More sweaters

I found these top 2 sweaters in my daughters' messy drawers...I have made so many that I forget about them.

This is a very soft wool raglan I made for Maggie a few years ago. It was the first time I tried Elizabeth Zimmerman's top-down, seamless approach. Hooked on this now.


I do not remember the yarn, but I got it at Knitting Arts in Saratoga, CA. Such a very cool store. I had Meave with me that day...she was 3 I think. And she was giving a couple of ladies in the store (a clerk and a couple of customers) fits because she was touching everything. She was fascinated by the colors, of course, but she wanted to feel how soft the yarns were, so she picked up everything and rubbed it on her face (which was clean!). If it was especially soft, she buried her face in it! I was watching her and I had explained that we had to treat the yarn with care, but I could not figure out where she learned to rub it on her face. Then, I finally noticed she was carefully following in the footsteps of an older woman who was doing the exact same thing! I finally told Meave we shouldn't do that because the clerk looked ready to have a heart attack, and Meave asked why the other lady got to do it. So, whatever I picked up, I let her feel as I hid her with my wide butt! I love it that my kids love yarn, fabric & book stores as much as I do.

This was a cotton box sweater I made for Molly before she became a picky fashionista. I found it truly BURIED in her room. She wouldn't be caught dead in this now.

And her highness has decided she will never wear this one I just finished... butthead. So I gave it to my friend Ramonie who was just thrilled. I will post a pic of her when I get it.
Ok, enough of a break. Back to the dungeon.

Knitting Serendipity

I was knitting this sweater... it was looking weird. Remember the weird sweaters Morticia Addams would knit? Well, this one took on a life of its own at some point and when I tried it on Maggie, she broke into snortin' giggles. It was obvious even to her that it would not fit ANYBODY right. So I frogged it (for those unaccustomed to the highly technical terms used in knitting, it's called "frogging" because you "rip-it, rip-it" out).

I stopped frogging when I had only the shoulders and tried it on Maggie again to check shoulder width. The girls loved that! They said to leave it like that and Maggie swore she would wear it. I knit a few more twisted cables and bound off. Meave took it over, and here she models it.

Here is Meave in what we call the "zipper cap." Two years ago, my brother-in-law Mark had an aneurysm while he was teaching a stage combat workshop in Chicago. I went to keep my sister Katie company for a few days while he had surgery and we waited for him to recover enough to go home to Louisiana. The surgery was quite extensive and left him with a huge "zipper" on the side of his head. So while I was there, I knit him a cap like this to both warm his bald head and decorate his zipper. Wish I could find the pattern again.

Crown of the zipper cap.

Maggie's cap was an "I'm bored and need to make something now" inspiration. Cast on, knit whatever, whenever, until it fits someone. Maggie loves hats, the wilder the better, so she nabbed this one. She won't let me block it...s'okay...it's wiggly like she is.