The Little Knittin' Kitten

And an early Happy July 4th to my readers south of the border! My Canada Day is particularly happy because I finally finished that damned argyle sweater. Not only has that sweater fought me every step of the way, but in sewing it up I noticed all kinds of issues.

First of all, the new yarn that was of a different dye lot didn't match quite as well as I'd convinced myself it had while I was knitting it and if you look you can definitely see the difference. Also, because I had to re-knit much of the sleeves, I ended up mixing up the balls of frogged yarn and now one sleeve has a thick strip of a the old dye lot between 2 sections of the new. The change in dye lot is especially noticeable at the shoulder seams because the sleeves were mainly knit with the new dye lot and the front was entirely knit with the old. Also, the collar didn't work out as well as I would have liked, as I'm still pretty inexperienced with picking up stitches. Finally, I didn't notice until after I'd sewn everything up that on the photograph in the magazine the argyle ziz-zags stop short of the shoulders, where as I have made it go all the way up. I asked Nyron if he wanted me to pull it back so that I looked like the magazine but he said he likes it the way it is. He's such a trooper!

Of course, like a lot of other knitters (especially those who are meticulous as I tend to be) I continually see this sweater as unsatisfactory. Nyron kept asking me if I liked it and I would say things like, "I'm just glad you like it" or "I'm happy it's finished, but I'll never be happy with it". I even told him that I would understand if he didn't want to wear it out in public! But the important thing is he's happy with it (although at least he's had the honesty to admit that he notices the different dye lots, too). And even I have to admit he looks quite dashing in it:

Gotta love his male model pose. He's so cute. :)

I've only just finished this project and I'm on to others. I'm crocheting as many blanket squares as I can for the Homespun Helpers (previously Craft for a Cause) blanket square contest; the knitter/crocheter who makes the most gets a $25 (American!) gift certificate to the yarn shop of their choice and anyone who posts that they have made at least 5 by today goes into a draw for a skein of yarn. It's not against my yarn diet if it's a gift. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!). I'm crocheting granny squares to piece together into a blanket for Warming Families; it's a great way to get rid of all that Bernat Berella 4 in my stash (I have a whole Rubbermade container full from when I used to do Knit for Kids through Lewiscrat at Christmas). Here's 14 of the 18 squares I've knit so far:

I'm also knitting the moss square towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting as part of a spa basket I'm putting together for my friend's bridal shower gift. I'd also like to knit her a chenille bath mitt if I have enough time. The bridal shower is on the 14th, so I only have 2 weeks to get it all together. Fortunately, it's a long weekend, so I don't have to work tomorrow and therefore should have lots of time to knit. Unfortunately, I have lots of housework that has to get done this weekend because we're having our annual house party/bbq next weekend. Also, spending so much time working on Nyron's sweater has made me neglect Nyron a bit and he was getting jealous. Speaking of which, I should go spend some time with him now. ;)

Until next we knit!

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