![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kniteracy[crossposted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
advanced_knit and my personal journal]
Yesterday, I completed a bottom-up seamless raglan sweater. I know, no big deal, but I have not told you what my terrible transgression is--
I have made a sweater for my boyfriend!
That's right, good people and knitters (and good knitters) alike! I have tempted fate, nay, invited it to step up and kick me in the face. I have said, "OK, Boyfriend Curse, I do not believe in you, so neener neener neener *pbt*!" Or something like that.
Now, I have taken some prudent precautions.
First of all, I have told him that the sweater is hideous, and I only expect him to wear it so that other people will make fun of him in public. Luckily for me, he lives far away, so his revenge will not be enacted right away.
I can't post pictures yet, because I'm waiting for him to receive it (which means I have to finish weaving in the ends and finally mail it), but just as soon as he pays the one price I have asked him to pay (have his photograph taken while wearing this monstrosity), I will post some.
So what's that sweater made out of, Harper?
Bulky Lopi. Mm, Mm, Mm, Bukly Lopi. Icelandic Wool. Nice and lofty and warm and not so very fuzzy but fuzzy enough. It is All Kinds of Stripey, as well. We begin with a dark slate blue at the bottom ribbing, then ease into a wide band of nummy sage green, broken by two rounds of ash gray. Above that, there's a little taste of that blue again, after which it's three inches of rust (broken, again, by two rounds of ash gray). A taste of blue, and then we're back to the green again, after which I indulged myself with more of the blue. Above that, the green/gray/green/rust/gray/rust pattern repeats again-- and that's where the arm joins are. Aside: two strands of regular Lopi knitted together is indistinguishable from bulky Lopi when knit into a seamless, bottom-up raglan sweater, with stripes.
That's also the point in the sweater at which I realized I didn't have enough sage green yarn. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Harper, you have to plan these things. You have to work it out. You work at a knit shop! You should be able to calculate how much yarn you need for anything!" And, well, you're right. But see, I work at a knit shop. And we're getting rid of our winter inventory. And we're not going to order any more sage green Bulky Lopi unless somebody asks us to make a special order, not 'til sometime in August, when people are starting to think that fall is just around the corner (In Georgia? Yeah, right; fall is never coming. Summer lasts until 2010 this year, I hear...) and they expect to see wool dangit in the yarn shop, ohyeah. Right. Sorry. So anyway, on the day when I realized I wasn't going to have enough green, a customer came in and bought the last two hanks of sage green bulky Lopi. She was a nice customer, and she's a repeat offender, so I know her pretty well. I could have said, "Hey, don't take that sage green bulky Lopi; I need it to finish a sweater for my boyfriend and poke a sharp stick in the Eye Of Fate, OK?" But I didn't. She was a Retail Sale, and I Love My Boss, K? So there she went out the door with the rest of my sage green bulky Lopi, and I only had just a little wee bit left.
But you know, the great thing about horizontal stripes is, they're so completely tasteless, you can really let your imagination go wild. And, OK, I'm not that wild, but I did vary the stripe pattern so that I used no more of the green until I was way into the raglan decreases and actually had enough left over to knit five nice rounds in it, just below the neck ribbing.
Right. So above the underarm, we have a main dish of Yet More Rust, broken by Yet More Gray, after which there is Quite A Lot of Blue and a wider stripe of Gray. The next course includes Even More Rust and Gray, followed by equal stripes of Blue and Green, a tiny taste of Gray for dessert, and (ooh!) decreasing, decreasing, decreasing (yes!) up into (yes!) More Slate Blue, in a nice, loose, 1x1 rib.
This sweater is a Feast Of Stripes. In fact, it is a Stripe Cornucopia in Limited Colors. OK, it looks like kitchen decor from 1974, but nobody really remembers 1974 anyway, right? Right? You guys still awake out there? OK.
Even though the underarms are That Exciting Rust Color, I did the grafting in blue because I just felt empowered. I figured, hey, it can't get much more tasteless, why not go for the gusto?
Now, the boyfriend promises not only to have a photograph taken of himself in this monstrosity, but also to have it made into a LJ icon so he can embarrass everyone who reads his journal. Hee!
And now, the sensitive new-age bit:
The blue, much darker than the blue of his eyes, will make them appear brighter blue and more like the sky than the sea. Blue is also the color of tranquility. Water.
Green is among his favorite colors, and this green, a soft green, makes me think of growth and fertility (not that kind of fertility; I'm not planning on having any more children, ever, ever, ever). Green is the color of prosperity. Earth.
The rust brown, not a color he ordinarily wears, is a copper brown, full of metal and earth. It's not quite the color of a new penny; more like the color of ore. It grounds the other colors and puts roots down very far in the earth, maybe far enough to reach that boiling core. Fire.
The ash gray, bright, light, and a surprise against the other colors, is used in moderation, because after all, air is the element of the intellect, and a man so firmly in the realm of thought already has enough of that in his life. It's a balancing element, something to break the other colors up, and an acknowledgment of the man he already is. Air.
Every stitch knitted with love and intent, every knot brushed clear, every hour spent also an hour of contemplation and directed thought.
So tell me-- how do you make your knitting magical?
Love,
Harper
advanced_knit and my personal journal]Yesterday, I completed a bottom-up seamless raglan sweater. I know, no big deal, but I have not told you what my terrible transgression is--
I have made a sweater for my boyfriend!
That's right, good people and knitters (and good knitters) alike! I have tempted fate, nay, invited it to step up and kick me in the face. I have said, "OK, Boyfriend Curse, I do not believe in you, so neener neener neener *pbt*!" Or something like that.
