In The Corner

Lucky for me, our Contiguous teacher is online only.  Otherwise, she'd have me standing in the corner.  My homework is still not done. 

Sunday afternoon I spent some time trying to catch up  - I was about three days behind  - only to discover that Susie M didn't wait for me.    She carried on and is now at the underarm section.  Me, I've just finished my sleeve cap.

I might still be behind, but I do love my little sleeve cap.  Look here.  You see the shoulder 'seam' and sleeve cap forming this 'Y'.

Here is the sleeve cap being worn by  my chair arm.  

 

 Brilliant.  A top-down garment with the look of set-in sleeves rather than raglan. Done in the round, all in one piece.  Just when you thought everything there was to know about knitting had already been discovered.  Elizabeth Zimmermann would  have loved Susie M. 

As an aside, one of the reasons my homework is not finished, is this.

 Rhubarb Pineapple jam.  I have been thinking about this jam for awhile now.  I remember my Grand Mother made something similar.  Her version had Strawberry Jello as the gelling agent.  Online I found a Canadian Living recipe without the jello.   It looks glorious.  Red - a new rhubarb invention since Grandma made her jam -  with the golden pineapple.  Very Pretty.

Canning and knitting.  Enough to make this girl very happy.

A Surprise No Longer

My first Baby Surprise Jacket in years is finished.  A surprise no longer.  I now know where those stripes are going to land.  Future jackets won't catch me by surprise, as I made notes  regarding stripe placement.  Just so you know, striping while still doing the  beginning decrease rows causes the stripes to go around  the sleeves.  Striping while doing the increase rows, as I did,

 creates  vertical stripes up the fronts but a horizontal stripe across the back.  

The knitting is nothing to be proud of.  Garter stitch,  the ultimate  easy knit, according to most 'how-to' books,  always defeats my attempts at consistency and neatness.   Since I promised this jacket to
'New Nan'  from knit group -she  just learned that in a few months,  she will be  a   first-time Grandma   - I can only hope that the little one and 'Mom' won't mind my floppy stitches.  Or that Grandma Nan, expert knitter that she is, won't examine the stitches too closely.


The collar is simply five rows of reverse stockinet stitch which rolls quite nicely to give a decorative touch  and in this case, tie in the contrast colour.


The observant of those among you have probably noticed that the buttons are not yet sewn on.

 

Button selection takes time at my house, due to this.

 

Perhaps sorting according to colour would help.  That sounds like a great Grand Kid summer project!

Now on to finish up  my Contiguous homework, because once that's done,  I can start my 'first' summer project.  Still a surprise, even to me, as I haven't decided what will be the first project of Summer 2011.
Amiga,  Featherweight or Olga Leja's Afternoon Breeze Vest?

No Cocky Counter

On yesterday's blog post,  I mentioned ripping back the Baby Surprise Jacket because I had the wrong number of stitches.  This mis-counting seems to be happening too often here at Harris House.

With the BSJ, once I arrived at 158 stitches in total, I was supposed to - according to Elizabeth's instructions - carry on working  the centre 90 stitches   No problem - except I had only 85 in the centre with 34 on each end.  34 plus 90 plus 34 makes 158.  But 34 plus 85 plus 34 doesn't.  Obviously I had forgotten to make a few increases.  Rip.

A row or two might do it.  I hoped.  Several rows back, I realized I could go on ripping until the beginning and never discover where I had gone wrong.  Best just to 'fudge' it.  Fudging now in  process.

Today, I opened ravelry for my next 'Contiguous' Assignment.  Checking the homework page  first,  I noticed the stitch count given after completing Row 12. 
               Row 12 Purl row.
increase before one marker and after the next, x 2 = 4 increases = 68 sts

68 stitches.  Hmmm.  I've completed Row 12.  Maybe I should just count - to make sure.
73 on my needles.  Dang!  Guess I'll be ripping a few of those rows too. 

Really, I think - in fact I know -  I can count.  What  I can't do is count and be cocky a the same time.  That must take a really good knitter.