emchick

Friday afternoon I finally finished the 5 ft long belt for Haven. Misery.

11 stitches, ribbing with a garter/moss stitch edge (it's hard to define when it's 1 stitch wide). The pattern called for the ribbing to be done through the back loops but after over an hour of knitting and only a few inches, I decided that to preserve my sanity, I'd be knitting plain ribbing for the rest of the way. The belt loops were much easier - thinner and of course so much shorter - although having to knit 6 of the same things was pretty lame. By Friday night, though, I was ready for washing and seaming, and by Saturday night it was completed.


Haven, from Rowan Denim People
20 balls Rowan Denim, Nashville
Started July 2004, finished January 2006(!)


The set-in sleeve worked out great - definitely my best yet. I kind of figured out how to deal with the corner of the top of the sleeve, so it becomes rounded. I'm so so happy with the final result! I still haven't sewn in the belt loops so I can use the belt, but I'm overwhelmed with all the seaming that happened this weekend so I think it can wait. Plus, it looks good without the belt for now. I'll try for some modelled shots sometime soon.

Good news!

I finished knitting the first sleeve of Haven, ran it through the washing machine a few times, and it looks like it'll fit into the front and back of the sweater. I haven't approached seaming yet, since it's such a daunting task. I'm not a very meticulous sewer, and this sweater offers new concerns. Assuming I can set the sleeve in well (not impossible, but still something that scares me - how do people deal with the corners at the top of the sleeves? I can never make that look anything except...pointy), there's still the issue of the yarn. Should I seam with Denim, even though it might shrink? If I use this yarn to seam, I'll use the yarn from my gauge swatch, or maybe from a new swatch I knit and throw into the washing machine. But what if it still shrinks? If I use another yarn, it won't shrink, but what if the rest of the sweater does, and it puckers? This is why I put both pieces through the wash twice. Maybe I'll put everything in one more time before I start seaming. Either way, it looks like I'm going to finish the second sleeve before I start seaming. I'm about 1/4 done with it so far, so it shouldn't be long now.

I also finished 1/2 of a pair of socks:


It's kind of great, the way I've started and not finished so many projects. Finishing them has been so easy and quick and fun! This sock is my first knit from a skein of Trekking XXL I bought a few months ago. Plain stockinette, using bits and pieces of different patterns I found online. It's not perfect - I've only ever finished one pair of socks, in Koigu KPPPM, although I've started and stopped others. I'm not sure if sock knitting is for me. Maybe with a pattern? But then there's swatching involved, and my hatred for swatching in the round...For now I'll put this sock aside and consider knitting it's partner.

In the summer of 2004, I started my most expensive and courageous project to date, Haven, from Rowan's Denim People book, knit with 20(!!!) balls of Rowan denim, as usual purchased from Jannette.

That summer, I was teaching test prep and working at my test prep center 40 hours a week, and spent the rest of my time knitting and watching baseball (2004 turned out to be a good time to watch that many Red Sox games!). The back of Haven took me a month to finish, with 240 rows and 3 cables throughout. Working cables with denim yarn can be Painful, especially when you've really never done cables before. And that denim yarn has no stretch! With the back completed, I moved on to one of the fronts, which moved a bit more quickly with only one cable and much less width, but when school started up again I just didn't have the time and put Haven aside.

Somehow, by this past spring, I finished the two fronts. One of the front's cables is Not Centered, but I noticed too late into it and there was no way I was going to reknit any of those cables, so it stayed. I could have moved on to the sleeves from there, but wanted to finish the collar first so I could throw all those pieces into the wash, watch them shrink, and be inspired to finish those sleeves. I worked on that collar a little over the summer, and finished it...last week! Yay! I threw all the pieces into the dryer and was left with these:





The finished pile of fronts, back, and collar; a close-up of the collar; a close-up of some cables on the back.

I am almost done with the first sleeve, and will wash it and try to set it in before starting the second one. Something felt strange about the sleeve cap and the armhole shaping for the fronts and back. On the front and back, there's at least 8 inches above where I first had to bind off for the armhole, but I don't see how the sleevecap will be more than 5. I have looked at other patterns and seen that the one number being higher than the second is fine, and I've set in sleeves before so it kiiiind of makes sense, but this discrepancy seems like too much. I don't know what I'll do if that sleeve doesn't fit - reworking sleeve shaping is scary enough without having to take into account the denim shrinking! At least I'll know what's going on within the next day or two.