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after finishing the second sleeve on sunday, I decided that the first one needed a tighter hem...
at first, I was patiently undoing every stitch, until I got bored of that and decided to just cut to the chase if you will.
I knit the new ribbing plus a couple of rows of stockinette and then grafted that to the sleeve.
now the sweater pieces are lounging about after a long soak, waiting for some seaming and neckline action.
two happy things! first, from what I've gathered in emails I was thankfully wrong. it wasn't the technical ed. that came up with the genius of inches, I think the non-knitting editor is searching for those all by herself. come on, remember when you didn't know how to knit? maybe I should get the editors to read techknitting so they can learn how to. anywho, I HAD to share that with you! who else would get the funny out of it? when I got the email I quickly looked at my im list and was like...doesn't knit, wouldn't get it, oh knitter!
second, I won the metric vs. US case (sounds like some really crappy schoolhouse rock episode if you ask me!). I've been burned in the past by going with just the US size...what? this size 6 is 4mm while this one is 4.25mm?! let's not talk about that project. I think my favorite US/metric story is when I went into a yarn store wanting to buy some needles, what size I forget though it was most likely sock needles, and I couldn't find it since the store labeled all the addis with just the US number. I muttered something about just knowing the mm's and the owner was shocked. "How else would you remember what size is what?!" uhh lady, see that number next to the two mm's? yeah....
that story may suck, I'll admit there isn't much of a climax, but you get my point, there's no need for one number to represent another. you may think you or other people rely on US sizes, but you probably don't. if you say "oh I need an 8" and in your mind think "which is a 5mm" then do you need the US size? wouldn't it have been faster just thinking the second number? ok, think of it another way. ever try to knit a vintage pattern but the needle size seems off? that's probably because they were using another system that isn't standard today. a mm will always be that.
ok, now that I beat that horse sufficiently *ahem* and had my coffee, can I bring up another pet peeve? sure I can, I'm the one writing. why do patterns tell you the size the knitted sample is but not the size of the model? don't I need some sort of reference, a penny in the picture if you will? I'm making my editor run around and measure each model, partly for the fun of it and also so I can include it in each pattern.
this brings me to a question...what do you wish books/patterns included or got rid of? I would love to hear suggestions! I can tell you right now this book won't have a how to knit or purl or cast on section. you should know that already or you can buy one of the many reference books already in the market. (I may sound mean here, but I'm not at all. I just think if every knitting book is spoon fed we'll never move beyond this)
to answer one of the questions in the comments, this will be the first knitting book for this publisher. which in ways I'm both incredibly lucky and frustrated with. the frustrations (trying to explain knitting etc) are minor (and funny) though when I get to decide what sort of template the book will use and I don't have to follow the standards of what's already out there. I imagine if I were working with an 'established' craft publisher I would basically have a formula handed to me. instead, I'm calling the shots on my first book.
on the project front, sleeve v. 3.7:
things I'm loving:
first she finishes a beautiful sweater and then writes this cool tutorial on how to custom design a sweater.
I really want to try out chez pim's pad thai recipe, maybe I'll get a chance this weekend.
that is if I don't just gorge myself on cupcakes!
I've been trying out musicovery for a while, it's nice when you want to get out of your own collection and be surprised...though some of the 'loops' can get really annoying.
sort of in the same vain, but with food, tastespotting let's you find recipes through pictures. you'll be disappointed sometimes when the link takes you to say a baking shop rather than a recipe, but still worth a try.
andrea's gorgeous alpaca blankets...I can only imagine how luxe these are.
finally! bonus photos in the IK preview are up! I can't wait for stef's pattern.
