Gauges? We don't need no stinkin' gauges...

The first thing any experienced knitter will tell a novice is not to underestimate the importance of gauge. "A gauge swatch will tell you if your knitting will end up too big, too small or just right." Ah yes, the Goldilocks approach to knitting.
But I'm more of a fly the the seat of your pants kind of knitter. A knitter who says, "to hell with your gauge swatches!" I am now also a knitter whose fabulous mohair sweater will probably be too small.
The more careful crafters are tsk-tsking away now. What's that carpentry saying -- "measure twice, cut once"? Not quite the same thing, but the sentiment is the same: more prep time equals less mistakes.
Ok, to be completely fair to myself, I did measure my gauge. I even took it in the round, since this sweater is done in the round (whether this is truly necessary, I'm not quite sure -- I've seen arguments both ways). However, what I didn't take into consideration is that I would change my entire method of knitting after I took the gauge. Remember my epiphany about combination knitting? It was like a lightening bolt and my knitting is so much faster. However, my knitting is now also tighter. Whereas my gauge was initially correct at 10 1/2 rows and 14 stitches to 4", my current gauge (which I didn't bother to check until I was ready to separate for front & back) is now closer to 12 rows and 16 stitches. Which leaves me 5 inches short on the body of my sweater.
What to do? I am not an advocate of frogging, and especially not when it's mohair. The sweater was meant to be big, so hopefully it will just be a bit more snug than intended. I'm still working it, and when I get to the sleeves and cowl neck, I'll use bigger needles to get the correct gauge. If it's too small, it will be a Christmas present (although a part of me will cry inside).
So, what's the lesson of the day? If you want to try a new method of knitting, don't start it in the middle of a project. And if you must, then check your gauge.

grown up stuff and not so grown up stuff

Grown up stuff: Rich finally got a price estimate for his sinus surgery, and while it ain't cheap, we'll actually be able to pay for it. It will pretty much gut the savings, which kind of sucks, but it won't kill us. Thank goodness for the recent pay raise and its retroactiveness (I know that's not a word, but it's less wordy than, say, "thank goodness my recent pay raise was made retroactive to what should have been my review date"), which gave me a fat check. It sucks that his insurance is so crappy that we have to pay this much, but he'll actually be able to breathe after, so it's worth the expense. But it does wipe out the funds which I had thought of as our moving fund -- first & security deposit, movers, etc.

Not so grown up stuff: I finally bought an iPod. I've wanted one for a long time, and my brother-in-law works for CompUSA, so he gets a 25% discount. So I took a small chunk out of the retroactive pay check and sent it off. Hopefully it will get here in time for camp.

Camp starts next weekend. I volunteer at our (my work's) camp for kids up near Big Bear. This will be my 6th year up there. It's always tiring yet rewarding.

Kickball starts tonight. I'm more or less doing it so that I know I'll see Richard at least one night a week. Knock on wood that I won't sustain any injuries that prevent me from knitting & crocheting like my jammed finger did last season. Our team name is "Don Rickles with a Chainsaw." I'm not kidding.
I'm so proud.

just breathe

ok, the whirlwind is over, for now at least. Work has been crazy of late, but now one of my major work projects is completed (we'll find out whether it's approved later this month, but at this point, that is almost secondary), so I can take a bit of a breather.

I found the work camera. I thought I had lost it, and was trying to come up with convincing excuses why we had to buy a new camera, but I found it in a bag of yarn. Why it was in the yarn, I don't know, but that's not important.

So a few photos to give some project updates:
1. Finished Baby Camo Vest
I think I need to purchase a baby/child dress form, so that I can create my own baby patterns. Most of the patterns that are readily available just aren't very cute, and I just know I could come up with better stuff, but having no children available for trying things on, I need a substitute.





2. Seraphina Shawl
The colors are a little washed out in this photo, but it is almost done. The stumbling block is the row in which I'm carrying this frindgey metallic yarn -- pain in the ass to crochet with. I do a little at a time and then it bugs me, so I put it down. Hopefully I'll finish it when it gets a bit cooler -- it's hard to work up the nerve to crochet a big wool shawl when it's 90 degrees and 83% humidity (WUWT? This is LA -- we're not supposed to have humidity like this! Ick.)



3. Interweave cowl-neck sweater
As you can see, the progress is a bit limited. I am not exactly the world's fastest knitter, and I do have multiple projects going at the same time, but I figure I'll get some quality knitting time up at camp (between activities and after the kids have gone to bed -- ha!). But I love love love this yarn. It's so beautiful. I hope to finish this in time to get some good use this fall/winter.


I'm also making some good progress on the back of the Japanese Sunburst tank. Hopefully, it will be finished soon enough to get some good warm weather use out of it.

Knitting, for a change of pace

I decided to ick up the knitting again, as I've been rather crochet intensive of late (Screech, Baby Camo Vest, Party Princess Sweater, Japanese Sunburst tank, etc.). I'm making the mohair cowl-neck sweater from the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits using the hand-dyed loopy mohair that I bought up in Oakland at the Fiber Arts Market. It's knit in the round, so the stockinette body is just knit row after row, so I figured it would be a good project to work on while I'm up at camp in a few weeks (because lord knows that I am not a fast knitter).

But then on Tuesday, before SnB, I was watching Knitty Gritty, and it was the "Home is Where the Knit Is" episode with Annie Modesitt. I've heard of Annie before (my sister has met her and I even think Annie blogstalks Crazy Aunt Purl), so I knew that Annie was a proponent of "combination knitting," which just sounded hard to me.

Let's back up a step: I learned how to knit by sitting down with the first Stitch n Bitch book and just following the diagrams, and because Deb Stoller knits using the English or throwing method, I did too. Now, after Jenny met Annie, she suggested that I learn combination knitting because it used both hands, like crochet, and was faster because you never dropped the right hand needle. I didn't listen, frankly because why should I take advice from a girl who refuses to learn how to knit (Jenny is exclusively a crocheter). But I was still frustrated by how slow my knitting was. Mel, of Remarkable Cow, suggested I learn continental knitting, which also doesn't involve throwing, but I never could get the hang of it.

So back to Knitty Gritty. I was watching the episode, and they used the Knitty Cam to do a closeup on Annie's hands as she knit, and for whatever reason, it just clicked with me. She held her yarn in the left hand, knit through the back stitch and never dropped her needles. So when I went to SnB that night, I tried it. And it worked. The combination method seemed so much more fluid than stopping every stitch to throw the yarn. I'm still not completely comfortable with it, but the speed I'm going now (after a grand total of 2 days) is about the same speed I'm going doing English method (which I've been doing for over a year), so with practice, it should improve. I haven't tried purling yet, but I'll get there. I'm very excited by this new possibility of fast, fluid knitting.