The snow here in Connecticut has been disappearing over the past week. It looks like spring is on it's way. Well, we weren't ready to say goodbye to winter yet so a few days ago we took a day trip up north to Vermont to have some winter fun in the snow. We went skiing at Mt. Snow which is near Wilmington. My son is finally old enough to ski with us unassisted so we thought it was time to take him on ski trip. He has been only ever skied at the small ski area nearby and he was ready to explore a new mountain. We had a great time but I wish we hadn't ventured into the stunt area at the end of the day. My son was really being a daredevil and no matter how many times I told him not to, he went for the crazy stunts and jumps. He even went over a 6 foot jump!!! He was pretty much done skiing after he crash landed that one...
When we left we saw these cool wind turbines spotted across the horizon.
The other night my son said to me "Don't forget - tomorrow is Leprechaun Day! I need to find something green to wear." He was saying this as I was weaving in the loose ends of the GREEN sweater I had just finished knitting for him! Perfect!!! Even though the weather has been very spring-like lately, it is still cool enough to wear a sweater and of course I wanted to test it out on him and see him wearing it right away. I haven't gotten a picture of him wearing it yet, but here is the finished sweater...
The pattern is "children's neckdown pullover" from knitting pure and simple. It was super easy. My gauge was a tiny bit off (18 sts over 4" instead of 16) but I like the fabric at that gauge so i did the 6-8 size figuring that my son is a slim six, it should fit fine. The fit is absolutely perfect. So perfect that I am concerned that he may not be able to wear it in the fall (depending on how much he grows this summer.) I do plan on knitting this pattern again with different yarn. Next time I will do the 8-10 size. My son did complain when he first put it on that it was itchy and asked if it was wool. I lied and said no. It is Plymouth Encore Colorspun which is 25% wool, 75% acrylic. I told him he would get used to it... and he did. When he came home from school, he was still wearing it and didn't want to take it off.
I will not be using this particular yarn again. The yarn has a marled/plied look which I like, but the separate skeins in the same dyelot are noticably different in color(to me). Some areas of the yarn are also darker. I came to a knot in the second skein and snipped it and conitnued knitting, only to realize the part right before the knot was almost a solid green. I almost ripped it back but my husband said it gave the sweater character. I came to the same issue on the sleeve but did rip it back. You can kinda see what I mean in the following photo.
I guess it looks fine, it still bothers me a little bit...
It seems we have a sneaky little yarn thief living in our house! I recently splurged and ordered a bunch of stuff for new projects from Knitpicks and Webs. I stashed my new goodies away in a zippered grocery bag in the living room for easy access. When I came home one night, I found the puppy playing with a skein of my new yarn! Ahhhhhhh!!!!! It was Blue Sky Alpaca's Suri Merino which I was planning to make this kitty hat for my son with.
The puppy had somehow jumped over the pet gate, nuzzled his snout into the partially unzipped bag, snatched the skein, and jumped back over the gate... Well, the yarn didn't look completely destroyed, just a tangled mess. I was very angry so I put the little puppy in his crate for a "time out", only to discover the OTHER skein of Suri Merino stashed away in his crate! Luckily this one was still intact. I will definately have to keep an eye on this little guy in the future!
One of the projects I completed with my new yarn is this chunky hat I knit for my Mom with Knitpicks Swish Bulky. My Mom had recently confessed to me that she had stolen the hat I had knit for my sister several years ago and hides it every time she comes to visit. Since Mom's birthday was coming up, I decided she needed a hat of her own. I made this one very similar, with different yarn and a different somewhat different colors. I took my inspiration from the book Morehouse Farm Merino Knits... it is similar to the"Hats with Stripes" pattern which has a contrasting color in purl ridges for stripes. I played around with the color sequence and I made this hat wayyyy bigger. I really like the Swish Bulky. I made the last hat with Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky which was quite itchy on me... The swish does not seem itchy at all (although I only wore the hat for a total of five minutes to test it out.) The whole hat was knit in an evening and I tidied up the loose ends the next morning. Quick project!!! Here is a pic...
Right now I am working on a top-down seemless raglan sweater for my son, and a pair of fingerless mitts. I have put the Bat Sweater on hold because I am afraid the sleeves will be too short. Before seaming it and being disappointed I think I will baste the seams and try it on to get an accurate fitting. I allready added about 1 1/2 inches to the length of the body and the sleeves but I still think its too short. When flipping through the book I noticed that the many of the sweaters modeled seemed to have shorter sleeves than I like for my personal taste. All the knitting is done, anyway, I just have the enormous task of weaving in all the loose ends on the intarsia portion. I seam to always put off the finishing on my projects....
