My new favorite cardigan is done!

The picture’s a little blurry, but there you go.

That’s another one, slightly less blurry but instead the color’s off. Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything

The project. It’s called Waltz, from a 1960s Spinnerin magazine.

The yarn. I cannot tell you how much I adore this yarn. It’s 100% silk, ridiculously expensive (if you’re on a budget, like me), but oh so heavenly. And surprisingly non-splitty.

The progress. I’ve modified the pattern (well, naturally) and am using circulars instead of making the front and back separately.

The plan.
3 repeats of the pattern equals 2 inches (very much unblocked; post-blocking I’m estimating 4 repeats of the pattern per 3 inches)
Total length of dress as specified in the pattern is (about) 36 inches. 36″ = 54 repeats. Assuming the blocking estimate is correct, this makes the dress approximately 40″ when finished (54 repeats / 4 repeats * 3″)
Knitting two repeats in one day is not an unreasonable goal. 54 repeats at a rate of 2 repeats per day is too slow though, since I don’t have 27 days until deadline. So I’m thinking 3 repeats per day which would mean finishing the dress in 18 days. I’m already (almost) six repeats in, which gives me 16 days to finish the remaining 48 repeats.

The deadline is February 7.

… and I liked it.

I’ve always avoided bulky yarn before so I thought I’d give it a try anyway. And while the needles were hellish (10 mm…) I made a new friend in the Drops Eskimo yarn, which, despite limited yardage (I’ve never before used up five skeins in one day) is really soft and lovely.

(It’s the #22 Cabled Dress from Vogue Knitting (Fall ‘08) and I just happened to stumble upon it on Ravelry, realized I owned a copy of the issue, and decided to make it. In TWO DAYS. (And yes, I did do other things besides knit those two days.)

(1) they’re much easier to knit in the round, two at a time, on a long circ.

(2) 66 st sleeve. Somehow I thought decreasing every fifth row would be a good idea. It’s not, because that would make the sleeve about 4 st wide at the cuff. Decreasing every 8th row works much better.

Inspired by this gorgeous cardigan from a 1966 Vogue Knitting

and equipped with this lovely Harris Tweed yarn (the color is Hebridean Blue. What’s not to love?)…

… I’m making this. A top-down, slightly cabled cardigan. I plan to use wooden buttons and button loops instead of holes, but that may change. I’m still only just past dividing the body and sleeves.

The above is another one of my experiments with egg dye. This time I also found some blue food coloring which turned out significantly more greenish than the blue egg dye (E 133 Brilliant Blue). Anyway, just so I won’t forget:

Blue: mostly Brilliant Blue, a small patch of red egg dye (which blended with the blue egg dye and the BB, turning a violet color), some blue egg dye and some indigo egg dye.
Green: 2-3 tablets yellow egg dye turned it a light yellow, also used green egg dye on about half of the skein.
Reddish: more red egg dye than I care to remember. Took forever in the microwave. Also applied some indigo egg dye and some leftover Brilliant Blue. Turned out very well, though probably with less color variation than the blue. Also this wool seemed a little ‘oilier’ than the one I dyed blue and green, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Oh, and yes, the picture is rotated the wrong way but I kind of like it that way.

I thought spinning silk would be incredibly difficult and frankly, no fun at all. It’s quite the opposite. And I’m a lousy, lousy spinner, but yesterday managed this:

out of this:

… there are such. Note to self: never, ever, knit a garter stitch yoke without stitch markers where the decreases should be (not talking top-down here), or you’ll literally want to stab yourself with the needle (or have to rip out twenty rows of perfectly good knitting, or both). Also, if you’re decreasing one stitch and alternating between doing so every two rows and every three rows, COUNT the rows properly.

I know I should blog more often, but after installing and reinstalling my system (Kubuntu, XP, Kubuntu, Vista) about three hundred times my SD card reader wasn’t quite working, so I thought why blog when there are no pictures to be displayed, and so I kept on knitting and didn’t take any pictures and now I’m making tons of excuses to avoid, well, the list Linn tagged me with. Anyway.

Three things I don’t understand
The logic behind the actions of an 18-month-old,
Guestbooks,
Bookkeeping.

Three things on my desk/table I’m sitting by (I’m on the couch and so is my laptop, so…)
A red plastic rake.
My green, fake leather handbag with a pair of knitting needles sticking out of it.
A baby with a bottle (I’m busy feeding her).

Three things I’m doing right now
Feeding the Tiny Baby.
Trying to blog.
Watching my son tear some tissue paper into very small pieces.

Three things I want to do before I die
Get my degree (3 years left).
Live abroad.
Watch my kids grow up.

Three things I can do
Tap-dance (just enough to annoy people).
Read Hieroglyphics.
Make really good cakes.

Three things I can’t do
Ride a horse.
Speak Arabic.
Turn cartwheels.

Three things I think you should listen to
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Your alarm clock (because it’s so much nicer to have enough time in the morning).
Your car, washer, dishwasher or DVD player (because when they make weird noises you know you should have them repaired).

Three things I’d like to learn
Cuneiform.
How to spend the whole day taking care of small children without going completely mad.
How to do only one thing at a time without going completely mad.

Three favourite dishes
Salad. Practically any kind of salad.
Brownies (yes, it is a dish, when accompanied by cold milk).
Fish soup (without the yellow stuff, like curry or saffron).

Um… I just might be knitting a Mohair Surplice anyway…
Wouldn’t you say this looks suspiciously like one in progress?

Oh no, I think the Surplice is trying to eat the Karro Hat Yarn!