Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Picking up the pieces

Irene has come and gone. We fared okay -- a few downed branches and this:


We were very, very lucky. The tree missed hitting the house by three feet and that wire you see? That's our cable line. The tree missed that by a foot. My husband bought a chainsaw yesterday, so with any luck, we'll have this pup dismembered by the end of the week.  We were also lucky in that we didn't lose power. My mother, who lives on the Connecticut shore, has been without power since early Sunday morning. She's going M-A-D.


Now that the weather drama is over (earthquakes! hurricanes!), I can focus on other things like my upcoming Maine trip and getting my son ready for school, which starts next week. We're also finishing up some remodeling/repair work on our new home, which, knock wood, we can move into by mid-September. And tomorrow I get to start on my Cadence sweater, which I'm knitting as part of a knitalong. Very excited about that because the yarn I picked, a brilliant greenish/blue (Debbie Stoller's Washable Ewe in Dragonfly), has been calling to me for weeks.



That's my gauge swatch, which I knit in the round since the sweater is also knit on circular needles (yay! no seaming!) I got gauge on the first try, so I'm good to go.


I haven't had similar luck with my Elizabeth Zimmermann Icelandic yoke sweater. I swatched and got 4 stitches per inch with my wool on size 8 circulars, but after knitting a few inches of the sweater, my gauge was off -- it was more like 5 stitches per inch. So I ripped it all out and started again, this time resizing with some modifications. I have a 12" difference between my waist and hips, and when I fit garments to my hips,  they tend to bag up around my bust and waist. About four inches of knitting and I realized this sweater was looking way too big. Like I could fit two of me in there! I measured my gauge again and I was back to 4 stitches per inch. Ugh! Rip, rip, rip. I went out yesterday and bought size 9 circulars for my next try, but I think I'm going to give it a break. Besides, I've just picked up my Kate Davies' Owl sweater after a long break and am eager to get this knitting up by deep fall.


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