WhiteStar

In the Name of "Art"?

Is anyone else bothered by the unfocused "artsy" pictures in the Pam Allen Scarf Style book?

I saw the trunk show for the book before it came out. LOVED the scarves. Bought the book without even looking inside.

A lot of the scarves are very nice, but I really have a hard time with the pictures. Many (almost all?) have a hard point of focus which is often NOT the scarf and the rest of the picture fades to a level of blurriness which obscures all but the most obvious details. After one brief flip thru the book I put it away. It actually bothered me to look at it and try to "see" the details that simply can't be seen.

Now I keep seeing really neat scarves knit from this book popping up all around blogland. I say to myself "I don't remember that one", I pull the book out and am once again appalled at the pictures. I put the book away, only to pull it out a week or two later after seeing another neat scarf on someones blag and again be "surprised" by the bad pictures.

WHY did Interweave do this??? We are knitters - we WANT to see what is is we are knitting! Take the very first scarf in the book, there are two pictures of it, neither show the ends which appear to be some type of pom-pom detail. But I'm not sure.

Is it just me?

Anne at 6:09 PM

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World Domination

My name is Babe, I am 4 months old and I am going to help Lucy take over the world.

(note toe of felted clog in bottom of picture)

Progress

It may not look like I did much since the other day, but it's the SECOND sleeve!

The rebirth of Butterfly...

Haiku...

This Scares Me.

Did you see this? Or this?

I can't help but imagine a group of mafiosa types hanging out in a back room in the White House figuring out new and different ways to "win" this election.

I agree with the wolves.

Anne at 8:35 AM

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I'm an Optimist.

A couple days ago I said that I expected to finish Jess over the weekend. Unless I got sidetracked.

HAH!

I did finish the body. Here's how far I got with the sleeves...

What sidetracked me?

1) Cleaning the house. Over the past 11 weekends I'd been gone 9. I have 10 Samoyeds, several of which are blowing coat. You do the math. It's not a pretty picture.

2) Evaluating puppies. A good friend brought her litter of three 8 week old puppies down for me to look at. She needed help deciding which one to keep. Can you believe I FORGOT to take a picture of the puppies playing with 4 month old Babe?

3) Knitting and then ripping out the Butterfly sleeves - see the entry on October 23 for the gory details.

4) Then on Sunday I was swatching for the Total Maze Cardigan by Earthheart Designs.

I've had some Interlacements Paris yarn in the Persian colorway that I've been wanting to use for this. I picked up a few skeins of Auracania Nature Wool the other day and I think they go together well.

5) And I was swatching for Earnshaw. And re-swatching. And swatching again.

Have you ever knit with Kochoran?

I'd consider it a bulky wieght. A few years ago I made the GirlFriend Jacket from Sally Melville's Knit Stitch book in Kochoran. Size 10.5 needles. 3 sts/inch. That's a bulky weight, no? Came out *gorgeous*.

Well Earnshaw wants Kocharan to be knitted on size 10 needles at a worsted weight gauge, 4 sts/inch. I tried 9s. Then 8s. I was close at that point and not willing to try 7s. They are just too small to comfrotably knit this yarn on. I haven't decided whether to rewrite the pattern for 3 sts/inch and knit on 10s or use the 8s and just end up with a slightly larger sweater.

6) Then I joined the Red Sox Knitalong over at Knitting Wizard.

I am not really a big baseball fan although I do enjoy the playoffs and the series. And I'm not a Red Sox fan although I was thrilled to see them beat the Yankees. I usually cheer for the (Brooklyn) Dodgers, the Orioles, the Rockies or the Diamond Backs.

But I did have a pair of long unfinished red socks in my basket that need completing. If this gets me going on them it's a Good Thing, right? Did an inch during the game Saturday night.

7) And last but not least there is this...

This is Vivienne/Xia Yang. My brother and his wife are adopting her from China. She is about 14 months old in this picture and will be about 18 months old when they go to China to get her in a couple months. I think she needs a hand knit sweater to welcome her to this country, don't you? How about Haiku in lavendar wool/cashmere/silk? So I was swatching that too.

That's all from the high plains today. That's enough don't you think?

Anne at 11:42 AM

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sigh......

What causes a normally sane knitter to turn this....

into this...

Could it possibly a gauge swatch that was MEASURED INCORRECTLY?

Maybe I had Klaralund (4 sts/inch) on the brain when I measured the swatch I made for Butterfly (4.5 sts/inch). Maybe if I'd had a SCHEMATIC (see yesterday's post) I'd have noticed the sleeves were over an inch and half TOO WIDE before I knit two of them. An inch and half is lot when you are making the size small.

Oh well.

Anne at 4:45 PM

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Pet Peeve

Why, why, why, why, WHY do so many designers of the hot new sweaters everyone wants to knit not include schematics with their patterns? I'm talking Jane Ellison, Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton, Debbie Bliss....

Drives me nuts.

Anne at 8:52 AM

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mmmmm-m-m-m-m YUMMY!

What's this?

