So, I said in my last post that I wasn’t going to allow myself to buy yarn for my next project until I finished FLAK.   Well, I really meant I wasn’t going to buy yarn for my next sweater project.

I just placed an order for 5 balls of Knit Picks Palette yarn 2 Black, 1 White, 1 Navy, and 1 Marine Heather.

This is going to be an challenging project for me, and there will probably be some swearing and ripping of yarn.  However, I need a small project and I’m kind of hatted out.

Any guesses what I’m planning?

I sat down tonight to do some election night knitting while watching the results.  I decided not to work on the sweater I’ve been working on for, well, way too long.  Instead, I decided to work a little more on my “next” project.

I’m planning to knit myself a Shawl Collar Jacket by Wendy Baker, from Knitting for Him.

This past weekend I picked up two different color balls of yarn for this project.  I knit several gauge swatches to get the needle size right, then I focused on deciding which color to use.

The choice was between Dark Grey Welsh and Black Welsh (which is actually a bit on the red side).  I really thought I was going to prefer the Black Welsh.  But after knitting the swatches, I’ve changed my mind.  I think the cables really stand out better with the Dark Grey Welsh.

Like I said in my last post, I’m not allowing myself to buy the yarn for this project until after I finish my current sweater project.  So, this is all I’m going to do for right now.

I just might knit a larger swatch of the Black Welsh, just to make sure.  We’ll see.

I’ve been working on my sweater for a long, long, long time now.  Now that I’m knitting and blogging again, I think it is time for a FLAK update.  I checked back to see what my last update was.

WOW!

It was in February.  I’ve made a lot of progress since then.  I worked the start of the front.  I picked up and finished both sleeves.  I joined the body and worked about 7 inches.

I’ve got about 7 inches left to go in the cable pattern, then 2 inches of ribbing.  Once that’s done, the only thing I have left to do is the neck ribbing,  and hide all those darn yarn tails.

My goal is to finish this sweater in 2008.

I’ve really enjoyed this sweater.  However, I’m ready for it to be done.  Mostly because I want to wear the darn thing.  That, and I promised myself that I’d finish this one before I’m allowed to purchase yarn for my next sweater.

I knit a couple of baby sweaters when I first learned how to knit.  They were mostly stockinette, and I remember thinking how much work they were.  Well, they’ve got nothing on this baby.  This thing is a lot of fun to work on, never a boring moment with all those cables.  But it is a lot of work.

Unless plans change, my next sweater will be cabled, but in a much, much larger gauge.  Think size 11 needles and chunky yarn.  I’m expecting it to go much faster.

The bottom looks pinched because I’m using a circular needle that’s a few inches too small.  I tried switching to a longer needle, but that kept puckering while I was knitting.  It annoyed me, so I switched back to the shorter needle.  Besides, I really like working with my Lantern Moon!

I upgraded WordPress today. I was running an incredibly out-of-date version.

I also decided to change the look of the blog. The whole old layout was getting to be kind of drab. So I found this layout, and decided to personalize it a bit. I hope everybody likes the yummy hand painted Malabrigo I used as a background.

We picked it up at a wonderful yarn shop in Traverse City, MI on our last vacation.

They are supposed to be a hat and mittens for Gwen.  She picked out the colors, and couldn’t decide which one she wanted.  So she twisted daddy’s arm, and we got both.

It has been quite a long time since I’ve posted.

I really haven’t done much knitting at all over the summer.  Now that the weather has turned cold, I’ve picked up the needles again.

I finally started (and finished) a project I’ve wanted to do for quite some time.  I made a Jayne Cobb hat!  OK, actually, I made two.  May adorable daughter wanted one.   She doesn’t have any idea who Jayne Cobb is, she just likes the silly hat.

And here is an action shot:

How’s it sit?  Pretty cunning, don’t you think?

I don’t have any pictures to post right now, but I’m glad to say I’m caught up on my Capathon.

For February, I knit Cap Karma Hat.  It was a pretty good pattern.  It ended up a bit longer that I would have liked.  Overall it’s a good solid design.

 For March, I gave up on the free hat pattern route, and just made a hat.  It’s a rolled brim, stockinette stitch, no-pattern hat.  I like it so much, I might make one for myself.  I really like how easy it is to adjust the length of the hat, by just rolling the brim up or down.  If your ears get too warm, just roll that brim up a bit and you’re good.

I haven’t posted in a long time.  It’s been over a month since my last post.  I’ve been busy.  I’ve done a lot of knitting.  Have a lot of updates to give.

However, I’ve got some very sad news to share.  Everything else can wait.

