Sunday, March 26, 2006

100% acrylic

Okay, acrylic has a bad rap sometimes. It's great for messy little people like this:



Honestly, if that had been some expensive fibre, I'd never have let him wear it! With acrylic, he wore it daily, and it got washed almost as often. Okay, it's a little fuzzy, but that'll happen to anything that gets washed with the evil velcro! That's an old picture, almost two years ago. They grow so fast. That sweater, BTW, still fits, in a pinch. Although squeezing his head through the neckhole is a bit of a struggle. I could have used superwash, I suppose, but I don't completely trust superwash, it can be slippery stuff! That pattern is The Sweater Pattern. We call it that because I was given it by my MIL. She used it to knit for The Boy's dad--I think he got his first sweater from that pattern when he was 8! So I am carrying on a family tradition!

Alison

PS Don't you just want to squeeze those little cheeks? I'd forgotten he was that little, because he looks and sounds so grown up now.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Top Ten Trivia Tips About Alison!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Alison!

  1. You share your birthday with Alison!
  2. Medieval knights put the skin of Alison on their sword handles to improve the grip.
  3. Snow White's coffin was made of Alison.
  4. While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes dressed up as Alison!
  5. Alison is 984 feet tall!
  6. In Chinese, the sound 'Alison' means 'bite the wax tadpole'!
  7. Alison can't drink - she absorbs water from her surroundings by osmosis!
  8. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by Alison!
  9. Alison can live for up to a week without a head!
  10. Alison has three eyelids!
I am interested in - do tell me about

Friday, March 17, 2006

They think it's amazing...


Honestly, this little sweater has received more compliments than any of the other sweaters I've made for The Boy. This one is also from "Top Down For Toddlers", and took no more than a week (that's a week of knitting only in the evenings after The Boy is asleep but before I fall asleep myself, which, believe me, really isn't that much later than he goes to sleep!). Anyway, it was a simple knit, although the cable looks complex (it's not, it's really a pretty standard cable), but this is probably the sweater with the highest ratio of compliments to hours worked that I've ever made. The yarn was half price Rowan cashsoft (cashmere, merino, and microfibre) in oatmeal and feels very nice. Although I wouldn't have bought it full price ($12.95 for 50 g!), half price was acceptable. Even so, one skein (90 m) had three knotted ends in it! I'd have been mad if I'd paid full price for that.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Instant Sweater





Okay, this is the first top-down sweater I have done. I must say, I like top down--cast on, knit, cast off, instant sweater. No sewing, no seams. This is also my first e-bay wool, from 100purewool. Gorgeous, cloud soft, 100% merino from Uruguay. It's delicious. When I first opened the box, The Boy's reaction (after rubbing his face agains the skeins) was "Oh, it's so soft...". Look at the lightning bolts around the middle--you never know what you're going to get with hand dyed!