2008-Dec-10

This has been officially shelved. I'm sad about that, because it's working out to be a terrific sweater, but I'm having technical difficulties with the front and back - they're both finished; but the two sides of the back neck opening have ended on two different rows of the pattern; which is a different row again from where I ended the front. I'm not quite sure how I managed to do this, but I don't really have the time to find out, particularly with two whole sleeves left to go. Given the situation right now, I'm all about the minimization of my personal stress, so I'm going to carry this project forward to next year. I'm sad about this, but there are a few silver linings. Firstly, I found my notes for how long the sleeves are supposed to be, so I'll be in good shape to get this finished up in the new year; and secondly, I have an excellent substitute gift that my brother will love. Shh.

2008-Nov-18

This is what I've really been pulling out all the stops for in the last two weeks. I finished the front:



And I'm very close to finishing the back:



The needle is angled in that shot because I'm already working on the neck shaping on one side.

Of course, it wouldn't be a true large Christmas knitting gift without some serious problems threatening to rear ugly heads. Firstly, I'm almost down to my last four balls of yarn and I haven't even started the sleeves. This makes me extremely nervous. Even more nervous-making is that I'm not sure I've truly finished the front because the length looks a little short. And secondly - I have completely lost the notes I made on how long the sleeves are supposed to be. Sigh.

But the good news is that I'm no longer panicked by how little I've done vs. how soon Christmas is coming - I think that as long as the yarn supply holds out, I'll be fine to make the deadline.

2008-Oct-31

Okay, this is Christmas knitting, but it's hardly seen any action at all. The good news? I found the book with the pattern. The bad news? It had disappeared again this morning when I was trying to be a good little Christmas knitter and pack it so I could work on it during the commute. After scouring the house for it and almost making myself late for my morning train, DH (who had generously assisted in the search) theorized that he thought he'd seen it in DD2's nursery. Where she was, at that moment, sleeping...restlessly.

Bugger.

Needless to say, I did not end up packing the sweater today.

On the plus side, it is at least now to the point where I can begin shaping for the neck.

2008-Sep-27

As I'm now starting to feel the first faint stirrings of panic about Christmas, I figured I should stop procrastinating on this one. Alas, I think I've so far managed to do only about one more row. Sad. Also, I can't find the book with the pattern.

No big deal, you might say, with almost two months to go? Like hell. The boy is not tiny and it's cables...all over the sweater.

I'm so screwed.

2008-May-5

This continues to grow. I'm about three or four inches away from the neck shaping, I think. The cables look awesome. (No surprise there, since Elsebeth Lavold designed them.)

2008-Apr-23

This came with me on my commute for a few days, and grew quite a bit. Again, no pictures yet, sorry - I'll try to get one up soon. (Hint: It looks exactly like it did the last time you saw it, except longer.)

Unfortunately, I've had to stop because it's getting close to the point where I'll need to start shaping the neck...and I have no clue exactly where that point is. I have completely lost the notes I took when my mom and I snuck into my brother's room one evening and measured one of his favourite sweatshirts for size. I remember what the width of the sweatshirt was supposed to be, because I got gauge exactly to achieve it...but length? Armhole depth? No freakin' clue. I've asked my mom to try and find the sweatshirt again (can we even remember which sweatshirt it was...heck, no!) and get me a re-do of the measurements. Until then, it stays on hold.

2008-Jan-11

Last week sometime, I think it was, I made the BRILLIANT move of going to the LYS with a knitting bag packed chock-a-block with projects...but not their patterns.

(Seriously. Could I be any more dumbass?)

Fortunately, Ragna was one of the projects, and I'm at the point where I'm just repeating the cable pattern over and over again until I hit a length somewhere past two feet. It's easy to look at the cabling that's already there and figure out from that what to do next, so it was the only project I was able to work on. I probably got about another inch or so done. (It's so hard to concentrate on knitting when you're in a yarn store that needs help putting the stock on the shelves. :)

2008-Jan-1

Once I finished all the Christmas knitting, I started working on this guilt-free. But I stopped working on it once Christmas came because we were spending a lot of time at my parents' place, and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to work on your brother's Christmas present in front of your brother. Still, a very good head start has been made on Christmas 2008:

2007-Nov-23

No additional work has been done on this since the last entry, and I am resolved to keep it that way. I must admit that I had this crazy idea in the back of my head that if my gift idea for him this year didn't work out, I would somehow be able to whip up this sweater for him in time. (An intricately cabled sweater with a 50" chest and numerous other Christmas projects to complete. Yeah. My self-delusional abilities know no bounds.) However, I was fortunately able to get what I wanted to get him this year on eBay more-or-less within budget (a 1GB MP3/MP4 iPod knockoff...he will love it and I will be the best sister ever; it may even top last year's triumph, which was the Russell Peters 'Outsourced' DVD). Therefore, Ragna as a backup plan can now fall to the wayside.

Really.

Shut up, I'm serious.

2007-Nov-19

Knitters Attic is moving to a new location, and they had a pre-opening sale in the new spot this past weekend. I bought 10 balls each of Magic Garden Allsorts in a bright, strong blue, and Patons Canadiana in navy. The Allsorts doesn't really have a purpose yet, although I have generalized thoughts of making something really comfy and cosy for DD2.

The Canadiana, however, has a definite purpose. I bought it to make Ragna for my brother. I would have preferred to make it out of something more natural, but I had been forewarned (and strenuously so) by my mom that my brother's laundering skills are extremely limited. Apparently, he just dumps stuff in the machine without checking the care instructions. Anything requiring handwashing or, heaven forbid, blocking, was going to be ruined in very short order. So, acrylic it had to be. And at $2 per 100g ball for the Canadiana, I had my clear winner.

So yes, you guessed it, I couldn't resist and cast on for the sweater.

The pathetic thing is that this is going to be a gift for next Christmas. For heaven's sake, I have knitting time crunch for Christmas 2007 going on and I cast on for something planned for Christmas 2008? I suck.

The sweater, on the other hand, is looking pretty good. I'm working on the flappy bits right now to start:



I'm not enjoying the knitting as much as I could because the yarn is pretty squeaky. But the finished fabric feels good.

2004-Dec-30

I've been giving more thought to what yarn I could use for this sweater. I'm leaning towards a rich red/burgundy/wine kind of colour. I think he'd really like that. And I want to use a yarn with a significant percentage of natural fibre. So far, I've thought of two possibilities. One is that I have a two-pound cone of sportweight burgundy wool that I'm currently using to do my Elizabeth of York vest. If doubling or tripling the yarn would give me the right gauge, and if I have enough left over after the vest is done, it would work well. The wool is coarse, but I'm sure Mark would wear the sweater over a T-shirt, so that's not such a big deal. Plus, the wool might really soften up after a good dip in Eucalan. Another possibility is to go back to the eBay seller that I got my 2.2lb cone of alpaca from and see if I can pick up another cone in the colour I'm looking for. Of course, I'd have to first see if I can get gauge from the alpaca. Tripling or quadrupling the strands should work. Either way, though, lots of swatching is in order first.

2004-Dec-20

Alright, yes, I'm insane. But this would look really great on Mark! I would use Lavold's recommendations for making it in a bigger size, which seems to mean chunky yarn. More swatching research is obviously needed. But I really think he would love to have this sweater.

Labels: ragna