Winterfest that year and decided to knit a sweater with the help of the kids who came through the booth.  I'd ask them their age and pull that many yards off the skein of their choice and then I did my very best to knit them in the order they were chosen.  It was a fun way of entertaining and including the kids while the parents shopped and it made for a, let's call it, exciting sweater.  

It's definitely colorful!

The sweater is a simple ragland, knit with a zillion different colors of Palette on US 1 (2.50) needles.  The sweater was pretty loose on me in 2021 and I pray it still is.  I haven't tried it on since pulling it out of the UFO pile.  At this point, the goal is to finish it, not necessarily wear it.  Part of me thinks the sweater is too colorful and hideous while another part of me is hopeful that the asphalt gray waist ribbing and sleeves will calm down the wild colors.  Winterfest ended and I ran out of kids to choose the next color so I decided to go wih a neutral dark gray, again, hoping the gray will calm the sweater down a bit.  The third part of me just wants this beast finished. off the needles and off my To Knit list.

Whether the sweater fits or not, I just want it done.  I've knit on it too much to quit now.  I can't fathom how many stitches this giant, beast of a sweater already has in it nor do I even want to think about how many more stitches I still have to go.  Once that waist hem is completed, I still have the sleeves to knit.  I'll probably still be knitting this thing in 2024.

Good grief!

I hope that wherever you are, you are also experiencing beautiful spring weather, although maybe not as warm as it is here today.  We hit 81 degrees, beating the previos record by six degrees!   Of course tomorrow will bring normal temperatures and it will be back down below freezing by tomorrow night.  Nothing like spring in Virginia!

Anyway, hope you are having nice weather and your knitting is going faster than mine.

A Better Week

Thank you all for the get well wishes.  They worked!  The z-pack from the doctor helped too.  Man, that z-pack antiobiotic is some serious stuff!  It knocked the mucus part of the respitory infection right out.  Now I'm feeling 1,000 times better and only cough when I talk.  The doctor promises the cough will go away in two to three weeks, once my airways are no longer inflamed.  

Anyway, thank you for all the good health wishes.  I much appreciated them.  And, while I'm saying thanks, thank you for sticking with me and this blog.  I realize it has not been exactly titalating reading lately.

Since I've been feeling better, I've been able to get some knitting done.

I finished the Selbu hat.  It obviously hasn't been blocked yet, but the knitting is done.  I'm pretty pleased with it.

The hat has a hemmed brim and I guess you could consider it reversible, except I'm not sure I like the way the sewing line looks.  I used a regular cast on and picked those cast on stitches up and knit them together with the stitches already on the needle when I hemmed it.  It's a super simple process but it does leave that line.  How do you handle hemmed hats/items?

Remember the pumpkin sweater?  It's been in the UFO corner for a long time.  I pulled it out and am determined to get it finished.  All that was left was the waist ribbing and the two sleeves.  Now, it only has half a sleeve left to go.  That one sleeve seems to be taking for eeeeeever to finish though.  After the z-pack and before I was allowed to return to work, I got the waist ribbing and first sleeve done.  The second sleeve however.... I've been working on it for almost a week and it still has a few more inches to go before the wrist ribbing starts.

Do they make z-packs for second-sleeve-itis?

What a week!

This has been quite an exciting week!

I finished the Mimosa sweater for Sarah.  I even sewed it all up and she's worn it.  Of course I forgot to take a phot of it.  Next time she wears it...

I finished knitting the Squish blanket and bound it off.

I even wove in all the little ends and have been enjoying snuggling up under it the last few nights.  The blanket really is aptly named because it is incredibly thick and squishy.  If I can stand that many long-term projects, I may have to knit one for each family member.  I love it that much!

And, most exciting of all....

The Cadbury eggs are stocked and on the grocery store shelves.  This pleases me to no end.  My weight-loss doctor, probably not so much.

