There are always lots of snuggles at my house.
And I am always welcome to join--lucky me!!
Of course, they're always welcome to join me on the couch while I'm knitting. And I am often and often reminded that it is now "pet Gino" time or "pet Penny" time, and must put down my knitting. Which, of course, I do, as I am a huge sucker for my kitties. They make life happy.
Speaking of knitting (when do I ever speak of anything else? Well, besides kitties, but I've already done that...) I've finished Zauberflote!
In the end, I made several modifications.
- I shortened the sweater a bit, because the tunic length Jade likes so much doesn't work too well for me. I started the armseye steek at row 38, and then started neck shaping on row 9 (after a full repeat, of course.) This ended up to be about 23 rounds fewer than the pattern.
- My gauge is looser than called for, so I knit a size small, which fits just fine.
- For the sleeves, I knit as written, and then knit straight through round 10, knitting rounds 11-17 in garter for the cuffs. This brought the length to about the same as Abalone, which is what I was trying to copy. (I was very curious as to why the pattern was written to repeat the most recent section for the cuff--this is not at all usual, and not what I wanted, so I ignored it and did what I pleased.)
- Picked up fewer stitches for the button bands to compensate for the shorter body. (This took some thought--I forgot about it, picked up about 3/4 stitches/rows, counted, and thought, "where do I get those extra stitches???" Took me ages to remember.)
- Also, since I bought the buttons for this sweater before I bought the kit, and they are larger than what Jade calls for, I used 7. I'm not a huge fan of small buttons on these sweaters anyway--I often use only 7 or so buttons for the button bands, and ignore that part of the directions. I'm a big fan of ignoring directions, I think.
Anyway, I finished the knitting two weeks ago, and the finishing this past week. (I am not a big fan of finishing work. But it's always nice to have something fully finished...) Now it is blocking:
I've also cast on Anne Hanson's Wasp and Rose in Tulipa Yasmin for a sample. I do love Yasmin, and this pattern is pleasant. I need to finish it by the beginning of August, which shouldn't be a problem!
I'm also hoping to finish a few more things this month... Megan's vest, which has been languishing for years, shouldn't take too terribly long to finish. This project, especially, reminds me of how much one can accomplish if one spends actual time with a project! The back is done, and one of the fronts is about a quarter done. It'll make a nice break from the shawl, although they are both purple!
So, for a break from purple, I'm hoping to finish the body at least of the Sheeps! Sweater. This is partially because I like the sweater, but not too much the knitting, and would like to make some progress. This is probably one of the few projects that are more of a product than a process knit for me--I just love sheep, though, so I know I'll love to wear it once it's finished. But also, I need that size needle to cast on the next Starmore I want to knit, Marina. Added inspiration!
And lastly, I think it would probably be a good idea to finish the mother's day scarf by the next time I see my mom, in early August. So I shall swap that one to the project that lives in my bag, to encourage myself to knit on it in spare moments.
At the moment, this all seems fairly reasonable. Of course, it won't all happen, but surely I will make good progress on at least several of these projects!