Now, I have taken some prudent precautions.
First of all, I have told him that the sweater is hideous, and I only expect him to wear it so that other people will make fun of him in public. Luckily for me, he lives far away, so his revenge will not be enacted right away.
I can't post pictures yet, because I'm waiting for him to receive it (which means I have to finish weaving in the ends and finally mail it), but just as soon as he pays the one price I have asked him to pay (have his photograph taken while wearing this monstrosity), I will post some.
So what's that sweater made out of, Harper?
Bulky Lopi. Mm, Mm, Mm, Bukly Lopi. Icelandic Wool. Nice and lofty and warm and not so very fuzzy but fuzzy enough. It is All Kinds of Stripey, as well. We begin with a dark slate blue at the bottom ribbing, then ease into a wide band of nummy sage green, broken by two rounds of ash gray. Above that, there's a little taste of that blue again, after which it's three inches of rust (broken, again, by two rounds of ash gray). A taste of blue, and then we're back to the green again, after which I indulged myself with more of the blue. Above that, the green/gray/green/rust/gray/rust pattern repeats again-- and that's where the arm joins are. Aside: two strands of regular Lopi knitted together is indistinguishable from bulky Lopi when knit into a seamless, bottom-up raglan sweater, with stripes.
That's also the point in the sweater at which I realized I didn't have enough sage green yarn. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Harper, you have to plan these things. You have to work it out. You work at a knit shop! You should be able to calculate how much yarn you need for anything!" And, well, you're right. But see, I work at a knit shop. And we're getting rid of our winter inventory. And we're not going to order any more sage green Bulky Lopi unless somebody asks us to make a special order, not 'til sometime in August, when people are starting to think that fall is just around the corner (In Georgia? Yeah, right; fall is never coming. Summer lasts until 2010 this year, I hear...) and they expect to see wool dangit in the yarn shop, ohyeah. Right. Sorry. So anyway, on the day when I realized I wasn't going to have enough green, a customer came in and bought the last two hanks of sage green bulky Lopi. She was a nice customer, and she's a repeat offender, so I know her pretty well. I could have said, "Hey, don't take that sage green bulky Lopi; I need it to finish a sweater for my boyfriend and poke a sharp stick in the Eye Of Fate, OK?" But I didn't. She was a Retail Sale, and I Love My Boss, K? So there she went out the door with the rest of my sage green bulky Lopi, and I only had just a little wee bit left.
But you know, the great thing about horizontal stripes is, they're so completely tasteless, you can really let your imagination go wild. And, OK, I'm not that wild, but I did vary the stripe pattern so that I used no more of the green until I was way into the raglan decreases and actually had enough left over to knit five nice rounds in it, just below the neck ribbing.
Right. So above the underarm, we have a main dish of Yet More Rust, broken by Yet More Gray, after which there is Quite A Lot of Blue and a wider stripe of Gray. The next course includes Even More Rust and Gray, followed by equal stripes of Blue and Green, a tiny taste of Gray for dessert, and (ooh!) decreasing, decreasing, decreasing (yes!) up into (yes!) More Slate Blue, in a nice, loose, 1x1 rib.
This sweater is a Feast Of Stripes. In fact, it is a Stripe Cornucopia in Limited Colors. OK, it looks like kitchen decor from 1974, but nobody really remembers 1974 anyway, right? Right? You guys still awake out there? OK.
Even though the underarms are That Exciting Rust Color, I did the grafting in blue because I just felt empowered. I figured, hey, it can't get much more tasteless, why not go for the gusto?
Now, the boyfriend promises not only to have a photograph taken of himself in this monstrosity, but also to have it made into a LJ icon so he can embarrass everyone who reads his journal. Hee!
And now, the sensitive new-age bit:
The blue, much darker than the blue of his eyes, will make them appear brighter blue and more like the sky than the sea. Blue is also the color of tranquility. Water.
Green is among his favorite colors, and this green, a soft green, makes me think of growth and fertility (not that kind of fertility; I'm not planning on having any more children, ever, ever, ever). Green is the color of prosperity. Earth.
The rust brown, not a color he ordinarily wears, is a copper brown, full of metal and earth. It's not quite the color of a new penny; more like the color of ore. It grounds the other colors and puts roots down very far in the earth, maybe far enough to reach that boiling core. Fire.
The ash gray, bright, light, and a surprise against the other colors, is used in moderation, because after all, air is the element of the intellect, and a man so firmly in the realm of thought already has enough of that in his life. It's a balancing element, something to break the other colors up, and an acknowledgment of the man he already is. Air.
Every stitch knitted with love and intent, every knot brushed clear, every hour spent also an hour of contemplation and directed thought.
So tell me-- how do you make your knitting magical?
Love,
Harper
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
thank you for this writing
Date: 2004-03-03 09:44 pm (UTC)She asked in Feb. for yarn for a 'birthday sweater' and finished the new sweater before her birthday (Mar. 2) - and she's planning on figuring out raglan-in-the-round sweaterage pretty soon. Right now she's knitting another tea cosy (as an excuse to play with color patterns, mind you. ahem.)
Does your store sell wholesale/commission knitted works by folks, and shall we discuss the possibility by direct email? ruth at rulise.net I'm getting pix of the first few tea cozies (and her pattern for the same) together...
no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 03:42 pm (UTC)At least you have a *chance* of getting Bulky Lopi in. There *is* no Paton Canadiana #038 (Magical Blue -- HOW could they discontinue a color name like that, with the Harry Potter craze what it is?!) even being made anymore ... sniff.
Hope to see a picture of the sweater, on the sweetie, soon! :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-18 05:38 pm (UTC)