Knitting: Goodies and there's the seaming, too

So last night, I was UBER excited to start the seaming on the Verena Cable sweater. Much to my dismay... I was definitely not ready for it. See the plan was to do a three needle bind off for the should seam, pick up the still LIVE neckline stitches and finish the neck, then complete rest of seaming.

So, I picked up my handy books, BW, Knitting from the top and Nancy W's Finishing Techniques... well, the 3 needle bind off while a good THOUGHT, probably not the best to use because of the pull on the shoulders from the sleeves. And while lofty feeling this is a heavyish sweater and I know me and I pull on things anyway... so scrap that idea, which then meant I had to BIND off! So I did that, then I tried 3 different times to start seaming and I just did not like the way it looked. Both Nancy and Barb talking about lying the pieces side by side, which I did... but it just didn't look right. So, I went back to my sewing 101 experience. I put right sides together and did a version of Nancy and Barb's weaving seam stitch. Anyway... after alla that, I got the shoulders finished.

I did a trial try on and the neck opening barely fit over my head (whoops, guess the bind off wasn't so stretchy) and I sat there on the floor with my "smock" on for awhile... and then I noticed how WARM it was. Heaven. So I got out of my daze and removed the smock and started on the sleeves. This was tricky because I was attaching a bound off edge to a very neat knitted edge. Anyway, sleeve 1 done, then onto sleeve 2 where I got about half way finished. I was tired of seaming. So I will resume that tonight.

Now let us talk about the goodies... yesterday I received PACKAGES... not just one, but three!!! One-from knit picks (with gooey yarn and needle goodness oh and books, too) and 2 pkgs were from Amazon... more books (YAY!). So I felt a little spoiled. Here is the run down in bullets. Pictures to come soon.

-WOTA Worsted in Amethyst Heather (for Knitscene's Opulent Raglan)
-WOTA Kettle Dyed in Ivy, Spruce, Eggplant, Gold and Bordeaux (for Knit Camp project)
-Harmony options in 5 and 6 for OP Rag (see above)
-Needle sizer for Lisa (froggyknits)
-Vintage Knitwear (book)
-Cables and Arans (Harmony Guides)

So that was a great package! I was on fire to start the oprag and because I couldn't find my copy, the wonderous Cath (and hubs Jimmy) helped me out and sent me a copy via email. I still have one room to tear apart looking for this mag but at least I knew how many stitches to cast on, so I did. I did about 4 or 5 rows and it's going along nicely but then I got that icky knot in my stomach... am I doing the right thing?

Here's the deal on one of my trips to Pittsburgh last year, I bought this GORGEOUS Araucania Ranco (Solids) tealish yarn. Gorgeous I tell ya! Anyway, I bought plenty of yardage per the OPRag's yardage req's. Well I had a DUMBASS attack apparently because the guage is comeplely different. The oprag is knit in a worsted weight and the ranco is a dk weight. So I am looking at 19 and 24 stitches per inch difference. At first my thought is to just rework the design and do it to the guage on the ranco, which involves a lot of math. Well, last fall, I just wasn't ready for all that, so I set the yarn and pattern aside for a later date.

Well because I finished (almost) one sweater, I was very much in the mood to cast on for a new one. I wanted to do the Jackie O sweater and have the yarn for it, but I'm in disagreement with the pattern... and that's when the oprag popped back into mind. I ordered the yarn and I'm off.... here's the rub... or shalli say itch?! The knitted fabric so far is very rough. Now my thoughts are that I could keep going and SEE what happens, but this is a low-cut, form fitting sweater that you probably wouldn't want to wear anything under it. So do I keep going in hopes that the knitted fabric after a kookaburra wash feels soft and amazing, or will it be the itchy death of me and I won't be able to wear it?! What to do, what to do? And let me just add, that no matter how much I love a pattern, I'm not likely to make it twice, so if I knit it once and can't wear it, that is a huge waste of yarn and my time.

I wish I had more experience with the WOTA, granted I jusy used the bulky and it's pretty soft... softer than I would have originally imagined, however... the worsted weight WOTA I've noticed, seems a bit stiffer and scratchier. I think I may go ahead and leave my cast on as is for a moment. Do a little larger swatch, maybe a wrist wrap, to finish and wash and wear on my arm for a bit and see if I'm bothered.

My other idea is to go back to the original plan of the ranco and knit the sweater in a DK version. I've figured it out... between guage 19 and 24, it's a 20% difference, so I just need to use 20% more stitches right? And it's top down, so I'll be able to try on as I go. I'm thinking the ranco might work after all. :)

Goodie break... remember I got books from Amazon, too. They shipped in 2 pkgs because of differing locations.
-Traditional Aran Knitting (Dover repub of OLD book) LOVE IT!
-Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans by Gladys Thompson (also a Dover repub of old book) LOVE it, too!
-Mary Thomas's Knitting book (SUPER old book, also from Dover)

Jackie recently reminded me about this book on one of her posts. She obtained from the library and I've been wanting it since reading EZ's books because she refers to Mary Thomas and Gladys Thompson a lot. I started reading it last night. I figured I'd go cover to cover since she talks a lot about the history of knitting and so on. It's been a good read so far and quite funny too. It just amazes me at some of the things she points out because it was originally published in 1938! Anyway, it's a cool book and for $9.95, can't beat the price.

So I am in book heaven and ecstatic over the prospect of having a finished garment. One that I can actually wear and that people will see... oh and in other geeky news, the EDITOR of Verena magazine, left me a comment! She want's to see my finished sweater when done. I thought that was incredibly nice of her to say! I realize I am a big geek, but I think it is really cool when designers or in this case editors find you on ravelry and take the time to comment, it's just nice of them.