Monday, June 28, 2010

Perils of Urban Planning, Part II

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And then (pause for dramatic effect) the pattern arrived Monday night. And my hopes and dreams were abandoned.  The gauge for the pattern as written is 15 stitches and 20 rows over 4 inches and the Rowan Denim is 20 stitches and 24 (shrinking to 32) rows over 4 inches.  This would bring the sweater in at a trim 33" which is somewhere between 8" and 10" bigger around than I would want it to be for the Boy. No way no how, based on the schematic, will this going to be the cake walk I had happily lead myself down the primrose path into believing it would be.

WAH! WAH! WAH!

OK.  Enough.  Dry your tears and get it together, Woman.

Now I really have to work if I want this to become a reality. And I do want this sweater to exist in the real world. I desperately want to be one of those knitters who can create what the mind's eye sees.  DESperately.

So to work.

First, what makes the Urban Aran so great looking?  What elements need to be reproduced to at least elude to the Urban Aran?  Obviously an intricate center cable that can be easily divided into a cardigan and also worked up the sleeves.  The longer arms and slim cut.  Wide ribbing.  And those nifty diagonal cables.  I think the diagonals are really where it is at for this sweater.

So these are the elements I need to be able to incorporate into a sweater for the Boy to end up with something reminiscent of the Urban Aran Cardigan in Denim for a size 4T. To start, I found, at my local library through inter-library loan, the Rowan Junior book. There are two possible starting points for me here in terms of zip-up cardigans - one with cables on either side of zipper and one written for Denim, which will help take some of the math out of the thing for me.

I also found pattern on knitty.com which could offer me something to work with - the gauge for the "boy" version of the sweater is the pre-washed gauge for the Denim and the "girl" version gauge is the post-washing gauge.  This is a ribbed zipper cardigan.  I see possibilities (which is better, I would imagine, than seeing dead people.  At least in this context.).  Also, this pattern offers me the (probably false) hope that my original plan to just knit the Urban Aran as written with the smaller yarn without having to do any math since the chest on the finished 4T size is 34" (and if I did the calculation correctly, the Urban Aran would be 33" as written in the Denim).

Also, my friend Mary suggested graphing the whole thing on knitter's graph paper.  So I've printed out a bunch of pages at a 1/1 scale and once I have read the three or four patterns and processed the information, I can start graphing!

More to come.

Read Part I of this adventure here.  Read the next installment here.

I Still Can't Believe I Did It


I took both kids to the beach this weekend.

By myself.  No other adults.  More kids than grownups.

Me, the two and a half year old, and the six month old.

And everyone lived.

And everyone had fun - including me.

Rock.Star.Mommy.

Photo credit: diametrik via Flickr

Friday, June 25, 2010

Summer Yummer


Last night we ate the lemon cucumbers that we got from our CSA/Farmers' Market.

Yum.

Photo credit:  rfduck via flickr

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Observation


Doing well at the World Cup gives a nation more street cred than doing well at the Olympic Games.

Go Team USA!

Photo credit: RO/LU via Flickr

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I Won! I Won! (or The Perils of Urban Planning)


I have been thinking about knitting with Rowan Denim for quite awhile. Maybe too much Mason-Dixon? Maybe the upcoming Smurf movie? I don't really know for sure. I have been thinking about an Aran sweater for the Boy. I have been thinking an awful lot about Jared Flood's Urban Aran Cardigan. And all this thinking has lead me to dream of how cool that cardi would look in the Denim on my Boy. So I've been reading a bit about the Denim on ravelry and Mason-Dixon which in turn lead me to an amazing looking adaptation of a man's sweater into a boy's sweater using the Denim. Now I am thinking, "I can actually do this."

So in my fully deluded state, I hunted down the pattern and ordered it from a shop in western New York.  And then, knowing I can't get the Denim locally, I started looking for a good deal online. This search ultimately yielded (the most reasonably priced) fruit on eBay. This weekend I was compelled to place a (winning) bid on 10 skeins of the Denim in Nashville. And, seeing as how I was the sole bidder, I won! I won! I won! The price was good, the shipping was free, and it is on its way to me now from the U.K.

It is on! Toddler Urban Aran Cardigan here we come!

To be continued . . .

Photo credit: Breibeest via Flickr

Monday, June 21, 2010

A Fresh(ish) Start



I was going to start a new blog - a clean slate, tabula rasa - all that nonsense. But there is really nothing wrong with this blog. All that is needed is this cleansing post and it should be okay. Think of it as recycling.

I will probably still use flickr as source for photos. I will probably still do weird little research-project posts like this, or this, or this. I will probably still refrain from posting photos of my kids. The big change will come in that this will no longer be a "rule" based blog.

Instead I am just going to write. I may write about: myself, my kids, my husband, other family members, knitting*, a good meal I ate out or cooked, the beach, a book I read, a movie I saw, something cool I bought or wish I could buy, exercising** (don't hold your breath, people), a recipe, or something or someone I am feeling judgmental about with no real basis for casting stones. Whatever.

So welcome to my "new" blog - where I write about whatever I feel like.

*My paltry attempt at blogging my knitting will be absorbed in the instant blog.
** My paltry attempt at losing weight and the equally paltry attempt to blog it will also be absorbed in the instant blog.


Photo credit: hellosputnik via Flickr