Sometimes sizing mojo deserts me

Updated to add: This post made my lovely commenter think she had offended me. :( She totally did not, I was really just using what she said as an excuse to poke fun at myself and how my projects don't always work out as planned - something which I'm sure has happened to all of us! I'm very, very sorry to have made her feel like she needed to apologize to me - this is clearly a valuable lesson for me to learn about blogging and responding to comments. I've edited things so that hopefully I don't sound offended; and instead sound amused at my own knitting vagaries, which is what I meant to be.

On Ravelry, one of my readers was lovely enough to comment on the cardigan I tried to make for DD2, but actually ended up fitting DD1. She light-heartedly observed that this "hey, it doesn't fit" phenomenon seems to happen to me quite a bit. This reminded me that sometimes the size of things doesn't always turn out properly, you know?

For instance, my dad's Morgan hat for Christmas?

I tried to finish it recently and found that somehow, although I had been following the large instructions, it had come out way too small. No clue how that happened, since it was sized just right when I made it last year for DD2's teacher. As far as I can tell, the only way to fix it is to rip the whole thing back and start again, probably with larger needles this time. (And I'm almost certainly going to run out of yarn the second time around, but I should be able to get around that by knitting the part that folds under out of sight in a different colour of the same yarn.)

My Ljod cardigan turned out too big for me:

DH's 50th birthday present was far too massive:

This Sourpatch vest ended up fitting DD1 instead of DD2 as originally intended:

These mittens for BIL#2 are pretty damn huge:

This much-anticipated Fjalar sweater for myself doesn't really fit right in the proper places, plus I made the sleeves too short:

I meant for this to be a beret and failed miserably (I have since figured out beret physics, though, yay):

These socks have never fit me properly, I think I made the feet too short:

This tabard keeps falling off my shoulders:

These mittens never got past this point as it was clear they were going to be far too huge:

This sweater for DH totally fooled me - I started out making a medium, then the ribbing made me think it was going to be too small, so I ripped it back and did it in large instead, and guess what? Too big, of course!

And then, worst of all, my first adult sweater for DH, which ended up coming down to about his knees:

I can't be alone here, right? :) Do you have any projects with sizing woes?

Back so soon?

It was really heartening to get comments on my last blog entry...very reassuring to know that my readership (such as it is) didn't give up on me entirely. :) Thanks, guys!

Moon Torbett had some great suggestions. I don't know how practical it is to keep the camera in my knitting bag, but then again, I'm the only one in my house who ever uses it, so maybe doing that is not such a big deal. Also, this would provide an actual spot for the camera to live in, which would certainly help me to find it when I need it. :) An even better suggestion, though, was her routine of doing a major progress summary on weekends so that any posts during the week can be "free form sans guilt". Brilliant! That totally sounds like it would work for me. Thank you!

Thanks also to the ever-lovely Carrie K, who complimented my daughter's shrug and my modifications to it. And speaking of which...

Modifications I made to the "I Do" shrug pattern to fit my six-year-old

Measurements of said six-year-old:

• upper arm width: 6 5/8”
• wrist to wrist, arms extended: 32”
• shoulder to shoulder: 11.5”
• arm length to wrist from top of shoulder: 14”
• arm length to wrist from armpit: 11.75”

Substitutions:

• Yarn weight: laceweight instead of worsted/aran
• Needle size: 3mm instead of 4.5mm

With these substitutions, gauge should be: one repeat of the pattern is 2" wide and 2 5/16" tall (after blocking).

Pattern modifications:

Right Side

Sleeve: Wrist to Elbow

*CO 60 sts instead of the number which the pattern calls for, but placing markers and joining in the round as the pattern instructs (unless you are crazy like me and don't usually bother with marking for repeats).

Beg with row 10, work in Circular Pattern, decreasing 1 st in last repeat on 2 out of every 3 rounds (i.e. no decrease in row 1, decrease in row 2, decrease in row 3, no decrease in row 4, decrease in row 5, decrease in row 6...and so on) until 36 sts rem. 36 rounds have been worked.

Work 9 more rounds in Circular Pattern without further shaping. 2.5 full 18-row repeats have been worked.

