Christmas Sweater

A new sweater for the Engineer Was completed late Saturday night and was set out to block. This morning, it is almost dry. If the Engineer looks a wee bit uncomfortable it is because he is not used to wearing sweaters that are still a bit damp in the back. I am thrilled with the way the sweater came out and with how quickly this pattern knitted up with my only change being color scheme and ribbing in K1 P1 instead of K2 P1. But I also have made some notes to keep in mind next time I use this pattern for help it fit even better. The Back to School Pullover is the third pattern in the top row of this link.

The kids came home from a weekend with their grandparents to find the Jesse tree and the advent wreath in the dining room. We have the non-traditional advent wreath this year because I thought I had purple candles. I went to my candle drawer and found three ridiculously stumpy purple candles that begged to be put in the trash. Next to them I had several new pink candles, and here we are...Sunday afternoon was dedicated to swatching for the Artist's sweater. I got out my calculator and did all the measurements and math required to reduce an adult size pattern to fit her. I also got started with my cast on and knitted until I realized I had once again twisted my yarn while joining in the round. Drat!

Next time I cast on straight needles and knit a couple of the beginning rows before transferring to the circular needles. This worked much better for me, and I used the little tail to sew closed the three rows I had worked on the straight needles.

But getting any actual knitting accomplished yesterday was doomed. After I had knit about three inches there was a knot in the ball of yarn making an unnatural join between the bright pink and the white. So I cut the yarn and rejoined at a more natural place in the color scheme. I made a terrible join and I grew increasingly unhappy with it every time I passed that place knitting the next several rounds. So before I went to bed I rewound the whole thing.

My big hang-up with beginning this project was getting through all the math and measurements. Now that those parts are done, I am eager to proceed. Before I cast on again I'll knit a swatch of the edging on the pattern (see it here). I could have been happier with the yarn overs in the lace edging and I could use some practice to get just just the look I'm after.

In my knitting marathon weekend I did not get lesson plans printed for the kids this week. On Wednesday, the Artist has a Latin final going beck to second semester last year. Her time will largely be dedicated to studying for that. I made a giant stack of flash cards for her to learn.

The Engineer and I will go through a few subjects then start some house cleaning. Won't he be thrilled!

Seasons Change

I'm not ready for it but it is happening anyway. Over the weekend the Engineer wanted to play outside. When he asked if he could shovel snow how could I say no? There were actually more leaves in the driveway than show, but he had his own hap hazard fun anyway:
He made a slushy pile of leaves at the bottom on the back stoop steps. And another right in the middle of daddy's side of the driveway. Thank you, son.

That was a few days ago. The snow is gone now, if only for a while. It was gone long enough for me to try one more time to gather fresh parsley to add to the crab croquettes I mixed up for last night's dinner. Under the entrapped leaves there were still a few good looking sprigs of parsley large enough to harvest. I have frozen some baggies of parsley to use in the winter , but the fresh is so much nicer.

After knitting the scarf I wrote about on Monday, I began a sweater for the Engineer. I jockeyed his position in my queue partly because he is smaller and I'm following a simple pattern, therefore his projects are faster. So far the front, back and shoulders are done. Hopefully I can knock out the sleeves this week and finish the neckline and seaming during the Brown's game on Sunday. I figured I could get this done rather quickly and keep busy while I stall and stall and stall some more before casting on for a more complex sweater for the Artist. The sweater I make for her will require my adjusting an adult pattern down to her size. I am not confident, so I plan to make lots of gauge swatches and use tons of lifelines and hope not to need too many of them.

As Christmas decorations are going up all around us, I still have my autumn decor bucking the trend. This is my favorite piece. It hangs inside the vestibule door in the living room. The advent box is still up in the attic, but I still hope transition our home from thanksgiving to advent before Sunday morning.

We are going to have our largest group of guests ever this Christmas, so Rick and I have already decided to use our doesn't-smell-real-but-takes-up-a-lot-less-room-than-a-real tree this Christmas. That means two years in a row we will all miss doing this: