Just Like Winter!

After nine years, I've grown accustomed to the short periods when the weather, as in not sunny and hot, asserts itself in the desert. In the summer, it's monsoons, windstorms followed by thunderstorms, both of which are breathtaking displays of nature's brute force. There are monsoons in the winter, too, but these usually entail a couple weeks of intermittent showers, interspersed by our usual bright, sunny, warm weather, so after it was drizzly on Monday (the whole day, which is novel in and of itself), everyone scoffed at the fact that the weather forecasters actually thought it could rain for another four days.

The crazy thing? It did. That picture was taken Wednesday, from under the cover of an umbrella. I don't know why the sky looks bright--I assure you, it was most definitely raining. Note the puddles. It rained *all* day, and crazier still, it was cold. Not cold as anyone who has lived in the Midwest or Northeast knows cold, but by jove, it dropped below fifty during the day. Fifty! It rained through the night and into Thursday morning, and I got to pull my coat out, it was cold enough. After a big blow Thursday night, we thought it couldn't possibly rain again Friday. The blow is what usually finishes off our storms. But no, Friday, it was raining again, and not only did I wear my coat, I wore my Tweed Beret, Diamond scarf, and my Fetching mitts, too. Over a *sweater*.

I really don't know if things get any better than that.

Garter Yoke Cardi Reveal

I've got a new sweater, and the weather has obligingly turned cool and cloudy/rainy so I can wear it!



Specs!

Pattern: Garter Yoke Cardi, from the Fall/Winter 08 Knit.1 magazine, size S (34)
Yarn: Ornaghi Merino Kind. I used about 830 yards of my main color--*just* over 5 skeins--and under half a skein each of green, blue, black, and cream (the pattern calls for 902 yards total).
Needles: Size 8 Takumi circulars. The pattern calls for size 7, but I knit really tightly.
Buttons: Shell, 5/8"
Modifications: Obviously, I added stripes in the garter stitch sections. This was partly to appease aforementioned Yarn Shop Owner, partly because I didn't have enough purple to do the sweater in one color. As previously discussed, I knit the entire thing at a tighter gauge than recommended--19.5 sts/4", as opposed to 18 sts/4". Finally, I knit the sleeves 1/2 inch longer than the 15" called for in the pattern, and added two more rows of garter stitch border at the end when that wasn't enough.
Photos: Graciously taken by Monita



This was a relatively easy pattern, and although Vogue is a good descriptor for how stylish the company's designs are, Vague is a better adjective for how the patterns are written. These are the patterns "How to" book authors are talking about when they advise tearful new knitters to take patterns in to yarn shops for exegisis of instructions.

That said, I liked that the pattern was 1) knit all in one piece and 2) easy to modify. My modifications were nothing groundshaking. I kept the waist shaping (very nice for giving the illusion that something exists where it does not), and worked the sleeves straight from underarm to cuff (this is how they get that little bell). I even left the sleeves bracelet-length, something that normally drives me out of my mind. If you wanted, though, one could really have a field day with the pattern, substituting thicker/thinner yarn, doing it two-tone with the body one color and the garter edges another, taking out the waist shaping and/or adding sleeve shaping. Doing an unshaped or belled body with only 3 buttons up top would be cute if you wanted this cardi à la Ysolda.

As you can see by the shirt I've got on under my sweater, I am totally incorrigible. But in spite of my initial misgivings about the colors, I do like this sweater, and I have already worn it as much as the weather has allowed, both out and about with jeans and at work with black trousers. And I'm pleased as can be that I got it done in just over a month!

More on the Garter Yoke Cardi

As you can see, I'm motoring along on the cardigan at a rate far beyond my usual. My attention has quickly wandered to other projects, and this is the rate I need to go at to try and outpace my impatience.

A few more things about the project to tide you (me?) over until the final summary:

--The yarn, Ornaghi's Merino Kind, does wash beautifully.

--Unfortunately, the yarn stretches when it's washed. I knit the swatch at 18 sts to 4 inches (the proper final gauge), and it came out of the bucket 16.5 sts to 4 inches (no change in length).

More unfortunate was that I had brain glitch between washing the swatch and casting on for the yoke, and began to knit at 18 sts to the inch, not 19.5. I did not realize what I'd done until I was ready for the waist shaping.

--The swatch does not lie. The entire sweater stretched 1.5 stitches for every 4 inches after--hoping against hope that the swatch *had* lied--I washed it.

I ripped the whole thing and began again, knitting at 19.5 stitches to the inch. And I was all the way to the end of the yoke again when it occurred to me that the yarn probably wouldn't stretch twice. So I decided that I would like negative ease in this cardigan and kept knitting.

All I need is another sleeve and buttons, and we'll see how this little shenanigan turns out.

The Sweater I Never Intended to Knit

Where have I been? Not quite sure, but I have a new project to show off:



Garter Yoke Cardigan, from the Winter 2008 Knit.1 magazine.

I had absolutely no intention of knitting this sweater, but now I'm almost halfway done with the body (that picture's from last week). To explain how I broke so radically with form, we need to go back to the last day of Fall semester.

I had gone yarn shopping. After all the stress and sleep deprivation of the semester, I had about enough emotional energy to lie in a dark room with a rosewater compress over my eyes, but I felt the need to celebrate my newfound freedom.

Instead of going to my usual yarn shop, I went to the one in the next town up. Slightly pricier, it seemed like a better choice for a semester's-end treat. The trip started out OK: I browsed, finding some special skeins. Then decided to ask what I thought was an innocent question: how does Merino Kind wash?

I should've realized my error when they fetched The Owner. I explained what kind of sweater I wanted--an EZ cardigan with just a little bit of Fair Isle about the yoke. She assured me Merino Kind washed beautifully, and even showed me a sample sweater. And then I asked about colors--meaning "I have a thing for brown--could you special order some?"--The Owner matter-of-factly informed me that brown was not my color. This nice purple, however, would look lovely on you. And then she began to put together a color scheme for me.

In the time it took me to 1) get over the shock of being told that the color of half my wardrobe was "not my color" and 2) realize that this yarn was far too smooth for the steeked cardigan I'd wanted, I had enough purple to knit a sweater, plus coordinating jewel tones for the yoke. All my critical thinking skills (not to mention the will to resist) having been exhausted days before. You've seen the result:



Afterwards, I couldn't convince myself that I'd ever be caught dead in a purple fair isle cardigan (dim memories of the 80's haunted me), and I spent the next week wondering how I could possibly relegate a sweater's worth of jewel-tone yarn to the depths of my stash and still be able to show my face in this yarn store again.

It didn't seem possible until Christmas day, when I found the newest Knit.1 in my stocking. The Garter Yoke Cardigan had a classic shape, it didn't have seams, and it was knit out of a yarn in a comparable weight to Merino Kind. That's all I needed to convice me to cast on.

I'm still a little unsure of how this sweater will coordinate with all the brown and other earth tones in my wardrobe. However, I am determined to finish it by the end of this week. The yarn store's a good one, and I want to be able to show my face there again.