Black Olive Is: In The Loop

Tivoli: The Last Stretch

Here it is, my almost complete Tivoli.

All that's left is whipstitching the hem, adding a reverse crochet chocolate edging across the neckline and tackling the short-row shaping for the cap sleeves. Oh, and blocking, of course.

Once I was finished with the bulk of the knitting, I placed the stitches on some waste yarn and tried it on to get a feel for size and whether or not I wanted a cap sleeve. I was pleased to discover that it's just the right amount of "tight." Since I had to knit the thing according to the gauge from the washed sample swatch -- which bloomed to epic proportions -- it should be tighter before washing/blocking. As I was knitting it up, I was worried it was too big, or that it might be stretching a little. So, hopefully, all will go as planned and Tivoli will bloom to the desired size after blocking.

We'll see.

I decided to go ahead with the cap sleeves because I feel like I want some chocolate rows to balance things out. And I just like cap sleeves in general.

When working the hem, I decided to make the purl row blue to mimic the single-row chocolate edging I'll be placing along the neckline.

Now, all I have to do is get up-to-speed on short-row shaping and I'll be all set.

Right?

No Really, That's A New Progress Shot. Honest!

New! New! New! This really IS a new photo!

Another Tivoli progress shot. This sort of looks like the last post, doesn't it?

Here's where you need to pay attention for the difference/progress:

What can I say? I'm on a mission to stick with one project and just finish it before moving on to the next, even if that means less than interesting blog content.

After all, I Blog for the Knitting...not the other way around. ;-)

I have, however, been completely obsessed with this gem:

"No Idle Hands: A Social History of Knitting" by Anne Macdonald.

Normally, I eschew any historical tomes, but this one...this one is a GEM. I've become completely engrossed in the historical aspects of knitting from a social perspective. It's written in a way that bypasses the usual dry/preachy qualities so often present in books of this genre. There is humor, there is charm, there is clear, well-researched information -- and the entire thing is peppered with tons of interesting original source quotations which just adds to it's overall charm and makes you feel as if you're peeking in on a specific time and place.

So far, I'm on the second chapter: "Knitting for Liberty," which goes into great detail about Knitting activism after the Colonial Period.

Who knew that my cute, and often annoying little state (Rhode Island) was the hub of the Spinning/Knitting Bee craze?

It gives you a sense of perspective. ;-)

Anyway, I have also been knitting away on the Pinwheel Hat and hope to have progress shots tomorrow. For now, you'll have to entertain yourselves with Tivoli progress from this Saturday's outing with my favorite Knitting Buddies. :-)

Progress, News of Note And Other Assorted Fare

As You can see, I've made it past the last stripe on the Tivoli and am now fully into the "chocolate section." I'm pretty excited. It feels like I'm almost there.

Until I count how many rows I have left, and then I realize I'm only about two-thirds (maybe more) of the way there. I think.

Why did I pick such a small gauge!?

But, it's worth it. The Scarlett feels great and is still a pleasure to knit and I love the fabric it's producing.

I'm also trying out a bit of self-discipline with this project. I was going to start another tank and possibly work on Cool Cagoule a bit more because, amazingly, I've been craving my little Cagoule, but I know that if I stray, I'll never finish the Tivoli. And, so far, the stick-to-it-ness has felt good and seems to be working.

I've never really had to worry about this sort of thing because I was working from home as a freelancer, so I often had large blocks of knitting time during the day to indulge in -- especially when freelance work was scarce. I could work on two large projects at a time and still see significant progress and keep my focus.

Now, I have to budget my knitting time, and if I spread myself thin, I lose interest.

So, until the Tivoli is finished there will be no working on anything of the large-ish variety. There will only be a sock-in-progress and possibly another sock or small item of some kind.

I have spoken.

Here is a close-up of the striping action:

In other news and on a rather sad note, I found out last night while reading Christopher Lydon's Open Source Blog in preparation for his radio show on Knitting, that Susan Gordon Lydon passed away in Florida this past week from the cancer she'd been battling for years.

