Happy Halloween

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That title is a bit misleading, since this entry isn’t really about Halloween, but about the vest thing still. I do wish you a Happy Halloween though. Since someone will ask though, I’ll just do it now. Amanda (19) has not shared her costume plan with me this year. She might not be dressing up. Sam (14) is being a ballerina… a plan that was in serious jeopardy last night when we couldn’t make the criss-crossy ribbons on her legs stay up. I was thinking about sewing them to the tights when my brilliant husband came up with the idea of replacing the ribbons with hockey tape. The tape looks like ribbon and really stays up. We don’t know how we’ll get it off… but it really stays up. Meg (17) is doing a pairs costume with her friend Madeleine. Maddy is being the Mad Hatter and Meg is the White Rabbit. There was some consideration last night of Meg’s idea that she should stuff her shirt where her belly is to look pregnant, since the White Rabbit is “Late for a very important date” and she thought it would double the joke. (Get it? Late? The White Rabbit is “late”?) Meg thought this hysterical. I, being her mother, was torn between how actually funny that is (which is quite) and how not funny it would be (which is not at all.)

Moving along. Questions from yesterday.

Bethany H asks:

I’m probably not the first to suggest this, but perhaps did you read it to be 19.75 to the shoulders, and it might have been to the armholes?

Good guess, but no, and I even suggested it to myself, since that would be a reasonable explanation. There are two measurements given. One to the armholes and one to the shoulders. Would have been a pretty sweet catch if that was it though.

Melissa (and a whole bunch of you) inquire:

I hate to ask the stupid question, but I’m going to anyway. Is it possible that this is an American pattern and that the numbers are given in inches? That would make a bit more sense I think.

It is an American pattern, and it is in inches – but so is my knitting. I think it’s pretty hard, especially when you get into several inches or centimetres to confuse them. Check this out.

Inchescm311008

That’s the vest front (reworked) and next to it is a tape measure at 19.75 inches, and a tape measure at 19.75 centimetres. I like to think (although I have surprised myself more than a few times) that the difference between those is so radical that if I were knitting in cm when it should be inches that I really shouldn’t get too far.

Mel says:

Actually, it looks like it would work well as a cropped vest. Does the pattern not show it on a model to demonstrate the intended look?

Yup. Right here. I didn’t see that as particularly cropped when I first looked at it, but as Andrea pointed out, those look like 3/4 length sleeves, and even they are longer than the vest. I should have looked more carefully. (Or, as I pointed out yesterday, maybe I could have read the pattern where the length was clearly stated. Dumbass.)

Deb says:

Maybe it is supposed to be one of those weird Only Covers To The Bottom Of The Boobs vests that you wear a button down shirt under? And then you have like 14 inches of the shirt hanging out from under it. Like those teeny tiny Jackets That Are Really Shrugs things.

Like this?

Totally possible. Myself, I have a middle aged middle and there is zero chance that I would be caught dead in something that accentuated or highlighted the exact size and location of either my breasts or my middle, but it’s possible that the designer is hotter than me. (Likely – actually.)

Laurie wants to know:

WHERE IS THE PATTERN FOR MAIRI’S SWEATER?

and Diane seconds the motion with:

HOLY HELL WHAT IS THAT SWEATER THAT MAIRI IS WEARING IT’S GORGEOUS AND I MUST KNIT IT NOW.



You can tell from the ALL CAPS REQUEST that they are seriously smitten. Mairi is wearing ‘Kilronan’ from Alice Starmore’s Celtic Collection, which is, as Mairi herself noted in the comments, one of the only Alice Starmore books still in print and available.

In the end, I’ve fixed the problem with the vest being to short for my taste by ripping back to the armholes, working another repeat of the diamonds, and I’m over it. I think it’s going to be the right length now – and if it isn’t it won’t matter, since I shall simply snip it up and eat it out of fury. I don’t mind making mistakes in knitting as long as they are worth something, you know? Like if you’re learning something new and you screw up – or you took a chance trying to figure a way out of a knitting problem, or you’re designing and the learning curve has a couple of bumps on the way to perfection. All of that is fine with me. As long as the error yields something, I can suck it up. It’s the stupid bonehead stuff where you knew better, weren’t paying attention and had to pull back and re-knit something you knew darn well was wrong and are now suffering the consequences of only your own stupidity that just makes me furious to the point of seething purple rage.

