You were perfectly fine . . .

Blocking: It's A Good Thing

Last week I promised to show you a goody that I'd sent my DH shopping for--this is what he got me:

I can see you shaking your heads and imagining the tortures I must have put him through, but REALLY this is exactly what I wanted. A 4-foot by 8-foot sheet of rigid polystyrene foam insulation. Purchased from our local Loews Home Improvement Center for (are you ready?) $5.67, including sales tax. It's my new blocking board.

I've been pretty haphazard about blocking thus far in my knitting life, but for Cardi Raye I knew I'd need to do some REAL blocking if I wanted it to look right. I looked around for blocking boards, and found that several people have (and love) the Space Board or a similar device, but that these cost $60-80 or more. And I'm really really trying to be good, you see. So I googled knitting and blocking board and came up with a page on Lucy Neatby's site that referenced a large sheet of foam basement insulation. I checked with my DH, who is a construction-type guy, and he verified (much to his later chagrin) that such a sheet could indeed be purchased for less than $10. He brought home a 4x8 sheet the next night, we cut it into two equal halves, and I could now block nearly everything I've ever knit, simultaneously.

I did not draw grid lines on it yet (in permanent marker, as Ms. Neatby suggests), though I may get brave and do that someday. I pinned and measured and pinned some more, then misted thoroughly and allowed the back and front sections of Cardi Raye to dry. They came out perfectly flat and lovely. I was almost reluctant to take them off the blocking board, since they looked so lovely and finished. But the main downside to the enormous foam sheets is that you can't fold them up and put them unobtrusively in the corner cupboard. They must live in a plastic bag in the garage (at least until it's time to block the sleeves).

On an almost completely unrelated note, while trawling the net for stitch patterns for a summer-weight wrap, I came upon this cute little bit:

The pattern for it is on the Bernat site, in the free patterns section.

A.W.O.L.

DH went out of town for the end of last week, so I didn't have much time to post. In the meantime, I've finished and blocked the back and both front sections of Cardi Raye. It blocked completely flat, despite the sparkly stuff, and to my eye at least, looks really good. I'm looking forward to wearing this one. I'll get some pictures up Wednesday, I expect.

Sparkly Back

Here's the unblocked back of Cardi Raye, finished on the train on my commute home last night:

(Sorry for the blurriness; I took this pic with DH's camera phone. You can see the colors a lot better if you look at Kristy's work in progress here.)

Of course, I immediately cast on for the right front--so as not to lose momentum.

My thoughts so far on knitting this sweater:

1. The sparkly stuff does change the fabric slightly in the rows that include it. After the discussion with Alison yesterday, I looked at the finished back carefully to see the overall effect. It creates a sort of raised texture for the stripes that don't have sparkly stuff in them, but the raising is very slight and even if it doesn't completely block out, I think it's fine. YMMV,* of course.

2. Being someone who hates to weave in ends (doesn't everyone?), the slide technique of stripe knitting has been awesome (see entry below re Melinda's great instructions). I have only a handful of ends to weave in for the back section.

3. As I was knitting along, almost every time I added in a new color after the blue, I looked askance at the color combination and was worried that the colors clashed awfully. However, the effect of the whole piece overall is great, and not clashy at all. Again, YMMV, but if you get worried about this issue as you're going along, consider finishing the entire section before you decide.

4. I was a little concerned at first that the Licorne and the Plaisance would be like knitting with string, as some cotton yarns can be. On the contrary, I've found it very pleasant, and like it better than the Rowan Handknit DK I'm using for my daughter's Smiling Jacket. Which, given how much I like Rowan yarns, was a nice surprise.

I'm hoping to have some goodie news to report tomorrow . . . I've sent the DH on an important shopping spree. We'll see.

*YMMV=your mileage may vary

Required Reading

If you're knitting the Cardi Raye, or considering doing so, there is so much information on Melinda Mullins' blog, Purlwise.com. She has an archive specially dedicated to knitting Cardi Raye here.

The two most helpful bits from her so far have been:

1. I read that she'd run out of Turquoise Sunset, so I ordered an extra ball.

2. I used the "slide technique" for knitting irregular stripes in flat stockinette. I can't explain it as well as she does, so you'll have to look here under the heading "Knitting Stripes."

Thanks very much to her for her clear and frank descriptions; they've been very helpful.

The Knitting Black (or Orange) Hole

Stephanie wrote this morning on her time in "the knitting black hole"--the place where you work for hours on something and can see no discernible progress. Wanting, as always, to Be Like Stephanie, I was gratified to note that I've spent the weekend in this same mode. I'm SO close to finishing the roughly 62 rows of orange stockinette that remained on the back of Cardi Raye . . . but not quite there.

Here is a glimpse of what I was working on instead:

Let me just say this: The people who are employed to sew Barbie clothes are WOEFULLY underpaid, no matter how much they earn. Jaysus.

And I also sneaked in a little knitting on Cavendish:

This is what I work on when I'm too brain dead to count and to make the pretty even stitches that the smooth cotton Phildar yarn requires. It's from Noro Silk Garden, in color 87 (the one shown in the book--what can I say? I'm a sheep). I've heard a lot about the Noro yarns having lots of knots, and having (to quote a colleague) a bunch of crap spun into it. I'm averaging at least one knot per ball, and have been periodically picking bits of bramble/stickers out of the yarn.

