Dear Kay,
Remember those nights when you were stuck in your dorm room writing a paper about 15th-century art while just outside your window—right there in front of your dorm—there’s this group of girls shrieking and singing and yelling stuff like “HEY Y’ALL LET’S GO SKINNY DIPPING”?
Yeah. That’s me right now, soldiering away on my dank blue sweater while you’re all over there “WOO HOO NORO YARN FREAKOUT GIVE IT AWAY GIVE IT AWAY GIVE IT AWAY NOW.”
I get it. I do. There’s no use trying to compete with all the sharing and caring going on in the entries to this contest. I have rarely encountered a comments thread so loaded with devotion for an inanimate object.
Feel free to go enter now, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Go ahead. Don’t worry about me. You have until noon Eastern time, Wednesday, November 4.
Meanwhile, That Sweater
I’m fine, I guess, though the early stages of a top-down sweater are always tedious to me. The setting up, the placing of markers, the trust you have to have that this cylinder is going to turn into something I can wear. I am learning new things already.
(Sure would be fun to knit this in Noro.)
Truth: You can totally screw up on Row 3. This Moroccan Nights Pullover uses a short row technique new to me: the German Short Row. Rililie’s three-page PDF is epic in detail, yet I had to really dig into YouTube to find an action shot of this very unintuitive maneuver. It’s like a poem in English class you don’t get until the teacher says, “The peach is a metaphor.”
(Here’s some more Noro.)
Truth: You have to count. You really do. I neglected to count at one of the moments when Rililie gave me the stitch count. I regretted this deeply, because I came up short later and couldn’t diagnose where my increases went bad.
The good news: If you photograph this yarn at high noon, in the blazing sun, it turns sort of blue!
The other good news: This yarn is so sturdy and stout that it will stand up by itself, like a little fortress or teepee or yurt.
Have a great time at your Noro party while I sit here watching YouTubes on German short rows.
Love,
Ann
(One more Noro for the road.)
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I think I know what this means now: “roflmao.” c.
Not wanting the Noro. But if you get fed up with your navy yarn, I might be willing to adopt it.
Hey, LOVE the navy! 🙂
Ann I like your self-striping yarn but why are all the stripes blue?
Love,
Just Wondering in NYC
The peach was a METAPHOR?!!
Now I must rethink everything.
Ok so I’ve already entered. I just wanted to say all the talk about Noro inspired me to start a hat in kureyon last night. The hat is to help me stop smoking and is going to go with me everywhere to knit on when I get the urge to light up. 🙂
Agree! What a great motivator. Good luck!
Great news, Meg! It will be the best Noro knit ever.
Knit on!
LoveDiane
It fills me with delight to see that you two are posting frequently again.
And I love the tiny picture of the tiny ball of Noro for the road.
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Such a lush navy! Glad you got that noon day sun. I just heard that it’s foggy in Nashville this morning.
SO FOGGY. Love a foggy day. Sweater color has returned to deepest dim.
I love fog, too. I’m originally a San Francisco girl. I remember cold foggy nights when my parents would drive to the beach and we could hear the ocean roaring. Such as cozy memory!
My previous comment was not the Sounds of Silence, LOL! Sorry about that! Know what you mean about top down sweaters. I prefer bottom up-the most knitting when your enthusiasm is at its peak.
You are being such a brave soldier, LOL!:)
I really enjoy seeing your email notification first thing in the morning! It definitely starts my day off the right way…..smiling if not downright laughing! So glad you are back on the blog!
A yurt. lol. I was one of the ones skinny dipping. My lack of sweaters is profound.
The trick to feeling left out of the fun is to make what you’re doing SOUND like it’s even better than what the “cool kids” are doing. YOUR yarn is soooo cool, it changes color in the sun. YOUR project is soooo fancy/intricate/advanced, you couldn’t possibly “just knit” with the TV on like “some people” who might be using that other yarn for a plain old scarf.
😉
Arrgh, German short rows. It took a while to internalize the ‘Just yank it’ part.
I knit a pair of socks, very sturdy socks, in that yarn.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I will wear my navy sweater with German short rows and walk along the beach.
You beat me to it!
What Karin said.
Just looked at those videos and love this short row method.
Your navy yurt is looking really beautiful. Don’t worry about what all the other kids are doing with their Noro, you just keep going on your beautiful solid navy!
That is going to be a beautiful sweater. I knit a cardigan gansy several years ago in a dark blue that I still love. Yours is true navy, as in US Navy. Their navy was virtually black. Maybe “soldier on” isn’t the right phrase!
Have used Noro for several items, favorite is for fingerless gloves and scarves.
Your navy yarn is so sturdy that it stands up by itself…and you’re not knitting it on the even tinier recommended needle size? This will be one perfect waterproof fisherman’s sweater! Carry on. It’s pretty, and even prettier when it’s blue.
Funny as always, Ann. The blue sweater is looking quite good.
Passive-agressive martyrdom! Well-played. And imagine how not-right a fisherman’s sweater would look in Noro. No, you’re doing it right – you may need a new eyeglasses prescription when you’re done, but you’re definitely on moral high ground.
red hot chili peppers reference, FTW! (excuse me while i now go to itunes to buy some music…)
Thanks for all the fun.