Continue-itis

You've heard of start-itis.  Well, I'm suffering from continue-itis.  I just keep knitting on the same items and never seem to finish them.

I'd forgotten how much I dislike having mutliple projects on the needles at once.  I mean, one simple, knit while I read type project and one complicated, gotta pay attention project on the needles at the same time is okay.  It's a good thing actually.  But more than that.... and it's just a bad case of continue-itis.

I did finish the knitting part of Mimosa and one side seam is sewn.  But that other side seam....  I really neeed to finish it before Sarah beats me over my head with my knitting bag but....

But when given the choice between sewing seams and knitting....

Even when the knitting is slightly boring and never ending, I'll choose knitting over seam sewing any day of the week.  There may actually be an end in sight for Squish.  I guestimated its length this morning and it looks like I only need to add four more color stripes.  And that means, by next Friday, I should, hopefully, be showing off a finished Squish.  Fingers crossed!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but my husband gave me this book, Selbu Patterns, by Anne Bardsgard for Christmas.  How he knew I wanted it or where to find it is beyond me but he really came through this year! 

 

And of course I had to immediately cast on a hat.  It's not a true Selbu designed hat, but it is using a Selbu design element.  This is the one knitting project without a deadline or a waiting receive so of course, it's the project I want to knit on most.

I could have knit this hat 16 times by now but I'm struggling with the chart color vs my yarn colors.  See how the chart is black and white?  Actually, it's charcoal gray and white.  My yarn is charcoal gray and yellow.  On the chart, the background stitches are white and the pattern is gray.  But my yarn, the background is gray and the pattern is knit in yellow.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to tink back and switch my colors.  

I'm at the halfway point of the chart though so 16 more tinks and reknits .... and I'll be back to solid color knitting.  If I focused, I could have this hat finished by next Friday too!

Wish me luck and happy knitting!

Mimosa Part 2

Knitting on the Mimosa sweater continues.

I don't understand why it's taking so long to knit this sweater.  The fabric grows quickly and it's the only thing I've knit on since Christmas.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with spending 90% of my spare time eating leftover Christmas cakes and candy instead of knitting.

The body is completed, except for sewing it up, and I've started the first sleeve.  I don't think I've ever knit a cuff-up sleeve before.  This one looks like a giant mushroom.

I'm waiting to do the sewing until the sleeves are done.  I knit the required number of rows on the front and back but they look a little short to me.  Hopefully it's just that I'm freakishly tall and the sweater will be plenty long and oversized on Sarah.  But if not, I have a plan to elongate the shoulders.  Hopefully that plan will not need to be executed because I'm afraid it will look weird once the sleeves are attached.  We'll just have to wait and see about that.  

Hopefully by next Friday I'll be writing about a completed sweater.  I'm just about out of Christmas candy. (Thank goodness!  I'm not sure my waistband can stand much more!)  Hopefully I'll be spending a lot more time knitting and a lot less time opening mini Reese's wrappers this week.

Happy knitting and happy Friday 13th!

Mimosa

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  Ours was really nice.  New Years wasn't much.  The family slept and I worked but Christmas was wonderful.  

I was so proud of Hayden.  She'd spent Christmas Eve Eve at her other grandparent's and she normally has a little too much fun there and comes home exhausted and a little grouchy.  I was a bit concerned about how she'd behave Christmas Eve at my nephew's house, in a strange house, with people she rarely sees, make that loud people she rarely sees, and withoout a nap and past her bedtime...  But she did fantastic!  She walked in, made herself at home and had a blast playing with my sister's grandkids. She even sat at the kid's table to eat and didn't need any help from her parents. The only time she got upset was when we took the book away from her so that someone else could do the traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas.

As for my Christmas Eve Cast On project, I cheated and cast on a few days early.  It's a sweater for Sarah that was actually a Christmas gift for her.  I thought I'd be safe because Sarah announced she wanted me to knit her the sweater early to mid December.  The pattern is Mimosa, a free pattern on Ravelry.

