KnitFreak

Josephine is done! The parts were sitting on the stash box next to my spot on the couch, and last week I thought, 'what the heck, I might as well put in the sleeves', just like that. The time seemed to be right. (Or should I say, it seamed to be right?) Check out the results:

I'm soooo glad I finally did it! And to be honest, seaming the sleeves wasn't bad at all. Au contraire, it was pretty easy. Actually, I can't believe how easy it was - maybe because the last bit I knit was the collar, and I couldn't stop swearing at it.
It's a very comfy cardigan (I made it longer than required by the pattern), and I already wore it here on chilly nights because I get cold easily. I guess I'm glad that I knit it, but I doubt that I'd knit this one again. The cable patterns weren't hard to make, but the yarn was so big and the needles were even bigger (7mm and 7,5mm), and the weight was quite hard on my wrists and hands. Maybe I shouldn't have used straight needles and opted for some circular needles... I'll never know, and frankly, I don't think I want to find out.

Thanks a lot to everybody who encouraged me to finish this! Without you guys I wouldn't have made it.
(Oh, and thanks to K, who took these pictures before!)

The blog world has me back! There's been lots going on over here during the past week and a half, and not much of it was good. First, I had this bad cold, nothing too serious, I was just not feeling well. You know, when you're in the stage when you're not sick enough to stay in bed the whole time, but you're still not well enough to go on with your regular work. And that annoys the heck out of me, every time I have it! Plus, my right eye was troubling me. A lot. Five years ago, I've been diagnosed with a disease called Uveitis, which appears in batches. The disease is basically an inflammation which appears in the background of the eye; my eye looks perfectly normal though, because only an ophthalmologist can see it with their things. And just before Easter, on my dad's birthday, I had another one. Fortunately, it's not as bad as it could be (it can affect the visual nerve), and so I don't need to take heavy medication (if it gets bad, you'd have to take steroids and cortisone for about 4 weeks, and while doing that, you'd have to get your liver functions tested on a regular basis); in fact, the doctors said I couldn't do anything. So, what's so bad about this, you might wonder... the only way I notice that something is wrong with my eye is that I can't see properly. It is as if there is a grey-ish cloud in my right eye, in the right-hand center of my focus, and this cloud is moving with my eye movements. And it won't go away, at least not for a while. A long while, that is. (5 years ago, when the Uveitis first occurred, I asked the doctor at the University Eye Clinic in Tübingen how long it will take for this cloud to go away. He said it would take about 3 to 4 months. A few years later, I could still see the cloud. Another doctor told me that there is no way anybody could tell me how long it would take until the thing goes away.)
Well, now you know why I wasn't feeling too well lately... this whole affair affected my mood a lot.

But now to something more cheerful! For those of you who live in Munich or Munich-area, a group of knitters is meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, April 25) from 6.30 pm onwards at a restaurant/tavern/cantina place called "Esszimmer" (= Dining Room), to knit together and maybe learn a few things together. If you want to come, either leave a comment on my blog, or contact Amélie. Everybody's welcome! Oh, and we'll probably speak German, but that shouldn't scare English speakers off!

Now, finally, I'll come to the knitting content!
I'm still, or, again, knitting sockapaloooza socks!

The pattern is again from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, the shell pattern. It might look complicated, but the instructions are soooo easy-peasy! And the yarn is called Singapore, from Ewa's place. (I know, I know, the site's still not in English, but we're working on it! If you want to order some of her yarns without speaking any German, I'm happy to assist. Her yarns are very seasonal, she makes about 10 balls from each color)
The heel on this sock is turned and I'm on my way down towards the toes. I know, I already made a pair of socks for my sockpal, but this is the yarn I originally intended for her. Remember, I wanted to knit the socks as my Olympic project, but then the yarn didn't arrive... The only problem is now, I won't be able to finish the second pair of socks in time to mail them so they arrive on May 1st. I'll ask my pal if she prefers either one pair of socks on time or a pair of socks and a surprise, but a bit later... I'll see what she wants.
Oh, and if my sockpal aka the person who's making socks for me is reading this: in case you need some more time, take it! I don't mind waiting a bit.

