Secret projects

Santa's work shop opened it's doors yesterday, and in the next two months there will be many secret projects around here. Some of them can be blogged about, some not until after Christmas. I hope you all understand!

I made a little trip to LYS #1 yesterday, and was a little disappointed with what they had available, it being Christmas season and all. I mean, if I was the owner of a yarn store, I would make damn sure that I'm stocked up to the ceiling two months before Christmas! But LYS #1? Oh, no. Even the yarns they had before were all picked over, only few weird colorways left and some shaggy looking balls of yarn in half empty bins. Sad. My list was rather long, but I only found two things (Blogger is not allowing me to download pictures right now, so you'll just have to follow the links), one being a nice fluffy lace weight yarn called Fishnet by Suss Yarn (color Aqua) for making a scarf for MIL. It has a lot of acrylic in it, but since I'm not sure how sensitive she is to itchy yarn and it being a scarf that you'd wear on your neck, I thought I'd play it safe and get something very non-itchy. The other thing I got was a skein of Malabrigo in Velvet Grapes (scroll down into the variegated colors). They only had 1 skein, though, and I would have wanted 2, because from experience, I know that 1 skein makes a rather small scarf. And they only had 4 colorways left of Malabrigo anyways.

I'm using a triangular feather and fan type pattern for the scarf for MIL, and I've already got a pretty good start on it. Maybe next time I'll even be able to show you a picture! The Malabrigo will also turn into a scarf for a friend. Not quite sure of the pattern, yet, but it'll come to me. ;) I may have to order another skein, though, to make it a decent size.

Answers...

to more questions than you knew you had!

I was going to answer Michelle's (Not an Artist, her blog title SO lies about what she is! Go look at her amazing photography!) question here, since I realized I didn't really talk about the pattern much.

The pattern for the brown tweed sweater is my own, the idea was just something that popped into my mind, but the basic measurements were taken from my favorite sweater. This trick always works like a charm -I warmly recommend it! The way I see it is, why would you make a pattern that somebody decided to make for an imaginary body, or maybe not imaginary, but most likely not yours, anyway, and think it would fit without adjustments? Think of it this way: how many sweaters do you try on at the store, before finding one that fits you perfectly? Would you like the odds for your hours and hours of work paying off to be as small as that? I sure don't, and I never make a sweater pattern as written. Well, most often, I don't follow patterns, anyway. It's just like cooking, I'm incapable of following a recipe, even if I try.
(And if you remember that I'm a chemist, that might scare you a little... ha ha!) But that's not the point, the point is that if I'm going to spend that much time on something, I'm going to do my best to make sure it fits before I'm all done. And I hate to tell you this (in case you're one of those people who don't like swatches), but you can't do that without a gauge swatch! And if you knew what an impatient person I am, you'd be very impressed with how diligently I always knit a swatch and measure everything before starting. See, the alternative is a lot of frogging, and as much as I hate to wait for getting started on something, I hate frogging a million times more!

And here's a little thing I copied from Michelle's blog: it's the 48 Things You Could Care Less About. It makes more sense to me than the "100 things about me", since first off, it's half of that, and I don't think anybody would have the patience to read a 100 things about me, and secondly, I don't think I could even come up with that many. So here's 48:

1. FIRST NAME?
Lotta

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My mom claims dad wanted to name me after some Swedish athlete at the time, but dad denies this.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
Yesterday.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Yes, I think it’s fine.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT?
Double smoked ham, definitely, and a close second is a peppered salami.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Sure. Well, not everybody is friends with me, I’m not cool or popular, but I hope that if I was another person, I wouldn’t be one of those things, either. :D

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
No.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
No, lost those years ago.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Why on earth would I do that??

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Muesli, or granola. I also like Honey Nut Cheerios, but they get boring after a while.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Depends. Most often not, but I also don’t have a lot of shoes with laces.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Mentally? Yes. Physically? No!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
I like ice cream. Lot’s of ice cream, and many kinds. Right now my favorite is the cherry dark chocolate one that appeared on the blog with the argyle vest, but I also have other favorites.

14. SHOE SIZE?
39, or 8W

15. RED OR PINK?
Red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My critical nature.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Many things about and in Finland.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
I haven’t changed since I got home from work, so I’m wearing black pants and socks. I’ve already taken off my black shoes.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE?
A Caesar salad.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Nothing.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
An orangey red, of maybe more like a burnt orange.

23. FAVORITE SMELL?
peppermint, fresh bread, rain after a hot summer day, fall forest.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My husband.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO?
Smile, voice.

27. FAVORITE DRINK?
Hard cider.

28. FAVORITE SPORT?
What?

29. EYE COLOR?
Brown.

30. HAT SIZE?
56 cm.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No.

32. FAVORITE FOOD?
I couldn’t possibly name just one! I really like sandwiches on homemade bread with the above mentioned fixings (and cheese), but I also love good pizza, and about a million other things!

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Spring and fall, please!

36. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Creme brule.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
I just finished Ilkka Remes' last novel, and started a book called “Simon”, but I forget who the author is.

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Periodic table of elements.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV?
TV on Sunday night? There’s nothing on! Tonight I watched Two and a Half Men.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS?
Rain, newborn baby sounds.