The sweater's design is super simple.  It's basically just a few rectangles sewn together and it's knit with US15 needles with mohair-like yarn.  Being free and so simple, the pattern doesn't even provide gauge but it does mention what yarn the designer, Ola Otuli, used.  I decided I'd use the same yarn just to be safe.

A brief internet search for the yarn took me to an Etsy shop, DewKnit in Lithuania.  I was pretty excited because Etsy's shipping esitmator thing said the  yarn would arrive between December 19 and January 5th.  Perfect, I thought.  It would never arrive before Christmas so I could wrap up a note and there'd be zero expectation of having a knitted sweater under the tree on Christmas morning.  Or so I thought.

Well, the yarn arrived on December 20th.  Thankfully Sarah is an understanding big girl these days and still didn't expect the finished sweater to be under the tree.  She has, however, checked on it's progress daily ever since  the yarn's arrival.

The sweater is knitting up quickly and I'm enjoying the yarn.  It's hairy like mohair but it's a wool/alpaca blend rather than being actual mohair.  And I'm loving it.  Mohair tends to make my hands sweaty and I feel like I end up with more fiber in my eyes and nose than on the needles when ever I've knit with it.  But this  yarn, this yarn doesn't shed like mohair.  It doesn't shed at all.  I can knit wearing my black work pants with no worries at all.  It's super soft and did I mention how fast it's knitting up?  If it wasn't for that pesky job of mine, I probably could have had the sweater knit and under the tree Christmas morning.

If you decide to knit yourself a Mimosa sweater, and you plan to use the yarn, Drops Melody, as mentioned in the pattern, I highly recommend you order from DewKnit.  Yes, the yarn had to travel from Lithuania, but it made the trip quickly, even at Christmas.  The yarn was packaged well and the customer service was great.  I won't hesitate to order from DewKnit next time.

And now I'm off to knit a few more rows.  I can't wait to hear about what everyone else is knitting in the the new year.

Pumpkins

It's going to be a very long summer.  It's not even the end of June and I've already got a fairly bad case of fall fever.

It's all Sarah's fault.  She found the Pumpkin Patch sweater pattern online and ....  

I was a little frustrated at first because I assumed she was buying it off Ravelry.  She knows I practically live there.  But she bought it from somewhere else.  Riply or Ribbly or I don't remember.  That pattern was fine, or it would have been if she was the one knitting it.  The problem was, it came to her computer as a direct download and she wasn't able to print it or forward it to me.  I would have had to take her computer to access the pattern.  So I re-bought it from Ravelery.  

It was worth repurchasing the pattern though because the moment Sarah first showed me a photo of the sweater, I ordered the yarn for both hers and for one for myself.  We get to have mother-daughter sweaters!   Sarah is absolutely mortified!  

Our sweaters will have different background colors.   Sarah's is dark green and mine will be a rusty brown.  She's also pretty excited that I'm making progress on hers and not Too terribly worried about the mother-daughter thing.  She knows me well and knows (or thinks she knows) that I probably won't get around to knitting the second one for me. 

I'm knitting the sweaters with Brava from Knit Picks.  Here in Virginia, fall is still generally too warm for wool and as acrylics go, I really like Brava.  And, I was able to save 20% off my order because I took advantage of the Build Your Own Value Pack deal they have going.  The Build Your Own deal runs through December 31 and I have the feeling I'm going to be taking advantage of it more than once!

On the Needles

It's been a busy week!  Mainly, I've been focusing on getting my shop restocked, but there has been a little knitting happening too.

Remember the Bamboo Bloom yarn I got a while back?

I quickly knit it.

I love the way it turned out.  The yarn is incredibly soft and it was fun to knit.  The design is so simple - knit the thin bits and purl the thick.  For something so simple, I had an incredibly difficult time with it in the beginning.  For the life of me, I couldn't remember to switch from knitting to purling and then back to knitting again.  All in all, after all the tinking, I probably knit the scarf six times.  But other than my lack of attention/muscle memory issues, it really was an easy, fun, simple and quick project.

Remember the Winterfest sweater?  Oops! I don't have a recent photo. And I won't have one for a while because I've put the unfinished sweater away.  It's a good thing though.  I finished all the stripes from the yarn the kids picked out and now I'm ready to finish the sweater with a solid color.  A solid color that I don't have.  But I will have it soon.  Well, in March.  I do a quarterly bulk yarn purchase and March will be my next bulk order.  Luckily I have plenty of other projects to tide me over.

I'm slowly making progress on the Walking hat.  I need to rename it because I'm no longer walking while I knit it.  It's just been too cold to walk without gloves and for the life of me, I can't knit properly with gloves on.  Okay, let me re-phrase that.  I can knit with gloves on, but my gauge looks like an uncoordinated toddler's first knitting lesson.  In other words, bad BAD!

The Walking hat is progressing very, very slowly because... 

I cleaned out my craft closet.  Normally that wouldn't affect my knitting time too much but... I stumbled across a scarf I had started ages ago.  A simple garter stitch scarf made from all my brown and green skeins of Palette.  I don't know why I'd put it away for so long.  I was only about five rows from being finished.  

But the point is, I've been wanting to start another one of those Palette scarves.  I enjoy knitting them, they use up lots of scrappy bits and they sold very well at Winterfest.   

So, instead of finishing the Walking hat, I finished the old Palette scarf and started another.  I'm a little bit obsessed and am having a hard time putting the it down.  Luckily, I have enough Palette to knit a thousand of these scarves.  It ought to carry me into March.

So, how about you?  What have you been knitting? 

Ooh - By the way, Knit Picks has all their pink, red and white yarns on sale, 40% off for Valentine's Day.  It's a great time to shop if you need those colors.

Winterfest knitting

 The Winterfest sweater is coming along.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly.

I can't keep up with the stripes on a nightly basis.  Sitting outside at Winterfest, my hands get so cold and stiff I can't knit with any speed at all.  I'd gotten caught up last week and started fresh this past Friday night but...  I now have a gallon ziplock bag crammed full of yarns waiting to be knit into sweater stripes.  

Two things are amazing me about this project.  One, is how many nine and ten year olds there are visiting our booth.  I'd bet eight out of every ten kids are either nine or ten.  I find that mathmatically weird.

The other thing that amazes me is that I can remember what order I'm supposed to knit each of the little balls of yarn crammed into that ziplock bag, although half the time I have to ask the kids how old they are multiple times.  I can't remember where I parked my car, where I set my phone down, my kids' names (only occasionally,) or what I ate for breakfast but I can remember what order the colors go and even which little ball of the same color goes first, second or third.  It must be a knitter thing.

I'm pleasantly surprised how okay the colorful sweater is looking so far.  I fully expected it to be THE most hideous mess of color but it's not.  It's sort of like those scrap sock yarn blankets where all the wild colors that clash horribly somehow just magically work when put all together.

And in the event I ever participate in another Winterfest or attempt a similar sweater, I think I'll knit the year into the hem for posterity.  Of course, my fingers will need to thaw out enough to knit to the hem...

On a different note, we had a few visitors at our booth Sunday night.

Mr. Peppermint and Miss Candy Cane stopped by.  And admittedly, Mr. Peppermint is not really his name.  I have, of course, forgotten his official name but I do remember that his lady friend is Candy Cane.

This couple is John Dough and Ginny Gingerbread.  And no, Gingerbread is not Ginny's official last name.  I've forgotten it too, but personally, I think Ginny Gingerbread sounds okay so I'm going with it.  

And last but not least,

I have no idea what these folks' names are but they walk past our booth frequently and always give us a smile and a wave.  I call them The Christmas Couple.  The Mister reminds me of Mr. French from Family Affair.  And yes, I'm definitely showing my age with that comment!