Sleeve: Elbow to Shoulder

Round 1: Work Row 1 of Circular Pattern. Place a new marker on right needle, m1.
Rounds 2-49: Continue working in Circular Pattern, increasing 1 st between final set of markers every 16 rounds (i.e. Rounds 17, 33 and 49).
Round 50: Work next row of Circular Pattern without shaping.
Rounds 51-52: Continue working in Circular Pattern as set, increasing 1 st between final set of markers each round. 42 sts.
Round 53: Work next row of Circular Pattern. Place a new marker on right needle, m1.
Round 54: Work next row of Circular Pattern, increasing 1 st between final set of markers.
Rounds 55-59: Continue working in Circular Pattern as set, increasing 2 sts between final set of markers. 54 sts.*

Shoulder and Back

Round 60: Work row 6 of Circular Pattern as set throughout the round until 6 sts rem, then work last 6 sts in pattern as closely as possible without reducing the total number of sts on the needle, m1, turn. 55 sts.
Piece will now be worked back and forth (Flat Pattern).
Next row (WS): K1, work 6 sts in pattern as closely as possible without reducing the total number of sts on the needle, then repeat row 7 of Flat Pattern to end, m1. 56 sts.
Keeping edge sts in garter st, and working the "orphan" 6 sts (at end on RS rows, at beginning on WS rows) in pattern as closely as possible without reducing the total number of sts on the needle, repeat Flat Pattern as needed until back measures 5.75", ending with a Row 2 or 11 of Flat Pattern. Place all sts on a holder.

Left Side

Sleeve

Work from * to * as for right sleeve, EXCEPT work increase and decrease sections at beg of round instead of end of round.

Round 60: P6, [P3tog, p4, YO, P1, YO, P4] until end of row, m1, turn. Piece will now be worked back and forth (Flat Pattern). 55 sts.
Next row (WS): K1, work Row 7 of Flat Pattern until 6 sts rem, then work last 6 sts in pattern as closely as possible without reducing the total number of sts on the needle, m1. 56 sts.
Keeping edge sts in garter st, and working the "orphan" 6 sts (at beginning on RS rows, at end on WS rows) in pattern as closely as possible without reducing the total number of sts on the needle, repeat Flat Pattern as needed until back measures 5.75", ending with a Row 2 or 11 of Flat Pattern. Place all sts on a holder.

Finishing

Follow pattern instructions. (Be sure to block well for the width of the sleeves - total circumference around the elbow should be about 6".) Once done, thread a ribbon through the outside of the opening for the body as a drawstring - this can be pulled snugly when worn to ensure a good fit and that the shrug stays on. (And also so that it looks pretty darn fancy!)

I think that's all correct. Warning, though: I'm just copying from the modification notes I made, I haven't tested them or anything to double-check that it will all work properly. I can tell you, though, that following my own instructions gave me a shrug that was a little too wide across her shoulders (thank heavens for the ribbon; having a drawstring saved everything), so perhaps working each back to about 5.25" instead of 5.75" might be a better idea? YMMV.

And now, more updates...

Fjalar for moi

When last we saw this project, I was close to finishing the body and starting the sewing up. That all went well...until it was together enough to try on and I discovered that certain parts of the sweater were waaaay too big. The sleeves extended past the tips of my fingers, and the body was way too long.

Fortunately, there were long stretches of straight stocking stitch without any shaping on both sleeves and body, so the fix was really simple - just annoying to do. I figured out how much reduction I wanted to do, and placed stitches on holders at both the top of the section I was going to get rid of, and the bottom. I then snipped and frogged in between these two spots, then grafted the two sections back together again. Obviously this had to be done three times - once for each sleeve, and then for the body.

Unfortunately, I think I ripped back a little too far for the sleeves. When the cold weather comes round again I might add a half-inch or an inch back to each sleeve to make it perfect, but for now, I'm ignoring it. The sweater turned out pretty well, I think:


front


back


'in action'

I completed it at the beginning of April juuust as the weather started to get warm (of course, thank you ever so much, Murphy, you prick). I think my MIL would have been pleased.

Recap of the month of loooove

February 17 (a Tuesday) was my anniversary. My parents were on vacation in Australia at the time, and so were obviously unavailable to babysit that evening as they usually do so we could go out to dinner, so we brought the restaurant dinner home. DH ordered takeout from our fave local Indian restaurant, and we all had a mighty fine meal of it (except for DD2, who isn't quite ready yet to eat everything the rest of us do).

And there were presents!

