Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A tale of two vee necks...

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I'm confident that I an working on the sweater from h#ll. My sweater front has an even number of stitches, which means that for the vee part, there is no "center stitch" to carry up into the ribbing in the neckband. Rather, there are "two center stitches". I consulted The Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns (which I LOVE, by the way), and decided to knit the neckband having the center point of the vee as just a vertical line separating the right side from the left side. This was done by working up to the middle four stitches, then working SSK, K2tog, then continuing on.... I did really like the look, until after I tried it on, and things stretched a little bit, etc., and now I'm left with a **wide** vertical line (also known as a "separation") which I did not like:And so, I removed the neckband and started again, this time still working up to the same middle four stitches, but working K2tog, SSK on those four stitches, instead. What a difference! This I can live with: It's quite a boring sweater, though as you know, I'm drawn to the "classics". Plus, during the past two days, I've seen at least three different TV personalities each sporting a classic (boring) vee neck sweater, so perhaps I'm just really, really trendy and I don't even know it. Perhaps. Yeah right. In any case, all that remains is sewing the sleeves to the body of this one, and it will **finally** be done. Care to place a bet on whether or not I can do that without having to rip it out again?

Thank you all for your kind wishes of wellness. Today my sore throat is just about gone, and I'm feeling a lot less tired than I have been. Thanks to Ibuprofen, the strep throat has been quite bearable. We had a nice (though smaller than planned) Easter get-together. Here is the "roll wheel" I got from a European bakery which is walking distance from our house:When I pulled it from the oven after crisping them up a little bit, I casually mentioned to my dad that I had made them. I must be a convincing liar, because ten minutes later in a different conversation, it became clear that he believed me. As a parent myself, I guess I can understand how parents might think their children are capable of grand things like this when actually, they aren't.....

I'm baby-sitting this week to help out another mom who must work while her son is on Spring Break, so that's three boys -- not the best number of kids, because there is definitely some ganging up, etc -- though he's a nice kid, and if we all get outside to explore/play, things go pretty well.

Hey - did you hear that the UW Badgers are in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament? I have a pair of red and white striped socks on the needles, **coincidentally**.....(So sorry about Purdue, Indiana, and Notre Dame... Really. I had all three of them picked to go much further. I think I'm going to lose a free drink at Starbucks because of it, too...)

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)

4 comments:

  1. I can understand about needing to correct the separation in the first V-neck. My question is, would it have worked to use some yarn and a needle to stitch the separation together on the inside? Would that have only caused two separations on the outside of the first one?

    I guess I'd be looking for any way I could manage to avoid re-knitting the neckband!

    Your quality control measures have paid off. It looks great!

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  2. Anonymous8:39 PM

    Ooh, I like the vee-neck; very neat the second time. Call it a "learning opportunity", not a mistake. I'm sure that after all the heck this sweater has given you, it will submit in the end. I think it already has started.

    As for the roll wheel? My mom had a recipe like that: Take a loaf of frozen bread dough. Let it thaw until you can cut it and roll it into balls. Line them up in a 9x13" pan. Let them rise until doubled. Drizzle with a stick of melted margarine and sprinkle with toppings (on different areas we used flake coconut, brown sugar, ground nuts, cinnamon & sugar, or a combination). Bake at 350° until done. (I was a kid. They were done when Mom said they were done.) Amaze your friends (and parents)!

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  3. I agree with you on the neckband- second time around looks really good.
    Mmmm, rollwheel looks yummy, I'm certain you could have made it yourself!

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  4. Isn't it amazing what a difference a tiny change can sometimes make? The revised neckband looks great.

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