It was a shock because I just recently picked up her new book titled "Knitting Heaven and Earth: Healing the Heart with Craft." I was pretty excited about this new book because I absolutely loved "The Knitting Sutra." If you haven't had a chance to pick it up, DO.

Susan Gordon Lydon was an amazing writer. She wrote in the Literary Journalism style of which I am a HUGE fan. Concise, to the point, thorough explorations of thoughts and aspects of the knitting experience as it relates to meditative practice. She sprinkles her own personal experiences throughout and her words just FLOW.

Of course, what else would you expect from someone who has written for The NY Times and other noteworthy publications?

It was such a treat to have her pour her talent into writing about knitting.

In any case, it turns out she was the onetime sister-in-law of Christopher Lydon, former host of The Connection on NPR and currently broadcasting his own new show titled "Open Source."

I don't know about you, but I've MISSED Christopher Lydon! I loved The Connection and am super-excited to hear him back on the air -- and talking about knitting, to boot! You can find out more about the concept of his new show and it's format. It's quite interesting. He culls most of his material from the show's blog and from other new media sources -- hence, the title.

BUT, the BEST part was finding some VERY eloquent posts on the show's blog (where you can also listen to the show in the event you missed it [it's archived at the top before the posts begin]) before airtime from our very own Allson of Circles Knitting Salon in Jamaica Plain. She was SO eloquent, Chris himself asked her to call in! Which she did! Allison held her own along with Debbie Stoler, Joe Wilcox, and the folks from Flying Fingers.

It was a treat to hear Allison so perfectly sum up the reasons why "The Knitting Sutra" was such a seminal book in the Knit Lit genre.

You rock, Allsion. :-)

Blogger's Block

I've had some kind of serious Blogger's Block this past week. I think it was a combination of not having had enough knitting time to achieve significant progress on any of the projects currently on the needles, not being able to focus my efforts on any one project when I actually DID get a chance to knit and getting to the point where I'm feeling a little itchy to take the blog in a new direction.

So I was a little "backed-up," shall we say, in regard to this here blog.

But I am now fluid again thanks to a wonderful gathering at Claudia's this past weekend where I was able to just SIT DOWN and KNIT for a significant amount of time. More about that tomorrow when I have a chance to collect my thoughts (and download the pictures from my Canon Elph).

For now, though, let's look at my Tivoli!

I'm into the chocolate rows! Do you see it, people? The CHOCOLATE rows!

Can you tell I'm excited about this?

The main reason I bought this yarn -- aside from it's softness and wonderful sheen -- is because of the luscious color choices. The light blue was "the right" light blue and that chocolate...YUM. So, finally getting to the chocolate rows where my eyes can bask in the glow of the beautiful color contrast is just a pleasure.

I'm all about the color. :-)

I've also finished the decreases, knit about ten rows even before starting the increases and reworked some math to leave a few even rows at the bottom. It still feels like there are too few decreases, but I am using the measurments taken from my favorite GAP t-shirt and there is only a one-inch difference between the largest and smallest points, so I'm hoping I'm on target. I may try it on again tonight.

Better safe than sorry.

Hopefully I can finish the Tivoli this week. Although, I do still need to figure out the short-row shaping for the cap sleeves and decide which edging I want to go with for the hem and neckline.

But a girl can hope, can't she?

There Will Be No Seaming!

Ahh. I'm a refreshed and well-rested Black Olive -- for now, at least.

I spent the weekend mainly lounging. I had all of these Big Plans for cleaning and organizing, but it just didn't happen. Instead, I hankered down with the Tivoli, my Ultramerino4 hanks for swatching and some recently purchased knitting tomes (more detail later in the week).

It was heaven.

I have to say, though, this sock design business is a lot more involved than it looks. I find myself becoming obsessed -- OBSESSED, I tell you! -- over transitions, stitch counts and gusset lines.

But, it's a fun obsession.

So far, I've come up with this for a cuff:

The idea with these is to experiment with different stitch patterns which help to mix-up the variegation a bit. Also, I'm playing around with different alternatives to basic ribbing.

The alternative ribbing part was NOT easy! Most of the things I tried were way too stiff and compressed the fabric so much, it just wasn't practical. Also, I came up with some interesting slip-stitch combinations on-the-fly which were great, but not for a variegated sock.

