Black Dog

Progress continues on Kyler’s Kardigan, but it is definitely a “two steps forward, one step back” sort of project. Here’s what it looked like a few days ago

about a week ago. Both sleeves finished, and time to move onto the body. I’ve done about eight inches of the body (including the start of the slash pockets that are knitted into the garment as you go.

BUT

Saturday afternoon I noticed that the fabric was a little firmer than I expected (after another bout of knitter’s stigmata….with the needle tip poking into my finger and right into the tiny hole…causing a little dirty word to escape). I checked the gauge on the 4+ inches I had finished and sure enough–instead of getting 4.5 sts/inch I vacillated between 5 and 5.5 (seriously—how did **I** get to knitting that firmly? and no wonder I was aggravating my finger poke hole). So, I loosened up how I was knitting (pulling less on the yarn) and made some good progress that evening. And more progress the next afternoon (yesterday) while supervising session #2 of my Warm & Wooly Clogs class. The difference in gauge bothered me a little bit, but I rationalized that it would be just under the bust, at the ribcage, and not a bad place for a little bit of body shaping. And then with the readjustment to actual gauge, that would provide a little bit of a-line shaping for a little more ease at the waist and hips…not a bad thing, given the intended recipient. Fast forward to Sunday night

While knitting on the project at the staff holiday gathering, we put the garment on someone (the ever-game Betsy) and three people commented “what’s going on about four inches up from the needle?”……which is exactly where I went back to “regular” gauge. OK–case closed. It bothers me enough now that I plan to rip back about 8″ of fabric and work that part all over again, less tense and less INtense than the first time through. And now it’s time to figure out why I was that tense……

Long story short–I miss my goal of it being a Christmas (2008) present, but it will be finished. I’ll take some pictures later today (on a human or on Muffy the Mannequin) and share with you prior to tearing out about 8″ (three days?….limited time to knit three days) of progress. And the project will go into “time out” for a few days while I stew on the fact that I f’ed it up again. (see, I’m far from perfect in my knitting! contrary to what so many of you out there believe—40+ years of knitting and you STILL make mistakes now and then….).

And in the mean time, I get to play around with some of the prospective stuff that’s been ordered due to recent visits from sales reps. Please meet “Merino Mia”

sock-weight superwash merino by Prism Yarns that should arrive in the next couple weeks. The rep showed us those three hanks and I fell in love and all but begged for one.

which he was kind enough to share with me. Interestingly enough, of the three he had to show, he said I could have one of those three……and it was THE one that I wanted. It’s beautiful

and I’m in love

and can’t wait to cast on for a sample sock for the shop. From what I remember, I think it’s going to be $14 a hank for 195 yards of superwash merino that will knit up around 6.5 or 7 sts/inch (I’ll go tighter and do more like 8 to the inch…I like firm sock fabric). You will DEFINITELY see progress shots here in the next day or two, as it’s going on the needles now that Kyler’s is going into time out.

I’ve also started something new, just this morning….so no photos yet. But it may or may not be from this book

That’s all I have to say right now…….more to come. That’s my teaser, to get you back soon.

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