Say It's A Sabbatical

Elizabeth wrote - ... This long post is really just to say "thank you" and to let you know that you are are very much appreciated and that, in many ways, you are still teaching!

I heard a quote from Mark Twain the other day. He said, I can live for two months on a really good compliment. It's so true. Thank you for writing Elizabeth. It means a lot to me.

On the weekend, I decided to call this extended period of time in my life a sabbatical. That has such a lovely sound especially when people ask me what I do. It's a great lead in because I'm thrilled that while I'm growing, exploring, and being creative, I can also be sharing, inspiring, and teaching. YES YES!

Friday was a fabulous day. My friend lives in a log home up in the mountains near the ski hill about half an hour from me. I arrived mid morning and we knit, drank coffee, chatted, made lunch, ate, and chatted, and knit some more. I left mid afternoon. She showed me how to make the baby hats and I have my notes for when I'm ready. I made TREMENDOUS progress on the capelet. I was about an inch from the end when I left and finished it at home.

This color is extremely difficult to match. These denim colored buttons seemed the best both in color and size. When I'm adding buttons to a sweater, I sew one in place, button it into the hole, and then mark and sew the next one, continuing on until they are all placed. They are not knotted with thread. Instead, the yarn is drawn up through the sweater, through the button and sweater several times, and then tied in a square knot on the back. That way, I can remove the buttons if I decide to do something different such as...

... rip it out and start over - LOL - and I just might. I have definitely become more of a process person than a project one. See the shape above. It's bat winged and not even along the bottom. I really dislike that. See the capelet top right in this Simplicity pattern. The bottom edge is even. I think I could knit that shape and create a much better capelet and now I'm so curious to see if what I think might work would really work. The challenge is ever so tempting. I might re-use this yarn because I absolutely love it but I haven't made it into anything I absolutely love yet although this capelet is the closest.

Here's the picture of the Shawl Collared Jacket from the Debbie Bliss 2009 Winter Magazine. LOVE the way that looks.

This is what the collar piece from the instructions looked like pre-blocking. You can check back to Friday's posting to see how it looked on the sweater. REALLY REALLY BAD.

These are the new collar pieces. They took way less time and far less yarn and fit the garment so much easier. I started with four stitches and increased every row until I got to the width I wanted and then I knit straight to the shoulder seam, added some short rows to turn the corner, and knit straight across the back. That method is a merging of several sets of instructions.

Periodically, I would stop and pin the collar to the jacket to make sure it was laying right and to get the length. Each piece goes from the front around to center back where they are seamed together.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to graft an invisible seam. I pulled out my book, thought I followed the instructions, and ended up with a neat but not an invisible seam. It works however, it's not grafted.

The outer edges kept curling up around the sweater. That was driving me crazy so I did on single crochet all around. You can see the before to the left and the after to the right of the loop below. I think it makes a nice finish.

Howard went out for coffee yesterday. I figured I could sneak in a trip to Fabricland while he wasn't looking and then he wouldn't feel compelled to distract me as requested last week. I needed six buttons for the sweater and almost made it back before he did - VBG. He was pulling into the driveway just before me. No distracting was necessary though. The place was PACKED. I think every person who has ever sewed has suddenly taken it up again. On top of that, they were having a 50% off sale along with Simplicity patterns for 1.99. I bought six buttons, four patterns, and got out of there as fast as I could because I REALLY REALLY HATE CROWDS.




And here it is DONE DONE DONE. I just realized I haven't tried it on yet. Too funny. Perhaps I'm subliminally worried that it won't fit and I'll rip it out. Capelet - maybe, most likely, YES. Shawl Collar Jacket - NOT.

I finished the jacket about seven last night, read for a bit, watched Home Makeover and the news, and went to bed. Today, I'm washing sheets and towels and a few other loads of laundry while working on the focal points for the two textile pieces. They were supposed to be done on the weekend too however, the knitting took longer than I thought. My guesstimator doesn't seem to be working well right now. SO... if I'm really lucky, they'll be finished this morning. I hope so. I want to start working on my SWAP plan. Earlier, I picked up a discarded Vogue catalogue to help me create a collage and the plan.

Have a great day - Myrna

Grateful - finished both sweaters