The Finished Sweater, and Other Random Bits

As I mentioned recently, I finished knitting my sweater, while watching the Bruins on their way to winning the Cup (ahhh). I didn't start weaving in the ends until last week, working on it Wednesday and Thursday nights. And while the process was relatively painless, I may take one of those finishing classes at a yarn store sometime, to gain some confidence in what I'm doing (I feel like it's done securely, but not necessarily prettily). But anyway. It was a simple enough thing, as the pattern is knit in one piece, so it's just a matter of securing the ends.

I changed my mind a few times before deciding Friday morning that yes, I would wear the sweater to work on Friday. The weather, sadly, is not too hot for it (it should be too hot to wear it, but weather-complaints are a whole separate topic), and since I haven't washed the sweater yet, I kind of wanted to wear it at least once before that happens. Yes, I am nervous about washing it: you noticed? I'm usually nervous about washing big projects. And I want to get a sweater-bag for the washer and a flat rack thing to dry it on, but Target let me down for both the other night, so I need to try Bed and Bath.

I spent some time Friday, in passing as it were, contemplating the sweater and its fit in the bathroom mirror at work, wondering as I did if I would be "caught" and find myself trying to explain that it isn't vanity, it's a knitter's review! Camera, what camera?

And how do I like the final sweater? Overall, very much. I changed the yarn recommended, and like the feel of what I used very much (I think with the Northampton, I would not have been happy wearing the sweater over a short-sleeved shirt, the way I did today), though if you're not an over-sensitive person the way I am, you might not mind that. This yarn is softer but probably not as durable (it pilled quite a bit on Friday), and while I'm good with that, your mileage may vary.

There are a few things that I might have done differently if I did it again, or perhaps I should say, if I have to do it again (I worry that I'm going to wash it and it will grow to double its current size). Such as:

• I would make the sleeves a little more fitted. By design, they are currently rather bell-shaped, which I personally find gets in the way of life, plus I can't push my sleeves up and have them stay up, which I like to be able to do. I could probably lose five inches (seriously) at the cuff and be happier with the fit.
• I might make the body slightly less fitted, though this may be a body-image issue, since I think it actually fits well, surprisingly so. (What do you think? Do you like a lot of ease in your sweaters?)
  
• I might put another round of garter at the cuffs and bottom hem, since they have a slight propensity to roll.
  

Overall, though, I feel very fortunate in how well it turned out. I certainly didn't want the body or the sleeves longer than I made them, but they're not too long for me, either. And for someone who was uncertain about what size to make, and basically winging it on gauge, I got pretty lucky.


(I went with the single-occupant bathroom for photography purposes: slightly smaller mirror and no natural light, but no one walking in on the weird new girl taking her picture in the bathroom, either.)

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Awesome Tim Thomas sandcastle!

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I received two very amusing spam messages recently:

I know, hard to read. One has "Spam" as the start of the subject line, which sort of gives the thing away, but then the message apparently* starts, "If this email is not spam, click here to submit the signatures...". Sneaky, eh?

*I say apparently because I didn't open the message, but Gmail shows the beginning of what it says.

The other, though the message is from "Sample Men's Supplement", has as its subject line, "Oprah top 10 things to wear", which rather suggests that they don't think I'll be looking at both before I open it.

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Backing up photos on the new external hard drive. Select-all in the pictures folder, copy, paste. And it says?

Well. I've never denied that I'm a photo nut. And that does go back to 2006. But still. Whoa.