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after what seemed like days and days of finished, the apres surf hoodie is finally done!
Ravel It!
Pattern: Apres Surf Hoodie from Sprint 08 Interweave Knits
Yarn: 9 balls RYC Cashcotton 4-ply in Peppermint
Needles: US 4 Addi Circ for the body; US 3 Addi Circ for the hood
Mods/Comments: i fiddled with the sizing a little bit as i wanted just a little bit of positive ease and i am between sizes. other than that, pretty much stuck w/ the pattern.
in hindsight, i wish that i had gone a little narrower in the shoulders as the seams fall down a little bit more than i had hoped. i think i could have avoided this problem to some extent if i had done a larger gauge swatch (damn that swatching!). the finished pieces grew much, much more after blocking than my swatch. i’m guessing that the larger expanse of lace in the front and back just opened up more than my small 5″ swatch.
other than that, i am super happy with the final project. i really wanted something to slip on in the summer evenings when we are hanging out on the back deck and the temperature starts to drop. this will be absolutely perfect for that purpose, so comfy and cozy!
i absolutely love the ryc cashcotton too. it is ridiculously soft and easy on the hands.
what most of the world considers normal summer temperatures, like 80 or 90 degrees, we in seattle call a “heat wave.” it has been fairly hot this week and as the warm days have gone on and on, our house has gotten hotter and hotter with each passing moment. knitting has almost been impossible as my hands are constantly sweating, which fucks up my gauge and makes knitting generally uncomfortable. this is messing with my race to the finish in a big way. i can, however, report that i have actually factually completed one of my projects…
Candied Cowl (Ravel It)
Pattern: None – made it up
Yarn: Sundara Sock in Candied Chrome
Needles: US 2 16″ Addi circ
of course, i finished the easiest of the projects. i love the way it turned out and i’m sure i’ll get a lot of wear out of it come fall and winter. it was a great use of the variegated yarn, which i always find difficult to deal with. i haven’t blocked it yet or taken photos with it on an actual human, but i’ll get around to that sooner or later.
the apres surf hoodie is in pretty good shape too. knitting is done and i’ve been working on the seaming a little bit each day.
my seams look fabulous, if i do say so myself. you can’t even see them! i’m really proud of how they are turning out this time around. even the set in sleeves are looking pretty good, something i’ve struggled with a fair bit. a year or so ago, i took susanna hansson’s “finishing for the finicky” class at so much yarn in seattle. i highly recommend the class to anyone who struggles with finishing or seaming. it is wonderful. susanna has many great tricks and tips. in addition to seaming, the japanese short rows she teaches are amazing. anyway, the last thing i have to do on apres surf is take out the provision cast ons and do the applied i-cord to bind of at the waist and sleeves. the weather is supposed to cool down tomorrow, so hopefully i’ll have an FO soon.
i have recently been a little bit overwhelmed by my number of WIPs. many great projects in the works, but nothing has been completed for quite a while. over on ravelry, a bunch of people are participating in “ravelympics.” [side note: cutesy knitting words make me want to stuff a ball of peace fleece down someone's throat. i adore all the girls on the sundara boards, but i think the sundara stash needs to be confiscating from anyone who uses the word "sundarians" to describe sundara yarn fans. it reminds me too much of pearl jam fans who call other fans the "jamily." barf!] anyway, the point of the ravelypics is to start and finish a project during the 17 day course of the olympics. it got me thinking about setting a silly knitting goal for myself to help me really get things done.
so, for the month of august, i’ll be racing to finish a number of wips that have been languishing.
1. the much maligned apres surf hoodie. [side note 2: dumb name. why not just call it the after surf hoodie? does that one french word make it somehow cooler? i guess i'm really pissy about words that bother me today.] i’ve talked enough about this knit. all i have is to finish a sleeve cap, sew up the seams, and block. should be easy.
2. the candied cowl. mindless tv knitting. 3-6 inches to go depending on how long i decide to make it. also easily completed by the end of the month.
3. seattle sky juno. i have not yet blogged about this particular project. i started it before i started up on the blog again, and i haven’t really worked on it much since. the yarn, sundara yarn’s fingering silky merino in the winter sky colourway, is absolutely too die for. the perfect yarn for this project and i think the FO is going to be spectacular. i’m a little more than half way done and i’m reasonably comfortable saying this one will be done by the end of the month too.
