More FOs and UFOs

I haven’t been able to get as much done as I would like recently, due to peripheral neuropathy from the chemo (this is numbness, tingling, and motor dysfunction in one’s extremities, in my case specifically in both my hands, all 10 fingers). Even knitting, which is pretty much second nature to me, where I often don’t have to watch closely what I’m doing, is difficult.

But I have been getting some stuff done.

I frogged the cabled pillowcase because of the pattern errata that called out the wrong size yarn so that I had just enough to do half the project. I also steamed and re-skeined the yarn so now it’s all pretty and waiting in my stash for a new project to crop up for which it is the perfect yarn.

I started and finished the Vortex hat from Knitty.com’s Winter line-up:

Vortex hat

Instead of weaving in all the ends from the shortrow work at the point of the hat, I braided them on the outside, so in addition to having the pointy part, it also has a funky tail. I used Paton’s Lacette and Allure to make the different color stripes – had to double the lacette to get the right gauge.

Then I started working on this WIP:

Brian's red sweater

This is a very basic sweater – I’m making it to the measurements of a sweater that Brian really likes, out of Lion Brand Homespun in Candy Apple Red. It’s just K1/P1 ribbing and stockinette with drop shoulder sleeves. When I pulled it out, I had the back done, and about 1/3 of the front. After shaping the neck, I realized that I’d completely bound off the back, when I was supposed to have left the shoulder-seam stitches on holders so that I can do a three-needle bind-off. Perhaps that’s why I set it aside, although it shouldn’t be too big a deal to undo the bind-off and the last row. I am about halfway done with the first sleeve, but because of the peripheral neuropathy, I’m finding it hard to knit for any length of time without getting frustrated at the lack of mobility in my hands. Even though I’m using size 11 needles, that doesn’t seem to help.

And finally, I was looking in a basket down by my recliner for a pair of scissors, and discovered this all folded up at the bottom:

Trellis shawl

Trellis shawl - detail

This is made with Lion Brand Trellis yarn, in the Pastel Garden variegated colorway. I had long ago finished knitting the shawl and cutting the fringe for it, but adding fringe is just about as bad as doing I-cord, so it sat in its mostly complete state for who knows how long! I spent about 2-1/2 or 3 hours adding fringe, and voila – it is done. Yet one more UFO off the list ;-}

The Irish Chain quilt has been sitting for quite a while because my sewing set-up isn’t really suitable for quilting, although it works fine for piecing. I have to sit higher to quilt than to piece, so we have to rig up a special platform for my foot pedal to be raised; we have to bring my office chair downstairs; and there’s a support board under the dining room table that prevents me from sitting close enough to the machine, so my neck, arms, and shoulders get very painful after just a little bit of quilting. Nevertheless, I’m slightly over halfway done with it, and am persevering with it, since that’s one of the things I can do that the peripheral neuropathy doesn’t affect so much. Of course, I’m starting my next quilting class (the one planned exception to my stash diet year) in a week, which means I really want to get this one done so I can show it off. I’m a little disappointed in how the quilting looks – I’m doing a curvy stitch (one of the built-in machine stitches, not free-motion), and it varies in length, probably because I’m not preventing the weight of the quilt from dragging on the needle. I am getting better at it though. Good thing it’s for us!

After I finish the Brian sweater and get *that* UFO off the list, I’m planning on starting a new knitting project instead of picking up another WIP – I’m actually running low on knitting WIPs, and I hope to keep it that way. Right now I’m trying to decide which yarn I should use, and from there, I’ll figure out what pattern. Hopefully, the further away I get from my last chemo, the better the PN symptoms will get, and I’ll be able to focus more on the knitting.

Oh yeah – I finished the top-down sweater way long ago (sometime in March), but we got an e-mail from the niece whose son I made it for, and she’s going to be here this weekend, so instead of mailing it, I get to give it to her in person – yay!

Finished Objects and Startitis

Well, I’ve finished one project that was on my list, and one that wasn’t, but was still a UFO, ON (on hook, really).

I remembered that there were two more sets of small drawers where there were some balls of crochet cotton, spools of ribbon, beads, etc.

When I delved in, I found an unfinished doily, the very beginnings of an unfinished crochet cotton tablecloth (5 squares of 108!), a beaded amulet bag that just needs the neck strap done, and a piece of orange perle cotton with some orange beads strung on it (I think I was planning on knitting a necklace).

