Sheep On My Stuff

The Baby Surprise Jacket (by Elizabeth Zimmermann) is one of those projects that's just insanely fun to make. You knit this weird-looking piece of fabric, and then you fold it gently and boom! Baby sweater!

The one and only thing I'm not crazy about with this sweater is the need for buttons. Although I mind it a lot less when they're cute fish buttons:

This is the last of my Microspun -- apart from a little Dark Horse Fantasy and some Wool-Ease, it's the last of my acrylic. It's certainly the last of the acrylic that I don't consider fun to work with! The destashing, therefore, continues apace. :) This is 135g destashed, along with 55g that got destashed to someone on Ravelry. \o/

...however, for my birthday I did add some yarn to the stash. 750g for two sheep projects (and to look at colors for a sweater project which calls for five different shades of grey). This means I'm down 190g, but up 750g -- a net gain of 560g. But a finished project is a finished project, and I'm really pleased with the way this one came out.

Baby Surprise Jackets are a great little project for using up a couple of balls of yarn here and there. But after knitting two of them in the very recent past, I think I'd rather use up some of my other yarns with hat or mitten projects, especially now that I've gotten most of the acrylic out of my stash. I do have one more baby sweater to knit -- I really want to try out a Baby Bog Jacket in some of that acrylic I've got left -- but after that I think I'll be done with both acrylic and baby sweaters. The only sad thing about all the acrylic being gone is that I no longer have much on the trade/sell page on Ravelry; most of the yarn I have left, I want to keep! That's going to make destashing a bit harder. :)

Going to class every weekday has meant a lot of bus knitting time. I get through about 3 half-hour podcasts a day -- it's not quite 90 minutes of knitting time, because I don't always knit while I'm not actually on a bus. (It's Seattle; sometimes it's raining.)

So in addition to the This Is A Triumph wrap sweater, I have completed a baby surprise jacket that I'm calling the Hobbes Jacket:

Yarn used: Microspun leftovers! Black, white, and mango. Needles used: 4mm.

I hate sewing on buttons, but for this project I was willing. ^_^ (I have another one coming, too, for which I'll need to sew on another five buttons. Someday I will do frog enclosures instead.) Back in the '80s there used to be a device that would automagically attach buttons for you. I wonder if that still exists (and how it would work on yarncrafted projects).

The sheep posed near the Hobbes Jacket is Meredith Rodney McSheep, named for Rodney McKay of Stargate: Atlantis. I'm not sure he really likes being so near something so orange, but perhaps the fact that it's mango (really!) and not citrus will appease him. What do you think, Rodney?

This Is A Triumph: Done!
Obama socks: Turning the heel on the first one!
Baby Surprise Jacket: In the works!
Candle Flame Scarf: Resurrected from the WIP chest!

There will be pictures, but I seriously forgot about posting today in the wake of finishing a work project yesterday and getting my epic flying mount in World of Warcraft. Oops! Thursday!

ETA:

Here's the This Is A Triumph wrap sweater!

Yarn used: Microspun, Royal Blue and Mango. Needle size: 4mm.

I was actually told by one person that those are Denver Bronco colors -- so I guess this could be a Denver Bronco sweater as well as a Portal Sweater. Makes no difference to me! I'm happy it's finished. :)

Well, it will be when it's done.

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Yarn used: Lion Brand Microspun in Royal Blue and Mango. Needles: 4mm.

The Mango I bought doesn't quite match, and the color change is suspect:

But it's the best I can do, and it's good enough, and it's actually fairly hard to notice in person unless you're under some really awful florescent light.

I forgot to introduce the sheep on Tuesday, though I think you've seen these two before. These are the official traveling sheep -- PicoÜber and Reclining Sheep. They've been to England, New Zealand, Canada, Las Vegas, and Indiana. :) They're sized appropriately for carryon bags, and never complain about having the hotel rooms to themselves.

I have, at this point, done all the seaming (and let me tell you how proud I am of it -- it's fantastic) -- all that's left is an I-cord border for the back neck and little I-cord ties. I'm going to be putting the dual-orange side inside, so that it won't show when the baby's wearing it. Um, no, I still don't know what baby! Ah well. It's been fun to knit.

That said, bleh, stockinette! I won't be doing another baby project in stockinette anytime soon. I can see why Elizabeth Zimmermann favors garter stich so much -- I think I'll probably do a Baby Surprise jacket in garter in the near future.

I lied! I actually did quite a bit of knitting in Las Vegas.

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Yarn used: Lion Brand Microspun in Royal Blue and Mango. Needles: 4mm.

In fact, there's a bit more than that, but I've now run out of orange yarn, and that means this project is stalled until I get more. It shouldn't be difficult. But then, of course, I'll be left with more scraps of orange to get rid of! Maybe I can put an orange collar and cuffs on another baby sweater or somesuch.

Short post today, because I have a Cold of Doom and I'm not really full of energy. Hopefully I'll be feeling better Thursday!