A Lesson in Discipline: EZ's Green Sweater

I consider myself to be a fairly disciplined person, which to me means that I'm good at sticking with things that I'm not too crazy about doing. This pattern tested my stick-to-it-tive-ness like nothing else I've done as of late. And it was weird because I actually enjoyed the test.

Lucky for me, the first time that I read through the instructions for EZ's Green Sweater it registered something like this: "Knit in the round...something...something...steeks (Should I?)...something...something...pick up stitches for sleeves knit in the round...something...something...sew on buttons." And then I cast on.

I must admit that all the hand stitching got to be a drag by the end of the project, but it is a pretty sweater, and I like the way that it feels when I wear it. I love the Ultra Alpaca and will definitely be using this yarn again in the future.

If you want some more information about my experience with this pattern, I detailed the process on my Ravelry posting ad nauseam. I always appreciate when someone does it for me.

Now, what's next?

Welcome To Target Field!

Now Spring has officially arrived. Outdoor baseball. Back in Minnesota. And back in style.

Saturday afternoon's Gopher baseball game gave Minnesota baseball fans their first glimpse of the Twins' spanking new stadium in downtown Minneapolis, and it couldn't have been better. Well okay, it could have been 72 degrees instead of 50, but I don't think that anyone cared.

Target Field is perfect. They've captured just the right blend of an old ballpark feel with all the modern amenities. The wide open concourses tempt you to keep exploring what's ahead and yet you can always stop for a few minutes to catch up with what's going on on the field. There are even a couple of sections with vintage-type wooden seats to bring you back to your youth--well, if you're old enough, that is.

And the food! In the past, we've always made plans to eat somewhere either before or after a game because the Dome's food was so bad. Yesterday we had a hard time deciding what to try first. (By the way, we went for Juicy Lucy's and Murray's steak sandwiches--and a cold beer, of course, at the Town Ball Tavern and everything was excellent.)

Say what you will about taxpayers having to help build stadiums or about the choice of location, this ballpark is going to be a major attraction in the city of Minneapolis for years to come, and I can't wait to go back. Our tickets for a night game this May with the Tigers are already burning a hole in my pocket. I've heard the lighting is the best around.

Being Minnesotans, we just couldn't quite leave winter behind us though. After enjoying our afternoon at the ballpark, we ended the day watching the championship game of the NCAA regional hockey tournament at the X in St. Paul. We were mostly cheering for St. Cloud, but having been born in Wisconsin and educated at St. Cloud State, I couldn't lose. Turns out the Badgers were more than the Huskies could handle. One more weekend of hockey, and we wait for Opening Day.

Practical Knitting

By the time I went to bed last Thursday night, it was pretty clear that I was not going to have enough yarn to finish my EZ's Green(Red) cardigan. I wasn't short by much, but I was going to be short. What to do? Would there be enough if I shortened both of the sleeves a bit? Should I make the neckline band narrower? I didn't want to panic or make any decisions until I could make a call on Friday morning to see if there might be another skein available with the same dye lot. Besides, I couldn't break my rule: Never rip out any knitting or try to fix mistakes after 10pm. Never.

A quick phone call on Friday confirmed my pessimistic hunch that I was S.O.L. on getting another skein of the exact same yarn. I did order another one though and set the whole works aside for the weekend with my fingers crossed that when the yarn arrived it would be close enough in color to allow me to finish the sweater without too much trouble.

That left me facing a whole weekend without any knitting! I had to find something fast. There were hockey and basketball tournaments all weekend that the guys wanted to watch, so I needed something to keep me busy enough to pretend that I was totally interested. (Actually, I only have to feign interest in college hoops. The hockey part I like.) Then I thought of my bag-'o-cotton-yarn that I kept around for kitchen dishcloths. It had been years since I had dug that old thing out. Perfect.

Some people stick their noses up at wasting precious knitting time making dish rags. What a sad lot. They don't know the thrill of casting on a project and finishing it a couple hours later. They don't know the satisfaction of using every inch of a skein of cheap yarn while creating lovely striped squares to drape across the kitchen sink for everyone to see. They don't know the joy of practical knitting.

