S is for….

That’s right. Last night I cast on for the Short Row Pullover. Not only did I cast on, but I used my new super fantastic cast on method – the Long Tail or Half-Hitch? Never heard of this new found super crazy cast-on? Don’t laugh. I’ve never used it before. In fact I had to go find a video to relearn it. BUT, I figured it out AND I cast on in alternating knit and purl stitches to coincide with the seed stitch border on the sweater. Pretty cool, huh?

First I cast on a sleeve – it wasn’t long (try three seconds) before I remembered how much I love this yarn. To remind you, it’s Rowan Wool Cotton and it’s soft and light and perfect for this time of year. In fact, I’d dare to say you can wear it year-round. It’s THAT GOOD! I’m putting it up there for desert island status. Maybe. I don’t want to commit just yet, but I’m not voting it off anytime soon. Back to the sleeve – I figured this would be my swatch. (Don’t yell! I was up late last night!) I got a couple decreases in when I decided to measure it. I was off. Not on row gauge, which Wendy has been talking about of late (the only reason why I actually measured it), but on stitch gauge – the pattern calls for 22 stitches for every four inches and I was getting six to the inch, or 24 per 4. In the end I decided to stick with the needle size I was using (size 6) and bump up to the next size on the pattern. This will give me somewhere between a medium and a large which is where I want to be anyway. So I ripped out the sleeve, and cast on for the back:

I was up until 2:30AM finishing the first stripe repeat. It goes like this:

Rows 1-3 A (Aloof – light blue)
Rows 4-5 MC (French Navy)
Row 6 B (Laurel – green)
Row 7-9 C (Bilberry – purple)
Row 10 D (Antique – white)
Row 11 B
Row 12 A
Row 13 D
Row 14 MC

Got the bugger memorized already! I think it works great! It was a little nuts at about 1:30 when I was lining up the colors over and over to come up with the best sequence. I knew I wanted the light blue and purple to be the bigger colors – the tough part was deciding which order the green and white went in – I think I made the right choice and I think it’s going to be really cool when the short rows start. The ONLY drawback – I’ve already got like 4,361 ends to weave in. I’m going to have to MAKE SURE I do it all along – like before I start knitting on it I have to weave in five ends or something. It’s the only way. Unless I don’t weave them in at all and leave them hanging on the inside – do you think that will fuck up the drape?

While I’m excited about this project, I’m also worried that I spent too much time last night knitting instead of, no, not sleeping, reading Jonathan Strange. I’m only like 50 pages in on this 800 page book and I need to have it finished by April 2. Do you think it will happen? Stay tuned. Oh and if you haven’t been on K1R2 for awhile, go check out the great post Laurie and her son William put up about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It’s inspiring and informative!

KNITTING CONTENT ENDS – POLITICAL RANT BEGINS

You can leave now, if you’d like.

As some of you know, Georgie and I got married about 3.5 years ago after being together for 11 years – 10 of which we lived together, owned our house together, etc. We were as committed as anyone – living together, loving together, all that gooshy stuff. When we finally did get married, it wasn’t because we needed to show anyone the extent of our commitment – we knew it was there – as did everyone who loved us – the rest of the world be damned. We got married for political reasons – namely there were certain rights that we didn’t have that we wanted. One of these rights, one of the most important ones to me – was that we would become each other’s NEXT OF KIN and be able to make the MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS EVER for EACH OTHER. I’ve always regretted, just a little bit, a tiny iota, getting married because I think it’s criminally unfair that all of us cannot partake of these rights. Now I’m even more regretful, because it turns out that even if you’re married, THOSE RIGHTS DON’T MATTER.

Let’s not even bring up the horrifying hypocrisy George turned me on to yesterday. He was listening to some “talk radio” aka propaganda for the sheeples, and someone was going nuts on Democrats and stem-cells saying that Democrats should want to keep Mrs. Schiavo alive because in two years there could be a cure for her using stem-cells. WHAT? These are the same people that are so against stem-cell research cause god forbid a tiny cell that might have one day in someone’s imagination become a baby (don’t get me started there – I’ve thought a lot about this having gone through the IVF process) are now USING STEM CELLS TO PROP UP THEIR ARGUMENT FOR TERRY SCHIAVO? Georgie pointed out to me that they may have been saying this in a tongue in ass kind of way – but MY GOD! THE HYPOCRISY IS OVERWHELMING! They have proven that they will say anything, do anything, make up anything to further their agenda. [ETA: I was going to link to Laura Ingraham – the radio show George was listening to – but I took a look at her site and I can’t in good conscience link to that vitriol. Ingraham makes Coulter look like a puppy. Very, very, scary.]

This whole Schiavo mess terrifies me. Please, get to your lawyers and write those living wills. Make sure that your extended family, not just your partner, knows your wishes. Give them copies of your living will. Because God knows they may need them to fight for what you want – especially if the government decides that you and they don’t know best.

ETA: Colleen sent me this link: hypocrisy abounds!
Rant over.
Thanks.