This weekend I did a lot of knitting, as I mentioned, and just shared the pictures with Marnie so I thought I’d put them here, too. This is the Ambergris sweater designed by Ann Weaver, which she [obviously] based on Moby Dick:

here's the front -- see how the design elements extend down into the ribbing?

close-up view of the flukes and ropes -- i really love both those elements

the side seam, a kind of whalebone inset

It’s great fun to knit, but it requires attention because there’s a lot going on at once — several charts, shaping, and the addition of a side chart in one small section (not shown here). I made a large Excel spreadsheet — oh how I love Excel spreadsheets — plotting out each row on the whole body. It makes it much simpler and so far I haven’t needed to frog anything….good, because the yarn is sticky and has long alpaca fibers here and there, which would make frogging a slow process. I’m really enjoying working on it, and love to imagine Marnie wearing it. The pleasures of knitting something special for someone you love, when they’ve had a part in the project so you know they’ll enjoy it.

*cough* *shiver* Back under the covers for me. Happy knitting, y’all.

so beautiful -- this is what the back of the sweater will look like, since it's the only area that's not cabled in some way

and here's one of the cable swatches; it's very neat, the way the rope emerges.

I’m actually a little bit afraid of knitting this sweater, just as I was afraid to read Moby Dick (which is the craziest idea in the whole world…really? afraid to read a book?). Just as with the book, I’m afraid it’s beyond me, too complicated for my feeble mind to manage. With the sweater, there are multiple patterns and cables going on simultaneously plus shaping. It’s knit in the round, bottom-up, and splits at the arms. So all the busy business happens simultaneously, and since I knit at night, while watching tv with my husband, when I’m kind of tired, well…..I worry. But I want to do it perfectly, so I’m just going to take my time, take each row for itself and make it right, and it’ll all work out. And perhaps I’ll love the FO as much as I love the book. Probably not, but maybe.

Here’s a funny thing about Christmas songs I found on the NPR music page. I especially love #6, though they’re all funny.

so funny!

Tonight’s the Winter Solstice Concert at St John the Divine, and if I love it half as much as I did last year, it’ll be overwhelming. Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you’re able to enjoy the holiday season and not feel too stressed.

p.s. OH — one more. There are a couple of Ryan Gosling tumblrs, and this is my favorite picture so far:

hey girl.

such great texture in that front panel

red in the sweater's hem, and in the sleeve hems, too! surprise!

really such a comfortable sweater to wear.

This is my first sweater knit in pieces, and the first time I’ve used Cascade 220 for a sweater. I’ll do both again, for sure.

Here’s my project page on ravelry, where I note a lot of details. And this leads me to a mini-rant, now that I think about it. I wish people would indicate the size they knit, and how much yarn they used! It’s also nice if they list mods, or problems they encountered, and I love to read notes about how the yarn wears with time. But at a minimum, I wish everyone would list the size they knit and how much yarn they used. This isn’t about comparing (ooh, she’s a 42!!), it’s about knowing how it’ll look in your size, and how much yarn you really need for that size. Good grief.

And with this, I suspect my long run of knitting posts will slow down. Though I’m nearly done with the deep ribbing on Audrey……

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!

[for instance:  next week I have my annual mammogram Monday and my book club holiday party Thursday, but the week after is chock-full of good stuff, including a winter concert Sunday, poetry group Tuesday, Selected Shorts performance Wednesday, the annual Winter Solstice Concert Friday, and the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center on Saturday. WHEE squared!]

For now, though, a bit o’knitting. My Laurayana is all seamed on one side, waiting for the 2nd sleeve to dry so I can sew it in. It’s a gorgeous fit — of course I tried it on, closing the open side with pins. I’m exhibiting great restraint by waiting for it to be all the way finished before showing you. I really do recommend the pattern; FO post and photos tomorrow!

Audrey is now on the needles:

a lovely bit of knitting time this morning, with my tea

That’s madelinetosh pashmina, in siltwash, which is a really beautiful brown with bits of caramel and olive. I’m enjoying the yarn, after the rougher Cascade 220. I decided not to do twisted rib for the hem, so I’m plowing ahead.

