Even More Finished Knitting

The weather has finally taken a turn.

Which has been terrible for my migraines (Hello changes in barometric pressure ruining my day).

But it has been fantastic for my sweater wearing.

And since my hair is clean here's a sweater I finished in March.

Pattern:  The Easy One

Yarn:  Stroll Tweed, Fingering Weight, in Down Heather, 7 balls

Needles:  Size 4

Modifications:  I didn't pick up stitches to knit the rolled collar.  That's the only modification I remember.

Review:  Is this sweater amazing or what?!!!

All the elements just came together.

That tweed!

The exposed seams!

The collar is supposed to roll, but in a more deliberate way.  I skipped that part and just left it unfinished.

I not mad.

I love the way it turned out.

The bind off for the ribbing was a different one that I normally use.  See the little bumps on the knit stitches just below the bind off (My Dad just said "on the what...where").

I'm not mad at that either.

I really like it.  It's fun to find a new technique.

and because I know you like it when I show you behind the curtain

Just off camera:  my video gaming husband, my block building big girl, and my dog just causing trouble.  This picture is at least seven times louder than you think it is.  And the other children aren't even home yet.

My favorite part about this sweater is it looks fantastic with everything

Including my jammie pants!

This one goes in the win column.

Wild Friday Night

It's Friday night so of course

I'm knitting with my cats.

No pants are the best pants.

And what am I knitting?

That's a little more complicated to explain that it would seem for such a straight forward question.

I started by knitting a Korrigan for a friend of mine who is due next month.

I love those sweet little cables.  I'm all set to bind off the body and knit the sleeves.

Ages and ages ago, I knit this sweater pattern for the Queen.

I'm not gonna lie.  This picture is completely gratuitous because...

LOOK HOW CUTE SHE WAS!!!!!!!

Who can resist that baby chub?

I JUST WANNA SNUGGLE HER NECK!!!!!!!!

Anyways...because that wasn't weird at all...

I found myself innocently double checking my notes from the Queen's sweater on Ravelry (cause those notes were super helpful)

And then I fell down the dreaded "Ravelry Rabbit hole."  (that phrase may or may not be trademarked)

Before I knew it I had lost hours of my life looking at newborn patterns and I was obsessed with the idea of knitting a teeny tiny lacey baby dress.

And I just happened to have the most perfect white yarn to knit a teeny tiny lacey baby dress.

And it is currently being knitted into a tiny cabled cardigan that isready for a bind off and sleeves.

Because of course it was.

I didn't let that stop me.

Now I know some of you are freaking out.

How could you rip out an entire sweater?

Didn't it break your heart?

The answer is...I didn't rip out an entire sweater.

I'm hoping that I have enough yarn to knit both.  But if it comes down to it and I've got Rosemary's choice and I have to pick the sweater or the dress?  I'm picking the dress.  So I left the cardigan on the needles.  Patiently waiting for the bind off.  Or waiting to be cannibalized for the dress.  

It could go either way.

I knit the cabled sweater from one end of the yarn, and I'm working on the teeny tiny lacey dress from the other end of the skein.

Which isn't to say it's been easy.

Mistakes were made.

I spent two hours the other night trying to unsnarl a yarn tangle.  

Ask my friends.

Unsnarling yarn is kinda my super power.

Only my super power failed me, and I ended up having to break the yarn and throw away a golf ball size knot of white yarn mess.

And I don't even want to talk about the first time I tried joining the bodice in the round.

Like I said...Mistakes were made.

But everything is straightened out now and I'm in a race to see if I can squeeze a gown and a sweater from the remaining yarn.

More Actual Knitting Content

So remember back in March when I said I wanted to knit Quiet Stars by Joji Locatelli?

I totally knit it!

And I love it

Tweed, and Lace, and That Blue!

What's not to love?

It's even super cute tied shut.

I love the attention to detail Joji puts in her pattern.  Look at that amazing cuff.

And one more so you can see the fantastic texture on the sleeves.

I adore this sweater.  But now that I've completed it I have a serious problem.

I am all out of fingering weight tweed yarn.  Or any tweed yarn for that matter.

I need to place a Knitpicks order.

STAT!

Sunday on a Monday Morning

I found myself wearing my Sunday Morning Cardigan the other day and since my hair was clean it seemed like a good time to take some pictures for the blog.

Oh how my standards have fallen.  I no longer wait for a good hair day.  My requirement is now merely that my hair be clean.

I've also given up on the idea of introducing my Sunday Morning Cardigan on a Sunday Morning.

Monday will have to do.

It's a cute comfy cardigan.

It is ginormous and warm.  Offering tons of coverage to be worn with leggings or a dress or a lazy nightgown.

I love the neat little rows of diamonds.

I love how easily the front flows.

But this sweater is also a hot mess.

I'm not entirely sure how the charts got past the test knitter.  Especially the decrease chart.  Pretty  much everyone on Ravelry has had to improvise the decreases because what is in the charts makes no sense and disrupts the continuity of the diamonds.

The sweater is knit seamlessly.  And this is a sweater that could benefit from a seam or two to help it hold its shape.  The flowy construction stretches too much without seams.  There is nothing to hold the shoulders.  When worn long enough the sweater inevitably ends up looking like this

Which is fine when I'm chilling at home, knitting with my cats.  But maybe a bit more risque a look than I planned on for an afternoon at the movies.  A shoulder seam to help keep the shoulders in place would not be a bad thing.  I'm tempted to create a line of crochet on the sweater to keep the shoulders from stretching.

