You’ve cast your votes as to how best I should end my sock knitting delinquency, and Retro Rib is the clear winner. And just to show how disciplined I am, I’m going to take your advice even though I was leaning toward Pomatomus. C’mon, it’s so much more fun! I love watching the scales form, and I love the Claudia Handpainted Plumlicious colorway. But my Retro Ribs are Claudia Handpainted, too, so I’ll have to be content. And this way I can use Pomatomus as a reward for my diligence later on.

Alas, the Retro Rib socks are not my oldest unfinished object. There’s still poor Charlotte to seam and (hopefully) shrink. There’s half a cotton baby hat lying around somewhere. There’s a fifth of a Lotus Blossom shawl lurking among my laceweight yarns. There’s kid sweater with no arms (and no kid) on the closet shelf.

So what am I doing? Thinking of new projects, of course. I cross my heart and swear to finish the Prairie camisole before I cast on anything else — I’m halfway up the back — but I confess I’m already swatching for an Elizabeth Zimmermann Fishtrap cardigan for Mr. Garter. Here’s what it will look like (hopefully) — just imagine it in a tweedy natural wool:

I’d seen the above pictures of the original courtesy of Jen, and then I ran across an old and dog-eared copy of The Knitter’s Almanac in the Powell’s on Hawthorne the other day. Mr. Garter liked the look of the sweater, and I’ve owed him a knitted garment for a long time. The man’s been my partner for six years and all he’s gotten is a lousy scarf. (It’s not really lousy: it’s actually a very handsome scarf, if I say so myself. It’s Grignasco Top Print alpaca, and a tour de force of seed stitch.) Mr. Garter’s version of the Fishtrap will have a zipper rather than buttons, as he is sporty rather than tweedy. This means I’ll be both steeking and sewing in a zipper for the first time — on the same project. Next month will mark two years since I learned to knit, and I think this will be an appropriate way to raise the bar for myself.

But never fear: the Retro Rib sock will be completed before its mate is a year old. I swear it shall be done. The Fishtrap is a pretty complex little beast with all those travelling stitches, so it will be nice to counterpose some fairly simple sock knitting.

We’re up visiting my parents on the island until Thursday, but happily my father has the same camera set-up, so I hope to post pictures from here. Mingus the Cat has come along on the trip for the first time, much to his dismay. He expressed his disinclination for the car ride by throwing up his breakfast between my feet somewhere near Kelso. Thank goodness he missed the knitting bag. Prairie camisole certainly doesn’t need that kind of adornment. I think he’ll like Friday Harbor once he gets used to the new surroundings, though. He’s already running around exploring every nook and cranny so he can get comfortable.

Happy birthday to me! I’m 27 today, and I celebrated with a cook-out with family, new neighbors, fresh ginger mojitos and an awesome sour cream chocolate cake my mother made. I got some excellent gifts, but you’ll be so proud of me when I tell you I didn’t take advantage of the occasion to acquire more yarn. I’m trying to be good about the stash. But back in June on my trip to New York City, I did snap up five balls of Jaeger Siena 4-Ply cotton on mad sale at The Point. Seriously, it was something like $3.50 per ball, in this cheerful spring green. I didn’t have a specific summer tank pattern in mind when I bought it, so it was pure fortune that Veronik Avery’s Prairie Tunic (Summer ’06 IK) called for five balls of Jaeger Siena 4-Ply.

As I mentioned previously, I didn’t think the tunic was the shape I wanted to go for, so I modifed the pattern. Here’s what I’ve got after about four days. I thought this project was going to crawl on the size 3 needles, but I’m cranking this one out:

I’m about to start shaping the triangles at the top, so how convenient is it that the Fall issue containing the errata slid through my mail slot this afternoon? As you can see, I also modified the stitch pattern, since I want to be able to wear this cami with just a bra underneath. What’s the point of all that great ventilation if you have to wear another layer?

All I’m doing is working the stitch above the yarnover twisted to close up the eyelets. I like that the result still looks akin to the original pattern, but gives textural interest and the desired extra coverage. On the back I’ll probably just work the pattern as given all the way up, but I’m undecided about that.

Quick yarn review: I really like the Jaeger Siena. It’s soft and easier on the hands than a lot of cottons I’ve worked with. It does split a little if you don’t watch it, particularly on the lace rows, but the fabric it produces is incredibly even. I could pat myself on the back for overcoming my beginner’s “rowing out”, but I suspect the yarn deserves most of the credit on this occasion.

