Fiber Fool

Looks like I kind of jumped the gun on this topic last week :-/ But here they are again, in some cases perhaps a bit more concrete and in some cases another bullet point added to the list :-)

1. Continue working towards a more healthful and active lifestyle. I’d like to say loose another 30-40 pounds, but it has really slowed down a lot so I don’t know that it is realistic. I managed only half of 2011’s weight loss in 2012. In some ways all of the rest of these all play into this one.
2. Become more comfortable cooking and baking with a wider variety of whole grains. Each one has a unique nutrient profile and in general I think we’d all be healthier not cutting out entire food groups or specific foods unless there is a true medical condition and instead consuming a wider variety so everything is eaten in more moderation.
3. Make creativity a higher priority. Between exercise and work I don’t feel like I have a lot more energy to spare, but I wonder if I didn’t put more into creativity if there would be more too? As odd as it sounds if you haven’t experienced it, it really is how it works with exercise once you get over the initial hump.
4. Learn some new skill each month, be it how to cook or bake something new or formulate a new natural skin/body care product at home or maybe even just a new yoga pose. Try my hand a new sewing technique (there is tons of possibility in that one). Maybe even to learn a new game. But they say learning and stretching your mind keeps you young!
5. Get some organization into my reading. I’m going to try for a few months doing a bit of advance planning for the reading ahead so when I finish one book I don’t spend hours trolling my Kindle archives and looking up reviews trying to figure out what to read next. That said, I already amended January’s plans and we’re only a week in, LOL!
6. Knitting is much, much slower these days as computing takes as much of a toll on my body as knitting. But I’d like to design at least 3 new patterns in 2013. I think that is a modest enough goal to be attainable and the first design is well on its way. Though I already know I’ll want a second version, if not several in different weights for that one.
7. Explore making my own fermented foods. We’ve done yogurt. DH is doing kefir and I’m working on my first batch of kombucha. But I’d like to try sauerkraut and fermented pickles this year and perhaps some other things as well.
8. Take more photos with my good camera instead of always falling back on my iPhone. Ideally I’d like to make sure I pull out the dSLR at least once a week.
9. Reduce, reuse and recycle - donate what I don’t need and can’t repurpose and make progress on actually make use of the things I’ve held back from donating.
10. Take some *me* time. I went from having 9-10 hours most days home alone with the dogs to never having any wakeful hours at home alone. It all happened overnight and I’ve kept it up for 9 months and I’m going to loose my mind. While it seems it is now impossible for me to have any wakeful hours home alone (well, this summer will be a different story) during the school year I have to figure out a way to have some alone time, even if it is out of the house. I suppose it is my “pleaser” side, but even when DH gives me the space to do my own thing I’m haunted by guilt or something and it isn’t productive in restoring me. Perhaps it is time to revist the artist date idea?

The sweater at the top of this post (excuse the work bathroom mirror shot, the best I could do right now) is my “Christmas sweater.” Unlike all of my previous attempts since Wisteria, it was actually done in time for our holiday journey to Colorado Springs. However, I wasn’t liking the fit of the yoke. It needed some time out and advice from the ever-wise knitting group last night. The verdict was to wear it a few times and then decide. So, not one to shirk orders that is what I’m doing today. Once final decisions about it are made and a proper photoshoot figured out I’ll write more about it. It is a heavily modified (but not the yoke) version of DROPS Mirabell. I do have details on Ravelry on the modifications if you can’t wait.

• Saturday morning I baked homemade whole wheat pumpkin cake doughnuts. The recipe needs a bit more tweaking, but they were not a hardship to eat!
• I also went shopping to outfit myself a bit better for the freezing temps of a 5am run in October. It included long overdue new shoes, a jacket and some tech-friendly gloves.
• I went grocery shopping - on Saturday. At Whole Foods. How I survived I’m still not quite certain, but I did.
• Both Saturday and Sunday afternoon DH and I enjoyed some scary movies. He is a huge fan of Halloween so we have a Halloween movie watching season just as we do a holiday movie season. Let’s see, we watched The Brother’s Grimm, The Others, and I think one other scary one. Then we lightened things up with 10 Things I Hate About You.
• While we took in movies and DH programmed, I visited sleeve island, though in moderation. I opted for full length sleeves and have done 40% of the increases on the first sleeve. But Saturday’s knitting did aggravate my shoulder/neck a bit so I had to dial it back and only knit for about 15 minutes at a time.
• We enjoyed a lovely early Sunday morning breakfast at a local hot spot, but were early enough to seat ourselves! No waiting! Squee!
• We went to our fav Old Town coffeeship, The Bean Cycle. I splurged on a juice rather than coffee. I couldn’t not get coffee with breakfast.
• Yesterday I made a yummy white bean and vegetable stew for dinner and lunches this week. DH added a veg sausage and I added some shredded rotiserrie chicken to boost the calories and protein a bit.

