The beginning of the end?

Anyone still there? I think you all deserve an award for patience, at this point. Work is going well, and there is a faint, faint glimmer of hope that I might make it through the endless projects and back to crafting someday.

Have you noticed that spring has come? (I say this despite the fact that we've had snow squalls every day this week, here in the land of no snow...) Suddenly, it's light out again, and there are things growing outside, and the air just smells like spring. I have my own system for determining when spring arrives (groundhogs be damned!), and it's definitely spring. The time of long nights, long work days, and long projects is ending. Not nearly as fast as I'd like, but there is hope.

You want proof?


I'd say that's proof that endless projects can be conquered. I finished the knitting last week sometime, and then wove in the ends on Sunday morning. If I ever consider a fingering weight sweater for Branden, please make sure that I have my sanity checked. I can't believe that a worsted weight sweater took an entire two months to finish. It's obviously partially due to the lack of knitting time, but this has definitely been a long project. Those sleeves are 24.5 inches long.

Incidentally, the sweater is also proof positive that spring is here. I finished a big, bulky sweater for Branden. Always happens about 2 weeks before we put them away for the year. Definitely spring.

And, for once, I think I might actually be happy with a sweater. It's the right size, there's nothing too funny about the neckline (why do those always get me??), and the yarn seems fairly sturdy. The shoulders could be a little less dropped, but he likes them that way. There's also a little more bulk around the underarm than I like, but in general I'm pretty happy. His comment? "It's warm."

This sweater also taught me why my raspberry sweater (made from the same brand of yarn, on the same needles) came out too big, even after swatching. Turns out, swatches aren't accurate when you swatch on a size 8 and knit with a size 9. I am neurotic about keeping my needles organized and in the correct bags, and so I never thought to check that my size 8 was really a size 8. I put it away, so of course it should be right! Well, just goes to show that you should always triple check. I knit the arms of my sweater (which do have the right gauge) on a size 8, and the body on a size 9 (which does not). Can't really tell the difference in the fabric, except that the body is about 8 inches bigger than it should be. Now I know why. I'm not sure that knowing comforts me, because it was a really brainless mistake, but at least I can actually measure a gauge swatch!

Fortunately, this time I caught on before knitting the entire sweater, and therefore this one actually fits.


I like the grafted seams:


and the cable detail:

Overall, it looks like a pretty comfortable sweater.

I also have to say that Branden is a very good sport about picture-taking sessions. He is absolutely horrible about having his picture taken, so these photo shoots can begin to approximate torture sessions after 45 minutes or so. (Yes, it takes that long to get a decent picture...we took 159 to get 6 useable ones without camera smile, blurriness, face-making or other issues). And he managedto be good-humored about an endless picture session after spending Wed-Sat on a no-sleep kinda schedule for the regional high school robotics competition (where his team won first place, I might add).

I think he probably deserves a sweater.