The doily had quite a bit of thread pulled out, presumably I pulled back to a point where it was correct; so I decided that it looks as if it might be the closest thing to done, and pulled it out. I finished it during some of my insomniac nights, and here’s some photos of it:

all floppy off hook

pinned and blocking

in use

I haven’t done any thread crochet for I can’t even guess how long – probably the late 90s, so it was nice to have it come right back, but at the same time, I blame that for any flaws seen here.

I also finished Oncology Hat #2:

Ready to wear

I’m really jonesing to start something new, but I want to get a couple more UFOs out of the project bins into the FO pile before I start something else. Maybe now is the time to start weaving in ends on all those scarves I made last year; or the baby top that needs seaming; or finish that baby-afghan-turned-cat-blanket-because-of-the-huge knot-of-fiber-that-is-making-it-unsuitable-for-human-consumption. But instead, I have picked up the cabled pillow top. I haven’t gotten to a cable yet, but I’m not having the problems I had before. The next row will be the moment of truth. . .

Stash Diet

I really am on a stash diet – this time for sure!

I’ve been telling myself for months that I really need to quit buying new materials and starting new projects. Each time, I would finish up a project or two, but then there is always something new that calls my name. Not even quiet little whispers – it’s like constant yelling.

But this time, I mean it. I sat down this weekend and started wading through all the yarn, beads, and fabric I have (not to mention all the partially done projects), and decided that I have at *least* one year’s worth of projects of various kinds to make. The first part of the plan is to finish up the following:

1. Topdown sweater (gift for April birthday; status: done but making hood cord, sewing hood for cord, washing/blocking, wrapping, mailing (OK, sounds a lot worse than it is – I’m nearly done with the cord))

Sweater - entire

Sweater - detail

2. Crib quilt (gift, originally due in late December; status: pin-basted, ready to quilt, nervous about quilting it)

Crib Quilt update

3. Knit hat (for chemo suite general stock at my oncologist’s; status: still needs about 9″ of ribbing, 3″ of decrease) – I’m trying to make one of these a month using Lion Brand Homespun. The first one actually went to Brian, because I could see him eyeing it lustfully as I was finishing the ends, and he *just happened* to mention that his old watch cap was too short to cover his ears twice.

Oncology hat

4. Orange/black Irish Chain quilt (for quilting class ending this Thursday; status: top pieced, back pieced, need to pin-baste, pin basting on my living room floor kills my back and knees, need to get over to quilt store to use their wall, unless:

Irish Chain Quilt update

4. a. I can get this “wall” finished. Brian and I got the chipboard home, but we had a piece of soundboard that we were going to glue to it that had a transportation disaster on the way home. We obviously didn’t do a very good job of tying it down. But the soundboard seems as if it will be a perfect solution to stick T-pins in to hold the backing and batting in place, while one pins the top; so I hope to get another piece (we’ll probably have Home Depot cut it in half so we can transport it *in* the car) this weekend, maybe get the gluing done too.

Pinning wall pieces

5. Cabled pillow cover (for us; status: started it, hate doing the cables, but hope that perseverance will get past the really annoying part of it – I’ve cabled plenty before, so I think it’s just the width of the cables plus I may be working too tight. May frog it and start over, but modify the cables, making them more slender but adding another one in or something…)

Cabled Pillow cover - Jo Sharp pattern

6. Zigzag bead necklace (for me; status: need to add some more fringe, may add a strand with some fringe wrapped around the herringbone tube, need to add cones and clasp.)

ZigZag necklace w/o findings

ZigZag necklace - bead and fringe detail

7. Painted Hummingbird quilt wall hangings (for us; status: one top pieced, need to piece second top, etc.)

Painted hummingbird quilted wall-hangings

Now, don’t get me wrong – this is not by any means a complete listing of every project I have started, but this is a good representation. There’s the Brian sweater, the cougar cross-stitch (oh, boy, is *that* one ancient! but I really love it, and really want to finish it, but it keeps getting shuffled down the list), the half-finished socks (half meaning one sock less some Kitchener is done), the anniversary “Love is. . .” cross-stitch (hey, I figure I can have that one done in time for our fifteenth anniversary), the needlepoint chair covers to replace the upholstery on Granny’s dining room table chairs and the piano chair, and, well, you get the idea.

