What a Life!

This morning I finished knitting the Nantucket Jacket from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. Mine is in the same yarn – different color (Teaberry). Now I just need to block it and then assemble it and do the crocheted edges. We have a guest staying in our spare bedroom right now, though, so I will have to wait a couple days before my “blocking board” (the bed in the guest room) becomes available.

Blocking is when you dampen the pieces of a project and then lay them out in the exact size and shape that you want them to be. My grandmother made the quilt you see in this picture – her quilts were very exact so I use the squares to help make sure everything is straight. The quilt, of course, is on the bed in our spare room.

Next on the needles is a little cardigan for Joey. Back when I first learned how to knit (May 2003), I came across this yarn and bought it, thinking I’d knit it into a cute summer sweater for Ben to wear in his one-year pictures. Well, I made the shorts I had planned to go with it but never got the sweater made. Then there wasn’t enough yarn for me to make it up for him anymore.

Initially I had just the variegated and the light blue, but about a year ago I saw the dark blue and added it to the stash. Now Joey is growing like a weed and if I don’t knit it up soon, he too will have outgrown what I might have made up with this pretty yarn.

I got it out yesterday (before our guest arrived since my stash is also kept in the spare bedroom) and swatched with it. You’re supposed to get 30 sts over4 inches with 2.5 to 3.5 mm needles. I had to use US 1 (2.5 mm) to get gauge, but the fabric looks nicest when the stitches are that small. It will be a tedious project, but very worth it.

I had some ideas of what I wanted to do – a v-neck cardigan like the one I made for Ben from knitty back in 2004. I went online to look at the dimensions of that little cardigan and then measured Joey (which was rather tricky). The thing is, I’m not sure if I have enough yarn. Looking at the specifications of that pattern, I have enough – theoretically. But I still am unsure.

That pattern also happens to use self-striping yarn, but I will be doing my own striping pattern with three different colors of yarn. After pondering my options as I finished knitting the final sleeve of Nantucket, I decided to follow the same pattern, but I will knit the front and sleeves first before I decide how to proceed with the back. If I am short on yarn, I can do the back in a completely different color (such as a coordinating green) either in the same version I did when I knit the one I made for Ben or the other version shown in the pattern, depending on how short on yarn I am. Otherwise, I may just do the back in the same stripes as I’m doing the rest of it. Ha!

So now, on to knitting the next project.

You’re probably why I titled this post “Monogamy.” In knitting circles, monogamy is when you work on one project from beginning to end without putting it down to work on another project. I did that with the Nantucket Jacket. Now my plan is to do it with this little sweater as well. [Once you get to the point where you’re blocking the project, since it takes time for the project to dry and everything, you are allowed to start working on the next project, but you come back and seam it together and everything before starting the project after the next one. Got that? This is especially important since my blocking area is otherwise engaged at the moment.]

Generally, I’m not one to have many projects on the needles at one time anyway. Some knitters have a dozen or more going at one time, all scattered around their house. I only have three knitting bags – one for large sweaters, one for small projects, and one for socks – so that’s my limit for projects that are on the needles. Things that are on serious hold – UFOs or Un-Finished Objects – get taken out of the knitting bag and placed in bag and stored along with my stash. I have a couple of those right now too, but still, only a couple. Some knitters have a dozen of those or more, too.

And why am I rambling on about UFO’s and monogamy and such? I’ve been catching up on the podcasts over at Stash and Burn this week. They are the only knitting podcasts I’ve listened to so far, but they talk a lot about using yarn from your stash (something I happen to be obsessed with these days), and I just love listening to them laugh. I know, I know, I’ll probably get nominated for the Lame Blog Award for saying that, but oh well!

Okay, enough for now. I have knitting to do.