Finished Anais (with vestigial ears)

These shots were taken on Saturday after a really fun dyeing session with some of the Hong Kong Knitterati. They admired certain aspects of  my completed Anais, and I tried not to be too anxious about overdyeing the massive amount of cashmere that Siow Chin had bought.  I don’t know why she trusted me, with my history of felting beautiful yarn! Luckily, no yarn was felted, and we all had a good time. The colour that  Siow Chin achieved was gorgeous, and the yarn felt amazing.

But, I hear you ask, what of the vesitigial ears? Anais does not fit me in her current form, and it is due to problems on my part (not correctly calculating where my waist is), and also problems with the pattern. With the suggested row gauge (32 rows per 4″), the finished item will end up nearly 1″  shorter than the the schematic measurement to the arm hole.  If you go through the back instructions, it specifies rib for 2.5″, then stocking stitch for 1″, then 19 rows of waist decreases (2.375″), working even for 2.5″, 19 rows of increases (2.375″). If you add up the length to the armholes at the specified row gauge, you get 10.75″. This is three-quarters of an inch shorter than the length specified in the pattern diagram. I have written to Berroco about the error, and the Design Assistant said that a revised errata will be posted, but I am yet to see it on their website.

I compared the pattern diagram to a favourite vest of mine and added 2.5″ to the body of Anais. Despite this additition it is still at least 1″ too short, and the waist shaping does not correspond to the location of my actual waist. If you are having difficulties identifying the vestigial ears – I have circled them in the photos below.  One of my key figure anxieties would be about my hips.  When I was working for the hedge fund, one of my co-workers helpfully told me “your figure is quite in proportion, but my your hips are really broad”. While she lacked in tact, she was right on the money, and broad hips are not enhanced by flapping pockets of fabric.  The longer the top is worn, the worse they look.

Your advice needed

I had altered the pattern to knit in the round to the armholes, and am now contemplating an alteration to the finished object. I plan to pull a thread underneath my bust, and then knit down, correcting the fit issues.  I have plenty of left over yarn because I dyed an additional 100 grams in addition to the amount specified in the pattern. The thought of pulling a thread on my knitting and cutting causes me more than a little worry, and I am sure that I will need a glass or two of wine to get me there.  If there is any reason why this plan will not work, please let me know! All advice about pulling threads will be greatfully received, and I will be referring to my copy of Knitting Without Tears while undergoing the process.

Appearances can be deceiving

It looks like this gorgeous child is wearing a completed hat – unfortunately; the picture below shows how little progress had been made on the hat.  The baby is a real, live 4 month old wearing another Barker baby hat prototype – this time made with the left over yarn from these two projects. The model was only in our house for 2 days, and I felt that his gorgeousness could not go un-utilised for the benefit of Yarn Workshop. Such a gorgeous baby boy, and such a placid temperament despite jet lag, exposure to new conditions, and being generally man handled by my two daughters.

Here is the actual progress on the hat – since these photos were taken, I have managed to get to the first round of crown decreases.

Trying the hat on did give me some more information for the pattern, and it should be ready soon (famous last words, I know).  I am really enjoying the way that the self striping sock yarn works up with the hand dyed Footscray. This baby was the lucky recipient of the second Estonian Lullaby Baby Blanket, and happily,  it was travelling with him, and is beginning to look worn.  His mother had received strict instructions about not treating it as an heirloom, and she commented that it is well on its way to blankie status.

In other news, I am actually wearing the completed Anais, with both sleeves attached! It is a little too short, but I am going to ignore that.  I have some knitting buddies coming over for a dyeing party on Saturday, so will get them to help with photos then.

I’m not finished yet

Apparently, the making up of Anais takes longer than 1 hour and twenty minutes, because that is how long I have spent on it to date. The sewing on of the insert is about 500 times more annoying than the knitting of it.  I understand why so many people on Ravelry have left the sleeves off – I am having a lot of difficulty summoning enthusiasm for the task.

I’ve been distracted by the news of the bush fires in Australia, and the horrific loss of life  there. There are so many more families that have lost everything.   My husband now works in banking, but for over 10 years he was a professional fire fighter (in the NSW Fire Brigade)  in Australia.  He worked around the clock  through other bush fires, and had some very close calls; and my mother had one extremely close call when she was growing up. As far as we know, all our family and friends are safe, but every story that I hear sounds too close to home.

On the topic of Australia, did you know that (according to the Australian Consulate in Hong Kong) a valid Australian Passport is not proof of Australian citizenship? This is despite the fact that it clearly says “the bearer, an Australian citizen” inside it, and is conventionally regarded as the definitive proof of citizenship. I just had a fun time waiting there, in a vain attempt to renew younger daughter’s passport. Apart from needing to bring in her Citizenship certificate, they were also pass remarkable about my husband’s handwriting, and want me to produce his passport so that a careful comparison of his messy signatures can be made. I almost made a comment along the lines that “If we are estranged, all the comparisons in the world don’t really matter, because I already have a valid passport for her that expires in July 2009″; but decided that discretion about my ability to conduct a potential international child abduction might be a good idea. Luckily, I know where the citizenship certificate is, I am not estranged from my husband, and he is in Hong Kong, so I will take both requested documents back again this afternoon.  Hopefully a new passport can be issued – I know it seems like we are renewing early, but you can have difficult entering some countries when you have less than 6 months validity left on your passport. 

We have visitors later this week, so hopefully there will be photos taken of a finished Anais, and of another Barker baby hat in a bigger size. 

(edit) P.S.  If you would like to say thank-you to the Australian fire fighters that risked their life fighting the fires, MoseleyWool (Ravelry ID) is dyeing some yarn up so that you can knit thank-you socks! Send her a Ravelry PM, or let me know if you are not part of Ravelry.

Anais blocking

This has been a quick, quick project – mainly because I really liked knitting with the yarn (Yarn Workshop Ultimo), and because it used a surprisingly small amount of yarn. I think that I started on January 21, after dyeing and overdying the yarn with Ashford dyes from this kit. The yarn is lovely to knit with, and has a lovely sheen that does not show up in this last minute photo. Action shots will be posted after Sunday at Disneyland, when we celebrate one month of  older daughter’s amblyopia patching. The dyeing was highly experimental, and I took no notes or photos, but kept going until I achieved a relatively solid green.  I am trying to use a little more colour in my wardrobe!

I freely admit that I was inspired to knit this by Tehri, Mari, and Kris (oh, those Finnish knitters), and made special note of Mari’s amendments to the pattern. When I was inspecting the sleeves, I further reduced the number of decreases specified (when the pattern says knit 2 together 15 times, I knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 1, 7 times, and added an extra knit stitch on either side).   I also made a lot of other amendments detailed below. 

The pattern specifies 7 balls of Ultra Alpaca Light for the size 42,   (931 metres of yarn).  I added 2 and half inches to the body of the sweater, and made the armholes half an inch deeper, and made the neck higher, and made the sleeves for the size 46, and still used approximately 929 metres of yarn (according to my scale and the yarn count for  Ultimo). The people at Berroco do seem to specify exceedingly generous amounts in their patterns, something that I am counting on when I cast on for Ursa from some stashed Rowan Kid Classic in Crushed Velvet. Otherwise, the pattern was easy to follow, but is really light on making up instructions.  I am planning to sew the sleeves in from the point where the armhole decreases begin; and was peering at lots of photos on Ravelry of finished objects to try and figure out how the sleeves were meant to work. Thank goodness for the internet, it saved my sanity!

More details will come with the modeled shots!