Presenting...Devan et. al.
Yes, that is right. The unimaginable happened - I finished Devan! I think it is mostly due to the yarn-buying-freeze enacted by J until the sweater was completed. Now I am allowed to buy...get ready for this...AS MUCH YARN AS I WANT. Oh, J could not have possibly imagined how much yarn I want, but the deal was made and now I'm free to go on a yarn spree. There is sure to be later posts about these yarn purchases.
Here is Devan in pictures. First, blocking:
Then with shoulders seamed:
Add a neck/button band, seam sleeves to body, seam sides and sleeves:
Today I took Devan for a drive to buy buttons. Once I sew on the buttons, this one is good to go! Unfortunately, I've gotten really attached to this little sweater so it is going to be hard to let it go. However, we did get a Christmas card from our friends which confirmed that he is still the MOST adorable baby in the world so I believe he deserves it!
Devan isn't the only finished project around here, though. When I went home for Thanksgiving I picked up an unfinished project, a lace-y dishcloth, from about 2 years ago. This dishcloth is now finished, and happily in use for dish drying and other kitchen activities. There are a few things worth mentioning about this dishcloth:
I had a booklet of dishcloth patterns with the half-finished project, after using process of elimination I selected the only pattern it could have been. The fact that it has been 2 years since I touched this project means that:
(1) my knitting skills have improved and
(2) based on the pattern I could not have been following it correctly before so I
(3) tried to attempt what I may have thought the pattern was way-back-when only to discover an inch later that it was not the same pattern. This lead me to believe that
(4) maybe I did know what I was doing 2 years before and so I
(5) switched to doing the pattern as actually written. This led to yet another lace pattern which was not the same as the first or the second.
At this point I realized I had a few choices. I could either continue on and complete the dishcloth as a sampler of 3 lace patterns which I may never be able to replicate or I could rip it out and start over. This is when I remembered why I had knit a dishcloth in the first place...it does not matter what it looks like. It is only a dishcloth. With this knitting revelation, I finished in years a project that should have taken a weekend.
In the interest of getting some old projects off the needles (notice these are all things I never claimed to have "on the needles" in the first place), I also finished a scarf that I had started in September 2004. It is perfectly lovely and I wear it all the time. However, finishing a 2+ year old scarf did teach me a valuable lesson that I want to share, and will be shown with pictures tomorrow. Knitting is fabric, and therefore it 'ages'. This means that if you knit a scarf over multiple years, one end of the scarf will look much older than the other end. This is incredibly convenient for all those times when you need something that can pass as either old or new. In fact, I recommend procrastinating on all knitting projects so that you too can achieve this unique effect.
Here is Devan in pictures. First, blocking:
Then with shoulders seamed:
Add a neck/button band, seam sleeves to body, seam sides and sleeves:
Today I took Devan for a drive to buy buttons. Once I sew on the buttons, this one is good to go! Unfortunately, I've gotten really attached to this little sweater so it is going to be hard to let it go. However, we did get a Christmas card from our friends which confirmed that he is still the MOST adorable baby in the world so I believe he deserves it!
Devan isn't the only finished project around here, though. When I went home for Thanksgiving I picked up an unfinished project, a lace-y dishcloth, from about 2 years ago. This dishcloth is now finished, and happily in use for dish drying and other kitchen activities. There are a few things worth mentioning about this dishcloth:
I had a booklet of dishcloth patterns with the half-finished project, after using process of elimination I selected the only pattern it could have been. The fact that it has been 2 years since I touched this project means that:
(1) my knitting skills have improved and
(2) based on the pattern I could not have been following it correctly before so I
(3) tried to attempt what I may have thought the pattern was way-back-when only to discover an inch later that it was not the same pattern. This lead me to believe that
(4) maybe I did know what I was doing 2 years before and so I
(5) switched to doing the pattern as actually written. This led to yet another lace pattern which was not the same as the first or the second.
At this point I realized I had a few choices. I could either continue on and complete the dishcloth as a sampler of 3 lace patterns which I may never be able to replicate or I could rip it out and start over. This is when I remembered why I had knit a dishcloth in the first place...it does not matter what it looks like. It is only a dishcloth. With this knitting revelation, I finished in years a project that should have taken a weekend.
In the interest of getting some old projects off the needles (notice these are all things I never claimed to have "on the needles" in the first place), I also finished a scarf that I had started in September 2004. It is perfectly lovely and I wear it all the time. However, finishing a 2+ year old scarf did teach me a valuable lesson that I want to share, and will be shown with pictures tomorrow. Knitting is fabric, and therefore it 'ages'. This means that if you knit a scarf over multiple years, one end of the scarf will look much older than the other end. This is incredibly convenient for all those times when you need something that can pass as either old or new. In fact, I recommend procrastinating on all knitting projects so that you too can achieve this unique effect.
posted by E. at 5:51 PM
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