All in all, probably a pretty balanced weekend. Some errands and work was done, but there was plenty of relaxation and together time too.

I do have a question for any runners out there - is it normal to have a different feeling between your shoes? When I bought my shoes on Saturday it was raining so I couldn’t take them out and around the block. When I did my first run in them the right shoe felt like the insole was bulging upward near the inside ball of my foot and I swear I could feel the gel they use as the shock absorber sloshing around. I did not feel this on the left foot. When I took them off and compared I think I feel a very slight raised section in the right shoe, but it is very subtle. Do you think it is just a matter of breaking it in, or do I take them back to the store? The fit otherwise is fantastic. The arch hits at just the right location (something that has been troublesome in the past) and I can get the heel snugged up so I don’t slip. But that sloshing and slight bump was super distracting during the walking sections of my training. I don’t particularly notice it while running though.

Earlier this spring, Amanda went to a sale of a local sewing guild and picked me up a few sewing patterns she thought I might like. There was one in particular, Butterick 4304 from the 70’s that I was excited about. I found some knit I had stashed and dove right in. I still haven’t done the finishing yet - apparently I can procrastinate on sewing finishing as bad as I can with knitting. But wearing that loud geometric print all over is a bit over the top for me. So, when I remembered I had 8 skeins of Sedona Red Cotton Fleece from Brown Sheep’s Factory Store in my stash I checked and it was a great match.

Because the vast majority of my knitting takes place over my lunch hour at work and occassionally down at the end of the day if things are particularly slow I need knitting that is quick to pick up and put down, which in general doesn’t mean something I’m designing. Not to mention, I learn a little something from almost every pattern I knit so it is good to knit other people’s patterns. I eventually settled on DROPS’ Mirabell, a little lace yoked short sleeve top.

Now, I had planned all along to lengthen the sleeves a bit. With my weightloss and skin needing to catch up, the nearly cap-sleeve length is not a good choice. Plus I knew we’d be headed towards cooler temps when I finished. So I had been thinking sleeves to just above the elbow. But, throw in 3 weeks of no knitting due to shoulder/neck issues and I find myself using the heater under my desk almost daily, drinking nearly a full box of Bengal Spice tea a week, and thinking a longer sleeve might not be a bad idea.

The knit of the skirt is double knit so it is thick enough to be worn this fall and winter with tights and boots. I’m also thinking the sweater might look really cute with my skinny jeans and my button down navy shirt and boots. But layering in my mind puts a bit of a monkey wrench in the sleeve length debate. I’m at a point where I can’t quite decide. But I kind of need to make a decision as I’ve completed the lower body now. I’ve seen a lot of layering shorter sleeved sweaters over long sleeve tees and even shirts or blouses but I’m certain how I feel about the look. How do you feel about layering an above the elbow sleeve over a full length tee? Shirt? Or 3/4 length sleeves over the same? Or are you strictly a long-sleeve for layering all the way type of person?

I am starting to lean a bit towards binding off the underarm and then using a provisional cast-on for the yoke stitches so I don’t have to make a decision yet but can continue to move forward. Since there is no stitch pattern to the sleeves that should work okay. That has the advantage that I could in theory try it on at different sleeve lengths with the shirts I plan to layer it with. What would you do?

To say that the last several months have been crazy is an understatement. Not only was I trying to wrap up Nourishing Knits, but I was frantically knitting THREE projects for Jane Austen Knits and one for PieceWork because, to be truthful, some guaranteed income was quite welcomed.

Now that Nourishing Knits is done I somehow had thought I’d have a bit of a break. This delusion lasted long enough for me to do what has become an annual thing and cast on a Christmas sweater. Why I decide I only need two weeks to knit a sweater I don’t know. Well, it was actually doable in the past, but on previous years those last two weeks leading up to Christmas were filled solely with knitting and cheesy Christmas movies on cable. This year, I’m putting in a full day of work reformatting the patterns for individual sale (they are now all available separately), updating some of the more popular older patterns to the newer format without the watermark and trying to line up promotion opportunities for Nourishing Knits.

This is what I’ve accomplished since casting on Saturday. I don’t think I stand much of a chance of wearing it for Christmas. Even though this sweater is 10″ smaller in circumference and at a bit larger gauge than past sweaters I have serious doubts. But, there is value in knitting a pattern by someone else so am I am excited to take some time to do so whether or not it results in a sweater to wear for Christmas. I always learn something new, in this case it will be my first bottom-up raglan. Working a creative job can be a bit taxing at times too and pausing to knit a design by someone else gives one time to refill the well, something that I really like to do at the end of the year so I can kick off the next year with excitement and energy. What do you do to prep yourself for the start of a new year?

