More Knitting from the Heart

My husband has asked me to put his sweater on hold and fill another request. Back in July (I think, maybe August), his grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer. I don't know what stage it is, but she's starting treatments and is concerned about hair loss. So, I put the sweater on hold and knitted up a pretty little chemo cap for her. It's a slouchy beret, but I think she will like the style. I have made the pattern before for myself about 3 years ago. That one has some mistakes; like I think I made the ribbed border too short. This one looks better, in my opinion. I suppose it ought to, since I have more experience as a knitter and it's the second time I've made this pattern.


When I first started this project, I was a little worried it would come out small. I was knitting more tightly than usual. I've noticed this in general lately. Chances are, it is stress related. We've had some difficult times arrive, but we'll manage. It just kills my nerves. But, I digress...as usual. The yarn I used was Caron Simply Soft in Oceana. It is so pretty! I love the color combination and it knitted up nicely. It reminds me of water colors. Perhaps whoever came up with the dye colors thought the same.

Bottom

Top

After about a week of working on it, the hat is finished! It came out great in spite of my dropping stitches, losing the stitch marker, having to guesstimate where the beginning was, and knitting an entire row wrong and having to unknit it and reknit it the right way. Yes. Knitting these things at night (and losing sleep all the time due to a toddler who refuses to sleep) may have slowed me down some.

Now that the hat is finished, I'm back to working on the Fisherman's sweater and hope to have that finished by the end of November. My original plan was to have it done in early November, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen now. We'll see. Stranger things have happened.

A Labor of Love

For at least two years now, my husband has been begging asking me to knit him a fisherman's sweater. I finally started it. It has kept me busy; so busy, in fact that I have put off the blogging! My original plan to write something at least monthly has gone down the drain, but I'm back for the time being!

So, back to the sweater. My husband is a huge fan of Jaws (and, okay, so am I). He decided he wanted a sweater like Captain Quint's in the movie. While that's a nice fisherman's sweater; the pattern looks a little boring, so I had to find something more interesting. I found this gem on Craftsy. I have this thing for cable knits so it's perfect!

The kit was on sale on Craftsy and it just happened to be my husband's birthday that June day, so I ordered the kit. I set my project goal to have it finished by November so he can wear it this fall on his fishing trips. I'm a little shocked he wanted a sweater at all. The man is *never* cold. When I say he is never cold I mean he wears *shorts* in the snow!

Once gain, I digress...The kit arrived in late June and I got started promptly. I've been doing most of the knitting in the middle of the night after our two year old is finally asleep. Since he never rests, I am often not starting my knitting until 11:00 pm or later. My goal was to have the front panel finished by the end of July, the back panel finished by the end of September, and to have the sleeves done by the end of October so all I'm doing then is blocking and sewing.

I am excited to report that I am ON SCHEDULE! It is October 12, and I am working on the first sleeve. I'm hoping to have it finished by next weekend and have the second sleeve done by the end of the month. Then I just have to block it, seam the shoulders together, knit the neck, and sew everything else together. I hope I can do that within a month.

While I love what this sweater looks like, and it's a fun pattern to make; I am concerned it's not going to fit properly. The back panel was completed first. It looks great to me! The measurements are adding up (I even gauged this thing! I never knit a gauge swatch, and yet I'm getting better about doing that); but when I did the front panel it doesn't look right. The front and back are supposed to be the same length. When I measured them, they measure up, but looking at them side by side, they don't look the same. My hope is that once I've blocked it they will line up right. My biggest worry is that it's going to be too small. My husband is a big guy. I'm knitting the XXL, which is the largest size the pattern is written for. I will be sad if I've done something wrong and it doesn't fit. The only other thing I can think of is maybe I'm not taking into consideration the sleeves.

This sweater is kind of a big deal to me for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that it's a gift for the love of my life. Aside from that, though, it is my first sweater and my first project that has to be sewn together. So far it's been a fun project; even though I'm nervous about how it will ultimately turn out!

Busy, Busy

Lately I've been busy; busy knitting! My son is two years old now and better at entertaining himself. He also tends to go to sleep before midnight now (although he still has the occasional sleepless night where he is up until 3:00 a.m. or better!). These changes have given me some time to get back into my knitting. Woo hoo!

