in the background...

...so while Effortless was on my needles, I admit that I cheated a little bit. I knit on several other projects here and there, sometimes for gifts, sometimes just to prove I still knew how to knit a hexipuff (oh, poor forgotten beekeeper's quilt) and sometimes just for funsies.


the most important and exciting knitting I was doing was for my Flattie Fattie Blanket (aran weight, unstuffed hexipuffs). This is going to be the most RIDICULOUSLY expensive blanket that I will ever own/make/boggle at. It's knit from Debbie Bless Cashmerino Aran, is double sided (because puffs are double sided) and it is magnificently soft and squishy


I had thought that I might use the ends of each colour to make striped puffs to fit in with the plain colours, but now I'm feeling a bit 'meh' about that idea. However, my feelings are fleeting, so team, what do you think?

so with stripes

without stripes

I have about 7 more colours to add (mainly blues and pinks) and two more neutrals. this would leave enough leftovers for an additional 5-6 striped puffs too.

Help?

Completely Effortless

so perhaps this is a little bit like a pregnancy... the knitting of the thing was at times painful, never ending and sometimes even boring for long stretches. But now that I have the finished, lovely, soft and precious thing? Can't really remember what that was like, and knitting another cardigan is seeming like a better idea every day.

see the project here

sexy pajama shot, straight off the needles
no bra, i'm super stylish

then i sewed in all the end (ALL of them, stripes GAH!)
and set it up for a nice warm soak

after a gentle air spin in the washing machine
a light blocking, the next day I wove wires through the bottom
and across the chest (to keep the sections together) and hung
it over a clothes horse so air could circulate

and then it was finished
could i BE any more matchy-matchy? no, i don't think so.

this cardigan is all the things it promised to be (except for effortless, there is a surprising amount of effort - loads of picking up stitches, lots of math to make things fit right, knitting a cardigan that is TWICE as round as you are is not a cake walk) comfy, squishy, drapey, and just plain lovely.

I can't wait to knit my next sweater!

creeping ever closer...

... bottom rib!

This week (and most of this weekend) I had been CONVINCED that the knitting fairies were sneaking in during the night and tinking back this cardigan.

pretty much stayed this length, defying logic, for about 4 days

No matter how long I knitted, no matter that I had added in new balls of both colours so I *knew* progress was being made, the damn thing wouldn't grow! then last night, all of sudden, it was 15 inches in length from under the arm seam and it was ready to start the ribbing! MAGIC! so now begins the thousands of repeats of k2p2 on allllllllllll the edges of this not-small cardigan. It's going to be SO worth it.

right now