Vestback311008

Anyway. I started the back of the thing. I’m going to go knit. There’s a bucket of Halloween chocolate here that’s destined to take the edge right off of this.

124 thoughts on “Happy Halloween”

  3. Interesting! Especially since the model has only two diamonds, and you have done three already, and it’s *still* short! Makes me want to see theirs on a real body to see what it looks like. Is your row gauge the same as theirs?
    Hope you don’t have to eat it out of fury!

  4. Happy Halloween 🙂
    I knit to keep me humble. It’s nice to know that others experience the same mind-numbing frustration now and then… LOL

  5. It’s good to know this can happen to a pro, too. I usually just think that there is some knitting mojo about to happen later that will make it all turn out fine. Happy Halloween.

  6. If you find yourself contemplating that route – can I try it on before you snip it up and eat it?

  7. All my mistakes, alas, are of the boneheaded variety.
    Fortunately, I also have a bucket of Hallowe’en chocolate, “just in case” someone makes it round the side of the house to my basement suite. No-one has for the last two Hallowe’ens, so you’d think I could have gone for just a few treats, but nope. You never know when a pregnant white rabbit with serious cravings might show up.

  8. Happy Halloween!
    Not to change the subject, but since I’m near the top of the comments, I just wanted to thank you for your rave write-up a while ago of Norah Gaughan’s Flow tank. It’s something I never would have dreamed of knitting but I read your post and — in a near-Pavlovian response — instantly ordered the yarn in the same color, knit it up and have been wearing it ever since. Now that it’s fall, it looks fantastic under a black cardigan. It’s the first really wearable (as opposed to theoretically wearable) thing I’ve ever made for myself. So, many thanks.

  9. But you know the moment it’s done, really done, it’ll be absolutely gorgeous and worth every minute spent, and in that gorgeous yarn, too. (I *love* that pattern.)

  10. Love the White Rabbit idea and Meg’s spin on it, however as a mom, I think I would have the same conflicting opinions on it. Great sense of humor your kids have there. Gotta go defend my own chocolate from the munchkins and ghouls. 🙂
    Happy Halloween

  11. I am long waisted (and taller than you) and i know my back of neck to waist length is 18.5 inches..
    but it’s just to the waist. to have a bit below the waist, (to cover say a waist band, i’d need another 1.5 inches.. (or in other words as much as you’ve knit!)
    in theory, 19.5 inches should be long enough–but it does look too short..
    really there is no rhyme or reason to how some things fit.. (and if you need a few more inches, you’ll put it on, and it will sag to your knees, looking more like a dress than a vest!)

  12. I just spent 6.5 hours with 7th graders who were served candy by the breakfast folks, and then again at lunchtime, and who spent the rest of the day anticipating Trick or Treating tonight. Believe me, the best part of Halloween for a teacher is when it’s all over!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES! My husband better have a glass of wine and a cold compress for my aching head waiting for me when I get home.

  13. Isn’t it hilarious (albeit disconcerting) when you realize your kids have picked up your sense of humor as well? You notice that they never pick up your sense of neatness, order, or discretion. But you have to admit it is a hoot to hear something you might have said yourself (though not in front of the “children”) coming out of the mouth of one of your own offspring. My own will frequently say something similar…and then add “But I could never say that in front of my mother…” with a glance in my direction. It is always the things you don’t think about teaching them that they learn. And it is pretty funny… “late” … (snork)

  15. Mmmmm, Halloween chocolate. The fact that we get no trick-or-treaters just means more for us. Because of course we buy it “just in case”. 🙂

  16. see, this is the problem with modeling knits on mannequins instead of real people– they don’t have real, easily discernable proportions!
    still, I’m personally going to like the pattern much more when you get it lengthened… I am not liking this croppy trend that seems to be rising. 🙂
    cheers, and thanks for all you do–
    Jen

  17. It looks quite lovely now. The White Rabbit? Love the late bit…really…you can’t find costumes that funny.

  19. Happy Halloween! I checked out that pattern on Ravelry, and even the one person who has completed it with photos – didn’t have a photo where I can actually tell whether it is cropped or not… So live model photos aren’t helping…

  21. Happy Halloween – and glad the vest-thing worked out. We do have to be careful with the pictures – sometimes I see what I want to see in a photo of a knitting project and then am surprised at the actual results. Oh well. The vest is pretty, and will be worth the effort when finished, I’m sure. I’m just starting in on Alice Cooper’s Monster Mash (or whatever, the Munster’s) getting into the Halloween mood! Later this evening will be Charlie Brown and Hocus Pocus. It’s great that your kids are still into it – I especially love the rabbit joke (very good) and understand your reservations regarding it. Have a great evening! will you be able to get much knitting done between tricker-treaters? Or will Joe be helping out?

