Moyen Age

 Pattern: Moyen Age by Hanna Maciejewska.

Yarn: Maple Creek Farm Portland (50/50 merino/silk).

Needles: US 2/2.75mm,US2.5/3mm

I am beyond pleased with how this came out.  It fits perfectly, and it's so soft and warm--the yarn is just a joy to work with, and I desperately wish the dyer had an internet presence so I could go buy about 39489 more skeins of it.

Hmm, wait, maybe I don't . . .

Spring Startitis

I think spring has finally arrived here in New Mexico, and I have got startitis BAD.  So far I've managed to confine it to one new project:

 

This is the beginning of a pair of Animal Crackers socks (designed by a nodding acquaintance of mine who is an awesome guy, incidentally).  Very much liking them so far.  To the extent that I am neglecting both my designing and my Moyen Age.  The yarn is not quite so vivid in real life, more of a rich deep raspberry.  Wollmeise Twin, of course.  (I kind of went on a WM binge last year.  I will be knitting from stash for awhile.)

Speaking of my Moyen Age, no appreciable progress since last time, but I did take updated photos.  Actually, I guess I didn't tell you I finished my sleeve.  And the picture does not deceive you: that, on me, is a bracelet length sleeve.  I TOLD you my arms were short.

 

I also got a decent picture of the sleeve cable:

Have I mentioned that I love this yarn?  I'd link it, but sadly the dyer doesn't seem to have an internet presence at all.  Which is a shame, because it's divine.  (Maple Creek Farm Yarn "Portland" [50/50 silk/merino] in case you come across her at a festival or something.)

I have so far kept the startitis contained by a) leaving the socks upstairs so I am forced to work on the Moyen Age when I'm downstairs and b) planning new projects but not actually casting on for them.

Not sure how long this will work.

Plans and Schemes

Remember this?  (It is still Heather's Favorite Sock and you can still get 20% off purchasing it--or anything else on Heather's favorite website with the code "LANA2014."  In case you forgot.  Her blog is also a good read today.)

It has undergone a state change because I have begun swatching.  No progress photos of THAT to show you, alas; I unraveled my swatch because I am a Bad Knitter.  But there may be more of those in the week to come.

Otherwise I am still plugging away on my Moyen Age--but one sleeve to go!

A note about the pattern, actually, while I'm thinking about it.  I've mostly been knitting it exactly as written with no trouble, but that fell down completely when it came to the sleeves.  I was knitting busily away on the first of them and thinking "hmm, that seems a little big."  Then I tried it on.

ENORMOUS.  Sleeve that could blot out the sun.

What happened was this: I have very, very short arms.  The decreases as written happen very, very slowly.  Therefore, I ended up with a sleeve big enough to fit my upper arm . . . below my elbow.

I must emphasize that this is not the fault of the designer.  My arms are so short that they are genuine sideshow material.  She could not possibly have anticipated this.

I will say, however, that if your arms are similarly constructed, you might want to pause and check your rate of decrease after you finish the sleeve short rows.

Sweater!

Here is my finished alpaca sweater:

Yarn: Henry's Attic Prime Alpaca , 665 yd/227 g, 2 skeins, colorway Charcoal. It was a bit of a pain to work with--splitty and with no give in that alpaca way--but the resulting fabric is divine and the sweater is soft, warm, and lightweight.


Pattern: Of my own devising, based on measurements from the The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. (It's a set-in sleeve, adapted V-neck cardigan. If that helps.) I added some details like the slight bell sleeve and the cross-over front. I'm particularly fond of the absolutely luscious buttons:


They're a modern rework of a 1930s vintage design. *loves*

And here it is on:


The fit is better than that pattern would have you believe. The shoulders are perfect, which is a big improvement from the Boyfriend Sweater debacle.

Here is me being silly, but you can really see how the buttons extend around the side:


And this one is pure silliness.

All in all, I'm really happy with how this turned out. I barely took it off for a week after I'd finished it. (I'd still be wearing it if it weren't, like, 60 degrees here. Stupid Maryland.)

Sweaters Take a Very Long Time to Knit

There is rather a lot of knitting news to report, but I don't have pictures of any of it. So in lieu, you get this picture of a half-done sleeve.


