As The Yarn Turns

Almost a Ribby

No witty April Fools jokes here for one simple reason. I suck at April Fools stuff. Instead I present to you, an almost finished Ribby Cardi.

The seams are done. I just need to do the neck, weave in the ends and put in a zipper. I must say that this is one of the easiest sweaters I have seamed. With regular set-in sleeves, there is usually a point where you are seaming rows to columns of stitches. That's not difficult. It just requires more concentration that your normal side seams. With the Ribby, the sleeve-shoulder design is such that you are always seaming rows to rows except for a small section where it changes to columns to columns. So far, the fit looks perfect. Course, it was hard to determine with a thousand strings hanging down everywhere and a cat trying to play with them while I was wearing it. So today I'm off to get a two-way zipper.

Now I've been sewing since I was a small child and I've made many garments over the years. Apparently, though, I'm the last person on the face of the planet to know that you can make a long zipper shorter without the whole thing falling apart. Now I figured you could do this if you had the little metal thingies that keep the pull from flying across the room. But apparently you don't even need them and if you really want them, you can buy them (something else I didn't know). All these years I've been trying to make purchased zippers fit. Even Rick, who knows nothing about sewing and would go naked before learning how to sew, knew that you could make a long zipper shorter. I've lived a sheltered life.

Speaking of sewing, I've been wanting a new shoulder bag for my books, papers, knitting and such. Right now I'm using a Visual C++ bag that works well but it's getting a little worse for wear. I couldn't find anything in stores that's reasonable, so I went looking for patterns. In my searches, I found this neat little free program for making patterns for hats, bags, slippers, and wraps. It's called Wild Things! by Wild Ginger. If you sew at all, it's worth taking a look. I haven't make anything from it but I like the idea.

Watch out for April Fools jokes.

by Sydney  |

Pi On My Mind

Yes I really am still working on the Shetland Tea Shawl. I tell you what though. Those last rows get REALLY long, especially when I'm on the more complex rows of the Diamond Madeira pattern. Even though I say I'm going to do two rows a night, I'm lucky to get through one row. Some days the only thing that keeps me going through the row is the fear of putting it down and not being able to find my place again. But I really like the way it's turning out. Now if I could just get some good lighting in my house. The flash just doesn't cut it.

When we first started the EZasPi Knit Along, several people talked about the Sleeves in My Pi pattern, basically a Pi shawl with sleeves (Duh!). I was intrigued but I couldn't quite picture how it would look. Until lately though, it was only available in an old issue of Knitter's. Except now it's available in a new little book, Ponchos & Wraps: A Knitter's Dozen. I'm not a big fan of ponchos, but there are some other nice wraps in this little book too. I haven't bought it... yet, but I just might have to buy for that pattern alone. Now that I've seen it, I like the shawl but there's the problem of where on earth I would wear it. I'll have to think about it some more. Speaking shawls, I think I'll go work on mine.

by Sydney  |