The sweater has been received and now I can unveil it's squishy, cabled goodness.

Remember the summer of 2008? When I did a little fundraiser for the Red Cross and gave away knitted objects as prizes? This is the last one. I'm embarrassed that it took me so long, but I really had trouble finding a pattern I liked. Emily wanted a sweater for her little boy, Jackson. Jackson is a manly little baby and could seriously be a child model. He is just gorgeous.

I found the pattern in Zoe Moeller's Adorable Knits for Tots. I started in August and finished just last weekend. To my utter horror, there was pattern errata listed AFTER I started the sweater, which sparked my tantrum last week. More about that in a minute. For now, bask in the glow of this darling little sweater.

Is it not the wee-est, most darling little sweater? Despite its size (2 years), it took a lot of work. There are 10 cable crosses in almost every row, and the sides and the bulk of the sleeves are seed stitch. I used Berroco Pure Merino (on closeout from Webs!), which was really, really nice to work with. It consists of several plies, and the yarn kept unravelling while I was seaming, but that was really the only problem.

So let's talk errata.

See the large center cable? That's where the errata lies. The cable is apparently supposed to be symmetrical, but the pattern is written so that there are two left twists followed by a right twist. A close-up:

You would think I would have thought this odd. And I did. But there were no good pictures of the sweater in the book (which I borrowed from the library), and it was only when I was knitting the second sleeve that I realized something was off. Way off. I assumed that the pattern and picture were different but never thought about the presence of errata. It wouldn't have mattered - I'd been working on the thing for months and was almost done. After I finished, I checked out some other versions on Ravelry and noticed that most of them looked like the picture in the book. ERRATA!

I ran down the stairs, yelling that I was going to cut someone, and then proceeded to lecture Justin about the perils of publishing a knitting book too quickly. My high horse and I eventually tired and went to bed in a snit.

The upside is that the sweater is still just as adorable as can be, and hopefully Jackson's mom is too charmed by the little man-ness of it to notice any asymmetry. Right?

...this is the mitten you would make.

These are the Bella mittens, based on the long mittens Bella wears in the first Twilight movie. If you're not into breathing heavily around Edward, you can also wrangle your dog with them:

Someone has the snow crazies.

Now, don't go around thinking that I'm finishing things left and right around here. These mittens were done at the end of November, and I was just too lazy to gift them in a timely manner. So while I was putting off a trip to the post office, I made this hat:

This is the Star Crossed hat, another free pattern I found on Ravelry. It is a slouchy hat, and I actually looked pretty good in it. But alas, these knits were not for me. I finally got off my butt last week and sent them to Kate, who has a very, very early morning commute on the el. Just thinking about her commute makes me want to hide under the covers. But I think these will keep her toasty warm, even if she's just teaching pilates, not running away from vampires.

Both the hat and mittens were made out of Malabrigo in the Paris Night colorway. The hat was worsted weight; the mittens, chunky. You will also notice that even though they are the same colorway, they're nowhere near each other in actual color. That was kind of a fun surprise.

I have less than half a skein of the worsted yet and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I was hoping to make myself a hat, but I'm about 10 oz. too short, and my enormous head would not do well with a small hat. So back to the drawing board. It needs to be something worn close to the skin - Malabrigo truly is delightfully soft.

I know you're not supposed to blog when you're angry, but here I am, ANGRY. I just finished a knit that I've been working on for quite awhile. It's all cabled and it's really quite beautiful, but something was off with the cable - it didn't match the picture. I just posted the finished details on Ravelry and learned that errata for the pattern came out AFTER I started the sweater (and the book has been in print for quite awhile). I am an angry little beaver.

Believe me, I still love the sweater, and I promise to show you pictures once it gets to its intended recipient. But nothing makes me more mad than poorly written knitting patterns with no technical editing. And this change to the pattern? Occurs every eighth row. I just spent six hours sewing this thing together - there is no way I'm tinking down to lose a cable.

