Company

I guess I've been neglecting the blog, a fact brought to my attention yesterday by Joe. When a non-fiber person, who lives with you, complains about the lack of posts, it's a really bad sign.

I just haven't thought that I've done much of anything blogworthy. I've worked a bit on Big Red, I made a couple pairs of very utilitarian anklets (they aren't even pretty...plain white) I've started a couple of small gauge cotton projects. One is a cabled bag the other is a v-neck summer shell that I'm sort of winging. I've got a picture of it but no instructions it's from VK sometime in the 80's (I think). I had cut out the pic cuz I liked the design, but I didn't save the pattern cuz I didn't know how to knit at the time. oops. Neither of those projects are worth blogging cuz they are literally just inches in length. Nothing to see.

I suppose a finished pic of the Petal Cardi II with the zip installed is blogworthy enough, but the real drama was when I dropped the stitches and reworked the buttonbands and I already told you about that here.

Behold the Petal Cardi with zip installed.....

It's a little rumpled I wear it ALL the time!!!

The latest and greatest that I'm thrilled with today is a new-to-me pattern I found in a vintage magazine (1950's) It is a bottom up saddle shoulder that is seamless. Yep you heard me right, it is seamless.....ok that's a small lie....there is an armpit seam about 2 inches long. I have a progress pic for you but it doesn't show anything exciting, it looks like any other bottom up seamless at this point. Right now I am just to the point where I have joined the sleeves to the body stitches and will begin the saddle shoulder shaping on the next row.


See what I mean? Nothing special...yet! I don't know maybe I'm crazy but I can't recall ever seeing a seamless saddle shoulder before. Yes, the wonderful EZ has a neck down design that I think she calls a Scandinavian sweater that is a saddle shoulder type thing but I don't think she has a bottom up one. In EZ's sweater you start out with the neck ribbing then work some rectangles off the sides of it to make the shoulders then eventually you pick up along the edge and work it in the round. Does she have a bottom up one? There are no stitches to pick-up in this bottom up design just stitch manipulation (I'm loving that!).

I'm fickle when it comes to top down vs bottom up. I guess it's based on whether I want the instant gratification and interest a top down can give you until you hit the miles of never ending boring body to complete verses the mindless rounds of the bottom up body with the thrill of the yoke to look forward to. This sweater has definitely spurred me on. I've been breezing through the body fast and furious toward the thrill of the yoke. I'm anticipating this manipulation of stitches, it will likely have for me a marvel similar to the one experienced when turning that heel for the first time.

There's another interesting twist in this pattern, a new-to-me method of working a built in button band that is so totally mindless and I love how it looks. I'm pretty sure I'll use it every time I need a button band from here on.

OK enough bloggin' for one night. I've got a thrilling new-to-me yoke to work! I didn't get as much knitting done today as I had hoped, I had company. (ah ha finally a tie in to the title) After IdaMae and Bennie had enough outdoor fun today I was outside all by myself and the solitude was heavenly. Then I realized I wasn't as alone as I had thought. The three yellow finches who taunt Ida and Ben daily by flying up to the patio door and strut their stuff on the porch while they can only dream of chasing them were drinking and bathing in the Ida's water dish. And then I noticed this little guy had come to say hello as well.