Swatching and Frogging

I finished the Harvey Kimono last night. It was a fairly quick and easy knit except for some reason I put the buttonhole on the garter stitch band on the wrong side and didn't figure it out until I had sewn the shoulder seams together (duh!). So I removed the garter stitch border and just knit down, inserting the buttonhole in the right place. I still need to get a couple of buttons and will do a little i-cord tie for the inside.

It's from Louisa Harding's "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms". The baby boy isn't due until July so I'm hoping to whip up a couple of other baby items, such as a baby blanket and a hat.

I started in on Skip's Dale of Norway St. Moritz sweater last night. I'm using some lovely black and off white Dale of Norway Heilo yarn that was in my husband's 'dowry' (his previous wife left it behind when she left the marital home). And am using grey, red and gold Peer Gynt for the rest.

I do strongly advocate checking gauge on sized items like sweaters but really don't like doing swatches. Instead, I usually jump right in and start knitting a sleeve (less to rip out than the body of the sweater) and knit until I could get a pretty good idea of the gauge. I needed 6 sts per inch and was getting 7 with the recommended needles so I started knitting a flat swatch using needles one size larger. I got gauge so cast on another sleeve and commenced knitting. I redid the cuff and got into the stocking stitch with the increased needle size and darned if I was now getting 5 stitches per inch. Crap! So I frogged back to just beyond the ribbed cuff and continued with the 3mm needle on the stocking stitch instead of going up a size. I'll get to go up a needle size once I hit the two-colour work at the top of the sleeve.

I'm rapidly getting bored with the sleeve and was toying with the idea of starting the body of the sweater instead - not that it will be any less boring. But I now realize I don't have a 3mm needle long enough for the 278 stitches of the body. I guess I'll be putting in a KnitPicks order for myself after all. Until then, I'll keep working on the sleeves.

This sweater isn't going to knit up quite as fast as the Icelandic Star sweater, but I'm sure the final result is going to be awesome. I'd knit one for myself except drop sleeves are not the most figure-flattering for me.

There are some lovely hats and mitten patterns, though. And even though the yarn is too scratchy for my delicate forehead, I'd probably line the hat with fleece.