Not to worry, though, it's all recorded on the Palm for future reference for my solid sock hank friends.

Another issue I'm trying to deal with is creating a nice pattern for this variegated yarn which doesn't involve needing to stick to specific stitch counts, but I'm afraid my obsessive side might interfere. I think the answer is to find a nice transition into the instep where lining up the pattern a certain way isn't an issue. Also, coming up with a stitch pattern which works with a multiple of a certain number of stitches so that people can use thier own measurements and adapt it to their "sock creation method." Hehehe.

And the funny thing is...for all of the ripping, restarting, recording and experimenting with slipping two instead of three, or wrapping or purling here-and-there -- all I have to show for it is a simple swatch which doesn't look overly complicated! And, which isn't quite "there" yet.

Hopefully I can work this out a bit more tonight and possibly tackle the Vine Leaf sock as well.

As for Tivoli, I am LOVING this knit. The GGH is amazing, the pattern is nice and versatile and I love that when I'm done knitting there will be no seaming!

Did you catch that, people? THERE WILL BE NO SEAMING.

Also, it's going much quicker now that I'm in the groove. If I'd worked on it ALL weekend, as opposed to here-and-there in-between sock swatching, I'd most likely be almost finished.

But, this IS The Summer of Socks, after all...

There Will Be NO Nipple Darts!

First, let me start by saying that there have been knitting and knitting-related stories and bursts of newness to share, so my lack of updates this past week has nothing to do with any sort of content shortage. In fact, I now feel like I have to keep little notes about all of the things which constantly pop into my head so as not to forget.

The lack of updates is directly due to a serious lack of sleep, which in turn, is due to my ongoing inability to properly estimate the amount of time something will take. I tend to get very excited about new projects -- both knitting and career-related -- and while I correctly estmate how long things should take, I INcorrectly estimate how much time I realistically have to actually work on any of these projects.

You see, despite actually GOING TO WORK EACH DAY, I am forever operating as if I still have those large chunks of knitting time at my disposal. Those large chunks which were afforded me while "freelancing" from home (i.e., unemployment).

Also, I have difficulty saying no to things I genuinely want to do.

So, I've been suffering the consequences of this issue of mine all week. I think, in total, I've had about ten hours of sleep since Monday.

My emails, conversations and brain activity in general have been scattered at best and I've been seriously nodding-off at work and while knitting.

Time to step back and reasses.

In any case, I did manage to figure out the rest of the Tivoli math before the sleep deprivation caught up with me and I now have a complete set of notes to reference in the event I make another Tivoli (a definite possibility, depending on how the fit turns out on this one after washing).

I had already worked out the Yoke portion last week.

So, this week, my focus was on the body.

Now, I have to say, my torso is rather short/small and I was worried about making all the required decreases across such a short number of rows. And, for a minute there, I almost lost my head and actually considered starting them right after the armhole. Until, that is, I thought it through and realized the massive err of my ways.

Did I really want darted nipples?

Uh...NO!

My worries were confirmed by both Grumperina herself and Natalie from A Stitch Above. Both of them had small coronaries at the thought of such a thing.

My only explanation for such a stupid consideration is lack of sleep.

In fact, I'm blaming everything this week on lack of sleep.

So, I am knitting until I safely pass over the bust (This term for my boobage always makes me laugh because I keep picturing an actual "bust" as in, SCULPTURE, sitting on my slight cleavage. Again, lack of lseep and also years of Art School influence. Ahem.), THEN starting the decreases and, if I can, I plan to leave at least ten rows (in my gauge, the equivalent of one inch) after decreasing to the desired width before beginning the increases. I was planning on leaving two inches (20 rows) but I'm worried about such a long transition while incorporating the decreases at such a quick rate.

We'll see.

The only thing left, is figuring out excatly when the stripes will begin and how they'll transition and enlarge over a certain number of rows before becoming a solid mass of chocolate.

I have to say, the introduction of the chocolate is making me woozy with excitement.

Is this normal, or do I need to start getting serious about the whole dating thing?