There's another project I've been making without posting about it. See, my nephew's christening is coming up in May, and my sister asked me if I could make a cardigan that he could wear then. Although the christening is in late May, the weather might be chilly; or it might be so warm that he doesn't need a cardigan at all. Anyways, I agreed to knit the cardigan (what did you think I'd do?), and we chose the cardigan with fair-isle yoke from the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book. My sister and I said we'd make a different pattern for the yoke though (well, she says, and I make) because we didn't like the colors of the pattern as in the instructions.

All I need to finish now is the button bands and the sleeves. Although I'm not sure how long I should make the sleeves... my nephew doesn't live nearby, so I can't just go over to my sister's house and try the cardigan on. I might make the sleeves and try them on the day before the christening, and then seam them, or... I'm coming up with a different idea. I don't really like the thought of making everything in the last minute, but what can I do?
Here's a close-up of the yoke:

Isn't it pretty? I hope the little one will look just gorgeous!

Wasn't there another project, still unfinished? Yep, Josephine. She's still unfinished, because I didn't touch her since the last time. I basically told her to bugger off until I feel like finishing her. Which most likely won't be until I'm done with the sockapaloooza socks and the christening cardigan. Josephine will have to wait. And then there's still Starsky to think about... and I want to reduce my stash a bit over summer.

Oh, and before I forget it: I'd like to thank everybody who commented on this post. I decided to leave Josephine as she is, I won't frog her or anything. You cheered me up a lot, so eventually I'll just set in the sleeves and weave in all the ends. Thanks you guys, YOU ROCK!!!

I hate Josephine.

This is how far I am:

I tried seaming the sleeves in last night. The armholes are huge! And the sleeves... I'd have to stretch them a lot so they fit into these giant armholes. I just double-checked the measurements, and the sleeve measure seem to be on the okay side, and the armhole measurements are almost okay. Almost. Only about 1,5 centimeters (0.6 inch) too short. But can that be the whole mistake? Oh man... that would mean: undo the side seams, undo the much-hated collar, undo the shoulder seams, undo the back and fronts to the armholes. And then to redo all this shit. Oh man... I soooooooo want this thing to be over!

(I just decided to leave Josephine on the floor for tonight, and have a good night's sleep before making my final decision. I'll probably do the undo-and-redo... although I hate even thinking about it. On the other hand, I know I'd hate ignoring the giant armholes for now and seaming the sleeves in anyway, I'd hate the whole jacket later on.)

I finished Josephine's collar! Boy oh boy, that was the hardest part of the whole freaking jacket! I only had to frog it about three times, but that's another story... and now I'm done! With the collar, that is. What's left is the belt (that shouldn't take too long - I hope), and then the seaming. And weaving in ends. Or, alternatively, the weaving in ends and then the seaming. Is there an order to that?

Sorry, I'm not quite in the mood for taking pictures tonight... I'd like to wait with that until the cardigan is really all done and finished. I hope to do all that this week, but who knows. So you need to have patience for a bit longer! And now I'm going to creep into bed.

The collar, the collar of Josephine is killing me. I keep misunderstanding the instructions... hopefully, I'll get it right and done tonight! And then what's left is all the seaming and weaving in of loose ends... which will only take about a trazillion years.

And then I'm going to dream of this one (probably the next nightmare). Any color recommendations (either in the original Sierra yarn or in Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky)? I'm blonde and have a light complexion, so it should suit that. I'm open for suggestions!

...stupid? angry? annoyed? stupid? Yeah, getting there...

And why do I feel like that? Because I saw this today on knitty.com and thought 'Wow! How cool is that? And the yarn seems great too, wool and 30% Alpaca!' and then I thought '...dammit!! I'm just knitting Josephine! But the Starsky jacket is sooo much cooler than Josi!' Then, I had an idea: The yarn isn't that expensive, and I'd only need 11 skeins or so... why not get it in a color different to eggshell and knit it anyway? So I went to check out the KnitPicks-site... and I quite liked it. I thought, 'okay, deal! What are their shipping fees?' and then I found out: They do not ship outside the US or Canada. And Germany is obviously not in either of these countries.

