Closing in.

Sleeves needed some tapering to get a well-fitted fit, so I worked most of it into the basket stitch along the upper arms.  Once the sleeve circumference was down to 11 inches, I continued straight past the elbows.  Four stitches decreased then total, one every fourth row until they were down to 10 inches.

Sleeves are approaching the proper length, definitely the kind of fit I had sought.  About ready to add the garter/purl ridge to the end before binding off, once I'm sure they're close enough to equal in length.  Then, back to the torso and I'm DONE.

Past & Future Progress

This weekend brings Homecoming at my initial university, which in turn brings ten hours of riding to get there & ten hours back.  There will probably be some switching off on the driving duties, but the fact remains that I'll have all kinds of time for constructive fidgeting this weekend.  Here's hoping for some self-accountability to push me past the "95% done & hibernating" mark into the realm of DONE™.

So a few pictures of what I'm bringing along in hopes of completing:

Red Wine Tunic has made it past the box stitch breast piece, through personalized waist shaping, and nears my hips.  There was a bit of frogging involved in making the textured stitch section aesthetically pleasing, given my lack of rack, but I like the way it looks now.

I'm still undecided about whether or not to add side slits, but that decision may be postponed for later.  For now, there's the tail of the first skein to finish off.

The sleeve skein has been living in the shoulder of the sweater, waiting quietly & out of the way as I progress through the torso.  So perhaps I'll bring along the 4th skein to work on the sleeves while the torso skein languishes instead.

Next is the Pink Estonian Medallion Lace Scarf, which just crossed the 5 repeat line.  Just gotta keep rolling along with this one.  Stick to the chart, log hours, & stay on track.  I've gotten better about keeping everything in line with itself, mostly by keeping count of stitches along the row as I go along.  Hit the half-way point, count 'em out.  Both sides, to keep from losing/adding along the way unexpectedly.  Tedious, but not so much once you get into the habit of it.

I'm also bringing along the Red Stockings of Awesome for some mindless knitting if need be.  I've done all of the increases that are going to get done, so now it's just a romp to see if I can make it another 4 or 5 inches before switching to garter for future belt-holding tabs.

I may bring along the Forestial Colonnade I started a while back.  Working the Collonade pattern from this the Fall 2009 Knitty.  The top part was worked holding together two different shades of green silk-wool blend.  The lower part is worked using some heathered Cascade which may shed more than I like, but is in a darker shade of green that should complement the top part quite nicely.  We shall see.

That said, I may snag something completely different on the way out the door tomorrow morning.  No way to tell 'til clinical is over & the sun has risen...

In Vino Veritas et... In Knitting, Peace

I cannot stay faithful to one project at a time.  At least not any project lasting more than a day or two, and definitely not without a deadline involved.  My fingers & mind need more variety, need something to break up the monotony.

To that end, I keep on hand enough yarn to be able to work an entire project at any point.  In several different weights, colors, and contents.  Lurking, waiting, watching from various nooks in my apartment.  Not counting the oddments collected because they call to me for some unnamed future project.

Earlier this week, I finally needed something new.  Now.  In larger yarn.  Granted, bouncing between lace weight & sock yarn is fun.  Hours working with the lace makes the sock yarn feel like worsted for a bit.  After working on the stockings for a bit, your entire grip & tension must change when going back to lace.

Rummaging in one piece of furniture revealed four skeins of Dream in Color Classy in the colorway "In Vino Veritas".  Worsted weight yarn in a darker red that lightly varies from purple to brick, 250 yards to a skein.  I had wound up two skeins at Knit in early September in preparation/planning for the need to pick up & go, as I knew ahead of time that I'd want to change skeins every other row to keep the color from pooling.

I knew that I wanted a pullover, and wanted to do something from my copy of fitted knits by Stefanie Japel.  After a bit of wobbling & research on Ravelry, I decided on the Textured Tunic. 

Mods involved so far:

• Gauge change from aran weight yarn on a size 10 needle (14sts/4") to worsted weight yarn on a size 9 needle (16sts/4")
• No shoulder slit
• Garter ridge at neckline

I cast on at the start of this week & have chugged along whenever mindless non-class knitting is needed.  The gauge change is such that all I had to do was tinker with the numbers for cast-on at the neck and follow the rules for the largest size to get a 38" bust.


Tonight, I got to the first purl band, where later I'll leave the sleeve stitches on other yarn while I continue on the torso.  The stitches are spread out over two circs to picture, as well as to try on & make sure that the tinkering with gauge width-wise also translates to proper tinkerage height-wise.  (She shoots, she scoooooooores!!)

The plan is to leave one of the two skeins behind on a sleeve so that later the other end can be used as the other half of the other sleeve.  Yeah, three skeins on a sweater at once.  Not sure how I feel about that yet.

In theory, it's awesome, because it'll smooth out any wonkiness in the color change from shoulder to sleeve.  In practice, it may end up being a royal PITA.  We shall see.