The hidden costs of a good deal

Who doesn’t love a good deal?

There’s a family story that involves a 3-year-old-me and the new Easter hat I wore to church. An older lady across the aisle commented on what a nice hat it was and politely asked, “Where did you get it?”

“ON SALE!” I shouted.

Last week Read suggested that one of my steals was turning out to be more work than it was worth. I’ve been guilty of this before…the $4 thriftstore dress that just needs some tailoring, the free piece of furniture that needs fixing, the hand-be-down chair with a funny smell…

Often I’m swayed by not only a cheap price, but also the thought of remaking and reusing something that otherwise would be discarded. What about for you? At what point is the investment to fix something (in time or repairs or sweat) not worth the savings?

I bought this Lily shirtdress for half off because it's missing half the covered buttons...how to make covered buttons?? hmm

This most recent situation started with that LLBean wool sweater that I got for $3 at the neighborhood yard sale. I deconstructed it and was left with oodles of triple-stranded dark gray wool. I washed the hanks and stretched them to dry, then knit a test swatch with 10.5 needles. YIPES. Way too thick. I’d start overheating in any garment that heavy.

Unwashed crinkly wool (left) and washed, stretched, and dried wool (right)

The only option was to separate the strands. I had Read sit on the opposite  side of the couch – he took a double strand and I took a single – and we wound, wound, wound. The excruciating part is that the yarn gets so twisty it knots on itself, so every few yards you have to stop and untwist. One hank took a couple hours to separate. Read said he felt like Mose in that episode of The Office where Dwight makes him un-ply the building’s toilet paper to save money. He shook his head a lot, but bless his heart he kept winding.

the start of a Plain & Simple Pullover

The single-ply yarn is becoming a Plain and Simple Pullover…so far so good. Separating the strands basically tripled my yardage so I’ll get to choose a couple more projects after the pullover.

What lengths have you gone to fix, retrofit, or mend something you got for cheap (or free)? Was it worth it? Any epic fails?

Summer snowbird cardigan

I left Boston for a conference last week and while I was gone spring arrived in full force (I also caught a horrible cold blehhh). But the trees have leaves, the flowers are blooming, and our peas and radishes came up. The carrots have been slower to sprout thanks to Edith…she snuck out the window when I was watering and dug through the dirt. But everything else is looking happy.

While home in Ohio for Easter I finished up a cardigan that’s been several years in the making, only because the pattern-search process was so slow. Somewhere in Oregon I picked up 3 skeins of deep pink Mirasol Hap’i  and every spring I pulled it out and fuss over possible shrug or cropped cardi patterns (Allegoro Loose Knit Cardi, Miette, Amiga, and Sassymetrical were all possibilities).

In your own knitting, do you choose patterns first or yarn first? I rarely choose them together and instead find myself on epic quests for whatever half is missing. Anyway, this year I realized that with a few changes, the Snowbird cardigan by Heidi Kirrmaier that I love so much could be a summer sweater AND the missing compliment to my Hap’i yarn…

The cardigan’s length was determined by the yarn yardage – I just knit until I ran out (with not an inch to spare…every last scrap is holding a seam together). The neckband/edgeband rolls inward a little too much, but fixing it would require frogging the entire thing. I’ll see how much it bothers me.

Snowbird is such a nice pattern because it’s not hard to tinker with the numbers if you want to use a different yarn or gauge. After using a ratio to calculate the number of cast-on stitches, you can more or less follow the pattern until it’s big enough to split for the sleeves.

And now before bed, I’ll knit a few more rows of handspun Stripes to Keep me Warm. I’m making the cowl part extra long so it can pull up into a hood.

the lucky green sweater (neulottu naisen jakku)

It’s done! And it’s cozy and happy and GREEN. This particular sweater was knit with the help of a beach in Mexico, and then a bunch of episodes of Mad Men and (fittingly) Weeds.

the lucky green sweater (neulottu naisen jakku) + Teddy

Pattern: Neulottu-Naisen-Jakku.  Ravelry user Lilia translated the written pattern notes from the original Finnish. I added some English translations to the pattern charts and put everything together in this pdf. If you want additional photos and notes, here is Neulottu Naisen Jakku’s ravelry pattern page.