I have been making progress on the Tivoli, but will only post another progress shot when it actually looks different from the last progress shot.

Until then, there will be pictures of notes, more yarn porn and possibly a side project or TWO to talk about and visually display.

Did I mention how tired I am?

Step Away From My Stash!

Score!

Or, at least that's what it felt like, anyway.

See, the second I placed these babies down on the table -- next to the other hanks of Lorna's Laces I was deciding between -- a most annoying woman landed in my periphery and started to grab at them TOTALLY INVADING MY PERSONAL SPACE.

Now, here's the thing, if I can SMELL you, then you are WAY TOO CLOSE.

And she was. TOO close.

I politely mentioned that I was deciding between the hanks and she actually said "Oh, so you might be taking those?"

Uh...YEAH!

So, her grabbing and fondling of the hanks was actually an attempt to scoff away with my find!

I managed to stave her off for a bit so I could think about what I was doing. Did I really NEED more sock yarn? Then, I realized that it was a moot point. I stopped actually NEEDING sock yarn about six months ago. The real question was whether I should purchase this stuff or hold off so as not to break the bank.

You see, I was on yet another yarn crawl to both Circles and A Good Yarn to pick up specific things. After meeting up with the always lovely and highly entertaining Colleen at Circles, we headed over to AGY specifically for more Lorna's Laces (well, that was MY reason, anyway...hehe). I was looking for more solid hanks -- another green hank for swatching and working out my sock pattern and two hanks of this gorgeous colorway...

for another sock design I'm planning.

I had no idea I was going to fall in love with the variegated colorway above. And there were only three hanks! I could feel that this was clearly a situation where if I didn't get them, I'd definitely regret it later. I have to give Colleen credit, though, she did try to talk me through it so I could really get a sense of whether it was an impulse buy or something I really wanted or even needed at that moment.

Nice try, Colleen. Hehehe.

Anyway, back to the odiforous vulture looming over me as I tried to concentrate and make my decision. This woman was SO ANNOYING. She walked around eyeing me the entire time and actually came over and asked me if I'd decided yet.

And no, I am NOT -- I repeat, NOT above buying them just for the sake of pissing her off.

I'm evil that way. ;-)

But, it turns out, I really did love this colorway and despite my dislike of the infamous Lorna's Laces pooling tendency, I purchased them with glee. The plan is to find a good stitch pattern to break up the pooling.

Also, there was Tivoli action last night. It was so hot (how hot was it?) that I just parked myself in my room and knit. There was no media of any kind. Just me, the birds chirping, an open window with a cool breeze and my knitting.

I was totally in The Zone.

And BOY did I need that!

However, I was so much in The Zone that I completely forgot that I needed to leave the sleeve stitches on a holder for modification at a later date! Thankfully, this only means unravelling two rounds.

But, I'm pretty pleased with my progress.

More stash photos tomorrow and possibly a sock thrown in for good measure.

Out-And-About With Kristin And The Tivoli

Last night was a fun night of knitting and sushi -- ALWAYS a good combo, if you ask me. I was able to catch up with Kristin before her wedding mania begins and she becomes completely unavailable (hehe, just kidding, Miss) and the Tivoli was treated to a public outing -- it's first (aww).

You can see my progress on the Tivoli above. It doesn't look like I've gotten very far, mainly because I'm using a finer-weight yarn, but all things considered (work schedule, social obligations, sleep deprivation), I think I'm progressing along nicely.

In addition to adding a chocolate bottom with a striped degradation, I'm planning on adding a very subtle chocolate edging to the neckline for color balance. And, if the cap sleeves work out, there may be some minor degradation to a slight chocolate band to match the body treatment.

Why do I always have to complicate everything? This is supposed to be my ZEN project!

Oh well. :-)

Below, you can see another one of my recent stash acquisitions: Reynolds Odyssey in the Brown Mix colorway.

I can't believe people don't mention this stuff more often. It is amazingly soft and luscious and the colorways are gorgeous. I'd like to make an entire sweater out of this colorway, but ASA only had two balls. So these will end up being...you guessed it...SOCKS!

