This summer has been a whirlwind thus far!

Lot’s of traveling, presenting, organizing, writing and sampling…

Add a heaping dose of torrid weather, and, maybe, just maybe, I have SOME kind of excuse for not being finished with this:

Here’s my black cotton CINNIE that I started few weeks ago.

Now, if you have the pattern, you might notice there’s something a little screwy with mine. :)

All was going really well until I started to realize something potentially embarrassing: either I’d lost a ball of yarn or horrors of horrors!

I didn’t get enough to make the project!

It would’ve been perfect to blame this discombobulation on the 100+ degree temperatures, day-after-day of screaming weather, here in the Big Windy, but no.

After a thorough hunt around the hut, and a look-up of the original sales receipt, it was all me. I simply didn’t read my own directions!

I was unoriginally (and pathetically), in a word: short.

Now comes the part that I hope you will always choose to miss: trying to rationalize HOW one can squeeze it out of what’s on hand ANY WAY.

Sidebar: this is one of the top 5 support email requests that land in my mailbox. Usually it’s fine – the knitter is off by a few yards and I can suggest a couple of quick tweaks to make it fly.

But this?

Witness my denial: this pattern includes top down sleeves. That means you can stop at any old point that you like. So, instead of following the pattern to the sleeve hem, in my confabulated state, I decided to go as far as the underarm joins, then try for the win.

The sleeve stitches were put on scrap yarn and the Body of the sweater was then next in line.

Pretzel Logic or Clown Knitting?: I figured if I could make this about an inch shorter (typical tweak to stretch low yardage) I could appraise what yarn was left to finish.

Now you can do this a few ways, but I like to weigh things.

I have a postal scale and can measure the ounces left in a partial ball pretty quickly.

Then, using the yardage on the ball band one can do some basic algebra (I love math!!) and get it going.

For instance, here’s the equation:
 
135 yds per full ball divided by 1.75 oz (in 50g) = X (where X is the unknown leftover yardage) divided by 1 oz (example weight)
 
Solving the equation for X, in this example, means there’s about 77 yds left.

And sadly, I discovered, that even with this algorithmic magic, I was not going to be able to pull it off.

SO: I decided to do what I should’ve done to begin with: get on the phone and order more yarn!

AND: get an extra ball, because now, I’m all about making some longer sleeves…

While spring rushes to a welcome balmy end, I’ve been rushing here at Studio Chic to finish up all my loose ends for the Columbus TNNA show. (We’ll be in Booth 628)!

Whew!

I really welcomed the HOT unseasonable weather we’ve been having lately because:
- chance to hunker in the AC and work & play
- chance to wear new clothes to shield myself from said AC, especially in public places

The new little Silky Wool CINNIE has been getting a workout. It’s so lightweight, I just throw it in my bag — an easy Take Along.

But the same reason I love it is the same reason it’s been annoying.

Lightweight. Hmm.

If you’ve been knitting for any length of time, you know just because a yarn is a certain *weight*, it doesn’t mean all types thusly marked have an equivalent drape or wear.

Depending on the fiber content, different strands can yield fabrics that have little in common except for dimension.

This cardi is a great case in point.

The original cotton/microfiber sample I made has quite a bit of body to its fabric.

The turquoise Silky Wool in contrast is very light, more delicate.

And its ribbing wasn’t quite behaving the way I wanted. The very bottom hem edge wanted to point outward a little, flaring, if you will.

So, it was time for an old couture dressmaking trick. ;p

Although I wasn’t going to actually sew a chain to a jacket hem (ala Chanel) or insert pennies or even paper clips, I did decide to use some grosgrain ribbon to face the bottom edge, the idea being it would make that area slightly *heavier* so it would then naturally hang down more gracefully.

This would add enough weight and bulk to make my *jacket* behave.

Here’s how I did it:

How to Fix a Flaring Edge

1. Get some ribbon! I chose some 1 1/2″ wide grosgrain ribbon in a rich brown. This was the closet color they had to my yarn. Even though it doesn’t match, the tone is approximated the same and it will Recede into the background when worn.

2. Measure off the ribbon. I wanted this to slightly overlap the edge ribbing into the hem ribbing with about 1/4″ on either end to fold inside to prevent raveling.

3. Prepare the facing. I had my steam iron up and running for some other sample blocking so I folded in the cut ends of my ribbon pieces and lightly steamed. THIS is very helpful to make the ribbon behave nicely and SPEEDS UP your stitching. I’m all about the quick draw over here – make it NICE but make it FAST! It also makes it easier to place and then PIN the piece to the edge you are reinforcing.

4. Stitch to the garment. Using a matching thread, I hem-stitched the facing to the ribbing.

VOILA! With a little effort, I now have a LIGHT sweater that also wears well. :)

I know this doesn’t look very interesting

But to me it is NIRVANA.

It represents the last two days of my life. It is full of promise, it speaks volumes of progress…

This rack was a wall of yarn (and more) in Studio Chic until yesterday. You might’ve seen it before and know the reaction:
 
“Is that your stash in the background????
The new cardigan looks nice too.”

Today this rack is waiting in my closet to hold all my sweaters. Of course, on the hottest day of the year so far, my friendly organizer, Lulu & I will be moving Ton-O-Wool from the armoire they were living in to the closet rack.

But, this creates a super-crisis! On the second-to-last shelf of the unit, I had ALL of my incredibly huge collection of circular needles. They lived in the litte triangle areas: nicely, quietly, numbered and sorted, waiting for their inevitable call to action.

Even though I’ve been panicking about every hour or so during this downsizing process, this one bludgeoned me right upside the head! I just couldn’t visualize how I was going to store these anywhere else.

They need to be a Quick Draw. Can’t be living in a jumble in some drawer or box or dresser.

And as they say, Necessity is a Mother! And she lovingly saw something else that was going to stay in the room that could be repurposed with something that was in the Recycle Pile.

Here is a Plant Stand where one of my mannequins lives. It is now Needle Island.

I attached a rogue CD (remember those? I’ve got a whole box of those that are exiting the premises) rack that was in my office with trusty twist ties to the frame and moved the little number labels to their new home and VOILA!

Now, if only I could pack FASTER I could get back to my knitting!