  22. I worry about your threat to eat the vest, if it doesn’t fit on second attempt. You’ve threatened to eat your knits before, sometimes because you like them, sometimes because you don’t…
    I can even remember a time or three when you’ve said you had a “yarn burrito” for lunch, although that could have been a matter of typeface.
    Any thoughts?

  23. If you snip it up and eat it, would you have Joe make a video of the event? I think it would be great blog and YouTube fodder…

  24. Well, since my breasts and my middle totally meet in the middle there is no way that vest is designed for humans.
    Also I see your boat trip totally bypassed my question of having enough yarn…

  25. Happy Booday! I was going to rave about looking at the Ravelry pics to see knitwear as it is really worn, but a second look at a finished vest shows a shirt peeking out from under it, a tucked in shirt… totally missed that the first time. Oh, well, I have to say I like the additional diamond pattern better. I think it balances out the ribbing.

  26. You know…. You totally should do it. Or give it to one of your daughters or something.

  27. Your prior post got me to go look at the pattern and I concluded (from the few pics I could see) this pattern was simply one of those ‘cropped’ vest styles. The photo from Purlescece is shot from above which skews the perspective.
    I’m with you it’s better with the added repeat. I don’t know if I agree about stupidity! You relied on the pattern, and sometimes it’s just hard to visualize till you have a tangible object.
    And the seduction of the yarn fuzzed your brain a bit, didn’t it! ;0

  28. Had to check out the pattern on ravelry and laughed when I read the notes section….
    Notes: This pattern is designed to fit with two inches of ease. If you wish to shorten the vest, you may do so by working a shallower ribbing section. SHORTEN hahahahahahahaha

  29. um, maybe i’m a little late to weigh in on this question… but are you perhaps knitting from a CHILD’S pattern, … just maybe??? no? ok, then i have no idea. someone needs to talk to that designer!
    and more importantly… i just LOVE that little Elwood!

  31. But when you’re “late”, the rabbit dies! Or aren’t you familiar with the expression “The rabbit died”?
    How clever your children are!

  32. Did you have to mention the leftover chocolate? We will be eating ours for weeks because it was cold tonight, that and it being half term meant that we were seriously undervisited.
    I like the yarn more having seen the close up, I hadn’t realised it was more interesting than Just Brown.

  33. The vest is lovely, but I’m even more impressed that you found not just one, but two tape measures…

  35. Stephanie,
    I love your blog! I’m glad that you have the self confidence enough to blog about your mistakes, and rant and rave, like the rest of us would. It gives joy and hope to my rather inexperienced knitter’s heart (who just tackled her first toe-up heel last night). PS – the vest is beautiful!

  37. Happy Halloween.
    I think that since the front is already fixed that the back should be knit with copious amounts of chocolate and WINE to make it less painful.

  38. Wow. Kilronen looks so much better when it’s styled with a belt!
    (I’ve long had two gripes about Starmore’s otherwise gorgeous patterns – one, the books are all styled in the eighties, so everyone looks oversized and shoulder-paddy, and two, she’s not as obsessive as I am about making sure that the cables on the chest line up symmetrically with the ribbing on the bottom and in the collar – something you don’t realize until you reach said collar… The “cable til you puke” sweater I have up at Ravelry (rana) is the classic offender.)
    I may have to rethink some of the patterns in that book.

  39. You already frogged and re-worked the front of the vest?
    I’m sorry; I don’t think I can like you anymore.
    Either that, or I want some of that Halloween candy you’ve been eating.

  40. Oh man, Stephanie, you are one funny lady. (And so’s Meg.) There are always so many good comments on here; I want “agree” and “love” buttons!

  41. I am so glad you got it figured out and reworked. And I totally love your solution to take the edge off. If my lace gives me any more fits tonight I’m totally turning off the lights, blowing out the jack o’lantern candles and eating the rest of the Twix’s instead of answering the door.

