Jon's Knit Blog

The Disappointment of House Guests

The good news? One of my best friends is coming to visit today; he'll be here through Sunday.

The bad news? His arrival throws off my Olympic knitting, because we have lots of fun things planned to do in the City. I know that if he were not coming, I'd be able to finish on time. But he is coming, and while I'm very much looking forward to seeing him, I'm just a little bit sad that I won't be able to finish my Olympic sweater by Sunday afternoon.

There's really not a whole lot left. Well, sort of: I have less than half of one sleeve remaining, finishing of the back and front shoulders, seaming, and the button band. So it's not going to happen.

Of course, the fact that I only got 6 rows done yesterday didn't help. But you know how sometimes you just have those days where you're really just not in the mood to knit? I guess it's because I spent about 10 hours knitting on Wednesday. I knit so much that my hands turned blue! Not from any circulation problem, but because the blue yarn turned out to be heavily overdyed, and I knit so much of it that it stained my hands. That was fun!

Anyhow, I get to have a fun weekend, and I'll get around to finishing the sweater as soon as I can. And I'm not going to be bothered by the fact that I didn't finish in time. Because I now understand that if I didn't have work or a social life that I would be able to knit a sweater in less than two weeks. Which is pretty darn cool!

Team Sleeve Island In Medal Contention

I'll admit it. There is a big chance I won't finish in time. Largely because I have a friend coming into town on Friday. And therapy tomorrow afternoon. And a cocktail party on Thursday. But I plan to go directly after therapy to Knit NY to sit and knit and drink coffee and try to get this thing as close to finished as I can. I made a lot of progress tonight on the first sleeve (it's amazing what you can do during four episodes of "CSI") and now that I am confident in the way the sleeve looks, I'm ready to go full steam ahead to finish this one and to start the next. And the best news? I think I might actually have enough yarn to make it to the end!

Anyhow, here's what we have at this point:

The fronts are on the right, the back is to the left, and the sleeve, which is a fabulous blue, is in the middle. Yes, the cuff is orange. Partly to "unify" the look, and partly because we are running really tight on the blue yarn. Especially since the front bands are going to be blue as well. I promise, this is going to be the best sweater ever!

If it fits.

And especially if I finish it on time. Beyond simply Olympic asperations, I am hoping to be able to wear it on the plane next week when I go visit my favorite kiddos in London!

Team Sleeve Island

I'm into the sleeves. I am, however, tired and don't really feel like futzing with the camera. I am worried about finishing on time, but I'm going to get some sleep rather than stress out about it. Even if I don't finish in time, I really think this will be a great sweater and I'm really thrilled I'm making it.

In the meantime, Go Team Sleeve Island!!!

To Knit or To Sleep

Knitting won out for most of the evening.

The end result? The front I was working on is done, up to the shoulder shaping. The best news of that? The second front! That means that the back and both fronts are almost done - up to the shoulder shaping! That means about 4 more rows on each front, two sleeves, some seams and a button band. Which also means that there is a very good chance that I will finish this sweater while the Flame is lit!

It also means that I had a lot of italics in this evening's entry and I don't know why. Probably because I need to sleep!

A few other topics: I have been linked on what is evidently a popular Russian message board here, which is probably pretty cool but I can't determine entirely what it means. I got a translation on Babelfish but it doesn't entirely make sense. I think someone thinks I should create a separate archive of F.O.'s, so I guess I should consider that.

The Next Day

I really didn't spend that much time knitting today. Then again, I was up knitting til 5am this morning and slept most of the day, so I guess that's reasonable.

Anyhow, what I did do, in addition to the non-knitful stuff I had to accomplish, was cast on the first front. Said front will accompany me Friday after work to an Olympic Boyz Night Session. Hopefully I'll get said front mostly finished, so that I can get started on the second one. There's a long way to go if I'm going to finish in time!

An Olympic Day

See, now in my opinion, this photograph represents a rather Olympic day. I decided how to shape my armholes, and I got a pretty darn good chunk of it done. In fact, I am probably at the point where I need to put the back onto a holder until I figure out how to deal with the whole neck situation.

So I guess the next Olympic step is to decide whether to knit a sleeve or a front first. Guess I'll sleep on it!

Ed. Note: In case you are wondering and in case I have not been specific about it, Jon's Olympic Sweater is my own pattern, a modified raglan V-neck cardi, in two shades of Malabrigo Merino: Bergamota and Azul Bolita. I'm knitting on US8 Latern Moon needles and having a gay ole time!

