Now all I need is yarn

Knitting Without Tears arrived yesterday. Praise Amazon! I ordered the book on Saturday morning, and by Saturday afternoon I had received an email telling me that the book had shipped. I’ve read about half of it so far, and I am a thorough convert to the Cult of EZ. My shrine shall be assembled shortly out of pointy sticks and twisted pieces of wool.

I also ordered my yarn, so when it arrives, I have no excuses left to avoid beginning. Mr. Kninja has demanded requested that I finish his fingerless gloves before I begin a sweater for him. I have three gussets left to go, and then I can put them down and never, never, never knit gloves with that many gussets again, at least unless I learn Magic Loop. These fingerless gloves, I am ashamed to say, do not match each other. I used a skein of lovely leftover red-orange wool/acrylic blend, and edged it with a bit of dark grey shiny stuff on glove one. I also knit a small robot into the back of the glove. Before I started on glove two, I designed a new baby tank top, Alexandra’s Armor, that will be posted here shortly along with a pattern, and I used up every bit of the dark grey that I had in my stash. It was an old and unknown skein, so I cannot purchase more, even if dye lot wasn’t a concern, because I have no idea what it is. So glove number two is entirely orange and has no robot. I also, for reasons that escape me at the moment, made the cuffs larger than the palms. It looks sort of cool, but I wonder why I chose to do that. Mr. Kninja does not mind, but I’m making quite a mess of these gloves, and I am hating them more and more.

Maude Louise progresses apace. I’m both smitten with her and terrified of her. I’ve never created something so thoroughly without a base before, and while I think she looks lovely, I have no idea if she will work when finally sewn together. Since I mean to make her extra fitted, the knitting looks tiny, and I fear that it will be too tiny, although, holding it up to my body, it seems like it should fit. I did as some of my books suggested for a fitted garment, and made the bust two inches smaller than necessary. I keep reminding myself that it is not yet blocked, and that the garment is very stretchy anyway, but it’s very unnerving to be knitting something that I can’t blame on anyone else if it goes wrong. The only pattern maker to curse is me, and frankly, I like to avoid cursing myself when someone else is handy. I’m old-fashioned that way. Here’s a sneak preview. The color isn’t entirely accurate, but what color will be when photographed in your kitchen in the middle of the night?

The design now looks fairly dissimilar to my original sketch, and perhaps will change yet more as I work on it. The collar, for example, was originally a sort of madarin affair, but as I work on the jacket more, I wonder if mandarin is the right choice, and if it will be floppy, and what stitch would be appropriate for it. The flares over the hips are much shorter than I had originally sketched, and I’m awfully proud of the methods I’ve used for changing width and adding in the light pleats, as they’re fairly original. No doubt they’re not the best way to do it, and no doubt someone else has done it before, but as someone new to pattern making, I’m pleased with anything I can come up with on my own. The points of the twisted stitch lattice create lovelty soft pleats in the wider hip flares, and I’m hoping this will remain in the finished garment. I’ve used three different needle sizes to create the different widths for the bottom flare, the waist, and the bodice. The math was a little tricky, but I really do like the result thus far. No doubt when I am finished I will see why other people do not usually use three different needle sizes in this way, but for now I am happy.