I've done buttonhole #6 and have one more to go before I begin the bottom border. Yes!

I had to scramble around to find 2 more circular needles so I could lay it out to take a photo. So today I picked up any stray needles I could find, sorted them and put them back into the terrific needle holder my mom made me many, many years ago. Unfortunately it's having a little trouble with the load of needles these days.

Do you want a closer look?

How, in that jungle of needles, could I not find the needles I needed. I found some more over on a table

that would do but I know I have a couple needles which are nice and long. Ah, yes, they would be the ones in the green sweater that I tried on yesterday. There are probably about 10 needles stuck in projects which are not here either. Yikes! Needle Overload.

-Deb

It seems to work.

I think the raglan line fits better along the sleeve.

It's closer to a set-in sleeve with the straight body line and an angled sleeve.

I'm liking it. And it's not hard to keep track of either.

The sleeve doesn't stick straight out sideways but slopes down slightly. It does look odd though, doesn't it. This definitely has potential. More experimenting is needed.

-Deb

I need a better word than 'exploratory knitting'. It's trying an idea out, seeing what it does and if I can learn anything more about top down knitting. I guess exploring is a good word for this type of work. Here are some results.

I did a V-neck with the standard rate of increase, one pair of increases at each of the 4 raglan lines every other round ...

right there. Then I thought, what would happen if I worked increases on the sleeve only every other round,

starting there. I didn't add any more stitches to the body at all.

The raglan line straightens out for a bit. I did this until I had the number of stitches I wanted on the sleeve. Then I stopped increasing on the sleeve altogether and increased on the body again. But to make up the stitches I now needed for the body I doubled up the increases for the last bit. I increased on every single round.

It's a bit messy. I need to take a look at some different ways of increasing every round. The raglan line takes a dive towards the underarm which is a terrific thing.

Hmm, in-ter-est-ing. It needs the final fit test which I thought I would try tomorrow. I need to separate the body and sleeves so I can try it on. Will it look totally weird? Probably.

And speaking of oddities, what did I find today on Sophy's desk? The ultimate tool for the femme handiwoman.

Eat your hearts out handy guys. Is this a wicked looking tool or what!

-Deb

I decided today that I would get up really early to do my exploratory knitting because I had to leave the house at 8:30 to go curling. I'm really trying, for at least one week, to stick to my new plan of knitting to explore new ideas first thing in the day. My husband very nicely brought me coffee in bed at 6:30 when he left for work. How lovely, coffee in bed, read a little bit . . . to be abruptly awakened by a burning sensation!! Yes, I spilled hot coffee all over eveything. I'm fine but I did have to spend the afternoon at the laundromat washing 2 comforters and a sheet. The good news is I got buttonhole #5 done, yay!

That's snow on the sweater. I always think about taking pictures of the blog about 4pm and now adays it's dark in the house at that time so I ventured outside.

It's a little snowy here today.

My sweater is getting to be a nice length now.

The coffee woke me up enought to do my exploratory knitting but I couldn't get a decent photo of it. Maybe tomorrow.

-Deb

New Year plans

So the new year is upon us. Happy New Year to you. Do you have any big plans for your knitting in the next year?

I have decided that every day I am going to spend some time on playing around with design ideas. Today I spent some time setting up for an idea I have for a better fitting raglan. I'm playing with the line of the raglan and seeing if changing it a bit makes it fit better.

Nothing new here so far, regular set-up for a raglan with short rows to make the V. I don't think the V-neck is going to work out as it is. But that's what exploring is for, to find out what does and, in this case, what doesn't work. I have started the raglan in the normal way, increasing 2 sts at every raglan line, and then I am going to change the degree of slant by changing where and how much I increase. In a day or two I should have the yoke to a point where you can see what I'm trying to do. I've started it and maybe by tomorrow it will show better.

Yesterday I worked on my Teen cardigan for the Teen booklet. One more buttonhole done.

I realized that there is no button on it so you'll have to take it on faith that there are now 4 buttonholes finished. Those are my milestones, the buttonholes and my goal is to knit to one more buttonhole every day. Long projects need some way of determining progress don't you think?

My swirl sock testknit, the prototype which Lynda got for her birthday, is nearly finished. I'm going to have real 'second sock syndrome' on this one since I've already knit one pair. I suppose it will actually be 'fourth sock syndrome'.

But I do need another pair of socks.

I'm not going to pull out everything I'm working on in one day, it's way too overwhelming. Over the week I'm going to see exactly what I have started and how I'm going to set myself up to get it all done. I guess this is what I have decided to do with my knitting for the new year, prioritize and organize. Hopefully it lasts more than one week. How about you, any plans?

-Deb

P.S. Comments
The blue shawl I knit is very similar to the Forest Canopy Shawl (you can find it on the internet) and based on Evelyn Clark's book "Knitting Lace Triangles". Triangle shawls are a lot of fun to do but they are way more fun when you get a stitch pattern which you like knitting. I really like the leaf patterns. I find them easy to follow so I can tell where I am whenever I pick up the shawl to knit a couple more rows. For me, that makes it much more likely that I will finish.

I knit myself a little treat over the holidays. A smallish shawl with a standard leaf pattern (the only lace pattern I have memorized) with an Evelyn Clark scalloped border. The yarn is a fine fingering which changes from a navy/black colour to a light blue. I love it.

If I stick with the same pattern on the next shawl I would definitely start playing with the pattern itself. Maybe make the leaves bigger and put more holes with corresponding decreases in the leaves. I have found that the beauty of doing something over and over is that boredom pushes one to explore some more options and familiarity with the pattern creates security so it becomes fun. A small change in the leaf pattern could make it look really different and make knitting another one interesting again.

-Deb

Christmas Knitting

Pam sent us a picture of the sweaters she knit, based on our patterns, for her grandsons for Christmas. They look terrific!

Pam added the "moose" motif which I gather were a great hit. I think she's started something, as they've requested teddy bears next!
-Lynda