The knots are kind of a pain because they don't generally match up color-wise, so I need to hunt through the other skeins for the project to find one that starts where my knot left off to avoid an obvious color jog mid-row. Since this project is a blanket and takes 10 skeins of SG, and I'm only finishing up the second skein (minus several yards here and there not used so I could match colors), I still have several skeins to work with to match up colors when I come to a knot. So it's not really too much of a pain now. We'll see if I feel the same way when I'm toward the end of the project and I have less to work with . . .

The brambles were kind of a shock at first, but I've gotten the hang of pulling them out as I go without pulling the yarn apart too much. I guess these hurdles are just part of knitting with the Noro SG--as long as I know what to expect, I don't mind too much.

And I love the stitch pattern for the Cavendish--very easy knitting, and turns out beautifully with these colors. So it's worth it.

Progress on Cardi Raye!

I'm into the armhole shaping on the back section of my Cardi Raye--with any luck, I can finish this section tonight in front of the tv (to keep me awake during the 50+rows of orange stockinette . . . ).

Liar In Chief

On the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I would just like to say a few things about the man who presumes to lead this nation, the Liar In Chief.

He, who used his family money and connections to skip out on the war in VietNam, sent our troops into Iraq and Afghanistan without adequate body armor, and without adequate armor for their Humvees. Seriously. Families stateside were buying Interceptor body armor and sending it to their husbands and wives and sons and daughters. Can you imagine??? As John Kerry said this week, "Families should be sending pictures and care packages to Iraq, and the Department of Defense should be sending the body armor." Damn right!

One Reserve company, learning of the problem, even went to their community to design and fabricate their own armor plating before they deployed. The Army was not clear on whether it would allow this homemade armor to be used.

It was not until February 2004--nearly a year after the invasion of Iraq began, and much longer after the start of hostilities in Afghanistan--that the Department of Defense appears even to have taken action to obtain sufficient armor to protect incoming U.S. troops.

Boy, do I hope these guys are kicked out of the White House in November. I even made a sign to advocate making this happen. Download file

I {heart} Koigu KPPPM (and my nephew too)

During the elevator-music phase of knitting Cardi-Raye, I thought I might treat you all to a picture of my truly adorable nephew wearing his knitted finery from Auntie CC. He went on his very first ski trip a couple of weeks ago, so of course he needed nice soft mittens and a nice soft hat, and while we're at it, why not a slip stitch jacket to match? Is Auntie a little obsessive? Oh yes, she is.

The Koigu KPPPM was an absolute joy to knit with--I'm looking forward to using it on more projects. (Of course, that would be AFTER all, I mean most, I mean SOME of the current projects are complete . . . )

Who Knew?

I've been steaming along on the back section of my Cardi Raye, and am really enjoying it. Apparently stripes of varying width are just the thing to keep me from being bored half to death. I'll post a pic tomorrow of my progress thus far.

I was really surprised when my yarn for this sweater showed up from Breiweb and included sparkly stuff (the Sunset), because the pictures I'd seen didn't show the sparkliness. What surprises me even more is that I really like the way it's turning out.

You know, I really should warn you at this point that the whole "I like this! I love that!" nicey-nice prose we've been seeing here on this blog is NOT the real me. For some reason, though, when I sit down to type a blog entry the wicked bitch in my head clams up. It's really odd. If she were not tongue-tied, she would have told you that I yelled at my kid and let the dog bark in the back yard for 15 minutes so I could finish a row of knitting. Does this make me a bad mother? Oh probably.

Crazy Night = Not Much Knitting

Last night my house was a complete zoo! I returned home late from work, had done all my getting-home-from-work ablutions, and was just settling in to watch CSI and begin work in earnest on my Cardi Raye when everything went to hell.

First, Kristen was twirling in the middle of the living room (of course, placing herself directly between my husband and I, and the television screen) wearing her sparkly purple fairy princess gown (what else? she's 3). She stopped suddenly, pointed at the floor and said "Daddy--there's a bug" . . . At which point we discovered that many many ants were crawling out from under the tv speakers and having a bit of a party on our hardwood floors! Ack!!!! Can I just say how much this gives me the CREEPS!!!

Lance and I are dashing around spraying and stomping and vacuuming, and are nearly finished when we hear a strange rattling sort of noise from the next room. Followed by, you guessed it, a 3-year-old's cry of shock and indignation. Abandoning the remaining ants, we entered the dining room apace to discover that Kristen had apparently leaned on the screen of the open sliding glass door ("please don't lean on that, honey" "I'm NOT, mommy!"), and said screen had fallen out onto the patio, taking her with it.

So there she was, unhurt (thank heaven), sitting in her sparkly purple finery in the middle of the screen lying flat on the ground. After some cuddles and kisses, and quite a bit of over-acting for effect, she made a full recovery, and was bouncing off the walls again in minutes.

And people wonder why I have a wine club membership . . . What I really need is an I.V.!

Suffice it to say that I'm only about 18 rows into my Cardi Raye knitting. But I'm loving the bright colors and even liking knitting with the cotton yarn (Phildar Licorne), which I was a little worried about.

P.S. Pest control spraying will commence tomorrow morning early, and I promise not to frighten you with photos that include ants. Unless the ants are knitting.