When all else fails and deadlines are looming, a pretty hat and cowl will make things all right again. This is the Meret by Woolly Wormheads and the Chevron Lace Gaiter from Creative Knitting Nov. 2008.

Each project takes one skein and are fairly easy enough for advanced beginners/intermediate knitters.

The gaiter could use a few rounds of garter stitch to keep it from rolling but I wasn't in the frame of mind to veer from the pattern.

The way I think of it is this, the designer thought of the pattern and they had at least one made up for publication. They would have known that stockinette stitch rolls so if they didn't add the garter stitch rounds into the design then maybe, they want it to roll.  Or maybe, because of deadlines or whatever, the designer just threw something together and submitted it and it was published.

 Anyway, no matter if I steamroll (sarcasm) this thing, it's gonna roll. Stockinette stitch rolls. There isn't anything that will change the nature of the stitch, it rolls.

Now if I were to add several rounds of garter stitch to each end and it would take at least 6 rounds (3 ridges) at the top and 6 rounds (3 ridges) at the bottom, would that in theory alter the original pattern sufficiently to be a brand new design? Then theoretically, could someone else republish the altered/modified design as their own original pattern?  

 No, I'm not going to do it because I'm thinking that would be plagiarism. I'm just talking to myself because that's why I have this blog...to toss ideas around in my head and put them down on paper (blog).  I really, really should rip out the gaiter/cowl and redo it so it doesn't roll. But seriously, why did the designer design it that way in the first place? It is rolled in the professional magazine photo but just barely.

There are 26 other knitters on Ravelry that have made this gaiter/cowl and several of them have added the garter stitch rounds so apparently they thought that it looks better not rolled, too.  

Now let's talk about this Meret. The pattern is designed by Woolly Wormheads and is free. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. There are written instructions and charts. The pattern includes variations to make a slouchy or extra slouchy version.

My Meret is a size small extra slouchy version.

Both the Gaiter and Meret projects were made with Mary Maxim Aran (acrylic).

Some may think that it's blasphemous to make these projects in acrylic but que sera sera.

 And finally, four of the five no-sew UCLA fleece pillows for Christmas are finished!

The fabric and pillow forms were laying around the studio taking up much needed space. For weeks I just kept ignoring the pile and walked around it until the stack just tumbled over as if to say, "put us together right now!" So I popped in the Transformers dvd and Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen dvd and transformed the unruly pile into finished pillows.

The fifth pillow isn't done yet because I got bored with making them. This is one of the reasons that I don't make or sell any original projects. Boredom. I'm okay with one or two repeats but making a bunch of anything just doesn't float my boat. That reason and the whole copyright, business license, tax forms and expected perfectionism/professionalism are the other reasons.

What's in a name? I don't even bother to rename my projects. I'm terrible with naming things so I most often use the given name of the pattern. Take the current project of the week, the Indigo Banded Cardigan from Knitscene, Fall 2009.

Cecily Glowik MacDonald, the designer, knit this cardigan with Indigo and Cream colored yarn so she aptly named it the Indigo Banded Cardigan. On the other hand, I'm using stash yarn and didn't have any indigo yarn so I'm using black. Hhmm, Black Banded Cardigan just doesn't sound as smooth as Indigo.

So I'm still going to call this the Indigo Banded Cardigan but know that it's really Black.

The two color knitting aka Fair Isle was fast and fun. It's definitely worth knowing how to knit with two yarns at once. By habit, I knit the English/American style although, I occasionally switch to the German/Continental style when doing straight garter stitch. I just cannot do stockinette stitch knitting the Continental style. My purling is very loose.

Somehow with two color knitting/Fair Isle, all of that changes. I am able to hold the main color in my left hand and the contrast color in my right hand and knit stockinette stitch Continental style. As far as keeping the same tension/gauge from the plain rows to the fair isle rows, well that's a whole other set of skills that I haven't achieved.

Now about that upcoming holiday called Christmas.  Ssshhh, if I don't think about it, will it just come and go quietly? My inner voice is yelling..."7 WEEKS!"

 The blinking Check Engine light meant that the EGR Valve needed to be replaced. It cost $290.77 to fix. I think the valve was $51.50 and the rest was for labor. Although, the vehicle was in the shop for a whole day and a half, I'm pretty certain that it only took him 30 minutes to install the part because he told us he was too busy to look at it (diagnose) the first day. The second day he called to give us the estimate and get permission to work on it and 30 minutes later he called to tell us it was finished.

Then I went to have Sushi for lunch and to pick up my dry cleaning.

One thing doesn't have anything to do with the other thing except for the fact that I had forgotten to get the dry cleaning the previous day due to the distraction of the blinking dashboard light.  But all's well again.

Here's my Halloween costume for this year.

  Yeah, it's the guy version. I am not going to even try to wear the ladies mini dress version. This shirt was purchased from an offer with Kellogg's on the back of the Cheez-Its box. Those Cheez-Its tasted so good and the quality of the shirt is okay, too.

We carve our pumpkin tonight, well actually, C will carve the pumpkin. We kind of lose track of time since there isn't anyone in elementary or middle school to remind us of when to do these things. When the kids are all grown this will just be another regular day.

Cinnabar is finished! The pattern is in Doris Chan's book Everyday Crochet.

I have a few notes on this: 

I only had 10 skeins (820 yards) of Knit Picks Main Line - Blueberry and coincidentally, size 35 took around (828 yards). So this might work, if and only if, I could fit the size 35. 

The armholes were really high and tight so I changed the underarm stitches to triple (treble) crochets. I call them triple but some say treble, so call them whichever term makes sense to you. The sleeves were too narrow so I did not do any tapered rounds and just crocheted straight down to the sleeve bands. I added a few rounds to the sleeves to make them longer.

I gradually changed to larger hook sizes when doing the body rows starting from the waist to the hip. I went from a size I hook to a size K hook. I added three more rows before doing the bottom band.  I omitted the reverse single crochet rounds on the sleeves and bottom and just crocheted an extra plain single crochet, ch1, round instead.

Although, this is a top-down, seamless raglan cardigan, it is not convenient to alter the sizes in mid process. Doris Chan has a unique approach to pattern drafting and she uses base chain/foundation chains to start her designs. The difference between the Size 35 and Size 40 starts right away in the second row of the pattern. So you really have to make up your mind what size to make before you start.

Usually in top-down, seamless raglans you get to try on the garment during the process and make alterations as you proceed through the yoke toward the separation of the bodice and sleeves. Doris' patterns make it somewhat difficult for this type of modification because if you change/add/delete anything, the stitch patterns might not match up to complete the next step.

I will probably add an In-Line Link button to it.

The nature of the V and Shell stitches makes this garment stretchy but the fabric does ride up on the sleeves and I find myself tugging at them. The size 35 is snug and the size 40 probably would have been better. If only I hadn't eaten those Cheez-Its.