See? I knew that if I just stalled long enough there would eventually be something interesting to report about Hubby's Striped Sweater.The maple syrup incident was on Sunday morning.
I was working on the ribbing for the front and had my stuff all over my love seat and the coffee table.
Hubby made French toast for breakfast. We were lounging around after eating.
Then I got up for something. Decided to take some dishes. Grabbed the wee pitcher full of maple syrup without looking/paying attention...
I was walking away when I glanced down and wondered why the pitcher looked like the syrup was recently poured...
Glanced back to see a puddle of maple syrup on the coffee table and a trail across my knitting and the charcoal ball (the tan ball was out of range)!
The keening noise I emitted sent Baru scurrying for the Puppy Fort. I think even Samson made himself scarce.
I grabbed a napkin and blotted it up. But I knew I wasn't going to want to knit with sticky yarn. I wrapped the ball around my arm to make a hank. Then I very carefully, with no agitation at all, rinsed the yarn and the ribbing in hot water in the kitchen sink.
I was going to do cold, which seemed safer, but Hubby pointed out it wouldn't melt the syrup away as effectively. Actually, Hubby thought I should zap it in the microwave, but it was on my Addi Turbos and I didn't want to waste time transferring it to scrap yarn.
I just held it under the faucet and let the water flush it. Then I carefully squished the water out and hung it on the towel rack in my bathroom.
It doesn't look like any damage was done. And it seemed pretty dry this morning, but I figured I give it the working day to finish off.
That's a Back
First, that picture is a total lie. It shows about half the back. As of, oh, Saturday night, the back is done!
Wheee! That took just over two weeks, judging by the start date I entered on my Ravelry project page. But I don't know if that takes swatching into account.
The stripe pattern we had decided in the store that day fell three colors short of the length I needed. So I finished it off with Navy, Charcoal, and Green.
Hubby has blue eyes. But they are the kind of blue eyes that will look green if he wears green. So I had wanted the sweater to finish on either the royal blue or the green.
Hubby was watching like a hawk when I laid it on the coffee table to take a final measure. He commented it was getting big. I agreed and said it was done. He took it (after I put on point protectors) and held it up to admire it in the mirror over the mantel. Then he sprawled on the couch and used it as a blanket for his chest.
It was all very cute.
I've started on the ribbing for the front now, which is how I managed to spill syrup all over it. It is moving along much better than the first round of ribbing did.
Speaking of Charcoal
I'm starting to worry about running out.
I'm sure that I have enough total yardage to make the sweater. It's having enough of the individual colors I'm worried about. Charcoal especially.
I have four balls, as it's my main color and that is the amount the original pattern called for.
But in messing with the color sequence we dropped a color and my main color is appearing more frequently than the main color in the magazine.
I have already used up one entire ball of charcoal just on the back. Then I dipped into the second one. Which means I'll need one and a bit for the front.
So I have to decided if I should just buy an additional ball. Or swap out one of the second balls of one of the other colors that might not get hit as hard. Like the royal blue.
I'm so concerned about this that I even sat down with the magazine and determined how many times each color appears in the sweater in the picture (which is only a size medium) and compared it to how many time I can expect each of my colors to appear. I was hoping this would help me decide how to rebalance my colors.
I thought if I could determine the pattern only calls for one 124 yard ball of a color that appears X times, then my one 136 yard ball should be fine.
Yeah, I don't think it helped much.
Although I'm really really sure I'm going to need more charcoal.
More Sweater Abuse
The sweater had a bit of a rough time over the weekend.
On Friday I had a fit of pique at Hubby and flung the sweater back off my lap and onto the floor! Where it landed half on Samson. Who didn't flinch.
I don't even remember what Hubby did to tick me off, aside from making me cook my own dinner. (If you ever had my cooking you would realize how cruel this was.)
As expected, Hubby gasped in horror and cried, "That's my sweater!" He dashed back into the living room to rescue it, protesting the entire time that it would be full of puppy hair now.
I, however, had a pretty good pout on by then and was impervious to his pleading. Until I realized that several stitches had popped off the needles! My ice queen facade crumbled in an instant as I snatched it back. Fortunately, no stitches ran.
Obviously we kissed and made up since I've started the front of his sweater and he's back to doing the cooking.
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