Stitches, Big Stitches

Busy week! I finished the Three/Five/Seven-Day cardigan, I finished seaming Daisy's sweater. Detailed plan in hand, we went to Stitches. Then, Accountant Boy and I played at being tourists in San Francisco.

Starting at the beginning, here's the finished cardigan. I don't have any modeled shots, because there just wasn't time.



Normally, I'd put details here, but there aren't that many to be had. We'll give it a try anyway.

Three/Five/Seven-Day Sweater --

-Loosely based on 'Gwen' from Rowan's Bigger Picture. I followed the pattern to the letter, until it because apparent that things had gone wrong with the fronts. Then I veered off.

-Started 2/15/2007, finished and worn to work on 2/23/2007.

-Unknown amount of double-stranded Manos del Uruguay in the 'Canyon' colorway. "Do you have a guess?" Nothing more accurate than "enough to make the medium size of this sweater."

-Size 19 wooden straight needles for most of it, size 17 circ for the collar.

-I went with a ribbed border, and didn't remember to put in button holes. I'm not going back to fix it now. The stitches are so big that the button can be worked in between them, so it all worked out.

This pattern would probably be way cuter, not to mention drapier, in Big Wool. But who cares? I got rid of a bag of yarn from my stash, yarn that I've always liked and regretted not using, and I got a sweater coat that I'm pretty likely to wear. It's a winner!


This is the Stitches bounty. Yes, that's all of it. I'm so proud of myself. Counter-clockwise from bottom-left:

1. Berocco Pure Merino Heather in 'Cinnabar Laquer'. The Nantucket Jacket on the cover of this winter's Interweave Knits? Mine. Daisy's making the same jacket in the 'Bordeaux' color.

2. Unknown quantity of dark blue wool from Interlacements. "How much is in this skein?" "If we knew, it wouldn't be on the $15 table. Ummm...a lot." I've got two skeins of it. If it's worsted, that's 1150 yards. If it's DK, considerably more.

3. Patterns. I have the White Lies patterns for the Krista tee and the Laura Hoodie. I also bought the Know Knits Pure Elegance pattern, which I've been eyeing for a long time, but wouldn't buy because I didn't want to pay shipping on a seven dollar pattern, and I didn't want to buy enough yarn to qualify for free shipping. Finally, the good folks at Webs gave me the Calvin Ribbed Turtleneck pattern for free when I bought that Berroco merino. The mystery yarn from Interlacements might, depending on weight, become this turtleneck.

4. What's that poking out of the bag? It's skein 1 of 6 of Black Water Abbey worsted in 'Mountain'! I did not need this yarn. Here's where Daisy and I went down the wrong path.

"I don't need this. Do I?"

"Hold it up to your face."

"Well?"

"You KNOW what I'm going to say. Because I'm HORRIBLE and and ENABLER, but you can't NOT buy that yarn. It's perfect for you."

Black Water Abbey lady interjected, "It really is. Look at how it makes your natural coloring come alive."

"Dammit!"

But we were good. That was our last stop, and the first and only stop where I made an impulse purchase.

5. By the way, what's the deal with that bag? Oh, that snazzy little thing? That's my new Knitter's Satchel from Jordana Paige. Mine's green. Daisy bought the graphite version. I'm a little worried about the clasp, because it doesn't close as tightly as I'd like. Daisy says she can fix it with pliers. I'm thinking about contacting JP first, before we start retooling it ourselves.

6. Finally, we have about 1700 yards of DK merino in the African Violets colorway from Interlacements. Did I mention that I love Interlacements? This is my least solid purchase, because it's a bit bright, and I have no idea what I want it to be.

All in all, a good Stitches. We didn't go completely nuts, we got what we came for, and we almost stayed within budget. (The JP bag broke Daisy, and the Black Water Abbey stop pushed me over.)

I'm especially happy that I only brought home four new yarns, because of this. Take a look at this mess.


"Aww, that's not so bad..." So you say. But bear in mind that this is a queen-sized bed, that I'm not getting everything in the shot, that most of this yarn is in SpaceBags, so what looks like five skeins is actually twenty, and that this is only yarn from the aptly-named 'Big Bin', where I keep yarns in quantities great enough to be sweaters. There are also two smaller bins, a comforter bag, and a couple of baskets floating around the house. I catalogued Big Bin last night, put it in Pam's spreadsheet. It's, well, embarrassing. And I still have the small bins and random locations left to count. Two things -- 1. No more yarn until the NEXT stitches. 2. Knit faster.

...just because he's my favorite ball of wool, here's Buddy.



In all the excitement, we managed to take a vacation in the city. More on that later. I leave you with this quote, overheard at Top of the Mark: "I was at lunch with George Hamilton and Burt Reynolds. Huge talents. Huge..."