Friday, September 17, 2010

Working on Manu, Dealing with Dad's Birthday

It's funny how I just can't stop knitting when I'm sad. I pick up the needles and just go. It is so much better than picking up the ice cream though. I'm sad because Dad's birthday is this Sunday. It will be the first one without him. It is extra difficult because I had my younger son on my dad's 49th birthday. So...I have to be able to celebrate for the boy and not be a depressed mess. It is a hard balance.

My son, Nathan Howard, is named after my dad who was Howard Nathan. He is the sweetest most understanding child in the world, so he gets it. I warned him that I will be sad, but I will do the best I can.

To bring this back around to knitting. I am working on Manu by Kate Davies. A beautiful, soft cardigan that is mostly stockinette stitch. It is knit out of sport weight and I'm knitting it on size US4 needles. Therefore there has been a lot lot lot of knitting. I knit the body to 19.5 inches. I am also knitting a size d (which is a 40" chest.) This works out to be a million stitches on the needles. I had a lovely break when the body was about 15" and I knit the sleeves.

Now, I'm not complaining, but...here it goes, that is a lot of stockinette. I love, love, love the look of stockinette. It is simple and beautiful. I will be thrilled with the finished object as well. So, I work through. I guess it's the purling back that is the killer. I thoroughly enjoyed the sleeves because they were knit in the round.

I added 3" to the body. I have a really, really long torso. I added the length before the waist decreases. I also have the longest arms EVER. I knit 17" and they are 3/4 length. That's always good for me because I shove my sleeves up anyway. This time I actually knit the little puffy part. On my Ruby Red I omitted the puffy sleeves. I love all of the details of "Manu" so I am going to knit them all. Puffy sleeves, puffy pockets, pleats. It's amazing. I can't wait to finish.

Since the beginning of September I have been pretty exclusive to knitting Manu. I have finished the body and have attached the sleeves. I am working on the short-row shaping for the yoke. The pattern calls for "Sunday" short-rows. This is where you use snips of contrasting yarn as a place holder for the short-rows. I did this for the first 15 short-rows. I took my sweater to work and was knitting on it and realized I forgot my contrasting yarn, so the second half of the short-rows will be wrap & turn (Cat Bordhi style.) I can not wait to finish the short-rows and close the gaps.

I am looking forward to finishing this sweater. I will keep you posted.