Hillhead slipover
Recipient: Grandpa
Designer: Ann Feitelson
Pattern: Hillhead
Source: The Art of Fair Isle Knitting: History, Technique, Color, and Patterns
Due: ASAP
Colours: Various greys and blues, turquoise and white
Yarn: Jamieson & Smith 100% wool, 2-ply jumperweight
WIP status: Working on body
Other Hillheads:
at She Ewe Knits
at Tanishi House
- 2005-Sep-22
- Recently, as I was switching between the 3mm and 2.75mm circulars on my Stornaway project, a truth hit me, giving me a sick, sinking feeling in my stomach. The needles currently in my Hillhead project - which I used during all of Saturday's knitting on it - were only the 'placeholder' needles I had stuffed through the stitches in order to free up my only 3mm circular for the Stornaway sweater.
Damn.
So all my Saturday knitting was useless. I'm going to have to rip it out and redo it with the correct size of needles.
I know, I know, I only knit one row on Saturday. No big deal, right? The problem is that I cut one of the yarn strands when I came to the end of a row in order to make a colour change for the next row. Since I used way-too-small needles, this is going to mean that when I redo the row, the colour whose strand I broke is not going to last me for the whole row. Crapola.
- 2005-Sep-20
- I mentioned previously that my grandmother seems to have a hankering to own something I knitted for her. But I think also she may be wondering why the only things I ever seem to knit around her are gifts for DH's family. The reason, of course, is that I want to surprise people with their knitted things and therefore do not knit gifts around the recipients. What no one in my family sees, of course, is that the only stuff DH's family sees me knitting are items for my family. :) However, if someone doesn't figure this out, they may have the impression that I never knit for their own. So, in an effort to subtly demonstrate that I do not love DH's family more than I love mine, I thought it would be a good idea to bring this project to my dad's birthday party to work on. I only managed to get about one row done the whole time, but hey, progress is progress.
Unfortunately, the reaction of one of my aunts upon hearing that my uncle (who wasn't there) is the likely recipient of the slipover was "My brother won't wear wool." Well, fine. If that turns out to be the case, I'm sure I could find someone who will appreciate the love and work and skill I'm putting into this thing. My dad, for instance. Nyah.
(Ah, family. I love them all dearly but lately there's been a rash of pettiness among us which is starting to cheese me off.)
- 2005-Apr-14
- I got a lot done on this yesterday. Lovin' it, lovin' it. It now looks like this:
- 2005-Apr-13
- Got about four or five more rows done on the commute this morning. It's so neat working on this project. I'm almost done one main pattern repeat.
- 2005-Feb-21
- I made a mistake in my last blog entry - I said that each row at the moment is 330 stitches. I double-checked and found I was wrong, it's actually 352 stitches. So...quite a lot of time is required to finish one row. It doesn't help that my fair isle technique is extremely unsophistocated. I suspect seven-year-olds on the Shetland Isles have more efficient technique than I. As you can see from my Knitter's Geek Code (right-hand side of my blog pages), I throw my yarn with my right hand. Moreover, when I throw the yarn, I hold it between my thumb and middle finger. The idea of not having my thumb to secure the yarn to my working finger while I throw is incomprehensible. I've tried looping a strand over one finger and then just moving the finger over to wrap the strand around the working needle. Quite frankly, doing it this way sucks rocks. I find it incredibly hard, slow, and scary - like doing the trapeze without a safety net. Plus it gives me nothing that remotely resembles even tension. I need that thumb. So when I switch colours in fair isle, I have to drop the strand of the colour I'm working with, and then pick up the second colour. Needless to say, this is a colossal waste of time, even though I've gotten pretty speedy at it. I know I should practice the better ways of doing it. I have found videos online showing me how to knit with one strand in each hand, or the two strands on the same hand (just different fingers), I have books which illustrate this technique, I could probably sit down one day and really go at the practicing of one of these techniques and improve my speed. But...well, I'd rather be knitting. :) I'm also nervous that the new technique might alter my gauge. But probably the biggest reason I keep putting this off is how "scary" knitting feels without that thumb. I hate the idea of feeling awkward and unpracticed after years of feeling pretty darn savvy about how I knit. So...I keep putting it off. One day I will hold my nose and figure it all out. But today is not that day. And in the meantime, I have now done this much on the slipover:
- 2005-Feb-18
- Two more rows got done this morning on the commute. I know that doesn't sound like a whole lot, but there was a lot of untangling that had to be done, too. Plus, each row is 330 stitches - not exactly a fast knit. But I love the way the pattern pops more and more with each row I finish.