I’m trying to race through this tank so I’ll be able to get some good summer wear out of it before the weather cools for good, but I need your advice: racer back, as in the original pattern, or just a copy of the front for better bra strap concealment?

…Was my interpretation of “hippopotamus” as a child (maybe because my mother’s side of the family passed down a freakish tendency to say “tomahto”), and now it’s what comes to mind when I’m trying to remember the name of that groovy sock pattern everyone’s knitting. The first time I saw them, I knew I had to make myself a pair. I finally finished the Conwy socks, and I was too impatient to even set up a photo shoot before I cast on Pomatomus yesterday. So here’s my beginning:

Reclining in the slug-eaten calibrachoa. Poor sock deserves better, I decided. So I went around to my mother-in-law’s side of the house to pose it among the dianthus.

Much nicer. I’m using Claudia Handpainted fingering weight in “Plumlicious” – oh, how plummy! I love the way it’s working up with nary a flash nor a pool – this happy result has persisted through the first two repetitions of Chart A since I took these pictures. And I haven’t found the pattern to be too toothy yet, although I did have to tear out half a chart repetition this morning when I got a little too glued to the Germany-Sweden match. World Cup soccer is prime for knitting, by the way. Nothing is as ideal as the Tour de France*, but soccer is a close second. Unfortunately, the Viennese Shrug requires a little too much attention to the pattern to be good TV knitting, but I’d say it’s five eighths finished. Of course, I’m not going to want to model it for you while it’s 95 degrees, which is the weather we’re having this week. We’ll have to take some pictures at dawn while it’s still cool (and this is the beauty of Portland – unlike NYC, it really does cool off most comfortably after the sun goes down). Fingers crossed, but I think I’m going to be very pleased with my modifications. I’ve also finished the Scarf-for-Money, which I’ll block tomorrow and then mail back to New York. No pictures, of course, but I’ll say that should you get the chance to knit with Rio de la Plata wool, you should absolutely snap it up.

What’s next? I need to pull up my socks and just finish Rosalind’s crochet edging. I’ve totally lost steam with that project because I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to fit me very well when it’s all done, and I’ll have to find someone to whom I can give it away. I also have some design projects in the works, and an entire blanket that’s supposed to be done by October. Sigh. Don’t you just wish you could knit faster? It’s not that I don’t take pleasure in the process. I actually mind frogging much less than most people I know, because it’s so enjoyable to keep working on the piece (present issues with Rosalind notwithstanding). But there are so many ideas in my head that I just can’t keep up! I made it a goal to work on my own designs this year, and I just need to start realizing my sketches in yarn. Luckily, between the World Cup and the fast-approaching Tour, there’s lots of good knitting time blocked out.

*Coming soon: a post about what I’ll be doing during the Tour, besides cheering on Ivan Basso!

Neglected Rosalind, whom I began last summer and then jilted in favor of other projects, is back on the needles. In fact, I’ve knit both her fronts and one of her sleeves (twice, because I bodged it the first time). I thought I was so clever, placing my decreases two stitches in so I’d have clean edges for seaming. But that sleeve has been causing a mighty array of problems. First it was obviously too long for its armhole. I lopped off the top of it and tried again to seam it into place. Nothing doing. It’s just a really whacky shape. Observe (and forgive the lack of light in this photograph):

See how the armpit wanks out at the back, to use Harlot terminology? It does that in the front, too, except that the presence of my lady parts lessens the effect somewhat:

I was rather cast down. I’d originally intended to omit the sleeves and just let this top be a vest, but I had plenty of interesting French yarn (courtesy of Becky), and they were such little sleeves that I up and knat one anyway. Now I’m going to rip it right back out again because the side without the sleeve looks so much better. Besides, I’ve already done the most engaging part of the pattern, the nifty interlocking front, and I’m pretty much out of patience with Rosalind at this point. I need to seam her up, slap some crochet edging on her (I know, more crochet!), and call it good. Let’s take one last look at the whack sleeve before I do away with it forever:

Goodbye, Whack Sleeve, and good riddance. I don’t know what the editors at Vogue Knitting were thinking, letting anything so oddly shaped into their otherwise estimable publication. For the love of Pete, is a little geometric accuracy in our patterns too much to ask? When I lived in the Bahamas, one of my favorite local phrases was “with sense”, as in, when ordering conch fritters and wishing them properly prepared, “Fry it with sense, boy!” Knit it with sense will be my new maxim, I think. I shall trust my instincts.