Let's start with the close-up of the big pattern. I think it really came out well. I knew in my heart that the tangelo would work with the red, but I'm not that thrilled with the "brown". Knitpicks doesn't offer as much color variety in their Telemark yarn as they do in their Palette line, so I didn't have much choice in the brown. This one is called "chestnut", but the orange and red make it look a bit more grey than I'd have liked. I'd wanted a rich, deep, chocolately brown. This one is more of an ash brown. But, what the heck.... It worked overall.
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The important point was not to destroy the beautiful variation in the kettle-dye of the red and that worked beautifully. Now, here's the photo of the body with the sleeves kind of set in place, though I haven't finished the project yet. Mom wants to watch me actually steek this thing, so it's a matter of us getting together for me to be able to finish it.~
Also, note that the body sort of bows at the solid middle. This is where there were no colors being carried in the background, but that should smooth out once I get the thing finished and blocked. Another note, which is really hard to see is there are markers along the neckline.
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Unlike the last sweater where I followed the directions from Dale and cast off stitches for the neckline in both the front and back, I just knit this sucker all the way to the top. I put in stitch markers where I want the neck to be, but I'm going to steek this also. I knit the body all the way to the top. (Follow me here with the line of thinking... /g/) I began and ended rows over at one of the side seams, so I purled the last row across the front half of the first shoulder, I cast off the stitches for the neck (making sure that I had the same number of stitches for each shoulder and both the front and back neck), then I purled across the entire second shoulder, cast off the stitches for the back neck and then purled across the back half of the first shoulder side. Follow that one? Okay, then I simply did a 3-needle bind-off across the first shoulder, broke the yarn and then did a 3-needle bind-off on the second shoulder.
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Sewing the steek seams will be a little trying right up at those closed shoulder seams, but it's doable. But, before I put the sewing machine away, I'll baste a quick contrasting color along where I want to place the neckband. Then I'll sew my two seams long that line, pick up my stitches for the neckband, knit those, cast off and then cut out all the excess material inside the machine sewed seams. Sew down the neck facing over that cutaway seam so it's nice and tidy and then I'll cut open the steeks for the sleeves, sew them in, sew down the facings and I'll be ready to wash and block.
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Easy as pie. Very simple to do. Now, the reason that I purl the last row up at the shoulders is because it adds to the 3-needle bind-off "design" element. You get the purl bumps on the last row on each side of the seam and then the bumps from the seam itself. I prefer this rather than leaving just the seam. Then it sort of stands out as a singular feature rather than blending over a couple rows. I like the 3-needle bind-off because it adds stability for the one seam that will really carry the weight of the sweater. Think of it. A drop-shoulder sweater really hangs from the shoulder seams. Yes, I could graft and Kitchener the seam for a seamless look, but you've got all the weight on that one area. So the 3-needle bind-off adds a bit of strength to take the wear and tear of several years of the sweater weight hanging on those two seams.
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And I have to admit that this one worked up REALLY quickly. I cast on for the ribbing on Feb 4th and cast off the last sleeve on Feb 27th. First is because I'd just worked this pattern, so I was a lot more familiar with the graphs and how the whole thing came together. Second is testament to just how much time I have at my job to knit. I probably still have well over 100 hours invested, but that's how little I have to do at my actual job. Everyone on campus calls my post "the country club", but I tell them to come try and deal with the boredom. If I weren't a knitter, I swear I would have quit three years ago when they first moved me there. Either that or I'd do all my sleeping while at work and spend a lot more time at home cleaning... LOL!
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Other news is that Mama Bear is ready to come out of hibernation. I accomplished two very important tasks this week. I filed our tax return. A job I always dread because every year we seem to get back less and less. In fact, this year, when I saw that our return was less than half of what we'd gotten last year, I made a trip over to H&R Block to see if they could find out why. Maybe I forgot something? Well, at the end of the tax session, they had even less than I did for a return. So I thanked them profusely for their time and filed my own return rather than lose yet another $1000. The lady figures I must have added something that shouldn't be there, but I think it's more that I probably forgot to give her some number that I'd added to my own return. Either way, I could pay them $187 to file a return for a $389 rebate or I could file my own return for $23 and get a $1289 rebate. Hmm.... choices, choices... NOT! /g/
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The other thing I accomplished was to get the final letter off to insurance companies. Geez... will this accident stuff never end? I responded with what I feel is a fair offer to both. I received a phone call the other day regarding the first letter I sent. I tried to call back, but it looks like we're going to play phone tag. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.