It IS The Summer of Socks, after all -- in MY world, anyway. ;-)

Doing Me In

This is the little culprit that occupied most of my waking hours on Monday.

It is a swatch of the Embossed Twining Leaf pattern in Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

What occupied most of my time was converting the instructions for knitting in the round and then charting them out as-is (after conversion and with no apces added to account for row count changes), so that I could then create a proper chart with all the necessary spaces.

This is NOT an easy task, people!

Trying to figure out what happens and where on a pattern like this which is NOT bisymmetrical (like the Cool Cagoule cable and rib pattern [oh how I miss thee]) can really test a person's resolve. I'm only about half-way through. Every other aspect of it -- the conversion, the symbol translation, etc. -- was easy compared to THIS.

In any case, I have to do it because I have Big Plans for this pattern which involve making minor tweaks at certain parts for certain reasons and so I need to understand it visually and in a stitch-by-stitch way.

Up until now, I've been working it out on graph paper. But, I'm at that point where my brain is thinking quicker than I can whiteout and re-chart, so I'll be re-creating it all either in Excel or Illustrator for the ability to quickly cut, copy, paste, group and move.

Sigh! This could quite possibly do me in.

In a sick way, it IS sort of fun.

SORT of...

;-)

Meanwhile, Tivoli progress continues. Each round takes quite a while to complete, but the yarn feels so amazing that I enter "The Zone" after just one round and all the business surrounding round count and progress measuring becomes unimportant.

It's my Zen project.

I've also started a new sock with the Ultramerino4 which I'll hopefully have images of tomorrow.

Peace out. Yo. (Hehe)

Saturday Adventures With Black Olive And Grumperina

Isn't that gorgeous?

That will be my Fourth of July Sock. Probably at some point in late Summer/early Fall, but it'll still be my Fourth of July Sock because I purchased it this weekend on a little jaunt down to Wickford with the always fun and interesting Grumperina (I enjoy referring to her by her blog name because...well...it's just charming and it's a built-in nickname!).

Before I go on, I have to say that we caught a matinee of Batman Begins and it was...INCREDIBLE. SO good. So, SO good.

It was SO good, that I didn't even have the urge to pull out a sock for theater knitting. I was completely engrossed. However, I will probably see it a second time and will make an attempt to knit on a sock so I can dub the sock my Batman Sock.

Is this weird?

But, I digress. Let's get back to Saturday's Adventures With Black Olive And Grumperina:

After Batman Begins we headed to Wickford Village -- one of the few places I can take visitors, that seems to have a little something for everyone. We stopped at And The Beadz Go On so Kathy could peruse their offerings and so I could pick up more of that scrumptuous Ultramerino4 (pictured above) and this beautiful hank of mohair blend goodness:

It's put out by a company I'm not familiar with called Mountain Colors and is a Mohair/Wool blend with 9% Nylon. Someone had given a cables workshop and I was able to fondle a cabled sock made with this stuff and all I have to say is "YUM."

Afterward we headed out for some sushi and then over to Borders to wait for the train back to Boston. In between all of these stops -- at the movie theater outdoor table area, the cafe at Borders and other randon spots -- Grumperina graciously explained the logic behind working the Maths for a garment knitted in the round.

Since I've never actually knitted anything other than socks and mittens in the round, this was most helpful. You can see our copious notes:

Once it was all explained, I was able to work the specifics yesterday and FINALLY cast on for the fabulous Tivoli!

My initial measurements were based on another fitted shirt which fits the way I like. Below is the schematic:

I am also planning on modifying the Tivoli sleeves and using some short-row action to work some cap sleeves.

Hopefully I can figure this out without too much stress.

All I can say is that I am SO happy to finally be knitting something I've been dieing to start and which I might possibly be able to wear before the end of Summer.

There is much more to tell about yarn acquisitions this past week and weekend, sock design swatching and note-taking, my crisis involving a complete lack of knitting for almost a WEEK and my glorious weekend of indulging my whims with good friends. But, I'll pace it out a bit. No need to overwhelm. ;-)

Plus, the sock really does deserve it's own post. Hehehe.