Have Knits, Will Travel

This weekend I've done a surprising amount of knitting while traveling. I've been keeping my Summertime Tunic in my purse for subway rides, and I find it is slowly growing a few minutes at a time.

Friday night, I drove down to visit my parents and found myself on a stretch between NY and NJ which the traffic reporter described as "all piled up." Since the cars were not moving, I took out my knitting and actually got quite a bit done. I got a few weird looks from people in neighboring cars, but I was tickled to be knitting in my car.

When I got to my parents' house that night, I wove in the ends of the baby sweater while talking with my brother and mother, then did a few more rounds on the tunic.

On Saturday night, I took the train back up to the city and knit on the tunic the whole way. Quite a lot of knitting in transit!

I've made some nice purchases recently, which I will photograph and share in the daylight, now that I'm home again.

A Tempting Tempting

This past weekend I started my Tempting and I really love it so far.



I absolutely adore this yarn (Caron Simply Soft) - it's so squishy and delectable that I feel like snuggling it. The color varies with the light between a warm gray and an almost silver.



The project is moving quickly, which always scores major points with me. The ribbing keeps it interesting, and I'm looking forward to the construction.

What a perfect little knit!

Moving Right Along

I finished knitting the baby sweater last night - woohoo! I still have a lot of finishing to do on it, but it is no longer on my (knitting) needles, so I'm stoked.

I'm continuing on with the Summertime Tunic and have nearly five inches past the ribbing. It does seem to be going faster at this point, though I'm starting to worry because I keep hearing about sizing issues on various message boards. We'll see.

Next up? Tempting...



In a warm gray with red ribbon. I'm really looking forward to it.

The Beauty of Monogamy

I used to keep all of my yarn displayed on this white bookcase which you could see from almost everywhere in the main room of our apartment. The other day, on a whim, I packed it all up into boxes and put it away.

See, I don't "stash." I don't ever buy yarn if it's not intended for a specific project, but I do tend to buy a lot of yarn. Having all that yarn around is a physical to-do list of all the projects I haven't gotten to yet, and I was getting kind of anxious.



I moved my knitting basket to a shelf above my desk, and it has exactly two projects on which I am currently working: the Summertime Tunic and the Baby Sweater (no longer cursed).

And look! Progress!



I finished one sleeve and am nearly done with the second. I'm no longer worried about the sizing either, as a friend showed me his 19-month-old son's shirt and this is still bigger. This sweater is SO close - I just have to weave in ends, block it, and buy and sew on buttons!



I still haven't decided what to do about the sleeve situation, though I'm considering some embroidery, probably in duplicate stitch. I was thinking about an old-school collegiate-style "G" though I'm not sure how that would look. I also thought about something more esoteric, a leafless tree or a bird or deer in silhouette or similar hipster-approved design element. I will have to sketch some and see if I come up with something good.

Oh right, this is a knitting blog

Believe it or not, I have been knitting, though it seems I don't have much to show for it.



I've made it past the ribbing on my Summertime Tunic, finally, and am now onto what many have lovingly described as "miles of stockinette." It's true that this is a good activity while reading or watching TV, but I do get a little tired of it.



The ribbing looks different from most 1x1 ribbing I've done, and I suspect this is to do with knitting in the round. It looks better when stretched, so I'm not worried.

As for the baby sweater (see how the "baby set" has been temporarily downgraded?), I regret to say that no progress has been made.



This is what I was greeted with when I attempted to extract it from my knitting pile. That is parts of the top-down raglan mingled with a very sad, frustrating attempt to unravel the first sweater I knit with this yarn (also, the nicely-matched button thread I found back in May).



Upon dissection, it reveals two separate entities: yarn spaghetti and the sweater. The yarn spaghetti took an inordinate amount of time and blue language, and as it turns out the yarn is all frazzled and strangely textured anyway. I'm not sure I'd want to knit with it again, as I can't imagine it having adequate stitch definition or a nice appearance.



The sweater itself suffers a major problem. Can you see where I picked the stitches back up for the sleeve? Not a pretty join.



I thought that maybe I could cover that with some embroidery, but I realize the underarm is a disaster as well. It's possible to rectify it somewhat from the inside, but I worry that I won't have enough yarn to finish this and the second sleeve anyway.



Mostly, since I will probably have to buy still more yarn for this project anyway, I'm tempted to knit a blanket instead, even though its intended recipient is well past the swaddling stage. Toddlers use blankets, right? An additional concern is that if I don't get this sweater to them almost immediately, baby Gabriel will never have a chance to wear it before he outgrows it - it may be too small already.

So, quite a pickle, and not one that I'm looking forward to sorting out. Add to this the fact that I can't find my fifth DPN, and this is one aggravated knitter.