I've been feeling a little low of late, so there's not as much knitting progress as I'd like, but that's life. Luckily, I was hauled out of my self-pity party yesterday by my secret pal. Every unemployed girl should have a secret pal! She sent this e-card: (go to http://www.hallmark.com/hmk/Website/Shopping/sh_eg_category.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1686688398.1094836056@@@@&BV_EngineID=jadclgjeeihmbedcfchcfhk.0&fromPage=%2fWebsite%2fShopping%2fcatGrps.jsp&hdnCatOID=-102262 and click on this icon for the "Honest Boss Interview")
Thank you, Secret Pal. I needed that.
I have been doing some knitting--here's my progress:
This pattern is knitting up nicely, if slowly (due to living in anxious fog, not to the knitting itself). If you plan to knit this, DO follow the instruction which tells you to place markers at the beginning of the armhole decreases. I didn't have markers handy when I got to this point and was too lazy to get up and retrieve some, so when I finished the first piece, it was pretty darn hard to tell where the decreases began . . . I had to count rows and mark them afterward. Which is what I get for being lazy. :)
And I started this for my pink-loving Nana:
This is Shaker from Rowan 25, in lovely pink 4-ply Cotton. (It's on the cover of that magazine, in white.) It's great practice for my lace knitting skills, and going nicely so far. Nana lives in Arizona, so she doesn't need a lot of warmth; I thought a cotton lace sweater would be just the thing. (Rowan 25 is pretty old, relatively speaking, for a knitting mag--I think it came out in 1999? I got my copy at the wonderful Knitting Garden, where I have spent all the money I should have been saving in case I ever became, ahem, unemployed.)
One more thing: remember the endless grey stockinette hoodie I made for my sister out of Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran (a blend of cotton and microfiber)? Apparently it's way too big for her. Leaving aside the terrible family feud this has now started ("do you really think I'm that BIG??"--as if I would put all that work into some elaborate mean practical joke. Well, maybe I would, but I didn't. I wanted to make her something she would like and wear. duh.), do any of you have any ideas about whether we would dare run it through a wash and spin cycle in the washing machine? Maybe pull the zipper out first? Or would that be a disaster?
Can This Sweater Be Saved? (The family can't, so don't worry about that. You would think I'd have learned that by now . . . )
Oh yeah, and one MORE more thing. The new fall Knitty is up and I LOVE it! I want to make at least 5 of the things in it . . . more projects!
Thanks for stopping by. I missed you.
I'm glad I was able to brighten your day. I didn't know if you would like the yarn - but I figured it would make a nice scarf.
Posted by: Your Secret Pal | September 10, 2004 at 10:47 AM
the following opinion should probably be taken with a grain of salt:
What's the harm in trying to shrink it? If it is so big she's not going to wear it, then surely distortion by washing machine isn't going to be worse... I personally wouldn't take the zipper out, either, but if it blows your skirt up, go for it, taking it out won't harm it. I wouldn't wash it in really hot water though, I'd probably opt for warm. And I wouldn't machine dry it. If you start with small steps you can always run it through again and do more. Now, this comes from someone who's never felted anything, including a 100% wool pouch she tried desperately to felt, so the advice is worth nothing, but I say, what's to lose at this point?
Posted by: jenifleur | September 10, 2004 at 10:21 PM
my friend knitted a shell that was too big for her and used her sewing machine to reseam it up the sides and it worked. I think chicknits may have some info on that technique.....
glad you're back!
Posted by: ann | September 12, 2004 at 05:07 PM