Monday, December 13, 2004
The Flounce is Blocking!
The Flounce is finally blocking! I had to pick up a gazillion stiches and knit the flounce edges on this jacket. Well, not a gazillion. It was about 90 around each jacket front and then about 28 on the sleeves and a bunch more on the back edge. Then the stitches were each increased once. I love how quickly the Point 5 knits on the broom stick size 17 needles, but it is really tough on the hands. My hands were sore by the time the increases were added and the yarn had scratched open a spot on my pinky, where I hold the tension. Definately time to finish the knitting on this jacket. I ended up using 10 skeins, which leaves 2 for some other project--maybe a felted something?I gave the flounce jacket a little bath--the complete soak is a must for the Point 5. The wool feels prettty scratchy when you are working with it (hence the wound), but with a nice cold Euclan bath, it softens a lot. If my other Colinette Shimmer sweater is an example, with wear and additional washes, the yarn will soften to a comfortable wearing condition and stretch out due to the weight of the yarn. I chose to make the size 38 bust (41 with ease), assuming that the perfect fit will loosen up and become a little bigger. I'm not the tight sweater kind of girl, so a little more ease will feel nice.
Here's the flounce:
Notice that the jacket is blocking on the floor? My husband is away at a conference, so I took over the office where I never seem to work. Since Bruce is away, I can shut the door to keep the cat from attacking the sheepy smelling wet wool. Blocking the sweater, however, was an ordeal as my daughter decided that the nice wet wool was the perfect field to run over with her toy tractor and horses. Argh. Try arguing with a two year old about why she should run her tractor on the perfectly nice floor...
As soon as this dries, I will stitch it up and have a great winter jacket! I am hoping it dries and is finished before we go to Houston for our Grandma, daughter, granddaughter weekend. Since my husband is away at a conference, my Mom is coming to visit and help with Anna! How very fun! We are going to go to Houston on Friday and Saturday for a Christmas Zoo visit, the children's museum, yummy sushi and, of course, a yarn store visit. More to come....
Of course, now that the flounce is close to finished, I need to start another project, right? Otherwise it is just that hat and mittens (boring...) sitting in my basket. I took a look at the list on my sidebar and decided to start the large Weekend Knitting poncho. I don't care that the book is called Weekend Knitting--no way will a patterned 54" long block take two days. Nope. In case you don't remember what the pattern looks like, here's a refresher picture:
I had to special order the yarn, so I pushed the project back into the pile. I chose to use the yarn specified in the pattern--GGH Via Mala in #16 gray. It is so pretty and soft. It is a 100% Merino wool and after the thick/think colinette will be a dream to work with. The only twist is that it is a 4 separate strand yarn:
The separate strands might be a little tricky??? We'll see. I am still struggling with the gauge. The recommended US 9 made a swatch about 3 inches too long, so I will reswatch tonight to see if I can adjust. I usually knit with bamboo needles, but I think this will do better with metal needles. More tomorrow!