I’m not going to limit myself to simply finishing existing projects, however, because that would probably make me break my resolution a lot sooner than might otherwise happen. I’m also going to make new projects, as long as they come from my stash. If I find I need just one little thing to make something using mostly stuff from my stash, then I may go ahead and buy that one little thing, but generally it is going to be stash-only. Most of the new projects will be gifts, although I may have to be more creative about who gets what based on what I already have. I have already identified a couple projects that I want to start later this year that will require some new knitting needles – I don’t have any circulars long enough. I will be giving Brian my “particular” gift list for birthday, etc., so hopefully he will buy some of those items ;-}

The year started as of January 1 – even though I started the quilting class in mid-January, I already had all the materials (fabric, batting, thread, etc.) for that quilt, and I’d already started cutting strips when I first started taking the class in 9/07; so technically, it was already a WIP.

And here I am, I’ve already finished one hat, nearly done with the sweater, and cranking out the next hat; the Irish Chain quilt is probably going to be fairly easy to quilt, once I get the pin-basting done. So I’m encouraged at already making progress; and seeing all the sorting I did, getting projects together, I’m going to be able to pick and choose what to work on next very easily.

We’re almost two months into it, so I’m 1/6th of the way through the year without buying more materials – still plenty of potential, but I’m feeling pretty firm about sticking to this diet.

The top-down sweater

For some reason recently, I always seem to spell sweater as “sweather” the first time I type it – if that’s a Freudian slip, I’m not really sure what it means. . .

My latest knitting project is a sweater for a niece’s 4-year old step-son. I made an afghan for her new baby, and I want to make sure that LS knows that it isn’t just the new baby who gets special attention. Of course, they live around 1500 miles away, which means we don’t get to give them personal attention very often, so making things for them is about the only way to let them know we’re thinking of them.

I’ve never done a top-down sweater before, and I’ve also never made a seamless sweater, either. So far I’m really pleased with both techniques. I tried converting a lace-patterned baby top from a seamed garment to an in-the round pattern, and although I got it right in terms of keeping the pattern, because I was working it in the round, it started to skew the lace. I later read somewhere why that happens, but I haven’t been able to find the reference again, and my brain is like a backless drawer – the more I put in the front, the more stuff falls out the back.

At any rate, here is a picture of the sweater before I started the split for the side slits. I think I’ll have the body done by mid-next week, then I’ll start on the sleeves, and the hood will be last.

face-on view

side view

I’m a little bit worried about the cotton yarn – Blue Sky Organic Cotton. It’s lovely to work with, and machine washable/dryable, so I’m hoping that it will be easy-care for a young mother with two children, who also works; but a friend suggested that it will stre-e-e-tch badly. I’ve heard about this being a problem with some yarns, and indeed, had the problem with the aforementioned baby afghan.

baby afghan using Rowan Classic Cashsoft Baby DK

This afghan was made with Rowan Classic Cashsoft Baby DK. A simple strip afghan made with garter stitch, using the “Circle of Friends” pattern from “Last-Minute Knitted Gifts”; and I carried it with me to work on pretty much wherever I was going. I found that, if I happened to be standing rather than sitting while I was knitting, I had to loop the strip over my arm to keep the weight of the strip from stretching it all out of gauge as the strip got longer. And once I sewed the strips together, the weight of the afghan dragged out the middle and top, and the sides stayed relatively in-gauge. So I tried blocking it three times, and each time, the same stretching action happened. I wasn’t terribly pleased with the end result, although working with the Cashsoft was a lovely feeling – it was soft, slid nicely on the needles, and perhaps with stockinette stitch, or some other pattern than plain garter, it wouldn’t stretch so badly.

I’m really jonesing to start a lace project – I’ve got a sock pattern that I’ve adapted to a scarf, and I plan to make it with Kidsilk Haze. Hmmm. Lace socks are made in the round, so why don’t the lace patterns skew there?

I should probably finish the sweater for Brian – I’ve finished the back, and nearly finished the front. I’m using Lion Brand Homespun in Candy Apple Red. But it takes up a lot more room in my bag and is a lot heavier, and right now I’m trying to limit how much I’m carrying because I’m not supposed to carry a bag on my shoulder during the radiation treatment. Afterwards, maybe, although they really don’t want me to.

The other piece I need to finish is a Fair Isle hat, but because of the yarn colors, I find that I really need good direct lighting to work on it, so carrying it around is wasted effort.

Once I’ve finished the crib quilt, I’ll pick up one of these as my “home” project, and carry the scarf or a new Fair Isle project.

Or perhaps this – the other thing that is on-needle is a cabled pillow cover by Jo Sharp – I don’t really remember why I put this down, although I seem to recall that the cables were kind of a pain – I mean, they’re just regular cables, but they were wide, and the cross-over was puckering the fabric. Maybe that’ll be a good one to carry with me. . .