Garmisch for DH

Usually I always have a pair of socks on the needles, ready to give to DH for the next special occasion. However, there's been a bit of a paucity of sock projects in my life lately, so I was kind of taken aback in the week leading up to my anniversary at how quickly it was coming up, and how pathetically un-ready I was for it. (Sorry, honey!)

However, all was certainly not lost, because it suddenly occurred to me that I really wanted to make my husband a hat. I have made him a hat before, but it's extremely plain, isn't quite long enough, and isn't as warm as it could be since it's made out of acrylic, not wool. So I went Ravelry-hunting and stash-diving for a good pattern and yarn combination.

It didn't take me long to hit upon Libby Grant's Garmisch pattern. It's really lovely and, obviously important for this project, man-appropriate. (Actually, after checking Libby's designer page on Ravelry to get that link to her blog, I had to "favourite" her as a designer, she does good stuff.)

At first, I started out with some stash yarn; I had a skein of something called "Jaeger Nature Garn", which is a chunky weight of pure wool, fairly soft, in a natural brownish-grey colour. Good stuff. The pattern called for worsted, though, so I went down a needle size and used the instructions for the small size instead of the large. It was all working so beautifully, when...



...I realized I was totally going to run out of yarn. Pah.

At this point (late Saturday/early Sunday, I forget which, exactly), I was seriously running out of time. The gift was to be presented Tuesday night, and I didn't think I'd have the luxury of doing anything much on it on Monday because it was a holiday and DH was home all day. I did have tons of some nice dark blue worsted wool in my stash, but I wanted to save all of it for an adult-size sweater.

So I rounded up the kids and headed off to the yarn shop about 15 minutes before it was to close for the day!

I'd decided I wanted to use Cascade 220. Not only was I guaranteed to have enough yardage, not only had I heard great things about it and hadn't used it yet, not only was it very affordable, but DH is using it in his current scarf design project (in grey), and it seemed so wonderfully squooshy, and he was always going on about how lovely it was. So it seemed a great choice. I had in mind a nice, dark blue.

Unfortunately, although the shop has lots of different blues available (actually, they have loads of the colours available), none of them were what I was looking for. Most of the blues were too light-coloured, and the dark one was so inky that it was closer to black. I had plucked a gorgeous dark green off the rack and was about to ask my older daughter her opinion when - DUH! - it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should get the same colour that he's making his scarf out of? Y'know, so he can actually match?

(Sometimes it takes my brain a while to get the obvious.)

Well, the pattern of the hat is not the same as the pattern of the scarf, but they both use cables, so they're still going to go very well together.

Anyway, I grabbed a skein of the grey, a 4.5mm circular (I was having a hard time finding 4.5mms anywhere in my house...and it seems like I'm not alone in that), and got out of there. I had just enough time to cast on and do a row or two before we had to go pick up DH from work.

And as it turned out, I ended up having lots of time to knit it on Monday, sneaking rows in here and there. Then DD1 and I went up to my room and played with her pony toys for about an hour and a half while DD2 napped, during which I made excellent progress on the hat. The upshot of all the "sneaky knitting" was that by the time I'd put the girls to bed, the thing was completely done except for the making up, which just involved doing a 3-needle bind-off at the top (I hate the hole made by simply running the yarn through the final stitches and pulling them closed...and I knew a pom-pom to conceal the hole would be utterly unacceptable to my husband) and weaving in the ends; both of which I was able to do in the living room while my husband was futzing around in the kitchen. Hee hee!


hat


hat with bottom folded up

He loves it. I mean, really, really loves it. He says it is the most comfortable hat he's ever had (!!!), that it's very warm, and then whenever he puts it on, it feels like a hug for his head, which is just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

I am, however, considering ripping it all back and redoing it on 4mms because it's a bit too loose. But DH says he likes it that way, so maybe I won't.

For my part, DH gave me some yarn. He got me two skeins of the Fabel sock yarn I'm so jazzed about, but in the reddish-orange colourway I already used for socks for me. So I exchanged it for two of a blue/green/purple-ish colourway that I'd already bought one ball of previously to make something for DD2 out of. Now I probably have enough to do a cardigan or something for her, so that'll be a lot of fun.

Fjalar for moi

Huge stides have been made on this thing. I finished both sleeves (which took slightly less than 3 balls of the yarn).



This gave me the measurements for how deep the armscyes needed to be. From there, I was able to continue work on the body. I'd finished the back, the right front, and was pretty far up the left front when the ball I was using ran out. Okay, no problem, I knew I had at least one more ball. Right? Hello?

