The Lumpy Sweater

 I have two major projects coming to a close. First, my first cardigan, which is patiently awaiting a serious seaming session, a button band and some buttons. Secondly, my t-shirt. Yes, my pink t-shirt is nearly finished.

 Spurred on by Michelle’s example, I have completed the front, the first sleeve, and I am 3 or 4 rows away from finishing the second sleeve. (Michelle, I feel a little dense—I actually ended up binding off all the neck stitches, I didn’t feel knowledgable enough to leave them on a holder!)

 Jen is taking things at a slightly more sane rate on her t-shirt.

The front: in an artistic pose that hides the fact that the sunlight bleached my other photos

My one completed sleeve.

Actually, I just looked at the second sleeve. Something is screwed up here. It’s way too short and way too skinny. That’s a reknit.

 The sleeves gave me a little panic; since I’ve been following the directions for a size 40, (but gauge should make it a size 36) I’ve been following the width instructions, but following the size 36 instructions for length, since the row gauge is the same.  This should give me a perfect fit t-shirt.

 But I panicked—I was following the 40 directions for a sleeve, how could I make it the right length and the right shape so that it would fit into the shorter armhole? After some calculations, I figured out that the size 40 sleeve is actually only 4 rows longer than the 36, so I decreased a little more rapidly and it should be OK. Should be.

 But all this flurry, this excitement, this learning-of-seaming…it’s making me sad. And a little scared. Not of the seaming, no. But suddenly, these two projects will be over. I’ve been working on the cardigan since at least December. I knit fast. Longer projects help, because I don’t have to look for another project so soon. Inches of stockinette keeping my fingers busy. There’s an energy required to picking projects that exhausts me.

 Let’s put it this way, I hate starting or picking out projects. Hate it. This might sound weird. I’ll rephrase it; I love the potential, I love the colors, I love wandering into a yarn store with a crisp twenty in my pocket and empty needles at home.

 But deciding is very hard for me. I am so entranced with possibilities that decision is cold and harsh. I hate the emotional energy of deciding that such a yarn becomes such a pattern. That’s why, if I see a yarn or pattern that I must knit, I grab at it. It is so rare that I can simply shrug off my nagging brain and simply DECIDE that I simply obey it, whenever it happens.  (The Sublime Cotton was one of those)

 Sweaters make it easier. Once started, they last for some time, especially in DK weight. No decisions. Just knitting.

 I do have at least one large project. My Seascape wrap, although after completing a swatch, I think I will need lace needles. Other than that…no current projects. Oh, sure, some long abandoned single socks. (Ha!)

 However, I am still excited. I have some lovely new yarn and other things to show you, and it is so hard not to start new projects at once. However, I must resist, and finish all the pieces of my t-shirt first.

 If I close my eyes and wish really hard, I can imagine that the entire front of my nothing but a t-shirt is done. I’m almost to the neck shaping now, so I’m not too far away.

 Michelle has a jump on me, however, and has an entire sleeve finished!

 Jen doesn’t have updates on her t-shirt, but she does have a lovely scarf that she knitted in public last Saturday, and she actually got to teach someone to knit!

 This coming week should be jam-packed with pictures and more pictures—new yarn, new projects, a mysterious finished object and, well, a little extra surprise on Monday. Cheers!

 It’s official, I am addicted to knitting with Sublime cotton. I have completely finished the back, and I’ve started on the front.

 Whenever someone asks a question about it, I always force them to feel how soft it is. Invariably their mouths form an O of surprise as they do so.

 The front is knitted just like the back until the armholes, so I am in a pleasant zen of peaceful, unthinking stockinette.

Now, on to the other KAL participants.

1. Michelle is making good progress on her t-shirt. Can I repeat how much I love the color that she’s chosen? I really love the color that she’s chosen.
2. Jen has the cutest, sunniest little t-shirt ever, making me slightly regretful that I am knitting my t-shirt in just one color!

 Summer is rapidly approaching, and so is Knit in Public Day (June 14) so I am wishfully hoping to finish the t-shirt AND my knitting tract before then—the knitting tract will be done by then, definitely. It would be very cool to know that other people knitting in public were handing out pamphlets detailing the good news of knitting.

Time for a NBAT update, with pictures from me and the other participants!

