Thinking about the Spectrum Sweater

 

I keep looking at that picture a few entries before this and I think what bothers me most is the darkness of the dark purple (color "5 Purple").  All the other major colors look like wide strips with edges that fade into the next color, but at the hem the purples are all very blotchy and distinct.  If the hem went black – 5 Blue Purple – 10 Blue Purple – and then slid directly into 10 Purple, skipping the dark one, that would give me a wide, purple stripe in keeping with the rest of the sweater.  I’m still working on the front bodice, so I won’t get to that for a while, but that’s good, because it will give me time to think.

 

On the other hand maybe I should pick up the dark ("5") purple and make it a much wider strip of its own before sliding right back into black.  This was my first thought…it was also Chris’ first thought.

A Bunch of Trivial Updates

 

There’s really not a lot going on around here. 

 

It’s raining. 

 

I am currently working on the front of the Spectrum Sweater.  I also got some K1C2 Truffles yarn (a yarn I’ve loved for 10 years but never bought) from Webs at the amazing clearance price of $3.99 a skein. 

 

New Kitten (probably to be named Skitty, after the Pokemon) has an upper respiratory infection, so she is living alone in the Wii room while the other cats have the run of the house.   Laundry is being done.  Can’t you tell I have such an interesting life?

 

On the leisure time front, I am reading the second in Bernard Cornwell’s King Arthur series.  Someday I’ll hit the wall on Arthur books, but not yet!  I also have C. J. Sansom’s "Dissolution" lined up to read, and am waiting for a couple of library books and two Amazon pre-orders to come. 

 

We are hoping to go look at a couple of houses this weekend.  One is 6700 square feet (!) on 17 acres, mountaintop, and the other is 4800 square feet on 5 acres, much closer to town than either (a) we are now or (b) the 17-acre property is.

 

Stay tuned for more hot updates!  Ha, ha, ha.

The Latest on the Spectrum Sweater

 

Well, I had some 8/2 tencel from Webs in the color "Blue Purple" (believe it or not, it’s a near perfect cobalt blue).  I put my stitches back on the needles and I’m going to work this blue at the neckline.

 

So my remaining two questions are (and I think I need to decide them in this order), What do I do about the edging? and Do I rework the hem at all?  My original pattern was just to have black bands of garter stitch for hem, collar and cuffs, but now I have this idea that I should do something more interesting.  Probably this is because I just got "Knitting Beyond the Edge" to complete my collection.  Good ideas in there, but many are too floofy to work with this sweater.  Although this is a simple sweater, there’s a lot going on visually; I don’t want to up the busy quotient and give people headaches when they look at me! 

 

After I decide what to do about the various edgings, I will think about what to do with the color progression at the hem.  I can

1. pick up from the dark purple, work down to black, and end
2. pick up from the light purple, work down to dark blue purple, then light blue purple, then end (if my edgings will be integrated with the body color nearest to them)
3. leave it as is (which is, ultimately, not really an option)

If you have any design suggestions for this, please do write and let me know!  One of the Nicky Epstein things I like is putting wide points on the edges of things.  I can possibly knit a number of triangles in the colors matching the sleeve stripes and then graft the triangles to the sleeve so they’re in line with the stripe next to them.  I’ll experiment with that.

For now, I’m going to finish the back with the tencel and bind off (instead of doing the 3-needle bind-off later).  Mostly this is just because I want to see that it’s done.  Plus I can get a picture for you showing the shape better.

More later!

Spectrum Sweater Update

 

Here we are with an update to the Spectrum Sweater.  This is the back; it’s done.  Because the front is still on holders and the shoulders are also on holders (for the three-needle bind-off), it looks like it tapers towards the shoulders, but it doesn’t.  It is a classic T-shirt shape (shaped like the letter T).  Once I get some of the front bodice part done, I’ll put a pic so you can see the sleeves.  But this is the color progression.

 

Looking at it from a distance, as here, I can see one obvious change I would make, were I starting from scratch.  I think the color progression at the hem looks a bit silly.  The starting purple is too light.  If I were starting again, I’d do black for the hem, then jump right into the dark purple (which I think is Purple 5).  If I could find a good true cobalt type of blue, then the progression at the neckline could go from 10 Blue (which is what you see at the top on holders, a bit turquoisey) to the unknown cobalt, to the 5 Blue Purple (which is not used in my sweater) and then the 10 Blue Purple (which is what you see in my pic just after the hem).  But the progression from the 10 Blue to the missing 5 Blue Purple is just too drastic without some blender color like a cobalt in there.

 

A New Kit in Town

 

Chris and I have been discussing adding a third cat (kitten) to the household.  Not for any "real" reason, just because we like cats so much.  Every time we discuss it, we come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be fair to Max and Bickie to add another (potentially nasty) cat to our (perfectly content) household.  But last night I dreamt we’d gotten a new kitten, and when Alex was getting antsy and restless this afternoon due to the rain, Chris said, "Why don’t you guys go downtown and adopt another kitten?"  Of course Alex was all for it.  For some reason I jumped right on it.  We went to Kitty Harbor in Seattle, where we sat amongst the various cats & kittens for two hours (yes, two hours:  the people there before us took that long to make up their minds and get the paperwork sorted, and there was only one lady working), and came home with an adorable grey/white kitten yclept "Peanut." 

 

We have already exposed her to Max & Bickie.  Both of them were calm and inquisitive, but Peanut (name to be changed ASAP), who is about the size of a can of Coke, arched up and growled, mostly at Max (because he approached her gently to sniff her).  Eventually he and Bickie simply walked away, but Peanut stayed in her defensive pose until we closed the door between them.  We’re hoping it goes well tomorrow.  Peanut will spend the night in the master bathroom.

 

We tried "Aurora" (because she’s a roarer, her purring is louder than any kitten I ever heard), but it’s not an easy name to say, so we ditched it.  Suggestions are welcome.  Unfortunately "Archchancellor Ridcully" just doesn’t trip lightly off the tongue either (not to mention he’s a man).  "Pink Teacup" is an anagram of "Peanut Pick," Chris says, let’s name her Teacup and call her China.  Maybe.