We are up to the armpits here, and looking good.

Vegan girl was on a field trip last week, and took her orange sweater. Now kids are uploading their pictures, and I can see that she really did wear it. It looks good, but maybe that is just me being proud.

I also took the orange sweater to my knitting group to show off. That was fun too. It was turned it inside out to examine the stranding, and to search for the seams that were not there. The other knitters in the group don't seem to do a lot of mulit color work. I bask in the admiration.

All done, and it fits. There is still enough cool weather, that vegan girl may wear it before the spring really happens here.

You can see, if you look that the body is tapered a bit.

I messed up the yoke a bit. Stupid, really. It was important to craft a decrease method to line the pattern up along the raglan lines. That meant three decreases every five rows. Like a moron, I just started out doing the every other row decrease that seems to magically work on raglan shapes. The little spots were growing farther apart. So, I ripped it out, and did it again.

I started my next sweater yesterday during the final games of 6 Nations rugby. We were in a pub with some friendly pub regulars, who all wore kilts to watch Scotland lose to England. Then we stayed for the Wales/Ireland game. Many beers later, we were escorted to a very nice restaurant by a friendly kilt guy - I had mentioned that I was craving French Fries. This restaurant had the best steak I have eaten in France. Then we returned to the pub for another cocktail, and then off to the train before service ended for the evening.

Oh, back to the knitting, I completed the 5 cm of ribbing, but it is just 5 cm of black ribbing. I will photograph it when there is something real to see.

Happy March

The orange sweater is comming right along. The sleeves are finished, and the body needs a little over one more patter repeat before I'm at the armholes. This is to be a raglan, so everyone becomes attached at that point.

I was in a panic when I finished the arms. Each one took just under a ball of orange to complete. I calculated that I had to be two balls short. Turns out, I was wrong, and I should have just enough.

I spent today weaving in the ends for the arms and body, in anticipation of putting the pieces together. For some reason, I had it in my head that I wanted the sleeves cleaned up before I attached them to the body. Since I don't really like doing this job, I feel very good about the project now.

This is what happens when you let a teenager choose colors. I like it.

This is the yarn I purchased in Germany. I've been able to get a tighter gauge than the ball band indicates, which suits me just fine.

I've had some not so successful experiences with cotton/cotton blends. With a sleeve finished, I think that this one will work out well.

Whew

The Flying Geese gansey is done. It fits. It looks great on my husband.

Almost a year for this one. It is not a hard or tedious pattern. I may even make it again.

I have started on a wild one. My daughter has become vegan. Thus all the wool, alpaca, silk, and mixes of these are off limits to her sensibility. I'm still her mother, and I'm still a knitter, and I still melt when I hear "Mommy, will you knit a sweater for me???"

She wanted cables or color. This tells me I need an acrylic or microfiber blend. Rowan designers may be able to pull off fair isle or cables with 100% cotton, but I'm not going there.

I'm not pleased with the selection or price of yarn here in Paris. Since we were planning a long weekend in Germany, I used Ravelry to look up a yarn store.

We ended up in the Maschenkunst store. Wonderful experience, and a very nice shop. We didn't get off the the best start, as their delicious selection of yarn was mostly 100% natural stuff, and that stuff wasn't vegan. It was January, so their summer cotton stock had not come in. So selection for vegan girl was limited. We all fussed around, and finally found some selection we could work with.

Now, what to do with it?

Daughter and I sat on their comfy sofa to look at some books, and for further negociations. We were offered coffee - very sweet. Eventually we were shown the new Isenberger book and daughter loved the Somer i Toyko design. Well, that's a start - we can change out the colors, adjust the gauge. We agreed that she would like it, and I would be happy knitting it.

So, the swatch is above, most of the calculations have been worked, and I've got about half of a sleeve on the needles.

Happy New Year.


I finally got Flying Geese put back together, and on his way again. What a pain! I should have just ripped down to the gusset, and added length that way. Even better, I should get it into my head the my husband of 21 years has a long torso, and I always need to add 2" to the body of his sweaters.

Review of 2008
* I significantly reduced my stash. I sold a lot before moving, and used stash yarn for all my projects.
* I finished four and 2/3 sweaters. The goal was 6.

Goals for 2009 -
*Only stash yarn
*Finish Flying Geese plus 5 more sweaters
*Blog at least twice per month