Me vs. baby sweater

Excuse me for being absent.  After all that merry-making, this mama needed a little vacation.  Once the baking, decorating, gift-planning, -wrapping and orchestrating were done, and the feasts had been given and the cleaning up and the laundry and the reorganizing . . . then it was time for a little quiet.

I do love Christmas, but I'm also happy that I had a few days left in these 12 days to relax my poor head (and feet).

Do you see those four extra tails?  Knots.  Two of them in so few yards.  I hate this yarn.

I did finish most of my Christmas knitting.  Every year I think dear Aaron's knitting gets pushed aside.  He never minds if it becomes Valentine's Day knitting.

I hemmed and hawed on the pattern, because he is a man, which means grey or black, zero pattern . . .

I found an interesting one with a different kind of top shaping--raglan decreases.  How about that?  I think I'm going to like it, if I can get through the miles of ribbing for the cuff.

And don't forget this.  Remember the baby sweater that should have only taken me a few days?  It should have.  It would have.  I think that my overconfidence made the sweater mad, because it secretly knew that I pushed it aside a few times to knit other things, knowing that I could whip it out in two days.  That's right:  in my head, I was thinking two days.

So the sweater taught me a lesson.  A few times.  The yarn may have ganged up on me, too, because it knew that I didn't like it.  Yucky wool/acrylic blend--not my choice at all!  The babymama prefers washable synthetics.  Psh.

Here's the story:

I have been knitting at 5 sts/in on US 5s with worsted yarn for a few years now.  Like clockwork.  It doesn't matter what the yarn is, nor does the pattern matter (unless it's ribbing or cables).  Always 5 sts/in on 5s in worsted.  So when I planned this little ensemble, I figured on that gauge, skipped the swatch--which I do pretty frequently if I'm knitting in worsted on 5s--and off I went.

I should have noticed after I finished the hat that something was amiss.  That was part of the yarn/sweater trickery. I didn't notice.  Henry, who is 9 months older than dear goddaughter, tried on the hat and it was huge on his giant pumpkin.  Growing room, I thought.

I knit the entire body up to the arms and then began on an arm.  That thing could fit around my wrist.  That's when I noticed it might be off.  So I checked gauge.  FOUR sts/in.  What?!

I'll admit there might have been some cursing, and then a heckuva lot of ripping out.  The upside was that at 4 sts/in, there are a lot fewer stitches to knit.  When I got all of that settled out, I did finish it in 5 days, both the hat and the sweater.  I kind of win, don't I?

I'm not thrilled with the end result--the neckline never looks right to me.  I was using EZ's seamless raglan, and when she shapes the neck, she is shaping the neck up to the hairline!  I would like a rounder, more open crewneck.  I ripped it out and worked short rows to raise the back, but it still doesn't look right to me.


Next time I'll figure it out.

For now, I'm done.  It's getting wrapped and delivered today.

All coming together

 Chocolate  almond buttercrunch

Why, what do we have here?  Chocolate-covered oreos?

Better take a closer look

Surely you won't miss one . . .

 No one say anything about the baby sitting on the counter.  I'm right there (with a camera).

The hat is done.  The lace is coming along, and may or may not be finished by tomorrow.  I won't die if I don't have it.

Cookie doughs are made up and chilling in the fridge.  Christmas breakfast treat:  whole grain soda bread (the other choice was cinnamon rolls.  I was a little surprised at the consensus on this one.)

Today:  haircuts for the boys, final grocery shopping (the ribs I want for Christmas dinner go on sale today.  Normally, we do not shop on Sunday, so stop looking at me that way), a little sneaking off with Mr. King for Christmas Eve treats, and maybe more lace-knitting.

It may be that my grand plan orchestrated to the last detail has kept me on schedule and kept me from losing my sense of proportion at the sheer number of things that have to come together to make the magic.

Honestly?  It's the prayers every step of the way that have kept me in moment with my kids and husband, enjoying the preparation and build-up to the celebration of our Savior's birth.  I love giving gifts and keeping secrets, baking and knitting, decorating and (yes) even cleaning.  But what I love most is the joy and hope:  heaven is there for us!  God loves us, wants to be with us, and wants to help us to make it home.

