FINALLY FINISHED! (Sort of.)

Howdy Y'all,

I found the above photo of me at my first Knitting and Yoga Monhegan Island Retreat many years ago. So glad that gem floated to the surface because it really captures the spirit of life on the island-- I mean it is total R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N.

I want to share with you a big triumph I had just yesterday. I FINALLY FINISHED MY ADULT BABY SURPRISE JACKET. Well actually finished is a relative term. What I mean is I knitted the last stitch, which I think was Stitch #7,438,204,134, give or take. Never have I gartered so much in my life. And on Size 4 needles. I went from initial excitement to total boredom, to extreme ARE WE THERE YET? And then, finally, as the second sleeve was nearing completion, I had this thought about how when you're on a very long road trip there can be stretches in the middle where hundreds of miles whip by but then the last fifty miles seem like some endurance test. You just want to get there and it's taking forever and there are slow zones and roadblocks and exhaustion and all of it. But then, finally: HOME.

Such was the case with this sweater. Here is a picture of THE LAST STITCH. (If you don't count all the seaming I have to do. Let's not count that.)

THE LAST STITCH

I STILL HAVE TO WEAVE IN A BAZILLION STRANDS

Even though I'm relieved to be in the super homestretch on this project, I am also at the place where I am thinking about all the flaws and errors and stuff I am not in love with. For example, down below, you see that first red stripe closest to us? That's where I added on the sleeve. It looks a bit kooky in the back but this is part of the pattern. Not my error. What was my error-- a total rookie error that I should not be making sixteen years into knitting-- is that when I realized I needed more of the beige-ish yarn (this is Brooklyn Tweed Loft), I went to get some without taking a sample of what I had. So you can see there are two different colors of beige. Fortunately I am from the school of DESIGN ELEMENT where you just say anything that looks a little... um... different than you had hoped is a purposeful element of design. At the rate I'm going I qualify for the title of DESIGNER.

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THE SLEEVE JUNCTURE

Down below you'll see still more DESIGN ELEMENTS. See how those corners up by the collar look like inverted little hoods? Even as I was knitting these areas I thought something looked off but I checked the pattern ninety times (not like me at all) and I swear I got it right. Although maybe I slipped or passed over one direction when I should've gone the other way. Who knows? All I know is that once I really could see these concave "features" I was far too far along to even think about frogging. I'm not a frogger under simple circumstances and I sure didn't want to deal with trying to get eight million stitches back on the needles. (Though come to think of it, very very early in this sweater, I was forced to frog quite a bit when I realized the miter was totally off. Oh I hate frogging.)

Down below witness me weaving in ends. Funny thing about this is that looking at how many I have to do I felt a little bummed out. But then I settled into it and I'm actually finding it sort of soothing. What's helping tremendously is that I've found yet another TV show to binge watch-- and this sweater has seen me plow through several series in their entirety. The show I'm hooked on now is BLOODLINE. It is magnificent to knit to. It's just magnificent period.

And finally, here she is: DONE! I know I keep saying this sweater is done when technically it's not. But humor me. Once I get those ends woven in I am going to seam up the sleeves and shoulders and block it. I've done blocking pre and post seaming and can't say I think there is a huge difference. I wonder if any of you feel strongly about this topic? In the case of the Baby Surprise Jacket I can't see how you could block it pre-seaming since the shape of the thing is so crazy and won't lay flat. I'm also wondering if, during the blocking process, I should try to super flatten those DESIGN ELEMENTS at the collar or just let them be? 

Decisions decisions.

Next up I'm going to knock out a pair of socks using Freia hand painted yarn and also a quick baby blanket for an imminent arrival. (Not mine!) For the blanket I indulged myself and got some Blue Sky Cotton. Like knitting with butter if you could, in fact, knit with butter without making a huge mess.

I hope your life is KNIT FULL and FROG FREE these days. I also hope you'll JOIN US ON MONHEGAN ISLAND in September. As of this posting WE ONLY HAVE THREE SPOTS LEFT. If you want to grab one of those just CLICK THIS LINK.

Cheers,
Spike