Studio Marlowe

I’ve got a few knitting goals for this year (I refuse to call them resolutions).  The big ones are:

1.  Keep knitting down my stash.  My end of 2008 stash is a bit smaller than my end of 2007 stash, so I made some progress on that front.  However, I just didn’t have a lot of time to knit in 2008.

2.  Keep buying yarn only at LYSes/brick and mortar craft stores.  I know, sounds prohibitively expensive,  BUT.  If you’re only buying yarn for projects you’re actually going to do immediately, it’s surprisingly affordable.

3.  FINISH THINGS.  Which brings my to the title of this post.  I have a load of projects going right now, and some of them just need to get done.  So I’ve made up a list of what needs finishing (links are to the ravelry project pages):

-Deirdre: No excuses here, one or two evenings should result in finished embroidery

-Matchmaker fair isle: could take a while, but I am almost up to the arms, at which point things should start to speed up.

-Celia: the yoke is practically complete, so then it’s just the edging, closures, and ends to weave in

-Anne: Two short sleeves and the finishing to go!

-Tetris afghan: Is probably going to go on for a few more years, but some progress needs to be made in this one.

-Aisling: Because otherwise I will have completely wasted all that time spent charting cables

There are also two very very new (i.e. started in December) projects that I don’t have photos of yet: an alpaca cardigan and a habu pullover.  The cardigan is going well, with two sleeves and a half back completed.  I’m planning on taking it as my plane knitting tomorrow so I may arrive back in CA with an entire back and maybe even part of a front.  The pullover is going to take a bit longer as it’s on some size 2 needles.  But I think the end result will be worth the effort.

Yesterday afternoon I broke out Deirdre and started my embroidery efforts for real:

I love it!! Seriously, so, so, so love it. I can’t wait to be done and able to wear this thing out in public.  I also can’t wait to have something for *me* finally finished…it’s starting to feel like it’s been a while.

As I’ve definitely mentioned before, the original conception of Deirdre included plans for embroidery around the neckline. As I worked on it, I was having some second thoughts–maybe it didn’t need embellishments. Maybe a simple piece was best. Maybe the idea of doing all that embroidery just makes me ill. Then I finished up, and I love it, but…it is very, well, plain. And monochromatic. The embroidery is starting to sound good again.

Of course, I did a practice run. I’ve previously done embroidery on knitting and found it to be tricky business, with the embroidered bits having a tendency to disappear into the knit stitches if not carefully placed. So I had this brilliant idea of applying fusible interfacing to the knit fabric. My line of reasoning was that it would add some stability and give the embroidery more substance to hang onto. So I cut out a “square” (my effort was foiled by the fact that I accidentally grabbed my broken scissors and then tried to force them to make do) and applied it to the back of my swatch, and proceeded with my practice embroidering:

I can now say that fusible interfacing does NOTHING significant to improve the ease of the whole embroidering on knitting situation. Apparently, you just have to be careful and watch where you’re putting the yarn. Sigh.

Despite that, I’m liking how my practice bits are turning out so far:

There are a few other things I want to try out before going nuts on the real thing, but I think it’s going to look good, no?

Would be the type of photo I took of Deirdre this morning:

Please excuse the mirror smudges–bathroom cleaning occurs on Saturdays, so Friday is peak smudge accumulation period.  Please also excuse the fact that it’s a mirror shot in the bathroom–I didn’t have time to futz with setting up the self-timer since I had to rush into the office for an early morning meeting (that then did not happen—grrrrr).  Anyway, there are still some more ends and the blocking to go before it can possibly be worn out in public, but I am *super* happy with how it’s turned out in terms of fit.  Cute, no?  Also, take that, thieves!  You may have absconded with two of my sleeves but I finished this thing anyway!  HAHAHAHAHA.

Well, almost:

I finished all the actual knitting on Deirdre last night. So now it’s just sewing up the armholes, weaving in ends, blocking, and I think also some embroidery (which could push the completion date out considerably…).

I know the neckline looks a little ragged, but that is actually a finished edge! I did an i-cord bind-off since I wanted something that looked very minimalist and simple. It does have a tendency to roll when laid out like this but when I try it on it’s close fitting enough that the rolling is not an issue (since my body pretty much holds it in place). Still, I may pick up a bit of grosgain to sew in underneath, just in case ideas start to be had.

I’m so pleased with how this piece has turned out–the fit is good and it’s also a nice in-between weight that is perfect for this climate.

And, now that I have finished the knitting part of this, I think I can definitely cast on for a “new” project, even if it is just ravelympics cardigan number two.

After all the ripping, the new yoke is moving along:

I’m trying out some compound raglan shaping on this piece, since I used it on Lillian with great success–although it’s not *exactly* the same, moving things around does result in a piece that mimics the fit of set-in sleeves somewhat more closely than the usual straight raglan shaping. I did a quick preliminary try on this morning and although it was awkward (I probably should have moved a few stitches to a second needle, but as I am the personification of impatience sometimes…didn’t happen), the fit seems to be good. Hopefully I can finish it up in a few more days and at least get one of my ravelympics projects done!

So, I did a load of knitting this weekend but the net progress on anything was pretty much zip.  I had Deirdre all joined up and jumped right into the yoke, and I really should have saved myself some trouble and thought a few things over beforehand.  Anyway, the upshot is that I knit almost the entire yoke before caving to the inevitable and ripping it.  But, the re-knit is looking loads better and I’ve fixed a few other small construction aspects that were bothering me so I think overall it’s going to turn out for the best.  I hope!

Last night I finished the second (fourth) sleeve on Deirdre and joined everything up:

Of course now it’s impossible to really lay it out properly since everything is so bunched up at the top.  I guess I’ll just have to remedy that by knitting more.

So, with the start of the real Olympics also comes the knitting Olympics over on Ravelry. I’m attempting two (!!) projects, finishing Deirdre and then a little Calmer cardigan. This weekend Deirdre (and another project that I really had to finish up) got all the attention, with good result:

I’m onto what will hopefully be the last sleeve! Then it’s just the yoke and finishing (no seams, so it should be a quick job). When I originally conceived this design I was thinking of doing some embroidery detail, but now I’m having second thoughts. I guess I’ll see what the whole thing looks like when it’s done before making a final decision.

I’ve been working away on the sleeve for Deirdre:

A couple more increases to go and then I’ll be onto sleeve #4. I was thinking maybe next thing I make should aim to do the next number up in the two to the x equals y sequence, so perhaps I’ll start scouting around for an octopus in need of a sweater.