Diary of a Homestead Vacation continued from Chapter 2 (review past post here)

Three seasons of the year I love to cozy up in sweaters and I realized I didn’t have a knitted cardigan anywhere in my closet.  I have a zip up hoodie and a few pullovers, but no actual cardigan style sweater.  Pullovers are ok if you are layering to head out in -25C winter weather, but for spring & fall, I need something to ward off the chill without ending up feeling smothered like pullovers are prone to do, along with being quick to shrug off when the next hot flash came.

I am also practical and wanted something durable yet soft and something that washes well.  I don’t like to spend days fussing with a 100% pure wool or other exotic critter fleece, I have better things to do with my time.  Wash and wear is my motto.  So I headed to the local yarn store and walked in to find they were clearing out a line of their in-house yarn.  Called ‘Luxury Wool’, made up of 50% wool and 50% acrylic.  Acrylic makes easy-to-care-for knitted/crocheted garments.  Just machine wash and dry flat, easy as 1-2-3!

Since the yarn was being clearance sold, I scored a great price on the last 6 (100g) balls in a deep Turquiose hue.  Normally the balls sell for 7.99 ea., I picked them up for 1.99 ea…. As I said…SCORE!

Next was to find a cardigan sweater pattern, so I hopped over to Ravelry and spent about an hour looking through a gazillion sweater patterns and not one jumped out at me.  Off to Knitty then.  They don’t have near as many patterns as Ravelry, but I was hopeful to find something….and after 5 minutes of looking…BAM! A gorgeous, simple sweater pattern lept from the computer screen screaming “PICK ME! PICK ME!! I know you will LOVE ME!”.

To see the pattern, click HERE….

I am calling this project… “Bubble & Squeak”.  Mainly because of the double Moss stitch pattern that makes it look like teeny bubble wrap.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

To quote Ramses (Yul Brynner), love that line from The Ten Commandments.

I just put the finishing touches on my latest knitting project, aptly named “Bolso Muy Grande” or “Very Large Purse” in Spanish.   Which it turned out to be in spades.  I had been looking for a knitted purse pattern that was larger than a fanny pack but smaller than a bread box and had not come across one that I liked until I discovered this one on Ravelry.  Made from 100% cotton yarn (dishcloth cotton yarn even!) knitted in a dimensional squares pattern featuring very practical knitted-in pockets on the outside of the side gussets and handles made from knitted I-chord which were then braided together for strength and flexibility.  It turned out really well and I am thrilled with the results.

So with that project out of the way, it was on to the cardigan pattern.  Have you ever started something with such excitement that you quickly scan ahead in the pattern and as you are humming along, you look back and find a booboo? Crap….No….ROYAL CRAPPERS…I had to rip out 5 inches of knitted fabric and re-do it.  Totally hate when that happens.  PAY ATTENTION! I said to myself…. Oh, and don’t drink any alcohol when knitting either, no matter how good a knitter you think you are, the next day you will be sorry, for more than the hangover.

Now I have my newest spare/free time knitting project set but it was also time to focus a little more attention to the gardens….

To be continued…