Well, I'm well on my way to earning that new cowl. (Still not here, and the postal workers didn't abscond with it after all, so kpixie has sweetly offered to send another my way. Kind customer service is alive! IT'S ALIIIIVE!!!)
I've been sick almost this entire week, in a bizarre twist that left me home ill from work for four days (!!), save an ill-conceived three-and-a-half hour attempt to return to work yesterday. I felt fine Monday, a little achey but I assumed that had to do with the new diet-and-exercise I've finally picked back up (down four pounds, y'all!) and then right before bed I coughed, just the once, and it had that very alarming chest rattle sound and felt ever so briefly like I'd been donkey-punched in the sternum. "Uh-oh." Sure enough, I woke up on Tuesday half-dead and have clung to that state of being ever since. The doctor said it's a virus (read: suck it up and ride it out, no drugs we can prescribe for that one) and most of what I've been capable of for those four days is napping and occasionally dragging it into the kitchen to make tea, then wheeze my way back to the couch. It was evident that I should not have gone back to work when I got there and was met with a chorus of "Whoa, what happened to you?"s and "Man, you look awful!"s. Aww, thanks, guys.
But, sickness is good for knitting - when I'm not sleeping, I'm sitting on the couch watching DVDs of TV (Bones and Big Bang Theory, primarily, since you're curious) and knitting at quarter-speed. I finally managed to pull off this baby surprise jacket I've been plugging at most of the month. Why did this seem to take so LONG when it's for such a tiny person?
Ah, that's why. Because it's a Toddler Surprise Three-Quarter Sleeve Trench Coat. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if this is just how it turns out.... The magic of the design is cool, but it seems like the body of this jacket won't fit little Kelly until he's two, and the sleeves are already too short for him at six weeks. Then again, I know less about baby construction than I do about garment construction, so maybe it'll be fine.
Project Details:
Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (can you believe it's my first?)
Yarn: Araucania Pomaire Multy (it's spelled that way on the label, I swear)
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)
Buttons: some sort of polymer coated shell from JoAnn's
Start: January 2, 2009
Finish: January 29, 2009
I'm glad I made this, and I can't believe it took me so long to finally get around to one. I probably won't make it again. It's nothing against the design (again, clever as hell) but it's just so....garter. I'm one of those weirdos who just can't fall in love with back-and-forth garter stitch. I like stockinette in the round ... which is just garter stitch, really ... but flat garter doesn't thrill me. I think this is way cute and great for a baby, but I think I'm just so in love with seed stitch for babies, so Avery edges it out as my favorite baby knit so far. (In a sock yarn, that one only took me two weeks. Huh.)
I am really glad that I went with the blue buttons on this, rather than the green I almost picked up. They pop, huh?
In classic style, however, I cast on for another project before my cowl pattern gets here....so one step forward, two steps back. That's even worse that the saying goes. And this pattern is for an item I was pretty sure I'd never ever knit, especially not for myself. Oh the times, they are a-changin'!
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