44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES?
The Beatles.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME?
My other home. And other than that, I think Morocco and Dallas, TX.

46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT?
Hmm… Being able to “think outside the box”.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?Helsinki

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

No one.

and a sweater!

A headless me:

I've already worn it a couple of times, but just didn't get around to posting a picture. The sweater is very warm, perfect for my icy cold office! I really like how it fits, and I almost want another one in another yarn. This is Filatura di Crosa 501 in a brownish tweedy color, not the softest yarn ever, but I still like it.

And another projet that would fit the Lonesome Skein knitalong:

A simple hat for the 7-year-old in a worsted weight superwash wool/nylon blend. It probably tells you something about the chaos in our basement that it was faster to knit him a new hat than go find the old one, stashed away somewhere in a pile of dozens of boxes. Oh, the joys of remodeling...

It's a collar!

This yarn is just impossible to photograph... the cables totally get lost in the little speckles of the yarn. They aren't very well visible even in real life (I wish I had picked a more solid color to display the cables better), but are even worse in pictures. So just try to see the cable, because I assure you, it really is there!

It continues around the back, and I love how it looks like a neclace when I wear it!


And maybe soon you'll get to see me wearing it, too... :)

It's a sleeve!

I finished it! Well, at least the knitting part. :)


This is the second sleeve, but obviously nothing has been sewn togethter yet. After working on all kinds of lace and color work, this stockinette on 4 mm needles was just super fast! The only reason this sweater has taken so long was that there always seemed to be something more interesting to work on. But now that the weather is getting cooler (we even got a sprinkle of snow this week!), I'm much more motivated to get it done. And hiding somewhere in my closet, there is another almost done sweater that needs a shawl collar knitted on it. Maybe (just maybe) I'll get that done next.

I'll probably have time to work on piecing this thing together later tonight, so you can expect an update maybe in a day or two. Until then, happy knitting!

One more picture of the Argyle vest, as promised, and then moving on to new knits:
I knit a size between 38 and 40 inches, but the yarn relaxed quite a bit during one day of wear, and now it's a little too big (this picture was taken in the morning, so it's still the right size.) My final gauge is quite different from the test swatch I knit (and I even washed and blocked it!), so even that doesn't always save you ... the benefit of thoroughly knowing the yarn you knit with would have been huge! Oh well... I'm going to give it kind of a rough wash, and see if I can shrink it just a hair. The yarn I used was Brown Sheep Company's Nature Spun sport weight wool, colors Victorian pink and Plumberry.

And while I'm trying to decide what to do for the Lonesome Skein KAT, I'm working on this:


That's the brown sweater with cabling, that I've been working on for just short of forever. I just cast on for the first sleeve, and it dawned on me that I could knit it in the round. What a revelation! This seems to be the project that only gets worked on when I don't have anything more interesting to do, but I'm trying to do it justice, and get it finally finished.

A brown package

hmm... what could be in it?
Could it be?? Is it she?

Even the Helper is helping! This is a big job! (Notice the book he is carrying around: "Writing Research Papers" :D -gotta start them early!)

Maybe this will give you a hint:



Oh, wow, you guessed it! It's the Argyle vest! Hooray! Finally all done, and even the shoulders fit:

Although I apologize for the subpar picture -it was taken with the timer late at night in bad light. It was a little too late to wake up the Husband to take a picture of the finished product. Somehow I don't think he would have appreciated... Maybe tomorrow, when the vest is completely dry (yes, it's still quite damp in that picture), I'll model it with a button down shirt, like I'm planning on wearing it to work, and have him take a proper picture.

Almost there

For a while today, the Argyle vest was actually done. All done, except for weaving in the ends. But that didn't last long. The shoulders were way too big, both up-down, and sideways. So big that I didn't even take pictures, it looked too goofy. The thing with this pattern is that you can't really try it on very well before it's all done. Before cutting the steeks, it looks like a sack of potatoes (nothing against the pattern, don't get me wrong, but that's just how it looks, before you cut it), and after you cut the steeks, they are too fragile that you don't really want to pull it over your head before you stabilize them. So you end up going all the way before trying it on.


Right now all the rib has been frogged, and is back into balls of yarn.

I still like the pattern, though. I think the fit issue was mainly caused by the gauge being so different, plus not all the measurements were given, so that you could confirm you're on the right track (such as the width of the shoulders). What I'm planning on doing is first taking an inch off at the shoulder seam, and then pick up the stitches for the arm hole rib closer to the center of the body to make the shoulder bands narrower. I will also use a size smaller needle for the rib, I wasn't really crazy about the looser rib with size 3.5 mm needles. These are both fairly quick and easy fixes, and even though I hate frogging, I don't mind fixing the misfit, because I really want to wear this thing!


If I were to do this pattern again, I would either use a different method for securing the steeks (this pattern uses the crochet method), or I would work the crochet line one stitch away from the center of the steek. Now it's so close to the edge that some yarn ends have actually sneaked out of the securing crochet line, and I've had to add another line of crochet in some places.

To say something positive about the pattern, because, really, I do like it, the fit is very good basically from the arm pits down. And once I have the shoulders fixed, I think it will be one of my favorite garments. And I think I need a similar vest in shades of green, with a round neck line. Hmm...