Can I Have Both?

Like a kid in a candy store who can't decide.  Should I have chocolate or butterscotch?  Ju Jubes or Gum Drops?    The solution light bulb comes on and with hopeful expectation, the question is posed.  "Can I have both?"

With my Noro Vest complete, it's on to my next project.  I can't decide whether to start Sally Melville's Centre Paneled Vest/Sweater

 

from her latest book Warm Knits, Cool Gifts.  Centre Paneled  is how I've decided to use this stash yarn.

With this ball of  co-ordinating  Twilley's  Freedon for the centre panel it should look great.

OR - should I start Peasy

with my door-prize bag of Zara. 

Hmmm.  I've had the green yarn since September 2009, the Zara since June 2010.  Should yarns be knit in chronilogical order?

Hmmm.  The centre paneled piece can be knit as either a vest or a sweater - the pattern includes both.  If I got as far as the vest and liked the result, I could stop. Can't do that with Peasy.

Hmmm.  Peasy in off white might still get some wear  before the real hot weather arrives.  Can't wear fuzzy,, warm, wooly, green yarn  in June.

Hmmm.  Peasy I love.  All aspects of it.  Centre Paneled I'm not sure about the back. It is rounded and hangs several inches lower than the front.  Supposedly - according to Sally -  quite chic.  My issue with that design is that I ski. I have seen those types of butt protectors on the chair lift.  The  semi circle of fabric that hangs lower than the front of the jacket to keep the butt protected from wet seats on the ride up the hill.  Although I did message   ckknits  on ravelry  who has knit the vest to question her opinion of the design and she gave it a thumbs up.

Perhaps knitting a weekend hat and letting the designs percolate will help.  Monday will be cast on day.

At Knit Group This thursday

They missed me.   Or at least that's the impression they kindly gave me.  And I missed them, having been in Ottawa last week.  Wow!  Lots of projects get started and finished  in two weeks.

Remember Nicki's Noro Entrelac Scarf? 

It's finished and gorgeous it is.  

What a great job Nicki does on these small, fiddly (my word, not hers) projects. 


Sharon has started a scarf with Fushia, Baby Bamboo.

A scarf is the perfect  project for that yarn.  Baby bamboo has lots of drape that can easily stretch an adult-sized  garment into the next dimension.  Ask Gail.  She will tell you all about it.  But it's the perfect yarn for a scarf.

Wilma finished a purple peaked cap and started a pink one. Her grand daughters are going to love these.

This one is cool construction.  Simply cast on the required stitches, knit 2x2 ribbing for 2 inches, then knit the  cast on row together with  the current row.  Insert a plastic visor then carry on and knit a hat.   The curved shape of the visor stretches the knitting and speaks to the adaptable nature of hand knits.  In the back of the hat, it's  normal  ribbing.  In the front it's a peak.  Simply because the plastic visor stretches  it that way. 

Doreen tells me while out shopping she was approached by a person she didn't know but who called her by name.  Doreen asked " Do I know you?"  The person replied, "No, but I know you because I see you on the blog."   Knitters, come to Meaford's Thursday Knit Group and you too could be famous.  Or at least recognized on the main street of Meaford. 

Doreen followed that story with another.  She tells me her family thinks she has quit  knit group because they hadn't seen her picture recently. So,  for Doreen's family , flung far and wide, I do believe, h-e-r-e-'s Mom,  Grandma and Great Grandma.  She fussed with her hair while I adjusted the camera.  Looks good doesn't she?

And below, she struggles still with that darn curly scarf.  Nothing was going well for Doreen today.  She started and stopped four projects by my count.

Gloria is knitting her husband a sweater.  I've met her husband and tiny he is not.  This project is love and devotion through knitting, I'd say. 

Pat has the beginnings of her latest project.  Since the last I heard, she was about to re-create  Willam and Kate's wedding party through yarn, I asked her which member of the Royal Family this was?

 

Gloria, a Brit herself, thought Charles. Nasty Knitter.  

Ottawa was great and a nice post-winter get-away, but you can't beat a Thursday afternoon in Meaford with this group of knitters.

What Shall I Wear Today?

Wednesdays, I work.  With a morning rush quite unlike the other mornings in my retired week,  I often get my work clothes ready Tuesday night.  Yesterday, however,  I was not yet finished knitting what I wanted to wear to work today.  My Noro vest was almost, but not quite, complete.  At 7:30pm Tuesday evening, it looked like this.

 Obviously there was knitting to be done.

By bedtime, it looked like this.

 

There's a story behind this vest pattern that deserves telling.  Years ago, when I knit this vest for the first time, I did so because I had been inspired by the one being knit by the leader of our  knit group.  This was a really old pattern even then, and  I felt no copyright infringement would ensue if I asked for a copy.   The  pattern is written for three sizes -small, medium and large.  But on my copy there were no corresponding  measurements to describe those sizes. The leader was knitting her vest as a gift for a friend and I asked  what size she was knitting.
"Medium", she said.  I then asked her how her friend compared in size to me.    

You should know, that I am petite.  Five feet tall and not too big.   In response to my question, our group leader - a retired high school English teacher with a bit of a haughty air - looked me up and down as if appraising horse flesh and said
"Well", my friend isn't very chesty.  If I were you, I'd make a large."

HUH?  Chesty?  Me?  That is something I am so not.  My stubborn streak showed up and I thought  "No one is going to tell me to make a large"  Instead,  I knit a small.  And - it was tight.  Wearable, but tight.  I always referred to that vest as   my   'pride-goeth-before-a-poor-fit'  vest.

Remembering that fit, this time around,  I did some gauge swatches.  I liked the Noro Kureyon best on a 5mm needle.  But that resulted in  a  larger gauge than the pattern called for.  Throwing misgivings to the wind, once again I knit size small. 

And at 9AM this morning, the vest looks like this.  

Ready for work and wearing my new Noro vest.  Pride only in the finished product this time 'round.