That would leave me with following options: A) find a replacement yarn which I don't like doing because I'm not good at this, or B) not to knit this project, or C) have the yarn shipped to somebody in the US who is willing to forward it to me which is hilarious (actually, it isn't), but that's one of their solutions they offer for international customers. So, either you're lucky enough to know a trustworthy person in the US or in Canada, or you're out.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with shops that don't ship overseas. That's cool with me, really. But I don't understand that knitty.com uses yarns that are hard to get for their readers, if at all. They could have mentioned a suitable yarn for replacement, at least. That would have been a good start for their international readers, and especially for the not-so-much experienced knitters among them.

Heja! As I couldn't start on my Olympic knitting yet, I have some more time for Josephine. Plus, the Olympic delay gives me some more time to definitely decide on the pattern I'm going to knit.

I finished the back and both fronts of Josephine, so in theory, they're ready for seaming. Why only in theory? Because I'm not sure when to block these things... before or after seaming? What makes more sense for a jacket with lots of cables?

Plus, should I really make the sleeves according to the pattern (2x2 rib)? My favorite cardigan has sleeves like this:

These sleeves are very comfy - tight, but not too tight, just right. I like how the 1x1 rib goes up the arm quite far... I might try and knit up a sleeve like this, and see what it looks like together with the rest of the jacket.

To finish off today's post, something sweet...

You are White Chocolate

You have a strong feminine side with a good bit of innocence thrown in. Whether your girlish ways are an act or not, men like to take care of you. You are an understated beauty, and your power is often underestimated!

I finally took some pictures for you, so my talking about Josephine makes some sense for you. Guess what I forgot though - yep, I didn't take pics of my favorite sleeve. I have to keep that in mind.
Anyway, without further delay, here's the finished and extended back part of Josi:

As soon as I have both front parts ready, I'm going to seam the shoulders together so I can see if it is really too long... I wanted it a tad bit longer than in the pictures, but I might have done too much... I better not make myself crazy about this right now, I won't change anything right now anyway.
So, here we have one sleeve and a bit of the right front part:

(click for details)

Y'all probably heard about this one

Are you taking part? I'm still thinking about it... but I just signed up at Sockapaloooza and can't wait to get a pal assigned, and I'm knitting on Josi, and I've got other stuff to do for Uni... on the one hand, I'd love to knit Olympic, but on the other I don't want to rush myself too much with knits. I did that last year, from about October until Christmas, and it put me off knitting (a little bit). I already thought about combining The Olympics and Sockapaloooza, but... wouldn't that be a bit like cheating? Or is it okay? Plus, can I really knit a pair of socks within 16 days? (Okay, I guess I could - I've done something like that before) Hmmm... Now that will keep me thinking all day!

Dammit! I just finished this post, clicked on "preview", and blogspirit kicked me out! Fortunately, half the post was still there. I only need to re-write the other half. Dammit!!!

I wanted to show you this. It's called "chinesisches Neujahr" - "Chinese New Year". Ewa went to Singapore on holiday, and she brought back lots of ideas and the golden thread for this yarn. I already ordered a skein of it, I just couldn't resist!

Update: Sorry, the link doesn't work any more, the yarn seems to be sold out! I hope my order got there soon enough... anyways, check out the other yarns, they're gorgeous too! I especially like "Singapur" (=Singapore) and "Lotusblüte" (=lotus blossom)

I'll leave you with a picture of something K gave me on Monday to cheer me up because I had been in a really bad mood. They opened up a bit more; unfortunately, the camera doesn't get the color right. It's a stronger orange-yellow - but aren't they beautiful anyway?

Somehow, I did figure the pattern for Josephine out. When patterns are a bit strange, my brain gets so twisted that even the most simple things give me a headache (like reading knitting patterns). So, thanks for your help, Amanda and the guys from the yahoogroup of the Josephine-knitalong!

The back of my Josephine doesn't exactly look like in the picture on knitty.com (as much as one can see there), but hey, what the heck. I like it anyway. So here we go:

The color isn't that dark actually, it's a nice light beige. This picture shows the pattern quite nicely though, I took it without the flash. Maybe some day I'll figure out a way to take a progress shot that shows the pattern and the colors nicely. I just hope the fronts won't give me a headache like the back did, and that it turns out fine, and that it will actually fit me once it's finished (unlike the other cardigan I didn't show you because it's too small - I just don't know if it's because I've gained a bit of weight or if I knit it too small. Either way isn't too flattering, I guess)! But until then, there's still a long way to go knit, so I better get back to it!