Couldn't find it. Looked all over the house. In desperation, I turned the body of the sweater inside-out and started counting up how many old-ball-to-new-ball-transition ends there were so I could figure out how many balls I'd already used up. Time and again (you can bet I recounted a whole lotta times), I kept coming up with the figure of having used up just nine balls. And I was given a pack of ten. Somewhere on this earth was my tenth ball. (At this point I had regretfully let go of the idea of knitting a sweater for DD1 out of the leftover yarn; although June - the owner of my local yarn store - bought some for the shop in the same colourway, so I'll probably buy some more and do the kid's sweater.)

I was pretty despairing about ever finding ball #10, until June commented on how weird it was that I'd lost it, since I always use the same knitting bag. That rang a bell, because I actually had used a different knitting bag once a few months previously. When I got home from the SnB, I checked the bag, and - tadah! - there it was. June's a GENIUS.

And that is how I came to have an almost-finished body:



Just a few more rows and then I can start sewing it up. Woohoo!

Baby fisherman's sweater for not-sure-which-baby

A very dear friend of mine recently had a baby boy. It's been a long time since I've seen him or his wife, and hadn't actually heard that the baby was coming until a few weeks before he did, so I didn't really have time to make anything. However, I have been assured by said friend that this is no problem, and there is lots of time because they have scads of clothes and blankets and things. Also, his wife is an avid knitter. So I've got time.

But what I'm thinking of making is a baby fisherman's sweater that I designed a few years ago for my then-boss. This time, though, I'm being good and doing swatches and taking very organized notes about the process, so that when I'm done, I can write up the pattern, complete with all the sizes I want to have. Obviously, this is taking a while, but then again, I've been told not to rush this gift, so I gots time.

On the other hand, my boss has announced that she's pregnant, due this summer, so this sweater might end up being for her baby instead. I'm just not sure.

I'm using Naturally Magic Garden's Classic 8 Ply yarn, which is a 100% New Zealand wool DK weight yarn. It's beautifully soft, absolutely gorgeous stuff, and I'm using an off-white which looks terrific with the cables. (I unfortunately won't be showing pictures of it because I do plan on using the pattern as part of a collection which will hopefully turn into a book someday.) At the moment I'm working on the 3-month size and am pretty happy with it, just a bit concerned that it's not quite wide enough. We'll see.

They know what I like

So, as is traditional here on the blog, I present a visual of most of my knitting-related "haul" from the holiday season:

• from the daughters: two balls of pink "Zara" from Filatura di Crosa, a DK superwash merino
• from DH: two balls of "Clown" from Marks & Kattens, a cotton/wool/nylon blend sock yarn, self-striping, in white and dark pink
• from my mom: two balls of "Sock it to me 4 Ply" from elann.com, a superwash wool/nylon blend sock yarn, in aubergine
• from my mom: two balls of "Pure Bamboo" from elann.com, a 100% bamboo sock yarn, in wine
• from my mom: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book, "Free Range Knitter"
• from my mom: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "Never Not Knitting" 2009 calendar
• from my mom: the fall 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting International
• (not pictured because I'm an idiot and forgot about it when I gathered everything up for the picture-taking) from my brother: Nicky Epstein's "Knitting on the Edge" book
• (also not pictured) from my brother: Nicky Epstein's "Knitting over the Edge" book

Obviously, I'm quite happy. I was, however, pretty confused as to why my husband got me white-and-dark-pink sock yarn. Pink is not a colour I am particularly fond of, and he knows this. Getting pink yarn from my daughters was not a surprise, since my older daughter chose the colour she liked best, and that means I get pink. :) From my husband, though, yes, somewhat surprising. It turns out that he totally thought, looking at the yarn in the shop, that it was red and white, and therefore assumed that I would adore it. He was kind of distressed when I broke it to him that the hue was really pink, and offered to exchange it. But I told him no - the yarn had already inspired me with a design idea which I'll talk more about a little later on.

Another surprise was that the sock yarn my mom gave me was originally intended to be actual socks! Unfortunately, she just couldn't get comfortable with the small size of the crochet hook which was required for the thin weight of the sock yarn, so she gave up, unravelled everything she'd done, and gave me the yarn straight up instead. ("Bartender! Sock yarn, straight up, with a twist!") This was further proof to me that the woman needs to get herself a Ravelry account - she could simply have gone in, searched for crochet sock patterns in a yarn weight she was more comfortable with, and whammo! Patterns. She gave me a tolerant smile when I mentioned this, but I may have managed to intrigue her. We'll see.