Agh!

Anyway, I want to show you this hat.

Last year, my sister-in-law told me she wanted a flapper hat. Around the same time, Twist Collective came out with Dietrich. A match made in heaven! This was intended to be a Christmas gift, but, well, felting and I have a long, sordid history of hating each other. I knit knit knit (after I quilted, quilted, quilted) up until 11:58 on December 23. Then I spent two hours trying to felt this stupid thing in my in-law's washing machine. Their washing machine is like the Rolls Royce of washing machines and is very gentle even in the "heavy dirt" load. The hat wasn't having it. Justin and I gave up and went to bed around 2 a.m., after I had rummaged about in the kitchen for a bowl on which to shape the hat. I'm afraid my sister-in-law may have stumbled out of the living room and into the kitchen only to see me with a bowl on my head.

The hat had shrunk a little, but it was definitely Mushmouth territory. Embarrassed, I had to give it to her unfinished, then immediately took it back and brought it home for another six cycles in the washer. Once it dried, I attempted to attach the ribbon with glue, but that just wasn't working. I turned to my current flame, the sewing machine.

The felted wool actually went through the machine very smoothly. I'll think we're still in our honeymoon phase after all the sewing I've done recently. Then I hand-stitched the button on, and tada! Not-so-instant hat.

(Sorry for the lack of makeup and, uh, Justin's sweatshirt. Last week was a little rough.)

I'm really pleased with how the hat turned out. I made the largest size, and I probably could have gotten away with the next size down. Also, the hat sits really low over your face, so if you were inclined to leave out a few rows of stockinette, you'd still have plenty of length.

All right, I've calmed down. All of this hat-talk has made me realize what I like less than errata - felting. (Dude, just talk me OUT of it next time, okay?)

Well, we're getting down to the knitty-gritty of my goals list for my 28th year (technically my 29th, but whatever). I already have ideas percolating for next year, but today I'm pleased to announce that I completed #26 and learned how to do Tunisian crochet.

Fact: When I got my first set of crochet hooks, back when I was 14 or so, it came with a Tunisian hook. I had no idea what it was, but I've kept it through all of my moves over the years. You never know when you'll need a long crochet hook with a knitting-needle stopper.

I found a good video on YouTube here. It's really very intuitive and once I watched the videos, I just picked up some yarn and did it. It does feel strange to crochet again - my right hand and arm were trembling while I tried to make my muscles remember the steps. I'm going to do some squares for Ron's Blanket swap, which need to be sent in a few weeks. This will be my fourth round of participation - maybe I'll have enough squares for an actual blanket!

28 things to do while I'm 28

1. Finish the wedding quilt.

2. Finish the triangle quilt.

3. Ride bikes with Justin.

4. Sew the grey and pink fleece coat.

5. Design and knit my Weasley sweater.

6. Make Elizabeth Zimmerman's modified yoke/raglan/whatever sweater.

7. Sew another skirt. Maybe two.

8. Finish all 3 lingering UFOs

9. Knit a sweater for Justin.

10. Knit 20% of my yarn stash, including any new additions.

11. Spin 30% of my fiber stash, including any new additions.

12. Read all of the Anne of Green Gables books.

13. Take a cooking class.

14. Read the Chronicles of Narnia books.

15. Beat Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Gamecube.

16. Train Gracie to be a therapy dog.

17. Repaint the concession wall in the bedroom

18. Spin and knit a sweater.

19. Create a series (at least three pieces) of art quilts.

20. Finish the first draft of my story.

21. Complete the first cross stitch I ever started (8th grade?).

22. Complete and submit the first level of the Master Knitter's program.

23. Get new furniture for the family room.

23a. Do not kill Justin in the process of above.

24. Construct some sort of anti-squirrel contraption in the vegetable garden.

25. Take a long weekend vacation with Justin.

26. Learn Tunision crochet

27. Learn to embroider

28. Re-open my Etsy store