Holli Yeoh Knits

I’m stalled on the black lacey cardigan.  I started it hoping to be able to wear it to a wedding on September 1st (I’m always cold at receptions).  I guess I was feeling a little overconfident and thought I could finish it even though I’m working on a number of other projects. I wasn’t counting on the vague instructions for managing the ever increasing lace repeats over the bias knit fronts.

Upon taking a closer look at my first front I’m not happy. 

• The two sets of lace patterns aren’t lined up the way they were on the back.  I thought I could live with that. 
• My gauge is possibly off and the v-neck shaping starts really low, like belly button low.  For the photo, I actually pinned a section of the shaped neckline vertically so it will act as a the closure of the sweater.  This stretches the rest a bit which might be okay - maybe. 
• Then when working on the reverse shaping for the other front, I noticed that I did three repeats of the horseshoe lace pattern instead of two at the top (see photo).  This too could probably be okay, but all these problems together are really bothering me.  (That coupled with having already ripped and reknit a number of times and I don’t want to ‘waste’ any more time with fixes that may or may not work. This was supposed to be a quick knit, not a huge distraction.)

On the weekend I resigned myself to the fact that it won’t be done by Saturday.  I’ve started a sleeve which is coming along nicely so far, but I’m not working with the single-minded focus required to finish this to wear before the weather gets too cold, much less for the wedding.

I’m pretty sure I’ll rip both fronts … I just need a plan of attack for the reknit.  I haven’t had much success googling this design to see if other’s are knitting it and their experiences.  Why doesn’t Vogue Knitting name their designs?  It would be so much easier to refer to them by name when talking to others and when trying to research them!

My eyes are going.  I’ve been in denial about this for a while now.  I couldn’t really understand before when my mum would said that she could only knit with dark coloured yarn during the day with good strong light over her shoulder.  Now I get it.

Even though I just bought new glasses with - *whisper* - progressive lenses, I’m still having difficulty seeing what I’m doing with a couple of my current projects when I’m knitting in the evening.  I’m using black yarn.

The Elann order of the black viscose/cotton/linen blend is turning into this multi-directional lace cardigan designed by Mari Lynn Patrick in VK.  I like the waist shaping on the back.  The fronts are interesting too since they are knit on the bias.  Unfortunately the instructions are a bit vague, especially for the fronts. I imagine all the details were edited out in an effort to save space in the magazine.

The second black project is a pair of men’s gloves.  I’m still working on perfecting a new glove pattern.  I’m finding that people’s fingers just don’t come in uniform lengths.  Everyone seems to have very different finger measurements even when their palm circumference and hand length measurements are the same.  I’m not sure why this surprised me when I know that an average measurement is just that - the average of a whole range of measurements both larger and smaller.

While on our road trip I had lots of time for knitting.  Although prone to motion sickness, I did discover that I can easily work in stocking stitch as long as I don’t need to look down much.

Eloise came along nicely.  The photos show this first ball (the ribbing) of my Eloise sweater by Jane Ellison and the completed back and one of the fronts.  I had to put the project on hold because I wanted to use a nifty gadget I have for placing button holes (which I left at home) before knitting the second front.  I would have started on the sleeves but I think something’s missing from the pattern and wanted to do a bit of research before working on them.  Now that I’m back home, I haven’t had a chance to do that yet. 

I discovered that for me working on gloves and lace on the road were a no no.  In the hotel rooms at night I was able to work on more taxing projects or any special shaping or fiddly bits.

While driving we had fun trying to spot as many license plates as we could from different provinces and states.  Here’s our list in the order in which we saw the plates:

• British Columbia
• Oregon
• Washington
• Texas
• California
• Mexico
• Idaho
• Utah
• Maine
• Oklahoma (there were a LOT of big trucks on the road from OK)
• Arkansas
• Pennsylvania
• Minnesota
• Illinois
• Colorado
• Wisconsin
• Alberta
• Indiana
• Arizona
• Hawaii (if you can believe it we saw two cars from Hawaii)
• Montana
• Ontario

We’ve been out of town on and off all summer long.  I find this upheaval somewhat disruptive to blogging and designing.  We went on a road trip to central Oregon this summer - our first car trip with the little one.  It was a great success.  We were well equipped with back seat activities and we made lots of stops along the way.  Devan loved staying in both the motels and resorts and was sincerely sorry to leave each location.

The high points included …

Crater Lake  on a clear day (it was an amazing blue colour),

the Lava Beds National Monument in California with caves, pictographs and petroglyphs,

we also enjoyed the High Desert Museum where we saw an owl up close and personal,

and the Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia is a must see if you’re passing by with kids.

I’ve been working on a little of everything lately, but wanted to let you know how Avery is coming along. I’ve finished the front and blocked both the front and back. As you can see, I like to join the shoulder seam(s) before blocking. This size will have a button placket on the left shoulder to make the neck opening larger for those big headed babies, so the left shoulder seams isn’t joined.

I like the contrasting colours that are happening in the corrugated ribbing at the hem. I also like the colours I chose for the colour blocks.

My intarsia needs a bit of work. It’s currently the bain of my existence. It seems the more I try to fix the uneven right-hand edge of the colour change areas, the worse it gets. I ordered a booklet on intarsia that is supposed to be the authority on intarsia. It arrived with my Elann order and I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet. It’s called Intarsia: A Workshop for Hand & Machine Knitting by Sherry and Keely Stuever of Sealed With A Kiss. I’m hoping it will solve all my problems!