I promised myself that I would finish Ms. Marigold in time to wear this season, and as it is still seasonably cool, in some ways I succeeded. Unfortunately it is way too big. When I started making this, people thought it was for a baby because the upper shoulder area was so tiny. I have small shoulders, I told myself, and I kept on plugging along. As the deep V started to form I thought, "No way will this be too small, it will be just right!" and then I cruised to a finish without thinking about the V-neck ribbing and ruffles, and the fact that the armholes were saggy and huge.

This pattern and the resulting vest is charming enough for me to not jam it into a drawer and forget it about it but instead to rip it all out and start again. But not for another few weeks. I have visitors coming tomorrow (my brother and his fiancee!!) so the careful ripping and starting again (two sizes smaller, for sure) will have to wait. Looks like this will be a fall FO after all.

*Optimistic and helpful advice from my boyfriend.

Posted by Molly at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I didn't pick it up for a while because I didn't want to be fumbling with fit measurements and counting decreases when I was tired and too busy to get a lot of good knitting time in. But this Friday I sat down with Ms. Marigold to finish up the neckline so that I could enjoy the straight stockinette and catch up with friends at Saturday's local SnB. It sure is quick going now! I can see why most normal knitters finish this project up in no time. It is perfect Ms. Marigold weather here at the moment, and I can't imagine it would be the best for Japanese summer, so I am trying to finish it up as soon as I can! The color is a bit funny in the above photo... I have found that the yarn is tough to photograph well.

I even tried it on because I am determined not to let this be another knitter garment that fits, but is not quite right. So far, so good! I'm about to start some waist increases around the sides and hopefully it will be finished with soon enough for me to move into the next stage of Project Spectrum. This should be the perfect project to breeze through as I catch up on all the past few weeks episodes of Biggest Loser. I am addicted to that show!

Posted by Molly at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A long time has passed since I gave up on my gorgeous Noro Cash Laine sweater, but it wasn't until just this weekend that I really commited and used the yarn for something else. I didn't even have to rip, but simply cast off at the top of the sleeves and made the two bell sleeves into two thick and cozy legwarmers. I love the stripiness of the yarn, and even though they are not symmetrical, I am sure that I will wear them with black tights and a skirt to work anyway. These were not made to be hidden under my jeans!

I finished these babies off as soon as I got home from my tiring proficiency test last Sunday, and have loved having all that study time turn back into free time this week. I thought it was a good week, but then today it turned to a GREAT week when I found that the perfect jeans that I have been coveting from Uniqlo are actually the perfect fit. When does that ever happen? Never, if you're me. I am going to be knitting a mile a minute with all this good energy tonight (yes, I am wearing the new purchase right now).

I also finished my second Noro Stripes scarf and even my Endpaper Mitts last night. More pictures soon, whenever I can stop dancing around in these jeans.

Posted by Molly at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, it's been more than two weeks since I took this picture with every intention of posting it on the blog. But I have hardly had the time for blogging lately as I have been busy with work, emails, a weekend trip to Shikoku for a soccer tournament, a weekend at my friend's place near the beach and a business trip to Tokyo, among other things. It's been such a busy month that I can't believe it's nearly over.

Anyway, this is the progress picture I took of my Cash Laine sweater at the beginning of June when I was still in the habit of knitting regularly. I had to lay it out on my old Hourglass because i realized that when I was about to cast on for the second sleeve, I only had three skeins of yarn left. How did that happen? I definitely need two skeins to knit the sleeve. Then there is still a decent half-skein hanging off the body, plus a smidge at the top of my finished sleeve which ideally means there will be a smidge from the top of the second sleeve as well. But that yoke is wiiiide.

WIll I actually be able to make the slightly smaller neckline that I dreamed of with this sweater?* It's not looking good. But you can never be too sure, and if I made it this far, what's a few more rows?

Posted by Molly at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Next up in the WIP lineup is this bottom-up sweater knit in the round that I started knitting ages and ages ago with some stripy Noro Cash Laine. It's a colorway that looks like black and raspberry in a certain light but is actually green and raspberry. I like the colors a lot and thought they would make a practical sweater for the long, cold Japanese winters. Turns out this year has not been so cold and I have hardly needed a winter jacket, let alone a big bulky wool sweater. But I'll be here for one more winter (I swear, it will be my last) so I might as well get this done so I can start wearing it in the fall!