Modifications: I had to make the sleeves a couple inches longer than the pattern called for and I used the same size needles throughout.

Yarn: 5.5 skeins of Peace Fleece Worsted in Shaba

sweater back

Bonus - When you're wearing a coat, the sweater collar folds up into a nice scarf shape

bring on the Boston St. Patricks Day!!!!!

Community Container Gardening

Shrug progress

Melting snow. Singing birds. Leftover sunlight when I get home from work. If I’m not careful, warm weather will get here before Neulottu is done. YESSS I can’t lose. Plus a coworker warned me that they like to crank the AC during the summer, so it could be that the sweaters stay out year round.

Once you get the hang of this pattern it’s relatively mindless. And I love how it showcases all you can do with only knit, purl, and shortrows.

The promise of spring’s got me thinking about gardening. Without a proper ground plot, I’m going to see what’s possible this summer using a 2nd story porch, pots, and planters (that sentence was like an ad for the letter P). Anyhow…a little google searching brought up a balcony gardening version of the knit-along!

http://lifeonthebalcony.com/community-container-garden/

I really miss my community garden plot from Oregon, and so far all of the community gardens around our apartment are full. So this “community container grow-along” idea made me happy. Our balcony has zero shade so it might actually work out as long as I can keep up with watering…

If you’ve done much urban vegetable gardening in containers and have tips/links/tales of woe, please lemme know.

Five Days in Tulum, Mexico: Take me back!

It was hard to come back to snowy Boston after sitting on white sandy beaches in a swimsuit. And it was hard to leave Tami, somebody I used to see every day in Oregon. But I did. Without too many tears (I was given strict “no goodbye tears” orders). Now that a little time’s passed I feel emotionally recovered enough to write out some notes from our travels:

Hmm this begins to capture just how bow-legged I am...

I wish I could’ve stayed longer.  No surprise there. I mean, look at that beach!  With only 5 days I had to work hard to get a proper suntan that my coworkers would envy. Tami carefully monitored my color. Every time a bartender or hotel owner heard how long I was in town, they gave me a pity-filled frown and said, “But why so short?” Seeing as how they work in the tourism industry, I suppose they had personal reasons for wanting me to take a longer vacation. But when your office is an open air bar on the beach, I think you can drum up real pity for a sunburnt Bostonian on her last day in Tulum.

I’d choose Tulum over Cancun. Lemme clarify. In college I was talked into the classic Cancun Spring Break week. It was some of the best people-watching I’ve ever experienced and I absolutely fell in love with the ocean, but the physical built environment (granted nobody would leave the hotel mile with me) was too…Vegas-like. Big roads, big resorts, glitz, lights. In comparison, downtown Tulum is scaled for the pedestrian. Little restaurants, little shops, and small streets. It’s grittier – on either side of our hotel were tar-paper roofed houses guarded by scruffy dogs – but everyone was friendly and we never felt unsafe. Actually, nobody was nearly as troublesome as the drunk American boys swarming the beaches and pools of Cancun. Also it’s worth noting that Tami speaks excellent Spanish, which made it easy to navigate all sorts of daily interactions.

Margaritas on the beach

Akumal, where you can snorkel in the bay with giant sea turtles. When they eat seagrass they chew like cows.

Tacoqueto, where there's no written menu. You just point to the pot of what you want.

Chicken tamales (with a little bag of hot sauce) from a foodcart

Back-lit wall of glass bottles along the main drag in Tulum

In Tulum you have an important choice: stay at the beach or stay in town. They’re only about 2 miles apart (40 peso taxi ride). I think each have their perks, but Tami chose in town and it worked well. The hotels are slightly cheaper and you’re within walking distance to internet cafes and lots of eateries. Here are photos of our two hotels: The Secret Garden & Hotel Posada. Hotel Posada was plagued by some 8am construction next door (our walls shook with the hammering) and their customer service response was umm…frustrating. But the place is beautiful. Secret Garden took the prize though. They had all the necessities: clean comfortable rooms, a shaded inner courtyard, two on-site friendly dogs, and a cute owner whose sister bartends down the street.

