Do you love your husband enough to knit the sleeves?
Well, do you?
Knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two, knit two……..
I don’t know, Doug. I might have to think about this one.
Round and round and round and round and round…..
You mean I have to knit two of them?
I don’t think I can knit another one. Are you sure you want two sleeves?
Do you love your husband enough to knit the sleeves?
The jury is still out.
I have been diligently knitting the sleeves for Doug’s Brick pullover (I’m still on the first one, so I guess I should have said sleeve, singular). It is fairly boring knitting, round and round on double pointed needles, in a modified rib (knit one row, k2p2 the next). It doesn’t make for an arresting blog post – “and here you can see the next 2 inches of the endless ribbed sleeve I am knitting”. The project has also become less and less transportable. It is all knit in one piece, so the entire sweater must get dragged around.
This morning I decided that I needed to cast on something else. I almost always carry some knitting around with me, so that when I find myself with 10 minutes to spare I can whip it out and knit a row or two. At the office, we have a coffee break at 11 every morning; I am often too busy, but when I can, I sit and knit for 15 minutes while joining my colleagues for a coffee. My next project will be a lovely sweater for Leah, but as I am adapting a number of different patterns for that one, it will involve a great deal of thought, particularly at the beginning. What I needed today was a completely transportable project (read, small and light) that will not take any thought at all to get on the needles, and that could be grabbed as I ran out of the house. When I sorted through all of my stash last weekend, I found the yarn for a Kusha Kusha scarf, and that is what I grabbed.
Kusha Kusha is a scarf designed by Habu textiles. They are a yarn company that produces very interesting yarns out of a variety of unique materials. They also produce patterns and kits. Their patterns are very Japanese, and have a lovely flow to them. The emphasis is on the properties of the yarn itself; see their website here. In addition to having a storefront in NY, Habu frequently travel to fibre events so that people can have a chance to see and touch their products. One side of the Kusha Kusha scarf is knit with two very fine strands of yarn held together; one is a wool yarn, and the other is made from stainless steel and silk. At the mid point, the wool yarn is dropped and the second part of the scarf is knit just with the steel and silk yarn (in the photo below the wool yarn is in a rusty shade and the steel and silk yarn in a silvery shade). As a consequence of the steel, the resultant fabric has sculptural properties; it holds a shape and can be formed and reformed. It is intriguing and architectural. Doug bought me a kit for the scarf a year ago Christmas and I haven’t yet started it. (Don’t you love a man who gives such great gifts?)
I did manage to go to the coffee break today, and managed to cast on for the scarf and knit all of one row. I regret to say that one row is not yet enough for me to comment on the structural properties of this yarn. I can see that it will take forever to knit; it is all in stockinette stitch and is knit with progressively smaller and smaller needles, and so far at least seems rather “fiddly” – this is a highly technical term denoting “fiddliness”. As I intend to pull it out only when it is impractical to work on Brick, thus relegating it to backup knitting, it will take even longer. It is intellectually satisfying, however, to try out new materials, and to knit something that has inherent shape and structure.
Conversation from last week, while we are all sitting in the living room:
Me: “Has anyone seen my green yarn?”
Doug: “Is it in that bag over there?” (points to bag)
Me: “That’s green yarn, but not the right green yarn.”
Doug: “Well, is it in that bag over there?” (points to second bag)
Me: “No, that’s the yarn for my shawl.”
Doug: “OK, well, what about that bag over there?” (points to third bag)
Me: “That’s the purple silk yarn.”
Doug: “How about that bag?” (points to fourth bag)
Emma: “Mom, you’ve got to organize your knitting. This is ridiculous.”
Switch to this morning, scene from my bedroom. I have reached the point in knitting the sleeve for Brick where I am about to put the stitches on a small circular needle. I need a circular needle in a size 4US (3.5mm), and it has to be short, preferable 16″. I start searching for a needle. I pull out a bag and rummage through it. No luck, so I pull out another bag. Eventually, I have a pile of bags spread out over the bed. I have found 5 different US4 needles, but none of them short enough. Now, I should also point out that I have two different expensive sets of interchangeable circular needles – a beautiful set of KnitPro wooden tips, and a HiyaHiya kit with steel tips. For the Knitpro needles, I find a 16″ cable, but only one size US4 tip. For the HiyaHiya set, I have a pair of US4 tips, but only the long cables. I pull my hair and rant. I need to organize my knitting.
