Lessons I've Learned From Moss & Ribs Cardi

• How to read the chart. Ok, now I am a fairly intelligent person and I do know how to read charts. I've knitted lots of things from charts. And I could not figure this one out. Period. So, I emailed the designer. She answered me quickly and didn't make me feel stupid! Cool beans!
• When you do a swatch (and I know we all makes swatches) be sure you make notes as to the size before blocking and what needles you used. Don't do what I did...I made my swatch a month or more before I was ready to start the sweater. When I went back to it, I couldn't remember what needles I had used. Not good.
• When you begin knitting a pattern make a few notes on the pattern itself so that if you get distracted by some other shiny project and have to steal the needles...you can come to your notes to remind you what size needles you were using. "Oh I'll remember" did not work for me!
• When knitting a cardigan with a button band that is added on by picking up and knitting it's not a good idea to slip the first stitch on the edge where the button band will be added.

See how much I've learned so far? And right now I have zero, zip, nada to show for it.

I did my swatch for MRC back in March. No notes. I'll remember what size needles I used. Uhhh huh. Well, of course by April when I started the cardi I could not remember what size needles I had used on the swatch. So, in keeping with my pattern of behavior I made no notes as to needles used on the cardi. In my defense, I normally finish a project within a quick enough time frame that I don't have to rely on my memory because the needles are with the project. In this case, that didn't happen because of the unfortunate incident with the unmatching 2nd ball of yarn. I finished the back and did about half of the front before deciding that the 2nd ball was decidedly lighter shade than the other 2.

I bound off the half finished front and blocked it figuring I might as well get something good from it. Sure enough it is not going to be large enough. So, I put it all aside (once again I did not make any notes as to what size it was before I blocked it)and out of my mind until last week when I decided that I love this yarn and this pattern so much and cannot quit thinking about it. So, it must be knit!

This is when things really went to hell.

So, I contacted the yarn company and she is going to try to match the yarn I have and send me two more skeins. Yippee!

I am so excited and thrilled. I dug out the pattern and the parts that I had knitted. My memory tells me that I used the size needles listed in the pattern. My other memory tells me that was 5's and 6's. Well, one of you is wrong because the pattern calls for 3's and 4's and for some unknown reason I have removed the needles from the completed cardigan back and left it dangling on the cable. Now, I do seem to remember removing those needles for another project but I don't remember having a project since April that used size 4 needles. Oh dear. This is getting so confusing. Why would I have removed the needles if I didn't need them for another project? (Edited to add: I finally remembered why I removed the needles from the back. It was to start the front you moron!) Well, sometimes I do get into an organizing frenzy.

Ok, thing I know-the cardi as I knitted it thus far will be too small. My memory says I used the needle size called for in the pattern. So, I bravely cast on using 4's and 5's and knitted merrily along.

I actually had to resort to looking at pics I had taken in an effort to figure out what needles I had used. If you look at this picture really closely you can see some white plastic showing through the stitches. This tells me that I used the Boye set. And the only reason I would've used it is that the Harmonys don't come in size 3. Ahh Hah!

My next screw up: I read somewhere that it's a good idea to always slip the first stitch and knit the last stitch and this helps those pesky loose edges. Great! I'm doing that and it looks great. Then I read ahead in the pattern and see where the front band will be picked up and knitted 2 stitches for every 3 rows. Now, I do know enough to realize that by slipping the first stitch I only have one "chain" along the edge for every two stitches. This is not good. I check with my knitting gurus who inform me that this was a bad idea.

So, guess what I did today? Frogged it all. The whole sheebang. And I am not going to start again until I get the new yarn in hand and verify that it matches the 2 that I have.

But it will be knit.

The Ice Queen Cometh Part 2

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

And here she is....

as you can see I did manage to rescue the lovely Ice Queen from her puddle of despair. I wasn't able to get all the stitches back on the needles correctly because some of them ran and I just couldn't quite figure out how to do it. But I did stop the running and get the right number of stitches back on the needles and finished the lovely Ice Queen and got it blocked before the Olympic flame was extinguished...so I felt like a real winner! And I really don't think many people will be able to find my screwups except for the really good lace knitters because it is lace and it's really open. And it was so close to the top edge. Like two rows later was the row with the T3 and that kind of skews the edge a bit. And, best of all, the lady I'm gifting it to is eighty something years old so I'm betting that her eyesight isn't what it once was.

Oh what the heck...here's a front view although not the best picture of me! But I want to show how pretty it is in the front. You can see the beads pretty well. They are size 6/0 and the color is gunmetal. It took 185 beads (yes I counted them). I did version A but I did the beaded picot bind off on both ends. I will make more of these. It was very fun and I know several ladies who would like one.