the courtyard at Secret Garden after a morning rain

the winding pool inside Hotel Posada

My very favorite thing on this trip was the Gran Cenote. Just a couple miles from downtown Tulum, it’s more than worth the 100 pesos entrance fee. The best way I can describe swimming in the cenote is that it felt like a Katie-sized freshwater aquarium. The water is crystal clear and underwater you can see fish from 30 or 40 feet away. The one upside to the  construction at Hotel Posada is that we were up and at ‘em early, and we had the cenote to ourselves for a while. Around 11am a big group of Japanese tourists showed up wearing flippers, and they were followed by several European families with a dozen kids under the age of 5. Suddenly it wasn’t a private aquarium anymore. So if you go, go early.

Snorkeling the Gran Cenote

so many fish...

Tami snorkels through the tunnel

I made some progress on the Neulottu naisen jakku cardigan too. It’s such a joyful color, especially next to that ocean and those chairs.

Progress on Neulottu naisen jakku

Neulottu naisen jakku: back panel and sleeves

Thank you Tami for a vacation so good that I hope we can make the February Getaway an annual thing. Readers – any suggestions for a destination in 2012?

Trading Snow for Sand

That’s right. In about 10 days I’ll be sitting on the beach in Tulum, Mexico with Tami. Plans are in motion. I ordered a new swimsuit. Tami and I picked out a place we want to eat ceviche. And I changed my desktop at work to this image:

(c) th00.deviantart.net/

And, as any knitter must do for an upcoming trip, I lined up a new project. This fall I wrote about Lilia and her lightning quick response to translate a knitting pattern from Finnish to English (seriously, how cool is that?!).

copyright: Pitsikuduja

Neulottu naisen jakku has been on my queue for a while and I finally found the right yarn – Peace Fleece Worsted. It’s a happy, happy green that’ll help get me through the end of winter. I cast on last night, and by Tulum, I should be working on the radial pattern.

Peace Fleece Worsted in shaba

If you’ve been to Tulum, feel free to share tips on where to eat or what to do!

Backlog of Christmas Knitting

Now that everyone’s opened their gifts I can post pictures of my Christmas knitting!

1. Natacha’s Gold Cowl

Technically this was not a Christmas gift but a birthday present for my kind, outrageous, Sagittarius coworker. She helps make the new job a place I want to go each morning. The pattern – Spiral Cowl –  is so easy and pretty.

When my coworkers saw the present they said, “Ohh you should sell those! You could be rich!” Rich??? I wanted to tell them how hard it would be to knit cowls en-masse and make a living from it…much less get rich. The yarn isn’t cheap. And then there’s the time. Maybe if I got into pattern designing. We don’t like to pay El Salvadoran or Guatemalan living wages for our clothes, so I’d be hard pressed to find people who want to pay an American living wage for the knitting. Besides, hobbies aren’t really for making money. They’re usually where I spend my money…making some gifts out of it is just a nice bonus! So there I am – standing in the office thinking about the global economy and my own destructive buying habits and the measure of a good hobby. But I forced a nice smile for my coworkers and said thank you that’s such a nice compliment.

Natacha's birthday cowl

2. The Sweater to Restore Hope

Read overheard a classmate in the student lounge lamenting a lack of good sweater options for her husband. He gave her my email. I spent a couple replies making sure she was not under any of my coworkers’ grand illusions (You realize buying a sweater is going to be a LOT cheaper, right?). Much to my delight, I discovered around the third email or so that I had a genuine lover of handmade goods on the other line.  She stole a sweater from the hubby’s closet and met me at Mind Eye Yarn in Cambridge. We picked doublestranded gray and navy wool, with a shawl-collared pattern from Rowan Knitting For Him (thank you Belmont Public Library).

She paid for the yarn and needles and on top of that I asked for $50. I agonized coming up with an amount (After all, we already established I’m not making a living off this knitting stuff!) I wanted to acknowledge my time, but also be reasonable for someone who lives on a student stipend and still wants to buy handmade with her money. I researched other made-to-order sweaters online and found similar amounts. If you’ve had to calculate a price for your knitting, let me know in the comments how you did it.