My brother bought the Nicky Epstein books from my LYS, and he said that when he went there to shop, he was looking pretty grungy. Kathy and June (the owner) were both there at the time, and evidently looked like they were wondering what he was doing there...until he said, "I think you know my sister?" and identified me by name. :) These were the magic words which proved he was in the right place, and it sounds like they had a grand old time picking out gifts for me. (They got it right...I love the books, thanks guys!)

But the knitting-related haul was not limited to me - I also gave yarn to my husband. To explain the significance behind this specific yarn, I need to give you the back story. Does anybody remember the scarf he designed and made for me? It's really nice, nothing too fancy, nothing too challenging, cable-wise, and it's totally unisex. For some time we've been talking about how he should write up the pattern instructions and sell them. After my husband's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, I mentioned that I wanted to design something and sell the pattern as a fundraiser for a charity such as The Lung Association. He was incredibly touched, but was adamant that the pattern which should be sold as the fundraiser should be his scarf pattern, which totally made more sense.

So for Christmas, I gave him three skeins of Cascade 220 in a really nice, masculine grey. He was really, really happy about them, and loves the feel of the yarn so much that he started waxing poetic about it and telling me that he now understands the addictive qualities of yarn and how people end up with huge stashes.

Muahahahaha. And his conversion is complete. I win. (As long as our individual stashes are clearly delineated, of course.)

So on Boxing Day I sat down and interpreted his pattern notes into chart form, and we started hashing out how the final pattern should work (the original scarf used some unorthodox methods of cable crossing - such as doing it on wrong-side rows - that I recommended he change). I did some swatching to show him how things could work, and last night he cast on and started it up. (I did offer to do it for him to make things go faster, but he's really into this yarn!) I'm really excited about this project! I'll definitely post about it here when it's available for sale. DH is kind of a slow knitter, though, so don't hold your breath. :)

Toddler socks for DD2

I don't think I mentioned that I finally found these socks! There were unfortunately more ends to weave in than I remembered, but after one commuter train trip, they were all taken care of, and I had a lovely pair of finished socks. DD2 really likes them ("Mummy? Ocks!"), which I love.

And speaking of appreciated Christmas gifts...they all were. :) DD1 loved her socks, DH adored his, BIL laughed out loud at his AFK hat and plonked it on his head right away, and I got a very appreciative thank-you card from DD1's teacher for the wristwarmers and toque. (It was of course addressed to DD1, but since it talked about how much she appreciated all the effort and thoughtfulness that went into handmaking the gift, I took that as an expression of gratitude to me. :)

Fjalar for moi

This continues apace...the ribbing is done and I'm now working on the stocking stitch stretch. I did freak out a bit when I realised that I'd have to fairly precisely figure out when to stop knitting in the round for the armscyes (I'm definitely not steeking this thing) - Lavold never seems to include schematics in her patterns, which makes adjustments way harder - but I think I've got it vaguely worked out now. I'm also going to add about three inches to the overall length so that it's as long as I want it.

Even with the increased length, though, I'm hopeful that I'll have at least three balls left over. Here's where I am now, and I haven't run out of my third ball yet:



So I think the odds are somewhat decent, especially since the neckline is a low V-neck. What I want to do with the leftover yarn is a sweater for my older daughter - the colour will be devastatingly good on her, and there's a cable pattern in one of my books that I've been wanting to try for a long time. Stay tuned.

Summer top for DD2

So what's a knitter to do with sock yarn that's in a colour she's not wild about?



Make something for her kid, of course! This is a cotton/wool/nylon blend with the cotton feeling very dominant, so I think it would be fine for a summer top. I'm swatch-experimenting right now with a smocking-ish pattern from one of my stitch libraries, which I've modified to better suit my purposes. So far, I'm cautiously pleased.

What I'm hoping is that 100g of this stuff is enough to make a 2-year size, which means a) that it'll fit my kid; and b) that I can do up a pattern for sizes ranging from 3 months to 2 years and still only require that people have enough yarn as would make an adult pair of socks. I love it when I can do that - it opens up whole new possibilities for people for their sock yarn stashes.