  44. You are such a good mom– I totally would have let my kid do that one, and the my mother would have disapproved and I would have been in mommy hell.
    Someday, when I’m doing challenging patterns again, I will have a problem like that. As it is, if it’s not stockinette, I’m not doing it, and it’s pretty hard to screw up a length in stockinette. Chalk it up to doing a pattern that takes more brain power than a video game and give that yummy yarn a squish for me… mmmm…pretty pretty colors…mmmmmm…

  47. I love Meg’s sense of humour. But I agree if it were true it would be no laughing matter.
    On the pattern, I did the Nantucket Tank and the designer of that pattern’s instructions and measurements were messed up by the company publishing them. So maybe this happened here?

  48. I just got off the phone with my 24 year old daughter. She is trying to decide whether dress up as a female race car driver or a female fireman. I asked where she bought the costumes and although she told me I really didn’t want to know, she finally said “a stripper store”.
    She was right…I didn’t want to know.

  50. Oh My Gosh! First I find an email from you in my in-box, and then you refer to me in your blog?!?! I have reached Knitting Nirvana. If I could work out the distance thing, I might become a stalker…
    Also, why did you not just stop and give it one of your young, hip, beautiful daughters who could not doubt pull off the shirt/sweater combo?

  51. This is our seventeen year old Japanese student’s first Hallowe’en, and she’s very excited,wearing her Yukata, like what we would call a kimono, and a witches hat, and weird makeup! I hope she has fun and gets lots of candy!! I’m about five inches of moss stitch into a sweater I keep thinking looks too narrow. I should measure it, right? Maybe… We’ll see…. Prolly not, though. 🙂 The vest in the photo looks quite short, just past the waistband, which wouldn’t flatter this sixtysomething year old middle either. It’s going to be beautiful on you, lengthened and all. Maybe you should write to the designer and find out what the problem was?

  52. I finally got smart this year and bought candy I hate hate hate but that the kiddies love (Air Heads). But I do miss those tiny little Heath bars. Plus, the 12 year old has a 9 PM curfew imposed by her coach so she has eschewed the hunting and gathering tonight. No choc for me….
    Don’t forget to turn your clocks back tomorrow night.

  53. Excuse me, but I looked at the photo and I thought it was a full length vest. The photo is deceptive. I could easily have made the same mistake since I don’t swatch much or worry about sizing until it doesn’t fit. But then again I don’t worry about most things. Like cleaning, cooking, or remembering which day it is.

  54. Tape removal? From tights? Try rubbing the tape with vegetable oil. This works when tape is stuck to skin. If tape comes off and residue remains, try handwashing the tights in Murphy’s Oil Soap. Then rewash in something meant for human clothing.
    Like the cabling on your vest!

  55. The yarn is gorgeous and the vest will be too. My 16 year old daughter decided to dress as Juno (from the movie “Juno” not the goddess.) We cut a basketball in half for her belly. This is the scariest costume I’ve seen either of my children in and I’ve completely rethought the whole “I want grandchildren” thing….

  56. That photo is totally deceptive. That should have been labeled a cropped vest. I have to wonder if the designer realized it was too short but didn’t want to bother fixing it, and that’s why the deceptive photo…then again, I’m totally cynical.

  57. In between answering the door for all the little trick or treaters, I am attempting a reply.
    I am going to sound really smart-ass-y, but Stephanie? It really helps to know where one’s comfort length lies…for me, it’s 22 inches, and if the pattern says otherwise (allowing for style particulars), I change the pattern accordingly.

  58. Nothing to do with todays topic but back to the pictures and donations to MS. I have been traveling but I cannot find where to post my picture (sock and Jerry O’Connell) and where to send a donation and where to see other pictures posted. Help please.

  59. HAH. The rabbit’s late. That’s RICH! Unfortunately, my 10 y/o has my sense of humor, so I *know* your pain (as in, when she referred to the Jonas Brothers as the Jone-A$$ Brothers to my FATHER!!!) I’m trying to be zen.
    The vest is gorgeous. I hope the additional repeat works for you so we can see it on a real live model — they don’t get any real-er or live-er than you!

  60. Wow. From the picture on the mannequin I’d have said the vest was hip length. It goes under the bust and then in and then out again … anybody would be fooled.

  61. That vest does not look very cropped. A little, but not like yours would. I think that that dummy is very very shortwaisted.