His burgundy sweater functioned as a template

My new book - Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques - was invaluable for things like adding the collar

The gift was completed during my Christmas travels in Cleveland and mailed off to Boston

3. Mom’s Christmas Slippers

I’ve had a Noro sweater in my closet for a couple years now and it just never quite made the cut for What should I wear today? It’s too hot for indoors, the collar doesn’t lay right, and while the colors looked right at home in Eugene, Oregon, they’re a little kooky for east coast living. This December I finally made the call to frog it.

the Noro sweater that is no more

I love Noro in alternating stripes – a look made famous by Jared Flood’s striped scarf - so I planned for a pair of  felted Fuzzy Feet slippers for my mom.  That next week I unwrapped an ugly gray suede shirt in an office white elephant exchange, and everyone was shocked to see how excited I was over it. I explained that it would make the perfect soles for my mom’s slippers.

Before felting

Teddy oversees the felting process

Pre-punching the suede soles with an old fashioned leather puncher

I sewed twice around with extra-strong thread so that every space has a thread running over top and underneath

Ta-da! Mom said she liked them a lot. Dad even requested a pair

The Ballad of Sam’s Coats

The First Coat: It was burgundy wool with a mock turtleneck. Very distinguished. The yarn came from a thrift store sweater that I unwound. On a hike up Spencer’s Butte in Oregon Sam ran off. I heard him howling and tracking something for a while…then nothing. Forty five minutes later he stumbled into the dark parking lot. Shivering. Soaking wet. NO SWEATER. He told a big story about how a raccoon accosted him in the woods, stole the sweater, and pushed him into a creek. Every time he tells it the raccoon gets bigger and the creek deeper.

The Second Coat: This one was a beauty. Cream-colored wool with dark blue and red stripes. Very collegiate. One morning Sam walked out into the yard with the sweater on his back, and when I called him to come back in, NO SWEATER. He played dumb this time, trying to make me believe that he never had it on in the first place. A month later I found it…snagged on the compost pile fence ala Peter Rabbit. I can only guess that Sam was elbow-deep in compost when he heard me calling him. The sweater was stuck so he had to wriggle out and leave it hanging.  Sadly, a month of Oregon rain had ruined it beyond repair and I swore I wouldn’t knit Sam another.

No really...and it wasn't just one raccoon. It was a gang of them.

The Third Coat: Just finished it today. Felted handspun on one side and black fleece on the other. Very warm and washable. The style reminds me of those blankets horses wear in the winter. I was inspired to use up the first few skeins of yarn I ever spun – they’re lumpy and inconsistent and too weird for anything you’d wear in public. This coat is basically a big rectangle of garter stitch (sz 10.5 needles) tapered at the hindquarters. The neckband extends into a 6 inch tab and in the middle there’s a wide fleece belly tab. I sewed a piece of black fleece to the felted wool, then trimmed all the edges. For now safety pins will do as closures, but I put velcro on my shopping list.

the warmth of wool and the wind-blocking-power of fleece!

the coat's colorful underside

close-up of the felted garter stitch

I know Sam, I think we should turn up the thermostat too

Sedum sweater for my first autumn in Boston

It’s finished! I love this cardigan. Knitting the sweater body in seed stitch was time-consuming – I questioned its value at some points – but it made for an extra-squishy final product. Given that Jane Richmond seriously downplays her sedum sweater pattern (“just some notes”) I thought the pattern was helpful and easy to follow. The Green Mountain Spinnery wool/mohair that I bought for $6/skein at Soft Horizons’ clearance sale was more than worth the money. I would knit with it again. If you’re not a knitter, just enjoy the photos. If you are, keep scrolling for detailed pattern notes.

Does anyone know the architectural name for these stacked row houses in Boston? I’ve been calling them “layer cake houses.” Descriptive, but likely not correct.

SUMMARY OF EDITS

1. Body knit with 10.5 needles, bottom/top ribbing knit with 8 needles, and button band/wrists knit with 7 needles.

2. Gauge was 14-15 stitches per 4 inches

3. I knit the collar first, and then ran the button band up the entire vertical edge of the sweater

The button band pulls together slightly with sz 7 needles, but it’s the lesser of the two evils. Larger needle sizes result in a less structured band that doesn’t provide enough stiffness to support the buttons

Pulling up the collar against that Boston breeze

Unrelated Edith portrait

These notes are intended for a small-size sweater (32″ bust) knit with sz. 10.5 needles at a gauge of 15 stitches per 4 inches.

