And LFG was actually surprised. Someone had apparently NOT been reading my blog! That’s ok though, I’ll forgive her as she did cry tears of happiness and joy…

Cheryl’s exact quote was “LFG may just cry (I know I would)…”

It is a good thing we didn’t actually watch the movie together or we would have probably been sobbing!

Finished Project Specs:

Pattern: Dark Victory from Romantic Hand Knits by Annie Modesitt

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted from Creative Fibers in Windsor, Connecticut (for specific colors see my Ravelry project page here.)

Needles: Sizes 8 and 9 Addi Turbo circulars

Size: 34

Thoughts on the yarn: This yarn is an absolute joy to knit! It is so soft and easy on the hands. I love, love, love it! I have a feeling that since it is single spun it will pill easily, but LFG assured me that she can handle that. I also love the colors of the yarn. It does pool easily so you have to be very careful of that as I think I ended up with some pooling around the bottom band, but I think I kind of like it. You also have to alternate skeins as the dye job from skein to skein is quite variable.

Thoughts on the pattern: If you have been reading along as I’ve been knitting this sweater, you already know that Dark Victory and I had some relationship issues. I don’t want to dissuade anyone from knitting this as I think the end result is worth the battle. None of the techniques are difficult, just make sure you check the correction page first and then read ahead in the pattern. I have to admit that not all the conflict between Dark Victory and myself were due to DV’s difficult personality. Many times it was just an error in communication. Maybe we just have different cultural backgrounds and I was quick to misinterpret DV’s instructions. There were parts (like the sleeves) that I just never understood I just had to discover them for myself (ie: wing it). I was worried that I would get all the way up to the twisted float section and then not be able to do it, but that part was really not so bad. Once the sleeves were on and I figured out how to space the decreases, it was pretty much smooth sailing. I guess by that time we had both just mellowed into our relationship.

Additional photos:

These are the sleeves. Agent J noted for me that they were “supposed” to be “capri” sleeves. They actually came out to be full length sleeves. I think that it was just luck that they landed at a good spot on her arms and even though they are not the 3/4 length sleeves they wanted to be, they are not too long nor too short for regular sleeves.

Here is the close-up of the front and the twisted float stitch pattern. I didn’t exactly follow the chart for changing colors but just went with the flow of what I thought looked nice together. After the twisted float, the pattern tells you to change to the smaller needles for the 4 by 4 rib. Later, at the top 1 inch of the sweater it tells you to switch to the smaller needles again so I gather that it is optional when you switch. I switched the first time it told me to and I think that I’m glad that I did or the sweater would be falling off her shoulders.

Here is the back of DV. The seam was rather tough as it had all those color changes and numerous ends from switching balls. You can see it a bit on the top left. In the photo of DV in the book, it shows the seam in the front, but it is very easy to put the seam in the back and I would highly recommend that.

Also, I read Spinning Spider Jenny’s most recent blog post earlier this evening and spotted some photos of LFG and Dark Victory together out in the wild It was so exciting to see! Please go take a look. She is under Jenny’s pee story but before her potato “buds.” Actually, I love the photos in her post where her friends are swinging towels to get rid of the drunken soldier smoke and it looks like they are battling with glittering fairy dust. It must have been a magical evening.

So, I haven’t really blogged too much in the last couple of weeks. It is not because I don’t have anything to write about, I actually have quite a few ideas in mind, but I knew I had to write about DV first and that it would take a while. (And believe me, it did, and I didn’t even include every little detail!) As Christmas always does, it takes up a lot of time. We really did have a nice holiday though and I feel very lucky that I was able to see many of my friends. We had a fun night out with Mad Knitters the Friday before Christmas. A long lost college friend visited the next day. Two of my girlfriends who had moved away last year were back in CT to visit this week. One of them being Crops a Lot and we had a scrapbooking night at New England with her scrapping crew. I saw Enchanted with my girls and a high school friend and her daughter (that is a great movie to see with a girlfriend, btw). And this is all in addition to spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Vermont with my sister (LFG) and my parents and family!

The day after Christmas, I also came down with a cold. Granted it is not a debilitating cold, but just enough of a cold to make life not pleasant and to make me very tired. I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before, but I also have a chronic case of hives. These are like crazy things and I’ve been to the doctor for them 3 or 4 times and go back again on Wednesday. Really – hives since the beginning of November??? They go away a bit for a while, but always seem to come back with a vengeance. They make me very tired and I’m sure everyone I know is getting tired of hearing about them.

I did manage to finally start dyeing again. I have some rovings dyed and ready to photograph for my long understocked Etsy shop. I can’t wait to start listing new stuff there again!

I never seem to manage to get very nice Christmas Day photos (especially ones like the absolutely stunning photos of Sarah’s Christmas table on her blog), but here are a few in closing.

Grandpa and Agent B have a cuddle.

Agent K is always ready with a smile for the camera.

You can tell from her smile that there was cranberry sauce on the table.

They are ready! These little agents opened presents all day! After we got home Christmas evening, I restocked our tree and they opened even more!

What is in that box? Maybe someday IHA can post about it himself???

(ETA: And he did!)

LFG rec’d all kinds of gifts — this one I think, was purple nail polish from the girls.

Happy New Year everyone!

Wow, the ending to Dancing with the Stars tonight really was a shocker just like they said it would be. I really thought that cute little Cheetah Girl chickie would be there until the end. I have to say I didn’t see her dance last night, but all her other dances were perfect and she has so much talent and potential.

Wow! Also, NCIS had a heart pounder of an episode tonight too. I love that show. Mark Harmon — yummy! I really just love all the characters. I might even go as far as to say that is currently my favorite TV show.

