Gruggle and March of the Turtles

Just popping in here briefly to assure you that reports of my demise are greatly overstated.  What can I say, it's Lent? Holy Week next week, so the end is in sight.  Meantime, enjoy a photo of some flowers in my garden:

And also to share a quick accessory that I made late in the fall: Kate Davies' Gruggle.  

I wanted to like this pattern, but the truth is that I didn't enjoy knitting it, at. all.  It was so boring after a while that I struggled to finish it.  It is a nice size and very warm for being fingering weight, but I've also struggled to find ways to wear it.  Don't know if it is the color or the style.  

My main mod was to increase needle size at every break in the pattern to create a funnel shape and I'm glad I did.  I wish it was slightly wider at the bottom than it is, but fingering weight on size 7 needles was already pushing it for fabric density and tension. 

I'm still poking away at Kate's Cowal pattern--similar, but somehow less boring?--and that pattern has you go up on needles at some point too.

And in ongoing sweater modifications Because Juliana is Freezing All The Time, I added turtlenecks to my Not A Bláithín sweater and my Rustbelt Mackworth, and I'm super happy with them now! I love the weight of those sweaters for winter (stranded knitting is so warm!) but did not love how cold I felt in them because my neck was bare.  The Mackworth neckline was always too wide on me in any case.  It was the work of a few hours and now I have two extremely useful sweaters after letting them mostly languish this winter.  I had lengthened the hem and cuffs about 1/2" in the early fall, but it was such a minor change it wasn't worth noting here.

And yes, I know.  I need to address the elephant in the room at some point: the weight loss.  I've lost about 60 pounds in the past year and am still finding my way with how I feel in my body.  Short answer: very strange.  But hey, at least my hair isn't coming out clumps any longer.  Small mercies.

What a Lightweight

Drumroll, please....another finished object!  I've been working on this sweater since the late summer/early fall, and while it is an easy pattern, it is also kind of boring.  

Miles and miles of stockinette in the round, with thin yarn on small needles.  It felt like the never-ending sweater.  

The sleeves went quicker than I expected (helped immeasurably by knitting through a few exciting basketball games at my kids' school!) and this baby is off needles and blocked.  It was quite cold the day I wore it, and while I had silk long underwear underneath, I wouldn't say it was the warmest thing for that day, but I think it will do nicely for the slightly-warmer-but-still-cold days ahead.

I used the Cloudborn fingering weight yarn for this one, even though it was lighter than the pattern called for, but I wanted something quite light.  I like the little cowl on it, as it is just a little something around the neck, but not stifling or constricting.  Maybe I'm just reliving the late 1990s or something, but I've been digging turtlenecks again this winter, as they give me a light layer around my neck for warmth, but don't put me in hot-flash danger like a full on scarf.

Nothing much to note, as I've made this pattern before.  I made the body shorter than the pattern calls for, but less short than my last iteration.  ~12" seems to be a sweet spot for me at the moment.  Long enough for skirts, but still short enough to look good with dresses.  I think it probably looks better tucked in, but I prefer it untucked, so whatever.  It's fine, everything's fine.

In other news, I started an Alpenglow, restarted the thing three times because I wasn't getting the yoke increases right (the LL1 increase is so confusing at first!  I get it now, but man...annoying). 

But on the third go, at the third yoke increases, I decided to frog the thing as I wasn't liking the color combo.  The gray/pink/cranberry worked well but that darker pink just seemed off to me.  It's a pretty intense sweater color-wise, so I knew if I didn't like it at this point, it wasn't going to improve with further knitting.  My original plan for the cranberry yarn was a plain sweater anyway.  So I decided to go for a monochrome sweater with texture instead.  I'm two rows into the chart and it's going pretty well.

Nothing much else to note!  I did the first of my Russia presentations in the 4th grade last week, and it went well.  Ponchik's class is very spirited, so I was a little concerned about how it would go, but they were very attentive and asked mostly good questions at the end.  I served them tea, Russian style, and Ponchik declared that she would always have her tea with jam in it from now on.