I have missed working on my projects. I have also missed blogging. So, I'm going to try writing more regularly, too. I'm starting slow with the blog business, though. I may only post once or twice a month for starters. My goal is to post weekly or better. A friend of mine has a splendid little crafting blog which has inspired me to work on mine again. I think I actually started this blog 3 years ago! Has it been that long already?

To get started again, I suppose I should give a rundown on what I've been up to lately. I finished a few projects and have a new one going now. The first finished object was Cable Owl Gloves. The pattern can be found here. This pattern caught my attention at least two years ago, but probably more. Now that I finally had some time I figured I would give it a shot. Mittens and gloves are fun! Besides, I had some orange Plymouth Encore Worsted yarn stashed away that was perfect for fall owly mitts. This proved to be a quick project and took me about a week to complete - toddler chasing and all. The original pattern calls for button eyes. My buttons are too big. And I think they still look like owls without. I may add the eyes one day, but for now they work as is. I'm the one who wears them. They are great for when I'm cold inside. This isn't a difficult pattern, but the version I have (which may be revised by now) has some errors in it.


My latest finished object is a fun tank top pattern called Lillian that I also downloaded some time ago. Back in February I decided to get brave and knit a garment that has to actually fit. This required the knitting of a dreaded gauge swatch. So, I knitted a swatch that actually turned out to be accurate with DK weight yarn - never mind that the pattern says worsted and I was oblivious this fact. I thought it said DK. No worries. It's a fun lace pattern and I was moving right along with it when, one night, I took a picture of my progress after finishing the lace portion. Seconds after taking the picture, my stitches fell off the needles and my yarn became a tangled mess. I hadn't moved my life line yet so I had to go back some 27 rows! I got it untangled and wound the yarn after ripping back those stitches. Then I took a little hiatus from the tank top. I made a couple of easy scarves. Sometime in May I returned to the tank top and finished it earlier this month. Aside from the shrug I made for my wedding, this was my first actual garment knitted.  I am so pleased with the result.

My current WIP is a pattern called Aria. This pattern poses a new challenge to me: knitting from a chart. My preference has always been a written pattern as opposed to a chart. I'm typically a visual person, but knitting charts just confuse me as they are. They help me to see what the end result will be, but reading them bothers me. Case in point: after completing the first nine rows of this pattern I realized you're supposed to read them right to left; not left to right. So while I had sense enough to follow from bottom to top, I've pretty much been knitting it in reverse. I don't want to rip it out and start over because I don't want to recount 186 cast on stitches. So, I have this plan that once this is finished I will make another one and actually follow the pattern correctly. Seems fair enough.  I wonder if they're look that different from each other?

Well, it has felt great to write something again! Hopefully, it won't be too long before I post again.

Finding Time

In the midst of motherhood I've found some time to knit. About a month or so ago I closed my Etsy shop until I'm able to have more time to knit. That's pretty indefinite at this point, but lately I have found time to knit so perhaps my break won't be as long as I'd thought it would be. In any case, we'll see. During the past couple of weeks I have found time to knit while everyone else in my house sleeps or naps. My son naps better than he sleeps through the night at 20 months. And my husband is on the midnight shift so he sleeps most of the day, too. I've been knitting while they're sleeping. I finished a hat I started for my mom awhile ago. Then I started some owl fingerless mitts that I've been wanting to make for at least a couple of years know. I got them done pretty quickly. I just have the thumbs left to finish. I was actually surprised at how fast I was able to do them in my limited time. So, maybe I am getting life more under control with meal planning in place and some other adjustments. The pattern had some discrepancies in the instructions for the left glove. They may be corrected by now. I downloaded the pattern probably three years ago or close to it so enough time has lapsed where the creator could have fixed it. In any case, I figured out how to fix it, but I didn't feel like ripping back a third time to adjust the needle size; so for now the left glove is tighter than the right. My plan is to just knit a mate for each one. The tighter pair will be nice for a child or someone whose hands are even smaller than my own. I have relatively small hands and the left glove is tight. I'll be starting another left glove in the near future. Probably within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, this is what I've got:

It's apparent that one is smaller than the other. The bigger one fits better. I think it might look nicer, too.