One Day Short of A Month!

I did it!  I finished my Umaro and I love it. It took a day less than a month, and according to my Knit Companion app, it also took 48 hours and 18 seconds of knitting. I am not so OCD or whatever that I would normally even know this, but the app tracks the time that the app is open, which it always was while I was working on this because the pattern was charted.

Before soaking.

Based on a conversation another knitter had with the owner of Apple Yarns, who recommended wet-blocking the blanket, I soaked this:

Heavy, sodden blanket

Heavy, sodden towels

What happens when a knitted wool blanket gets soaked?  It GROWS! It is now 46" x 77".

I didn't think to measure it before soaking, but it wasn't nearly this large. It grew about a foot in width and more than that in length.

I have the ceiling fan going overhead and I hope that will help it dry before the Rapture. I'd like to have a chance to gift it or use it.

It's All About that Math, 'Bout that Math

Knitting involves quite a bit of math, which can come as a surprise to new knitters.

Knit Companion solves a lot of math-related problems by allowing me to color code and enlarge what I want to work on and I used it this morning when I ripped back a couple of rows and re-knit them. Somehow I had the wrong number of stitches in some sections, but it's all straightened out now. Then I found two stitches that I hadn't even worked---how on earth does THAT happen?! Also, I do think there are some purls where there should be knits, or vice versa, but I'm not sure. This pattern is...quirky. That's the word.

This is part of the screen of KC that I am using for this project:

I colored the repeat section yellow, and then I enlarge the page so that I only see the parts I am working on. I count the stitches necessary for each section from the chart, and then count what I actually have. Ideally they match. But today, they didn't. YO's and SSKs and K2TOG mess up the count if I'm not careful. YOs right before or after a marker can really mess up the count. They get caught on the marker, and then...which side do they belong on? 

The turquoise (my signature color!) line shows that the row I am working on is on the back of the fabric. A yellow line shows up when I am on the front of the fabric. I can see the symbols and their meanings if I want; otherwise I just lower that part of the page so they aren't in my way. There are counters on the right and I can set them to indicate what I want them to count.  

KC gets way more complicated if I need it to to be, but I actually haven't learned how to do anything more complicated yet. First, I just need to conquer the math.

OK and Phew and All Other Such Words

I finally did it!  I finished the State Fair Cardigan, and not a day too soon for Christmas! The thing is, it wasn't even meant for Christmas. It was meant for the fall of 2014, so it's a little late. I used Knit Companion for it, and I love KC!  No magnet boards, no pencil and paper.

 The only thing is that I think Knit Companion lies.

IT says that this sweater took me 75 hours and 19 minutes to make. I started this in August, so what KC says cannot be true. I think it took thousands and millions of hours, but that's just me. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I forgot to turn KC on all the hundreds of times I had to frog parts of the sweater, and I think frogging time should count. 

Anyway, it's FINISHED!

(And I hope it fits. Please, please, please, sweet Mother of Purl, let it fit!)

Major Concentration and No Wine

That is what my knitting friend, Lucille, told me a few minutes ago when she saw what I have gotten done on the back of H's sweater so far:

It only measures about five inches in length, but it took ages to get this far. The cables are tricky and it took me awhile to figure out a system to keep track of what is what. 

Tip #1

This is the stitch guide:

There are TEN, count them -TEN- different cables in this pattern. Yikes! They use anywhere from four to six stitches apiece, some with all knit stitches, some with knit and purl stitches, some where three of the purl stitches are done into what had been three knit stitches, and some increasing a stitch IN the cable (WHAT???). Sorting out the cables was confusing. At first. Then I wrote in the number of stitches each type of cable requires so that I don't have to look through all of them to see what the pattern calls for, and from then on, Bob's your uncle.

Maybe.  Do you have an uncle named Bob?  If so, I must be psychic!!!

Say Hi to Uncle Bob for me.

Tip #2

Have I ever mentioned that I love, love, love Knit Companion?  Because I do.
The chart for the cable pattern is tiny, but with Knit Companion and my iPad, I can embiggen (official internet word) the chart on the screen, and then scroll up and down, back and forth, do the hokey-pokey, and see where I am working.  No magnet boards, no magnets, no writing on paper, no losing paper, no misplacing of pencils....

All I have to do is remember to keep the iPad charged.  

There are 68 stitches in the rows of this cable section, and I just scroll to where I need to be, and it's simple, YO!

When dH gets back from his bike ride, we'll have chili for dinner, but I don't think I want wine with that. I'll have a beer, which IS, after all, alcohol, and so that precludes any and all major concentration.  

No more knitting tonight.

Sorry, H.  

What is Wrong With This Picture?

Just about everything.

I finally decided to start work on S's sweater. Yay me!!! (I bought the yarn in March.)

I scanned the paper pattern into an electronic PDF file, imported the file into Dropbox and from there into KnitCompanion on my iPad mini. Then I set up a new project in KC, cropping and pasting as directed. I opened a video on my laptop so that I could follow along with instructions on doing the Old Norwegian Cast On. I pulled out the yarn and the gauge swatch. 

Had I indicated on the swatch which size needles I used for the swatch (and I hardly EVAH make gauge swatches)?  No. Did I leave the needles I used in the bag with the yarn?  No, I did not.

But wait!  My memory says that I had decided that I needed one size larger than the pattern called for.

Woo Hoo!!! So let's get out those size 9 needles and get cracking!!!

Can I find those needles?  

No, I cannot. ANYWHERE.

All these electronic helpers, which kind of took a long time to set up and I'm wondering if they really are all that helpful, and I am defeated by my own lack of organization. 

Off to search for the needles. Again.