Offline

My computer broke right after Halloween so I spent about 5 weeks with no internet.  It became obvious that the internet can block lots of creativity by using up your time, because during the offline time I made eight sweaters.  I set up the LK150 which had been languishing in a box for a few years, and I learned to really love it.  I started making 3/4-sleeve cardigans in whatever color I liked that day.  I usually knit the ribbing by hand and hang it on the machine for the stockinette stitch knitting.   I made three or four plain cardigans then started trying new techniques.  I also drafted a few new patterns for myself, and after the seventh cardigan, I changed to pullovers and am just about finished with the first one of those. My goal is to have a casual wardrobe of jeans, nice T's, and pretty cardigans.  Lots and lots of pretty cardigans. 

One of the things I've started doing is writing down the techniques that work for me like the way I pick up stitches or handle a garter border so that I don't have to reinvent it every time I try it. 

Now I'm going to try making pretty pullovers to replace my ragged sweatshirts.

Turquoise Sweater Is Done

This turned out to be a sweater I really like and will wear a lot in the future.  Though I drafted the pattern myself, the design is based on this sweater from Coats and Clark:

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Knitting/Projects/Apparel/WC1080+Knit+Springtime+Tee.htm

I used the pattern stitch and turned the design into a cardigan using my TNT sweater pattern.

This sweater is made from Red Heart SuperSaver yarn and cost around $10 to make.  Red Heart SuperSaver softens up nicely with washing and is easy to manipulate to get the effect you want.  For example, this lace pattern tends to shrink upwards so that you can't see the pattern very well, but a gentle steam blocking relaxed the yarn and gave that portion of the sweater nice drape.  You have to be very careful applying heat to an acrylic yarn because you can fry it, but I've made so many Red Heart sweaters that I am used to its properties. I use a cotton dishtowel and have the iron on 'Wool', and I never press down on the fabric. My sweaters have lovely colors and go right into the washer and dryer.

I am looking forward to the election in two weeks because after it is over I will stop getting the dozens of phone calls I get every day from people trying to get my vote.  Our main phone is a technological dinosaur without call screening - in fact, it is a rotary dial phone.  We tried to put a more modern phone in the kitchen, where this phone is, but they would keep breaking.  Someone told us that the phone was too close to large appliances to work well, so we went out to the garage to rescue the exiled old phone, and put it back in place.  I remember how my niece wanted to make a phone call from our house one time and was totally puzzled by the rotary dial.  "How do you work this thing??!!" she called.  A child of the push-button age.

Two New Cardigans

This week I have been thinking about UFOs, so this turquoise cardigan turned up in the sewing room.  The lace portions had been hand knitted and were waiting to have the stockinette portions done on the knitting machine.  I managed to get that done in one day, so now it is being sewn together.  I basted it together and tried it on, and so far I think I'm going to like it a lot.  The sleeves are the right length, and the fit is good.

In addition, after the big rip fest, I am almost done with the yoke on the berry-colored Soft Serve cardigan.  Notice the new addition to my library, the Doris Chan Everyday Crochet book that my daughter gave me for my birthday.  I've never had a purple cardigan before, so I am trying to think of ways to wear it and what colors to wear it with.  Because it's all about the color.

Frogged

After a week of crocheting on the Tall Latte sweater, I made the underarm extensions and tried it on.  It was wavy and ginormous, plus I didn't like the pattern stitch.  It is useful to be brutal in moments like these: you can soldier on and hope it corrects itself (which it probably won't) or you can stop struggling and rip it out.  Starting over isn't always bad.  This time I am making another Soft Serve and am already halfway done with the yoke.

African Flower Half Block Experiment

The first attempt at a half block was just half of a regular block, but I didn't like how it looked in my afghan, so I invented this one.  I still have to figure out what I want to do with the edge, but right now it looks pretty good and doesn't detract from the colorful blocks.

Two thumbs up for crocheting the blocks together instead of sewing them together.

Tall Latte Started

The Soft Serve sweater is almost done.  I had to go out and buy some clear buttons to put on the back side of the band when I sew on the fashion buttons.  This is a trick I use to keep the band from sagging or pulling.  The sweater looks pretty good and will be finished as soon as I sew on the buttons.

The sweater is on Madame Merp, which isn't the dressform I use to sew for myself, but it's handy for picture taking. I just happened to have the coral shell in my wardrobe.

Below is a view of the border edging, backwards single crochet:

I was so pleased at how this turned out that I started another Doris Chan design, Tall Latte.  I'm changing it a little to make it a cardigan instead of a pullover.  In other words, I wanted a Soft Serve with a V-neckline.

When I'm not working on the new sweater, I try to add a few motifs to the African Flower afghan every day.  I spent one morning trying to figure out how to fill in the spaces between the top motifs and the bottom motifs to make the edges even, and I think I was successful.  I'll show how I did that when I get around to that step.  There are going to be half blocks in the cream color to fill in the sides.

It is incredibly hot here still, but Accuweather says we are due for a cool down which I am certainly looking forward to.

One Sleeve Finished

Last week we had some construction going on in the house, so I was staying with my daughter on the peninsula.  I needed a portable craft project so I took the Soft Serve sweater and got a lot done on it.  Today I finished up the first sleeve:

It is surprising me how well the pattern turns out, and I still like this coral color even after looking at it for several weeks.  It's been a long time since I made a crocheted button band on a sweater.  These bands look nice, but they have a tendency to curl up at the ends as shown on the left side, below.

The right side is where the yarn ended, so I wove it into the back of the band at the bottom, and this provided enough extra structure to prevent the curling:

When I finish the second sleeve, I will go back and reinforce the back of the left band.  I think I'm going to like this sweater a lot, and it should get lots of wear.