ester

yikes! please ignore the messy kitchen.  :)

pattern: Ester
yarn: Cascade 220 in plum
mods: alternated the cable pattern from the centre out to make it symmetrical
verdict: awesome!

After searching around on Ravelry, I noted that a lot of people had trouble with the sizing of this cardi, so even though my measurements would really have me knit a size small or even extra small, I knit a medium.  I wanted it to fit like the sample in Knitty than like a small shrug, and the designer ,who also modelled the sample in the pattern, looks to be about my size and she had knit a medium for herself.  I'm very glad I did: the fit is just what I wanted.

I haven't steam blocked the collar yet, so it looks a little funky in the pictures at times.  I considered adding some short rows to add a little height to the shawl collar, and if I were to knit this a second time in a different colour I think I'd try that, just to see the difference.

I can't find my big kilt pin, so I'm wearing it closed with a ceramic brooch I used to wear on my shawl for my highland dancing dress.  I'm spying out penannular brooches on Etsy, though: I think one will be perfect for closing Ester.

And I'm adoring the colour.  Turns out plum is a fabulous colour with my new green eyes.  (Yes, they're newly green.  They changed colour from blue to green while I was pregnant.  Weird, no?)

cardigans remembered

For years, I was a cardigan afficionado.  I had many, many cardis in my wardrobe.  I just couldn't get enough of them.  Everytime I'd see one, I'd think "I need that cardi.  I don't have one like it!" 

I had one that was a Christmas gift from my grandmother while I was in high school.  It was a tweedy grey, tunic-length (past the hip) cabled cardi with large, round buttons and pockets.  When I first opened it, at about 17 years old, I didn't love it.  But I remember getting dressed for my first full day of classes in university at 19 years old, to go to my "elite" liberal arts programme with all the other nerds (I write with much love and admiration).  I put on an a-line skirt, my Doc mary-janes, a turtleneck and that cardigan, slung my brown distressed-leather book case over my shoulder, wearing my new funky glasses and my crazed, curly hair, and I looked quite the part of an academic.  I felt like myself, reveling in my geekery, knowing that I was finally peers with people who were actually my peers, people with whom I had much in common in thought and state of mind, not just proximity.

I loved that cardigan during those years.  Somewhere along the way I lost it or got rid of it.  It was knit of some sort of acrylic, so it wasn't particularly dear, but when I see long, cabled cardis sort of like this one of cosmicpluto's, I remember with fondness that big grey sweater and those sweet, wonderful years as an undergraduate.  They say you can't go back again, but if I could, I think I might, not to escape my current life, but to relive with greater enthusiasm and appreciation how delightful those times were.

It's...

...hard to believe, isn't it?

red is best

Borscht in a Christmas bowl.

Another Peanut Christmas

I finally made Peanut's stocking this year, too.

It was a lovely Christmas, full of family, and friends and a lot of time at the church.  A family party out in the country, with hours of music playing and singing.  A beautiful Christmas morning with just the four of us (I count Wembley, of course).  Peanut playing with the ornaments on the tree, asking to hear Christmas albums, exclaiming over a light wreath hanging in the living room.  And she adores her new rocking chair (thank you, Ikea).

Such a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!