We are in the midst of one of the most schedule-intense terms EVAH. So intense that instead of being too busy to blog, I am hiding from my busy life by blogging. And drinking too much tea. Hello!
Do you like the new look? I was being driven insane by the lovely but widget-less previous theme called Chaos. I think it showed in my looong absences. If you tried clicking around the old theme and found dead links … well, yeah. It frustrated me too. So here we are, now with Adventure! My adventure is going to be trying out different background photos.
I am currently soothing frayed nerves by knitting a Meg Swansen Swirl Yoke in Jo Sharpe Silkroad DK Tweed. Have you touch this yet? It is amazing yarn. It is a slightly felted, loosely plied 2-ply blend of wool, silk, and cashmere. Indescribably soft.
This pattern came to my attention via various blogs but it is somewhat hard to find, being currently published in the slim volume, Handknitting with Meg Swansen, a book you can online find online or at a local yarn shop well stocked in Schoolhouse Press titles. This is only a problem, of course, if you are, like me addicted to the instant gratification of online patterns. But Meg, you are so worth it.
Yes, people, I wanted this sweater so badly that I essentially paid $16 plus tax for a single pattern. What can I say? The heart gets what the heart wants. I may have also spent a few years thinking about this purchase before I finally committed. No exaggeration. Life moves both slow and fast when one has very young children.
The day I knew I would make this sweater with this yarn was the day I saw a woman in the laundry detergent aisle at T*gt wearing a beautiful cream colored Swirl Yoke Pullover. It was all I could do not to STARE OPENLY. Sadly, I was too shy and awestruck to speak to her, which I regret. I don’t know what yarn her sweater was knit in, but it came to me that I had a special yarn at home to go with this special pattern.
Random baby snake pictures work when you fail to have knitting pictures!
I am trying (and failing) to be monogamous to the sweater, in an effort to GET IT DONE. The body is done up to the yoke. I have knit three sleeves and I still do not have two that match. First sleeve, the slope as written in the pattern does not work with my gauge. Rip, rewrite, reknit. I finished the second (third) sleeve last week and discovered that it is 2.5 inches shorter than the first sleeve, using the same slope. WTF?! I keep poking at it and I really cannot figure out what went wrong. My next step is to put safety pins in all the increases and see if I can see the error of my ways. Although I am nauseous at the idea of knitting a FOURTH sleeve, I am petrified if I don’t know why this third sleeve went awry, I’ll just eff it up all over again. Knitting purgatory indeed!
