Well Allegheny is slowly growing. You can’t really confuse it for anything but a sweater at this point. The cable is going along well and it fits the way I would want.
There is just one small problem. This photo is from Thursday, and it barring any progress I made further on during knit night the exact length that the sweater is hasn’t changed since Thursday. Sigh.
I need to get to work. That April 28 deadline is a looming. Looming like a Looming thing, that looms.
Knitting
allegheny, sweater, sweater dress, WIPW
I have cast on the Allegheny Sweater dress with the hopes of having it finished by the 28th of April. Well I have the collar done, I made it a bit larger, then decreased back down to start shaping the body. I’m a whopping three rows into the body chart.
So not a ton of progress to show but pretty good for having cast on, on Monday. Here’s hoping I can get to the sleeve divisions pretty fast then have a pattern that is manageable for working on the bus and train. I also have a couple other projects I want to start, and that poor honey cowl needs to be finished. And I want to finish my socks. What socks?
Those socks. I thought I found my way around second sock syndrome, instead I have 75% of a pair of socks. I’ve turned the heel on one, and have most of the leg on the other. Sigh.
Knitting
allegheny, dissertation, nerdwars, socks, sweater, sweater dress
On Wednesday I had a few rows to do with the crown decrease remaining, and I thought without DPN’s I could not finish. On the train home I proved myself wrong and somehow worked down to eight stitches on my circular needles.
So very quickly I had a finished hat.
Another FO I made the swatch for my Allegheny Sweater. And have chosen my size. I got gauge in size 7 needles so I will be making it in that.
I swatched with 8′s much too large despite being smaller than the pattern called for, 7′s and 5′s. Each purl ridge is where I switch a needle size. Looks like I will be casting on tonight as the fact that I haven’t chosen a size other than ‘one of the first two’ won’t be a problem for the first 10 inches or so as they are all the same count.
Knitting
FOs, swatch, sweater
I realized for all that I have mentioned it being done I have not shared any images of my finished Dark and stormy. I’ve been wearing it all week, it goes great with my new boots, and it makes me want to knit more sweaters.
I made quite a few changes to the Dark & Stormy as I knit it. I wanted a much more fitted sweater so I made the smallest size and decreased it by a further 3 inches on each side. The sweater is supposed to be boxy and a grandpa style cardigan so while it sounds like a lot it worked out well. Also my usual sweater size is 34 one size up from the smallest. Not exactly an enormous decrease as I think the sweater had 3″ of positive ease with the button band.
I do wish I had made a wider shawl collar but that is just more I like all the extra fabric around my neck when my office decides to go arctic. What did I gain from this sweater? Picking ups stitches is not nearly a daunting task as one might think. I had some worry as it was 5 stitches to the inch and 3 picked up to the inch. How does one do that evenly? I ended up with a p – s – p – s – p – p- s – repeat of pick ups and skips thar worked out perfectly. Also I can tell when doing body increases where I should stop. Both on preference and my own shape.
Now to knit a Sweater Dress I have been eying Allegheny which was also designed by Thea Colman of The Dark and Stormy. I have three skeins of Eco wool that are almost the same color as pattern photo. Clearly a sign.
Knitting
31posts, dark and stormy, sweater
Dark and Stormy continues to grow. I have almost a whole sleeve.
Despite how odd it looks there, that sleeve is past my elbow. Also last night at geek knitting, I got a set of buttons. The last 5 buttons in the set in fact.
They are a tarnished looking silver color, the photo below shows the colors better. It’s starting to look like this sweater will be done by Christmas. Wee. Two sweaters in a year. Mostly-ish. Let’s bump that up for the next eh?
I hear there is a thing happening. Or some people think there is a thing happening. Not even the descendants of the people of this thing mind you. It’s a thing. I have someone in mind to deal with all that. Team Free Will is waiting in the wings as backup.
Happy Holidays all! I’ll bee back after Christmas. There will be drinks, there will be friends, there will be family and baked goods. There will be a week off from the day job! Woo!
Knitting
buttons, dark&stormy, sweater
I’m nearly done with the shawl collar/button band four more rows so I should finish on the train home tonight if I stop getting distracted by my Kindle. Then those DPNs will be put to use on the sleeves.
There are button holes and a weird shading thing as I started working with the smaller of the two balls of this giant skein and apparently the color is lighter on the outside of the skein. I’m thinking about attempting to over dye the sweater if I feel its a problem once the sleeves are done and I’m wearing it. But the collar seems to be tying it together well, and the shoulders are the same shade as the bottom, we’ll see. Perhaps it shall be an artistic take on shades…
Also you may notice in the corner of the first picture some red tweed yarn. Those are the ‘Bow-ties are Cool gloves. My test knitters are nearly done and after some revisions maybe we can have a pre-Christmas special release. Here’s a peek at a Bow-tie.
I’m a bit in love with these gloves and looking forward to sharing them with you all.
