I have an assortment of milestones associated with my Phoenix Jacket. The first one was just getting cast on, since that required figuring out how many stitches I needed. The rest kind of shift as things go, and I learn something is easier or harder than it had seemed. The intarsia is one of those things. I had hoped to finish the intarsia before I went on vacation. In fact, I wanted to have the whole body done, except the borders, by the time I left. I now see that is not going to happen. Although changing bobbins has definitely helped, it’s still roughly 30-45 minutes per intarsia row, depending on the difficulty. Well, I’ve reached a milestone: the tail section is complete. I haven’t even colored the graph in for the body of the phoenix, so that is something I’ll have to do tonight or tomorrow. In order to finish this jacket by the end of August, as is required by Nerd Wars, I will have to take the phoenix with me on my vacation. Until then, I’m attempting as many rows as possible every day. Today I spent nearly 6 hours, and completed the last 9 rows of the tail. I’ve got roughly another inch of only 3 intarsia stitches — a wonderful break from the more complicated intarsia — before the bird’s feet. When I start the feet, I will also be binding off the underarm stitches, and then decreasing for the armhole. Since intarsia in the round requires working back and forth anyway, I won’t be steeking the armholes. This is going to make the body of the phoenix much quicker. If I didn’t have other things to do and jobs to work, I’d be knitting non-stop in order to get to the armholes! Well… here’s the picture of the current progress:

Actually, I think I might forgo sleep tonight and get some work done… both on the phoenix, and otherwise. If I can get to the armholes, I think I just might be able to get the phoenix done before my trip, and only have to finish the front while on my vacation. Leaving bobbins and four extra colors at home sounds like a very good idea!

The rows also get impossibly time-consuming to knit, because each time you come to a new bobbin, it’s gotten tangled in the yarns surrounding it… or it has become unsecured and has unwrapped down to the floor, not only wrapping around other bobbins, but the skeins strategically situated on the floor. After three rows of knitting, you stop and untangle the mess. It looks a little better, but it promises to become a headache the minute you pick it up again:

Yeah, that doesn’t look very orderly to me either. 29 bobbins in less than 100 stitches of knitting gets a bit crowded. Those bobbins that are squares or have odd angles like to catch especially. The easiest time I’ve had is with the round ones. What are those, you ask? Excellent, excellent question.

They’re Bryson’s EZ Bobbins. The size small comes in packs of 10. They’re plastic, disc-shaped like a sewing machine’s bobbin, but it goes a step further. It has a flexible plastic “cap” that folds down and locks the yarn onto the bobbin. Even wrapped two or three times, it won’t unwrap.

I went out and bought 30 more of them — everything the store had in stock. My favorite part about them? They lock together, allowing you to force them to lay in a neat nice row, in the order in which they need to be worked. This is what my knitting looks like now:

Just thinking about it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

…

Let’s just not mention the ends that need to be woven in, yeah?

Later I’ll pick up stitches around the cuff and create the double-knit border. Right now, I’ve got to go knit 16 rows on the body. A friend and I have self-imposed and otherwise deadlines to meet for our current projects. I want all but the borders knitted by the time I leave on my vacation. She wants to get knee-highs done. we’re both doing about an inch a day. She has the socks, I have the jacket. I should’ve knit 8 rows yesterday, but I finished a scarf for a friend and deconstructed a mystery stitch on a store-bought hat.

I’ve also written a pattern for a lace kerchief; once I’ve got pictures, I’ll post the pattern here and on Ravelry. That should be no later than this weekend.

(note: You are looking at a side-seam, steeked at the bottom to allow the border to split at the side. The number of stitches used in the steek is fewer than the number of stitches required after the steek is finished, to accomodate a border. Thus: bump. Looks like a nose to me.)

I’m technically very very behind in my knitting for Nerd Wars. I wanted to knit 7 rows a day to get the body done in the month of June, which was ambitious to begin with. This picture is a few days old; I’m currently on row 56, and I should be on 91. Eep. One of the problems is now that I’m on the tail of the phoenix (like I said; pic is a few days old) it’s strictly an at-home knitting project. It’s just about glued to my armchair, with my computer close at hand for the digital color chart I made… actually, there. I took another picture.

So there you can see my chart a little bit. I love my EZ Bob bobbins from Bryson Distributing. They’re awesome (link: Planet Purl product review). Really, though, I need more. They snap together! I have a ridiculous love for storage tools that snap together. As for the actual knitting… Let’s just say I’m watching (err… listening to) a lot of Netflix, yeah?

Brief step-by-step:

Pin grosgrain to the wrong side of knit fabric over buttonholes, and corresponding area of the other side.

Mark the button-holes with a fabric marker, and unpin the ribbon. Sew buttonholes, centered on those marks, large enough to accommodate your buttons. This isn’t a buttonhole tutorial or anything, just follow your sewing machine’s instructions. It is important to center those buttonholes on the marks, though. There’s a huge difference in how much grosgrain will stretch around a button, and what your knitted yarn-over will do!