Ok, onto the knitting content that you really came here to read. I’m very happy to announce that I am once again friends with Dark Victory. We went to couples therapy, forked over a few hundred dollars, and worked out our differences. One of our biggest arguments was over those stupid 3 knit stitches in a row that I had the first time around. The first thing the therapist had us do, was to sit down together and hash out the stitch count and boy were we off. I had to apologize to Dark Victory. It was all my fault. I was supposed to have 4o stitches in the ribbing section but silly me actually had 42. Dark Victory was really very gracious about the whole thing and understood how bad I felt about our misunderstanding. What I misread was this: “With A, k1 (p2,k2)over next 40 sts, end k1.” I thought I had to complete the last k2 from the ribbing and add one more knit stitch (p2, k2, k1), but what Dark Victory really wanted was for me to end the ribbing with just one knit (p2, k1).

We also had some mediation directly from Annie. I can’t remember if I wrote here about how I was having problems because what I was knitting by following the written pattern did not look like the photo in the book. Well, that was another issue between Dark Victory and myself, but I e-mailed Annie and she came to the rescue. This was was where I was right, Dark Victory! (See, still a hint of bitterness still left in our relationship.) I was so right! Indeed, Dark Victory’s pattern and photo do not match in my edition of Romantic Hand Knits. I had to rip out everything that I knit and that was the turning point when Dark Victory and I got our relationship back on track.

You see, one of the tricks to getting along with Dark Victory is to understand that he has 2 personalities. His ribbed panels can extend all the way to his base or he can have a neato slip stitch pattern all the way around the bottom band. In the above photo, you can see I have chosen to befriend the Slip Stitch personality and that I do not any longer have 3 knit stitches flanking my slip stitch panel where I should only have 2.

DV and I are now holding hands for a while as I have to continue thusly (I know, but I like it!) until we reach 11.75 inches. We will stay playmates for a few days at least. I’ll let you know how it goes after that.

I’ve had a rather odd week. If you happen to see a short, needing to exercise and diet, want-to-be blond person wondering around with a perplexed look on her face, that would be me. I’m just sitting here shaking my head. Every so often, I just close my eyes and shutter.

If I start to write about the oddness, I fear this post would be endless, therefore I’m just going write about Dark Victory. There are a few things about it that I’m finding rather odd.

First, I appear to be the only Ravelry Knitter currently listing Dark Victory as a project (compare that to 254 people making Tangled Yoke). I find that really odd. Also, an internet search does not turn up much besides comments on how much knitters like the pattern and the overall Romantic Hand Knits book.

Second, this. Perhaps this is why the project tally on Ravelry is so low? I have to say that the reason that I am making this for LFG is because last fall we saw the actual sample garment in person and it is stunning, so please don’t let that photo sway you! (Please note, that I think the model is absolutely adorable, it is just the yarn and color choice that I find a bit odd.)

Third, I seem to have a section between the ribbing and the slipped stitch panel that has an extra knit stitch, but since I can’t find anyone else making this sweater, I don’t know if that is normal or not. (This is how the pattern reads so it ends up with the 3 knits in a row: “…{place yellow marker} k1,(p2, k2) over next 40 sts, end k1, {place blue marker}…”)

The photo at the top shows how far I am, however, I am currently unknitting as I have some misplaced slipped stitches so I have a few steps back before I can proceed any further.

Crazy this life is.

As we all know, the start of a new sweater project involves much more than casting on the first stitch. Even though I have yet to cast that first stitch on Dark Victory, I feel like I have already been working on it for eons. I do have yarn and that is three-quarters of the battle, right?

Have you all seen the book Romantic Hand Knits by Annie Modesitt? Even if you never intend to make any of the designs, it is still a beauty of a book! I think it is definitely a must have. I’m gearing up to make Dark Victory on page 59 for LFG for Christmas. It is not going to be a surprise as this is a fitted sweater and I’m going to need her measurements and help along the way to get the best fit. It is made of Malabrigo which I adore! Here is a little quote from Annie: “If you thought wool couldn’t be sexy, you haven’t knit this tunic length Malabrigo yoke pullover.” I think this sweater is going to be perfect for LFG!

So, even though I know that I’m using Malabrigo and I’m not going to be subbing out the yarn, I have still spent hours choosing the colors! The pattern calls for 3 colors and LFG requested a pink/coral color scheme. Looking at Malabrigo online is just so difficult! To find an online shop which has good color representation and a good amount of skeins in stock is not easy. I almost ordered from Yarnzilla. I spent all last Saturday evening picking out what I thought I wanted just to have the site not work. I did send an e-mail and promptly Monday morning Linda wrote back a very nice note apologizing that their site had crashed and that I could go ahead and order. I so wanted to order from them after such a nice e-mail, but I decide that Malabrigo needs to be seen in person. They don’t really dye all their colorways to necessarily be compatable (they are not Garanimals after all) so on Thursday I decided to take my first trip out to Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT {after e-mailing to see how many colors they have in stock (30!)}. What a nice store! I picked out my colors with some help from the sales lady and I thought I would browse a bit before meeting my husband for lunch (he works 5 miles from Creative Fibers!). Alas, that was not meant to be as right as I was deciding on my “splurge yarn” the school nurse called and I had to return home to pick up a sick Agent. (I did quick grab an additional skein on my way to the register to pay — Malabrigo Chunky in Hummingbird for Foliage.)

OK so this story is getting pretty long, but I think I’m starting to catch up to myself. I have the yarn, LFG saw it and likes it. I’m starting to swatch. I am going to make a working copy of the pattern as I’m not going to write in this gorgeous book. I just need her measurements and I’m ready to start knitting.

Oh yeah, and I need some fall-like weather because I’m not knitting a wool sweater in 85 degree heat.