  62. and I like the pattern so much (despite the logistical challenges involved) that I bought one! LOL! you should get a commission =:)
    cheers!

  63. After some unfortunate experiences of a similar nature I have a new knitting rule — no patterns that have not been modeled by a real, live human being (preferably female). And if long hair, accessories, or arms are draped so as to conceal critical portions — that too is a danger sign.

  64. If that had been me making the vest it would have been a gift because there wouldn’t be enough yarn to make the correction. I would have been furious!
    Fortunately you didn’t run out of yarn.
    Make a note on the pattern in case you ever decide to make that vest again.

  65. Another proud Halloween Mum here: My 17 year-old son went to school today dressed as Sarah Palin. I love that boy!
    And it was really nice to see Mairi. She has been missed at our Ottawa Knitting Guild meetings.

  66. This type of mistake is discouraging alright. I like to think I have learned a few things in my ever-longer life, but when I do something like this, it takes all the wind out of my smug sails! Oh well, human after all. I guess the real lesson is perseverance.

  67. I am looking at that long stretch of ribbing that is clearly narrower than the top of the sweater, and I’m thinking about how, whenever I try on a sweater with long ribbing, the tightness causes it to slide right up my middle-aged belly.
    But maybe that’s just me. The only time I like really long ribbing is when it’s a big, oversized sweater. (I am trying to put a link to the Banff pattern on Knitty.com, but this browser won’t let me.)

  68. Thank God for Halloween chocolate.
    That picture of the vest on the mannequin doesn’t look cropped to me. Looks like a nice length since it seems to be going out over “her” hips.

  69. Just looking at the model picture of the vest (on a mannequin though, it is very misleading), and I have to say that if they are three-quarter sleeves, then the mannequin is wearing incredibly high-waisted pants!
    I’m possibly thinking that you may have knit the tiniest vest ever intended for a normal sized human being?
    It is lovely yarn, though… Good luck!

  70. All I have to say today, is that I hope the extra repeat works, since I’m seriously looking forward to seeing how wonderful the vest looks on your next tour. (It was suppose to be a way to increase your serious knitting wardrobe.)

  71. I’ve seen that vest on. I think Sandi is short-waisted, but she is more endowed. 🙂 And it works on her :} I love that vest.

  72. I looked at the original, and I looked at your (current) version, and it’s obvious that the whole thing looks better with 3 repeats than with 2. So this was not all for naught. You improved the pattern.

  73. Happy Halloween!
    As for the vest, I was wondering if possibly it might be a “Junior’s” size? I know from personal experience when shopping to check for that because XL in Junior’s and XL in Women’s is slightly different.

  74. One question you didn’t get to answer: What color is this vest? In the first post it appears purply-yellow on my monitor, in the second, brown. In this one, mostly brown but a little purple. A commenter says “pinky.”
    Anyway, it’s looking great now, and I love cormo, whatever the color!
    (Did anyone notice the bonus pic of Elwood behind yours in the previous post?)

  75. Well, I didn’t read all of the other comments and maybe someone has suggested this already, but if you are still unhappy with your vest I will gladly take it off your hands as I have decided to be vesty this year but can’t turn them out to quickly.lol

  76. It looked like a cable-knit sports bra before, have to say. But then again, aren’t winters supposed to be cold in Canada? Warmth, uplift and a little discrete padding from the cables, all in one garment.
    (Try it on under a T-shirt before you mock, lol.)

  77. Not to be picky, but ballet ribbons don’t go most of the way up to your knees like everyone seems to think. They tie round the ankles for the very reason that the second the foot moves the calf contracts and the ribbon falls.
    Anyway, I think the jumper looks much better with the extra diamond, but maybe one of your girls would feel more comfortable in it than you sound like you would be?

  78. Sorry that comment sounded rather rude when I read it again, no offence was meant, I sould learn to read before I post :-/

  79. The photo in the projects on Ravelry definitely shows shirt below the vest, so it looks like is is supposed to be that short. It would have been nice, however, if they had said “cropped” in the pattern description, wouldn’t it?

  80. Yes, they well should have described that vest as “cropped.” The pic on the dressform is a downright optical illusion, what with the 3/4 length sleeves and the absent legs. You’ve been duped! Bad knitting juju will come back to bite them.

