Chugging Along

Rachel's sweater back is about 11 inches and a bit. It's not fast knitting but it's nice and soft and mindlessly entertaining. I am glad we're seeing her this week, as I'll be able to hold the piece up to her and figure out just how long I should be making it. She wants a longer sweater...

Not much else going on here...

Why Is It....

...that you can feel crappy on a Friday and Saturday and then be miraculously all better by Sunday evening? So off to work I go tomorrow. Which is just as well, since our boss is off tomorrow and Tuesday and I wouldn't want to leave Elizabeth there all by herself. Not that she couldn't handle it, wonder woman that she is. I mean, she really is incredible. I'd like to be as smart as Elizabeth when I grow up.

But I did (ta da!) start Rachel's black sweater.

Knit, knit, purl, purl...knit, knit, purl, purl...knit, knit, purl, purl...this could take a while. Though it actually is going faster than I expected.

What else did I do this weekend besides snooze? I did start the new Karen Maitland, The Owl Killers. She wrote A Company of Liars, which I loved. So far, so good.

This May Sound Sort Of Mean...

...but cruising People of Walmart the evening before one's fifty-fifth birthday may not make you feel younger, but it sure makes you feel smarter and more attractive than some people!

Yummmm.....

We had a yummy dinner tonight. Broiled tuna and some delicious butternut squash.

You cut the squash into 1 inch-ish cubes and chop up two or three onions into...hmmm, I think I did sixths or so. Then you toss them with Wegman's basting oil (olive oil with various herbs mixed in), salt and pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet in a single-ish layer. Bake them at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Oh man, are they tasty!

Of course, it helps that Wegman's also sells cut up and peeled butternut squash.

I should have taken a picture, but by the time I thought of it...they were pretty much gone.

We'll be having them again.

I Feel So Competent!

So...a few weeks ago, my cousin Becca gave me an old sweater that she really, really liked. But it had some problems.


This sleeve had a little problem. And there were two holes down near the hem, where the anchors for the pockets had torn the yarn.

I knew I hadn't a chance to find this same yarn. I spent quite a while at The Black Sheep, trying to figure out what I could use. And finally decided on a Aracaunia wool, a blend of creams, blues, browns and greens.

I'd never done a repair like this, but knowing that the sweater was unwearable as it was...that I couldn't ruin it...was very liberating. So I cut the seam open.


I wove a fine needle along one row of stitches...and cut!


I picked the stitches out until I had the partial sleeve on the needle and a swatch of knit that I unraveled and skeined.


I washed this curly little mess and left it to dry over night.

The next day...I started knitting. To try to make this look somewhat planned, I mixed the new and old yarn in stripes.

Here is it, knit but unseamed.

And here it is, seamed.


The cuffs were hemmed and may have been a tubular cast on. I couldn't reproduce it exactly...didn't know how, so I just did a purled turn row and hemmed it up when I was finished.

As for the holes....


the darns are both in this picture. One's in the upper left corner, one in the bottom right. They aren't perfect...the backs in particular are dreadful...but really? I'm pretty pleased.

I'm thinking of doing a little row of chain stitch in the Aracaunia along the top of each pocket just to try to tie the sleeve in a little more. We'll see.