I started dragging bags filled with knitting paraphernalia down the stairs and dumping them in the living room. To properly visualize this, you should know that I live in an ordinary British house. Houses in the UK are the smallest in all of Europe. There is no room for “stuff” in a house here. Already in our rather small living room, in addition to the two sofas, and various TV and video equipment, is a keyboard, three guitars, two amplifiers (big ones), a tenor saxophone, bongos, a cello, a microphone and stand, a looper, various music stands, and all sorts of electronic music devices that defy description (at least for me). Into this room, I brought bags of knitting stuff and dumped them.
I spent a few hours sorting though everything, making piles of all the circular needles, the double pointed needles, the KnitPro needles, the HiyaHiya needles, the straight needles, the stitch holders, the measuring tapes, the tapestry needles, the needle gauges, the buttons, the thread, the stitch markers, the crochet hooks, etc. And the yarn. Emma decided this was photo-worthy.
I will also note that compared to most of the knitters I know, I have very little stash yarn. Knitters are notorious stashers, and most have loads of plastic boxes filled with yarn, stored under beds, in the basement, in closets. What you see here is all I have, and about a third of it is leftover yarn from various finished projects. So while the non-knitters among you may be thinking “Why does anyone need so much yarn?” the knitters are probably thinking “Is that it?” I also have almost no WIPs (works in progress). Knitters will often have more than one project on the needles at the same time. Most serious knitters will have quite a few WIPs at any one time. There are knitters on Ravelry that have 20, 30, 40 or more WIPs at once. Here there are three WIPS. One is my Brick pullover, which I have been steadily knitting away at since mid November. One is a shawl that is nearly done, but which has been sitting in a plastic bag for over a year since I last knit a stitch. The third is one of Emma’s projects, so it doesn’t count against me.
In the above photo, clockwise from top right, are four skeins of Madelinetosh Pashmina in Flashdance, two skeins of Debbie Bliss cashmerino dk in red, a skein of Cascade Heathers in Teal (leftover from my Levenwick cardigan), a skein of Mountaintop Vista from Classic Elite (in grey, for swatching a Brownstone), a cake of hand dyed Sokkusu sock yarn from Alice Yu, two skeins of Noro SIlk Garden, five skeins of Malabrigo in Verdes (green), and three lucious skeins of Plucky Knitter Primo in en Vogue, Faded Grandeur, and Elegant Elephant, and in the top left corner, my Brick pullover in progress.
Here are four sweater quantities of wool, clockwise from bottom left: Donegal Aran Tweed in Grass, Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed Aran in purple, Colinette Point 5 chunky pure wool in Elephant’s daydream and sea, and a bagful of Artesano Aran in brown. Emma complained about the lighting for these photos; it was virtually non-existent, and the above photo really has washed out colours (particularly the green which is really grass green), but I like it anyway.
There are a number of particularly special yarns in this pile for which I don’t have closeups (but you can pick them out of the lead photo if you strain your eyes) including two skeins of Old Maiden Aunt hand painted 80/10/10 in Moody, stainless steel yarn from Habu, and a gorgeous hank of Wollmeise lacegarn in Lavendel.
You will be happy to know that I found a 16″ US4 needle and have been happily knitting away on the sleeve. Now that I’ve sorted it all into piles, however, I still have to figure out where to store it all. At the moment, it is still spread across the living room floor, while I drink a lovely glass of Reisling Spätlese, and contemplate the fact that I have eleven size US4 knitting needles. Plus, I have just realized that I have neglected to put out my cases full of my grandmother’s knitting needles, which I have lovingly stored, and my skein of Wollmeise in spectacular red for a Haruni shawl, and my vast collection of knitting books and knitting magazines (going back to the 1950s), and stitch dictionaries……..
I promised Leah that the next sweater on the needles would be for her. We have spent hours pouring over Ravelry and other knitting and yarn related sites, to try to come up with the perfect project. Normally, we find a sweater that we love and then start looking for some appropriate yarn, but this time Leah fell in love with the yarn first.
This is Madelinetosh Pashmina, a hand dyed yarn with 75% Merino wool, 15% silk, and 10% cashmere. I have never knit with Madelinetosh before, but its admirers are many and vocal. Leah fell in love with this colourway, called Flashdance, and we ordered it right away. One of the problems with ordering yarns off the internet is that the colour is really up for grabs; different monitors show the colours differently and until you hold the wool in your hands you are never sure what you will get.