If you're going to knit this I would knit a size smaller than your size.  That might help mitigate the issues with the lack of structure and side seams.

And there you have it. 

Proof on a random Mondday that I have actually completed a knitting project.

What I've been up to

Knitting with my cats.

That's it.

Just knitting with my cats.

All day

Every day

Nothing but Knitting and cats.

And no pants.

I am living my best life.

And so are my cats.

Is it Fall yet Y'all?

The calendar says it is September 18th.   Which sounds like fall.

Unfortunately our weather forecast for today is "Sunny with a high of 107."

That doesn't feel like fall.

It feels like sweat.

*le sigh*

Despite the conflicting opinions regarding which season it is (and I guess it isn't really a conflict since Fall doesn't officially start for a few more days anyways.  The weather and the calendar are actually in agreement that it is still Summer) this weekend felt like a good time to "fall-ify" the house.

It makes my soul happy.

The Queen has decided she will only eat from one food group at a time.

It makes her soul happy

Today's lunch was brought to her by the "things that are white" food group.  She did make allowances for the brown chocolate milk in her sippy cup.  But that might have been because the offending colored milk was hidden.

On the knitting front I am working on a gloriously green Slate Top for Pork Chop.  But miles of stockinette stitch on size 3 needles may mean I never ever ever do anything but create endless tiny knit stitches for the rest of my life.

This too makes my soul happy.  

So happy that I'm contemplating making a Slate top for myself with some beautiful white yarn I have in my stash.  That would be the third white sweater I've made for myself in the past two years.  I really like to live dangerously with the white tops and the messy toddler life.

Telling Bad Stories

Yesterday Sweet Pea came downstairs and said "Wanna hear a story?  I used the bathroom and when I was done I threw up!"

It was a terribly story.  But in her defense she's only ten.  Her story telling skills are not yet fully developed.

She proceeded to spend the rest of the morning throwing up with intermittent diarrhea thrown in the mix just for funsies.

Luckily it only lasted the morning, and by lunch she was sipping sprite, and eating popsicles, asking me for a sandwich.

I was only in the kitchen for a moment but when I returned The Queen was seated on the floor quietly dipping Sweet Pea's left over germ infested popsicle stick into Sweet Pea's equally germ infested cup of sprite.  Horrified I could only watch helplessly as  she licked the germ infested sprite covered popsicle stick.  I screamed "No!  Don't do that."  Realizing she had been caught red-handed she dropped the popsicle stick and began to guzzle the stolen cup of sprite as fast as she could knowing it would soon be confiscated.

Sock Monkey.

I knew no good could come from this.

The Greatest and I speculated on what the incubation period of Sweet Pea's bug might be.

The answer is 15 hours.  The incubation period is 15 hours.

That's how I found myself at 4:45 this morning holding a puke bucket before The Queen like a peasant with an offering.

Three rounds of vomit and approximately 592 soiled diapers later I think the worst is over.

But dang, I'm tired.

I had intended to take pictures of my "Sunday Morning" cardigan, because blogging it on a Sunday Morning just felt right.

But dang, I'm tired.  And I don't have the energy for eye liner.  Or things like combing my hair.

I do realize I'm not telling a good story either.  See again the bad story about getting up at 4:45 to deal with vomit.

So instead of any more bad story telling please enjoy these pictures of Sweet Pea wearing the sweater I knit for her from the yarn leftover from my Sunday Morning cardigan.

It is another Berenice Sweater.  There was a point when I thought I would make one for each of the girls but then reality rushed in and stomped all over my dreams.  I knit one for the Queen.  And then I knit this one for Sweet Pea.  And then I couldn't find yarn to knit one for Bird.  And I didn't feel up to trying to resize/modify the unusual construction of the sweater in a thicker yarn for Pork Chop.  And then someone put The Queen's sweater in the dryer and it felted.  And then I gave up on my dream.

But that's okay because look how cute my Sweet Pea is!

I do LOVE all the details and textures in this sweater.

And in a fun note when I went to take a picture of the back of the sweater

I realized that Sweet Pea was wearing the sweater backwards.

I guess that means it is super versatile?

And she has lots of room to grow?

Just trying to focus on the positive.  Now please excuse me while I go change diaper 593.  How much longer until bedtime?

To Recap

Okay.

I know it's been two months.  But in my defense Mama has been BUSY.  But now that the children are all out of school for summer things will slow down and I'm sure I'll find myself with some extra time on my hand on a regular basis.

Let's all take a moment to laugh really hard while I pretend that might even be the slightest teeniest tiniest little bit true.

Each "season" of life keeps getting louder, and busier, and crazier. 

And wonderful-er?

To summarize what's been happening...

Our current bad puppy but future good dog is getting huge, and these two are just as much trouble together as you think they are.

My sweet Bird graduated 8th grade and is now in high school.  (the picture is her kindergarden graduation vs 8th grade graduation.  I love that sassy confident kid!)

Speaking of high school

Pork Chop graduated high school!  (Pictured is her very first day of school and her very last day of school.)  I wish I had some pictures of graduation to show off but I got a tummy bug and spent a very unpleasant evening at home.  I missed her Valedictorian Speech.  I will never not be mad at the universe about that.  (I spend five minutes puzzling out that double negative and I think it says what I mean.  If not, you know what I mean.)

The boy is still the boy and refusing to be photographed.  

And this girl

 is still sweet as pie.

This guy

is still The Greatest.

And...you're all caught up on the important stuff.

For Mother's Day The Greatest added a few upgrades to my back patio

If you need me I'll be out there...hopefully knitting.