Many thanks to all for the feedback. I've decided to finish the sweater (which was always going to happen anyway), and rather than destroy it (thanks Patrick) I'm going to keep it. When JP and I broke up, I was not at all in a place where I was prepared to accept the end of the relationship, and I was pretty consumed by negative feelings for him, sparked by what I felt at the time to be exceptionally poor behaviour on his part. This negativity has continued for quite some time, but I think that it's now time to have a concrete reminder that there was a time, and quite a long time, when I was pretty happy with JP. Happy enough to spend quite a lot of money on wool that even JP couldn't find scratchy and undertake yet another Starmore. So to answer Chris, yes, it will remind me of JP, and yes, that's still a painful thing, but I'm hoping that the sweater will help to change that.
Okay, too much on the knitting already, I know, but this one's a little different. Last year I was working on a pretty nice sweater for JP,
but then I got sidetracked by the Knitting Olympics, and then I had a problem with the sleeve and got frustrated, and then I decided I'd put it aside for a while until I liked it again, and then I got dumped by JP (damn that sweater curse), and now I have the front and back of a sweater that would fit me, but I'm not sure if it would be wrong for me to finish it for myself. Any ideas? I'm not really sure that I'm a big enough person to finish it and give it to JP at this point. I'd like to be, so maybe that's what I should do, but I really don't feel like I have that much nice in me.
I know, it's not technically the sweater curse because I didn't finish it, but I wanted to link anyway.
Hilarious weekend of climbing and knitting in Guelph. Melissa said she wanted to learn to knit, but really she just wanted a refresher, so we started small. Very small. Small and very, very cute:
Even Clint got in on the action for his very first attempt at knitting. Successfully accomplished casting on 14 stitches and knitting three rows. This involved a great deal of practice with casting on, as you might imagine, what with the stitches falling off the needles and all, which of course resulted in knit stitches that were verytightontheneedles.
Then I finished the modified halfdome hat:
and made a pair of bootees (sewn up by Melissa) for their nephew, Reece, who was just born 5 weeks preemie, from yarn leftover in the skein. Warning: the next pictures are totally off the cute scale:
I think I finally understand how knitting for babies can be addictive.
I wanted a climbing beanie and an excuse to use the silk/cashmere that's been burning a hole in my cache (cache is like stash, only much, much smaller...). This is the plan... we'll see how it works and it worked (eventually). I like the rolled edge of Jesse's halfdome, but the silk/cashmere is too floppy to sustain the roll, so the modifications are for finer gauge yarn, and to replace the roll with some ribbing.
materials
handmaiden 4 ply silk cashmere (55% silk 45% cashmere; 170m/50g)
5 x 2.5mm DPNs
3mm needle for casting on
gauge
7 sts/in on 2.5mm needles
rib
co 140 sts on 3 mm needle; join in round being careful not to twist
using 2.5mm needles, work k2p2 rib for five rounds, increasing 8 sts evenly across fifth round
body
arrange sts evenly on needles (37 sts per needle)
next and following rounds: K until work is long enough to begin decreases (for me this was 6.5cm 9cm / 3.5" from co edge)
decreases
round 1: *K1, K2tog, K to 3 st before needle end, SSK, K1; rep from * to end for each needle in round
round 2: K
rep these two rounds 16x (20 sts remain)
round 3: K1, S2KP, K2, S2KP, K2, S2KP, K2, S2KP, K2, K1 (12 sts remain)
round 4: K
round 5: K2tog, K2, SSK, K2tog, K2, SSK (8 sts remain)
reknit
Try on hat. Discover that the initial assumption about where the decreases would start was misguided and that you've knit a yarmulke. Consider conversion to Judaism rather than ripping. Decide that faith is too much of a burden, and rip back to before the decreases. Knit another inch and revise the pattern. Work decreases once again. Learn patience and tolerance.
finishing
Break yarn (after verifying the damn thing fits... let's not make that mistake again!) leaving some tail; draw through remaining sts and pull tight. Weave in ends.
references
Jesse's original pattern
Cie's circular adaptation