I don't mean Sweetie Girl, even though she is growing like a weed. I mean her Drive-Thru sweater. When the stomach flu swept through our house right after Christmas, Sweetie Boy got it, and then I fought off a mild version of it. Luckily, it only lasted 2 days, and then we were right as rain. In those 2 days, I got plenty of knittin' done, but it was all for naught. The body, knit in the round and from the bottom up, was supposed to be 26" circumference; instead, mine grew to 31", way too big for Sweetie Girl, so I frogged it of course. I had knit 10" of it, and it was a little sad to see the work become a mass of squiggly yarn. But I knew it had to be done, so I did it. After a few days away from it, I'm picked it back up and now am past the point of froggage. The sleeves are attached and now I'm starting on the yoke. I probably have one inch more before I start on the stripes.
Before
After
How did she grow so much? It's silly of me, really. I swatched on size 7 needles, found the stitch gauge close but the row gauge was way off. I swatched on size 8s; stitch gauge was right on and row gauge was much closer. What was the problem? I swatched back and forth, instead of in the round. I know. I know. I should know better. I do know better. I just get lazy. I should change my blog name to Lazy Dazy Knits. I thought I would try to sneak one past Lady Luck and the Knitting Goddess, but they were both paying attention. I frogged down to a few rows after the 1x1 rib (done on size 7s), and used size 6s for the rest of the 10" of stockinette. The sleeves, done both at the same time on 2 circs, were knitted on size 8s and I got gauge on those. I guess my flat and 2 circs gauge are close. I just have to remember to go down 2 needle sizes, when knitting in the round.
See this beautiful booga bag? My sister made it! I'm so proud of her. This is her first non-scarf project, and she's even using it to carry her yarn, when she takes her daughter to piano. All the better when it's a functional FO. She's the mom of my knitting niece of the striped scarves from an earlier post. I love it when knitting is a family affair.
After we recovered from stomach flu and before I could bring myself to start up Drive-Thru again, our one family outing was to the land of Ikea. Heed my warning: Don't ever go there during the holidays. It was madness, and Sweetie Hubby vowed never to go again. I don't blame him. I think we were there for 4 hours total, and 30 minutes of it was spent waiting at the furniture pick up. It was a day of meatballs (what lured Sweetie Hubby there originally), plastic kid stuff, cheap and instant furniture, and cinnamon buns. Our heads were spinning afterwards. We were lucky though, because we didn't have to go back for any missing pieces. Here's the end result of our foray to Ikea, an extra computer desk, so both kids can play on the computers at the same time. Because having 2 TVs with 2 game consoles in the same room isn't enough? Don't ask... Sweetie Hubby is a game programmer, so I allow him to indulge. After all, I get my yarn.
