Sunday, February 18, 2007

FO! FO! Part 2

It's been a quiet week, no, wait, that's another monologue.

It's actually been quite loud and very busy, except that nearly everything that was planned (including work related stuff) fell through at the last minute!

Of course, Mother Nature had a lot to say about "the best laid plans" and snow/ice/freezing whatever caused the cancellation of work on Wednesday and a speaking gig (to a senior church group) that evening.

Then Mother Nature, plus the City (and missing plowing our short, dead-end street) got us a second day off, because the folks we pay to plow the lot couldn't get in there. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. When you have a full schedule, one unplanned day off might be a blessing. Two in a row make Day 3 (the Return) a nightmare.

Our driveway is nearly cleared off (thanks to Ice Melt and the sun), but the street remains a mess.

And it seems that Plow Driver Guy and I owe the Guy Across The Road an apology. It wasn't his car that blocked the snow plow. It was the asswidget 2 doors up from him! Hello! 5 feet closer to the intersection and our street would be clear! But the payback still was amusing and GATR's pick up was on the street and in the way!



I gave Tammy's pattern another try yesterday, this time with a bulky yarn (Gjestal Naturgarn No. 1) and size 10.5 (6.5 mm) needles. It's a good size for a bigger kid (maybe a 10-12 year old). With a bit of tweaking, I think I could upsize it to teen/adult.

Thanks, Kathy, for the jogless link. I have this one down (from Zimmermann/Swansen tutorials). I just couldn't get it to work in the switch from garter to stockinette on the first one.




A while back, Blogless Joy sent me a huge (8.75 oz.) ball of Plassard Fusion.

[Eyes left] This is what's left (2+ oz.)

I turned it into a sweater for a kid on Cheyenne River Reservation (part of our current "Sweater Challenge").

The Other Half commented last night that the sweater had "gone together pretty fast."

I didn't think so, having put it aside for several days, but a look back through blog archives shows that it was (probably) less than 4 weeks start to finish (and there were other projects going on at the same time)!



And here it is.

I absolutely love the way the stripes play out. I love that they are wider on the sleeves than on the body.

I gave some quite serious thought to splitting those long color runs so that sleeves and body would match each other, then decided against it. I'm glad I did!

The small print: Pattern (with modifications) is from Kids to Grown-Ups Seamless Sweaters by Mary Rich Goodwin. Plassard Fusion Yarn color 999. Size 4 and 6 needles.

Having this yarn stowed away so that I could pull it out just as I was starting to get a little Need For Brighter Colors To Knit With saved me from The Need to Go Buy/Order yarn somewhere, anywhere.

So thank you, Joy, you saved the KFYS.

It has been nearly 4 months since I ordered yarn. I am feeling so very noble!

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Comments:
Wow! That is one purdy sweater. The colors sure do beat the winter blahs.
 
Re: width of stripes on the body vs. on the sleeves. I have exactly the same issue in the Dulaan sweater I started last night. The sweater has been in the planning stages in my mind for well over a month. Although I much prefer to knit a sweater, particularly a kid's sweater, all in one piece and avoid all that annoying finishing, I realized that that approach would not work for the variegated yarn I had on hand. So I sucked it up and committed to knitting it in pieces and seaming. (My standard pattern comes from Ann Budd's book of sweater patterns, so I am always prepared.)

In my ignorance I had assumed that a sleeve was roughly the same width as the front or back. Not so -- cast on 52 st for each body piece, but only 24 for each sleeve. Decision: do I want to go through all the fussiness of spit-splicing -- which it turns out doesn't work terribly well with this yarn -- or just live with different width stripes? You helped me make the "live with it" decision easily. I even called in my fashion consultant (17-yo son, the only other one in the family who could even understand the depth of the issue :-) and got his opinion. He agreed that different widths would be fine. Yay!

Kathy/kmkat
www.kmkat.typepad.com
(Blogger is being very difficult -- it won't let me comment using either my Blogger ID or this one)
 
Four months! That's pretty good. I've been good for almost that long. And now that I'm doing the 40 day Knit for Others for Lent, I should use up a good part of my stash.
 
The Fusion sweater is delightful - it will make a child cheerful and warm. I am so glad I sent the yarn to you. It makes me happy to see it knitted up. Lovely!
 
I love the sweater--and the different sleeves. Very jaunty.
 
Excellent sweater. I'd make one for me!
 
Love that yarn, esp for my kid! Any idea where she got it?
 
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