Look at that lovely, nipped in waist. I am definitely feeling the urge to just tape my nearly-completed back onto my body so I can run around the neighborhood, shouting, “Hey, look, it’s part of t-shirt!” Also, the contrast between soft, silky pink cotton and harsh, pebbly concrete is a quite sensous image, I think.

See? I just have to knit the arm..strap..things. However, I am considering that I will rip back this row, and instead of binding off the stitches for the neck, I will leave them ‘live’ on a stitch holder. Maggie Righetti, who wrote the venerable book, Knitting In Plain English, seems to think that this is a good idea.

 Remember when I bragged about my hem? Now you can see it!

 I like this hem so much that next time that I knit socks (I have some Plymouth Sockotta, a nice cotton blend that should make nice summer footies) I may use that as the edge, instead of ribbing.

 Now, time for the other KAL participants to show off their stuff!

•  Jen has kindly shown a picture of the hem before the two edges get knit together, and has appropriately picked a very cute, summery yellow color for her t-shirt! Check out her post here and you may also want to check out her next post about her husband’s rather colorful taste in t-shirts.

•  Michelle is (gasp!) using the recommended yarn for her t-shirt, Rowan Calmer! She’s chosen a lovely calm blue color with white for edging—go and check it out!

 I am so pleased with this pattern that I could kiss the designer, if one could kiss people through computer screens. Maybe she’s lucky that we can’t. However, as the weather continues to warm (with spurts of heavy rain inbetween) wild life has gone wild around here. I leave as proof a picture of the bush outside my window. It’s scary.

 My latest project is very like the Loch Ness monster: much discussed, but seldom photographed. A battery-sucking camera and lack of fresh double A batteries have conspired to hide the truth of its existence, but you have my word that it does. The goverment is just trying to hide the fact that I can knit like a demon when I’m enthusiastic about a project.

 In fact, my Nothing But A T-Shirt   has a nearly completed back! I have knitted inches and inches of pale pink organic cotton fabric, have breezed past the armholes, and am just beginning the shoulder strap…things. I am knitting it at 5.5 stitches per inch, rather than 4.75 stitchers per inch, and I am cautiously optimistic at this point, since it seems fairly human-sized at this point.

•  Jinniver, who is participating in the somewhat informal NBAT knit-a-long is also modifying her pattern, and you can see a sketch of her calculations as she resizes the pattern at her blog, Sarah Winchester of Fiber Arts.
• Michelle is officially reviving her attempts to knit this pattern, as she started one a couple years ago. Pestering attempts from a sister have reinspired here, at her blog.

 What, you say? No proof? No pictures of newly purchased yarn or even a few scant inches of knitting to show that this KAL is even occuring?

 It’s the goverment, I tell you. They’ve got their hands in everything.

No, these are not obscure cabbages of some sort.

This is Sublime Organic Cotton DK, and it is sublime. I swung around to the yarn store today and despite the fact that

• Older sister does not think this pale subdued pink will look nice on me
• Mom seems meh
• I do not, in fact, have enough money for all the yarn at this time and have only 3 skeins

 I don’t care. Because this yarn is amazing.

 The color is called Scrumble, for whatever obscure reason. The resulting fabric from 22 stitches per inch is fluid, silk and absolutely beautiful. The delicacy and amazing feel immeaditely made me want to put it next to my skin, but since knitted underwear isn’t my thing, I thought of a t-shirt.

 Well, whaddya know? I fell in love with another (former) Magknits pattern, called Nothing But A T-Shirt, available from the designers blog. Here’s the problem. Although that pattern does use a DK weight yarn (for the non-knitters, that stands for double knitting and it is fairly thin yarn, think of standard twine) it’s knitted at 19 stitches per inch on size 8 needles. Well, I tried that. The resulting fabric was loose, yucky, and didn’t even reach that gauge.

 However, I did a little math, and found that I’d have to cast on around 99 stitches at 5.5 stitches per inch (the ball band gauge) to knit the size 36 bust. Imagine my burst of clever glee when I realized that I could simply knit a bigger size in the t-shirt, but it will end up being a 36 bust anyway. Right?

 So I’ve cast on for the ‘40′ size.

 What, you say? What of that other sweater? What sweater? I don’t even know what you’re talking about!

 But somehow, as I am knitting with my pale pink yarn, my silky cotton yarn, I’m convinced that somehow…someway…I’m going to be punished.