My mug has sheep on it, one of which is glazed black. I bought this mug in Fredericksburg, VA, in 1988 — it was perfect for me. Sheep. Yeah. Black sheep, me. Yeah. I moved it around, place to place, year after year. In 2004, a bunch of my stuff was in storage for a while and I hadn’t seen my mug but assumed it was just boxed up. When I moved in with my (now) husband, I opened the cabinet for a mug and there it was! I was a little bit confused, but said “Ah! There’s my mug!” He said what do you mean, that’s my mug. And it was his mug; mine had a crack at the top of the handle. What are the odds that he had the same mug (and to this day I have no idea why he’d have such a mug, he’s no sheep person!).

It’s going to be a cold weekend, high of 46 tomorrow, but no rain or snow so I plan to get out and do something. Sunday night I have an art date night with myself — either painting, writing, or making something, not quite sure what. I hope your weekend plans are as exciting to you as mine are to me! Happy Friday, y’all.

I’m very nearly done with my Laurayana sweater (the pattern was a birthday gift from Laura, thank you!), and I’ve been doing finishing as I’ve gone along. I pause and weave in ends as I go along, I block each piece as it’s completed, and I’ve sewn together the shoulder seams and knitted the finishing detail. I’m halfway through the 2nd sleeve (first is finished and blocked), so when I finish the second sleeve, while it’s blocking I’ll sew in the first and seam the side seams. Then, voila! Nearly ready to wear.

the neck finishing detail is 3 rows of stockinette, designed to curl and show the purled edge. It's a nice bit of texture to complement the deeply-textured front panel.

Here’s an FO shot of my cute little hat, my Berry Welty. You know it’s got a blue/purple hem facing, which is my little secret, and why I’m smiling so:

fits like a dream, and oh-so-warm. Thank you for the pattern, Kelly!

The next time I show my Laurayana, I’ll be wearing it.

But I’m spotting a trend here, hatched with my Ozma’s Delight sweater: the contrasting hem.

that's my berry red hat with the blue/purple hem facing, and my blue/purple sweater with the cherry red hem facing!

I didn’t set out to do this! It just kind of happened. It’s too warm to wear the hat yet, but I’m ready when the chill comes. And as for my Laurayana sweater, the front and back are finished, one sleeve is finished, and the 2nd sleeve is half done. Then I just have to sew the shoulders together, pick up and knit a very few rows to finish the neck (stockinette, so they do a little tight curl), and then sew in the sleeves and sew up the sides. Sewing pieces together is always a bit of magic, and I really kind of like doing it. It’s careful work, close handwork, just my kind of thing.

So the soup-making spree is a memory now, and we have quarts and quarts (and gallons and gallons) of amazing soup in the freezer, ready for the winter. In addition to all that, my husband also made a beautiful batch of gravlax, which we’ve been enjoying.

that's 18 quarts of homemade cabbage soup. I KNOW! 18 QUARTS! and we also have french onion, probably 8 quarts.

here's the cabbage soup, for a close-up. it's thick with yummy cabbage, and shreds of brisket, and chunks of tomato. and the broth is a lovely sweet-sour flavor, deepened (of course) by the complexity of his homemade beef stock.

it's hard to really appreciate this, since it just looks like a piece of salmon; he scraped/rinsed off the salt/sugar/fresh dill blanket that it cured in for a couple days. sliced paper-thin, and either eaten plain (my way) or on pumpernickel bread (his way), it's so fresh and delicious. tastes like the sea, kind of. the delicious salmon sea.

So yeah, it’s been a knitty-foodie several days around here, punctuated by long walks in the park, marathon Breaking Bad watching, and naps and cups of tea and writing. Doesn’t that sound heavenly……..

Thanks to my old-lady-can’t-sleep deal, I’ve been up since 4am. Whee! I spent some of that time making progress on my Laurayana sweater, which is coming along beautifully. The back is finished, and I’m just a few inches from finishing the front. The sleeves will go quickly, so I should have another new sweater in a week or two!

the back (on the right) has been blocked and the change in the fabric is WONDERFUL; it doesn't really have that underarm lump as it appears, on the right side of the back. The pattern up the center of the front is fun to work, waving ribs.

