Goldilocks Projects

Memorial Day weekend brought one day of sunshine sandwiched between two days of rain. The rain was welcome and now the garden and I look forward to warmer sunnier days. On Saturday we ate a simple grilled cheese/veggie/hummus sandwich dinner out on the deck. The sun was out and the wind was still. Broccoli salad and fresh strawberries rounded out the menu. The only thing that would have made eating outdoors better was potato chips. I rarely buy chips because they are trouble for me - I can't eat just one.

Sunday I finished this sweater for the second time. In the category of "be careful what you wish for" or "pride goes before or fall" or just plain knitting, here is the story. I washed and blocked the sweater and it grew several inches in length but thank goodness not in width. This sweater was too long. I tried it on and clipped a stitch marker to mark the row I wanted to be the hem. I tried it on again to make sure I had marked the length I wanted. Then I ripped out two eyelet/increase repeats of eleven rows each and bound off. I tried it on again and discovered it was too short. I put it back on the needles and reknit one repeat and the border. Then I washed and wet blocked it again. The sweater is quite clean. I was thankful this was a top down sweater that made for an easy fix. Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light is a wool/alpaca blend so I should have known the alpaca might stretch. I have one other sweater knit from this yarn and didn't have a problem but it is seamed. The hem on this flares a bit but I think that is part of the A-line shaping and I'm ok with it. I like the fit. I love the soft gray color and weight of the sweater and will enjoy it next winter.

I also finished Norah's hat. I cast on the first size and knit through the hearts and decided it was too small. The heart pattern makes the next size up quite a jump but better too big than too small. She will grow. The Berrocco Ultra Wool is a good choice of yarn for a little one. I haven't knit much with it but am keeping this superwash in mind for kid knits. It had a nice hand and is available in many colors and weights. While knitting, I tried two methods for jogless stripes but as usual the fabric came out distorted. I searched again and found three Suzanne Bryan's videos on jogless stripes. If you like to understand the technical aspects of knitting or just need to know how to do something, her videos are a good resource. I reknit this hat again in order to perfect the technique but now I've got it. Next up are matching mittens because a girl's hat and mittens ought to match and I have plenty of yarn.

Last week I returned to Toni Morrison's essay collection, The Source of Self-Regard. What a brilliant gifted woman. These essays make me think and nudge me toward viewing art, literature, race, and migration of peoples in new ways. In a lecture she gave in 1988, "Unspeakable Things Unspoken" the description of how and why she chose the first sentences in several of her novels is so interesting. I want to reread a couple of her books. If I missed so much in the first sentence, what else did I miss?  I plan to meander though the book for the rest of the summer. This is daytime reading for me.

I will link with Kat and the Unravelers so you are able meander around knitting blogs to see what others are knitting and reading.

Enjoy these last few days of May.