It is very soft and cozy and warm. Just in time for spring! By which I mean, I will not be wearing it this season.

Sweater Frustrations

I'm trying to knit myself a sweater. And it is not going well.

You may remember the beautiful alpaca I obtained in Kansas. There should be more than enough to knit myself a nice cardigan. If I can EVER get mother-loving GAUGE.

Gauge is one of the more frustrating parts of knitting for me. I'm a very loose knitter (here I must pause to say "hur hur" because the Irishman isn't here), so there's never any point in following indicated needle sizes. On a side note, is it just me, or are ball band instructions frequently from some other reality? I would never knit dk weight on a size 7 needle unless I was making lace.

Anyway, this poses a problem when it comes to knitting fitted garments, especially ones for myself. As I've mentioned from time to time, I'm a big girl. While I'm personally comfortable with my ample proportions, it does make knitting sweaters for myself a much more time-consuming task than knitting them for babies or skinnier friends (SQ I am looking at you!) I've only ever knit one sweater for myself (the Boyfriend Sweater from Hip to Knit).

So it's very frustrating to be putting all this time into knitting a single freakin' sleeve. First there was the gauge thing. I finally got a gauge I could live with, put together a nice little design, and started knitting a sleeve. I was probably six or seven inches along. Then, one night as I was drifting off to sleep, I had a vision.

And that vision said "garter stitch!" So I ripped the damn thing out AGAIN. Argh.

But now it is humming along. For the moment, at least.

(Incidentally, my vision lied. It meant to say "seed stitch!")

*sigh*

So I frequent a forum on Ravelry devoted to the work of a certain designer. (I.e., nothing to do with food, politics, dieting, fat, or various other potential minefields.) Everyone there is very nice and funny, and I love reading it--it's one of the highlights of my day.

But.

People never ever EVER stop talking smack about their bodies. Either it's "I've lost so much weight and I'm so pleased," or it's "I'm [insert fat euphemism here] so I won't do the waist-shaping on this sweater." (And don't even get me started on how wrong that last one is.)

It gets me down. I feel judged for not constantly apologizing for weighing too much, and I feel bad for not caring about what other people consider an accomplishment (because, seriously, diet talk is just plain boring). And I feel bad for women who feel like they need to disguise their ugly, ugly fat so thoroughly that they won't even consider waist shaping in a sweater.

What does the peanut gallery think? Should I ask the mods to ask the group to axe the diet talk? On the one hand, I don't want to ruin anyone's fun. On the other, I don't want my own ruined.

Sweater thoughts

The cardigan progresses apace--the first sleeve is done (pictured below), and I'm about halfway through the second. Sleeves? Are really boring to knit.

This leads to some thoughts I've been having lately, about sweater design in particular. This is the first sweater I've ever knit for myself. As you may have gathered, I'm a big girl. Sleeves for big-girl sweaters are bigger than sleeves for other people, making them 2485 times more boring to knit. (Scientific measurement.) But you know . . . they don't have to be.

In Borders the other day I was paging through a book of sweaters designed for, shall we say, ladies of size.* I asked my companion (my friend R3, an occasional knitter himself) to tell me what the patterns had in common. When he admitted he couldn't see it, I pointed out that all of the sweaters were shapeless. Baggy. Boring.

Now, there are certainly women (and men) in the world who look good in shapeless, baggy, boring sweaters. Some of these women are even plus-sized. But LOTS of us, if not most, look a thousand times better in something fitted. Whether or not you have curves to flaunt, odds are good you still look better in something that doesn't do its best to drown you. Also, can we talk color for a moment? News flash, my designing friends: FAT PEOPLE CAN LOOK GOOD IN RED. Astonishing, inorite?

So I decided to do something about it. Pictured above along with the sleeve is what came for me in the mail today--The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.

I have this vision in my head, you see--of a close-fitting, V-neck, fine-gauge sweater (very like one I already own), in a sophisticated black . . . or maybe a bright crimson. And since it doesn't seem to be out there already--I'll have to design it.

*Note: this is not the famous Big Girl Knits, which features very shapely, fitted (and, not coincidentally, beautiful) sweaters. I've been waiting on the softcover edition and am SO EXCITED you have no idea omg.