I was a little worried about the hem facing; first of all, it’s odd to face a ribbed hem, but also, I was worried that the bright red would show. I wanted that to be my private treat. When I blocked the back, turning up the hem gave me a bit of relief. Even when it’s not stitched down, it’s thoroughly hidden.

As for Audrey in Silt, I haven’t cast on yet; it has a very deep ribbed section of twisted rib, and I’m trying to think about how committed I am to that twist. I’m thinking the answer is not so much.

Lots of work to get done today, and a meeting with a client this morning followed by back-to-back meetings in the afternoon. Good thing I woke up at 4am.

central park, so moody

central park, so artistic

central park, such a destination

central park, so dreamy

And now, without further ado, here it is: my version of Thea Colman’s Vodka Gimlet, which I named Ozma’s Delight (my rav project page here). The yarn is Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted, which is merino and cashmere with a soupçon of magic.

my sweet, sweet Ozma Delight. I'll be wearing this one to death.

what's that behind you? yeah, that old trick worked on me.

There isn’t one thing I’d change about the sweater. I’m very very long-waisted, so I had to add a few inches before I did the waist detail; unfortunately, the sweater grew a bit so the detail doesn’t hit me at my waist. Fortunately, I still think it’s amazing-looking. I love everything about it, including the 6″ of ribbing at the cuffs. Of course you can’t see the orange hem that’s hidden on the inside, but you’ve seen that before, a few posts ago.

I figured out the details for my Laurayana sweater, so I’ve cast on and am working away. Knitting + reading + cups of Lady Gray tea = very happy me.

I’ve stepped outside my normal range of colors here. I tend to wear deeply saturated colors, and I don’t really wear purple. I don’t have anything against it, it’s just not a color I’ve chosen. So here, it’s a pale lavender color, kind of dusty lavender. I like the color, love the pattern, and hope by the transitive and multiplicative properties of knitting it turns out to be a sweater I adore. I do like the fit of Amy Herzog’s patterns, so it’s a likely bet.

the color is called Montmartre, Cascade 220 Heathers

We’re running errands this afternoon, some shopping in NJ, sushi for dinner, a busy day for us. When I’m home later this evening, I think I’ll cast one for the adorable hat pattern Kelly gave me, because I just happen to need a hat. What do you know about that.

It was like getting a glimpse into the guy’s mind, because whatever he thought came out of his mouth, and it was influenced by the slightest things going on in his proximity. So when I took this picture of Will:

my crazy son who cannot take a picture seriously

the drunk dude at the next table started talking about cameras. He stopped the waiter and asked him about cameras, told him stories about an SLR he used to have that could only take great pictures. The waiter humored him for a second and then slipped away. Then the guy started talking about something else, and then he abruptly said MAMMY! while lifting his hand.

It alternated between being extremely annoying, kind of funny in a trainwreck kind of way, kind of sad, and back to extremely annoying. It hit annoying two times out of every four rounds through the emotions. Mainly he was annoying. Yeah.

Today I tried to take a new picture of my Wintry Mix sweater so you could really see it, since the photograph I took in the Catskills made it look like the shoulder was weird and rumply in a way it isn’t, really. It’s a very dark green and I was indoors, and it’s just hard to get a good shot of it. This is the best I could do; see the great cowl, and the beautiful shape? It’s a wonderful sweater if you’re in the mood for a bottom-up pullover.

Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)

It’s a great sweater; obviously, I wear a very thin long-sleeved t-shirt underneath it for extra warmth and because it feels a little better. The blackstone tweed is 65% wool, 25% mohair, and 10% angora, and it’s just the tiniest bit uncomfortable for some reason. That’s not really right — it’s just a tiny bit more comfortable with a very thin shirt underneath. I really love the sweater, and can’t recommend the pattern enough. I changed it up so the collar is more a cowl than a big flat Peter Pan-type collar, and I love it that way. And Will approves — he’s been my fashion approver for a very long time.