Sorry for the complete and utter lateness of today’s post. What's worse, it’s going to be late and lame, since Ryan and TMK World has entered a minimalist phase, activity-wise.
The biggest news—and even this is far from earth-shattering—is that, after six years of knitting, I’ve finally started knitting a sweater for Dulaan TMK a friend an employee a co-worker’s baby…me! To stack the deck in favor of actually finishing the damn thing, I’m using chunky yarn (Wool Pak 14 ply; I’m repurposing the yarn I used for this ill-fated project) and size 10 tree trunks needles. The pattern is the High Mesa Cardigan, a plainish cardigan with some simple knit-and-purl gansey-like patterning. My one concern is that the only area with a patterning is uppish, over my bodacious ta-tas which do not need any more attention drawn to them since they already arrive half-an-hour before I do. But, since this is my first adult sweater, I’ve decided it'd be safest to follow the pattern as written. So far, so good: 6" of stockinette in, and I still haven’t thrown my hands up out of either ennui or frustration. However, it was very depressing to eyeball the growing sweater and think, That’s huge! That’s gargantuan! That’s humongous! That’s super-colossal! That would fit an elephant! That would fit around Saturn with room to spare! No human being could ever be that big and still be alive!, then transfer it from the needles to a piece of yarn, wrap it around your body, and discover that it fits just fine, perhaps even a little snugly. Sniff.
Enabling Alert: Local knitters, especially Eastside knitters, the Kirkland Yarn and Stitchery is having a going-out-of-business sale. Two co-workers and I cruised on through there today and, while the store is pretty empty, there’s still some Cashmerino, Cascade 220 (regular and tweed), a lot of baby yarn, a lot of Plymouth Encore-type yarns, a good selection of patterns, and lots of needles, including some Addi Turbos (smaller, size 16” ones and larger ones with longer cables). The current discount is 25% off yarn, 40% off pattern pamphlets. Let the record show I bought...nothing.
Yep, late and lame.
Posted by Ryan at April 20, 2007 02:41 PMHey Ryan -- we all know that feeling about the sweater -- somehow they always look better on the model in the book! The sweater I'm working on says that it's good for a "curvy figure" -- apparently my figure is a tad TOO curvey because it's having difficulty with my hips!!
Good luck with that! Have a great week-end.
Posted by: Romy on April 20, 2007 04:01 PMNow you know why I made my first sweater before returning to socks. Far less depressing.
Posted by: Cookie on April 20, 2007 04:12 PMCongrats on finally casting on a project for yourself! It's a nice looking sweater. What color is the yarn? From the picture it's hard to tell if it's dark olive or brown or ???
Posted by: Denise in Kent, WA on April 20, 2007 04:12 PMDenise, the yarn is a medium pine green.
Romy and Cookie, the good news is that the sweater pattern is from the Ample Knitters site, so it has been test-knit by many other "fluffy" knitters before me. This gives me great confidence in how it will look.
Posted by: Ryan on April 20, 2007 04:16 PMI'd imagine that after all those children's clothes, /anything/ is going to look big. And feel like it's taking forever.
Posted by: Emma on April 20, 2007 06:08 PMHow is it that you can make writing about nothing so darn funny?
Posted by: martha in mobile on April 20, 2007 06:28 PMYou'd think a pattern labled as being designed for ample knitters would at least show the sweater being worn by it's target demographic, wouldn't you? That woman appears to be an "ample" 36, maybe a 38 if she hoists the girls up.
Posted by: carlarey on April 21, 2007 06:43 AMCongrats on actually doing a sweater for yourself!I make ones for "me" all the time, but then I'm super picky about the fit and end up gifting them anyways. My solution has been to make up my own pattern based on sweaters I already own that I like. If you're already worried about the fit, it might be good to compare it to something you already have. It sucks to just think it looks large because you love buttery food (umm... personal experience, heh) and then find out it just looked large because it was too large.
Posted by: Crystal on April 22, 2007 08:18 AMHey! Bodacious ta-tas ROCK! And that looks like a mighty fine sweater to cover the girls. It's about time you made something for yourself.
Posted by: kmkat on April 22, 2007 05:10 PMI saw your WIP yesterday, and it's beautiful! Ryan, you want to have a cozy sweater to just roll up in and enjoy the warmth. Too big is good. Too small sucks. As a wise knitter once said (hi Janine!), don't second-guess yourself, just keep going.
Thanks for the link to the pattern. It looks intriguing.
Posted by: Gail on April 22, 2007 09:56 PMThank you. You are always good for a laugh! I need one this morning!!
I love stories about your bodaciousness only because I cannot relate in the slightest. I was not blessed in that department AT ALL! My friend Jamie calls her girls the shelf because if food falls, it falls onto "the shelf"!
I think the sweater is going to be lovely! You really got a lot done on Saturday! I'm glad to see you are doing something for yourself!
Posted by: Naomi on April 23, 2007 07:24 AMI made the High Mesa Cardigan last year and love it except that it's very "ample", a little more than I wanted. However, I've gotten lots of compliments and the "mesas" are a great design with very little work and very flattering.
Posted by: Grace on April 25, 2007 10:13 AM