Oh Yes I Did

I went and started the Architectural Rib pullover, with some short-row shaping to compensate for the front dip, and a cable up the centre six-stitch panel, and after only a few inches (two episodes of Chuck and an old Law & Order - but Matthew Modine is so worth watching twice: I think he's sexy even as a serial killer and I don't say that about too many people, even though what I find attractive has been known to lie a bit on the outskirts of the mainstream bell curve) I'm delighted with my progress and my yarn choice.

By the way, I only ever knit while I'm doing something else. I think I'd go insane with boredom if I didn't multitask, unless perhaps I was making little leaves like this crazy Canadian I met at SOAR. TV works well, as I don't LWK (look while knitting), but as mentioned previously, good radio will do too. I once knitted on socks at the movies. I didn't knit in labour. Either time. I have knitted in the dentist's chair.

I think I mentioned that the yarn is handspun: two plies Beast, one ply Something With Colour. I say "Beast" as though it's as well-known as say Red Heart, which it used to be among spinners some years back. 

Brown Sheep brilliantly found a use for the stuff that remained in the various carding drums or fell onto the floor or somehow didn't get to make it into actual yarn, and would sell this waste, in a somewhat unstructured but carded form to spinners. Some of it might actually be roving, some clouds, and it was mostly medium-fine wools of the Corriedale ilk in shades of grey, with varying (where "varying" runs the gamut from "none" to "some") amounts of mohair and occasionally silk. Great for new spinners as it was easy to spin, most batches were soft enough for next-to-the-skin wear (some were not. I have one very scratchy sweater), and of course, being a somewhat variegated grey, dyed up beautifully. And oh yes, everyone on eBay was selling it for cheap back in the 90s.

I believe Brown Sheep updated their carding equipment and Beast became rare, if not extinct. I think I still have a pound or so left.

I made a gansey out of singles for an ex (I want it back; he's not worthy) and what I refer to as my Garbage Sweater (for good reason; I'll describe it another time) using a darker batch, and then there's this dk-weight 3-ply on which I did a really nice job, even if I do say so myself. It knits up beautifully, and the coloured ply gives a lovely subtle hint of colour, but not too much - after all, I am the (admittedly self-styled) Queen of Sludge.

When I say "sludge" what I really mean is that class of colours that may not be readily describable. They're certainly not primary colours, not even true secondaries, and they lie in odd corners of the colour wheel that defy description, or at least incite disagreement. In yarn these colours are generally not entirely solid, but when examined closely may reveal a myriad of surprising range (think Seurat and Pointillism), and in beads have some element of multi-layering, iridescence, oil-slick, or some equally complex finish. At first blush, or from afar, my favoured colours may even read as grey, but as you close in, more is revealed.

I'm not sure I should call myself the Queen of Sludge, as I'm probably more a Slave to Sludge really, or part of the Borg of Sludge, as I just can't resist, but I'm not getting Queendom anywhere else, so Sludge is where I'll stake my claim. I'll share the title if need be, so fellow sludge aficionados, please don't get all hissy-fit on me.

And to see why I wasn't all that upset when I had to start again on the mauveish cardigan, I've made great progress (not quite caught up, but I like v2.0 much better than v1.0):

(Excuse the background; it's outdoor furniture, and even so, not big enough. We have no snow and the grass is sad, but at least the contrast isn't horrible).

So as I'd decided, I replaced the 3x3 rib over oodles of stitches by a 3x3 garter rib over the same number of body stitches for an analogous bit of vertical interest, and carried the theme into the scarf section, replacing reverse stocking stitch columns with garter stitch. I also shaped the main scarf section by short-rowing to start, as I didn't like the way the cable drew up and distorted vertically. (Sorry, the left-side scarf section is hidden underneath the right side). The body is also somewhat longer than the original plan (cropped isn't utterly flattering when you're on the short-waisted side) and the scarf sections aren't as proportionally long either. As you can see, I'm also knitting all the pieces as one; it's what I do unless there's no alternative. My scarf shaping is also more extreme, as my decrease rate on v1.0 was too slow and I was going to run into difficulties around the neck. Here I'll reach parity sometime mid-armhole, resulting in a flattering neck opening, I hope.

I'm also noodling on closure ideas along the lines of shawl pins, but I'm undecided. What I do is beadwork, but it's awfully snaggy around yarn, and besides, some amount of metalwork absolutely can't be avoided if you're set on the word "pin". You can't exactly poke with beads. I might have some PMC hiding somewhere (with the Lack Of Job and concomitant Austerity Measures, purchasing same is out of the question), but I'm not certain that the blowtorch method would be suitable for a piece of the necessary size I don't have [free] access to a suitable kiln), hence the word "noodling" as opposed to "planning", "sketching", "implementing" or any other word similarly implying actual intent. To tell the truth, it might look a bit odd pinned closed, but that's all future speculation anyway.