Swatching and sweaters

I'm knitting "Hey Teach" for the winner of the Pete's Greens giveaway/fundraiser run by Juniper Moon Farm. The yarn arrived yesterday, and I swatched last night. Unbelievably, my very first swatch matches the gauge exactly. The yarn is a surprisingly soft worsted weight wool, and lovely to knit with. I'm planning to cast on tonight.

Three cakes, one minus the swatch amount.
Two leftovers, just in case, and because I have a cool idea for them. It turns out the skeins are marked with more yardage than indicated on the web site, so three should definitely be enough for this sweater.
I also cast on a sweater for Fintan on Monday, because the yarn hadn't arrived yet, and because he needs me to be knitting for him right now. I chose the main color, he chose the pattern and contrast colors. To make time for the Hey Teach, I also hustled to finish the sweaters I've been working on for the older two. I especially love the one I finished for Sophia. This is a simple raglan, knit with sock yarn from the Midnight Sheep, beautifully hand dyed by my friend Helena. The sweater is a bit large on her, but she'll be able to wear it for a few years, and she doesn't mind baggy. She loves the colors. I started out with a textured stitch on top, and then really wanted to see the colors in stockinette, so I switched for the lower body. I love the effect. Also, on Friday I told Sophia that if she would go for short sleeves she could have the sweater within a week. She enthusiastically agreed, and I finished the sweater on Sunday. I knit six inches of the body, and did all the finish knitting on Friday and Saturday, and spent several hours Sunday weaving in those ends.






And here's Dante's sweater, which barely fits. It's exactly the right size, but it looks uncomfortably fitted on him, because he normally wears baggy clothes, and because he probably grew an inch around in the two weeks it took to knit this. Also, I like the look of the collar, but it only really looks good on Fintan. On Dante it fits so closely that the collar tends to lay too far back.Live and learn. I do a lot of guessing when I knit for the kids. Anyway, it looks like I'll be knitting another sweater for Dante before too long.


So, I committed to a pair of socks, mittens, a hat, and a sweater for each child this winter. So far I have remaining on my list: sweater for Fintan, sweater for Gavyn, hat for Dante, hat and mittens for Sophia. Not too bad. I didn't know if I could do it, but now I think I can get them all done before the snow goes away.

Cliodhna's Thistle shawlette

Last Saturday I wound this yarn intending to start on a Multnomah, but only got as far as the cast-on. Then the yarn took itself in a totally different direction. You might see a resonance from one of my recent shawls. This is one of those pieces that looks better on the wearer than all stretched out. The colors are just lovely. It is Haithrun sock (MCN) from Gaia's Colours in Cliodhna's Thistle. I actually had to finish the bind-off with half a yard of her Pales sock in the same colorway. If I write up this pattern I'll be able to avoid that little problem, since there are about 5 extra rows in one of the stockinette sections.

The pattern is mostly stockinette, to show off the beautiful colorway, with a little texture in between to keep it from getting too boring. I think Sophia may have adopted it after modeling.

In other news, I get to knit Hey Teach for the winner of the Pete's Greens fund-raiser giveaway at Juniper Moon Farm.

I will be knitting with Juniper Moon Farms Worsted in Rainstorm, a nice dark grey. I was going to link a photo, but it's gone because I bought it all. I guess I'll post it when it arrives and I begin swatching. They are having a sale on their yarns right now--all skeins except for sock yarn are $10. Worth taking a look.

I'm tickled that L.D. chose this pattern, because it is the pattern that the Yarn Harlot was working on when I first started reading her blog, and I've had it sort of in my mind since then.
I'm really looking forward to the knitting.

Giveaway/fundraiser

Link
Click this link to find out how you could win this cutey.

Of course she is only offered to people who are experienced and able to care for her. Please read the blog post, and if you haven't heard about it yet, read the post about the fund-raiser/giveaway being run by Juniper Moon Farm to help out a local Vermont CSA, Pete's Greens, which lost its barn in fire in early January.

There is an amazing list of prizes in this giveaway--really amazing, and long. And if you check out the links, you'll see that some are truly amazing works of art.
They keep adding prizes, as businesses and individuals keep donating them. The minidonkey pictured above is the most recent addition to the giveaway, but is being offered separately, for obvious reasons. The main giveaway ends on February 6.
Please check it out and consider donating to Pete's Greens. And also consider posting about this on your blog or Facebook, or wherever you hang out. This is a worthy cause, and Pete has promised to pay it forward. You can read his statement here. This is a remarkable organization.

Two down!

First up: Emily 2 knit in 424 yards of AK47 in Tequila Sunrise from the Gossamer Web. 100% silk gorgeousness.





Brioche stitch vest, knit in superwash merino DK in Midnight Maus and trimmed with Glengariff, from the Midnight Sheep. The fabric turned out a bit too heavy for itself, so I'm afraid it will really stretch, but it does really fit, so I'm happy about that, and I loved knitting with this gorgeous yarn.