Today's post will have two separate projects in it as I'm alternating between them. One is knit, and one is crochet. ...there's also a few books...I've been listing to a lot of audiobooks the past few weeks...and reading a ton of manga...
In my defense, I live about an hour and a half south-east of Buffalo. Yes, the Buffalo that got hammered this week with over FIVE FEET of snow in less than 48 hours. We got maybe an inch where I live (and even less where I work), but some of my friends closer to Buffalo (as well as my company's northern offices) are totally snowed in. Regardless, people in my area buckle down and prep whenever Buffalo gets hammered with lake-effect snow as my town is just barely outside Lake Erie's snow belt. My area can often get hit with whatever wasn't satisfied with burying Buffalo, and a few grocery stores in my area are running out of items as their shipments are tied up (...buried...) in Buffalo.
THE CRAFTS: I am making some serious headway on AB's Moroccan Tile Afghan. I'm more than halfway done at this point and still loving the pattern. The colorway is slowly, slowly growing on me. I'd liken it to a drier wine: it starts out punching you in the face, but you slowly warm up the flavors and the richness of its depths.
Or maybe it's brightness has just blinded me...I really can't tell anymore.
Either way, it's super warm and super soft, so it fits all the requirements my sister-in-law and I had for this project. Trying to get it done in the next week or two so I can blast out a similar one for AB's baby sister, E.
After my annual crafting/Christmas shopping trip with my mom November 7-9, I have started a very ambitious project for myself: a hand-knit cardigan. I'm a huge fan of wearing sweaters in colder weather, and I adore cardigans. The problem I find, though, is that I'm pretty limited at times to what kinds of cardigans I can buy and wear. I'm sensitive to wool (if I wear it, I itch terribly and sometimes get small patches of hives wherever it touches my skin), so I avoid that at all costs. I also sweat myself about through if I wear acrylics that are too densely woven. That leaves cotton at my disposal for my wardrobe in regards to hand-making cardigans.
Because I'm limited to synthetics or cottons, steeking a sweater could be a huge hassle. Steeking, for those unfamiliar to the term, means you knit a garment in the round, cut your knitting in a predetermined place, then secure your cut edges before knitting off of them. With wool yarns, the fibers of the yarn itself can often secure a steek beneath a crocheted edging or the picked up knitting. Cotton and synthetics are not that skilled, however. Steeks done in garments of such materials have to be machine-secured under at least one row--maybe two--of machine-sewn edges.
Now, I don't know about other knitters, but I am NOT brave enough to try that on a knitted garment I plan to wear to work. I had resigned myself to not knitting a cardigan anytime soon, until I found Knitty's Shapely Boyfriend pattern on Ravelry. Top-down construction (meaning no need to sew in sleeves) plus a back-and-forth construction (meaning no steeks to cut), all in a free pattern meant Cherish could NOT resist running for her KnitPicks interchangable cable needles.
The yarn is a cotton yarn I got at Hobby Lobby on sale during my trip. (I'm telling you, it was destined for me to make this sweater!) It's greyish-white with flecks of lime and plum throughout it. I absolutely adore how it's working up in the garment. I get some of my beloved variegated yarn action in a subtle, easy-to-wear effect. To tie it all together, I'm doing all ribbing on this pattern in plum yarn of the same brand and weight. I'm waiting to choose my buttons when the project is done, partially to ensure they'll fit just right and partially as I want to perfectly match them in style to the sweater's finished looks.
For anyone following this sweater on Ravelry, you know it's been...an adventure. I started it on 6s as I usually have to drop all projects I make down two sizes. Whelp, I forgot that is when I crochet projects, not knit them. My knitting gauge in this yarn, to my shock, was pretty darn spot-on to the recommended needles. I'm off by a row or two in stockinette, but that should be easily compensated for in the pattern. I err on the side of being a bit short-trunked when I try on clothes, so I figure I can cut down on or add rows of straight stockinette when the pattern calls for such sections to customize the fit to my body.
...I also had to cast on 19 separate times...at least...I quit counting my redos after 19 times of it happening... After that particular disaster (and having to very, very carefully count my rows to be sure I increased on time, I got smart. I took a trick I had read in various knitting help blogs about creating safe anchor points. I split some 4-ply yarn into two pieces of 2-ply and wove that through the last row of stitches before a major pattern change. That way, I know exactly where I tore back to without counting as those stitches won't unravel until the pink yarn is removed. When my sweater is done, I simply pull out all the pink parts. Cheapest insurance I've ever bought!
THE BOOK: As I alluded to in the beginning of this post, Book Country in CherLand has been a bit crazy. I was on vacation for a few days two weeks ago, so I had a ton of time to read to my little heart's content. Observe:
- I finished The Help yesterday. I cannot even explain how much I enjoyed that book--it's definitely one of my all-time favorites!
- I'm also set to finish Insurgent tonight, the second in the Divergent trilogy. That book I like less than the first but am still enjoying it. I'll start its sequel, Allegiant, right afterwards...hoping that book is better.
- I hope to start listening to Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult tonight. She's one of my all-time favorite authors, so this, I hope, should be a good time. I really enjoyed its prequel novella, so hopefully it lives up to my expectations. **NOTE** I'm actually listening to The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, another favorite author, instead. I misread my emails: I'm on a hold list for Leaving Time but got The Year of the Flood.
- OH! I've also read most of the manga Fruits Basket (has 20-something volumes to it) over the past few weeks/months. It's a favorite of mine that I've never read completely. Luckily for me, the library where I tutor has a complete collection! I'm about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through all of the volumes, which makes me quite happy!