And now, now I'm off to knit a few Christmas gifts for family members and then knit a few thousand sweater stripes.

Stripes!

I have either lost my mind completely or had a wonderful, fun idea.  I'm hoping for wonderful and fun.

I have a bunch of, as in, a whole dresser full, of Palette from Knit Picks that I'd like to use up.  Or at least make a noticable dent in.  So I thought I'd knit a striped sweater.

And that's where the craziness kicked in.  I decided to take as many different colored skeins as I could cram into a large container with me to Winterfest.  While the moms are shopping in our booth, the kids can look through the yarn and choose a color.  Then I pull their age in yards off the skein and use that yarn to knit the next color stripe.  

And to make it more fun, I plan to post updates weekly?? Maybe every other week??  I haven't really decided that yet.  We'll just have to see how quickly the sweater progresses.  Since the kids seemed interested in seeing photos of their color choices knit up, I am hoping to post more frequently on Instagram.   

I think letting the kids choose the colors will make a fun and interesting sweater while taking the decision making pressure off me.  I'm going to do my very best to keep the stripes in the order the kids pick out but I may occasionally have to apply a little artistic license.  For example, three kids picked out the same color, one after the other Sunday night.  And one of those kids was 16 and the other two were both 10.  That would have made 36 yards of one color - so I decided to break them up a little.  But other than instances like that, I'm going to do my very best to (1) not influence the kids' color choices, and (2) keep the yarns they choose in the right order.

Wish me luck and a wearable sweater. 😊

Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I'm having a hard time believing it's Thanksgiving already.

More mittens

First of all, thank all of you for helping me get over my desire to spend 1,000's of dollars and years of my life on TKGA's Master Knitter Program.  Signing up for it has been on my Someday to-do list for years.  Many, many years.  But I've never been able to make myself commit to doing it.  Now, if I ever find myself in the situation where I need that Master Knitter qualification, I can blame y'all instead of myself for not having it.  😁

I finished the red mittens and even blocked them.  I need real mitten blockers but I don't, or at least I haven't in the past, knit them frequently enough to warrant buying a set. 

Hopefully the photo's angle makes those mittens look so long and thin and my hands aren't actually that weird looking.

It's also a good thing I don't plan to knit more shawls anytime soon.  I have to block everything on my bed these days.  In the past I have always used the dining room table because the family was always happy to eat in the living room but with Hayden and her high chair....  The last time I used the table, I made sure my blocking mats were as far away from her high chair as possible but... Oops.  Spaghetti sure can fly long distances.

After the red mittens, I cast on a purple and white pair and spent an entire glorious cool, rainy fall day sitting on the very messy covered porch knitting and reading while wrapped in a blanket.  I even brought out, and lit, a fall scented candle.  It was awesome!

And then I watched a Hallmark?? movie and saw this sweater.  I must MUST have this sweater.  I haven't done a Ravelry/Google search for a pattern yet.  I'm trying very hard to stay focused on what I need to knit vs. what I want to knit.  And I really, really want to knit this sweater.  If any of you happen to stumble across a similiar pattern, please hook me up with a link.  I mean, it looks easy enough to design my own but I'd much rather have a pattern to blame if it doesn't look as good on me as it did on her.

Apparently, I'm all about putting the blame on others at the moment. 😏

Oh, and while I'm talking about random things...

Anyone else out there with crepey skin?  This Gold Bond Ultimate Crepe Corrector is some seriously amazing stuff.  It advertises visible difference in 2 days.  It took 3 days for me to see a difference but I could feel the difference in my skin after just one day.  The stuff is freaking amazing!  And I'm not just saying that because I've recently become an Amazon affiliate.  One application a day for a not quite two weeks and my skin has been totally transformed.  If you've got a crepe skin problem, give this lotion a try.

How to Knit a Rectangle

 Thank you guys so much!  

