January Project-of-the-Month: Vivian

I have loads of 2013 resolutions. Loads, people, loads.  Way too many to list, but there is a main knitting goal that is sort of relevant to WIP Wednesday--my project-of-the-month resolution. Basically I'm planning to prioritize one project each month.  Doesn't mean I can't knit anything else (yeah, I'm not delusional with my goals) or even that I can't start anything new (good thing, since I started a hat last night), but I'm hoping having a "priority project" will translate into some more consistent progress.  Especially on those projects that tend to get buried away and forgotten.  Like, say, my blasted Vivian sweater.

I started Vivian in 2010.  I finished the main body sometime in 2011, stumbled when I started the sleeves, and managed to not knit one stitch on this sweater in 2012.  It's time I got rid of the dark Vivian cloud that has been hanging over my head.  On January 1, 2013, Vivian became my first project-of-the-month, and I've knit at least a little bit almost every day since. One sleeve is finished, the other almost halfway.

Still nowhere close to finished but definitely a step in the right direction.  The goal was never to finish the sweater this month (again, realistic expectations) but forcing myself to keep Vivian front and center all month means it's a whole lot closer.  It also means that instead of knitting my new hat project, I will dutifully go back to the second sleeve and what feels like never-ending seed stitch now.

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Finished Object Friday: Laika

Laika and I did indeed find our happily ever after.

 

Before I get into the details, reasons I love Laika:

• I bought yarn with a project in mind and then actually used the yarn for said project.
• I started it on the way to Lake Placid so it makes me think about Mike finishing an Ironman.
• It kept me sane in the jury room for over 2 weeks in August/September. 
• It fits.  Most importantly, the upper arms are not too tight (explained below).
• I FOUND AWESOME BUTTONS! (more on this below too).

Basic Specs:

Pattern:  Laika, from Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague

Yarn:  Verdant Gryphon Mithril in Dolce Far Niente (2.1 skeins, about 1550 yards)

Needles:  3mm and 2.75mm
Cast on: July 18, 2012
Finished: November 11, 2012

Notes, thoughts, and general excited rambling…

Pattern:  It’s Ysolda, the pattern rocks.  That said, being familiar with shaping lace was a huge help.  I found everything completely clear, but I read many comments that the directions for the yoke and body were confusing, so maybe this wouldn’t be the best choice for a first sweater or even first top-down sweater.  I’ve knit oodles of top-down sweaters, and at least three or four sweaters with lace shaping, so I found the pattern easy to follow. 

Construction:  For the most part, it’s a basic top-down raglan.  When the main body portion is finished, the stitches are put on hold until the hood is knit.  You then pick up stitches up one front side, around the hood, down the other front side, and join this together with the live hem stitches to knit the garter edging in the round.  I love the look of the end result, but cramming 500-600 stitches on a 32 in circular needle made this part a bit tedious, yet not tedious enough that I was willing to go buy a longer circular.  Messing up the placement of the second row of buttonholes and having to rip out the bind off and 4 rows to fix them didn’t add to my love of this part.  And seriously, bind off loosely!

Modifications:  Not much. I added a bit of length to the body, maybe even a bit too much, but I figured better to be a little long than too short.  I knew the mesh would lengthen when blocked but wasn’t sure how much so it was a little difficult to judge length.  And given the edging construction I explained above, fixing length wouldn’t exactly be a simple process of taking out a hem bind off and adding an inch or two if the sweater didn’t block out as much as expected. 

The only other minor change was that I pretty much ignored the sleeve shaping instructions and shaped the sleeve to my arm.  I think the directions instruct you to start decreasing after about 20 rounds, but I have biceps. Apparently freakishly large enough biceps for 2 or 3 of my handknit sweaters to have too tight upper arms--lesson learned.  I started decreasing around row 50 and tweaked from there.  Also added a few rounds to the sleeve cuffs just because I like the look of a wider cuff.  Judging sleeve length was also difficult due to the stretchy mesh, so I blocked the sweater after finishing the first sleeve to make sure I was happy with the length before starting the second one.  I really didn’t want to have to rip out 2 cuffs.  And again:  bind off loosely!  Even though I was consciously trying to keep things loose, my first cuff felt tight so I ripped it out and used the stretchier bind off I use for shawls (p2tog, slide stitch back to left needle, repeat). 

Sizing:  I almost always knit a 34 inch bust size, but for Laika, I knit the 36 inch (my actual measurement is around 35.5 if anyone cares for comparison).  My teeny tiny swatch seemed to indicate that my gauge was a little smaller than what was specified, and I didn't want to take a chance on the front gaping when buttoned. Plus, I sort of liked the idea of this sweater fitting a little more loosely than some of my super fitted knits. I think the fit came out just about perfect--fitted enough to be flattering, loose enough to be comfortable and lay smoothly.  I just went and measured and the bust is about 34 inches when buttoned.  Gauge was definitely off then!

Yarn:  Ysolda notes that using a  heay laceweight instead of fingering weight yarn is an option, and I ran with that.  I love that I used laceweight, even despite my dislike of actually knitting with laceweight.  I get warm easily so I like the lighter fabric, and I like that even the high quality yarn I used was by far less expensive than most fingering weight yarns.  Laika needs a lot of yardage (yarn is held double for the garter edging).  I bought 3 skeins, which was way more than I needed (used less than 100 yards from that third skein).  Even so, I still saved $$$, and now I have about 700 yards leftover for a lace stole or something.  Not to mention, being a huge Lord of the Rings nerd, I was excited to have an opportunity to use Mithril.  I fully expect arrows and spears to bounce right off this sweater. Bonus! And if you're not a Lord of the Rings nerd, just forget that last line.

