September 05, 2007
What's the Opposite of "Citius, Altius, Fortius?"
11:31 a.m.: When I, chest all puffed out like a prize pigeon, took this photo of Olympic Squirrel finally sporting its sleeves:
11:31 a.m. and two seconds: When I, thoroughly deflated, realized that I had sewn the right sleeve (on the left in the photo) on upside-down. Now, I can just feel you non-knitters thinking, Ryan, you uptight, self-involved, fussbudget of a perfectionist; the sleeves look fine. But they ain't. All the subtle waves you see in the sleeve, especially near the vertical blue band, and the fact that the cuff is sitting at a slight angle, and the fact that the top of the sleeve on the right goes purely, truly and cleanly straight across and the one on the left just...doesn’t, and the one thing you can’t see, the ugly and obvious decrease seam running along the top? All caused by the upside-down-ness. (Granted, this doesn’t mean that I’m not an uptight, self-involved, fussbudget of a perfectionist. Just, this one time, I have an excuse.)
And knitters and non-knitters alike are probably thinking, why are you fussing over the sleeves when, not to be rude, but have you seen that collar? Yeah, um, about that... At Ferals, a few hours after the photo was taken, I started my first-ever attached i-cord as the finishing for the neck. The technique itself is going well, thanks to much helpful yet fabulously low-key and freeing encouragement from Evelyn Clark, which went something like, “You could do this. Or you could do that. Or maybe this. You know, whatever.” Unfortunately, the back of the neck is curling horrendously, showing all the stranding inside, and the weight of the i-cord is making it worse, and I’m not sure what to do. There is a little bit of panicking going on.
So close, and yet so far away. But, no matter. I’m so proud of this sweater I could just plotz. I suppose, however, I can’t get away without doing at least a little math. Remember, this was my Olympic project, the one I choose in a moment of sheer lunacy for Stephanie’s “competition,” and which was supposed to be completed in...I can barely type this, it's so painful...16 days. Thanks to my trusty online date-duration calculator, I know that, so far, it has taken me instead 556 days, or 1 year, 6 months, and 10 days. Or 540 days, or 1 year 5 months and 20 days, longer than it should have. Meh; I can live with that.
Lastly, proof that TMK has survived the Attack of the Love Apples and continues to be an avid consumer of the fruit vegetable fruit vegetable fruit—a scrumptious tomato and marinated-artichoke salad she made from our garden tomatoes to take to a barbecue potluck. Sweet as sugar, this concoction.
that's our Ryan.. always going for the absolute truth. I COULDN'T have noticed.. not from that far away photographically. But I see what you say about the collar. Wet blocking hasn't helped?? Just wondering.
Lovely photo of the salad too. *sigh* we have been eating so many tomatoes I think we are starting to turn into them ourselves. But they sure are damn tasty.
Posted by: anj on September 5, 2007 01:16 PMI'm totally with you on the sleeve, I couldn't live with it either. Uptight, self-involved, fussbudget of a perfectionists unite!
Posted by: Visionsister on September 5, 2007 01:32 PMMy stomach just said NOM NOM NOM re: the photo of the 'mater salad. Wow. Yum. Also, I think the sweater is wonderful, and would the heaviness of the iCord (I like writing it that way lately, thank you Steve Jobs) matter when the person is wearing it? I know the sleeve is bothering you, but I think it's beautiful!
Posted by: moiraeknittoo on September 5, 2007 01:40 PMAh, dear commenters, apparently I forgot to mention that the sleeve was removed and sewn back on. As visionsister said, perfectionists unite!
Posted by: Ryan on September 5, 2007 02:00 PMI'm sure that with Evelyn Clark helping you, you prob. don't need more advice. But -- what about picking up stitches around the edge (dump the i cord) and making a hemmed neckline that will tuck inside? You can tighten the whole thing up that way and hide the stranding. The sleeve? No kid will be standing around with the arms stretched out like that. When it's being worn you won't notice a thing.
Posted by: mary lou on September 5, 2007 02:01 PMAt least, it was only sleeve. I'm so glad you fixed it. How could you sleep knowing that the sleeve was on like that? Not that I'm a controlling perfectionist or anything...
Good luck with the collar. Maybe if TMK made you more of that salad you could work out the perfect fix. ;^)
Posted by: Cookie on September 5, 2007 02:33 PMGood luck with Squirrel, it's going to be fantastic when it's done.
