Sometimes I get in the mood to start things (see blue lace above). Sometimes I get in the mood to finish things (see Cables, Baby! sweater). Sometimes, this all happens in the space of a few days--the scarf made a trip to the Mariner's game last Friday, and I finally finished the weaving in and button sewing on the sweater (which I started, no joke, last August).
Overall, I'm pleased with how the baby sweater came out. It was a giant pain to sew up, and the color of the yarn wasn't quite what I expected when I ordered it, but I really like the cable pattern and the off-centered buttons. Assuming that it fits the baby I'm giving it to (who is obviously not the baby I started this for a year ago), it will look really cute. The pattern is Baby Yours (Rav Link) by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and the yarn is Socks That Rock mediumweight in the Nyame colorway. I knit the 6-month size, and have a little bit of yarn leftover from a single skein. Not so much that I feel like I've wasted anything, but not so little that I panicked while knitting.
On to the next blue item, one which may not be long for this world. It's the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery, in blue Handmaiden Seasilk. I've had the Seasilk in my stash for a really long time (at least 3 years), and I really like some of the scarves I've seen knit from this pattern (there are 3,600 on Ravelry), so I thought it would be a good match. After knitting about five inches, I'm not so sure. In the original version, the diagonal zig zag lines are very strong. I think that the key is the double yarnovers, which are flanked by single yarnovers on the outside edge of the lines. In the original, the single yarnovers are not very noticable, but in seasilk the drape of the yarn makes the singles look almost as big as the doubles. This assumes, of course, that I'm knitting things right. Here's a close-up version that may show better what the problem is:
See? You can't really tell which YOs are wrapped once, and which are wrapped twice, and the zig zags are all jagged-y as a result. I'm taking this to knit night this week for further opinions / dissections. I may be making a mountain out of a molehill, but I'd hate to waste such beautiful yarn on a pattern that I'm not loving. And I'd love to knit this pattern out of something that will really show it off--it's super easy to memorize, but not so easy as to be totally dull (in the first five inches).
