Yarn Along: Sweater Edition

{Yarn Along with Ginny today, sharing current knits and reads. Will you join us?}

I finished the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan! I could practically shout it from the rooftops. I started that Cardigan back in January (!!!) and it is finally complete after a few time-outs and slogging through those sleeves. The button band was done in no time and I ran out and bought buttons for it last week. Now- to put the buttons on, weave in ends and get it blocked so that I can actually wear it... The pattern itself is wonderful and fine- it was my own short-comings (mostly impatience with sleeves) that made this project take 10 months for no good reason.

I also cast on for Ender's Soledad Sweater this week. He is very excited and keeps checking to be sure I am primarily working on his sweater. It starts with the sleeves (getting the hard-for-me part out of the way) so I am carrying sleeve #1 with me everywhere to get the inches on there quickly. 'm knitting the sleeves with magic loop instead of DPNs for the first time, and while I'm still getting used to it, I'm thinking magic loop may be the way to go on sleeves for me for now on. I love my DPNs, but for sleeves it just... well, I need something magical to help me through them.

I have a super crazy goal to get his sweater as far as possible by November 30 (the crazy part is hoping that it is mostly done by then) so that I can cast on for Ezra's Soledad December 1 and have them both completely finished by Christmas. I haven't promised them as Christmas sweaters, but I'm secretly hoping for that.


In reading, the boys and I just finished listening to The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. They really enjoyed it, so much that we are listening to it again. I'm still working slowly through Emma by Jane Austen on the kindle, but mostly because my reading time has all but disappeared lately due to extra stuff in our schedule. It will all clear up by the end of the month and then I'll be able to catch up on things again.


I'm also working through Maggie Casey's Start Spinning again, this time as a new wheel spinner. Did you hear the news? Lola joined our family over the weekend, so creative time is being poured into her as I learn how to use her.

A Little Story

I originally planned to tell you a little tale of my recent finishing kick amongst projects in my knitting basket, but another little story happened that has to come first- a distraction, if you will.


Early Saturday morning I woke up to my husband telling me I needed to get up and get ready to go. Now, we had no plans for this particular Saturday, which doesn't happen often around here, so I was very confused. Plus it was very early. Way too early to get up on a Saturday with no plans. He went on to tell me how he had arranged for me to go to a spinning class and spend a bit on fiber, but I needed to get moving because it's about an hour drive to the nearest shop that teaches spinning. I was still a little confused, but happy and I got in the shower while he told me exactly what was going on. He had a list ready of what I needed to bring to class, had already packed what he knew to pack, and had even put the shop address into the GPS for me.


So I got in the car and drove and spent the entire time excited to get some more time spinning on the Lendrum in a class since I won't be able to buy a wheel for awhile. I thought through fiber and what I have in my minuscule stash at home so that I could look at some different fibers this time.


I signed in for class and got a little bit more information about exactly what the class was. It was a sampling class, a "step 2" for new spinners. They assumed you'd spun for a little while and needed a few basic questions answered, but then we would be given time to try out a few different fibers and also to work on short draw, long draw, and spinning from the fold.


I told the instructor that I've been spinning on a drop spindle for the last 9 months and that the class was a surprise and I wasn't sure I would be able to attempt different techniques during class since I haven't spun on a wheel since last February. She was very kind and smiled and said, "I'm sure you're hands will only take a few minutes to adjust to the wheel versus the drop spindle." I told her I wanted to be sure to sit at a Lendrum since it's the wheel I'm planning to buy in the future, and she assured me that could be arranged.


And then we went to the classroom, where a Lendrum sat in front of the first chair, with a red ribbon and a name tag made out to me.


My husband is known for sneaky fiber-related gifts, and he did it again- I was so very surprised. We had talked quite recently about being able to get the wheel in May or June, just in time for my birthday and another round of Tour de Fleece, so I was not at all expecting a wheel for Christmas... especially in November.

Her name is Lola, to join a long line of geeky references- it's just the way we name things around here. I spun on her in class all morning Saturday, and my boys were all gracious enough to allow me to spin on her during family movie night on Saturday. I spun a little more yesterday afternoon during Ellie's nap, and my... she is so wonderful. The singles I've spun so far are not super consistent, but better than I thought they would be. I'm sticking with short draw at the moment, but I'm going to make sure to practice some long draw in the near future.

FO: Ellie's Stripey Cardigan

Project: Ellie's Stripey Cardigan

Pattern: my own improvisation

Yarn: BerrocoVintage Worsted

Needles: US Size 7

For: my 18 month old daughter

Cast On to Cast Off: I don't really wanna say since it makes it sound like such a LONG project- it has about 20 hours in it because of the re-thinking and ripping back as I improvised. I started it in June and finished it this past weekend.


Notes: I did a few decreases just past the elbow since Ellie doesn't like wider swinging sleeves and I really like how they turned out. I settled on seed stitch for the button band, sleeve cuffs and bottom edge after going through various ribbings. You can look at my Ravelry notes for details on some of the things I did.

Things I Learned: Even though this project took awhile time wise, I'm really glad I jumped in and tried going without a pattern. Yes, a pattern makes it so much easier since the decisions are all made for you with a known outcome and (most importantly) the math is all there! But, I learned a lot in the process and it helped connect some concepts about construction in my head.



Overall: A good project made even better by the fact that Ellie really likes to wear this cardigan. Now if only I could get a picture of her wearing it that isn't a blur of motion.

Together

I'm so loving seeing the kids together these days. While the boys were reading their current chapter books on the couch last Friday Ellie climbed up with them to "read" a Star Wars chapter book upside down and I had the three of them in a row on the couch in the family room all looking deep in thought while thinking about very different things.


Ellie runs after them to "tickle" and they all giggle and the boys indulge her even though her tickles often include unintentional pinching and scratching.


The boys regularly load Ellie into a laundry basket and stuff blankets and pillows around her before taking her for rides- sliding the basket along the carpet in short bursts. She laughs and they laugh and they add stuffed animals to the basket.

For as much growing up as Ellie has done in the last 18 months, it is Ender who has changed the most. He didn't want a sister- in fact he wasn't a fan of adding another child to our family. He likes status quo and adding another kid threw his world for a loop- but for the better. He's learning to take care of someone who cannot take care of herself, he now understands that her cry means she needs a response of some sort, and I think he enjoys the detective work sometimes involved in discerning what a non-talking toddler needs. He thinks she is incredibly funny (she is) and he has learned that including her in the "big kid" games can make for a hilarious time.

I'm so thankful for the time they have growing up together.

FO: Little Mitts

{Ravelry notes}

I love thumbless mittens for toddlers, but these little mittens have a funny way of deceiving me- I know I can knit them up quickly because they are small and don't have that thumb to mess with, but that somehow translates into me only putting on a few stitches here and there because it's "not a big project". But now that it's cold the mittens need to be done, so this weekend I made sure that happened.

Ellie likes them, but hasn't learned to keep them on quite yet. When I first put them on her she wiggled her fingers as if the mitten was a puppet and then took them off and said "toes?" and tried to put a mitten on her foot like a sock. The boys got a good laugh out of that one. 

I'm planning to knit her another pair or two in worsted weight since my boys frequently lost mittens at this age- I don't want to be caught without backups now that winter is well on its way.