Some Things I Learned From a Long Trip - Projects

When we go to Nova Scotia I always bring a number of projects along since I know I'll have hours of uninterrupted time and no pressing outside obligations to attend to.  These projects include crafts, of course, as well as writing and art projects as well.  Berlin was no different.  What was different was the amount of time we had - almost three times as much time.

However, Berlin was different in that we weren't in a rural environment, with few distractions.  We were in a city that not only had things we wanted to do and see but people we met and wanted to hang out with.  What has this taught me about packing projects?

Firstly, let me outline what I brought with me and their status:

1. Yarn and the incomplete Tourist Sweater - finished
2. Beginning of and yarn for the Soho Smocked Dress - finished
3. A crossstitch kit that I'm 3/4 of the way through - didn't touch
4. The Alabama Chanin dress I started at the workshop last year - made some serious progress
5. My collection of short stories - shopped around a little as well as submitted individual stories
6. Drafts of stories and novel - worked on a couple of shorts
7. Two university classes to design - started thinking about.

That should've been enough, no?  But it was clearly (yes, clearly) unreasonable for me to take a "no new craft materials for a year" pledge.  Besides going to Liberty of London where it would've taken some kind of twisted logic to leave without fabric, there were yarns that I haven't seen in Canada or the US (okay, maybe I wasn't looking for them either, but still), and when taking one of our guests to four different yarn shops (need to write reviews of them), it was too tempting.  In fact, I have a new saying, "If you leave a yarn shop without buying any yarn, a sheep somewhere cries."  (This applies to "cotton sheep" as well.)  I ended up buying four skeins of sock yarn (two to give as souvenirs to friends, one for a holiday present, and one for me), yarn for the Loop Entrelac Tank that I actually finished in Berlin but need to readjust the straps on, yarn for scarves for the ladyfriend and myself (also completed in Berlin), and yarn for the Carnaby skirt I plan to make.  I also (yes, there's more) had some Alabama Chanin fabric brought by a visitor so I could make a skirt and t-shirt that I badly needed.  I wear that skirt like a pair of jeans right now - all the time (photos will follow one day).

At Home She Feels Like A Tourist (Sweater Story)

Despite the nod to Gang of Four in this post's title, I think the Daft Punk song is the better soundtrack to the story of the Tourist Sweater.  Feel free to have this playing as you read on.  If they were all knitting terms, it would perfectly describe what I've done to finish this sweater.

Okay, ready?  So when we last left the Tourist sweater, there was a bit of a yarn issue, and I thought I'd try blending the two different dye lots, alternating one row with another, to make it work.  But just the thought of that was oppressive.  Then, as the ladyfriend and I were having lunch at a cafe in Prenzlauer Berg, I saw a woman wearing a short-sleeved, cowl-necked sweater, with matching arm warmers/gaunlets (like sleeves that weren't attached).  Hurrah!  A possible solution to my problem.  So I went home and unraveled the sleeve I'd sewn and started making short sleeves.

Feeling like I was almost done, I thought I'd try the sweater on.  Holy F*! (sorry, Dad) It was too damn long!  Was this sweater ever going to work out?  Now instead of putting it on a time-out, I just wanted to kill it.

There was no way I was going to rip it back - there was waist shaping involved and that pouch that I'd already knit twice.  I would operate on it instead...

This will only hurt a little.

Feel My Pain (If Only A Little)

Did anyone hear my silent scream last night?  There I was, happily almost finished with one sleeve of my Tourist sweater (so appropriate, no?) when I saw it.  I saw what a different dye lot can do to your knitting.

Can you see the issue from there?

Okay, this is not my first time with the needles, and even recently had to get some yarn from a kind soul on Ravelry to finish a sweater (which I did finish but haven't photographed and is currently back in Canada).  The different dye lot didn't make any difference in that sweater, and I (mistakenly, obviously) thought that with a variegated yarn like this, any differences would be hidden.

But I was wrong.

So wrong.

(colour is more accurate in the previous two photos)

Really, I want to send the sweater to Canada for a three-month time-out by which time the season to wear it will have passed, and it will join the community of other w.i.ps.   I have already ripped out and reknit a huge chunk of the body, and now it looks like I'm going to have to rip out the sleeve and see if alternating each of the yarns will make it okay although I'm afraid it'll give it some weird stripe. So I'll knit up a little swatch (hey, what's a little more knitting, right?) before I forge ahead.

I really just want to wear this sweater. I'm fighting a cold and could use a snuggly sweater.  A cold + a sleeve to rip out and reknit = cranky.

As Ye Knit, So Shall Ye Rip

I was really cranking along on this sweater, and then noticed that something wasn't quite right (alignment issue).  I've already ripped it back some, but there's still more to rip and I just can't quite get myself to do it.

I know - the sweater won't knit itself, and the last thing I need is another w.i.p.  Ironically, I blogged about this yarn (Malabrigo) in another post called - wait for it - W.I.Ps? What About Them?  Prescient?