- 2005-Feb-10
- I got this far before I put the knitting down and went over to my grandfather's bed to be with him as he breathed his last:
Doesn't it look awesome? I love this pattern. The day before he died he was unable to talk and almost complete immobile, but you could see in his eyes that someone was still there. So, I told him about the slipover. I showed him the picture from the book of the completed garment. I showed him how much I'd done so far. His eyes went really big. I think he was very impressed. And I think he really liked it. It is really too bad I couldn't have finished it sooner. It would have been an honour for me if he could have been buried in it - it was a perfect match for his suit. However, I can only do so much. Sadly, his death has really taken the mickey out of me for wanting to continue the slipover right now, but I'm sure I'll get back to it since it's such a damn good knit. Plus, my uncle would also look great in the finished product, and he's been so awesome taking care of my grandparents this whole time - perhaps having this slipover would be a comfort to him.
- 2005-Feb-3
- Even though I'm still on the bottom ribbing, it's really coming along (hey, give me a break, there are 328 stitches per row, each one takes a while). Here's the latest pic, which was taken last night. I've since done about three more rows.
- 2005-Feb-2
- I had a terrible moment yesterday afternoon about four rows in, when I believed that I had, despite doing my very best to make sure I hadn't, twisted the cast-on when I joined the ends in the round. After further investigating, I realised I had done it properly after all and resumed breathing. When the following picture was taken, I was working on row six, and was on my third colour combination. (You can't tell from the photo, but it's true.) Since this photo was taken I've done several more rows. It looks very cool.
- 2005-Feb-1
- The yarn is here! The yarn is here! Lovely stuff. Just one concern, other than a niggling worry that I might not have enough - one of the colours which the pattern calls for is white. But the colour code of Jamieson & Smith wool which was specified in the pattern is actually a cream. I'm not sure if this will end up looking right. Obviously this is the fault of the book, not the yarn company, which has indeed sent me a lovely product. I suppose I could always go back and ask them to send me a skein of white instead if it ends up looking wrong. But in the meantime, I cast on all 328 stitches for the bottom ribbing last night, and got some more done this morning on the commute. There's no white in the ribbing, so I don't have to worry about my cream dilemma until I get to the actual fair isle pattern several inches from now. Nice yarn to work with so far. I'm enjoying myself!
- 2005-Jan-21
- I haven't received the yarn, but my credit card has been charged, so hopefully it's on its way. Meanwhile, I got an update from my mom about my grandpa's health. The doctor seems confident that we might be able to fix some of the major problems. Unfortunately, my grandpa's inability to regulate his blood pressure does not seem to be in the realm of the fixable. This is a big problem, because every time he sits up (which he has to do to keep his body weight up), his blood pressure drops to ridiculous depths. They could of course give him medication to up his blood pressure, but then when he lies back down, it will rise to ridiculous heights. This, obviously, sucks rocks. It also means that he probably can never go home. This is not something he is going to enjoy hearing. Sigh. This is so frustrating. But I'm going to try to visit him this weekend, hopefully with DD in tow to raise his spirits. I'm thinking of waiting until I tell him about the slipover, though - ideally, I'd like to have it on needles to show him when he hears about it.
- 2005-Jan-19
- I called up the Jamieson & Smith people last night and left my payment information, so hopefully the wool will be winging its way to me soon. And I discovered, to my extreme delight, that I actually have a 2.25mm circular needle in my house, which is what I'm going to need to start the project. This means I don't have to go out and buy one! (Which would have been a challenge, since few stores carry circulars that small.) That's the good news. The bad news is that although a bed opened up in the better-attention hospital, my uncle suspects that my grandpa is losing his will. This is quite understandable - it's very depressing to be in hospital, feeling horrible, for months on end. If I were in that situation at age 90, I'd probably lose my will, too. But there still does seem to be a chance that he's fixable, so as long as that's a possibility, I sure as heck don't want to give up. Now that my daughter and I are over our colds, I'm hoping to be able to bring her to visit him again soon, which apparently always perks him up quite a bit (hey, who can blame him for that, she's wonderful).
