Almost Everyday

Thank you all so much for your comments on my Diamond Fantasy Shawl! I so love it and I’m glad you all do too. In fact, I emailed Sivia to thank her for such a great pattern and I think she might link to my shawl on the description page. High praise indeed!

I took a page from Norma and started a sleeve. And just like Norma, my sleeve became a swatch.

Yup. I cast on my superfantastic red heart Manos (color #115 – the picture above is actually a bit more purple than the actual yarn – somewhere between today’s picture and the link picture) for the Everyday Cardigan from Peace Fleece. And I was practically FINISHED the first sleeve when I started tooling around on the Internet looking for other people who have made this sweater. Seems like there are mucho problems with the pattern. For one thing, the sleeves are like teepees – too many increases too fast. And not enough stitches to start so the ribbing is like a tourniquet. And the k2p2 doesn’t match up anywhere in the pattern. Now, I think I’m a fairly accomplished knitter. I can follow a pattern and get a good representation of what I’m supposed to get. One thing I’m lacking in is seeing the errors in patterns. I mean I think somewhere down deep I know that the sleeve is wrong, but I don’t know enough to know why it’s wrong and how to fix it. Thank god all of you do! After looking at the pattern and seeing that it probably needed to be a little bit longer in the body and that the shoulders seemed really complicated the way they wrote them and I was going to have to rip the sleeve anyway, I decided to make this an Almost Everyday Cardigan and I promptly took out my handy dandy Ann Budd book.

Since this sweater is stockinette with some ribbing, I’ve decided to use it as a learning piece. I’m going to try all these new things. For instance, I’ve never made a button band before – unless you count the finishing class I took. So I’ve made sure to cast on an extra garter stitch at the end of each front so to insure easy stitch pick up. I’ve decided to do the body as one piece until the arm holes – never done that before, but it sure is nice to know that two fronts and the back are getting done right quick! My plan is to split when I get to the arm hole shaping (I’m doing Ann Budd’s modified drop shoulder – just a bit neater I think) and to try and do short rows shoulder shaping. I tried that stair step shit that Ann Budd has in the book and I didn’t like it. So in the interest of learning, short rows it is! I think I’m going to seam the sleeves – I thought about doing them in the round by picking up the stitches at the armholes, but that seems a bit complicated after all the other new stuff, but I’ve got time to figure that out. I’m excited!

I love how the yarn is knitting up! It seems such a dark, wine red in the hank but wind it up and there is so much pink and purple and it’s knitting up so lovely and dramatic! This is the perfect project to show off the yarn too. I’ve cast on for the body last night and should be into the stockinette today. I have a feeling this will go fast. I’m dreaming about the buttons too. They’re going to be gorgeous buttons – whatever they are. Please, PLEASE, I beg of you, don’t remind me of the unfinished short rows or the second sunshine sock I still have not cast on for and if you talk about the Retro Rib sock that needs a heel, well then, you aren’t really my friend after all.

Speaking of friends, I met Ann! And got to see Kay again! Do you want to know why? Because they asked ME, little old photographer me, to take the AUTHOR photo for their BOOK!!! Can you believe it?!? How awesome is that? The two of them are so much fun – so comfortable, so lovely – together and apart – it’s amazing they haven’t known each other for a gazillion years. Maybe in another life. I’m pretty sure they’re happy with the pictures (I can’t tell you how nervous I was – I photograph children. And flowers. Not adults for their BOOK!) I can’t wait to see it all finished up! March – where are you? (I had to sign in blood I would not reveal anything about the BOOK, but I think it’s okay to say it’s going to be fanFUCKINGtastic. Is that okay girls?) (Oh and special thanks go out to my baby sis, Samara, Stylist Extraordinaire!) Kay and Ann, I can’t tell you how honored I am to have had a small part in this project. Really. Thank you for thinking of me!