First of all, I've been remiss in telling you how much I appreciate the warm welcome back and specially the love and support that came my way while I was having my 'dark time.'  Many of you got in touch to make sure I was okay and I very much appreciated it.  I'm also touched by how many of you immediately welcomed me back into your homes when I began blogging again. It means the world to me.  

I also appreciated all the positive comments on my summer cotton top.  You know, the one made out of rectangles.

Many of you asked me for pattern/design details so, here you go:

But hopefully I can describe what I did a little more clearly in hopes that you don't have quite so many scratched out numbers.

1.  Gather your yarn, needles and knit a gauge swatch.  If you can create an accurate gauge swatch, it would be tremendously helpful.  If you can't/don't, you may find yourself doing steps 2 through 5 a second time.  Maybe even a third.

2. Decide how big your sweater needs to be and calculate how many stitches you'll need.  If your gauge swatch says you get 4 stitches to the inch and you want a 40 inch sweater, you'll need 160 stitches over all for example.  (4 x 40 = 160)  If you are of average proportions, you'll need to divide that number in half to get your front and back numbers.  (160/2 = 80)  If you happen to be busty or perhaps your belly  pooches out more than your back flab...  You may want to adjust your numbers slightly.  For example, in my case, I cast on 95 stitches for the back and 100 for the front.

3.  Determine how big to make the arm holes.  You could use a tape measure to measure from the top of your shoulder to your underarm, or you can take the easy way out and measure a favorite shirt from shoulder seam to underarm seam.   You can also take your measurements to determine how long you will want your top, or you can go the easy route there too and simply try it on occasionally as you knit.

4..  Now, you've got your yarn, needles and the number of stitches you'll need for the back half of the top so cast those stitches on.  Any cast-on method should work.  

5. Knitting flat (back and forth, not in the round) garter stitch until you reach that armhole measurement then put these stitches on a holder.

6.  Now, repeat steps 4 and 5 for the front but don't put the stitches onto a holder.  I counted my garter ridges to make sure the two pieces were the same length but again, if you are overly busty or hunched back... you might want to make small adjustments to the lengths.

7.  It's time to join the front and back together and knit in the round.  I put a marker at the first underarm join but it's not mandatory.  If for no other reason, I like to have the marker when I'm knitting stockinette in the round so that I know I'm making progress each time I come to it.

8.  Keep knitting around and around and around.  When you get that, "It's bound to be long enough by now!" feeling, simply pin the shoulder seams together and try it on.  Then go knit some more because you know it's not long enough yet.

9.  Once the top is an inch or two from being long enough, revert back to knitting garter stitch (knit a row, purl a row) to make up that extra inch or two and bind off.  Hate purling?  Do as I did and wrap and turn at the end of the round and knit back to the beginning.  Wrap and turn again, knit around to the marker, wrap and turn and....just keep going until it's long enough.

10. With the shoulder seams pinned, try the top on again.  This time, move the pins to mark where you want the shoulder seam to stop and the neck hole to begin.  I used clothes pins for this because it was easier than trying to pin and unpin safety pins.  Once marked, sew up those shoulder seams.

11.  If your cast-on stitches are nice and pretty, you can consider the top finished.  If not, knit an icord border around the neck and arm holes.

12.  Weave in those ends and now you really are finished!

And of course, please, make your top your own!  Add a cable running down the front - or all around for that matter!  Use a decorative stitch instead of plain garter and stockinette. Knit the entire front and back seperately and seam the sides instead of knitting the body in the round.  I used garter and stockinette because I wanted it to be 100% mindless and fast.  And hey - if you're feeling adventurous, instead of icording the armholes, pick up those stitches and knit some sleeves!  You could even add a collar if you wanted to.  

Just make it your own!  And of course, send me a photo when you're done.

It fits!

I can't say I love the look of those horizontal stripes on me, but my patternless cotton top is finished and it fits!

