Midsummer Progress Report

Name: Rita
Grade: Is "college" a grade?
Subject: Achievement of Summer Knitting Goals

Category 1: Gathered Pullover
Grade: B+



Points given for successful "gathering" of cable. Points deducted for the fact that I started this sweater in January. (Sorry the picture sucks--you can actually see the cable a little better in real life).

Category 2: Trellis
Grade: INCOMPLETE
Yeah. About that.

Category 3: A baby sweater. Any sweater. Just knit a damn baby sweater.
Grade: A
Body completed, sleeves on the way! The sweaters for the small people, they go fast.





Garter stitch around the bottom. Simple and cute, no? I'm going to jazz it up with some embroidered flowers around the edges. It's a little shiny right now (that would be the microfiber, I think) but my swatch sort of softened and fuzzed a little when I put it through the washer and drier.

Category 4: Finishing up old stuff
Grade: A!
Details to come...but here's a teaser. Does it...could it be...is that a sock?!



Category 5: Not starting new projects until successful completion of categories 1-4
Grade: FAIL



Um. Yeah. I would just like to say that this is ENTIRELY Rosa's fault. All of it. Why, she came right over here and put a gun (made of candy) to my head, and she told me that if I didn't cast on for a new project RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT she would...um, she would...yeah, OK. But it's true, though, she did gift me the yarn for this project (Drops Alpaca, lovely and soft and an impossible color to describe. Is it salmon? Or hot pink? Or coral?) And she has been knitting lace and telling me all about it, and what can I say, all the miles of blue stockinette, interrupted only by tan stockinette, finally got to me. I'm weak.

The pattern is from here and looks like it will be lovely. Assuming I don't get bored halfway through, what with how I hate scarves but always seem to forget that.

Relatedly (not really, except in the category of "stuff I made"), you know what's awesome? Baking!

Before: ugly-ass "pie."



After: Crispy, peachy, deliciousness!



Seriously, this was just about the easiest thing ever. I bought frozen pie-crusts (I was very slightly ashamed of this, but then recalled that the last time I tried to make a pie I accidentally put four cups of vinegar in the crust. I am not even kidding.) Then I chopped up some peaches, added some flour and sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and stuff, and tah-dah! Delicious.

Option #3 it is

A new pattern. In spite of my deep emotional attachment to Trellis and all those cute cables, I just couldn't afford more yarn and didn't want to knit a sweater that would stand up on its own, so a new pattern. This one could not be more different from Trellis and its cables; I'm making an incredibly simple top-down raglan cardigan from here, and maybe a hat to match if I have enough yarn.



And I just found out, when I was at home, that the baby is a girl! So I think I'll embroider some sweet little flowers to jazz it up a little.

Look at those nice paired increases! This should be a pretty easy knit (note to knitting gods: now that I have said that, please do not light my needles on fire. Thank you).


And my other projects are coming along, too! It's amazing what a few weeks with a 9-5 job and no homework will do for your knitting. The sleeves on my Gathered Pullover are finished (for the second time, after the first attempt ended in crap), and the body (not pictured) is just up to the cabling at the bust. I might even have an actual sweater, for an actual grown-up person, to show off one of these days! But don't get too excited.





Oh, that reminds me, though--there's an FO I never showed off! It's not a knitting project, actually, but I'm still quite proud. It's a lovely linen skirt, in pattern "I don't remember" from "Simplicity? I think? Or maybe Vogue?"

I must confess that while I did all the cutting and the lion's share of the sewing, I did not QUITE finish it before I had to go back to school after last Christmas break, so I had a little help.


See that nice piping? That would be Mommy.



But I am quite pleased and proud, though, and I wear it a lot. There was one screw-up; I had intended it to be a nice high-waisted skirt, sort of fifties-style. When I tried it on, though, it ended up falling significantly below my belly button. This means one of two things:
a) I magically lost fifteen pounds between the cutting and the trying on, or
b) I am a doofus who measured wrong.

You decide.

But still, though, I really, really like it--the linen has a nice weight and drape to it, and it's perfect for summer.

Plus, I get to do this!

DAM(n)

Hey, what does a fish say when it runs into a brick wall?
DAM!

And what does Rita say when she blatantly ignores the very concept of gauge and thus throws her carefully planned project into chaos?
DAM(n) IT! DAMN SWEATER! DAMN %$&! GAUGE! &#@! NEEDLES! DAMN.

Indeed. OK, so remember, how I was making Trellis? And remember how I had that nice yarn? And I was all "Screw it, I'm not going to check my gauge, the yarn's kind of the right weight, I'll just cast on blithely and see what happens? Because hey, it's a baby sweater, it'll fit the kid eventually, right?"

Yeah. This is what happens when you laugh at gauge:



Looks normal, right? What you can't see is that the back, or at least what I've started of it, measures 14 inches across. Which is fine, except that the schematic says that the smallest size (6 months) should be 10.5 inches. Siiiigh. And I would almost be tempted to just keep on knitting, but the biggest size (for an eighteen-month-old) is supposed to be 12.5 inches across the back, which means this thing might fit a two-year-old. Yeah, not so much with the toddler clothes at a baby shower, right? And I would STILL almost be tempted to just keep knitting (because evidently I am both that stubborn and that dumb) except I would probably need more yarn, right, if I were sizing up from a six month size to a two-year old, right? And this yarn, as you may recall, is DISCONTINUED.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

Last night, after I'd finished grumbling and sulking about the fact that the precious little sweater I'd envisioned just wasn't going to happen, I made a list of my options:

1) Get new needles. Probably not. Not because I'm cheap, but because I really liked the fabric I was getting on size 6s. Even if I did manage to get gauge on smaller needles, it would probably be way too stiff. Useful if the kid ever got caught in gang warfare crossfare and needed to be protected from bullets, but probably not the look I'm going for.

2) Get new yarn. A possibility. Advantage: I would still get to knit Trellis, which I SO want to make! Disadvantage: I PROMISED myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn this summer, with the intention of being able to buy, you know, food and stuff.

3) Get a new pattern. Also a possibility. In an ideal world, this pattern would be written for the gauge I'm actually getting (18 st over 4 inches). I've looked around a bit and not found anything, but I'll keep looking. Advantage: cheaper than buying new yarn, plus I already have the Adrienne Vittadini and it'd be nice to use it. Disadvantage: I want to knit TRELLIS, damn it.

Hmmph. In the meantime, here's the dinner I made the other night; I appear to be falling into my father's school of cooking, which can basically summed up as the following:
1) get some stuff from the garden (or farmer's market)
2) cook it up with olive oil and garlic (some's good, more's better)
3) put cheese on top (not pictured)



Yum yum.