Sometimes I Knit

Yes, sometimes I do knit. Despite testing and karate and music lessons and birthday parties and painting and volunteering and shopping and cooking and cleaning and laundry and pets and plants and "Moooommmmm! He took my (fill in the blank) and won't give it back!", I have been working on my CPH.

My love affair with Malabrigo shows no signs of cooling anytime soon, and I continue to get perfect gauge, much to my surprise. After some fiddling, the picture above shows the color pretty accurately. The back and the fronts are done, and I've almost finished the first sleeve. I've made the body about two inches longer than the pattern calls for (and now I'm thinking I should have made it longer still), but I am resisting the urge to lengthen the sleeves. I always, always make sleeves too long, no matter who the garment is for, but especially when it is for me. I have unusually long arms, and every shirt, sweater, or jacket I have ever bought has had sleeves that are too short. It drives me crazy. I hate pulling and tugging at my sleeves all day, trying hopelessly to make them cover my bony wrists. I am so determined not to make the sleeves on my sweaters too short that I invariably make them too long. And since I usually knit them from the cuff upward, it's not easy to change them once they're made. Even when I knit from the top down, they usually end up too long after blocking, since knits tend to grow in length. And because I'm never sure how much they'll grow, I err on the side of too long.

I generally add an inch to the sleeve length when I use a commercial pattern. But in this case, all the FO pictures I've seen of this show sleeves that are waaaay too long for the wearer. So I'm thinking I might do well to use the measurements given--which are the same as I usually use for my own designs.

I'm debating whether I want buttons or a zipper to close this one. I had decided on a zipper, until I remembered that I already have a dark green zippered cardi that I made last spring. So maybe I'll use buttons for this one. Maybe I'll make buttons for this one. I can picture something in swirly green and black.

I'm hoping to have this one finished before next weekend, when we will be driving to Lake Tahoe for "ski week." I don't know if the rest of the country shares this tradition, but around here, most schools close for the week of the Presidents' Day holiday, and everyone who can seems to hop in a car or on a plane and seek out snow. I suppose most of you don't have to travel to see it, but around here, it takes a little effort to find winter. Not only would I like to have this to wear, but I'd also like to start a new project for the car trip. I have my husband convinced that he really likes driving for 11 hours straight.