If any of you are thinking the yarn looks familiar - you are indeed correct!! This is the same yarn I used for last year’s “not Christmas” sweater, Aralia. Let us hope it is not cursed! It is going to grow up to be Aidez this time. Going through the gallery of projects it appears that it looks good both with zero to even a bit of negative ease and on through lots of ease which is just what I need to knit now. While I’m still wearing my Wisteria with 10″ of ease, it will look even more ridiculous next year, so I think this year is its last season for wearing.

The yarn is Cascade’s Eco+ yarn in a gorgeous red! I am making some changes. I’m between the 40″ and 44″ size right now and still shrinking so I’m doing a 40″ back and 44″ fronts. Given my bustiness I’m certain the extra coverage in front will be appreciated throughout my sizes. I am also making the popular change to knit it seamlessly which makes for a kind of crazy chart, but I really like being able to just keep following the chart and not having to think about which chart I need to go to with each stitch marker I encounter. There has been some discussion on the sleeves being too narrow, but my measurements look pretty good for the 40″ sleeves if my gauge in the round doesn’t tighten up significantly so I’m thinking I will do the sleeves up to the join on needles one size larger to eek out just a tiny bit more ease. I figure there is some wiggle room to just block them more severely here early this winter and less so as I continue to lose weight.

Okay, I fessed up to the holiday madness I inflict on myself, do you do the same in any way?

Also, I’ll be back on Friday to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday with a giveaway and to kick off the Nourishing Knits blog book tour, so be sure to stop back by. You don’t want to miss out!

Remember my “Christmas” sweater from December? Well, it never became my Christmas sweater, not even for the delayed MN Christmas. I should have known that there were still major problems even after recalculating my own sleeve cap numbers. Whenever I procrastinate on something it is a real sign of a problem. The fact that I kept putting off sewing the sleeves on should have tipped me off. I am probably about 80% product knitter and 20% process knitter. When I near the end of a project, especially a larger one, the sight of the finish line propels me forward - often to put in crazy hours.

Despite the unflattering appearance of this sweater I thought some of you may appreciate the problems that make it unflattering. I had a nice round gauge with the Cascade Eco+ I was using. Since time was of the essence if I was to wear it for Christmas I decided to follow some pretty standard numbers when knitting it. I knew my basic measurements (bust, waist and hips) but I did not bother to measure a sweater that fit me in a similar fashion as I was envisioning my Aralia sweater. I just knit onward and while I occasionally voiced my concerns as I was knitting the body it seemed to look okay on Kurki (my duct tape dressform) and friends and family gave it the okay when I tried it on without the sleeves.

In hindsight, I suspect the numbers for larger circumference sweaters in my source skew towards men once a certain chest measurement is reached. At what point the scales tip I’m uncertain, but definitely at 48″ it is skewed towards a male frame. The armholes land almost a full 4 inches below my actual armpit. Combine that with my pretty severe short waistedness and I had set-in “dolman” sleeves that came out of my waist. This hides the slimmest part of my body. There was a pretty good hint that those armholes were going to be a problem when the sleeve cap knit as written came out to be almost a foot long! I recalculated and got that down to about 8 inches. But even for a plus sized sweater that seemed a little over the top. These also caused the bust short rows I put in to not be placed properly and I still end up with the upside down “U” framing my gut in a most unflattering way.

Another problem is the shoulders. They too wide - by about 2″ (clearest in the right portrait oriented photo above). The shoulder seam lands quite a ways down my shoulder. Even fixing just that (with the help of friends to pin it in place, sorry I had no camera handy at that time) made a fairly big difference in the look of the sweater as well. This was one place where Kurki failed me and I failed myself. Because they are stockinette stitch, the shoulder edges curled and I never tried blocking them out or unrolled them when the sleeveless sweater was tried on. Otherwise I would have likely figured out that the across back measurement of the sweater was probably nearly a full 4 inches wider than my body’s.

I’m abandoning this one. At least for now. A different formation of it may make an appearance come fall and the return of cooler temperatures. I had already pushed off some other more pressing projects to get it to this point and I can’t really give it anymore time right now. Plus, I’m thinking the cowl at this sort of gauge didn’t help make it flattering with my chest (it might be fantastic on my sister though). I think I’ll stick to finer gauge cowls on my sweaters in the future.

Speaking of the future, some things I’m going to be certain to do when designing specifically for my body - have handy the most current measurements and more than just your standard chest/waist/hips circumference and arm length. I’m going to also have my armhole depth, nape to waist, nape to high hip, nape to full hip and across back width. Quite probably above and below bust chest circumferences. Oh, and for calculating the short rows (I have a spreadsheet that I use so those measurements were taken into account here as they were already recorded) - neck to waist at the front to compare to nape to waist in the back. I will also quite likely measure some of my sweaters and shirts to get a better ballpark - even if they don’t fit ideally they will give me a jumping off point as well as checkpoints along the way. And lastly, I hope I listen to myself better the next time I procrastinate!