Viking lust still strong

Pulled this out of the knitting bag in my quest to identify all UFOs. Although the picture is lousy, it's a gorgeous sweater - at least it is in the book, so I'm hoping a little blocking and some better photography will help. Anyway, here's the back of it.

This guy is really fun to knit when there's cable to work on, and pretty mindless when there isn't. It's worked in Rowan's Wool Cotton which just has the most wonderful hand -all the best o both fibers. Maybe I should spend more time knitting and less time blogging and cruising the web...

Four Corner Collar - a finished object

So, I have had this thing on my needles and 90 percent complete since I went to North Carolina to visit my uncle back in November. It has weighed heavy on my mind, because it’s a tricky pattern, the yarn is expensive, and I’m just not sure that a quick trip through the washer and dryer will fix all these worms. But felting worked on my blue Touch Me scarf, and it will work on this as well. Here is the thing after slipping the stitches to a bit of scrap yarn and before felting:

Worming at the edges

Here is me, gathering the courage to dump $100 worth of Touch Me into a sudsy bath

And here is the capelet after a quick wash (no spin) and a tumble dry. (with several towels that now have a lovely pink hue – yes, it will fade on whatever else is in the wash) You can see that the loose strands of Touch Me have lost all their chenille and are now bald little strands of limp wool. I can see why the tell you to felt the piece before you drop the stitches.

Now, about dropping those stitches. The instructions inform me that I must knit 5 stitches and slip two stitches from the left hand needle, graft those live stitches to the cast on stitches, and unravel the dropped stitches down to the cast on row. Here’s where the real chutzpah comes in. I first unravel one stitch. Despite my fears, it doesn’t unravel into the open area, but rather turns the corner of my short row and makes its way around the square to the cast on row. I do this between each opening. And it looks pretty good. But wait, didn’t I slip two stitches off the needle as I knit that last row? Yes, and there it is waiting to be dropped with its neighbor. And so I do. I’m not sure I like how open this second dropped stitch makes the capelet look. But I forge bravely on. Aaagh. This thing is so fragile looking, and bears little resemblance to the lovely photo published by our friends at XRX.

And here’s a picture of my mannequin wearing the capelet. I’m planning on wearing this thing to the Kennedy Center next month, and I'll try to remember to take a photo.

If I had it to do over again, here are a couple of changes I would make:

1. Knit the whole thing on smaller needles – maybe size 9s or even 8s to minimize worming
2. Graft together the seam before felting and drop one stitch at a time by clipping the thread.
3. Not let fear of failure allow unfinished items to languish in my knitting bag.

Crayon Box Jacket update

I've been keeping up with my New Year's commitment to work a square a day on the Crayon Box Jacket. You can see that here it is the 16th of January, and I have 16 more squares than I did before! I'm really enjoying the way this thing comes together a little at a time. I've added an extra row of squares across the bottom because my gauge is a smidge tight and I want to be sure it's long enough. So far so good.

Here's a look at Cleo, my favorite problem child yarn in this jacket - Cleo from GGH/Muench. Beautiful, but temperamental.

Here's Cate:

I doubt if anyone remembers this project that I started back in the summer, and I actually finished in August at the beach, but I just never remember to take a photo of it, so here is Cate! It reminds me how much I love Giotto Ribbon!

There's a new pattern from Berroco for a wrap-tie sweater in the fabulous Ultra Alpaca Here's a photo. Isn't it cute!