Now for Something Completely Different

I had to frog the sleeves of Husband's sweater. They fit me, but not him, and that's not so useful. I was frustrated, so I took a break from the sweater.

I was visiting Nido a couple of weeks ago, and Fiona asked my opinion about a pattern she'd picked for a sample. The next day, she called me and said that the woman who was supposed to knit the sample had backed out -- would I be interested in knitting it? Sure!

The pattern is Ysolda Teague's Emily Capelet. The yarn is Tidal Yarns DKish weight. It's kind of a light DK. I got gauge with a size 7 needle. I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn -- an alpaca/wool blend, and still very lanolin-y, and just pleasant under the fingers. And I like that it's local and natural and all that good stuff, too. It's got good drape, and isn't saggy.

I don't love the pattern. If I had been knitting it for myself and not as a shop sample, I'd have made a number of modifications. First, I'd do stockinette instead of garter stitch. (The yarn lends itself well to garter, I guess, but aesthetically I prefer stockinette, and I think the yarn would do well.) Also, the instructions specifically say not to pick up the wraps at the end of the short rows, which bugs me to no end. It just seems wrong. Those are the two big ones. I wasn't thrilled with the way the pattern was written, but that's more technical than aesthetic. I just knitted it as fast as I could. And grumped a bunch along the way. I did fourteen repeats of the pattern, and bound off. It took me two weeks to knit the whole thing, and then I put the buttons on last night.

(It must be said that I could not have survived this pattern if it weren't for the handy row keeper-tracker thingy that my friend Aubrey made and gave to me. You can see it in the top photo, that colorful piece of ribbon. Someday she will have her Etsy store up and running, and you should all get one. It's a lifesaver when it comes to patterns where every row is different and there's a lot to keep track of. Thank you, Aubrey!)

Now I can take it to the shop. Fiona is going to block it for me -- normally I'd be happy to do it, but I'm going out of town for a week and would rather give her the unblocked FO than make her wait until I get back to block it and get it to her.

And now I am eager to get back to Husband's sweater. Whew! I guess, much as I didn't enjoy the knitting of it, the Emily Capelet was exactly the kind of project I needed to get me back to being excited about... sleeves!