Sweater Adventures

Hello Gentle Readers. This morning is a chilly gray end to March. Late last week rain fell and then a snow shower blew through on Saturday. Yesterday morning greeted us with another dusting of snow. The days are cold, some windy, some still. March is winding down. The winter juncos still flit in and out of the yard but this morning I saw a gold finch sporting his brighter yellow feathers. Small early iris bloomed just before the cold returned. The friend that shared them with me called them "purple flags." Years ago I planted them all around the front of the perennial flower bed but very few remain. My friend, an avid gardener, moved away and then died several years ago. These little flowers are a sweet reminder of time spent with her. 

Today I am happy to be posting with Kat and the Unvavelers. My computer overheated again. The shop here is very good and ran the second analysis at no charge but couldn't find any malfunction. Thanks to some ideas from my son, it is running normally. He thought a piece of software might be getting caught in endless looping. I also bought a new power strip for good measure. 

Since I last posted, I fixed this sweater. How I ended up with so many extra inches is slightly mysterious. After blocking, both my row and stitch gauge were accurate but I had misread the bust measurement for the size I was making, thinking it was two inches smaller than was printed. That doesn't account for all of the difference though. Maybe the 1.5 inches I added to the yoke depth and the construction also contributed to the extra inches? 

Since the yoke fit fairly well, I ripped back to the sleeve separation and cast on nine fewer stitches under each armhole. I knit two rounds and then decreased two additional stitches, one on each side of the back. Twenty fewer stitches removed four inches. Then I knit about an inch, blocked the sweater, (see the visible line in the photo) and it fit better. I knit the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater twice as the first go-around looked sloppy. Hopefully the visible line disappears on the next blocking.

Since the number of sleeve stitches is now different from the pattern, I calculated a new set of  sleeve decreases. I'll try it on soon to check the sleeve circumference.  Although I'd rather not, I'm prepared to rework parts of this sleeve.  I've also washed and re-skeined the ramen yarn.  There you have it, probably more than you ever wanted to know about this sweater.  Who knows what will happen next. It's a good thing I'm enjoying the yarn. 

The light is lousy today for photos. Anyway, I've added a few rows to the Sophie Shawl. While pondering the sweater, I cast on a sock but I haven't made much progress. 

Last night I finished The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson. This fiction is an example of a small press, Milkweed, publishing a well written book that might not garner attention of the bigger publishers.  I loved the story of the generations of Dakho´ta women passing down seeds and caring for plants as a way to preserve their families, land, and history. The characters are beautifully written. Wilson writes a reverence for the land, the water, the plants, family ties, and the people. I will be thinking about this story for a long time. 

I now return to Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark. I finished rereading it last week. I previously wrote about Cather's negative stereotyping of Native Americans and Mexicans. Near the end of that novel is a racial slur in reference to a hotel employee. I reread the section and honestly, nothing in the story depends upon that racist comment. After reading the slur on top of the stereotypes, the book lost much of it's luster for me. I realize that 1915, the date of original publication, was a different time but I hope any modern discussion of the novel includes that material. I am a different reader than I was the first time I read that novel.  

So friends, I hope all is well and that your making treats you well. 

Ravelry Links

Maddox Sweater

Basket Weaver Ribbed Socks