Flint Knits

It was a busy first week of teaching, but now I’m free until Monday. Woo hoo!

I’m hoping to get some serious work done on the chunky sweater/jacket thingamabob. I’m using Rowanspun Chunky in the color Fern. Looks more like moss to me.

Yep. I was sure I had a second skein of this lovely Dream in Color yarn, but it’s nowhere to be found. Sadly, I also can’t find the label to this one, so I’m not even sure what colorway it is. “Lipstick Lava” maybe?

Anyway, I’m going to sit on it for a while before I frog, because it’s so damn pretty and squishy.

In lieu of real knitting content (as I curse the yarn gods, as well as my own shortsightedness), please enjoy last night’s dinner:

Throw a few handfuls of arugula in a food processor or blender with garlic, basil, and a bit of hard cheese. Blend it up. Drizzle in some olive oil as you keep processing. Stir in salt and pepper.

Cook some penne in lots of boiling salted water. Throw in some chopped green beans (same size as the noodles) for the last 3 minutes of cooking time. Put it all together with some fresh chopped tomatoes on top.

Those of you in the US, enjoy your day off! I’ll be spending mine at Flint’s 2nd annual Lumberjack Fest. I missed the flapjack breakfast, but am hoping to arrive in time for the live music and feats of strength (log rolling, log splitting, log tossing). It’s really just a bunch of my friends having a cookout with a theme, but it’s tons of fun.

This had been sitting on the needles for a while, getting worked on during TV time, at the movie theater, while talking on the phone — whenever miles of plain stockinette was an asset, instead of a reason to gauge my own eyes out.

And then last night, while Sydney Bristow was giving birth on the floor of a bank that was under siege by an international crime syndicate, and MDF and I were drinking sangria, it suddenly became a finished object.

I liked the twisted stitch pattern on Wicked, but wasn’t sure I needed another sweater that would basically stand in for a hoodie. When I want to wear a sweatshirt, I want to wear a sweatshirt. But start with the truly luxe Sundara superwash merino, add a panel in the twisted stitch pattern, and sew on some button bands, and you’ve got a sweater.

Also, I have to admit I kind of love how … buxom a good cabley sweater makes my modest A-cup look. Not for every day, maybe, but for special sweatergirl occasions. (This is NOT to be confused with the look you get from two giant cables and a row of kumquat-sized bobbles.)

I finally bought Twinkle’s Big City Knits yesterday.

I really want to make this sweater for myself, but I have a problem.

Don’t the bobbles running down the front look like a row of nipples? Like, if I was going to knit a Lactating Sow costume, I would use pink yarn, and this exact pattern of bobbles.

These are not bobbles, my friends. They are boobles. Must make sweater without them.

Okay, yes, the quality of these photos leaves something to be desired. Even more so than the sad pictures I usually get from my crappy little camera.

But I was so excited to finish Jarrett that I forced its poor recipient to pose for pictures at 6:00 am, in the dark, as he was getting ready to leave on a 12-hour road trip. I really wanted to get some snapshots (to prove I’d actually finished the thing), before he took off for Michigan and I didn’t see him or the sweater for 3 weeks. That said, I’m sure there will be another (reluctant) photo session one day, when there are elbow patches and natural light to make the whole thing prettier.

For now:

Modifications? First, I went down three sizes smaller than the pattern’s Small, but had to do so without shrinking the shoulders too much for recipient’s slender but dudely frame. Brooklyn Tweed’s post about this pattern was massively useful here, as I lifted his idea of knitting set-in sleeves from the top down. (Thank you, Barbara Walker!) After I did the math for the front and back pieces, I was saved many headaches by these two smartypantses — the sleeves look great and fit perfectly.

Also, at the giftee’s request, I only put a shoulder patch on the left side (the shoulder he carries his messenger bag on) instead of on both, and left off the bottom button and buttonhole. He also requested dark brown elbow patches instead of grey ones. I’ve yet to knit these, but I’m pretending this is a finished object anyway.

And instead of the suggested YO buttonholes, I used a tubular buttonhole, explained in wonderful detail by your friend and mine, Montse Stanley. I also tried out a tubular cast-off for the first time, which looks fab on the collar ribbing. I’m a big fan now — in fact, I went on to use the same bind-off on the cuff of my first Baudelaire sock.

And I’ve also become a big fan of Rowanspun, which is, of course, discontinued (why, Rowan? WHY?). It knits up just okay, but then blooms into the softest, most wonderful felty fabric. I still have 4 hanks left of the DK, and a full bag of Rowanspun Chunky is on its way to me from the UK right now. There is at least one geek-chic sweater-vest in my future.