I've got two kiddos home today who were sick all weekend, although I think they will both go back to school tomorrow.  I'm a little congested myself, but I'm hoping it will pass quickly.  Somehow I have All The Things stacked up this week and don't have time to be sick!

The Sweater That Did Not Want to Be Made

Once upon a time, there were four balls of yarn, a lovely deep teal blue, a creamy off-white, a perky red, and a leafy green.  The four friends went along together one day until they came upon a meadow of blue and red flowers with green stems.  

The creamy white said to the others, "This looks like a good pattern for us, what do you say we yoke it?" The others agreed, and they arranged themselves on long sticks, ready to be yoked into the pretty flower meadow. The strands flew in and out and looped over quickly, forming the lovely pattern.

But it turned out that the shape of the meadow was wrong, so the yarns unwound themselves and prepared to be yoked again. In and out the strands flew, looping round and round until the meadow emerged again, but this time, there was a large lake below the meadow, and the lake's shores pushed up too far into the meadow.

There was also now a pond on the other side of the meadow with a strange shape to it.  So the yarns unwound themselves a third time and tried again, starting to feel tired as the meadow once again emerged.  This time, the lake's shores were far enough away, but the pond's shape was still wrong.  

The creamy off-white looked at the lake and thought perhaps it wasn't the best place for it to dwell.  The creamy yarn asked the others and the red and green agreed, and so off they went, leaving the teal blue yarn behind.  

The teal yarn sat by itself next to the lake and pondered its predicament.  It noticed a sky-blue ball of yarn lurking in the shadows. 

"Come frolic with me, and light the sky and the water!" said he. 

 

The sky-blue yarn ventured out of the darkness and into the light, where it proved to be a wonderful contrast to the teal blue of the lake.  

"Shall we weave together to make a pattern of the sky?" asked the sky-blue ball shyly.  "I believe it will be just as pleasing as the meadow was, perhaps more so."

"Yes, let's!  Those other yarns can find some other pattern to weave themselves into.  We can be sky and sea together," said the teal yarn with enthusiasm.

So they sat by the side of the lake and wove themselves together into a pattern of flowers and leaves, of sky and seas, ending with a small pond in the middle.  And the teal yarn said to the sky blue, "This is what we were meant to be."  The sky blue agreed and nestled happily into the floating strands.  

Unhappily, the teal yarn found that there were two tunnels next to the new pattern of sky and sea, and these tunnels were extremely narrow and long.  Too narrow to be going through with any comfort.  It vowed to make them larger, and so unwound itself from around the tunnels and looped round and round to create a larger space through which to move.  At the same time, the pond was enlarged and the edges narrowed so as to make an easy plunge into its shallow depths.  

Finally, the teal yarn was satisfied and nestled into the loops under the sea.  The sky-blue yarn mumbled a sleepy goodnight, and the teal yarn yawned wondered what fields his creamy off-white, red, and green yarny friends might weave next.   

"Goodnight, sweet sky."  

The End

***

Seriously, I knit this sweater three times over, easily.  (My ravelry notes are pretty extensive for it).  I started out to make a pullover version of Kate Davies' Bláithín, using the Stripes! sweater pattern for the body and sleeves, as the stitch counts/gauge were a close match, but it just didn't want to come together, either aesthetically or fit-wise.  

I ended up with something closer to the Lilias Day pullover, which I do like a great deal, and I know I'll get good wear out of it next winter.  I'm only slightly unhappy with the yoke fit--it wants to ride up and make a fold over my bust and I don't know why--but otherwise I like the look of it, and am happy to be able to wear it at least once this season.  

Legacy Stash

My husband's seamstress aunt died a few years ago, leaving behind a fair stash of fabric and notions.  (Funny story: the first time she met me, my husband and I had been dating only a few months and she immediately proclaimed that she would make my wedding dress.  It was one of those classic My Big Fat Greek Wedding moments.  In the end, however, my mother made my dress).

Anyway, when we visited one of the cousins last summer, she asked me to look through the stash and take what I wanted. A lot of it was fibers or colors that I knew I'd never use, but there was a generous yard of wool Glen plaid that I took, along with some black velvet that had been sewn into the beginnings of a teeny tiny pencil skirt. 

