Happy Thanksgiving!

I have hit a wall with my purple tweed sweater, Forever Tweed by Wendy Bernard (Knitscene, Spring 2009).

 

The schematic says that the collar is to be 7 1/2" long. It is. It also says that from where the collar attaches to the body of the sweater, to the underarms where you separate for the sleeves, the length is to be 8". Though my gauge is correct, the length from collar to underarm is actually smaller than the length of the collar itself.

I checked for errata on Knitscene & Ravelry, and re-measured three times (you increase every other row for a total of 30 rows to make the shoulders) and then gave up and took it to the LYS. The usually helpful saleswoman was also stumped, photocopied the pattern with my notes, and offered to call if they could figure it out. No calls yet. What to do? If I keep going with the increasing, the arms will be too big. If I don't, I'll lose the nice diagonal of the raglan design. Does anyone have any ideas?? Maybe I am missing something.

 

Last weekend we went on another used bookstore trip, this time to Brattleboro, Vermont. It's only about 2 1/2 hours by car from our home, and our friends Dorothy and Hobgoblin joined us. I always feel better book shopping with them, because Hobgoblin finds more books than I do! I made up for our last bookless trip by coming home with six mysteries, one new and five used. I might just make it through winter now!!

In the finishing department, I enjoyed Lorna Barrett's Murder is Binding, the first book in the Booktown Mystery series. Trisha, newly divorced and beginning the next phase of her life as a mystery bookseller in Stoneham, New Hampshire, is horrified to discover her store neighbor, Doris Gleason, murdered one night in The Cookery. Doris was not well-liked by any of the other shopkeepers or villagers, but for some reason, the sheriff seems intent on charging Trisha with murder. Further complicating matters is Trisha's sister, Angelica, who has decided to relocate to Stoneham. Trisha and Angelica have never gotten along, and to Trisha, the thought of her sister living in the same town is unbearable.

Despite their differences, the sisters team up to solve Doris' murder, and the solution was believable and satisfying. The strength of this series, however, is its characters. Some mystery series have stock characters who are not well-developed or even interesting as people, and are there to move the plot along. In this case, the elderly Mr. Everett and Ginny, who work in the bookshop, are people I want to know more. Angelica is a person clearly trying to overcome her past, though she still occasionally offends Trisha with her old habits. I've started book #2, Bookmarked for Death, and I'll see how their lives unfold.

Most of you know that I volunteer at our local no-kill shelter, giving out medications to the cats, providing transport to the vet, and helping with the seasonal newsletter. Occasionally, I do a bit of rescue too. If someone calls the shelter about a stray cat in their neighborhood, I might be asked to pick it up and take it to the shelter.

Last Sunday night, a stray cat came to us. We had friends over, and one of our cats made that special growly noise they do when someone is on their property. Sure enough, when I looked out onto our back deck, I was greeted by a tiger cat with glowy light green eyes.

I borrowed a hav-a-heart trap from the shelter, tempted our stray with some tuna in the trap, and the next night, we discovered her waiting for us. Though covered with ticks, she didn't seem too worse for the wear of being on her own outside. Meet Ashley:

 

I took her to the vet today (Wednesday) for her exam and vaccinations, and she's ready for adoption into a new home. I'm so thrilled to know that her hard life outdoors is over, and thankful that from now on, she'll be warm inside with plenty of people to fuss over her at the shelter until she finds a new family.

This is the second cat this year that's come to our home needing rescue. I'm beginning to wonder if we have a sign on our door alerting them to our safe house??

And with that, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving -- warmth, good food, and plenty of people to fuss over, family and friends.

Comments

[2paw]

Ashley is a beautiful cat and I am glad she is safe.
Thanks for all the great book s too, I just picked up The Ghost and the Dead Deb from the Library today!!!

[Bridget]

Happy Thanksgiving!

My husband claims there is a stray cat newsletter that occasionally runs the headline "Opening: these people are suckers" and gives our address ...

[jillian]

Hooray for saving Ashley!

On Forever Tweed, maybe put in increases every 3rd or 4th round instead until you get enough length? It looks like you only need another couple inches to split for the underarms. When you pick up for the arms, you could add in some decreases right at the beginning to slim them down if need be.

[betty]

Happy Thanksgiving to you to and I hope Ashley finds a forever home.
Regarding the sweater, I'm assuming that the 8" refers to the measurement along the diagonal raglan and not the vertical. I say that because 8" sounds like a very good length for the diagonal (I always aim for 8" myself if I don't add a gusset). Because you are measuring a diagonal and not just rows, sometimes the distance will be off because you might knit tighter at the raglan increases, or your yarn does not stretch as much, etc.
Here's what I would do:
get an accurate horizontal stitch gauge. Count your stitches and measure what you have for an arm and for a front or back. Figure out what you want as your goal in terms of body width and arm circumference. Now, continue knitting until you have 8" on the diagonal, but continue arm and/or body increases ONLY if you need more stitches. From the photo, it looks like your diagonal is at least 7", so you don't have much more to go. If you stop increasing, you will be fine. No one is going to check your armpits and notice that your diagonal has changed a bit! I usually do this to get exactly the arm and body size I want and still get about 8" on the diagonal.
Whew! Hope that helped!

[Pam]

Hope you had a great thanksgiving -- I think you'll enjoy the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I really enjoyed that book.

As to the sweater -- is there a schematic? I'd lay out your piece & measure according to that -- if it REALLY isn't working out, then I'd try recalculating as if you were designing the sweater yourself. A hassle, but will be worth it. Any chance you could contact the designer via ravelry?

[Bubblesknits]

Probably an angel that directs them towards your door. :) You're certainly an angel for helping them.

I'll have to check out that mystery series. I love things like that.

[Dorothy W.]

I'm sorry about the frustration with your sweater! I hope you find a solution. The trip to Vermont was great. I'm so pleased to know about all those wonderful bookstores, and it turns out my friends who have a place in Vermont didn't know about them, so I got to spread the news!

[robin]

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Ashley is adorable!

I agree with what Betty said, but if you decide you need more increases -what if you continue the increasing in the sections that need it but do not increase (just knit even) on the sleeve sections? I've done the reverse where I needed the upper arm to be proportionally bigger than the body and it's worked well.

[Sydney]

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Word is out among the stray cats that they can come to your house for a warm bed and a good meal. :)

[Leah]

What an adorable kitty. Perhaps you are known in the cat community as the one with all the lovely balls of string, and they can't resist!

Sorry to hear about your cul-de-sac with that pattern. It is so disappointing when that happens!!! I hope you get some help to finish, after spending so much time on that project. Hope it works out!!

[madalyn]

I'm so glad you were able to rescue the stray!