For January

You are all so kind. Thank you for your very kind words. It means a lot, even though we don't know each other in real life. Actually, it makes me wish we did.

Now, on with the craft blogging.


Beautiful yarn, isn't it? It's Classic Elite Skye Tweed, in Macalester Orange, purchased from the closeout sale at WEBS last August. I bought enough in four different colors to make sweaters for our whole family. The first of those you've already seen. My original idea was Cobblestones for both boys. In retrospect, if I had done that I actually would've gotten the second one done in time for it still to be worn this season. But then I got the idea that I would knit along with EZ's Knitter's Almanac, and that a small child's version of the January Aran would be simple and quick enough. I decided to do garter trim cuffs and waist, to echo the same thing on Tiny Dancer's Cobblestone. It was a lovely idea, and probably would've been do-able, if I had just kept knitting it.


But I got this far, and realized I needed to interrupt January to make something for February, when our Co-Op preschool would be having their silent auction. So the February Baby Sweater it was. I do not regret that choice at all. What I regret is that when I came back to the Aran, I tried to work simultaneously on another small cable project - that had cables going the opposite direction. You can probably guess what happened as I switched back and forth between the two projects....


Can you see it? I didn't. Not until I had more than doubled the amount of sweater I had knitted. Now I can't look at the above picture without my eye immediately falling on the place where I made the fateful mistake.

Yeah, right there.

Oof.
Yes, I did this on every cable round. On all four cables. All the way up to where I was getting ready to steek.

So I put the sweater in time-out while I decided whether or not I was going to choose to be the boss of my knitting. I knew I could suck it up and fix this thing, but the question was did I want to. My answer turned out to be yes, I do want to - but by then I was absorbed in another (equally ill-fated) project and never found the time. And now - at long last - sweater weather seems to be gone.

It was a really super knit, and I am in love with the yarn. I think it is going to make a fantastic fall sweater for next fall, and I did leave enough room in it that it should still be able to fit by then. The only question that remains now is whether I will do my future self a favor and fix these cables soon, so that when I pick it up to knit again in earnest (probably late summer) I can actually come back to the project with joy and anticipation, rather than with dread. That sounds like a sensible thing to do, right? In other words, exactly the kind of decision I'm not known for....