Tweedie

Here's a project that has been in progress for a long time:

Hanne Falkenberger's Tweedie. Lately I've been pushing myself to finish up old projects and get some loose ends tied up (quite literally). This is one of the few sweaters that I purchased as a kit, and it was quite spendy, so it didn't make any sense to leave it lying in a basket half finished. I liked the style, the color and the fit, so really no reason not to finish! The only problem was that it was quite tedious... And every time I picked it up, I had to figure out the instructions all over again. The instructions, including color patterns for 11 different colorways, had been fitted into as small a space as possible, onto just two pieces of paper. For a lot of patterns that's plenty of space, but this pattern used some creative and unusual techniques, which could have been explained more clearly using more space. All in all, this pattern would really benefit from using just one extra piece of paper, and for the $130-plus that the kit costs, I don't think that would be an unbearable additional cost.

The texture of this sweater is created with a clever use of garter stitch and slip stitches. The colors are created using three different color yarns at all times, changing one color at a time when moving from one section to another.

The yarn is fingering weight 100 % wool and quite unprocessed, which means it is quite rough to the touch. I plan to wash the sweater with some Eucalan to see if I can soften it up a bit... I'm also thinking about adding a couple hook-and-eye closures, since there are no buttons.

Warm and fuzzy feeling

This gives me a warm and fuzzy:

Specs:

pattern: Something Red by Wendy Bernard

yarn: Rowan Kid Classic, 8x50 g balls

needles: 4.5 mm Addi Turbo circular

size: M, adjusted for gauge

I really enjoyed knitting this. The pattern is well written and easy to follow. The fit is great, partly due to the fact that the sweater was easy to try on when it was in progress.

The other day, this appeared on the fridge door:

It reads: "Watch out because it will be slippery". Mr S. (5 yrs) decided to clean the kitchen floor on his own initiative. Afterwards he told me "Mom, now you have to give me one of those green things." That would be money -the green kind, as opposed to the metal kind. So he got paid $ 1, and I got a clean kitchen floor. Not a bad deal at all, if you ask me! I sure hope this is a precedent for times to come, and when he's 17, I don't need to tell him to go get a job to make some money. And as I'm doing all this knitting, I don't have to worry about house work!