I stalled out a lot because I'm not really using a pattern for this sweater and needed to sit down and figure out exactly where I was, how many more increases I wanted to make, etc., etc., before I could start working on it regularly again. Now that I've done it, I can enjoy the mindless stockinette while I watch new episodes of 24. Woop!

Posted by Molly at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My trip to Tokyo was fabulous, but quite a whirlwind. I took the overnight bus there on Saturday night, stayed one night in my favorite ryokan, one night in the five-star hotel where my conference was being held, then took the Tuesday night bus back home and was at work at 8:30 on Wednesday morning. I did SO MUCH that even the misery of the overnight bus doesn't seem so bad. On Sunday, I met up with the lovely Stefana, and we wandered the streets of some cool neighborhoods that I had never seen before. We really weren't thinking--no pictures for the blog. Sorry, Mum!

My work conference was fun and energizing, and I am not feeling as draggy about my job as I had been before. It ended on Tuesday afternoon so I dragged my bags (one small bag for my clothes and one giant knitting bag) to Shibuya for Tokyo Stitch 'n Bitch that night. I was so happy to see everyone--some new faces and some people that I already knew--and really wish I could go more often. But it was fun while it lasted!

The reason that I had an absolutely huge knitting bag is that before leaving, I decided to bring 13 balls of yarn to work on my new log cabin blanket squares. Let me just say that this is not the most mobile project, unless you are willing to haul all this stuff around. But before I left, I was feeling really enthusiastic about the new project and wanted to work on it so I made the sacrifice. It wasn't so bad, and the knitting bag turned out to be a good pillow for the bus journey!

When I was there, I also found some Puppy Soft Cotton that is a good yarn for Trellis, which I decided will be my baby knit for the fall. I'm making two, for two cousins, so I started with the bigger of the two last night. The pink might be a bit much, but Japan is all about super-girliness so I think it will fly. It's so fast and fun to knit!

After SnB I had a few hours to kill before I caught the 11 o'clock bus home. At this point, I was feeling exhausted and just wanted to get on that bus, but managed to do some damage at Book 1st before I left. Book 1st is a big bookstore with all sorts of great treasures, so even though I exercised restraint, there were a few things that I couldn't resist.

This book is called "Order-made skirt" (ISBN 4-579-11006-4) and it has patterns for a bunch of different skirt styles. As I have some really nice fabric that I've been meaning to sew into a skirt for a while, I thought it would be a good investment to have some kind of structure and direction, rather than just winging it like I do with all my other sewing projects. No doubt, I'll have to edit the pattern a little bit, but I hope this will help me to get just the right amount of poofiness in my skirt rather than having a lot of trial and error. We'll see.

Of course, I couldn't resist this book on bags, especially with the cute striped one on the cover! The bag that really caught my eye, and that I WILL make, someday, is a great striped bag that has this panel of woven strips of fabric on the front. I'm not sure if you can really see in the pictures (ISBN 4-391-13146-3).

Finally, I also got this fun book about everyday kimono (ISBN 4-7572-1273-9). I had to get it for the amazing color and pattern combinations inside (forgot to document that part, but I will soon). Even though I have gotten kind of jaded about wearing kimono lately (blame my childbearing hips--made for childbearing that is, not experienced, my mom would like me to point out), this was a must-have. And hey, I can practice reading Japanese, so I'll kill two birds with one stone!

Posted by Molly at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My new hard drive FUH-hinally came today* and it seems that I am back up and running! Unfortunately there is some virus that keeps downloading itself to my computer faster than I can update my virusscan software. Who knew you could pick those things up so fast? But anyway, I know that computer problems = boring, boring, boring blog fodder. Forgive me, I'm feeling a little rusty!

Want to see what I finished during my sejour in the dark ages?

Friends don't take pictures of friends at this angle. I was trying to look fierce but we concluded it was more of an alien abduction look.

