Or, just how much my brain is not working at the moment.
First up, a lesson in reading comprehension: “centimeters” and “inches” are not the same. I know this. I do! But when I was reading the pattern for my Folded sweater, I somehow got into my mind that I was supposed to knit the body for 13″. Try again. Thirteen centimeters. Five inches. This picture shows the body, in all its rolling-in-on-itself glory, at about 11″.
I’m not ripping out 6″ of work. Especially since I’m tall and have a bit of a belly so I need a bit more fabric in my sweater torsos. My plan is to rip back 3″ and then start the decreases. I think it will work out quite well. Whenever I eventually get around to doing so. I did finish the sleeves! That’s got to count for something.
In other news, remember how I mentioned I had a fun project coming up for a friend? Here’s the first look.
Not sure what this could be? How about a different angle?
My friend Jessi and I were discussing the movie The Avengers and how her boyfriend was going to dress as Loki (in a suit) for Dragon*Con. I mentioned that I really really loved the scarf Loki wears in the scene her boyfriend is referencing, and one thing led to another and I’m all “Yeah, sure I can knit a scarf that looks like Loki’s before the end of August.”
Then came the tricky part, finding yarn that was in the right colors and wasn’t wool (wool sensitivities—I plan on knitting something like this for myself and it will indeed be in wool, and probably worsted weight at that). We found the perfect colors in Valley Yarns 8/2 unmercerized cotton… which is only available on cones. So I’ve got more than 12,000 yards of very thin (think light fingering) yarn hanging out on cones.
Additional challenges include wanting to make this double-sided, so that the wearer doesn’t have to worry about the wrong side showing, and the fact that it combines intarsia and stranded knitting. My plan is to knit this scarf to be really long and seam up the edges so that it’s double-sided (because knitting in the round + intarsia + stranded colorwork was more than my brain could take at the moment). I’ve got a little more than 2 months to finish this, and it’s definitely do-able, but right now I’m only about 7″ in (I had planned to make it about 5′ in finished length, but am starting to fear it may not be long enough). Then today I noticed that I didn’t make the green band quite wide enough (for accuracy’s sake), and am debating ripping back to that band and adding rows to it.
I think the heat is addling my brain. I can’t sleep because it’s too hot at night (though thankfully, the temperatures dropped overnight and today is supposed to be about 20° cooler than yesterday, before ratcheting back up tomorrow) and I’m pretty sure it’s taking a toll on my abilities to function at my normal levels. I can’t even sit on my couch and zone out to television because there’s no air-conditioning in my house and my living room is basically a sauna. I’ve been sitting on my bed, in front of a fan, trying to not get too dehydrated every evening.
Tonight, I hope to take advantage of the small change in the weather and plop in front of the TV, canoodle with my cat a bit, and make some progress on this scarf in one way or another. The pullover will have to wait.
I lived in a dorm without a/c in VA for a year, so I totally understand the problem sleeping! My best advice is to take a cold shower before bed. That sometimes helped me.
And the inner nerd in me LOVES that scarf. Good luck- I hope you finish in time. And like anyone is going to noticed that the green part is wrong…well, they are nerds, so they might 🙂
I tried the cold shower thing last night, didn’t quite work but maybe it wasn’t close enough to bed time? I had to let my hair dry! 😉 I may try placing a cold cloth on my head.
Normally I wouldn’t be too bothered by the green band, but Jessi is an incredibly accomplished and talented costume maker and I want her and her bf to be happy with the scarf (and yeah, at DragonCon… there’s no telling what they will and won’t notice).
I haven’t seen The Avengers but I LOVE that scarf!
I highly recommend the Avengers, it’s so much fun! Plus, there’s inspirational costuming. 🙂
What if you cut a strand in the green area and rip a row? You can pick up stitches, knit a bit, and graft it back together. That would certainly beat ripping out all that color work.
YOU ARE BRILLIANT. That would work. I may have to dig around for a spare set of size 2s, but that would totally work. Bless you. Bless you.
I would love to see a scarf pattern for Loki’s scarf. That is gorgeous. I men noticing it in the movie. Maybe something done with blended intarsia?
What do you mean by blended intarsia? I’ve seen discussions about knitting intarsia in the round (by working it back and forth but not…) but again, brain, not working.
There will be notes for the scarf, but I don’t know that there will actually be a real pattern. We’ll see!
Take a look at this blended intarsia pattern by Susan newhall. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vitreous
Parts of the Loki scarf made me think of it immediately.
Hm, I don’t know that it would necessarily work. The only place where intarsia is used is the solid green edges–the actual pattern is stranded knitting. And I wouldn’t want to bleed the beige and other green into that solid block. This requires more research!
The idea of making a colorwork scarf out of fingering weight cotton sort of sounds like my worst nightmare. You are an amazingly generous friend.
I am a bit of a masochist. But it will be SO COOL when I’m done torturing myself.
I spent six years in Tucson AZ. Ice packs on your feet and on the back of your neck.
Gorgeous knitting!
Good tips! Thanks for that, and for the kind words. 😀
The Loki scarf looks great! Will you be writing up a pattern for it?
I will definitely be sharing my general project notes, I don’t know that I’ll be creating a For Realsies pattern. We’ll have to see!
Yes,please!! At least a chart for the cris-crossy bit!
that is stunning. So much nicer than what I have on the go right now!
Must. get. to. yarn. shop.
Not to worry! I already have plans to bribe a friend with …something to get her to create a chart for me at some point. 😀
I’m really so flattered that so many people like that scarf!
[…] waist-shaping decreases where I was, rather than ripping back (which I was strongly considering the last time I talked about this sweater). My new plan is to press on from where I am now and evaluate the length of the body when the […]