Crown Point Hoodie

Crown Point in San Diego is one of B and my favorite places to hang out by the water. Our beaches are busy, but on most days (Fourth of July and the crew races as noteworthy exceptions), Mission Bay is quite and relatively unpopulated. This was why it was an obvious choice for some quality downtime yesterday. Little did I know that it would literally be a perfect place to take my Under the Hoodie FO photos! It's like my hoodie was made for that spot of San Diego. I didn't even realize what a good fit it was until I got home and loaded the photos onto the computer. My hoodie ended up being a perfect reflection of a little sky, a little grass and a little water all rolled into one! So, consequently, my "hoodie" is now my Crown Point Hoodie.

As stated in other posts, I made my Stitch 'n Bitch Under the Hoodie with Elsebeth Lavold Angora. The majority of which was acquired at a deep discount (75% off!). I then spent almost nearly as much tracking down and buying the random hanks needed to actually finish the knitting. But it was worth it. In the end, I used 1 hank of Purple (019) for the accent stripes, 5 1/2 hanks of Lime Green (014) and 7 1/2 hanks of Peacock Blue (006). I have enough coordinating leftovers for a child-sized something or other, so at least they will eventually get used. I planned the knitting so the different dye lots were hidden. The green in the arms was knit in one dye lot and the green stripe was with the other. As for the blue, almost the entire sweater was knit in one dye lot. However, when I was close to running out of the first dye lot half way through the hood, I started splicing the two dye lots together every few rows or so. This let me alternate skeins without having to carry up either side of the hood edge (which would have been very unsightly indeed). (Despite not being 100% wool yarn, Angora spliced brilliantly.)

The pattern itself was very well written and easy to follow. It would be a great knit for an adventurous beginner. There are some interesting constructions to make the pocket and the hood neck line, but nothing that you can't walk yourself through if you are just starting out.

The only alterations I made was to the length. I am l-o-n-g and this is a fairly cropped sweater. But, because it has zero waist shaping, it was easy to lengthen without having to recalculate anything. I decided the easiest places to add the length was in the stripes. To keep them relatively proportional, I doubled the width of the purple accent stripes and lengthened the center green stripe by about an inch. I also lengthened the arms of the sweater by adding the purple stripes which added about an inch to the sleeve length. The stripes were also originally added to help conserve the green yarn, but in the end (after realizing additional yarn was unavoidable), I decided I liked the stripes as a collegiate touch and left them in.

I was a bit concerned about the width of the sweater, specifically because it would create the rest of the arm of the drop shoulder. As I knit and tried it on, it seemed to only come to about 1/2 an inch beyond my actual shoulders, but then as soon as I seamed in the arms, they dropped. Just like they were supposed to! One must have faith I suppose.

I love the fit of the sweater, it is just the right length in the arms and body. Wide enough to be roomy, but still shapely enough not to look like a tent. I've already worn it about 4 times since I finished it last Wednesday night. It even accompanied me to Mammoth where I had originally planned to take the FO photos. I don't know about you, but I think this sweater wanted its photo shoot at Crown Point. It fits right in!

Long time no see!

So, it is finally back to normal around these parts work-wise. After more than 40 hours of overtime, I can happily say that we made our deadline and it was a good thing, too! The cut-off that we were 'afraid' was going to be reached the day that it became available, was reached...twice over. If anyone is interested, you can read a little about it here.

Anyway, in celebration of my deadline being reached and B's first class ending*, we celebrated with some time at our favorite park. We finally made it to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art. In short it was great! Well worth the price of admission and much, much more than what most of us are used to seeing of her work. And while Jenny got a much needed day in the park herself, she wasn't the only doxie in the park that day. In fact, the park was positively swimming with the little critters.

Turns out it was not just a coincidence, it was (and I'm not even kidding with this one) the "Vernal EquiDox" put on by the San Diego Dachshund Club. So we ended up participating without even really knowing...we just missed the official parade! Hee, hee. The thought of it still makes me giggle.

So anyway, knitting wise, lots of overtime meant the only knitting I was capable of was hoodie knitting when I got home (for the 20 minutes I had before going to bed). BUT, that also means the hoodie knitting is done! I am also half done with the seaming and will have a new FO to show you soon! I am really excited about this...I just hope I can still wear it once or twice before the weather gets too hot.

*BTW - this is actually a really big deal. B has gone back to school! I am so proud of him! And now that he is going because HE wants to, he is doing great. His first mid-term got him the highest grade in the class. It has actually got me a little nostalgic for my own college days...which will have ended 10 years ago this June. How did that happen by the way?

The opposite of black

Yup when I'm not planning and swatching for the world's biggest blackest sweater (this is my world after all), I am knitting away on the most colorful, mindless knit. Rows and rows of stockinette are properly soothing my gauge-calculating, cable-modifying brain. The only one who is suffereing is my brother. I told myself that this was his sweater's week. I am so close to finishing...or at least getting to the point where he can try it on again before I make the final adjustments to the collar and the waist...but it's gray. And this, well, this isn't...