<

That's what I'm talking about!

Two beautiful sesames! Becky and I both used KnitPicks Merino Style, and while the fabric is nice and the guage was spot on, I think that the recommended yarn probably would have made for a firmer (read: functional) button band. I still don't know what I'm going to do about it but now I'm leaning towards sewing up the front of the sweater and slapping the buttons on the front to go for a faux-cardigan pullover. I think it'll be more wearable that way, and still look like a cardigan without having super stretched out button bands. I have still worn the sweater a few times completely buttonless and I don't think anyone noticed.

More knitting excitement, deep thoughts and much, much more on the way soon, if I can ever remove this virus that just keeps coming back.

*Considering I live on the other side of the world and it was all shipped through my mom it did come really fast. It just FELT like an eternity.

Posted by Molly at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Check it out! I bet you thought I wasn't going to finish this oddball mitten glitten. Wanting to get this ugly thing out of my projects basket as quickly as possible, I persevered last night and this morning making sure that it (and the acocmpanying bajillion balls of wool) were permanently retired from the WIP basket. But hey, I wasn't totally crazy. In my mind, it was going to end up looking like this!) What a good feeling! Even though there were some rather ugly parts to this mitten glitten, it is still my first multi-colored accomplishment, so I wasn't going to let it slip through the cracks. It will hopefully serve as a nice model for better mittens in the future. Although it's not getting a mate, I did turn it into something very useful. Wondering what that extra finger is for?

I have a faulty tea kettle so when I boil water, steam escapes through the top making the handle and little finger loop way too hot to touch. Until now I've employed a precarious towel setup that I feared would one day lead to me lighting the towel on fire. So voila, a new mitt glitten for the kitchen. Although I doubt there are many more freezing nights this year, I'm sure I'll be back to boiling a gallon of water every night before I know it. No more steam burns for my poor, sensitive fingers.

It sure did feel good to finish that!

I also managed to finally block up the final bits of my jailbreak sweater. I'm so close I can almost taste it! I meant to go shopping for buttons today but the rain persuaded me to leave the biking around town until tomorrow. Which left me with time for one last thing...

Yep, I finally started a jaywalker that fits! I did about 4 tries with Trekking last year only to realise that Trekking is just not made for that pattern. So far this Koigu KPPM (P621) is just what the doctor ordered. And they're project spectrum approved!

Ok, now that I've gotten all that done, I can sit down and crack into the tape of Project Runway that my mom sent this week. I just have to decide what to knit!

Posted by Molly at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I started seaming my body pieces last night, and quite enjoyed using my new crochet head attachment to pick up the stitches along the neck. Things were going along just great! I had to tink back just once when I found a knit that should have been a purl about 20 rows back in my ribbing. But the collar was a cinch! I was really enjoying finishing up this sweater, focusing on enjoying and perfecting my own knitting and finishing style rather than getting jumpy and panicky about being able to wear it soon. I started the button band this afternoon, and picking up those 140 stitches for the right band was relatively painless. But this whole time, I was ignoring one potential glitch. As it turns out, this is not enough yarn to knit two buttonbands. I kept going as long as I could, wishing that the yarn would keep multiplying like the fishes and the loaves, but sadly I'm not so fortunate. And it's JUST my luck that Knitpicks says coal won't be available until St. Patrick's day!

I think I hear some thrums a-calling me.

Posted by Molly at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I finished 5 pieces of my sesame cardigan! Since my apartment is so small, I couldn't spare more than two towels and I ran out of pins, so I have to block in shifts. But it made sense to do the body pieces first so that I can knit some collar action this weekend while the sleeves have their turn. I made it through this babies really fast, but not only because I'm totally results driven--it is a great knit. (The grey is much more accurately shown in the close-up).

I've been doing a really bad job of not letting other people bother me lately, hence the speedy knitting (Oh, what? You didn't notice? This is really fast for me). I hate it when I let other people's judgements of me affect the way I feel. No way, Jose! If I choose not to drink caffeine and to leave work on time every day, I have every right to do so, and I know it. But until I figure out a good way not to let annoying people get under my skin, I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more knitting progress around here. But with a smile!

