Something Red?

I've been working on the pattern "Something Red" with this really cool ribbon yarn that I got on clearance from JoAnn's last year. I've never worked a top-down sweater before, so it didn't occur to me until quite late that row gauge is just as important as the stitch gauge.

*Sigh*. That means I'm going to have to frog all of this. My stitch gauge is okay, but since the row gauge is much narrower, that means by the time I've gotten the correct length, the width is waaaaayy off. I've been mulling over what to do, and I think if I increase every 3rd row instead of every other row, that should fix the problem. I still need to assess if I've got enough yarn for this, though, since that means I'll need more than the pattern calls for. Bother, bother, bother.

When it started to dawn on me that I was running into difficulties, I switched to the other sweater that I'm doing in the same pattern. This one is knitted with recycled cotton yarn. I figured that it was easier to tell what I was doing with a yarn that isn't fuzzy like that ribbon stuff.

It came out alright, but again, quite a bit bigger than I had intended. Still, although it won't fit the person I had originally intended it for - - - -
it will fit me!!!!!!!! Perhaps my subconscious knitting mind had something to do with that . . .

So, honestly, what do you think of the color? It started out white, but I knew I didn't want to keep it that color, so I dyed it black, which didn't quite work but ended up gray.

Should I try over-dyeing it with red to get a nice maroon shade?

From there, if that doesn't work, I can always darken it again to black. That's the nice thing with being pregnant - people expect you to be fickle.

(Sorry for the blurry photos. I now know that I need to wash my mirror. How nice that everyone else now knows that too. Any volunteers out there for housecleaning? Any? None?)

Going Green, or Tweed, if You'd Prefer

I was talking to some knitting friends at McDonald's today, and they expressed great amazement to learn that I was knitting a cardigan with recycled yarn. It's funny, because since I'm such a yarn-aholic, I figured everyone else knew about this wonderful stash-enhancing technique, too.

This is a men's X-Large tweed sweater I picked up at Goodwill two weeks ago. There's nothing wrong with the sweater and it would fit Handyman great, but he's such a warm-blooded Midwestern male that he almost NEVER wears sweaters. (Not to mention that when he does wear the occasional sweater, it's the Blue Monster that I knitted for him last Christmas. Very politic of my hubby, I know. It always earns him brownie points, which translates into him actually getting brownies. He loves brownies. I think he'd wear a knitted clown costume if it got him brownies, but I digress . . .)

This time I decided to take apart the different sections with a razor blade rather than my regular sewing scissors. It worked fantastically, and I would estimate I got the entire thing dismembered in less than 10 minutes.

Unraveling always takes a wee bit longer, but getting the yarn wound into luscious fat-free yarn cakes is always worth the effort. Oh, if only chocolate cake were as low in calories!

Once the yarn is all wound, I put it into a plastic re-sealable bag with the sweater tag. If I ever do get around to using the yarn, I just re-sew the tag onto the back of the garment so the recipient knows 1) how thrifty I am (i.e. I didn't want to spend money on real yarn for them) and 2) how not to completely ruin my hard work.

If you've never recycled a sweater before, you should try it! It's lots of fun, and gives one a feeling of smug satisfaction if it actually works, ha ha! Here's a link for more recycling details, if you're interested.

While I'm on my yarn kick, I just had to share my latest guilty purchase - more, yes, more yarn from Webs. I really need to send their email flyers to my junk box, because I'm not very good at resisting their sales. *Sigh*. Okay, enough with the guilt. On to better things!

This is my favorite yarn from this box of purchases, Cascade 220 Heathers in a gorgeous shade of olive green. I've never felt it before, but I've heard enough knitters rave over it to feel fairly safe buying this stuff. Wow, were they ever right! It's 100% Merino wool, a pleasant surprise, since I had thought it was regular scratchy wool! Now I won't have any trouble wearing it right next to my skin. As with the rest of my yarn purchases, I'm envisioning some sort of cabled sweater or cardigan with this stuff.

I'm really trying to widen my color spectrum, so I got some lovely dark red yarns to off-set all the blue and green stuff in my stash. (My next ambition is to get something yellow. So far I haven't been brave enough). This is Berocco Comfort Worsted, and is a nice squishy yarn, perfect for cables. Perhaps I'll use it to knit the Something Red Cardigan for me.

I just love heathers, so I couldn't resist the Plymouth Encore yarn in this gorgeous Beet red shade. This yarn is nice because it's machine washable and holds up really well. (I knit a sweater for my brother with this stuff, so I know).

Okay, I now have enough yarn in my stash to clothe my family for the next 10 years. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to start labeling my yarn bins in the attic "Clothes" so Handyman doesn't get suspicious.

After all, that's what they're going to be, clothes.
Someday.
Soon.
Perhaps.

That's not the point.

(It occurs to me that all this yarn purchasing is because I'm feeling truly miserable in this last stage of pregnancy, and is my feeble attempt to cheer myself up. This baby had better come soon or we'll have to take out a second mortgage . . . )

Honey Bunny

On Sunday our little family spent most of the day in Lena at the park. While Andy cooked the bratworst on the grill, the kids played on the playground and worked up a fine appetite.After we finished eating and cleaned up everything, we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's house to say a quick hello and to pick up a rabbit hutch. Yes, we are getting another addition to our family.

Meet Honey Bunny (Peter named her). She actually belongs to my mom, who will be picking her up sometime in July. Meanwhile, we are doing our best to keep Honey Bunny happy in her temporary home.Of course, the kids are simply fascinated by this friendly little lop-eared rabbit.And since we are talking about rabbits, and I have to have some knitting content somewhere, let me show you a new angora sweater I picked up at a garage sale for $1. I was planning to unravel it and recycle the yarn, but as I'm looking at it again, perhaps I'll just keep it as it is. It looks a little big, though. (The knitter in me is saying, "Yes, definitely too big. Must be recycled and knit up into something else . . .").