driving-thru

I’ve been a little slow lately showing the kids finished sweaters, better at showing works in progress. Still, need to show the sweaters.
One night I dreamt of a sweater, since ya’ll are knitters you don’t think I’m crazy. But really, this sweater was in my subconscious, I’ve been thinking of a great tweedy sweater and couldn’t get it out of my mind. I wanted to knit a tweedy sweater for my son, with a bit of colorwork bits on the yoke. Good thing the next day was a Tuesday and one of my LYS’s was open, cause I knew just the yarn I was going to use too.

Too bad it was the wrong weight for the pattern I chose. It’s ok, right? I know a bit of math, I can figure it out. I measured the kid, figured out the cast on for the sleeves and the body and all that. It was good till I got up to the yoke. Worked one row of the color change and the colorwork got lost. Because I was using a lighter weight yarn. Things needed changing up a bit.

I worked the first color change row as written, reversed it, then worked a few rows before changing colors. I love how this sweater turned out. Its fantastically tweedy with a bit of color. I have to say that Bryce loves it too.

stats:
pattern- Drive thru by Wendy Bernard
size- to fit a 25″ chest
yarn- Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK
MC: 7 skeins color #433 (foresty green tweed)
CC1: barely 25 yards of color #434 (tomato red tweed)
CC2: barely 20 yards of color #432 (dark brown tweed)
CC3: barely 20 yards of color #415 (light brown tweed)
needles: US 7 (4.5mm)
Started Sept. 9
Finished Sept. 20, two days after picture day. Retakes are tomorrow. ; )

I desperately love this sweater, and want one of my own. The color is just fantastic, I love that green! But wouldn’t it be just a bit to, um.. odd for my son and I to have a matching sweaters? It seems very freudian crazy my son and I having matching sweaters at any age (even though I think that man was a quack). And trust me, my kids have enough to talk about if they ever decide to go to therapy! (Next time your kids are in the car and your pumping gas make silly faces at them. The giggles will never stop! Makes pumping gas a little bit more fun too!) But it wouldn’t really be that horrible, a matching sweater, would it?
And because these little guys are just too cute, the kids convinced me (read Corra) that life isn’t crazy enough over here we need more animals,

welcome bandit and Salt and Pepper little 8 week old baby kittens. Just what I needed.

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almost on time…

I had a sinking feeling when I casted on for Bryce’s picture day sweater that I wasn’t going to be done in time. When I told Bryce that it was a good possibility that his sweater wasn’t going to be done in time and I told him not to worry there will always be retakes (yeah, I’m totally going with the idea that my 7 year old son is waiting with incredible amounts of enthusiasm to wear a sweater for picture day that his mother made for him. Sarcasm escapes me). And Bryce replies with “Don’t worry Mommy, I’m just happy that your knitting a sweater for me.” Kid totally knows how to ham up his Mom. (And how to get lots of handknits.) Yesterday he told me that he is glad I’m not a “mean” Mom. (I’m pretty sure its cause he wants his pokemon cards back.) Anway, his picture day was Tuesday and as you can see,

I didn’t quite make it. But on the other hand, I personally think this sweater is turning out beautifully. Bryce agrees and keeps telling me how soft it is. I’ve attached the sleeves and am 2″ into the yoke (I plan on knitting 3″ before starting the yoke pattern thing yeah).  Now that I’ve gotten most of the boring bits outta the way I’m ready for the fun part. Bring on the yoke!

for the love of tweed,

Since ya’ll are knitters you will understand this dream. You will not think that I’m crazy, ya’ll might have even had a dream like this. Sometime this summer I decided that I would knit sweaters for my kids to wear for picture day. I knew that their school has an (in my opinion) early picture day, I figured it would be in late September. I was shocked when the paper came home telling me it was going to be September 16! Thank goodness I was almost done with Corra’s sweater but I hadn’t even ordered the yarn for Bryce’s sweater! I knew that I wanted to knit him drive-thru, but I was going to knit it using knitpicks swish. That was, until I had my dream. I don’t know if it was the late night blog reading or what. But last Wednesday night I dreamt about yarn, I dreamt about his sweater. I dreamt about tweed.

yeah, you so read that right. I had a dream about knitting Bryce’s sweater.I tried telling myself that I could wait to get the yarn. I could wait till Saturday, till Corra’s sweater was done. (Those sleeves where taking for.ever!) But I knew that one of my local yarn shops has Queensland Collection Kathmandu (rav link) but I couldn’t remember if it was in DK or aran. I was hoping it was in aran, since the pattern is written for worsted weight. I couldn’t wait one more day, I drove down Thursday afternoon (they are closed Friday’s.) Nope, not that lucky. It was DK and the pattern is written so the sweater is knit from the bottom up. Fantastic. I thought, well it won’t be that hard, I’ll just knit a swatch, tweek some numbers and it will be all good.

damned swatch was no bloody help at all. I did learn that the yarn does grow and fluff up a bit after its been washed. but clicky on that pic to embiggen it. You’ll see. It didn’t matter what size needle I used, the damned gauge is the same on a US 6 or a 7. 5.5 sts/inch All the damned same. *grumble* Ok, if I could have lived with the fabric the US8’s gave me it woulda been ok, but the stitches where too loose. You know where this is going now? I had to re-wright the pattern. Math! Gah! No! Say it isn’t so! Ok, really it wasn’t that bad. Maybe some other day I’ll explain now but right now my brain just hurts. And I want to get back to knitting with this yummy tweedy yarn.

I’ve finished one sleeve this afternoon and started the second one right after it. I realize now with picture day being 4 days away there is no way I’m going finish this sucker before then. But there are always retakes, right?

ps. Finished Corra’s sweater Monday-ish I’m just waiting on the buttons.