FO: EPS Pullover

It's done, done, and done!* My very first Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater, for which I followed her percentage system as outlined in Knitting Without Tears. I wanted to learn basic "sweater architecture," and knitting this project did the trick.

I don't like crew necks and therefore decided to work a v-neck. EZ doesn't say a word about v-necks (at least not in this book), so I figured out how to do it on my own (obviously not difficult). Only after I was done did I read here that for a clean look of the v-neck, you knit the edge stitch before decreasing. Having decreased the very first stitch (the edge stitch) I ended up with an untidy edge to pick up stitches from for the neckband. But I decided I didn't care. The bind-off doesn't look pretty, and memo to self reads like this: improve v-neck shaping skills.

But overall I'm very pleased with the result. The yarn's GGH Cumba Print, which I bought while in Germany over the summer. I must have been suffering from some hormonal imbalance or the summer heat, or else I can't explain the color choice. (Pink? Moi? Pink??) Silly me didn't write this down: I believe I used #6 needles. Or #5? Whichever gave me a 5"/inch gauge...

I worked in some waist shaping and am truly happy with the fit.

I did have a bit of a meltdown last Sunday, after I had decided to undo the ribbing at the lower end in order to add some length. Yet I found it impossible to rip back starting from the CO edge, and in a moment of insanity I thus reached for the scissors and cut off one inch of ribbing. CUT! SCISSORS! Without first inserting a lifeline! Crazy! Somehow I had imagined it must be easy to pick up stitches. But it wasn't so. Not one bit. Not at all. I had to rip more and more, and eventually the pullover was some three inches shorter before I finally started knitting in the opposite direction to make it longer again. Alas, now it's long enough.

EZ says to knit plain for one to two inches after having joined arms and body, and before starting the raglan decreases (every other row). Being tall I opted for two inches, but this may have been a mistake: there's too much ease just above the line where arms and body join (as you can see below). In the future I'll try something else: knit plain for just .5 inch or so, then decrease slowly (every fourth row) for a couple of inches, and then decrease every other row.

*I must still wash and block the sweater. I hope this won't do a thing to the fitting, 'cause as is, it's perfect.

What else happened this week?

I had some computer trouble at work ('cause it's a PC!) and needed help from the IT person on call, who turned out to be a familiar face from the Common Cod Fiber Guild. He pretended not to recognize me, and I took that as signal not to enthusiastically greet him and discuss fibery things in front of his co-workers. Small world!

The Yarn Harlot's cry for help for Haiti inspired Ravelry to create the Help for Haiti pattern bank--or did the Ravelry team cook this one up on its own? (Don't want to hold back credit where credit is due.) In any event, it's a brilliant feature! I immediately purchased Villane, Pikkuveli, and Baby Cables and Big Ones Too (all by Suvi Simola): those are patterns I've been eyeing for some time now, and with 50% of my money going towards humanitarian efforts in Haiti, this was a no-brainer. (The Hubs did his part by giving a bigger chunk of moolah directly to Doctors Without Borders. He's good like that.)

Big Brown disaster in Mass! Many voices heard on the radio explained their decision in favor of Brown by saying that in Mass. "we already have universal health care" (mandatory health care is not quite the same thing) and "why should we care about the rest of the country?" The egoism infuriated, the ignorance shocked, the outcome angered me. Ted K. is spinning in his grave. Nuff said.