The Cardigan That Goes On Forever

I have to admit that I'm getting tired of sewing my cardigan together. Once I blocked the pieces I noticed the back was shorter than the two fronts! I sewed the shoulder seams together and you can really notice the difference....so I have to pick up stitches and do a little more knitting onto the back.

Last night I started the mattress stitch on what I *thought* was one of the sleeves.....but it was a front piece!!!! Well, at least now I have a little bit of experience doing the mattress stitch :-/

I also have to pick up stitches around the neck. It's in the pattern, it's not to fix a mistake I made ;-)

I have to take a break from it to pack because we're moving at the end of the month. I have a feeling the sweater will get shelved, unfinished.....

Getting There!

I still have to knit the left front (the side with the buttonholes) so once I have that piece I can safely say I'll be in the home stretch! For the past few weeks I've been practicing my buttonholes and also experimenting to find the one that looks the best. I'm also looking for easiest, too!

Stashbuster

This hat is a stashbuster, meaning that I tried to use up as much of my wool stash as possible. This touque is in 2 x 2 rib and it's merino wool:

This is sleeve #1 from the cardigan I've been working on all summer. I figured that since the yarn is handpainted and variegated that colour changes would be subtle and I wouldn't have to worry about getting dark patches. Well, as you can see, I got a dark patch:

When I whinged about this on Facebook a friend of mine suggested doing this deliberately to sleeve #2 so that they seem somewhat coherent. Brilliant idea, L!!!!!!

Steek It!!!!

I've been thinking about what I said the last time about not being able to knit a cardigan in one piece, in the round. I actually think you *can*....by sewing a steek into it and cutting down the front. Like I've read in several places, steeking is "not for the faint of heart". After all, it involves spending countless hours and days knitting and then actually cutting the piece open. You could mess it up! It would be so disheartening if it didn't work out!

After my cardigan is finished (I'm still about 3/4 of the way done with the first sleeve, then I have to figure out the reverse directions for the right front, not to mention learn how to do buttonholes!) I think I'll do something that has a steek in it. Maybe just a swatch....;-)

Cardigan Bravery

I finally decided a few months ago to knit something I've never attempted before....a cardigan. Last winter I searched high and low in the stores for a particular cardigan and I couldn't find it. My sister had previously extolled the virtues of knitting my own and therefore getting exactly what I wanted. It's a good theory but have you seen the price of wool these days??? And yes, I wanted to make it out of wool because I wanted it to be the warmest it could possibly be. I've heard good things about wool!

Many years ago I photocopied a pattern out of a knitting book and then promptly filed it away. I don't even know what the cardigan is called. I guess it's just a generic, stockinette stitch sweater. That's good! I assumed it would be easy.

It's one of those ones where you knit each element of the sweater separately and then you sew it all together. I guess cardigans have to be done that way.....I mean, you can't knit it in one piece, can you??

Anyway, many months ago I went to a yarn store in Leslieville and told the shopkeeper what I wanted to make and could she direct me to the best yarn for the project? Yes, she could and did.

It was beautiful handpainted yarn by Tanis Fibre Arts in the colourway Stormy. It's got different shades of blue and some greys thrown in. I instantly fell in love with it. I didn't even think to look at the price tag, because if I *had*, I most certainly would have balked at the price. Nineteen dollars a hank and I needed 5 of them!

I started knitting during the recent heat wave if you can believe it.  I escaped the sweatbox apartment I live in with my husband and spent my days in the A/C comfort of Starbucks, sipping on an iced coffee (or 2!) and knitting. I went there every day.

The back of the sweater is the first part that you knit. I started and restarted about 5 times. I even got about 4 inches knitted then decided to unravel it because it had mistakes in it that I just couldn't fix by picking up stitches. I think it was my tension that got all loose and eventually I finished the back but those mistakes are still there. Anyway, here it is:

I think I ran into some errata in the pattern because it didn't seem to instruct me on what to do with the final live stitches....so I just binded (bound?) them off. Maybe I didn't understand the directions but there was no one to ask and I didn't know how to ask the internet. Maybe I will if I run into that problem again. I was even thinking of unravelling this piece and starting over. Who knows, I still might.

Here is the left front, still in progress:

Various Things

I recently completed a one-week intensive jewellery-making course through the Toronto District School Board. I mainly worked on two pieces and a third was started in the last two hours of the last day....so it isn't finished yet. I still want to post it here because I'm kind of proud of the fact that I was patient enough to complete the sawing! Here it is:

This is my Arizona piece. It's two pieces hanging together on a jump ring. A little rough around the edges but still in progress:

This piece is sterling silver and the gemstone is an Australian Opal cabachon that I bought at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show a few years ago. Yes, there is still some fire scale on this piece and the jump ring is not soldered closed but I'm still in the process of completing this one as well. But Hey! I used an open-flame torch! All by myself! I gotta say I'm pleased with that fact!

Here are a bunch of resin magnets:

A fused glass magnet:

A pencil cup, one of my favourite things to make on the pottery wheel:

These next two I think of as "companion pieces" because they're both glazed with Aqua Gemstone matte glaze:

My sister made a print of this drawing she did and I used it to make a decal to adorn a pencil cup for her:

This is a vertically-striped scarf in a chenille yarn. Vertical stripes take some planning to do!

I call this a "bubble bowl":

This is a present I gave to my sister-in-law who lives in Tucson, AZ. The text says "Long Live Rocks" and is filled with ceramic rocks made from putting two pinch pots together. One of the rocks is actually a rattle:

Pottery

I've decided to sell some of the pottery that I made in school while living in Seattle. Here are the pictures I've taken of the first few pieces I want to sell:


Squiggle Bowl (the figure eights are pieces of clay fused inside the bowl).



Bud Vase glazed in Frosted Blue with black velour underglaze



Small bowl with Swirl. This is glazed with Cola Green glaze and covered with Sunset Pink glaze.

The outside of the bowl. Cool, huh?

Small bowl with question marks inside. One of my favourite punctuation marks!

Small blue bowl. I think it's glazed with Medium Blue underglaze then covered in clear glaze

These marks were made at the trimming stage. I don't think it was completely centred on the wheel and so the trimming tool jumped and bumped along the surface.

Another small bowl; this one glazed Glacier Blue on the inside and matte black on the outside.

As you can see, all of these pieces are smallish (some have quarters in the pic to show you the scale).