I'm not sure which is worse - the horribly pixilated photo above or the one below where I look like I'm trying to catch bugs in my mouth. 

You also have to pardon the hair.  It was basically 1,000 degrees and pretty close to 1,000 percent humidity and well, remember those Wham bangs I accidentally got last year?  They are growing out.  Very, very slowly.  

Whatever.  The sweater/top fits, it's wearable and it's very comfortable.  Again, I'm not thrilled with what those stripes do to my girlish figure but it fits and I'm pretty amazed by that.  

I didn't have a pattern but I remembered knitting rectangles and sewing them together to make vests back in the '80's when I was young and skinny.  And a vest is really just a sleeveless top and I wanted to knit a sleeveless summer top and in my limited Ravelry search, I didn't find any patterns that struck my fancy.  I decided to return to my '80's style of knitting.

I actually made a gauge swatch and did the math and cast on the required number of stitches.  And I knit and I knit and I knit then I put those stitches on a holder and started over and knit and knit and knit then I joined the two peices together and knit in the round until it was almost long enough.  I knit a few rows of garter to finish it off and to tie back in to the chest area and then I bound off.  

Next I icorded the neck then decided I'd better try it on before I did the armholes.  I sure am glad I did because those holes were way too big and my boobs were pretty much hanging out the arm holes.  I simply mattress stitched a couple of inches up from the bottom of the arm hole then did the icord.  

And presto-magic!  I have a new cotton top for less than $12.00!

The yarn I used is Yarn Bee's Sugarwheel Cotton which I'd bought on sale at Hobby Lobby.  I bought four skeins but I barely made a dent in the third.  I see a LOT of blue and green dish/face cloths in my future!

Now, the big question.  How will a less than $12.00 hand knit cotton top hold up in the wash?  We will see soon.  Today is laundry day.

Felix

First, I wanted to thank everyone for all the recent comments.  I'm doing my best to keep up with reading comments and others' blog posts but I haven't been responding because I'm hoarding my internet.  I've mentioned before that we don't have real internet here at my mother-in-law's house.  We use jetpacks and they have a very limited amount of data.  Our phones are fairly limited too.  Anyway, the internet is a precious commodity around here and well, I goofed.  I goofed big time!  I thought I was downloading a few pages but it turned out to be a HUGE, giant file and it used up half my data for the month.  So now I'm hoarding what little bit I have left.  February 3rd, when it resets, is a loooong ways away.

Anyway....

I finished the Felix pullover and I absolutely love him!  I've worn him twice although I never blocked him.  He fits perfectly.  He's nice and loose without being sloppy and he doesn't have that weird, overly large underarm where you can feel your arm skin touching your chest/rib/breast/under arm skin.  That ragland sweater that I've knit over and over again has that weird, overly large underarm thing.  Felix also looks good dressed up with a skirt or down with jeans.  I'm really, really happy with him!

I'm so happy with him I immediately wanted to start another.  He takes bulky yarn though and I don't have any in the stash.  Gasp!  I know!  How crazy is it that I don't have any bulky yarn in the stash pile?  Actually, it's not that crazy because I don't like knitting with bulky yarn.  It makes my wrists and fingers hurt.  But oddly, the bulky Wool of the Andes didn't bother me at all.  Even on days where I knit for four or five hours without stopping even for a bathroom break, I had no wrist pain at all.  So now I'm wondering - was it the yarn or has my carpal tunnel issues magically disappeared?

Anyway, I'm left wanting to knit another.  But I also don't want to buy any more yarn.  I know - another Gasp!  I had to resort to using yet another giant Rubbermaid bin to hold my stash and well, I'm determined to use up some of that yarn before I buy any more.  Having to store half my clothes (and it's not like I have that many) in our storage unit to make room for the yarn was a bit of an eye opener.  I just might have a yarn addiction.

On the needles

Felix is still on my needles.

But not for long.  He's only got a tiny bit over a half an arm to go.  

