Current Knitting Projects

Well, it's been a while since I gave any sort of knitting update with pictures, and I've started a few new projects! I guess I've had knitter's ADD lately. All of these photos are as of tonight, so this really is current status.

The first photo is of the Debbie Bliss Sailor Collar Cardi. I've sewn almost all the lace edging on, and am to the point that I need to do a lot of tedious work. See all those faint little bumps in the lace panels? Those are bobbles, and should be much more prominent, but they want to be shy and tuck away to the wrong side. I think my solution will be to take some white sewing thread and a needle, and take a little tucking stitch on the wrong side of each bobble to force it to the front side. The problem is there are dozens and dozens of them, on all pieces except the collar. My attention span just isn't up to the task at the moment, which is sort of unusual for me.

When I went on my road trip to Kansas (Did I ever post pictures? If not, I'll do so tomorrow), I needed a good car project. I cast on for the Wrap Cardigan (#18 from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2006) in Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky. I knit the entire back on the trip, and started the right front. Mine will have a hemmed edge rather than letting the stockinette roll. I don't need a big roll of bulky weight stockinette around my hips. I'm also knitting the back one size smaller than the front. My shoulder width is not in proportion to my bust measurement, and I want this to have a more tailored look, less sloppy look than it would if I knit the pieces the same size. I'll adjust the armholes, shoulders and sleeves to all fit together.

One design note about this, half of the fronts are knit in double stranded yarn, and half in single strand, so you use two different size needles to accommodate the different yarns. Dangling needles, and dropping or picking up the extra strand of yarn gets a little fiddly - Is that a word? You know what I mean, I'm sure :)

Finally, I got a little tired of the fiddly-ness of the Wrap Cardigan, so I cast on for Juliet at my knit group Tuesday night. I am using Knitpicks Swish, and I love it! The yarn has been in my stash for a year probably, but I've never knit with it before. I am knitting this one single stranded, rather than double stranded as the pattern calls for. Of course, I had to recalculate the pattern to accommodate my changes. Have you all ever done this before? I thought I was being pretty clever when I figured out an easy way to do that. I did this on Something Red too. The pattern calls for a gauge of 14 stitches to 4 inches. My gauge was 18 stitches to 4". I divided my gauge by the pattern gauge to come up with the ratio I needed to make all my adjustments (18 divided by 14 = 1.28). Then I pick the size I want to knit, multiply the number to cast on by 1.28 to get the number of stitches I need to cast on. I also multiplied the number of increases I needed by this factor. My size called for increasing every other row 22 times, and multiplied by 1.28 I got 28 rows. Like I said, I used this logic on my Something Red, with no problems.

On a non-knitting note, Monkeyboy is over the croup and back to his regular energetic self. Sweetpea has developed a cough, but not a croupy one. My headaches are starting to get better. I am getting them everyday still, but now it seems like they don't start until the afternoon, whatever that means. I'm still having muscle spasms in my back and neck, but them seem to be getting less intense, gradually. I really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.