Happy Thanksgiving!

The guests are gone, the turkey (almost) eaten, and one last slice of pecan pie awaits me in the fridge. A very nice Thanksgiving Day spent here at home with my in-laws. All the food came out tasty, albeit a little cold. Is it even possible to get all those things to the table piping hot? I used the warmer drawer, soaked the serving bowls in hot water, and didn't take the beans or the gravy off the stove until the last possible second. Still, it all cooled down in the time it took to say "buffet line"! This will be the challenge of the rest of my life, I suppose. I don't think my mom every really solved the puzzle either.

A Thanksgiving near disaster - the digital thermometer I stuck in the bird as backup read 170F after only two hours (12 pound bird should take 3+ hours). Since I could SEE the drippings coming off the bird bright red, I wisely ignored the thermometer and waited until the popper popped. Thank goodness it worked (they don't always)!

I finished up Scarborough over the weekend, doing the last sleeve and the collar in a single evening session. Audrey did not like the separated, tunic-style flaps at the hem. She immediately asked why they were cut, and demanded I sew them up. Add that one to the modifications page! If I had known that from the beginning, I could have done the whole darn thing in the round.

Here it is:


And a detail:

Pattern: Scarborough
Designer: Alice Starmore, in Fishermen's Sweaters
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted
Needles: US8 and US6
Began: Nov. 5, 2007; Finished: Nov. 24, 2007

Pattern modifications: this pattern was written for sportweight yarn. Also, the smallest pattern size was a 26" circumference for a child with a 23" chest. Since Audrey only has a 20.5" chest, this is waaay too much ease. Despite her slender frame, she is actually tall enough, and with long enough arms, to wear the sweater as designed. So I made it narrower, and converted the pattern to worsted weight yarn to speed things up a bit. Don't want her to outgrow it before I finish! As mentioned above, I sewed the border flaps closed at the end.

Minimalist Cardigan: Seamed in the sleeves last night. Not completely happy with my seaming job. May undo and try again tomorrow.

Up next: two projects (I know, I said I'd never do that again). For home: the Northern Lights mittens. For work: plain stockinette socks as part of a "Sock DOE". I'll explain later.

Almost a month

since my last blogpost.

It is that time of year when time speeds away from you. Halloween - zoom. Thanksgiving - only 10 days away. And Christmas - bam. How did I get so far behind? Last year, I promised myself that THIS year, I would have my Christmas cards ordered by now, so I could get the good deals like free shipping and stuff. Forget ordering, I have not even bought a holiday dress for Audrey, much less taken the photo, edited the photo, or chosen a card-making website to print the cards. What happened? It seems like just last week she was trying on her Halloween costume.

Probably, if I spent less time knitting, I would get more of these other projects done.

The knitting portion of the Minimalist Cardigan is done:


And a closeup:


I finished the knitting of the third sleeve last Sunday night, just hours before leaving on a business trip that involved 6.5 hours of driving each way. So of course, I wanted my size 8 needles empty to start a new project that would last through all that driving:



Audrey's winter sweater. The yarn, Plymouth Encore Worsted. The needles, US8. The color, really f-cking bright pink. My bad. I took Audrey to The Knitting Garden, put her in front of the wall of Encore, and told her she could pick any color she wanted for her sweater. Serves me right. At least she is small, and I only have to watch 600 yds of it go past my aching eyes. The pattern, Scarborough, by She-who-must-not-be-named. If she could see her creation rendered in hot pink worsted weight acrylic blend, I'm sure she would have some really choice words for me. Probably find a way to block my internet access to her website too.

So that is what I have been doing for the past week. I'm past the first half of the gussets, and into the front yoke. I've got another road trip for work coming up on Thursday, I think I may be able to finish this up in another week or so. And THEN, I can return to the Minimalist Cardigan. You know, for the seaming and blocking and stuff.

Then what? The perpetual question. Fair Isle mittens? Baby llama? Socks? I really can't decide. Note I did not say Christmas knitting. Might still happen, but probably not.

Till later!

p.s. anybody wonder about that third sleeve? No, not a lab-derived anatomical mutation. I noticed a massive error just past the cast on of the 1st sleeve, and had to frog and re-do the whole thing.