Whenever I happen to see cotton yarns on sale, I throw a couple of skeins in the cart to keep on hand for these old reliables. I've been making them ever since I was a kid. I'm sure I've made dozens over the years. I'm also sure that my Mom and my Grandmas probably got sick of getting them, but they never said so.

When I dug through my cotton stash to decide which color to start with, I noticed that I had thrown a new pattern in my bag. It was for the Morning Glory Washcloths. How can you go wrong with a name like that? Like most dishcloth patterns, it's a quick study, and in no time, I was mindlessly knitting away. By Sunday night, I had four done.

Today my new skein of Ultra Alpaca showed up so I can continue on my sweater. The color is so close that I don't think it's going to show any difference at all. See, it pays not to panic--and to always buy an extra skein of yarn! Oh yea, and cheap cotton yarn for dishcloths.

Have Some Sewing with Your Knitting

After spending several evenings of my knitting time sewing down steeks, I'm back to the knitting portion of the program. Whew! I will have to admit that that part of the EZ's Green Sweater pattern kind of sucks. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice on the inside to have all these cleanly finished facings, but eww!, I don't like hand sewing. The trouble is, I've never been an "Oh, that looks good enough" kind of person, so I messed around with it probably a little too much in the name of neatness.

One tip that I've learned from other projects like this is to go ahead and finish the areas that won't require any more work--including sewing in the ends and clipping the yarn, but to leave the yarn and the last few stitches of finishing in the areas of the sweater that aren't quite done so that it can all be tidied up in the end. On this sweater, I left the facings open on the last few stitches towards the live stitches by the neckline and shoulders.

When I picked up the stitches for the sleeve, I followed the recommendation to pick up three of every four stitches and ended up with a couple over the suggested stitch count. I was fine with that. (I guess that I am, on the other hand, an "Oh, that's close enough" person.) I know I won't mind a little longer sleeve.

On the first read, the first round of the gusset directions threw me off for a minute. Is my stitch count correct? Yep. Just read ahead a little for the description for the corner points. If this threw you too, maybe it will help to read Round 1 like this, "K1, ssk, k25, k2tog, k1, slip marker, k1, ssk, knit until 3 sts remain, k2 tog, k1." Doesn't that gusset look nice, though?

I also like the way a real shoulder forms by starting the top of the sleeve decreases twelve rows in from the seam. I'll have to remember that.

Despite all the finishing, which really wasn't as bad as my whining makes it sound, I am really enjoying this project. It's so out of the ordinary, and I'm loving the yarn. I'll have to admit though that I am feeling the itch to go out and get something new. The snow has been melting quickly this week, and every drip off the roof of the house has me dreaming about spring. Those cotton and linen yarns will still be waiting for me after I'm done with my wool.

Orange You Glad

As it turned out, I had a surprise day at home last Friday. There were plenty of other things I probably should have done, but I spent the morning making orange marmalade. I had picked up some beautiful oranges earlier in the week, had plenty of sugar on hand, and finally the time that I could commit to staying at home and getting it done.

Even though I've made lots of jams and preserves in the past, I've never attempted marmalade. I'm not sure why. I love it, and good orange marmalade--really good orange marmalade is expensive. Last year I picked up a jar made with champagne that was delicious.

While I was having my morning coffee, I did a quick search for a recipe and found one on the Food Network from Alton Brown. His recipes have been reliable in the past, and so I printed it up and dug in. The first step, of course, is prepping the oranges with a quick bath and slicing them up for the cooking process. I have a mandolin, but it's not a very good one, and as I suspected, wasn't up to the task of slicing oranges. No problem. I have lots of good, sharp knives, and it's only four or five oranges.

Once I threw them in the pot, I was tempted to go down and grab a bottle of champagne in place of the water. Hmm? Wouldn't the sugar in the champagne offset the amount of sugar that I would add later? As tempted as I was to recreate what I had found in the store, I decided to stick with the recipe this time.

Here's what it looks like as it cooks down:

The sliced oranges simmering with lemon zest, juice, and water.

After the sugar is added, the color changes as it slowly gets to the right temperature to set.