Happily, or not so happily, depending on how you look at it, Felix looks a lot better on me than he does on the mannequin.  The mannequin is much smaller than I am and has a 25 inch waist.  Mine is, ahem, slightly larger.  

I'm quite happy with Felix's fit.  I was a little worried about how it would look on me.  In all the photos I've seen of other people's he's always been so cropped.  I was afraid he was going to accent my slightly more than 25 inches waist.  But all things considered, he looks okay on me and I'm pretty happy with him.  

Now, just to fight those darn plastic dpns and get that sleeve finished.

Links:

Felix Pullover pattern

Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn

No Chicken Here!

 So, yeah.  I'm 99.999% positive I'm jinxing myself but...  

I won't be playing yarn chicken with Felix.  I was a tiny bit worried when I got down to the waist ribbing on the body that I might not have enough yarn.  Actually, "worried" is probably too strong of a word for what I was feeling, but I was concerned enough to knit a sleeve before I knit the body's waistband.  I'd rather have a short waisted sweater than one who's arms are too short.  Having freakishly long monkey arms, I have spent my life with sleeves that were too short.  I will never, ever, no matter how bored I am with a project, intentionally knit the sleeves too short. 

Anyway, I put the body on a holder and knit a sleeve.  Well, almost a sleeve.  I have one more decrease row repeat and the cuff to go.  But the point is, I will have plenty of yarn.  Thank goodness, because my big ol' belly hanging out of my super cropped sweater would not be a good look.

And yes, I am knitting that sleeve on the world's worst plastic dpns.  Ugh! I really despise knitting on plastic needles.  Specially these.  I have no idea where they came from.  They've just been in my needle stockpile for as long as I can remember.  And they have a 10 cent price tag on their storage case/envelope/pouch... whatever you call that thing that dpns always come in.  These needles' only saving grace is that they are ten inches long which means I could practically knit an entire sweater body on them without concern of over crowded stitches.  I will never, but I could if I wanted.

Why am I going on and on about my hatred of that set of plastic needles??  Probably because I have a headache and am feeling grumpy.  I have the headache and feel grumpy from lack of sleep.  I didn't sleep last night because...  

Wait for it - I have THE best daughter in the world!  She gave me a set of Gilmore Girls DVDs for Christmas!  I'm SO freaking excited!  I just love Gilmore Girls!  I love Gilmore Girls possibly even more than I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I think we all know how I feel about that show!  Anyway, it was the best Christmas gift ever and I've been staying up late binge watching it every night.

And last night, after staying up an hour past bedtime so I could finish a season, I stayed up another hour to that I could finish reading If the creek don't rise by Leah Weiss.  (Okay grammar/editor geeks - should I have capitalized that title?  It's not capitalized on the book so I didn't but now I'm wondering...)

Anyway, it was an interesting read.  I can't quite bring myself to say I "liked" it because it was kinda awful.  Not awful in the way it was written or the way the story was told, but in the way Appalachian life can be pretty awful.  The story was full of abuse, both sexual and physical, extreme poverty and prejudices.  It was sad and pathetic but also truthful.  I'm glad I read it and it did have a bit of a happy, surprise ending.

If the creek don't rise also made me reconsider my charity knitting goals for 2021.  I may have to go find a charity group that donates specifically to Virginia's Appalachian folks instead of the groups I normally knit for this year.

So, what are you knitting?  Reading? Binge watching? And if you knit for charities, which ones?

Oh, by the way, I'm going to try something new.  Assuming I can remember to do it, I'm going to start listing available links to things mentioned or pictured in my posts at the end of each post YouTube style.  I frequently see things in other knitting blogs that I feel the need to rush out and buy/investigate and I thought you might feel the same.   

Links:

Felix Pullover pattern

Wool Ease Bulky weight yarn

Hero vintage plastic dpns

If the creek don't rise by Leah Weiss

Gilmore Girls complete set