After 11 months of work (well, there were a lot of breaks), I finished the Aran cardigan I designed for Calandra!  The knitting was done last week.  On Sunday, I laid out the sweater pieces and tackled it with KnitClips.

 

And then I seamed.  I attached the sleeves to the body first, and then did the sides and arms.  When the seaming was done, I was feeling good about it.

 

Except for buying only six buttons, when I needed 7.  On Monday I made a run to the nearby JoAnn's store and got the final buttons.  I like the way they echo the Spanish Tile Cables.

 

The recipient is very pleased.  She picked out the yarn, and picked out the cable motifs - and then I put it together.  I used Knitware for the basic pattern schematic and put the exact pattern into Excel.  Each cable had a column in Excel, and it was easy to cut-and-paste the repeats down the columns.  I got a row-by-row pattern from this... except for the typos and needing to do things like add buttonholes and figure out the collar (on the fly).

 

Since CJ has been wearing this all day, I think it's a hit.  Project details are on Ravelry.

Finally, after much ado and many months, I have finished one of the cable-rib socks!  Well, almost finished.  I'm not showing the tip of the toe because I haven't grafted it yet!

 

I'm on row 20 of the second sock... this will take a while. 

I got a question a few weeks ago -


I fear it is possible that she has outgrown it before I even finished it... In which case I'll be adding a cable to the sides before I seam it!

Somehow 4 weeks went by and I never finished my Alaska report!

So, after we disembarked in Seward, AK, we rented a car, and headed to the airport. We rode a little helicopter up to Godwin Glacier, for a tour of a dogsled camp!



This was a very cool thing. There were at least 50 dogs in those dogloo houses, including a baby puppy that we held.

 

And, we rode on a dogsled! It wasn't a long ride but it was fun.  I am amazed at the folks who ride on these things for hundreds of miles.  It is not easy.

 

We then checked into our lodge.  The next day we checked out Exit Glacier, to which you can get pretty close. 

 

And, I found the yarn shop - A Flyin' Skein. 

 

After our 2 nights in Seward, we drove to Anchorage. Our only activity there was the zoo, where I had to take pictures of Alpaca and Musk Ox (mmm, qiviut).

 

Over the past month I have been knitting (really!).  The Aran for CJ is getting close to done.  The front and back are done!
 

The first sleeve is in progress.  I think I'll finish while it still fits her.

I knit socks, of course!  You see, if I don't keep my hands busy, my mind tends to stray.  For those of you who don't knit, does it bother you if you see somebody knitting in a meeting, conference session, or such?

 

Last night I checked my progress on CJ's aran.  Here are the two fronts (the right front tends to roll, it's really as wide as the left front!)

 

One of the things I had to figure out was how and where to place the buttonholes.  I decided the bottom of the sycamore stitch would be a good place.  Other than the buttonhole I've opened up here, can you spot the others?  They blend in really well, don't they?  I'm using the one-row buttonhole from Nancie Wiseman's wonderful book on Finishing Techniques.  Actually, I'm using the modified version, for which you cast on 3 extra stitches rather than 1, and then do more k2tog's to tighten up the top of the buttonhole.



I'm on row 70 or so, and the front goes to about 120.  And then I'll have to figure out the back.  The plan is for the back to have the Spanish Tile cable and the 2x2 rope cable, but in the middle will be Cork Cables.  The bottom border/hem will be the sycamore stitch.  One of the more entertaining things about working on the back will be getting the sycamore stitch to line up well with the cables, and also decreasing sufficiently after the hem to keep the sweater from being too blousy.  As you can see in the top photo, the hem is pretty flat - it doesn't really pull in.  I thought CJ would prefer it that way because she seems to like clean lines.

We're off to Hawaii for a week! I'm going to bring the socks, and also might bring a scarf or shawl.

On Saturday of Stitches West weekend, I was one of two moms charged with getting K's troop's Girl Scout Cookies from the regional distribution point.  Here's what Michele and I brought home...

  

That's 81 cases, or 972 boxes of cookies.  Thin Mints were the most popular.  I took home my share (125 boxes) and then picked up my share from CJ's troop (about 180 boxes, I lost count!).  Everything was organized in the living room, which is conveniently unfurnished now.  (The new couch will arrive within 2 weeks...)  I took a load to the office today, and a box is going to San Mateo Knitters tomorrow!

I also worked on the toe-up Sea Otter sock.

