Pattern: Go Vertical by Classic Elite
Yarn: Elann Sonata in Natural
Needles: Size 4 straights
Size: Petite
Source of Yarn: Elann
Modifications: I did double yarnovers and two decreases for the buttons.
Thoughts: I really like this pattern. The cardigan is a nice, basic look. The buttons are really neat; they're engraved coconut shell.
Well, over the weekend I finished the button bands on Goin' Up. I was laying it out on Sunday night, figuring out how best to sew off the buttons, when I realized that the top three buttons were spaced for seven buttons and the lower three were spaced for six buttons.
So, this meant that one of the first things that I did on the sweater was to rip out the a wet cast off edge, and one of the last things that I did was the same. It feels nicely circular.
The bands are fixed and I sewed buttons on. I plan to weave in the ends tomorrow in hopes of getting this done for June.
It doesn't feel like Summer Break yet. I kept thinking I should have been at school. I even managed to wake up not at my usual time, but an hour early.
Well, Goin' Up is finally no longer a shapeless lump. It has bands and the sleeves are in. All that remains now is to sew up the sides, sew on the buttons, and possibly redo the bands if they don't end up blocking out nicely.
I may get to wear this sweater during its proper weather!
Well, I worked on Goin' Up: the shoulders are sewn up and the neckband is on. I also bought buttons as part of a big trip to Jo-Ann's today (and 25 yards of muslin, and four yards of clearance shirting, and two patterns, and wire and glue and ribbons to make a 1958 hat for next Sunday), so I can start putting it together. I'd put the needles away when I washed the pieces, but I was able to look it up and see which ones I used.
Keeping records doesn't always work, though. I had told myself that if I practiced every day for a month and still wanted to keep playing, I could get a guitar. I've been keeping track in my lovely little tracker.
Guitar Center is right across the street from Jo-Ann's. My plan had really been just to have Caleb give me some feedback and pass me guitars as we luxuriated in the air-conditioned and humidity-controlled acoustic guitar cave, but there was a really sweet Epiphone 150 on sale this weekend. Caleb liked how it looked best, and it was a little more comfortable than the used one that I'd also been playing in the cave. (The used one did have the advantage of having a ding out of the front and center, meaning I might take future scratches calmly.) With the sale and the coupon I had, he talked me into getting it.
I like it.
Well, I finished the knitting on Goin' Up. It's no more photogenic than it had been at any earlier stage:
I've only got the sewing up, bands, and purchasing of buttons left to do. I figure that this puts it at 90% of finished.
The last time I made Goin' Up, I made the v-neck pullover version in wool at the worsted gauge. This meant that, when I made the copy of the pattern to stuff in my bag, mark up, and lose, I didn't copy the page that had just the schematic and the button band.
Since I'm making the cardigan, it was a slight problem as I checked the copy of the pattern I've been carrying around and discovered the lack of button band instructions.
Luckily, I somehow remembered that I had decided to put the pattern in an extremely safe place. I even remembered the place: in the middle of a magazine holder filled with Threads magazines. I have no idea why it's there, but I'm glad to have found it.
And, just in case it goes on walkabout again: 7 1/2 inch buttons. Garter stitch bands.
Well, I have been making progress on Goin' Up; I can see that as I look back over the last pictures and see how I have a slightly longer wad of white fabric. As the sleeves get wider, though, each row takes longer and longer.
A while back, I was able to be paid to take free guitar lessons. I didn't play for a while after that, but yesterday and today I pulled the borrowed guitar out and worked on chord progressions. My left fingertips have the pleasant tingly sensation from the calluses starting to come back. In the sidebar, I have a tracker in hopes of practicing more.
Yesterday, I was getting a shirt out of the drawer above where I kept the sweater with the hole and found a dead bug's body stuck to a fleece shirt. It was distinctly green, though, and looked nothing like the pictures of clothes moths or carpet beetles I saw online. My guess is that it was just a normal bug, but the sweater and the gloves that Mom made me are in the freezer.
Caleb and I drove a fair distance last night to see a show, and I got the Little Devil sock done up to the gusset and a bunch more of the increases on the sweater sleeves. I'm at eight and a half inches now of the 16.5 before the cap shaping. It's amazing how much knitting I can get done when someone else is driving.