And, I got medals for finishing...

Pretty impressive, huh?

I have some really exciting news about the Moss & Ribs Cardi but I'll save it for another day. Betcha' just can't wait huh?

The Ice Queen Cometh

This is a play on words from an old movie called The Iceman Cometh. Really dark movie but it has some great actors in it.

And since this post is about the Ice Queen and how great it was coming along it seemed to fit. I mean it was really going fast. And I was loving it. Notice the use of the word "was". uhh huhh

I had decided yesterday that 14 repeats of the pattern would not be enough because I'm using a size 7 needle and this yarn is really sproingy. My swatch came out a little small and just really wouldn't block out as much as I wanted it to. It is mystery laceweight of unknown content but I suspect it has some acrylic or manmade fiber in it. I do know it has wool too because it will felt somewhat if washed in the machine. But I digress...

So, I knitted my ass off today and got 19 repeats done. Decided that was enough and proceeded to transfer the lovely Ice Queen to my size 5 needles per the pattern for the final 4 rows and then the lovely beaded picot bind off. Ohhhh the anticipation was building and I was so excited.

This was at 2:15 this afternoon while waiting for DH to get ready to leave to go dancing. I really should not have started it when I knew we needed to leave in 15 minutes. And I really planned to put in a lifeline before I transferred the stitches. But in the heat and excitement of the moment...I forgot the lifeline. And the phone rang while DH was in the shower and I swore a little and looked up and somehow the lovely Ice Queen slipped off my size 5 needles and landed in my lap.

Then I really swore. A lot. And used some really bad words. Not your normal everyday swear words...you know the ones I'm talking about here. Uhh huh.

So, we left to go dance and I left Ice Queen lying in a sad little puddle half on the size 7's and half dangling. We just got home. And I am not going to touch the lovely Ice Queen until tomorrow morning when I am well rested and the light is bright and I've had coffee.

Ravelympics/Llympics BSJ is FO

I think it turned out pretty cute. I love the collar. It really adds a finished look, I think.


I'm not 100% happy with it, however. I don't like the way that last white section looks. I was trying to make it border the button band but didn't figure it right. But I was too lazy to rip back and fix it. The way I look at it...the Mom will probably take one look at it and toss it aside in favor of the cute little Gap sweater. I'm such a cynic. But that's ok. I made it because I wanted to and the baby was just an excuse. I am also making booties and hat to match for said baby. Or really, I guess they're for myself.

I have about 4" done on the Ice Queen and it is really addictive. I have to force myself to put it aside and rest my hands. I would post a picture of it, but basically it looks like a very pretty blue blob.

My Day

There was good news and bad news today...

Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for a couple of weeks (bad). DH decided that today was finally the day to fix it (good). So, of course, he needed to go into town to get some parts...yee haw...I get a few hours of peace because that's how long it takes him to go to town and back. He left at 10:30 am and got back about 3 pm. (good)


However...his job is to do the dishes. So he did not do the breakfast dishes before he left and he did not unload the dishwasher. Even worse than that he took the freakin' faucet off and turned off the water in the kitchen sink. (bad, bad and bad)

I had my own agenda for the day and it did not include unloading the dishwasher or doing the breakfast/lunch dishes. I knitted. (good)

We did get the faucet repaired later in the day. So, the day ended on a good note. (good)

The End. (good)

Olympics, Ravelympics and Llympics

It has been several weeks since I posted last but I've been very busy, as usual. I changed the look of the blog...new picture at the top and new colors. How do you like it?

Ok-let's see...what have I been doing....

Oh yeah! Finished the Featherweight Fantasy in Black for Mom. I love love love it! I really would like to keep it for myself. It is so nice and cozy. A really great size too. I used Jaggerspun Zephyr DK in Ebony on size 10 1/2 needles.


I joined in the insanity that is Ravelympics and my projects are Baby Surprise Jacket for Kari's second baby boy, Foliage (which I probably won't get to) and Ice Queen (which I love after seeing Deb's at Borders last month. It was already in my queue and seeing it made it move to the top of the list). I have been wanting to make something for Bertha who gave me something like 30,000 yards of laceweight yarn last year. I will use the Blue Heather and it will really be beautiful on her.

Here is a picture of Kari's BSJ taken a few days ago. I am almost finished with it now. I have just 4 rows and then bind off.



I am seriously considering adding a hood to it ala saradenise who was so sweet to share her method of adding the hood.

I bought some gunmetal gray beads for the Ice Queen and used a few on the swatch

and also some white ones, gold ones, clear ones...but now I'm thinking that they may be too heavy and I should use 8's instead of 6's. I have ordered a 16" circ from Knitpicks which should be here any day. I can't start it until the needle arrives!