 

So far, so good on the sock, and I'm enjoying the way the yarn is working out a lot.  

And then I finished the right front of CJ's Aran Sweater.  I like how the Spanish Tile Cable works up the front, and the Sycamore Stitch is going to be great for the button bands. 
 
I need to figure out how many buttons I'm going to use, and figure out where they will go, before I start the left front!  I hope that I'm happy with this endeavor when it's done... but since it's a kid's sweater it'll be ok if it's not perfect.  How long could she possibly wear it anyway?  Oh yeah, she's been wearing the Butterfly Cardigan nearly 2 years now.

After the quick progress on a series of scarves in December (and the near-instant gratification of Fetching), I am itching to FINISH something. Everything I am working on now is half-baked.

1. Seduction socks, one complete. See? I told you it was HALF baked.

     

2. CJ's aran.  This is not even half-baked, but at least it's out of the Frog Pond and back on the needles.  Photos soon.

3. California RN survey - still beta-testing, so we can't even say we have a survey questionnaire yet.

4. IT study - still coding interview data, and awaiting the rest of the staffing data.  I guess this is more than half-baked, but...

5. Paper to resubmit - need to review it one more time to make sure I answered all the reviewers' comments.  But of course I'm blogging instead!

6. Window replacement in our house - all the windows are in, but nothing has been painted, interior or exterior.  Oh yeah, and window coverings.  Oh yeah, and we decided it's time to get new living room furniture.  Anybody want a sofa or chairs?  Cheap!

And to add to my anxiety - in Belize we had a bit of a scare with CJ, which has resulted in some medical tests now.  The first test indicates "mild apnea" when she sleeps.  We'll be seeing an ear-nose-throat specialist about this.  And we still haven't seen the pediatric neurologist... Good thing she is overall a healthy kid, because this would be extremely hard with a truly sick child.

Enough bitching, time to finish that paper!

 I frogged the aran.  I have three reasons for this:

1) The buttonhole edge was not very pretty.  It really needs a slip stitch, or I'll have to crochet around it later.  I'm trying a single knit with every other row slipped.

2) The little cable motif on the left does not "play well" with the other two motifs.  Now I'm debating a rope cable (2x2) vs. another sycamore stitch going up the side of the Spanish Tile.  What do you think?

3) The sweater was going to be exactly the right size in width, but if the kiddo gets any wider then it could be too small before i even finish it!

Thus... the plan is to increase the space between the sycamore stitch to the regular 4 (I had adapted to 3), add the slip stitch edging, and figure out what to do on the left side.

Help!  I need ideas for that left side!

I am designing a sweater for CJ. She requested a cardigan, in blue (Cascade superwash), with diamond-shaped cables. We went through the Barbara Walker treasuries 1 & 2, Melissa Leapman's Cables book, and Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. She rejected most standard twist cables, and really liked the Spanish Tile Cable in the Barbara Walker #2. (You can see a photo of a whole sweater with this motif on this page, scroll down to a green sweater.) This was chosen as the main motif for CJ's sweater, to go down the sides of the front & back.



Now, what to do for a border? Thank goodness for Nicky Epstein's book. I swatched a whole bunch of choices.



We settled on the Sycamore stitch, which will go around the bottom for ribbing, and up the front borders for the button band. I will knit it directly into the fabric, to make it a smooth finish. Don't ask me what I plan for the collar - it'll be a crewneck but I haven't decided yet how to do it. I like the way the sycamore stitch works into the Spanish Tile.



The back center needs a motif, and CJ was not helpful picking one. I have chosen the Cork Cable from BW #2, with both right and left versions separated by 3 stitches of stockinette. My swatch has 6 stitches between.



Now, how to design the sweater? I used my swatch to estimate gauge. Since the recipient is a growing child, I think the perfect fit is less important as long as it's not too small - she will grow into anything. I was going to do a giant chart, but it gave me a headache. I prefer to knit from written directions as opposed to a chart (although I'm getting better at charts!). Fortunately I listened to the KnitPicks podcast from January 4 (episode 31), in which Kelley tells us about how she designs an Aran. She uses Excel... She types up the rows of each pattern/motif, and then can copy and paste that block down for each repeat. She can put the motifs side by side, and then ends up with row-by-row directions for the whole sweater. What a godsend of an idea! So that's what I did last night.

I haven't figured out how I am going to do fiddly things like the collar, but since I'm knitting it with drop shoulders from the bottom, I can work that out later...