Ribbons

In case you missed it, Team Pibble!

And now, on with the program.


"Suzanne? I can't log in and none of my data is showing up."

"How do you know none of your data is displaying on your report if you can't log in to see it? By the way, what do you mean when you say that you can't log in? There's no password for that system. It's your network password. Are you saying you can't log in to your computer at all?"

"I guess so."

"But you just sent me an e-mail."

"CAN YOU FIX IT BECAUSE I HAVE SOMETHING DUE IN TEN MINUTES!"


They're a nice bunch of people, the reporting team. They're intelligent and witty and efficient, and they're happy that someone's paying attention to them. We're all learning how to talk to each other, finding our common language, learning each other's terms for things.

Most importantly, I like them. It's the only reason I haven't kneecapped any of them in the elevator.

It's kind of like this top. It was a pain in the ass to get going, but I really like it now that it's finished.

Details
The Pattern
Berroco 'Caroline', available for free on their website. I made the 35" size, which gives me about 2" of negative ease unstretched.

The Yarn
Six balls of Berroco Zen Colors, Shade 8141 'Mt. Fuji'. It's from last summer's bargain bin dive at Fashion Knit. I like how it knit up, sort of a Renoir palette. The color repeats are so short that there's almost no pooling.

The Needles
Addi Natura 24" and Addi Turbo 16", both size 8. I needed both, because I didn't want to have to put any of the stitches on waste yarn. It's been a trying summer of ribbon knitting, and I didn't want to make it worse.

The Time
I started it last summer, got eight inches into it, abandoned it for ten months, then picked it back up and finished it in two weeks. Like most projects, it would have gone faster if I'd had more time to work on it. I'm going to stop saying that, because it should go without saying. The elapsed time, therefore, is ten months. If, however, you're wondering if you should knit it and you're scared by the length of time it looks like it took, call it three weeks of evening and weekend knitting. I knit the first version of it a couple of years ago in about that amount of time.

And look! I said I was going to finish before the end of the summer. I said it way back when I started, and I followed through. Yay! Please note that I did not specify the year.


The Modifications
I knit it in the round because I didn't like how the ribbing seams came out on my first one. After the mess that was the Tartelette tank, I'm glad I did it that way. This yarn wasn't too bad to seam, but it did grab in a couple of places at the shoulders. I'm glad I didn't have to do those side seams.

Fearing that I'd run out of ribbon, and being somewhat petite in stature anyway, I made it about an inch shorter than the pattern called for.

It's supposed to have a cowl collar, but I didn't have enough yarn. That's the breaks when you're bargain bin diving. There were only six balls, so that's what I had to work with. I used every yard of all six of them, and managed to make a little rolled collar.


The self-finishing edges at the arms looked a little skimpy and showed a little too much skin, so I went back around them with a line of single crochet.

The cable lengths aren't too consistent, because I didn't keep a row counter handy, and I'm not so good at figuring it out by looking. This was more of a problem when knitting in the round, because there's no "this is the right side and it looks like the right amount of rows, give or take one, so this must be where I cross" reference. Some of the twists are at eight rows, some at eleven rows, some at nine rows, and so on. I decided that it added visual interest and kept plowing forward. When I got to the top part and started knitting back and forth, I managed to make them even.

Conclusions
The variegated yarn doesn't do much to make the cables stand out, but I knew that'd happen. It's a textural element, not so much a visible one. Other than the color, I stuck with the pattern as much as possible. It was a good mental break from my recent no-pattern projects.

I wore this top all day yesterday. It's comfortable and cool, and it relaxed down to the length I wanted, which was quite nice of it. Comfortable as it is, I don't think I'd use Zen for another project unless it's all stockinette. It's just too hard to read the stitches with the twisting ribbon and the changing colors.

Overall, I...hold on. I have to take this call.

"Suzanne! I can't get into Cognos!"

"According to the screenshot you sent, you were trying to log into Outlook, not Cognos."

"Oh. Yeah, that's why I couldn't send an e-mail to the help desk."

"Well, somehow you sent me an e-mail with the screenshot, so I guess you're O.K. now."

"Yeah. Thanks for fixing it. Great job!"

And then I gave up and went to lunch.

The end.

Purpley

Remember this thing? I'm finishing it by Wednesday, my birthday. I'm finishing it, and then I'm not knitting anything with ribbon for the rest of the summer. I'm already a few rows into the back above the spit for the arms, so I think it's possible.

"Purpley!" said Daisy. "Hey, did you ever finish that grey top?"

"What grey top?"

"The one with the ribbon yarn."

"Yeah. I wore it last week. You saw it."

"No, not the one with the big stripes. The GREY one."

"We mustn't speak of it, lest we permanently damage our friendship. Change the subject. Change the subject now."

"Look! Over there! It's my puppy!"


"Good show, Daisy. No anger can stand when faced with the cuteness of the puppy."

"The Woman!"

"Except for Buddy's anger, of course."

"Of course."


"Stop bringing these beasts into our home, the Woman!"

"She's not going to live here, Buddy. She's just visiting."

"Oh, well then. The rationalizing makes it acceptable, does it? What if we say that I'm not going to permanently disfigure her, that I'm just going to lightly maul her. Does that make everyone happy?"


"Daisy, you might want to grab your puppy."

It'll only be a couple of weeks until she's too big for him to fight, but that doesn't mean he won't try. That's my Buddy. Territorial, pugnacious, and no ability to assess risk.

Everything Zen

Remember how I was going to work on something really easy after finishing my Disasterous July sweaters? Remember how, in a fit of rage and disgust, I decided to knit something made entirely of stockinette? And it was going to be Coachella? And it was going to take me approximately four days? Yeah, so that didn't work out too well. There's nothing to show for it, because I frogged it. Too slippery, too open, too much of my back showing. I'd wanted to have at least one top done this summer, one little top that I could wear proudly while exclaiming, "I made this!" That dream was fading fast.

"Hey, I remember the last little summer top I made, and it was pretty easy! I could make another one of those. I've even got the recommended yarn for it!"

Look what I've gotten myself into now. What I hadn't accounted for was the differences between yarns. The first one I made was knit in a wool/silk blend. This yarn, Berroco Zen, is not so smooth and luxurious on the hands. It is horrible to work with. I'm lucky to get one cable repeat done every two days, because I get tired from working with it and give up. I don't mean that I get bored or frustrated. My hands literally lose strength after seven or eight rounds, and I have to put the project down. Maybe it'll get easier after the separation for the front and back. I'm halfway there.

It's going to be pretty when it's done, which is the only reason that I keep working on it. I'm trying to get it done by Saturday, the last day of summer.