Metro Finished

Metro was a quick and pleasant knit. I love the feel and look of the City Tweed. If this sweater doesn't pill excessively, I'm sure I'll use City Tweed again, maybe in the Sport Weight version.

The comments on Shirley's Metro, mentioned she had a challenge getting the bottom of the sweater to lay flat and not roll, so I decided to put a short section of ribbing on the bottom.


One challenge I did not meet was the Kitchener of the left collar to the right collar.

My favorite basic knitting how-to book is Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti, so that's where I went for guidance on grafting ribbing together. Maggie said:

Grafting ribbing can drive even an experienced knitting instructor up the wall. Sometimes I have gotten so frustrated with it that I have used the double bind-off method instead.

Since my aching jaw was driving me up the wall as high as I wanted to go, I went right to the double bind-off.


Another pattern attribute Shirley warns about is the tight sleeves, so I used the sleeve pattern for the next size up. They're still a bit tighter than I'd like.

On the other hand, I learned many new (to me) techniques on knitting set-in sleeves top down that, in my opinion, improve on the Barbara Walker method. That alone was worth the price of the pattern because I love knitting sleeves directly into a sweater instead of trying to neatly sew them in after the fact.

Pattern: Metro from the Fall 2010 Twist Collection by Connie Chang Chinchio.

Yarn: Knitpicks City Tweed, Heavy Weight Worsted. 55% Merino wool, 25% superfine alpaca, 20% Donegal tweed.

Color: Dungarees.

Needles: Options #7.

Gauge: 4.4 stitches/inch, 6 rows/inch in stockinette.

Silver Lace Vest Finished

This was a fun, quick knit. Plenty of variety in the stitch patterns, and no sleeves.

Caution on the pattern though. There is errata, but even the errata didn't cover the most confusing error I found - right leaning decreases in the lace patterns were labeled ssk in the stitch key and left learning decreases in the stitch key were labeled k2tog. Also, there is no help in planning how to make the lace look decent when the neck decreases start. A beginning knitter might have a very challenging time of it.



I washed and blocked it late last week, and wore it to church on Sunday over darker gray slacks and turtleneck.


The ribbings have a slightly ruffled look from a yarnover, k2tog row just before the bind off.

It fits, but I wish it was a little smaller. I've lost fourteen pounds since late December, and my knitting mind hasn't wrapped around the fact that I don't need garments with a 40 inch bust anymore.

Pattern: Oversize Lace Top by Deborah Newton, published in Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting.

Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss. 70% Merino wool, 30% silk. DK weight.

Color: Robot. (Silver gray)

Needles: Options #5.

Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch in pattern.

Red X Sweater Finished

This sweater has been done for a few weeks but since it's still cold here the wool sweater season has been extended through March and I haven't been in a hurry to wash/block it to be wearable.

Also, I've had the income tax papers spread out all over the table where I do my drying/blocking. Yesterday I picked up all the paperwork, declared the tax stuff ready to go to the accountant, and celebrated by washing/blocking the Red X Sweater.








The background stitch pattern is a little busier than usual for a Gansey type sweater, but I don't regret using it. The Red X Sweater goes its name when I started out with this stitch pattern.


Here's an underarm view of the faux seam and the little gusset.

Pattern: Basic gansey template. Picked stitch patterns selected from various stitch collections.

Yarn: Knitpicks Cotlin. 70% Tanguis Cotton, 30% Linen. DK weight.

Color: Moroccan Red.

Needles: Options #3.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8.5 rows/inch in pattern.

Brown Stroll BFF Socks Done

Pattern: BFF by Cookie A. 56 stitch size.

Yarn: Knitpicks Stroll, handpainted sock yarn.

Color: Kindling Tonal.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

Anne's Scarf Done

DIL Anne sent this beautiful 100% Merino yarn in the Christmas box for me to knit her birthday socks. Socks knit from fragile yarn that requires hand washing for a busy working mother? I suggested a scarf instead and she liked that idea.

Two skeins wasn't enough for a tall adult woman scarf, so I ordered two more skeins thereby assuring the scarf would be late for her January 10 birthday.

Now it's done. And assuming I can get out of the driveway, it will go in the mail tomorrow. Without going into a long weather whine, we've been having nasty weather. The driveway is a sheet of ice and the car may be frozen into it.


Once again I used the One-Row Scarf from the Yarn Harlot and doubled the fingering weight yarn. It turned out beautiful.



Pattern: One-Row Scarf by the Yarn Harlot. Knit on 26 stitches. About five inches wide.

Yarn: Artyarn Ultramerino, fingering weight. Using two strands held together.

Color: #144

Needles: US #7.

Scarf and Snow

Granddaughter Sydney's scarf is done.

I also finished a pair of socks for her in this yarn and decided they were too ugly to send, so I'm in the process of knitting a different pair. The problem? It's this yarn. I'm having an impossible time getting even stitches for some reason, and the color bands are way too long for socks. One of the socks was all purple, and the other sock turned to blue on the foot. I thought it would be OK, but on second thought I could just imagine a five year old declaring she wasn't going to wear those socks that didn't match.

I dislike this yarn very much. The wide color bands are impossible, it's fuzzy, grabby wool, and there are tiny little knots occurring frequently on just one of the three plies. As I mentioned above, I'm having a problem getting uniform stitches. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm blaming it on the yarn.

The yarn is better suited for a scarf than socks, and I like the way the scarf turned out. It's long enough to handle the long color repeats and it's going to be soft after I rinse it in some hair conditioner.

Pattern: One-Row Scarf by the Yarn Harlot.

Yarn: JojoLand Melody superwash wool, fingering weight. Using two strands held together.

Color: MS28, purple

Needles: US #7.


According to the weather forecast I listened to, there was not supposed to be snow yesterday until evening. When I woke up to two inches on my car (there was already six inches on the ground), I didn't think much about it, cleaned the car off, and took Pappy to his doggy dental appointment.

Dogs get drugged for teeth cleaning, and he needed an extraction so he got drugged even deeper. They told me I could pick him up about four, but the snow kept coming down all day, sometimes heavy, and I was concerned about not being able to get out of the driveway if the snowplow went by and piled road snow at the end of it.

How awful would that be? To have my dog stranded all night at the vet's instead of in my tender loving care?

About two pm I finally panicked and called to ask if I could pick him up early. Sure, they said, as long as I didn't care if he was groggy. He's only fifteen pounds and easy to carry, so off I went hardly able to see out the car window.

Pappy and I got home about an hour later and it stopped snowing almost immediately.

It didn't matter if he was still semi-drugged. Pappy was more comfortable sleeping it off at home and I was more comfortable having all the family back together again.