One Benefit of Subzero Temperatures

Last Friday I was settling in for a long cold weekend when I remembered that there was a sweater that I had made last winter that was still sitting in my room waiting to be sewn together. I had done the shoulder seams and wasn't too crazy about how the thing was looking, so I never bothered to finish it.

Given that we were not going to see temperatures north of 0 this weekend and I was in the mood for warm comfy clothes, I decided to work on it a bit. Surprisingly, I was able to sew everything up in one evening. I always dread the moment of truth when I put on a newly finished garment and look in the mirror. So often things just don't measure up to what my visions had been while I was knitting it up. So this time when I went to check it out I was not expecting much. However when I saw my reflection, a "wow this looks good" escaped from my lips.

I like it so much I wore it the next morning when I took my daughter to swimming lessons in 10 below weather. It did keep my toasty and comfy warm all day.

The yarn is Malabrigo and the pattern is one that I improvised using Sweater Wizard. I added cables to the ribbing for a little variety to the plain pattern. Here are some of the results:


A full length shot of the sweater. I thought the arms were going to be way too short. They are just barely the right length. The sweater is also a couple of inches longer than I would have liked, but that won't stop me from wearing it.



Above is a close up shot of the neckline. I borrowed the neck shaping from a vest I made by Veronik Avery. This picture also brings out the color of the yarn as well.



Here is the simple cable pattern I did on the ribbing for the sleeves and body. I wanted to show off the yarn, so I didn't want a distracting pattern throughout the body. The cables give just a little bit of interest to the otherwise boring pattern.

One last note -- I had made a sweater out of Malabrigo before and just knit one skein at a time. The end result was so horrible that I couldn't wear the sweater out of the house. This time I would knit two rows with one skein and then two rows from another. I even went so far as to rotate balls from all the different skeins so there wouldn't be any goofing color problems. I think it turned out just fine.

Frozen Insanity

This is the time of year where I truly wonder why I live here and start dreaming about retiring somewhere warm. I'm not sure if the high temperature this weekend got above zero or not.

It is inevitable that Minnesota gets at least one of these spells each year and whenever it happens, I pull out all my old winter standards, the gigantic puffy super warm coat, the polartec hat and gloves. (I wear my ubiquitous handmade wool socks daily from October to April, so that step is not necessary).

This year when I started digging through the hall closet, I came to the crazy realization that I have no handmade scarves, hats or gloves -- only a well worn pair of fingerless Fetchings. I have been knitting for most of my adult life (40+ years) and I don't have a single scarf to show for it!!! I have many hats for family, but nothing for myself.

This is not for lack of trying. I actually have two on the needles right now. Last night I dusted off a lace scarf I had started last year and not touched for months. The lace pattern seemed kind of cumbersome when I worked on it before. However, since I last worked on it I successfully completed my first real lace project and now the pattern seems not so bad. Hopefully my renewed energy will continue and I will get it done before the snow melts.

Here is a picture of the lace scarf that had been sitting one of my knitting bags before being resurrected last night. It is Black Bunny Fibers sock yarn.





On another note
After many ill-fated attempts before, I am going to attempt to start a blog again. I have tried it in the past, but it never really got going --due to a lack of "Knot Enough Time". Hopefully I won't put too much pressure on myself and will be able to keep it up this time.