Ready for the jars!
(I went for a thicker set jam so that the orange slices wouldn't all rise to the top in the jars.)

This is the fun part.

And then you wait for it--that wonderful sound of the lids popping into place while they cool on the counter. How satisfying is that to know that this will be something we'll enjoy for weeks to come? Some Florida sunshine in the middle of a Minnesota winter.

The next morning, I printed out some labels so that I can give away a few jars. I've been the happy recipient of some friend's labors in the past, so it's time for me to share.

What's next? I've been reading One Man's Wilderness--a story set in Alaska--and it's made me hungry for sourdough, so as the jars were cooling, I mixed up a batch of starter. Some biscuits with marmalade...

Adult Tomten Coat

The Zimmermann winter progresses as I put the finishing touches on my Tomten Coat this week. I cracked the whip and hand-sewed the zipper in before I could even think about putting aside to do "later." Eww. Zippers. But it's what I knew would look the best and be the most practical for easy wear. (Either that or practice saying, "Just a minute honey, I'm coming. I only have ten more buttons to go.)

The Tomten pattern is one that I've wanted to try for a long time. I love its simplicity and the fact that it's easy to adapt to any size. Once you knit a swatch and do some simple math, you're on your way.

My original plan was to try and stay as true to the original pattern as possible , but there were some modifications that I decided were necessary to get a better fit. And that's always been the beauty of Mrs. Zimmermann's patterns; they are meant to be adapted to your own style and needs. I put most of the notes for this project on my Ravelry page--just in case I ever decide to do it again. In fact, as I was knitting this one, I got a great idea for another one. We'll see.

Overall, I would have to say that this was a worthwhile project. There were times when I ended up knitting and re-knitting some of the sections of the jacket, but I think I learned a few things about shaping and design. The Lite Lopi was a good choice for the project. It's warm and lofty and will hold up well over the years. I'm also glad that I knit in the cuffs on the sleeves and went with the zipper front. Both choices make it more jacket-ish. I really like the color combination, too. That was just the dumb luck of having a couple of good contrast colors in my leftover bin.

Now I can get back to my other Zimmermann project, the (Red) Green Sweater. I've got the steeks cut and am working on the handwork for the facings--only slightly more interesting than applying a zipper. More good experience, right?

Victory

Even small victories are victories nonetheless.

Mine came this week through a few technological changes that I've been meaning to make for quite awhile. The most daring of all was updating my laptop to Windows 7. Updating the operating system on a computer is basically like playing with fire--you don't wonder if you're going to get burned, but when.

I've had the software for weeks, and every time I moved it around on my desk to find something else, I debated whether or not I was actually going to go through with it. After all, apart from a few freeze-ups once in awhile, my laptop works great. Why mess with it? But then I kept hearing about some of the new features that sounded cool, and I'd be tempted to try.

Well, this week I did my research, backed up my hard drive, and went for it. I was sure I had doomed myself to a day or two of aggravation in the form of downloading updates and searching for fixes. But no. It couldn't have been easier. Everything works. Stunning.

I also had to spend a day dealing with cable connections and audio settings to get the remaining TVs in our house into the twenty-first century. We've been ditching a couple of the last old, heavy tube TVs around the place. Between old computers, TV sets, and stereo equipment, we had better start saving now for what it's going to cost us at our city-wide recycling day this spring.

The Tomten jacket is coming along. The second sleeve went much faster since I had done the figuring and reknitting on the first. By mid-week, I had picked up the stitches for the hood and gotten one skein knit up before I ended up ripping back to re-do the method of increases.

There are several different modifications that have been done on the hood by other knitters. I liked the idea of bringing it in around the neck, so I knit even for the first three inches and then decreased eight stitches on the next row over just the stitches at the back of the neck. On the next right side row--the outside of the hood-- I began the increases. Initially, I did the increases with a M1L and M1R on either side of the middle stitch every two garter ridges, but the increases stuck out and looked awkward. I took out the knitting back to the decrease row and tried again by knitting into the front and back of each stitch on either side of the middle stitch to make the increases. Much better. It's smooth and should be almost invisible after blocking. I'm not exactly sure how many increase rounds it will take for the hood. I guess I'll know when to quit.