drew-o-rama

OH NO! NOT AGAIN...

So I am happily knitting along on the restarted Raspy, and I notice it's sort of wide. I get out the measuring tape and check the width. It's 21.5 inches (55cm)- exactly what it's supposed to be. The gauge is even spot on. I keep going thinking, "this still looks really wide to me." So, I get out a favorite pull-over of mine and place Raspy on top.

click to make the "oh crap" moment bigger

As you can see, it's wider than the pull-over. AHHHH!! This doesn't make any sense. I am knitting the largest size- XL which fits a size 40" (102cm) chest. I am actually a 38" (97cm) chest, which is what the pulli is above. The measurements that Rowan gives are a bit suspect...

For example, the pattern states the back/front should be 21.5" (55 cm) wide. But, if I double that, I get 43" (110cm). So, does that mean that Raspy's fit is big? If I really want a tighter fit, should I frog and start another size? If I use the measurements from the pull-over then according to Rowan's measurements I should knit a size SMALL which they also say is for a size 34" (86cm) chest. ARGH! I really want this sweater to be right, so what do you all think I should do?

P.S. Thanks for all the suggestions for my last Raspy dilemma. I think I am going to save the already-knitted-yarn for the sleeves so if there is a visible difference, it will be on the sleeves and not halfway up the front.

A SAD DAY

This...

click to make this baby bigger

Is now this...

make these balls bigger - go ahead, you know you want to

I had to frog it all because I misunderstood the pattern. The pattern has intentional dropped stitches. In order to prevent the stitches from dropping all the way to the cast-on edge, you must yarn over. Basically, creating a new stitch. A few rows above, you drop the stitch down to the yo and you have your non-running, dropped stitch. The pattern said to yfwd which actually meant yo. So when I got to those stitches I just moved the yarn forward. Doh!

I thought I could fix it by dropping the stitch from the top and picking up the stitches back to the top. I tried and it wasn't working, plus, by working in the round, I wasn't hitting the gauge anyway. So, I made the decision to frog.

So I have a question for all of you. Rowan Denim yarn shrinks 20% when you wash it. Since I have already used roughly 5 skeins, I need to wet them and hang them to get the kinks out. Will this cause the yarn to shrink? Do you have any suggestions on how I should de-kinkify the yarn without unintentionally shrinking it?

I am planning to start over, this time knitting it flat. Stay tuned for Raspy, the next generation...

AUNT MOLL IS BACK IN TOWN

Anybody remember this...

Click me to make me bigger

It's Moll from the Rowan Cork Collection. I couldn't figure out how to make the increases without leaving a huge hole under the increase. It was upsetting me so much, that I put it down for about two months. In the meantime I was working on Raspy, and was getting sick of the million miles of stockinette, so I picked up Moll again. I decided to learn a new increase to solve the problem and it worked.

As you can see, I am close to starting the armhole shaping which is exciting. I need to get this finished soon so that my friend Gillian can wear it before summer ends.

Speaking of Aunt Flow,er, Moll visiting... my friend Celeste emailed me this photo. She was joking that I should knit or crochet genitalia. It looks like somebody beat me to it.

THE PAST TWO WEEKS

I finished something! I finished something! It's a baby sweater for my nephew who was born less than two weeks ago. OK, everybody... "Awwwww."

I actually meant for the two colors to be reversed. Oh well.

It's the raglan sweater from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits Book. This sweater went really fast- about two weeks. I have decided that I am going to start choosing smaller patterns so that I can knit them faster and feel some accomplishment sooner. I also bought Scarf Style which will provide plenty of smaller projects.

In other news, Dan and I had a lot of fun in California. We started out in LA and visited some friends in Ventura and Santa Monica, shopped in Beverly Hills and went to some bars in West Hollywood. We then rented a car and drove up the coast...

it really is like a postcard

and stopped at Hearst Castle. We continued through Big Sur to Monterey where we went to the aquarium to see some cool jellyfish.

Ooooo, black-lit jellyfish are pretty

After that, we continued on to San Francisco where, among other things, I shopped at three yarn shops. The first was Imagiknit close to Castro Street. This had a lot of great yarn. I bought four skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in orange, and some cool Gedifra yarn called Byzanz which will make a great gift scarf.

click to see the little sparkly bits

This shop was well stocked, but nobody offered to help me. The next shop I went to was Urban Knitting Studio in the Hayes Valley. I really loved this shop. There was a nice yarn selection but it wasn't overwhelming. Plus, the design/architecture of the shop was tres cool. I bought one skein of Blue Sky Worsted and two skeins of Blue Sky 100% Alpaca.

I then went Downtown to Art Fibers. This shop only carried yarn created by the owners. There was some great yarn called Origami that was spun with paper and something else which I thought about buying, but I guess I just didn't know what I could use it for. I left this shop with nothing because I really didn't like anything.

After SF we went to Oakland to visit two of Dan's college friends, Josh and Rebeca. Josh knits a little bit, and he asked me to help him learn how to purl.

Go, straight boy, go!

He's left handed, so it was sort of hard to reverse everything. But I think he got the hang of it...