Knitting comfort

It doesn't feel like I've done a lot of knitting this past week, but what I have done has made me feel extremely grateful that I have knitting. It's been such a comfort to me. It's been hard to process my grandmother's death, at times; I feel extremely removed from her death, I'm terribly sad for my mom, aunt and uncles-they lost their mom!  and then I remember, I'm part of this too, she was my grandmother. We weren't extremely close, the last 6 years I didn't see her much at all, though we exchanged cards, and I called her a couple of times a year.  She told me I was hopeless when she tried to teach me to knit, and I  never got to share my knitting with her, but I've never forgotten that she knit for all of us. Every Christmas, there were knitted gifts. I remember one pair of gloves she made when I was a little kid. The gloves were white and each finger was a different, bright colour, I thought they were so cool. And the light blue vest she knit, which I thought was totally stylin' (it was the 80's yo).  Plus, everyone had slippers. Knit with phentex no less (her poor, poor hands, there were a lot of us). I was given a bunch of my grandmother's needles and notions a few years back. I couldn't knit with the needles as they hurt my hands, so I donated them to the local English community center, I did keep the crochet hooks and the pattern booklets though.
The service will be this weekend. It's going to be hard.

                                                       Kathleen Bourgaize 1928-2016


In knitting:
 I finished the Meret Mitts. They're pretty fantastic. I was irritated by the yo's at the thumb until I finished them, now I think they're pretty snazzy!

I'm pretty sure I'll have enough for  a pair of full mittens-there's good yardage on the Tanis Fibre Arts-I really enjoyed knitting with it, and I love the colours. The yarn washed up well, very little bleeding. I will definitely knit with that yarn again, in fact,  I'd love to get a sweater quantity some day-I think a sweater knit out of the DK weight would be fantastic, and the Aran weight would be so warm and comfy for winter!

I started knitting Scowl by Xandy Peters.

I'm using some Biscotte & Cie from deep-ish stash in the colourway Charivari (which is a self striping white, grey and black sock yarn). If you recall; I knit one sock out of it and never knit the other because I went down a needle size and the resulting sock was way too tight. The fabric felt like it was made of iron! I figured I'd try it out, see how it looks, and if I run out of yarn, I'll just frog the sock, The pattern is made with a U.S 11 needles, so the resulting fabric is super drapey and can be worn as a scarf or a cowl. Super easy, don't-have-to-pay-attention knitting, and will likely knit up quite quick with the large needles. I can't see myself wearing it as a scarf, I prefer really loooong scarves, but I'm really stoked about wearing it as a cowl.
My daughter P thought it looked chain mail-ish, which makes me invision knitting another one-possibly out of Julie Asselin Piccolo in the colourway Shining Armour!

I put Scowl in time out though, so I could work more on the Greenfield cardy.
Which I finally finished! Huzzah! With a bottle of wine in me, after Easter dinner, I picked up and knit the left button band (brave, I know) and it turned out just fine!
So I tried it on the next morning...and was kind of meh about it.
It really could be longer, but I cannot bear the thought of undoing the bind off. It feels a little wide, but, that does seem to be fit of the sweater-also I'm wondering if I made the right size. I probably could have gone a little smaller, and then just compensated for length. The upper arms and the armholes are a little big.

I do love the colours and the yarn, and I like the neckline and shoulders a lot. So there's that. I might feel better after I wear it a bit, get over my (real and perceived) imperfections.
I didn't have any buttons in my stash that I felt worked with the sweater, so I went to Fabricville and picked up some greyish-purpley buttons that work perfectly.

I also used some grosgrain ribbon on the inside of the button band. Wow, are my sewing skills ever baaaaad, I'm not even going to share the picture, it's that bad!  I may re-do the sewing* at some point.

I have quite a bit of the Miss Babs left...about 300 yards I think, what to make?

After talking about, thinking about it for like, 2 years, I finally cast on the Harvest cardigan by Tincanknits.  I'm knitting it with Julie Asselin Sevilla (which is a lovely worsted weight merino) in the colour Azul.
I had to look up the tutorial for the crochet chain provisional cast-on. I had learned to do a simple crochet chain six-ish months ago for an infinity scarf and then never even used my new found hooking knowledge because I changed my mind about the pattern, but I haven't had a reason or urge to crochet since then.

I think I did okay. While doing the cast on, I couldn't help but wonder if it would have been easier (not that it was difficult by any stretch of the imagination) to just cast on with waste yarn? It just seems like it's extra work, for nothing-waste yarn would be quicker, and probably easier to undo as well.

Anyway, so I'm knitting the scowl (which, since I finished Greenfield, has now become my travel project), and harvest, might as well add another project to that (because monogamous knitting is sooo not for me)  I'm going to cast on The Age of Brass and Steam by Orange Flower Yarn. I'm going to knit it with Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend in Silver. I'm not going to make it kerchief size though, I'm going to make it small shawl size. I'm trying to hold off casting on until I finish the 10 sets of raglan increases, i'm currently at 5 sets, and the rows are starting to get long and kind of boring, so who knows how long that resolve will last.


Today I culled some of the knits that I've made. There's quite a bit that I don't wear for whatever reason. The wool is too scratchy to me, or the size/fit is wrong, or what-the-fuck-was-I-thinking-buying-pink-wool reasons. Why keep things I don't wear, will never wear? I'm going to donate the items to the local second hand store (because I like that they hire people who've been out of the work force for a long time, people with intellectual disabilities, and newly arrived immigrants who are having a hard time finding work). There's some scarves, mitts, fingerless gloves, legwarmers, hats, that bloody askew top/vest thingy, and an Andi Satterlund cardy that I loooove everything about, except the yarn and the colour. Dusty Rose...WHY??? Also, I used Cascade and I find it too scratchy and hot for a short sleeved cardigan. Before I put it in the bag for donation I cut off the buttons. I feel like a huge jerkface for donating a sweater without buttons, but I couldn't bear to give up the adorable little, metal yarn balls buttons.

I could have probably frogged some of the items and salvaged the wool, used it for other projects. But I know myself, when I'm done with something I'm done. I salvaged some wool from a project made a year ago, and I don't even like looking at it now. It's balled up and hidden away, not even in the nice baskets with my beloved stash.


*(oh who am I kidding? No one is going to see the grosgrain ribbon, it may not look pretty, but it does what it's supposed to do, there's no way I'm going to re-sew it)