Yes indeed it's more Noro. Kocharan. Silk Garden and Kureyon get all the publicity. But Kochoran (with it's Angora-y softness) is even more yummy.

I'm going to turn this Kocharan into this from the first Jane Ellison Noro book.

Butterfly Musings

I am still having mixed feelings about Butterfly. It still seems really heavy to me. But it is pretty.

I'm wondering when one knits a chevroned item with points, does one measure from the hills or the valleys when the directions say to do something x number of inches from the cast on edge? In the case of this particular design that's a difference of almost an inch.

Yes I pulled the sleeve off the needle. I have no fear of removing needles. I do it all the time to borrow from one project to another. In this case, I'm not sure about that very green stripe. That is one complete skein of yarn. It's the same color as the sweater shown in the book and I do NOT see any green that bright. It doesn't look like it "goes". So I decided to start a second sleeve with a new skein and see if any green shows up. Depending on if it does or it doesn't, I may cut it out of the first sleeve.

Also, can you see how much WIDER the second sleeve is looking? What's that about? Same yarn, same needles, same knitter. 2 days apart. Not sure what I should do. I've never had this happen before!

How's Jess?

Jess is really coming along, see...

Kind of big and shapeless at this point. I should finish the second front tonight and start on a sleeve tomorrow. I expect, unless I get distracted by Butterfly or Earnshaw (or Obi who has been calling to me), to finish over the weekend. Famous Last Words.

Anne at 5:47 PM

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You Know What This Is, Right?

It's George Washington's profile on Mount Rushmore. Quite a different view then what one normally sees. I had planned to have the usual picture to post as well, but BOTH batteries I had with me died after taking this one picture.

The girls and I were in South Dakota, not to visit Mount Rushmore but to attend yet nother dog show. And it was another very successful weekend! Read more about it on Babe's Blog.

Me? A Guru?

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.
http://marniemaclean.com

What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What's really scary about this is that while the description is true, I am MORE obsessed with the dogs then with yarn....

Anne at 1:12 PM

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The Nature of Knit-Alongs

This is Jess:

I am making Jess and it is a WONDERFUL pattern. Knit in a beyond WONDERFUL yarn (Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora) But as far as I know, no one in blogland except me and Alison are making this.

Why is it some patterns capture the imagination of dozens of knitters:

That's Klaralund and Butterfly. Both the subject or very popular current knitalongs. Why have these patterns captured the fancy of so many knitters and yet others such as Jess are never noticed.

See ya Monday!

Kelly, Ilsa and I are heading out the door for Rapid City in about 30 minutes... wish us luck!

Anne at 1:36 PM

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Too Pretty Not To Post

CH Shaman's Play It Again Sam HIC
"Ilsa"
photo by Kris Schopfer

A common misconception is that show dogs are not "real dogs", that they dont' get to have regular doggy "fun". You be the judge...

Polar Mist You've Got Mail HIC
WhiteStar's Ready for Anything
"Kelly" and "Babe"

Ilsa was just as dirty as these two, but would not pose for the picture.

Anne at 9:52 AM

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Klaralund and Butterfly (and Jess and Purple Madness)

Klaralund is done! When I first finished sewing it up last night and tried it on I hated it. Everything about it. It didn't fit right, the neck was tight, the sleeves were short, there was serious bunching under the armholes and the color looked icky. I was already making plans to rip and reknit the next larger size. It's amazing what a good nights sleep for me and a good wet blocking for Klaralund can do. Now I love it. The fit is perfect. And I love the color in the morning light.

After Klaralund is dry (I had to reblock the sleeves as I blocked them too long the first time around) I will get a picture of me in it.

Butterfly

What do I say about Butterfly? I love the pattern. I love the color of Kureyon I am using. I love the stitch pattern. BUT.... this garment, with its feminine styling and simple one hook closure, looks like it should be a soft, light coverup for a mildly chilly room or a slightly cool fall afternoon. In reality the fabric made by the Kureyon is arctic outdoor heavy. Where would one wear a garment like this???

Notice that Butterfly is not on a needle? That is because I am deciding 1)Whether to continue with this arctic weight beauty at all. 2)If I am to continue, I need to rip back to the beginning and leave off the garter stitch border I added to keep the points from rolling. It is only mildly successful and the thick garter stitch only adds to the arctic feel of the fabric. hmmmm....Maybe this should be knit in Silk Garden instead?

Jess, the sweater formerly known as Rosy

Work progresses on Jess. It seems to be a slow knit due to the massive number of stitches. You just don't see many inches coming from you needles as the hours go by. There will probably be few pictures of Jess as I work on it as it's hard to really see anything with it all bunched on the needles.

The construction of Jess is very interesting, lots of short rows to form the curved bottom edge. Here's a detail picture:

Still loving that Cotton Angora and I'm glad I decided to rip out Rosy. This yarn deserves a sweater that will be worn.

Purple Madness

Whatever possessed me? Purple Cascade 220 and purple eyelash for a poncho? Size 11 needles, at least it's knitting up quickly. But what will I do with it when it's finished??

Anne at 1:58 PM