Silver linings

It's nice to know that even when bad things happen, wonderful things can happen at the same time, too. I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit over here at Insanity Headquarters, and nifty stuff has been popping up everywhere.

For instance, one of the few nice things about funerals is that you get to see family and friends, and my mother-in-law's service was no exception. DH's family is really, really fantastic - a wonderful clan of people that I truly enjoy spending time with, and whom I'm proud to call family. I'm very blessed. Of course, some of them have received knitted love from me over the years. One of these is DH's cousin, whose first daughter (born several years ago) received three double-faced bibs of my own design. This cousin now has a second daughter, and at the reception, he (the cousin, not his daughter) was very keen on telling me that not only are the bibs still going strong, but they are - get this - the BEST BIBS that they own. I seriously could not have been more delighted and thrilled. Not only are they big enough to catch all spills, but apparently they are IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE BABY TO PULL OFF. (Even if you're not a parent, I'm sure you can appreciate what a bonus that is.) Also, said cousin told me that the yarn is so good that you can have the bibs wadded up all glopped up with dried-on food for a week and they still come out beautiful after washing. (Unfortunately, the yarn was a one-off, no-name, on-the-cone eBay purchase some years ago, so I can't tell you all where to find it.) GLEE!

Also, my husband reported this week that our neighbour's son - who was the inspiration for the KWB/TSF Hat and the recipient of the original prototype for that pattern - was witnessed a few weeks ago actually WEARING THE HAT while shovelling his driveway one morning. I don't mind admitting that I squealed and did a little dance upon hearing this news. It's actually getting USED! By a teenage boy! A hat! Be still my heart.

And speaking of the KWB/TSF Hat, we're getting close to the end of the year now, so this week I withdrew all the profits which have been accumulating from sales of the pattern, and donated them to MSF. The total? $371.69. I'm extremely happy about this, particularly when you consider that it's money I pulled out of basically nowhere using just my brain, yarn and needles, and the power of the Internet. Stunning. Hopefully next year I will be able to give even more.

By the way, I think I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I put up a video on YouTube demonstrating the cast-on that I use in the KWB/TSF Hat pattern. It's really hard to come up with good written instructions to get the concept for this cast-on across, and apparently my original instructions just weren't cutting it, because a few of the people who were trying to make the hat were expressing confusion. So I whipped up the video. Many thanks go to my mom, who lent me her digital camera for the purpose. (My digital camera does do video, but without sound, which is kind of pointless.)

Ilaisa's Wristies for Mrs. C

All done!



I think they look nice.

Ilaisa's Loose Toque for Mrs. C

There was so much yarn left over after I finished the fingerless gloves for DD1's teacher that I decided to try and do a matching beret. I tried to convert the basic measurements of the Fern Glade beret pattern (fitted size) over to a worsted weight on 4.5mm needles using the stocking stitch/bell ribbing combination from the wristwarmers. The bad news is that this didn't quite work the way I wanted, and I ended up with a loose kind of toque instead of a beret. The good news (aside from having enough yarn to finish) is that the hat still ended up looking pretty cute.


front view


side view


brim detail

So I've made the pattern available for free. Enjoy.

AFK Hat for BIL #2

Another Christmas knitting project done!



I think it's really funny. Hopefully, he will too.

(AFK stands for "Away From Keyboard". Perfect for the Internet-addicted when they need to go outside in the cold.)

Fjalar for moi

The very last knitting-related gift that I ever received from my mother-in-law was for my birthday. It contained - among other things - ten balls of Sirdar "Escape", which is a niftily-variegating (one ply stays the same colour, the second ply changes slowly) DK weight yarn in a 51% wool/49% acrylic blend. I like it a lot, especially since she was very insistent that whatever I made out of it had to be for me. :) Before she died, I'd decided to make Elsebeth Lavold's Fjalar sweater with the yarn, but because of all the Christmas knitting which had to be done, I hadn't had a chance to cast it on yet. (Which I had to guiltily admit to her when she asked me about it at our final visit.)

Now, however, the Christmas knitting is practically finished, so I can do whatever the heck I want, knitting-wise. And this is definitely what I want to do. I've adapted it a touch so I can knit it in the round. I also had to ignore part of the setup instructions in the pattern in order to make it look right (beginners would unfortunately probably be pretty screwed and confused). However, I really, really like how it's coming along:


(it's over an inch longer now, though)

I only wish she could see it.

P.S. Have you seen this yarn? I think it's hilarious.