Of Children, Flowers, and My Pinwheel Continued

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice,

And all that's nice;

That's what little girls are made of.

What a surprise for my son, who was confused about being able to see the moon during the day: "But it's not nigh-nigh time yet!"


I had the worst time taking a picture of this flower; the sun kept shining on my lens and I kept getting a glare. I am glad I persisted.

I was up until 3 this morning because I had to tink back my Blue Pinwheel Sweater 6 rows. It was stressful - I was so worried that I would drop the yarn overs. I suppose I could have just kept it the way it was. However, those 6 extra stitches would have added an extra inch to the width of my sweater. Also, it's not like I have an extra skein of the Ebonholz, nor was I willing to substitute another yarn in case I ran out...How awful would it be if I had continued and ran out of yarn 5 yards before completion of my sweater. I would rue the moment I decided NOT to tink back the 6 rows. This is not the first time I've done this...I've always told myself that if I am going to spend THAT much time on a project, I would do it right, no matter how many times I would have to knit back to a mistake. Calling it a "Design Element" sometimes does not work for me. This was one of those times.

I just divided for the sleeves. It was a challenge and I really had to think about what I was doing and why; the construction of the sweater is not like the top down sweaters that I usually make. The instructions confused me: for the first sleeve, it instructed to join a new ball of yarn, but no such direction for the second sleeve. I just followed the directions and didn't even try to do it a different way.

Before I did this, I calculated the amount of stitches that I needed to have before I had to slip stitches onto a holder for the sleeves. Based on the 3o stitches (in worsted weight yarn) that the original instructs you to hold for the sleeves, I calculated that for my size (Small), I needed to have 50 stitches (of fingering weight yarn) in between the increases when I cast on for the armholes. The wording on the original pattern was tricky. She literally means "...stitches IN BETWEEN the increases, not included the increases. " Therefore, when you slip the stitches onto a holder, you will have had a yarn over before and after your slipped stitches. Yikes. I forgot this, so I just added one extra stitch before and after where the sleeves will be. I don't think anyone will notice that my armholes are less holey than the rest of my sweater anyway...

No picture of it today...I've taken enough, in case you haven't noticed...I anticipate finishing it JUST in time for Stitches West 2011. I am so excited!