Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and seamed the Vintage Sweater.

It was only after I tucked in all of the loose edges that I discovered a Terrible Truth. The cuffs of the sleeves are miles too big. No wonder the chick in the picture has them pushed up! I am pretty upset about it. The way I see it, I’ve got two choices: a) get some maroon or invisible elastic and patiently duplicate stitch the entire cuff or b) do something Daring like unravel the cuffs and knit them back on with smaller needles and fewer stitches. I am leaning toward option “b.” It doesn’t involve buying anything or duplicate stitching. And really, what’s the worst that could happen (see Emily with a pile of spaghetti yarn in her lap, crying because the whole sleeve is falling apart)?

After the parade, we packed all of the food I’d been making for Dinner (one defrosted turkey, two macaroni and cheeses, two pumpkin pies, five gallons of peanut oil from two different stores, the extra can of sweet potatoes, the jar of cherries to replace the one that was somehow “lost” in the pantry and the congealed salad that I made at stupid o’clock last night), into the truck and rode out to The Farm to Fry the Bird and Eat. Mom had finished her two inches of ribbing on Her First Sweater. Drumroll, please….

The first installment in the Chronicle of Mom’s First Sweater.

So far so good. Now it’s all stockinette until the neck. Somebody shoot me…

PS Yesterday was Angus’ Birthday. He turned 12. This is what he decided to do on his special day.

I forgot to blog on Thursday. Well, I didn’t forget so much as I Ran Out of Time. We went up to Atlanta on Friday (M’s sister was in a play – she was very good) so I spent Thrusday packing and getting the house cleaned up for our Critter Sitter. But if I had blogged on Thursday, this is what you would have seen:

This is the telephone pole by our driveway.

Bay Minette has put up the Christmas Decorations! Hooray! I’ve always wondered where the pole decorations come from – is there a company that specializes in very large light-up decorations? Turns out there is! And they have a website!

Great Gran also finished the back on the Gatsby cardigan she is working on.

Isn’t this a yummy color?

Great Gran hasn’t made a sweater is a while, but she saw this in the Patternworks catalog (it’s the blue one) and decided that she had to have it. She has also been working like a fiend on Project Linus Blankets. She has a whole stack for us to drop off next Sunday.

The news for today is that (thanks to the round trip in the car) I have finished all the pieces of the Vintage Sweater!

It’s blurry because I was standing on the coffee table to get a good angle and got hit in the head with the ceiling fan. I didn’t try for a second shot.

Now, the pattern says to sew it all together, put the bands on and then block it. I ask you, how am I supposed to sew it together if the edges are doing that curly thing? My plan is to steam blocking the edges, seam, bands and then wet (or steam) block the whole thing. I’ve never made a raglan before, so this should be exciting.

I also got a better button for my Sitcom Chic. Joy.

Get ready to be amazed!

This calls for cake!

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “It took her how long to finish those? All they are is knitting! Oh, honey, that’s just sad!” Yeah, well, maybe it was because they’re nothing but knitting. Knitting on tiny needles. Around and around. I don’t know what I was thinking. The next socks are going to be All About Texture. ‘Cept, I may make some thrummed mittens next. I gotta have something that matches my shockingly bright new coat. Plus, everyone else is doing it. But don’t take my word for it, Google. Nobody mention that I live on the Gulf Coast. I don’t want to hear it. It gets cold here I SWEAR.

I’ve also made quite a bit of headway on my Vintage Sweater (a.k.a. Style No. 710-65).

A back and a front and a half.

And I lied to you before. It’s Bernat who made Nylo Germantown, not Bear Brand. I know, I know, but at least I am Owning My Mistakes. Speaking of mistakes, I did have to pull back several inches of the left front because I was watching TV and not keeping count. A pox on you CSI! But really, people: DNA from a finger smear? Ewwww.

One last thing and then you can go. We came back from Mary Esther (A pox on you Ivan!) before one of my yarn orders arrived so the Post Office had been holding on to it. When we were down there the other weekend (the first time we had been there when the PO was open) I ran over to pick it up. It is every bit as bright as I thought. Mom’s coming Monday for Thanksgiving so we ought to be able to get a good start on her First Sweater.

The Everyday Cardigan is blocking!

I took her off the table three times before I just gave up.

I have a confession. I didn’t finish this cardigan the way the pattern wanted me to. I tried. I really did. I un-bound the left button band three times in my indecision. They wanted me to purl a row on the RS after having 2×2 ribbed for 5 rows. That struck me as unnatural. I (finally) ribbed the last row and bound off.* When I got to the collar, I realized why they wanted me to purl that last row. The top half of the collar is supposed to be in stockinette (on top of an inch ribbing) so that it rolls away from one’s neck. This is why I am the Poster Child for Not Reading The Pattern All The Way Through. Needless to say, I didn’t make the collar the way the pattern wanted me to either. I ribbed it all the way up so that it stands up in the back and sort of falls forward in the front. I think it works. Y’all can be the judge as soon as the thing dries, Betty moves and I can get some pictures taken.

After all of this, I stared another cardigan. This one is from an actual vintage pattern I found in my Great Gran-Mother’s stuff.

There she is again!

I like it ’cause it’s girly! I’ve ended up with some of Brown Sheep’s Nature Spun in Chuck Berry (teehee). Bear Brand’s “Nylo Germantown” is Very Discontinued so I looked it up in this handy Vintage Yarn resource and did some math. The internet is so cool.

*I love how the pattern does the buttonholes! Not so much how they’re made but where the pattern tells you to put them: “…work 8 sts, make button hole, work 7 sts…” It was refreshing to not have to measure and mark, re-measure just in case you stretched, pull the whole thing out after three rows becuase you stretched in spite of all the measuring, wad the sweater into a ball and throw it into the corner only to later find out (after a “cooling off” period) that the cat is sleeping in it.

The orange vest is finished!

I am watching out for puddles. It rained all day Tuesday and Wednesday and the yard is a mess.

I’ve got another one of the front of the sweater. Since that project was out of the way and blocking by Monday (with more leftover yarn than I expected), I started on the Everyday Cardigan. I’ve been working on one of the fronts today. I did have to rip out once becasue I was reading and forgot to switch to larger needles after the ribbing. Duh.

I finished the back yesterday during the President’s speech. Three cheers for Election Knitting.*

I am really enjoying the texture of Peace Fleece: it’s scratchy, has a tight twist and smells like sheep. It is a classic – I am pretty sure that Miss Marple knit with Peace Fleece. I also love the color. My only real complaint is about the tiny sticks and leaves that are all in the yarn! Dumb yarn gave me a splinter (grumble). Now I knit with Caution. The sticks and leaves do add a certain ambiance: I’m feeling all rustic and hard core. Knitter’s Review has a more in depth review of Peace Fleece here.

If anyone is looking for a “My First Cardigan Pattern,” the The Everyday Cardigan is a good choice. It’s a nice simple pattern with shaping on the sleeves (none on the body) that makes a blocky, snuggy cardigan that you can wear all the time.

*Wasn’t Wolf Blitzer’s Giant Clock a scream? And why wouldn’t they let poor, old Larry King go home? Let’s not even mention that Dan Rather seems to have become Completely Unhinged from the whole Election Experience. Does anybody understand the one about side pockets and handguns?