I'm almost out of black yarn and I still have to knit the collar and button bands, so please cross your needles for me!

Posted by Molly at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last week I whipped through both front sides of my sesame and was onto the sleeves by Friday. Things were going along so speedily! But then I remembered that sleeves get quite wide as they approach the shoulder. I was shocked and appalled when I noticed that the sleeve had gotten wider than my laptop. You can't see it so well in the photo, but trust me. Even though it was going slowly, I still enjoyed every minute of knitting this. It seems so simple, but the stripes really keep my attention. Each time I finish a stripe it's like reaching a mini-goal. Since taking this picture I've cast off and started sleeve #2. Tonight I think I'll watch an episode (or two) of Desperate Housewives and see how far I can get. I almost can't believe that I've had the whole season for about a month and I'm not even halfway through yet. I'm doing a good job of stretching out my viewing pleasure rather than doing one big tv binge like I used to.

And let me draw your attention to the real star of the show, the little red fellow in the upper right. These row counters exist at home, right? What a great invention! My favorite part is the name. "Kacha-kacha." It reminds me of how my grandparents call the remote control the doopa-doop. Nothing like some onomatopoeia to add a little spice to life.

Posted by Molly at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last night I spent a much needed night in, making a tasty dinner, watching tv, knitting and reading before calling it a night. It was great to finally have a weekend night in. It's been a while! I watched a special on TV about the Olympics and managed to muster a little bit of enthusiasm about it, even though I'm not at home with 24 hour cable, but rather over here when everything is broadcast in the middle of the night. And sure, the Olympics is the same all over the world, but it would be nice to see the American coverage. Or at least English. So I decided a few weeks ago that it wouldn't be fair to join the Knitting Olympics (I probably don't need to link), and I designated myself an un-official cheerleader. Can you believe how many people are doing this? It even made the papers! Anyway, I digress.

The reason for this post is to show you the progress I'm making on my sesame. What a lovely sweater. It practically knits itself. The only problem is all those ends! I have considered weaving in the ends as I go, but I'm not sure if it's better to weave them in pre-blocking and pre-seaming or better to wait. Any suggestions?

The opening ceremony is going to be re-broadcast tonight on TV but I will be at the annual Valentine's Day ball so I'm going to have to miss it. Not wearing any hand-knits this year, though. I'm so glad I decided to ditch the wrap idea and I'm going for the all store-bought black sequined skirt, plain top and big dangly earrings instead. Hope everyone has a good weekend--and good luck with your Olympic knitting!!

Posted by Molly at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It's kind of amazing how much I can get done when I'm on a tight schedule. This weekend I had a work party Friday night, a 14 hour bus tour on Saturday, and Sunday I woke up early, cleaned, had friends over for knitting time and even fit in time to talk with my mom and dad. Not the busiest weekend ever, but the amazing thing is that the apartment is clean, the dishes are done and I did a lot of knitting!

I really thought I was a slow knitter, and marveled at my friend Becky's speed when she has been powering through her Sesame sweater lately. This sweater is just the kind of mindless, no time for mistakes because my eyes are glued to the season premiere of 24 knitting that fit into my weekend just perfectly.

I'm using Knitpicks Merino Style and I have to say that I really like it! I read a lot of different reviews, but decided that the price was right so I'd give it a try. It hasn't been splity, the yarn and fabric is just the right amount of firm and stretchy... I have no complaints, and it feels like that has been pretty rare lately! It's worth ordering a color sample though, because I really thought I was getting a two-toned dark grey striped sweater and it's much more black and white. Still fine with me--ought to fit into my wardrobe just fine!

I'm also thrumming along at a good pace although the making of the thrums is slowing me down a fair bit. It's really enjoyable although the roving looks so much like hair (the exact same shade as my hair in fact) that it was grossing out all my friends yesterday. I'll work on finishing a mitten shortly. I have a great new lifestyle thanks to an effort to stop staying unnecessarily late at work. It's fabulous! More time to keep my home neat and my social life under control which of course all adds up to more knitting time. It doesn't get any better than this!

Posted by Molly at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)