07 January 2008

Is There a Problem, Occifer?

I, ah, did a bad thing.

I sort of--while my better judgment wasn't looking--cast on for a... *ahem* sweater.

So far I'm 8" into it and LOVING IT. I'm knitting an Icelandic Yoke Sweater, going by the patterns by Elizabeth Zimmerman in The Opinionated Knitter and Knitting Without Tears. I'm adding subtle waist shaping (achieved by gradual decreases going up from the hip to the waist, followed by gradual increases to underarms), because, after all, my waist is one of my best features and there's no sense in not accentuating the fact (my next-best feature is modesty). I'm following the measurements of one of my favorite sweaters. If all goes well, and provided that I remember how to count, I'm optimistic that it'll work out reasonably well.

Last night, while watching part II of the BBC/Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Jane Eyre (w00t! for the ending! The priest gets on my nerves) I realized that I had gotten up to 8" above the hem without any decreases. Whoops. So I ripped back and knitted it all again.

I'm working in Cascade 220 Heathers, and I love that I am working on size 8s -- this sweater feels like it is just flying by. Of course, I say that now, before I've knitted the sleeves. I wonder why it is that sleeves seem to take soooooo long to finish. Most likely, there's a ripple in the space-time continuum when someone starts knitting a sleeve -- the further along the sleeve you get, the more that ripple starts ripping at the fabric of time, and, by the time you get past the elbow, you've managed to knit yourself into an alternate time field. Way to go; now you're knitting for an eternity.

Perhaps we should make sleeve-knitting part of the punishment for the incarcerated set -- it would give them plenty of time to think about what they've done. By the time they reach the cuff, roughly 2/3 will be crying about how very, very sorry they are and they promise to be upstanding citizens as long as please, please Ms. Courtney, don't make us knit another set-in sleeve.


knitting it in these colors.
the end-product will not look so
"I'm making a 4th of July Sweater, Hurrah!"-ish.
Promise.
I don't do that sort of thing.
If I did, I'd say it was for Bastille Day, anyway.

Alas, I have no pictures to show you, because of the whole no-internet-at-home-right-now thing. Content thyself with the color swatch, and hopefully by the time I finish, I will have internet access set up. Or conversely, I will have internet access set up by the time I finish. Either would be okay.

Ah, as an added bonus, here's a scan of my pattern and game plan:Life Principle #4: Always use pretty stationary,
even when scratching out basic calculations
and especially for grocery lists.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sleeve-knitting opening a whatsit in the space-time continuum, huh? So what happens when you do a double-knit reversible steeked cardigan with inset zipper?

Meredith said...

Sleeves, and sometimes scarves or lace. I don't know how it's possible to knit through several repeats of a chart (vertically) and have the work not be any longer. I wonder if we knitters owe physicists an apology for screwing up the fabric of spacetime so often?

And I like the stationery idea. Although I'm more of an engineering paper kind of person.