As for the recent red things, the clasp on the necklace came unknotted less than a minute after I put it on this morning. I had been planning on wearing it with my lack dress and new red shoes. After I got back, I pulled off the last bead to get some more thread, reknotted it, reknotted it, and doused the knot in FrayCheck. It's been stable since.
And that's the thrillingness that is my life recently.
Yesterday was Stitch and Pitch at the Paw Sox. Friday's game had gotten rained out, so it was a doubleheader. Caleb was utterly thrilled to hear that.
The game was fun. We got goodie bags, and the woman behind me kindly traded pattern books so that I could have this one:
There was "discussion" between a manager and an ump the first game, and the second ended with a game-winning walk off home run. I worked a good bit on my cotton sweater during the first game, and switched to my Little Devil sock when it got really cold during the second one. Here are the sleeves in their current state:
Finally, this weekend I got some other crafty things done. I've been wanting a coral necklace for a long time, and noticed that it was about $28 cheaper to buy the supplies and hand knot it than to buy one that was already made. I finally got around to knotting the beads yesterday and today, with the help of these two instructions, got this:
Up his sleevies!
(Not: Roman sleevies would not have been knit.)
Well, it's getting pretty late in the school year if I'm laughing at this joke.
I do want Goin' Up finished so I can wear it over my sundresses, so I suppose I'd better get cracking. This idea of being able to wear something the season I finish it is oddly compelling.
Firstly, Sheldon's head is the pointy, larger part.
I finished the fronts of Goin' Up. I'm hoping to get it finished in time to wear during cotton sweater weather this year. Sadly, it's still not photogenic; it's more white, curled pieces of knitting.
As I was putting away my winter sweaters, I found a hole in the back shoulder of a commercial sweater. It's about the size of my little fingernail, and it looks like the threads are snagged and pulled more than nipped off. There weren't any sheds in the drawer and I didn't see any particular holes anywhere else. Does this sound like a moth?
Well, the HGW is done, but its photo shoot is waiting until it, Caleb, I, and the sun are all in the same place as a camera. It may be winter again by then.
In the mean time, I got started again on Goin' Up, my neutral cotton cardigan, in hopes of having it to wear when the weather gets nice. I'm about up to the armholes on the fronts, and finished the back. I don't think I need to rush out and procure buttons this weekend.
I'm at the CANE Summer Institute, and it's been raining like crazy these past two days. It seems like about every hour there's rain so heavy it makes bubbles in the puddles.
I've gotten a good chunk of knitting done; I've finished the decreases on the shaping on the back of Goin' Up; it's coming together nicely. There are at least two other knitters here, which is nice. No pictures, sadly; I had to bring a fan and a desk lamp, among other things, so I decided not to bring the camera.
The Institute is like being back in college; I'm in two classes and a reading group, and each day starts with two lectures on various Classical subjects. (Additionally, the dorm I'm in has instructions on what to do in case there's an air raid on the dorm; I'm to get blankets, warm clothing, and personal necessities before heading to the shelter, where the warden will instruct me on what to do next. We were trying to figure out when the air raid warning was from; the dorm goes back at least to 1939, based on the intramural records in the foyer, so it cold be WWII or Cold War. Still, it seems odd that this bucolic little hamlet would be worried about that.)
I got a lot of knitting done at the baseball game that Caleb and I went to on Tuesday with Jay and my cousin Ian. Not much since then; the heat has just been sapping my energy. I do hope that the storm breaks the heat some.
There's been free bus service for most of the week; the air quality is so low that it practically feels chewy. As I was walking back from giving blood, a bus whizzed by me, and then the driver stopped, even though I wasn't anywhere near a bus stop because he saw my sticker.
It's been a really long time since I've swatched; rescently, I've been making lace, socks, and things with yarn whose characteristics I know well. This meant that swatching for this sweater (Classic Elite Go Vertical) was quite enjoyable.
Well, it was enjoyable for the first inch of the swatch. I decided at that point that there was a reason why I hadn't swatched in so long, but ground out the second inch.
I then measured; perfect. I decided to wash the swatch, though, before casting on for the actual sweater. That was a good idea, because it rather grew. I went down to size fours, ripping out the wet cast off edge (Not Fun), and all was well.
(And, for the record, I'm making the Petite (35" bust) using Sonata from elann.com in color 8176 and lot 185220. I'm planning on making the cardigan with full length sleeves, waist shaping, and a crew neck.)