4. moon dance stole. here’s were it gets a little hairy, people. i would really love to get this lovely stole completed by the end of the month, but i have a really hard time working with lace weight yarn for any time period longer than, say, 15 minutes. so, i get bored after about two rows and want to move along to something else. however, i’m going to try my damnedest to get it done. i will absolutely not cast on for anything new in august unless all four of these projects have been completed. nothing like torturing myself through a knitting project.
wish me luck!
p.s. i gave up coffee as of this morning. lack of proper caffination may be the cause of my crabbiness about “ravelympics” “sundarians” “jamily” and “apres.” 
after complaining last week about lack of recent knitting success and my frustration with progress on the apres surf hoodie, i’m happy to report that i actually had a kick ass weekend of knitting. mike had to work both saturday and sunday, and while i was initially bummed that we wouldn’t be able to spend any time together, i soon realized that it was a great opportunity to focus on knitting and another crafty project i have in mind.
that evil beast, the hood, is all done! it came together much easier than i expected. the directions were a bit confusing to me. since a bunch of ravelers have finished it without any problems, i figured i’d just go with it and hope for the best. it worked great. all i have left to do, on the hood anyway, is finish the i-cord bind off, which is about half way complete. one more sleeve to go!
i was surprised to find myself so enthused about working on the hoodie again that i didn’t get around to any of the other projects i had planned, which actually includes some non-knitting crafts. maybe next weekend. and, maybe, the hoodie will get done some day very soon.
it has been very quiet on this little blog lately. largely because i’ve only been frustrated by my knitting projects the past few weeks. i have several things going and none of them are in a particular fun place – like the beginning or the end!
in particular, my apres surf hoodie is just stuck. i try to work on it here and there, but it feels like i’m not making any significant progress, which is a bit discouraging. honestly, i didn’t realize how much MORE knitting was involved in the hood. i usually feel like i’m pretty much home free once the front and back are done. i mean, sleeves are nothing, i can whip through them pretty quickly. but, the hood is like a whole new giant piece, similar in size to the back. on top of that, and this may sound nutty, but the smell of the needles i’m using bugs me immensely. the pattern calls to go down a size for the hood. i didn’t have the appropriate size and my lys didn’t have regular addis in the size i needed, so i went with the lace addis. you know that yucky metallic smell, like a pile of dirty, old pennies, that’s what they smell like. they make my hands smell metallic too. it’s just gross, and when i work on the hood i’m overwhelmed with the icky smell. i should probably just buck up and hit a few shops this weekend in search of the regular addis.
in an effort to inspire myself, i thought i’d cast on for a quick little project. i’ve been drooling over my sundara yarn candied chrome colorway for quite a while and knew i wanted to jump on the cowl bandwagon. easier said than done! i must have frogged and restarted five or six times. i was never happy with my cast on, or the stitch i chose for the border, or the stitch i chose for the main part. i am finally happy with it doing the good old garter stitch border with a k2tog, yo pattern spiraling up the cowl.
see the lump o’ apres surf hoodie. this has been the only knitting project i’ve worked on for about a month. the front is done, the back is done, a sleeve is done, and i’m about half way through the hood. it is coming along nicely and i think i’ll be really pleased with the final product. but…the monogamy thinking isn’t working so well for me. i’m antsy to move on to something else. unfortunately, when i get antsy like this, i start avoiding knitting completely. and, i don’t much like avoiding my knitting.
so, i decided to give in and allow myself to work on a different project while i’m on my trip to CA to visit jess. i cast on for basic stockinette socks using my vesper sock yarn in love stinks, yeah yeah colourway.
aren’t they cute? for circular knitting, i’m a traditionalist and i prefer four straight double pointed needles. i always find the join and the first round a little fiddly. who wants to be dealing with that fiddly part on an airplane? my intent was just to get things started. before i knew it, i was cruising along and had at least 4 inches of the leg complete.
the jury is out on the vesper sock yarn. i really love the way the color stripes are coming out. i can not tell you how much i like predictable stripes more than a variegated colourway. however, i find the yarn a little stiff. it isn’t as sproingy (know what i mean?) and soft as most of the sock yarn i’ve used. not unpleasant to knit with tho, and i expect that it will soften over time.
some fun links today:
sundara launched her new site
february lady sweater, which is already shaping up to be the latest knitting craze
the apres surf hoodie from the most recent interweave knits magazine is a knitting pattern i fell in love with instantly, and i knew right away that i wanted to knit it and i needed to cast on as quickly as humanly possible. this is really rare for me. typically, i don’t really fall in love with a pattern until i’ve seen it on a few people. but, this one, i had to start right away.
i immediately tracked down the yarn, rowan cashcotton 4ply in the peppermint colourway, and bought my needles. i cast on for the swatch with in minutes of the magazine arriving in my mailbox.
at the same time, i’ve been following a thread on the stash and burn group at ravelry regarding project monogamy. for the last few years, i have not been a monogamous knitter. i usually have three or four projects on the go at one time. i had noticed last fall when i completed two sweaters in relatively quick succession, that i did seem to get more accomplished when i focused on one project, but quickly forgot. i’m surprised how many people said they were able and actually liked (!) having only one wip, and i thought i’d go ahead and give it a go with the surf hoodie.
now i remember why monogamy is so hard. i’ve finished the back and about 75% of the front, which is about when i hit the dreaded knitting slog. the part of the project where i have a good chunk of it done, the lace repeat is burned in my brain, and now i just want to wear it. last night i almost didn’t knit at all because i didn’t want to work on the hoodie and i’m too stubborn to work on something else since i promised i’d stay faithful to the hoodie until the end.
at least i have the hood construction to look forward to, something i’ve not done in a knitting project yet. but, those damn sleeves, i am dreading the sleeves.