  81. Happy Halloween Sistah!
    I was just finkin’ that ‘Our Stephanie’ is just a pooped punkin’??? Vest errors after all that jetting around the countryside? That much fatique can be really scary! 🙂

  82. Finally I finish reading your blog after a few months’ intensive reading. I enjoy your Blog very much, and will definitely follow the updates. I told my husband that I want your books as Christmas gifts. Do you have any plan to come to Norway someday so I can get them signed and show you my socks as well? :=)
    Another thing I enjoy reading your blog is that you actually dare to use the best quality and most beautiful yarn to knit. I also have some nice stuff, but I hold them in my stash to admire…because I think once I use them up, I would not have more of them…strange, huh…

  85. SPEAKING OF MAIRI’S SWEATER, where is the pattern for Amanda’s sweater (10/15 post) ??? I love the collar on that sweater and MUST.HAVE.PATTERN.

  86. I like it better with three repeats anyway, whether you needed the length or not. It will make you look taller, I’m sure.

  88. Well, I ( would put that in caps but it already is) appreciate your errors and your willingness and ability to “just rip out and rework” or however you put it. If the “great ones” make mistakes then when I am tempted to give up, I am encouraged to keep knitting and to either get help or work it out.
    I love the yarn.
    Hopefully, soon I can make time and find a group of folks to knit with.

  89. yeah, those are 3/4 length sleeves, maybe that’s why it looked longer than it really is
    me

  91. A lovely maple leaf appears just above your needle in the second picture. Is that luck or did you pose it?

  92. I’m confident that the vest will be fabulous when you are done, and I’m comforted that I’m not the only one who ignores that inner voice sometimes. I think it was Dave Barry who said those moments are the moments when he wants to stab a fork into his head.

  93. The armholes on that vest seem very deep compared to the body. From the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the armhole is deeper than the rest of the diamond pattern! Definitely a short body from the underarm area to the start of the ribbing.

  95. It may be getting late at night, but I’ve thought about it and I think maybe it’s a giant celtic sports bra, just right for Samhain!
    It will be beautiful though if you frog it and lengthen it somehow, perhaps by adding a few motifs.
    Best regards. Helen

  96. Perfect solution! Custom knit it to fit you!
    Sometimes I feel that designers are sitting around a big table snickering at us mere mortals who actually believe that following the pattern instructions will give us a finished product that actually works.

  98. Happy Halloween! Out here we had: the grim reaper (the homemade scythe made from stuff found in or near the kitchen [handle, cardboard, duct tape, foil] was deemed acceptable, even pretty cool), black death (do not underrate the value of a black hooded cape), and a disco diva (although earlier in the day she was a dead flower).
    I think the vest looks much better with your three diamonds than the pattern’s two. Better symmetry. Good going, improving on the original.

  99. Thanks for letting us know the source of Mairi’s pattern–I was going to have to stalk everyone in the Toronto area to get it otherwise, which since I’m in the UK, would have taken some doing. Happy (late) Halloween!

  100. AHHHH! Halloween, my favorite. My son (now almost 33) had the funniest costume ever when he was in High School, he made himself a toliet! A big rectangle box with a hole to fit over his head was the tank, complete with flush handle, magazine rack and toliet paper holder. An oval shaped ring around his hips with handles inside that he stepped into for the bowl, a lid on the front that lifted! Funniest thing I ever saw. Then he grew up and became a cop, go figure!
    A friend had her child step into a clear plastic garbage bag, filled it with multicolored balloons, secured it around the top and she went as a bag of jellybeans! Too Funny.
    I love Halloween. This year I was a frustrated healthcare deliverer who has gained too much weight and drown her sorrows in Cosmos!

  101. Just sent a link of your 10/30 blog to my daughter to show her the lovely Starmore sweater. She bought the “Celtic Collection” book over the summer and somehow “remembered” to take it to college with her (despite my efforts to hide it from her several times so it would stay at home with me … darn it). So nice to see the sweater modeled on a real person!
    Glad you lengthened the vest with another diamond. I’m constantly changing patterns to ensure fit by adding/subtracting rows or motifs. It’s nice to know the “experts” do it too!

  102. If the vegetable oil doesn’t take the tape glue off,
    try a product sold in the USA as “Goo Gone”. It’s
    amazing. You may have to let it soak a few minutes
    if the tape glue is stubborn, but I don’t recall
    ever having a failure with it.