I'm not sure what I'll use the velvet for, but I decided to make up the Glen plaid into a simple skirt (simple being my one-trick pony).  Given that the limited yardage+plaid, it seemed best to limit seam lines for optimum pattern matching.

I used my trusty Anne Adams 9481 and left off all the waist darts and band, as well as adding back in the center back seam allowance that I had taken out the last time I graded it down.  The pockets are done in a two-part construction that I thought would look bulky in this fabric, so I took a page from the Free Range slacks and used just the back piece and stitched it to the skirt.  I hand stitched some linen bias on the pocket edge to finish it.  In retrospect, I should have extended the top edge of the pocket at least as deep as the facing, but live and learn.  

There was a bit of bemberg left from my wool skirt so I lined this one.  I faced the waistband with bemberg using the Free Range Slacks facing pattern piece.  

The elastic waistband construction uses that of the Elemental skirt.  

It looked weird to top stitch the facing, so I hand stitched it as well as the hem.  I need to steam the front again a few more times, as the fold lines have proved tricky to get out, but hopefully I'll get there in the end.

The top is another 1 yard Coco top with extended cuffs in Marsala cotton jersey knit.  I added an inch of length to the body, just to see if I'd like that better, and I'm not sure--Goldilocks again. 

It feels like it might be on the edge of hitting in an unflattering spot and perhaps my original length would have been better.  Maybe I should split the difference?  I dunno.  I realized that I need to be making a forward shoulder adjustment on tops and dresses, so will try that on future makes for a better fit.

And in the land of Penelope, I finished this sweater after knitting the yoke three times (I know, I know...) but...the sleeves fit like sausage casings and came out much too long.  I knew it was a mistake not to go up a needle size, so I'm reknitting both sleeves.  The neckline is also a bit higher and tighter than I prefer, so I'm also going to tink that back and decrease fewer stitches.  I've pretty much given up hopes of wearing it this season.  Oh well. 

The shortest month

I realize I've been a bit AWOL over here.  January is so busy for us, and I spend most of February just trying to catch up.  Throw in some vitamin and mineral deficiencies that are hugely messing with my energy levels and it's slow days mostly.  I'm knitting, rewatching Discovery of Witches for the nth time (and re-reading the series....so.good), and generally trying to keep my head on straight.

Last week I did a special presentation on Stalin and the gulags to the 4th graders at my kids' school.  It was fun and nerve-wracking at the same time because getting the information down to their level was such a challenge.  Suffice to say I was massively over-prepared for 9 year olds, but that's okay.  I might be asked back to give a more advanced version of the talk to the 12th graders next year, and I'm looking forward to diving deep for that!

I made another plain vanilla flannel skirt last month (no pics yet), and have fabric for another heavy wool one, but lack motivation to sew right now.  So back to my needles it is!

Over and out.

Rustbelt

Grief is a funny thing.  It smacks into you with the force of a high speed train, but then lingers in the wreckage, a low pulsing underneath the debris, waiting to seep out into the light.  And it does seep, from time to time, taking over your being until the dust settles over it again. 

It takes a long time to clean up after a wreck. 

Things with my dad are not great right now; he developed a MRSA infection after a procedure and is on heavy-duty antibiotics and 4 liters of oxygen in an isolation unit.  His chemo is on hold until they can get the infection under control.  

My baby goddaughter and her parents are moving to faraway Texas this month, and today is probably the last time we'll see the family for some time.  My kids are all wrecked about it since they love her like a sister and are eager baby minders.  I'm so sad to lose this family from our parish I almost can't bear it.  

My sense of taste and smell is still off, almost two years after my C-19 infection, and I'm trying to make peace with the reality that it may never come back to normal.  It makes my already complicated food life that much more difficult. 

Wreckage.  Debris.  Dust.  

I was reminded this morning, however, that we should not place our hope in outcomes.  Our hope is the Lord's presence in the journey, not the destination.   So I will straighten my bowed shoulders, try to work out the kinks in my stress-knotted neck and back muscles, and hope in the journey.  Or try to, anyway.

