Just a reminder that tomorrow is World Wide Knit In Public Day!

So take your knitting out into the world and let others see how fun it is! Maybe we can inspire some new knitters.

On my own knitting front, I’m about 8″ into the sensational shirttail sweater and I’ve twisted the cable four times. I’ve been tired in the evenings for some reason — or maybe it’s just that my house is so quiet lately — and I can’t seem to get more than a couple of rows knit each evening. I’ll keep plugging away at it though. Like knitting socks two at a time, since I’m working on the back and both fronts all at once it will take longer, but when I’m done then all that much more will have been accomplished.

I wanted to get another pair of socks started but I didn’t like the test swatch I made. So I’m looking for a different pattern. I’d like to have some socks on the needles as traveling companions. The sweater is a bit bulky to carry around.

Not much done on the Sensational Shirttail sweater over the weekend, but here’s a picture of where I was on Friday and the buttons that I got at Button Emporium. The buttons were hand-made from horn. I really like the spiral design on them. They are shown against the back of the sweater. I’ve gotten a little further than this, but not much. (Click the pic for the bigger version.)

I was very busy over the weekend with graduation (YEA!) and helping #1 Son move on Sunday. He is moving into a house with a bunch of friends for the summer. It’s a typical college-age kid house: Miscellaneous furniture, steep winding stairs, 3 bikes parked in the living room, narrow street. I’ve lived in such houses myself in my checkered past. #1 Son is sub-leasing 1/2 the attic. It’s a nice space with a door and a skylight. I wouldn’t want to go up and down those stairs every day, but he’s young and devil-may-care. I wish him well.

I promised not to call him all the time trying to find out what he’s up to and he promised to “keep in touch.” He called me three times Sunday night. 😀

The house seems very quiet. The fur kids are wandering aimlessly around, and Moo Cow misses her buddy a lot.

When I rolled my Noro Kochoran into center-pull balls, I started a new ball whenever I ran into a knot. So imagine my surprise last night as I knit along on my sweater and suddenly found a loose end in one of the balls.

Then I noticed that there was a matching end trailing out from my knitting tote. And both the tote end and the sweater end were… wet?

Then I saw a little furry white and brown tabby face peering out from under my chair.

Moo Cow, you see, has a string fetish. She will go to great lengths to gobble up any string left around the house. My “free kitten” has already cost me $500 in emergency vet bills after she snacked on the drawstring to #1 Son’s PJs. Since we don’t want a repeat performance, we are very careful about anything long and thin that’s not meant to be eaten. Presents in my house have no ribbons. Hoodies with drawstrings are hung up in a closed closet. Ditto my yarn stash. My UFOs are up high on a bookshelf where Moo can’t get and are in tote bags.

When knitting socks I’ve kept the yarn next to me in my chair. Moo hasn’t shown much interest in my sock knitting, even when she’s jumped up on my lap to demand hugs when I was in mid-knit. I was lulled into a false sense of safety. She was just biding her time…

Sweaters are bigger than socks, and my sweater project is in a bigger tote that doesn’t fit well next to me on the chair. Last night I had the tote resting down on the floor. And apparently the yarn was just slack enough for Moo to hook it from under the chair. I’ll keep an eye on her for a few days to make sure she’s OK, but from the length of the remaining yarn ends it appears she didn’t do more than slice through the strand. Now I’ll need to try new arrangements to keep my yarn safe. Once she finds some string, Moo is as single minded as a bloodhound on a fresh scent. And since she knows with all certainty that the entire world is present only to do her bidding, keeping what she wants away from her can be a challenge.

Today at lunch I ran over to Button Emporium and found some great buttons for my sweater. I’ll try to get some pics up this weekend, if I have time amidst the graduation madness.

While I was in the neighborhood I stopped in at Knit Purl and augmented my stash of Blue Moon soft rock. I’ve got this sock idea rattling around in my brain…

I am loving knitting with the Noro Kochoran! It’s knitting up into a wonderfully soft fabric that’s a little fuzzy, but not furry. I’ve had to tink out a few stitches here and there, and it’s not difficult to do as it would be with alpaca or mohair.