Can I make a little of that joy and hope here, right now, for my family?  With the grace of God, some planning and some prayers, it happens every year.

Thank you, Lord!

Christmas is just around the corner: what do you do?

  Riverwild Qiviuk Scarf in Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Lace

CAST ON!

Those cookies, the wrapping and the general wonder- and magic-making will wait a few minutes.

Or if you're blessed like me with chronic early-waking, those few extra hours of quiet in the morning will come to good use.

No sense laying around in the bed when you could knit two more things.

Rib-a-roni in Encore worsted

Every year since I started knitting in 2007, I get the itch to knit myself something to wear to Christmas Mass just as I'm finishing my Christmas projects.

Up first is a cowl that could be done today.  That laceweight alpaca has been hanging around waiting to be used, and my Christmas ensemble could use a little splash of red.

The hat is for a gentleman at our parish who commented on Doodle's hat last weekend.  I can finish it watching TV or when I jump on the exercise bike later today.

In all of the excitement, I don't want to leave these out, though.  They are officially done.  Finished, woven in--lots of ends--and blocked.

You'll remember that just a few days ago I was agonizing over what to do in a clear yarn shortage situation.  I think the remedy--sticking to the original plan--turned out nicely.  I have maybe 3 yards of the 220 skein left.

I'll admit that it took a few tries to get the colors in the band worked out.  Why not knit the mitten a few more times, right?  If once is good, three times must be even better.

And when I had settled on colors, I discovered that the second version of the pattern--the one which draws the main color up between each contrast color--was definitely better for the colors I chose.

I wish I had taken a picture of the non-stained glass ones.  They were okay, but it was hard to distinguish between the paler colors (ice blue and lilac).

I'm happy with the hat, too.  In case you want to duplicate it, CO 96, knit an inch in ribbing (on the hat, the colorwork band rolled open more than on the mitts) and then knit the band.

I can't give you the pattern for that: it's $5, and I'm not taking money out of the Yarn Harlot's hands!  Would you?

I knit until the thing measured 6.5", then decreased 8 sts per round (k10, k2tog, etc).

Altogether I'm happy with how they turned out, though I may knit them on 5's next time for a slightly tighter, warmer gauge.

Just sayin'

You're going to have to wait for pictures, because blocking still has to happen, but I'm here to say that Christmas Dress 2012 No. 2 is finished, and it is lovely.  I mean, shockingly lovely, to me.

(Maybe you'll have a different opinion, but I think you can keep that to yourself.)

This dress was 95% done a month ago.  Why didn't I finish it?

Well, it had come out beautifully.  The little picot hem.  The colorwork pattern I designed myself.

(Yes, I am proud--root sin and all that.  Another time we'll talk about that.)

Naturally Henry is interested when Mama begins to splash clothing around in the tub

There was one sleeve done, and one about 75% done, and just the neckband.  I was pretty sure a month ago that something calamitous would happen, like having the wrong dyelot for the rest of the sleeve, or the neckband going wonky.

It was really the neckband that made me put it off.  First time I've done a provisional, and I think I was worried it wouldn't unravel or that it would unravel too much . . . You can sink a project with a crappy neckband.  All that work, all that pretty knitting looking galumphy and lumpy and uneven and wrong and homemade.

He needed to assist me in swishing the dress

Well.  None of that for this dress.  And I liked the way the neckband came out so much I'm thinking of other ways to try out a provisional cast-on.

After the other Christmas knitting is done, that is.  And I'm pretty close:  I've got one mitten left, which I can finish today, and then the baby sweater.  I get until Epiphany for that--bonus for celebrating the WHOLE Christmas season, ladies, is the extended knitting time.  I love being a faithful Catholic.

(And I do mean that.  There are little joyful bonuses like this all the time sharing in a sacramental life with my Savior.  Thanks for the Church and the Sacraments, Lord!)

