Maybe it is a cat pillow after all...

Flair is so versatile! I am about to finish the second sleeve; then I will be ripping back the first sleeve because I discovered 2 mistakes - I missed a decrease, and there's a small hole where I created a stitch. Neither are visible to anyone but me, but that hole will drive me crazy. I am also debating whether or not I should rip out the bottom few inches and reknit due to the visible colour change: Of course, there's also the issue of the colour change at the top of the garment: And this happened despite alternating skeins! It's not a dyelot problem - this yarn has no dyelots, but there is some variability between skeins in terms of colour distribution. I thought that I had balanced them out, but apparently there were a few skeins which were significantly lighter than the others. Hopefully the overall variegation of the yarn masks it somewhat. By all rights I should have finished knitting this by now, but I took a short hiatus to knit this: The pattern is Molly ; I picked it up this fall when I was in Vancouver. The yarn is Estelle Arequipa. I knit an extra repeat of the lace trim at the start; I am happy that I did, because I think that it would look a bit skimpy otherwise. I'm giving it to The Gambler's Mom, who also has a fairly broad forehead.

If I'm not knitting a cat pillow...

...it must be a cat afghan: I'm making good progress on Flair: This picture is actually a few days old; since taking it I finished the body, and am almost completed the first sleeve. By the way - I've signed up for Secret Pal 15 redux, and they are looking for more participants - here's the link.

A little Flair

I have come to the conclusion that Wendy Bernard is short. Not just "shorter than I am" short - more like "wee little bit of a thing" short. Why? Because I am knitting myself a Flair cardigan out of some bulky yarn. Since the pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, according to my tension swatch, the instructions for size XS would knit up to something that would be the right size for me. This was how far I got before I decided to try it on. Sadly, the fronts barely overlapped. But another problem with it was that the buttons were far too close together; even despite the change in row gauge. If you look at the Ravelry Project Gallery page, most people end up adding several buttons to the front. Probably because the "bottom" button ends up landing at or just below the bustline. Rather than at the bottom of the rib cage or lower as the pattern photo suggests. I switched to 18 rows between buttonholes, and will probably stick with just 5 buttons. At this point, according to the pattern, I should have started knitting the seed stitch border several rows back. Now I know that I'm taller than the average person, but that's mighty cropped! Luckily I have 4 more skeins than the yardage called for. I should even be able to knit full length sleeves.

Keeping Warm

A few weeks ago, Somerset demonstrated her weather predicting ability: It never fails - if she's sitting on the vent in the morning, it's going to be a cold one. Luckily I had my gloves to keep me warm: They are super comfy, and fit perfectly post blocking. The Gambler likes the look of them, so I'll knit him a pair for next winter. I'll shorten the cuffs, and instead of the star pattern on the back, I'm going to use a much less feminine motif.