Knitting
bowties, dark and stormy, Doctor Who, gloves, sweater, WIP
As I get ready to check my Dark and Stormy in on Nerd Wars, I am a bit astounded by my progress. Especially when compared to my Vivian of almost a year knitting. Most of the body is done, I plan on adding around 4/5 inches including the ribbing at the end.
That is the front of the Sweater. You can see some red yarn holding the sleeve stitches in place. Part of this speed is helped along by the fact that the back cables can be done in 9 row almost 2 inch blocks without looking at the pattern.
And then there are 3 cable rows my mind refuses to remember. I’m hoping to be done with the body by the end of the week. Or the middle of the week. Depends on how much ribbing I do.
The silk gloves are still growing, slowly as this is a project that lives on the coffee table.
Lothlorien has stalled as there seems to be an error in two of the repeats and drinking wine at non-orphan Thanksgiving, and chatting was not the time to figure it out. I haven’t had a quiet moment to pick it up again yet. But it has grown at least.
Knitting
dark and stormy, nerd wars, sweater, WIP
Many many moons ago. Back in December I started the Lothlorien cape. Well I would like to finish it for the Hobbit midnight viewing on 12/14 because of course. 
. So Yesterday, because I’m speedy with things like this I picked it back up.
On the bus I frogged, back to the mistake that had me put the project down, a few times. And correct it, then knit a few more rows. I think I can do this, though I still also want to keep working on my dark and stormy.
It’s bigger I swear. Not counting the rows frogged and restarted, I added, four rows. So about half an inch. Er I’m up to row 29 of 180 so 16% done. If I knit 7 rows a day not counting today I will be done by the hobbit. Blocking? Bah! I’m going to try for 10 a day, so I can block and deal with the fact that I rarely knit on weekends at this point. And will still be working on Dark and Story, the Silk gloves, and NaNoWriMo (30,031).
Dark and Stormy has at least visibly grown.
Progressing one step at a time.
Knitting
cape, dark and stormy, hobbit, lothlorien, sweater
The title of this post was a phrase I said many a time during a NaNoWriMo a few years ago. As Nano is no place for backspace, instead it was all a dream/vision. Which is quite a thing to realize 20,000 words in. I went with it, eventually deleted the whole apocalypse post NaNo. Why am I discussing the Apocalypse? Because I avoided a sweater one.
That is my unique Vivian blocking on some towels on my futon. One of the things that is also a worry with any project I have to do a large amount of frogging is that I hit a wall of do I? don’t I? or I frog and then don’t want anything more to do with the project. Sigh. Case in point I think I am going to frog my Featherweight cardigan as I just don’t like the drape in the yarn I was using. It’s been a few days since I touched that project and it was to take the needles as I snapped one of my acrylic 5′s while working on Vivian.
As I checked on the sweater this morning it was drying nicely and I was presented with Molly keeping an eye on things in between naps. Now I just have to attach the zipper. Yeah, who thinks I can find the zipper I bought for this sweater over a year ago without screaming, “Where is it damn it?” and throwing crafting supplies around in a rage? Not I. Assuming the zipper I bought is actually long enough…
So if you see me wandering Rhinebeck on Saturday holding my sweater closed with DPN’s or mysteriously lacking anything to close it. It’s a temporary fashion statement. Yes…that’s it. Fashion.
Knitting
sweater, vivian
Look it’s Vivian, with me about two rows into a seed stitch collar when I noticed something. Cables. Sleeve cables.
It turns out my “memorizing” of the pattern had forgotten one thing, the cables every 4 regular repeats cross out into 2 sets of cables before crossing back into a single center cable. On the body I missed one near the top. I could live without fixing it. The Sleeves though, the sleeves.
That long stretch of center cable should be broken up by two cable crosses like the ones below.
As you can see from the back of the sweater, both the crosses and right where I stopped doing them as I focused on all the other steps in the pattern and “in pattern” wasn’t quite what it should be. The back is missing one cross as well. And like the front I could live with it but the sleeves keep getting me.
The problem is that all the decreases and changes that were happening to the sleeve for the shoulder saddle mean I will have to rip back that section. It took a couple hours to do so I could make up the time. The question then becomes do I rip back the entire shoulder saddle? Not too bad, or do I rip back to fix all the cables? And can I get this done by Saturday? Yep. Or really Friday when we pile into the car and head to Rhinebeck?
At this point I am really deciding how much frogging and knitting I will be doing while watching the debate tonight. I can always block the sweater on Sunday right? And who needs a zipper, its been unseasonably warm…right? Opinions?
Tune in next time for As the Cable Turns
Until then I leave you with ”River Song” taking care of “Eleven’s” fez at the Doctor Who photo shoot at NYCC.
Knitting, WIP
cables, Doctor Who, nycc, rhinebeck, sweater, vivian
There is just one small problem. This photo is from Thursday, and it barring any progress I made further on during knit night the exact length that the sweater is hasn’t changed since Thursday. Sigh.
