Moving right along

with a GREAT BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!!!
this

has become this

I got to the top of the sweater, having knit it in the round and in the process created steeks for the center and for each armhole. I was a nervous wreck when I sat down at the sewing machine to sew down either side of the steeks to be sure the stitches stayed together once I cut into the fabric I had knitted. I did this once before, but the last time I was using a nice grabby wool and it didn't feel so risky. This time the wool I am using is Superwash, so it won't grab itself and hold on, eeeerrrrrggggggg........

The edges look like this in the front and on each armhole

and if you look VERY closely you can see where I stitched it before cutting. Stitched it twice, actually. Sort of the belt and suspenders approach. Now I have to join the shoulders, knit the sleeves, knit the facings for the front and block it. I need a nap to fortify myself.

The Windows on the second floor

of the Henri Bendel's store on 5th Avenue in New York City. Gil and I took these before Christmas, but I never put them up. I am excavating ages of photos.

spring has sprung

Indoors at least, but outside they say it might snow again, not enough to make into anything but cold enough to snow was NOT what I had in mind for today

Painting Class

I have talked before about the painting class that I go to at the Art Student's League on 57th Street in Manhattan. I am a bit of an odd duck since I am not an oil painter, nor do I paint only with Pastels. What I do is to lay in a figure with gouache - an opaque watercolor - and then work back into it with pastels. Unfortunately, these paintings are difficult to photograph because they are very matte and the color mix is hard to see.

That said, I have done a couple of paintings recently that I like, so I thought I would put them up here because they will get moved off my walls as newer things get done. Everything I do goes up, some for a longer time, some just for a couple of days.

Remember the Olympics?

I wanted to knit this sweater but it turned out that I couldn't get the yarn I wanted in time so instead I made mittens. Now, however, I have the yarn for the "stars" and I got started. Once I started I found a bunch of issues and have turned the pattern ... or more accurately, the way of making this sweater ... on its ear. I have the body 2/3rds of the way done.

It was a sweater done flat with 3 separate pieces for the body if you don't count the pockets and I combined them all into one piece to knit. The stars were intarsia ... which I HATE to do. Now they are done with a fair isle technique. I had to add a few extra arms on some of the stars, but the bottom is generally the same. Those are pockets in the front on the stitch holders.

except, that is for the steek, since I wasn't going to do fair isle on the purl side. So I decided to knit it in the round and added 5 stitches to created a place to cut it apart once it is done.

Since I made a steek for the front I also made steeks for the sleeves. I am getting VERY brave here. We shall see what emerges from all this.

I just didn't want you to think I was lying around being fed peeled grapes. All the detailed details are over on Ravelry in my projects.

pointillism

This is a shot from my window of the New Jersey Palisades. I played with the contrast and the color balance in Picassa just a little bit but I love the effect. I think there are things I could do with this.... pondering.

doesn't look like a sweater.....

I know I said I was making a sweater for the knitting olympics but, similar to what happened in Vancouver, something intervened. In my case it wasn't weather but a lack of the right yarn .. perhaps I didn't train hard enough. I thought the yarn would get here in time but once it became apparent that it wasn't going to make it, I cast about for something else fun to knit.

Knitter's review had picked Cormo as the yarn of the month and I had some Cormo from Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, now Juniper Moon. It is lovely fat worsted and it suddenly seemed that since all it has done up here in the Northeast is snow and blow that fat warm mittens were a good idea, so here they are. I finished them in time for the closing ceremonies and so this is my olympic contribution.

The Cormo yarn is just lovely and soft and they are VERY warm. Of course, by the time I finished them the snow had gone and all that was left was wind, but it is still good to have them here and next year I will be ready. Send in global warming!