Sweater Weather

We've been having a warm summer in New England. Really warm. I think we've had more days in the 90s than in the past five years combined. Even if you leave out last summer, which was as unusually cold and rainy as this one has been hot and dry. But over the weekend, a screen of gray cloud was drawn across the sky, water started to drip out of it, and our temperatures plummeted twenty degrees. And suddenly the urge to knit small light things that can be held without touching any part of my body aside from my hands evaporated and was replaced by the urge to fill my lap with something fluffy and warm.

This did not stop me from finishing the second baby sweater, however:


Nothing fancy...I wanted to do something different from the first one, so I cast on the same number of stitches as the raglan (less one button band) in the round, and improvised from there. (Note to self: Do not drink alcohol until after you have cast on. It makes the whole counting thing so much easier.)

But as soon as I had done that, I pulled out the sweater for my sister, which offended me back in the spring when the two front pieces inexplicably came out different sizes. (I checked the last time I saw her, and my sister does not have one armpit two inches higher than the other and a one arm a third larger than the other.) However with my sudden enthusiasm for fluffy, I soon ripped back the offending front piece and re-knit it (this time the same length as the other one, and with the armhole in the right place). And then, then I sewed the back and two fronts together, so I could pick up stitches for the sleeve. And that means I can at last show you something that doesn't look like a fuzzy yellow blob.


I'm really quite pleased with the way this is coming out--it's actually very close to the way I originally visualized the design- a round neck--

--which rises up a bit in back to keep the draft off. It has no buttons, because Kate prefers to let cardigans hang open in front.

It's quite long- nearly knee length on me, and my sister is only a little taller. But she wanted it long enough to sit on. It's a closely fitted design, so I have flared it slightly below the waist to give her some additional sweater to wrap around her legs, and small slits at the side to give a bit slack for movement:


I'm continuing the fitted style with the sleeves, and will taper down to another seed stitch band at the cuff. It's good to see this project moving again...it's been looking at me reproachfully* for a number of weeks. Now if I can just finish the sleeves before the weather turns warm again!

*Not that it has any grounds for reproach...if it wanted to be done sooner, it should have come out the right shape the first time I knit it. It has only itself to blame. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.