This colourway is luminous; rich and saturated. The light bounces off of it. We took it out in the snow on the weekend to try to capture it on film. It is a gorgeous blend of purples and blues, really dynamic and flowing.
On Saturday, while the Brick pullover was wet and blocked out on the living room floor, I took advantage of the Brick downtime to knit up a gauge swatch. As you can see from the swatch, the colour changes frequently; I believe that this will minimize pooling. (I am hoping to not need to alternate skeins every row, but I notice that most people elect to do so with this yarn.) What you can’t see is how gloriously soft and smooth the knitted fabric is; the stitches are plump and bouncy and the fabric has lots of give. I am really looking forward to working on this project!
I feel as if I have been knitting the Brick pullover for Doug forever. I have been remarkably monogamous to this project; since finishing Smoulder and Peerie Flooers at the end of December, I have knit nothing but Brick. Still, it seemed as if I was never getting anywhere with it. This weekend, I finally got to a point where it feels as if progress is being made.
On Friday, I finished knitting the front of the sweater, so that the entire patterned part of the sweater is now complete. (Remember that the front and back are knit in one piece; one very long piece.) Saturday morning, I knit together the side seam, using a three needle bind off, and then sewed the shoulder seams (from the right side using mattress stitch). Then, even though it was still missing a neck band, waist band and sleeves, I washed and blocked the main piece. The sweater responded beautifully to being washed, the wool plumping up and becoming soft. It is very lightweight and the stitch definition is lovely. It also dried very quickly, so on Sunday morning, with my first morning coffee I picked up stitiches around the neckline and started knitting the neckband in 2×2 rib.
The neckband is knit twice as long as needed and then folded over and hemmed. When I got to the half way point, I asked Doug to try it on so I could judge if the neckband was wide enough. Emma and I grabbed the opportunity to take photos, despite the fact that it had snowed overnight and was freezing out. What is standing out in your shirtsleeves in the freezing cold, compared to furthering the cause of fashion? So, here is Doug wearing Brick, with a half finished neck band (the stitches still on the needle), no waist band (which is why it looks too short and has threads hanging from it) and no sleeves.
In the above photo, you can see the needle at the neck line and the grey yarn that I am knitting the neckline with trailing across the back. Nonetheless, you can see that it fits really well and the pattern and colours are lovely. The finishing details to this pattern are so well thought out; I can’t say enough about how brilliant all of the little touches to the pattern are, like the shoulder below (the edge of the sleeve will cease to be wobbly once the sleeve is cast on).
We got Doug to model it with a jacket so you can get a better idea of what it will look like when done. I think it looks really great this way (just ignore the knitting needle still holding the neck band stitches live).
Now, I only have miles and miles of ribbing to do, to finish the sleeves and the waist band. I only hope that I can keep powering through and avoid the temptation of all of the lovely yarns just waiting to be cast on. And avoid the dreaded second sleeve syndrome. Despite the progress, it still feels like the never ending sweater.
This has been a very long, hectic week. We have all been getting to work early and leaving late. There has been little time for knitting. In fact, there has been little time for eating, sleeping, reading, cooking, shopping and anything else. So, today when my phone rang as soon as I got in the office, with a frazzled sounding department secretary on the other end, I thought “This can’t be good.”
“There is an exam this morning, about to start, and the invigilator can’t make it. No one else is available at short notice. Could I impose on you?”
An invigilator, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the person who sits at the front of the room when an official exam is being held, and makes sure that no one has the opportunity to cheat. (In the US, I think they are called proctors.) In large exams, with many students, there can be a host of invigilators, who walk up and down the aisles and must keep an eagle eye on the exam takers. For this exam there would be only 9 students, spread out in the room, and the invigilator’s main task is just to sit there and be present in the room for the whole two hours, and to keep time. When you know that you are going to invigilate an exam, you prepare some work to take with you, exams to grade, an article to read, etc. When you are called at the last minute to run across the campus, and sit in a room for two hours, you don’t always have something portable with you that you can work on.
What do you think my response was?
“Could I knit?” I ask.
“I don’t see why not.”
“Then I would be very happy to help you out.”
And that is how I came to spend two hours knitting at work, in a wonderfully quiet room, with sunshine pouring in the windows. I love invigilating!
To post, or not to post – that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of disappointed readers
Or to take arms against a sea of laziness
And by posting end them.