Well, that's not right

I started knitting that raglan cardigan for Big Niece a bit ago. I was basically winging it, sort of using the EZ percentage system, but not really, because I made the sleeves 40% instead of 33%. They just seemed too small at 33%. Everything was going fine.

The problem came in with doing the raglan decreases. How deep are a two-year-old's shoulders? I used the chart from the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan for help. It said that a 2-year-old's raglan should measure 7 inches.

I looked down at my all-but-finished sweater. That was definitely NOT 7 inches!

Frog. Reknit. Still not 7. Frog. Reknit. Yes! Seven inches! Knit the collar, add the buttons, and huzzah, we're done.

But wait a minute. This doesn't look right, does it?



The way that sweater's knit, the sleeves start at her elbows. That can't be right!

Finally, a stroke of genius: the chart meant that the circumference of the raglan was 7", rather than measuring if you lay the sweater flat and go from armpit to neck.

You know what follows. Frog. Reknit. This time I listened to EZ: she suggests making the yoke depth as a quarter of the body measurement. In my case, for the 23 inch chest, that was about 5.5 inches.


That's much better, isn't it?

And check out these adorable buttons. I think they go great with the autumnally warm yarn!

Startitis

I've definitely got it bad.

Exhibit A:



That's a Classic Merino pullover for Big Niece. It's almost done, with only the underarm seaming (it's knit in the round, following EZ's directions for a seamless saddle-shoulder sweater) and end-weaving remaining. But did I spend the remaining hour to finish this off before moving on? No, of course not. Instead, I cast on for

Exhibit B:



A striped cardigan, knit in one piece, for Baby Niece. Knit in alternating stripes of Classic Merino (the lighter green) and Swish Superwash left over from Robin Hood, with a seed stitch buttonband border knit in in intarsia as I go.

I'm pretty proud of myself on this one, though, as I've found what I think is a good way to get around cutting the yarn for every stripe and leaving myself with all those ends to weave:



The way this is knit, I never have to trail my main leafy-green yarn, because it's always in use to either work the buttonhole band or to do the buttonhole band AND the stripe. The dark green, though, is trailed every time I knit with leaf-green, and since I have to use a separate piece of yarn for the button band, that gets trailed when I'm knitting the leafy green stripes. (Come to think of it, I don't ever have to trail that. I could just use intarsia and keep knitting the button band with it even though I'm not actually doing a color change.)

Anyway, whenever I have to trail the dark green, I tuck it behind the working leafy-green yarn as I go. It's almost invisible from the right side, unless I really stretch the fabric, and avoids having a big loop of yarn on the reverse side. This means that there are much fewer ends for me to do!

And, of course, I'm still not done with the raglan from my last post. I did get done, but I have issues with it, which will be detailed next, once I rework them.

I also started a Christmas present for my husband, but I'm not posting that on here, because he occasionally reads. If you have me on Ravelry, though, you'll see soon enough :)

Oh, and when the new Magknits came out, I just HAD to make the Burridge Blanket. I've been meaning to make an afghan for my brother-in-law, and this was exactly what I envisioned for him. Unfortunately, the yarn I originally ordered (Caron Simply Soft...what, you think I'm made of money, to be able to afford a blanket's amount of wool?), though claiming to be off-white, was actually butter-yellow. Despite my husband's assurances that it looked nice, I'm sending it back and getting Bone instead. Because the husband is also the one that liked the Autumnal Gay Flag blanket. So. He obviously can't be trusted.

So, lots of things to work on! The baby stuff has to be done first, because I need to mail that next weekish. That leaves me with the Nativity, Burridge (which may be done for Christmas, or left for BIL's birthday in April), husband's gift, and, hopefully, a sweater for Husband. He knows all about the sweater, so that'll get posted here.

Hi there!

Well, I'm definitely out of my knitting slump and knitting up a storm! I've finished all the baby items for Twig's non-grandkids, but I'm not showing these quite yet (although I've made no effort to hide them, either). I don't think it's giving too much away, though, to say that each kid will get a sweater, a hat, and a pair of booties. So that was kind of alot of knitting all in about a week.

I'm back, baby!

Then I got an accusatory phonecall from my mom:

Mom: So I've been scouring stores looking for warm sweaters for your nieces. Where am I supposed to find wool sweaters in Georgia?? And it's not like they have an aunt who knits or anything!

Me: Ok, casting on a sweater right now!

So I did:



It's just a basic percentagey bottom-up raglan cardigan. The yarn is Paton's Classic Merino in Royal. A friend gave me three skeins of it for Christmas, and while the colorway is gorgeous, and so rich, I just couldn't figure out what to do with it. Not enough for a sweater. I don't need a hat or scarf, and don't know anyone who does AND who would wear such bright colors. For a while, I was going to combine this yarn with the same yarn in Petal Pink, of which I also have 3 skeins, to make the Rambling Rose cardigan (scroll down), but that was a fiasco. So it's just sat, and glared at me accusingly. (My stash in general has gotten rather oppressive, and I've been trying very hard to work from it, successfully.) And so when my mom called, I figured this would make a nice toddler sweater!

The only thing is, the fabric is pretty thick. I mean, it's worsted weight (size 7 needles). It's fine for an outer sweater, but she'll be wearing it under her jacket. Hopefully it's flexy enough. I think it is. I just really didn't want to go out and buy lighter weight yarn without destashing some.

I think the Petal Pink Classic Merino will, too, become a toddler sweater. My baby niece, who can still be swaddled and who has inherited all the wool sweaters I made for Big Niece, will get a sweater, too, and it might just be leftovers from the pink and Royal yarns. They'd be nice striped together in a simple raglan.

Of course, I have an ambitious Christmas knitting list, but more about that later. I've already mentioned the Jean Greenhowe Nativity set, though, and I've been plogging along with it:



Get your minds out of the gutter, people! That's Joseph! Obviously, much work remains for him. And then there are all the other figures to make. But I figure I have Mary and Baby Jesus already, so with Joseph (and a manger), that's a complete nativity, and if I never get around to the Wise Men and Shepherds, I can make them for Christmases to come to be added to the scene. In fact, I might do just that.