Olympic Orange

I promised you a photo of the Olympic Knitting going on over here chez Jon. And while it seems, on some level, anticlimactic to photograph a rectangle of orange stockinette (with some ribbing, granted), here it is:

The Knitting Olympics are an interesting endeavour. My challenge to myself is twofold: 1) to see if I can actually knit enough stockinette stitch in the alloted time to create a sweater and 2) to see if I can put said stockinette stitches in the proper places to have the sweater actually become a sweater rather than an amorphous blob of knits and purls.

So it struck me as odd when I came across, somewhere in blogland, a woman who finished her Olympic Knitting project less than 24 hours after the Olympics began. Said knitter was accused by some people of not knitting to the "spirit of the Olympics" and she defended herself by saying that she had challenged herself. I find that odd on some level - I mean, even the Harlot herself has expressed doubt as to whether she will be able to finish her Olympic Knitting. I guess have a hard time understanding the idea that someone one can finish in less than 24 hours is comparable to something that will be a challenge for me to finish in two weeks. I mean, you can see that there's a lot more sweater for me to make.

Anyhow, I don't really mean to harp on this woman too much; the project she did make was quite lovely, and if she felt challenged by it, well, fine.

What I do want to mention briefly is actually something very sad. I have to admit that I do not always check each blog on my blogroll every day, and the other day, I realized that I had not checked one particular blog in a long time. And it turned out that he had stopped his blog, created a new blog and, most sadly, died of cancer. I sat here and stared at that computer screen for a long time, and I just felt sad for someone who I've never met, but whose words I have read on a computer screen. I was really moved and very saddened; I hope you'll take a moment to look at those sites and just feel lucky to have everything you have in your life, from yarn to loved ones to favorite blogs. Because sometimes the true Olympic Challenge is simply getting up out of bed and living. I, for one, am thrilled to meet that challenge every day.

Going for the Gold Orange

So I got a couple more inches of Olympic Sweater Back knit tonight. I worked a few extra hours at work so I didn't have as much knitting time as I would have hoped for, but the back is coming along. It's amazing how much faster knitting grows when you're doing single color stockinette on US8's!

But I'm not 100% sure that it's worth breaking out the camera for an orange rectangle. I promise photos soon, though. Daylight might help. So will some sleep. I mean, look at the time stamp here!

In other news, the only other news is SNOW. What a pain!!!

Goodnight!

Olympic Update # 1

I have cast on for the back, and knit about 5" this evening. I'll knit a bit more tomorrow morning before I head in to work for the evening shift. But now, I'm going to celebrate my Zauberflote body completion by... going to bed!

I'll say two things before I do:

1: It's FUN to knit with Orange yarn!

2: I really hope I make this pattern work right. I love the look and the feel of this yarn, and the fabric is such that if it come out right, it could easily become an instant favorite sweater.

(It's Malabrigo Merino in case I haven't mentioned that enough lately...)

From A to Z

Or at least partway:

Yay! I just finished knitting the body of Zauberflote! I'm going to do some grafting, then casting on of a particular Olympic project!

More news (including photos) soon, so stay tuned!

Worth a Delay?

I've been a busy boy the past couple days. I've done lots of stuff, including spending some time thinking about the Olympic Sweater I will soon be knitting.

But there's one problem.

I'm so close to finishing the body of Zauberflote. How close? Well, there are only six rows between where I am now and grafting the shoulders together. And somehow it just seems wrong to start a new project until at least this part of Zauberflote is finished. Plus, since most of the rows that remain will include a back neck steek and will therefore be very short, it should be an easy night's work to take care of tomorrow. So I've decided to push back the start of the Knitting Olympics Sweater until the body of Zauberflote is knit. I may not even worry about the grafting just yet, but I want to get those six rows finished so that I can feel like I'm leaving the sweater at a mile-marker.

On a different note, I'm glad that so many of you agree with me about David Caruso. Hopefully, you'll agree with me about this decision, too! Oh, and I do believe that some of my most favorite stitch markers are on the way to me in the mail at this very moment! Hooray!

Steeks Galore!

So lots of people seem to be terrified of steeks. Well, I will tell you that they're simply made of yarn. See:

So there. Although if you've been paying really close attention to Zauberflote, you may notice that I changed my steek technique here. I had been doing "columns" and now I'm doing "checks" and I don't really know why. Someone asked me a while back which I thought was better; I honestly don't know and scientifically I can't figure out why there would really be a difference. I think the column steek would be easier to cut since you're giving yourself a clearly defined line; the check steek is fun to make, though, and for some reason I feel like it looks better. Odd thing is, I can't describe why I feel that way.

I also shot a bunch of photos of the newly born front neck steek (five more rows done tonight) and corresponding decreases; most of them came out really badly. Here's the best one:

You can't see all that much but hopefully you can tell that there's a neck starting out there.

Regardless, I have a request: See the stitch markers I'm using in these photos? I love this kind of stitch marker and I have a box of them, but they keep just sort of... disappearing. And for the life of me, I cannot find a knitting store which carries this kind of stitch marker anymore. If you happen into a shop that has them, can you please let me know so that I can call them and have them sent to me? Thanks!

Anyhow, I forgot to mention that while I was at KNY yesterday, there was a guy there who works as a knitter/designer for a top level fashion house. He was finishing the most incredible knit garment I have ever seen in person. He knit this thing which would have probably taken me about, oh, a year to make, in something like 7 or 8 days. Granted, he said he was knitting about 12 hours per day and that his hands hurt like hell. The garment will most likely be in a show for Fashion Week and if I can track down a photo online, I'll link for you. I don't want to tell who the designer is or what type of garment it is; I figure I should let it have its debut on the catwalk. But wow, this thing was amazing!!!

In other news, there is no other news tonight. Except this: Does anyone out there watch "CSI: Miami"? Is it me, or is David Caruso a really odd actor? He's sort of just... stiff. And always overly intense - like, one emotion that lasts, well, an entire TV series? Was he like that on "NYPD Blue" too? Granted, I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers, but either he needs to get laid or his writers need to be slapped.

Babies - Not Just For Knitting For

OK, I spent four days with my cousin and her two amazingly fabulous kiddos. Nothing in the world compares! A baby sleeping in your arms? A toddler in a Chinatown grocery store? I could go on and on, but you who have children would probably say, "Oh, yes of course," and those who don't, well, I would just have to feel a little bit sorry for you.

So while I do think it's great fun to knit for them, it's even more fun to just... hang out with them.

But I do want to talk about knitting, too. I got through 10 rows of Zauberflote today. This brought us past the next major landmark: the center neck has begun! Since it's a crew-neck cardigan, you have to cast off the center steek stitches, put 8 stitches on either side onto a holder, then cast on a new neck steek; then the neck decreases begin. All while maintaining the pattern, of course.

And just to make matters more complicated, the Olympics start on Friday! So I had to get some yarn and come up with an idea for the sweater I will be constructing. I even swatched. And I will tell you this: two colors of Malabrigo will be turned into a fabulous V-neck cardigan. It will be great. It will be lovely. It will be an Olympian task, and I will (try to) persevere! (And maybe take a photo or two...)

Took Long Enough

I know, I told you that I would show you photos of Zauberflote. I promised. And finally I'm delivering!

Here's a bit of a closer-up shot:

And I thought you might want proof that I have actually been knitting the sweater, too. I think she's gotten pretty big!

In other news, want to hear something gross? I found out this evening that my fridge had been unplugged for days. That was a smell I really didn't want to have to experience, let me tell you. But everything is thrown out now, and the wet rags from mopping up the defrosted freezer are in the sink, draining and drying.

And there was good stuff today, too: my gorgeous little cousins are in town! That means that I got to even see Rosetta today, and I'm pretty proud of myself that all the sewing and knitting and weaving of ends and everything are holding up really well. Hooray!

And tomorrow, I get to go with my fabulous little cousin to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Fabulous!

Hard Core Training

So my "Knitter's Olympics" training thus far has been, well, non-existant. I have the buttons, and I know what yarn I want to use (Malabrigo) - but I don't even know if they have anymore, particularly in the color I would like, at my LYS. I also have no clue of what pattern I will be using. I know that I want to do a raglan-y pattern but with saddle shoulders, and if that makes sense to you and you know a pattern that looks like that, well, let me know, please!

The other training I've been trying, slowly, to do, is to get the body of Zauberflote out of the way before the Olympics start. Given that I have 10 more rows before I even get to the front neck, I am not sure if this is an attainable goal. I think I have 39 rows before I graft the shoulders together, so I doubt it. But only time will tell!

And I promise that there will be a photo soon. The next couple of days will be busy, because the lovely baby girl for whom I knit Rosetta, and her big brother (he got the Elephant vest!) are coming to town tomorrow! Yay!