29: used to (almost) be...

my mom is always complaining about being cold. the inside of their office is kept feeling like a walk-in fridge in mid-Summer. then there is the arctic chill along the Hudson River in mid-Winter, which makes going to and from her workplace feel like you are in a wind tunnel in Antarctica. as a result, she is always cold.

i welcome any excuse to make use of my ever-expanding stash of yarn, so i took up the challenge of making a cardi (or two) for my mom. specifically, i wanted to make a wool sweater that could be used as an extra layer of insulation under her Winter coat, but that she could wear unbuttoned around the office to keep her shoulders and arms warm during the air-conditioned Summer months.

after much contemplation of both yarn and pattern options, i finally set out on the seemingly simple task of making a cardi for my mom. then everything went terribly wrong.

this used to (almost) be a cardi for my mom.

[random aside: i am drinking a very non-Summery cup of hot chocolate and taking my patented mix of 'one of each type' of headache tablets, because it is one of those days. moving on...]

all that remains is this narrow strip from the bottom of the back section. well... that plus all the yarn that has been wound into a ball about the size of my very-non-small head. i went searching for said ball of yarn today, but it was nowhere to be found. hopefully i did not toss is away in a fit of absolute frustration.

there are those moments in life, when you have to accept that something is not meant to be... then you stop wasting your own time. unfortunately, i tend to suck at taking my own advice. i kept encountering one minor problem after the next, and each time i would rip back to some earlier point, then try to figure out what i was doing wrong. i probably threatened on multiple occasions to send the whole thing flying through an un-opened window, out into the middle of the street below. that is my go-to threat when faced with so much frustration, and he always says the same thing.

him: go ahead... but you're the one who's gonna fix the broken window. 

turns out, i really did not like the choice of that particular yarn for that project. it was producing  fabric that felt very uncomfortable in my hands, and i knew that the finished garment would lack the cozy factor that i was counting on for my mom.

so, one day, as i was in the midst of unraveling the previous inch or two with the intention of knitting that bit over again, frustration got the best of me... so i kept on unraveling. that strip remains only because i wanted to hang on to part of it so that i could try to figure out what went so terribly wrong.

i was so annoyed at this point, that i went on a mini-marathon of knitting other stuff, just to get that project out of my mind. there was the cardi for his mom (which i talked about earlier in the month)...

i also kitted a couple warm weather tops for me (which i will try to remember to take photos of one of these days), and i made a Flax sweater pour moi. i made one for him a few years ago, and it is his go-to sweater in the Winter, which warms this knitter's heart. now i have one of my very own. hopefully it will get just as much use.

my Flax includes a side-split on the hem, and the back is a couple inches longer than the front, which i tend to prefer these days.

i also made the column of grater stitches (the horizontal ridges) a bit wider than the pattern suggested... because i can do what i want with my own top.

with that done, i (finally) tracked down the leather elbow patches for his Watsyn Cardigan, so now he is allowed to wear it... you know... once it goes back to being cold again.

i love this design so much. it is sized from child to adult, so you can get plenty of use out of the one pattern. the collar is my favorite part.

i added pockets to his Watsyn (which was not part of the original design), and i finished it off with some coconut shell buttons with a design that reminds me of the Daymare Town games.

still, in the midst of all of this activity, all i kept thinking was, i really should be knitting that cardi for mom. however, it was so warm out by this point, that the thought of sitting around with a lap full of a heavy wool garment seemed like a punishment, so i opted instead to start working on a less-bulky sweater using the same pattern as in the cardi for his mom.

it was my sincerest intent to have this done by the end of this month, but it has been so hot and muggy, that working with wool was not a realistic option. i managed to get the odd few rows done, especially on the really unpleasant days when we had the AC blasting, but it is very hard to be motivated by a wool sweater in the middle of a heatwave.

this is about as far as it has gotten. it does not look it right now, but i assure you that the Sibella is a really beautiful cardigan.

the bottom edge is rolled up, so it is a bit longer than it appears at present. this rolling is typical for this kind of knitted fabric, and it will sort itself out once the ribbed hem is added along the bottom.

i used the same approach as with the gold cardi: begging in the middle, knitting up through the patterned yoke section, up to the neckline, then resuming knitting from the bottom of the yoke, and i will continue on in that direction down to the bottom edge.

i know that mom likes her sweaters on the longer side, so i plan to keep on knitting until i run out of yarn. for that reason, i put the body stitches on hold, while i work on the sleeves (i am almost done with the first one), then i will go back to working on the body, making sure i reserve enough yarn to add the button bands at the end.

i love this pattern so much, and i will very likely make the pullover sweater version for myself at some point.

so, while i have been (mostly) neglecting the cardi, i did cast on—and i have almost completed—a light, almost-meshy cotton layering piece that i will most likely also give to my mom... although i may wear it once or twice before doing so. it is the Alfama cardi by Amy Christoffers. i absolutely loved this pattern at first sight. it would be a fantastic cover-up for those cooler days at the end of the Summer. and i am making a longer version than the sample, because 'tush coverage' is a high-priority in my life.

the yarn i am using for this is a (mostly) cotton blend with some little blips of color that only makes me think of clown barf. i have not spent much time around barfing clowns, but it seems safe to think it might look something like this.

the clown barf cardi will definitely be done some time this week, and i will hopefully get back to working on the other one... unless some other thing catches my attention before then.