Good news, bad news.

What should I expect? After all, it IS Monday. The good news is that I finished Sylvi. And oh, what a beautiful sweater she is.

The bad news? Well, let's just put it this way. De Nile ain't just a river in Egypt. It seems that I've gained a wee bit of weight since I moved to Canada. My doctor and I had a discussion about that same weight, and agreed that I should lose a bit. So I'm trying. Unfortunately for me, not quickly enough. And probably won't be in the right places.

In any event, I did model her, just so I could show her off.

I got stitch gauge just fine, using my 6.0mm needles. Row gauge seems to be a bit off, though. The sweater is much shorter than pictured.
Also, the hood wasn't quite as tall as I would have liked; well, needed is a better word.

Look at the flower detail:
That's just gorgeous. The petals are added after everything else is knitted. Just pick up two stitches at the base, and away you go. Then you sew the petal down once you have completed knitting it.

I used 8 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, colour number 105 which appears to be discontinued. I had calculated that I would need 10 balls, so apparently being off on row gauge made a huge difference.

If I were to make this design again, I would modify the pattern by working an edge stitch that is always slipped at the beginning of a row and knit at the end, and then a stitch that is always knit on the right side and purled on the wrong side. This would give me edges and a seam similar to that on Inggun, which I quite adored.

I'd also measure myself before I started, to be certain that I made the correct size.

I'm not going to frog this sweater. It's too beautiful. So here's the question -- do I give it to my daughter, my step-daughter or my daughter-in-law? They're all approximately the right size. Did I mention that I'm open to bribes?

Good bye, old friend

Good bye, Henry. You've been a wonderful friend --

everything a kitty should be. From sunning yourself in the sun,
to claiming every box you saw. Everyone loved you.
And you loved everyone. Your favourite pastimes were sleeping in the sun, wherever you found it.
Or simply being near us, wherever we were.
When the weather turned chilly, you'd warm us up. Or perhaps we warmed you. We could never tell, except that the purr motor was constant.
For such a small critter, you've left a gaping hole in our hearts.
Sleep well, Henry. We loved you well.

November? Already?

I can't believe how quickly the year has flown past. I mean -- seriously? November? Where did October go? We aren't even going to talk about September!

The good news is that I did manage to complete the October socks very close to the end of October. Actually, I was only one day late. Notice how these look like plain, old vanilla socks?

Until you look at the top of the foot!
These are Kei-Mei from Cookie A.'s book, Sock Innovations. I knit mine in Arequipa, from Estelle.

Finally, I just had to brag show off report on my progress on Sylvi.
I still have all the flower petals to complete, but everything else is stitched together. I'm 12 rows into the hood! I'll be wearing this baby soon!