Repin the buttonhole-ribbon over the buttonholes in your knitting, and sew along all edges.

Admire the non-stretchy buttonband when you’re done!

If only I could have a scanner! Oh how I miss the days when I had a scanner! Of course, I could also render this pretty easily in an art program on my mac or my pc. Yeeeah, let’s just take a picture.

Sadly, I do not have a scanner, so you’ll have to put up with badly photographed and photoshopped drawings. This time, a schematic! Now that I know my gauge, and I’ve measured myself to the best of my ability, and relied a bit more heavily on jackets that I know and love, I have decided on measurements. A bit of graph paper, some calculations, and I even have a good idea of what the scale of the design elements will be. It’s all coming together now…

The two 1×1 fairisle swatches were done first – the left one, knitted at 10.75 stitches to the inch is very dense, and the stitches get a little non-descript. That was done on size 0 needles. The larger scale is 7.5 stitches to the inch, on size 2 needles. I like the idea of insanely tight gauge, but it’s unnecessary for this design. The larger swatch was knitted in the round and cut like a steek. It has yet to begin to unravel, and I never reinforced it; I will be knitting the jacket in the round as well.

Seeing as how I’ve yet to get started on my Phoenix Jacket that I have had dreamed up for over a year, I’ve decided to take advantage of a little competition to get me going.

Let me introduce you to Nerd Wars. They have their own website, but it’s really a group on Ravelry. Many many teams compete, earning points by knitting to a challenge. Nerd Wars has seen the come and go of one tournament, and I am joining Tournament 2. Each tournament is three months long, each round a calendar month. Each month different challenges are issued, and you must address the challenge in your knitting, and you earn bonus points for including the theme of your team. If you so choose, you may knit a dissertation: a three-month-long project that addresses one of the main challenges. Mine will address the technique challenge.

I didn’t know until today to which team I was assigned, but I had my choices, certainly! I have been happily listed as a Browncoat for this tournament, and my dissertation is the Phoenix Jacket. But first, I must swatch! You’ll see the results of swatches in the following week.

It will be my goal to knit the back and a sleeve in June, the fronts and a sleeve in July. I am leaving on vacation the first days of August, so my finishing work may have to wait until I get back.

Hey, I never said I was sane.

What do you do when the end product of a pattern you were going to make ends up being too small, even at the largest size? Well, if you’re me, you hem and haw over whether to go up needle sizes or work on the pattern to increase the number of stitches. Or, alternatively, design on off the cuff. I decided to do the latter. The yarn is Imperial Stock Ranch’s Bulky 2 Strand, a pencil roving. It’s knitting up to 2.5 stitches to the inch, unstretched, unblocked. Will I have enough yarn to finish? I have no idea. The original sweater intended to have a big cowl, so I’ve got a little leeway in the yardage. Total yardage available: 800. Alas, I don’t have a scale at home to find out how much I’ve used. Some of it has been thrown away, after being obliterated by continual ripping out, reknitting, and swatching. So far, I like the pattern, but the scale of it is cramping my hands. Size 13 needles.

And yes, that is what my desk typically looks like. Creative chaos, and all that. I’ve been working on that all day.. now I really should get to doing what I should be doing.

Let me illuminate.
Recent patterns completed: Vivian. Margaret.
Patterns currently in progress: Miss BB
Patterns in my queue: Genevieve. Pearl’s Cardigan.

And now? I’m casting on Laura’s Cardigan, by Annie Modesitt. The consistency is driving me just a little bit crazy.

I also tried to vary my colors from the sample sweater. I made a few general changes, but I don’t think I did a good job of going in a different direction! I seemed to have gotten off the highway, but I’m still taking the service road. Oh well. I do really like the colors, and that’s what counts.

So. Why am I making a post just to tell you I’m casting on? Because I’m changing things. Of course. I am the master of my little world, and if I want to change things, I’m allowed. Here goes:

When making Laura’s Cardigan, you 1.) use a provisional cast on and knit some striped ribbing, and then stop, leaving stitches live. 2.) you use a provisional cast on, but make the back plaid shoulders. 3.) Then you pick up the provisional cast on of the plaid, and knit some striped ribbing. 4.) joining all the pieces knit so far, you knit the body straight through the hem. 5.) Only now do you go back and finish the plaid shoulders – this time, the front.

Are you confused? So was I. I drew a little diagram to help:

It begs the question: WHY? The answer is: I haven’t the slightest damn clue. So, this being my own little world, I’ve decided to do things the way I think they make sense. I dunno, maybe you’ll agree with me. Here’s the new order of things as I see they should be done:

That being said, the plaid is intarsia, and I don’t like to travel with intarsia. So while Miss BB is still on the needles, she’ll be my traveling partner, and Laura and I will stay at home and gossip about Miss BB behind her back…