March 2007 Archive
Posted on March 21, 2007 at 12:30 pm, by knitwit
in Category Knitting
My bog jacket has really got me bogged down. I had the left side of the jacket completed and grafted before I came to the stunning realization that it is FREAKIN HUGE!
Think, Kimono here people.
If I were to wear it I would be completely bogged down, as in swimming in sweater. Ugh!
I know it's hard to tell from these pictures, but that sleeve–you could fit 2 or 3 arms in there! It's massive!
I think it's the math that's getting me here. You see the bog is supposed to be a square. You fold in the sides of the square in to the center make the fronts and back of the sweater, you fold over the top half of the square to the center to make the sleeves. But I don't think it really takes into account that some people are–well, FAT and so they need a sweater that is 44" in circumference, but not 44" long! Seriously, those feakin sleeves are like 22" in circumference. I don't know why I expected this to magically fit! I guess because you just don't mess with EZ. She always knows what she's doing and I expected it to be so in this case. To her credit, Meg did warn that the sleeves were rather Kimono like and that if you wanted a more tapered sleeve to work short rows. Which I did, I just wasn't sure how many short rows to work. I worked about 5 short rows on either side of the the shoulder (5 on the back and 5 on the front side). ANd either way, it didn't matter when I needed (according to the formula for the pattern) to work 88 ridges to complete the back and front of the sleeves and at 4 ridges to the inch that makes a sleeve (yes, should have figured this) 22" in circumference! AHHHHH!!!
I guess I was just invisioning a more fitted sweater, like the one Liesl is sporting in the book, or the one seen in this post here.
So, I guess it's back to the drawing board. I don't think I'll be able to use EZ's handy formula to make this jacket work the way I want, but I think I can tweak it so I end up with the kind of finished product I am invisioning. I'm off to the frog pond. To be honset, I'm not sure I was feeling the love for these colors anymore anyway.
Posted on March 19, 2007 at 10:35 pm, by knitwit
in Category Knitting, Life, Sweaters
I was finally able to get some of the recipients of my handknits all in one place this weekend and get some long overdue pictures taken. The recipient of the Tomten Jacket was in town this weekend and when he slowed down enough, I was able to get a few shots:
There was plenty of yardwork to be done so we had to take pictures on the fly.
While he paused briefly to have his picture taken with me–wearing my Elizabeth Zimmermann Seamless Yoke Sweater–Will insisted he had much more important things to do….
…like pick up sticks….
…sweep the driveway…
Go for a walk with his Grandma Linda…..
…And pose for a shot with his coolest cousin, Brad, who's wearing a handknit sweater too!
In fact it was a real weekend of Elizabeth Zimmermann handknits. Will and his Tomten, me and my seamless Fair Isle yoke, and Brad and his seamless Hybrid!
I like to keep my family in handknits….
L-R: Me wearing EZ's seamless Fair Isle yoke, Brad in EZ' seamless Hybrid, Will in EZ's Tomten Jacket, and Brad's mom, Susie the only one not in an EZ sweater, instead wearing the Andean Treasure Sampler vest from Knit Picks.
Posted on March 15, 2007 at 10:56 am, by knitwit
in Category Fun Stuff, Knitting, Sweaters
I swear, I am doing a little dance in my chair as I type. I recently wrote a post on the Zimmermania blog requesting help on the Bog Jacket I'm knitting. This morning to my surprise and utter delight, there was this comment waiting:
Meg said…
The long sleeves were my addition to mother's design. You may make a cuff by working a short row every-other-ridge and always wrapping at the same place — OR you can make a tapered sleeve by working to within 2" of the end (repeat on other side) — then a complete ridge — then work to within 1-1/2" of the first wrap — then 1-1/2" shy of the last wrap, etc. Work X-inches plain from end to end – and repeat the foregoing on the other side of the 'shoulder'. Knit on, Meg
From Meg Swansen herself! I was so flippin excited I might as well have just gotten an email from….from….well I don't know, some major celebrity. (Seems like all the celebrity figures I admire are dead so just can't think of a live one who I'd be this trilled to get an email from). I don't know why I found this so utterly exciting or why I had such an unfashionably giddy response to this. I have actually gotten an email from Meg before when I emailed a question about some yarn to Schoolhouse Press, but this just felt way more exciting. Maybe it was just knowing that Meg takes a little time to peruse the blog (even though it's not even my blog, I'm just one of the dozens of contributors) and make a comment when she sees a Zimmermann fan in need.
I guess I will just never be cool when it comes to communicating with someone I admire. I always wondered what I would have done had I been able to meet someone from my list of celebrities: Ernest Hemingway, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Harper Lee, Flannery O' Conner, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford; what would I do? I would blabber like a bloody idiot and then I'd probably wet myself, that's what.
I harken back to this past Fall when my friend Carol invited B and I to join in the celebration of the dedication of the George and Eleanor McGovern Library in Mitchell, SD. George McGovern, former senator from Mitchell and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee is Carol's uncle and she invited us to join her and her family in the "good seats" for the Peter, Paul and Mary concert one night and the dedication ceremony the next day. I must have looked like a 5 year old with ADD! I couldn't sit still at the concert, I was grinning like a lunatic and singing along with every song, I think I even wept a little. (I'd grown up listening to their music and nearly wore out my mother's album. Yes, a record Album, not a CD or even an Tape, an ALBUM). I wasn't much better the next day at the dedication, with all of the representatives from SD on stage along with Senator McGovern and former President Clinton. Again, totally uncool. Snapping pictures as fast as the flash on my camera could reset. Good lord. Could I have been more….anything but cool? The thought of meeting someone who was in political office and is a household name was enough to put me into geek overload. And the Peter, Paul and Mary thing? NO excuses. My friend Amy put it so kindly when she said "Man, you're old!" And I'm not even 30 (yet) and she's only a year younger than me!
I guess it just doesn't take all that much to make me happy. And in some ways I feel sorry for people who can't get excited about the little things in life. If the little dreams can't come true how can we believe the big ones will? It's how I rationalize it in my geeky little head.
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