I finally managed to get the website up & running again.  Not all of the old posts came forward, but I picked a few to setup here.

Oh my.  I have my work cut out for me:

• Meat, A Kitchen Education, by James Peterson
• Italian Home Cooking, by Julia Della Croce
• The Duck Cookbook, by James Peterson (see note)
• Parisian Home Cooking, by Michael Roberts
• Asian Dumplings, by Andrea Nguyen
• Mexican Everyday, by Rick Bayless
• The Art of Mexican Cooking, by Diana Kennedy

I think I’m going to be busy!

Note:  I bought a used copy (in great condition) on October 15, 2010.  For $19.75.  They are now selling for >$100!  Talk about marketing timing…

I’m spending the day reading the User Manual for the software & planning out how to design my first shirt.  The goal is a simple tailored shirt I can use when riding the horses this summer.

Fun!

I’ve added selvedge stitches to the body’s picot hem (ie, cast on 262 sts).  This allows the front placket to be picked up cleanly against the front stitch “columns”.

I made the steek 11 stitches wide (which includes those 2 selvedge sts, so that means I cast on 9 sts for steek => 271 sts in the round).  Why:  because I want a black (ie, background/MC) stitch to be where I pickup the front plackets.  (This isn’t possible as written bcause steek is even numbered & so one side gets MC & the other gets CC….)

I’ll make some charts/diagrams to explain why I’ve done this in a bit.  Just behind the curveball right now….

I’ve re-written the sleeves to be bottom-up because unless I knit it this way, my eye would forever notice how the stitches on the sleeve point “up”.  The chevron pattern at the cuff would just look “wrong” to me (even though it would be right!).

I should get a life.  Or stop wearing glasses.

Other than that, things moving forward.  I’m playing around with ideas for the 2nd contrast color & I’m nearly there.

First the knitted art.  Alas, her website doesn’t do her justice, but http://www.annechristensen.net/ does the most amazing things with dresses & knitting.

Second.  Oscar Abba.  An Italian in Barcelona.  Working in silver.  Nice things.  Website http://www.oscarabba.net/ .  Really beautiful things.

I’m in the debt of Trondheim.

First.  How the ribbing merges into the pattern is seamless. The 2×1 ribbing moves cleanly into the hat body patttern.  Very nice.

Nice, thoughtful transistion

And secondly, the top of the hat is handsome.  Again, it’s a fussy finishing detail I adore.  I had to read the instructions twice, but I’m glad I did.

Nice detailing

Word of caution:  Don’t try to un-knit & re-knit this yarn.  The very properties which make it great for steeks make it awful to knit with a 2nd (or 3rd) time.  (Remember the Syncopated Cap I ?).

Gauge

• 2.50mm needles: 28 sts & 32 rows / 10 cm
• 3.00mm needles

Guess the only question is how fast can I knit?

So far, I’ve noticed:

• Gauge changes with washing & blocking
• It softens (significantly) when washed/blocked

Needle/Gauge experiences (all after blocking!):

• 2.5 mm — about 28/29 sts per 10 cm
• 3.0 mm — (barn sweater will tell me)
• 3.5 mm — (wish I’d saved from the stockings, the pattern is for 24 sts / 10 cm,  but I didn’t keep records on my actual)

I’m going to use the sizes from Yarn Standards,  which means that I’m going to target the Neck-to-Cuff length to be 45.5 cm & the Chest 50.5 cm.  Yarn Standards uses 21.5 cm for the neck-to-waist measurement, and I’ll need to plan the sweater longer than that, so the sweater length is near hip length.