That magical sweater in a week thing

Do you recall how I wound all that yarn?  Well Friday morning this happened.  I swear by all that I am that it was only going to be a swatch.

By Friday evening, it was here,

and that was it for the day.  My hands gave out though my heart really really wanted to keep knitting.  Saturday took it to here.

I couldn't stop.  If you have not recognized the design, it is Ysolda Teague's  Liesl .  I have knit this twice previously and just like those times, this is a great knit.  It hooks you with it's interesting chart as you increase down from the cast on neck line, in the lace pattern.  It's 3 plain rows and one pattern row make each section feel as if there is almost no work at all involved and before you know it, you have a sweater.  Seriously, this is a hard thing to put down.

I am making  a couple small changes to the pattern.  I did add two extra stitches to the high neck cast on.  I am knitting all rows stockinette because of the weight of this yarn.  It looked overly bulky with the garter stitch row.  I also added extra stitches at the underarm to make an extra pattern repeat as the sweater grew longer to accommodate my hips.  I added four stitches and then just knit them plain until it was time to increase.  But the time I needed them, I realized that I would only need one pattern repeat extra on each side, so I adapted where I started the lace chart to work.   

By Saturday evening, I had knit a healthy third of a sweater.  It survived two try ons and if I can just say, it will do.  It isn't perfection.  If I was doing it over in this yarn, I would take off two stitches at the cast on, but those extra two stitches and the relaxed fit they give, mean this sweater will be seriously great at wearing over loose shirts.  That is probably a good thing because this lace design needs to be worn with something underneath and my vast wardrobe (not) contains only a few white shirts, none of which look right or feel right under most of my other sweaters.

I knit only desultorily Sunday, not really doing much knitting at all until Sunday evening.  Obviously, this is going to be one of those sweaters that is done in almost no time flat.  It's a chunky yarn so of course it will go fast but there is so much more.  There is a really lovely feel to this yarn.  It is the angora, I suspect.  It is only 15 % angora, but it completely changes the way the yarn feels running through my hands.  And yes.  Yarn love.  Big time.

By Monday evening, I had the two balls of light blue used up and it was time to face my colour problem.  In the end, that was easy. 

I knit two rows with the more teal coloured of the two dark blues.  It wasn't right.  The difference between the two yarns was so glaringly obvious and it had much more to do with the angora than the slight weight difference.  Had it had angora in it, the soft haze would have camouflaged the difference somewhat. Once I was knitting with the more teal looking Llama Silk, it just looked wrong.  There was no soft haze and that stood out like a sore thumb.  So, a not quite perfect but pretty darn good blue it is.

I knit a few rows this morning so you could see where I am at and so I would have the lace and button hole rows done.  Later in the day, when my thinking cap isn't so fresh, I can start knitting a few plain rows without any complicated rows. 

Not that they are complicated.  The feather and fan is a lovely simple lace to knit even in this chunky yarn.

I won't have quite so much knitting time the rest of this week but it is in a good place to knit while chasing little people (not that they are so little anymore).  Cassie and Marcus have a fall break and mommie and daddy asked if the kids could come here to give the babysitter a week of respite.  Since keeping the babysitter happy is directly in my best interest, a sleepover at grandma's is in order. 

I need to get my other grandchildren here for a sleepover too.  They are an hour and a bit away, but it is winter and it gets dark so darn early these days.  Driving in the dark is pretty much over for me, unless the road is really quiet.  But soon.  Grandkid sleepovers are really the best.  I have to work on their mom and dad.