I envy your navy blue/navy black sweater. It will be so practical. I know that practical is an oft derided word but there’s something to be said for a sweater that will work with a lot of your wardrobe and that you can wear A LOT. I mean, it makes the investment of time worthwhile, in my opinion. Also, the pattern is rather pretty too.
Then, once you’re finished the sweater you can reward yourself by knitting a Noro scarf to complement it.
I love that it looks blue now. This will be gorgeous. As for German short rows, I learned them for a shawl, they got me over my fear of short rows, I love them, even if I sometimes screw up the counts.
Can’t wait to see the FO.
Your yarn has that wonderful inky darkness of the night sky, which is perfectly apt, as it will soon be surrounding a lovely star. Thanks for the new technique alert, and pass the popcorn, I’m watching the vids too. Then I’m going into the kitchen to make some Metaphor Melba.
The sweater I’m working on, Wanderling by Isabel Kraemer, uses German short rows and I quite enjoyed them. For some reason, they seemed easier than other types of short rows. However, I will need to watch the video once more before I have to do them again!
Love that tiny little ball of pink Noro!
i love Noro yarn!
This post basically encapsulates my dilemma with knitting. I end up buying yarn in crazy colors like Noro, but mostly wear clothes in the range of black, gray and blue. What’s a knitter to do! It has led to much yarn hoarding.
What’s a knitter to do? Make a Noro felted bag! Make cozies for everything in your house! Noro phone cases and eyeglass cases!
I’ve knit at least two of Rililie’s top-down contiguous sweaters, and they both made me temporarily lose my mind. I normally read on my laptop/listen to audiobooks/watch tv while knitting (sometimes I do more than one of these plus also knitting), but the set-up of the sleeve and neckline shaping required absolute silence until I figured out what, exactly, she was trying to get at. It’s quite brilliant, and the sweaters fit beautifully, but I still wish there were more transparency as to WHAT we are doing, or maybe a close-up of the sleeve increase detail so that I could have gotten through it with more ease.
I dislike, but have to admit that I have never knitted with this beautiful yarn! I have seen many gorgeous items on Knitting Paradise using your yarn. Actually, I’ve never seen it in a local yarn store. Looking hopefully forward to winning this contest as I would looove to knit a stunning shawl with Noro Silk Garden.
But I love 15th century art. And your sweater. But…I do feel your pain. I just knit myself a coif, wimple, armwarmers, and a felted pouch for a 14th century Flemish Beguine (nun) Halloween costume while others around me all seemed to be working with beautiful, bright colors. The brightest color I used for weeks was brown. I can’t tell you how happy my Red Scarf project is making me right now! (Patons Bright Red. Coincidental color choice? I think not.)
I made a sweater/coat for myself out of Noro and my (adult) son loved it and asked me to make him one, too. So, of course I did. Can never have too much of Noro!
Your sweater is beautiful and I love the blue shade.
Stacy at Very Pink Knits did a video tutorial of German Short Rows. If you haven’t looked at it already, you should take a peak. She usually breaks things down very well and you can really see what is going on.
Best of luck.
I have used Noro before to make a lovely shawl. I hope to win the yarn and book and make another shawl for a near and dear friend. I love the feel and texture of the yarn and the quality is always the best.
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Oh Ann! You sound so dejected on this post that I felt I had to leave a comment here too, as well as on the very tempting Noro giveaway.
Love the way your new sweater is turning out.
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Welcome back. Your instagram posts were great but did not allow for both Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers reference in the span of several paragraphs. You were missed!
Brava, Rev Emily!!
I reread J Alfred Prufrock this morning because of this post. I must say that reading the poem at the age of 68 was entirely different than reading it at 20 ( and listening to the others planning skinny dipping, or at least going to the pub instead of reading poems). Thanks for the lit lesson.
I’ve had knitting projects that seem dull compared to the ‘new yarn’ sitting on the shelf , too. The sweater looks wonderful.
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I love Noro but haven’t knitted anything recently. I knitted a couple of great sweaters with a Noro that had the yarn wrapped with a shiny thread every so often. I haven’t seen it in years but still have a couple of balls. Have done scarves in Noro and would love to treat myself to a shawl in the lace weight. Thanks for doing this.
Love to read your posts!
I think German shortrows are the way to go! No? I’ve inly read about them & watched a video a while back but to me it seems no wraps to pick up (and to look funky) is a good thing. ?
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So happy you are back. So sorry I missed the Noro. Although my stash is already considerable.
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I got to use German short rows for the first time earlier in the year knitting a sideways constructed, striped cotton toddlers pinafore – they worked beautifully, absolutely no holes, and luckily none of the colours were too dark so able to see the different turn points, and the small size meant didn’t have large counts to keep track of. Funny thing was when someone asked me to show them how they worked a couple of weeks later I couldn’t remember! So keep the YouTube clip close……
I made a blanket using a log cabin patter….alternated with 3 different but similar color ways…loved the finished product
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