Another fun fact:  the only yarn I bought in 2012 were these 3 skeins and 1 skein of sock yarn.  Yay for stash control!  Can't say I was as restrained with the fiber purchases, but let's not go there.

BUTTONS, BUTTONS!!  Can you tell I'm sort of excited about the buttons? I was sure button choice was going to make or break this sweater.  There are so many that they had to be unique but not too flashy.  I only wanted to match the color if I found something super cool looking, otherwise, I had to find a nice contrast, but not too much of a contrast.  In other words, I expected to struggle and be ridiculously indecisive and second guess for days whether I chose the right buttons.  Nope.  The first ones I held up were meant to be.

I love the buttons I found.  LOVE them.  Good thing too since at almost $2/button, buying 22 was starting to approach the cost of the yarn.  I do feel like buying such expensive buttons was a little bit frivolous, but I figure that after conceptualizing the sweater, buying nice yarn, swatching, and knitting for over 3 months, cheaping out on buttons would be stupid.  The buttons turned this from a sweater I'm pleased with to one of my favorite knits EVER.  So yeah, a few extra bucks seems worth it.

So there ya go.  Everything you wanted to know about Laika and more.  Unless you wanted to see it with the hood up, in which case:

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Work-in-Progress Wednesday: Laika

You know those vacations that you feel like you need a second vacation to recover from?  That would be my week in Lake Placid in mid-July.  We’ve been back for weeks, and I’m just starting to feel like I’ve got a handle on things again.  It was a fantastic week in a house filled with friends, good swim, bike, run training for me, and I got to watch Mike cross the finish line of his very first Ironman triathlon.  Amazing. But exhausting.  Especially when you top off a very active week with 2 long car trips.  I had some lofty crafting expectations for my “vacation” week, almost none of which amounted to anything.  My spindle never made it out of the bag, and my already lackluster Tour de Fleece fizzled to non-existence.

Despite a bag packed with 3 or 4 projects, the only knitting of the week, and pretty much the only knitting since, has been on Laika.

Sadly, not much to show for over 3 weeks of knitting.  I’m not sure what I expected from a sweater knit with size 2.5 needles and laceweight yarn, but in theory, I started this project with hopes of having a lightweight sweater to wear in the fall.  Even though I’ve been knitting Laika almost exclusively for weeks now, that goal is starting to appear rather delusional.  At this rate, the body alone will take a couple of months, and then when I think about sleeves and the hood…Oh. My.  I’m going to be knitting this sweater forever.  Perhaps I’ll shoot for a spring sweater. For 2014.  

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Cleaning House

Somewhat unsurprisingly, a couple of weeks of relatively focused knitting did indeed result in a finished shawl.  Go figure, right?  I mean who could have predicted that outcome?  I’m sure that logically I have always understood this concept, but it took some new-found determination for me to start putting it into practice.

Around mid-November last year I embarked on my great WIP knit-down of 2010.  I started with 14 knitting projects.  After six weeks, seven were finished, three were ripped, and I was left with a significantly smaller WIP pile and some serious knitting burnout.  Nevertheless, slaving away on the Scarecrow socks was the first step toward my even more ambitious goal for this year—clear out ALL the WIPs.  I shudder a little bit even just writing that.   It’s a lofty goal to be sure, but hey, aim high?  And I started a month earlier than last year. That's totally going to make the difference, right?

I have seven active WIPs (conveniently all pictured to the right) that I hope to finish up by the end of the year:  two sweaters, two pairs of socks, fingerless mitts, a vest, and a skirt.  I’m trying to forget that three of these projects were on the original 2010 list—the Vivian sweater, Cauchy socks, and the cabled mitts.  I’m apparently still not quite ready to go back to these three yet since  next on my chopping block is the Angostura vest from Ysolda Teague’s Little Red in the City.  I was dying to start this vest all summer and finally cast on in early September.  I flew through the back until I hit the armhole shaping.  I tried to follow the pattern, but it didn’t look right and after ripping and reknitting a couple of times without success, I put the back aside and started the front.  I didn’t make it too far before it was cast aside.

Angostura in its current state of neglect

Even though I moved onto the front, the issue with the back still frustrated me, and there were a few other issues that probably contributed to my abandonment.  The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, which is heavenly, but since I didn’t buy the skeins together, I’m alternating skeins every two rows.  I’m not a fan of juggling two skeins (that whole tangling problem I have), and one of the skeins has some light spots which is driving me crazy.  It’s funny how small details like these will make me chuck a project right to the bottom of the closet.  I’m still not looking forward to going back to the vest, but maybe a few nights of steady knitting and tangible progress will bring back that initial enthusiasm.  Hopefully I'll have something to show soon!

Oh, and to clarify “all the WIPs” does not include my epic afghan projects (I’m not that crazy) or the few projects currently classified as “hibernating” on Ravelry,  like the sweater that I’ve only knit a few inches of one sleeve or the socks that I still need to spin yarn to finish.   There’s aiming high and then there’s just plain delusional.