the finished wave

Pattern: Wave Jacket from Miss Bea's Seaside
Yarn: Elann Den-m-nit, about 7 balls of the darker and 3 of the lighter
Needles: size 6 Addi
Modifications: I couldn't get the row gauge on target, so that caused some changes. Most of my discussions about the jacket took place here, waaaaay back in September.


This was my first experience in installing a zipper in a knit garment. Things were pretty shaky at first, but I have high hopes that it will stay in place. I ordered the zipper from Custom Zips, who matched the yarn sample really well* and sent my order really quickly. I mailed the form on a Tuesday, and had the zipper on Friday. That's impressive.

*If you do order from them, you MUST send a sample for them to match and then cross your fingers. There's no color chart to help you (even on the website), and only a list of color names. Not terribly helpful. But they did a very good job this time, so I will use them again.

I'm so happy with my jacket that I'm dancing!

ridin' the wave

It's a well-known fact that finishing a garment is not my favorite thing to do. This morning, after finishing the second sleeve, I embarked on the sewing and the collar to the Wave Jacket. There was a false start on the three-needle bind-off for the shoulders (um, Rowan? The RIGHT sides need to be together, not the wrong ones; that is wrong) but I got the collar knitted up, and commenced in weaving in more ends than I care to thing about.

My row gauge was off rather significantly, thus calling for some pretty fancy math to get the finished garment to the called for measurement. But this is denim: renowned for its shrinkage after the first washing. I did some calculations, and after one nightmare with numbers and denim chasing me around, I decided that it was fine.

Before the hot water wash: length is just about 18", and it's supposed to be 15.75". Will the washers in our laundry room hit the recommended temperature of 60 degrees C? No idea, but there aren't other (easy) options. In it goes, with some towels and old jeans that I keep around for just this purpose.

Out of the washer, there is some shrinkage. But not enough, and we can't give a one-year-old a floor-length jacket. Holding my breath, I tossed the jacket into the huge, industrial dryer - alone. I know that these dryers get hot, and I'm hoping that 15 minutes will do the trick.

Post-dryer, we are there. Triumphant jumping up and down, and a few concerned, strange glances from the building staff who are walking by in the hallway.

It's still too damp to sew up, so no reveal shot for a while. Then comes the zipper. But it's so cute. Three cheers for Miss Bea and Louisa Harding.

back online

We're back! It was a lovely trip, and New Hampshire was terrific. That is, until the weather took a strange turn into late July conditions and the humidity and heat went through the roof. But the very cold north Atlantic has a way of cooling you off pretty quickly, if you are so lucky.

Some highlights:
1. Visiting lots of little yarn shops and falling in love with this craft again.
2. Teaching Hubby how to knit, and bursting with pride at how well his hat is coming along.
3. The Red Hook brewery (not from Red Hook, Brooklyn! Who knew?)
4. Eating my weight in fried clams and oysters, slurping down raw oysters, and lobster rolls.
5. Wearing Chamomile a couple of chilly nights.
6. Progressing quite nicely on a soon-to-be-one-year-old's Wave Jacket!

I'll provide more details on the trip, comments on blogs, and return emails soon. I'm so glad that I'm off of work for another week.

overheard in new york

Tourist couple, speeding down a street within Rockefeller Center, away from a crappy, overpriced tourist restaurant.

Woman: But my sister went there and said it was wonderful!
Man: Exactly!

They continued into the night.

Earlier in the day, I got to see one of my favorite NYC sites.

The return of the union rat! I love the very long tail (so realistic!) and beady eyes. This was only the 10' rat, but I've seen them bigger.

Grad school is almost over, and when not writing and editing as fast as I can, I got a little knitting done. This is the back of Miss Bea's Thinking Dress (in Cotton-Ease, of course). The hard part, with the big cable up the front, comes next, but it's going to be much slower going. I love this series of books, and can't wait to start the next project from them.

The final exciting thing to report is that more purging took place this morning. It's feeling really good to get rid of stuff. Hubby went to ask the maintanence guys for some big, strong garbage bags, and after he dragged the full bags back downstairs, he was asked if we were throwing out any wine. We have quite a notorious reputation, I guess. But Hubby brought him a bottle from his stash for the help.