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I think I've said before that I did try to hire an attorney to handle this part for us, but would you believe that I couldn't get an attorney to return my phone call? So I finally just up and handled it myself. I'm not a lawyer. I have no legal expertise at all. But I do have a working brain with brain cells that actually function. I'm willing to talk. I might even be willing to negotiate. But only to a degree. My daughter is still having visual problems and Mama Bear is going to protect the interest of her oldest young'un.
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Okay, that's said. I have a new sweater on the needles. I'm sort of making this up as I go. I found some 100% Patons wool on sale at Michaels. (We need to save wherever possible because Hubby is being furloughed at work and we're currently losing approximately $600 a month in income. Yes, I should be forgetting about buying yarn, but knitting is my sanity so it's most definitely not considered a luxury or entertainment item in our budget. It's as necessary as oil for heat... LOL!) Anyway, I swatched for gauge and I'm doing a very basic pullover using the Fibbonucci (sp?) sequence. I knit 3" of ribbing, then knit one row stockinette, then inserted a basic pattern of *k2tog, yo, k1*. Then I knit 2 rows of st st, pattern row. 3 (1 + 2) rows of st st, pattern row. 5 (2 + 3) rows of st st, pattern row. 8 (3 + 5) rows of st st, pattern row. See how the sequence adds? You keep increasing the number by adding together the last two numbers so the pattern rows will grow further and further apart.
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I knit one sleeve first because I wanted to get an idea of how wide it was. Yes, another drop-shouldered sweater where I'll steek both the neck and sleeves like I've done with the DoN patterns. But, and here's where it gets tricky, I've kept the pattern rows all the way around the sweater. But I don't want to sew in a sleeve onto a section with a pattern "hole". So, once I reach the point where the sleeves will join, I'm going to keep 3-4 stitches on each side of the side seam in plain st st. IOW, suspend the pattern for those stitches where I'll later cut open for the steeks. This way, I have a nice smooth line at the sleeve openings when I later sew in the sleeves. I won't know about the neck opening until I get that far, but I'd also prefer not to have to pick up neck stitches through this patterned row, but I'll see when I get that far.
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I sure hope all of this is making sense or I might as well be talking to myself. Course, I do that a lot anyway, so no one should be surprised.
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This week I'm off. Spring Break for the kids at college. I'm going away for a few days to a gorgeous inn in Northwest CT. Mom is treating me for my birthday and I'm going to bring my wheel. I have 3 lbs of BFL to make into yarn for another sweater, so I have tons of spinning to do. Think of it. A canopied bed. A fireplace in the sitting area where I can sit and spin by the hour. A DVD player so we can bring lots of old movies to sit and enjoy. Two days of no chores, no expectations, no schedule. Just relaxation, old movies and my wheel. I haven't done this in... well, like forever. I think the last time I took time just to sit and relax was our first trip to Indiana in 1996. It was Sunday morning and I looked at the DH and said, "I'll be back". I took the car, drove to a local McDonald's and had breakfast alone. I sat there for almost an hour and a half and just worked on my laptop. (I wrote a quick story that later netted me $800. A very nice boon... LOL!)
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Today is laundry, making a list of what I need to pack and, hopefully, get the alpaca off my bobbin so I can take the BFL with me when I leave on Tuesday. I'm not sure I'll actually get it off the bobbin, because I need a second bobbin spun up to ply it with. But at least get this one spun up so I can leave with a fresh new bobbin to spin with.
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Have a wonderful week!! Drop me a note either here or over at bonneewolf@yahoo.com I still wonder if people actually read this. Probably not many because I'm SO bad at adding pictures to explain what I'm talking about in my knitting. Maybe I'll add that to my list of "to do" this year... Be better at pictures. It's a goal and goals are good things to keep us aspiring to be better people.
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