I've finished both sleeves, the majority of which was knit at Stitches and on the plane rides, and at the time these pictures were taken, I had literally knit as far as I could until the rest of my yarn arrives. I ended up not having enough green for the hoodie as originally planned. In fact, there was only a walnut sized ball left over when I finished the sleeves (including the green I had to steal from the back piece to finish the sleeves). I tried to get a hold of both the green and the blue on WEBS (they had the yarn on discountable close-out), but only the blue was still available. I quickly put together a group WEBS order in order to reach the discount minimum as well as ease the shipping costs. However, I got an email when they shipped saying they were sorry by my blue yarn was not out of stock. Ugh! Well at least my friends got a chance to take advantage of the discount.

So, back to the internet again. I ended up finding the green on Ebay and the blue from a little shop in Connecticut, I think. Both colors turned out to be a little difficult to come by...at least at a price I wanted to pay for them. See the issue is that I got the original yarn at 70% off. So IF I had had enough yarn to make the sweater to begin with it would have cost me less than $40, which in my sale induced haze, I thought was actually possible. Now it looks like I'll be spending almost that same amount to get the remaining odd balls I need to finish.

But this sweater is going to be wonderful. I can feel it. And as recently pointed out by Theresa (by the way, go wish her a 'congrats'...she has some great news!), it doesn't look quite to bright and child-like in person. In the right (best) light, the colors have an 'inner light' that makes them look like they are glowing, but in normal (usual) light, they are just a really pretty green and blue.

I got to the pocket last Sunday which amused me to no end. It was one of those things in knitting where you know it's going to work out, you see how it will work out, yet when it does, it still manages to blow your mind. I mean, HOW is it possible that you can make a pocket out of nowhere? The front starts...then there's a pocket...then there's the front again. Like magic!!

Seamless, seamless, magic.

The color purple

I've been thinking a lot about color recently, mostly due to the start of Project Spectrum this month. I'm a big fan of neutral colors (including blacks and grays) in the things that I buy for outerwear. I feel like these are safe choices and go with the other things in my wardrobe more easily. I just have to match the warms with the warms and the cools with the cools. I have even purchased more neutral colors for future "big" projects, like Rogue and Eris. However, there is something that I am learning about myself. It is color that makes me want to knit something. I love charcoal grey and it is an obvious choice for a knitting project for me. However, I knit orange or purple or teal. More than I love good practical knits, I love color and I reach for color out of my stash time and time again.

I had purposefully been stashing more basic colors...things that I wanted to make more of thinking they would be worn more. And although I still find my stash inspiring...color pulls me in. Often times when I see good color, I think of a certain project: Under the Hoodie from the first Stitch 'n Bitch. (You can see a finished one here.) And when I saw Elsebeth Lavold Angora in Peacock Blue and Lime Green, I knew these would be perfect for that project. I knew that the blue was going to be the main body and the green would be the center stripe and sleeves. But what for the accent stripes around the green?

It had to be a color that would complement both colors since it would sit next to both and be of the same saturation level. I've had good luck choosing color based on this method lately. It allows you to make more interesting color combinations than traditional complimentary colors on the color wheel. I call it the "Cora Color Method" as she's helped both Knitzalot and I with numerous color choices this way. It is what is going to let me put purple, orange, blue, lime green and red all together for my Four Seasons throw. It's not what the color is, it's how similar their brightness and saturation levels are.

In trying to implement this method, I picked out to complementary colors for my hoodie. The first Purple:

The second Magenta:

I initially brought the purple home with me, but I couldn't help but think it didn't match the saturations levels the same way the pink did. In the photos above, you can see how although both combinations are lovely, the set with the pink is electric. All three colors in that set are equally vibrant and pop-ish. The purple is less saturated and more muted than its counterparts. So, on Saturday, I picked up the pink at the Grove's sale and was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to see how the colors where going to look knitted up. So I knitted like a mad woman this weekend much to the protests of my mending hand. By Saturday night, I made it all the way to the pink color stripe and into the green. It was so much fun! I loved the way it looked.

However, the next morning while I was drinking my tea and reading my book, I kept sneaking glances at my handiwork. Hmmm. Those colors are great. But, they're very childlike. And while I like color and vibrancy, I also want to be able to wear the hoodie...a lot. I started to think about the reality of having a hoodie in all electric colors, and decided that maybe a more toned down color combination would actually serve me better for this project.

So, I ripped out the stripes and started over with the purple. And I LOVE it. It's fun, but not crazy bright. The problem now is that I just can't knit it fast enough! I had to reluctantly put it down last night for fear that I would undo all the healing my hands and wrists had been doing.

Now the other thing that is going to be fun/interesting/heart-pounding/anxiety-inducing about this project is that I don't know if I have enough yarn. I don't if you go by requirements alone. But as we all know, how often do we actually use everything that is required? Not only that, I still need to add my obligatory arm and torso lengthening to the sweater. The place I am most likely to run out of yarn is with the blue. The pattern calls for 750 yards and I have 637. I realized that the easiest way to lengthen the sweater without using any of the precious blue was to make the stripes longer. The purple stripes will each be a row longer (not much, but something), and I plan to add a full inch to the green stripe. As for the arms, I added the purple stripes. They pretty much add the extra inch by themselves. Also by using the purple in the ribbed section and saving the green for the stockinette portion only, that extra yardage is saved. The plan is to work the sleeves, so that I will know precisely how much green will be available for the lengthening of the stripe. I think I'm going to have enough green...but it will be a squeaker!

P.S. Happy Presidents' Day to all those who don't have to work today! Yay!
P.S.S. It is actually raining in San Diego this morning. What a great way to spend a day off! Maybe I'll wear my pajamas all day :-)