Adirondack Pullover: Finished!

The Front View



The Back View


Dance Like an Egyptian?

Pattern Available Here!

In other news, can you make sense of this?

You can make it bigger by clicking on it. More will be revealed next time.

Friday

Here's my second version of the Iron Mountain Hat, finished a couple weeks ago, but finally just photographed on a human head. I made this for Mr. SABLE, but he says it's a bit too tight. It fits Owen very well, though, and he says he likes it, so all's not lost. This one was made with a sport weight yarn, with a more rounded, less squared-off looking top than the original.

I also did finish Mr. SABLE's new Adirondack Pullover and it's washed ready to photograph. I took a couple pics flat on the kitchen floor with the glare of the overhead lights and the camera flash. The detail was absolutely lost. Craptacular photos. I hope to get a picture or two actually on the recipient tomorrow, when the temperature will approach the freezing point and it might not hurt to be outside for more than a minute or two.

Finally, a peak of the planning on my next project...

This is going to be a turtleneck pullover for my brother's wife. I played around with various textural details and think I have a plan now. I'm using smooth, classic worsted wt wool, at about 4.5 st per inch, and making a top-down with fitted sleeves. I'll put a fairly substantial cable down the center front, but leave the rest in stockinette stitch for several reasons. One, my S.I.L. is a bit busty and I want to work bust darts on the front. Two, my S.I.L. probably will be more flattered without the bulk that too much texture or too many cables can add. And, finally, three, I just want the elegant simplicity of stockinette st. for most of this garment.

The kids got out of school at 11:30 this morning, just putting the finishing touch on an already-doomed week. Monday: no school for MLK day. Monday night: the LE vomits at bedtime. Tuesday: LE stays home; seems fine. Wednesday and Thursday: I breathe deeply and drink gallons of coffee and before I know it, it's 3:00 p.m. and time to get my boots on. Friday: Home before lunch so the teachers can have time to fill out report cards. I think there are nearly as many disrupted school weeks as normal ones in our school year calendar.

Here's the current progress on Mr. SABLE's Adirondack Pullover. I just need to finish one more sleeve, about 6 more inches on the body, and darn in ends. And wash and block. But I'm in the home stretch, for certain.

I've been playing with swatches for sweater for my brother's wife. I think I've hit on a good idea that might actually lead to a popular pattern. Stay tuned.

The kids went back to school on Monday. Just in time, too. Two weeks of togetherness was pushing our limits! I took a couple very long naps this past week; I guess I'm not back on the school schedule yet.

Hope you are all surviving your winters ok.

A Post Several Days in the Making

I started writing this on Friday, but didn't have photos ready to go and didn't have enough undisturbed time to put two thoughts together coherently. So, am finishing, editing, adding pictures today (Sunday).

Current Knitting
I started knitting Mr. SABLE a version of of the Iron Mountain Hat (v.2) with slightly fatter yarn, in blue and black


Still working on Mr. SABLE's Adirondack Pullover

Still working on the Tahki Tweed version of the One Row Scarf


In addition, longer standing WIPs include
Constance Shorewood about 98% done
The very long-standing tweedy slipstitch sweater for Mr. SABLE
Some miscellaneous socks

Finished a few weeks ago:

A quick little hat from Knit Picks Panache. Not sure I like how it looks, but it feels very soft and warm on my head, which counts for a lot around here.

Meanwhile, I've made plans to make another Iron Mountain v.2 for my friend Jim, for whom I made the brown fisherman's knit raglan last year, and a pullover for my brother's wife. I'm hoping to match both these projects up with stash yarn.

Family Life
Maybe part of why I'm so determined to match projects to existing stash has to do with our pre-holiday preparations. Mr. SABLE's brother and his wife came for a short visit on the 26th, which was great fun. There was a lot of hilarity and fun and games. But before they arrived, Mr. SABLE was driven to clean as I haven't seen him in at least 15 years. He purged and cleaned and filled garbage bags and recycling bins. He scrubbed the bathroom. And now our house is further from the brink of chaos than it has been for some time. So that's part of my motivation to reduce stash: having come this far in our house-normalization process, it seems like a good thing to continue.

The other thing is that on Christmas Eve I had to retrieve some "Santa items" I had hidden in my lair. It took me a full hour of dedicated searching, moving, and organizing to find the bag'o'goodies in a bin I thought I had searched early on. D'oh. And through that, I kept finding yarn I'd forgotten I owned. So I had a moment of clarity where the truth of my sickness was made quite clear.

Christmas Day was quiet. The Little Emperor came into our room about 10 minutes before 7, which is amazingly accurate. We had told him that nothing was happening until 7 and he doesn't have a clock in his room. We tried to doze the last 10 minutes then he gleefully announced that it was time. The morning went well. My brother made one of Owen's wishes come true by sending along an electric guitar that he owned but doesn't play these days.


In the early afternoon, The Little Emperor started to act a little sick. He fell asleep on the couch, spiking a fever of 103 F. In the evening we got a dose of Tylenol into him and got him up to bed. He woke us up at 3:30 a.m. saying he felt hungry and also unwell. Then he had big gastro-enteric symptoms (both ends), several bouts, pretty much keeping us up until 5:30. This was the day that R & C, the relatives, were coming, and we worried about them walking into a house of contagion. It seemed like the little guy was pretty much on the mend by late afternoon and was able to eat a good dinner (pizza) that night with no consequence. Still, I worried a bit, because I know gastro-enteric viruses can stay contagious for a few days after symptoms have passed.

R & C were supposed to stay two nights, but we all had an eye on the weather forecasts which were uniformly grim. They decided to return to C's cousin's in Chicago last night, so they were sure to make their flight back to NJ this afternoon. As it turned out, the flight was canceled, along with all the other flights to NJ on United today.

Finishing Post on Sunday Afternoon
R & C were able to get home, albeit, in a very Planes, Trains, and Automobiles kind of way. They got a flight on a different airline out of Midway, instead of O'Hare; to Philly instead of Newark. Then a rental car to to retrieve their car from Newark Airport, and eventually home to Summit.

BTW, here's one of a series of group pictures we had been ordered to produce for that side of the family:

C., manning the camera, had successfully gotten a laugh out of the kids by asking, "What kind of bees make milk?"
Answer: "Boo bees."

Happy New Year to one and all. Stay safe. Friends don't let friends knit drunk.

Scott's Adirondack Pullover update

Sorry, it's a little fuzzy. Winter light and too cold outside for pictures in full daylight. I added light grey stripes to this one because I don't have quite enough yarn and Mr. SABLE is a big'n'tall kind of guy. And he liked the stripe concept enough that he said he would want them even if I did have enough dark grey. He's really living dangerously with his wardrobe choices these days!

I had an assistant helping, too:


More gratuitous cat pictures: