Life After the Sweater's Completion

The Kimono Sweater is done, and yet the knitting goes on without missing a beat.


But before I even get started talking about new projects, I'd like to dive off into tangent-ness for a moment to talk about wearing hand-made items. I wore the new sweater to my gallery's opening Friday night. I always feel especially self-aware when I'm wearing things I've made, and particularly so when wearing them for the first time. I have a bunch of jewelry and a scarf or two, maybe a hat, etc, that I made so long ago that these things are now very much ingrained into my rotation of accessories, and these I wear now without a second thought (at least until somebody comments on them), but recently finished projects... I look down at the sleeve and relive every stitch; there's novelty in how the item drapes and feels and smells; I worry about what will happen if I get caught wearing it in the rain.


Only one person (my boss Nicole, who knows I knit) commented on the sweater Friday night to ask if I had made it myself, but I take that as a compliment - it looked nice enough to pass as storebought.


Anyhow, the world turns and I must move on into new endeavors. So... what's that brown lump over there? Hm?


Why, it's a Fetching fingerless glove, turned into a convertible mitten!!


Here's the top-up shot.






















And here's the top down - back:

...and front.

These are for my mom, and hopefully they'll be done by the time I fly out to see her on Tuesday. Shouldn't be a problem, the first is finished and I'm making headway on the second. See? A whole cuff already.

They'll need buttons sewn on so that they hold closed a bit better, but I'll let her pick those out and I'll sew them on while I'm visiting.

The yarn is Misti Alpaca Sport, 100% baby alpaca, which I bought at Ewe Knits in Virginia Beach. Misti Alpaca's website says it's the "softest yarn ever" and that just may be true. It is not, however, the ideal yarn for this pattern. It's dark and fuzzy so it doesn't show off the cables or ribbing all that well, and it's a sport weight so I had to go and reconfigure the pattern for that, and the mitten is still a little, er, lacier than I wanted. Nonetheless, it is SOOO soft and putting it on my hand is a very pleasant experience. And it's very warm regardless of the slightly open stitches. Besides, my mom picked it out.

After that, I get into this stuff, but I'm not saying what it will be because it's a surprise for a friend.