- 2005-Jan-13
- My mother tells me that my grandfather now has a nasty cough which is actually getting worse. They're trying to move him to the hospital where his doctor is so that he can get better attention, but a bed isn't opening up. I'm quite scared about this but I'm still thinking I should order the wool for the slipover. The Jamieson & Smith people got back to me - with any luck, I will remember tonight to phone them with payment information. Soon the wool will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. I am so strongly hoping that there will still be a point to having bought the wool when it arrives.
- 2005-Jan-7
- The Jamieson & Smith wool brokers got back to me with good news! Shipping is 5 pounds 50 pence, and the price per skein is actually 1 pound 10 pence. Moreover, I realised that I miscalculated - I actually need 15 skeins, not 16. So this is looking to be an affordable project. I sent them the breakdown of which colours I need and am waiting to hear back from them about how to send them payment. Now I'm all excited!
- 2005-Jan-6
- Well, first of all, I now have a title for this pattern, since I went back into the Feitelson pattern book to see what quantities of yarn I'd need. And second of all, I now know what quantities of yarn I need! Unfortunately, if I go with the recommended Jamieson & Smith yarn (which would take far less time and hassle than figuring out good substitutes), it looks like I'm going to be spending a fair bit of money and I'm going to have scads of partial skeins leftover. With any luck I can sell the partial skeins on eBay or something and recoup some costs. The cheapest price I've seen on any Canadian yarn seller website is $5.25 a skein. Did I mention the skeins were only 25g each? Did I also mention that I need sixteen skeins?!? Lordy, this is going to cost. The only shining hope is that the manufacturer of the yarn sells to the public, and their website says they charge one pound 20 pence per skein. I've emailed them to ask them what the shipping costs would be, because one pound 20p is a vast improvement over $5.25Cdn, even if I had to pay customs charges. We shall see. Incidentally, my grandfather is now doing so well that he is being moved out of palliative care. And his new doctor, who was on vacation for the last two weeks of grandfather-health-hell, is making noises about some of the health problems actually being fixable. I am scared to hope but deep down I am rejoicing and crossing my fingers for all I'm worth. Stay tuned.
- 2005-Jan-5
- My aunt called last night, and we talked a lot about my grandpa. It was a great conversation, during which I confessed to her that one of my biggest regrets was not being able to make this slipover for him. She mentioned that maybe I should go ahead with it anyway, since we don't know how much time he has...maybe it's worth a shot. So...I'm thinking about it, and maybe I will. What money I will be buying the yarn with, I'm not sure, now that we're penny-pinching due to the loss of DH's income, but what the hey. This is important to my soul.
- 2004-Dec-29
- I think I will have to face the fact that this isn't going to get done. The odds against my grandfather ever getting better are astronomical. I hate this. I want so badly to make him this slipover and to see him enjoy wearing it. F**k. Screw it, I'm not cancelling this project just yet.
- 2004-Dec-21
- This project may never happen. My grandfather is not doing very well. He was diagnosed earlier this year with some kind of Crohn's-like problem, and now he has several other problems as well, such as erratic blood pressure. So occasionally he loses it a bit as the blood pressure drops, and then an hour later he is totally lucid. The frustrating part is that because DH, DD and I have been getting illness after illness, we haven't been able to see him because even getting a whiff of what we've been going through would probably do him in. The man is 90, after all. I'm really quite scared. I really, REALLY want to knit him this slipover and have him actually get a chance to wear it. More importantly, I want him to live long enough that DD can remember him. Stay tuned.
- 2004-Nov-15
- I went through all the colours in the pattern and figured out what kinds of colours I should be getting to substitute. But I also want to see how affordable it would be to use the actual Jamieson and Smith yarns that the pattern recommends.
- As of 2004-Nov-08
- It would look sooooo good on him. Don't know when I'll have the time or money, though. Figuring out what yarn to buy so that the colours all work out is going to be tricky - there are lots of colours and they're all really similar.