When you do finish, you might want to consider submitting it to www.mcwetboy.net/dfl/. A very entertaining blog that celebrates those who finish last in the Olympics.
Posted by: Kat on September 5, 2007 02:43 PM::grins::
In latin, the opposite would be....
Tardior, Demissior, Debilior.
I couldn't resist.
Posted by: mote on September 5, 2007 03:23 PMThanks, Mote! I'm assuming that translates to "Slower, Lower, Weaker?" Perfect! And perfectly hysterical! And now I want to start a new blog and call it, fer sher, "Tardior, Demissior, Debilior."
Posted by: Ryan on September 5, 2007 03:38 PMSo happy to hear the sleeve is already reapplied correctly. When you said upside-down the first thing I pictured was those decreases running down the top of the sleeve. I bet it looks lovely now.
I'm not sure I've ever finished a knitting project of any size in 16 days. I much prefer your time table.
Have I told you about my last sewing project of about 35 or so years ago where I sewed the wrong two edges of a wrap-around top together? What made it worse was having a sister who would win ribbons at the fair with things like her crushed velvet and cotton lace wedding dress sewn on our great grandmothers treadle machine.
Posted by: KarenJoSeattle on September 5, 2007 04:38 PMPlaying with I-cord cast off on my wedding vest swatch, I discovered that I really needed to incorporate an extra edge stitch every 5th or 6th repeat (this is on a garter band) in order to keep it from flaring out too much. I would imagine you need to do the same.
Posted by: Mel on September 5, 2007 06:01 PMI'm glad you resewed the sleeve or it truly would have haunted you. Good luck with the collar.
The tomato salad looks wonderful!
looks lovely, my dear. Sometimes I do the decreases on top of the sleeve on purpose so it fits better (unless you are dressing someone who likes to semaphore a lot). One row of I-cord is seldom sufficient to stop the rolling--I always use 2 rows, sometimes 3! You can dress the thing up by using different colors for the I-cord rows.
Posted by: Janine on September 5, 2007 07:04 PMLeave those tomatoes on the vine longer! The inside should be a nice juicy red, especially if it's coming from your garden. There's nothing like a vine-ripened tomato. Mm. I'll be sad when our tomato plants die. :(
Posted by: Lisa on September 5, 2007 07:40 PMYou're welcome! And you're correct, roughly translated it's 'slower, lower, weaker.'
Hehe, I'm glad to see all this time spent studying Latin in college is paying off :-P
Posted by: mote on September 5, 2007 08:53 PMpersonally, I like to do a small amount of ribbing (like 1/2 inch) and then do the i-cord, but I think the hemmed neckline is a great idea!
Posted by: Kate on September 6, 2007 06:08 AMHave you thought about doing a hemmed collar? It would have a bit more substance and might solve the problem.
However long this has taken you, you're still ahead of me ... my Olympic project is languishing in the WIP pile, ripped back to the first pattern repeat. Sigh.
Posted by: Ruth on September 6, 2007 06:15 AMBreak out a sewing machine and bias bind its ass. I mean neckline. You've suffered those squirrels/amorphous blobs for long enough ;)
Posted by: weeza on September 6, 2007 07:19 AMThe sweater turned out faboo! I'm jealous! My last fair isle project (a simple headband--simple, my butt) for some reason, I kept losing stitches. I counted everything 2 or 3 times, htf did I lose stitches? pffttttt.
I was going to suggest that the opposite of citius, altius, fortius was fortius, altius, citius, but I like mote's answer better. :)
And on top of everything else, TMK can grow yummy looking tomatoes.......I'm still crushing over here. Now I have to bribe Frankie to let me in for not only TMK's gorgeous yarn, but her veggies too.........what kind of snackies will that cost me? :)
Posted by: Nancy O. on September 6, 2007 07:38 AMI just did my first icord on the Tulip sweater (and I'm now in love with it as an edge) and I had a curl problem so I ripped it out and worked it in the opposite direction. My icord seems to have a dominant side (probably a sign I'm doing something wrong) so this technique worked for me.
Posted by: Laurie on September 6, 2007 04:27 PMI. Cannot. Believe. You. Finished.
(In whatever fashion.)
Do I get to see you two Friday?