They believe in elves.

I just finished knitting my first sweater. I have made a couple of shrugs but this is the first whole sweater. The verdict is still out. (Ironically, this sweater is featured at craftzine.com today.)

The pattern is Owls. It is knit from the bottom up, which gives you the opportunity to try it on at intervals and see how things are going. The yarn is Ecological Wool from Cascade.

My first problem was although this is marked as a bulky yarn on the label and matches what is requested for the pattern, there was no way, come-hell-or-high-water that I could get it to knit to gauge. No way no how. I went up and down needle sizes and it just wasn’t working. I went on Ravelry and despite what the yarn label says, the listing info that Ravelry has for the yarn puts it at an Aran weight rather than bulky. I have to agree. For you non-knitters, that means it is a thinner yarn than expected, so it will take more stitches to the inch to make it come out right. If I were to just knit away with this, the sweater would come out too small. So I gave up, knit about 3 swatches and settled on math to solve my problem. I decided that by knitting a size large with my smaller needles and yarn, it should come out to about the right size for me.

I started to sense some problems when we got around the upper rib cage area. It was a little more increasing than I really needed and looked a little baggy, but I didn’t want to have to recalculate to take out the increases because then I would have to refigure the cables for the owls. If you haven’t peeked at the picture, this sweater has a yoke around the top that is all cabled owls. I heaved a sigh and decided that I would see what would happen. I also decided at this point that maybe I would make it short sleeved. Figuring that I am knitting this with wool yarn, I am never going to wear it without something under it, why not save myself the knitting and just stick to short sleeves. It would be cute over a turtleneck!

The attaching the sleeves to the yoke part is completely ridiculous. I don’t know. I did what the instructions said and it was just miserable. There were not enough stitches, I had to pull out a double point needle to get around some tight spots (Thanks to Andy for the suggestion). I am not sure I can describe it to you without a photo, but there was lots of swearing. The gist of it is that you knit the very bottom edge of the yoke all together and then you have a tiny little seam in the armpit to go and stitch up later. It mostly worked. It’s a good thing it’s in my armpits because it isn’t pretty.

The owl part was delightful. Super simple cute cables. I like doing cables. I skipped the short rows at the top (I did the ones earlier and I didn’t like the way they looked.) A little ribbing, cast off, stitch in ends.

Then I tried it on. Bleh. The shoulders and sleeves are pretty nice, the shaping for the waist fits my waist ok, but it’s too big over my shoulder blades. Not horrible, but not great either. I try it on backwards just in case that is an improvement. Nope. I am hoping that with blocking maybe it will relax a little and maybe that won’t be so mediocre. We will see.

So I ran a bathtub full of hot water. It won’t hurt this to shrink a tiny bit (as you may have guessed) so I think why not encourage that… Here’s the funny thing. This is supposed to be natural colored wool. I picked a nice chocolate brown color. The bath water was amber. Something was washing out of this yarn, but I am not sure what. And a very strong smell of wet sheep. Glorious. I broke out some nice handmade soap and I am letting it soak for a while. (Lucy is fascinated)

So that’s where things stand. Sweater is soaking, I am skeptical. I am also staying home sick from work today and I think it’s time for lunch and a nap.

Quilt progress is going slow because I have a nasty cold. Lots of kleenex and my sinuses feel alternately like they are going to blow up or that the world is conspiring to make me fall down. Delightful. I have spent the last three days with my collection of pretty vintage hankies in my pocket, snuffling and helping to hang a gallery show at work. This one is all baskets/basketry and we have about 10 more pieces than we really have room for. It opens tomorrow and I hope we find homes for everything. The pieces are amazing and beautiful, which is how I wish I felt.

These are both quilts being made as gifts for friends who I am pretty sure do not read my blog on a regular basis, making it safe to share.

The first is black and red with a tiny bit of turquoise. I deliberately chose big bold prints for this one and it’s a little wild. Those are the 5 different blocks, all pieced. After looking at it for a while, I decided that I will put plain black sashing between them, just a narrow strip to give them a little space from each other.

The second is more warm earthy tones with a little hint of japanese influence. I “fussy cut” a fabric with big koi fish on it to make sure I had a fish in each block and the deep purple is a subtle print of flying cranes. I am really thrilled that these were all fabrics from my stash.

The Snow Fairy by Claude McKay
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Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,
Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,
Whirling fantastic in the misty air,
Contending fierce for space supremacy.
And they flew down a mightier force at night,
As though in heaven there was revolt and riot,
And they, frail things had taken panic flight
Down to the calm earth seeking peace and quiet.
I went to bed and rose at early dawn
To see them huddled together in a heap,
Each merged into the other upon the lawn,
Worn out by the sharp struggle, fast asleep.
The sun shone brightly on them half the day,
By night they stealthily had stol’n away.

I am participating in a handmade mushroom swap. I signed up because it made me laugh. But I will mail off these little mushrooms and get back 5 different mushrooms in the mail. I am planning to put together a pattern/tutorial for these, so you could make your own.

Mine are made from upholstery fabric and cotton duck. Stuffed with stuffing and the stems have a bolt in them so the mushrooms can stand up on their own.