Joel was killed in a terrible car accident last week.

Most of the people who read this blog probably know Joel in some way or another.  I know him from Ravelry.  He was the founding member of the S.M.A.C.K.group.  I met Joel when I joined S.M.A.C.K.  He was friendly, and very welcoming.  He went out of his way to make sure everybody was included.  He encouraged participation.  He set up several “SMACKtivities” to keep people entertained.  He really created a community.

A few weeks ago, Joel made me a S.M.A.C.K. moderator.  The only instructions he gave me were to make sure the message boards stayed clean, and to greet new members and make them feel welcome.  I’ve never seen any posts that were inappropriate in the group, and I suspect there haven’t been any.  The reason he wanted more moderators, was to make sure everyone who joined, or visited, felt welcome and included.

I didn’t know Joel for very long, and I didn’t have time to get to know him well.  I know he grew up a few miles from where I live now.  His parents live very near me.  I know he left behind a wife and two children.  I can’t speak for everyone, but the Joel I knew was a good man who cared for others. 

Joel, I’m going to miss you.  I know many others will miss you as well.  I can’t begin to imagine the loss your family is feeling right now.  I hope that they will continue on the best they can, and I send them my deepest condolences.

After much cussing (and I do mean a LOT of cussing!), My January Chemo Cap is finished (yea, it’s way late).  It’s only as late as it is because I was 80% done with a different hat and I decided it was entirely to sucky to finish.  So, I frogged and went to work on another.

Well, that one proved to have it’s own challenges.  I ended up with Coronet from Knitty.  The band around the bottom is knit horizontally, then grafted together, and stitches are picked up along one edge to knit the body.  That all sounds easy, and until this project, I’ve enjoyed doing the Kitchener Stitch.  However, that all changed here.

 I finished the band, and I went to graft away.  I put the stitches from my provisional cast onedge onto a needle, untwisting the twisty stitches.  I grabbed my tapestry needle, and grafted away.  What I ended up with was, well, sucky.  So, I ripped out the graft, and tried fixing it.  I tried all sorts of things.  I spend DAYS working on this silly graft.  I ripped the cast on edge back a half patter repeat, I knitted the same amount back on the other edge, nothing worked.

Finally, I found a link to an alternate method of doing a Kitchener stitch.  I can’t seem to find it now, but the essence of it was to knit to the point you are ready to graft, then switch to an alternate color, and knit in pattern for a few more rounds (this was done for the toe of a sock).  Then you line up the stitches as you want the graft to look, and use the stitches in the contrasting color to guide the direction that your graft yarn should follow.  Once the grafting is done, simply rip out the contrasting color from the back, and fix any tension issues with the graft.  This worked very well for me and the graft looks great, even with purl stitches and the fact that I’m grafting to a cast-on edge.

If I were to make this hat again, I’d save myself some time, forget the provisional cast-on.  It really only gave me trouble.  I would just cast on with the contrasting color, and knit a few rows, in pattern (don’t need to do the cables, just the knits where the knits go, and the purls where the purls go).  Then switch to the working yarn and go to town.

 I wish I had taken some pictures of the grafting process, but I was so frustrated at that point, I was ready to rip some more and start a different pattern.  Maybe next time.

Here is a picture of the finished hat:

Here is a picture of the one I ripped out:

My FLAK is making good progress.  I’ve moved the back to scrap yarn, and I’m picking up stitches for the front.  I made a minor change to the pattern here.  The instructions call for knitting the right front, then putting it on holders, kitting the left front, putting it on holders, then going back to the right front, and working across it, casting on the center, then working the left.  I despise tails (and this thing has about a thousand already, who thought 50 gm balls were a good size for yarn anyway!), so I started on the left, I’ll put the stitches on a holder, knit the right, cast on at the end, then pick up the left and continue on.  Should work fine.

 I really like the way this is turning out.  I can’t wait to finish it up.

 (The photo is from a few days ago, so it’s not quite current)

Many of you know that my father died from complications after a bone marrow transplant.  He developed Leukemia late in life, and was just not able to survive the treatment.

One of the things that made the horrific treatment a little more bearable was the generous gifts that people made and donated for Chemo patients.  There were always hats, or scarves, or shoulder throws that were available to all patients when needed.  Since my father past, I’ve spent some time raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.  I’ve been trying to give back, and help others.

I decided late in January to knit a Chemo Cap every month this year, and donate it to one of our local cancer centers.  I’m already a month behind, so I’ve got to get caught up.

Stay tuned, I’ll post progress as I go.