Is complete!
I finally got around to joining the arms to the body, and from then on, finishing was a breeze. Especially since I was sick and had so much time to sit around and make yoke decreases. Boy, did I catch up on the TV I’d missed while being away.
Specs:
Pattern: Durrow, by Jodi Green, available free
Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Worsted, color kiwi, six skeins used
Needles: 7US to gauge 18st/4in
Mods:
I had read on blessed Ravelry that some people didn’t love the fit of the neck, that it was a little wide, and I didn’t want to start messing with arm-hole and sleeve shaping, so I did the whole thing in the round, joined the arms and body at the armhole, knit an inch, then decreased for a raglan every other row until it looked right. I did a neck a la Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop, raglan style. Turned out to fit her perfectly, and I’m thrilled.
She chose the color, and while it’s wild and some people couldn’t carry it off, it looks perfect on her. Color is more true in this picture:
She likes it! She really likes it! Plus, it makes her look like she has guns. Not that she isn’t muscular, because she IS. But her shoulders look BUILT under those cables. Yep. Sexay.
In other, sadder knitting news, I wound up a skein of that lovely orange cashmere I bought in New York. My splurge. I cast on for a lace scarf. I am trying to learn to love the lace. I can DO the lace, but I don’t love it. And I see all these other knitters who rhapsodize over knitting lace, their faces brightening, their fingers quivering, and I want to feel that rapture. So I was trying.
I cast on, didn’t like it, got another needle, tried again. Went twice through the opening repeats. I was liking it. I left my knitting on the table. I took a shower. When I got out, Clara had strewn the whole damn ball all over the house, pulled it into little bits, all 400 yards. Hopelessly tangled. And it’s lace-weight, so it’s just impossible.
I have to admit, I cried. Contrary to what one reader thought (comment deleted), we don’t have enough money to be profligate — hell, we barely have enough money for beer! I had to work an 18-hour overtime shift just to be able to go on the trip, and I had a strict and small yarn budget. Those two precious skeins of cashmere were just that to me: Precious. And Clara DESTROYED one of them.
However, my wife has a certain level of ADD when it comes to things like tangles in cords, wires, and yarn, so she might be able to save it. I have written it off in my heart, or the hope would be too great, but I will pass the mess on to her and see what she can do.
BAD CLARA. Strangely, the only yarn she’s EVER gone after is cashmere. She destroyed another, cheaper skein once, not that precious, and she ate the arms and ribbing off a thrift-store cashmere cardigan. She never bothers my other knitting. I. Was. So. Mad. At. Her. Words cannot express.
And I even brought her a present from Rhinebeck! A border collie (which she loves loves LOVES).
Can you see it? She’s dreaming of cashmere…..
So I’ve given up the lace for now, and I’m casting on for Ariann, by BonneMarie Burns, in some grey Rowan Kid Classic that I’ve had in the stash for at least five years.