Apricot Jacket, she is done. The Good Sweater Finishing Karma of Marika’s house held strong and I managed to weave in the remaining ends, crochet the buttonhole edging, and stitch on the buttons yesterday. I’m pretty pleased with this one: it’s the most technical piece I’ve finished yet, and the fit is just right. Although the pattern was a little perplexing at times, I love the clever design. Here’s the back:

The back shows the two areas I’m not totally satisfied with: the seaming at the lower parts of the sleeve caps and the neckband join. The perfectionist in me is tempted to pick it apart and try to do these bits more neatly; my practical nature wanted to finish the sweater and wear it already. Practical won out this time, and I wore it all weekend. So here are the specs:

Jacke Apricot from Rebecca 27, knit in the 34″/36″ smaller size with Rowan Calmer in shade “Calm” and US size 9 needles. Calmer really wants to be knit on 7’s or 8’s, but the 9’s produced the necessary gauge. The result is a slightly more open and drapey knit than I think the suggested GGH Java would have given me, but it’s a light and airy summer sweater anyhow. I’m delighted with the spongey, springy Calmer and will certainly use it again. The only modification I made to the pattern was to lengthen the sleeves a touch. The buttons (I wish my camera were capable of close-up shots!) I found at Purl, lovely shell buttons with a floral motif pricked in them. They were just the thing for this sweater. Apricot was a true summer knit: I cast on back on Memorial Day weekend and finished over Labor Day weekend. It could have been so much faster if I weren’t so easily sidetracked, but oh well. Stick a fork in her – she’s finally done!

As you can see from the sidebar, there are way too many projects in the hopper Chez Blue Garter. In all fairness, I have every expectation of finishing Apricot Jacket this weekend: it lacks only buttons and there are a few more ends to weave in. The bolero won’t be far behind – I finished one sleeve knitting with the Spiders yesterday evening and it won’t take long to dash off another. The several yards of lace edging may drag out for another week or two, but I intend to finish it in time for a wedding in Chicago on September 16, and I think I’ll make that deadline. And I only have a few more inches of sock foot before the feather-and-fans will be ready for wear.

But let’s talk new projects. I’ve finally assembled the most recent for their mug shots. Thanks to a dull few days working up a manuscript for copyediting, I’ve had time to forge all the way through the first ball of Malabrigo, and I’m into the third straight-row repetion on my second Clapotis. Can we all take a moment of appreciation for the amazing yardage of the fabulous Malabrigo? I’m converting people right and left with this stuff. No one who’s touched it can resist its ample charms.

Then there’s Dad’s gansey. Happily, it turns out I can knit on the bus without getting carsick, so long as I don’t have to peer closely at what I’m doing all the time. The gansey was the perfect project to accompany me through the loooooong hours on the bus to DC last weekend. Unfortunately, despite all those hours of knitting, it doesn’t seem to have grown very much. This is going to be a dogged knit, I can tell. I’ll just have to plug away at it. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m knitting the back and the front simultaneously, so of course it seems slower.

Finally, we have the Lotus Blossom Shawl. I’m just getting the feel of this pattern, but I love the Helen’s Lace and cheery poppy color. A big thank-you to Amanda for lending me her Denise circs for this one – I knew it was going to be too slippery for Addis. Here’s a close-up:

Behold the creation of my noodly appendage.

Not that it looks like much yet. This one’s going to need a serious blocking odyssey.

Now that others have admitted to knitting in the nude during our New York heat wave, I feel I can show you what I was up to last weekend. Seriously, folks, it was far too sweltering outside to do anything but sit in front of an air conditioner or a fan or both, wearing as little as possible. You might feel the situation is not, therefore, conducive to allowing wool within fifteen feet of one’s body, but we all know how rational knitters aren’t. And all that immobility did seem like a good opportunity to finish planning my dad’s gansey. I’d been putting off casting on because I wanted to try all that tubular business and I knew it was going to take a good chunk of time, especially for a garment with 236 stitches per round. I had the pattern, I had the time…

Yes, friends, that is a genuine tubular cast-on. And it isn’t as tricky as you might think. It works roughly like this: Grab a set of needles 2 or 3 sizes smaller than you’ll need to get gauge for the project. (I’ll be knitting the gansey on US#6s, so I used 4s.) Cast on half the number of stitches you need in a smooth waste yarn. Purl one row, and then knit an elongated row (wrapping twice around the needle – pick up only the first loop on the next row). Then purl a row with the regular yarn and work three more rows in stockinette. Now the fun begins: use a skinny little needle (I used a little #1 circ) to pick up the bumps of main yarn you can see between the elongated waste-yarn stitches. Now you have the full number of stitches, but on two different needles. For a 2 x 2 rib, using the free larger needle (#4), purl two stitches from the large needle, then knit two stitches from the skinny needle. Then purl two more from the large needle, knit two more from the small needle, etc. Continue across the row, and on the next row, switch to the needles you’ll use for the body of the project (#6). Now you can snip out the waste yarn. Voila! A smooth, tubular edge!

It’s fun, I tell you. Takes a lot longer than a regular cast-on, but it makes the niftiest little rolled edge. Try it today – clothing is optional!

*I can’t wait to see the hits I get from Google with this title…