Labor Day Knitting Notes

C's Tweedy Scarf

Photographer: C is for Camera. Model: Istvan.
Styling/Makeup: Monsieur Pierre for Salon de la Pouffe.
Fragrance: CK Purl

This weekend was replete with delights of every sort, a fitting end to a summer that, for once, went right more than it went wrong. I don't have time to gush about it now, though, so here's a small knitting report.

C's Tweedy Scarf, above, is finished. Istvan has appropriated it and may not give it up without a fuss. He has a definite noli me tangere air about him at the moment. I suppose it comes of having nothing to do all day except sit around C's apartment watching Prince videos. That sort of example is bound to tell on a bear's personality.

I also finished up the lower body for the Rhinebeck sweater, and I'm halfway up the first sleeve.

Maggie Righetti says in Knitting in Plain English that when making a fitted garment you need to try the thing on from time to time, instead of just knitting away in breathless suspense about whether you're doing it right or not. Sensible woman, and I'm glad I read her book. About halfway up the body (7 inches or so) I took the piece off the needles and put it on a piece of waste yarn and tried it on. It fit. Sigh of relief.

Putting it back on the needles wasn't exactly fun, but it did give me a chance to try my hand at fixing twisted and dropped stitches. (My previous tactic in both situations was to hope very much that they would not happen.) I now feel comfortable enough working the dropped stitches with a crochet hook that I may try Zimmerman's phoney seams down the sides of the sweater.

I started the first sleeve on a set of Brittany double-points that I picked up for a song. I'd never used Brittany needles before, and they have nearly knocked Addi turbos right out of the number one spot in my affections. Knitting with them is positively sensual. I like them so much that I stuck with them long after I could have switched over to a Clover circular.

It's a very pleasant thing, knitting a sleeve in the round. However, I should note that I did depart from Zimmerman's direction to cast on 20% of the total body stitches to make the sleeve cuff. At that circumference, even my quite small hand wouldn't have gone through comfortably, so I upped the figure to 25%. Marilyn and Greg both warned me this might be the case, and they were right.

I can only assume that Anglo-Saxons and Nords like the Zimmerman/Swansen bunch must have unusually slender and willowy extremities, at least in comparison to this stocky Italian/Arab peasant. I like them anyway.