Notes From Neptune

As the title would suggest, this post is being written entirely for her benefit…

Oh, Aimee. You are finally finished. With the exception of the ribbon for the bottom and the tag, of course. Am I the only person who absolutely hates finishing sweaters? The seaming of the lace parts of this sweater nearly did me in, I confess. And the weaving in of ends would have driven me round the bend had I not hit upon the trick of using the longest of them to whipstitch all the rest to the seam allowance, and sort of trading up for a longer thread whenever I needed to. That did makes things quicker. But otherwise? Oy vey. I’m glad it’s over.

I can’t give too thorough of a report on her just yet either, since neither the weather nor my motivation to wear her have been in the proper place to ensure a proper outing. But she is very pretty. 🙂 First try-on shows that she is perhaps looser than the design would have called for… I echo the Yarn Harlot’s wish that they tell you outright what size it is on the model, as well as the size of the model, before you cast on. It would have been most helpful, because I think I would have preferred even the extra-small in terms of ease, but I have a mental block when it comes to thinking of myself as anything less than a medium. Ah, how the feminist in me screams in outrage at internalized body dysmorphia, however mild.

Also finished are the infamous Spring Break kneesocks:

Finally the same height. I determined after beating my brains in for a considerable period of time that I had indeed started the increases in the right place, and that settled, proceeded to knit on, muttering darkly to myself that I would simply stretch them to fit if they still came out too short. Upon finishing the increase rounds, they were again (gasp!) too short. That’s when I remembered vaguely that I had worked another pattern repeat or so even before starting the ribbing.

Never underestimate the holes in the young mind, my friends. I both sighed with relief that my gauge had not drastically rearranged itself overnight, and mentally slapped myself for my outright forgetfulness and idiocy. You really ought to write things down when you’re slogging through untried territory, no? It would really save a ton of time. Ahem.

Now with two things finished (three, including the Bella), I am free to cast on for new things. My cheater’s scarf, which I referred to last post, will unfortunately have to be started over. At some point, my actress began knitting with the cast-on tail, a good ten rows in. Who knows. So I cut my losses, literally, and will be starting it all over soon. The Peacock is still on the needles, of course, and now that the aforementioned Harlot is working on one as well, I feel an unwarranted competitive urge to see if I can beat her to blocking. This is unlikely to happen, however, as I have another half-cocked experiment on the needles at the moment:

This is the ubiquitous Central Park Hoodie, or my version of it, at least. I’m honestly not a big one for viral knits, but this particular garment just seems too utilitarian, and too much like something I would really like and use, not to knit. I’ve substituted the aran wool suggested with a DK weight undyed alpaca I got from a Ravelry swap, and (thank you, Lisl) was able to do some magical gauge math to determine which size to make. Some additional research on the tendency of alpaca to “grow” up to 2.5″ also led into the decision to knit the 36″ size. The real trick is whether I will have enough yarn to make the hood or not. There are some very interesting suggestions on Ravelry about making Excel tables to help you predict such things, but I don’t think I’ve really got the itch to do that at the moment. Right now, I just want to knit.

Also waiting in the wings is this:

Uh, swatches! I’m trying to plan out a cardigan, my own design, to be made with that shiny skinny green cotton, with deep ribbing at the sleeves and hem, and a body knit loose, with some nice short row shaping at bust and collar, and ribbon facing on the button plackets… you can see I’ve spent a lot of thought on the details. I finally swatched and blocked the other day, and as soon as I get some good gauge numbers, I’ll start doing some math. I hope to get it going soon.

I’m also waiting rather impatiently to sort through some online mess with a pattern I’ve purchased… I want to make Rosa a stuffed elephant for her baby shower (or, more accurately, I want to make the elephant for Isabella Rose for her baby shower), but I have been thwarted by silly internets. So hopefully that bruhaha will get taken care of soon so that I may have said heffalump finished in time for the big day… October 25 at last reckoning.

And did I mention I’m basically in charge of planning the shower too? Anyone have a good idea of where I can get 30+ people together in New York, and feed them too?