  104. Sign me “Confused of London”, but I don’t understand why you are blaming yourself for an error that the pattern-writer made. Sure, you bound it off thinking it was too short, but if you are like me, you have to have visuals of the finished garment on you to get a feel for how it will really work.
    Measurements lie. Pattern schematics lie a lot. Sometimes the only way to check is to finish the damn thing first and then try it on. No matter how many times I measure and no matter how many times I get gauge, it is still amazingly difficult to get sweaters that are long enough (and don’t ride up over my bust), sleeves that fit (and don’t ride up your arm as you type or bag over your hands), and shoulders the correct width. Sometimes it isn’t until I try it on that I’ll discover whether the garment makes me look like a short dumpling of a woman or slim and elegant.
    Maybe I’m deluded? I don’t think so – I’ve done enough dressmaking and knitting to know my body shape. Most things work. Most things fit. But there is always the five minutes of “Uuh Oh. Does it or doesn’t it work on me?” to go through at the end of a project.
    – Pam

  105. I think Meg’s costume sounded awesome. The double entendre is rather sophisticated, actually, especially considering the reputation rabbits have for proliferation!
    The sweater is still great, and I think you did the right thing adding one more diamond repeat. After all, isn’t it normal for you to take someone’s pattern, and alter it to suit your needs?

  106. That dress form looks only slightly bigger than a doll!
    Anyway, I can see why you fell for the vest. It looks like it would be (should be) infallibly flattering.

  107. I hope the Halloween chocolate took teh edge off. That vets will look very nice when it’s done. My Mom has that Alice Starmore book as well as one or two of her out of print ones — lucky me!
    Hope the Halloween costumes worked out okay!

  108. I learned today that ripping and reknitting serves as a good instructional tool for an almost 8 year old who hates homework and rewriting incorrect dictation words.
    He was sad that I had to rip out 10 rows of a sleeve (because I didn’t read the chart) and I explained that I learned something–to read the chart–and that if I wanted to do it right, I needed to do what it took to get it correct, even if it meant doing it over.
    It’s like we had a little breakthrough.
    And knitting does solve everything!

  110. You’ve been speaking about denial like it’s a bad thing. While I understand there are sometimes severe consequences, I still maintain it could have been worse. Try making the whole thing before the smoke of denial clears away.

  111. Your remarks about Alice Starmore’s book reminded me: why in the world have her books not been re-printed? I mean, if a used one goes for $200 to $500, wouldn’t that indicate that there’s some demand? I’ll never understand book publishers….

  112. “I like to think that the difference between those is so radical that if I were knitting in cm when it should be inches that I really shouldn’t get too far.” tee hee. Hope you didn’t jinx yourself there. 🙂
    Seriously though: thanks for sharing all your knitting misadventures. It makes ours more bearable.

  113. I had a very happy Halloween. I had a sneak-preview, pre-opening party at my very own, brand-new, yarn and spinning shop here in Baton Rouge.
    Don’t worry, I am still doing consulting work for animal shelters.
    The vest situation is dreadful. This time the pattern lied. Ugh.

  115. Um, did you just call Andrea (or Mel) a dumbass? 😀
    And would you please stop threatening to eat yarn? It’s freaking me out.

  117. I have a question about stash management. If you are familiar with the accounting acronyms FIFO (first in -first out) and LIFO (last in-first out) I find that my stash is definitely LIFO- some of the first stuff (oldest) NEVER comes out or even comes to the top for that matter! Anybody else have this problem?

  118. way back you blogged about the bleeding hearts stole and mixing handspun with commercial and I don’t know if we ever saw the finished scarf… is that doable?

  120. Election Day is here! Wish us luck!
    P.S. Why no posts since Halloween?
    Are you holding your breath?
    Or have you taken a vow of silence?

  121. Just FYI for the next ballerina– the reason those little ribbons stay up is that the ballerina ties them rather tightly, and they actually don’t go much above the ankle, so the bones help them stay up also. Since the ballerina is up and down on her toes and hopping around a lot, her feet don’t go to sleep.

  122. Glad you’ve reached the philosophical point. The chocolate probably helps.
    Just ripped out 3/4 of a sweater back after realizing that the yarn overs in the second repetition of a stitch pattern were making no difference and duh!! finally wondering why. Helps if you read the pattern correctly and put the second set before the stitch decrease and not after….. Actually looks like the stitch pattern in the picture then. [insert sound of smacking forehead]

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