So I'm going to go bathe that dress and get back to you sometime in between caring for all my little chicks, finishing up our last day of school before Christmas, a little baking, Christmas haircuts (for the girls) and maybe a little wrapping.  A ton of my favorite things to do!

Should have stuck with the plan

I know why I got into to trouble with the hat/mitten combo:  I strayed.  I got impulsive.

In every other aspect of my life, I am a careful planner.  When there is something that needs to be done, like an elaborate series of meals for a crowd, I figure out what is involved, and then determine how much time I need to complete all the tasks.  Break it down, and voila: manageable.

I do this with my crafting, too.  If I have an hour to quilt on any given day, I finish this piecing or that binding strip.  I give myself 2 days for the sleeves of the baby sweater, etc.  Let's not waste any precious free time, lady:  there's always an incident involving the potty just around the corner.

Don't ask.  Yesterday was an epic day for Henry and the potty, and not because he was using it properly (though he's getting there, hurray!).

For the mittens/hat, I wanted to use a skein of 220 (there is a budget), and I figured I could dip into the stash for something if necessary.  I found a perfect pattern to help me use up some of the many yarn nuggets in there (you know what I mean:  the 20-30 yards of this and that that you cannot bring yourself to ditch), and I began.

I don't think I told this part of the story before--it all happened so fast--I was barely thinking about it as it unfolded.

Anyway, I started knitting the mittens and didn't like my color combos.  It was Friday.  We had Catholic clubs with our homeschooling group.  I just wanted those mittens done by Saturday (oh no.  This might mean it was the Plan that got me into trouble in addition to impulse).

I remember thinking a quick scan on ravelry would turn up a better option, and I wasn't thinking about running out of yarn, or at least not very much.  The hat was tall in the pattern I picked, and I decided that I would knit a normal-sized hat, and that it would work for the intended recipient.

Mind you:  not once did it occur to me to simply pick different colors.  Nope.  Had to knit a complete set of mittens and half a hat before I began to seriously worry about the lack of yarn.  Being short 20 yards isn't that much, but it's still short.  Continuing to knit wasn't going to make more yarn in that dye lot magically appear.  Thank God I had the presence of mind to recognize that!

So I let myself be stuck for most of yesterday and I worked on another project with harumphs and grumbles.  And then I returned again to ravelry, looked at my queue, and remembered that there was another option available.  Pick different yarn scraps for the scallops.  Duh.

I'm halfway through the hat now and it is looking fine.  Pictures to follow when I get a moment.

It's not looking good

I should have knit a shorter cuff on those damn mittens.

Honestly, though, that would make them look dumb.  I know this in my head, but it doesn't stop me from wanting that yarn.

As things look now, with 3 inches of the hat complete, I will be able to knit just up to where the decreases should begin.  I'm short about 20 yards, I think.

Would it be bad to give a hat with no top?

Could I make a 100-yard scarf(let)?

None of those are good options.

The scale doesn't lie.  It took about 22 g to knit 3 inches.  Part of it is in ribbing, which I know gobbles up yarn (hence the very short ribbed brim).  There are cables, too, which also take more yarn.

As I see it, I have these options:

1. Only give mittens and put the other half a skein in the leftovers stash.
2. Pull out the mittens and knit an entirely different pattern.  This hat only calls for 100 yards. I could make matching mittens . . .
3. Pull out the hat I'm knitting now, take out the cables and close my eyes until the yarn runs out
4. Knit a shorter hat.  If I knit to 4.5" and then began the decreases, would it be too short?

I guess I'm leaning towards attempting a shorter hat, which if it works, would give me a hat.  If it doesn't, I could always try Option 2 or 3, or angrily resign to Option 1.  Of course, all of this is compounded by the fact that I only have a week to get my grits in order and figure out what I'm doing.  I could knit a set of mitts and a hat entirely in a few days, but that would make my other Christmas knitting suffer.

What would you do?  

49g of Cascade 220

Is it enough for a matching hat?  I knit mittens with 51 g--can I squeeze a matching hat out of 107.9 yards?  Ugh.  I think I'm going to try to find out.

Results tba later . . .