A Sweater Is Born

Near the New Year 2010, I asked my mom to choose a sweater for me to make for her, and she chose the Classic Lines Cardigan, from Knit Picks.  We ordered the yarn, which I rewound.  I contemplated the project for a while, intimidated by the work that lie ahead.  I cast on one of the sleeves, really with no idea of what I was doing, but I forged ahead anyway.  There were months at a time when I set the project down because I got to a point where a decision had to be made and I froze with indecision.  

Finally, earlier this year, I decided to tackle this project in earnest.  By August, I was getting pretty far along and decided that I could have it done for my mom in time for her birthday on September 6.  Well, with the exhaustion induced by going back to work combined with pregnancy, I felt like I slowed down a little bit, but I was able to complete the sweater by the evening of September 7 and delivered it to its owner the morning of the 8th.  Since I made it to her measurements, I think it fits my mom perfectly, and she seems happy with it.  

Now that this is finished, I feel like I can knit anything!  I started on a pair of socks, but the gauge was wrong (despite knitting a swatch), so I had to order smaller needles.  Today, I ordered the yarn for a beautiful sweater for the new baby, so hopefully I'll have two new projects on the needles by the end of the week.

I traced the sweater to make sure it stayed true to size after I washed it.

It gets a wash before I block it to the right shape and size.

Soak is a knitter's best friend.

I stitched every single stitch on both sides of the cut line and marked the cut line with stitch markers.

I thought the hem turned out beautifully.

The hand-stitching is hardly noticable, although this part will be covered up in the finished garment.

The stitching on the right side of the sweater.

Knitting the very last stitch on the sweater - the button band - after cutting it into a cardigan.

My mom wearing the sweater that was sized, shaped, and handmade just for her.

Swiss Victory

Today, Chip played his first soccer game as a member of Team Switzerland.  They did very well; they won the first game 10-1 and the second game somewhere around 8-1.  G scored a spectacular goal in the second game, sending the ball over the heads of players and goalie, into the sweet spot in the top right corner of the net.

The ball didn't make it anywhere near the goal while he was goalie in the first game.

Ready for action.

Happy to be back on the pitch.