Since I’ve been concentrating lately mostly on socks, there’s one big difference I’ve noticed: US #10-1/2 feels like knitting with broomsticks! I’m so used to US #2 or #3. The big needles have slowed me down. I can’t seem to find my rhythm with them. But even so the sweater is knitting up quickly. I have about 3″ finished and I’m finding the pattern easy to remember and almost mindless to follow (i.e. good TV watching task).

In the lessons learned department: I’ve been knitting socks two at a time. I decided that could work for sweaters also. So, using three of my Noro balls, I cast on for both sides of the front and for the back all on one big circular needle. Now, it will be nice to have the cables on exactly the same rows on all three pieces, to know that the armholes match up and the V-neck starts at the same place on both sides, etc. But keeping three balls of yarn untangled is a talent that I don’t seem to possess. I have to stop every couple of rows and untangle everything. I should probably give up and to back to doing one piece at a time, but I’m too stubborn to admit defeat. Besides, I keep remembering how nice it is to finish both socks at the same time… and that never-worn sweater I knit when I was a kid that had a front 1″ shorter than the back because I got tired of the project long before it was finished and thought I could “fake it.”

With my short attention span, I think I’d better just keep untangling.

How do you keep your yarn straight when knitting with multiple balls?

I’ve selected my next knitting project. I wanted something a bit more adventurous than another pair of socks, and I think this sweater, called Sensational Shirttail will be just the thing.

I found this in The Best Of Knitter’s Arans & Celtics book. I like to wear big. slouchy, comfortable sweaters. This pattern has enough cables and moss stitch to be interesting without having so much pattern that it requires a great deal of thought. And, on size US 10-1/2 needles, it should knit up fairly quickly, thus satisfying my short attention span and almost guaranteeing that I can get it finished before it’s cold enough to wear it.

Of course I required a great yarn, so today I headed over to All About Yarn to see what I could see.

And this was what I found!

This is Noro Kochoran in color # 31. It’s a yummy blend of 50% wool, 20% silk and 30% angora, and is hand dyed in Japan. On my monitor the picture is fairly close to the correct color, but is maybe a bit dark. The major color is sort of a greyish sand, with rust, white, blue, grey and brown. It should go with anything.

Now I just have to find the perfect buttons!

Click either of the pics for the bigger version.

Today I had the privilege of seeing the Son Of Aran sweater knit by Jerry at When Knitting Was A Manly Art. All I can say is that pictures do not do it justice. The yarn is a much darker, yummier green for one thing. And the workmanship that went into it is simply amazing. Kudos to Jerry!

After lunch today I ran down to Oregon City for the 18th Annual Spring Fiber Sale at Abernethy Grange because I really wanted to see that sweater! The Grange has two floors, and both were loaded with vendors selling all kinds of wonderful fibers, fleeces, yarns, spinning supplies, etc. I had promised myself that I would only look for yarn for #1 Son’s socks. He wants seafoam green. There wasn’t a lot of seafoam there. But I did buy a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ luscious “Soft Rock” handpainted yarn in the “Mermaid” colorway. It’s a blend of soft greens and purples. Yes it has some seafoam green in it. No, it’s not going in #1 Son’s socks. 😀

Jerry turned me on to a great book by Mary Ann Beattie at Queen Kahuna Creations. This is a good-sized, substantial book with lots of color pictures — good for knitters like myself who need to see something to get it. The book is full of all kinds of cool techniques like a long-tail cast-on for toe-up socks that Beattie calls the Aloha Cast On. I ordered the book as soon as I got home, and I can’t wait to get it!

I also saw a pair of blueberry waffle stich socks and I really like the way that pattern knitted up. I’m not that happy with the way the Wildfoote socks are coming out. At the gauge I’m knitting, they are turning out too big for my skinny feet. And the pattern doesn’t show against the multiple bright colors. I’m thinking I’m going to rip it all out and try the Aloha Cast On and the blueberry waffle stitch. Yep… I think that’s what I’ll do.