Sweater body: CO 46.  Row 1:  seed stitch. Row 2: K1, pm, seed stitch 8, pm, seed stitch 28, pm, seed stitch 8, pm, K1. Row 3: increase at each edge and on either side of each marker. Row 4: Work seed stitch. Repeat rows 3 & 4 until 20 st. before first marker. Then repeat rows 3 & 4, but stop increasing at neck edge; only increase either side of markers. Do this until 30 st. before first marker. Put sleeves on scrap yarn (46 st. each). Continue working the body for 30 rows. Place a marker at the exact center of the back and decrease according to meganimal’s notes on the sedum sweater (see #3).  Knit 6-7 rows in between each decrease and increase row, or you’ll get some puckering. I started the bottom ribbing 80 rows after placing the sleeves on scrap yarn. Switch to sz. 8 needles for the ribbing.

Collar: Using sz. 8 needles, pick up 101 stitches. K4, work in 3 x 3 ribbing until 4 st remain, p4 (this extra edge stitch will preserve the look of 3 x 3 ribbing even after you attach the button band to either side of the collar). I worked the collar for 30 rows. I would’ve done a little longer if I’d had more yarn.

Sleeves: Using sz 10.5 needles, pick up stitches from scrap yarn (placing marker at center of underarm) and work about 22 rows. Decrease 1 st either side of marker. Work decrease round two more times, each one after knitting about 22 rows. After working 90 rows, switch to sz. 7 needles for wrist ribbing. I worked wrist ribbing in 2 x 2. The sleeves stretched 1-2 inches after blocking.

Button band: Using sz. 7 needles, pick up 135 stitches along sweater edge and work in 3 x 3 ribbing. I worked the button band for 25 rows before binding off.

Hello autumn!

Knitters: 1 *** Google: 0

Last week I was reminded of technology’s limitations. That’s rare. Usually it’s me with the limitation, as I realize that the computer or software is obviously and unequivocally capable of much more than what I’m able to ask of it. I feel this way pretty much every time I attempt something on Adobe design suite. But having a computer mess up is a relief. I interpret it as proof that we’re not hurtling towards that creepy sci-fi world where robots do everything for us and then suddenly develop consciousness and take over the planet. Or not hurtling as quickly anyway.

So last week I was performing my favorite pattern search on ravelry – cardigans – and I came across this beauty. Simple but clever construction. More torso coverage than most shrugs. Repeating radial lines and a reversible collar. YESSSS

copyright: Pitsikuduja

But then I saw the pattern only came in Finnish. I tried running it through Google Translator, thinking that it wouldn’t be perfect, but there’d be enough coherence that I could make it out. Here is an excerpt:

Always lift the right hand edge first layer of knit stitch.Note. when you knit 3 rows: ta, start with the condensed layers as follows: * Knit the next layer of the right side of chassis 34 (37) 38 (41) 42 (45) s of patients continue to pattern by. Turn the work, please yo needle and knit 34 (37) 38 (41) 42 (45) s of patients continue to pattern by.

Holy smokes, what a mess. Sometimes partial sense is even worse than an entirely different language. It’s a false promise of getting closer to making sense of the thing. On a whim, I wrote to one of the knitters who had posted her completed project on the pattern page. Her project notes were written in English, so I asked if she would be able to translate the pattern…or if she knew of an English translation anywhere. One hour and 59 minutes later I received this reply:

Hello!

I don’t know what got into me, but I started translating next minute after reading your message. Check this out Enjoy!

Cheers, Lilia

copyright: Lilia (aka the most generous, kind, and amazing ravelry user I've met)

I could not stop smiling all day. This random gesture of generosity from a stranger was just awesome. A few years and I’m sure Google Translator will branch out for specific sectors and their specialized jargon. But until then…KNITTERS: 1 *** GOOGLE: 0 !!!!!!