 

I mentioned a few posts back that I finished my Mackworth sweater right before Thanksgiving.  This was my second attempt at colorwork, and I thoroughly enjoyed the yoke. My floats came out more even too; there is only a tiny bit of puckering in the first two charts.

I won't lie, the body was a bit tedious, and I spent many a swim lesson this summer slogging through the miles of stockinette in the round.  It is always tricky to get the body length right for my short torso--somewhere between 10-11" from the underarm is good, but even 1/2" too long or short and it looks odd. 

I'm very happy with the length and thrilled with the fit of it.  I think it blocked out at just over 10 inches.  My only complaint is that the amount of main color yarn needed was vastly overstated--I have 4.5 balls left.  Never fear, I'm sure I'll figure out something to do with them!

In my experience, that happens a lot with knitting patterns.  Kate Davies is the only designer I've found to consistently get the yardage estimation right across the sizes.   

As I wrote previously, this silky noil skirt is getting much more wear since I shortened it a bit.  I am very happy with the fit and sweep of it, and am glad to find it more or less works for chilly temps, as long as I pair it with wool tights.

Another maker that I follow wrote recently that the past two years have changed who she is so much that some of her previous makes no longer suit her, even though she finds herself in a much happier place overall.  She said there is a little bit of sadness in having to rediscover who she is with regard to her making. 

 

It's been a while since I did a complete wardrobe overhaul, but this fall has sort of put me there without my having set out to do so.  Some pieces I've been wearing for a long time just don't look or feel right on me this year.  Maybe they always looked off, but I felt good in them at the time.  Some makes or thrifted finds are coming to the end of their life span--the fabric is faded and starting to fray and crease, or it just looks tired.  

In a way, there is some relief in taking things out of my wardrobe that have been worn to pieces, don't fit, or make me feel nuts.  There is some satisfaction in wearing soft waistbands most days and feeling okay about it as a style choice.  It is lovely to finally have a knit top pattern that fits exactly the way I want it to, and I don't have to tuck it in for it to look nice.  I've discovered that my hot flashes are easier to manage if my tops are untucked and a bit less fitted, paired with easily removable layers. 

 

My body has changed (and continues to change as I am getting older), and how I move through the world has changed.  Mostly for the better, but there is still some dislocation in having to redefine the boundaries of the self.  Perhaps there always will be.  And perhaps it is silly to figure those things out through clothes, but that's where I live right now.  So be it. 

Lilias Day

After a slightly rocky start on combining continental and English knitting, I thoroughly enjoyed working the stranded yoke on my Lilias Day and raced through to the finish line over the weekend (Western Easter, but still mid-Lent for us).  I'm eager to do more stranded knitting!  (And purpose-bought yarn for a Mackworth and a Blaithin-Stripes mashup with the great sale at Webs). And German short rows are brilliant (even if they did end up in the wrong place)!  I'm never doing a wrap and turn again. 

I did worry that blocking might mess things up a bit, so took copious photos before dunking it in the bath.  The body of the sweater relaxed and grew quite a bit more than I was expecting, and I was disappointed with how long it looked.  My torso is short, so even an inch too long looks really unflattering on me.  

My meager attempts to fix the growth resulted in some minor felting on the two pink sections and the yoke was slightly tight across the tops of my shoulders, although it fixed the body length issue.  I clipped some of the longer floats on the blue/green section (the last two lines of floats are epic) which helped release some of the tension.  

The sweater fit, but the white wasn't particularly great on me (it rarely is a good choice with my complexion) and I decided the sweater would be better off living with someone else.  

Thankfully, a friend who is narrower than me loved the sweater when I posted pics of it in progress and finished, and I'm popping it into the post for her in the next few days.  I'm glad it will have a good home!

In the meantime, I loved this palette so much, I decided to make an Evendoon with it instead (continuing to work from my stash), which will suit both my closet and my complexion better.  My son also asked for a sweater, and we were able to cobble together enough yarn that I think I can make him a slightly smaller Evendoon from also-stashed yarn in a palette that suits him. 

I'm watching Shtisel on Netflix (and am kind of obsessed with Hasidic communities at the moment); it is lovely to listen to Hebrew and read subtitles and knit with something not-quite-mindless, but not too hard either.