Oh, phooey!

A few posts ago, I showed you the red Rowan Biggy Print yarn I was given in a swap on Ravelry. Since I didn't have a lot, I made the Carie Cropped Flare-Sleeve Cardigan from "Fitted Knits."



It knitted up quickly, albeit not necessarily easily, since working with giant needles and fat yarn can be a little cumbersome.



The sleeves were definitely more "flared" than in the pattern photos. They are huge! I did rip out the first sleeve and redo it with four more stitches because it has seemed like it was going to be too tight when sewn closed. I think four stitches was too much, because then you add six more stitches toward the cuff, and get these giant bells.



I couldn't really put together an outfit I liked. I also found the sweater to be way too bulky and uncomfortable. It tried to slide off my shoulders all evening. It drove me nuts.



It looks so much better on my dress form. Maybe I'll give it to her.

Oh, I wish I had a picture

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to warn my husband about reading care labels on his clothes, and also sorting colors, before doing laundry. He keeps learning lessons the hard way, and today was yet another.

He's taking clothes out of the washer, and he holds up a sweater he has worn only once and exclaims, "Oh no! It shrunk!!!!"

I ask if he's thrown a wool sweater in the washing machine. He doesn't know. I look at the label: "100% Merino Wool."

I tell him that is why clothes have labels telling you how to clean them. He wails about how he's only worn it one time. He tears off his PJ top and tries desperately to put on the sweater. HIS HEAD WON'T EVEN FIT THROUGH THE NECK. It's stuck on his forehead.

I am laughing so hard. He is not. I want to take a picture, but I know he'll get mad. He asks if I can fix it. He always thinks I can fix things like that. I suggest he give it away to someone smaller. He says, "What, someone without a HEAD!?"

This is exactly why I have not knitted something for him. If he had done this to something I'd spent months working on, I'd have been forced to slay him right there in the hall.

A wittle baby-waby sweater

A few posts back, I posted this. It's about how I'm working on a sweater project for my friend's baby, due in June.

Well, I finished my first sweater -- one of my first complicated knitting projects. Although there are mistakes, I'm pretty excited that I did it! I used a vibrant green cotton -- Bernat cottontots. It's my practice run for the final sweater, which will be using yarn I carefully hand-painted (see other post above).

What baby deserves such effort? Shannon's baby!

I mentioned in a post below that I'm taking on a new project. And boy has it been a pain. But it's also fun, if that makes any sense. It's just that I won't be dyeing yarn in this exact manner again.

OK, to start:
1. My friend is pregnant.
2. I have been learning to dye yarn.
3. I have been expanding my knitting skills.

I had bought this book:



and fell in love with the yarn on the cover. Inside, it shows you how to dye this exact yarn, plus solids in the same colors. Then it gives a pattern for this cute baby sweater and hat. Here is a picture of the inside of the book and the sweater and hat made out of this yarn:



Sooooooo. I tracked down the exact yarn, which is Henry's Attic Island Cotton IV, a very soft, boucle-like cotton. It's so wonderful. Then I bought the dyes -- Procion MX -- at Langell's art store in Albuquerque. I also needed a thickener called gum tragacanth, which turns out to be a bit hard to come by. It is used in icings, or something, so I found it way across town at The Specialty Shop, a baking store.

I got my yarn, which came in two 1/2 pound skeins. I had to reskein it. One skein was to be split into four equal skeins for the solid colors. The other had to be reskeined into a huge 5 yard long skein. This was not easy to do and required setting up kitchen chairs and walking 'round and 'round while wrapping it around the back. Of course, the yarn kept popping off one chairback or another the whole time.

Eventually, I had this:



the one on the left is the giganto skein, and to the right are the four mini skeins.

All of the preparation took me about a week -- with an errand here, an errand there. Winding skeins, etc. The day I was to dye, it was pretty nasty outside. I needed a 15 foot workspace, but it was too cold out there, and really windy. So I had to set up a bunch of tables in my entry way, which was rather cramped. I prepared my dye mixture and soaked my yarns. Then, after I added the baking soda and activated the dye, I had 2 hours to finish the whole project. I painted and painted, and my back was killing me from hunching over. My head started to hurt. I finally finished the big skein and now had to paint all the little ones in solid colors. I was running out of time, so I had to beg Mark to help me. He kindly did.

After that, the skeins were wrapped in saran wrap and placed in a black garbage bag for 2 days to cure. Then I rinsed them and hung them outside to dry. After they dried came the part where I have to rewind the now-tangled skeins. I wound them into balls, which are ready to be knit into the sweater:



I'm still working on the practice-round sweater in a green cotton yarn, shown in the photo of the book above. After that, I'll get to work on this one.

An itty-bitty sweater

I am undertaking a massive project. In the future, I will post details of it. But basically, I bought this yarn dyeing book and fell in love with the confetti cotton yarn on the front. Inside, it shows exactly how to dye the yarn and then gives a pattern for making the cutest baby sweater and hat. I just happen to have a pregnant friend, so I decided to attempt this project from start to finish.

More on the yarn, but I decided I ought to do a practice run on the sweater with cheaper yarn before making a disaster of the yarn I have invested so much into. So I bought this soft, green cotton and started knitting. Here is the beginning of a tiny li'l sweater: