Round Up

Well, I finally managed to set a side a little time yesterday to finish some items. Now that my home is finally kid-free and guest-free, I took a small break from the clearing up and sat down to face the Lacy Top that I'd almost forgotten about in my WIP's basket. With summer almost over now, I decided that I really should face the dreaded sewing stage on this cotton item. After all, we are only talking about 2 underarm seams and a few ends to sew in. Not exactly a mammoth task.

I lay the piece out on the table and prepared to bite the bullet. With my High Schoolers sneezing and snorting behind me (they've been off sick and it's only the first week!) I picked up my needle and scissors and got started.

Boy, do I HATE sewing seams. Even when I do the glorious invisible seams that give you a great sense of satisfaction as you draw up the thread and watch the knitted stitches slide together as if they totally belong that way. For some reason, I just hate having to sew after all that knitting. The only needle I want my garments to see is a knitting needle.

Despite the fact that the Lacy Top is a top down construction, the pattern requires you to cast on over the cast off stitches of the arm holes, thus requiring seaming at the end. How I wished that I'd just picked up and avoided the sewing entirely.

I know, it's pathetic!.....Two little underarm seams.......and I'm making so much fuss.

I walked to pick up The Little Guy from school inbetween armholes, hoping that the fresh air would improve my mood. No luck. What can I say? I just don't like sewing. Thankfully, I've finished and am now blocking the top. Hopefully I'll get to wear it as an early autumn piece, layered over the top of a plain T-shirt.

Another project that I made a decision on is the lace curtain. What was I thinking??? Loved the idea.......but the time, my friends, I just don't have enough of it! As much as I hate to admit that "The Husband" was right all along and will delight in my defeat, I JUST CAN'T DO IT ANY MORE!
In an effort to streamline my projects, I decided to abandon my dreams of lightweight English lace floating in the summer breeze and settle for a piece of heavyweight US lace that the previous owner of my house left behind! One small strip is perfect hanging from a cafe curtain rod in the downstairs bathroom and has the added bonus of keeping more of that NW chill out when winter arrives.

Finally, I just popped over to Jared Flood's blog and caught this terrific piece about an original EZ cardigan that he's been lucky enough to be asked to photograph. Following my own recent Elizabeth Zimmermann encounters, I can recommend it as an encouraging read.

The Secret Of The Swatch

A swatch is a great thing.

I know most of us hate knitting swatches, but honestly, they really are quite amazing. They tell you so much about a yarn without you having to find out the hard way! And, I can tell you, over the years I've had my fair share of knitting disasters. For the most part, these happen because we don't swatch (or we don't wash the swatch after we've made it!)

The only way you really get to understand how a yarn knits up is by working a swatch. It's really quite incredible. For all the finger walking we do with yarn, caressing it's softness in the store and giving it a tentative touch every so often once we've got it home (just to stay connected, you understand), we really don't know how it will feel until it's worked. This is where the swatch comes into its own. For better or worse, that small square of knitted fabric can feel totally different to the skein we've loved from afar.

A swatch is also a memento, particularly if you give away a lot of projects, not to mention a 'living' reference card. You can work different needle sizes, different patterns and different colours all into one swatch. If a sweater comes unravelled or develops a hole sometime down the road, you also have matching yarn on hand to make a repair with instantly. To be honest, a swatch is a work of art all by itself.

The funny thing is that I've only just realised this myself. Normally I HATE swatching. When I start a new project, I'm always so excited about it that I can't wait to get going. Everything else in my life comes to a grinding halt as I eagerly cast on and get going. Slowing down long enough to knit the perfect swatch always seems just a tad too restrictive for me. Until recently that is.....................................

It all started last weekend when I took DD2 to the LYS to select some yarn in an effort to stop her coveting the Harmony by Jojoland. I sat down at the work table to avoid the temptation all around me, only to be confronted by a wonderful ribbed lace top pattern in July's edition of "Creative Knitting." A top-down construction by Kristin Omdahl, it looked like a simple knit that would be a wonderful summer addition to my wardrobe.

I left the building.

Last week I went back. It was just the pattern after all, not yarn, and being a classic it could just sit in my pattern file until I needed it. "Let's face it, my knitting queue is so long that I'll be a classic by the time I get round to making it," I thought to myself. "One little pattern won't do any harm."

I thought about the pattern for the rest of the week. It hovered there at the back of my mind, drifting to the front whenever I got fed up with my other projects. Two rounds on my forgotten wooly purse project while I waited to pick up the girls from school led to thoughts of cool cotton tencel. Then it hit me!

I HAD PIMA SILK IN MY STASH!!

When I got home, I tore the house apart looking for the delectable cotton/silk combination that I'd bought for half price in the middle of winter. There was probably enough for a cotton classic....... but I didn't need to actually knit the top. I am bound to the lace bathroom curtain right now after all and really don't need a distraction. But...........................................I could just swatch.

Yes, dear readers, guess what I did on Saturday? No, not 25 rows on the lace curtain resulting in a half finished product. I did that other hateful thing, I swatched.....................and I loved every glorious, unadulterated moment of it! You see, the secret to swatching is to do it when it's forbidden; when you're supposed to be working on something else. Suddenly a swatch becomes the best thing since superwash merino. The delicious feeling of doing something ever so slightly 'naughty' makes swatching a breeze. I may just have to swatch a few more projects while I'm knitting that curtain this summer.

Anyone want an afghan?

It's Curtains For Me!

Yesterday I finished the Mist Lace Scarf. I feel sad and excited at the same time - sad that it's over because I really got into the pattern; excited because now I get to use the new KnitPicks blocking mat and lace wires that I got for my birthday.

Ofcourse I cast on for something else immediately. The thought of being without a lace project was just too much for me right now, so I sorted through the stash and came across this enormous ball of crocheters cotton which I bought last summer. I had planned to make a net curtain for my downstairs bathroom - you know, one of those floaty, lacy things that hangs there looking prettier than a frosted glass window pane. In the absense of frosted glass windows in rooms that contain toilets here in our corner of the US (maybe it's just a British thing?), a net curtain is something of a necessity when your bathroom is on the ground floor and your neighbourhood is full of little boys! (Need I say more.)

So, I have cast on for KnitPicks Lace Curtain. The cotton is very fine and a bit slippery on my Addi Turbo needles, but as long as I can manage to make some version of light lace fabric without stressing out my arms and hands in the process, then all will be well. After three rows though, I am already missing using a chart. I've discovered that although having the written pattern to follow is just fine, I really rather like the simplicity of a chart. Now, I know that not all lace charts are simple. Some of those huge projects, like the shawl that Rudee is making at the moment, require planning of military proportions to execute, but compared with the written version, they are a whole lot easier to follow once you get going.

My window is a lot smaller than the one in the pattern, but I'm hoping that the finer cotton will produce a narrower result and it'll fit beautifully. Now all I have to do is maintain the patience to see this project through to the end and that, as they say over here, "is a whole different ball game!"